Edmund Moxey’s dream about the social, cultural, and economic development of his Bahamian people is alive and well in The Bahamas

'Spoken From The Heart' - Tribute To Edmund Moxey By Sir Arthur Foulkes

GOVERNOR General Sir Arthur Foulkes, in a tribute paid to Edmund Moxey, creator of the Jumbey Village dream, recalled their years in the political trenches together, nourishing a single ambition – the “salvation of a people.”

 

It was felt that today’s Bahamians are paying the price of the brutal crushing of Jumbey Village in those early years of political change.

 

Sir Arthur was the main speaker Friday night in a special programme to pay tribute to the 80-year-old politician and accomplished musician. The programme, organised by the College of the Bahamas, with college lecturer, Felix Bethel as emcee, was held at the Bahamas Harvest Church, Prince Charles Drive. Mario Moxey, Ed Moxey’s son, is the pastor of the church.

 

Following is Sir Arthur’s speech without notes, but “spoken from the heart.”

 

Said Sir Arthur:

 

UNLIKE Dr (Felix) Bethel, I am considerably beyond the age of 65 so it is a little risky for me to say even these few words without notes because I find that the senior moments are occurring more frequently these days. Nevertheless, I shall speak from my heart.

 

I will start with a story, a tale. I know there is at least one person here who has heard it before, but we were campaigning in Andros, Mangrove Cay. And it was Sir Milo Butler, Mr Charles Rodriguez, Edmund Moxey and me. Now Sir Milo and Mr Rodriguez were older than we were, so they got the two beds in Ms Green house, and we got two pillows to lie down on the floor in the front room. And they were both big men, Sir Milo and Mr Rodriguez, and how can I delicately put this, their laboured breathing while they were asleep disturbed us to the extent that we couldn’t sleep. So Ed and I looked at each other, and I said look we’re not going to get any sleep we might as well go out. Ed said let’s go to the beach. We got out of the house and to the beach and we were confronted by hoards of mosquitoes and sandflies and had to beat a hasty retreat back. The next morning at breakfast the older men asked us how we slept, and I struggle to say we didn’t tell them the truth. Just, oh, we slept fine!

 

I say that to say, I have known this man we have come here this evening to pay tribute to, for the better part of half a century. He has been my friend all that time and his dear wife too. He and I have had the privilege of being in the political trenches at a time when it is difficult for young people to understand what we were up against in those days. So I know this man very well and can tell you that that was an era of great men, but there was none greater than Edmund Moxey.

 

Those days it was not about personal ambition, the burning in our hearts was not about the achievement of position and riches. The burning in our hearts was about the salvation of a people, and Ed Moxey passionately lived and breathed that every day of his life.

 

You know the saying about what happens to a dream deferred, how it will shrivel up like a raisin in the sun. In the case of Ed Moxey, we have seen some wonderful things as a result of our struggles. We have passed a time when children had to leave school at the age of 14 and only a few could go to Government High for examination. Now we have thousands of young Bahamians with Bachelors, Masters, and even Doctorates, three Rhodes scholars. But the dream was about even more than that, and Edmund Moxey’s dream was about the social, cultural, and economic development of his people. I believe you just saw the documentary and that tells you some of the story. But what is so painful is that this dream that Edmund Moxey had for the upliftment and development of his people in that concept of Jumbey Village, that dream was strangled like an infant in its crib. It didn’t succeed, it didn’t fail, it was crushed deliberately, and brutally crushed. And you know it is true that if you plant a certain kind of seed today, you will reap the fruit of that seed at some time in the future. If you plant a different kind of seed, you will reap the fruit from that too. One is sweet and the other is exceedingly bitter. And today because of the crushing, the brutal destruction of Ed Moxey’s dream, we Bahamians are paying the price.

 

Now imagine this, let’s look at this from the point of view of tourism. We have tens of thousands of tourists coming on cruise ships practically every day, and the complaint is that there is nowhere for them to go. They go to Paradise Island, Paradise Island, if Ed Moxey’s dream had succeeded, Jumbey Village would have been such a place where it would have been impossible to visit Nassau and not to go over the hill to Jumbey Village. Because the vision was one of a total exposition of Bahamian culture in one big village. Theatres, restaurants, art shops, craft shops, the whole total picture. Can you imagine that? How wonderful that would have been and for my people from over the hill. That is the dream that was crushed.

