Bahama Pundit

Middle-Aged, Middle Class Humanitarians Gather in Montreal

by Larry Smith

MONTREAL, Canada - This week I attended one of the world's greatest gatherings of downright decent, mostly middle-aged, and thoroughly middle class folks.

It was a tough call for an old cynic like me. To borrow a quote, I usually lump organized religion, organized labour, and service clubs together. But Rotarians do get points for having the most entertaining meetings.

More than 18,000 of them from around the world clogged the streets of Montreal for their annual international conference this week. Everywhere you turned there were earnest Africans, Asians, Latinos, North Americans and Europeans flashing their logo shirts, badges, pins, flags and business cards.

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.

A Tale of Two Restaurants—The Great Bahamian Seafood Festival

by Larry Smith

Fifteen Nassau restaurants are showcasing special dishes and offering fixed price menus this week as part of the Great Bahamian Seafood Festival, which climaxes on Friday and Saturday downtown.

My assignment was to review a couple of them. Options ranged from the casual (Da Fish Fry and Traveller's Rest) to the opulent (Greycliff and the Bahamian Club). I settled on Seafront Sushi and Aqua at the British Colonial Hilton.

For purists, the ultimate seafood experience is Japanese. Sashimi and sushi both require a variety of high grade, very fresh, raw fish - anything from octopus to tuna. And it's damn good for your cholesterol level. Sashimi is thinly sliced raw fish served with garnishes and soy sauce. Sushi pairs the fish with vinegared rice, and other ingredients.

Solar Power Consumers Upset by Fossil Fuel Plant on Abaco

by Larry Smith

LITTLE HARBOUR, ABACO - Within sight of the smokestacks rising from BEC's heavy fuel oil power plant under construction at Wilson City just across the Bight of Old Robinson lies a solar-powered community of some 40 homes encircling a picturesque cove.

This unique settlement was founded by a Canadian art professor named Randolph Johnston, who sailed his family to the Bahamas in 1952 and initially housed them in a cave - like a modern-day William Sayle (who sought refuge in Preacher's Cave on North Eleuthera more than three centuries ago).

Johnston set himself up as a charter skipper and sculptor, becoming a local celebrity within a few years. His bronze statue of a Bahamian woman was installed on Prince George Wharf in 1975, while his autobiography, Artist on his Island, was published the following year.

When it was virtually worthless, Johnston acquired land at Little Harbour and over time sold bits and pieces to other vagabonds from varied backgrounds, creating the eclectic community that exists today anchored around Pete's Pub, a famous watering hole run by the sculptor's son. Little Harbour is now an attraction in its own right - drawing thousands of visitors a year.

Among the homeowners are artists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, airline pilots, and boat bums. One of the more recent settlers is Gordon Pearce, whose Cape Cod firm builds high-tech tennis courts and running tracks in Massachusetts. His comfortable 2,200 square foot home sits on a hill overlooking Little Harbour and - like all the houses here - it's powered entirely by solar panels.

A Tour of Grand Bahama

by Larry Smith

Standing on the shore at the eastern tip of Grand Bahama you can gaze across the bight at the super-exclusive cottages of Deepwater Cay, an iconic fishing lodge created in the 1950s by Gil Drake and A J McClean - the two Americans who first popularised the sport of bonefishing.

Just beyond is Sweeting's Cay, Grand Bahama's easternmost settlement. This whole area is a patchwork of mangroves, sandflats, creeks, and lagoons. It is not the most attractive part of the Bahamas, but I guess fly fishermen are more concerned with the hunt for what they call the 'grey ghost' than they are with picturesque seascapes.

In fact, nearby McLeans Town (which was laid out in 1835 for freed slaves by an official named Donald McLean) owes its existence to this complicated marine environment. Before the construction of Freeport, this area had the only sheltered harbour on Grand Bahama. And today, this is where the ferries are based that make the 45-minute trip to Crown Haven on Abaco.

A Visit to Savannah and an Update on the Revitalisation of Nassau

by Larry Smith

"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." - Forrest Gump

SAVANNAH, Georgia— Live oak and magnolia trees drape the historic squares of this 18th century town, whose cobbled streets and museum-quality buildings attract hordes of movie producers and millions of visitors from all over the world.

