By SIMON

“Keep your world big,” a late mentor repeatedly and sternly advised. Be endlessly curious. Do not limit your imagination. Read and study. See what the world has to offer. Travel widely if you can.

He said all of this before the internet offered encyclopedic access to every subject known to humanity, before algorithms and AI expanded, at our fingertips, the thirst and search to learn and expand our worldviews.

A former minister of tourism with a fecund mind, who had more ideas per hour than most people have in a year, invited and admonished his staff: “If you’re trying to solve a problem or create something, see what the world has to offer and then tweak it for The Bahamas.

Many are familiar with Disney’s “Old Mill boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various” theme parks. The ride features the children of the world in national costumes singing a peace song:

“It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears

It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears

There’s so much that we share

That it’s time we’re aware

It’s a small world after all”

The ride was intended to promote human unity amidst the many global conflicts and divisions of the era in which the song was written. Many children found the a little hokey and somewhat annoying as the song was repeated ad nauseum.

Still, it was well-meaning and became one of the most popular such songs in the world. Ironically, given its title, the song suggested that despite how diverse the world is, and because we have much in common, we should avoid being insular, narrow and dangerously nationalistic.

For many in The Bahamas, “It’s a small, small world” in another sense. Many of us, including a number who have travelled well beyond the US, remain surprisingly myopic, incurious, intellectually narrow, and small-minded.

At times, surrounded, seduced, comforted or confronted by the ocean, the worldviews of island and archipelagic people are definitively shaped by the sea. For some, the waters are a barrier. For others these same waters are a highway through and beyond which to adventure.

Small island states, rural areas, and small communities often produce insularity. The overfamiliarity with the homeplace engenders unfamiliarity, discomfort, and fear of a bigger world and global commons.

A former diplomat recalls a group of Bahamian youth travelling briefly in the United Kingdom to perform in various arts festival. Hosted at the high commission in London, the young people were asked what kind of food they desired. The response: they wanted Bahamian food in one of the culinary capitals of the world.

Familiarity with what you already know often breeds contempt for new things and ideas. And familiarity can breed ingrained complacency, which has led to all manner of stagnation, lack of innovation, and general decline in The Bahamas.

Complacency is a form of self-satisfaction, an obstacle to progress and growth. Many tout the lessons The Bahamas may learn from Singapore. However, the reason we may only learn and adopt so much is that Bahamians are not Singaporeans.

The small Southeast Asian island cum city-state, surrounded by much larger nations, continues to innovate and develop despite scant natural resources. They see complacency as the path to failure and missed opportunities.

Though small in size, Singapore has large ambitions because of the exposure and attitude of its political and business leaders and its education system. Its founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, had grand ambitions for his country, something spectacularly lacking in most of our leaders, who cannot think bigger.

A business executive recalls having a meeting with a Bahamian prime minister and two highly reputable potential investors, both of whom started brand name multi-billion-dollar global technology companies Bahamians use on a daily basis.

The men fell head over heels in awe of the stunning beauty of The Bahamas. They were enthusiastic about helping us to advance in various technologies. They met with a certain prime minister and an aide. After the meeting they never heard from anyone in the government.

A leading entertainment company with a stellar brand wanted to locate one of its regional headquarters in The Bahamas. The company, whose devices and entertainment services Bahamians use every day, also wanted to help The Bahamas with technological education and advancement.

After frustration with not hearing from yet another prime minister and his office, they left in frustration for another destination. Both of the aforementioned companies may have been gamechangers for The Bahamas.

But sadly, we are comfortable with our poor performance, old mindsets, noncompetitive, and lackluster game in so many areas of national life. From senior public officers to well-heeled lawyers, accountants and business executives, we often wait for business to fall into our laps.

By example, why has our ranking as an international ship registry declined in a number of areas? In significant part because of our complacency in not staying with or ahead of the advances in other jurisdictions.

We dangerously lull ourselves with the mantra, “It’s Better in The Bahamas”, which is now a cliché masquerading our laziness, indifference, and lethargy in areas such as tourism, the blue economy, and other potential areas for growth.

A friend in financial services described the number of those in the private sector who fail to advise governments of global trends in their industries which The Bahamas can only take advantage of through flexibility, nimbleness and blue sky thinking, and regulatory regimes open to ongoing modernization of legislative frameworks.

Despite the complacency of quite a number in the private sector, they quickly blame government alone for a lack of non-responsiveness and agility. Being small as a country has its challenges. But smallness also has its strengths.

Why can jurisdictions like the Marshall Islands, Panama, Liberia, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and a number of small European states move adroitly and intelligently to take advantage of emerging opportunities and technological change while The Bahamas sluggishly lags behind?

Much of it has to do with a smallness of mind and ambition, self-satisfaction, poor quality of indifferent, incurious leaders, and a staggeringly slow public sector that strangles the ease of doing business with a quantity of red tape that might stretch around the globe ten times.

We are failing to upgrade our game and to meet and surpass global standards in myriad areas of national life. Just as manty of us are comfortable with the filthiness and decrepitude of New Providence and public services, we are lackadaisical about the ways we are falling behind internationally.

Go to the Ministry of Tourism’s website and review the glowing marketing of Fish Fry for visitors. Then go to the actual Fish Fry and you will experience a public-private partnership of a rundown, poorly kept, filthy “attraction”.

Fish Fry previously appeared in a number of international publications and broadcasts and sometimes boasted of certain “World Famous” foodstuffs and drinks.

Today’s Fish Fry is a national and international embarrassment. The fencing near one of its gates is torn down. A cemented parking area is crumbling. The sidewalk receptacles that hold waste bins are rusting and corroded.

Many of the buildings look tacky. The area is ramshackle, which is not synonymous with “quaint” or downhome. It is just pure “nasty,” as one disgusted Bahamian who used to take her overseas guest there remarked. She is now too embarrassed to take visitors to a venue she deems unsafe and uninviting.

Sadly, Fish Fry is now a master metaphor for The Bahamas. Instead of a modernised, world-class heritage culinary experience, with better architectural and other design, we have allowed this once unique experience to become degraded and dilapidated just as we have so many other areas of national life.