EDITOR, The Tribune.

On July 10th the curtain will fall on the first fifty years of an independent Bahamas.

And at the stroke of midnight

Our embarkation into the journey of our first century continues.

As reflection like the turquoise blue ocean flicker through our minds.

We are taken back to 1973 when the Union Jack descended and Officer Irvin Taylor hoisted our beloved Bahamian Flag.

Cries of joy and praises of thankfulness could be heard throughout the length and breadth of the land. There was not a dry eye to be found.

Sounding Cowbells and blaring car horns reverberate everywhere.

There will be no sleeping tonight.

Independent Bahamas

Free at last, free to govern ourselves. No longer dictated to by the archaic pen of colonialism.

Yes, her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second was still our sovereign head of state, but now we are able to plot our own destiny.

Now as we climb the Water Tower and gaze all around New Providence we marvel at what we see and we say to ourselves: “We have been transformed from a sleepy fishing village to the buoyant tourist mecca of the Americas and the Caribbean”.

We are now one of the richest countries in the Americas after the United States and Canada.

Not bad for a horse and buggy, Lizzie carries a basket on her head and a seasonal tourist getaway.

Yes, we have come a long way, but did we get lost in the glitter, the hub?

Did we grow too fast, were we prepared for the big-time city life?

From then till now

It was a bittersweet first fifty years.

Sweet, until we were influenced by the culture of varied nationalities.

We started dressing like them, started talking like them.

We infused carnival with junkanoo calling it carnival junkanoo, we even exchanged our music for theirs.

We stopped being us.

Copy cats are what we became.

Mama used to say what sweetens your mouth will bitter your behind.

What you sow, you shall reap.

Gangs, gang wars, turf wars, drug wars. Arm robberies, murders. Brother killing brother, friends killing each other.

Is this the price of prosperity?

Is this what our foreleaders envisioned?

Do we not long for the quiet peaceful days of the donkey-pulling dray and shucking corn to grind?

The first half has ended and the second one has begun.

Are you going to read the same old script, or will you write a new story?

We’ve only just begun to live

White lace and promises

A kiss for luck and we’re on our way.

They say that the first half is the most trying half because it is all new and it takes time to get used to.

Before the risin’ sun, we fly

So many roads to choose

We’ll start out walkin’ and learn to run.

As a nation, fifty years is like a newborn baby who has not been weaned. We are still sucking breast.

As we write the second half of the book the first, paragraph of the first chapter should read:

Let brotherly love prevail.

Will we take this war into the rest of our lives or will we rewrite the script?

Fifty years ago the change of the time was so subtle.

The signs were there, but we didn’t know what to look for.

We were so caught up in the glamour we reveled in the manifestation.

Sharing horizons that are new to us.

Watchin’ the signs along the way.

But today fifty years later there is no excuse. The signs are too glaring you can’t miss them. It is now time to become our brother’s keepers protect our neighbours. We have to be watchmen.

Their children are our children. We have to teach them to study war no more.

Talkin’ it over, just the two of us

Workin’ together day to day

Together.

Today as we speak, this generation the last of the first fifty years is on a precipe and is about to continue to plunge into an abyss of destruction

“Wake up everybody no more sleepin in bed, No more backward thinking time for thinking ahead.The world has changed so very much From what it used to be. There is so much hatred war and poverty,”

What are we going to do, are we going to rescue them or go to their funeral? We can not afford to lose another youth to this carnage.

It has been said many times and will be repeated over and over.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

I believe there is a writer inside of us who is plotting a better story for us, before putting pen to paper listen to him. Listen to our conscience. Let our story be a new beginning.

What will your story read?

“And when the evening comes, we smile

So much life ahead

We’ll find a place where there’s room to grow.”

Happy Independence

March on Bahama land

God bless the Bahamas.

ANTHONY PRATT

Nassau,

July 6, 2023.