National heroes
By RUPERT MISSICK JR
rmissick@tribunemedia.net
and NOELLE NICOLLS
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net
Tribune Staff Reporters:
FORMER Minister of Culture Neville Wisdom tells the story of a primary school teacher who two weeks ago did a class exercise asking students: Who do you identify as a national hero?
Of 16 students, 14 identified President Obama, one identified Dr Martin Luther King and one the late Sir Lynden Pindling.
This story highlights, if nothing else, the poor job earlier generations did in teaching Bahamian history and establishing who is and who should be called a national hero of the Bahamas.
Several years ago a Cultural Commission was appointed to establish just that.
The Commission was to also formulate programmes and strategies for the coordinated promotion, study, research, preservation and enhancement of the Bahamian cultural heritage in music drama, poetry, religious expression, creative writing and their publication, oral story telling, film making, art, sculpture, dress, cuisine, dance and Junkanoo.
They made their first report to government in September 2003.
The Commission's report stated that national heroes are “seminal contributors to the shaping of Bahamian society from slave plantation and colonial fiefdom to an independent nation and an aspiring model society, where all citizens have equal opportunity towards being constructive, creative and self directed human beings.”
A national hero was defined as a person who has gone beyond their personal and historical limitations to give the society a psychic and spiritual rebirth. National hero was distinguished from a hero.
Sacrifice:
A hero was defined as someone whose dedication, hard work and sacrifice has contributed to the society. National heroes are people who were to have accomplishments that have been acknowledged and recognised as a national inspiration by a significant portion of the national body.
Winston Saunders and Charles Carter were appointed co-chairmen of the commission but the committee basically dissolved after Mr Saunders died in November of 2006.
“We had finished most of the work. It was wide ranging and it was a tribute to Mr Saunders because he spent his whole life dedicated to cultural and artistic pursuits. I was just pleased to be a part of it. He was the driving force and unfortunately as fate would have it, when he died it died. I just hope the work hasn't died,” Mr Carter said.
When the 2007 elections took place the present government did not continue the work of the commission.
“The work we did was largely finished and submitted to government. It is probably lodged somewhere in the Ministry of Education or Culture,” Mr Carter said.
Among the recommendations of the committee were:
• A national hero and literature during the month of October;
• A public holiday celebrating national hero's day on the second Monday of October each year, replacing the Discovery Day holiday;
• A Bill for national honours to be introduced;
• Ministry of Education building to be named the Arthur Hanna Complex;
• Ministry of Health building be named after Reverend Dr H W Brown;
• Exuma Street be renamed Amos Ferguson Street;
• Third Terrace Centreville be renamed Rusty Bethel Drive;
• Nassau International Airport be renamed Sir Lynden Pindling International Airport and
• Establish national heroes parks in New Providence and family islands.
All of this seems to be the easier aspects of the commission’s work, however. After this the more problematic and subjective work of establishing who should be called a national hero should have proceeded. And while there may be many Bahamian heroes, the majority will escape the description of national hero.
Contribution:
For example, while 40 or 30 years ago one would never have doubted that Sir Sidney Poitier was a national hero, a new generation is questioning the “real contribution” Sir Sidney has made to the Bahamas.
Although born in Miami in 1927 during his Bahamian parents’ visit to Florida, Sir Sidney – the son of a poor tomato farmer – grew up in Cat Island. Sir Sidney has also served as the Bahamas’ ambassador to Japan and was made an Honorary Knight Commander in the 1970s for his contribution to the arts.
Sir Sidney was the first black actor to win an Academy Award for a lead performance (Lilies of the Field in 1963).
Many of his films tackled racial themes and have been heralded for helping to break down social barriers between whites and blacks during an era of racial segregation.
In February of this year a group of filmmakers protested the College of the Bahamas’ decision to host a conference and film festival dedicated to Sir Sidney.
The most vocal critic of the festival, filmmaker Celi Moss publicly lambasted the college for using its resources to honour the Academy Award winning actor.
“When it comes to the arts in the Bahamas he’s done nothing,” claimed Mr Moss.
Mr Moss’ assertion that the Oscar winner has done nothing for the Bahamas is hyperbolic at best and perhaps a more measured expression of Mr Moss’ opinion would have been that Sir Sidney hasn’t done enough, or rather done what Mr Moss would have seen as enough.
But Sir Sidney had been involved in philanthropic activities in the country, off and on, since he won an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Homer Smith in “Lilies of the Field.”
The first was when Sir Sidney made a personal appearance on the stage of the Shirley Street Theatre on Saturday February 29, 1964 during the Nassau premiere of the movie.
