Bahama Pundit

The Context of the US-Caricom Meeting in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

It’s a safe bet that if US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice were white, most of the Bahamian political elite would despise her as one of the chief architects of American “exceptionalism” - a code word for imperialism.

But as a black woman who is fourth in line to the throne – and often regarded as a future presidential candidate - Rice enjoys immense celebrity, especially among leaders of the African diaspora outside the United States, as her meetings with CARICOM in Nassau last week demonstrated.

Condoleeza Rice and US-Bahamian Relations

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not stay long and did not speak a lot. Nevertheless, her visit to the Bahamas was a veritable tour de force. Perhaps she will return under different circumstances for a deeper experience of Bahamian hospitality.

The public comments Dr. Rice made, though brief, were nevertheless compelling and instructive. Those conducting our affairs of state and contributing in the media to the shaping of public opinion ought to take note.

Dr. Rice is an African American at the highest level in an administration that is more to the right that any in recent memory. That might seem a bit odd since the great majority of black Americans are of a liberal bent because of their history and experience.

It's Not About Castro - It's About International Law

by Andrew Allen

It is clear from much of what has been appearing in the press that many good and sincere Bahamians will never see eye-to-eye with each other in terms of their assessments of Dr Castro and his revolution in Cuba.

My guess is that it is not only a waste of speech and ink to try to bridge basic positions, but that it is actually harmful in that it opens up old, healing sensitivities from another era.

But we should be able to agree on the following:

Mayaguana and Bahamian Land Development

by Andrew Allen

Bahamians of all political outlooks should be prepared to give credit to a governing party where and when it is due.

In the case of the heads of agreement signed with the I-Group for the development of Mayaguana, this government clearly deserves such credit.

Finally, it seems we will have a large-scale development that is not only a Bahamian/foreign joint partnership, but also involves local family islanders as direct beneficiaries of the master plan.

Especially encouraging is the proposal to develop "town centres" not just for second home owners, but also for local Mayaguanans.

But what is interesting is that the Prime Minister's televised comments on the good points of the agreement were tantamount to a concession of the dangers inherent in what is taking place in other projects initiated on his watch all over the Bahamas.

Doctors Oppose Bahamas Health Plan

by Larry Smith

The sputtering debate over the government’s proposed national health plan is “as important as religion and more important than politics” according to Bahamian heart surgeon Dr Duane Sands.

And, he added in a talk to the East Nassau Rotary Club recently, Bahamian healthcare goals “will not be achieved with this plan...(which) will likely cause far more damage than ever anticipated.”

According to Dr Sands, a ‘one size fits all’ tax-funded health plan will be a virtual disaster for the Bahamas: “As responsible senior physicians we feel it is our duty to ensure that the plan is either not implemented or is modified substantially.”

The Great Bahamian Land Rush

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Any statement short of a book about the importance of land to human beings is likely to be inadequate. The land is everything. It is where we live, where we establish communities and nations, and whence we draw sustenance and wealth. Even those who go down to the sea in search of wealth are dependent on the land.

In some cultures there is a mystical reverence for the land as the source of life and living, and at the centre of most of history’s conflicts has been the issue of who will control the land.

The Native Americans who revered the land were appalled at the callous disrespect the invading Europeans showed towards the land they so coveted. The Natives were on the losing side of that conflict and the ones who survived were relegated to reservations on their own land.

Not everyone has appreciated the value of Bahamian land. A British officer by the name of McCabe condemned it as “Land of cursed rocks and stones, land where many leave their bones”.

Capital Punishment in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

Let the punishment be equal with the offence.
Cicero

"As I read the New Testament, I don't see anywhere in there that killing bad people is a very high calling for Christians. "
James Park, former execution officer, San Quentin Prison, California

"The death penalty is a poor person's issue. Always remember that: after all the rhetoric that goes on in the legislative assemblies, in the end, when the deck is cast out, it is the poor who are selected to die ."
Sister Helen Prejean

“The recidivism rate for capital punishment is zero. No executed murderer has ever killed again. You can't say that about those sentenced to prison, even if you are an abolitionist.”
Wesley Lowe

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Ever since the 7th century BC, when Greece’s Draconian legal code made death the only penalty for every crime, the world has been moving away from capital punishment.

