Bahama Pundit

Esfakis Case: Serious Public Interest Issues Remain Unresolved

by Larry Smith

The serious public interest issues raised by the unexpected death of 42-year-old Christopher Esfakis - the son of one of Nassau's legendary GPs - at Doctors Hospital seven years ago remain unresolved, despite multiple attempts to have them addressed.

These matters relate to the delivery of healthcare to all Bahamians and are separate and apart from the personal liability issue surrounding the death itself. That is tied up in a civil suit filed by Esfakis' widow, Lisa, against the hospital and six doctors in 2003. It is still before the court.

But before we look at what the public interest is, here's a brief summary of events to date in this multifaceted case:

A few months after Esfakis died in April 2002, his family began questioning the medical treatment he had received (on the advice of concerned doctors). Following a review of the case by local and foreign experts, the family launched several initiatives to have the matter investigated.

Who Was Dr Peter Solomon Townsend?

by Larry Smith

The American doctor whose 1824 diary of life among Nassau's social elite formed the basis of my article last week also wrote an account of his stay in Paris in 1828.

This diary was published for the first time in the 1951 edition of the Journal of the History of Medicine, a copy of which was loaned to me by COB librarian Virginia Ballance. It features an introductory biography of Dr Townsend, written by George Rosen.

"Wherever Townsend went, and he visited almost every hospital and educational institution in Paris, he recorded these experiences in his diary. As a result, his record contains a very detailed and vivid picture of medical conditions and establishments...Paris was the mecca of medicine during the first half of the 19th century."

Townsend was born in New York in 1796. His father served several terms in the New York legislature. After attending Columbia College he studied medicine as a private pupil of a practising physician, earning his MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1816 with a dissertation on the Influence of the Passions in the Production and Modification of Disease.

For the next half dozen years he took an active part in the medical and scientific life of New York and was a founder of the Lyceum of Natural History. He also wrote an account of a yellow fever outbreak in the city in 1822, which gained him a reputation as an expert in epidemic diseases.

Ill health, probably due to tuberculosis, led Townsend to move to the Bahamas in December 1823 to seek a more congenial climate. In addition to his diary of the year he spent in Nassau as the guest of the Honourable James Moss, he also wrote a memoir on the Topography, Weather and Diseases of the Bahama Islands. And his Bahamas sojourn was followed by trips to Europe.

In the 1830s Townsend became involved in New York politics and wrote on political matters for the Evening Star newspaper. Following this period of political activity he resumed his private practice. He died of tuberculosis on March 26, 1849.

Bec & Lleyton’s Bahamian Adventure

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.

Lights, camera, action!  A twenty-something Australian princess bride scarcely known to the majority of the natives -- sorry, “locals” -- accompanies her celebrity husband to an idealized Caribbean stage set.  As in any good fairy tale or public relations exercise, the drama quickly unfolds.  After all, there are magazines to sell, careers to promote and prejudices to be exploited in the interest of both. 

Soon after moving to The Bahamas, the transplants realize that “just 25 minutes drive away” from their conveniently adopted paradise home cum tax haven and “gilded cage” the “locals live in abject poverty in the slums of Nassau”.

Welcome to Home and Away Bahamas, a pilot concept for an Australian soap opera intended for a tabloid and celebrity obsessed demographic.  It stars transplants from Down Under in a tropical adventure, battling false expectations and the threat of fearsome natives outside their Old Fort garrison, fortified by barbed wire and the hope that the social scene may soon pick up.

A Window Onto a Long-Lost Age—But Some Things Never Change!

by Larry Smith

As John Cleese used to say..."And now for something completely different."

Tough Call enjoyed some esoteric reading last weekend that's worth sharing, even though it's unrelated to anything in particular that's happening today. It was a "delightful document" published by the Bahamas Historical Society in 1968. Other than history buffs, few are familiar with it today, and it opens a fascinating window on a long-lost age.

The document in question was a personal journal kept by an American physician named P. S. Townsend, who lived in Nassau from December 1823 to September 1824. It is, according to historians Michael Craton and Gail Saunders, one of "the three earliest sets of private documents still surviving...from the Loyalist slavery era."

Townsend's 68-page diary - lodged between well-worn, marbled board covers that also enclosed a 113-page medical day book - was found decades ago in a Boston bookshop by one William Miller, a New York college professor who happened to have been born in Nassau. After his death, Miller's widow gave the journal to the Bahamas Historical Society, which transcribed the handwritten notes and published it as a slim booklet.

The Church’s Defining Moment

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.

