The Tribune

By LARRY SMITH

THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has just published the most comprehensive report ever on crime and violence in The Bahamas.

Researcher Heather Sutton compiled data from multiple sources on the scope and nature of crime and violence in the country. The aim is to establish a baseline against which progress can be measured.

The report surveyed crime prevention and suppression policies, programmes and projects adopted by government and non-governmental organisations, and suggests the most effective ways forward.

In her executive summary, Ms Sutton notes that Bahamian police and public health records “confirm high levels of crime and violence (specifically murder, armed robbery, and rape) that have consistently risen during the past decade”.

Here are the main findings:

• The murder state has doubled over the past decade and is now among the highest in the region - at 31.9 per 100,000 in 2014.

• Victims of homicide are predominantly males between 18 and 25, and retaliation is the main murder motive.

• Over the last five years 86 per cent of all murders took place in New Providence.

• Guns are used to commit most murders, but there are just as many stabbings treated at the Princess Margaret Hospital as there are gunshot wounds (288 gunshot wounds and 251 stabbing wounds in 2013).

• The number of gunshot and stabbing wounds treated at PMH far outweighs the number of murders. There were 4.5 times as many stabbings and shootings treated at the hospital, and these are increasing at an even higher rate than murder.

• Violence against women and children is a major concern, although no surveys have been done on prevalence of either intimate partner violence or sexual violence.

• The average rate of rapes reported over 2009–2013 was 27 per 100,000 population - above the already-high regional average - and rape is highly under-reported.

• Cases of rape treated at PMH alone were nearly 1.6 times higher than those recorded nationally by the police.

• Unarmed robberies increased 92 per cent, from 2006 to 2013. Armed robberies are much higher in number and have also nearly doubled over the same period.

• Vehicle theft has more than doubled in the last ten years.

• Eighteen different gangs are operating in The Bahamas. They vary in size, membership, and the extent of involvement with illegal activities.

• There is a lack of empirical research identifying the specific risk and protective factors relevant to crime and violence in The Bahamas.

• The Bahamas needs improved data collection as well as increased data sharing and transparency to gain a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

The lack of transparency was a key complaint. The IDB report identifies significant barriers to the sharing and analysis of data. “Much of the information requested for this report was not provided even after extensive requests at the highest levels (and) data sharing even among government entities is not common practice,” the report notes.

This is a critical failure, the report says, because dealing with crime effectively depends on research and objective evaluation of policies, programmes and strategies.

And this requires both transparency and a willingness to invest in data collection, monitoring and evaluation — something no Bahamian government has attempted to do.

An Interesting Thing from the FNM Convention

Aside from the cat fighting, the recent Free National Movement convention did little to bolster party unity or enhance the party’s public appeal. But there was one thing of interest.

It was a speech by a young mother named Astra Armbrister-Rolle, who said the fate of the country now rested in the hands of young people and women. She was referring to the fact that 50 per cent of voters in the 2017 election will be under 35 and over half of them will be women.

“We have the opportunity to create jobs through innovation...to fight injustice (and) get involved in shaping the future for our children,” she told delegates.

Ms Armbrister-Rolle is a fundraising professional who has worked in Canada and is director of development at the Bahamas National Trust. In her speech, she offered a wish list of items that would attract her vote in the upcoming election: Tackling economic inequities and removing barriers to resources and opportunities; leading by example, to fight corruption from the top; real action on land issues and a commitment to Bahamian ownership of the economy; and modernisation of the school system to meet 21st century needs.

“These are my demands,” Ms Armbrister-Rolle said. “A better country with greater chance of survival and success for my son. This is a plea for change, and for the leaders of this country to get it right for all of the mothers out there who fear for our children.

“A good family friend once told me to never fear speaking up for what is right. If I can stand up and demand better of my leaders, maybe some other woman or young person will have the courage and assurance to do the same.”

Pork-barrel Politics and the Food Industry

As the government pours millions of unaccountable tax dollars into a political pork-barrel project on Andros called BAMSI, the only two commercial food processing firms in the country have quietly gone out of business - putting at least 20 Bahamians out of work.

P W Albury & Sons, distributors of Champion brand canned products, announced the closure of its Centreville plant last month. And Sawyer’s Food Products shut its Claridge Road factory at the end of 2013. Both had been canning food since the 1950s.

In 1959, Paul Albury, a schoolteacher from Spanish Wells, acquired the defunct J S Johnson canning operation, which traced its origins to the early years of pineapple farming on Eleuthera.

Sawyer’s was founded in Nassau in 1957 by Wesley and Norma Sawyer, operating initially from a small plant in Oakes Field. Mr Sawyer had trained in food processing at Arthur Vining Davis’ Three Bays Farm on Eleuthera.

Both companies started out canning tomatoes and pigeon peas supplied by small farmers around the country. Over the years, they expanded their product ranges to include beans, jams, sauces - and even items like conch chowder and pig’s feet souse (under the Sawyer’s label).

But for the past 15 years at least, both were importing all their raw materials - including produce. In an effort to stay afloat, P W Albury even began importing pre-canned products from the US to distribute under their own label.

Spokespeople for both families identified two major factors that led to the demise of their companies.

“Bahamians have totally changed their eating habits,” said Caroline Albury, Paul Albury’s granddaughter. “Most rely on fast food outlets now rather than cooking their own meals. That plus the high overheads made it impossible to compete with imported goods.”

And according to former plant manager Michael Sawyer: “It was difficult to source raw materials in the right quantities at the right cost. Import controls on competitive foreign products were dropped in the early 2000s, and high local overheads made it difficult to operate.”

It boils down to the same old Bahamian story - a tiny fragmented market with low volumes can produce no economies of scale. It’s much cheaper and easier to import food products from larger countries with major agro-industries.

The pineapple industry is a case in point. Exports of canned pineapples began in the mid-1800s from Eleuthera. And the J S Johnson company was formed in 1876 to can pineapples, tomatoes, guavas, grapefruit and other produce at a factory on Union Street in Nassau. Back then, newspaper reports described Eleuthera as “one big flourishing pineapple plantation.”

The peak year for Bahamian pineapples was 1892, when more than eight million were exported. But Hawaii and the Philippines - with better growing conditions and distribution networks - started producing pineapples and The Bahamas simply could not compete.

By the late 1920s, the industry had collapsed. J S Johnson closed its factory and set up an insurance agency. Later the factory was sold to Paul Albury, who moved the plant to its present site in Palmdale. When Paul died in 1964, sons David and James took over and changed the name to P W Albury & Sons. When the sons died, David’s three children kept the company going.

In the 1940s, Wesley Sawyer worked at the Telecoms Department in Rock Sound. He met and married Norma Perpall, who was Arthur Vining Davis’ secretary. Mr Davis - the legendary chairman of Alcoa - was a big developer and landowner on Eleuthera.

Mr Sawyer started working at Davis’ Three Bays Farm on a tomato and pineapple canning operation. He went to the US for training, and then moved to Nassau. After working with Carl Claridge, shipping okra in brine to the US, he set up his own canning plant on Crawford Street in Oakes Field, moving to bigger premises on Claridge Road in 1964.

Wesley Sawyer died in 1974, but his wife and two sons - Kenneth and Michael - kept the company operating until December 2013.

• What do you think? Send comments to lsmith@tribunemedia.net or visit www.bahamapundit.com.