Bahama Pundit

The Bahamas, Cuba and the US

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.

Bahamians enjoy front row seats to an unfolding story in which two longstanding rivals are about to turn an outdated cold war into at least a lukewarm relationship. 

Just about every step in the thawing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba will be met with the sky-is-falling panic by true believers across both the Florida Straits and the so called left-right divide.

As a point of reference these straits serve as a maritime border and as potentially common ground for three neighbours: The Bahamas, Cuba and the U.S.A. Of course, “straits” can also refer to an array of difficulties.

A constellation of events will shape the pace of the rapprochement between our geographically closest neighbours.  How these events are taken advantage of, missed or disregarded will determine the substance of the evolving relationship.

Switching from the Pump to the Plug—An Electric Car Future for the Bahamas?

"A leader has to be creative, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box...A leader has to communicate. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality." -- Lee Iacocca, former chief of Ford and Chrysler

If Hawaii can do it, why can't we?

The 137 Hawaiian islands add up to 6,423 square miles (pretty close to our 700 islands with a total of 5,382 square miles). But Hawaii recently made a historic decision to get 70 per cent of its energy from renewable resources by 2030—cutting oil consumption by more than two thirds—while we have been pussyfooting around an energy policy for five long years.

Hawaii's state government is working with private partners to:

* power entire islands with 100 per cent renewable energy
* integrate renewable energy into the existing grid
* reduce energy use and maximize energy efficiency
* implement policies that promote clean energy technologies

Santa Claus is Vex

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.

Facing a bleak Yuletide season of stockings filled with termination notices, debt payments and electricity bills, many of the newly unemployed are deserving of compassion and consideration.  But there are some who should receive a reality-check in their Christmas packages with this note from Santa Claus:

“You better watch out, / You better not cry, / Better not pout, / I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town. / He's making a list, / and checking it twice; / gonna find out, / who’s naughty and nice. / Santa Claus is coming to town.”

We cannot easily judge any individual’s circumstances.  But there are many on Santa Claus’ twice checked list who have in many ways been much more naughty than nice.

The Road to an Electric Car Future

by Larry Smith

Tough Call spent three days last week at a conference in Washington DC sponsored by the Electric Drive Transportation Association, an industry grouping that supports the commercialization of electric transportation technologies. Speakers included top executives and engineers from mainstream and niche automakers, battery and component producers, electric utilities, the US Department of Energy and venture capital funds.

Although oil demand has collapsed due to the global recession (prices have plunged $100 per barrel in only four months), the mid-term forecast is for continuing volatility, with some experts predicting a price of $300 per barrel when the economy recovers. The Bahamas gets all of its energy from imported fossil fuel, and the transportation sector is a big consumer. And if we can't import enough oil for whatever reason, our economy will shut down.

Burning oil not only wastes our scarce foreign exchange, it pollutes the air and contributes to global warming, which scientists say could melt enough polar ice to inundate our islands. But there are interesting things afoot that could change all that  - if we have the vision to take advantage of them. What follows is an up-to-the-minute report on the current state of the electric car industry. Next week we will talk about how this industry may relate to the Bahamas.

*****

The PLP and The Wizard of Oz

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.

Despite a whiplash return to opposition, much of the PLP’s leadership continues to reside in the often delusional and fantastical world they manufactured out of cotton candy rhetoric and saccharine fantasies during their last term in office.

Most of the PLP’s promises of billions and billions in anchor project dollars were as stable as sandcastles built at shore’s edge where even a lazy incoming tide could easily wash away scores of poorly crafted heads of agreement. 

Now, as economic tidal waves gather momentum, some foreign investors who plotted to use these anchor projects to secure their own speculative land grabs have pulled up anchor and sailed off to target even easier marks.

Many of those PLP leaders who followed the yellow brick road to the rarefied atmosphere of the Cabinet Room, VIP lounges, business and first class, comfortable rides and tony soirees, quickly erected their own version of the Emerald City once elected.

Landmark Case Welcomed by Bahamas Medical Council

by Larry Smith

What is being called a "landmark" test of medical accountability is slowly inching its way through our labyrinthine regulatory process, more than six years after the 42-year-old man who started it all died at Doctors Hospital.

Dr Duane Sands, chairman of the Bahamas Medical Council, says he and others are working hard to ensure that the public have a means of redress in matters of medical competence. And a new medical act to be introduced soon will go a long way towards fixing the governance deficiencies of the existing law, which was enacted in 1974.

"You have no idea of the amount of work going on behind the scenes to deal with this landmark case," Dr Sands told Tough Call recently. "There is no stonewalling. We take this very, very seriously because we want to ensure that the public will be well-served at the end of the day by this groundbreaking precedent."

Why is he so defensive? Well, the six-year track record of the case in question is instructive. To simplify matters and take personal prejudices out of the picture, we will present a generic summary of this case. But all of the dates, events, individuals and institutions in this account are real.

Obama/Symonette Comparison Is Flawed

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.

It is easy – indeed, too easy – to blunder and bluster into bad comparisons and misleading and misplaced analogies.  In September a local columnist concluded: 

“Furthermore, let’s not forget that Barack [Obama] is a black man running for president in a white world.  Translate that same situation to The Bahamas and that would mean a white man running for prime minister in a black world.

“But wait.  Haven’t we already floated that balloon with Brent Symonette and burst it with a lot of racist talk from the same politicians who are now shouting loudest in defence of Barack Obama.  But that’s another story.” 

Actually, it is a dramatically different story.  But wait!   Haven’t we already floated that balloon and burst a lot of racist talk by having as our first Premier after internal self-rule a white Bahamian, Sir Roland Symonette, the father of the current Deputy Prime Minister.  

What is so inept about the Barack Obama/Brent Symonette comparison is that white Bahamians were not historically locked out of the highest levels of political or economic power and are not locked out today.