Dear Editor,
When will The Bahamas benefit Bahamians and the people of The Bahamas move beyond eating from the crumbs that sometimes fall from foreigners' tables?
The political dilapidation of our great Bahamaland is rapidly racing toward its demise, and if we don't wake up and fight for our country as a people, sad will be our cry. Time and time again, election after election, we have gullibly sent suited men and woman to the House of Parliament for troubling kitchen table issues that have plagued our nation since the days of Sir Lynden Pindling. However, after the days of Sir Lynden, it seemed as though we have hired them to hurt us, especially under the governance of Perry G. Christie and his governing team.
Indeed, The Bahamas has been a nation where foreigners live and enjoy the fat of the land, while born inhabitants such as my father and others are treated like squatters and are given the crumbs that sometimes fall from foreigners' tables. It seems as though every nationality outside of born and raised Bahamians lives better than Bahamians. This is a crying shame. Yet they wonder why our beautiful nation is today bowing before a wall of shame in the eyes of the outside world.
With each decade, we have seen a decline and noticeable shift where our country has fallen from being a beautiful most-desired nation for visitors to vacation, to a place people put on their bottom list of places to visit. This can be credited, not solely, but most fittingly, to the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), lead by a weak and aluminum fist. A party of people who specialize in manipulation and trickery, they have desperately once again, coned the people into rehiring them, despite them having a history that is so dark that with each of them being in office, The Bahamas moves one step closer to its doom.
Under the feet of this dangerous desperate government, when we thought we have seen and heard it all, they continue to keep it coming. We've seen billboards of murder counts posted along the passageway of tourist key points; we've been spotlighted as a nation of scandal; we've heard all the stories of our country being sold directly from beneath us to foreigners, and we have seen their lack of competency; we've tried their unsuccessful tactics, yet, rather than relinquishing their candidacy to a nation of young visionaries, and those with heart for the country and people, like wet crumpled paper with skillful trickery, their formula was to throw everything but bread and tea to the wall to see what sticks with the people to regain the government. Now they get it; and in return, this is what we as a people get.
With crime at an all-time high, rather than seeking solutions to the problem, their way of dealing with it is to arm themselves with guns. Poverty at a stage where it is rumored, but I do believe, that young boys are assembling out and prostituting their bodies to anyone who is willing to pay for sexual favors. People are losing their homes and more and more of them are calling beaches, cars, public parks and abandoned buildings their homes. What is their solution? Blame Hubert A. Ingraham. With minimum wage being at an appalling low, Bahamians are barely scrapping by each day and living off pennies. Their solution to the problem: Burden the Bahamian people with a ridiculously high cost of living rather than increasing the minimum wage.
Imagine a young mother with children working at McDonald's with a salary of less than $650 a month having to squeeze food, rent, utilities, and day-to-day needs out of that salary. That is like living on 50 cents per day in the country. However, as difficult as that may be for them to live and raise their children on, they are forced to pay taxes on that already tiny salary. With that, please expect the crime to skyrocket to a place where those you least expect to commit them, commit them as easy as breathing.
My question is when the people of this country will get an opportunity to exhale from this storm of oppression they are forced to live in? When will Bahamians of this country get to a place where they would no longer need to herd in large numbers in front of soup kitchens like Grace Community Church for meals and to dig through second- and third-hand items for their families? When will Bahamians get a chance to comfortably own a piece of their birthplace without having to live off pennies simply to call it their own? When will Bahamian voices be heard in their country instead of them being dictated to and treated like third- and forth-class citizens in their country. When will The Bahamas truly be for Bahamians? When will young people truly feel proud to be Bahamians in this country rather than singing these words in simple songs? When will Bahamians come to a place in this country where they do not feel as though selling drugs, stealing and robbing are their only means of survival? When will The Bahamas come to a place where Bahamians are first and all others are second best?
As a young Bahamian and citizen with great love for my country, I beg the government to regroup, rethink their tactics, rewrite their formula and begin to listen to the depressing cries of devastation of the Bahamian people.
Young Bahamians of this country I say wake up; wake up from your sleep and demand more from your members of Parliament. Wake up and shake yourself out of that strong hold of manipulation and deception. Wake up out of that dark cloud of lies that swirls over your head that has you believing you deserve nothing more than you are getting. Wake up and take back your country from these criminal masterminds who have stolen your appreciation for a country that is marketed to foreigners, the rich and the few.
Wake up out of that bed of lies and get up off that carpet of deception that the government has your concern at heart. Wake up my people, wake up, because The Bahamas is not for Bahamians; but understand this land is being sold off in large portions to foreigners and soon we will have to ask them to walk and drive the streets in certain parts because we have become illegal aliens in our country.
This country is once again rapidly sprinting down the road of segregation and if we don't wake up and speak out, we will be soon be restricted and limited to only the most depressing corners of our nation, while the others live like royalty on our land.
Wake up people, wake up!
The Bahamas is in trouble people, and I am proud to be a Bahamian, but I am not proud of my country. However, "In the event of my demise, when my heart can beat no more; I'm comfortable dying for principles and beliefs that I have lived for. I feel the shadow's depth, though there's so much I would like to accomplish, before I reach my death. I have come to grips with this possibility, as I wipe tears from my eyes; but realize I've fought for The Bahamas, my country, in the event of our demise."
- Deno P. Ellis
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