Dear Editor,
The Burma Road riots of 1942 were all about white American labor being employed on the Oakes Field Airport project by The Pleasantville Co. at a higher wage than Bahamians - black or white.
At least, back then, Bahamians were offered jobs! The end result of the June 1, 1942 riots were a number of social and economic improvements. That was the start of the Bahamian labor/civil rights movement that eventually led to Majority rule and Independence.
In 2016, 74 years later, we have The Pointe being built by mostly Chinese labor, with the thousands of out of work Bahamians unable to find a job there at ANY wage.
Let me qualify that. Only a certain number of Bahamians are allowed to ask for jobs there - Leslie Pindling, an official on the project, suggested last week that in fact the Chinese employers were being overly generous to Bahamians, as over 47 percent of the workforce was Bahamian, instead of 40 percent.
Last week, Kenneth Aranha and I visited The Pointes' executive offices on the third floor of the Hilton. We found a young Chinese receptionist called Caroline, who found it difficult to understand me. Another Pointe employee, an Irishman, James, appeared. I told him that I was led to understand by Bahamian employees of The Pointe, downstairs, that no more than 30 Bahamians were employed.
He did not contradict me, only saying that he would email the exact figures soon! Nothing has been sent to me since.
Is this where we've come to in 2016, where a foreign company can start a new project after defaulting on an existing project like Bah Mar? Is this where we've come to in 2016 where a foreign entity can plan and create a huge eyesore of a project without government approval or discussions with the residents of Nassau?
I applaud the suggestion that the combined opposition parties and the combined trade unions celebrate the anniversary of the Burma Road Riots on Wednesday, June 1 at the Fish Fry and form a united front in order to address our truly awful unemployment situation where hungry Bahamian construction workers desperately seeking jobs out west ride slowly past The Pointe site on the jitney and look at well-fed Chinese workers erecting scaffold, laying tile and mixing cement.

- Stuart Howells

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