Strictly Speaking With Earl Thompson - October 14 2026

[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is Guardian Radio, your station for up to the minute news and intelligent, interactive and engaging conversations. 96.9 FM. The views and opinions of the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management and staff of Guardian Radio. [00:00:22] Speaker B: When the issues matter, when the questions need answers. Strictly Speaking with Earl Thompson Strictly Speaking with Earl Thompson is brought to you by Bella Signature Suites. [00:00:52] Speaker A: Good afternoon Bahamas. Today is Wednesday, October 14th and this is Strictly Speaking with Earl Thompson Young Guardian Radio 96 96.9 FM. Today we talk about something that will hit every Bahamian pocket next month. Tropical Shipping announced today the bunker surcharge increase effective November 8th and that's less than four weeks from today. Here are some of the numbers. 24 dry container was 220 and let me before I say bunker bunker is what is the fuel charge. So that's what they charge you for the actual what they put in the vessels but they actually pay for the diesel or whatever the fuel they use to to so they call it bunker charge. So a 20 foot container the bunker charge is 225 has gone up to 250. A 40 foot container of the bunker was 450 up to 540 foot reefer which is a 40 foot refrigerated container that gone from 720 to 800. Anything greater than the 40 foot is 506 to 579 vehicles gone up from 225 to 250 pallets from 2250 to 25 LCL less than container load 100 pounds went up and that's just a bunker. Plus I think they announced if I'm correct they announced in November, earlier November last year that the effective November I should say that the terminal handling charge is going up. So why should you care about it? Why should I care about it? Because Bahamians import 90% of what we eat, what we wear, what we drive, what we build, food, building material, cars, pallets, goods, everything comes on ship. Basically most everything comes on ship and Tropical brings a lot of that. In the guiding today we said as an import dependent country the Bahamas remains particularly exposed to movements in international freight and fuel costs. Higher shipping charges can increase land costs for food, building materials, vehicles, household products. The price commission Senator send Randy Griffith said today said in the in the article we understand challenges businesses are facing. It's premature to indicate any specific measures so they they're not even talking about any interventions at this point. So I asked today will the Bahamas absorb this? Well I should say not the Bahamas but The business houses. Will the business houses absorb this cost or will they pass it on to you and me? You know, $180 you might get three bag of grocery that can be over 200, you know. Yeah, yeah, you're going to. I can say, I can use the street talk. You get foreign to Christmas shop. A lot of you bring back pallets. That can be more cost. Cost of living already killing us. BPL high, Lord of mercy. Rent high, gas high. Now shipping high, you know. But what can the government do? What can the shipping companies do? What can the business houses do? What can we do? 323-623-2325-431632-54259 toll free 2423-00-5720 or the tax line powered by BTC 4224796. What can we do? How are we gonna, you know, it's the easiest thing to do is say man, the government ain't do this, the government ain't do that. But it ain't so much so the government, it's that little thing going on in the middle, the confrontation. Some call it the war. The thing going on in, in, in Europe with Ukraine and Russia. There's these. Gas is 7 plus here it's going up in the States it's going up all over. Diesel is I think diesel more expensive than gas now. So what, what do we do? You know, we don't manufacture rice flour, chicken. Well we do, we starting to get some. Hopefully do get the chicken brought produce and the golden yoke program going. But we don't, we don't, we don't manufacture lumber, cement, cars. We import 90 of all of these things. So when shipping goes up 10, that's, that's I think the cost is going up around 11.5%. Everything going up. You can't shop around because basically all the shipping companies are going to be going because they're going to feel the same pinch that Tropical is feeling. Can't be mad at Tropical, can't be mad at them. They're doing their best. And this hitting at the worst time November 8, right when Bahamia's shipping stuff for Christmas they got that airline baggage fees, you know going to go up. So you know the mailboat price is going to go up. Let's think about this. Tropical might be the first one to announce it. But think about this. We don't see no end coming to the, to the conflict flick in, in, in the Middle east with Iran and the US and Israel that look like they're getting worse. The president of the United States says it'll probably end after the midterms. You don't know that. So do we expect to see higher gas prices between now and Christmas? What kind of Christmas are we going to have? How will it be interesting to have a conversation with the, with the business owners, the, the retail store owners going up to Christmas to see how the sales have been affected this year. You know I read the text. Good afternoon Pearly. I was so disappointed. And you know we're not just talking about this. Anything you want to talk about today we do that today. You know when them days and you feeling righteous feeling too right? Yeah. A little out of it today. So we, we have an open line. We can talk anything we talk about the cost of living is something that's really concerning me. When I saw that article on the front page of the Guardian this month I'm like oh no. Oh my goodness. Christmas coming man. You don't get higher gas prices. So you know what I can mean for Christmas shopping. I, I asked my friend, I said do you want to get a, a my lady, do you want to get a real Christmas tree this year? You know how much real Christmas tree cost? That's the first thing they said to me. But I don't. They got to ship them from Canada or the states. Wherever they get them from that's an extra cost of that. Think about this. What kind of Christmas are we going to have? I think last year a big turkey a little bit 25 pound or something around it was like 60, $70. How much you think that can cost this year? Texas. Good afternoon Pearlie. I was so disappointed to hear the government bragging in the house about collecting more taxes. Shake my head. The government should be looking into investments and new ways to create new money in this country. Point, point, Point. Government needs to subsidize fuel. Simple. Bring some relief to the taxpayers. Next Texas says was the house suspended today? If so until I. I don't know. I watched it up until about, up until the break. I, I didn't see actually just before the break I had to get ready for the show so I can't, I can't. I, I don't know. Brave Davis could declare war on corruption overpriced contracts and unqualified vendors on no bid contract. That would cut government expense 75% with the savings taxes and customs duty could be reduced leading to lower consumer prices on everything. That's an idea. Once it's something subsidized the fuel. So do the Government subsidize Do we have well the prime minister we got soy plus we got extra money. [00:09:42] Speaker B: Eh. [00:09:44] Speaker A: But should the government give tropical a subsidy to bring their fuel their bunker charge down to keep it down so that the costs don't get worse because if fuel costs continue to rise and some people suspect there will be another rise before the end of the month in the gas. In gas which means in barrels of gas which is over $100 a barrel. [00:10:06] Speaker B: Now [00:10:08] Speaker A: that's scary scary but another question to ask. You know Chairman Griffin said we understand challenges but premature is premature to indicate any specific measures. Do we need. Do we need him. Do we need him and his commission to step in. Should the government and the question is should the government subsidize Banco for food imports? Maybe the you know listen we'll give X amount to what food imports try to keep you know the Cheerios and everything priced down. Can the government help by reducing duty on some of these items considering that what's going to be happening and even if only for a temporary period six months or whatever with the host of the conflict in the in the Middle east ends and the and the war in Iraq and Ukraine ends. Should that. [00:11:08] Speaker B: Should that. [00:11:08] Speaker A: Should they do that. Some some options is remove or reduce VAT on freight bunker for few food and buildings of material temporary remove import duty on basic food items for six months to. I just said that I'm the offset shipping sorry bring Bahamian owned shipping companies or Bahamas maritime Authority to to negotiate bulk rates. That's that is. Are these some of the things that we would like to see. Let's read another text here. Pearly Good afternoon. Don't forget it was Donald Trump and his boss Benji Satin Net Nayu. We spelled it wrong but that's right and the one who started this war with Iran and in February Trump and his boss is the blame for this. That's why so much price increasing because of the war mongering understood that that there's a war. Yeah I mean they call it a conflict. You know. Good day Pearly. Leslie M said gas could be dropped but the government wouldn't allow the gas owner like Frankie Building them to drop the price. And how. Well the opposition has been calling for a VAT or gas a VAT cap. So in other words if gas is $5 a gallon you pay VAT on $5. Anything above that you don't. They don't charge the VAT on. They don't charge you like have a 750something now you just charge it on $5 and you cap that and that's the only VAT you get on that. But somebody said to me, well, coming to lose money, I said, no, the government's not gonna, they're not going to gain money. It's not like that. They're going to lose, they're going to get less VAT because they always get involved on that amount. Just the increase means that they'll get more vat. So does that help Pearly just keep sitting and complaining instead of standing and fighting. Understand the government is passing on the debt to us by charging shipping companies more. And the surplus from them taxing us will never be used to ease our pain. So thought but we're not just, we're not complaining. You know, we're having a conversation and talking about what are some of the things that we possibly can do or some suggestions we can make. Or we could, we could just complete, we could just cry a little bit, You know, the [00:13:39] Speaker B: drop. [00:13:39] Speaker A: The shipping companies are saying, you know, the cost of fuel is killing them, is really hurting them. I should say some people say but oil prices fluctuate. Yeah, but it ain't fluctuating to the same that you see a major change. Because they say because oil prices fluctuate, they should look at this on a monthly basis. If the price of oil goes down then maybe they should drop that bunker fees later. But I, I, I'm not calling for, for Tropical or anybody to prove to us we know the price, that we can hear it, we can see it. If you're watching television, watching the news, reading the newspaper, reading the Guardian, you see that the price of, of gasoline, the price of, of barrels of oil is going up. That the, the conflict is hurting us and is, and I, I, there's, there's two part two, two, put it there. Two seasons of the year that I love. Easter is, is when I bring myself closer to my church. And I said my church, I have a dear friend from Roxanne Illucha. Every Easter holiday. Oh, let's go to homecoming, bro. I spending that time Good Friday, Easter church. That's me, that's me, that's me. Christmas. While I celebrate the birth of Christ and celebrate the Christian part of it. I ain't gonna lie. The pagan side of it is with the gift giving and the decorating and the Christmas dinner. I love that. I remember I said we in the burn months. September, October, November, December. Right now I think it'll be Christmas. What I want to do for Christmas, I don't have my shows planned for the 1st the 24th. 22nd. 2024th. For Christmas. I didn't know what I want to do, but Christmas, I love Christmas. So when I see these prices, it's scaring me. Welcome to strictly speaking, what say you, caller? [00:15:36] Speaker B: Yes, caller. Regarding the shipping companies, I noticed that some of them usually charge VAT twice on their bill. When they make up their bill, they're two charges for vat. Like when we go to the food store or any other place in the Bahamas, we, we pay one VAT price at the end of the bill. VAT is placed on, you know, the total of the bill. But the shipping companies, some of them, they charge VAT twice. [00:16:05] Speaker A: I think they charge it on the, the, the, I could be wrong. I got to look at my bill, you know, but I think they charge on the, on the product. So if you're bringing in a bottle of water and I'm just using an example, you charge, they charge and that, then I think there's that on this, on the services. [00:16:23] Speaker B: Okay. And also there, last year, sometimes I think Randy Roll promised to regularize that space, but has not yet done so. Everybody is charging whatever they feel like charging. You know, that space needs to be regularized so that we can have even charges, you know, across the board. You know, I think that needs to be looked into. And also I, I heard that the post office is supposed to be coming in that, that space and they, they claim that they would be cheaper. So I'm, I'm looking forward to that because we need lower prices on those bills. Some of those bills are very hefty. [00:17:08] Speaker A: It is. Yeah, it is. I hope, I hope so because, you know, I, I, I cry, but Christmas, but I'm just being selfish and thinking about that short period, but think in the long term as well into the new year. [00:17:21] Speaker B: You're right. But the post office said that they would be coming before, Before. