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!