By NICOLE BURROWS
The United States embassy’s security message/travel advisory issued last week caused quite the uproar … and lots of banal dialogue … almost as boring as the advisory itself.
Why was it such a big deal? It’s so routine I want to yawn. In fact, I had to keep re-reading it because my thoughts drifted about 14 times while I tried to absorb it. Dull, dull, dull. Albeit accurate and sensible.
Patience running out on power failures
THAT WE still have this very ridiculously significant problem with adequate power supply is sheer madness.
Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) will drop tools and exit before long, when they see how business is really done in The Bahamas. And we will be right back to square one with our power supply problems.
CEO Pamela Hill can’t say what it costs BPL/BEC to rent the generators because of concerns about competitive negotiations. She can’t say what it costs to maintain existing equipment, and why that would be a secret who could really say?
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works Philip Davis says to the Bahamian people: “Be patient. We’ll have an answer soon.”
What comfort. And, at the same time, what big testes. This, as the Bahamian people are calling for blood. This, as he is marched to and fro by hungry reporters whose heads he and the other politicians have a grand time toying with.
These so-called leaders love being flanked and chased after for three or four words. The cat-and-mouse relationship is one they thoroughly enjoy. They love the power of being the one to decide what, where, when, who, if, how … and the reporters only ever get what these well-dressed men want to give when it comes to any comments.
They think this is fun, to be sought after, and to throw crumbs out every so often to keep the eager young news gatherers sniffing and searching for the nothing they will continue to receive. And much, if not most, of this is still due to the fact that, even in news reporting, the players are too familiar, too friendly. You have to be friendly enough to get the quotes you need for your story. Because that’s how you have to work it in The Bahamas.
Anywhere else with a responsible group of leaders would understand their responsibilities to the people they lead, but not these parliamentary pretenders. It’s all too cozy. It’s always been too cozy. That’s the way we’ll stay. The news media’s hands will forever be tied by the way Bahamians practice politics. Reporters in The Bahamas can never realise their true potential as bona fide journalists, and they can never be truly investigative because the people they report on want to see friendly smiles before they talk, not serious faces expecting serious comments about serious situations.
Send email to nburrows@tribunemed….
I’m convinced Bahamians just like “‘picking fight”. Us, the little ant on America’s pinky toe. One flick and squash and we finish. What wrong wit’ y’all? I’m not suggesting you have to butt-kiss, or always be in agreement, but why are we running out here, for no reason at all? This warning/advisory/message is not a point of contention. It really shouldn’t be.
Nonetheless, Bahamians want to call the statement by the US embassy petty and retaliatory. I don’t know … is that something you really want to call out boldly in public? Posting it publicly on Facebook and other rant-and-rave e-locations?
Because the fact is this: if the United States is indeed as petty as you suggest, it can, at the very least, take issue with your commentary, or, at most, revoke, suspend, notate or deny you a US visa, or, really, anything else that has anything to do with you having something to do with, in, or near their country. And they can/will do it blatantly or surreptitiously, whatever suits their purpose or agenda should they have one.
We sound off on Facebook or in other social media, very publicly (although nothing is private there anyway), without thought of repercussions we assume couldn’t possibly occur or impact upon us.
The United States is the biggest proponent of free speech in the world, but being able to express yourself freely, or undertaking to do so, doesn’t mean there are no associated costs.
And no, it doesn’t mean you have to go silent or stay silent on issues that matter to you or things you stand proudly by, but don’t shoot off your mouth and then be surprised or offended by the fallout ... direct or indirect, immediate or eventual.
The mere notion that America could be interested in playing a diplomatic version of ‘tit for tat’ with The Bahamas is ludicrous, when 1) they need not play anything, just enforce, to flex their muscles; 2) they know they do and always will have the upper hand, especially over a country of people whose main goal in life seems to be to go shopping in the States; 3) they have bigger fish to fry in other places.
I wonder if anyone on the ground in The Bahamas, in our government, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, can see coming a day when a police record is no longer sufficient for Bahamians to use for travel to America from The Bahamas … and a visa for that same travel will be that much harder to obtain. Alas, we are not a forward-thinking people.
We get stuck in the way things are and the way we want things to be, and then get completely caught off guard when those things change. I suppose it’s human nature to get stuck and stall when life changes unexpectedly, but in the tumult of current world political and social affairs, I’m not so sure it’s the best way for a whole country to be.
We need to re-work our thinking on this and on the ease at which we glide through life in The Bahamas, reliant on things like tourist dollars and US pre-clearance, with little to no preparation for what may follow after now.
People who took issue with the US message/advisory also harped on how lengthy it was and how trivial the content appeared. But could it not be just as plausible that, perhaps, the embassy implemented a new format, or maybe hired a new person for the job of preparing and delivering such messages?
The only thing I found - and still find - odd about the message is that it didn’t seem to be prepared in the US embassy’s usual, exceptional manner or voice. Some things in it were somewhat repetitive, in a ‘this wasn’t properly edited’ kind of way. There was structural deficiency within … like the use of adverbs at the end of a sentence, somewhat loose and lazy in an official communique. But, other than that, as far as content goes, it sounded like a warning you might get in any large city in the world. It was all common sense.
The bigger message embodied by the advisory that Bahamians need to digest is that this is finally, clearly, where we are at in Nassau, in 2016, in our little town, where not long ago on any given day all you could be annoyed by was the sound of birds chirping and calling. Our largest and friendliest ally has reinforced this point. Is that really why there is uproar? Who thought Nassau would be like this today?
As far as I am concerned, the whole notice, in its lengthy entirety, is valid. If you don’t like it, or take great issue with it, it’s because you’re looking for issues to take.
Really, the only thing wrong with the US travel advisory/security warning is the use of the phrase ‘ATM machines’.
Because, if, since the time ATMs were made available for public use, people still don’t know ATM stands for Automated Teller Machine, and you have to tack on ‘machine’ on the end for clarification, then maybe we’re all worse off than I realised.
But this might be petty, too, I don’t know.
Send email to nburrows@tribunemedia.net
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