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Okay. Hopefully then, because that, that I'm, you know, that, that is for the family, islanders in particular. That has been, that been a big help. [00:17:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, they're saying that they would be cheaper than everyone. So I'm looking forward to that. And I can't wait for them to come on. [00:17:40] Speaker A: They should. I think they would be cheaper because I don't think they'll be for, in for profit kind of thing. So it should be cheaper. Yeah. [00:17:45] Speaker B: Right? [00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Okay. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Okay. [00:17:48] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Welcome to strictly speaking how you do. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Hello. [00:17:53] Speaker A: Hey, how you do? [00:17:55] Speaker B: Doing good, man. [00:17:56] Speaker A: What's up? [00:17:56] Speaker B: I wanted to ask you, you might be more in Tune to this particular arena that I, I am, I don't know if you, you actually physically attend Junkanoo but last year with the boxing there was, it was a disaster as it relates to time gaps or whatever. And I know now I don't know if it's JCMP or who this new body is. Did they address or will they tighten up as it relates to this Because I have friends supposed to be coming in to, to witness Junkuno for the first time from out of town and I want to know because if it's going to be it's going to be like this huge gaspic last time I'll tell them, you know, come next year, not this year. Did they say they will address the time period? I mean I know it's far from [00:18:43] Speaker A: Junkanoo Boxing Day, but I just want [00:18:46] Speaker B: to know so I can be proactive. And lastly they had a saw. I saw like a disruption with the Saxons or something is that's a new Valley Boy situation with the Saxons coming up. Coming up. [00:18:57] Speaker A: I mean is there any way that I can get information on that, that Listen, the part about the Saxons I, I can, I can do some poking but it's when they're moving them little dispute is hard to find out. [00:19:10] Speaker B: Is the producer a Saxon person or a Bali person? [00:19:14] Speaker A: He's a Saxon. [00:19:15] Speaker B: Will he be able to give you any information during the break so you could bring it back to the airwave? So because I really want to know. I see. I don't want to be reactive. I want to be proactive because they asked me now about boxing there because you know, I brag about our Junk Canoe so much. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Yes, I understand. [00:19:33] Speaker B: I just want to know. [00:19:33] Speaker A: Tell them, you know. [00:19:34] Speaker B: Yeah, make, get, get your tickets ready. You know, it's going to be great and, but I don't want to be like I didn't. Did you go to last year? [00:19:41] Speaker A: I, I, last year. No, I actually missed last year because I made a decision to, to. Well, I was late trying to get tickets and then I made a decision to just chill, chill and watch on this big, big screen TV I had. But let me, let me, let me say this. I have rushed scrap. I've rushed with a group. I've sat in the stands. I worked on the independent irc, the review, the independent review committee that reviewed penalties. So I've worked John Canoe for the last few years except last year but then they had a list but they didn't bring me back. But that's a different story for a different day. Yeah, but the, the Time gap has been an issue for time from every last year was bad. [00:20:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Because me and my, me and. Me and my daughter. I. I've been taking her to Junko since she was 36 months old and she's 21 years old now. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Wow. [00:20:29] Speaker B: I mean never miss a John Canoe. That's right. But last year was the worst in my opinion. We have seen it and I just want to know. [00:20:36] Speaker A: So I have confidence, I have confidence in the JCN and the parade management team that they. They've talked about it and I'm sure they will work that out. It won't be as bad as last year. I'm pretty certain of that. [00:20:47] Speaker B: Well, okay. All right. [00:20:49] Speaker A: Okay. Thank you. I'm pretty certain that Junkuno will be a whole lot better this year because the time gap has always been a discussion, an issue or concern about the parade from the parade management team to the groups. And I'm sure they're putting things in place to eliminate that. That gap in between. So let's hope. Let's hope fingers knows toes I's and everything crossed that it works out well this Boxing Day in New Year's Day. John Canoe. Welcome to strictly speaking how you do. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Good day, sir. [00:21:18] Speaker A: Good day. [00:21:20] Speaker B: I would like to answer a question. What oka and what is the price control is good for in this country? [00:21:28] Speaker A: Ah, good question. Well, the price control is basically responsible for things that under. That comes under the price Control Act. So not every, not every single item comes under them. [00:21:39] Speaker B: Mr. You go on the family island. [00:21:44] Speaker A: I know, I know, I know. [00:21:45] Speaker B: I don't know what they see doing on them. How do you feel that's making on the family island? [00:21:49] Speaker A: Because you know how it go. Now you. The. The. The stuff come from Miami, from Florida, from. From foreign to the Bahamas to Nassau and then they got to ship it to. Excuse me. Then they got to ship it to the family island. So what happens is there's one freight course from foreign to Nassau. There's another freight cost from Nassau to the family island. So it's terrible. [00:22:10] Speaker B: And then we get very cool. Like if your cable bill. If you didn't pay your bill on the 10th and the, the it's 11 now they automatically charge you $40. Why are you going step in and try to stop these people from abusing us on in this country? [00:22:26] Speaker A: Now I think I know but $40. But I know there's, there's a. There's a late fee but I think that any fees that they charge erker proofs I'm pretty certain to that well, [00:22:37] Speaker B: anyway, I know one thing. So we are being abused in this country in every which way. Especially when it comes to food. When it comes to car park, it's a, it's. It's like it's day is like night to day to compare with those car parts. [00:22:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:53] Speaker B: Go online. I know, I know one startup over here to one certain store, one starter online. It's like 60 bucks right? When that come over here, $600. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:23:06] Speaker B: What they just be doing. [00:23:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I think I, I at times I believe some and I'm not all. Some places are taking advantage of what's going on in terms of just dropping it on us. [00:23:17] Speaker B: My goodness, man, we really need we. We need it. We. This is why I. I always saying what these mps aren't there for what they doing. They don't go in there and advocate. They don't fight for nothing for us. They don't go in there and say wait, Mike, Mike. Judy, I gotta try find a way to cut the course on. On this or that. Let me side fire the court. They don't believe in essay. They don't have no love for us in this country. Only thing can happen, the rest can just keep getting richer and the poor can just keep suffering off of these. Off these rich people. Thank you very much. [00:23:52] Speaker A: All right, my brother, thanks for the call. You're listening to strictly beats. You're listening to strictly speaking here on Guardian Radio, 96.9 F. And we're going to take a break. We'll be right back. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Let's go. [00:24:22] Speaker A: And coming on to the field, a [00:24:24] Speaker B: brand new addition to the Popeyes playbook. Introducing Popeye's cheese bites. Crispy on the outside, cheesy on the inside and ready to make some noise on game day. Popeye's cheese bites. Just $3.95. Change the play. Grab your cheese bites and get ready to dip, bite and repeat. [00:24:46] Speaker A: Now that's a play. [00:24:48] Speaker B: Bueller gal, can you believe this? We are now the patrol queens of the neighborhood. We now lodge and in charge. So we need to check out what going on in everybody yard. What about that gun that we know [00:24:57] Speaker A: that junior and his homeboys just ran out. [00:24:59] Speaker B: Can we report that too? [00:25:00] Speaker A: Of course we can. But we could be in deep trouble [00:25:04] Speaker B: if they find out. We need to report what we see. Viola, when you call crime stoppers, they [00:25:08] Speaker A: just answer your call in Miami so then we can report everything. Guns, where they hiding the drugs, who shoot who, who part of which gang or who? Disturbing the peace with the loud music and the motorcycles. [00:25:19] Speaker B: Then our neighborhood will be the best in the Bahamas and everybody go on come live here and then our house price will go up. Gal. So what we waiting on? What's the number? [00:25:27] Speaker A: If you see something, say something. Let us all pitch in and stop the crime before it's your time. Call 328-8477 from Nassau or 2423-008477 from the family Islands or text us through the Crack Crime Bahamas app. Stop the crime before it's your time. Always on the go. Miss the show. You can now listen to Guardian Radio talk shows anytime, anywhere on Spotify and YouTube by searching Guardian Radio 96.9 FM or by entering the name of your favorite show. [00:25:57] Speaker B: You can also listen by logging on to guardiantalkradio.com and clicking on the podcast tab. [00:26:04] Speaker A: Guardian Radio continuing to provide you with fresh news and smart talk anywhere, anytime, all day. [00:26:16] Speaker B: Take the hassle out of your planning and book your next adventure with a going places travel advisor. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Whether you already know where and when [00:26:23] Speaker B: you want to go or are looking for inspiration or direction, we'd be delighted to work with you. [00:26:28] Speaker A: Rely on us for everything from simple weekend getaways to the most complex and special occasion itinerary. Together we are going places. This is Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. Fresh news, smart talk all day. And welcome back to Strictly Speaking here on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. A phone lines at 323-623-2325-431632-54259 or toll free from the Family Islands anywhere else 2423-00-5720 and you can always text at 422-4796 Street. A couple of texts. I know his name is Nathaniel. I just call him. Oh I got you. And I called Trump. Trump. Okay, I got you. I got you. Thank you Dexter. Let's see what this one says. Yeah. He says the way you or we feel has little impact on quality of parade management. The quality of parade management is largely ingrained in how the management team has prepared and plans they have. Since we are. Since we are politicians and the appointees just like to announce and pronounce sunny bright PR on everything. Nobody will have any objective assessment of preparation until 11pm on Christmas Day. Now, texter, I've not been involved in the parade management but working the irc I've been privileged to some meetings and sitting with them and as they talk about plans. Those brothers work hard. And ladies, there's men and women work hard on that parade management team. It isn't so much that they're not doing what they supposed to do. Let's give an example that and this only hypothetical. This only hypothetical. Let's say at 11 o' clock the Saxons supposed to go on. And for some reason the Saxons at the last minute said they can't make the parade. The other groups have I think an hour or so to prepare to be ready. So if you come back and say Saxons ain't going, y' all have to move up. You can't penalize them for not being ready because they know they had this amount of time to prepare for the Saxons. So maybe some rule changes got to be like the Saxons in the valley. Both got to be ready 11 o' clock in case something happened. Some things you could probably put in place to help, but it is, it is. Very few times is the parade manager's fault on John Canoe because those guys, those men and women, I see them, they work hard, they put in hours on top of hours. Some of them don't sleep for days. So I, I have, I have a place in my, a small place in my heart for them and for the work that they do in respect to making sure that parade get us. We at times big up the jungle groups and how they put so much work into it. Yes, they do. Oh, I respect that. Get me? Right. Pearly respects that. That the work they put in the parades, the hours they put in the days, the weeks, the months, the sleepless nights, ain't bathing, ain't eating right, ain't seeing the girlfriend, the wife, the chair and the family, they put a lot of time. And I respect that. But on the same note that people who plan the parade and who set it up and who got to make sure the barriers up, the bleachers are up, the, the judges, they get the judges trainings, they get the IRC going, they get all the, the just all the little small things that they have to do to pull that parade off. That's a lot. And I admire them. So I just wanted to say that next text is Pearly, MPs got love for us. Some of us don't have love for ourselves. Some rather the half pint of aristocrat. 