Bahama Pundit

Bahamian Heritage in the County of Norfolk

by Larry Smith

THETFORD, Norfolk -- Probably few readers will know that the first black mayor of an English town - specifically this town, a coach stop on the way from London to Norwich - was a Bahamian physician named Alan Glaiser Minns.

Of course, the term "black" depends on your perspective. Alan was the grandson of John Minns, who in 1800 "absconded from his apprenticeship" as a baker in Reading to be shipwrecked off Nassau. He subsequently married the African woman who saved his life - a slave named Rosetta. Retired airline pilot Paul Aranha and Exuma civic leader Basil Minns number among their descendants today.

John and Rosetta had several children. One grandson became the first non-white Anglican priest in the Bahamas. Two others trained as doctors in England, and both practised in Thetford. Pembroke Minns died here in 1912. His more illustrious brother Alan (who was born on Inagua in 1858), also died in England in 1930.

Although not many Bahamians are aware of Dr Minns' place in English political history, Susan Ketchell at the Ancient House Museum on White Acre Street here certainly was. During my visit, she recalled a recent lecture and exhibit on the subject. Minns' three-year term as mayor (from 1904) may have been just a footnote to Thetford's 1500-year history, but he was considered an exemplary candidate nonetheless.

The Never-Ending Story of Banco Ambrosiano

by Larry Smith

The area between Lightbourne Lane and Brown's Boat Basin was once a collection of modest wooden homes, periodically flattened in the early part of the 20th century by one hurricane or another. But in the spring of 1982 an impressive new building rose from these ruined lots along East Bay Street.

At the time, Banco Ambrosiano's multi-million-dollar, four-storey office building overlooking the harbour (now owned by Colina Insurance) was said to be the island's biggest non-hotel investment ever. It represented an ostentatious display by one of the top players in the international financial sector - a bank with close ties to the Vatican.

Tribune reporter Athena Damianos was suitably impressed following a guided tour at the gala opening: “The wealth and power of Banco Ambrosiano of Milan – the largest private bank in Italy and parent of the Nassau bank – is strongly evident,” she wrote, describing a vast marble stairway, an impregnable security system, and luxurious penthouse apartments for visiting directors.

Back then, Banco Ambrosiano's Nassau subsidiary was led by a flamboyant Swiss banker named Pierre Siegenthaler. He was a well-known man-about-town who won international regattas on behalf of the Royal Nassau Sailing Club, where his custom-built catamaran was berthed.

When Banco Ambrosiano opened the doors of its plush new offices on East Bay Street in April, 1982, Siegenthaler joked about the lavish appointments: “We don’t have gold telephones, but the style of this organisation is to do things with taste and to do it well...We’re going to be here a long, long time.”

The Loyalist Side of the American Revolution—with Special Reference to the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

When a dramatic vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Lynden Pindling was called 40 years ago, probably no-one in Cecil Wallace-Whitfield's group of dissident PLPs (who were later to constitute themselves as the FNM) knew that this parliamentary measure was first used in 1782 to topple the British prime minister, Lord North, after a decisive American victory in the War of Independence.

That's one of the fascinating snippets of history contained in a monumental new book about the rarely reported other side of the American Revolution - the loyalists who supported the British Crown during the conflict and who ended up as Imperial refugees afterwards.

Liberty's Exiles, published this year by Harvard historian Maya Jasanoff, is the first global history of the estimated 60,000 white colonists, free blacks and native Americans, plus 15,000 African slaves, who fled the United States of America in the 1780s to build new lives in Canada, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Britain and Africa.

The Flamingo Affair - 'A Regrettable Confusion'

by Larry Smith

Thirty years ago this month, four Defence Force marines were killed when a Bahamian patrol boat was sunk by the Cuban air force.

Today, most Bahamians know little about the incident, which traumatised the country for months. In fact, the anniversary of this event, which the Castro government described as "a regrettable confusion", often passes almost unnoticed.

Cuba agreed to pay $10 million in reparations for the sinking of HMBS Flamingo and the murder of the four marines - Fenrick Sturrup, Austin Smith, David Tucker and Edward Williams. And the eight Cuban fishermen who started it all were convicted of poaching in July, 1980.

The King's Speech and the Duke's Treason

by Larry Smith

This year's Best Picture Award went to a historical drama called The King's Speech, starring Colin Firth (who also won Best Actor). The film focuses on the personal story of Stuttering Geordie (father of the present Queen Elizabeth), who came to the throne by accident. But that is really just a subplot.