 

The economic benefit is obvious. Any number of young Bahamians and older Bahamians too from over the hill would have been economically empowered through Ed Moxey’s dream, but I think more important than that is that our people would have been more culturally developed. Bahamian culture would have been on display and in that developed for ourselves and also for our visitors, and the total picture, music, food, dance, Junkanoo, poetry. I thought about it many times, Ed, and I could only imagine how you feel when you think about it. What might have been, what might have been, but rest assured my brother that there are those of us who appreciate what you tried to do, the vision you had for your people. You were pure, you are pure. I never saw in you any great desire for personal position or fulfilment of personal ambition. Your talk, your actions were always about your people, and the plight of your people. That’s what he used to say, the plight of the people.

 

And so it is a great pleasure, even this tinge of sadness in my heart for what might have been. It is a great pleasure for me to be here, to pay tribute to Ed Moxey. But brother do not despair, I have travelled up and down these islands from Abaco to Inagua and the dream is not dead. And for you older people who always talking about this generation going to hell, I keep telling people the first time it was recorded that that was said by one generation of the coming generation, was about 4,000 years ago and it has continued since.

 

I can tell you that yes we have problems with some of our young people, most of the problems are caused by some of our older people. I have seen young people from Abaco to Inagua and all the islands in between who still have the Bahamian dream in their hearts who are still doing the right thing. I was in Long Island once for a graduation ceremony and the valedictorian was a young lady, I think she’s off to school now. I sat there transfixed as this young lady spoke, she was articulate, eloquent in spots, she knew what she was talking about, knew what was going on in the world, and I felt something like Nicodemus… “for my eyes have seen”.

 

I have seen in the faces and eyes of our young people, a braver, better Bahamas. We have hundreds and thousands of young Bahamians who are doing the right things in our country and I hope that the lives of men like Edmund Moxey, they will come to know about and that will help to be an inspiration to them because the talent is there and the love of country is there. And that really is all I want to say to you, God bless you, my brother and your family.

 

Young people please learn about your history, learn about great men like Edmund Moxey and let him and others be an inspiration to you as you continue to build our Bahamaland.

 

March 31, 2014

 

Tribune 242

Many of the progressive dreams of Edmund Moxey and others were interwoven with the struggle for majority rule and became synonymous with the early Progressive Liberal Party (PLP)... It is telling, therefore, that the majority of those elected in 1967 as a part of the first PLP government eventually left the party... including Ed Moxey

Jumbey Village – Montage of a Dream Deferred

Front Porch

By Simon

Edmund Moxey’s contribution to the social, cultural, economic and political advancement of Bahamians found magnificent expression in Jumbey Village.  The new documentary on the creation and destruction of Jumbey Village chronicles some of our post-independence history.

Some of the dreams of Ed Moxey became manifest.  Still, many of his dreams were deferred, like a raisin in the sun, calling to mind the memorable poem by Langston Hughes.  In his book-length poem suite, “Montage of a Dream Deferred”, Hughes asks, What happens to a dream deferred?

“Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore– And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over– like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?”

Many of the progressive dreams of Edmund Moxey and others were interwoven with the struggle for majority rule and became synonymous with the early Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). It is telling, therefore, that the majority of those elected in 1967 as a part of the first PLP government eventually left the party, including Ed Moxey.

Over the years other progressives left, including Dr. B. J. Nottage who later returned to the PLP, and Hubert Ingraham who did not. The PLP today is a shadow of its progressive roots. Its core leadership is non-progressive and reactionary, constantly stymieing the progressives in the party.

The National Committee for Positive Action (NCPA) was formalized in 1959 as a pressure group within the PLP to bolster the party’s progressive agenda and the struggle for majority rule.  The NCPA proved successful in its efforts, playing a pivotal role in the electoral success of the PLP.

Yet, the group’s ambitions were greater than winning an election.  With the majority secured they intended to transform life for the mass of Bahamians.  Some of their ideals were secured by the PLP, such as independence, the creation of various national institutions and early strides in areas such as education.

