History can't be changed to suit politics
tribune242.com editorial:
A CALLER to the Krissy Love radio talk show last week - in a discussion as to whether the image of Sir Stafford Sands should be on our $10 bill - said that to understand Sir Stafford one would have to understand the times in which he lived.
"Sir Stafford Sands was a creature of his times," said the caller. "It was the times in which he lived that made him think the way he did and do the things that he did." In his opinion Bahamians were not sufficiently mature to accept that position, but in fact that is the way all history should be understood -- in its own context, in its own time. To do otherwise would distort the facts.
The times in which Sir Stafford lived were times of racial prejudice.
A person of colour could not go to such public places as theatres, hotels, restaurants or even Bay Street barbers who cut only the white man's hair. Sir Stafford bought into the idea introduced to these islands in an earlier generation by American hotelier Henry Flagler, who in 1898 built the British Colonial Hotel (then a wooden building) and convinced the Bahamian power structure of those days that white Americans, particularly those from the south, would not frequent the islands if there was a mixing of the races.
And so to protect the tourist industry that he had taken from a short term winter resort to a year-round money spinner, Sir Stafford was intent on keeping the hotels, and any area that a visitor might frequent, exclusive.
This was a matter over which Sir Stafford and Sir Etienne Dupuch -- who in 1956 was threatened with arrest on the floor of the House when he introduced a Resolution to break down racial discrimination in public places -- battled for most of their political lives. Eventually Sir Stafford saw the light, but as Sir Etienne was to write of his friend on his death, it was too late when the scales fell from his eyes.
"If you want to see a monument to the business genius of a man...look around you in the colony today," Sir Etienne wrote in 1972. "Still... he was not a wise man in the all-important area of human relations. The time came when Stafford saw the light. But it was too late..." However, it was not too late for these two strong men in their personal relations. They each respected the other, and in the end the two arch enemies closed their lives, the closest of friends.
Sir Stafford was an enigma. There were those who called him a racist. There were others, mostly persons of colour, who would resent such a suggestion. There were two sides to the man.
One caller to the Krissy Love show was one of the many who could say with all sincerity: "I don't think he was that much of a racist. He was good for black people." She said her aunt was a nanny for Sir Stafford's daughter, and she as a child wore many of his daughter's hand-me-downs. "He was good to us, we were so poor."
There was another, a constituent in his City district, who told of his concern for his constituents who had outside toilets and how he gave them money to improve their situation.
In 1940, said another caller, "our economy was rock bottom -- there was nothing in this country, there was no way out for us." She said Sir Stafford took his own money and went around the world to build the country's tourist industry and because he was white he was able to bring people in. He took the police band on his trips with him. "They were all blacks," she said, "he ensured that they had good rooms in hotels, he ensured they were treated with respect and he joined them in their rooms. His own money paid for these trips."
She told how he took care of the entertainers and how he made certain that such Over the Hill nightclubs as the Cat and Fiddle and Silver Slipper prospered.
Troubadour Nat Saunders was on the show and admitted that as far as entertainers were concerned the UBP government was better for them than their own black government. On another occasion and in a different context, entertainer Leroy "Duke" Hanna said: "Sir Stafford Sands projected us, all of us, the great bands headed by people like Freddie Munnings Sr, the musicians, the dancers, the singers, the showmen...Sir Stafford made sure we were there on every tourist campaign trip. Culture was tops and well appreciated under Sir Stafford and his colleagues. But it just started dying after 1967..."
Yes, it started dying as the race card was being played loud and clear to create hatred and suspicion for the purpose of dividing Bahamians and winning elections.
Today, the PLP and those tainted with their racial hatreds have come, in the words of Mark Antony at the bier of Julius Caesar, not to praise him, but to inter the good that he has done in this country with his bones, so that whatever evil they might have perceived in him can grow, prosper and be enshrined for posterity. However, Sir Stafford touched and uplifted so many Bahamian lives that we do not think that Fred Mitchell and his ilk will be able to strike him from the $10 bill in the future.
As one caller told Krissy Love, Bahamians have to learn they cannot change their history to accommodate their political agenda. And, what we must also remember: The history of the Bahamas did not start in 1967. Many sacrifices were made by many Bahamians before then to make the successes of 1967 possible.
May 13, 2010
tribune242
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.
