The Tribune

By NICOLE BURROWS

The more news I read or listen to, the more questions I have. It has gotten to the point where, for the purpose of writing this column, repeating and interpreting what I see or hear is no longer enough to satisfy my need to feel as though I’m making a difference in the way Bahamians see their world up close and beyond their country’s borders.

After the news reports, I still have many questions. And it feels to me as though the questions being asked lead only to more questions ... as if nothing ever gets answered properly enough to be meaningful or impactful. But maybe that’s because so few of us are asking the questions.

I’ve always been a person who asks a lot of ‘why?’ I was that way as a child and I am the same way as an adult. There’s a certain curiosity I have about the way things are at any given time that leads me to constantly ask that question, ‘why?’, over and over again.

I take it upon myself to motivate people to ask ‘why?’ And I’ve found when people are challenged to ask ‘why?’, and maybe even answer ‘why?’ for themselves, they make very clear, decisive choices.

Any responsible citizen should ask important questions that demand sensible responses as answers ... and accountability of self and others. But you can be assured that if the questions are never asked, they are guaranteed to never be answered.

I’m not sure if an inquisitive mind is something you have to be born with, or if it’s something you pick up along the path of being educated, or if it’s only a combination of both. But I feel almost certain that if, as a people, we asked more questions to repeatedly lead us into a new realm of discovery each time, we would be a far more intellectually, politically, economically and socially advanced nation than we are today.

It has also crossed my mind that, for our nation, for the Bahamas, maybe the wrong people are always doing the asking. We rely on reporters to ask the questions for us. But even when they do their jobs well, maybe that it is just not enough. It’s so important to know and ask ‘why?’ that we all have to be as reporters are, and then increase the level of our curiosities, so, when we ask a question and a response is given that is not satisfactory for us, we are relentless in our pursuit of a solitary, satisfactory response.

Another thing to consider is that maybe the asking that is being done is too rote and too routine. Maybe the level of inquiry and the questions asked are so procedural, that the questions are asked and the rehearsed or standard answers are given, and it becomes second nature to ask once or twice and then be content with what you get as a response. Then you stop asking anything else, at least for the time being.

But what we should have as second nature when we ask ‘why?’ is the characteristic of never letting up on asking our questions, even when answers are given. The nature of our development should cause us to always aim to know more and more things, and not to know them simply to hold them close to us, to keep them secret, and prevent others from knowing. We should seek to know all that we can for everyone else to be able to advance at the same time with the knowledge they acquire.

Consider also that maybe not enough people are asking ‘why?’ or maybe not enough people are asking for the most accountable answers to the question ‘why?’

Prime Minister Christie just announced the dissolution of Parliament on April 11, with the implication that all who are not registered by April 10 will not be able to vote in the impending general election. You have a new government to elect in a rather short time from now. If you haven’t yet asked your questions of the people who want to govern you, get them asked now.

Ask those who want to represent you, ‘why’? For everything they have done - or not done - that displeases you, ask them ‘why?’, keep asking ‘why?’, and don’t stop asking ‘why?’ until their answers reflect the accountability you require.

Even the least educated person has an idea when they are being played, fleeced or lied to. I don’t think knowing the difference is the problem Bahamians have. I think the problem Bahamians have is knowing they’re being played, fleeced or lied to, and still giving support to the player, fleecer or liar, as if it did not happen, as long as there is some alternative benefit provided to them. In other words, too many people have a price at which they can be bought. If instead your main goal was to know ‘why?’, and in particular why you find yourself in a position to be bought, then maybe you would not be so easily bought to start with.

If a politician’s response or answer to your question does not satisfy you, then your next step is to take your vote and put it only with the person who has no problem with you asking ‘why?’, or no problem with answering ‘why?’, with full accountability.

BTC defections

BTC is now running an advertisement that describes new mobile service offerings or plans for wireless phone and data services to prepaid subscribers.

They announce at the bottom of the display ad that postpaid subscribers will also have special plans available to them come April, 2017.

And it makes you wonder, doesn’t it, why (yes, you see, ‘why?’ again) it is that they can suddenly offer these wonderful rates and services to us now when they didn’t before. Surely their profit margins didn’t sky rocket within the past month to accommodate such a change.

The reality is, BTC could have given you better plans, better pricing and probably better products, too, all along. But it wasn’t until you, the customer, demanded it, that they offered it. Not until you, the customer, had another option for wireless services did BTC find it necessary to offer you the prices and services they could have been offering you for a long time now.

Not until BTC finally got the competitive market forces they deserved did they see that customers are not loyal to BTC just to be loyal to BTC. Customers operate as individual business units too, and they want the best deals, prices and services, as incorporated businesses do. But for BTC, it took the mass exodus of clientele to the competitor - which, by the way, they are still denying - to get them to really respond to their clients’ needs beyond throwing out a few peanuts at them here and there.

Last year, my household disconnected landline services with BTC, after 50 years of service, because of a lack of quality phone service and an even greater lack of good quality customer service. This year, within my closest circle of relatives, more than half have already switched mobile phone service providers - they have become BTC defectors almost all at once, and it has been a long time coming. So long have Bahamians waited for this day that BTC is experiencing a deluge of disconnections.

One of my relatives went into a BTC outlet, and requested disconnection of mobile service, as the agent held a thick stack of service disconnect requests in her hands. But BTC will tell you they are not losing customers ... or that customers are subscribing to the new competitor’s services while still maintaining their BTC services. They have been fleecing Bahamians for a long time, and they are still trying to do it in the face of obvious, significant competition. Ask them ‘why?’.

If BTC cherished their customers, appreciated their business and respected their feedback, they would have placed that new ad at least a year ago. If BTC wanted to treat their customers right, they would have done it many years ago, in a more decisive way, not piecemeal as they have. Ask them ‘why?’ that is. On the one hand, it could be because you didn’t demand better. On the other hand, it could be because they could get away with it, but that’s also because you didn’t demand better sooner.

I think when you start asking ‘why?’ and continue asking ‘why?’, the answers become clearer even when you don’t get any answers. The asking changes your perspective to a mindset that expects better. In the process of asking ‘why?’, you may find out some others things you did not care to know, as there are some things that are just downright hurtful or insulting to know, as reality goes. But, when you ask ‘why?’, you also find out things that you didn’t realise at all before, or things you didn’t realise you wanted or really needed to know.

‘Why?’ is a very powerful question. It’s more than a simple question. It’s an extremely useful tool. It’s a weapon in a social arsenal. It can change your entire life perspective; it can change your government, or it can change your ability to communicate with the world.

Start asking ‘why?’ more often. And don’t stop asking until you find out what you need to know, whether it’s from your (current or hopeful) member of parliament, or from your phone company.

The answers to ‘why?’ could change your life.

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