The Nature of Politics, Politicks and Democracy in The Bahamas

Politicking and Democracy. What’s the difference?

Edward Hutcheson


I have spent the last two weeks looking at the nation and people of the Bahamas, attempted to write letters and found myself reaching some rebellious conclusions about what answers and remedies should be about. Speaking to an older friend reminded me that life is not about answers, there are answers for more things than there are questions. His sage response to “What is democracy?” was, “Have you answered the question in your own country?” He was referring to the fact that we in the Bahamas take our cues from how people are doing things everywhere else in the world, it is not too original, but it takes away the responsibility of being responsible, since the idea came from somewhere else. And when you think of it, that is how the country has progressed – a lot of outside help and money, with Bahamians acting like tourists most of the time.

At the end of my looking, I had the opportunity to view, on one of the local television stations a discussion on the privatization of BTC, the talk show host had some members of a political party giving their view on the process. It was amazing, the amount of information that came out of it, there were answers for everything, until the moderator asked a question that was not anticipated. He wanted to know what was that particular party’s policy on the privatization, seeing that they had attempted the same process, some time ago. They were not able to give an answer, and then the host reminded them that their position had changed from what it previously was, and the reply was that that was the nature of politics. The host was able to pin down one of the rising stars in the party and his reply was that they did not have a policy on BTC, but they had a model that they were following. I wanted the host to push for a further explanation of that model, but they ran out of time.

Lately, it seems like most of the answers the public is getting are more like opinions; everybody has one. We must come to the place where we are able to ask the questions to whoever is leading out nation or who would like to lead and not get out of their face until the answers are forthcoming. I am getting ticked about the BTC issue, primarily because the public is not being told what is happening and/or the bodies involved in the process are not informed on the issues that they are addressing and this exercise up to now is more about persons maintaining their lifestyles or various groups of persons promoting social unrest.

The historic reality is that technology renders a judgment that government legislation cannot protect anybody from, except you are living in a dictatorship, and those of us who think we are gaining something by promoting battles are wasting time and money. We became a democracy in 1967, but it took us 25years to get our voices, and even within that time frame persons who should have known better made an attempt to ban dialect from the airwaves.

So what is a Democracy? It is when persons who were democratically elected exercise transparency in their dealings with the persons who elected them, and those who would like to be elected give a fair and impartial presentation of what they do know and would like to see, leaving nothing out. Anything else is politicking.

March 22, 2011

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Bahamas Blog International

What was the process applied in appointing the new Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) chief justice?

By Ian Francis


The recent news from the Caribbean Court of Justice and the CARICOM Secretariat indicating that Sir Dennis Byron has been appointed as chief justice of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) came to many regional observers as a great surprise and possible disappointment. It was popularly felt that injection of new and progressive blood was necessary for the CCJ, given the enormous amount of work to be undertaken for the future growth and sustainability of the organisation.

The appointment of Byron is not being opposed in this article, as it is felt and known that he is a very competent jurist who has served the region with great distinction. I want to wish Sir Dennis good luck and longevity as he prepares to assume the position of a regional court with only three members. Given Sir Dennis’s legal and administrative skills and experience, there is very little doubt that he will attempt to make a very valuable contribution to the CCJ, focusing on its future growth, which must include an increased membership.

While the selection and appointment of Sir Dennis as chief justice of the CCJ is not being viewed in a negative light, the need to delve further and gain valuable information about the selection and appointment process method applied by the Council of Ambassadors are reasonable questions to ask with the hope that truthful and credible answers are shared.

If the Council of Ambassadors were to adopt the notion of transparency and good governance, then it is reasonable to assume that the average “Joe Blow” in the region will get a much deeper insight into the decision-making process of the Council of Ambassadors. They are obligated to enlighten the region’s population about their decision making process within the CARICOM organisation. In an era of transparency and accountability, the sharing of this information is necessary if the recognised need to enlighten, increase awareness and understanding about CARICOM and its Council of Ambassadors is to be realised.

Prior to the inter-sessional pow wow in Grenada, it was known throughout the region that the Council of Ambassadors had two very critical appointments to make with respect to a new secretary general for the CARICOM Secretariat and a chief justice for the Caribbean Court of Justice. While it is recognized that the Council or Heads have the authority or mandate for such appointments, their authority should not be blindfolded or impaired by ensuring that proper human resource principles and practices are adopted when making such important appointments.