60% of the people who voted PLP are slackers and slackness. Now look what's happening. Well, that's your opinion. I have to respect that. I have the respect now, but I'm concerned. Let me ask another question here. Ask something else here. Now, you know when you see the shipping go up, you know what I mean? Right. I Build an apartment building to put for rent. So you know, it costed me more to build that. Now I got to recruit my money. And a lot of people probably budget into recouping their money in certain amount of years on their part so they can at least have something profitable for themselves after a certain period of time. Rent going up. So lumber, cement, plywood, shingles all come on. All them come on. The shipping companies on Tropical and MSC and other shipping companies that price going up. So housing costs going up. So if it costs you 100, if it costs you 100 an 80k to build a house, a build a duplex or build something, you know that price going up 190, 200,000 to build. So how can young people afford a house now this pushes dreams further away. How you expect to build. Particularly people who still building after Dorian years later, still building seven years, still trying to rebuild after Dorian. Now that price even they may have claimed insurance, they may not starting to build. But now you got to find extra money. That's a lot of concerns. Do we even care? Do you care? I mean something costs $5, I can pay the $5. They go into shop tomorrow cost seven, I can pay the $7. Maybe you have to pay it. But is there a concern, do we feel the government is doing enough? Can the government do more? Some people say they need to cap the VAT here. Some people say they need to do subsidize to subsidize the bunker fuel. But welcome to strictly speaking. How you doing? [00:32:41] Speaker B: Hello, [00:32:44] Speaker A: are you there? I guess the caller got the call back. I get, I got hurt to call in the background get listen out for me bro. Madam lady, sir. You know, you know when I read that article and I started saying things to myself, you know, came to me we got to grow more in the Bahamas. Backyard farming. I have to now hope for. I shouldn't say after now because everything announces that helps the Bahamas. I hope I have to really now keep saying this now I have to pray for the success of the Golden Yoke program. I, I like scrambled egg. I like my eggs over easy. I like my potato salad cut up. So I, I hope to see that, that that's a help. If we grow 30% of our food the shipping increases won't hurt us as much. You know. So now should the government now really seriously in all take seriousness into helping our agriculture even at the backyard farming. You know, if they, they should come and say listen we take $10 million and let's just get a bunch of people to start farming in the backyard and chipping out, say poorly grow tomatoes. My next door neighbor grew sweet pepper. My next one neighbor grew something else, you know, and then at the end of maybe do I send some, some tomatoes over to my neighbor, they send me back some sweet pepper and stuff. So to help us not having to buy these things, that's just come to the top of my head. Welcome to Strictly speaking. [00:34:31] Speaker B: How you doing, Mr. Thompson? How you doing, man? [00:34:34] Speaker A: Hey, right here, my brother. What's happening? [00:34:36] Speaker B: God has been good to me. [00:34:37] Speaker A: Amen. I say amen. [00:34:38] Speaker B: Say good afternoon to all your listening audience and everyone in the studio. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Not the straight away, but I was wondering if it's wise that the government give these persons who drive dump the garbage trucks if they could give them a duty free on their equipment and their, and their trucks. [00:35:01] Speaker A: Okay, Okay. [00:35:02] Speaker B: I feel like whilst the garbage need to be moved, we don't need like, you know, this high odor and this dirty juice and a lot of the content of the garbage left when the garbage truck stop and move the garbage. [00:35:21] Speaker A: Okay. [00:35:22] Speaker B: I think the garbage truck, some of them are too old. And I think in order to assist those business persons, the government should give them some duty free consumption on the equipment as well as their, their machines. [00:35:39] Speaker A: Now, now some of that dirty juicy thing. You got some truck. Oh, because the fellows don't clean the truck. When you finish collecting your garbage today and you reach to your site, you should hose the truck down, disinfect the truck, clean it down so that them old stuff don't get out of them, you know? You know what I mean? [00:35:53] Speaker B: Well, what happened is when they come back, when they compact the garbage, they make space. You know, when they pull up the back, they make space and compact it. [00:36:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that squeeze them out. [00:36:02] Speaker B: And because of, because of the vehicle, I mean, the, the machines are so old. [00:36:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:36:07] Speaker B: It sort of rust to the bottom and holes are to the bottom. [00:36:12] Speaker A: I understand, I understand some people. [00:36:14] Speaker B: All of that is spewed right, right there in the front of your house. [00:36:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, I've seen it. [00:36:19] Speaker B: It's disgusting. But I listen to you and I think that, you know, our problem in this country is we need to come together and find a way to lower the cost of living in the, in the Bahamas. [00:36:36] Speaker A: Okay? [00:36:37] Speaker B: I mean, I don't want to, I don't, I don't want like persons who want to visit the Bahamas say, I can't go there because just a can of soda at the hotel is $12. Or you know, when I, when I need to do Something in the Bahamas, it's cost so much. And not only persons who visit, but natives. Natives are now finding themselves challenged. And sometimes you have to decide if you're going to eat healthy or eat some junk and pay a bill or if you're going to avoid that bill and eat healthy. And I don't think we need to be making those decisions. I think we should have a comfortable way of living in this country. The country is too small for us and we make too much money. Too much money is circulating in this country for us to be to those places where we have to make those decisions. I think that when we, when we look at the government taxes and what's not the government taxes. But I want to ask the question. Let me ask the question before I go on. [00:37:42] Speaker A: Go ahead. [00:37:42] Speaker B: Do you know, do you know what is, what is the national debt too much? Do you know how much was paid in the last five years? [00:37:53] Speaker A: Not enough. I don't have the exact figures in my head. I'm just being facetious. I apologize. [00:37:58] Speaker B: Well, what my thing is, right, where is this money going? I talk about billions of dollars is being circulated in the country by the government and their taxes and their operation and private, private firms are doing just as well. Okay, where is this money going? Why the cost of living up to go so high? You know, I listen to you and you spoke about if you have to build, you know, a duplex and if the, if the taxes is up to so much and you have to spend 2, $200,000, you know, you, you, you expect the past that on to yacht to your tenants. [00:38:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:39] Speaker B: And well, you know, you might could find 200 and some thousand dollars to get in a business like that. [00:38:45] Speaker A: You don't mean you as an early. You mean you the proverbial you. [00:38:47] Speaker B: Right, okay. Yeah, right. But what about our youngsters who is o'dah who was taught to go get a good education and you know, get a good job? You know, what about those persons now where they left? They left just hoping for a pie in the sky and create something big, you know, hit a big number or something. I mean why, why, why, why isn't it made possible for our people who coming up, you know, our young people. [00:39:20] Speaker A: That's the question. [00:39:23] Speaker B: Go again. [00:39:23] Speaker A: That's the question. I'm concerned for the young people coming up, these kids who graduating from college in May, who finishing postgraduate in May, kids who are finishing. Who are now getting married this year, next year, who's starting families. That's the ones I'm concerned about. The Most. [00:39:39] Speaker B: And it's really started. And then we lose so much nice, bright young minds to. To different countries because different countries go a step further. And if we decide that we want to go a step further for our people, it'll be a huge help. But right now, as it stands, you know, you have this group of persons who are living the life of Raleigh, who is living off the fat of the line and it takes away from the rest of us. You know, I understand. I think that whilst we all are challenged with these taxes and the way, you know, the cost of living in this country, why we all are challenged, unless we all come together and produce some way to get this government out of just living the life of Raleigh and provide some kind of help to the rest of us, we're going to be here for a while and just dwindling below standard in a rich country. And the Bible said, the Bible says, you know, a fool is thirsty in abundance of water. And why an abundance of wealth? Our country and our citizens finding it so hard. You could imagine. Pearl, you want the best for your child. You want to send your child to college, you want to send your child to private school. You can't even, you know, in some cases, persons who have more than one child, they. They have, they have to say, well, no, you want to go to government school. Not that government school is bad. [00:41:15] Speaker A: I understand what you're saying. I gotta let you wrap up Nugget, but three more callers waiting. [00:41:22] Speaker B: But I really appreciate your time and I wish we could come up with an idea to help this, this administration out and, and bring. And bring relief to our people and lower the cost of living in our country. Thank you for your time. [00:41:32] Speaker A: Thank you, my brother. We all got to do our part and I so appreciate that contribution. He made a lot of sense. Now think about what he said. We, what we can do, what we can do to try and encourage the government to do certain things. And it could come down to coming up with the ideas to send to the government. Civil disobedience, all kind of different things, but we listen to what the brother had to say. Welcome to strictly speaking. How you doing? [00:41:53] Speaker B: Hey, right up early. Good afternoon. How you doing? [00:41:55] Speaker A: I'm right here, my brother. What's up? [00:41:58] Speaker B: Good afternoon to the nation. You know, you spoke about something to touch on something a little earlier that I want to elaborate on a little bit more. [00:42:06] Speaker A: Okay. [00:42:07] Speaker B: In terms of the next generation, why [00:42:11] Speaker A: you sound like you're underwater. [00:42:13] Speaker B: I. I don't know. I. I don't know. [00:42:15] Speaker A: You're on you're on the bj. [00:42:17] Speaker B: No, [00:42:21] Speaker A: I know what you mean. [00:42:23] Speaker B: Can you hear me any better? [00:42:24] Speaker A: Yes, you sound a lot better now. Yes. [00:42:26] Speaker B: All right. I had the phone on speaker. I took it off speaker. