by Richard Coulson
The physical re-building of Abaco and Grand Bahama has already begun and will continue. The rubble will be cleared away, businesses reopened, and new houses built. It won’t be easy or quick, but the energy of the Bahamian people, with generous help and expertise from abroad, will prevail.
The toughest task will not be physical but humanitarian: restoring the lives of the several thousand Haitians evacuated from The Mudd, Pigeon Peas, and Sandbanks in Abaco. The temporary shelters mainly in New Providence cannot be a permanent solution. But nor can be a restoration of the status quo. Surely these unfortunate non-citizens have no legal or constitutional claim to return to the shattered shanty-towns where they once lived, with property possession based on nothing but squatters’ rights. Without insurance, the returnees could only rebuild similar shacks, waiting for destruction in a future hurricane.
Government has full sovereign authority to prohibit return and to undertake an effective reconstruction program. But equally, Government has the moral duty to provide humane treatment for all those whom it evacuated. Until the evacuees find their own homes and jobs in Nassau or The Family Islands, or are repatriated to Haiti, Government will remain responsible for their basic food and shelter, doubtless imposing a difficult draw on our Treasury for years to come. But we will have no choice—as a Christian nation we must support the needy within our borders, particularly as it was own lax policies that let them in.
Abaco has caught the attention of the international press. The influential Washington Post carried a long story about the mega-rich foreign householders of the Bakers Bay resort now abruptly at a loss without the thousand Haitian employees who before Dorian boated over daily from mainland Abaco. Just this week the New York Times showed a moving video essay of a Haitian picking for any items to retrieve from his collapsed shack in the total devastation of the Sandbanks community.
Mayor Gary Shaw of Joplin, Missouri, who supervised its recovery after a 2011 tornado killed 161 people and demolished 7,000 houses in less than an hour, has just sent an inspirational message: “Change is extremely difficult, and many times only comes when it is forced upon us… but communities can turn devastation into tremendous new opportunities to be greater than ever before.” We hope the Mayor can come to Nassau and deliver is message in person.
Published in The Tribune September 30, 2019
Mr. Coulson has had a long career in law, investment banking and private banking in New York, London, and Nassau, and now serves as director of several financial concerns and as a corporate financial consultant. He has recently released his autobiography, A Corkscrew Life: Adventures of a Travelling Financier.
