Bahama Pundit

On Making a Living Doing What You Love

by Nicolette Bethel

When I was a child and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would invariably answer, “A writer”. The responses I got were various. “Oh, that’s nice,” some people said. They didn’t mean it one bit. Others laughed as though I’d told the greatest joke this side of Vegas. Others stared at me as though I’d just said something foreign, as though my tongue had not formed words that were English at all. And one person – my geography teacher – told me, “Oh, no, you’re too good for that. Writing will never earn you any money. Why don’t you think about being a lawyer or something like that?”

But a writer I wanted to be.

What to do with the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas?

by Larry Smith

The question of what to do with the state-owned Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas is once again on the front burner.

In a previous article we traced the evolution of Bahamian television (read it here) and set the stage for a look at the future.

Fact is, we could have had cable TV here in the early 1960s, but it was blocked for political reasons. With a population of only 130,000 back then, the high cost and impracticality of a national TV station didn't make sense to some, but it was insisted upon by "progressive" politicians and intellectuals - ostensibly to protect our cultural identity.

So we had to wait until 1977 for the government to implement TV, and privately-operated cable television was withheld until 1995. To make things worse, ZNS TV did little or nothing to promote Bahamian culture, but a great deal to promote Bahamian politicians.

History can be Changed with a Word

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Events over the last few weeks have been interesting, exciting and sometimes depressing. At home the nation was shocked beyond words by the brutal attack on a six-year-old child and we are still wondering where we are going as society.

Yet another PLP Government Minister was under fire, this time for using his office to secure very special treatment for a close friend. Shane Gibson is one of those ministers who seem not to have the foggiest idea of how a Cabinet minister ought to conduct himself.

On the world stage there was high theatre with a session of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana and the opening of a new session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

Reforming Bahamian Broadcasting

by Larry Smith

Another general election is approaching, and - as sure as night follows day - there is rising concern over the role of the Broadcasting Corporation.

Political control of ZNS has been a hot-button issue ever since legislation was passed in 1956 to pave the way for television. Before then, broadcasting was part of the Telecommunications Department, which launched ZNS radio in 1936 as a weather service.

Bahamian television was a kind of holy grail - and our quest to grasp it took over 20 years. It was followed by another 20 years of stagflation - creative stagnation mixed with financial inflation. What should have ignited an explosion of Bahamian art and entrepeneurship, led instead to dull mediocrity and authoritarianism.

The Challenges of Nation Building

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

The Bahamas has reached a very important and challenging point in its history and Bahamians at every level of the society are wondering where it is we want to take the country from here.

Most of the time, we use the words “country” and “nation” interchangeably. Without always making the distinction, many Bahamians are in fact talking about the development of the country and the impact that development is having not only on the environment but on the nation, meaning the people.

The stark possibility confronting us is that we can continue to develop the country and leave the nation behind. In this context the nation is, of course, the people who are culturally Bahamian and constitutionally citizens of this archipelagic Commonwealth.

We are all the descendants of immigrants – mostly settlers and slaves -- going back hundreds of years, but we have become a distinct nation. Even so, the vast majority of Bahamian families have been touched in the last three or four generations by later immigrants.

The Bahamas and the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Havana

by Larry Smith

Most Bahamians don't have a clue what the Non-aligned Movement is and could care less, but our government has been taking part in NAM meetings for the past two decades without bothering to tell us about it.

In all likelihood that's because the government itself could care less and was just going through the motions. But for the first time we have an ideologically driven foreign minister who appears to have some latitude to set policy, whether by default or otherwise.

And that sometimes means playing international games that can get us needlessly into hot water. So we should watch what comes out of this week's summit of the Non-aligned Movement in Havana, where Fred Mitchell is said to be representing the prime minister.

This event will likely be Cuban President Fidel Castro's last stand. Although he is too ill to participate fully, officials say he is involved in all decision-making. And it is clear that Castro will use this week's meeting to try to refocus Third World grievances into a broad anti-Western front.

Bahamians Need to Hear More from the Prime Minister on Grand Bahama

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Prime Minister Perry Christie has at last tried to say something reassuring about the state of affairs in the nation’s second city after a dramatic upheaval months ago. But it was a spur of the moment statement that was obviously not well-considered.