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Okay. [00:42:30] Speaker B: But nonetheless, I have a bdc. [00:42:32] Speaker A: I got you. [00:42:33] Speaker B: Oh, you understand. [00:42:34] Speaker A: No comment. No comment. You get me in trouble. [00:42:41] Speaker B: This is how you go, right? First, I know better than your personal interest. I got. [00:42:48] Speaker A: I can't get in trouble with that. [00:42:49] Speaker B: No. You got nothing to say? [00:42:52] Speaker A: Not with that one. [00:42:53] Speaker B: I just take an opportunity to highlight. [00:42:56] Speaker A: Go ahead, brother. That's all right. [00:42:59] Speaker B: That's right. Anyway, thank you. As it relates to the next generation in our country, probably. [00:43:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:06] Speaker B: Boy, you know, I. I just had this conversation with. I kind of remember who right now, but someone. I had a conversation with someone recently and I. I always have it from time to time acknowledging how difficult it will be. And you know, this is an ongoing conversation for the last 20 years. Probably because it doesn't just start recently, right? [00:43:28] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty much. [00:43:28] Speaker B: So. But how difficult it will be for the next generation of behemoths to attain what we call the American dream. Right? [00:43:37] Speaker A: The Bahamian dream. The Bahamian dream. [00:43:39] Speaker B: The Bahamian dream with the white picket fence. Yeah, Right. I don't know about that, but okay, that's the dream. [00:43:45] Speaker A: I know what you mean. I understand where you're coming from, right. [00:43:49] Speaker B: To be able to afford to purchase property in a safe community where you can rear your family and not be concerned about the everyday, the everyday crime that takes place in certain environments, right. Where you don't have to be concerned about your child or your children riding a bicycle on the park or where you don't have to be concerned if your community even has a park, right, Pearly? Or if the community is well kept. You understand what I'm saying, Pearlie? [00:44:29] Speaker A: I understand. [00:44:29] Speaker B: I understand that dream, Pearly, realistically and honestly speaking. And I'm not speaking with reference to government developments because the government has. Has done quite a bit of work and is doing quite. This government, I should say the Davis administration has done quite a bit of work along the lines of trying to make home ownership more accessible for hundreds of bohemians. And I commend and congratulate them on that effort and encourage them as strongly as they can to continue with that effort. But I'm speaking like the strong middle class and upper middle class communities which in the, in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s behemoths were able to attain in our country early. Right? That's where the chipping arms come in. That's where the Stapletons come in. That's where the, the K. Michaels come in. Right. That's where the Colony Village and et cetera, et cetera, the communities out east and some of those communities on west coming the Pearly. Do you really think the next generation of Bahamians, realistically not Pearly, will be able to access home ownership, property ownership in these communities, investment properties in these communities? [00:45:44] Speaker A: I'm asking you, Pearlie, you know those communities are pretty much going to be. When I say solo full out, you know, I'm trying to use vernacular. So why shouldn't we be looking at how we can develop Andros or Exuma Mall or Long island so Beammans can move. Move and best affordable property where they can live, where they can live comfortably and be able to raise families. There's too many people coming to Nassau. [00:46:09] Speaker B: Really? That's the next dispensation of the conversation, Right? [00:46:12] Speaker A: All right. [00:46:13] Speaker B: But, but, but, but, but as it stands, the, the, the, the economics of our country primarily reside in the capital. Right? And even if you look at those islands, Curly, we are making the same mistake. And this is what I continue to speak to over the last 20 years. We are making the same mistakes we have made in Nassau. We're repeating them in the family islands. Wow. [00:46:35] Speaker A: I can actually I should wrap up because I got two calls and only got a few more minutes before I get to go to break. So wrap up quick for me, please. [00:46:42] Speaker B: Listen, the best of what we have in this country should always be reserved for behemoth. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Amen. I agree. [00:46:48] Speaker B: That is not. That is not the case. Based on how rapidly development is unfolding, based upon the cost and the rapid increase of the cost of accessing top level development. The best of what this country has to offer can no longer be said that it's being reserved for Behemoth. But the government has to do some things, has to make some intervention. I'm ending right here. Has to make some interventions to slow down. Just ripping off of opportunities and access. Giving the best of Behemoth the best two behemoths of what we have in our land. Thank you for the opportunity. [00:47:27] Speaker A: You see, me and Anton agree on something. Y' all see that? Welcome to strictly speaking. How you doing? [00:47:33] Speaker B: Yes, sir. Wow. Can you hear me? [00:47:39] Speaker A: I can hear you. If you don't know who I just took you for this. I almost followed my chair, but go ahead please. [00:47:43] Speaker B: All right. What in regards to the Bahamas helping itself and all. I know in days gone by when they were ships used to be waiting In. In Morgan's Bluff. [00:47:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:48:00] Speaker B: To tow fruits and vegetables to the US that was before the. What they call that the disease, the cantankerous. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I know what you're talking about. I remember that. [00:48:13] Speaker B: Also, what happened to all the rice farm down in the CDC area that could be replenished and grow rice again. [00:48:24] Speaker A: Okay. [00:48:24] Speaker B: And we don't have to import. Well, this has another thing going that they need to look into is our current, the Stafford Creek area where we have a lot of current flowing in and out. [00:48:44] Speaker A: Yes. [00:48:47] Speaker B: Current flow generator in those areas. Right. Now I know for a fact that where the Stafford Creek bridge is, that needs badly to replace right next to a prominent hotel. Love at first sight. And you have the bone fishing lodge down in there. And there's a lot to be done in those areas. But for some reason, the government look like they just pass andros right by. [00:49:20] Speaker A: Wow. [00:49:22] Speaker B: And it's sad. [00:49:23] Speaker A: Well, hopefully, you know, I really don't know what to say because I'm one that called for more food security. I'm one that thinks that we should do more farming and the government should put a lot more money into the farming. Less talk and more action. And so I have to agree with you, hopefully that in this term the government will look at andros and look at farming a little more. They did say that they would do some more. So let's hope it happens. Okay. [00:49:48] Speaker B: I do too. I do too. Thank you. [00:49:50] Speaker A: Thanks for calling. My brother calling on there. Welcome to strictly speaking. How are you? [00:49:56] Speaker B: I got an answer for you, buddy. I listen in, but I almost followed my chair. Listen to Antonio. I almost fall to my chair pocket. When you and I were young. [00:50:09] Speaker A: Yes. And that was pretty far, long ago, but go ahead. [00:50:11] Speaker B: Yeah. We always have somebody looking over our shoulder, right? [00:50:14] Speaker A: Pretty much. So, yeah. [00:50:15] Speaker B: I mean, like we, we were being held accountable. [00:50:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:19] Speaker B: You know, we, you know, like, you know, I. I remember in my young days on my first job, these older guys will harass me. Will you buy any property yet, buddy? [00:50:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. [00:50:32] Speaker B: Are you buying your property yet, buddy? [00:50:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:34] Speaker B: And the only way I could have shut them up, I had to go. I had to go and buy a piece of property. [00:50:40] Speaker A: I gotcha. [00:50:41] Speaker B: Okay. Now, but sometime around 1967, 1968, we had this thing that happened in the schools where the persons who were teaching us, they lost their authority and a lot of stuff happened. But in 1974, we had that education act. [00:51:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:04] Speaker B: Where like social promotion was brought into the system. Okay. Okay. Now the road from being low class to middle class that was taken out of the situation. [00:51:21] Speaker A: You say the road from low class to middle class. [00:51:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It became politicized. [00:51:27] Speaker A: Okay, okay. I hear what you say. [00:51:28] Speaker B: You know, you had to be of a certain persuasion to get something after 1967, after 1968. [00:51:36] Speaker A: Okay. [00:51:37] Speaker B: If you, if, if you didn't come from a family who, like, grounded you and stuff, you know, buddy, you had a hard road. And this is not 20, 26. This is 50 years ago. So we are seeing the results of a problem all week. All the experience in right now are consequences. [00:52:02] Speaker A: I gotcha. They tell me I gotta take break. Thank you, my brother. I appreciate you. You make a lot. I love my callers. Yeah. You listen into Strictly Speaking. This is Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. And I'm Earl Thompson. We can take a break, listen to the news. We'll be right back soon, so don't go nowhere. [00:52:34] Speaker B: You try to rest. [00:52:35] Speaker A: Rope it the best for all your printing days. [00:52:39] Speaker B: There ain't no one better for posters [00:52:42] Speaker A: and binders, magazines and flyers, for window [00:52:46] Speaker B: decals, reading cards and newsletters. No job too big and there's no job too small. [00:52:52] Speaker A: You name it, we can print it. [00:52:54] Speaker B: Just give us a call. [00:52:57] Speaker A: Let printmasters bring your masterpiece to life. [00:53:00] Speaker B: Located the Nassau Guardian Building. Telephone 302-23-6 1. [00:53:04] Speaker A: Burger King Nassau is teaming up with Dragon Ball. How up with the double Super Saiyan Whopper 2 Flame Grill Patties. Blast it with a super Saiyan sauce, a sweet, savory, tangy, teriyaki style kick. Or unleash the Kamehameha Kamehameha long chicken stacked and sauced for maximum flavor. [00:53:19] Speaker B: And we got next level size Dragon Ball super loaded fries with melted cheese, bacon and crispy onions. And Dragon Ball super cheese bites perfectly [00:53:28] Speaker A: crisp stuffed with melty cheddar. Go super at Burger King Nassau today. Burger King Heaven your cyan way. There's a place where every detail whispers elegance. [00:53:38] Speaker B: Where our art greets you at every corner. [00:53:41] Speaker A: Where flowers linger like a secret well kept and your sweet dreams become your sanctuary. This isn't just an ordinary bed and breakfast. [00:53:50] Speaker B: It's a name that says signature. [00:53:52] Speaker A: The Bella Signature Restaurant and suites. A taste of the Bahamian dream. This this is Guardian Radio, your station for up to the minute news and intelligent, interactive and engaging conversations. 