Bahama Pundit

Local Government and Overdevelopment in The Bahamian Out Islands

by Larry Smith

An historic proposal by the Hope Town district council died recently, when voters on Elbow Cay, Guana Cay and Man-O-War Cay turned down a measure that would have helped “preserve the character of local communities”.

It was the first initiative of its kind since local government was introduced to the family islands 10 years ago. And insiders say it would have put a framework in place to control overbuilding and protect the environment.

In fact, the outcome of the mid-May vote surprised many who expected the proposed bye-laws – which were backed by a lengthy Planning and Zoning White Paper – to win comfortably because of rising public concern over the impact of development on small out island communities.

But only 40 per cent of the district’s 500 voters turned out in stormy weather, and 126 (almost two to one) voted against the proposal - despite months of community meetings and discussions.

Protecting The Bahamas' Natural Heritage

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

A few weeks ago it was reported that certain persons who had been given permits to do research in Bahamian waters were removing marine species to restock aquariums in the United States.

In another news story in The Nassau Guardian last week it was alleged that the Bahamas was selling itself cheap while foreign scientists and institutions were benefitting from important research using the country’s natural resources.

If these reports and other evidence of environmental abuse and unauthorized exploitation are true, Bahamians have good reason to ask: Who is guarding our heritage, especially our rich marine resources, our fish and conch and lobster, and our coral reefs?

On Instant Information

by Nicolette Bethel

In November of last year, my husband was offered a short-term job in Michigan as a guest director at a small liberal arts university. He went, of course. I stayed behind; I have my own job. But while he was gone, we were in communication on a daily basis – and we didn’t break the bank. The internet has made instant communication over huge distances possible, affordable – and commonplace.

We live in the Information Age. The ability to communicate instantly and cheaply over huge distances has revolutionized the way in which human beings relate to one another, and has revolutionized the way in which societies interact. These days, it is possible to link to other human beings anywhere in the world by using satellites, cell phones, and the internet. The world has changed, and – without realizing – we have changed with it.

But it appears we haven’t noticed this change. That this applies to us here in The Bahamas is not something that we talk much about. We conduct our business as though radio is the most efficient method of getting the word out, and appear completely to ignore the revolution going on around us.

But the in-your-face power of the airwaves pales in comparison to the internet, which is the most radical form of communication there is. It’s radical because nobody owns it. Yes, people (mostly Americans) own the access to it; in order to get online, you have to open the portal provided by the computer, your Internet Service Provider (a.k.a. ISP), and do a bunch of things that some people find intimidating. But once you have done these things, you will find yourself in the biggest democracy on earth.

Lawyer/Client Privilege in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

Although you might not know it, a constitutional battle has been raging here for the past five years.

The government is in the metaphorical dock, fighting a war of attrition in the hope that Maurice Glinton and Leandra Esfakis, the two maverick lawyers leading the fray, will give up and go away.

The battle is over the confidentiality of lawyer-client relations – something which experts say is a cornerstone of our justice system.

Glinton and Esfakis sued the government soon after the Ingraham administration rammed a package of 11 financial laws through parliament in December 2000 under heavy pressure from Western countries and the Financial Action Task Force those countries had set up to regulate international banking.

Creating a Culture of Consultation in the Bahamas

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Some residents of Chippingham are complaining about the lack of consultation over the construction of low cost homes which will amount to an extension of that community. They have a point.

The present PLP Government came to office proclaiming loudly and frequently that it was to be a government of consultation, and followed up with a flurry of appointments of commissions and committees in pursuit of this policy.

After a while it appeared that, in some cases at least, this was merely a cover for indecisiveness, and in others the policy was ignored altogether. No grand affair of state is involved in the construction of new low-cost housing, no appointment of commissions necessary, just the simple and sensible idea of talking with those who would be most immediately affected.

As it turned out, there was in this particular case a matter of concern to the whole nation, and that is the possible destruction of ecologically important land in the area.

