World Bank: Bahamas Caricom’s richest nation

[Exile]

World Bank: Bahamas Caricom’s richest nation



Story Created: Dec 27, 2013 at 11:07 PM ECT
Story Updated: Dec 27, 2013 at 11:07 PM ECT

l BRIDGETOWN

The World Bank has rated the Bahamas as the wealthiest Caribbean Community (Caricom) country.
The Washington-based financial institution said that the Bahamas is the most economically prosperous country relying on tourism to generate most of its economic activity.
It said that the tourism industry not only accounts for over 60 per cent of the Bahamian gross domestic product (GDP), but provides jobs for more than half the country’s workforce.
The Bahamas, with a gross national income (GNI) of US$21,280 per capita, is one of the richest countries in the Americas.
The World Bank, in its 2014 World Development Report, noted that oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago, with a GNI of US$14,440, is one of the wealthiest and well-developed nations in the Caribbean.
In November 2011, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) removed Trinidad and Tobago from its list of developing countries.
—CMC

[World Fan]

Gunmen kill four in Bahamas drive-by shooting

Saturday, December 28, 2013 | 10:03 AM

NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) – Bahamas police were searching for gunmen who shot and killed four people during a drive-by shooting on Friday night.
Police said that eight people were shot during the incident and that one died on the scene and the three others at hospital.

1/1

Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade told reporters that the occupants of a “Honda-type” vehicle fired on the people “with a variety of weapons".
“We are satisfied that this is in fact the case based on the evidence and spent cases. Unfortunately as a result of that gunfire barrage eight persons from our preliminary information were shot and seriously injured, one person, an adult male, unfortunately succumbed here on the scene, three others died at the hospital,” Greenslade said.
Greenslade described the shootings as “very, very tragic for this community and indeed very tragic for this country".
“We have recovered the vehicle which we believe was on the scene and occupied by those bad persons who left death… we are asking the public at large… who will certainly receive information about this to please call us as soon as you can, help us to take these dangerous people from our communities so that they kill no one else.”
Greenslade, accompanied by senior members of the force, assured the residents of Fox Hill that the police would not rest until those responsible for the killings were brought to justice.
“We offer our condolences to the families of this senseless incident, and I make another appeal, we have to stop this.
“We have been arresting a number of young Bahamian men and in some cases women, until we are blue in the face with the possession of firearms of all description,” he said, adding that despite the arrests many of these young people were back committing gun-related crimes.
“They seem not to be afraid of us, the system. We are going to have to draw a line in the sand. And I really believe we have to do that,” he said, adding that “unfortunately we cannot bring back those innocent people".
“We have no information that they (the victims) were causing any stress to anyone. They were simply enjoying a peaceful (night), which is their right to do, when people came into this community and left death in their wake,” the police commissioner added.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2owGXzUey


Policeman, blind man among Christmas killings in Trinidad

Sunday, December 29, 2013

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Dec 27, CMC — A police officer and a blind man were among three people killed during the Christmas holidays.
Police said that Constable Lutchmansingh Pooran, 29, who was attached to the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) committed suicide on Thursday after he attempted to kill a female relative.

Pooran, a 10-year-veteran with the police, shot himself in the left side of his head using his licensed nine-millimetre pistol while seated in the driver's seat of his vehicle.
Earlier, he shot his niece, Angel Persad, in the chest. She is now warded at the San Fernando General Hospital, south of here.
Police said they are also investigating the death of 44-year-old Curtis Lewis, a blind man, who was shot in the volatile Laventille area, along the east-west corridor on Thursday.
"Who would really want to kill a blind man?" Roxanne Lewis, a sister of the deceased asked reporters.
Lewis was walking along a track in the area in the company of his father when he (Lewis's father) was stopped by a man to hold a conversation. Lewis continued walking and shortly after, several loud explosions were heard. His body was later found lying along the roadway with gunshot wounds to the body.
In the other incident, Neil Williams, 35, was shot in Laventille by two gunmen in what police believe to be an ongoing war among gang members.
So far, 401 people have been murdered here this year


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2owKDrBjl

[Historian]

Barbados MIA

I notice that Barbados was not included in the full World Bank report. Neither was Haiti.

Jamaica and Guyana are still lodged at the bottom of the Caribbean heap, (presumably) right above Haiti.

