The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

AMBASSADOR Cindy McCain, the United States Representative to the United Nations Agencies in Rome, travelled to Grand Bahama on Monday and was taken on a tour of the eastern part of the island.

Along with Winston Pinnock, Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Agriculture Minister Clay Sweeting and Minister for Grand Bahama Ginger Moxey, she first went to Coral Vita for a tour of the coral farm.

Ambassador McCain was also taken to East Grand Bahama to view the memorial site at High Rock, and the farmland there that was devastated during Hurricane Dorian.

Standing at the site where several High Rock residents went missing during Dorian, Mrs McCain said: “It is so hard, especially when this is the only place that a family can go to mourn the loss because there were no remains of anyone.”

“What a disaster, and my heart goes out to every person that has either suffered a loss or loss property,” she said.

She added: “It’s heart wrenching to see what occurred to this island, and heart-wrenching that we are not as far long as we should be in the help we should be supplying to this particular part of the Bahamas,” she said.

“From what I understand, a majority of farmland was lost here. That would be something we would take to FAO and other organisations within and outside the UN system. Also, a public private partnership to help rebuild the land and agriculture that was going on here - and to make these islands sustainable.”

She recalled working on the ground during Hurricane Andrew and seeing the devastation of that storm.

“I have seen it before and the devastation that a category five (storm) can do to the land. So, I think probably what we are going to see is where my ambassadorship can be more helpful. But also reminding people that The Bahamas is open for business, and that is probably the best thing that I can do in my capacity to help put the Bahamas back on track.

Ms McCain said climate change is responsible for what has happened.

“I look forward to being of any kind of help that I can be,” she said. “I have already given a few ideas. The US is a good partner, and we want to work with The Bahamas to continue the successes and help alleviate some of the tragedies that has occurred.”

“If we can work together on climate change, hurricanes like Dorian that hit these islands and others that have been devastated around the world, we can perhaps even lighten the load. We probably will never stop them, but we can at least lighten to the point that we don’t have this - devastating storm, which is what this was, and climate change is a large part of that.”

Ambassador McCain summed up her trip to The Bahamas as “uplifting and remarkable.”

She also visited Eleuthera and was impressed with the Island School, and One Eleuthera, an innovative experimental farm on that island.

“It’s been wonderful,” she said. “I come here in my capacity as US Ambassador to the UN Agencies in Rome, and we concentrate primarily on Food, Food Security, Agriculture, Climate Change, and more. And this has been a remarkable day. It’s been uplifting in many ways because I have seen the schools and projects that are really moving forward, including young people,” she said.

Agriculture Minister Clay Sweeting said Ambassador McCain’s visit went well.

“We spoke about how both our countries are making agriculture one of its main priorities. And not just agriculture, but climate smart agriculture and finding ways to get young persons involved in that as well,” he said.

“She was able to see some progress we made at the Island School and at Symonette Farm, as well as One Eleuthera, where they are doing cooling houses, which is a new integrated way of farming instead of just a greenhouse or outdoor farming.”

Minister Sweeting said Ambassador McCain and Ambassador Pinnock at FOA have been talking of how The Bahamas can work together to find funding or grants that can help in that sector.

“So, we are sharing the same initiatives and thought processes of where we need to go,” he said.