In actuality, the film takes us back to a critical hinge moment in history, and this larger story is far more gripping than the well-acted relationship between the staid king and his blunt Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush). If you haven't seen this movie, you really should.

The historical context centres on the waning days of the British Empire, and includes the abdication of King Edward VIII, the looming catastrophe of the Second World War, and the creation of the modern world - exemplified by the introduction of radio broadcasting.

Historical Perspective on Bahamian Healthcare

by Larry Smith

Experts say that to address the skyrocketing costs of modern medicine, we have to rely more on preventive and primary care rather than costly hospital treatment.

According to Health Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, about two thirds of public spending on healthcare goes to treat diseases that are caused by poor lifestyle choices. And half of all deaths in the Bahamas are attributed to these same illnesses.

For example, there are tens of thousands  of diabetics in the Bahamas, and complications from the disease include kidney failure, heart disease and blindness. It costs taxpayers $60,000 a year to treat each of the more than 200 people with kidney failure who are currently undergoing dialysis at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Bahamians spend about half a billion dollars on public and private healthcare today (some 7 per cent of GDP). This represents an incredible transformation from the early years of the 20th century, and it is interesting to take a historical view of this subject.

Newspaper Pioneer's Legacy on Lee Stocking Island in the Exumas

by Larry Smith

In 1963, the Twilight Zone ran an episode called the Printer's Devil. It told the story of a publisher who, when his linoptype operator quit, had to strike a deal with the devil to save his newspaper.

The point is that linotype operators were critical to a newspaper's survival. So what is a linotype, you ask? Well, it was a big noisy machine that cast lines of type from molten metal for printing.

Sounds medieval, right? But back then it was considered "the acme of perfection", and was a huge leap for the printing industry. For hundreds of years before the linotype was invented in the 1880s, typesetting had been a painstakingly slow process performed by hand, letter by letter.

Today, the entire newspaper production process is digital. But it took a long time for the industry to make the transition from complicated mechanical systems like the linotype to computers. And the changes were bitterly resisted by linotype operators and others, who took years to learn their trade.

Time Travel and Victoria Pond on Exuma

by Larry Smith

GEORGE TOWN, EXUMA - Basil Minns was time-travelling again when I met him last week.

He always does when he visits the Peace and Plenty Hotel here. It's where he was born 81 years ago, and where he spent his childhood helping to run the family's general store on the ridge overlooking Elizabeth Harbour.

This historic waterfront inn was a sponge market before the Minns family took it over in the late 1800s. The cut limestone walls of the main building enclose the hotel's lobby and office today, and what was once the outdoor kitchen is now an atmospheric bar.

A number of prominent American loyalists received land grants on Exuma after the War of Independence, and developed large cotton plantations that eventually failed. The island was a backwater from the end of slavery until the Second World War, when the US Navy built a base and airstrip near George Town.

The Man Who Never Was—An Assessment

by Larry Smith

The Man Who Never Was, published in 1953 by former spy Ewen Montagu, told the story of a successful 1943 British plot to deceive the Germans about the Allied invasion of Sicily.

The war story itself is of no relevance to this column, but in my view the book's title is the perfect epitaph for Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, the Bahamian politician who never achieved his burning ambition to be prime minister.

The Free National Movement - the party that Whitfield founded in 1971 - recently held a series of events on Grand Bahama to commemorate his birthday. So this is as good a time as any to look at the life and legacy of the man whose greatest achievement was to ensure the survival of our multi-party democracy.

Fault Lines Exposed by Haiti’s Earthquake

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 fault line that triggered the recent horrific earthquake in Haiti also exposed centuries-old fault lines -- which though not as ancient as the geographic one that ruptured weeks ago -- have deep historic roots which have produced more devastation than this tragic temblor, as deadly as it was.

Whatever the final number of the dead, many more have perished over the course of Haiti’s history through war and slavery, brutal rule and neglect, disease and poverty.  The graves of the many who drowned in the ocean expanse extending from the southern Bahamas to the Florida Straits, are marked not by personal signifiers but by the cay or island next to which they are entombed.

Of course, one of the greatest killers of the Haiti revolution, of her sons and daughters and their basic aspirations and longings for peace, has been the punishing isolation and neglect by the world’s powers, along with misrule by successive dictators propped up by a tiny wealthy elite and their foreign allies.