EDITOR, The Tribune.
We are crossing a dangerous threshold. At risk is not only the nation’s veritable blood pressure, but Nassau’s sociocultural integrity.
With the impending arrival of yet another US fast food chain – this time an IHOP at the Mall at Marathon – the restaurant market finds itself ever more saturated with unhealthy, unaffordable, and un-Bahamian culinary establishments.
These fast-food chains are not only rife with sodium and fat-stricken fare – it is no accident that obesity rates in The Bahamas have risen to a towering 80% in tandem with explosion of American fast-food chains in recent decades – but they threaten to soil the already tarnished sociocultural landscape of this country.
Call it cuisine colonialism, call it an under-studied ill of globalism, or simply call it unfortunate, the proliferation of fast-food chains in Nassau is equal parts eyesore, equal parts public health emergency.
Every KFC, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Dunkin Donuts serves as yet another reminder of the regrettable cultural penetration exacted by the United States, an ally only insofar as our national and regional agendas reflect their own.
The overwhelming presence of fast-food chains in the capital not only stunts the emergence of alternative, potentially more attractive eateries but undermines our food sovereignty in both figurative and literal terms, fuelling a longstanding preference for foreign products rooted in coloniality.
I’ll be the first to say that adding a guava-based dessert does not make your business look more Bahamian, just desperate. Arguments might be made that I am not attributing enough agency to the Bahamian consumer, or simply overlooking the fact that the franchisees behind these chains are by and large Bahamian themselves, and I offer one rebuttal for both points: “what colonialism does is cause an identity crisis”.
ETHAN KNOWLES
Nassau
February 7, 2023
Comments
moncurcool 1 year, 7 months ago
Is IHOP a fast food restaurant?
ohdrap4 1 year, 7 months ago
I don't know. I recall exactly the first time I saw a billboard in the US outside IHOP. I was mesmerized. I think I still carry pounds from eating a stack of their pancakes with blueberrueberrues preserve on it. I ate that every day till I could no more. Nowadays I make my own pancakes.
themessenger 1 year, 7 months ago
Mr Knowles, you sound like a man with an agenda. What are the choices for Bahamians for affordable dining? Poop Deck, Latitudes, Syrah? Do you think the food served at Dirty’s, Fish fry or Potters Cay is more healthy than the franchisees? It’s a personal choice, moderation in anything is the key. Do you have any idea how many of our people are employed in these industries and what would be the impact on our unemployment rate and economy if they were suddenly all made to close? Our government, as an alternative, should be making more affordable healthy choices available such as fruits and vegetables and affordable meats such as chicken and fish. The PLP had no idea the damage they did when they destroyed Hatchet Bay!
GodSpeed 1 year, 7 months ago
Okay then open your own restaurant. You can't force other people to.
sheeprunner12 1 year, 7 months ago
Who owns these fast food franchises in The Bahamas?????
Name and shame them for what they are ........... useless and dangerous to our Bahamian population.
ohdrap4 1 year, 7 months ago
Hey sheep. Go to Kfc on Friday at 11pm and tell them not to buy the stuff. They will run you crazy baldhead out of town.
themessenger 1 year, 7 months ago
@sheeprunner12, so you're suggesting that all fast-food restaurants should be done away with because some of our people can't control their eating habits? One particular company that I'm thinking about employs upwards of 1,500 people, I wonder if these employees and their dependents also consider their employers useless and dangerous to the Bahamian population?
carltonr61 1 year, 7 months ago
The breakdown of 99% of Bahamian home structure has lead to this. With .1% of Bahamian mothers hone makers and 94% of Haitians stay at home mothers the results are felt from from education, eating habits to success and failures. Fast food marketing caters mostly to the success of tourist demographics and where Bahamians who travel eat.
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