EDITOR, The Tribune

Those Disney people have come into Eleuthera the way the Bay Street Boys used to come in at election time in the bad old days.

I attended the Disney-managed “town hall meeting” in Green Castle where the Prime Minister listened and spoke about the proposed development of Lighthouse Point. The place was packed with people who, it is claimed, had been given $20 and a fluorescent Disney T-shirt to attend - $50 if they had a car to meet Dr Minnis at the airport.

I am old enough to remember the elections in the 1960s when the UBP bought votes for re-election with four shillings and a bottle of rum. The poor people on Eleuthera at that time blamed the whites for their poverty - not realising that, in having the vote, they could change things for themselves if they took control of the government instead of taking the bribe. It needed the 1967 election–in which my (white) parents voted PLP– to start to change things.

Most of those people at the Green Castle meeting treated Disney like a Cargo Cult – when that boat comes in, Hallelujah!, all our problems will be solved! They are absolutely wrong.

First, it will not solve any problems – there are already two private cruise ports in the area, at Princess Cay and Half Moon Cay. If those two haven’t made the local people rich, they should recognise that a third won’t help. The private cruise ports contribute almost nothing to the local economy. They are foreign-owned companies, designed to suck as much cash out of the islands as possible. Disney doesn’t love you, people! It is buying you, and the going rate is $20 and a T-shirt.

Second, Disney is operating by a questionable process. If it’s prepared to pay cash for your noisy support, we wonder how much it might pay for the support of the actual decision-makers and politicians? You may say “This has always been a part of Bahamian life” (and that’s a shameful answer!) However, if this is so, Disney is taking a huge risk sailing in these dangerous waters, because it is subject to the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act of the United States, enforced by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice. Disney would face enormous fines should it even try to bribe decision-makers – there are now questionable rumours flying up and down Eleuthera.

Third, there is a far better local alternative for the development of Lighthouse Point which will provide more jobs for Bahamians, at far better pay, and with the support of local training programmes. These already run at the Centre for Training and Innovation in Rock Sound, providing trades training in the hospitality and construction industries and developing business skills for young entrepreneurs.

If the Lighthouse Point Partners win the deal, then all the land will be returned to the people of the Bahamas, and all the jobs will be Bahamian, and all the revenue will stay on the island.

So those people who took the $20 should be ashamed to wear the Disney T-shirt. It is my opinion that those T-shirts dishonour the bravery and integrity of their parents and grandparents, who stood up against the Bay Street Boys and the threats and strong-arm tactics, and brought in majority rule by saying “No!” to being bought for four shillings and a bottle of rum.

ROBIN HELWEG-LARSEN

Governor’s Harbour

Bahamas

October 14, 2018