Questions on The National Investment Fund (NIF) of The Bahamas

- Halkitis on Wednesday: The NIF spent $310M
- Munroe on Thursday: The NIF don't yet exist

By Lynden R. Nairn

On June 25, 2025, Attorney General Ryan Pinder told the Senate:

“We look to have the fund constituted by the end of this month and funded in part from proceeds from the recent bond offering.”

Remember, Parliament had already passed the $300 million borrowing resolution on March 10, 2025 — some 107 days earlier.

Now fast-forward almost 15 months.

Yesterday, Minister of Finance Michael Halkitis explained:

“During the period before the Fund’s governance arrangements became fully operational, the Ministry of Finance acted on the basis that the Public Finance Management Act governed the administration and application of these public resources through the Ministry and the Treasury.”

He further acknowledged that the Government is still completing the Fund’s regulations, mandates, committee structure, financial reporting and audit processes.

So let us put the timeline together.

On June 25, 2025, the Attorney General said the NIF was expected to be constituted within five days.

Almost 15 months later, the Minister of Finance tells Parliament that essential governance arrangements are still being completed — after $310.9 million of NIF proceeds has already been spent.

Perhaps Attorney General Pinder was simply mistaken.

But if he was, when did the Government discover that the Fund would not be constituted as represented?

And, more importantly, why did the Government proceed to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars while the governance arrangements of the very Fund Parliament had authorized to receive the money were not fully operational?

Those questions deserve answers.

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Decolonise The African Mind

The True Size of Africa

NOW THAT THE #MAP IS DONE (AT LAST); LET’s DECOLONISE THE AFRICAN MIND!

By Professor Gilbert Morris

Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

In the postcolonial world, we have the habit of acting so late - after so much damage has been done - that when the action comes, it feeling like a distraction.

The map and the vision occupy different orders of reality, one spatial and measurable, the other durational and willed, yet the two orders are not wholly severed from one another, since a diminished spatial self-image may weaken the very capacity for durational commitment that coordination demands.  Correcting the map removes one obstacle among many.  It does not construct the institutions, the shared curricula, or the negotiated sacrifices of sovereignty that a genuine continental future requires.

One understands: Africans have hardly been in charge of their countries. Colonial powers became imperial powers and the actual foreign policy of the G7 was in assisting each other in continuing to exploit former colonies…by invading them, or in the case of France, killing more than a dozen of their leaders who don’t comply; using BRETTONWoods institurions to cripple them and international media to demonise them…all whilst stealing their resources under puppet regimes installed against the wishes of the African peoples.

Today, we are in a slightly different place: the Sahel hero-zone which is leading the way to a decolonised mind operating away from western institutions, but responsive to citizens.

Yet, whilst Dangote is a commerical bright spot in Nigeria (and there are others), he faces treachery in attempts to maintain the slavish extraction-led status quo; Boko in Botswana and the Namibians are showing signs - even if they talk more than do for now - Ruto is failing utterly in Kenya; Senegal’s president is destroying friendships to maintain a colonised dynamic with France, as are Cote D’Ivoire, DRC, Tanzania, Chad, with Uganda offering to serve as handmaiden to genocide in Gaza!  Rwanda and Ethiopia seem willing to risk other African lives for an African success story - though we must love their diligence - Somalia, Libya and the Sudans seem cursed by dishonest African and decietful foreign hands.  Zambia, Gambia, Ghana - which seems to start and stop - Malawi, Madagascar, Eritrea seem in limbo, as Zimbabwe is trying to tell us a good story…even if with troubling signs.  South Africa is the biggest disappointment - as we thought it would be a role model for other African nations.  Instead it’s pursued the worst of Nigeria.  All the rest are doing nothing to speak of…either holding onto old systems or old leaders wasting Africa’s moment of youth!

This does not mean there aren’t bright stories in Africa.  But the time for such stories has passed: AFRICA NEEDS COORDINATED ACTION NOW…if it is to build the future expected for so long by its youth now supported by the largest number of skilled talented Africans returning to the continent.

Africa must get busy cultivating a new development model away from western neoliberal financialisation: Africa can’t just develop skyscrapers, cramped urban settings, based on financialisation and extraction.  These systems failed and are failing in the West.

By “financialization” I mean the historical process, traced by Giovanni Arrighi in The Long Twentieth Century (1994) and by David Harvey in A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005), whereby capital accumulation shifts its center of gravity from the production of goods toward the trading of claims on future production, so that value comes to be measured increasingly in instruments detached from the material and communal life they nominally represent.  By “neoliberalism” I mean the doctrine, formalized in the WashingtonConsensus of the late 1980s, that prescribes market liberalization, privatization, and fiscal austerity as universal conditions of development, largely irrespective of local historical circumstance.  By “civilizational approach” I mean a developmental orientation grounded in the relational ontologies indigenous to African social thought, of which Ubuntu, glossed by John Mbiti in African Religions and Philosophy (1969) as the principle that personhood is constituted through community rather than prior to it, is the most widely cited instance.  We must not waste time celebrating maps: we must use that momentum to coordinate to achieve larger immediate goals.