Showing posts with label Krissy Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Krissy Love. Show all posts
Friday, May 14, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Why Did Sir Stafford Sands leave the Bahamas?
So why did Sir Stafford leave?
tribune242.com editorial:
WHY DID Sir Stafford Sands leave the Bahamas?
This is a question still debated today. The question is often answered with an air of great authority by those who haven't a clue what they are talking about. Anyone who lived during the sixties, but were not a part of the PLP brotherhood, would be a fool to ask such a question. They all knew what it meant to be ostracised, victimised, denied jobs reserved only for followers of the "Chief", and verbally abused. Many of them, both black and white, packed their bags and left.
Even Krissy Love, host of the radio talk show "Issues of the Day", whose topic was the dispute over Sir Stafford's image being put on and then taken off the $10 bill, admitted that her family was one of those who also left the Bahamas during that period. In the sixties, she said, her parents could not deal with the way black people were being treated by the new black regime. Yet, Sir Stafford Sands, a white man, is called a traitor because he also left, only to return in death. Krissy wanted to know if her family would be tarred with the same "traitor" brush. The caller to her show fumbled, but did not answer.
Another caller, following the same trend of thought, felt that if a person were a part of a defeated government, then left the country because they were displeased with the loss, that person would be the traitor. At times when we listen to some of the callers to these radio talk shows, we often wonder what God was thinking when he was so stingy in his distribution of common sense.
It has been said that when Sir Stafford left for Europe he swore he would never return to the Bahamas. That is not true.
On the floor of the House when the Speaker read Sir Stafford's resignation to members, Sir Lynden denounced him, charging that he was "obliged to run" from the Bahamas because he was a "total embarrassment to his party." That also was not true. On another occasion, Arthur Hanna, recently retired governor-general, declared that Sir Stafford left because "he wanted nothing to do with a country run by blacks." Again not true. It was a claim made against a man, who unlike his social peers, did not attend the then exclusive all white Queen's College as a student. He was educated with black students at Government High School -- the same school later attended by Lynden Pindling. Sir Stafford had made it clear that he had every intention of returning home every year. "I will always be available to work for the party during the time when I am in Nassau each year," he said.
Around the 1967 election Sir Stafford was not a well man. A chain smoker, he suffered from a serious bronchial condition. In April of that year he spent six weeks in Miami for treatment of his problem. That was three months before he announced his resignation from the House. But soon after the PLP became the government in January of that year, a reign of terror had been started against Sir Stafford.
In May his wife had had enough. She made a statement in The Tribune that their home, "Waterloo", was not for sale. She said she was "sick and tired" of the harassing calls she was receiving. She wanted her tormentors to know that she and her husband were not selling their home, but intended "to stay and reside in it."
Up until the day of his resignation from the House, Sir Stafford, who had given up his law practice mainly for health reasons, had every intention of spending his winters in the Bahamas. And so, he didn't leave because he was a traitor, he was driven from his country by a hate-filled, racist government and its supporters. He no longer felt safe in a country for which he had worked so hard, but which his tormentors unjustly accused him of "raping."
On the floor of the House another uncouth member of the PLP accused Sir Stafford "and his gang of gangsters and hoodlums" of causing Bahamians to suffer. "He should be brought back here, put into a barrel of tar and rolled into a pit of fire for what he has done to the people of this country," said the PLP member from the floor of the House. This was one of this country's new legislators speaking.
No wonder there was a lot of unease in the country.
No wonder Sir Stafford and so many others-- both black and white -- packed their bags and left.
Just before their election victory, Sir Lynden had told the foreign press that if the PLP won the 1967 election his government would retain Sir Stafford as Minister of Tourism.
Their bitter anger over the years probably stemmed from the fact that they had lost their prize -- a prize that they had planned to use and abuse.
Five years after his resignation Sir Stafford died of cancer in the London Clinic in England.
There are Bahamians who maintain that he never came back to the Bahamas. He certainly came back to a Bahamas that he had no intention of ever leaving. He came back in a casket and is buried in the family plot in St Matthews cemetery.
There were callers to the Krissy Love show who wanted to know if Sir Stafford had any family left in the Bahamas. The answer is yes. This is his daughter's home, and the home of one of her two sons, Sir Stafford's grandson. They both live and work here. For them this is home, as it was home for their father and grandfather. And the vitriol that is now being spewed by the ignorant against the man they feel gave so much of himself to his country, brings them great pain.