In July 2010, when former Secretary General Carrington and CCJ Chief Justice de la Bastide indicated that they would demit office, it was felt that the broad regional clamour for transparency and accountability in CARICOM might begin with the newly touted of “Council of Ambassadors”. There was great hope and expectation that the Council of Ambassadors would be more progressive, innovative and strategic in their approach with the decision making process in the Secretariat.

Unfortunately, based on internal information gleaned and received from credible sources within the Secretariat, it would appear that the newly touted “Council of Ambassadors” returned to their “old dog tricks” by applying an old decision making model of appointment by consensus..

With all of the above observations, it would appear that the development and implementation of a human resource strategy for the Secretariat has been ignored. There was no written job description for the chief justice position; no posting for the vacant position; no search, interviewing and recruitment committee established. Had these measures being in place, it would have afforded a broad spectrum of applicants from throughout the Caribbean region seeking the position of chief justice.

While at this stage the selection and appointment of a secretary general is unknown, it is sincerely hoped that the Council of Ambassadors will return to the drawing board by recognising and understanding that the process for selecting and appointing a new Secretary General of CARICOM requires a more visionary approach.

I wish Sir Dennis well in his new challenge. There is no doubt that he is indeed a formidable jurist and will do extremely well at the Caribbean Court of Justice. However, if the visionless Council of Ambassadors had seriously applied a transparent selection process, many more like Sir Dennis could have emerged and been considered for this very important position.

Now that the Council of Ambassadors have returned to their governing sanctuaries following their inter-sessional meeting in Grenada, they must once again be reminded of the wise comments made by Prime Minister Douglas of St Kitts and Nevis. He has requested fellow colleagues to be more reflective and analytical when handling important CARICOM matters.

In my view, Douglas’s comments require great attention and should influence our regional leaders with their governance and decision making style. They really need to measure up or face the emerging forces that are clamoring for change and participation. There are already clear warning signs in St Lucia, Grenada and Antigua that are likely to bring about electoral changes. It is very doubtful as to whether the Council of Ambassadors can influence the outcome of the pending electoral changes.

Let’s watch our Council of Ambassadors and their forthcoming report scheduled to be delivered at the next CARICOM meeting scheduled for the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis in July 2011.The region’s population are getting wary of the Council of Ambassadors’ tomfoolery.

Ian Francis resides in Toronto and writes frequently on Caribbean affairs. He is a former Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs., Grenada. He can be reached at info@vismincommunications.org

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Bahamas Blog International

Haitian presidential election: I am voting (again) for Michel Martelly!

I am voting (again) for Michel Martelly!
By Jean H Charles



I predicted in a previous column that the final round in the Haitian presidential election will be between the two Ms -- Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat (Caribbean News Now, November 27, 2010, “I am voting for Michel Martelly”).

I predicted also that the Haitian government, supported by and with the connivance of a sector of the international community, will try to disrupt the proceedings to manipulate the outcome. The acquisitions of the Haitian and of the universal democratic process are so strong that corrections have been made to rectify the results of the election to suit my prediction.

I am voting again for Michel Martelly in the final proceedings of Sunday, March 20, 2011.

Based on conversations with and observations of the electorate on the ground, I am predicting Michel Martelly will be the winner of the election. My conviction has been validated when, a week before the balloting, a poor young man living in Port au Prince told me he has been saving his meager salary to go back home to Cape Haitian where his electorate card was registered so he can vote for Michel Martelly.

I belong to the small intellectual elite of the Haitian Diaspora and/or homegrown, who should root for Mirlande Manigat. With a doctorate from or enough credits for one, from Sorbonne France, Mirlande Manigat belongs to the cosmopolitan Haitian pack who can teach in or are the students of the best universities of the Western world. She is proud of her knowledge of and experience about constitutional law. She called herself or she is being referred as a constitutionalist.

By contrast, Michel Martelly has no college degree; he completed his Baccalaureate in Haiti, attended courses in community colleges in the United States and has spent a life as a bad boy leading a very popular band throughout the Caribbean community, named Sweet Micky.