96.9 FM. And welcome back to Strictly Speaking. We're on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM and I'm Earl Thompson. Your football weekend of the year starts right here on Guardian Radio and the Guardian Media Group. Score Tickets to the big game the New England Patriots at the Miami Dolphins, Sunday, November 1, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. Win that complete package around round trip tickets, a round trip airfare, hotel accommodations, car rentals and yes, tickets for you and a friend to enjoy the big game. If you ain't got nobody to go with you, free, fill out the entry form in today's paper and drop it in the box in the Nassau Guardian. Follow us on all social media platforms and check the Nassau Guardian for contest rules. Get your Guardian fellow, Jifon. Drop it in. It is a wonderful, wonderful experience. Don't worry about who playing. Don't worry. But if it's the Dolphins or who ain't, don't worry about that. Don't worry about peace. Just know it's an experience that the Guardian has given you. Check it out. So got that done. Oh, let's say shout out to Bella Signature Restaurant and Sweets. Oh yeah, Cara. Bingo tonight. Check it out. Cozy and carabingo. Should be really fun tonight. It's be a great time. I can't sing. So you hear me singing. You might see me sitting down watching and laughing. But it should be fun. And it always is fun. Every week he does a lot of different things to keep you excited, keep you fun. So check it out. Shout out to them. Let's read a couple of texts here. Says good day. The government don't know what to do. Hence they do nothing but borrow the stress. Borrow like how I stress eat. They stress borrow like how, bro? He said like how I stress eat. Why is there no farm? Why is there no group of farm? I don't know if we need a group of farm groupers in abundance. We just have to keep it in season. So when this morning that we don't be killing them and catching them. And then we have to talk about the council more. I agree, but I don't think there's a shortage of group. I think they're trying to preserve that we do not have a shortage of grouper in the future. So that's why it is in season at times. Ain't nothing like a good boiled fish. Tell me, Burley, you thought the gentleman was Sparky? He sounded like Sparky for real. I didn't like it is what it is though. I got to clarify something. One of my. One of my listeners, one of my critics, one of my dear friends called and said I was. I. I didn't do my whole homework or my research on backyard farming. And I think what I tried to say didn't come across, you know, I commend the government for what they're doing with it, and I commend the programs that are going in. And apparently I'm understanding in certain areas it is really striving. A lot of people are doing backyard farming. A lot of people are benefiting from it. I'm calling for it to be more. And I'm not putting any knock on the government about it. I put in the knock on our people. They have seminars, they have programs. You can reach out, and I think they help you with seedlings and stuff like that and get into it. So I'm not saying that the government are doing what they are, and I'm gonna be the first to criticize this government, but I'll also be one that will give them credit for when they do something right. So. And when they do something good. And it's not all about this knocking the wrong they do. So yes, they're doing the backyard farming. And we do need more behemoths to get involved. Tell me I should go organize chipping out. And maybe I would just be doing that. Okay. We say. Big food stores, you know, super value, quality, cost, right soil elements. Do we expect them to absorb these costs, these container costs initially? Because, you know, most of their stuff coming in November, all them taking harm. People get all the mall stores, the Bay street stores, the mall stores, the Southwest Plaza, the stores out there out in Michael Road, all that. All this stuff starting to come in November, their Christmas stuff. Somebody already got this thing because I've been in one store on Saturday, but not me. Somebody been in the store side. They tell me Christmas stuff going up. I was thinking November 1st, but Christmas stuff going up all over the place. So hopefully they get this stuff in before the price goes up. But a lot of stuff coming in in November, early November, middle of November, getting ready, end of November, just after with Thanksgiving. Why we celebrate Thanksgiving as a holiday in this country, I don't know. I mean, I understand the concept, I understand the rationale, but it ain't our holiday. And I don't think most babies even know how Thanksgiving started in the States. Pilgrims ate dinner with Indians. All right. It was a Thanksgiving of peace and people more came in into in New England. Welcome to strictly speaking. [00:59:43] Speaker B: Yes. Earl Sialens on April. [00:59:45] Speaker A: What's up? I hear from you in a little while. What's happening? [00:59:48] Speaker B: Not much, man. Been in Grand Bahama fighting for the survival of the micro state that we need to become. [00:59:54] Speaker A: I gotcha, I gotcha. [00:59:55] Speaker B: But I need two things. I want to speak on Grand Bahama. But just let me speak to the housing issue. Right? Okay. We need to stop selling the dream of housing. If you go back to 1973 when the population was under 200,000 people, we own homes, we own businesses, we own nightclubs, we own all these different things. [01:00:14] Speaker A: Yes. [01:00:15] Speaker B: So here that you have a population of 200,000, I want you to pay attention. The GDP of the country was $600 million. Today we have double the population and a $16 billion GDP. And we own less home, less businesses, less beaches, less of every single thing. Something is wrong with that. But here's the picture. If you use a very simple AS5 formula, if you want to buy a house, just do 1% of the value of the house. So if you want to buy a 200,000 government home, 1% value is the $2,000 a month. That's the interest, insurance and everything. Generally speaking, according to the reducing in which the mortgage corporation do it with a 50% debt ratio, that means you need to make $4,000 a month. Okay, $4,000 a month is $48,000 a year according to the banking standard, with no debt, just to buy a government home. [01:01:17] Speaker A: Wow. [01:01:18] Speaker B: And so when you start, if you use the other commercial banking where you have 1/3 the 35% rule, you need to make 6,000amonth. You need to make $72,000 a month. So, you know, yes, government is talking about building these homes, but nobody is answering the questions and signing the income disparity that allows people to buy homes. So buying a home in the Bahamas is a dream. They're telling you you must go to sleep because of the income disparity in the price of homes that went up over the last 53, 53 years. And so we need to have the conversation instead of you say, oh, government is doing rent to own these rent to own or these things. The government has refused to publish the requirements to get into rent to own. So they say they're doing. And then we need to build 2,000 homes a year just to stand still. And so we are. Now, if you say in government list alone, it's 5,000 people on the government list, they don't tell you that when you talk about housing, which is separate from home ownership. Housing is just for affordable housing. So you have 30, 40,000 individuals in the country on work permits. And then you have behemoths, you probably need about 40 to 60,000 units that we are lacking if you do the proper accounting. And so we are in a housing, not a housing crisis. If you are a construction company and you advise for the house, you'll go bill it. [01:02:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:43] Speaker B: So we don't have a housing crisis. We have a housing affordability crisis. [01:02:48] Speaker A: I gotcha. [01:02:49] Speaker B: Because people can't afford the home. [01:02:50] Speaker A: So we got the people to build them. It doesn't get the people to buy them. [01:02:53] Speaker B: There you go. Or even to pay the rent in them. [01:02:55] Speaker A: Fair enough. Yeah. [01:02:56] Speaker B: Okay. And so that's it. But I want to talk about this Grand Bahama. You know, we have this thing here with Bahama Rock that's making applications for mining here in the Bahamas. [01:03:05] Speaker A: Okay. [01:03:06] Speaker B: And I just want people to understand, right, according to the total number that in the marketplace in Bahama Rock has put in the thing that the Bahamas consumed, 350,000 tons. I want you to keep that right [01:03:17] Speaker A: now explain to me, you know, just back up two steps and explain to the listeners what Bahama Rock does. And when you say mining, what is it they're mining so people can understand what you're talking about? Get a clearer idea. My call is still there. Do we lose the caller? Mr. Producer, I hope he can go back. Please call back. See, Alan, sorry, but I think you need to go back, strictly speaking. Good afternoon. How you doing? [01:03:47] Speaker B: Mr. Earl Thompson, my brother. [01:03:49] Speaker A: How are you? [01:03:50] Speaker B: Very well, Mr. Thompson. You know, the IMF provides us with all the information we need to follow the money. [01:03:59] Speaker A: Okay. [01:04:00] Speaker B: And I want to direct you to a website. You could skip the www, just go to global-debt d e, b t-clock c l o c k.com forward slash BS, which means Bahamas. But I think it's. [01:04:22] Speaker A: Behave yourself, okay? Behave yourself. [01:04:26] Speaker B: Global. [01:04:26] Speaker A: Okay. Would you say I'm going to global. Global. [01:04:29] Speaker B: You got that? Global dash debt. D, E, B, T. I read the search. I can't [01:04:38] Speaker A: stop. Say it again. Global dot debt. [01:04:40] Speaker B: No, no. Global dash dash. [01:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:43] Speaker B: Deploy D E, B T. Yes dash C L O C k dot com. Not that. [01:04:53] Speaker A: Not bs dot com [01:04:56] Speaker B: forward slash. [01:04:57] Speaker A: Oh, I got. [01:04:57] Speaker B: Okay, that's where the bull come in. But we call Bahamas, apparently. But bs, okay? So the IMF provides us with everything we need to see because it actually has the Bahamas national debt clock. [01:05:14] Speaker A: Okay? [01:05:14] Speaker B: When you go there, you would see the clock ticking and increasing. And it's now at $12 billion. And it goes up and up and up and it's showing you that we are adding, or today we have added $346,000 to the debt just for today. [01:05:35] Speaker A: $4 a second. And you see in it now I'm looking at this. How real is this? [01:05:42] Speaker B: This Is the imf. [01:05:43] Speaker A: Well, I can check it out. No, I got people in imf. I get accident that. So that's to be certain. [01:05:47] Speaker B: Check it out. Okay. And then the projections go further because by 2030, because right now every citizen per citizen owes $30,000. By 2030, every citizen will owe $50,000. [01:06:04] Speaker A: Okay. [01:06:06] Speaker B: So this actually shows every concerned citizen the performance of the government and the whole Bahamas overall. [01:06:14] Speaker A: Okay. [01:06:14] Speaker B: So when you listen to the prime minister who's living in Disney, that funny world talking to, I mean, you know, Mr. Pintad is probing some facts because when you don't know where 700 million gone, well, you could clearly see it's going to go right to this clock. All right? And it's going to put us, you know, we are fortunate to have our dollar pegged in US dollar. You know. [01:06:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:40] Speaker B: If it were not we've been in doo doo, we'd be in bs. [01:06:44] Speaker A: I'm concerned about that because the American dollar, you know, having some issues going forward because, you know, they don't base their money on gold anymore. They base their money on the strength of the dollar, on the, on the trust that people have in the dollar. So we're lucky enough so we will fluctuate with them. [01:06:57] Speaker B: But I understand your point and that strength and confidence is dwindling. [01:07:02] Speaker A: That's my point. [01:07:03] Speaker B: And I got your point. [01:07:04] Speaker A: Okay? [01:07:05] Speaker B: So I admonished Bahamians to look at this clock so that when election time comes around, compare it to what you looked at it yesterday. And when you look at it, when they come around and ask them what have you done to cause this clock to go in reverse? [01:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:23] Speaker B: Instead of increasing. And I think if every. But you know, you're going to find some citizens who just don't care because once their party's in power, it doesn't really matter how much money they can't account for. They feel confident that their party is, you know, because they share the money out during election time in land, allegedly. So when my party is in, I'm not concerned about the national debt and how that might affect my family and my household. So I just want persons to look at that clock and look at that every day. And when your minister comes around, ask him, is there any way you could get that to start ticking backwards instead of going forward? And I could bet you he doesn't have the answer to that question. [01:08:08] Speaker A: Fair enough. [01:08:08] Speaker B: And that's all I want to say. I just want us to focus on the Bahamas national debt clock. [01:08:14] Speaker A: I'm going to, I'm going to Call my people and ask them something about that is less to be certain. [01:08:18] Speaker B: Okay, but I mean, because when it gets to 20 billion, it can begin to eat into our reserves, and then that's when the dollar is going to have to be devalued. [01:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:29] Speaker B: So call your people. I will let them explain it to you. And then maybe you could have a show on this so you could really talk long enough for people to digest the dilemma. Of course, you know America, they could print money, but we can't. Okay. [01:08:45] Speaker A: Take care of yourself. Yeah, let's read a couple of texts. The text the Pilgrims gave thanks for killing the Indians. Anyway, I can leave that one. I know I leave that one. And not because I don't