Local Attorney Says Prime Minister Is 'Out Of Touch' On Environment
Tribune242
Environmental attorney and consultant Romauld ‘Romi’ Ferreira took to the airwaves recently to express concern over what he called “out of date” thinking by Prime Minister Perry Christie who, he said, called concerns with the environment “foolishness.”
Ferreira
and environmental activist Joseph Darville appeared on Ortland Bodie’s
‘Real Talk Live’ show on More 94.9 recently urging Bahamians to sign the
Save The Bays petition calling for an Environmental Protection Act,
Freedom of Information Act and an end to unregulated development. Mr
Ferreira, responded to Prime Minister Christie’s recent dismissal of
environmental concerns at Clifton Bay as ‘foolishness,’ labeling those
remarks as ‘out of touch’ and reflective of an outdated mode of thinking
in The Bahamas.
“It
is very regrettable when the Prime Minister of a country can utter a
statement like ‘environmental concerns are foolishness’,” says Mr.
Ferreira. “This is why this is the fight of our generation. We can’t
expect the politicians of yesteryear who regard environmental issues as
foolishness to fully appreciate and be cognizant of the issues. We thank
Mr. Christie for all of his contributions - he is the longest serving
Member of Parliament and he has done wonders, but clearly he is out of
his depth when it comes to the environment.”
“Apparently,
we’re talking foolishness when we say they (developers) are building in
the Marine Protected Area that was proposed (in Bimini), we’re talking
foolishness when we say that they’re building the dock on top of the
coral reef and we’re talking foolishness when we say the law requires an
Environmental Impact Assessment.”
Ferreira,
one of several guests on the popular morning talk show, is a leading
environmental attorney and consultant who was selected earlier this year
by CARICOM to create model legislation for the energy sector for the
Caribbean. “This is all the more reason why it takes persons and
organizations to show him and elucidate to him that what he may consider
foolishness, there are tens of thousands of people in The Bahamas and
around the world that don’t think that it is foolishness,” he noted.
“We’re not talking foolishness, they’re doing foolishness. I call on
every right thinking Bahamian to open their eyes and see what’s
happening.”
Also
appearing on the show was fellow director of Save The Bays, Joseph
Darville, who echoed the sentiment that the environment must be
protected and unregulated development checked. “These developers are
flocking to us like bees to honey because of what we have to offer as a
nation,” said Darville, a retired high school principal and human rights
and environmental activist. “What they are foisting on the Bahamian
people is totally reprehensible. We are being enslaved by our own
people.”
Mr
Darville pointed out that organizations like Save The Bays are
concerned primarily about the sustainable development of the Bahamas and
the preservation of natural resources for generations to come - issues
that are relevant to all Bahamians. He encouraged concerned members of
the public to go online to www.savethebays.org to sign the
organization’s petition to Prime Minister Christie, which has garnered
nearly 5,000 signatures to address vital issues such as the lack of an
Environmental Protection Act and the implementation of a Freedom of
Information Act.
August 12, 2013