Bahama Pundit

The Sociology of Choice

by Simon

In 1973, the year of Bahamian independence, the US-based fast food chain Burger King launched the “Have it your way” advertising campaign.  In a famous jingle the chain promised they could: “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce.  Special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way!” 

The burger house, like others, was spreading its franchise globally, and adding a critical dimension to its marketing strategy.  That dimension was giving consumers a customized product with greater choice, a hamburger made to order satisfying a range of tastes.

Burger King’s strategy was the opposite of what the automobile pioneer Henry Ford quipped in 1909 about the mass-produced Model T: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.”

A Preliminary Assessment of Hubert Ingraham's Legacy

by Larry Smith

"My name is Hubert Ingraham - I don't need nothing before that." - Hubert Ingraham, rejecting a possible knighthood on his retirement from public life

The first time Hubert Ingraham came across my radar (and I have met him only two or three times in the past 30 years) was in a lawyer friend's office when Ingraham was chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party.

My lawyer friend was engaged in a telephone argument with Ingraham over citizenship for Belongers, a hot button issue of the 1970s and 80s. The argument was of interest to me because my father was a Belonger - having been posted here in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

He married an out island commissioner's daughter on Harbour Island in 1944, and I was one of the babies produced in the boom years that followed the war. But my father had been denied his constitutional right to citizenship by the post-Independence PLP government.

The status of white "foreigners" was a huge issue in those days, for understandable but nonetheless objectionable reasons. But that's more than enough about me - this article is about Hubert Alexander Ingraham.

I clearly recall my exasperated lawyer friend telling Ingraham sarcastically that when the Free National Movement came to power they would revoke his citizenship retroactively. The prospect of such a government seemed almost laughable at the time, but the lawyer eventually became a prominent supporter of Ingraham - after he was kicked out of the PLP to become the first FNM prime minister.

An apprenticed lawyer himself, Ingraham had been picked as a rising star in the PLP by his mentor, Sir Lynden Pindling. In 1977 he was elected by his home constituency of Cooper's Town in North Abaco, and was named to the cabinet in 1982.

He was clearly on a trajectory in the party, but within two years he was fired by Pindling for taking a principled stand against government corruption revealed by the 1984 Commission of Inquiry. In 1986 he was expelled from the party, but managed to retain his Cooper's Town seat in the 1987 general election, running as an independent.

Diplomatic Postings -- China

by Simon

So close are we to the US in terms of geography, history and popular culture that we remain ignorant of the history and culture of China, and often deeply suspicious of its contemporary intentions.  This ignorance and suspicion, studied and reflexive, is often stoked by a similar mindset in the United States.

None of this is to suggest that the People’s Republic is a benevolent giant dispensing its largesse and proclaiming friendship simply out of the goodness of its heart.  Likewise, with our American friends.

Proximity, historically and geographically, breeds familiarity.  Having achieved independence in 1973, the British Empire is a recent memory, and the American superpower is what the name implies.  We are rooted in, and deeply influenced by Anglo-American culture.

But today, there is another international player capturing our attention in terms of economics and geopolitics, though only slightly in terms of culture thus far.  Even as the British were getting ready to shutter its High Commission, China and The Bahamas were ramping up diplomatic relations.

Many a Slip Between Cup and Lip

by Simon

Perry Christie is one of those politicians typically at his best when he feels threatened.  Tellingly, despite a landslide of seats in the House of Assembly, though not of the popular vote, he executed a defensive manoeuvre to diminish threats to his leadership.

Despite a sizeable House majority, to forestall the possibility of losing the confidence of a majority of government MPs he appointed what the Opposition labelled a gussimae cabinet. 

Of the 29 PLPs in the House, 21 are in the cabinet, three are parliamentary secretaries and one is the Speaker, leaving only enough backbenchers to comfortably fit in a compact car, which can be driven to the comfortable appointments they will likely be assigned.

Christie is playing the political version of carrots and sticks.  He unsheathed his Damocles sword, quickly announcing the possibility of a midterm cabinet shake-up, the effect of which is to keep his cabinet guessing while tantalizing ministers of state and others with the possibility of future full ministerial appointment.

A prime minister has other bulwarks against losing his status as first among equals.  Controlling the votes at a national convention is such an indispensable measure. 

Christie learned this lesson from Sir Lynden Pindling who was nearly overthrown in what became known as the attempted Christmas coup of 1962 and the revolt of 1970.  Christie also learned it of necessity, as reportedly much of his first cabinet in 2002 appeared not to have supported him as Leader.

The Changing Bahamas Investment Scene

by Richard Coulson

Major changes in the financial game often creep up almost unnoticed , without  fanfare or formal proclamations. That’s what’s happening in The Bahamas. 

The latest signal was the recent announcement by our banks that their interest rate for ordinary demand deposits is reduced from 1.25% to 0.50%, an abrupt  decline of over 50% to the lowest level in living memory.

For thousands of Bahamians who have relied on a bank deposit, liquid and pretty safe, to park their cash and give them a modest return - well, they’re now out of luck. Keeping cash under the proverbial mattress has become not a bad option, given the fees that any bank charges just to maintain an account.

Leslie Miller and the Racist LNG Conspiracy

by Larry Smith

Last week, Progressive Liberal Party MP Leslie Miller went on talk radio to complain bitterly that this column had  "lambasted" his appointment as BEC chairman.

Indeed. I wrote that Miller's appointment had "turned back the clock" on one of our key economic sectors (Miller had been BEC chairman for three years from 1987 under the Pindling government).

But Miller went on to say that I was part of a racist "conspiracy to enslave the minds of Bahamians". The object of this conspiracy (involving environmentalists and journalists) was to prevent the use of liquified natural gas (LNG) to generate electricity in the Bahamas.

Miller claimed, "The minute you say LNG, instead of looking at the subject they kill the messenger, and I happen to be the messenger…People like Smith and (that) little group of conspirators try to hold the majority of the Bahamian people back and keep them in their place. They want to dictate the course of our country to the detriment of the many."