Homepage for the Visual Studio Code Flask tutorial.
TOMORROW The Bahamas will mark the first anniversary of an election like no other – the former governing party tossed out like two-day-old stew fish and the FNM swept in with an unprecedented vote of confidence, winning 35 of 39 seats.
Among the many perplexing aspects of the bizarre spectacle that is the Donald Trump administration in Washington, the curious rebirth of the concept of diplomacy is one of the strangest.
LAST week PLP chairman Fred Mitchell lost his way in the murky world of “right and wrong” when he turned his anger on a government minister who was doing his job by letting certain government employees know that their days of cheating the taxpayers of this country are over.
YESTERDAY, The Tribune reported that all but five striking nurses — they officially called it taking “sick leave” — had returned to work after walking out on patients and a hospital that anywhere else would have been condemned for not being up to acceptable standards.
With the election of Donald Trump as US president, many American observers learned for the first time that many government ethics and nepotism rules do not actually apply to the Chief Executive himself. Rules makers apparently assumed anyone elected president would treat the office with the utmost respect, as Barack Obama did.
If Minister of Environment and Housing Romauld ‘Romi’ Ferreira accomplishes nothing more in his five-year term of office, he will still have had a remarkable impact on the future of The Bahamas through his single act of banning single-use plastics by 2020. Ferreira made the announcement during a press conference along with the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation on April 23.
SPEAKING at the CEO Network conference at the Melia Nassau Beach hotel last week, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis told his audience that the Bahamian economy had grown by about 2.5 percent in the past year, which, he said, could possibly signal its best growth in ten years.
The events surrounding last week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London were remarkable for their grandeur and splendour, and, judging from the communique at the end of this biennial conference, it was notable for the wide range of issues covered during its deliberations over several days. No doubt, the warm spring-like weather contributed to the mood of goodwill and harmony enjoyed at the gathering.
TWO years ago then DNA leader Branville McCartney expressed amazement to Tribune Business that government MPs and their leading supporters seemed to justify corruption. It has “almost become a culture,” he complained.
In the American government, the US Department of Justice looms large. Along with the departments of Defence, State and Treasury, DoJ exercises significant influence on America’s place and posture in the world, and concurrently supervises national police work and law enforcement within the US borders. Among DoJ’s subordinate agencies are the FBI, DEA and the extensive network of regionally-based United States Attorneys who oversee and coordinate American domestic law enforcement.
ACCORDING to PLP leader Phillip “Brave” Davis the reason for the FNM government’s slippage in the recent popularity polls is because of the “mistruths” they told voters during last year’s election campaign.
Less than a week ago, a coalition of the US, Britain and France was poised to launch airstrikes on Syria in response to the deployment of chemical weapons. Their joint assessment was that it was highly likely the Assad regime, with the connivance of Russia, had used these weapons against its own people and that this was part of a pattern of behaviour. Days later, targeted and effective bombing attacks took place on chemical weapons sites and facilities in order to alleviate humanitarian suffering by degrading the regime’s capability to manufacture and deploy such weapons and to deter it from doing so in the future. But there was no question of seeking to secure regime change or of involvement in Syria’s civil war.
JAMES Comey is in the headlines again. It is likely that he will stay there longer than most news stories out of Washington and New York these days.
The contention that people are likely to be better informed if they have access to more news is at first sight self-evident.
WHERE to begin? That is the question. The only answer to the under financed, under staffed, poorly equipped Princess Margaret Hospital would be to demolish it — right down to its foundations and start all over again.
After the American election of 2016, most observers were simply stunned. Very few national commentators actually believed a candidate so obviously flawed as Donald Trump could win the presidency. Given his campaign’s unprecedented unpreparedness for assuming office, it’s clear Trump himself was surprised by his victory. And, almost immediately after he won, red flags went up.
IN a pre-retirement speech at the Royal Fidelity Bahamas Economic Outlook in February, Tim Rider, Royal Bank of Canada’s vice president of sales, gave Bahamians a bit of sound advice that they did not want to hear — especially coming from a white man, and a foreigner at that.
THIS time last year in the run-up to the General Election in May the Progressive Liberal Party government was being roundly criticised for its corruption, scandals, dishonesty and basic ineptitude in managing the country. The people wanted change and the result was an overwhelming election victory for the Free National Movement under the leadership of Dr Hubert Minnis. The new Prime Minister promised reform, transparency and accountability in a more open style of governance that would be more efficient and effective in meeting the needs of the nation – “It’s the people’s time” was the new slogan with a pledge to listen and learn.
As April unfolds in Washington the American foreign policy apparatus is about to undergo a profound change in personnel, tone and substance. Most notable among the departures are former Exxon executive Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and general H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser.
The concept of cruise ports of call being extended to outposts of Family Islands has been viewed as either a welcome blessing or an unmitigated disaster since Norwegian Cruise Lines created the world’s first private island cruise experience at Great Stirrup Cay in the Berry Islands in 1977.
At the time of our recent coverage in these columns of the stand-off between Britain and Russia over the much-publicised poisoning attack last month, diplomatic tensions seemed likely to escalate. In the ensuing days the crisis has predictably deepened, with continuing harsh rhetoric, mass expulsion of diplomats and threats from both sides of further retaliatory measures.
IT WOULD seem these days that one is damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Everyone seems to be crowing from different sides of their mouth.
THE Passport Office on Thompson Boulevard is a lesson in how not to run a government office or, for that matter, an office of any kind. It is a throwback to a bygone era.
AMERICAN president Donald Trump continues to surprise us. Just not in a good way.
THE Tribune has been accused of misleading the Bahamian public in its report on Thursday that the Bahamas, unlike 180 other countries, remains among a small group of 20 generally poor, and geographically challenged African nations that neither charge nor receive any remuneration in “overflight payments” from airlines crossing their air space. All the other 180 countries charge for these overflights and by the end of the year have earned millions of dollars in overflight fees. Not so The Bahamas.