The Tribune

By Rev. Canon Sebastian

Campbell

Procrastination, slunking, tardiness, sloth - call it what you like - it is inherent in our culture.

It is demonic. It is our number one internal enemy and it must be fought and conquered. Our national development is negatively affected by it, as it creeps into the psyche of our children thus guaranteeing its perpetuation. What a travesty.
Tragically, we are a last minute people. Our Independence celebrations must be rescued from this negative element in our Bahamian culture. The national committee is doing a yeoman’s task in drumming up national interest in the execution of plans for the fortieth anniversary of independence. Our lack of a national vision for the ongoing celebration of our major milestones, independence being chief among them, must be addressed.

Failure to do so will catch us with our proverbial pants down for every time. So unimpressive were the celebrations of independence in one given year that I personally called for the resignation of the national committee on independence and begged the members never again to be counted on such a team.
I now ask and literally beg the government of the Bahamas to let us be intentional about this whole business. Ad-hocism has no place in national development. It will pull us down into the mud of despondency and stress. I humbly move a motion for the appointment of a body of persons to be mandated to plan celebrations on an ongoing basis, for those milestones, we celebrate as holidays. Do I have a seconder? All in favour, please indicate in the most appropriate way.
What are some of these milestones for celebrations? The list must include, Emancipation Day, Randol Fawkes Labour Day, Heroes Day and above all, Independence. Doesn’t anyone at all realize we are not advancing in our celebrations. Can’t we see that we are simply repeating the same ole, same ole, every year in all our celebrations. Even now with the fortieth celebration of independence, there is so much regurgitation.

I was stunned with the Christian Council’s behaviour. The church, like its lord, should be the greatest vehicle of change, but when confronted to help to bring change to our celebrations it did not respond to the bell. The church is failing us as an agent of change. Where there is no change, there is no growth; life becomes stale and boring. The church must lead the way and stop getting in the way of change. The church must be a change agent. It’s probably because of the church that some government agencies were afraid to bring about change to our national independence celebration. In most part the fortieth anniversary celebrations are the same old, same old, from the last forty years.
This body of persons, mandated to plan our national celebrations, ought to be small, for effectiveness. It can come under some umbrella as a subcommittee, but nevertheless, a body of persons continuously in place, year round, with powers to co-op persons with expertise for given projects and to embrace ideas from all our people scattered over the entire archipelago. This will allow quality time to travel to our islands to marry ideas and thus be truly representative of the country.

Aren’t you tired of a group of Nassauvians, out of touch with Bahamian reality, yet claiming to be national? When are we going to wake up?
Before this revolutionary thought can take root, we must be honest enough to admit: We are not pleased with the quality of our celebrations for independence or any of the other holidays. They have become just another day off from work or school. Another opportunity to shop in the US or to hang out on the beach. The meaning is lost with no lessons being learned. Probably this body of persons can be further mandated to examine and make suggestions for days of national observances. These would be important days, for whatever reason, but not advanced to holiday status.

Days of national observance, holidays must be teaching opportunities especially to and for our children. We are losing it, when we can have national celebrations, such as independence, and the children are not intentionally planned for to be paramount in its execution. Nothing happens by chance; it must be planned and worked in.
This grouping can rescue our minds from seeing independence as only a July affair, but find ways to have building blocks to it. For example there should be a national event, for children, just before school closes for the summer, some event on all our Islands. This is one way to make up for independence being on July 10 when schools are closed.
Wake up. Stop letting us repeat old mistakes. There is a widespread attitude of discontent from one celebration to the next. Bahamians are generously expressing their dislike for the fortieth anniversary of independence celebrations. Through the media, I, along with others on the independent secretariat, have been urging Bahamians to get involved in these celebrations. Decorate, decorate, decorate your homes, business places, churches. Plan your events. But, being who we are, it will be most eventful for a mechanism to be put in place at the national level, year round, who will goad us on and thus lift our celebrations onto a higher elevation and become more and more uplifting as the years roll on.