For many citizens of the world, The Bahamas is Paradise. It is an area of the Caribbean and the Americas where discerning investors with wealth want to live.
Due to its proximity to the United States and strategic position in the Atlantic, The Bahamas plays a vital role as a regional hub for tourism, trade and investment. Its clear waters and abundant marine life further enhance its status as a premier destination for tourism.
You don’t need to be a diver or a sailor to appreciate the breathtaking waters of The Bahamas. Even astronauts are in awe. From hundreds of miles above the Earth, NASA astronauts have repeatedly described the waters as the most stunning on Earth. They claimed it is the only country where the beauty is “out of this world.” According to astronaut Chris Hadfield, “The Bahamas looked like jewels on a glass table.”
We have a reputation to protect, but many Bahamians are careless about where they live. Bahamians must protect their country not only for visitors, but for themselves.
We have developed a problem among some Bahamians with indiscriminate dumping. They have become careless about the environment, which is harmful not only to economic growth, but to social development.
In New Providence, while the main thoroughfares like East Bay and West Bay Streets, Shirley Street and areas in the enclaves in Lyford Cay and Albany in the west and Ocean Estates on Paradise Island are clean and pristine, there is wanton neglect in heartland communities where the vast majority of Bahamians live.
Today we are lamenting that Bahamians are not protecting the communities where the majority of people live in New Providence. It is embarrassing for many people who have to travel these areas.
The astute Bahamians who say they are environmentalists are seemingly not concerned as they should be with the squalid conditions of neighbourhoods in Bain Town, Grants Town, Englerston, Coconut Grove, Montell Heights and even some of the subdivisions that were developed in the last 50 years. Sadly, they have no reason to be in these areas because they are city dwellers. There is no doubt that there is little or no attention given to these areas by sanitary inspectors in the Ministry of the Environment.
We seem to be happy as a society to keep clean the areas where tourists traverse, and we dump garbage and refuse with abandon almost anywhere over the hill. This must stop. The government has been woefully negligent here to reverse “the uglification” of many communities. Bahamians must be able to live in communities that are safe and secure. It means that the environment should be clean. Crime increases when it is not. This means that environmental laws must be enforced, that derelict vehicles should not be left on the sides of streets; that garbage should be collected on a timely basis; that community parks should not be allowed to become overgrown by weeds and that abandoned houses should not be eyesores.
People are products of their environments and should feel good about where they live.
If the State is spending tens of millions of dollars advertising The Bahamas for tourists, then a similar amount should be spent on cleaning up over-the-hill in New Providence in order for people to feel good about the community where they live.
There are scores of business houses that are thriving in these areas, but spend no money at all on environmental matters. They take, but do not give back to community development.
The annual promotion called Operation Love Your Country of the Radio Station Love 97 struggles for support every year as very few business owners seem to have a social conscience or a sense of community. As a country we are better than this.
We call on all stakeholders in society to come together in a renewed effort to clean up the heartland communities in order for us to feel good about ourselves.
We ignore this call at our collective peril.