Disillusioned

Still, many of the progressives in the PLP, including much of the core of the NCPA, became quickly disillusioned by the cult of personality emerging around Sir Lynden Pindling, which was antithetical to their vision of collegiality.  The progressives were also troubled over the foot-dragging on urgent needs such as the urban redevelopment of Over-the-Hill.

Jumbey Village and other community projects were a part of Ed Moxey’s dream for the economic, social and cultural self-empowerment of Bahamians.  The physical demolition of Jumbey Village was emblematic of many other progressive dreams which were destroyed and denied by a once progressive PLP that lost its bearings and became enamored of power for its own sake.

It is one of those twists of history that some progressive movements which uproot the reigning oligarchy begin to mimic the very system they replace.  The PLP began mimicking the culture of economic and political entitlement of the Old Guard.  Today’s PLP Black Knights are in some ways yesterday’s Bay Street Boys.  They constitute the new oligarchy.

The rump of the old UBP did join the nascent Free National Movement (FNM).  But the core leadership of the FNM were among the more committed progressives and even so-called radicals who sacrificed much to bring about Majority Rule.

The departure of the Dissident Eight left the PLP less progressive, more reactionary, and engulfed by Sir Lynden’s cult of personality.  One prominent observer and politician remarked at the departure of the Dissident Eight that the party was losing its soul.

The brain trust of intellectually-gifted individuals who left the PLP included men with impeccable progressive credentials and commitment to the movement like Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield, Warren Levarity, Sir Arthur Foulkes, Dr. Curtis McMillan and Carlton Francis.  The haemorrhage continued with the culturally-inspired Edmund Moxey and peaked with the departure of Hubert Ingraham.

Over the course of its 25-year rule the PLP became stagnant in terms of its intellectual culture, policies and programs.  The dream of the urban redevelopment of Over-the-Hill died.  This included the innovative urban and infrastructural plans by Columbia University and others, as well as the urgent need to upgrade the sewerage system Over-the-Hill.

Much of today’s urban plight and blight is the consequence of the failure to act by successive Pindling administrations. There were some efforts, but no real plan for transforming the urban landscape of traditional grassroots neighborhoods.  When Sir Lynden left office after a quarter century there were residents Over-the-Hill still relying on outside toilets.

The Urban Renewal program of the Christie government included a number of good elements.  Still, the program was a hodgepodge of ideas dating to the administrations of Sir Lynden and Mr. Ingraham. Mr. Christie’s efforts were welcome. But they were neither groundbreaking nor truly transformative.

Reactionary

Perry Christie has not proven to be a progressive.  Worse, he has demonstrated a reactionary worldview.  He is an ardent supporter of the death penalty.  In terms of economic policy Mr. Christie seems stuck in the past with an outdated mindset for economic development.

He advocated the large-scale anchor project concept of a by-gone era including the outrageous Mayaguana land giveaway.  He agreed to give Baha Mar far more concessions than any Bahamian government should have countenanced.

Mr. Christie successfully campaigned to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment to secure equality for women in terms of automatically passing on a certain right of citizenship.  Yet when he had a chance to make this right he did not reach for a legacy.

And he failed to introduce National Health Insurance.  It would have been a landmark accomplishment for him and the progressive movement.  Though Mr. Christie once served as minister of health, it was an Ingraham administration that significantly advanced access to free pre- and post-natal care for pregnant women.

Nor did Mr. Christie advance any major infrastructural projects Over-the-Hill.  Following the recent massive water works a lower income senior citizen in her 70s remarked favorably about the clear water gushing out of her pipes.  She has lived in Grants Town her entire life and has always voted PLP.   She never thought she would live to see the day when she would get that kind of water pressure  and clean water in Grants Town.

She is thankful to the government.  But she will never vote for the FNM. Better said, she will never vote against the PLP.   The pull is visceral, almost religious in nature.  It combines the iconography of Sir Lynden as Moses and the theme of liberation from Exodus in the Hebrew Scriptures.

For some, the idea of voting against the PLP is a betrayal of their self-identification as a black Bahamian.  This individual and social psychology is not only a Bahamian phenomenon.

