The Tribune

IN 1954, wealthy industrialist Eddie Taylor came to the Bahamas and bought a large tract of land at the undeveloped western end of New Providence. Over the years, Lyford Cay became known, not only as a place to relax, but also a secure hideaway for the rich and famous.

They came quietly, they enjoyed each others company, played golf, swam in some of the world’s most beautiful waters, and spent their evenings at the club. Here they were secure from the prying eyes of the world – particularly those of the press.

Among the early residents were Prince Rainier III of Monaco, the Greek shipping tycoons – Stavros Niarchos and George Livanos – author Arthur Hailey, Henry Ford II, the Aga Khan, Tony O’Riley and Sir John Templeton, to name but a handful of the world’s most famous names that became known as the Lyford Cay set. It was here in 1962 that the talks between US President John F Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan took place, with the President living in Mr Taylor’s home. The Nassau Agreement resulted in the development of the UK Polaris programme. Over the years, many important talks were held and agreements signed behind those secure gates.

Over the next 59 years, many Lyford Cay residents extended a welcome to those outside the gates — including Bahamians — who eventually purchased Lyford Cay property and also settled in the residential area. Over the years, the closed gate was a convenient red flag for local politicians, who thrived on stirring up racial hatreds. They failed to realise that the gates were gradually opening to include successful black Bahamians, who also wanted to share in the amenities of Lyford Cay.

In their own quiet way, Lyford Cay residents found ways to thank Bahamians for their hospitality. In 2009, it was conservatively estimated that Lyford Cay’s economic foundation contributed $209 million a year to the Bahamas’ gross domestic product (GDP).

The Foundation’s resources have been directed principally to increasing the availability of higher education and technical training for Bahamians, and supporting local non-profit groups through financial contributions and volunteer initiatives.

The Foundation, thanks to the quiet generosity of its donors, is the largest educational and philanthropic organisation in the country.

It has donated more than $17.6 million in undergraduate, graduate, and technical training and vocational scholarships to Bahamians overseas; more than $3.7 million in scholarships to individuals studying at the College of the Bahamas; $16.6 million in grants and more than 3,500 volunteer man hours to local charities and civic groups. It also helped secure almost $13 million in scholarship awards for Bahamian students from the colleges and universities they attended.

In 1999, the five-year, $5 million COB Library Project Fundraising Campaign opened, resulting in the official opening of the Harry C Moore Library and Information Centre on April 6, 2011. In 2009, the Foundation celebrated its 40th anniversary.

All the residents asked in return was to be left in peace and quiet in their residential enclave.

But blown into their midst was a Canadian fashion designer, a tycoon in his own right, who obviously wanted to stir things up in the quiet community. Recently, he invited controversial Nation of Islam leader —Louis Farrakhan — to visit his pad. Immediately, Mr Farrakhan turned to his favourite enterprise – the stirring of the racial pot. “I was at the home of Mr (Peter) Nygard,” he said, “way out somewhere, a gated community, some black people can’t even go in there except as a servant, a cook, a butler, to care for the lawn… but Mr Nygard wanted them there on that piece of ground that most black people just keep on driving by, don’t even go that way.”

This is a lie. Obviously, this controversial visitor was not informed that not only did black people go there, but they lived there. They too are members of the exclusive Lyford Cay Club and are represented on the Lyford Cay board.

And now Mr Nygard is hell bent on turning this quiet community, zoned as a residential area, into a commercial centre. He has announced that he plans to invest between $25 to $30 million to construct a stem cell research-focused medical facility at his Lyford Cay home. Already, he has increased his 3.2 acre property to 6.1 acres by dredging the seabed and extending its shoreline. The former government denied him permission to do this. It went so far as to call the reclamation project illegal, and ordered him to restore the area to its original borders. But Mr Nygard kept on dredging and enlarging his beach front property.

And now the Christie government — we are told that Mr Nygard considers it “his government” — has informed the Lyford Cay Property Owners Association that Mr Nygard has applied to government to lease him the reclaimed land on which Nygard Cay now sits. The Lyford Cay Association was informed that government might be inclined to “accede” to Mr Nygard’s application.

Has government considered how public traffic is going to access this property to accommodate its commercial use? After all, the property owners have the right to keep their gates closed to their residential properties. Maybe Mr Nygard’s tourists seeking medical attention plan to arrive at Simms Point by boat. And as for parking? He’ll probably be applying next to dredge a marina to accommodate their boats.

It is wrong that one resident — and lately arrived at that — should be allowed to destroy an atmosphere developed over the years, and zoned as a residential area, to find that suddenly it has been turned commercial. It would be a betrayal on the part of the Christie government to this group of people who have been so generous to the Bahamas. In fact, the very thought is outrageous.

And now it is time for Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell to come forward and remind his government of their Bahamianisation policy.

Remember Bahamian Dr Conville Brown, who has established the Bahamas Heart Centre on Collins Avenue? Last year, he announced plans to construct a multi-million dollar stem cell centre on the third floor of his medical pavilion.

This was announced last October after he and a special team had successfully performed the first stem cardiac treatment in Nassau on a 62-year-old American man. This was Dr Brown’s first step to launch his dream of offering medical tourism in the Bahamas. It is known that his ambition is to attract the world’s best medical brains to help him create a niche to provide a service to people outside of the country.

In other words, he would not be competing with his own medical fraternity.

Why then, should this government make legal what a previous government has called illegal? How can a foreigner be allowed to enter into direct competition with a highly trained and skilled Bahamian?

If government’s Bahamianisation policy — as they interpret it — means anything, then here’s another reason why the Nygard scheme should be denied.