The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was born a Biminite and have always held Bimini very dear to my heart. I moved away from Bimini as a teenager to seek a high school and college education – like many at that time – and to find something different from fishing, conching or salvaging; this led to me being away for some 38 years off and on.

I have now returned to my home (Bimini) and have opened my own business and I can tell you that Bimini is alive with full employment. Resorts World Bimini continues to bring employment and as a Biminite who is back home permanently I want to say that I do not have any issue with the development by Resorts World Bimini and I will further say neither do 99 per cent of Biminites.

Through the years, the people of Bimini have done a very good job in educating their children by sending them abroad to institutions of higher learning and many of us have gotten this education only to return home to basically nothing, resulting in non-usage of their education and getting into mistrife.

So I pose the questions: Shouldn’t we be able to have the opportunity to come back home to work in the skills we were educated in? Why can’t we have the right to determine our own faith without outsiders coming in to determine our faith/destiny for us? Are we that dumb and stupid you think?

I recently returned home to open a consumer electronics business because this is my field. I came back home basically because of the opportunity that is being presented by the Resorts World Bimini development. I am quite sure that many other Biminites will return also because there is now something for them to do besides fishing, conching and salvaging.

A lot of outsiders, such as the Blue Coalition who have been speaking against the development, are not Biminites and to tell you the truth I have not heard much negative talk from the most important people in this – the people of Bimini. Shouldn’t the people of Bimini’s voices be heard on the topic of this development?

These outsiders trying to stop this project are talking a lot of foolishness with their doom and gloom. Most of these persons on these coalitions have already made their money and don’t give a darn about the poor people who are just trying to make it day by day. The Blue Coalition, who have decided to go to the Privy Council and have been defeated by the Bahamas Supreme Court, are not from Bimini and are made up of 99.9 per cent of non-Biminites and appear to love the publicity they are getting to the detriment of Biminites.

I will tell you that over 90.5 per cent of Biminites approve of this project and only ask of the developers that Biminites are treated fairly and that these developers do what they say they would do to preserve our eco-system, which many Biminites believe they will do. And further to be trained in all phases of the development with some preferences, nothing more, nothing less.

There are miles and miles of reef in Bimini and since the development specifically of the jetty is only a very small area many of us don’t see this as the big issue that the Blue Coalition is making it out to be. Additionally the property they are building on is much higher than what was there before making the areas less likely to flood than before.

And so it makes many of us Biminites wonder if they would like to see us Bimini natives once again living in huts and begging to put food on our family table or deal drugs.

This jetty is needed, the entire development is needed and so they should stop their nonsense, stop creating fear in our community and stop trying to take bread out of our mouths.

I believe that instead of the nonsense that this coalition is portraying they should be more concerned that the owners of the development stop the indiscriminate firing of Bahamians on the job without notice. That the foreign executives at Bimini take a course in Bahamian culture.

Many of us also believe that the Government of the Bahamas should come clean with the citizens of Bimini through public meetings on whether they are giving the Capos and Malaysians more of our land in Bimini because we do not feel that the rest of the land, including the East Well area, should be preserved for Biminites. We need to know what the deal is with this entire project and we should be repeatedly informed through town meetings on the progress of this development.

There has not been one town meeting held by the government informing the public of the development taking place in Bimini – and we need to hear from them. We are also concerned that there will soon be a riot with workers at Bimini Bay if they don’t start paying their staff on time and coming up with a solution to treat Biminites fairly.

As you can see, none of that relates to a small piece of reef being dug up. So why persons from as far away as California along with the Blue Coalition trying to disrupt progress only God knows. I remember when they were digging the channel that the nay-sayers were saying that this was going to destroy the conch, the bonefish, the turtle and all kind of foolishness. We can inform you that there are more of these creatures than ever.

Lastly, a vast majority of Biminites would like to say this: that if these entities, the Blue and the Green coalitions, are successful in stopping the projects in Bimini and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so, they should also be prepared to give all residents of Bimini, approximately $2,750, the cost of revenue lost for stopping this development.

We Biminites are not prepared to live in huts, thieve, steal or sell drugs just to put food on our family table. Fishing, conching, salvaging and being a boat deckhand for the rich and famous is just not going to cut it any longer with us. We ask the Blue Coalition to desist from trying to take food out of our mouths.

E REX GRANT

Bimini,

May 31, 2014,