want to comment. Not because I don't have the timelines on certain things that happen in the United States history. So I can leave that one like that. Good day, Earl. And I'm always appreciative of that very educated male caller. Please, sir, continue to educate us on the ways the government look at us as primitive and in some way up in Disneyland. This is not joke, sir. Please keep us enlightened. Thank you. Welcome to Strictly speaking. How you doing? [01:09:29] Speaker B: Yes, good afternoon. [01:09:31] Speaker A: I ran in. My brother was up. [01:09:32] Speaker B: Everything all right, man? Yeah, but you said you could kind of talk about anything, right? [01:09:41] Speaker A: Yeah, man, yeah, yeah, we pretty good. [01:09:43] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, because. Because before your show, they had a rebroadcast of Mr. Lang show. Yeah, but whatever the thing is. [01:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The meteorological thing. [01:09:53] Speaker B: I didn't catch the original broadcast, so I'm glad I caught that one. Right, okay, but. And listening to them, right, Burly. I mean, those fellow song a bit lost. Like, they. They sound a bit unsure. Like, like couple texts was texting them and telling them to look him on, y', all, when he's trying to sell us it. Sell us this thing at any cost, at any price. You know what I mean? [01:10:10] Speaker A: Okay. [01:10:11] Speaker B: And the thing. And the thing about it is that what. What. What came across my mind when they were talking was I'm missing $700 million. [01:10:19] Speaker A: Okay. [01:10:20] Speaker B: You know, and the reason why it came across my mind really is because they was talking about box room or box. Whatever the place, whatever. Ding. Name. [01:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:27] Speaker B: Supposed to spend something like 427 million dol. In stuff. [01:10:31] Speaker A: Oh, that much? I didn't get to listen to the whole show. I saw. I heard parts of it. [01:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, because Mr. Lang was saying that they're gonna have to recoup more than $500 million. You know what I mean? Because they want to recoup their money plus profit. [01:10:41] Speaker A: Huh. [01:10:42] Speaker B: Right. And he was talking about how they get. Mr. Lang was saying that they're gonna have to recoup that your revenues. Right. But the thing about it is that because. See the reason why. Why my mind. $700 million per lease. Because I remember MJ. MJ played a recording of the prime minister. Them. [01:10:57] Speaker A: Yes. On talking. Yes, yes. [01:10:59] Speaker B: Telling us what the funds will and will not be used for. Huh. Right. And he said that they will be used to purchase things like. I guess like what Boxwing dealing with. [01:11:07] Speaker A: Ah. [01:11:08] Speaker B: You understand I come from. Right, but. But because the government trying to tell us that they use the money on certain projects that they said they weren't going to use on airports and different things. [01:11:16] Speaker A: Right, yeah, but. [01:11:17] Speaker B: But I'm concerned about this missing money. I mean like I said before my mind running that $700 million per day. And see, the thing about it is that the public. Because I guess I just. I didn't really pay attention to this box until the day I didn't really hear about it. You know what I mean? But the same as if the public are saying it's unnecessary for one. [01:11:33] Speaker A: You know. And I don't want to knock what people are trying to do in terms. And I applaud them for that part of it. But my question is why do we need that if we working with the National Hurricane center in Miami. [01:11:44] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:11:44] Speaker A: And our meteorology and our meteorology department. Normally they haven't done it in a while. Set up this weather balloon that we work in conjunction with them. Why we need them. [01:11:53] Speaker B: Exactly. The thing about it, I love my Bahamian people. The ones who paying attention and you know, because one of the. One of the reasons why the individuals who Mr. Lang was interviewing. But they were talking about airspace. [01:12:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:06] Speaker B: The size. [01:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:07] Speaker B: How large it is. Right. [01:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:09] Speaker B: So they actually call them the same one. I think they. I think they use Trinidad. They said Trinidad airspace wider than ours. And they ain't using that. Right. So that we'll be the only individuals in the region. You was in this thing. [01:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, this all came from now and I won't delve too deep into it, but prior to 2017, there was a lot of talk about airspace and charging the Americans and charging the different people from flying over. And a part of them deal was trying to get that it didn't work out. So they give X. And so now it's coming together. I don't know the necessity of. [01:12:45] Speaker B: We need more. We need more transparency. We need more information. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I think we do. [01:12:49] Speaker B: We need to understand what's going on. Umpires and who we vote for to represent our. Our interest. People's best interest. [01:12:57] Speaker A: Yes. [01:12:57] Speaker B: Need to come to us and show us that that's exactly what they're doing. You know what I mean? And they. And they don't. And they don't want to do that, then we got to make them do that. But another. But. [01:13:04] Speaker A: But another important information. [01:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah. But another important point that I'm happy that the Baming people seem to be catching on too. That. Because, I mean, I've been against privatization pretty. From BT's from PatelCo dime. [01:13:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I know you were. Yeah, yeah. [01:13:16] Speaker B: You understand. So I'm glad they catch. No, but one of the things that the Texas texted in was how you got to be careful because the same as if what they. Because they send it that 3 out of 4 systems or radars or something down, right? [01:13:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:13:32] Speaker B: And the text was asking him, but why is that the case? And then that's on the Texas label. That what we seem to do in this country. Right. Is if our government wants to get rid of an entity that belongs to us. Right. Like they kind of. Like they kind of make it run as inefficient as possible. [01:13:49] Speaker A: Let it die. [01:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Almost sabotage. [01:13:52] Speaker A: No, man. I can't accept that. But I hear your point. [01:13:55] Speaker B: You understand? Right? And so. And the thing about it is that if they don't do that, what we got to watch for also is when they start taking a lot of our money and improving our government entity. [01:14:08] Speaker A: Okay. [01:14:09] Speaker B: Because then we could say they're getting ready to privatize it, but they don't want. But they don't want to privatize it as is. They want to use our money. You know what I mean? Bring it up to par or bring it up to where it should be, but. And where it should be while it belonged to us. But they don't bring it up. They won't bring it there when it belongs to them or somebody else. He says, Andy. But the thing about it, like I said before, my myron on that $700 million. And we need to find out exactly where boxwing or boxwim is going to get that four over. They got that 427 million because Mr. Lang said he was surprised that this thing was already in action. And then, I mean, Mr. Lang said he thought that it was just in the discussion state. [01:14:45] Speaker A: I got you. [01:14:46] Speaker B: Okay. But say they on the ground moving. [01:14:48] Speaker A: I got you. [01:14:49] Speaker B: So we need to find out where Box Swim or Boxwing got this $427 million from to be on the ground moving. [01:14:58] Speaker A: Good question. [01:14:58] Speaker B: You understand, I'm from Birdie. They're on the ground moving. And the thing about is that we. And if Mr. Lang was surprised, right. He's an individual who not only was in government before, but an individual who keeps up with what government is doing, right? If he was surprised, that means that the government was not transparent and did not reveal what is doing. And that's unacceptable. Burleigh. [01:15:18] Speaker A: Questions must be asked. [01:15:20] Speaker B: That's unacceptable. Purdy. [01:15:21] Speaker A: I agree. I agree. [01:15:22] Speaker B: Have a good day, my brother. [01:15:23] Speaker A: Take care, my brother. You're listening to Strictly Speaking here on Guardian Radio, 96.9 FM. Caller, don't go anywhere. We can take a quick break when we get back, we'll take your calls. [01:15:37] Speaker B: Let's go. Orthopedics, where movement becomes medicine and treatments become triumphs. [01:15:53] Speaker A: At Cleveland Clinic, it's more than just repairing what's broken. 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Fresh news, smart talk all day. Welcome back to Strictly Speaking here on Guardian Radio, 96.9 FM. Let's read this Text quick. Let me get to the calls. Minister Glenn is Hannah Martin was the one who wanted to collect for airspace. If you asked her today, she wouldn't recall what her reasons were for this. What is she doing now on in her comfortable position posting Transparency is lacking in closed lips and a woman gaining weight like her tells me she is fed up at time and we don't give a heck. We are in a fight for ourselves. Wow. Interesting. So I watched a little bit of HOA today. You know, I gotta take make pay more attention strictly speaking. Welcome. How are you sir? Ma'. [01:18:42] Speaker B: Am. [01:18:43] Speaker A: Hello. [01:18:44] Speaker B: Hello. Yes. How you doing? [01:18:45] Speaker A: I'm great. [01:18:46] Speaker B: Hey. [01:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah, you got back. Yeah, sorry about that. [01:18:48] Speaker B: Just one point on the. On the national debt. Remember that national debt don't include social sovereign guarantees, the pension fund and other things. So we could be, you know, we often say oh we had 75% GDP. I'm in debt to GDP. We actually over 100%. The reason you don't see the. You don't see the pension fund because they pay it every month. So that balloon hasn't popped yet. [01:19:08] Speaker A: Okay. [01:19:08] Speaker B: And so you know, this is why we don't have a true accounting of where we are in the fiscal world. Just to let people know, debt is not bad. Debt bad. Debt is bad. But when you imagine that you borrow $12 billion, but you are generating way more than the interest to pay the payment. You know, so you could borrow a million dollars at 6% interest, but if you're using for a business of generating 8%, it doesn't cost you. The problem is we keep borrowing, but we don't have no productivity attached to the debt that we borrow. [01:19:40] Speaker A: Understood. [01:19:41] Speaker B: So even now at our $4 billion budget, $1 billion goes to salary, $1 billion goes to paying interest payments alone. And then these, then you have the with a bit of these other payments. And it's just that we need an audit of where we are point and the product strategy for the 21st century coming back to Bahama Rock. [01:20:01] Speaker A: Yeah, so I was asking you so. So for my me and the listeners edification. What is Bahama Rock? What do they do? And when you say they're starting to mine. So what is it they exactly what is it they do? [01:20:11] Speaker B: Because I, Martin Marietta came here under the name Bahama Rock. It's a billion dollar mining company in the US under Bahama Rock 38 years ago to expand the harbor we have in Freeport. They have the agreement. We would assume we haven't seen the agreement. But with Freeport Harbor Company so far, they, you know, remember when we had the shipyard and the container part that was built? [01:20:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:34] Speaker B: That's part of what they. That's part of what they. On what they did. [01:20:39] Speaker A: Okay. [01:20:39] Speaker B: They did the mining of the harbor. So we now have one of the deepest harbor in this, in this hemisphere. [01:20:45] Speaker A: Okay. [01:20:47] Speaker B: You know, to take the post Panama ships, we have the Cadena ships. But in mining that they reassume that they. We don't know exactly what happened because we are asking. But when you look at for the 38 years they've been so far, if you estimate based on the area that has been excavated, almost three and a half months, miles of area that is between Eight Mile Rock and Freeport so far, about 460 million tons. Keep that number right there. 