The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@ tribunemedia.net

For generations the relationship between country's leaders and its inhabitants have straddled a Cartesian dualism, in a sense that both politician and voter interact within a single socio-economic reality from competing foundations.

Following a basic premise that the mental cannot exist outside the body, and that the body cannot think; the current governance model provides that while our elected officials cannot rule without the power granted by the citizenry, the public in turn surrenders all critical or objective reasoning in this exchange.

Although the past decade has ushered in a change of administration, it was coupled with only a superficial change in ideology. Against this backdrop, and beset by global factors of competitiveness and recession, the country trudges forward on a cyclical track of national development bounded by another duality: tourism and crime. Although foreign direct investment is a driving force, it is for the most part firmly saddled as a tourism product, and reliant upon the country's image - ie resorts, real estate.

As more and more hospitality service jobs are slated to come on stream, the Bahamas has been subject to repeated crime warnings in three of our major tourism markets: the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The warnings and armed attacks persist as officials, charged with charting a course against the rising tide of bloodshed, bicker over the statistics.

During her budget contribution last week, Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin opined that "at some point" the nation must break free from the chains of generational poverty that locked in the track of entire families as welfare dependents. In a moment of passion she proclaimed that the people must pull themselves out of squalour, a truth that was quickly followed by the competing logic that the government must help the people help themselves.

But what started this cycle, and why has its repeated identification not led to emancipation?

In a candid discussion with The Tribune last year, former parliamentarian Ed Moxey pointed to failures of the first black government to live up to the principles of what he called “our revolution”. He pointed to their handling of the tourism model and the disadvantagement and eventual death of the economic stake held by Over-the-Hill businesses and their culture-rich tourism product. The lasting scourge of outdoor toilets, and potable water within these communities is another regrettable misstep.

Mr Moxey described the failure as a betrayal of the people they were sent to Parliament to serve and started a drive that today has led Bahamians, as he puts it, “out of slavery into slavery”.

In 2015, successive 'black governments' have failed to fill in the gaps despite the privilege of hindsight. The academic community has long belaboured our dogged, no expense spared, strategy to position the country as a year round tourist destination, as the manufacturer of a myopic economic system of labourers and consumers. A system that benefits the minority elite. Economic diversification has hung loosely around the neck of successive governments, an elusive and cryptic omen best left to the confines of international trade reports.

During his term, Tourism minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace held firm that both long term and short term initiatives for economic growth were best navigated from areas of established strengths - ie tourism, finance. To abandon this model would require massive training and retraining, something he reasoned as - at best - a medium to long term endeavour. Picking up the mantle, Tourism minister Obie Wilchcombe, upon return to office, committed to bludgeoning forward with a “multi-faceted strategic plan" for the sector that simply translates into spending more money to modernise the the tried and proven model of spending money.

To be fair, as a gatekeeper of the sector Mr Wilchcombe is charged with the mammoth task of strengthening a tourism product that has long gimmicked our culture without supporting its growth, leaving a very thin offering for the droves that flock to our shores each year. Yet they keep coming.

In 2013 the top three influences for stopover visitor are listed as the beach, climate, and rest and relaxation, according to survey data provided by the Ministry of Tourism. Safety on the island ranked 18 per cent, below ease of travel and above casinos or word of mouth. Even fewer persons indicated that they came because it as the best value for their money, or that they were interested in the shopping or nightlife.

By the end of 2004, tourist arrivals had hit the five million mark; however, the country would not reach that target again until 2010. Meanwhile air arrivals have continued to decline, peaking in 1990 and 2005 with 1.5 million. Since 1986 sea arrivals have eclipsed air travel, and in 2013 represented nearly 80 per cent of the market. The trend is realised in the dwindling number of stopover visitors, which struggles to surpass the 1.4 million total recorded in 2008.

Stopovers in Nassau have not topped one million since 2006, and while 2012 proved to be a turnaround year, that figure slipped by four per cent in 2013. Figures for stopover visitors from the US and Europe in 2013 remain lower than they were in 2000 while stopovers from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean have shown steady growth.

Last week, Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said more emphasis needs to be placed on what “contributions” Bahamians are making to fight against crime instead of “pointing fingers.” But how do we reconcile two parts of a socio-economic reality that was never completely whole? Bahamians have been bred to view their country through the same lens as our visitors - a pristine environment with servile and more importantly harmless inhabitants. Thus, our naive impression or refusal to address worrisome social trends is repeatedly scandalised by our inability to contain the crime problem. Our dedicated rock, the Bahamian politician, must turn national focus to restoring the public's role in national development, and not reinventing the country's tourism brand out of desperation to avoid a hard place that has been a lived experience for so many of our people. The consistent sector growth has proved that, for now, murder and petty crime have not significantly tarnished our market; however, growing trends like child abuse and suicide indicate that we have for far too long avoided looking within.