We insist that –as a people united in service and love- we should be up and doing far more for ourselves; with especial attention given to the food we consume.

Evidently, the time is nigh and now for those who lead to provide assistance to each and every Bahamian interested in pioneering this kind of sustainable development in any of our Family Islands.

Such a move would have a plethora of benefits for a land and a people where our people are constrained to produce more of the food that they consume.

Indeed, this might well help with healing some of the ills so very many of our youth now experience as they battle with any number of chronic non-communicable diseases.

The sum of the matter, then, is that genuine renewal demands that we focus attention not only on much needed foreign direct investment, but also on the social well-being of this nation’s youth.

And yet again, based on what we know about the incidence of chronic non-communicable diseases; it would be fair to conclude that the vast majority of our students have parents who are themselves hungry, malnourished or both.

This is no sturdy basis for the real development of our nation.

For our part, we yearn for the soon-coming of that day when each child in every public school facility is guaranteed on a daily basis at least one good balanced meal – preferably breakfast; with such food coming not from food-stores, but from farms owned and run by Bahamians.

And here we sincerely believe that a project of this nature can be economically viable; that it can be funded by government and its social partners; and with our Churches and unions and credit unions playing commensurately large parts.

Our nation’s children will become – in the ultimate analysis – the biggest winners.

Today we make these suggestions in light of currently available indicators suggest that the Bahamian people should – as of now – brace themselves for the onset of any number of wrenching changes.

One such change involves this nation’s and our region’s speedier access to food that is inexpensive, nutritious, available and accessible, all at once.

This is especially important in this time of crisis-revealed; itself a time when we either pull together for the achievement of the common good or find ourselves ruined one after the other.

And for sure, we now live in a time when the hand-writing is on the wall:-The old order is changing.

In this regard, then, please be reminded that this nation’s economy has been fueled by foreign direct investment; and that, for as long as we can remember, this style of ‘development’ has been directly and massively efficient in providing profits and benefits for foreign investors and the Bahamian men and women who work for them.

In addition, and therefore, for as long as we can also remember, thousands of Bahamians have searched for and have found life-long jobs in the employ of the Bahamas Government.

And for sure, very many of these Government-employed persons have managed to become –as it were- charter members of what is described as the permanent and pensionable establishment.

For a while practically everyone in the know or who thought that they were ensconced in that sweet spot imagined that this good game could last forever.

Nothing does. As we now know, the death-knell was sounded for this type of system in the year 2008 as the Great Economic
Recession of that year laid waste vast stretches of the world capitalist system.

And so today, The Bahamas and its sister nations in the region struggle to get up from under the ruins of dreams laid waste as an accustomed way of life imploded.

And so today, there is an emerging debate and evaluation concerning this nation’s position and prospects moving forward.

For our part, we are absolutely convinced that we must – as a matter of the most urgent priority – review both the politics, the economics and the mindset spawned by our collective [and sometimes paranoid] reliance on foreign direct investment.

In addition, we must –at least for the sake of our own sanity – repent of the notion that such investment could or even should displace national ownership, national control and greater national self-reliance of the so-called commanding heights of the nation’s economy.

And for sure, we must [moving forward] renew, refurbish and re-build bridges and connections between ourselves and the region, inclusive of Cuba and the Republic of Haiti.

Evidently, such a venture cannot and will not succeed if those who lead or those who would lead remain mired in a mindset where they hope against hope and while away the time searching for the ever-elusive foreign investor.

And so, while foreign investment is to be welcomed, so too should the Bahamian people be invited and encouraged to become pioneers in the development of their own country and nation.