Got the following response to my Voter’s Manifesto. It was sent privately, for reasons the writer makes clear, but as that individual has encouraged me to post the response and to respond in my turn, I’m honouring the request.
Happy New Year
I wish to challenge your Voter’s Manifesto as ill-conceived, emotive and racist. You will notice that I am doing this in a private message rather than a post.
I would rather post and challenge publicly, however, unfortunately, foreigners do not have freedom of speech in the Bahamas without fear of consequences, and so I am forced to challenge you in private.
I request that you honour my request for anonymity, but I encourage you to post (anonymously) and respond to my challenges in public.
I have no argument with your ‘I believe’ section.
I suggest that you are being intentionally emotive and encouraging misunderstanding in your ‘I do not believe’ section.
‘I do not believe that Bahamians need help, time, or training to deepen and strengthen the democratic project’ I am not sure what you mean by ‘project’ but the Bahamas already has a fully democratic process for electing its leadership so this statement seems gratuitous and a little divisive to me.
‘I do not believe that Bahamians need help, time or training to address those problems that our country is struggling with now’ Wow this is an arrogant statement, to suggest that a population of under 400, 000 people has every single skill, knowledge and experience to address the issues faced by the country. In this context I am reading ‘help’ as ‘help from non-Bahamians’ as I don’t see what else it can mean.
Let me take an example that is close to your heart ……. COB
COB has been struggling for over 10 years now to transition from a community college to university status.
• I question what percentage of Bahamian lecturers at COB became qualified for their job in the Bahamas? I believe over 98% of Bahamian COB lecturers gained their education abroad.
• There are a number of foreign lecturers at COB. According to work permit requirements, COB was unable to fill those posts with Bahamians or work permits would not have been granted.
Did you mean that you want to get rid of all the foreigners from COB and stop Bahamians going abroad for their education?Let me take another example………. The economy.
The two largest industries in the Bahamas are tourism and off-shore banking. Both of these industries rely on foreign investment and international interactions.
You might not like Sol Kerzner building Disney Land on Hogg Island, but it is one of the largest employers in the Bahamas, and there were no Bahamians in a position to build at the same level, as proven by Baha Mar, which tried for a number of years to elicit Bahamian investment and failed, and also could not generate the skill set required for high rise construction within the Bahamas.
The off-shore banking industry functions through cooperation between the government of the Bahamas and international banks, who generate significant income for the Bahamas.
These two industries between them generate the majority of the wealth of the Bahamas and the majority of opportunities for Bahamians. Take away the foreigners and the money of the foreigners and both will collapse, along with the economy of the Bahamas.
You may not like the Bahamas’ dependence on foreign industry, but the Bahamas cannot do without it until it generates a broader economic base.
Your statements seem designed to elicit anti-foreigner responses.
What does it say about a country who shows such little respect for the foreigners legitimately living there?
“If you want my vote don’t come waving flags or t-shirts or offering promises of more jobs laying cement, gathering laundry or taking orders for rich white people from abroad.”
Are you saying it would be ok if they were rich black people from abroad?
I do not think you intended to be so disrespectful to those white foreigners living in the Bahamas, but it is significant that, whilst addressing your agenda of quality of jobs provided by the government, you are comfortable using derogative phrases like this.This document does not match your usual quality of work in my opinion. I think it is significant that you published it on MLK day in the USA and its style is derivative of the ‘I have a dream’ speech.
I invite you to defend your words and demonstrate the error of my interpretation.
I moved to the Bahamas because it is a country that still values family, community and humanity. As you correctly state, it is a country full of people with talent and creativity. I love the Bahamas and the people of the Bahamas and I believe I make a positive contribution to this country, so I find it hurtful to hear ‘getting rid of the foreigners’ as an election platform.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m just offended that COB was called a “community college.” In the now common usage of the term, a “community college” is one which serves as preparation for a four year college and offers only associate’s degrees.
COB has been offering many bachelor’s degrees for quite some time now, and has recently began offering master’s degrees.
Nevermind the ‘foreigner’s’ view of the statements made in voters’ manifesto. We, especially the majority of pre-1973 Bahamians, understand exactly what has been stated therein. Good work, keep on blogging, girl.
I too, am offended that you did not have the courage to print my earlier remarks which criticized (for many of the same reasons as stated in the comment above) your foolish attitude regarding foreigners being allowed to vote in The Bahamas. As I said before, without foreigners, the Bahamas is Haiti. Ex-pats often have more to lose than most Bahamians and therefore should have a voice in the selection of leadership (which you admit is pathetic). Perhaps there would not be so much corruption in government if expat residents were allowed to vote. Why don’t you put away your Bahamian pride and allow a real discussion by printing my comment.
Greetings.
I think if you look you’ll see that I printed the comment — you’ll find a link to it in the column on the right-hand side. Not only that, I’m also working on a longer response. Have no issues with discussion. The issue is one of timing — I have a filter set on new comments and on new commentators, which holds their first comment in a queue till I get to approve them. From here on in, if you post as either “Bahamian resident” or “Expat resident” using the email addresses you used to make the first comments, your comment will automatically appear. If you use another address, though, it’ll go to the queue and be held for approval, which means that it won’t go public till I get to see it. That could be a few minutes or a few days, depending on how busy I happen to be.
I do find your tone just a tad belligerent, and I’m not sure why you feel it’s necessary. I’m also not so clear on why you think prohibiting non-citizens from voting is such an awful thing; if ex-pats want to vote here, they have the option of becoming citizens. I don’t have a problem with that.
Just out of curiosity, if I moved to your country and lived as an expatriate, would I be able to vote in your national elections?
If you saw in “A Voter’s Manifesto” what you said you did, I think the article was far (far, far) above your thinking.
Take a breath and try reading it again. I doubt you could be so far off base again.