Yet I have chosen to cross the railroad yard and join the Haitian electorate in electing Michel Martelly as the next president of Haiti. The choice is visceral as well as cerebral. I am, as Michel Martelly, angry at the state of state of the Republic of Haiti. A country rich in cultural values, historical significance, abundant scenic vista, and a young, resilient and creative population, Haiti should shine in the Caribbean basin as it did during the three hundred years of the colonial era.

Instead it has lagged as a pariah amidst the squalor in the midst of its splendour because of the predatory nature of its successive governments, including the last one, as well as the connivance of a large sector of the international community.

Michel Martelly has an excellent grasp of the needs and of the solution for resolving the Haitian dilemma. He is aware of and plans to implement the Renan principles of nation building:

- Negotiate the incremental withdrawal of the United Nations forces to replace it with a national force of development that will protect the population against disaster, drug transshipment, as well as enhancing the environment.

- Uproot the internal refugees of the earthquake from the fetid camps as well as those who live in the favellas of the cities to root them in their original villages with the institutions and the infrastructure to enjoy and prosper in their beautiful setting.

- Michel Martelly will, last but not least, create a Haiti hospitable to all; free from the cultural traits of exclusion that have been the hallmark of the Haitian panorama for the last two centuries.

Mirlande Manigat has the intellectual capacity to apprehend this reality, yet she has expressed neither for me nor for the electorate the emotion as well the discipline of a rigorous analysis to indicate she has the vision and the strength to deliver?

Haiti, in spite of the saintly resilience and the male courage of its female population, has not been well served by its past pioneer female leaders.

They tend to give away the store too easily.

Ertha Pascal Trouillot, the first female president, opened (in spite of strong dissent within her policy advisory board) the vein for the close intrusion of the United Nations into the internal affairs of Haiti. The jury is still out whether the UN’s record for the past twenty years in Haiti has been a positive one so far!

Michelle Duvivier, the last Haitian female prime minister, has exhibited a loyalty firmer with the outside world than with her own government.

I am voting for Michel Martelly because, akin to the popular vote, I am taking a chance for a complete break with the past. Whether under the dictatorial, the military, the transition or the democratic regimes, the political class that surrounds Mirlande Manigat has found a way to remain the staple of the command chain that has led and continues to lead the destiny of Haiti so far into an abyss.

To the question whether morality has taken a back seat position in endorsing Michel Martelly, I have looked at the candidate in the eyes and asked him that very question? His answer resembles strangely to the question of Jesus to the Pharisees willing to stone the prostitute, while writing on the ground: May the one amongst you who is without sin send the first stone. John 8 verse 1.

“I will apologize when those who left my people without food and water, do so. I will apologize when those who left the detritus on the street for months without consideration for the health and the welfare of the population. I will apologize when those who left the majority of the people in extreme misery while they are running high with the national and international resources!” His anger went up one decibel higher as he was speaking!

A group of Christian ministers who endorsed his candidacy have produced several biblical arguments for doing so: Matthew 21, verse 42: “The stone rejected has become the cornerstone.” They went further to evoke in Corinthians 1 chapter 13, Saul who became Paul: “When I was a child, I acted as a child; now that I am an adult, I act as an adult.”

As in the first round of the electoral process the caesarian procedure towards the true delivery of democracy will be a difficult one. The new baby Haiti that will come out of the electoral operation will be a beautiful one that will grow in wisdom and in prosperity for the glory of the region and for the rest of the humanity.

Note:
I was one of the godparents, who were at the baptismal when the party “Reponses Peasants” (the umbrella under which Michel Martelly is conducting his campaign) was created. The party has adopted the vision of inclusion, hospitality and collegiality so often probed in my column. I will be there to ensure that this vision becomes the trend in the nation and in the region.

March 19, 2011

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Bahamas Blog International

We Bahamians are an ungrateful people

While the world suffers, Bahamians fiddle

tribune242 editorial




WE SWITCHED the television on. Saudi tanks were rolling into Bahrain to prevent that country's social unrest spilling over Saudi borders. Libyans were rushing in mad confusion to avoid tear gas hoses as the Arab League considered asking the UN to impose a no fly zone to stop Col. Muammar Gaddafi strafing his people from the air - a reporter described Libya's turmoil of cruelty as a "problem from hell." Egypt was still in confusion. In short the Middle East was on fire.