In Freeport for a groundbreaking ceremony, the Prime Minister apparently discovered what the whole Bahamas has known now for months.

According to a report in The Tribune, Mr. Christie could see that his audience was “more concerned about corporate governance and possible conflicts in the administration of the Grand Bahama Port Authority”.

“As Prime Minister,” said the Prime Minister, “it gives me an opportunity to tell you that you must not forget I am Prime Minister of The Bahamas …” Okay!

On Nine to Five

by Nicolette Bethel

I was sitting in traffic the other day. Sitting in traffic, by the way, is something I would prefer not to do. It's a supreme waste of time, particularly on this island which is only twenty-one miles long. And a question bubbled up to the surface of my mind. It was this. Why am I sitting in traffic?

The answer, on the face of it, was so simple one would have to be simple not to get it: Because it's a quarter to nine in the morning.

It was far too simple an answer for me, I can tell you. My mind is an unruly thing. Another question came burbling up. But why?

The answer came from Out There, wherever That might be: Because people work nine to five.

My response was: no, they don't. And I meant it.

Now, I'm not talking Sting-time here, though I could be. No; what I mean is this. People's brains don't simply turn on at nine in the morning and turn off at five. Thinking isn't something that knows the hours on the face of a clock; thoughts come when they come, and there's not a lot one can do about it. Contrary to what we've been trained to think, work — and particularly twenty-first-century work — is not best done in eight-hour blocks, with an hour in the middle for lunch.

So why do we insist that work involves reporting to a building at nine o'clock and leaving it at five?

The 9/11 Conspiracy

by Larry Smith

"This is the 5th anniversary of the lie that bases all of our foreign and domestic policy...America has been hijacked." -- 9/11 conspiracy theorist

"That's the problem with dipping one's toes into the waters of conspiracy theories. One might just sink to its bottomless depths." -- Cinnamon Stillwell, SFGate

Tough Call entertained a pair of Canadian college students over the summer. Cousins of West Indian descent, they came from a solid middle class background - born in Canada, well-educated, well-spoken and (thankfully) well-behaved.

During one conversation, the approaching fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington came up. And it was clear that these two level-headed students from Toronto were convinced that the attacks were not the work of radical Islamic terrorists, but of the US government itself.

"Haven't you seen 'Loose Change'?" They asked smugly. No, we hadn't. So a little research was in order - starting with Wikipedia (http://www.skepticwiki.org/wiki/index.php/9/11_coverup).

Problems with Extradition Process

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

In 1958 William Lederer and Eugene Burdick wrote a book entitled The Ugly American. It shook up Washington, became a best-seller and in 1963 was made into a movie starring Marlon Brando. The title entered the language as a descriptor for Americans behaving badly abroad.

Set in a fictional Southeast Asian country, it told the stories of Americans trying to serve the interests of their country in a foreign land. One of them was a physically unattractive engineer who was trying to do the right thing while others, including the ambassador, were mired in arrogance and incompetence.

The book was in the end not about the ugliness of the technical man working in the field but, as one commentator put it, “the ugliness of short-sighted, conceited, self-important fools” at the official level.

The book prompted US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review and reform his country’s military aid programme in the fight against Communism in Southeast Asia, and his successor, President John F. Kennedy, made it required reading for his foreign-service people.

On the Milk Stand

by Nicolette Bethel

Something happened recently that went without much comment. A building that once stood at the northwestern corner of Mackey and Shirley Streets was bulldozed down to rubble. The reason? To create a turning lane. The building? A milk stand.

Before I go on, let me say that I don’t have a problem with the bulldozing of the milk stand. Oh, I felt a twinge of regret at seeing it go. But this isn’t going to be a polemic on the evils of tearing down historic buildings to ease traffic congestion. I recognize the need for a turning lane right at that point, and I applaud the decision to make that corner more efficient for traffic. The decision was a pragmatic one, and it was a good one, as far as it went.

What I do want to write about is our capacity for bulldozing that building without understanding — without even asking — what a milk stand is and why it’s significant for the city of Nassau. So I want to give a little history about the milk stand.