The Bahamas is now a country with only "a veneer of civilisation" - a place where political nastiness and workplace treachery abound, and common decency is in retreat.

Who says so? A leading Bahamian academic who sees himself as part of a rearguard minority who, he feels, needs to become more vocal in defence of national honour and integrity.

As things stand, he claims, the Bahamas is so steeped in corruption, violence, dishonesty and venality that "it is a case of every man for himself and God for us all."

What's worse is that, in his eyes, few in power appear prepared to make a moral stand - or even to state what the Bahamas represents in terms of everyday standards of behaviour.

"When this government says it is going to get to the bottom of something, it's really saying it wants to know who took the pictures, and who leaked the story," he said.

Bahamian religion, he added, is all about "currying favour" with God. "It is a question of all for me - God is the customs officer who will fix you up. This damning appraisal of the modern Bahamas follows a long line of incidents which, in the eyes of many, suggest that there is now virtually no accountability in the country.

An "anything goes" malaise has descended on the land which - according to the academic - will ultimately lead to a social implosion.

The situation is exacerbated by a glorification of materialism by the "haves" in a society where the "have nots are barely scraping by.

"All the time poor people see things around them they cannot buy, so they take them. Then you have young black men and women who are disqualified from working because of poor attitudes, bad education and a whole pile of testosterone.

"Parents are not coping and they are in over their heads. You have a government which keeps talking about big investments, but the average Bahamian can't work out how this affects him."

Politicians
"The politicians are not attending to the social situation here. They now have an initiative to protect tourists because the thugs have hit Bay Street.

Meanwhile, government officials and the police want to keep the truth from the media because they fear its effects on the industry."

The alleged beating of a foreign journalist by a Defence Force officer in broad daylight has conjured up new, unpalatable images of the Bahamas in the minds not only of many Floridians, but right-thinking Bahamians as well.

Whatever happens at the detention centre is being done in their name - and they don't like what they see. "If a guard can beat a foreign newsman in daylight OUTSIDE the compound, what is he doing INSIDE the compound in the dead of night?" they ask, and with good reason.

A country which carefully cultivates alluring impressions of blissful living in a sunsplashed paradise, is now engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the squalid reality.

While colourful posters proclaim the legend "It's getting better", more and more Bahamians are convinced that, on the contrary, things are getting worse. Much worse.

With no official condemnation of the act, no genuine expression of moral outrage, an impression develops that brutality against innocents receives implicit sanction from those in power. There is a growing suspicion that the government has neither the will nor wherewithal to act, seemingly infected by institutional paralysis.

Last week, the esteemed Wall Street Journal turned its sagacious eye on the Bahamas with a comment which should make every decent Bahamian reflect earnestly on their country's fate.

"The Bahamas is part of the British Commonwealth and, the last time we checked, a civilised place," it said.

Now, it added, would be a good time to prove this by releasing two Cuban dentists who have been held at the detention centre for the past ten months, having been picked up by the US Coast Guard while making a dash for freedom.

What the Wall Street Journal didn't state is that the dentists, like many Bahamians in varying circumstances, are caught up in a mish-mash of indecision and procrastination which seems to typify this government's approach to everything.

Blurring issues and hoping they will disappear before their eyes now appears to be part of the government's policy. It seems to observers that nothing ever gets done.

A Tribune reader said last week: "There is only one thing this government is good at, and that's travelling. They're always travelling."

In the last two or three weeks, disturbing incidents have occurred which have tended to underscore the Wall Street Journal's doubts about Bahamian 'civilisation'.

One was the aftermath of the Fox Hill Prison breakout, when two prisoners were pictured lying prostrate in a -bloodsmeared cell. Another was the attack on the Cuban journalist. Then came a plaintive cry from a prisoner at Fox Hill who fears an attempt will be made on his life to silence him because of his alleged involvement in a high-profile murder.

What all three cases have in common is an apparent brutalising or intimidation of individuals by uncaring authority, a situation common in totalitarian countries but indefensible in a supposedly free-thinking democracy.

This lack of compassion, misuse of power and selfish grasping for material riches are, according to the academic, products of a growing realisation that the Bahamas' current prosperity cannot last.

"A lot of Bahamians believe in their bones that what is happening now is not going to happen indefinitely.

