Bahama Pundit

The LJM Maritime Academy

by Simon

Despite its small population, the far-flung Bahamas archipelago enjoys impressive features and history as a maritime nation.  The country has one of the world’s leading maritime registries with approximately between 1,500 to 1,600 ships carrying the Bahamas flag, and has a good international reputation in the maritime industry.

The Bahamas is home to the Grand Bahama Shipyard, one of the premier ship repair facilities in the world, and the largest cruise ship repair yard in the world.  The Freeport Container Port is a significant transshipment center.  The country hosts many cruise ships annually, including the largest cruise liners in the world. 

The Bahamas archipelago is awash in maritime history.  Native peoples navigated canoes to discover a new homeland, part islands but mostly sea, exploited and usurped by colonial greed and slavers in cargo ships, and trafficked by pirates and privateers in sloops and schooners who plundered with zeal over several centuries. 

During global and regional wars and tentative or sustained peace, amidst slavery and colonialism, throughout the industrial age, through the waters of the Bahamas passed slave ships, merchant vessels, naval fleets, modern container ships and state-of-the-art cruise liners.

The moderns who made the archipelago their home, relied on the sea for food, trade, transport, sport, enjoyment and an impressive tourism industry, employing an armada of vessels, ingenuity and techniques to tame and when possible master the winds and the waves.  Boatbuilding developed into a vibrant industry.

In the 21st century, the Lowell J. Mortimer Maritime Academy, a non-profit educational institution named in honour of the attorney, philanthropist and entrepreneur, represents a significant step in the country’s history as a maritime nation.  

Tackling Obesity in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

There is a move afoot to make welfare in the Bahamas conditional on taking steps to reduce obesity, eat better, get regular health checkups, and improve education results. You may not think that is terribly important in the overall scheme of things, but you would be dead wrong.

The statistics are telling. Eleven per cent of Bahamian pre-schoolers are overweight or obese, together with almost 10 per cent of Grade 1 students, 18 per cent of Grade 6 students, and a quarter of Grade 10 students. In fact, surveys show that 70 per cent of Bahamians between the ages of 21 and 60 are overweight or obese.

As a direct result, chronic non-communicable diseases account for three quarters of all deaths in The Bahamas these days. The biggest contributors (40 per cent) are heart disease and diabetes. And obesity has also been also linked to psychosocial disorders and poor education results.

Education outcomes are closely connected to poverty in the Bahamas. While most youngsters eventually reach grade 12, about half of all public students leave school every year with only an attendance certificate. And one of the consequences of that is 30 per cent youth unemployment. It is also true that poorer and less educated folks are also more likely to be obese.

Conditional cash transfers - as they are known in the trade - are an attempt to break this vicious circle. 

Possible Candidates for President of COB

by Simon

Chairman of the COB Council Alfred Sears should generally be applauded for insisting that the next president of the college should be a Bahamian.  

Still, this columnist believes that the search should be open to other Caribbean nationals.  By example, what if we are able to find a Caribbean national of the calibre of Sir Hilary Beckles, professor of history and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Principal at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies?

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake which devastated Haiti in early January 2010 also sent emotional aftershocks throughout the region as the Caribbean mourned yet another setback for the country.

Following the earthquake, Sir Hilary penned a brief essay entitled “The Hate and the Quake”.  Such essays rarely go viral.  His did because he captured the cries of many for Haiti, chronicling a colonial legacy which put Haiti’s history into greater context.  

Sir Hilary provided the quality of intellectual and ethical reflection that is at the heart of the role of the head of a college or university.  As a native Barbadian and historian of the region he also provided a Caribbean voice.

Christie’s Blah Blah Blah and Ranting and Raving

by Simon

Last week Prime Minister Perry Christie was engaged in a whirlwind of speechifying.  On Saturday he addressed the United Nations General Assembly at which he renewed the country’s pledge to help make the world more peaceful and to work “for the good of all humankind”.

He continued: “But we need to ensure that such pledges are not just so many catchy phrases.  We need to not only talk the talk but walk the walk.” 

Given his indulgence in catchy phrases and more talking than walking when it comes to fulfilling promises, his advice to the world body was noted by many with considerable amusement. 

On Thursday, prior to his UN appearance, he was addressing a seminar, when a funny thing happened at that forum, calling to mind Stephen Sondheim’s musical cum farce, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”.  

On the way to the forum Christie must have grown boiling mad.  Barely into his prepared remarks, he abruptly abandoned the text, launching an odd and rambling tirade against former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, the FNM and elements of the media.  This columnist also received unfavourable mention.

In seeking to redirect attention from his failures and that of his government, Christie upended the dictum US President Harry S. Truman kept on his desk in the Oval Office at the White House.

Truman pledged, “The buck stops here!”  The sign on Christie’s desk at the Office of the Prime Minister should read: “Pass the buck.”

Immigration Policy and Political Propaganda in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

The recent controversy over Immigration policy is clear evidence of the inability of Bahamian governments to rationally tackle the core issues that hold our economy back.

As Franklyn Wilson noted, the country's overall approach to immigration was settled as far back as the early 1970s, and yet we can still waste time over it today. The issue was put to rest by the implementation of a strict Bahamianisation policy by the new PLP government, accompanied by a massive investment in education. 

These two policy shifts reversed a trend towards the wholesale recruitment of expatriates, and broadened educational opportunities for Bahamians who could then expand the nation's middle class.