The screening was a benefit sponsored by the Ways and Means Committee of the British Legion as part of an annual drive for funds to aid needy ex-servicemen in the Bahamas.
In the 70s he kept true to his promise.
The 1974 premiere of “Uptown Saturday Night” held in Nassau was in aid of the Bahamas Association for the Mentally Retarded. The premier of “Buck and the Preacher”, Sir Sidney’s directional debut was held in Nassau to aid the construction of Jordan Prince William High School.
College Professor Dr Ian Strachan hit back at the criticism arguing that the event’s protesters are misguided by a sense of “entitlement.”
“What they are basically saying is that despite the fact that Sidney Poitier helped change the world for all black people, he is not worth honouring or studying because he didn’t do something specific for this community that they think are paramount,” Dr Strachan said.
Still to many this is not enough because “it seems he didn’t help today’s struggling Bahamian artists directly, monetarily, by ‘putting in a word’ or by showing up every summer and teaching a class in method acting,” said Dr Strachan.
There was a point where Sir Sidney felt that he was not appreciated by the Bahamian public.
“Lilies of the Field” was Sir Sidney’s 20th film and he told a crowd of more than 600 who gathered at the theatre, “I was beginning to feel that I was not loved here. I have been asked to do things in Asia and Africa and was wondering when someone was going to ask me to do something for my people here.”
He had left Nassau 21 years before with “a bundle and several dollars given to me by my father to make my mark in the world” and was more than willing to help any organization that was doing “something worthwhile for us Bahamians.”
Sir Sidney eventually made a home for himself in Winton, but left in the 70s after he said that he felt harassed by the constant visits of gawking tourists.
Before leaving he also expressed concern over the number of “corrupt” persons with whom Sir Lynden was surrounding himself, although he thought that Sir Lynden himself was an honest man.
In addition to the lament of Mr Moss, there are more who disagree as to whether or not Sir Sidney should be considered a national hero.
Father Sebastian Campbell, who is Chairman of the National Heroes Committee, and member of the National Cultural Development Commission said that Sir Sidney was simply a person who “came along at the right time and was in the right place,” but did nothing to “advance the country”.
Teacher:
“What has Poitier done to advance Era Anne Hanna who worked for 40 plus years as a teacher in Mason Bay, Acklins? She was a teacher, handy man, janitor, who had to ride horse back to the school. She was never absent for one day and taught some of the leading citizens in this country. At the end of her retirement she got no pension nor no gratuity. These are the people we need to recognize as our heroes and stop letting persons with status and fame to trump up their contributions,” he said.
However, Mr Wisdom said even though Sir Sidney left, and it was necessary for him to practise his skills in the US, he was an integral part of the “quiet revolution” of majority rule and Independence.
Father Campbell is concerned, however, that persons, who, unlike Sir Sidney, are not famous or wealthy will be lost to history and their contribution to national development also will be lost.
“The workers of the Burma Road Riot: They are our heroes. They laid the foundation for trade unionism in the Bahamas.
“These are the people we need to rescue from obscurity and write about their triumphs, tell their story. These are the leaders of trade unionism in the Bahamas and yet they are not being recognized,” he said.
Father Campbell believes that the recent Queen’s honours when Kerzner International CEO Sol Kerzner received a knighthood was an example of where wealth and status trumped what he sees as a “real contribution” to the country.
“Status and money should not be the deciding factor in who should get the highest honours in the country. It is wrong. There are many Bahamians who are way ahead of the Sol Kerzners. They didn't give money, because they didn't have it; they gave themselves,” Father Campbell said.
Another Bahamian hero who will have to be rescued from obscurity is Dr Joseph Robert Love.
Dr Love was born in Nassau, in 1839 and died in Kingston in 1914.
He was a teacher, priest, medical missionary, army doctor, journalist and newspaper editor, politician, and legislator, freemason and an advocate for black pride. He grew up in Grant’s Town, and was a member of St Agnes Anglican Church. He emigrated to the United States in the 1860s and was ordained a priest in 1877.
He was the first black medical graduate of the University of Buffalo in 1879, and went to Haiti in 1881 as a medical missionary.
While in Jamaica he was the editor of the weekly paper the Jamaica Advocate and was a big influence on Marcus Garvey.
However, Father Campbell said that Dr Love is not what he would call a national hero.
“What has he done to advance the modern day Bahamas? A part of this challenge needs to be to get Bahamians to write our stories.
