By MALCOLM STRACHAN

INDEPENDENCE this year felt a little different – and for me it was not just down to the downpour of rain that forced the schedule to be rearranged.

Like many, I had been planning to go to Clifford Park for the celebrations, but safety comes first, and when thunder is crashing and lightning is flashing, let alone whatever state the ground might have been in from the rain, you really can’t argue.

The flag still went up. The preachers still preached. The singing and the dancing happened a day later. The country goes on.

But there have been enough stories of late that make one wonder just how independent we really are.

Just two years ago, for the 50th anniversary, there was much trumpeting and heralding of where we are, of our achievements as a nation.

Today, here we are still holding our hands out to other nations for a helping hand. Worse, it seems we are busily waiting on other countries for permission sometimes too.

Earlier this month, there was the latest development in the story about the Cuban workers here in The Bahamas.

Our country has long employed Cubans in both the fields of healthcare and education – and that brought us into the spotlight after the US put out a warning to countries that could be engaged in forced labour.

There was much shaking of heads when that memo from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio came out. Not us. Our practices are fine. No problem here. And yet then came a leaked contract suggesting the Cuban workers here were being paid just a small fraction of the amount we were giving to a Cuban agency, and then we found ourselves cancelling the deal and making a new pitch.

If anyone believes for a second that the government did not know the terms of the deal with Cuba from the outset, then I have a bridge to Paradise Island to sell you.

Still, that deal has now been ripped up, we are told, and the government has contacted the Cuban healthcare workers in our country directly to ask them what they want. They want to stay, most of them, we are told, and the government wants to offer them contracts.

But. That word “but”. Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville says the government is still waiting to hear from the US on whether its proposal meets with Washington’s approval.

How’s that independence feeling now?

Whether the Cuban workers stay or not does not involve the Cuban government, said Dr Darville, but we are checking instead to see if the US is happy with the new arrangement. The Bahamas is offering a private deal to Cuban individuals, and we are asking a country not involved in that deal if it’s ok.

Let’s fast forward from there to an event last week.

On Friday, the government signed a deal with the Chinese government to build a new hospital. The price tag is $267m, and $195m of that will come from the Chinese Export-Import Bank. That’s the same institution that funded Baha Mar’s construction. The interest rate on the borrowing is two percent.

The remainder of the borrowing for that hospital construction has come from other sources, both local and international, said Dr Darville, though the breakdown has not been made clear.

Now when it comes to construction of major projects, of course you look for the best return on your investment. If you have to borrow money to get it done, you try your best to identify a reliable source and a good interest rate. If that money is not available in the local market, you look farther afield.

Given what is fair to say a certain amount of tension in global politics at present – which would be understating matters – our borrowing from China might raise an eyebrow or two back over at Washington again.

What will come of that if we are already having to check with the US on the hiring of a few Cuban workers?

Somewhere in all of this is the question of our independence.

If it is right for us to carry out an action that benefits our country – such as hiring crucial workers or borrowing to fund major construction projects – it should be a decision that rests on our shoulders, and our shoulders alone.

If it does not, can we really be said to be independent?

Then there are matters to do with independence that are more enduring.

We continue to rely on the Privy Council as our court of last resort. There seems to be no impetus to change that – and if we did, how would we go about it? Would we seek to supplant it with a CARICOM court instead? And is that simply swapping one dependence for another? Or would we have the faith and belief in our own ability to have a court that could resist political influence and rule on matters here – including issues such as the death penalty?

How about our head of state? The independence celebrations were presided over by the Governor General, Dame Cynthia “Mother” Pratt, the king’s representative here in The Bahamas. As long as that is our titular head, we continue to exist in a state of quasi-independence rather than flowering full and free.

Our independence honours were recently announced – to some considerable length – and yet they sit alongside the honours given by King Charles III, announced for his birthday and at New Year. If we are independent, why do we have two honours systems?

We find ourselves in our 52nd year caught in the ebb and flow of global politics, while still clinging to the vestiges of connections gone by.

Independence is a precious thing, an important thing. It took a great deal to achieve it, and we must be strong to preserve it.

With another year’s celebrations behind us, we must ask ourselves how we want our 53rd year to look, our 80th year, our 100th year, and beyond.

Independence should be a reminder every year – to take stock, and to set our sights on what is still to come.