by Larry Smith
The Eternal Subordination of Women
Doing business with a middle-class, 40-ish shop clerk last week I was questioned about the referendum.
Actually, I am fed up with the referendum, so I pointed out that no date has been set for a vote.
She persisted anyway: “But you ready right?”
I said I was registered in the last general election.
Upon further prodding I suggested the exercise would be a huge waste of time because women like herself would vote against the proposals anyway - as they did 15 years ago - totally against their own self-interest.
Nodding sagely, she admitted there was one amendment she would vote against. But I declined to pursue the matter.
As I said, I am sick and tired of listening to the byzantine nonsense spewed about the proposals to make men and women equal under the constitution.
It is a starkly simple issue of equal rights, yet Bahamians have tied themselves into knots based on blatant homophobia on the one hand, and anachronistic views of the role of women on the other.
The referendum under this administration was supposed to have taken place in 2014. It was postponed to allow for “public education”, but no such education took place - and Bahamians are just as confused as they ever were.
Actually, that’s probably not a true characterisation. Bahamians are not confused - they have a very simple view that women should be subordinate to men and do not deserve the same rights.
Actually, I am fed up with the referendum, so I pointed out that no date has been set for a vote.
She persisted anyway: “But you ready right?”
I said I was registered in the last general election.
Upon further prodding I suggested the exercise would be a huge waste of time because women like herself would vote against the proposals anyway - as they did 15 years ago - totally against their own self-interest.
Nodding sagely, she admitted there was one amendment she would vote against. But I declined to pursue the matter.
As I said, I am sick and tired of listening to the byzantine nonsense spewed about the proposals to make men and women equal under the constitution.
It is a starkly simple issue of equal rights, yet Bahamians have tied themselves into knots based on blatant homophobia on the one hand, and anachronistic views of the role of women on the other.
The referendum under this administration was supposed to have taken place in 2014. It was postponed to allow for “public education”, but no such education took place - and Bahamians are just as confused as they ever were.
Actually, that’s probably not a true characterisation. Bahamians are not confused - they have a very simple view that women should be subordinate to men and do not deserve the same rights.
This perverse belief stems from the unreasoning influence of fundamentalism - which is compounded by the poor quality of public education. And the fundamentalists will be bolstered by those who will vote on the basis of political considerations - as happened in 2002.
The only point here is that women and men should be equal under the law - just like whites and blacks. And if Bahamian women don't stand up for themselves, they will soon be forced to wear burkas and be unable to drive.
And that is the last time I will open my mouth on this ridiculous non-issue.
Dr Donald Gerace and the ‘Discovery' of the Bahamas
Don Gerace died this month at his home in Florida. He was 83.
Few readers may have known Gerace, but he left his mark as founder of the celebrated research centre on San Salvador, and a longtime organiser of scholarships for Bahamian students.
I first met him in the 1970s, while visiting San Salvador as a writer for the Bahamas News Bureau. We were never close, but we shared a singular professional experience in the 1980s.
It is remarkable that the San Sal field station survived the past 40 years, housing 100 students in dorms and 80 professors in motel-like rooms. But there is no doubt where the credit lies - which is why the facility is known today as the Gerace Research Centre (GRC).
A geologist, Don Gerace was originally from Buffalo, New York. He joined the staff of the College Centre of the Finger Lakes in 1969, running student field trips to the Florida Keys - until he saw a newspaper ad selling the defunct US naval base on San Salvador for one dollar.
He immediately set off for the Bahamas with the idea of converting the base into a college field station. And despite the legendary difficulties of dealing with the Bahamian government, Gerace succeeded in his mission.
The first group of 40 American students flew in on Bahamas Airways in December 1971. And since then more than 36,000 have passed through the centre. In the epilogue to his 2011 autobiography (Life Quest), Gerace proudly described the field station as his “child”.
As Dr Ethan Freid (of the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve) once wrote, “the stories of the GRC and Don Gerace are so completely intertwined, they are one and the same...the field station has evolved into one of the foremost locations in the Bahamas for teaching and research year-round."
It hosted the first scientific conferences in the Bahamas - from geology to wildlife to archaeology, to environmental studies. But its most important claim to fame was finding physical evidence of the historic first European encounter with the Lucayan Indians who originally lived here.
In 1983 an archaeological team working under the auspices of the field station unearthed a trove of artefacts at a Lucayan settlement site just behind Long Bay beach - where the island’s iconic Columbus memorial had been erected in 1956.
Here is an excerpt from my Reuters report (which was picked up by the New York Times): “Less than 20 centimetres underground, researchers found four green and yellow glass beads, two brass buckles, some metal spikes and a piece of Spanish crockery. Experts have verified that the beads were made in Spain between the late 15th and early 16th centuries.”
I quoted Don Gerace as follows: “There are still some controversial alternatives about the landfall site, but this discovery is certainly a milestone in proving that San Salvador was the place.
“We know San Salvador was a contact site. And we know that by 1520 the islands were depopulated. If these artefacts are not connected with Columbus’ visit, the other possibility is that the Indians moved back to San Salvador after 1520 and made later contact. I find this unlikely,” Gerace told me.
On Monday, at the opening ceremony in the Atlantis Resort for the third Bahamas Natural History Conference, VIP guests (including the prime minister) shared a moment of silence in Don’s memory. It was especially poignant because he was very much in evidence at the last conference just two years ago.
Today, except for the addition of the Club Med resort, San Salvador has changed little since my visits during the 1980s. And the historic Lucayan settlement site behind Long Bay beach - which briefly drew so much world attention - is overgrown and largely forgotten.
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