"Plus ça change" ... Some reminiscing about the days when "Snail" Mail wasn't.

In this case, the rest of the phrase ... "plus c'est la même chose" [the more it remains the same] doesn't apply.

"Disgusted with Third World Government Services" in today's Nassau Tribune writes that even his electric bill takes 20 days - 20 days! - between postmark and placement in his Post Office Box.

For those readers who are not familiar with the way things work here ... there is no home delivery of mail in the Bahamas. You either rent a box at the main post office or one of the satellites, or you get your mail via General Delivery. In either case you have to schedule mail pickup into your routine.

This is not necessarily a bad thing all around. My dad used to love his regular "hails" on his morning rounds downtown and as a boy I remember being with him as he and his friends exchanged updates about family, politics and even religion while clutching a handful of bills, letters and postcards.

It was a slower time, and "going to the post" was almost a social activity for some men. I guess the women visited at the grocery store - when men never ventured!

But I digress ... the point here is that there is no excuse for mail which is dropped off at the main post office - already franked - to take 20 days to make it from one part of the building (which ain't too big, folks) to the mailboxes.

I don't understand. The rest of the world has speeded up but what we now call "snail mail" has indeed slowed down.

35 years ago at college in Massachussets my Mom wrote a couple pages every Sunday afternoon . Dad mailed it on his Monday morning rounds before 7 a.m. and I got it on Thursday or Friday OF THE SAME WEEK!! I specifically remember being desperate for funds once, calling home on Saturday. Dad went to the Royal Bank of Canada Bay & Vic on Monday morning, bought the draft, mailed it and I got it on Friday.

Try that now.

When I was studying in Madrid letters from home took exactly a week. What was mailed here on Monday, reached there the next Monday. And I was living on the northwest outskirts of the city in the middle of the scrub.

[A funny aside ... my sister was also studying in Mass. at the time, so my mother wrote essentially the same letter to both of us using carbon paper ... added a personal note at the end, and mailed two separate letters. Kids today won't easily relate - as their mom's would likely type it into the PC and print out two crisp copies.]

The US isn't much better at this mail thing by the way. At work we get correspondence from mainland Europe or the UK within about a week. From Miami we're lucky to get it within 3. It just seems to hit the skids once it reaches MIA and "mañana" takes over!

So much for progress...

Predestination and Starbucks.

OK. So Nassau has about 200,000 plus residents.

The new NAD airport authority wants to host two specialty coffee shops at NIA. (Kudos by the way for what's been done out there so far).

Today's Request for Proposals ads reads like a prescription for Starbucks:

- Proponents must have at least two (2) current locations similar to the proposed operation, which they have operated within the last three (3) consecutive years
- At least two of the proponent's current locations have to have generated at least $500,000 in average gross sales in the last two years

I don't actually know if the Starbucks operation here (essentially a locally owned franchisee) can meet those standards or not. But no-one else can for sure.

Caffè Caribe at Logos Bookstore was doing specialty coffees long before Starbucks moved in - since 1996 actually - and we did it with our own experience, capital and sweat equity - a fully Bahamian operation in every way. But we'd not qualify under NAD's RFP. Not that we'd be interested, but still ...

Do these guys think they're still in Vancouver - area population about 2 million?

Why bother to RFP if you write the thing at all if you have a predestined winner?

This is NOT a realistic background proposal if you're looking for local participation - I see there's nowhere in the RFP where it says the experience must be either local or Bahamian.

So folks ... my prediction, FWIW: look for a "Toomanybucksforme" at NIA soon - one in the US Departure Section and one in the Domestic / International Terminal.