This is despite the fact that every country is still ready and willing to kill thousands and even millions of human beings to defend themselves or to exert their political will.

More than a hundred countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice - the United States and Japan being the only developed democracies that still carry out judicial killings. There are currently over 3,000 people waiting to be put to death in the US.

In the ancient world, death sentences would be carried out by extravagant methods like crucifixion, drowning, burning, boiling, stoning, beheading, disembowelment and impalement.

But about 1500 years ago, hanging became the preferred method of execution in Britain, from where we derive our legal code. Until the late 19th century, the “long drop” (as it was known) was still the penalty for hundreds of crimes - including shoplifting, poaching and “being in the company of gypsies”.

Privy Council Rules on Bahamas Death Penalty Issues

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

A ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council last week sent shock waves up and down the country and added fuel to the ongoing debate over capital punishment in the Bahamas. It also sparked renewed demands for the removal of the Privy Council as the country’s highest court.

Bahamians calling for the replacement of the Privy Council (PC) offer two options: going with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) or making our own Court of Appeal the final judicial authority.

Some feel that the PC is too remote and not fully appreciative of Bahamian attitudes and circumstances, but the main objection is based on the perception that the PC is intent on getting rid of capital punishment.

A Return to Race and Culture

by Andrew Allen

A recent column elicited a welcome response from the Nassau Institute, which took issue with my describing Helen Klonaris' comments on racism as thoughtful and intelligent.

In its response to me (which seemed more directed at Ms Klonaris' original contribution than at my column), the Institute suggests that concentrating on white racism is a "dangerous diversion" for those looking for answers to the problems of blacks, American or Bahamian.

In fact, I agree entirely with this central thesis of the Nassau institute's response, as I stated (albeit briefly and parenthetically) in that column.

ZNS Hides Bahamas Treasure

by Andrew Allen

It is typical of the way much of the media operates in the Bahamas that a story which, if any truth lies in it, is potentially the biggest for years, has surfaced only in a local gossip newspaper and in the ubiquitous 'word on the street'.

I refer, of course, to the rumoured recent finding at San Salvador of a substantial cache of treasure. The figures being floated around all suggest a value that, if realised, could seriously impact the solvency of the Bahamian government.

Yet ZNS has apparently not seen fit to bring any of this to the attention of the viewers of their nightly news, even if only to question someone in government and let them publicly dismiss the rumours.

Will Cuba Use Weapons of Mass Migration Against the Bahamas?

by Larry Smith

Some say the reason for government inaction on the Cuban dentist issue is the fear that Fidel Castro will refuse to accept the return of other illegal Cubans from the Bahamas if we allow any detainee to go to the United States in violation of a treaty obligation.

This could potentially leave us with hundreds of unwanted Cuban permanent residents. Others go further and say Castro will flood the Bahamas with refugees. They argue that either of these scenarios would be more problematic than any American fallout over returning the two dentists to Cuba.

Well, those fears are not entirely far-fetched. The Cubans have used mass emigration to pressure the US several times. Twenty-five years ago, they created a crisis that almost overwhelmed the US Coast Guard. In just five months, some 150,000 migrants poured into South Florida.

Say 'No' to LNG

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

The debate over the proposed Bahamas-Florida LNG project has flared up again as a result of the visit of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and Prime Minister Perry Christie still sounds as if he is leaning towards approval.

No doubt Governor Bush and the LNG lobby were hoping that the visit would spur a quick response from Mr. Christie. They did get an acknowledgement from Mr. Christie that “clearly a decision is necessary in moving ahead”.