460 million tons of aggregates have been taken out of that harbor. Now, you've heard the construction industry in the Bahamas say we need 350,000 tons per year. [01:21:31] Speaker A: Yeah, Right. Yeah. [01:21:32] Speaker B: So if you add it up for 38 years, we would have needed 14 million tons if they supplied 100%. Mind you, we have other mining companies in the country. And so when you say they took 460 million tons and you're really talking about sand, correct? Yes. We call it aggregate. [01:21:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. I just, I'm trying to, you know, simplify it for some of us. [01:21:57] Speaker B: Right. So. And if you conservatively say they sell it here in the Bahamas for $50, let's pretend that's what they keep getting. They've taken out $23 billion worth of aggregate out of this country and some [01:22:13] Speaker A: of that going on in Florida beaches. Right. [01:22:16] Speaker B: We don't even know where. See, this is where the advocate group we have, they're asking now for permission to move an additional hundred to 110 million tons. Now, at the same time, you saw where they shut down their operations, right? [01:22:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:22:34] Speaker B: Say they run out of it. And I want you to imagine they were in the newspaper, I think, today or yesterday. Right. I want you to imagine that. MARTIN Marietta Right. Think about this. They have actuaries that could predict years in advance what they gonna mine and how they're gonna mine it. Right? [01:22:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [01:22:50] Speaker B: They made application or came to the public on July 29 that they wanted to go into this new area for another 100 million tons of aggregates. Mind you, we only need 350,000 a year. They say they don't have enough to give us any. Right. But doing their EIA, they said they're going to be moving 153,000 trees thousands of birds that, hundreds of birds that is there and other animals and pine trees and coppers and whatever. Yeah, but think about this. I want us to think about the game that they play with us. Right. They say they ran out. 51 days later there's going to be out of order or resources. Imagine this billion dollar company didn't know that 51 days. Yeah, but when you, when you, you knew even when you made application for the new area it could take up to six months to a year, maybe two years to get approval. [01:23:43] Speaker A: Right. [01:23:44] Speaker B: So how did you expect to be approved in 51 days and move 130,000 trees and replant them someplace else, remove acres of coral and put them someplace else, all of these different things and be mining in 51 days. Do you think that's real? [01:24:03] Speaker A: I, I sitting right there saying how you can make that happen? [01:24:06] Speaker B: No, that's, that's not like that sound [01:24:09] Speaker A: like you're providing 20,000 jobs. [01:24:11] Speaker B: No, that 20,000. You, you, you know what I mean? 100,000 trees. [01:24:15] Speaker A: I'm being facetious, I'm being facetious when I say that. [01:24:19] Speaker B: No, I'm saying. So what I'm simply saying is that because they are trying to, I don't want to use the word extort, coerce our government into them continuing for their mining, not for our benefit. Because in the harbor where we are right now, we already have two turning basin. They are now sitting in another area of three 330 acres that they. Seventeen years ago they started the mine. Right. And that's 330 acres. There was 120 million tons. That's approximately. Based on the debt that is there. And 18 years ago, right on YouTube, the general manager of Bahama Rock, do you know when he was asked by myself would I really do with this 330 acres, that would be a dead zone. 330 acres at 130, 100ft deep. That's going to be a dead zone. His quote bahama rock QUOTE 18 years ago. Use it as a lesson to make sure it never ever happened again. Now they're asking us to do it again. And so I think behemoths have to be very concerned when you're continuing to make it. We have two turning basins right now. MSC have some of the biggest ships in the world, right? [01:25:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:25:34] Speaker B: They went into the Hawksville Creek and that area there is about another 120 acres as a turning basin that the MSC is going to be used. It isn't finished yet. Right. So they stopped in the middle of that. So just imagine that in the 120 acres there's 160 million tons. They haven't finished mining it yet. Right. We only need two. Forget shut down all the mining companies in the Bahamas and you only need one company's providing it. You need 350,000 tons. So in this area with hundreds of millions of tons and they have not finished doing the area preparing for msc. So that means there could be another few million tons, a couple years of resources there. But they said they out of it. And so what we are at preserving paradise. We are asking for accountability before anything else. The prime Minister has about 19 agreements saying that we need to preserve the water supply in this thing. They said, oh, we'll damage the water supply some. Yeah, we have some endangered birds in that area. The Grand Bahamas, the second largest water supply in the Bahamas and we already lose maybe 25, 30%, not counting when Dorian put the salt in the water. [01:26:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:39] Speaker B: And so do you know, you ever seen the beautiful Exuma? There's something they call a lazy river. [01:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [01:26:45] Speaker B: A lazy river is where you just get on a tube and go and it just flow through the mangroves, clear water to the bottom. Do you know, go to the Ministry of Tourism site and there's still on the Ministry of Tourism site for Grand Bahama, there's a lazy river through the mangroves here in Freeport. Do you know that doesn't happen anymore because the mine groves have dried up because of the dust and things from the air that's dropping there and it's clogging the Hawksville Creek. [01:27:09] Speaker A: Wow. I got rapper from us, I got rapper promo and I'm telling behemoth, you [01:27:15] Speaker B: have to become concerned and ask the government of the Bahamas why do we need a fourth turning basin when we have two inactive one that we probably could use. And now they want to begin to mine a fourth one to the tune for their benefits. Not for us, for the benefits. If they take out five, if you say 20 years to take what is there in this area they're asking for, that's 5 million tons a year. That's $250 million worth of aggregates they want to take out every year. And they say we will give us 60 jobs. But the 60 jobs they said they work by the hourly pay, no benefits, no nothing. And they already laid them off because they said you all ain't going to let us do this. I think it's important that we become involved when we say we suffering the same dead clock you have. We're Having the same issues that we have about development of the country. We are based on a natural environment, that we allow people to destroy their environment, their benefits, because they seem to have leadership that doesn't have anything. But they fly all over the world, talk about the environment and preserving the global warming and all these other different things. And this is in conflict to 19 agreements we have signed internationally. And I simply said I'm going to talk more of it and do my own personal podcast. But we must stand up to preserve the Bahamas. It's a loan from our children. It's not a gift to us. And we see from 1973 to now, we own less and less of it. So we have people buying it, and now you have people want to take part of it away from us. What are we really going to have left? [01:28:46] Speaker A: Thank you. That's true. Good question. Great question. Welcome to Strictly Speaking. How you doing? Be a little patient with me, Carlos. Be a little patient with me. Welcome to Strictly Speaking. How you doing? [01:28:59] Speaker B: What's up, everybody? [01:29:00] Speaker A: Hey, radio, what's up? [01:29:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm thinking about Boxman. [01:29:05] Speaker A: Turn your radio down because there's an echo. [01:29:08] Speaker B: I'm thinking about this thing. [01:29:09] Speaker A: Huh? [01:29:10] Speaker B: Now, it's supposed to produce funds, right? [01:29:15] Speaker A: Well, yeah, yeah, I guess. For the flyover. Yes. [01:29:19] Speaker B: Oh, like revenue, right? [01:29:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, but they ain't gonna spend 400 million and ain't gonna make no money. So. [01:29:24] Speaker B: Yeah, no, no, no, no, but this. But this area on the back door of America, okay, is already covered by the US. You. You are talking about the backdoor of the greatest nation in the world. [01:29:45] Speaker A: Yeah, but. Yeah, yeah, but this, this ain't nothing. This has been talks and negotiations and working out for years now. So that part of it. But the meteorology part of it is a little different. But go ahead. [01:29:57] Speaker B: No, no, see, my thought is, like, you need all this money, and the money has to come from. From someplace. Now, is it coming while this thing is in progress or in process or is coming prior to. [01:30:19] Speaker A: I can't answer that because I don't know. And see, I. There's something we got to do. We got. I. I'm going to speak to Chivago, but this to see, because I think he said he'll bring them back on. They gotta do a little deeper dive. [01:30:29] Speaker B: Yeah, a deep, deep dive. Okay, Because I think this. This look like another black hole to me. [01:30:38] Speaker A: I gotcha. Again, this next call, Excuse me, I. And I. I gotta. I gotta reach out to Java because he did speak to them, and I'm. And I don't want to talk out of turn because I'm not well versed in this. I've been listening to little parts of, I listened to the show a little bit. I've been. They were on another show some time ago talking about it, but I need to get a little deep in that, strictly speaking. How you doing? [01:31:07] Speaker B: Good show today. Some deep stuff. I should have brought my notebook with me. [01:31:15] Speaker A: How you doing today? [01:31:16] Speaker B: I'm good, I'm good. We were talking yesterday and I wanted to. Okay, let me. First, let me ask you, can you legislate? Legislate morality? [01:31:26] Speaker A: Somebody asked that before. Somebody. I've heard that question before. [01:31:29] Speaker B: What's the answer? [01:31:30] Speaker A: Depends on who you ask. I mean, let me ask you, let me ask you, can you legislate morality? [01:31:39] Speaker B: I don't think you should. I think if you're looking at things like honesty and moral integrity and respect back. Can you legit. Can you legislate? Can you legislate that? Hey, you know, can't tell a white lie or you can't do this or [01:31:53] Speaker A: let me become a police state, eh? Then that takes us more closer to a police state. Yes. [01:31:58] Speaker B: No, I, I don't know. I'm asking you, I took one person. [01:32:03] Speaker A: Thanks for that credit. I, I, you know, that's a, that's a deep question, you know, why ask that? [01:32:09] Speaker B: Let me just. Because I know your time is running out. Why I ask that is because when you look at the bill, the elderly citizens bill, isn't that a form of trying to legislate morality or responsibility? [01:32:20] Speaker A: Which one? [01:32:22] Speaker B: I think morality. I mean, because you have to have some kind of moral integrity to step away from a situation that hey, you see happening and not participate in it. So you first have to tap into, hey, how morally connected you are, life and people and sympathetic to what? I don't know. I'm just, I'm just asking. [01:32:43] Speaker A: I gotta, I gotta, Let me think. But that one, you gotta let me think. [01:32:47] Speaker B: The other thing is, we were talking yesterday on the show before you left and apparently this bill has been passed. House of Assembly. I asked you yesterday, how do you stop a bill? Is it too late to stop a bill or is it going to the Senate and it still can be stopped [01:33:01] Speaker A: there again, the Senate can send it back to the House. Okay, okay, The Senate can do that. And they've done that in act certain questions before. So, yeah, there's the Senate. It doesn't become. Until the Senate passes it. The Senate is the upper house, the House of Assembly is the lower house. So the Senate can send it back, will they? That's a different story for a different day because the vote is 12. The vote is 12 to 4. [01:33:27] Speaker B: They'll agree with it. The other thing is I just won't put it. Put it out there. I would really like Ms. Pia, a member of Parliament, I think, for Michael, Pia Glover. [01:33:37] Speaker A: She's Golden Gates. [01:33:39] Speaker B: Golden Gates. I would like to see her become the Minister for Health. [01:33:43] Speaker A: Interesting. [01:33:43] Speaker B: I think she'll put some things in place. I think it's been struggling. Yeah, we have a doctor who's there, but I think it's been struggling too much. I think a lot more could be done. I think she would have some great ideas for the elderly and how we can help them. When I listen to your show today, when I start hearing about all the. And stuff that Bahamians have to carry and the finances and stuff like that, and I look at our country and I see that there is absolutely. When I honestly think about it, I don't see anything in place for the elderly, like what buildings and stuff that they can go to, what places that they can go to associations or any place that they can go that's theirs that they can hang out with. They can interact with other people. I don't see it happening in our country. And so to me, it looks like. Or dough. But government is saying, hey, your family members are not checking for you. What is the government doing? I know when it comes to election that they have a way of finding these elderly persons and dragging them out to vote. And then afterwards, what happens? [01:34:37] Speaker A: Okay, and the Senate can send back a bill, but they cannot accept money bills. Okay. [01:34:43] Speaker B: They can't accept what? [01:34:44] Speaker A: They cannot. I don't. Senate cannot send back money bills. [01:34:48] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [01:34:49] Speaker A: But something like what you're talking about, they can send it back to the House. But, like, the question is, will it happen? Because we're 12 to 4. [01:34:56] Speaker B: But we talked about. Mr. Mr. Monroe, Mr. Ronald. Make sure that, hey, they'll be straight. And they don't, you know, stress out of Bahamian people. And then, of course, he's a defense attorney. So listen here, we ain't gonna be doing it. [01:35:06] Speaker A: You're trying to get me to say something. You're trying to get me to say something. Take care. Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. Welcome to Strictly speaking. How you doing? [01:35:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Good afternoon, Burley. [01:35:15] Speaker A: Hey, brother. [01:35:16] Speaker B: I. [01:35:16] Speaker A: Lady gave me a great laugh because I was really. [01:35:19] Speaker B: She gave me something to give us something to think about. But it's the people that responsible made some very interesting points. [01:35:25] Speaker A: I don't know, if you listen to [01:35:26] Speaker B: his podcast about the aggregate mining in [01:35:29] Speaker A: Freeport, etc, etc, and then he spark, he sparked my interest. I will be listen, I can go back and listen to it. [01:35:34] Speaker B: He's doing some great work. [01:35:35] Speaker A: You know, the thing is, Cialen covered [01:35:38] Speaker B: a broad spectrum of the foolishness that's going on as it relates to environment. Right? [01:35:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:35:42] Speaker B: And then we have in this counter buffoonery type narrative about climate change and what's going on here at home and there's an article at the Tribune, I don't remember what date is because I missed it and I bought it and I read it. It's about the level of cadmium, which is a heavy metal in Freeport. In some portions of Freeport in the mangroves, they said it's 700 times higher than what's normal. But in some areas they gave the micrograms per kilogram of soil that they found as it relates to this heavy metal. [01:36:15] Speaker A: Right, okay. So aggregate mining, number one, it destroys [01:36:20] Speaker B: the habitat and local fauna and all that stuff and it leaves landscarring, it borders the aquifer. We wouldn't even talk about the chemicals, etc. But, and it's just nobody's paying attention to these things, which is the seal injectables, the amount of jobs, etc. Etc. [01:36:34] Speaker A: We take, we take the pretty water and the beautiful sun and sea and all that. We take it for granted. [01:36:39] Speaker B: Yeah, but the thing is in his [01:36:42] Speaker A: documentaries he highlighted, I said was a [01:36:44] Speaker B: lady, which is frightening for me. [01:36:45] Speaker A: A lady, very beautiful lady, had spoken [01:36:47] Speaker B: about how she now lives with her [01:36:50] Speaker A: mother because she can't live in a [01:36:52] Speaker B: house because of the foundational structural problem as resulted the blasting, etc, etc. Okay, so she humanized her particular scenario. [01:36:59] Speaker A: So how common is that? I've heard some stories out of Grand Bahama and I'm not the expert, but the gentleman that comes on just before me knows a lot about. [01:37:09] Speaker B: Sometimes you have to forget the experts and use common sense. [01:37:11] Speaker A: No, when I say expert I don't mean, I mean the experts would do [01:37:14] Speaker B: the same thing they did with us during the pandemic. [01:37:15] Speaker A: Oh, okay, there you go. [01:37:17] Speaker B: So. So we haven't learned anything in this human journey, you know, pearly. But really and truly we haven't learned anything. You know, water pollution, all these different things, air pollution, the dust, the, the fact that the, the dust could get into the sea and impede photosynthesis. [01:37:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:37:33] Speaker B: Like sedimentation. [01:37:34] Speaker A: There's a lot of follow through, so. [01:37:36] Speaker B: And C. Alan said something because it's really about the investor, even though he's a land molester because he doesn't really care about the country. We have seen it many times and they have these euphemistic words and they come in and I had a brother who worked at Syntex and we saw these different fallouts. But I'm very. I called to say that I'm glad that the university started studies like this and so we would need these. I would like to see some studies [01:38:06] Speaker A: in Nassau and the coastal regions, et cetera, et cetera. [01:38:09] Speaker B: Because we voice osmosis play a role in coastal waters too, you know. So we look at these things but because we're not reading and we're not mindful of it, we go by what experts and people say. But the fact is you could go [01:38:21] Speaker A: online and read these things. [01:38:22] Speaker B: It has nothing to do with experts are writing these things. But I like experts who stand with humanity, not. Not those who say, oh, you're going to read something. And because it's on Google, it's untrue. I guess they did the same thing during the pandemic. So. So we have to trust ourselves and then have a reaction as the people. [01:38:39] Speaker A: And I'm also very concerned with the amount of females committing and attempting suicide. That's scary. Thank you, my brother. That's scary. Text Earl. Did you ever think about running in the Chipping Arm constituency? Just like your late dad, Earl Thompson Senior. Why have you not done this? I know you used to watch him as a member of Parliament. I'm sure you could have been just like him. You know what? I can put it simple as my mother hated my dad was in that it did not do our family well and I. She's not. No. One of the things she don't want Pearly doing is. Is messing with politics like that. So I decided to try to be a king. Make it and be the king himself. Good day. Pretty please address the major issue that I sent to Dubai today from Grand Bahama. You gotta text that to me so I can know what the major issue was. I missed most of the way show this morning. Don't tell the white though. Earl. On another note, sadly the new killing field is now Bay Street. Less than two months ago a young man was murdered in their lightclub and just last night when was killed nepotesky. So Nassau is funky because of crimes and the states seem to be big street. And then PMH is the place where people fail. How sad. My condolences. We can take a quick break. You're listening to Strictly speaking Here on Guardian Radio. We're going to take a quick break and when we come back I just going to do a quick wrap up. We'll be right back. [01:40:15] Speaker B: Let's go. [01:40:22] Speaker A: Managing your investments just got easier with RF bank and Trust. You can now deposit funds directly into your investment account from any local bank using your brokerage cash account number. It's simple, secure and funds available within one to two business days. [01:40:37] Speaker B: Just log in. [01:40:37] Speaker A: Log into RF online to find your account number. Add RF bank and Trust as a payee in your preferred banking app and send your funds directly to your RF account. To learn more visit rfgroup.com or call 603-6000, RF bank and trust money at work. [01:40:54] Speaker B: Calling all merchants and business owners. Join us for the second annual Tea offer Tiny Hearts Merchant Invitational presented by Visa and Fidelity bank on November 1st first at the Royal Blue Golf Club. Enjoy a great day of golf, network with the corporate community and help provide life saving heart procedures for children in the Bahamas. Bring your team, make valuable connections and support a great cause. Register today with the Bahamas Heart Association. Tee off for tiny hearts and help save a life. [01:41:24] Speaker A: There's a place where every detail whispers elegance. [01:41:28] Speaker B: Where all our green you at every corner. [01:41:31] Speaker A: Where flowers linger like a secret well kept and your sweet dreams become your sanctuary. This isn't just an ordinary bed and breakfast. [01:41:40] Speaker B: It's a name that says signature. [01:41:42] Speaker A: The Bella Signature Restaurant and Suites. A taste of the Bahamian dream. This is Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. Fresh news, smart talk all day. Welcome back to Strictly Speaking here on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. Call you on the air. Welcome. [01:42:08] Speaker B: Good afternoon, Mr. Pearley. [01:42:10] Speaker A: Hi, how are you? [01:42:11] Speaker B: There's a caller a few calls back who asked you why you didn't run for this area. [01:42:17] Speaker A: That was a text. [01:42:18] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'm going to be bold and brazen enough to answer. You are not the Member of Parliament, you are the mayor. [01:42:25] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you so much. I am the mayor. Don't let my daughter hear you say that. Please. I only know five people in Chippenham. Maxwell will control the airspace 6,000ft and under. Maybe 30,000ft and under US control, 6,000 and up. Most big planes fly at 35,000ft. Next text says we legislate morality all the time. We legislate against child abuse, against sexual violence, against drinking and driving, not supposed to sell cigarettes or liquor to minors. And last, texture says we can legislate morality. Get the Taliban as consultant. Generally doctors do not make good administrators. They can provide advice but the hands on the Hands on management of typically have poor outcomes. Just as doctors train for years to operate on people, people train for years to build and manage systems get the right people for the job. The data is good but for decades people in Pindar's Point were complaining about odors and loud explosions coming from the oil processing plant along with mysterious illnesses. The reports were all dismissed. One man called guiding ready maybe a year ago or so ago crying for against what he perceived as environmental impact on the oil field. Crickets just the expected oil provides jobs for lots of grand behemoths. I don't see anything wrong go wrong with it. Thank you everybody. Thank you so much. When we have these conversations it's always good and like I always say the show is about those who call in and text and not with me. I'm just the facilitator and but I, I try to get people talking and hopefully members of the government and people in power listen and hear what Bahamians feel and what behemoths think. Some people say I don't like talk shows because all they that yes but this is how people get to express their concerns publicly how they get to express some things, some solutions they would like to see happen and is this amount of us listening, taking notes and trying to see how best they can be implemented. Okay so that's, that's, that's the purpose of most of this. That's why we do all of this and I just hope that we get something out of it every time we do these shows. Not every time you're going to have guests but a lot of times we're going to just be able to allow you to have the talk allow you to say what you feel, allow you to, to bring your views out there and, and hopefully the powers that be will listen. You've been listening to Strictly speaking tomorrow I'm going to have some people in here from the US embassy. They'll be talking about the Six Educational USA the Bahamas University Fair 2026 is coming to Nassau, Freeport and virtually the family islands. So there's a bunch of universities going to be to participate and we'll get some more information tomorrow and we'll have Chanel Sands, Chanel Sands, the public engagement specialist from the US embassy talking with us tomorrow at 2pm thank you so much for listening. Thank you for the calls for the Texas. Up next, my brother and my sister Naughty and MJ and you know what? You forgot MJ had a birthday Saturday. I ain't got no cake so I vex but they up next.