Suddenly, television cameras focused on Japan. There one saw a scene of absolute horror. Viewers were told that Japan had just suffered an 8.9 earthquake, the largest in its history, and the fifth largest recorded in this past century. Then as though an invisible giant had drawn in his breath, taking the ocean with it and leaving behind a denuded coastline, there was a powerful outward roar as a mountain of water rushed back across the land. Out of the earthquake, a giant tsunami had been born and in a twinkling of an eye an ancient town had disappeared from the face of the earth. Houses crumbled under its mighty weight, thousands of men, women and children disappeared before they had time to consider what they could do to save themselves.

What we were witnessing would affect the whole world and an already crippled international economy was pushed back just as it was starting to slowly move forward. As a result of the confusion in one section of the world every man, woman and child on the rest of the globe was caught up in the turmoil. If never before, that short sequence of events was proof that we are all one family caught up in each other's destiny on this one big ship called Mother Earth. As gas prices started to climb -- as a result of the Mid-East crisis --and goods, already too expensive, soared, one wondered if indeed Armageddon was near. At least that was what our maid thought.

"Oh, dear God," she moaned, "the world is in confusion!"

Suddenly she turned angry. "We Bahamians," she said, "are an ungrateful people. See how the world is suffering and we have the nerve to complain about a little inconvenience." Yes, when one compares Bahamians' problems against the suffering of other humans on the same planet, they are indeed "little inconveniences" and we should all hang our heads in shame for trying to make the mole hill into the mountain.

Here we have politicians busy trying to score brownie points against their opponents, not for the betterment of the body politic, but to gain a seat in parliament and to win an election.

While Japanese dug through rubble looking for loved ones, occasionally picking up an empty shoe and weeping for the loss of the human who once walked this Earth in it, Bahamians were squabbling over the sale of a telecommunications company that ill performed at the best of times and should have been put on the auction block a long time ago.

"Bahamians are just too selfish and too greedy, always with their hands out instead of trying to do the best they can with what they have until things get better!" she sniffed, with the toss of her head and the suck on the teeth. "They have gold by comparison and they don't appreciate it!"

While others suffer untold damage, some Bahamians are busy trying to organise their own "small Egypt" -- like the monkey wanting to follow fashion no matter how destructive that fashion.

Today Bahamians are busy trying to figure out how many FNM MPs would have to vote in the House against its government's sale of BTC to send the people back to the polls. As Mr Ingraham told them in today's Tribune, a majority vote against the sale of BTC to Cable & Wireless would be a parliamentary show of no confidence in his government. He would then turn the government back to the people; there would be an early general election, and Bahamians could then vote in a new government. However, he pointed out, the sale of BTC was one of the planks in the FNM's platform, one on which the FNM had won the government.

However, with 24 FNM members in the House to the PLP's 17, Brad McCartney is the only likely FNM to break ranks. This will in no way put the FNM's government in jeopardy. However, Mr McCartney has kept everyone guessing about his final decision of whether it will be an "aye" or "nay" for the BTC vote. The fact that, although he attends House meetings, he has avoided party meetings for many weeks, gives a pretty good indication as to how his mind is set.

Anyway, instead of losing precious time over such matters, Bahamians should thank God that they have a job. It is now up to them to give it their best until they can start climbing the ladder upward again.

March 17, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Venezuela's deadly pact with Latin American and Caribbean states

By Rebecca Theodore


Beware! The manipulative game of bartering oil for social welfare and aid to solve the economic woes of many Latin American and Caribbean states by Venezuela’s despot Hugo Chavez lingers.

Despite original predictions of its unsustainability, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) is quickly spreading throughout the region like wildfire, leaving in its wake a voice that cries out loud against reason and a political movement that tears the commercial veil of the Caribbean, Latin America, and the US asunder, being pulled and tossed in directions unknown by ideologically contrasting powers.

