Bahama Pundit

LNG Exports from US Enter Bahamas Energy Planning Mix

by Larry Smith

The extraction of oil and gas from beneath the Bahamian seabed is a medium-term likelihood that many may instinctively oppose for environmental reasons. But we could cut costs and pollution now by generating electricity from liquified natural gas - imported from the US.

That's a scenario made possible by the development of large, unconventional gas fields in the US. Right now, the cost of natural gas is much cheaper than oil, and burning gas instead of heavy fuel oil or diesel produces 30 per cent less pollution.

The recent increase in North American gas reserves, combined with projected growth in global demand, will make the US a major liquified natural gas exporter over the next few years, experts say. This is in sharp contrast to previous years, when the US was seeking to import LNG from the Middle East and Trinidad.

Natural gas accounts for about 16 per cent of the global energy mix, but the US has near zero LNG export capacity. Existing LNG import terminals in Louisiana and Texas are already adding liquifaction capacity to allow for major LNG exports by 2015.

Meanwhile, the first US license to export smaller quantities of gas (up to 145 million gallons per year for 25 years) was obtained in July by a Florida firm called Carib Energy.

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.

Opposition Grandstanding on Problems it Failed to Tackle

by Simon

It takes a certain chutzpah to attempt to manipulate problems one failed to address when in office but of which one has now become conveniently expert out of office and promising to fix next time around.  Welcome to the Opposition’s failed summer plans seeking yet again to blame the Government for problems the latter is busy fixing and which the former failed to substantively tackle.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who share a birthday this week, will both face their electorates in relatively short order.  The summer prelude to their re-election prospects offers some clues into the lead-up to the general elections in their respective countries.

Both incumbents face voter frustration over jobs and the pace of economic recovery following the global financial downturn. Despite his generally deft handling of the crisis, Mr. Ingraham understands how appreciably the Bahamian recovery depends on the outcomes of debt crises in Europe and an impasse on raising the debt limit and tackling debt and deficit in the United States.

There has been unusually hot weather during the first two-thirds of the summer of 2011.  With August quite young, we will see what the remainder of summer brings.   The rising temperatures concern daily life as well as political happenings.

The Alternate Reality of Bahamian Squatter Settlements

 by Larry Smith

"If it was up to me I'd toss two stick a dynamite in erry one a dem dingy damned 'villages'. How is it that these ILLEGAL ALIENS can come in any time they wish and toss up a 'house' with no proper facilities to speak of and the relevant ministry folk say and do nothing. But when the average hard working Joe Blow tries to put down something, God help ya if you missin' some papers cuz dey ga have da buldozer there the next day." -- commentator on Bahamas Issues

That quote reflects the feelings of many Bahamians. But the deeper we delve into the so-called 'Haitian problem', the more we come face to face with ourselves. The squatter settlements that give rise to so much public angst are a clear example of the alternate reality that many Bahamians live in, and we are not the only ones grappling with these issues.

"Squatter settlements are all over Jamaica," according to Gleaner columnist Victor Cummings, "on hillsides, roadsides, gully banks, inner-city areas, government land, and private land. The squatting problem is not only seriously affecting the physical development of our country, but also our economic and social stability."

There are over 700 squatter sites in Jamaica with well over half a million residents, Trinidad and Tobago has 300 squatter settlements, with more than 400,000 residents. Guyana has over 200, and in St Lucia squatter settlements are a feature of all major towns and villages.

The 38 squatter settlements on New Providence include 940 houses out of a total housing stock on the island of some 70,000. According to a 2010 government survey, many of these illegal villages are on private land and they have grown by about 200 houses since the Christie administration looked at the problem in the early 2000s.

An Invitation To: We the People – Part 2

by Simon

Mohandas Gandhi’s moral wisdom, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,” is a variation on a theme which finds expression across many cultures and religions.

It is also paradoxical wisdom which might inform the moral education of students in the public and private school systems including in regard to community service programmes.  Though fairly ubiquitous in secondary schools these programmes tend to fail the grade in terms of vision and scope, as well as priority and organization.

The quality of community service programmes vary widely from the mandatory to the episodic, from individual to group projects to what actually constitutes a service project.  While most programmes are well meaning, the majority lack sufficient oversight and a service-learning component.

While just about everyone in the education field lauds service programmes in our schools, most are poorly designed and in need of clearer guidelines and more vigorous support from education leaders and related stakeholders.