The country is turning red

I don't mean America of course, but America's fourth closest neighbor, the Bahamas. The closest three are Mexico, Canada and Russia (which is only three miles away from America.) The closest Bahamian island is fifty miles from Florida, so in good weather you can get across on a jetski.

Red is the color of the Free National Movement, which this week defeated the incumbent Progressive Liberal Party (yellow) in a noisy and enthusiastic campaign. The issues at stake included sale of land to foreigners, national health insurance and fishing limits.

More about sex, drugs, money and politics in the Bahamas below the fold...

The Bahamas is a little jewel of a country with 300,000 citizens spread across seven hundred islands east of Florida. The economy is doing very well thank you by totally ignoring the advice of the World Trade organisation. They have no truck with free trade, but instead slap huge import duties on everything coming in to the country, and as a result there is no sales tax and no income tax, and a thriving middle class. They have no natrual resources worth exporting except a few lobster and a limestone quarry, and as a result have escaped the attention of multi-national corporations and their puppet governments which are ravaging so many developing countries. Though the per-capita income is lower than the US, there are fewer people living below the poverty line; church and family ties are very strong, and people who are down on their luck usually get looked after.

Most of the population is various shades of black, but about fifteen percent is white. However, there is almost no racial tension here. I've often found myself to be almost the only white person at an event, but I've never felt out of place or unwelcome. Mixed marriges are not uncommon and attract no attention, and there are no barriers to either race in business, politics, sport or show business. To be fair, one or two companies have a bad reputaion for promoting people of a certain color, but they are foreign owned.

Politically, white Bahamians are more likely to suport the FNM than the PLP, but that is mostly because the FNM is more pro-business, and many white Bahamians are small business people. The parties are both politically centerist and prone to corruption. However, they are expected to pass some of their ill gotten gains back to their consituents. This election the PLP was accused of buying votes in some constituencies. The police were quickly summoned, not to arrest the offenders, but to control the crowds. Vote sellers had to swear on the holy bible to vote for the PLP, something that is quite meaningful in a country that has more churches per capita than any other.

This friendly and tolerant country is marred by one social issue. There is a lot of homophobia here, led by the Council of Churches. However, the newly elected Prime Minister is on the record as being strongly against any sort of discrimination or attempts to legislate morality: "Whether a private sexual act between consenting adults is homosexual or heterosexual is not my business, and I do not think it is your business either." The Bahamians have a pragmatic approach of putting tourist dollars ahead of moral strictures.

There is a long tradition of piracy and smuggling in the Bahamas. During the American Civil War it was guns and cotton, during prohibition it was rum running, and these days it is drugs. There is less drug smuggling going on now than there was in the 1980s, but it is still an important part of the local economy. The most flamboyant mansion on the island I live on was built by someone the locals say is a retired drug smuggler. He now owns all the Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King franchises on the island. Successful drug smugglers are like medieval barons or mafia godfathers. They are expected to keep the peace, dispense justice and give something back to the community.

As for piracy, well, check out the T-shirts featuring parodies of American trademarks of Disney characters at the local straw market. You won't find those in the states, but the copyright laws are not enforced here. Even the local cable TV service downloads American sattelite channels without paying a license fee and resells them locally.

One other nice thing about the Bahamas is that the election campaign was all over in eight weeks!

•  Tip Jar

  If you are feeling generous

  by misterajc on Fri May 04, 2007 at 07:21:22 AM PDT

  •  Sounds like an interesting place.

    Too bad it will probably all be underwater once the arctic ice caps melt.

    by northernsoul on Fri May 04, 2007 at 07:46:57 AM PDT

•  Well, they do have salt, too... :)

  by cskendrick on Fri May 04, 2007 at 07:23:15 AM PDT

  •  That's true

    The Morton Salt factory is trashing the environment on Inagua, but they are the only employer on the island, so the community can't do much about it.

    by misterajc on Fri May 04, 2007 at 07:27:08 AM PDT

•  A nice post about an unknown neighbour

  Recommended, and thanks.

  by Boreal Ecologist on Fri May 04, 2007 at 07:27:19 AM PDT

•  Recommended

  The Bahamas sounds like a nice country, well aside from the religiously inspired homophobia.

  by ChapiNation386 on Fri May 04, 2007 at 07:29:03 AM PDT

•  Civilized society

  One other nice thing about the Bahamas is that the election campaign was all over in eight weeks!

  It's one of the hallmarks of a civilized democracy that the campaign periods are strictly limited, often by law.  I suspect taht this is the year that American politicos will learn to theirdismay what the consequences of the "permanent campaign" taken to its fullest expression are.  I suspect taht by September or October of this year, every leading candidate in both parties will be damaged beyond repair.

  by ActivistGuy on Fri May 04, 2007 at 07:30:52 AM PDT

•  i'm half bahamian myself

  but i've actually never been.

  by terrypinder on Fri May 04, 2007 at 08:18:10 AM PDT

•  Pretty much like the rest of the ex-British Carib

  All the way down to Barbados and Guayana.  Very live-and-let-live, bi-racial, non-confrontational cultures.  People who scoff at most forms of authority get the governments they deserve.  Generally, quite benign and a lot of personal liberty.
   
  This is the continuing heritage of the Maroon culture of escaped slaves and pirates that extends from the West Indies back to Senegal and pockets of West Africa.

  The exceptions to tolerance and freedom have been when Washington and London took an active interest, as it did occasionally during the Cold War, and decided to destabilize certain countries and even simultaneously offed (within a couple minutes of each other) the leftist leaders of Jamaica and Guyana.

  Haiti was made an example of by the U.S. and France, with nearly continuous foreign intervention, after it prematurely declared itself an independent republic.  Boy, did they read Jefferson the wrong way.  Enduring misery has been the result there, as it is in most of West Africa.    

  by leveymg on Fri May 04, 2007 at 08:19:47 AM PDT

•  I seem to remember pirates were replaced

  by banks where wealthy Brits could avoid UK taxes, tariffs and export duties in the 18th century.

  Some of the institutions in Freeport just changed their name.

  Also a slave trading hub even after it was outlawed in most of Europe.

  Still, when you go back that far no place is perfect.

  by NCrefugee on Fri May 04, 2007 at 08:26:11 AM PDT

  •  Not really

    Freeport didn't exist until the 20th Century. Perhaps you are thinking of Nassau?

    In any event, the slave trade ended in the British Empire (and thus the Bahamas) in 1807, and slavery itself ended in 1837, without the need for a bloody uprising or civil way. I don't think that conditions for slaves were as bad in the Bahamas as they were in the US or some other countries. With absentee landlords and just a few overseers on plantations with hundreds of slaves, and the nearest reinfocements perhaps several days sailing away, it would not do to treat the slaves too harshly, or you would be faced with a strike or a rebellion.

    There was a slaves revolt on Exuma, but that was a relaxed Bahamian affair, with very little violence, and it was about the fear of being sold to other islands rather than harsh conditions. When British soldiers finally made to the island, the slaves were warned, and vanished into the bush. Even though some of the slaves had guns, they did not use them. After the soldiers left, the slaves returned to work, but would only work part time. When slavery was abolished, the slaves on that estate were given the land, and their descendants own it to this day.

    The Bahamian talent for vanishing in the face of authority is comemorated in a nursery rhyme...

    Bullfrog dress up in soldier clothes
    Went to the river to shoot some crows
    Crows smell fire and dey fly away
    Bullfrog he get vex and he cry all day

    by misterajc on Fri May 04, 2007 at 09:59:31 AM PDT