As games rely on the technical representation of an idea that either player can manipulate to victory, the allure for cheap oil for many Latin American and Caribbean countries now see them turning their backs on the US, choosing instead to associate themselves with governments overtly committed to building socialism. Faced with serious balance-of-payment problems, the bait entangled in a form of economic integration is appealing.

Thus, in their bold attempts for economic recovery and in choosing to align with Chavez, Latin American and Caribbean states are also lamenting the fact that Washington only supports democracy if and only if it contributes to their strategic and economic interests.

While assenting factors advocate that ALBA focuses on social cooperation and the use of economic growth to solve the people's problems, including unemployment and illiteracy, opponents on the other hand argue that this leftist trade bloc, funded by Venezuelan oil money and Cuban and Bolivarian ideology is nothing but a front for a broader socialist and anti-American agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Deemed a destabilizing effect on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) by Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding from its infancy, the socialist movement (ALBA) is spreading across the region like a deadly epidemic, with countries such as Nicaragua, Ecuador, Honduras, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and the Dominican Republic signing up as innocent lambs to the slaughter.

There is no doubt that this move yields ominous concerns, as dependence on foreign direct investment and tourism as a major propellant of development is curtailed. Concerns that the old order of power in Latin America and the Caribbean may also be permanently threatened.

As a lion disguised in sheep’s clothing, it must be seen that ALBA’s repute as an economic alliance for Latin American and Caribbean solidarity is only based on Chavez’s ideological hallucination -- an ideology that is not only masked in vengeance and hatred against the US to undermine the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) but also one that transgresses the practice of international law and bestows on Chavez the attention which he no doubt desperately craves in world politics.

Proposal for a joint ALBA military force by Venezuela and Nicaragua to replace the Inter-American Defense Board joint military aid, as well as intelligence and counterintelligence cooperation to combat the illusive terrorism and permanent aggression threat by the United States continues to be the theme of Chavez’s inflated rhetoric.

As more and more Latin American and Caribbean countries are depositing agreed amounts of their respective national currencies into a special SUCRE (Single Regional Compensation System) fund, it seems the SUCRE is rapidly replacing the US dollar as a medium of exchange with a Regional Monetary Council, and a Central Clearing House, hence decreasing US control of Latin American and Caribbean economies and fortifying Chavez’s long time insane ambition of the SUCRE becoming an international reserve currency much like the euro.

While the US sits idly by, choosing instead to label it an ‘oil conspiracy’, ignoring the Monroe Doctrine approach, which regarded the Caribbean as its backyard, emboldening its neighbours and internal groups to challenge its sovereignty, a new form of 21st century socialism now governs the economic and political policies of Latin America and the Caribbean.

It is a dramatic development, a difficult encounter and a concern of gigantic historical and commercial proportions.

March 17, 2011

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Bahamas Blog International

Turks and Caicos politics in a Caribbean context

By Oliver Mills



Local historians in the Turks and Caicos contend that these islands were the first to be discovered in the Caribbean region, although this is contested by others. However, Caribbean historians have maintained that the real value to Europeans of the West Indies was their mineral wealth, agricultural products, employment for Europeans, and as a training ground for their navies. Nothing is mentioned about the value of the islands to their own people, the local inhabitants.

Indeed, the local inhabitants were highly civilised, particularly the Mayans and Aztecs, while the Caribs and Arawaks on the other hand, who lived communally under a system of governance that suited their needs and circumstances at the time, were regarded by the Europeans as primitive. The latter sought to use the tribal chiefs against each other to maintain a divide and rule policy. This meant that, instead of confronting a common threat, the local inhabitants fought against themselves, urged on by outsiders, who benefitted from this local rivalry which they initiated.

The Turks and Caicos were important for their salt product, cotton, as a training area for sailors and their warships and, initially because of our many islands and cays, as a hide out for pirates, buccaneers, and smugglers. Later in this century we became military bases to maintain surveillance of Castro’s Cuba, and to listen to and track Russian submarines.

A prominent historian of Caribbean affairs describes the background to the contemporary challenges the Caribbean faces today. He states that the society was based on masters and slaves, and this made impossible any spirit of mutual trust between the two sides. The phrase that emerged from this situation was, ‘the worse you behave to a Negro, the better he behaves to you.’ Even now, we still say this about each other.

