The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I hope one day our country can produce leaders who can inspire the minds of Bahamians and awaken their consciousness of its responsibility to the economic liberation of our country. I hope one day we can be genuine about our economic independence and determine our economic destiny. We have to inspire the average man to rise and be counted in the struggle for the economic freedom of our country and its people. Majority rule told me this political independence without economic independence is meaningless. The deep lack of consciousness and urgency for our economic independence is the burden of my generation.

This is what my generation will do we will resist the abusive exercise authority that monopolises power and prohibits transformation. We will resist the forces that create and perpetuate poverty, ignorance, corruption and greed or accept these as inevitable or ineradicable. We will resist the attitude for greedy economic exploitation. We are fighting for the economic emancipation of Bahamians and we will fight against anyone who does not believe in it. The exploitative economic system that underpinned colonialism remains alive and well today.

We have to continue our transition from our political liberation to our economic liberation. What is tragic to me is when leaders turn a blind eye to their responsibility of ensuring Bahamians own their economy.

The time for the economic liberation of Bahamian has come. Economic liberation is the best way to honour our forefathers. Unless we generate our own wealth as a country and share the wealth fairly, we will never be able to stand on our own two feet and will forever remain dependent on others. Only with our own wealth citizens will we be able to pave roads for their future, educate their children, feed their families and provide decent healthcare, and housing.

Through our persistent ignorance, our economic resources continue to be squandered by non-Bahamians. By now you would think people would have a cohesive understanding from Majority Rule that political independence and economic independence are not the same. Our true economic independence will only commence with our self-dependency the ability for us to exist as Bahamians without depending on others. It’s arguable that there’s no simple solution to our economic emancipation, but the candour of the matter is our economic liberation begins with the Bahamian people.  

The Phrase “Bahamians can’t do it “ is inexcusable if we are going to build a stronger Bahamas. We can’t build a strong economy or country if we don’t value the importance of education and talent. We can’t build a stronger Bahamas if we give people salaries for jobs they can’t do. We can’t build a stronger Bahamas if mediocrity is our way of life. We can’t build a stronger Bahamas if monopolies continue in the health industry at the expense of poor Bahamians.

We can’t build a stronger Bahamas when sexual harassment continues in the workplace. We can’t build a stronger Bahamas when we leave our young men and woman behind to a life of poverty and crime.

But what we can do to build a stronger Bahamas if Bahamians can’t read, teach them how to read, if Bahamians can’t write, teach them how to write if Bahamians aren’t educated then let us educate them.

Let’s meet the Bahamian people half way. Let’s allow the Bahamian people to own their economy and control their economic future. We have to break any monopoly that works well for the 1 per cent and leaves 99 per cent behind. We have to give talented young Bahamians a chance to be someone in their country. The paradigm shift begins in the hearts and minds of Bahamians.

LATRAE RAHMING

Nassau,

October 17, 2015.