Bahama Pundit

More On Why Race Matters

by Nicolette Bethel

Last week I wrote about why race matters in the twenty-first century Bahamas., and argued that unless we talk about our experiences as different human beings in this multiracial, hierarchical society, we will continue to relive old prejudices forever.

This week, I want to talk a little about why race matters to me -- a Bahamian who, at different times and in different places in this Bahamas, has been categorized as black, white and coloured, and treated accordingly.

Let me tell you a story.

Foulkes Appointed Acting Governor-General

Sir Arthur Foulkes has suspended his column while he acts as governor-general in the absence of Arthur Hanna. He will resume his posts on Bahama Pundit next week.

The Bluewater Deal to Buy the Bahamas Telecommunications Company

by Larry Smith

"There is no circumstance under which BTC could be sold on credit, and what you are going to do after you get it must be clearly stated - you must have the money, the means and the technology to do it, otherwise no deal. And I say that for the benefit of all those who believe they got a deal." -- Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham

Just before the election, the Christie government made a secret $260 million deal to sell 49 per cent of BTC to a little-known entity called Bluewater Ventures - 'secret' in the sense that the public wasn't aware that a deal had been struck and didn't know the terms, although talks had been ongoing for two years.

Bluewater describes itself as "a private equity firm specializing in turnarounds and investments in the media and telecommunications sectors". It was founded in 2003 by John Gregg, an American who has helped run several European cable companies.

Online reports say Gregg has executed over $25 billion of acquisitions during his career. For nine years he was a top executive at the British cable operator, NTL, where he helped found a pioneering internet service, called Virgin.Net, with Sir Richard Branson in 1996.

After Gregg set up Bluewater, NTL went on to merge with Branson's popular Virgin Mobile cell phone service to become one of the first "quadruple-play" media companies in the world - offering television, Internet, cell and fixed-line voice services to over 10 million customers.

In telecoms, the triple play refers to a service provider's ability to provide voice, data, and video services to customers as a single package. Quad play refers to the delivery of voice, video, data, AND mobility. It is all about convergence - experts say - merging different media into one operating platform.

And that is apparently what Bluewater has in mind for BTC. It is also something that Cable Bahamas has been longing to do for years.

My Analysis of the Bahamas General Election

by Craig Butler

First of all I would like to thank God as well as congratulate the Bahamian people on a job well done, as we were able to see the democratic process unfurl in front of our eyes without violence. Secondly I would like to congratulate the Free National Movement on its victory and wish them the best for the next five years.

During the past five years that I have written this column I have tried to be objective, and depending on whom you speak to some say that I have a tendency to favour the FNM whilst others would say that I have been pro PLP.

I have always tried to give credit to the government where it was due but I have also applied criticism when it was appropriate - sometimes scathingly. And I will comment on the current FNM government with the same vigour as I did during the PLP administration.

Like many others I too am a Monday morning quarterback and therefore I have my own views as to why the PLP lost the government after what was really five years of economic prosperity.

Before I meander down that path I want to address something I found troubling. There were all sorts of rumours of election fraud and attempts to steal the election - from a senior PLP official found in possession of over 4000 official ballots, to a young lady and a gentleman being held in a class room at GHS by police officers after the young lady turned up with a garbage bag of ballots already filled in. On hearing this I must admit I thought that there was going to be a riot if the same had proven true.

On Why Race Matters

by Nicolette Bethel

It doesn't. Really.

And if you believe that, I have a couple of bridges to sell you.

I've written about race before, from two different perspectives. The first time I wanted to write about why race didn't matter -- about how all people are fundamentally human alike, and how the concept of "race" is an idea that is used to achieve various goals. The second time, I wanted to talk about racism, which occurs when humans act on what they imagine to be racial differences.

Today, I want to bring it home. I want to discuss why race matters, here and now, in the twenty-first-century Bahamas.

Now some of you may feel the urge to put the paper down, thinking "not this again". Before you do, consider this. We Bahamians love to avoid discussion of the very things that are most crucial to us. We have unacceptably high incidences of pregnancy, HIV and other STD transmissions, and sexual abuse among our young people, and yet we steadfastly refuse to talk about issues of sex and sexuality in any constructive and positive way. We have unprecedented numbers of stateless people living among us, and yet we refuse to discuss any sensible policy relating to immigration and citizenship. And, forty years after majority rule, we remain a deeply divided society that continues to remember and celebrate distinctions based on colour.

