Bahama Pundit

What an Obama Presidency will Mean for the Bahamas and the World

by Larry Smith

With only a week to go before the election, Barack Obama has taken a significant lead over John McCain among American voters. But in the rest of the world he has been a shoo-in for months.

In Europe, millions of disenfranchised voters are eagerly awaiting the end of the reviled Bush regime, which is likely to go down in history as America's most unsuccessful presidency.

Last month, the annual transatlantic trends survey said 69 per cent of Europeans favoured Obama over McCain, and almost half expected US relations with Europe to improve if Obama is elected. And we won't even mention the fervent support for the Illinois senator among Bahamians.

According to a poll last summer by the London Daily Telegraph, more people in France, Germany and Britain view the United States as a “force for evil” than for good in the world - an unfortunate sentiment that is the result of eight years of in-your-face unilateralism under President George W. Bush.

This year's Pew survey of global attitudes (which polled more than 24,000 people in 24 countries) found a widespread belief that US foreign policy "will change for the better" after the inauguration of a new president next year. And people are much more confident in Obama to do the right thing regarding world affairs.

The Heritage Sector—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

Heritage is the universality of the human experience expressed in individual cultures.

If you stand near the entrance to Clifford Park and face the Western Esplanade you will find an almost nondescript monument with names that have mostly faded away.

The significance of the monument is also fading away. The 20-foot obelisk memorializes the heroism of five 19th century Bahamian men who gave their lives attempting to save others drowning at sea at the entrance to Nassau Harbour.

But the story behind such courage may be lost if the monument is not in the words of a national treasure, “restored in weather-resistant material, repositioned, chained off, landscaped and lighted.”

Invasion of the Lionfish Threatens Bahamian Fisheries

by Larry Smith

The Bahamas is facing one of the most disastrous marine invasions in history.

No, we are not talking about illegal Haitians, Dominican poachers, or South American drug traffickers. But the fact is that what we are facing could literally destroy our reefs and fisheries - the species and ecosystems that define our culture and quality of life.

"They have just literally exploded through time," said Oregon State University marine biologist Dr Mark Hixon, who has spent years doing underwater research in the Bahamas. "It's like a plague of locusts, and we are not very optimistic at this point that eradication is possible."

An Age of Turbulence?

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

As the financial crisis bleeds into an economic one, the market is increasingly relying on massive state aid to save it from its worst excesses. Government, which was once religiously described as the problem is now an essential part of the solution.

Life has unintended consequences. Thanks to those who demanded nominal government and a self-regulating market, the state is about to own an even larger and unhealthy share of national economies and the global economy.

Finding a Strategy to Deal with the Economic Crisis

by Larry Smith

A few months ago - in May to be exact - Tough Call asked the question: are we in for a macroeconomic adjustment?

We suggested (along with others) that the world economy was about to shift gears in some fundamental ways, and it was fair to ask just how serious things could get and how we would be affected.

It seems we will soon have a definitive answer to our question.

Business Cycles are Nothing New
Economists have identified 10 boom-and-bust cycles in the six or so decades since the Second World War. On average, the contractions lasted less than a year, while the expansions ran for almost six years.

Those post-war crises included the oil price shocks of the 1970s, the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, and the Dot.com crash of 2000, which was closely followed by the fallout from the 9/11 terror attacks.

But those recessions pale beside the Great Depression - the longest and deepest economic crisis of modern times. Beginning in some countries as early as 1928, it led to unprecedented political and social changes and was brought to an end only by the onset of World War II in 1941 - another great catastrophe.

The Folly of Fundamentalism

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

Many of the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are as unsound as the market fundamentalism which led to the near collapse of the financial industry and the resulting credit crunch that threatens everything from businesses attempting to borrow to meet their payrolls to individuals cutting back on overseas vacations.

One of the problems with a fundamentalist mindset is that it takes a point of view and converts it into the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”. This is as true for religious fundamentalism as it is for market fundamentalism.

Could San Salvador be Captain Kidd's Treasure Island?

by Larry Smith

My name is Captain Kidd, God's laws I did forbid
And most wickedly I did, as I sailed, as I sailed

I'd ninety bars of gold, as I sailed, as I sailed,
I'd ninety bars of gold, and dollars manifold,
With riches uncontrolled, as I sailed.

If you believe the noise in the market, the good folks of San Salvador have unimaginable wealth in their grasp, and are taking advice from an international media figure named Roberto Savio - an Italian part-time resident since the 1980s - on how to divvy up the spoils.

Lending a stamp of authenticity to the story, Dr Savio recently presented a document appropriately entitled "From Individual Greed to Collective Happiness" to a standing room-only public meeting in Cockburn Town. It offers a blueprint on how to share out billions in gold, silver and gems believed to lie in a collapsed cave at Fortune Hill, on the island's barren east coast.

Our Changing Landscape

by Craig Butler

After finishing some errands about two Saturdays ago I was just off Blue hill Road south and decided to visit Goodfellows Farms.

Since I was already in the south I decided to take the back route. From time to time I feel as though we ought to drive the island to observe the changes and generally to see what’s up. Well, it had been a while since I had done this and let me tell you that what I saw enveloped me in a sadness similar to what one experiences on the death of a loved one.

I kid you not, and neither am I exaggerating when I say I was crying as I drove along Adelaide road. I know that you must be thinking that I was having an emotional day as the drive, combined with the fact that I was listening to Pink Floyd, was the perfect recipe for being emotive.

I honestly wish I could tell you that was the case, but the simple truth is I was led to tears by what I saw.

Nassau Should Learn From Florence—Where Historical Tourism Earns Big Bucks

by Larry Smith

Several weeks ago Tough Call was in Savannah - a 200-plus-year-old city in Georgia that is about the size of Nassau, with an impressive level of historical preservation that earns billions of tourist dollars a year.

But Savannah can't begin to compete with Florence - a 2000-plus-year-old city in Italy that I had the opportunity to explore a few days ago. The past is overwhelmingly present throughout this historical treasure house of some 365,000 people - and it sends a crystal-clear message to Bahamians.

In Florence there is scarcely a modern building to be found and, in a curious reversal of conditions in Nassau, it is the contemporary buildings that are most likely to suffer from neglect. In Florence, a historic building (the earliest date back to the 11th century) is a ticket to affluence rather than an encumbrance to be razed under cover of darkness.