The Tribune

BLAME is an easy thing to do. Something has gone wrong? Blame someone else. It’s their fault. It does not seem to matter who “they” are – it’s not you, so blame them instead.

There seems to be a lot of blame going around at the moment.

Take the perennially defunct power supply in Abaco. Central and South Abaco MP John Pinder has been calling out BPL as a “disgrace”, saying the power supplier – or perhaps the power non-supplier given how often the power is off – needs to give more authority to local managers on the islands.

Who does Mr Pinder blame for this? His finger points at the FNM, of course, talking of “years of neglect”.

The FNM points the finger back, saying that there was sufficient power both before and after Hurricane Dorian, so why the difference now? They suggest a failure to pay technicians under the current administration might be the root of the problem.

So what will Mr Pinder do about it? After all, his party is in power now. He’s had meetings, he says. We are sure everyone is comforted by the news meetings have been held.

We will wait to see if more dynamic action will follow.

Meanwhile, his Parliamentary colleague Ginger Moxey, the Minister for Grand Bahama, is joining in the others in her party blaming the Grand Bahama Port Authority for the island’s woes.

It has been pointed out by a number of PLP voices now that there are problems with the roads, problems with upkeep and maintenance.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell also said: “The government is supposed to provide services to the city and the GBPA is supposed to pay the government back for those services.”

He pointed to the hospital being put in place by the government, along with repairs to the airport and that “we’re doing the hotel”, although the Grand Lucayan’s fate is nothing to boast about.

If we were to believe the voices of protest about Grand Bahama’s woes, one would think that nowhere else in The Bahamas was suffering from potholed roads, lagging infrastructure and faltering investment on islands where the government was the hand at the tiller.

The famous movie actress Katharine Hepburn once said: “We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers — you can blame anyone, but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault because if you want to change, you’re the one who has got to change. It’s as simple as that, isn’t it?

The star was also a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund – so she knew a thing or two about politics too, and about fighting for people’s rights and to improve their lives.

In this latest round of the blame game, no actual solutions have been put forward as yet. So perhaps that might be a step forward. If things are not good enough, then take some advice from a Hollywood star turned humanitarian. Change. It’s as simple as that.