REV KEITH RUSSELL ON THE GRAND BAHAMA PORT AUTHORITY

Breaking silence

The Honourable Rev. Fredrick McAlpine, who has long been silent, has chosen this moment to speak; perhaps, hoping to gain some political millage. However, he has miscalculated and his comments are profoundly ill-advised.

In the first place, he seems not able to make the distinction between the hundreds of millions that the Grand Bahama Port Authority are required to pay in taxes and the amount the company owes the Government for the services The Gov. provides for Freeport, which, according to the infamous Hawksbill Creek Agreement, is the responsibility of the GBPA. Of course, his attempt to compare the Albany project, Baha Mar and other projects with The GBPA is laughable. The aforementioned companies have no such quasigovernmental agreement.

In addition, this impoverished and antiquated notion that there is something so magical about Freeport that the government of The Bahamas can’t successfully managed it is offensive and erroneous. The honorable Rev. cites as example the outskirts of Garand Bahama, which is under the management of the Government, as examples of successive Governmental failure.

Yet, these settlements are successful in their own right. The inhabitants area proud people; they don’t want to be like Freeport. Any Gov. assistance that comes to them, which they have received in good measure over the years, they want it to be in the context of who they are, maintaining the uniqueness of their settlements.

Nevertheless, the Bahamas has been a stable nation economically and politically since its independence. There has been some failures and there is a lot more to be done. However, to claim that successive Governments, which have been able to maintain a stable nation, can’t successfully run one city is nonsensical.

Moreover, less we forget, these double lane roads and canals and the power company and other amenities were not built for us. We are only enjoying these bounties because of Prime Minister Pindling’s Bend-or-break speech.

I am disturb by this fiction that the Honourable Rev. propagates. This notion that the former masters were better than the present masters. The racial apartheid which P.M. Pindling had to break did not occur under the present masters. It happened under the old masters that the Hon. Rev. wants to glorify. This myth of the benevolent master is so ingrained in our psyche that it is counterproductive to us freeing ourselves from mental slavery. It is inexplicable to me that in 2024 we black people are still engaged in a conversation about who is the most benevolent master. Unfortunately, we are still inundated with those whom Malcolm X referred to as House Negroes.

How about no masters at all. How about we Bahamians determining our own economic future. I don’t think that the people who run the port are smarter than I am. I can run a successful city. And there are many persons in Grand Bahama and in the Bahamas who are much smarter than I am, who actually care about people over profits, who can do a much better job than I or the present delinquent managers of GBPA. Why are we still willing to hand over our future to these people who have no responsibility to we The People. At least when a private citizen like myself is in charge or the government, when either of us mess-up we can be fired. Why are we still behaving seventy years later as if the GBPA is the only entity capable of managing the city of Freeport? This is ludicrous!

I am so tired of these politicians and private citizens insisting that just because they give us fish and cucumbers and onions and garlic we should be comfortable and satisfied with remaining in Egypt. I know that the Gov. says the GBPA must pay, and they should, then lets move on. I agree.

Still I, for one, want to get the hell out of Egypt. I want to plant my own corn and sit under my own juniper tree. And if my crops fail, I will plant again. I am tired of crumbs from the master’s table. I want ownership; I want my house back.

In the end, though, you can’t free a person who doesn’t know that he is a slave; or who has some incentive to remain in servitude.

I write; you decide

________________________

Rev’d Dr. Keith A. Russell

Pastor

First Baptist Church

Freeport, Bahamas

242-352-9224 (office)