The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

I am a 16-year-old female born and raised in Eleuthera. Since I was born I have always had a high level of respect and appreciation for the environment.

Growing up and having to see the drastic changes before my eyes was heart-breaking. Beaches that were once pristine are over-crowded and polluted. Coral reefs close to shore so healthy, vibrant and populated, are now dead, bleached and abandoned. Everything that makes Eleuthera this beautiful and tropical island is being stripped away and creating a hole in what once was a sustainable community.

Me being passionate about the ocean and wanting to protect it had fuelled me to apply for the Bahamas Environmental Steward Scholars (BESS) programme, a scholarship from The Island School and BREEF, that has allowed me to enhance my skills, achieve my goals and grant me new experiences and opportunities along with sharing my knowledge with the youth.

With the economy changing and everything increasing in price, along with an incredibly competitive job market I can understand a Bahamian’s point of view when Disney is widely broadcasting that there will be more jobs for Bahamians. Most people fail to understand that when it comes to working for a cruise line, the jobs offered are seasonal part time jobs at minimum wage.

Why vote for something that is only proposing to give part time jobs for part of the year versus an alternative plan that is proposing more full time jobs all year round well above minimum wage.

As a child of the 21st century I grew up on Disney’s movies and going to Disney World. My connection to the ocean was developed due to me being born the same year the Disney movie Finding Nemo had been released and personally I love what Disney does for kids, inspiring their imaginations and giving them hope but in this situation I am going to have to go against Disney.

After much research I have concluded that what Disney proposes is not going to be 100% fulfilled. In an article on Disney Cruise Line Blog, they claimed and I quote: “In addition to the land set aside for public access, Disney will NOT develop the area around the lighthouse and southern tip. This area will also be off limits to cruise passengers, but will be open to Bahamians.”

I feel as if this statement is completely untrue due to the fact that you cannot advertise and bring a tourist to a place named “Lighthouse Point” and prohibit them from visiting the site where it got its name.

In the same statement, they claim to allow Bahamians access to this site, but they failed to specify when the access will be granted. Is it all hours of the day, seven days a week? Or will it be 52 days out of the year? Once this deal goes through and Disney owns the land there is no telling what they will do and how it will affect Bahamians.

The island generates a lot of tourism just to visit the world famous Lighthouse Point. What do you think will happen to this perfect beach once the area is dredged and a port is built to accommodate cruise ships every few days? The impact would be devastating. All the marine animals that tourists visit Lighthouse Beach to see would not be able to survive with the constant change in their habitat by these large ships.

No doubt this would negatively impact the fisheries in this area, this means the areas where fisherman can normally catch fish would no longer be habitable as cruise ships are known for the notorious amount of waste they produce.

We do not need to sell ourselves to foreign buyers just because they present dollar signs. We need to think and act as a community to protect what resources we have. Our kids should be able to experience the same childhood we had, not to have to listen to stories about what once was!

KATELYN CAMBRIDGE

October 18, 2018