The Tribune

THE video footage is striking. As people stand by watching, the bulldozers move in, tearing down building after building.

The structures fold like paper, ripped apart easily by the heavy machinery, leaving just planks and plywood and debris in their wake.

A total of 45 structures were torn down, described as “incomplete and unoccupied”.

If the effort was to look like a dynamic government taking action, well it perhaps satisfies those who think there should be no place for shanty towns.

However, one question lingers, and a simple one – what happens next?

If we presume that those houses were going to be occupied at some point, that means probably in excess of 100 people are now homeless.

Now, for those who don’t have the right to be there, perhaps that’s the outcome you want to reach – but do we honestly think that simply tearing down the buildings makes the people magically disappear as well?

Elsewhere in today’s Tribune, the executive director of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority, Katherine Smith, talks about more than 3,000 homes across Grand Bahama and Abaco still needing repairs after Hurricane Dorian.

She stressed that there is a severe housing shortage.

That being the case, if carpenters and electricians and roofers and builders are going to come from New Providence to help fix these 3,000 homes, where are they going to stay?

That’s why these buildings are going up in the first place – because those who are actually taking on the work, whether they’re entitled to be in The Bahamas or not, are putting up somewhere they can stay while they do so.

Pulling the buildings down isn’t going to fix the bigger picture. Where are the accommodations for the legal workers? For that matter, how many of those in shanty towns are legal workers anyway? In past studies, significant numbers of those living in shanty towns in The Bahamas have had a right to live and work in the country.

Without tackling the question of what happens next, all that will take place is people will find somewhere new and start building again – and in a few weeks, a few months, we’ll be back in the same situation.

One person watching the demolition summed it up. Dina Lafrance has lived in the area for 12 years and said: “I’m not going to fight against it. It was wrong, but are those people working? Where is the help? Where are the people going to stay? Do they have somewhere to go? We have children who are in school, they are getting affected by this as well. How are they going to concentrate when they don’t have a home to go to or when they know their home is going to be destroyed?

“A lot of people will be homeless. I work in Abaco now, just started working here, trying to catch myself, now they drop this bombshell on us. I don’t know what I am going to do. If push comes to shove, my kids would have to head to Nassau until I could do better while I continue to find answers.”

She’s not the only one left looking for answers – and as long as there’s a void of help for those entitled to be there, or support for those who are trying to rebuild, there’ll be the likelihood of another shanty town springing up.

Knocking down buildings is only treating a symptom. The problem is still there.

Costly delays

If Sky Bahamas was as late taking off as its chief, Captain Randy Butler, is at fighting court claims, it’s a wonder it ever got off the ground at all.

The latest bumpy landing for Captain Butler sees the Supreme Court uphold a judgement against him with the court’s deputy registrar telling him off for his “delaying tactics” in battling the claim against him and the airline.

The case sees the company’s former financier, Fred Kaiser, “elated” with the next step being the assessment of damages. Mr Kaiser claims he was defrauded of $28m via sham loans – and the case triggered the resignation of Peter Turnquest as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance even though he is not named as a defendant in the writ and denies allegations in the document.

There’ll be more to come from this case – we suspect Captain Butler will need to ensure he submits his documents in a more timely manner in future.