Africa must coordinate to conceive another model of civilisation based upon a blend of ancient ways and systems augmented by modern sustainability and eGovernance…with the aim like Singapore of full participation and full inclusion.

Strategic coordination around a civilizational vision offers Africa a genuine ground for de-risking from financialized neoliberalism, supported by convergent evidence from philosophy, political economy, and cultural theory, and by the historical record of structural adjustment’s documented costs and of Botswana’s counterexample.  That vision remains incomplete as a program until it specifies the accountability mechanisms that would prevent its capture by the authoritarian temptation that authenticité already illustrates, and until it resolves, case by case, which indigenous structures are genuinely communal and which are colonial ossifications inherited under the name of custom.  That resolution cannot be accomplished in the abstract; it requires the disciplined, state-by-state forensic labor that any serious civilizational project must undertake before it can be trusted with the name.

Professor Gilbert Morris

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What is One Tax Bahamas?

What One Tax Bahamas is Not

By Senator the Honourable Latrae Rahming

Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

I know there has been a lot of confusion around One Tax Bahamas, so let’s start with what it is not.

One Tax Bahamas is not a new tax.  It does not introduce higher tax rates, nor does it clear the path for new taxes.

It is a modernised digital platform designed to make it easier for Bahamians to manage their existing tax and fee obligations.

Instead of navigating different systems for VAT, business licences, real property tax and other services, individuals and businesses will progressively be able to access them through one platform using a Bahamas Identification Number.

For Bahamians, this means a simpler process, less duplication, clearer access to information and fewer unnecessary administrative hurdles.  It should be especially beneficial to small-business owners, who need government services to be easier to understand and use.

Registration begins on 1 September 2026, ahead of the phased introduction of services.  Clear guidance, public education, stakeholder consultation and practical assistance will remain central to the rollout so that no Bahamian is left behind on its usage.

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The AI 'Black Box' Problem

Fear Not Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bahamas!

By M. Maria Varence
Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

This is a must needed conversation, but there is another side of that conversation that I pray is addressed.

What happens when we begin relying on systems whose decisions we cannot adequately explain?

This is the AI “black box” problem.

Many advanced AI systems, particularly those built using deep learning, can produce remarkably accurate outputs while making it extremely difficult to determine precisely how the system arrived at a particular conclusion.

Now imagine someone asks a very reasonable question when one of these decisions are made:

Why did the system make that decision about me?

The black box problem exists everywhere, but developing countries face an additional vulnerability.

We are unlikely to build most of the sophisticated AI systems that eventually operate within our economies.

The models may be developed elsewhere, trained primarily on foreign datasets, designed around different populations and regulatory environments and then incorporated into systems used locally.

That creates an important question for countries like The Bahamas:

Are we importing technology faster than we are developing the institutional capacity to govern it?

Consider something as simple as lending.

A foreign-developed AI system may identify correlations that work extremely well within a large North American or European dataset.  But Bahamian employment patterns, household structures, informal economic activity, geography and consumer behaviour do not necessarily mirror those markets.

If we cannot adequately interrogate how the decision was reached, identifying bias or inappropriate assumptions becomes significantly harder.

Much of the AI governance conversation understandably focuses on bias and discrimination.

But black box systems raise another issue: accountability.

If an AI-assisted decision causes harm, where does responsibility sit?

With the international technology provider?  The Bahamian institution that purchased the system?

Or the algorithm that nobody can fully explain?

We cannot regulate an algorithm in the same way that we hold a person or institution accountable.  Ultimately, responsibility has to remain somewhere within the human governance structure surrounding the technology.

That means explainability cannot simply be a desirable feature.

In certain high-impact decisions, it may need to become a governance requirement.

We should not wait until adoption is widespread.

The Bahamas does not need to fear AI.  In fact, I believe small states should be aggressively exploring how AI can help us overcome some of our structural limitations.

But enthusiasm for adoption should be matched by investment in governance.

Before AI becomes deeply embedded we should already be asking:

- What decisions should AI be permitted to make or materially influence?

- When must a human remain accountable for the final decision?

- What level of explanation should a citizen or customer be entitled to receive?

- What capacity do our regulators need to meaningfully challenge these systems?

These questions become even more important across the wider Caribbean, where individual states may not have the technical resources to independently scrutinize AI system entering their markets.

There may therefore be a strong argument for regional cooperation around AI governance.

Developing countries are often encouraged to ensure that we are not “left behind” by technological change.

But there are two ways to be left behind.