Moving Nassau's Cargo Port to Save the City

by Larry Smith

For almost 20 years private sector leaders have been seeking to persuade successive governments to sanction, if not actually lead, the revitalisation of downtown Nassau.

And for almost 20 years the city has steadily decomposed into a filthy, traffic-choked slum, overrun with hucksters and dope peddlers, offering little of interest even to those notoriously cheap cruise visitors.

In fact, cruise tourism to Nassau was down almost 12 per cent last year, compared to a 2 per cent drop in air arrivals - an indication that the seaport is even more of a disincentive than the airport.

And it certainly begs the question of how the Ministry of Tourism can talk incessantly about "improving our product" to attract more business while the capital city (and main destination) remains a big, suppurating mess with no attractions.

As those of us over 40 can recall, it wasn't always so. Back then Bay Street was a big tourist draw, as this account by architect Pat Rahming recalls:

The Way Forward for the PLP After the Bahamas Election

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

As the dust settles from the 2007 election both national political parties will no doubt be assessing their standing in the country and the challenges facing them – external and internal.

The Free National Movement is, of course, in the better position. Having won the election, the primary objective of Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and his colleagues is now to govern well, even though they will be taking a good look at their performance, especially in some constituencies they expected to win but did not.

Opposition Leader Perry Christie and his colleagues must not only mount an effective opposition in parliament but they also face the daunting task of examining why they lost the election and became the first one-term government in Bahamian history and, more importantly, what to do about it.

On Personality Cults

by Nicolette Bethel

There has been much talk over the past three months in the media and over the airwaves about the differences between two men, men who, at their best, are two parts of a whole. Much of the bottom line of the 2007 election rhetoric was fastened on to one thing and one thing only: who would voters like to have running the country -- a man who acts quickly and decisively and makes massive errors, or a man who contemplates all sides of an issue and hardly acts at all?

Let me say this. Contrary to what we believe, twenty-first century leaders don't run countries. People do. For the first time ever, it is possible for democracy to function as it should. Thanks to fundamental changes in the transmission of information, every member of a democracy has the opportunity to make his or her voice heard -- over the airwaves, through the medium of the radio talk show, or, more revolutionary yet, over the internet, through blogs and podcasts.

Prostitution of Government Information Infrastructure in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

Here's the thing. We all got to make a living. And since Steve Mckinney is a political flack and ZNS hack, he gets to make a living off the rest of us.

In fact, having been in the business myself for a long time - I'd have to say that Mckinney is the most successful PR flack in the country. At $142,000 per annum (plus other business) Mckinney is raking in more bucks than the governor-general, the prime minister, the chief justice, permanent secretaries and media magnates like Charles carter or Wendall Jones.

In fact, Jones admitted as much (in amazement) on his media talk show last week when he, Fred Sturrup and Godfrey Eneas grilled Mckinney for some 30 minutes.

And the most amazing point of all is that Mckinney's government contracts included perks like paid vacations, sick leave, casual leave, gratuities, etc - all at taxpayer expense.

Mckinney has a contract to provide public relations and speech-writing services for the Ministry of Tourism, but top officials know nothing about it - and Tourism has its own in-house PR and broadcasting unit, as well as an expensive out-house PR firm. And, the prime minister says, Mckinney also has a similar public relations contract with the Ministry of Education.

The PLP, Victimisation and ZNS

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Steve McKinney and Philippa Russell should have been fired immediately and unceremoniously as talk show hosts on ZNS Radio the day after the election.

As a matter of fact, they should not have been hired for this job in the first place; but having hired them, it should not have taken the management of ZNS long to realize that they were totally unsuited to be talk show hosts on this national broadcast facility, or any other for that matter.

It was clear when the PLP came to office in 2002 that the leaders of that party fully intended to turn back the clock and to undermine much of the progress that had been made in deepening and expanding our democracy, not only with regard to broadcasting but in other areas as well.