May 12, 2010
tribune242
tribune242.com editorial:
WHY DID Sir Stafford Sands leave the Bahamas?
This is a question still debated today. The question is often answered with an air of great authority by those who haven't a clue what they are talking about. Anyone who lived during the sixties, but were not a part of the PLP brotherhood, would be a fool to ask such a question. They all knew what it meant to be ostracised, victimised, denied jobs reserved only for followers of the "Chief", and verbally abused. Many of them, both black and white, packed their bags and left.
Even Krissy Love, host of the radio talk show "Issues of the Day", whose topic was the dispute over Sir Stafford's image being put on and then taken off the $10 bill, admitted that her family was one of those who also left the Bahamas during that period. In the sixties, she said, her parents could not deal with the way black people were being treated by the new black regime. Yet, Sir Stafford Sands, a white man, is called a traitor because he also left, only to return in death. Krissy wanted to know if her family would be tarred with the same "traitor" brush. The caller to her show fumbled, but did not answer.
Another caller, following the same trend of thought, felt that if a person were a part of a defeated government, then left the country because they were displeased with the loss, that person would be the traitor. At times when we listen to some of the callers to these radio talk shows, we often wonder what God was thinking when he was so stingy in his distribution of common sense.
It has been said that when Sir Stafford left for Europe he swore he would never return to the Bahamas. That is not true.
On the floor of the House when the Speaker read Sir Stafford's resignation to members, Sir Lynden denounced him, charging that he was "obliged to run" from the Bahamas because he was a "total embarrassment to his party." That also was not true. On another occasion, Arthur Hanna, recently retired governor-general, declared that Sir Stafford left because "he wanted nothing to do with a country run by blacks." Again not true. It was a claim made against a man, who unlike his social peers, did not attend the then exclusive all white Queen's College as a student. He was educated with black students at Government High School -- the same school later attended by Lynden Pindling. Sir Stafford had made it clear that he had every intention of returning home every year. "I will always be available to work for the party during the time when I am in Nassau each year," he said.
Around the 1967 election Sir Stafford was not a well man. A chain smoker, he suffered from a serious bronchial condition. In April of that year he spent six weeks in Miami for treatment of his problem. That was three months before he announced his resignation from the House. But soon after the PLP became the government in January of that year, a reign of terror had been started against Sir Stafford.
In May his wife had had enough. She made a statement in The Tribune that their home, "Waterloo", was not for sale. She said she was "sick and tired" of the harassing calls she was receiving. She wanted her tormentors to know that she and her husband were not selling their home, but intended "to stay and reside in it."
Up until the day of his resignation from the House, Sir Stafford, who had given up his law practice mainly for health reasons, had every intention of spending his winters in the Bahamas. And so, he didn't leave because he was a traitor, he was driven from his country by a hate-filled, racist government and its supporters. He no longer felt safe in a country for which he had worked so hard, but which his tormentors unjustly accused him of "raping."
On the floor of the House another uncouth member of the PLP accused Sir Stafford "and his gang of gangsters and hoodlums" of causing Bahamians to suffer. "He should be brought back here, put into a barrel of tar and rolled into a pit of fire for what he has done to the people of this country," said the PLP member from the floor of the House. This was one of this country's new legislators speaking.
No wonder there was a lot of unease in the country.
No wonder Sir Stafford and so many others-- both black and white -- packed their bags and left.
Just before their election victory, Sir Lynden had told the foreign press that if the PLP won the 1967 election his government would retain Sir Stafford as Minister of Tourism.
Their bitter anger over the years probably stemmed from the fact that they had lost their prize -- a prize that they had planned to use and abuse.
Five years after his resignation Sir Stafford died of cancer in the London Clinic in England.
There are Bahamians who maintain that he never came back to the Bahamas. He certainly came back to a Bahamas that he had no intention of ever leaving. He came back in a casket and is buried in the family plot in St Matthews cemetery.
There were callers to the Krissy Love show who wanted to know if Sir Stafford had any family left in the Bahamas. The answer is yes. This is his daughter's home, and the home of one of her two sons, Sir Stafford's grandson. They both live and work here. For them this is home, as it was home for their father and grandfather. And the vitriol that is now being spewed by the ignorant against the man they feel gave so much of himself to his country, brings them great pain.
May 12, 2010
tribune242
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