Then Mr. Christie revealed that he had talked to the Governor about “assistance in establishing a regulatory regime that will govern any such facility established in the Bahamas”.

It is not encouraging to those who are worried about this proposal to hear that the very people who are so anxious to have it are the ones to whom our prime minister is looking for regulatory help. It must have been difficult for the Floridians to hide their delight when they heard that.

What is Mr. Christie thinking? These are the same people who are so intent on keeping the LNG plant far away from their own territory that they are prepared to pay the Bahamas millions to site it in our backyard and trench 90 miles of the ocean floor to pipe it to Florida.

On the Fourth Estate

by Nicolette Bethel

Over thirty years ago, a pair of reporters brought down a presidency. In part this happened because two reporters were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. To be specific: Bob Woodward was covering a routine court case for the Washington Post when he heard one of the defendants tell the judge, sotto voce, that he worked for the CIA. Nothing more, nothing less. He followed that up, with the help of Carl Bernstein, and together they began digging. They took nothing at face value, and ultimately they revealed a cover-up that led to the resignation of the President of the USA.

Sixty years ago, in July 1943, Etienne Dupuch, the longtime editor of the Tribune, did something similar in the Bahamas. The philanthropic millionaire Harry Oakes was discovered murdered in his bed, in circumstances that remain confusing to this day. The Duke of Windsor, then the governor of the Bahamas, had begun a cover-up of his own, framing Oakes’ scandal-mongering son-in-law. Dupuch found out about the murder and dispatched reports about it to the international press, thus thwarting, at least for a while, the royal conspiracy.

In any free democracy, the role of the press is fundamental to the proper functioning of the government. So fundamental is it, in fact, that the press has been dubbed “the fourth estate”. Democratic government is carried out by three “estates”: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. In The Bahamas, these three branches of power in our government are Cabinet, Parliament, and the courts. But these cannot function properly without the Fourth Estate: the press.

On Blacks in Uniform

by Nicolette Bethel

Just recently I had the privilege to spend considerable time visiting Paradise Island. In part, this was because I had several friends and acquaintances in town, and one of the sightseeing must-dos is to show them around Atlantis, as far as possible. In part, it was because of meetings that took place there over an extended period of time.

I have to say that I travelled there without much of a second thought. This occurred to the wonder of some of my friends, who asked me whether I needed my passport to go there. I told them I didn’t need anything except to toss one dollar of my money into the till at the tollgate. (Ministry of Tourism officials, I learned, are provided with passes, which probably means that the government puts its money directly into the tollgate. I don’t know where that money goes. Perhaps it goes back to the government, which would defeat the purpose of my putting the dollar in – but never mind that.)

There was the fact that in some places in the hotel my husband and I were asked for our room key or fat wads of our cash. As far as that goes, that’s fair enough; it’s the people hotel after all, and they have the right to charge for certain privileges. What you don’t pay for on the swings you’ll spend on the merry-go-round. No; within the confines of the four hundred walls of Atlantis, that’s fair enough.

I didn’t need a passport. Most of the time I wasn’t going to Atlantis, or to Kerzner land at all. But what interested me was what I saw in the open air. Other people, especially those who worked there, needed a passport of sorts.

The Bahamas & CARICOM: An Update

by Larry Smith

If you thought the Bahamas’ merger with CARICOM’s single market was off the table after last year’s acrimonious debate, think again.

A fact-finding team from the Inter-American Development Bank was here last week on the last leg of a 15-nation tour to update the bank’s regional development strategy. They met with private and public sector leaders, including Ministers James Smith and Fred Mitchell.

Although most analysts are skeptical, Mr Mitchell thinks we need to join the CSME for geopolitical reasons – specifically, to have a stronger hand against the Great White North. But public opinion is solidly opposed to integration, which is why the government backed down last year.

Six larger countries in the region went on to sign the inaugural protocols of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy this past January, and six smaller ones are expected to do so by mid-year. But the Bahamian position is still far from clear.