Success
"Our success is directly related to the implosion of Cuba as a tourist destination. A lot of people are focused on accumulation of wealth at all costs while the going is good. But I think there are about five per cent of the Bahamian population who are seriously concerned about the nation's moral bankruptcy. They are wondering where it is going to lead."

One reader inspired to react by last week's INSIGHT wrote: "With some exceptions, the police force is corrupt. Many law enforcement officers are a threat to the community rather than protectors.

Profession
"Many get into the profession so they can run drugs or assist their criminal friends.

Others join with good intentions, but after a while of seeing that the system is corrupt, they too change.

Some become power happy, trigger happy criminals themselves."

The reader said that once the Haitian immigration situation had been factored into modern Bahamian life, the scenario was far from reassuring.

"They (Haitians) have been mistreated and ridiculed and now they are becoming powerful enough to do something about it," she said.

Pervasive Bahamian amorality combined with Haitian volatility does not bode well for the country's future, particularly as there appears to be no-one in sight with the stature, gravitas and credibility to lay the groundwork for a new kind of society.

One reader, also an academic, said: "Bahamian society needs rebuilding from the foundation upwards. But there needs to be a real will on the part of the decent minority to become more vocal and get involved.

"At the moment, there is a sense that many politicians are in it for themselves, either for self-aggrandisement or to line their own pockets. What we need is a true statesman who can counter the general air of sleaziness that prevails here.

"As things stand, there is no long-term national planning and, because most politicians are lawyers, very little entrepreneurial or business savvy.

"It is interesting that no-one ever stands up and states categorically what's wrong with the modern Bahamas and what needs to be done to put things right.

"That's because many politicians here have no moral authority themselves. Some are afraid to take moral positions because they know how squalid and rancid their own lives are. It is a sad and depressing situation."

With children now begetting children, and feral boys being spawned in fatherless homes, the new generation offers little hope. The 24-year-old grandmother is a reality in the modern Bahamas, and it does the nation little credit. Increased violence in schools is another symptom of social meltdown.

With no father figure or discipline at home, wild boys are strutting their stuff in an increasingly feminised society, living out their entire early lives overseen by women. On television, ex-druggies are revered as rap stars. Reformed gangsters are an integral part of the hip-hop culture. Violence towards others is seen as cool, and even lauded in lyrics, so it is no surprise that impressionable black youth roam the blocks with guns and knives. They know nothing else.

That is why the response to incidents like the alleged beating of the journalist, and the suspected brutalising of the Fox Hill escapees, is so important in moulding public attitudes.

If prison guards can hammer prisoners so badly that they are left prostrate and helpless on a blood-smeared floor, why can't youths on the blocks crack heads at will?

If a Defence Force officer can split a reporter's face with a baton, then smash his head on a car bumper, why can't a gang of louts set about a passer-by?

If some politicians can engage in sleaze with impunity why shouldn't Joe Citizen help himself from time to time?

In bigger first-world countries, groups exist which sound off on moral and ethical issues; taking stands with the objective of keeping society on track. In the Bahamas, silence is the norm.

Is this the result of long years of intimidation and victimisation under the first PLP government? Or are many if not most Bahamians so divorced from the concept of right and wrong that they genuinely fail to see the significance of such events?

Petition
Last week, news broke of a petition from College of the Bahamas, academics, staff and students calling for the reinstatement of Dr Rodney Smith' who resigned as president last year after admitting plagiarism.

They feel he gave the college vision and a sense of direction and want him back to re-energise what they claim is now an apathetic institution.

What they fail to realise is that Dr Smith's confession was so fundamental to academic principles that, whatever his attributes, there can be no going back.

Calling for Dr Smith's reinstatement is like the police force backing a commissioner convicted of robbery.

While academics in first-world societies would not contemplate such a petition, and recognise fully the untenability of such a move, a COB lobby group pushing for Dr Smith's return simply failed to grasp the point.

According to INSIGHT’s two academic sources, therein lies the problem of Bahamian society. First, you have to recognise wrong-doing for what it is, and then react accordingly. Without that recognition the veneer of civilisation is indeed, so thin that the rough wood of lawlessness and unaccountability shows through. Perhaps now is the time to take stock before it's too late.

By John Marquis, as published in the INSIGHT column of The Tribune newspaper - February 20, 2006