The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The Bahamas is experiencing the highest unemployment rates in 35 years. In an effort to change the conversation the Government has launched a five Minister strong Trade Mission to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates - supposedly to attract large scale direct foreign investment from the oil rich countries of the Middle East with the hope of creating jobs for Bahamians. This is a particularly interesting initiative given the largely anti-foreign propaganda embraced by the PLP during the recent general election campaign.

The Sunday press release from Bahamas Information Services advised that Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell was leading the five-Minister Trade Mission to Dubai and that the trip was being funded by the Dubai 2020 Expo Committee. The Bahamas is likely to be the only Caribbean country which would mount a delegation comprised of five cabinet ministers and have them led by one of their colleagues and not the prime minister; but this is the world the PLP has created. In their world certain Ministers are permitted to usurp the portfolios of their colleagues with impunity.

The press announcement seeks to portray this latest overseas jaunt by Minister Mitchell as a trade mission. Mr Mitchell has no responsibility for trade, nor does he have responsibility for tourism, investments, financial services or the environment. Others of his colleagues have been charged with those responsibilities but that minor detail could not deter the Minister. It seems he simply acted preemptively to quiet any complaints from his cabinet colleagues before they could even be raised by arranging to take five of them plus a PLP Senator along for the ride. And then, we are told officials from each Minister’s Ministry are also included on the delegations. I suspect Dubai, itself just emerging from financial difficulties tied to the 2008 international financial crisis, has no idea what the Foreign Minister has in store for it!

Dubai is a late applicant to serve as the host of the World Expo 2020. To make up for lost time the city is pulling out all the plugs to ensure that its bid to host Expo 2020 wins out over earlier bids from three other countries, including Brazil. Dubai’s campaign strategy involves inviting as many international delegations as possible to visit the city and then join the lobby to bring the Expo 2020 to Dubai. One economic research company projects that hosting the Expo could create as many as 270,000 jobs in Dubai. The decision on the host country is set for next month on the 27th November. Dubai’s strategy makes good sense for the city; what it does for The Bahamas is not as clear.

It seems that Minister Mitchell, never one to miss an opportunity to leave home, jumped on the Dubai Expo Committee’s lobbying initiative, to justify a return visit to the wonder city of the Middle East for himself and his friends. And for good measure, he announced The Bahamas’ interest in becoming a member of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) which is headquartered in Dubai. It is interesting to note that a number of CARICOM countries are already among the 119 Members of IRENA: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Two other CARICOM states, Barbados and Jamaica, are listed on the IRENA website as among 40 countries in the process of becoming Members. The Bahamas did not at last viewing, appear on either list.

Perhaps Minister Mitchell would like for the Bahamian people to believe that a hefty ministerial delegation appearing in person to submit an application to the Organization would speed things along. It would be interesting to know if the other 40 countries, including our Caricom partners in the process of becoming members, believed it necessary to dispatch ministers to Dubai when they submitted their applications for membership in IRENA.

I find it peculiar that Brazil, the only one of four applicants to host Expo 2020 that has an Embassy and resident Ambassador in The Bahamas would not be attracting the support of The Bahamas Government for its application to host Expo 2020. Brazil is after all an economic power house in the Americas and at least one Brazilian owned Bank operates here. Furthermore, the Ministry of Financial Services has repeatedly indicated the importance of the Brazilian market to our financial services sector and to our wider foreign direct investment interests.

It must be hoped that the prime minister would not permit Mr. Mitchell to compromise our country’s good relations with Brazil to accommodate Minister Mitchell’s plans to travel the world as announced by him during the Budget Debate early this summer.

The Minister must be bored and believe himself limited by his assignment as Minister responsible for diplomacy and immigration; this notwithstanding the complete mess he has made of both these responsibilities in this his second time at the head of the foreign ministry. Perhaps he takes solace from the fact that Dubai also has something of a less than stellar reputation for its treatment of its large foreign workforce. The visit will give him ample time to discuss human rights abuse problems with leaders of wealthy but less than democratic governments.

The Minister continues to cavalierly dismiss calls from the official opposition for him to account for his failures as foreign minister and minister responsible for immigration in the diplomatic mess-up in Washington, DC, and in the mismanagement of the allegations of abuse of Cuban nationals held in detention by the Bahamas.

He has also treated with contempt, calls from the Opposition for him to provide the public with a full accounting of his spending as foreign minister. Yet, reports reaching Nassau indicate that official government visits to Bahamas overseas missions on Mr Mitchell’s watch have become ridiculously expensive and terribly organized. For example, it is said that on more than one occasion, cabinet ministers, members of the media and/or others accompanying Prime Minister Christie on official visits to the United States have been left stranded and unable to fully perform the duties that caused their inclusion on the delegation in the first place.

And the cost of at least one reception – to mark the prime minister’s recent address before the United Nations General Assembly – reportedly exceeded $60,000. One can only imagine the full cost associated with that travel when airline tickets, hotel room accommodation and per diem expenses are added for the foreign minister and all the “hangers-on” who were flown in from Nassau and elsewhere to add importance to the prime minister’s trip!

It would appear that Mr. Mitchell’s blunders do not offend the prime minister, however. Mr Mitchell has after all, made the prime minister’s infamous expression “so said, so done” his own. The announcement of Mr Mitchell’s trade mission begins with the sentence: “The government of The Bahamas moved one step closer to attracting much needed new capital and investment to The Bahamas when a ministerial delegation left for Dubai on a trade mission late last week.” It seems all it takes is getting on a plane.

GEOFFREY COOPER

Nassau,

October 28, 2013