The Bahamas is for Bahamians?

Rick Lowe

This statement,"The Bahamas is for Bahamians" always confounds me, particularly when we consider the people that say it the loudest and most often. Let's call them Quasi-Natioanlists or QN's for short?

Usually the protagonists of this point of view are businessmen or professionals (including politicians) that have benefited more than most from the relatively open economy of The Bahamas. I say relatively open as there are many barriers successive governments, with the constant badgering of the QN's have put in the way of entrepreneurs.

But what really bothers me with is so many of the QN's were educated abroad, lived abroad or do business with foreign companies be they American, Canadian, European, South American or even Caribbean.

So it's okay for them to have had the luxury of foreign trade, yet they want to restrict other Bahamians doing the same or having similar opportunities.

There's nothing wrong at all with Bahamian's succeeding, in fact that's crucial. It's how we get there that's key to my mind.

The other thing we often see is many local successful people tend to call on the government to "diversify the economy" or provide technical training and more, even when they see the track record left by successive government in the brief history of our country.

Why not call on themselves - successful business people and professionals - to diversify the economy or conduct vocational training?

Let's consider technical training for a moment.

So many employers call on the government to provide technical training when the government educational system can't even teach children how to read properly. How on earth do we expect them to teach more advanced, industry specific courses.

It's time for business to help government return to its proper role of taking care of the Police and Courts and some infrastructure and deal with technical training themselves.

Bahamians can become successful in a growing economy but to think we can get along by trading within our borders only, rather than the outside world is a pipe dream.

We must start becoming more responsible for ourselves and our industries rather than calling on the government to tax Peter so us Paul's can get what think we're entitled to.

What's your take on this? Should I be confounded?