Soon after the government’s introduction of legislation to outlaw rape within marriage, the debate on the matter began spinning out of control, fuelled substantially by fear and misinformation, before being rescued in great measure by a new generation of Christian leaders.

Mercifully, what could have descended into a slippery slope was elevated into a tipping point, an occasion for conversion, a moment when our post-independence democracy took a critical and perhaps decisive step.

While leaders should learn not to repeat the mistakes of the past, they should also learn not to refight recent battles which no longer apply.  We are not replaying the referendum fight of 2002 as regards women’s rights – a lesson some in both major parties are starting to learn.

The Mother of All Town Meetings— Abaconians Show Their Ire Over Bypassing of Local Government

by Larry Smith

MARSH HARBOUR, Abaco - Faced with overwhelming disapproval from a standing room-only crowd of Abaconians upset over the bypassing of local interests, Bahamas Electrcity Corporation chiefs orchestrating a town meeting here last week admitted to a failure of process and promised to learn from their mistakes.

"Things could have been handled better," BEC general manager Kevin Basden told his critics, referring to construction of a 48-megawatt oil-fired power plant on Abaco that proceeded without any local consultation, "and lessons will be learnt from this."

The town meeting was hastily called to address a groundswell of concern about the environmental and other implications of the plant, whose foundations have already been laid on a 25-acre site near Wilson City, about 14 miles south of Marsh Harbour. But in many respects the effort came years too late.

As BEC chairman Fred Gottlieb confirmed at the meeting, the Christie administration decided to build the $105 million power plant back in 2005, after years of dithering. And the construction contracts were signed by the Ingraham government in December, 2007. But neither government has involved the people of Abaco at any stage of the planning process.

Bahamas Christian Council’s Moral Confusion

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.

We are not solely engaged in a debate on marital rape.  As critically, it is a defining moment for this generation of religious heads as to why, when and how to engage the state and others in dialogue on a range of ethical and moral questions from gambling to the most capital of punishments.

Surprisingly -- or perhaps not -- some leaders, often more vocal on other occasions, seem to have been struck temporarily deaf, dumb and mute, perhaps waiting to see how the wind blows, careful not to get on the wrong side of some who may be mainstays of their ministries.

Meanwhile, the dramatic contrasts in the statements on the proposed rape within marriage amendment, between that of Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder (and others) and that of the Christian Council, issued under the name of its President, Rev. Patrick Paul, are instructive and revealing. 

Politicos of all Stripes Failed to Support TCI Decolonisation—now Misick Wants to put Lipstick on a Pig

by Larry Smith

If you wanted a good laugh, you should have tuned in last week to Wendall Jones' conversation with former Turks & Caicos premier Michael Misick.

Misick said he was being punished for his success in developing the TCI as the Monte Carlo of the Caribbean: "The British used allegations of corruption to stop our move towards independence," he asserted, adding that: "We never violated the laws or the constitution."

In a variation on this theme, he also told the London Times that the recent suspension of the TCI constitution "has less to do with the corruption and more to do with (British) policy, particularly in relation to tax havens."

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig!

Hubert Ingraham’s Progressive Agenda – 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.

In the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures, the test of justice is clear: Where you stand with God depends on how you stand with your neighbour.  At the heart of that test is the command to care for widows, orphans and resident aliens – a mandate of the ages, enduring across millennia and cultures, as urgent in our times as of those of the Hebrew Prophets.  

Today, those committed to social justice in the tradition of the Biblical prophets are engaged in the timeless work of defending the rights of and caring for widows (women), orphans (children) and resident aliens (illegal immigrants), often the more vulnerable among us.  Hubert Ingraham follows in this progressive tradition. 

National Geographic Publicity on Bahamian Blue Holes to Exceed Miss Universe Exposure

by Larry Smith

When National Geographic breaks its magazine cover story, television documentary and online coverage of the Bahamian blue holes expedition next summer, the impact is likely to surpass this year's Miss Universe spectacle in terms of promotional value for the Bahamas - and at virtually no cost to the public treasury.

In contrast, the Miss Universe pageant has cost the Bahamas big-time. Although the exact breakdown has not been forthcoming, those costs include a hosting fee (said to be under $6 million) paid to the Miss Universe Organisation, a $2.9 million contribution by the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board in cash, goods and services, plus government spending on road paving and other fix-ups.

There are, of course, undeniable benefits from the 13 pageant events that were held here last month. The Miss Universe telecast included some nine minutes of footage of the Bahamas that amounted to a prime time commercial aired in at least 85 countries. Almost six million Americans tuned in, and the Ministry of Tourism's website received a big traffic boost before, during and after the pageant.