On the eve of yet another independence celebration what can we say about the country?
According to our illustrious leaders, we are living long and prospering. Yet every third young man is a criminal, made by the police, we have the highest incidence of sexual violence in the region, and the highest? For murder, and the GDP per debt stands at 76 percent. We are in a wasp nest, but most people aren't even bothered by the stings.
In "Dead Aid" Dambisa Moyo illustrates how corrupted governments destroy their countries by taking the money provided by aid agencies before it can reach its destinations. As we move into another year of relative sovereignty, our leaders seem to have an idea that they can continue to allow the rape and pillage of the public purse and nothing undue will happen. They will be able to talk their way out of any international down rating because they claim they have visions.
Their plans are built on a nation with a population that is descending into the E average, which according to some schools is really quite good. Our country is running into some serious obstacles that are being put in place by the same leaders who claim they can prevent international agencies, which have been warning of the problems of continuing on this highway to hell for years, from downgrading the country. Successive governments have denied this. In the meantime, we are creating a national development plan that is slated to solve all the problems of the commonwealth that has lost its footing and because it is not moving forward is actually regressing. Will the plan come before the country has been completely down-rated to junk bond status much like Puerto Rico? We now beat them with our murder and rape rate.
Like Moyo's work, "Purple Hibiscus" by Adichie shows how the violence of a leader of the country can really destroy much more than just an image. We seem to have copied so well these disastrous role models of leaders who promote xenophobia and violence against women while also encouraging theft, dishonesty and dysfunction through corruption. It is sad, that such a wonderful country can be so utterly torn apart by so few role models of what is really cancerous toxic behavior and culture. Moyo's work demonstrates the economic demise of nations that are reliant on international assistance for development and Adichie's shows the inner workings of the wonderful paternalistic leaders. At the same time, Achebe's "A Man of the People" and Naipaul's "The Mimic Men" capture well the very rot that we seem to be inhabiting where nothing can work because no one is interested in national progress, only in personal benefit.
We can say that the country is systemically xenophobic and misogynistic, not to mention homophobic and clannish, which the extremely expensive referendum that re-entrenched the status quo showed clearly. What is also being revealed is how utterly bankrupt the system is and that government authority has been given to the Christian Council. We are hitting the bottom so hard and yet we seem to take delight in our own failure. As Moody's threatens to downgrade The Bahamas yet again, government is thumbing its nose at them in public. Do they really consider that they can slay the lion that holds such power? Perhaps we need to examine the way we run our systems and start plucking out some of the seriously incompetent players; however, we seem happy to continue to employ them. How many thieves actually get fired?

Failure
If the level of incompetence and ignorance is any indication, they are probably playing the wait and see game. Of late, it is clear that most of the government agencies are failing and failing epically. Bahamasair, that people glibly blame for everything bad, is a nightmare. It loses money because of the horrible service and the failure to deliver at all levels. But when we give jobs to people who cannot do them, perhaps this is the result.
The other day, while waiting in a short queue there were six agents on the check-in desks, while more recently, facing a long queue, there were two agents; one left, and the other was not worth her weight in dust. After standing there for about 40 minutes, I was told that I had missed my flight and that the next flight was at 5 p.m. I was sent to another queue and made to wait again, which took another 20 minutes. Once I got to the purchasing counter, I explained the situation and was told, what I had already known, that there was only one flight to that destination that day and not another until the end of the week. The agent phoned over to the other agent and asked what she had told me. She had apparently misunderstood, but had not double-checked the system. So, the entire time I had spent at the airport the plane was still on the ground, but I missed it because of national incompetence and epic mismanagement. Of course, this is not new to our small country where millions of dollars can disappear into someone's bank account and no one notice anything even when there are meant to be systems in place to monitor and prevent such glitches. Much like Moyo's book, the system has failed.
But of course, no one talks about the D into E average that means that they really can't monitor anything other than the soap operas on TV. Though, they do know how to lie their way out of every tight situation and create elaborate tales of death and devastation that could bring the world to its knees only to save themselves. The D/E average has allowed the country to destroy the nation and the nation to destroy the country. And yet we wonder why there are so many people killing.
As government spends millions to keep its few trusted potcakes in key positions to destabilize the country, it destroys further the fabric of a more or less functional place. When every office is filled with dysfunctional workers who cannot read beyond a sixth-grade level, do we really expect the country to thrive?
Today the electricity may stay on because the newly sold to more foreign direct investors who know better than their Bahamian colleagues what to do with every aspect of The Bahamas, even though they cannot come up with a plan that shows any preparation for what lies ahead, we know that government has once again sold to the worst bidder. (It went off twice). Baha Mar was not the exception, but the rule, and everyday they tell their supporters that things are getting better, yet still Moody's stands with its red pen poised to strike us down yet another rung. Bahamasair buys new planes but has daily four-hour delays, and cannot hire adequately competent people to know the difference between Abaco and Inagua, 'but do chal, don't criticize them, they doin' their best! An' they might spite you'. Why do we continue to promote ignorant incompetence?