“We have to be careful to say that not everyone is a hero. Just because someone did something outstanding he is a hero?
“We have examples of how to go about this from other countries: There is a lot to learn from Jamaica and Trinidad,” he said.
However, Mr Carter believes that Dr Love is one of the many unsung heroes in the Bahamas.
“He is better known in Jamaica than the Bahamas. He helped Marcus Garvey form his consciousness.
“He is one of the most brilliant Bahamians ever made, and he was a (parishioner at) St Agnes.
“That is the same place I go to church.
Message:
“The worst part about that is no one knows him; we are not taught who he was. If you were a Jamaican you would know who he is. I tell young people when they listen to Bob Marley, a Bahamian person influenced that message. But that is not supported by other things that happen in the community (by the cultural narrative). They say okay fine that is what you say, but we don't celebrate him in the country. That is the great tragedy in the Bahamas,” he said.
Mr Wisdom said that Dr Love is not a national hero simply because he does not fit in the Cultural Commission's definition.
“People who have been obscured from the national consciousness because we have done a poor job at education, may have to be classified as hero and not national hero.
“Dr Love would fall into that category,” he said.
Perhaps Sir Stafford Sands personifies this type of person.
Mr Wisdom said, however, he would oppose Sir Stafford being installed as a national hero.
“Sir Stafford represents a division from the philosophy of one Bahamas. He is perceived by most Bahamians as having been a racist. Sir Stafford went to his death bed in self imposed exile in Spain, and in my opinion the mere fact that he did not reconnect with his home denies him the opportunity. He abandoned the country and went into self imposed exile during a period of transition when the country needed all hands on board as we tried to move this new Bahamas upward, onward and forward together. In my opinion, I don't care how bad things get, as a nationalist I am going to stay here and fight. Once you abandon your country you give up the right to be defined as a national hero.
“I do not know (if he was a racist on his death bed), but I do know he did not reconnect with the country. The view that I hold and many hold is that he simply could not accept the fact that the country would be administered by black Bahamians despite the fact Sir Lynden and Sir Milo demonstrated and were consistent in a one Bahamas position.
“There was never any question raised about Sir Roland Symonette as a national hero. He was a contributor and did not abandoned this country. Founding fathers and national heroes don't give up on a country and expect in years to come to be acknowledged as a national hero,” he said.
However, the explanation of why Sir Stafford left for Europe is not so simple.
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.
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.
Five years after his resignation Sir Stafford died of cancer in the London Clinic in England. The National Heroes Bill and the National Honours Bill were passed by parliament, but were not brought into force. A date for implementation was never published.
What about people who are not obscure and have undeniably helped to make the modern Bahamas what it is, but simply were not liked.
Mr Carter said what disturbs him most about the modern Bahamas is the ignorance of and lack of appreciation for Bahamian culture.
“We have a very strong and viable culture that is not being protected, taught and practised. What course in Bahamian history and culture did you have? Look at our country today; look at how many kids are growing up completely devoid of any knowledge of and appreciation for the country they live in,” he said.
The former MP said that the Bahamas is in danger of losing a heritage that really stands out.
Heritage:
“ It is a beautiful heritage. We have everything to be proud of to make us truly Bahamian,” he said.
However, Mr Wisdom pointed out that all Bahamians have some foreign parentage as you go down the various generations.
“There is no such thing as true, true Bahamians.
“We all came here on ships, so being Bahamian really needs to be defined as a person who acknowledges the Bahamas as his or her home, who demonstrates an undying love for the country and who is prepared to give his or her all for the Bahamas for the entirety of their life.
“That is a real Bahamian,” he said.
July 11, 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 Sir Stafford Sands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sir Stafford Sands. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Bahamians have to learn that they cannot change their history to accommodate their political agenda
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
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
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
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Sir Stafford Sands image on The Bahamas' $10 banknote... debate rages on
Sir Stafford Sands on $10 debate rages on
tribune242:
THE DEBATE continued earlier this week over the government's decision to return the image of Sir Stafford Sands to the Bahamas' $10 banknote, replacing the image of Queen Elizabeth II.
On ZNS' Issues of the Day radio programme hosted by Krissy Love, callers voiced their support and condemnation of the government's idea as the show engaged in a wider discussion on race relations in the Bahamas.
One caller, identified as Eric said that Sir Stafford should not have been taken off the $10 bill in the first place by the PLP as he did more for the Bahamas in tourism than any other one person.
Another caller said that he did not see why the debate is continuing to be waged as Sir Stafford clearly had done much for the Bahamas.
