Dear Editor,

"Central bank report cites deepening global financial crisis; "Mortgage corporation delays foreclosures;" "Wyndham to close popular restaurant;" "Bahamians admit to feeling economic pinch;" "Central bank figures reveal pressures on local economy;" "Consumer loan arrears increase by $32,800,000.00;" "Abaco markets posts 2nd quarter decline;" "Steady increase in prices of household goods, foodstuffs and medical care;" "GB hotel workers reduced to one-day, four-hour weekly shifts;" "Bank's concern, over non-performing loans, increase;" "Tourism industry faces rough future;" "Buckle up for a bumpy ride, economist tells Bahamians."

These were all headlines to stories, appearing in the country's four dailies on Friday 3rd Oct. 2008.

While the various experts, within the financial sphere in the country, gave the essence of a bleak forecast for the next several months, ahead of us, Zhivargo Laing, in stories appearing in three of those same dailies, sought to cloud the facts with his partisan political, "Alice in wonder land," assurance that all is not as bad as they are saying.

There is only one way to see this situation, Zhivargo, and that is that we have a bad economic crisis on our hands and there is no real leadership, emerging from you, Ingraham or your FNM government. This "No need to panic" and "Best days ahead for the country" foolishness from you, Laing, gives us little comfort because we know that you don't know what you are talking about.

Give us one example, I challenge you, of anything that you have managed successfully.

The public should know that Zhivargo Laing, who earns handsomely from the public purse, would not be a good messenger to bring words of encouragement to those of us who, find ourselves financially embarrassed and cannot pay our light bills; who are behind on our mortgages; who cannot pay medical care for our families; who are being put out of our homes because the banks have taken them from us and who stand in line every week at the door of social services, telling them all our bedroom business in order to prove to them that we qualify for the little hand outs they give for groceries.

No, dear readers, Laing should not be the one, sent from Ingraham, to encourage us to "keep hope alive."

The Central Bank's report, released last week, was saturated with bad news and there is no twist that any credible economist, can put on its contents that would bring comfort to hurting Bahamians at this time. Among other things it said in its conclusion that, "This environment of heightened uncertainty requires consumers, who also have to deal with the continuing impact of rising oil and food prices, to exercise prudence and constraint in their spending.

All non-essential outlays and the taking on of new debt should be minimized or even deferred." Unquote. Everybody except Zhivargo Laing, who I said earlier is being paid handsomely from the public's coffers, is warning us to be cautious and my advice is to heed their warnings and ignore Laing's.

Yours, etc.,

Forrester J. Carroll J.P.

Freeport, Grand Bahama