As the late Dr Keva Bethel described the period immediately following the Second World War: "The highest forms of employment to which the majority of Bahamians were likely to be able to aspire...were posts in the civil service, teaching, nursing, or the church. Moreover, only a proportionately modest number actually achieved those positions."

But in the first years after majority rule in 1967, the government spent as much as 19 per cent of the annual budget on education, building new schools throughout the country to provide better education for all Bahamian children.

The Student Experience in Education

by Simon

Former Tourism Minister Vincent Vanderpool Wallace doggedly drove a core message on achieving success in tourism:  Relentless focus on the visitor experience!  Similarly, might we achieve greater success in education by relentlessly focusing on the learning experience of students in public schools?

Scholar of mythology, the late Joseph Campbell, might have agreed with Vanderpool Wallace:  “I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” 

Some may argue with the beginning of his proposition.  Yet, from a hermit in his cell praying, “Nearer, My God to Thee” to the thrill seekers atop a rollercoaster ride, hands outstretched to touch the sky, we are endlessly seeking experiences of being alive.  The hermit and the rider both hunger for experiences that may captivate the whole person: mind, body and soul.

Conscientious Stupidity & Public Education

by Simon

There are numerous achievements of the government-operated primary through secondary school system.  We can boast of fine teachers like Emile Hunt at C. V. Bethel and dedicated administrators like Cheryl Samuels at H. O. Nash.

Amidst success stories, there are outsized failures, inadequately and partially measured by low standardized test scores and a trickle of graduates attaining diplomas.  

The public education report card includes poor grades assessing the system’s inability to graduate greater numbers of students competent in English, the grammar of citizenship, and the language and practice of civility.

Martin Luther King Jr. often thundered: “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”  The algebra of failure in our public schools -- of poor letter-grades, of poor statistics, of crime rates associated with the failures of this system -- are symptoms of conscientious stupidity by various stakeholders of public education.  

The Crisis of Teaching and Learning

by Simon

Mrs. Callahan, now deceased, was a master teacher who eventually became an adjunct professor of education.  During her storied career she taught elementary, high school and college students.  

She taught in public and private schools, counting among her thousands of students, children from well-heeled and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.  She taught in depressed inner city schools and in leafy suburban enclaves.

In her last decades as a teacher her specialty was a Methods in Teaching seminar for prospective elementary and high school teachers.  Two foundational principles were the basis for her encyclopaedia of methods tested and honed over many decades.  They were not novel ideas, though it is remarkable how often they are forgotten or ignored.

The first principle was the constant reminder that elementary and secondary school teachers need always remember that primarily they teach students and secondarily a subject matter.  The second principle was that most discipline problems flowed from a breakdown in the teaching and learning experience in the classroom.

Condi Rice on Education (in the Bahamas)

by Larry Smith

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a stirring speech at last week's Republican National Convention in Tampa that focused on education in America. As a top foreign policy expert, she noted that "strength begins at home." Although in American terms this refers to leadership in military technology, we thought her more general message would be a useful one for Bahamian policymakers to hear.

Along with Barack Obama, Rice is a key role model for the African-American community. Born in 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama - the only child of a Presbyterian minister and a schoolteacher - she grew up surrounded by racism in the segregated South, but went on to become the first woman and first African American to serve as provost of Stanford University. In 2001, she was appointed national security adviser by President George W. Bush, and became the first black woman to serve as secretary of state (from 2005 to 2009.) 

Rice earned her bachelor's degree in political science in 1974; a master's in 1975; and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies in 1981. After leaving her government job, she became co-chair of the Independent Task Force on US Education Reform and National Security, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. The task force includes 31 prominent education experts, national security authorities, and corporate leaders. 

This group of experts has warned Americans that "Educational failure puts the United States' future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk. The country will not be able to keep pace—much less lead—globally unless it moves to fix the problems it has allowed to fester for too long."

And education reform is not a question of money. The United States invests more in K-12 public education than most other developed countries, yet American students rank 14th in reading, 25th in math, and 17th in science internationally. More than a quarter of students fail to graduate from high school in four years; and for African-American and Hispanic students this number approaches 40 per cent.

Does that sound familiar? It should, because both sides of our political divide have recently acknowledged the failure of the Bahamian public school system in the face of even worse statistics. This is after many years of political stonewalling and prodding by private sector leaders and commentators. The business community in particular has long complained that a large percentage of Bahamian students leave school functionally illiterate - in other words, unable to compete for a decent job.

Looking at Bahamian Education—Again

by Larry Smith

Prime Minister Perry Christie recently acknowledged that continued poor results from government schools posed a threat to national development. Former Education Minister Desmond Bannister said our schools suffered from an entrenched bureaucracy that protected "unqualified teachers in critical subjects". Current Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald admitted that half of all Bahamian students are flunking high school and called for "a frank and open discussion" on reforming the system. Did we hear all this right? The following are condensed versions of two articles on this subject - the first was published in October 2005 and the second in September 2007.

A Primer on Bahamian Education

This past summer scores of experts from around the country sat down in a hotel ballroom at great expense to figure out how to “transform” our failed education system. It was the first major re-evaluation of Bahamian schools since a national task force was set up in January, 1993.

What happened at this four-day meeting has implications for the 50,000-plus students in our public schools as well as our entire future as a modern society. But we have yet to receive any kind of report. So to help put this critical issue into perspective, here is Tough Call's primer on Bahamian education.