The modern Bahamas is a nation created through migration... ...The Amerindians Christopher Columbus met in The Islands 520 years ago are no more... ...Europeans and Africans displaced those people when permanent contact was made between the old and new worlds

Embracing multiculturalism

thenassauguardian editorial

Nassau, The Bahamas

The comments of Haitian President Michel Martelly to Haitian-Bahamians last week have dominated public discourse since Martelly advised Bahamians of Haitian descent to form a voting bloc, and to vote for the party that has their best interests at heart.  His remarks exposed raw emotions on the immigration issue in our country.

The modern Bahamas is a nation created through migration.  The Amerindians Christopher Columbus met here 520 years ago are no more.  Europeans and Africans displaced those people when permanent contact was made between the old and new worlds.

Today’s Bahamas is even more ethnically and culturally dynamic.  People from the Middle East, China and India also call this country home.  They bring their experiences to our cultural mix, expanding The Bahamas.

The Bahamian relationship with the Haitians who migrate here is complicated.  Haitians have come to The Bahamas since the creation of the Republic of Haiti in 1804.   With the collapse of Jean Claude Duvalier’s regime in the mid-1980s, however, those flows increased as Haiti’s poor looked for new lives in new places.

Some Bahamians resent the large number of poor Haitians who have come here looking for a second chance.  Some Haitians are upset at the discriminatory treatment they have received from some Bahamians.

Martelly should not have gotten involved in Bahamian politics while visiting.   Staying out of local politics while on foreign trips is a convention of diplomacy, but his intrusion into Bahamian politics is no excuse for bigotry and xenophobia.

The Government of The Bahamas has as a responsibility carrying out the laws of the country.  It should provide our border protection officers with all the resources needed to prevent people from illegally entering Bahamian territory.  Foreigners who come here illegally should be repatriated in accordance with the law.

But what must be remembered is that those who are given citizenship are Bahamians once that decision is made.   They should be afforded the same rights and privileges as other Bahamians.

We can debate who should be given permanent residence as opposed to citizenship.  Countries have the authority to set residency standards based on the consensus of the times.   However, we should not disparage those given status or argue that they are lesser citizens if citizenship was granted.

In deciding to become part of our community these new Bahamians bring different ideas, languages, traditions, foods and energies to our already multicultural society.  And as a culturally richer community we should work together to solve common problems.

Haitian-Bahamians should not close themselves off and form exclusive political blocs to defend themselves.  Haitian-Bahamians should, like all other Bahamians, examine the various political parties and candidates and determine who is best to advance The Bahamas.

Conversely, ‘native’ Bahamians should not fear the inclusion of new people into our commonwealth.  What should exist is an immigration policy that can reasonably control who comes to The Bahamas.  We should seek to recruit people from around the world – in the numbers we think reasonable – to add skills to our country.  In doing so, we as a nation become stronger.

When governments are unable to police the flow of people to a territory, the established community becomes suspicious.  Hence, it is important for clear immigration policy to exist and resources to be provided to help ensure the policy is enforced.

We hope the passions cool on this issue.   Ethnic rivalry has made many countries unstable and has led to conflict and war.

Feb 15, 2012

thenassauguardian editorial

...much of today's social problems in The Bahamas stem from the fact that young people have no respect for human life

Many youth have lost respect for human life

tribune242 editorial

Nassau, The Bahamas

IN THE wake of the three murders --double shooting and a stabbing Tuesday night -- that brought the murder count to 72 for the first seven months of the year, Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade had some observations.

He restated his belief that much of today's social problems stem from the fact that young people have no respect for human life.

"All human beings have an inherent right to life and their dignity is to be respected," he said. "What is unfortunate is that there is still far too many relatively young people in our communities, adult young persons who have no respect for themselves, no respect for other persons, no respect for the laws of the land, and they continue to commit crime."