The Bahamas Needs an Embassy in Cuba

by Andrew Allen

Nobody expects absolute sincerity from an opposition when it attacks government policy. It is one of the many flaws of this system of government that constant, often disingenuous attempts to interfere with a governing party’s orderly governance of the country are portrayed as a mark of ‘loyalty’, and a contributor to the strength of the country.

However, even within that dubious context it is hard to be forgiving of some of Opposition Leader Hubert Ingraham’s comments last week on Bahamian / Cuban relations under the present administration.

The opposition leader took the opportunity afforded him by the government’s secretive UN vote to castigate it for seeking to develop a more comprehensive relationship with Cuba. Specifically, he threatened that, if elected, he would downgrade our recently opened embassy in Havana to a consular office.

This is irresponsible politics of the highest order, in that it potentially undermines the country’s diplomatic position in one of the most sensitive areas. While Mr. Ingraham (like any other politician) can be forgiven for engaging in disingenuous political talk when such talk has no victims, this statement, if it is sincere, gives Bahamians cause for serious concern.

Land, Lawyers and Developers on Rum Cay

by Larry Smith

PORT NELSON, Rum Cay: Taking the breeze on a verandah overlooking the blue-green waters of Wellington Bay recently, conversation slowly turned to the giant cable ship anchored just beyond the reef.

“Well, we don’t have piped water yet, but we are getting cell phones and high-speed Internet,” someone said.

The reference was to BTC’s $60 million submarine fibre-optic network that will be completed this summer. The cable ship lying offshore was “splicing” Rum Cay into the loop, the old heads said.

This dichotomy between the lack of a basic utility and the arrival of advanced telecoms, is characteristic of Rum Cay – a 30-square-mile outpost whose few dozen bored citizens are increasingly hemmed in by upscale residential and resort developments – some spurious, some real.

Interestingly, the biggest pending development on the island is led by a 61-year-old British telecoms engineer named John Mittens, who 10 years ago founded Europe’s largest fibre network – Interoute – which links 61 cities in 19 countries, including historic centres like Rome and London.

On Land

by Nicolette Bethel

Over ten years ago I attended a lecture being given at the College of The Bahamas by Eris Moncur. His topic was, not surprisingly (as it was the Quincentennial year), the site of Columbus’ landfall. Now I’m not going to debate that now; anyone who knows Mr Moncur even slightly knows what his view on the matter is. What I am going to raise is something he said, somewhat in passing, in that lecture. It was this: Bahamians are millionaires.

Now many of us are fond of thinking of ourselves as “poor”: “So-and-so like to take advantage of poor people,” we say, or “The government job is to help poor people get ahead”. I am not entirely sure what the cut-off point for wealth is; I suspect that poverty is something we own, while wealth belongs to the other guy. Be that as it may (and that’s certainly fodder for another column), I want to argue Mr Moncur’s case, because I agree with him. Many, if not most, Bahamians are extremely rich.

Now understand me: I don’t necessarily mean take-it-to-the-bank-and-deposit-it kind of rich. In fact, the kind of wealth Mr Moncur and I are thinking about here may leave a person cash-poor; we’re talking about land. And specifically, I’m talking about generation property, an imperfectly understood but extremely valuable Bahamian resource.

The Impact of Cruise Ships on Small Bahamian Islands

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Once again events at Harbour Island, the tiny but famous resort and retreat for the rich, have focused attention on an issue of crucial importance to its residents and to the whole Bahamas. It is the future direction and development of the country’s number one industry – tourism.

This national enterprise has provided an enviable standard of living for Bahamians for many years and can, if managed properly, continue to be the principal source of prosperity for generations to come.

At Harbour Island the debate has been about over-building, congestion and a new kind of home-owner. After a recent visit Prime Minister Perry Christie was reportedly concerned at what he saw.

Rum Cay, Bahamas Faces Major Change

by Larry Smith

PORT NELSON, Rum Cay — The prime minister and other top officials were here recently for an event that could change Rum Cay forever.

A space was cleared at Cottonfield Point for Montana Holding's long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony. It marked the start of a $90 million residential/resort development, that could expand to a $700 million investment at full build-out.

