The Tribune

By NICOLE BURROWS

Another hotel is not what we need.

Another tourism project in the form of luxury residences, another marina and more high-end shopping, are not what the Bahamas needs to sustainably grow and develop. Amassing these things which are beyond the reach of the average Bahamian is hardly acceptable as an economic plan, nor is it sustainable.

This “build us a hotel and give us some jobs” has been the plan for too many years now; do you see any of it paying off with consistency and longevity? How’s the economy looking? How’s the society holding up? Do either of them appear healthy? If investing in hotels was the path to long-term stability, would we not be somewhat stable, steadily and positively growing by now?

I should think that it matters greatly that Bahamians are asking that we move in a different direction with respect to our development – unless, of course, we’re not building this country for Bahamians. In which case, please, tell us who we are building it for: the illegal migrants of cheap labour who only want jobs to survive, or the expensive elite migrants who are ready and willing to offer side deals to government officials who lobby their causes? Or, perhaps the government officials themselves?

For Christ’s sake, to whom will another luxury hotel and more luxury condominiums, all this high-end living and shopping cater? Which average Bahamian is going to buy/lease (from) these properties? Regardless of how incentivised they are for Bahamians, most Bahamians are unlikely to afford them, without borrowing or stealing more than they find themselves doing right now.

Honestly, we have gone beyond, so far beyond, the simplicity of a “jobs” argument. Any serious moves the Bahamas makes towards greater or sound economic development shouldn’t be about creating jobs. Our economic development should be about creating ownership and investment opportunities with real returns in relevant industries for the primary benefit of the Bahamian people.

It doesn’t matter how many luxury resorts you bring to the Bahamas, if you can’t feed your people at a reasonable cost with locally-produced foods and affordable food imports; the same applies if the substructure of our roadways is so poor that you can’t get from point A to point B without breaking your vehicle axle in a two-foot-deep crater in one of many neglected streets or highways.

With all due respect to you as my leader, sir, why couldn’t you strike a deal with China to fund that farm in Andros, in joint partnerships with any number of private Bahamian businesses?

Why couldn’t you strike a deal with China to put their investment dollars into developing the wider infrastructure of New Providence and start the same on the forever-neglected Family Islands, and begin to create specialised industry in each of them and build communities around them, offering our people some real choices for the future?

The Chinese did a good job (it appears) with the road construction in the development of the Baha Mar property. Why not invite them to put that same expertise to good use, in private-private partnerships – not solely public-private partnerships – building roads, bridges, air strips, to facilitate transportation and increased airlift, new residences, and businesses on every one of the Family Islands, so we can finally begin to disperse the ever-burgeoning population of Nassau and New Providence island?

I’ve heard the concerns of fellow Bahamians about having a state-owned company as the primary investor in our country. And while I do find this to be a concern, I think the greater problem with the Chinese investments right now isn’t that they’re foreign state-owned, but that the local negotiators are Bahamians who don’t direct these important investments to where they best serve the needs of the Bahamian people in the short term and in the long term.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with welcoming investments by foreign businesses, so long as these investments are not ad hoc, and are instead pursued in respect of a larger, well-contemplated plan to benefit the Bahamian people, and are implemented in a way that maintains the sovereignty of the country and the security of the people in the process of investment and development.

The redevelopment of Bay Street is about 30 years overdue; as a child, I loathed walking downtown and thought it was one of the nastiest places on New Providence. So I welcome the plans the Chinese investors may have for its renewal, but the Bahamas government should not seek to develop such plans in secret, but rather in fair consultation with the property owners currently occupying Bay Street, particularly on the waterfront, and any other Bahamian stakeholders of note. (Why alienate them with smack talk? If they provoke, be the bigger, responsible person).

Additionally, what will a Chinese-conceptualised plan for redeveloping Bay Street look like? Are we comfortable with the promise of such a plan to adhere to Bahamian cultural norms and preservation, so that the end product fits into the city? Who will be responsible for ensuring that that does in fact happen and that we don’t end up with a little Miami Beach on Bay Street, Nassau?

Was there not another master plan for this same redevelopment? How different is the one China has presented from the one commissioned by an earlier Christie administration using the services of EDAW? Why was the earlier plan not utilised as prepared? Will the two be fused? And when these decisions are made, who is speaking on behalf of the people of the Bahamas, through a voice other than the government’s?

I’ve heard commentary from the Downtown Nassau Partnership representatives who are quoted as saying that the Chinese redevelopment of Bay Street will “add so much more” and “enhance the city”, but they have yet to see or know the plans. Whoever represents the people’s interests, as the government in isolation often appears incapable of doing it, must be a large group of everyday cultural and civic leaders, professionals and citizens whose skills and interests are primarily in the creative and built environments.

Without reservation I have to emphasise that your continued commitment to funding tourism via “anchor projects” is flawed, because, in so doing, you exclude all other industries that require the same if not greater attention and relegate them to the position of mere recipients of “trickle down” dollars from tourism.

Quite frankly, I think every policymaker and decision maker in any office in Bahamian government should ask themselves three questions every day they serve the Bahamian people:

1) What are we trying to be as a country?

Is what we’re trying to be and/or our approach to being it sustainable? Does our method of approach equip our people with the tools and resources they need to build their country? Or will they continue to, because of the way in which development deals are presently brokered, be forced to sit on the sidelines observing or uninvolved in the evolution of the Bahamas into goodness knows what?

2 In our efforts to be what we aim to be, how many average Bahamians (not cronies) are getting ownership opportunities through their own entrepreneurship and businesses, not just through jobs (as subcontractors or line staff) but as originators of contracts?

How many Bahamians are being taught/educated about entrepreneurship, to facilitate their/our development ... to pioneer with their talents and not just to follow a plan where they work a job and not a career for 40 years until they retire?

3) To be what we aim to be, are we developing the core essentials, the basics for self-sufficiency, the necessary infrastructure that holds everything else in place ... the real anchors in the economy and society?

How is this being done? Do the projects we invite to our shores directly meet these fundamental needs?

The real bottom line here is that investment by the Bahamian people in their own economy is more long-term and sustainable than having to wait for others to invest in us, and far less volatile. Should another global recession occur at any time in the future, who will occupy the Baha Mar and Hilton hotels? Can we give some serious thought to these questions if we’re not doing so already?

The best way to prepare Bahamians for the future is to concentrate everything we do from the ground up in the direction of where we want to go, once we know and agree where that is. That means building the people with whatever best talents they have, so they can better use those talents to in turn build the country we want, as opposed to what governments have done all along: superimposed one end-product upon the people, such that what they end up working and waiting their whole lives for is to wait (some more) on others to give them opportunities when they can and should create them for themselves.

The education system, all government ministries and sub- or associated organisations, including defence and law enforcement, should be in sync and work together to produce (or add-on where necessary) whatever we need to be a nation that can sustain itself. Or, are we just content with remaining a tourist destination, ignoring the glowing paint on the wall that says “diversify, diversify, diversify” while tourism declines?

Fifteen years ago, when I wrote my senior thesis on the economic growth and development of the Bahamas, I could see that there would be a problem down the line if we remained so heavily dependent on tourism and financial services to carry us into a secure future. If my young brain could envision that then, surely it is not that hard for most of us to see now ... now that there are visible manifestations of it all around us.

We are an infant country, but in our earliest years we missed so many opportunities to direct our development along a sustainable path. We still have a chance, now, to fix that, if only we could see that it still needs to be done.

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