One is failing to adopt transformative technology.

The other is adopting technology without developing the institutions capable of governing it.

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PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST

HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST

  

BY DR. FRANCIS FAWKES 

Yes, let me relate a dream that I had of the Rapture which occurred in Nassau, The Bahamas.  The Rapture is the next appearing of Jesus Christ.  This occurred in the 1980’s and I have related it many times.  Jesus is coming back soon.  What is stunning is that He is coming back sooner than most people think, and many will be caught off-guard.  My observation is this includes many church-going Christians.

The dream is as follows.  I was on the ground and instantaneously, I was taken up hundreds of feet in the air.  When I looked down, there were many people still on the streets of Nassau in broad daylight.  They did not seem to know that Jesus had come for His church and left.  The Bible tells us that Jesus is coming as a thief in the night.  “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” - Matthew 24: 27.

In another dream, I saw people disappearing from the earth in groups.  These were prepared.  Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh – Matthew 24: 44.

What I saw below was that people were busy going about their jobs and other business matters.  There was lots of wealth with the impressive cars that The Bahamas had, and it was glistening in the sun.  The people exuded egotism and pride, which was ironic, for they were not ready for the Master when He came.  When I woke up, I was mildly depressed to know that so many people were left behind.  In the 2nd Rapture dream, I saw whole groups disappearing from the face of the earth. These were the prepared.

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” – 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17.  This is called The Rapture and the original Greek word used in the passage is “Harpazo” meaning “to snatch out or away.”

I was relating this dream to an aunt of mine, and she was impressed that another woman on the island of Eleuthera had an identical dream.  She too was taken up high into the air, and saw many unprepared people still on the ground.  I took it to mean that God was confirming that my dream was authentic.

Later on, the Lord impressed upon me something that perplexed me at the time.  He said that not all Christians are going up in the Rapture.  Again, He said some people think that they are Christians, but they are not.

The passage of scripture comes to mind regarding this is: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!’

IN ORDER TO PREPARE FOR THE SECOND APPEARING OF JESUS THIS IS WHAT YOU MUST DO.  YOUR SALVATION IS IMPORTANT.

In order to prepare for the Rapture you must start now.  Here are the steps you should take:

1) You must realize that Jesus died for you and His blood wipes away all your sins.  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”- Ephesians 2: 8.

2) After you have accepted Jesus in your heart, your code of conduct is holiness.  The Bible says: “be at peace with all men and practice holiness without which no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12: 14).  Jesus is coming back for a church saved and sanctified.  It is a church “without one sport or wrinkle, pure and holy” – Ephesians 5: 27.

3) You must also live a life of continued repentance, so that the blood of Jesus can wipe those sins out as they come (Acts 3: 19).

4) Minister salvation to others (John 3: 16; 1 John 1: 7).

ALL THE OTHER MEDIATORS HAD SIN, AND NO SIN CAN ENTER HEAVEN.  JESUS WAS THE ONLY MEDIATOR WITHOUT SIN, HE IS THE DOOR TO THE FATHER.  JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER BUT BY HIM (JOHN 14: 6).

Do not get caught up in the doctrine of “Hyper-Grace” which means that all sins past, present and future are forgiven.  You will continue repenting until the end for your future sins.  “Once saved always saved is the false doctrine of Calvinism.  Your sins are not removed until there is repentance.  Therefore, you can never use your salvation as a license to sin.

Francis Fawkes - Home

About the Slaves and the Enslaved

Defining Slaves and the Enslaved: Historical Context & Implications

The Heavy Weight of "Slave"

By Dr Kevin Turnquest-Alcena August 3
Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

The term "slave" carries loads of history & pain, all wrapped up in centuries of human suffering. The word comes from the Latin "servus," meaning servant.  Over time, it evolved in Greek, connecting to the fate of Slavic people captured & sold by Vikings to the Romans (Davis, 2006; Patterson, 1982).

Chattel Slavery: Ownership in its Worst Form

Chattel slavery stands out as one of the most dehumanizing forms.  In this system, people were seen purely as property.  Unlike pre-colonial African servitude involving prisoners-of-war, criminals & debt-bondage, the chattel slavery by Europeans was especially cruel (Lovejoy, 2000; Thornton, 1998).

In traditional African systems, the enslaved status often didn't extend to children.  With chattel slavery, though, this generational enslavement became a harsh reality.  It imposed unimaginable suffering on countless lives (Manning, 1990).

The Ugly Face of Chattel Slavery

Chattel slavery stripped People of personal rights and autonomy.  They were treated just like objects—bought, sold, worked hard, punished & used as collateral.  Owners saw them as mere things and could transfer them at death or whim (Kolchin, 1993).  They couldn't marry or own property and were barred from voting or signing contracts.  Worst of all?  Their children were automatically enslaved too (Berlin, 1998; Davis, 2006).