What works?
If there are places that do work, there are so many rats in them who are diligently working to undermine the people who are doing their best to ensure some degree of functionality. They are stealing from Peter and Paul while we watch. The country is failing.
Everyone wants to privatize, but each time these boys do that they put in some E average person and the system gets worse. Who would not check a passenger's name in the system before providing erroneous information? Yet the company, held together by rubber bands that are stretched and stressed to the limit, will not fire the same people who cannot work because he or she cannot even speak English in a manner that is understandable to anyone over 16 years of age, or cannot stop snorting like pigs while trying not to look the customer in the eye. Then we talk about being the best little destination in the world! How can we become anything other than bottom of the barrel when we do not train people to serve customers with respect? Our national superiority and contempt for work is leading us into some seriously bad company.
The nation is failing, the state is holding its funeral announcement in its hand, but does not know how it will pay for the burial and the leaders sing the state's praises. The more we progress the worse the stealing gets. No one will ever allow a system to change when they are benefiting from its dysfunction.
Road Traffic is the best example of systemic dysfunction that has willingly failed and refuses to fix itself because there are far too many people benefitting from the failure. Akin to the Baha Mar disaster, Road Traffic shows the lack of care put into anything public. Government says there will be jobs, but then it lays all the jobs in the hands of foreign direct owners who can leave, as they have done, or set up the country to fail as they wish. Given the national ignorance shrouded in arrogance and incompetence covered over by superiority, there is little wonder that all foreign companies import most of their key workers. They may employ some Bahamian staff, but workers that are needed to be well trained and able to function on their own tend to be brought in. How does this create employment for Bahamians?
So, why would Bahamians who go off to study wish to return? They understand too well that they will not be given jobs that are fitting their qualifications and if they are, they will be frustrated out of their heads by people who cannot get the job done and who frustrate the entire system. Most of the time, these are political appointments.
Do many of us think about the direction the country is heading in? Do we understand the consequences of yet another downgrade? Do we care that some Bahamasair employees are too incompetent to do their jobs and so the company loses money hand over fist? Do we care that millions of dollars annually are lost to theft? Do we care that the same person who got sent home for stealing left with a perfect record? The government will always say that the country is in good fiscal shape. They have no choice.
The damnation of this postcolonial state where people cannot work, and the lack of planning and vision means that we continue to use Bunker C fuel that destroys the very environment we depend on for our livelihood to power the islands, but the system is so old that it cannot be maintained and the private concern that has been bought in to save us from hell and damnation is condemning us to a different and more complete hell. When people cannot read and comprehend, and we expect them to drive an economy, it is little wonder we are faced with the disaster we are currently living where I am going to shoot you for walking on my shoes or run into the back of your car for not moving fast enough, or pass a line of traffic stopped at the red light from behind, run the right light and not get stopped by the police standing there. Bahamasair and BEC are only symptoms of complete national implosion powered kindly by visionless leadership and bad, illiterate workers. It will not be business as usual. And we say Happy Independence Day?

o Ian Bethell-Bennett is a professor at The College of The Bahamas.

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