The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Our Chinese friends have a very instructive proverb that advises that you should never try to extract a tooth from a tiger’s mouth. In layman’s terms it means don’t take unnecessary risks.

Our Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell should have taken note of this wise admonition before he went off half-cocked and issued an asinine travel statement warning presumably only the black citizens of the Bahamas to be weary when travelling to the United States. Huh!

This was embarrassing on so many levels. For starters it showed a lack of empathy for a gut wrenching domestic situation in the US that so far has been contained to just US citizens. Instead of voicing solidarity with the “All lives matter” movement and showing sympathy for the young black men and the white police officers who were murdered last week, Freddie boy decided now was the time to escalate a silly diplomatic game of tit-for-tat.

The US had issued travel warnings for parts of the Bahamas but this was mostly in reaction to harm that had befallen their citizens on our shores. Freddie saw their travel warning and decided two could play this game.

So he, perhaps without the full blessing of the entire Cabinet, did what he has been doing since his first day in office – he made up our foreign policy on the fly and carried on shooting recklessly from the hip.

Presumably his good, good friends John (as in John Kerry the current Secretary of State) or Condi (Condoleezza Rice a former one) were not available to take his calls and talk some sense into his head.

Surely, the Minister of Tourism, Obie Wilchombe, could not have been too pleased when Freddie flew off the handle and cast the Bahamas in an unflattering light in world headline news.

Obie gets millions from the Treasury to seduce over one million Americans to come and spend their holidays here. The hundred thousand or so trips that Bahamians make, mostly to South Florida, are to shop, seek medical attention, visit family or take in sporting events.

The biggest threat Bahamians face is from muggers and thieves who seek out their rental cars carelessly overloaded with packages.

A Broward County, Florida police officer once told me that sadly it was sometimes a marauding band of Bahamian criminals who lay wait in shopping malls to prey on their fellow countrymen. Fred Mitchell never issued a warning about them even though I am sure his consulate in Miami can give him horror stories.

Fred is an obstinate egotist who Perry Christie once lamented to the US Embassy is left to do as he pleases in Foreign Affairs. Cabinet meets on Tuesdays. The unfortunate events in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas happened between Tuesday night and Thursday night. Fred issued his travel warning on Friday.

Unless he did a telephone whip round with his cabinet colleagues (Perry was in Guyana for a Caricom meeting part of the week), then Fred must have taken it unto himself to do what none of the other 192 countries in the world did by attempting to embarrass the United States.

But the cheap stunt backfired badly. Instead of making a political point or some sort of bizarre diplomatic quid pro quo statement, we ended up looking like a third world joke. If the entire population of the Bahamas all went to visit the Dallas-Forth Worth metropolitan area at the same time, the brave men and women of their fine police department would hardly notice.

Where is Freddie’s travel warning for Haiti where many Bahamians visit and still face a clear and present threat of danger around every unpaved alley? Or is Fred’s grandstanding more about his oversized ego than it is about making prudent public policy.

I am certainly more fearful of traversing the Tonique Darling Highway at 1 in the morning than I would ever be if a cop stopped me at the same hour on Airline Highway in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Foreign Minister has gotten too big for his britches. Don’t hold your breath waiting for our delusional Prime Minister to realize that it’s his job to put the unacceptably cocky Mr Mitchell in his place.

Trying to win kudos at the expense of your neighbour’s suffering is very undiplomatic, Mr. Harvard Kennedy School of Government educated Foreign Minister. Try and live up to the motto of your alma mater Fred and “ask what you can do” to help our friend and neighbour, instead of poking him in the eye when he’s going through a rough patch.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

July 13, 2016.