Bahama Pundit

The Conceit of Privilege

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.

To borrow a line from a popular advertisement touting American Express: membership has its privileges.  Membership does indeed have its privileges, especially with regards certain groups whether because of race, ethnicity, gender, national origin or class.

While many understand the obligations that come with privilege many are blinded by its conceits, such as arrogance, hypocrisy, indifference and other blinding moral deficits.  Privilege is often an accident of birth, not the will of God, something that xenophobes, jingoists and fundamentalists of all stripes often forget.

Pride in one’s tribe, denomination, religion or ethnic group is understandable.  But, forgetting that membership in such groups should be rooted primarily in membership in the human race and must often transcend group identity is morally dangerous.

Failure to grasp that the privilege of human being comes with the obligation to acknowledge that privilege in others, has given us holocausts and crusades of all sorts, entrenched systems of racial apartheid and economic structures which masquerade as free and fair, while maintaining systems of privilege for select countries and groups.

A Marine Park for Southwest New Providence

 by Larry Smith

Fifty-one years ago a group of Bahamian and American experts conducted a rapid ecological assessment of the Exuma Cays. That historic expedition led to the world's first land and sea park, and to the formation of the Bahamas National Trust to oversee it.

Back then, less than a third of the world's population lived in towns and cities, compared to a majority today. This is a major demographic shift, and by mid-century scientists say two thirds of humanity will be living in urban areas.

But we still depend for our survival and our quality of life on the natural resources located in non-urban areas. This is why it is so important to protect animal species and their habitat through wilderness reserves on land and in the sea.

The mid-20th century was a crucial time for conservation - a sort of tipping point. It was an era of prosperity that took little notice of sustainability. It was also a time when scientists began to understand the impact unlimited growth could have on the Earth's natural resources.

And it was during this period that a young graduate student named Carleton Ray came to the Bahamas to research marine life:

"We hatched this idea of an underwater park over gin and tonics one day, and the Development Board (precursor of the Ministry of Tourism) wrote a press release about it," Ray told a BNT meeting in Nassau recently.

Arawak Cay and Earlier Impacts on the New Providence Shoreline

by Larry Smith

The argument over the Arawak Cay port, the harbour dredging and Saunders Beach has grown more heated lately, so we thought we'd take a look at earlier shoreline impacts on New Providence to provide some much-needed perspective on this issue.

There is something that biologists refer to as the "shifting baseline", which describes the way significant changes to an ecosystem are measured against previous standards, which themselves differ radically from original conditions. In this way, large declines in ecosystems or species over long periods of time are masked.

This is similar to what we are experiencing today with the coastline around Nassau. The fact is that Nassau harbour and adjacent shorelines have been hugely affected by human action for more than a century.

A Common Loftier Goal

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 title of this article is taken from our national anthem. A common loftier goal we should eagerly pursue in our fourth decade of independence and beyond is a more active and responsible citizenship.

Those who calculate that they can dispense with their civic duty by voting every five years, or others who can’t bother to vote because “all politicians are the same” have the luxury of taking for granted the struggle for democracy and freedom, of which they are beneficiaries and for which others have given their lives.

Prom and Circumstance

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.

One of the blessings of the severe economic downturn may be the moderation of some of the worst excesses of the annual prom season, which was yearly becoming gaudier.  Perhaps this is a good moment for the country to reconsider what the prom has become and what gave rise to its excessive pomp and circumstance.

High school leavers should enjoy this rite of passage, celebrating the completion of years of schooling and adolescent discovery.  But, for most school proms, the line between celebration and materialistic excess was crossed many prom nights ago.

Rites of passage, with the guidance of the adult community, are meant to cultivate within our youth some of the values and responsibilities of emerging adulthood. 

This is why the prom and related events are planned by students, with prom night akin to a quasi-adult stepping-out, with fancy dress and some of the usual parental restrictions on nights-out relaxed, but not abandoned.

Proms also reflect prevailing social attitudes and mores.  Most of us have seen stories chronicling racially segregated proms at high schools in the United States and attempts to jettison these lingering vestiges of Jim Crow decades after the legal structures supporting segregation were dismantled.

Good News and Bad News About Sharks

by Larry Smith

“I am the shark among the fishes, and the Ganges among the rivers.” --Bhagavad Gita

Well folks, when it comes to sharks - we have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that sharks - like most other big fish in the ocean - are not long for this world if we continue overfishing on an industrial-scale.

The good news is that because driftnet and longline fishing are banned in the Bahamas, our shark populations are relatively stable. In fact, National Geographic described Bahamian waters as a relative "Eden" for sharks compared to the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, sharks have always suffered from an image problem. People tend to regard them as serial killers and fishing competitors. But to Aleksandra Maljković, a doctoral student in marine ecology at Canada's Simon Fraser University, they are a fascinating research subject.

Race for FNM Deputy Leader

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 in the PLP, the race to become Leader of the FNM and possibly Prime Minister may run through the deputy leadership of the party and the deputy prime ministership.

This is why Cynthia “Mother” Pratt, former Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of the PLP, and Brent Symonette, Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of the FNM, may be vulnerable in their current posts. 

Of the two, Mr. Symonette is more vulnerable than Mother Pratt, who enjoys more popular support in her party and the nation.