Hi all
Yes, it is a government run monopoly, they have been toying with
privatising it for some years now, but so far nothing has taken place,
I dont think they want to loose the power they have to make up any
laws they feel they 'can' to protect them from potential competition.
In other words, it is full of coruption and the PUC (public utilities
corporation) who were made up of the telco big shots, werent loosing
money (in their back pockets) due to so many people using VOIP and so
out of the blue they made this law, and announced it on the local
radio.
See here:
http://www.freedombahamas.com
This is not the only deprevation of freedom here, I have just found
out a couple other dumb laws they have here, like bahamian citizens
are not allowed to invest in foreign stocks!
Now the current government is getting even cosier with Castro, visits
and direct flights, and standing on his side opposed to the US. Its
starting to get rediculous, most current government officials cant
even use email, dont browse the web, and well, its the PLP, the one
that was in power here for the first 25 years of independence and
responsible for how the Bahamas economy is today, not to mention the
drug situation the previous PLP supported by being part of the
distribution of drugs to the US. Many of the OLD PLP members are
either in jail now or wanted by the US for drug charges. The actual so
called win by the PLP a couple years ago, followed payments to the
ghetto people by Drug Dealers to vote PLP, so the PLP would not allow
them to be extradited to the US for drug charges, which is getting the
current government in some crap with the US and even threats of
sanctions have been suggested. The PLP are scared to extradite as they
fear for their lives. After the win the PLP youth gangs tore up the
areas (like where I live) smashing windows, cars, signs, etc, even
dragged out and beat up some people in cars because they were white
and they automatically thought they had voted the other party, then
beat up black bahamians that tried to stop it.
So anyway, this is the way things are going right now here, we are
going back in time, not forward, and who ever is in power dictates
what we use and what we can say. IF we say anything against them or
about the situations, we are labeled as not true Bahamians, an Uncle
Tom, and lately, a terrorist, just for voicing our freedom of speech.
I dont care, Ill keep saying it, Ill keep complaining, as otherwise
these morons will keep thinking everything is fine and dandy.
Eventually if it keeps going the way it is, Im outta here, and if
sanctions ARE imposed, definately outa here!
They just introduced GSM service recently, which by the way hardly
ever works, announcing that they are a technology supporting
government, while on the other hand they bann VOIP and much more. Its
becoming a big joke, the way these people in power are running this
country into the ground. Bad management will destroy any company, or
country in this situation.
On the other hand, we are a good country to run a monopoly, there are
no laws against that, the local Cable Company is a monopoly, and also
steal most of their signals from US stations, which are also on the
band wagon to sue them and thats another issue the US has on major
copyright infrictions here, pirated DVDs and hacked DSS is part of
Bahamian culture now.
I have a foriegn investor who lives here, non bahamian, who wants to
spend alot of money on a new audio video store, mostly high end, but
cannot get a business licence. The Bahamian government while paying
themselves salaries that are similar or more than US administration
salaries, would rather turn investors money away, than to stimulate
the local economy, see poor Bahamians put food on their table, or get
running water in their little shacks.
Its like the police, they have road blocks in the same areas, once
every couple months, and somehow think they are doing their jobs, its
somewhat hillarious; but somewhat not, Ive lost 2 cars to drunk
drivers, no insurance, and also had many friends in volved in life
impacting accidents also, as drinking and driving, running red lights,
running omcoming cars off the road, coming out in front of other cars,
is a local culture at this point, i see it 99% of the time that I
drive every day. No other country I have lived in, have i ever seen
such non existant laws. Murderers rarely get more than a couple years
in jail also.
There is much here that a proper government would have to do to pick
this country back off the ground and into the real world, and
technology is only 1 small part of it! :-(
Rory
Yep, i guess I could look into that also.