Bahama Pundit

A Letter From Bimini

•This letter has been sent to a wide list of people, including the prime minister and deputy prime minister.

by Marty Weech

People from Bimini, and around the world, have been calling for the preservation of this beautiful island for years.

Back in 2000, we were told that our precious home was designated as the highest-priority site in the Bahamas for a Marine Protected Area, yet here we are in 2008 with no MPA. Bimini's MPA is widely supported, locally and internationally, and its implementation is a key factor to the economic and ecological future of the island, long-hailed as the Big Game Fishing Capital of the World.

Just a few days ago, a news report suggested that the government is holding off on designating Bimini's MPA because of a perceived apathy from Bimini, rather than recognizing that for us here, this issue should have already been settled years ago. I am never one to take a defeatist's attitude but I can see why there appears to be a sense of apathy amongst the people of Bimini.

Will Briland Follow Bimini Into Oblivion?

by Larry Smith

Someone once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If that’s so, then trying to replicate failed "anchor projects" throughout our islands would seem to make us certifiably insane.

And the craziest project of them all would have to be Bimini Bay - a hugely inappropriate development on a tiny island of less than 2,000 people. At least one senior government minister has already admitted that agreeing to Miami developer Gerado Capo's plans for Bimini in the late 1990s was a crazy "mistake".

So crazy, in fact, that Fabien Cousteau, grandson of famed ocean explorer Jaques Cousteau, has joined the chorus of voices calling for a halt to this development. Fabien, 40, visited Bimini last month to produce a short video for the Ocean Futures Society headed by his father, Jean Michel Cousteau. The Cousteaus are frequent visitors to the Bahamas.

"I was saddened by what I saw on Bimini," he told Tough Call recently. "The scar left by this unsustainable development will take generations to heal. The long-term cultural and economic livelihood of the people of Bimini is being traded for the short-term gain of a single developer. This is unacceptable."

The Story of South Eleuthera

by Larry Smith

ROCK SOUND: Other than sun, sand and sea, South Eleuthera's attractions are rather modest - a landlocked ocean hole where you can feed the snappers, an 87-year-old fig tree spreading along the highway, and a historic Methodist manse.

The Mission House dates back two centuries, and has been meticulously restored as a museum and community centre. The work has been driven by Peter MacClean (a retired British helicopter pilot who looks every bit the part of a Methodist minister) and his wife Pat (who sold land on Eleuthera in the 1950s for Sir Sidney Oakes). A foundation, led by Chandra Sands (daughter of the late Rock Sound entrepeneur Albert Sands), has raised over half a million dollars to support the project.

Plans to operate this two-storey frame house on the waterfront are now being drafted with the help of the Antiquities Corporation. The Mission has seen a lot of history in its time, and among the items featured in its museum will be obsolete medical equipment. That's because in 1942 the building became a clinic, courtesy of American industrialist Arthur Vining Davis.

Davis was chairman of Alcoa, the world's biggest producer of aluminium. He was also one of the famous 'three tycoons' who triple-handedly created Eleuthera's 20th century economy. The other two were a New England clothmaker named Austin Levy, and Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe.

Legalizing Gambling in the Bahamas

by Craig Butler

Sometime ago Peter Tosh wrote a song entitled ‘Legalize It’, referring to the use of marijuana. Presumably he was speaking about Jamaica but his thrust could have been for a wider audience.

I spent two years in Jamaica and the number of people (professional and otherwise) who smoked ganja was unbelievable. I’m not trying to pick on Jamaicans or seeking to add insult to injury - I am merely drawing an analogy.

Jamaica has refused to legalize marijuana, and probably for good reason. But on a visit you would be forgiven for believing that marijuana was legal because of how freely it is smoked.

In the Bahamas we have the same problem and I’m not speaking about marijuana, although we have developed the same nonchalant attitude towards rolling up a joint and taking a hit. That is a story for another day.

What I speak about is our illegal gaming houses, and the remarks made by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham in Parliament recently.

BEC's Unfriendly Plans for Abaco

by Dave Ralph

For all our concerns about the environment, no one seems to be perturbed about the potentially serious consequences of the proposed power plant on Abaco by the Bahamas Electricity Corporation. This plant is being considered inland from Wilson City, and calls for generators using Bunker C fuel oil.