Greater Savannah is about the same size as Nassau, and it is a model of architectural preservation, restoration and adaptive reuse. But since this is still America, the park bench where Tom Hanks sat to deliver his opening lines in the movie Forrest Gump is one of the city's top visitor attractions.

Almost every gift shop offers copies of Clint Eastwood's 1997 film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which portrays Savannah's eccentric Southern society through the lens of a celebrated murder trial. And tour guides will mention these cinematic novelties in the same breath as Savannah's actual history.

The Aromas of Christmas - in Guyana and the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

My house reeks of garlic and vinegar.

It always does at this time of year. That's because the wife has an almost religious compulsion to make Carne de Vinagre e Alhos, a traditional Portuguese Christmas dish.

Not that she's Portuguese, I hasten to add. Actually she's from Guyana - and mostly Amerindian, with admixtures of African, Dutch and Welsh.

In Guyana, Carne de Vinagre e Alhos is better known as garlic pork. It involves pickling for several days a few pounds of chops in vinegar spiced with salt, hot peppers, garlic and thyme, and then frying the meat on Christmas morning. Served with pink gin it's better than bacon, I have to say.

On Travel

by Nicolette Bethel

You ever notice how, when certain people travel, they go wherever they please without a second thought? From Ethiopia to Tibet, from Vienna to Baton Rouge, from Moscow to Santiago, they step off the plane or train or whatever got them there, they look around, and they feel well, not exactly at home, but entitled to be treated with a measure of dignity? These are the people who rise up in indignation when they’re challenged at borders, when they run into snags or problems, when their dignity is not recognized.

On the other hand, you ever notice how, when certain other people travel, they pick where they want to go? They avoid certain places, they pick certain routes, they travel by specific forms of transport where security is the norm and not the exception, and when they step off the aeroplane, they prepare to be treated like immigrants or criminals or worse? These people may rise up in indignation when they’re challenged as well, but it’s not because they are shocked into that state. It’s because they’re all to familiar with their dignity not being recognized, and they’ve just become tired of it all.

Land, Lawyers and Developers on Rum Cay

by Larry Smith

PORT NELSON, Rum Cay: Taking the breeze on a verandah overlooking the blue-green waters of Wellington Bay recently, conversation slowly turned to the giant cable ship anchored just beyond the reef.

“Well, we don’t have piped water yet, but we are getting cell phones and high-speed Internet,” someone said.

The reference was to BTC’s $60 million submarine fibre-optic network that will be completed this summer. The cable ship lying offshore was “splicing” Rum Cay into the loop, the old heads said.

This dichotomy between the lack of a basic utility and the arrival of advanced telecoms, is characteristic of Rum Cay – a 30-square-mile outpost whose few dozen bored citizens are increasingly hemmed in by upscale residential and resort developments – some spurious, some real.

Interestingly, the biggest pending development on the island is led by a 61-year-old British telecoms engineer named John Mittens, who 10 years ago founded Europe’s largest fibre network – Interoute – which links 61 cities in 19 countries, including historic centres like Rome and London.

Rum Cay, Bahamas Faces Major Change

by Larry Smith

PORT NELSON, Rum Cay — The prime minister and other top officials were here recently for an event that could change Rum Cay forever.

A space was cleared at Cottonfield Point for Montana Holding's long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony. It marked the start of a $90 million residential/resort development, that could expand to a $700 million investment at full build-out.

Soon, a barge will arrive to house scores of construction workers, a 100-foot channel will be cut through the reef for a marina at Bay Pond, equipment and materials will pour in, and homes, condos and hotels will begin popping up all along Munroe Beach.

Of course, the 80 or so bored citizens of Port Nelson, the island’s last remaining settlement, have seen it all before over the past few decades. But many say the recent groundbreaking was a watershed.

Instead of an out-of-the-way refuge for a few well-off folks who live on the edge of a sleepy little village where nothing much ever happens, Rum Cay may soon become a playground for hordes of the very rich – pursuing their champagne and sportfishing dreams.