Dependency

It is a mindset that behavioral and social psychologists as well as political scientists and sociologists have studied in many cultures.  It often involves a cycle of dependency and strong identification by some with a strongman leader, powerful organization or power structure.

In failing to transform Over-the-Hill during its 25 years in office, the PLP in significant ways betrayed many of its core grassroots supporters.  It is an observable fact that both Sir Lynden and Perry Christie failed to significantly improve conditions in South Andros, and Centreville and Farm Road respectively over the many years they represented these constituencies.

This, despite serving in government for decades, and as prime minister.  It is in marked contrast to the work Prime Minister Ingraham has done to dramatically upgrade the public amenities and services throughout Abaco.

Though the PLP created important national institutions, it generally failed to do likewise when it came to national cultural institutions.  In the post-independence period when Bahamians were forming a greater sense of national and cultural identity, important cultural institutions were absent.

Such centers of critical consciousness and cultural expression are necessary for nation-building.  Their absence during that formative period helped to retard our national development.

It was not until the FNM came to office that core institutions such as the National Art Gallery, the Antiquities, Monuments and Museum Corporation, the National Museum, and the Centre for Performing Arts were launched.  There is much work to be done to advance the missions and the reach of these institutions.  But they represent impressive strides.

So too are ideas recently advanced by Mr. Ingraham including a heritage tourism initiative, a public arts project, a parks and recreation authority and an oral history project, ‘Our Bahamian Stories’.

These all contain elements of Edmund Moxey’s dream.  But his dream is bigger still. He understood early that a place like Jumbey Village could help us to raise our children and uplift the Bahamian people.

There is planned for Big Pond a regional park.  Might the plans for that park include elements of the original concept for Jumbey Village?  The best way to honor Edmund Moxey is not solely in tributes.  The better way would be to revitalize and institutionalize his dreams.

Though the fruits of some of his dreams were destroyed, the seeds of his vision are still alive and can bear fruit.  It is possible to transform a dream deferred into realized hopes.  But it is too bad that we had to wait for so much to explode around us before we remembered the vitality and the urgency of the dreams of patriots like Ed Moxey.

Apr 03, 2012

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

Edmund Moxey's tortured heart and soul over the New Jumbey Village planned for Fort Charlotte

How PLP colleagues stole Ed Moxey's ideas

tribune242 editorial


IN LEAFING through the Ed Moxey files in The Tribune's archives last night, we were not surprised to find that the Coconut Grove MP's own colleagues were trying to take credit for his cultural concept - Jumbey Village. In other words, they were trying to steal Mr Moxey's own brainchild from him.

We say not surprised because the PLP came to power with a strange personality quirk -- call it what you will, some at the time referred to it as a mammoth inferiority complex. However, they seemed to want to wipe the slate clean.

To hear them talk, Bahamian history started on January 10, 1967 when the Progressive Liberal Party defeated the United Bahamian Party and for the first time in the history of these islands ushered in majority rule.  For this we give them full credit. Although for generations there were many Bahamians, and even English civil servants, whose courageous decisions helped change a people's thinking to prepare the way for the historic transfer of power, as far as the PLP were concerned the past - and the men and women who were a part of it - did not exist.

And so it was not surprising that they felt that Ed Moxey was getting too big for his boots and had to be chopped down, and his creation snatched from him.

But on that day in 1967, it was Lynden Oscar Pindling who was the chosen leader for the historic change. And, although, as many -- Mr Moxey included - maintained he soon lost his way, no one can take from him that single achievement.

However, the prevailing attitude among the PLP of that day was that nothing that happened before 1967 was of importance, and anything created afterwards naturally had to have been created by them.

And so, Mr Moxey should have seen the handwriting on the wall when he formed a cultural committee, invited community leaders, including Prime Minister Pindling, and outlined his ideas for a community created "of the people, by the people, for the people."  The enthusiasm to get started was so overwhelming that a few weeks later Mr Pindling (as he then was) called on Mr Moxey to "make him part of the machinery". In good faith, an enthusiastic Ed Moxey offered the prime minister the position of Parliamentary Secretary Community Development. Mr Pindling's acceptance would be the eventual kiss of death for the project.

