The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Quiet, picturesque Spanish Wells is about to be overwhelmed by hordes of cruise ship passengers. Hundreds of them at a time.

Many are concerned that this quaint, tiny community simply does not have the capacity and will be ruined by the flood of people. They are worried about the inevitable mountains of trash and tons of human waste, drunken crowds and exponential increase in road traffic.

Locals don’t want their pristine beaches lined with portable toilets, covered in cheap umbrellas and beach chairs – reserved for the cruise passengers, exclusively of course. They do not want their shores, seabed and reefs fouled and degraded as a result.

This shocking new reality is being forced upon them without warning. Before the local community was even told about the plan, the deal had been struck. They were only asked for comment as a cynical rubber stamp, after it was already too late.

How on earth could this be? How could a foreign cruise ship company with a controversial track record in Bimini, which is only coming to Spanish Wells after being rejected by Harbour Island, receive permits to do something that will fundamentally change the nature of this unique community forever?

Is the central government so arrogant that it decided the fate of an entire island without consulting the locals at all?

I don’t think so.

A few weeks ago, The Nassau Guardian printed details of a leaked secret letter from the cruise company to select Spanish Wells businesses, essentially a request for tour and excursion proposals.

“This is confidential until we make the announcement, so we ask for your discretion so we can be the first to notify guests of this change,” the letter said. As if the foreign cruise ship had the right to demand announce this to their passengers before talking to the local community. As if they had the right to demand secrecy on such a critical issue from local individuals who surely, are first and foremost proud members of their community.

But low and behold! Before any town meeting or other consultation was announced, the cruise ship company began advertising beach excursions on Spanish Wells, complete with chair and umbrella rentals at $25 a pop.

You don’t have to be a genius to figure out what has happened here. The fix is in!

The larger Spanish Wells community has been sold out by a small group of their own neighbours who, seeing the chance to make fistfuls of cash for themselves, probably collaborated in secret with the cruise company to make sure the deal was set in stone before anyone got wind of it.

Perhaps one or two of these individualistic individuals sit on the Local Council, or hold some other official or quasi-official position which would allow the central government and the cruise ship company to argue that there had been local “consultation.”

Sadly, the above scenario has played out many times in small communities across the length and breadth of the Bahamas, to the inevitable detriment of the local environment, traditions and culture. Often, the unique history and identity is forever ruined in exchange for limited and short-term economic gain, usually gain for a select few individuals.

But this does not have to be the fate of Spanish Wells. I know them to be a strong, resilient, independent community that has charted their own course through history for centuries.

The people of Harbour Island stood up and fought, and this same cruise company was made to back off. The people of Spanish Wells can and must do the same. They must make their voices heard, and stand up and be counted before it is really too late. No one needs to tell them what is at stake if they don’t.

SMALL ISLAND PROUD

Spanish Wells,

June 1, 2021.