“…big money talks…”

In fact, as the news notes, "…Minister of the Environment Dr. Earl Deveaux said that the only thing holding up the move by the Arawak Cay Port Development Company (ACPDC) is the dredging of Nassau Harbour, which is scheduled to be completed in November…"

As Deveaux concludes, "It's going to take eight to 10 months to build the actual port – that won't happen before the end of the year," Dr. Deveaux said.

So barring some apocalyptic occurrence like lions and lambs romping on Clifford Park, the governing party will have its sway and the PLP and their leaders have their say.

Indeed, [and as I also understand], a part of the FNM’s Master Plan calls for the establishment of a Container Port to the west of what was once known as Kelly Island.

Lo and behold, the Progressive Liberal Party disagrees.

Interestingly, had it not been for their own tardiness – things could have and indeed would have been very different.

Evidently, there is a price to be paid for wasting time and squandering opportunity. And clearly, there is a price to be paid for being bone-headed stupid.

That’s life.

And surely, to the victors go the spoils.

Were this all to the matter concerning bone-headedness and stupidity, I would stop right here. But since a deal is a deal, I am obliged to spew even more spewed words.

As I do, I muse on time and the opportunities it gives for getting things either right or wrong.

Sometimes you get only one chance to get it right.

Otherwise, you can live out your entire life in such a way that it is cut short in the dread instant when you make that one bad move.

As some kids would mockingly crow, "…you lose dread…"

The fact remains that, no matter how you cut it, time flies.

And no matter how much you might wish it were not so, bull can sometimes be mistaken for ice-cream.

And for sure, if you are a believer – as I am – you know that judgment Day is still on the way. And clearly, you would also believe that a day will yet come when lions will lie down with lambs.

But even more felicitously you also know that the day will come [sometime in the indeterminate future] when swords will be beaten down and turned into ploughshares – and those who once fought would study war no more.

If you are with me so far, you would also be aware that similar thought once pervaded a Bahamas where Perry Gladstone Christie happened to be leader.

In that glory moment, this unlikely prime minister thought that he could and should create new circles of power and that by so doing he could – once and for all – resolve most of the problems afflicting this island-nation of ours.

He would solve the economic problem. He would solve the social problem and for sure, he would resolve the race problem. And for good measure, he would also solve the partisan-political problem in the Bahamas.

And as I now recall, the wonderful prime minister and his boys would thereafter live happily ever after. And in their imaginations, some five to seven of them – ranging in age from infancy to geriatric – would get their chance of being prime minister.

Well, things – as they say – did not go the way these fine ones envisaged.

IN [presumably] FREE AND [PRESUMABLY] FAIR elections, the Progressive Liberal Party was swept away in a torrent of votes and in a flood of tears.

On the morrow of their defeat, Brent Symonette and Hubert Ingraham were ecstatic at what the Lord had done.

On the PLP side, some of those who lost thought that they had won.

Soon thereafter, everyone came to their senses.

And as this process unfolded, the winners did what winners always do.

That is to say, the winners got on with the business with putting their stamp on policy.

Clearly, that is their right.

Now brothers and sisters, we come to the place where the sweet spot resides.

This is the place where a defeated Progressive Liberal Party and their defeated leader would have a triumphant Free National Movement and its triumphant leaders and members do things their way.

In the interim, some on the opposition side hint that once they win, they would do things their way and the right way by locating the Port to somewhere else.

All I would dare say to the PLP is that such a huff and puff threat will not work this time around. This is the moment –as they say- when iron strike iron.

Bay Street will have its way.

How else might I put it? Money talks.

Indeed, how other else might I put the matter? Big Money talks big.

Hubert Ingraham also talks big.

And I can read.

Here take note that I read in the newspaper some of what Mr. Ingraham said.

As the newspaper reported, "During the budget communication… Mr. Ingraham said that after the dredging of the Nassau Harbour, which he said would begin this year, there ought to be sufficient material to expand Arawak Cay westward or create a new artificial island."

Of note is the fact that Mr. Ingraham also said that, "An island depot will be developed to receive for storage cargo off-loaded at Arawak Cay and moved inland overnight, thereby avoiding congestion now associated with cargo movement during peak traffic hours."

Mr. Ingraham says what he means and means what he says.

Mr. Ingraham is the prime minister.

Interestingly, Mr. Perry Gladstone Christie is not the prime minister.

This being the case, it follows that PLP Senator Fitzgerald was appointed on the advice of the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Perry Gladstone Christie.

I suspect that what they say and what they mean do not carry as much weight as those of the prime minister and his deputy, Brent Theodore Symonette – or the fine folk who own Bay Street – inclusive of Brent Theodore Symonette.

Nonetheless, Fitzgerald has had his say.

As the newspapers quote the good senator, "...I have said on many occasions that the government have made many mistakes during the past 2 years and the Prime Minister has admitted that his government during this term has failed the Bahamian people in many respects, but this decision, I firmly believe, when history is written, will rank as their greatest failure.

That is why the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Assembly and myself and others in the Senate have made it quite clear to the Government that we will not support the move of the Container Port to Arawak Cay, or anywhere in the vicinity of Arawak Cay, without reasonable data to support such a move. .."

And then we get to the Praise-Mary part of his discourse, "…We have gone further and sent a message to those would be investors in the port at Arawak Cay that we do not support it and they invest at their own risk. A similar message was issued once before on the Clifton Development and the same message has been delivered again in relation to the relocation of the port to vicinity of Arawak Cay. Buyer beware…"

This ‘buyer beware’ part deserves some wows!

It might also deserve some bows.

So let us agree to put them together and say in unison, bow-wow!

So there we go, bow-wow to a senator with the buyer-beware sign.

But seriously, Senator, when you deal with Bay Street, you need more fire-power than your tepid Buyer-Beware.

As you would know, Big Money Talks Big.