NATIONAL NOTES

March 1999 Table of Contents - Current Issue of The Abaco Journal - Abaco Bahamas' Home Page

NATIONAL NOTES

Environmental Data Clearinghouse: The Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology Commission has secured technical assistance from the United Nations Environmental Programme to establish a clearinghouse for environmental data. Many government and private agencies will provide information for the metadata base, which is expected to be completed in ten months.

Let's Have a Holiday! Efforts have been renewed to declare 10th January as Majority Rule Day and a public holiday. At present there are three Bahamian public holidays: Labour Day, Independence Day and Discovery Day. All other holidays are religious or (as in the case of Boxing Day) traditional from a previous era and culture.

Devolution 2000: The Royal Bahamas Police Force plans to become more efficient in its crime fighting and more responsive to the community it serves in the future. CID officers will be reserved for serious cases and all stations will be computerised, said Minister of National Security Frank Watson. Police Commissioner Bernard Bonamy stated that police commanders will be held responsible for the morale and efficiency of their officers.

If You Don't Want It, Give It To Me: There has been an outcry in the press and Letters to the Editor over the proposal to include the image of the late Sir Stafford Sands on a forthcoming definitive $10 banknote. Sir Stafford has been called 'the father of Bahamian tourism' but has also been castigated for a perceived racial attitude. Sir Stafford died on 25th January 1972 at age 58. Also proposed, without much opposition, is Sir Roland Symonette, first Prime Minister of The Bahamas, on the $50 note. First Bahamian Governor-General Sir Milo Butler appears on the present $20 note and Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield on the $5. All other denominations bear the image of the Head of State, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Lucky He Missed: German businessman Hans Peter Kugler had his charge of firing a flare gun at a Paradise Island Airlines craft on 16th July 1998 quickly dismissed in a Nassau magistrate's court. The magistrate said there was no evidence that the flare gun was capable of inflicting injury.

Schoolchild Beaten: Although the country is used to old fashioned forms of corporal punishment, there was outrage and concern about the beating of a 12 year old boy attending Bahamas Academy of Seventh Day Adventists in Nassau. The Tribune of Nassau showed a front page colour photo of the boy's buttocks that horrified many who saw the damage. The boy had apparently been beaten in front of his classmates and begged for mercy at one stage, but the beating continued.

Prime Minister Mobbed: As part of a series of demonstrations by the BCPOU contesting possible settlement provisions of BaTelCo employees who may lose their jobs when the corporation is privatised, protesting members of the union jostled and harangued the Prime Minister as he left the House of Assembly on the evening of 17th February. [Editorial Note: The action against the Prime Minister may be construed as severe by those unfamiliar with Bahamian lifestyle and politics. In effect, in a country where most representatives are called by their first name and are very well known in their communities, the Prime Minister was in no physical danger whatsoever. It was a form of close contact demonstration that would be unthinkable - even impossible - in many other countries of the world.]

Clifton Cay Project: The hottest topic in Nassau is the Clifton Cay Project, which will develop land between Lyford Cay and Clifton Pier, on the western side of New Providence. Finally Nassau people have discovered how damnably small their little island is. All those people in that tiny space? Suddenly the Clifton Cay area has great historical and environmental interest, though a confirmed bird watcher says that local ornithological clubs gravitate to golf courses, not Clifton Cay. There are slave period constructions of historical interest that should, of course, be preserved. But nobody ever thought to bring them to light until now. So we have a classic Oregon case of nature (and history) versus development. But we feel the real issue is that Nassau people are finally coming to the realisation that their island is full. Genuine parkland and wilderness must be available for future generations. Whether this project would appreciably alter the state of nature on New Providence, we are not in the position to say. It is clear, however, that Nassauvians are the ones to decide whether they live in a mini Manhattan or get a glimpse of bush now and then.

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