What The Bahamas Can Learn From Katrina

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

It is not unreasonable to assume that the website Bahamas Uncensored would reflect to a large degree the views of Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service. It used to be Fred Mitchell Uncensored before Mr. Mitchell became a minister in the PLP government.

If that is true then at least one minister in Prime Minister Perry Christie’s cabinet is thinking seriously about the lessons the Bahamas can learn from the destruction of the city of New Orleans and the devastation of the Gulf Coast states by hurricane Katrina. The September 11 edition of the site said:

“…What are the lessons that can be learned for the Bahamas, with a public administration that is broke and incompetent? What lessons is the National Emergency Management Agency learning from this? Where is the legislation that was promised to put NEMA on a legal footing, promised after last year’s ruinous storms? What happens if a category five storm hits New Providence? Does the Bahamas have the ability to evacuate its population from New Providence to some other safe haven in a short time? Can we make such arrangements with the United States? With some other neighbour? Will it be necessary ever to move all of our people out, just like the city of New Orleans? …”

Leaving aside for the moment the comment about “a public administration that is broke and incompetent,” these are indeed timely questions that will have occurred to other thoughtful people.

Hurricane Katrina has dramatically demonstrated that without a sustainable environment human beings have little else for their security and survival, not to mention prosperity.

Yet the ideological neoconservatives of the present US administration seem oblivious to this fact of life as they refuse to take America into the international consensus that radical steps need to be taken to save the global environment.

At the same time there are ministers in the PLP government who are prepared to put at risk the invaluable environmental heritage of these islands and waters for the sake of the very same greedy industries that are causing so much ruin and degradation around the world.

Those responsible for protecting the unique and vulnerable environment of New Orleans were utterly negligent and callous in the face of many warnings that something needed to be done, that ignoring the danger would invite disaster. So disaster came and wiped out a city, killing at least hundreds if not thousands and reducing tens of thousands to the status of forlorn refugees.

No one knows as yet whether New Orleans will ever be fully reconstructed and restored to the survivors. Some say that land developers are already thinking of the profits that would accrue if the city and its environs can be developed to attract upscale residents while leaving the survivors to wander across the states.

Others say that the city may never be habitable again, at least not for some time to come. The British newspaper, The Independent, on September 11 reported that the city may be unsafe for full human habitation for a decade. It attributed this view to Hugh Kaufman, an expert with the US Environmental Protection Agency.

There were 66 chemical plants, refineries and petroleum storage depots in the area, known locally as “Cancer Alley”, and no one knows how much pollution has escaped through damaged plants and leaking pipes and, says Mr. Kaufman, no one is trying to find out.

Having regard to the special circumstances of New Orleans, it is not likely that the Bahamas will experience that same kind of catastrophe if a category four or five hurricane should descend upon us. But we can be devastated nevertheless.

Many of our Family Islands are extremely vulnerable and New Providence, where half our population lives can indeed be the site of a great human catastrophe. Others have already referred to the vulnerability of the island’s low-lying southern coast.

Former PLP cabinet minister George Smith pointed out on a recent radio talk show that the government has not proceeded with the defensive work started along the western foreshore. This area is quite vulnerable even in a strong northwester.

Then there is Over-the-Hill, the basin formed by two ridges where the majority of this island’s population lives. A very wet hurricane could dump flood waters into this trap, some parts of which are already a problem after heavy rains.

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It is distressing to hear some religious leaders using the Bible to claim that New Orleans was punished by God for its wickedness, especially its floating casinos.

Inspired men wrote the scriptures which are today so callously misinterpreted by uninspired men. But God himself wrote the universe and the immutable laws which govern it.

The same God gave us the intelligence to study the laws of the universe – “to search the stars for glory” – and to have dominion over – not to destroy – the earth.

He also invites us to see in each human eye a reflection of our selves and an imperfect reflection of his own countenance. But his greatest gift – the one that does not judge and does not move us to glory foolishly in the suffering of others – is the redeeming gift of love.

So let us do what we have to do, and that is to reach out generously to our suffering brothers and sisters in America. Then we must take sensible precautions to protect ourselves when nature lashes out against us with increasing ferocity. And yes, we must talk to our neighbours – including the US, Caricom and Cuba – to arrange for mutual assistance in times of peril.

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ANTAGONISTIC

Fred Mitchell assumed office with an antagonistic attitude towards the civil service and what appeared to be a serious inability to work with people outside his immediate comfort zone. This piece from Bahamas Uncensored looks as if it could have been written by him:

“You have a system of public administration that is so broke that the only time it acts is when there is a crisis. There is no forward planning. Ministers have to do the work of Permanent Secretaries. Imagine a Minister of Education having to actually see to working with a contractor and helping to move desks and chairs. The answer to every request, demand or programme of a Minister is a firm no from the government officials, one thousand reasons why it can’t be done.”

It was a mistake for the Prime Minister to entrust the public service to Minister Mitchell. The service is in need of reform but Mr. Mitchell has done nothing in this direction.

Instead of learning how to be ministers, not how to push chairs and desks, Mr. Mitchell and his colleagues have appointed unqualified crony consultants and then they blame the civil servants for their own appalling lack of leadership and their incompetence.

It was a crony appointment by US President George Bush that has caused the administration so much embarrassment over New Orleans. Michael Brown was obviously never qualified to be head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A part of the problem in the clean-up operations in New Orleans, says Hugh Kaufman, is that “inept political hacks have been put in key positions”. He could have made the same general comment about the PLP government in the Bahamas.

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