· August, 2006

Stories about Bahamas from August, 2006

Bahamas: The future in health

  30 August 2006

Sidney flashes forward to 2012, after the Bahamas’ government has implemented the National Health Plan towards which they are “proceeding with undue haste.”

Bahamas: Flat-earth policies

  30 August 2006

Riffing off of Thomas Friedman's bestseller, The Earth is Flat, Larry Smith discusses the Bahamas’ unpreparedness for participation in the current and future world order.

Bahamas: Not so far from the Middle East

  29 August 2006

Nicolette Bethel's analysis of an African-American commentator's views on white guilt and anti-Semitism prompts her to think about Israel's position in the Middle East: “We Bahamians should take heed. After all, there is not a huge difference between the plight of the Palestinian Arab or the young men who identify...

Caribbean: Exporting Carnival

  25 August 2006

“. . . it's interesting how these festivals have echoed, in a small way, the evolution of their original model in Trinidad, as a vehicle of solidarity, an assertion of identity, a gesture of defiance in a hostile environment,” says Jeremy Taylor, writing about the Carnivals “exported” by the Caribbean...

Bahamas: Not press freedom

  23 August 2006

Lynn Sweeting gets at what may be the real issue behind an English editor's position at a Bahamian newspaper. As one commenter put it, the issue is “the hiring of Bahamian managers, not freedom of the press.”

Bahamas: Civil service inertia

  17 August 2006

Nicolette Bethel calls for a full-scale re-thinking of the Bahamian civil service: “the civil service as designed is crippling the development of The Bahamas. . . . the version that we have in place was never intended to govern a free nation. . . “

Bahamas: Queen Victoria and other artifacts

  14 August 2006

Calling a member of parliament's call for a statue of Queen Victoria to be removed from a square in Nassau “lip service to freedom on a grand scale,” Bahamian Lynn Sweeting makes an eloquent defense for the retention of certain aspects of the past and for the recognition of genuine...

Bahamas: Freedom of Speech

  14 August 2006

Sidney Sweeting issues a warning to the Bahamian public: “Too many Bahamians take the attitude that unless Government passes a law prohibiting freedom of speech then we can presume that all is well. No, a country does not become autocratic overnight, their moves are subtle at first, then not so...

Bahamas: After Castro

  9 August 2006

Larry Smith writes about the potential long-term effects of Fidel Castro's exit on the Bahamas, notably in the area of tourism.