Cable Beach was a prime location for redevelopment in The Bahamas and the Caribbean. There were various ideas espoused for its makeover as one of the leading tourism destinations in the region.

Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, one of the country's and the region's foremost tourism experts and now a former tourism minister, thought that a smaller scale themed resort for families, with a lower price point than Atlantis on Paradise Island, would have been an ideal development.

Along came a young greenhorn, Sarkis Izmirlian, who had little experience in the resort business and world of tourism, unlike Sol Kerzner, the experienced developer behind Atlantis.

Any Bahamas government should have proceeded with caution in dealing with someone like Izmirlian with such scant experience, especially in the redevelopment of a prime spot, such as Cable Beach.

Izmirlian came dangling big plans in front of the newly elected PLP, and Perry Christie, who, after many years, finally realized his ambition of becoming prime minister.

What Izmirlian did not have was enough of his own money to put into the project. Even after the first proposed iteration of Baha Mar was having difficulties, Izmirlian proposed an even bigger project.

Perry Christie was hooked. He thought he had a mega resort that would rival Atlantis, also rivalling his friend and political opponent Hubert Ingraham.

Baha Mar would be one of Christie's legacies. He always liked grand-sounding schemes and razzle dazzle. Christie and Izmirlian began a courtship which developed into a bromance. The prime minister gushed about the developer who enthusiastically returned the florid compliments.

Concessions
Izmirlian received a treasure cum hope chest overflowing with concessions, including the sale of land on Gladstone Road, which was clawed back and leased instead, after the FNM came to office.

The developer spoke of a Baha Mar nation, a term that was already offensive to a number of Bahamians, though the PLP high command did not appear to mind at the time. There were always questions about whether a development the nature and size of Baha Mar could repay its debt. But Christie went along with Izmirlian's dream, which eventually turned into a nightmare for him and the country as the project collapsed amidst acrimony.

Meanwhile, Christie was also developing a cozy relationship with Bobby Ginn, the supposed savior of Grand Bahama, who got the green light to build a mega resort on that island.

Christie frequently gushed about Bobby Ginn this, Bobby Ginn that. Ginn played host to a beaming and mesmerized Christie on various occasions.

Then there was Mayaguana. Christie and the PLP hatched a plan that would eventually alienate 10,000 acres of the best land in Mayaguana, including beachfront property and sensitive wetlands. The Mayaguana deal would have left little room for the expansion of the settlement of Pirate's Well, ironically and aptly named in light of the Mayaguana sell-out by the PLP, which seemed to have forgotten Woodes Rogers' admonition:

"Expulsis Piratis, Restituta Commercia".

Had a British colonial government devised such a deal it would have been deemed as racist and a rank example of colonialism at its worst.

That the deal was concocted, and then defended by the PLP, including individuals close to the prime minister, is disgraceful.

Colonial
It exemplifies backward thinking and a colonial mindset, including by a senior adviser to the head of government, who was also on hand to help Sir Lynden Pindling screw up Cable Beach in the 80s.

While Christie was bending over backward to accommodate foreign developers, he was developing a reputation, including within his own administration, for giving Bahamians the run around on local projects.

Perry Gladstone Christie, like a number of Bahamians, is possessed of a colonial mindset that appears to be reflexively dazzled and impressed by white people and foreigners.

During his two terms in office, Christie had the opportunity to assist black Bahamians with various projects. But whereas he is typically overly solicitous of foreigners, he has been a bitter disappointment to his own people, including in the manner in which he has neglected his constituency for decades.

A telling example that "Believe in Bahamians" was always an empty promise and slogan, is a young Bahamian who finally gave up asking the government for a relatively small amount of Crown Land on which he intended to develop a novel project which would employ Bahamians and spur economic activity.

Year after painful year, this young entrepreneur could never get a final answer from the Office of the Prime Minister. His foreign investor finally put up the money to buy land.

The investor told the young Bahamian, "I believe in you more than your own government."

What a damning indictment of Christie.

And even as Christie was more than happy to roll out the welcome mat for and grant Izmirlian, Ginn, the I-Group and others all manner of concessions, he was giving a well-known and wealthy Bahamian businessman the endless run around for a certain project.

There is an insidious envy and jealousy by a number of Bahamians who don't want other Bahamians to get ahead of them financially.

In the late 60s or early 70s, a senior PLP traveled to Grand Bahama and was surprised at how well some black Bahamians, who moved there from New Providence, were doing financially.

His envious response: "Boy y'all living good up here." Translation: "Y'all living better than me."

He was shocked by the new homes and wall-to-wall carpeting of these black Bahamians. Had they been white foreigners or white Bahamians he would not have been as exercised or as jealous.

This mindset is still resident in quite a number of Bahamians, including at the most senior levels of the PLP.

There are still many black people who overtly or subconsciously believe the fundamental lie of white supremacy that white people are inherently superior and that black people are inherently inferior.

A friend tells of an employee shocked when a white tourist stole an item from the friend's business.  The employee expected such theft only from a black tourist.

Many Bahamians still measure others by the color of their skin, preferring their children to date or marry those with lighter skin.

Even among supposedly exposed and intelligent people, lighter skinned people are deemed as more attractive or intelligent or socially better.

The country needs foreign investors. But we should not be so trusting, gullible and obsequious in terms of who we allow to invest in the country and to whom we grant oversized concessions

The messy breakup of the Christie/Izmirlian bromance and the collapse of Baha Mar is a telling tale of misguided trust and diminished sovereignty, mostly the fault of Christie's and the PLP's poor choices.

Had they believed in Bahamians as much as they believed in various foreign interests, the country would be better off.

Instead, they rolled out the red carpet for certain foreigners while slamming the door in the face of quite a number of Bahamians who naively thought that Christie and PLP believed in their own people.

o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

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