The Tribune

THE PRESIDENT of the Bahamas China Friendship Association, Anthony Capron, compared the Chinese Spring Festival and The Bahamas’ Christmas Junkanoo season and found a common factor in that they bring families together.

At a reception celebrating the 2016 China Spring Festival held by Yuan Guisen, the Chinese Ambassador, and Madame Yang Hong at the British Colonial Hilton on Sunday, Mr Capron said: “Here, the children come home from being away in school, as well as relatives living and working abroad. And that is what is being seen all across China today as the Spring Festival rush is on and millions of travellers are clogging the transportation system as they hurry home to reunite with their families.”

He noted that people in modern China are among the leaders in the world when it comes to talk about history, culture and traditions. “Who else in this day and time can trace their festivals back more than 4,000 years?” he asked.

The New Year holiday, which is also known as the Spring Festival, is the longest holiday in China and lasts for 15 days. This year it will end on February 22.

“We should be so lucky in The Bahamas to have such a long holiday for our traditional Junkanoo experience, which until recent years was expressly the highlight of the Christmas season, with parades on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day,” Mr Capron said. “That has changed somewhat over the years and is continuing to change as Bahamians have come to recognise Junkanoo as an economic stimulus and it is now being showcased everywhere in The Bahamas, for every occasion – special and not so special.”

Mr Capron said Xi Jinping, in his third New Year address as China’s president, had last week called for confidence and hard work for a good beginning in the home stretch of building a “well-off society in an all-around way”. His top concern is to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty and stated that care should be given to all people facing difficulties.

“We in The Bahamas can take a page out of the President of China’s playbook. With a total population of fewer than 400,000 people, that may seem a difficulty for individual political parties, but it should not and cannot be an insoluble problem for the Government of The Bahamas.” Mr Capron explained that the needs of all the people should always be paramount in the planning of the government and not the wants of individuals.

Mr Capron said the country was hoping to be enjoying the amenities of a very busy Baha Mar Resort on Cable Beach now. “While that is not yet happening, we can certainly share in the Prime Minister’s optimism that the Export-Import Bank of China will complete the construction and the hotels will soon be open to the public and to the world,” he said.

He added that the country can also appreciate the Chinese government for what is now being done at the British Colonial Hilton, and what will happen just west of it when they begin work on what will be known as The Pointe. “Also, we cannot forget that there is the promise of the redevelopment and revitalisation of Bay Street, especially the uptown section, which over the years has become a blight and an eyesore on the Nassau landscape.”