By 1974- with the building of Jumbey Village well on the way -- ominous storm clouds started to form. That year Jumbey Village was excluded from the Budget. The Coconut Grove MP said that government's efforts to "suppress" Jumbey Village was the result of petty jealousy by individuals who felt that only they should be involved in certain national activities.

The fight was on with Tourism Minister Clement Maynard, whose Ministry was busy planning a festival site at Fort Charlotte on the same lines as Jumbey Village.  This would have been the death knell for the Village and the last hope of attracting tourists with their dollars over the hill to patronise the struggling businessmen there. Mr Moxey was outraged. He said he knew nothing about the Fort Charlotte plans until he learned about the Goombay Festival -- also his idea that he envisioned for his people over the hill.

"The amazing thing," said Mr Moxey, "was that I was parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister at the time and he was honorary chairman of the Festival, but I knew nothing about it.  My name was never mentioned and when I raised hell they tried to shut me up."

Mr Moxey challenged Mr Maynard's statement that Goombay was the corporate idea of a number of people. "This is a lie," he thundered. "It was entirely my idea.

"In a letter to Prime Minister Pindling on May 15, 1974, drawing his attention to a newspaper headline that read: "New Jumbey village planned for Fr Charlotte site," Mr Moxey wrote in part:

"This is a very serious matter which may have very serious repercussions.  As you may recall, sir, the Minister and Ministry of Tourism stole the Goombay programme from me and my people and sold it to foreigners who are now doing a good job in keeping it to themselves, while the people for whom it was designed are going out of business and are on the verge of starvation. Now he seems hell bent in an attempt to take the Village concept to Bay Street.

"My heart and soul are tortured," the letter continued, "my people now suffer great pain because it would appear that you and your Minister have struck a death blow to their dreams and aspirations.

"Let me remind you, sir, that we have made tremendous sacrifices to bring you and your Government to power and God's eyes are on the sparrow.

"I do humbly pray," the letter concluded, "that you use your good office and influence to restore sanity to this nation 'Now', for which you are ultimately responsible."

The Fort Charlotte plans never succeeded and Jumbey Village crumbled back into the dust from which it came.

"The Price of Being a Man, the story of Ed Moxey and the undoing of Jumbey Village and the Quiet Revolution," written and narrated by Anthony Newbold, will be shown at 8pm Sunday on Cable Bahamas -- channel 12. It commemorates the 25th anniversary of destruction of Jumbey Village.

March 27, 2012

<<< Mr. Edmund Moxey says that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government's efforts to "suppress" Jumbey Village resulted from petty jealousies of individuals ...who believed that only they should be involved in certain activities of national importance>>>

<<< The birth and death of Jumbey Village: ...the story of what might have been, and what in fact turned out to be Edmund Spencer Moxey's greatest triumph as well as his biggest disappointment... the creation of a place called Jumbey Village, and his struggle to secure the ideals that would have guaranteed the progress first envisioned as part of the quiet revolution>>>

<<< In all honesty, the idea of urban renewal cannot be claimed as being the brainchild of either the Christie or Ingraham administrations... It preceded both by many years... In fact, Urban Renewal in the broadest sense of the word was the brainchild of Sir Stafford Sands, the creator of this country's tourism and financial industries>>>

tribune242 editorial

Caribbean Blog International

Mr. Edmund Moxey says that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government's efforts to "suppress" Jumbey Village resulted from petty jealousies of individuals ...who believed that only they should be involved in certain activities of national importance

The destruction of Jumbey village

tribune242 editorial


"NO, I can't believe it - that can't be true!" This was Coconut Grove MP's Ed Moxey's shocked reply in May 1974 when a news reporter called to ask what he thought of a report that government had planned to build a replica of his Jumbey Village at Fort Charlotte. If true, this meant that the tourist dollar would remain on Bay Street and not flow to little businessmen Over the Hill where it was sorely needed. Mr Moxey knew that any development of Fort Charlotte would be in direct competition with Jumbey Village.