Early in the week, opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell condemned the FNM's decision to return the image of Sir Stafford to the $10 bill after it has been taken off during the PLP administration.
Although generally recognised as the "principal architect" of the modern Bahamas economy, Mr Mitchell said that if the PLP were to regain the government in 2012, this decision would be one that would be reversed once again.
"I think it's an inappropriate tempting of fate in the face of the earlier dispute, and my position is the same; he should not be on the $10 bill, and that it should be removed if there is an opportunity for the PLP to do so at some future point," the Fox Hill MP said.
However, another caller on Issues of the Day said that if persons have contributed to the building of the nation - post 1973 -- they should be the ones who are considered for being placed on the nation's currency.
"Now as far as it pertains to Sir Stafford and his legacy to the entire Bahamas, his contribution is massive. So if they want to erect a bust of him over at the Treasury Department, the Central Bank, or the Ministry of Tourism, or whatever other areas where he played a significant role; name buildings after him," he said.
Another caller, identified as Pauper said that Bahamians need to mature and understand that while Sir Stafford was not a perfect man, he, like Sir Lynden Pindling, had made a tremendous contribution to the Bahamas and should be honoured as such.
"I think we need to grow up and be politically more mature. I don't know the reason, Krissy, like you said why they took him off the bill. I didn't have a problem when they put him on it. See. Krissy, I understand this to be us celebrating the good about Sir Stafford Sands.
"Sir Stafford Sands wasn't perfect. Sir Lynden wasn't perfect, but he is still on the dollar bill.
"So let's celebrate, grow up and be mature.
"Don't worry about all the bad things that Sir Stafford Sands did, and how the majority of us might be black and some of them was white. Let's think about the good that Sir Stafford do and the good what Sir Lynden do. That is why we put them there," he said.
The well-known caller continued to plead for Bahamians to move away from the black and white issue as the racism "baggage" needs to be dropped so that the populace can be "mentally freed."
May 07, 2010
tribune242
tribune242:
THE DEBATE continued earlier this week over the government's decision to return the image of Sir Stafford Sands to the Bahamas' $10 banknote, replacing the image of Queen Elizabeth II.
On ZNS' Issues of the Day radio programme hosted by Krissy Love, callers voiced their support and condemnation of the government's idea as the show engaged in a wider discussion on race relations in the Bahamas.
One caller, identified as Eric said that Sir Stafford should not have been taken off the $10 bill in the first place by the PLP as he did more for the Bahamas in tourism than any other one person.
Another caller said that he did not see why the debate is continuing to be waged as Sir Stafford clearly had done much for the Bahamas.
Early in the week, opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell condemned the FNM's decision to return the image of Sir Stafford to the $10 bill after it has been taken off during the PLP administration.
Although generally recognised as the "principal architect" of the modern Bahamas economy, Mr Mitchell said that if the PLP were to regain the government in 2012, this decision would be one that would be reversed once again.
"I think it's an inappropriate tempting of fate in the face of the earlier dispute, and my position is the same; he should not be on the $10 bill, and that it should be removed if there is an opportunity for the PLP to do so at some future point," the Fox Hill MP said.
However, another caller on Issues of the Day said that if persons have contributed to the building of the nation - post 1973 -- they should be the ones who are considered for being placed on the nation's currency.
"Now as far as it pertains to Sir Stafford and his legacy to the entire Bahamas, his contribution is massive. So if they want to erect a bust of him over at the Treasury Department, the Central Bank, or the Ministry of Tourism, or whatever other areas where he played a significant role; name buildings after him," he said.
Another caller, identified as Pauper said that Bahamians need to mature and understand that while Sir Stafford was not a perfect man, he, like Sir Lynden Pindling, had made a tremendous contribution to the Bahamas and should be honoured as such.
"I think we need to grow up and be politically more mature. I don't know the reason, Krissy, like you said why they took him off the bill. I didn't have a problem when they put him on it. See. Krissy, I understand this to be us celebrating the good about Sir Stafford Sands.
"Sir Stafford Sands wasn't perfect. Sir Lynden wasn't perfect, but he is still on the dollar bill.
"So let's celebrate, grow up and be mature.
"Don't worry about all the bad things that Sir Stafford Sands did, and how the majority of us might be black and some of them was white. Let's think about the good that Sir Stafford do and the good what Sir Lynden do. That is why we put them there," he said.
The well-known caller continued to plead for Bahamians to move away from the black and white issue as the racism "baggage" needs to be dropped so that the populace can be "mentally freed."
May 07, 2010
tribune242
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