...the continued - and in many cases essential -- presence of Haitians in The Bahamas is because many Bahamians have decided that certain work is beneath them

Bahamians vs Haitians in the Bahamas

tribune242 editorial


EVERY MAN will have his day in the sun.

Bahamians complain that if "something" is not done about the Haitian "problem," Haitians will take over the Bahamas. That consequence really depends upon Bahamians. Already the continued - and in many cases essential -- presence of Haitians in our country is because many Bahamians have decided that certain work is beneath them. "Not me!" they scornfully snarl. "That Haitian work!"

Well, if that's Haitian work, Haitians will always be needed to do it. In other words Haitians -- if essential standards are to be maintained -- are necessary to the Bahamian's social well being. As the late Dr Cleveland Eneas, a dentist, once asked -- long before there was a Haitian problem -- if every Bahamian became a doctor, dentist, teacher, etc, who would be left to clean his car so that he could practise his dentistry? These were the days when then prime minister the late Sir Lynden Pindling told young Bahamian Johnnies and Suzies that if the PLP became the government someone would be picking up after them -- "no longer would they be hewers of wood and drawers of water."

It was that disdainful attitude to honest work that opened the door to the Haitians. For three square meals a day and able to send money back to their families in Haiti, they had no objection to being hewers of wood and drawers of water, and any other honest labour that came in between.

In schools Haitian children are noted for being bright -- they are at the top of their classes, they walk away with many of the prizes, academically they push Bahamian students to the sidelines. It is not because they are brighter. It's because they work harder, and they work harder because it's the lot of the underdog. Chewing harder and longer at the bone is the only way an underdog knows how to become top dog.

Labouring Haitian parents have ambition for their children. They watch over them. As one MP noted in parliament: If you see a small child being walked to school by a parent you know that's a Haitian child. When they come from school, they don't sit on walls with their chums, or idle their time before a television set, or get up to mischief in gangs; they go home and do their homework. And in the evening they are at home -- still at their books -- with their parents.

The problem with many Bahamians is their idea of entitlement. They believe that they are entitled to the good life without effort. If this attitude is not discouraged at a very early age and the dignity of hard work raised to a higher level -- yes, the Haitians will eventually take over -- and Bahamians will only have themselves to blame.

Just consider the history of women. Treated in ancient times by certain tribes almost as pack animals, and even today by certain sects as man's possession to do with as he will, women are holding important posts in today's world. Some men complain that women are taking over. It is true, women have taken over because they have had to work longer hours for their achievements. The time came when women broke through the glass ceiling that held them down. They could no longer be ignored.

We recall as a child admiring the well built, slim frames of Fox Hill women, who walked daily downtown from Fox Hill, balancing a large basket of produce on their heads to sell in the market. And at night they walked back home with their earnings stuffed in a pocket of their long skirts. There was no problem of obesity in those days. They were strong, hardworking, handsome women. Today their highly educated granddaughters and great-granddaughters drive to work in cars and hold top positions in the country. These women worked and studied harder because they were competing in a man's world. Many men fell by the wayside, not because they were less bright, but because they took too much for granted.

When we returned to the Bahamas with three degrees from three different universities, and were helping form public opinion from a desk in The Tribune, we still could not vote in a general election.

Our Bahamian gardener, who could neither read nor write, had more say in the government of our country than we had when he marked his X at his polling division in a general election.

Bahamian women got the vote for the first time in 1962. Their fight was long and hard, but eventually they not only arrived, but they are dominating.

And so the future for the Haitians in this country depends upon Bahamians.

As Will and Ariel Durant pointed out in one of their many books on Civilization: "No great nation is ever conquered until it has destroyed itself" from within. The authors then listed the many causes for internal destruction, among them "disturbance of economic life by political disorder, the corruption of democracy... the decay of morals and patriotism..." and we might add the break down of the family.

July 12, 2011

tribune242 editorial

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