The Tribune

ON Sunday, politics dominated the football field in America, displaying a deep divide that is not unlike a quiet storm we are facing in The Bahamas. In the US, what moved from the racially war-torn streets of Detroit onto the manicured fields of professional football had its roots in racism. There is nothing new about racism in football, historically one of the last bastions of white supremacy. The New York Times reminded us Monday that it wasn’t until 1970, nearly seven years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, that Paul “Bear” Bryant signed his first black player to the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide, and then only when he was being sued by civil rights attorneys.

By now, nearly everyone knows what sparked Sunday’s overwhelming display. Even those who can’t remember how it all started have an opinion. In brief, former San Francisco ’49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the National Anthem in protest. Black Lives Matter, he said in 2016. Then it was Seattle Seahawks Defensive Lineman Michael Bennett quietly protested after he was singled out by police, handcuffed with a gun pointed at his head as he and others fled what sounded like gunshots at a Las Vegas casino the night of the Mayweather-McGregor fight.

Their protests may have been viewed as singular expressions had it not been for President Divisive Trump calling them names like “sons of bitches”, using language that a few years ago even an actor could not say on TV. Trump saw the actions as an affront to the American flag rather than the pleading of humans who had been harmed or who had witnessed police violence using a public platform to urge reform. In the midst of an unrelated speech, the president of the United States shocked the world, ordering NFL owners to “Fire them all”. Trump kept up the rant, repeating his demand that NFL owners fire players who were, factually speaking, exercising their Constitutional right to non-violent freedom of speech.

The firestorm that followed united rich white team owners with players and audiences of every hue. In 14 games, post after post, tweet after tweet, the public sided with players. Unity grew as if on steroids. Teams knelt, locked arms and some even stayed in the locker room. Racism exists and who was this president who thought he could tell the NFL to tell their players “You’re fired” for expressing their opinion?

What happened on those football fields across America on Sunday is a lesson The Bahamas needs to heed. Refusing to recognise racism in all its ugly forms does not make it vanish. It can only be stifled for so long. One day, the kindling is lit, the spark ignites and the fire spreads.

Here it will be in the distrust of the white man and it could impact local business and any hope of economic revitalisation. Bahamians’ mixed feelings about “outsiders” will make economic residence policy a political football when it should be viewed for what it is, an important part of a broader economic growth plan.

Just like Americans once turned their backs on the value of the black man and were shown to be wrong, a largely black Bahamas fears the white man born elsewhere. Understanding the issue is important.

Today someone seeking expedited consideration of residency in The Bahamas, even without right to work, may do so with a minimum investment of $500,000. The investment usually takes the form of a purchase of a residence, though other options are permitted. That $500,000 is comparable or higher than nearly every competitor jurisdiction in the world. In one document we saw, The Bahamas is already more expensive than 17 of 18 desirable countries or jurisdictions.

Yet, unbelievably, the government, or some part of the government, is considering increasing the amount of minimum investment for residency rights, not citizenship, just the right to live and spend money in The Bahamas.

Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest, we suspect, would not want to discourage foreign investment. In fact, he addressed the subject at Eleuthera Business Outlook last week, declaring the need for “strategic” foreign investment. “In order to maintain and sustain living standards at the levels we have become accustomed, we need to not only attract a certain amount of foreign direct investment, we must do so on an annual basis and in competition with the rest of the Caribbean and Latin American region as well as with many states, municipalities, cities and towns within the United States,” Mr Turnquest said.

The Bahamas’ economy has been anaemic for far too long. With shallow growth and burdensome debt, foreign direct investment is a critical component in development. Foreign direct investment must be courted, encouraged and expedited, not as it has in the past for massive projects but in ways that broaden the overall economy. People who have created success abroad can bring ideas, innovation, expertise and dollars to boost local business and diversification.

Just as you do not revitalise a city without bringing in people who did not live there before, you do not revitalise a struggling economy without new blood.

It is time to overcome the fear of foreign. It is time to welcome the right kind of direct investment, including migration residence, as the DPM suggested, strategically. There is no reason why an interested investor could not participate in a fund or a partnership. Even an offshore bank could manage a fund that provides financing that local banks are reluctant to provide, seeding Bahamian businesses with much-needed capital. In such cases, the investor’s participation may be able to take that business farther than it would have been able to go on its own.

Our borders must not be walls pushing the world out, but gates letting the right investment in, and as Mr. Turnquest said, recognising that our competition for dollars looking for a safe place to land and a friendly place to live is the US, the Caribbean and beyond. It was not until Alabama welcomed the outsider that it began the journey to becoming the #1 team it is today, continuing to prove in game after game why it is just about unbeatable.