The whole idea of Jumbey Village -- built in 1971 on the reclaimed City Dump -- was to create a community centre with arts, crafts, music, a school, library, clinic, and social centre. It was to be an area, created by an indigenous people who hoped through their cultural programmes and craft work to attract tourists with their dollars to the village. When Mr Moxey was elected to the House in 1967, his belief was that the PLP was dedicated to providing a government "of the people, by the people, for the people."

In January 1975, Cat Island MP Oscar Johnson was to pour scorn on his government's "rich members who had forsaken over-the-hill" to dine on Cable Beach at the PLP's eighth anniversary celebrations. He reminded his party that over the hill was "the source of the PLP's strength." He warned that it could also be its eventual undoing.

In 1974, Mr Johnson told the PLP that 90 per cent of "black staff" working in the hotels lived over the hill, and from experience it was known that a "man with a toothache cannot smile." These were the areas, he said, that needed social change -- a change envisioned in the community concept of Jumbey Village.

That year, Mr Moxey and several (PLP) government members criticised their government in the House of Assembly because funds for the completion of Jumbey Village and the planned community youth programmes had not been included in the 1974 Budget. Nor was Jumbey Village included in the Ministry of Tourism's Goombay Summer programme -- a programme the Coconut Grove MP had suggested in 1972 should be held in Jumbey Village. His protest resulted in him receiving a personal letter from Prime Minister Pindling firing him as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Culture with responsibility for community development.

Mr Moxey said that government's efforts to "suppress" Jumbey Village resulted from petty jealousies of individuals who believed that only they should be involved in certain activities of national importance.

In 1973, Mr Moxey had written a letter to then Deputy Prime Minister AD Hanna demanding a retraction and apology for statements Mr Hanna had made about him using slot machines for fund raising. Mr Moxey found his statements "maliciously designed to discredit me in the eyes of the public." Mr Moxey got no apology. Nor was his letter acknowledged.

And then a rumour was started.

"For months now," said Mr Moxey, "political elements have gone around in my constituency whispering about misconduct on my part when I was handling the birth of Jumbey Village. They talk about money. Well, the Ministry of Education and Culture investigated the matter and have found every single cent accounted for. The report was sent to Minister Livingston Coakley. For four months I have been asking him to release the report in order to clear up the matter. He has refused to do so."

Mr Moxey, like Carlton Francis after him, was a marked man. He had become too popular and, therefore, had to be consigned to the political graveyard. Jumbey Village eventually followed.

When government funds earmarked for the Village, but not fully used, were frozen, parents, teachers, and schoolchildren raised $90,000 to complete the museum.

"It would be a gross insult to them," Mr Moxey said, "to now duplicate a museum at Fort Charlotte."

Not to be left out, the late Wenfred "Sife" Heastie added his two cents to the debate. Mr Heastie was not only a staunch supporter and major financial contributor to the PLP, but he was also deputy prime minister A D Hanna's uncle.

"Ed," he said, "is the only man who did something personally in his district. He built a community centre and a day-care centre in his district and he built Jumbey Village out of the dump. They are jealous because the rest of them don't have a damn thing to show, except the new houses they moved into in the east and in the west."

He said the PLP government cut Jumbey Village from the development budget because "to get Ed Moxey out of the picture they have to let Jumbey Village die a natural death. If they cut off everything this will die and Ed will die. And to speed up matters, they're going to Fort Charlotte to build their own version of Jumbey Village."

In July, 1987 Jumbey Village cultural centre was torn down to make way for the proposed National Insurance Building.

Mr Moxey tells his story on a DVD -- soon to be released-- entitled "The Price of Being a Man -- the Quiet Revolution and the undoing of Jumbey Village".

<<< Edmund Moxey's tortured heart and soul over the New Jumbey Village planned for Fort Charlotte>>>

<<< The birth and death of Jumbey Village: ...the story of what might have been, and what in fact turned out to be Edmund Spencer Moxey's greatest triumph as well as his biggest disappointment... the creation of a place called Jumbey Village, and his struggle to secure the ideals that would have guaranteed the progress first envisioned as part of the quiet revolution>>>

<<< In all honesty, the idea of urban renewal cannot be claimed as being the brainchild of either the Christie or Ingraham administrations... It preceded both by many years... In fact, Urban Renewal in the broadest sense of the word was the brainchild of Sir Stafford Sands, the creator of this country's tourism and financial industries>>>

