The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

Tribune Business May 18, 2020, Cruise Port Enjoys 130 Million …

The late E. Dawson Roberts would frequently quote the unattributed maxim that “Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Freedom”. While I would otherwise glory in Mr. Maura’s successes at raising the necessary cash for the initial phase of this project, the story line gives away what I and perhaps many had missed in the fine print of the project offering. And that is the “reclamation of land that will be the site for the cruise ports food and beverage, retail and entertainment attraction”. My thoughts went immediately to Mr. Toby Smith and his Lighthouse Point Project, seemingly now ceded to a cruise line. Or about to be. So what Mr. Maura is saying is that the Cruise Port will now have a monopoly on tourist off ship spending, and to hell with Bay Street, Woods Rodgers Wharf and downtown Nassau, which was the very Mother that gave birth to Tourism and Cruise Ships in the Bahamas. Even airships if one counts Pan Am flying into Malcolm’s Park back in the day.

Yes, my fellow Bahamians and residents, we have been sold down the river I think. Perhaps this is the coup de grâce, the final cut, for Bay Street and downtown Nassau. Ask not for whom the Bell Tolls. It tolls for all of us.

BRUCE G. RAINE

Nassau,

May 19. 2020