10th March 2008

Commonwealth Day Observations
St. Andrews School
St. Anne’s School

Good morning.

I want to thank you for this special time with you this morning.  I want to urge you to commit yourselves to the betterment of the world you live in, and to learn all that you can, keep an open mind and an attitude of tolerance and dedicate yourselves to the building of a pluralistic and liberal democracy wherever you may live.

I had the good fortune to have been born and raised in The Bahamas.  When I look out from my balcony in the early mornings before I start my workday and see the eastern harbour of New Providence and all its beauty, you can forgive me if sometimes I think that I have died and gone to heaven.

We who are here this morning live in a beautiful place.  This beauty is handed down to us and it is a beauty that we must protect.  You must be the stewards of that beauty.

I am happy therefore that the Commonwealth Secretariat has chosen the environment as its theme for this year’s Commonwealth Week observances.  In a few minutes, you will hear the message from the Queen who serves as the Head of the Commonwealth on the need to make choices that will protect the environment.  Indeed, I am advised that you already make eco friendly choices right here at your school.

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of some 53 countries that were once British colonies.  The Bahamas was a British colony up to the time of its independence in 1973.  That voluntary association seeks to promote certain values: amongst them a commitment to democracy and the rule of law, and of course, in today’s context, the sustainability of the planet.

In the old days, the mantra of the British Empire was that the sun never set on the British Empire, meaning that the Empire was so vast that it stretched across the globe from east to west.  That is equally true about the Commonwealth today with some two billion citizens, stretching across all continents.

The Bahamas chose to remain part of the Commonwealth upon attaining independence as part of its foreign policy.  A country as small as ours while managing its own affairs should have good relations with all countries in the world beginning of course with our immediate neighbours: the United States, Cuba, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos, then stretching father a field to our Caricom neighbours, and then to the neighbours of the western hemisphere in North America, and Latin America.  Successive Bahamian governments up to now have supported that position.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government meet every two years.  The last such meeting took place in Kampala, Uganda in 2007.  The next meeting will take place in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago in November 2009.

Other meetings have been held in our region including in Nassau in 1985 when the sanctions were imposed on then apartheid South Africa that led ultimately to freedom for Nelson Mandela.  There was also a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica in 1977.

The Bahamas has played an active role in Commonwealth Affairs with one of our public servants serving in the Secretariat in London.  Our citizens have also been a part of various Commonwealth Observer missions to monitor elections around the world.  I served as an observer to the peace process in South Africa in 1992 and 1993.

I have done this little tour of the work of the Commonwealth to encourage you to understand the reality of interdependence and the richness, which that co-operation can bring you personally and which certainly enhances the well-being of our country.

One such further example is the theme today.  You may know that some estimates say that up to 80 per cent of the land in The Bahamas is within five feet of sea level.  You may also know that global warming is an issue that has occupied the time of world leaders.  There is a real threat to the future existence of The Bahamas if the issue of global warming is not successfully addressed and the warming trend reversed.

The Bahamas can play its’ small part in that by encouraging the use of bio fuels whether bio diesel or ethanol.  Policies should be put in place to promote the use of those fuels that give off little in the way of emissions that harm the environment and promote the warming trend.

We should also reform our public policy and our actual actions on the ground when it comes to solid waste disposal and litter generally.  Our country is suffering from an epidemic of plastic container litter as far as the eye can see.  The culture of the country has not yet embraced the need to cure this litter problem, whether through the use of recycling or through the use of reusable containers or even proper disposal and collection of the refuse.

Our country is still a green country. However, we are in great danger in my view of pushing development to the extent that the tree cover in The Bahamas is being destroyed.  New Providence once had an abundance of hard word forests and pine forests.  Each year, however, more and more of that has been destroyed.

In my constituency in Fox Hill, where a new community of some 200 homes now exists, there was a virgin hardwood forest: that area between St Augustine’s College and the Fox Hill Village.  I do not think that development needs to come at the price of destroying the trees that absorb the harmful carbon dioxide and produces oxygen to sustain life.  There can be sustainable development.

Private developers are not to be blamed in isolation.  Environmentally friendly policies are not yet a part of the law or the culture and when there is a choice between the environment and development, the environment suffers.

Why else are we continuing unabated to destroy the pine forests?  New Providence along with Andros, Abaco and Grand Bahama are the only pine islands in this country.  The pine forest helps to sustain the fresh water table.  Yet each year more and more of it is being destroyed.

This destruction of the trees and the hills in the country continues even in the face of legislation passed that prohibits without a permit cutting down certain protected species.  Amongst those trees for which a permit is required to cut down are the wild tamarind, the pine tree, the horseflesh and the silk cotton trees.  That legislation was passed over ten years ago, yet the hills continue to come down and the trees continue to be destroyed.

My appeal then is a simple one.  You can begin now to develop and concretize your views on the need to sustain our environment.  We should all encourage developers not to go into a subdivision and simply knock down all of the local trees, leaving a barren wasteland that has to be filled with imported trees bought from a store.

I hope you will take the need to protect your environment, the fish, the birds, and the fauna into your lives when you leave this school.

Let us make a commitment to protect the conch, the grouper, and the land crabs.  These species are all in danger of being lost within your life times by over fishing and abuse if we do not act today.  Our public policy is not vigorous enough to save them at the present rate of use.  More must be done.  You can help by making a conscious effort to preserve, to speak up for the environment and to live an environmentally friendly and sustainable life style, and encourage others to do so.

Thank you for inviting me to come and I wish you every success in your studies, and one day I hope that you will get an opportunity to meet others of your age across the Commonwealth who are reviewing the same issues that you are reviewing today.