Bishop Laish Boyd, head of the Anglican Church, yesterday took up the theme. Everyone, said the Bishop, has to stop turning a blind eye to crime, not just violent crime, but also petty crimes, such as disrespect for law and order. We are living in a time, he said, when people no longer have respect for the church.

"For some people," said the Bishop, "any target is fair game, including the church. There used to be a time when people respected the church, but that is changing."

Bishop Boyd believes that only a minority feel this way. The "majority still see the church and its values as sacred," he said.

Some of us at The Tribune are not surprised at what is happening today. We have lived long enough to have seen the storm brewing, gathering strength and threatening to tear our society asunder. Go back in our files and read of how many times the editor of this newspaper warned of the vortex into which we were being sucked -- a vortex that would eventually tear a God-fearing society apart.

The late Sir Etienne Dupuch, who wrote those columns, had a special gift of being able to see the future with tremendous clarity. Those who did not like what they read from his pen, dismissed him as the "Voice of Doom." But, if he were here today, he could say with sad conviction: "I told you so."

Today's social problems did not just "growed like Topsy." They took a long time coming. They had their birth in politics.

There was early disrespect for institutions, community leaders, teachers, parents, each other and eventually ourselves.

We recall how the budding PLP encouraged young people to disrespect the leaders of this country by calling them by their first names -- this was the way government leaders were addressed in their party newspaper. We shall never forget the shock we got the day we saw the late Finance Minister Sir Stafford Sands cross Bay Street to enter the House of Assembly. From the pavement a youngster shouted at him: "Hey, Stafford!"

Something like that could never have happened in the Bahamas in which we grew up. But the disrespect of elders, particularly if they held positions of importance, was encouraged in the early days of the PLP. Those were the days when letter writers to The Tribune were afraid to sign their names for publication. We remember a house being stoned one night because the occupant was thought to have written a letter critical of the PLP to The Tribune.

Discipline was broken down in the schools. We recall the lament of the late headmaster Vince Ferguson of how school discipline was being undermined. He told us of the day that he disciplined a young boy by sending him home only to have a chauffeur-driven car arrive at the school the next morning, with instructions from Prime Minister Pindling that the boy was to be readmitted. The cheeky youngster swept past the headmaster, giving the high five sign as he grinned his way back to the classroom.

Mr Ferguson predicted that the boy faced a bleak future with the law. We believe that his prediction came to pass.

Today disgruntled parents go to school to "cus out" and "beat up" teachers if they don't like the manner in which a situation has been handled with their child. In earlier times, a child would be too scared to tell his parents about a teacher disciplining him, fearing that he would get a second belting from an angry parent. We can hear it now: "How dare you be rude to your teacher?"

So what can you expect of the children when the parents are out of control?
Elections became rowdy, stone-throwing events. Out of control PLP goon squads closed down political rallies, denying Bahamians their freedom of speech.

The late Eugene Dupuch, QC, would shake his head sadly with the Biblical words: "They know not what they do." He often commented on how human emotions could not be turned on and off like a water faucet. Once the floodgates are open, they cannot be closed, he said. In other words, what the PLP had unleashed on the community would come back to haunt them. It did, but in the end we have all been caught in the rush of those open floodgates -- human emotions run amok.

Sir Lynden lived long enough to look back on his past and admit at a PLP convention in 1990 that he had made a mistake.

"We told them," he said, "they were too good to be gardeners, too good to be sanitation men, too good to work with their hands" -- in the end it was bad advice. Attitudes, he said, had to change.

In this column tomorrow, we shall let Sir Lynden speak. He himself will tell you how it went wrong.

What he will say is the basis of many of today's problems - even the Haitian problem.

It is now time for these politicians - especially PLP politicians - to stop pointing accusing fingers, because it is their counterparts over the years who have been the major culprits in creating today's turmoil. It's now time for them to step down from their holier-than-thou pedestals and help find solutions.

July 14, 2011

tribune242 editorial