Friday, April 16, 2010

Governor-Geriatric

So, one yesterday man (A. D. Hanna) leaves Government House, another one (A. Foulkes) moves in. Hubert Ingraham continues seamlessly, Perry Christie's policy of appointing "deserved men" to be our figureheads. However, what the current generation deem deserved are almost exclusively men who earned their laurels in the 1960's struggle for so-called majority rule. Now, forty-something years later, this record is beginning to sound tired in the ears of a young generation of Bahamians born post-independence.

To make matters worse, a closer look will reveal a certain discrepancy between history and legend. The true achievements of the mid-twentieth century were women's suffrage and the one-vote-per-voter principle, not the election of Lynden Pindling; the latter was the result of the two former, which were both introduced (admittedly after much public and political pressure from the opposition) by the "evil, 'white' Bay Street Boys." In 1967, the Generation SLOP took over our Bahamaland, and has retained control over it ever since, for neither Hubert nor Perry can really count as much other than Pindling's proteges, as becomes evident from the way they run (ran) government and their parties respectively. Generation SLOP took over a progressing, growing country, and after an initially optimistic start, when they hit the first pothole (proverbially speaking), they changed course. From now on, it was all about retaining power, and the people's progress was, potentially, seen as a threat to that aim.

From the mid-1970s until this day, there has been no real progress in the Bahamas. For the longest time, we were told that our economy was our jewel, our precious. However, what role are Bahamians reduced to in this? We are still in servitude. The only progress made since 1967 is that our servitude has become more profitable for our masters.

Generation SLOP has broken the Bahamas' education system. Generation SLOP has broken the Bahamas' safety and security and allowed crime to spiral out of control. Generation SLOP has broken the Bahamas, which is now a failed state.

Now, 82-year-old Arthur Foulkes (next month) was rewarded for his contributions to this misery by allowing him to live rent-free in Government House, occupying a well-paid do-nothing job, because the knighthood wasn't reward enough. Welcome, Governor-Geriatric, while the rest of us still wait impatiently for change.

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