Bahama Pundit

Broadcasting Rules and the Regulation of Election Campaigns

by Larry Smith

Whenever an election is in the air, Bahamians seem to take leave of their senses. And the current controversy over political broadcasting rules set by the new utilities regulator (URCA) is a telling example.

This is not to deny that we should pay a lot of attention to any attempt to regulate the media. in fact, this should be the subject of a full-scale public debate going forward - rather than just a closed-door conversation among media moguls.

The question of how we regulate speech during an election has some interesting parallels with the recent US Supreme Court decison on political advertising - the ruling that was sharply criticised by President Barack Obama in his state of the union address last Wednesday. But before we get to those broader questions, a word or two on the local tempest in a teacup is in order.

Words of Our Mouths, Meditations of Our Hearts

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com.

It was just about a fortnight ago that the government released and granted temporary asylum to 102 Haitian migrants at the Detention Centre.  That decision continues to provoke and inspire the words of many mouths, flowing from the meditations of many hearts.  Except in some cases.

The words from some prominent voices have yet to catch up with the meditations of their hearts and the treasury of their theological traditions.  Religious leaders such as Dr. Myles Munroe and Bishop Simeon Hall have addressed the hysteria surrounding the granting of temporary asylum for the migrants in question.

Other heads of various prominent denominations have yet to match their extraordinary charitable actions with the just words needed to stem a tsunami of prejudice unleashed by the Haitian quake.

Solar Power Consumers Upset by Fossil Fuel Plant on Abaco

by Larry Smith

LITTLE HARBOUR, ABACO - Within sight of the smokestacks rising from BEC's heavy fuel oil power plant under construction at Wilson City just across the Bight of Old Robinson lies a solar-powered community of some 40 homes encircling a picturesque cove.

This unique settlement was founded by a Canadian art professor named Randolph Johnston, who sailed his family to the Bahamas in 1952 and initially housed them in a cave - like a modern-day William Sayle (who sought refuge in Preacher's Cave on North Eleuthera more than three centuries ago).

Johnston set himself up as a charter skipper and sculptor, becoming a local celebrity within a few years. His bronze statue of a Bahamian woman was installed on Prince George Wharf in 1975, while his autobiography, Artist on his Island, was published the following year.

When it was virtually worthless, Johnston acquired land at Little Harbour and over time sold bits and pieces to other vagabonds from varied backgrounds, creating the eclectic community that exists today anchored around Pete's Pub, a famous watering hole run by the sculptor's son. Little Harbour is now an attraction in its own right - drawing thousands of visitors a year.

Among the homeowners are artists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, airline pilots, and boat bums. One of the more recent settlers is Gordon Pearce, whose Cape Cod firm builds high-tech tennis courts and running tracks in Massachusetts. His comfortable 2,200 square foot home sits on a hill overlooking Little Harbour and - like all the houses here - it's powered entirely by solar panels.

Fault Lines Exposed by Haiti’s Earthquake

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com.

The fault line that triggered the recent horrific earthquake in Haiti also exposed centuries-old fault lines -- which though not as ancient as the geographic one that ruptured weeks ago -- have deep historic roots which have produced more devastation than this tragic temblor, as deadly as it was.

Whatever the final number of the dead, many more have perished over the course of Haiti’s history through war and slavery, brutal rule and neglect, disease and poverty.  The graves of the many who drowned in the ocean expanse extending from the southern Bahamas to the Florida Straits, are marked not by personal signifiers but by the cay or island next to which they are entombed.

Of course, one of the greatest killers of the Haiti revolution, of her sons and daughters and their basic aspirations and longings for peace, has been the punishing isolation and neglect by the world’s powers, along with misrule by successive dictators propped up by a tiny wealthy elite and their foreign allies.

The Blue Holes of the Bahamas—An Incredible Underworld

by Larry Smith

Looking down, the opening into the cavern beneath could be distinctly seen and it was evident, as the tide was flowing, that this ocean-hole communicated with other caverns at a distance, possibly on the island of Andros, and that the water was being sucked down through the opening to find its way into unknown parts.

There are deep, well-like depressions filled with salt water and connected with the ocean by subterranean passages. They ebb and flow with the tide, support marine life, and in all essential features resemble the submarine ocean-holes, except that they occur on land, usually removed some distance from the sea.

-- the Bahama Islands, by Drs George Shattuck and Benjamin Miller, 1905

The Bahamas are like no other group of islands in the world, scientists say. They were formed about 150 million years ago - as the Atlantic Ocean began to fill the space where Africa and North America were once joined. The islands that exist today are little more than the tips of fossilised sand dunes.

Deep drilling has established that virtually all of the rocks that make up the Bahamas platform - to a depth of at least 19,000 feet - were formed in shallow water as layers of sediment. As these layers gradually subsided under the weight of new deposits, they were converted into limestone. Winds blew the top layers into vast sand dunes, and by the end of the last glacial period - about 12,000 years ago - the geography of the Bahamas was more or less complete.

Perry Christie in Wonderland

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com.

The deep-seated resistance to reform within the PLP notwithstanding, a clue as to when the party is in the throes of a fresh crisis is the resurfacing of Party Leader Perry Christie to assure one and all that there is no crisis. 

It’s akin to the General Manager of BEC reading a statement by candlelight that the electricity company’s blackouts are a thing of the past.  What blackout? What crisis?  Don’t believe what you see or don’t see, believe what I tell you. 

In the long build-up to the party’s national convention this past October, Mr. Christie was generally out of sight, re-emerging to aggressively fend off the pretenders to his throne as well as urgent calls for reform within the PLP.  Crisis averted, Mr. Christie mostly disappeared again.