The use of Bunker C has the potential to lower the cost of electricity as it is the next cheapest energy source after coal. It is sometimes referred to as liquid coal as it is nearly as messy and polluting as coal. Bunker C is a thick, black semi-viscous liquid similar to the liquid tar used to surface roads. It is thick enough to require being heated to push it through pipelines or be used as an engine fuel.

The exhaust emissions from a Bunker C-fueled plant are high in sulfur compounds, contributing to acid rain. As a country, we have not had any direct experience with the consequences of acid rain. However, our prevailing southeast winds will carry the exhaust plume from Wilson City over farm lands and water reserves to the north and further on to Central Abaco. Perhaps the emissions are small enough and the dispersal area is large enough to minimize the consequences.

Renewable Energy Can Free the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

CAPE ELEUTHERA: It was a truly shocking experience.

Who would have thought that the head cheeses of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, Kevin Basden and Fred Gottlieb, would be caught dead at a little out island gabfest on renewable energy?

"I really hope we can get renewables working for us," BEC chairman Gottlieb told the assembled experts and afficionados, "because I am tired of people calling me to complain about the fuel surcharge."

With oil prices now hovering around $100 a barrel, the world's heavily-polluting energy economy is finally beginning to shift gear, and the Bahamas - which imports all its fuel - must adapt or suffer the consequences. The good news is that the economic changes the experts were predicting for the long haul are happening a lot faster than we expected.

The setting for Mr Gottlieb's joke last week is a clear case in point. An American-owned school at Cape Eleuthera that is powered entirely by solar panels and a wind turbine, that recycles its own waste, grows its own food and builds with Casuarina lumber (these imported pine trees are an invasive weed).

And what, just a couple of years ago, might have been merely a gathering of starry-eyed green missionaries turned out to be more of a business meeting than you might think.

Sexual Crimes in the Bahamas

by Craig Butler

It has been reported that police are investigating a relationship between a female teacher and a 12th grade male student.

As I thought about this I was truly upset, but then I was instantly taken back to my school days and a different perspective overcame me. Honestly at that time this was every schoolboy's dream, especially those whose thoughts were influenced by movies such as the Summer of '42 or the Graduate.

During my days in school there were particular teachers who the boys would openly discuss. At that time we were walking vessels of testosterone, and sex overwhelmed our every thought.

Those Awful Newspaper Headlines, Nassau's Vehicle Problem, Smaller Cruise Ships & a Referendum on Privatisation

by Larry Smith

A mini-controversy erupted recently over the prime minister's remarks about responsibility of the press.

Hubert Ingraham called the Tribune to task for its lurid crime headlines. And that criticism drew the ire of publisher Eileen Carron, news editor Paco Nunez and former news editor Athena Damianos (who now works for a realty firm).

They all said roughly the same thing - that the press only reflects what Bahamians are most concerned about - and the best way to change the headlines is to fix the problems of our rapidly deteriorating society. This is true as far as it goes.

But one of Tough Call's correspondents (who asked to remain anonymous) said the press should not be ultra sensitive to criticism from politicians, since to criticize does not necessarily imply that press freedom is being threatened. And he added that while the press has a duty to hold up a mirror to society, warts and all; it should not be all warts.

Overturning the Housing Tax Exemption in the Bahamas and Playing the Race Card in the US

by Craig Butler

The government has refused to extend the tax exemption for first time home buyers in the Bahamas. Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham released the number of housing starts for previous years to show that since the exemption went into effect in 2003 there been no appreciable impact.

With all due respect to the prime minister, he and his government have entirely missed the boat here. Granted there wasn’t the dramatic jump in housing starts that he was suggesting should have occurred to declare the programme a success, but there was a leveling of the numbers - meaning that the variances that can be noted from the figures quoted over the other years had basically evaporated. This could have meant that the impact was just about to take effect.

When coupled with the removal of the exemption given to taxi and bus operators that allowed them to acquire new cars duty free, it must be said these policy reversals are mistakes that should immediately be overturned.