Soon, a barge will arrive to house scores of construction workers, a 100-foot channel will be cut through the reef for a marina at Bay Pond, equipment and materials will pour in, and homes, condos and hotels will begin popping up all along Munroe Beach.

Of course, the 80 or so bored citizens of Port Nelson, the island’s last remaining settlement, have seen it all before over the past few decades. But many say the recent groundbreaking was a watershed.

Instead of an out-of-the-way refuge for a few well-off folks who live on the edge of a sleepy little village where nothing much ever happens, Rum Cay may soon become a playground for hordes of the very rich – pursuing their champagne and sportfishing dreams.

Choosing Candidates for the Bahamian General Election

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

There are only 40 seats in our House of Assembly and some people believe that is too many for a country of only 300,000 people. If we were all living on one island, like Barbados, we could very well consider reducing that number. But we are an archipelagic country with communities scattered on a score of major islands and many cays; and our constitution makes provision for that.

There are credible reports that the PLP Government is planning a redistribution of Family Island seats before the next election but it is unlikely that the number will go back to the all-time high of 49.

For those 40 or so seats there are hundreds of persons who want to offer. Some will no doubt run under the banner of small parties and some as independents, but most of them hope to be nominated by one of the two national parties.

Except for leadership contests, there is nothing that can place more strain on the unity of a political party than the process of candidate selection.

AUTEC, Sonar and Whales

by Larry Smith

In the minds of some people, the American naval facility on the Bahamian island of Andros is another mysterious Area 51 – the top-secret military base in Nevada that has been imaginatively linked to UFOs and inter-dimensional vortexes.

And believe it or not - AUTEC’s deepwater sensors in the Tongue of the Ocean were recently used by scientists from the University of California in an effort to detect cosmic neutrinos emitted by intergalactic black holes.

But environmentalists regard the hundreds of square miles of deep ocean off the Atlantic Underwater Testing and Evaluation Centre near Fresh Creek as a killing field for whales and dolphins.

A Response to Pastor's Attack

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

I had no idea until I read Pastor Lyall Bethel’s second attack on me in a letter to the press that “the whole nation” was waiting for me to respond to his first foray, “to show his quality and withdraw his hastily spoken comments”, as he put it.

Pastor Bethel had accused me of viciously attacking churches and pastors “whose passion and job is to bring moral clarity and help to persons crushed by their own moral indiscretions”.

I did not respond because I concluded that the whole nation can read and comprehend and would therefore know that what Pastor Bethel said was simply not true.

The whole nation understands that my criticism of some religious leaders can in no way be equated with an attack on all – “the good apples and the bad” – as the Pastor so foolishly claims.

The Pastor should look to his reading skills so he can understand what has been said before attacking. Finally, I have not the slightest inclination “to show my quality” for Pastor Bethel and I suggest he save his amateurish attempts at psychological manipulation for his pastoral counselling.

Bahamas Needs Help to Monitor Environmental Threats

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

In the 1990s Caribbean High Commissioners accredited to Great Britain made representations to the United Kingdom Government every time they found out that a British ship was about to transport nuclear material through the Caribbean Sea on the way to or from Japan.

The two-way traffic was to supply Japan with radioactive material from Britain and France for its nuclear power plants and to have it shipped back for reprocessing.

Caribbean governments regarded this as a serious threat to the region and feared that an accident would unleash radioactive poison into the Caribbean Sea with disastrous consequences for coral reefs, marine resources, tourism and, of course, the health of their people.

Colonial Baggage Hinders Bahamas Development

by Andrew Allen

Someone recently took exception to a column, written some months ago, in which I argued that colonial baggage inhibits our development in many ways, including economically.

My critic’s point was that there can be no harm in retaining such odd vestiges (like the pleasant Octogenarian lady on our currency) that differentiate us from more functional feeling places, especially as we are a country concerned with tourism.

To some extent, my critic is right of course. In direct terms, much of the tradition that we are saddled with in The Bahamas does more good than harm in that it makes us more ‘quaint’ and keeps the tourists happy.

But for ex-colonial societies, the larger picture, which does not concern itself so much with the outward vestiges of the colonial legacy, is far from simple and not particularly rosy.