So far, public debate over the controversial resort development in Bimini has revolved around fears that a pristine environmental gem and one of the most important spawning areas for commercially valuable fish will be destroyed by large-scale dredging.
In addition to the environmental question, there is also an important social aspect. It concerns the wisdom of significantly altering a distinctive and renowned local community and culture in the name of an approach to progress that is debatable.
Perry Christie adopted the "anchor project" idea during his first term as prime minister. Very simply, it involves attracting foreign-owned mega-resorts to the country, usually near small communities where life is relatively basic and jobs are scarce.
Each resort is intended to act as an "anchor" for the future growth of the community, providing not only direct employment opportunities but also spin-off industries while causing significant improvements in infrastructure.
The Atlantis resort is often held up as the model of an anchor project success story. However, in terms of location, timing and distinctiveness, it is unique and probably unrepeatable.
The plan for Bimini is actually a more fitting example: an idyllic community slated to be transformed almost entirely into a hotel and casino support system; a quiet island to inundate with nearly 300 times its own population in tourists every year.
Not every member of a family in Bimini is employed today, but many who are earn an enviable living as guides or hosts to the dedicated network of high-end visitors who travel from around the world to partake in the island's unparalleled fishing and diving. These are now to be supplanted by hundreds of thousands of lower-income casino enthusiasts, who spend significantly less per capita than their predecessors, most of it going to the resort.
Bimini is far too small to fully staff the resort with its own residents. Therefore, the island can expect a considerable influx of people from New Providence, Grand Bahama and other islands. This will cause developmental pressures the state should be prepared for, including congestion and rises in crime and illegal immigration.
Some say the sacrifice is worth the economic benefits, but this assumes Resorts World Bimini (RWB) will not go the way of dozens of failed developments before it. The developer's own environmental impact assessment (EIA) called demand for the project "questionable".
What seems to have escaped those who support the anchor project strategy, is not only that The Bahamas may provide nothing more than a temporary stop-over for foreign developers on the way to bigger things, leaving us to pick up the pieces, but also that ending a way of life that has existed for generations is not the only way to get more jobs and better roads.
Around the world, societies in which people have the most disposable income to travel are becoming more environmentally and culturally conscious by the day. To the already lucrative fishing and diving industries, Family Islands could add heritage tours and offer these attractions through a network of sustainable boutique resorts that collectively have the potential to impact employment numbers significantly, yet individually are small enough to open the door for Bahamian ownership.
We must balance our short-term desire for wealth creation with the protection of our environment - which is our great natural resource. To destroy it for short-term gain would be destroying our future and that of generations unborn.
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