This perception of these two categories of master and slave later translated into divisions between those with money and resources, and those who had only their labour to offer. From here, developed the antagonistic relationship between labour and capital. And although later, as Caribbean society became more sophisticated through the development of science and technology, a managerial versus a technologically skilled class developed, with knowledge replacing capital as the important factor in workplace relationships.

This historian further states that a further characteristic of Caribbean society was the parochialism of its governing climate of opinion. Any opinions that differed from, or contested the way things were being done, were discouraged. The idea behind this was to maintain the political and social dominance of one group of persons who differed from the local inhabitants in social status, colour and interest.

The type of governance that existed, particularly in those islands with British influence, was Crown Colony government, or direct rule, where a governor and officials from the metropole were the main players, assisted by selected locals regarded as prominent members of the community. This same type of governance exists in the Turks and Caicos today. In the early colonial period, it was based on the contrived assumption that people who were culturally different had no real conception of how to govern themselves, or conduct their affairs in a civilised way. They therefore needed persons of a different and superior cultural orientation to ‘help’ them to become more civilised. To hold their hand and gently lead them, until they were deemed ready and fit to govern themselves.`

This historian rounds out his description of Caribbean society’s background by noting that the European mind failed to apply the idea of equality to subject Caribbean people. The fact is that, in many instances, this perception still remains of people of other races. In the Caribbean, we have absorbed these prejudices, and use them against our own to determine class and social status. People with a fair complexion are still preferred to those with darker skins, and the many races we have still discriminate against each other in various subtle and open ways. We have not as yet, in our Caribbean, despite chatter at various conferences, come to accept each other, trust each other, or see each other in an open-minded way, without race, class, island of origin, or even religion, playing a significant part with respect to how we perceive each other.

In the Caribbean’s quest for ever increasing control over its political affairs, leading to independence for some islands, again, the dominant power insisted that certain steps or stages be gone through, as if locals had to take examinations at different levels of difficulty. Crown Colony government was followed by more political representation through the extension of the vote. Through agitation, internal self-government came about with either a Chief Minister or Premier, based on the intensity of the agitation. This was then followed by independence. But at each stage, it was the colonial power that responded to challenges made on it. It was the local leaders who formed political organisations that over time contested the existing system, and got it to be changed to a more democratic system, representative of the majority.

This is where the Turks and Caicos is today, with demands for the reinstatement of the 2006 constitution, that many insist has nothing wrong with it. Some feel the newly considered constitution is meant to restrict the power of the elected representatives, and the newly proposed electoral system is designed to emasculate the political parties, and give further authority to the function of Governor as an institution.

What is often forgotten, or not realised, is the fact that the 2006 constitution can in many ways be regarded as really an independence constitution. The office of Premier had enormous power, and many international missions were undertaken by the elected government, although it was the UK government that was responsible for foreign affairs. The then Premier gave audience to many heads of state, and a minister of government had some responsibilities for national security. The UK government on a whole, allowed the Turks and Caicos to exercise authority in many areas, which could only be seen in an independent territory. Under the 2006 constitution, therefore, the islands could be described as really being independent where governance in the strict sense is concerned. Ministers exercised certain levels of authority to negotiate abroad on behalf of the country, met with their counterparts abroad, and entered into agreements after the proposals had gone through the cabinet process.

The independent Caribbean territories basically followed this same process. It appears, though, that the Turks and Caicos, although coming a little late on the scene, caught up quickly with these countries, even surpassing them in economic development, and becoming their equal in the level of political awareness and consciousness. As a matter of fact, our first Premier was even invited to an economic event in Jamaica to share ideas on how his country was able to achieve the level of economic growth it did. One of our Chief Ministers under the PDM government even attended important functions abroad, on an equal footing with other heads of state. Although not formally an independent country, the Turks and Caicos enjoyed equality of status with the other independent Caribbean countries. No other Caribbean country received this recognition when they were at the political stage the Turks and Caicos was at.