Apprenticeships & Indentured Servitude

During the colonial period, apprenticeships & indentured servitude also existed.  Though less brutal than chattel slavery, they were oppressive too.  People were tied by contracts for years without pay and had little freedom during that time (Galenson, 1981).

Legacy & Modern Reflections

"The past is never dead. It's not even past," said William Faulkner. This reminds us how historical injustices still affect today's society. These echoes from history push us to remember compassion & equality and work toward a more humane world (Faulkner, 1951; Patterson, 1982).

Closing Thoughts

The journey through the history of slavery—from its roots to its brutal forms—shows a story full of human suffering & strength.  Knowing this history helps us understand today’s social structures better and fosters a future based on respect for all.

References

Berlin, I. (1998). Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Harvard University Press.

Davis, D. B. (2006). Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery the New World. Oxford University Press.

Faulkner, W. (1951). Requiem for a Nun. Random House.

Galenson, D. W. (1981). White Servitude in Colonial America: An Economic Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

Kolchin, P. (1993). American Slavery: 1619-1877. Hill and Wang.

Lovejoy, P. E. (2000). Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. Cambridge University Press.

Manning, P. (1990). Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental & African Slave Trades. Cambridge University Press.

Patterson, O. (1982). Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Harvard University Press.

Thornton J.K., (1998). Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World: 1400-1800., Cambridge University Press

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The Generations of Internet-brain Nonsense Parroting Zombies

The Internet and The Age of The Living Dead

THE HALL OF MIRRORS BEING CREATED BY LIMBIC COLONIALISM

- By Professor Gilbert Morris

Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

What I’m discovering teaching students is the internet relationship narrative is turning everyone into the same person.

Henry Kissinger, believe it or not, argued that the internet is forging a “mono-culture” of no culture.

He is right: in the history of humankind, the most resilient force has been status-making.  Lena Horne or Diana Ross, Sidney Poitier or Denzel…all of them had to study, learn manners, learn how to write, learn how to give interviews, know world history.  Lena Horne never missed a performance date for 50 years: yet an 17 year old girl not old enough to have accomplishments has 25,000 followers.  (Social media was designed to trap females aged 13 to 27 as the most attractive demographic of humans).

Lena Horne and Diana Ross never had the attention of 25,000 people.  And worse, the 17 year deludes herself that those 25,000 are her fans.  (My followers, she addresses them).  Until the next 90 days when 1 million new 17 years olds enter the space and her followers fall to 10,000 and she ends up in my office depressed and resentful, hooked on dopamine driven approval.

Everyone simply now acts like a celebratory…extending what Andy Warhol called their “15 minutes of fame”…but it’s mere cotton candy.  70% of responses you get from social media are BOTS meant to keep you online to boost advertising revenues and this hall of mirrors delusion will persist and nothing now rests on accomplishment competence or accountability! 

The ideas and attitudes you think you own, are what’s shown to you on social media, representing less than 1% of actual life and 99% of that is fake…generating a perceptual cul-d-sac!

This is the dawn of “radical narrative coherence”.  It’s all based on stereotypes and treats humans by formula; so everyone from the cynical to the clueless finds a register in social media that deludes them into their own genius! 

Worse, everyone thinks it’s their own idea…even though all of them use the same phrases and words and all suffer the same routines of failure.

What is happening is a hive mind geared towards one standard of attractiveness used towards getting money.

That’s the game!

Decency, personality, integrity, reliability…none of that matters.  Because the internet narrative have people claiming the lack of these things as “authenticity” (keeping it 100).

Like all the internet boosts - the love yourself cult, the prize cult, the I’m my best friend cult:

It’s all bogus!

Humans are social: learns how to relate to people is how one discovers preferences and routines of the self which we confuse with a fixed self that can be the subject of its own affection; which is total galloping nonsense!

Most people now have no use for a brain.  Even the “soft life” nut cases think they are living well and they themselves are merely enslaved to a fantasy.

By this dopamine lust, the young people of the immediate future will be illiterate, reinforced in their ignorance, obsessed with whatever “facts” are promoted by social media, reasoning by bias alone, lonely, lacking social skills, unable to analysis distinctions, comparisons and contrasting, causes and correlations or corollaries, lacking a grasp of bounded rationalities and spasmodically emotional…with a mass death of brain function…so an pandemic of neuroatrophy: the opposite of brain development and growth through neuro-plasticity.

We’ll have in 3-5 years two generations of internet-brain nonsense parroting zombies!

Aldous Huxley predicted this in his work “Brave New World” and The Bahamas with its chronic habit of copycatting and following fashion then talking as if its original we are witnessing an exploration of these plastic personalities using the exact terms most frequent on the internet in another - but final and permenant - rinsing out of the last remnants of our grand parent’s values!

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