EDITOR, The Tribune.
Please forgive me if the following analogy on the present Constitution is incorrect.
A Bahamian man of several generations has one child, a daughter. She falls in love with a foreigner who is denied a work permit.
Because she wants a strong family life for herself, husband and children, as God intended, she must leave with him. In other words is exiled from the country of her birth.
Fast forward. The couple have one child, a girl. The daughter of the Bahamian dies. He grows old and infirm and wishes his one relative, his grand-daughter, to come and look after him in his old age. In order to do so, she must work to earn money to look after him.
However, she cannot because she is not a Bahamian. He dies alone.
So you say, why does he not leave to live his final years with her. But he has never travelled abroad.
His life, his friends are here, he knows no other.
And to you, the self-appointed pastors, when you pray for guidance on how to vote, do you say “forgive me Lord for voting no even though I may be destroying family lives which are acceptable in your sight.”
And to you Dame Joan and all other “no-sayers” who say none of this affects me therefore I will vote no.
Somehow this makes me think of the biblical story of the person “who passed by on the other side”.
INTERESTED SPECTATOR
Nassau,
June 6, 2016.
Comments
cmiller 7 years, 10 months ago
I don't know.....after living in another country all her life, would she even be willing to leave her whole life behind to play nursemaid to a man who has never been to see her once, since he's never been abroad?? I know I missed the point....but just saying....
ThisIsOurs 7 years, 10 months ago
please I wish someone woman would write a letter about how they darted to Florida at eight months pregnant and lied about their due date, so their child could be born American. I had two coworkers, TWO, that's four adults making a decision for four children. FOUR, to not be Bahamian. I wish pregnant women getting on planes this minute would all tweet #mychildwillbeamerican. I can't stand one sided arguments.
Bring the equal rights for women and citizenship issues back with these side agendas.
ohdrap4 7 years, 10 months ago
some women are compelled to do that if their husbands are foreign and therefore the child will bear the nationality of the father. if the father's country does not easily give thie citizenship, the easy solution is to be born american.
these same children may not be amused years later when the IRS comes looking for them to pay tax because americans pay income tax no matter where they live in the world.
hallmark 7 years, 10 months ago
Why is the husband denied a work permit if they followed the process? As I've said before, this means that the government is the biggest obstacle to equality in the Bahamas, not the constitution.
Economist 7 years, 10 months ago
Work permits are denied all the time. If a Bahamian can do the job, out you go. It does not matter that you are married to a Bahamian woman and have Bahamian children.
The No sayers will tell you that they can "carry their ***". Get out with that terrible foreign man, that brother-in-law and uncle to my children. Why?
Because I am a superior Bahamian Male, you just a poor dumb woman.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 10 months ago
My real issue with this letter writer is: How many persons are really directly affected by Question 1 .......... is this alienating anyone of consequence or is this more of wanting an automatic right of citizenship based on matriarchal heritage???? ......... BTW: Did Ryan Pinder really give up his US citizenship to "serve" his country ........ IDK???????
dex 7 years, 10 months ago
"How many persons are really directly affected by Question 1"
oh, i don't know - any born Bahamian with Bahamian parents that aspires to have children of their own one day, i guess.
gee, i guess that this just justifies the maintaining of a very painful, unnecessary compromise of human autonomy on such a tiny, tiny, insignificant part of our population.
PKMShack 7 years, 10 months ago
@ ohdrap4 Americans don't pay tax no matter where they live in the world. You are mistaken with that fact. I live in Nassau and pay zero income tax to the united states. I also don't file taxes while living outside of the United States.
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