The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Events well beyond our borders can shape the term of any government for better or for worse.

To use a metaphor from the sport of cricket, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis has opened for the Bahamas and is still carrying his bat after these first innings.

His latest shot to the boundary is the humanitarian way in which he has handled the preparation and the aftermath of a string of hurricanes that damaged the southern Bahamas but devastated our Caribbean family, including our American family in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, our British family in the British Virgin Islands, our French and Dutch family and our first cousins next door in Turks and Caicos.

When hurricane Irma destroyed the island of Barbuda, they were able to evacuate to their sister island of Antigua. When hurricane Maria devastated Dominica the next week they had nowhere to turn because their neighbours in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States were summarily tapped-out by the hurricanes.

Dr. Minnis moved quickly and in a humanitarian and compassionate gesture offered to take in students from Dominica on a short-term basis, as well as those with family connections in the Bahamas. Some called it a very Christian gesture. They are entitled to that opinion but kindness is not exclusively a Christian trait. Practitioners of other religions also see the spirituality embodied in Minnis’ decision.

Bahamian parents who have children who are set to graduate next summer can empathize with the decision to help students continue their studies and finish on time. Most teachers likewise would have no qualms with squeezing an extra desk into their classroom. We all follow the same Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) curriculum so nobody would miss a beat.

Then there is the fact that we have a vibrant population of Bahamians of Dominican descent in this country who came here over 50 years ago and whose sweat and toil helped build this country.

They are, for the most part, some of our most industrious citizens. There can be no doubt that this community will ensure that no Dominican student or citizen given temporary leave to stay here will become a ward of the state.

When we suffered through hurricane Mathew last year, the Dominican Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit was one of the first to arrive in Nassau, on behalf of Caricom. Symbolically, he stood with us then. It should be with pride that we return the favour.

Dr. Minnis proves his progressive bona fides every day. He stands tall as our first University of the West Indies educated Prime Minister. He is not afraid to embrace the Caribbean. He sees our betterment as tied in with the Caribbean on those issues and in those fora where unity is strength.

His outreach to the Caribbean will pay huge dividends in the future as our diplomats follow through in promoting issues and policies that help the Bahamas and that push Bahamians to new heights.

Already, thanks to Minnis, we occupy the high ground in Caricom on the subject of tourism. Imagine when Bahamians seek high office in international institutions such as the UN. They will be able to count on a solid bloc of support from Caricom because we will have earned their trust and their respect.

Right on queue the usual choir of naysayers and xenophobes went on the attack against the new arrivals before they even reach, letting rip some of the most hurtful comments which showcased their prejudice, their narrow-mindedness and their fear founded in ignorance and intolerance.

A segment of our community, some of whom regularly fill the pews at various churches, have a deep dislike of immigrants and they eschew multiculturalism and assimilation even as they cut their eye at Donald Trump and his cohorts who practice the same kind of bigotry in the United States that some of them covet here.

We tend to forget that we in the Bahamas also produce expatriates. We have thriving communities of “immigrant Bahamians” in places like Florida, New York and Britain, and even in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and in smaller numbers on just about every island in the Caribbean. Thankfully they don’t suffer the same discrimination that we espouse.

Nobody is advocating permanent residency status for these temporary evacuees. But given the high achievement level amongst Dominican students, it will be an honour if, after some of these evacuees complete their tertiary education, they return to the Bahamas as newly-minted teachers, doctors and nurses.

Some blowhards among us and on social media don’t like immigrants here but were proud when native son Drexel Gomez became Archbishop of the Caribbean for the Anglican Church living in Barbados. Or when native daughter economist Therese Turner lived in Bridgetown and advised the government of Barbados on behalf of the IMF, or now as the woman in charge of the Caribbean for the IDB, based in Jamaica.

It is rank hypocrisy.

There will be those who say we cannot afford charity at this time. That view must be rejected. There is no wrong time to do the right thing.

Let’s welcome our neighbours into our country and never forget the anguish they will take to bed with them each night worrying about their friends and family back home while trying to concentrate on their school work.

Perhaps some enlightened souls will think of ways that we, the private citizens of the Bahamas, can raise a fund to support those whose plight is so much more distressed than ours.

Remember, we still have two more months to go in this hurricane season, and many years after that. Should we encounter any of these temporary residents from Dominica we should welcome them and then say to ourselves, “There, but for the grace of God, go I”.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

October, 2017