The Tribune

THREE years ago, The Tribune’s front page said it in clear terms.

“So many in need” – and so they were. The photograph showed some of the thousands who gathered, some since dawn, to collect food and supplies from Island Luck’s IL Cares food drive.

A company representative said at the time that he did not know the depth of need in the country until he saw how many people showed up for items.

That was during the depths of the COVID pandemic – should things have improved by now?

Well, yesterday, the queues started the night before. People slept in their cars overnight as they awaited food vouchers in the Fox Foundation’s annual Christmas giveback.

The event did not start until 8am, but cars were queuing at 3am.

The Fox Foundation is not alone in its efforts – nor in finding people in need.

In Grand Bahama, Operation Christmas served 3,500 hot meals to residents.

Apostle Phalmon A Ferguson said: “There are so many people in our society who cannot find a hot meal on a daily basis.”

Khandi Gibson, president of Families of All Murder Victims (FOAM), recently held a giveback event too.

She said the demand for help from people in need this Christmas is overwhelming.

Every day, she receives dozens of calls for help.

People who need groceries. Money. A place to stay. People who need clothing. A hot plate of food.

She said: “You have homeless people, domestic violence victims, and people who need groceries or clothing. We’re up to the point now where guys have now let go of their price and now are coming out.”

At the same time, we have heard from numerous charities that donations are not as strong this year.

And yet … we keep hearing boasts from the government that the economy is going strongly.

More than eight million tourists is the boast – so where is the economic boost for those in need? Where is the money bulging in wallets from which donations can be dropped into buckets at the mall?

Earlier this month, straw vendors told The Tribune that they are struggling despite the tourism records being smashed. At the Downtown Straw Market, right next to where the cruise ship passengers disembark, the president of the Straw Business Persons Society talked of a vendor making $15 one day, $25 the next. This as the Deputy Prime Minister talked of direct visitor spending in the Bahamian economy far exceeding $6bn, another record breaker.

Before that, Trades Union Congress president Obie Ferguson said in November that workers were not benefiting as much from record tourism numbers, saying more than 80 percent are lower-spending cruise passengers. The deputy director general of tourism, Dr Kenneth Romer, said oh no, people are benefiting – he said he walked through the straw markets and saw local entrepreneurs getting money from passengers and being able to put “bread on their tables, uniforms on their children and put tithes in their offering plates”.

Yesterday, people queued overnight to put bread on their tables.

Where is the disconnect? How is it that the economy is thriving but people are starving? How can we make sure that the success of the economy is felt throughout the nation?

It is one thing to look at record numbers – where is that money going?

Famously, former US President Ronald Reagan is associated with trickle-down economics, where money goes to the rich and filters down to the poor – though there is plenty of evidence that such an approach does little to help those at the sharp end of the economy.

So what is our policy? How are we helping people to stand on their own feet and make the most of this resurgent economy?

It seems something is certainly amiss.

In the meantime, we applaud those who are reaching out to support those in need. We thank them for their effort, without which so many might be looking at a bleaker Christmas.

But what of the next week? The next month? The next year?

The measure of success for this government – in fact any government - should be how thoroughly the nation feels the strength of the economy.

Right now, there are many who are not feeling that at all.