March 26, 2012

tribune242 editorial

Caribbean Blog International

The birth and death of Jumbey Village: ...the story of what might have been, and what in fact turned out to be Edmund Spencer Moxey's greatest triumph as well as his biggest disappointment... the creation of a place called Jumbey Village, and his struggle to secure the ideals that would have guaranteed the progress first envisioned as part of the quiet revolution

Backbenchers disillusioned by govt - Moxey

tribune242 editorial

THERE are those today who are convinced that if Ed Moxey's dream of a cultural community centre in the heartland of the Grove had been allowed to grow, the shipwrecked state over which we mourn today would not have had a chance to develop.

Jumbey Village was conceived by Mr Moxey as a cultural centre to unite a people as they struggled to improve their lot -- socially, culturally and economically. It was envisioned as a centre to be built by the people for themselves. They would have their school, library, social centre, clinics, sports, music, and arts and crafts from which they could sell their own creations. And, of course, they would be surrounded by music -- their own music. Mr Moxey, himself a musician, the son of the well known pianist, the late George "God Bless" Moxey, and his group would be one of the many participants. It was through the Jumbey Village movement that Timothy Gibson, the author of the Bahamas' national anthem, came into his own.

On Sunday, March 11, the showing of a documentary on Ed Moxey and the birth and death of Jumbey Village was premiered at the Performing Arts Theatre at the College of the Bahamas. It was the 26th anniversary of the destruction of Jumbey Village.

"The Price of being a man" is the story of Ed Moxey, Jumbey Village and the "quiet revolution."

"This then," said the commentator, "is the story of what might have been, and what in fact turned out to be Edmund Spencer Moxey's greatest triumph as well as his biggest disappointment, the creation of a place called Jumbey Village, and his struggle to secure the ideals that would have guaranteed the progress first envisioned as part of the quiet revolution. It is told as seen through his eyes, those who reported on it and in some instances, those who were involved in facilitating its creation and ultimately watching its destruction."

According to Mr Moxey "shortly after the 1967 election, many of the PLP, especially the backbenchers already had concerns about the direction in which the new government was heading." He said their first Speech from the Throne in the House of Assembly appeared to be a "continuation of the same old policies of the United Bahamian Party (UBP)." Of course, there was the exception of Sir Stafford's commission of a development plan for New Providence that "would have transformed over the hill, in particular the Grants Town community."

That plan, designed by Columbia University's School of Architecture, was completed and delivered shortly after the UBP was replaced by the PLP as the government of the Bahamas. Each member of the House at that time was given a copy. It is questionable whether any member ever looked at it. It was a golden opportunity lost for community development in New Providence.

Very shortly after the election, said Mr Moxey, he "became concerned about whether or not the Bahamian people would see the social, cultural and economic liberation promised by the PLP's 1967 victory at the polls."

Mr Moxey was so concerned that they would not that in June 1967 he called a meeting at his home for the PLP backbenchers. He did so, he said, because nothing had been said by their leaders about "educating the masses about how government worked and protecting their well being" or "cultivating and nurturing our cultural heritage and only some vague representation of social programmes."

According to Mr Moxey "the backbenchers to a man, all expressed disgruntlement with what they considered a deviation from the original goal of social, cultural and economic upliftment of the people, with ministers building little kingdoms unto themselves."

It was then that Mr Moxey predicted that the "country would end up on the rocks, or with very serious challenges."

Said the commentator: "There is no smoking gun, just a paper trail 21 miles long and 7 miles wide, stretching all the way back to 1969. A trail that exposes betrayals, pettiness, internecine warfare and what has been called deception of the highest order. It shows a government backtracking or just plain ignoring its own stated policy that 'community development must play a vital role in the development of this nation, specifically mentioned in the White Paper for Independence that 'community development centres will be progressively and systematically established in densely populated areas to cater for pre-natal and post-natal needs, Child Day-Care needs and the recreational needs of the people."

* Next we shall tell the brief, but tragic story of the birth and death of Jumbey Village.

March 23, 2012

A people betrayed, says Ed Moxey, of the Pindling years 

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International