[Islandman]

The best research piece I have seen that shows how much Jamaica has lost its way is this one: A Tale of Two Islands.

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/res...woislands.html

In spite of their legal and institutional similarities, Barbados and Jamaica experienced starkly different growth trajectories in the aftermath of independence. From 1960 to 2002, Barbados' gross domestic product, per capita, grew roughly three times as fast as Jamaica's. Consequently, the income gap between Barbados and Jamaica is now almost five times larger than at the time of independence

We can keep our head stuck in the sand and blame everybody else in the world all we like, in reality it is very clear that our fundamental problem is looking back right at us in collective mirror.

[Historian]

As Usual, A Good Post, I'man

You are absolutely correct, Islandman. Also, thanks for posting the link for Marguerite Rigoglioso’s interesting article (Stanford GSB).

It’s ironic the huge economic problems that are besetting Barbados as that prosperous eastern Caribbean nation enters the year 2014. The massive layoffs that are inevitable in the coming year will certainly create social and economic confusion in that country (laying off 3,000 or so public sector workers is no joke, particularly when one considers the fact that the population is less than 300,000 people -- a very tiny population!).

Barbados’ current situation is sad and at the same time fascinating, particularly when one considers that, probably more than any other of the 15 CARICOM countries, Barbados for many years shone as the poster boy of ideal Caribbean social and economic development.

Looking now at the case of Jamaica’s closest parallel, it makes for fascinating comparison the economic and political development of Jamaica and Guyana. Their progress since independence (Jamaica in 1962 and Guyana in 1966) has been filled with contradictions. Ironically, in the 1950s and 1960s this largest English speaking island (Jamaica) and South America’s only English-speaking nation were virtually Caribbean superpowers, so to speak. Today, both once mighty countries are heading slowly towards failed state status.

Jamaica’s problem, in my opinion, is much worse than Guyana’s (even when one considers the simmering tensions between Guyana’s majority East Indian population and the blacks). Jamaica’s dilemma, for some peculiar reason, is truly multifaceted in every sense of the word:
(a) immense economic underdevelopment;
(b) cultural degradation and chaos, the likes of which are found in no other Caribbean country;
(c) frighteningly high levels of crime;
(d) an apparent inability of the executive and judicial branches of our Westminster government to bring order to the decaying society;
(e) political confusion and the deep integration and involvement of government in (a), (b) and (c).

What many (including some posters here who sometimes applaud elements of our dilemma) have failed to recognize is that these issues and problems are all interconnected, thereby making Jamaica’s problems almost insurmountable!

The best research piece I have seen that shows how much Jamaica has lost its way is this one: A Tale of Two Islands.

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/res...woislands.html

We can keep our head stuck in the sand and blame everybody else in the world all we like, in reality it is very clear that our fundamental problem is looking back right at us in collective mirror.

[Assasin]

So wha you a say? A nuh Babylon?? A nuh di selfish businessman?? A nuh di informer dem??

No worry Chiney man to the rescue .

Until we start from within we are going nowhere. Barbados and Bahamas have no natural resources.

[Islandman]

As much as Barbados is going through some difficult times, what they have in their favor is that they have a very educated population which has demanded much from their leaders.

I remember in the early 90s when Barbados had to do some structural adjustment to their economy and the civil service workers voted to take something like an 8% PAY CUT in order to allow a proposed social partnership to work. The agreement also included increased taxes among other painful policies. They eventually stabilized their economy and went back into growth mode.

I was fascinated by it then and I am to this day because I just cannot see that happening in today's Jamaica. We just have not developed that kind of culture of working together to achieve national goals. Michael Manley in my view had the best opportunity to accomplish that kind of national unity but for various reasons some (but not all) of which was his doing, the country was more divided when he left office the first time in 1980 than when he took office in 1972.

[Islandman]

Not to mention Cayman. All dem have is the original Babylon oppressor and some turtles.

[Assasin]

With growth and development you will have some downturn and some misstep but you can't just have misstep everyday. We are constantly in a state where growth of GDP is not priority and when we get a little we talk bout only some people a benefit so we discount it. You think if we had 3% growth over 10 years we would be in this position??? Without growth we only have taxes, political donmanship and welfare to spread around.