We all know the political story of what happened to the Turks and Caicos political system, and the accompanying economic challenges we now face. Many feel that the introduction of current revenue measures, and those impending, will result in further economic decline, and a further lowering of the standard of living in the islands, as well as discouraging foreign investment. Some feel that our economic progress began with the introduction of political parties that took various initiatives that secured agreements for growth and development to take place. Others feel that jealousy is responsible for the state the country is in now, and that there is no independent objective means of knowing what the real state of the economy is.

There is a segment of the population that also feels that whatever resources we have are not being used in a way significantly beneficial to the inhabitants, and that a new class of ‘others’ is calling the shots, and enjoying a certain lifestyle, while local people are mere spectators in their own country. If this is so, is this moral? Others feel that it is the Turks and Caicos political class and their associates that are responsible for the developments that led to where we currently are.

But there is also a view which is convinced that the profile of the Turks and Caicos as a country with people of colour who developed and managed a successful economy, and brought advantages not previously enjoyed to almost every island and its inhabitants, went against the previously held view of people of colour being unable to manage their political and economic institutions successfully, being always dependent on handouts from others, because they were lazy, carefree, and a bunch of freeloaders, incapable of anything serious or worthy of note. Certain activities therefore had to be initiated to restore the islands to the status it was felt they should really have, as a territory with people of colour as its majority, with a selected few of ‘others’ who feel themselves entitled, by virtue of their alleged cultural sophistication, to lead these people of colour into the light.

In the context of the wider Caribbean, then, it can be seen, that basically, the Turks and Caicos followed the same political and economic course, had the same historical elites that exercised power and authority over their destiny, and experienced the same condescending attitudes exhibited by these elites. The demonstrations for the restoration of democracy here were also carried out by other Caribbean territories in their quest for autonomy, and our politicians, although living in a more enlightened age, still behave in a way reminiscent of those Caribbean politicians at our stage of political development.

The independent countries got their way. Will the Turks and Caicos, through its party system, and other political groups achieve its objectives and soon join these territories as a fully sovereign and independent country?

March 16, 2011

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Bahamas Blog International

Should condoms be distributed in schools?

By Dr Oswald Thomas



If as a teacher I give out condoms in schools, will I be encouraging promiscuity? Taking the power of transmitting values to children away from their parents? Costing the education system more money? Sending mixed messages? Supporting safe sex? Stemming the tide of HIV/AIDS? Combating teenage pregnancies or safeguarding morality over saving lives? These issues were brought to the fore when the Antigua Daily Observer on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, published an article under the caption “Minister of Education Says No to Condoms in School.”

The Hon. Minister of Education and Gender Affairs, Dr Jacqui Quinn-Leandro was at the time responding to a suggestion put forward by the coordinator of the St Lucia-based Educational International Organization, Virginia Albert-Poyette, at a regional teacher trade unions workshop. One of the aims of the workshop was to conduct an evaluation of a five-year project on HIV and AIDS and Education for All. Ms Albert-Poyette felt that as part of the battle against HIV/AIDS, condoms should be given out to school children.

Challenges

I am in full support of the Minister on her unshakeable stance that condoms should not, and will not be distributed in schools across Antigua and Barbuda. If the suggestion is simply to give school children full access to condoms in isolation of a holistic sex education program, then this exercise is worthless. In fact, condom distribution will have no impact in the fight against HIV and AIDS. According to Kirby (2000), there are three main controversial approaches to reducing rates of sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy among North American teenagers, namely: abstinence-only programs, safer sex education, and making condoms available in schools.

Even if one argues for the idealism of school being solely about education, this is simply not the reality. Antigua and Barbuda and the rest of the Caribbean for that matter are part of a changing landscape. Things that are happening in the Caribbean today sexually are not things that I never felt I would have lived to see. Sex is all around us, television adds, movies, strip clubs, gay and lesbian clubs, openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender couples. Just take a look at the number of young ladies who are having babies very early. As of December 2010, the AIDS Secretariat in Antigua reported an increase in HIV/AIDS of 65 cases with 90% of the infected falling between 15-49 age group and of that number the majority are women between 15-34 age group. The Caribbean now has the highest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the world. We cannot ignore this problem or allow it to flourish by being rigidly moralistic.

