The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Please allow me space in your esteemed publication to express myself with the hope of connecting to others.

Do you know that feeling of being inspired by something or someone? You watch a movie, or simply read a quote, listen to someone’s words and it rings true to your heart. Does it make you feel motivated from within? makes you reach higher? dig deeper? convince you to try and reach a goal?

As Bahamians we are told, and in turn tell our children, to follow our dreams, pursue our goals and reach for the stars!

We may well face obstacles along the way and we try our very best, taking the moral high road, maintaining professionalism, jumping through hoops and taking the good with the bad.

Our objective to succeed is innately coupled directly with possessing tenacity, perseverance, faith, endurance and hope, just to name a few, as that’s what keeps our eye on the prize. We have to believe in ourselves.

Faced with overwhelming frustration, when do we draw the line and give up? You don’t! There are many boundaries that Bahamians face, however in pursuing something that makes so much sense should it be the government that holds an iron ceiling over us?

Ultimately, along your journey to success, you will arrive at a stage of needing something from government. This process will be skewed and imbalanced, it will not be the same line for foreigners, nor the politically elite, it may actually be them joining the effort to hold you down. Government will impose themselves and oblige you to obtain something from one of their agencies, with full knowledge that they have absolutely no inclination to provide this essential component to you.

Personally, I have had to endure ten years of asking government. I have had to grovel, beg, correspond endlessly, to move the Paradise Island Lighthouse & Beach Club project to fruition. So anyone that reads this I wish to encourage you: don’t give up, let fear inspire you, let their jeers fuel you, know that mountains are steepest nearest the summit.

Continue to have confidence in yourself to succeed. While we know that the government has authority over us, it does mean they will succeed in killing our business ideas and desires, while their feet are upon our necks, holding us back, our very own fellow Bahamians: rise above and conquer their imposition of status quo and greed! Stand tall and stand with others in support. Today it’s me: tomorrow may well be you.

How will we explain this to future generations when they ask us why we allowed those feet to walk over us?

Captain Toby C.S. Smith

Nassau,

March 16, 2022