Bahama Pundit

Privatisation and the General Strike

by Larry Smith

Union leader Robert Farquarson has raised the spectre of a general strike for the first time in 50 years, in a bid to derail privatisation plans for the Bahamas Telecommunications Company.

Workers blocked Bay Street and engaged in noisy demonstrations to register their concern over the privatisation process. BTC is the first public corporation to be put on the chopping block - although it has taken a decade for the axe to fall.

The threat of a national walk-out by some 45,000 union members was meant to invoke memories of the 1958 general strike, which shut New Providence down for almost three weeks. So it is worth taking a look at what happened then.

Sir Clifford Darling's 2002 book, A Bahamian Life Story, provides most of the background necessary to form an appreciation. In addition to his personal perspective as a strike leader, the book features secret reports by the colonial authorities, as well as contemporary newspaper accounts.

Vanderpool-Wallace’s Challenge – Part 2

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com

According to a regional tourism expert, change does not come easily: “There is a heavy government involvement in tourism development, but governments are not designed to be innovative. Governments are designed to follow rules.”

This warning came from the former head of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace -- our newly minted Minister of Tourism and Aviation.

The Minister will need to break some moulds and foster a culture of innovation if he and the country are to be successful in responding to a single question, posed in two parts, in last week’s column.

How do we see ourselves and how do we wish to portray ourselves to international audiences? In tourism lingo, the former refers to product and the latter to promotion. Both, of course, are questions of patrimony.

Dawn Marshall Reviews IOM MIgration Report

In 1979, Bahamian Dawn Marshall, sister of retired Supreme Court justice Jeanne Thompson, wrote the first (and for a long time the only) study of the Haitian migration to the Bahamas (The Haitian Problem: Illegal Migration to the Bahamas). Her research was conducted in the summers of 1969, 1970 and 1971, and it formed the basis for most of the secondary research carried out on the subject.

In 2005, the International Office of Migration - an intergovermental group - collaborated with the College of the Bahamas to produce a comprehensive review of all available literature and data on the Haitian migration. This was combined with a survey of 500 Haitian residents on New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco and Eleuthera sanctioned by the government and the Haitian Embassy.

We reported the results of the IOM study in this space over the past two weeks (see www.bahamapundit.com), and asked Dawn Marshall for her views, which are published here today.

Dawn is an independent consultant who focuses on regional initiatives in the areas of poverty alleviation, the environment, health, physical planning, population and development. She has a graduate degree in geography from the University of the West Indies and worked mainly in migration studies as a Research Fellow at the then Institute of Social and Economic Research (now the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at UWI) from 1970 to 1985.

Towards a Comprehensive Immigration Policy
by Dawn Marshall

Minister of State Branville McCartney’s efforts to “arrest the problem” of illegal Haitian migration have generated much discussion, both private and public. Various government ministers, of various political parties, have been trying to “arrest the problem” since the 1950s – without permanent success.

The International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) report on the 2005 COB study of Haitian Migrants in The Bahamas, reviewed by Larry Smith last week, provides an excellent opportunity for Bahamians to engage in an objective, non-partisan, discussion. Such a discussion could provide valuable input into the new immigration policy which the previous Minister of State for Immigration said last June was to be announced shortly.

Hard Times and Misguided Priorities

by Craig Butler

I believe all of us are keenly aware of the difficult economic times we are going through. Just look at the bills you have been receiving lately and observe the exponential rise whilst considering how much less you are able to afford on your present budget.

Breadbasket items seem as though they have doubled in price. I paid almost $6 the other day for a gallon of gas. And lets not talk about the cost of eating out - even fast food has gone up.

What has been more disturbing to me of late are the stories I have been regaled with of those who are most affected and their actions in the face of the adversity.

Migration Report: Time for a Rational, Non-Partisan Haitian Policy

by Larry Smith

"His African-ness and his poverty and the fact that he does not speak English make him the subject of derision, while at the same time a needed economic prop upon which this country survives." -- Fred Mitchell, 2000

One end of the spectrum of opinion on Haitian immigrants is encapsulated in the above quote. The other is expressed in the words of a hardline editorial in last week's Punch.

According to Punch publisher Ivan Johnson, Haitian migrants are a huge burden that the country cannot afford. They hog our public services and make no contribution in return.

"Haitians are taking over by stealth," the Punch cried. "(The government) must ensure that the Bahamas is for Bahamians - not a bunch of illiterate, illegal foreigners...There are already some 80,000 Haitians (here) out of a population of 330,000."

These comments echo the fears of many Bahamians, who believe that Haitians make up at least a quarter of our population. But according to recent research by the International Office of Migration (see earlier post), this is an exaggeration.

Vanderpool-Wallace’s Challenge – Part 1

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com

The country recently granted Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, C.M.G., one of its highest honours. Soon thereafter it entrusted to him one of our greater national challenges: the rethinking and revitalization of our premier industry.

Technocrats often do not make for the best politicians cum cabinet ministers, especially in a highly charged political environment. However, there are notable exceptions.

Migration Report Profiles Haitian Community in The Bahamas

by Larry Smith

The capture of hundreds of Haitians arriving by boat on the southern coast of New Providence recently focused new attention on our illegal immigration problem.

According to Minister of State Branville McCartney, "If we don't arrest this problem, we will face difficulties."

And Police Commissioner Reginald Ferguson acknowledged the security risks involved in the smuggling of terrorists, narcotics and firearms along with illegal immigrants: "It has the potential to be very, very, very serious for us."

There are two key immigration issues that the government, and Bahamians in general, must contend with - stabilising the size of the Haitian community, and integrating long-term Haitian residents into the mainstream of Bahamian society.

But just how serious is the problem? What are the implications? How do we develop effective policies? Well, the answer to those questions requires good information - something which is conspicuously lacking. So three years ago the International Office of Migration was asked to undertake an assessment of the Haitian community in the Bahamas.

The Importance of Teachers in Improving Education

by Ralph Massey

Guest author Ralph Massey studied economics at Case University and at the University of Chicago, where his course advisor was Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate. His business career covered 37 years with four multinational companies. At Kimberly-Clark Corporation, for instance, he was assistant treasurer, and at Chemical Bank he was the offshore banking manager for the Bank of New Providence. He was a founding member of the Nassau Institute and since late 2004 has been a contributor to the work of the Coalition for Education Reform.

In a recent Tribune article, Adrian Gibson called Bahamian public education an “inadequate sham” and described this year’s public high school leavers in colourful terms.

Up to 60 per cent of them do not graduate; and in fact, they are, according to Mr. Gibson, a horde of “arithmetically-challenged halfwits” who get a certificate of attendance instead of a diploma. They are sexually permissive, speak and act offensively and are unprepared to enter the workforce. Yet…they attend lavish and wildly garish graduation proms.

The Virtues of Pluralism

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com

Recently, while sifting through old papers and files, I stumbled upon the 2006 row over the banning of the film Brokeback Mountain by the anachronistically named Bahamas Plays and Films Control Board.

Overworked by vector, animal and exchange control matters, the state should have been less militant regarding the mind control business.

The 1976 legislation guiding this board was used by Big Brother -- reminiscent of Eric Arthur Blair’s 20th Century warning, Nineteen Eighty-Four -- to suppress a 21st Century flick, of which our minders disapproved.