I know that sex is more often on the minds of school children more than education is. While I know the need for sexual experimentation is not confined to school children, rightly so, sex should be on school children minds. It is an integral part of their bodily functions and emotional cravings. Part of growing up is learning how to manage one’s sexual energies and to direct those powerful emotions to healthy outlets -- swimming, exercise, community service, organized religious activity, sports etc.

Distributing condoms must be filtered through a set of discerning criteria that exclude primary schoolers and acts as protective measure against indulgent adolescents. This process may also be tied to parental alert so that parents can either seek professional help, pastoral counseling or psycho-therapeutic intervention as they seek to influence their children with desired moral values. This is very important especially in those sensitive years when school children’s hormones act like a runaway train, and preaching abstinence is neither safe nor good enough.

The American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs states that abstinence-only programs may delay sex however, a large number of youths are already sexually experienced and need the knowledge, motivation, skills and access to condoms and contraceptives to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies.

What this implied is to say No to condoms without offering a credible alternative intervention program is in essence to say yes to behaviors that are likely to destroy school children’s chances at living a successful life. It is unjust that the school system should not find more practically ethical intervention to encourage their journey towards personal development and responsible citizenship.

Solutions

“The only natural resources that Antigua and Barbuda has are its people,” These words were wisely spoken by the late Father of the Nation, Sir Vere Cornwall Bird. If education keeps us learning, sorrows keeps us humble, success keeps us flowing, then our children should keep us human.

Perhaps what is needed in Antigua and Barbuda and the Caribbean school system is to educate our adolescents about sex and sexuality as part of our regular school curricula. A lesson plan that goes far beyond human biology of naming the parts of the body and the sexual reproductive system. Sex and sexuality must be openly addressed in our schools from intercourse, childbearing and childrearing to sexually transmitted diseases. A salient point we seem not to remember is that education is much broader than mastering subject content -- English, math, history, geography, biology, home economics, woodworking, chemistry and the whole regiment of CXC requirement. Schooling is to be about equipping students with life skills intelligent, so that they can develop sound judgments, practice ethical behavior, attain self-fulfillment, act as responsible citizens and maximize spiritual aspirations. Hence, subject matter must bridge the gap between theory and practice or else our schools will be graduating adults who are children.

Add to that moral education, self-discipline and practical strategies of avoiding situation where saying No to sex becomes almost impossible. As a person who works in the helping profession, I have met countless teenagers, who honestly don’t have a clue about the addictive nature of sex, about their own sexuality, about the destructive nature of sex to life and dreams or about the proper context of sex, which is a stable, loving committed intimate relationship -- better known as a healthy and mutually fulfilling marriage.

More tragic is the observation that if and when school children become victims of early pregnancies (usually occurring because of poverty, delinquent influences and exploitation of promiscuous adults), most island school systems do not make alternative provisions for them to complete their schooling. I see this travesty as one of the gravest vices committed under the cover of virtue. Saying No, would not change injustice.

The ministry of education should also look to partner with its counterpart, the ministry of health to develop and implement a school-based health center whereby condoms can be dispensed by the school nurse. The student would have to request a condom from the school nurse and that student would have to listen to a brief lecture on safe sex. Condoms in school are nothing new as many schools districts around the world have already grappled with this controversial policy since the 1990s. When our school children have become fully armed with sex and sexuality education they will be in a better position to make sound decisions that will increase their chances at success in life.

Bear in mind some very stark statistics that underscore this problem. For each of the 65 new cases of HIV/AIDS in Antigua and Barbuda, to get a better picture of how many persons who could be actually walking around with HIV/AIDS knowingly or unknowingly, we would have to multiply each person infected as having five sexual partners. Hence, the number of persons infected would jump from 65 to 325 in 2010.

Given this situation, the minister of education is correct -- we cannot just give away condoms in school without first educating the nation’s only natural resources. We have to do everything within our power to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Parents, pastors, community leaders, politicians, journalists, and educators should join our children in preparing to be part of the solution.

I am not suggesting that only saying Yes to condoms in school is the panacea. I know that if we simply say No to condoms we would be multiplying the problem, not solving it. I believe that distributing condoms in school is an act of saving grace rather than promoting promiscuity. I encourage our education administrators throughout the Caribbean to take Albert Einstein’s counsel seriously: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

March 15, 2011

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