by Edward Hutcheson
A couple of weeks ago. I had reason to research the meaning of the word “curmudgeon” after having a “discussion” with a younger member of my family. There were a list of very descriptive terms, “set in their ways”, “not easily influenced”, and, “narrow”, and I had to agree with that family member that I could be guilty of embodying some of those terms. Today I was listening to a news report and the Prime Minister was talking about a hotel development on Bimini and a part of his description was “a 600 room low density in Bimini”, after that phrase I must admit that the word curmudgeon was an adequate description for the reactions that followed. I had no time to respond, because there was no room for me being rational. 600 room low density hotel structure on Bimini. How does that make sense to anybody? Derek Walcott once remarked that certain structures in particular settings can best be seen as monstrosities, and what is there that is redeeming about a structure that size in Bimini? We might as well flush Bimini and all that is represents down the toilet. I can say without fear of contradiction that Bimini does not need anything that size; I do not care how many jobs it is bringing in. We already have a hotel that “floats” there, do we think that more is better. I know we want to be like Vegas, but this is ridiculous.
Common sense seems to elude every generation of political leaders. They have not yet realized that we do not have to be like Las Vegas or Atlantic City; we have much more substance to offer than these places have and we do not have to compete with them. If we choose to compete with them we will have to offer what they “offer”; it is not what they offer so much as what is part and parcel of cultures that promote gambling- criminality. People who win or lose have a tendency to live their lives on the borders of excess in the areas of conspicuous consumption, prostitution, drug use and suicidal tendencies. These things have a place in the normal flow of things but gambling has a way of encouraging these tendencies.
I would like to propose that we use the first week of July to the second week of August as a time when we go out of our way to reflect on the question of Nationhood and what it means. Right now we are messing ourselves over to the extent that we are constructing a new paradigm for a “slave mentality”, where we are allowing the construction of “economic slave ships” in the form of very large hotel developments that are out of place in an Island culture. We may produce jobs, but the true economic benefits are shipped out the Nation and actually cause cultural displacement within the culture. How much sense do we need to understand that there is a greater responsibility than job creation. The Prime Minister made a comment that one of these days his grandchildren will appreciate what is happening on Bimini; I pray that in this era of everything being recorded he has taken the time to measure what he is saying through the reality of truth. He may have to make Bimini his personal project and really keep his head to the ground and his shoulder to the wheel to make sure that every “I” is dotted and every “T” is crossed, because with my limited knowledge of ecology, demographics, population density and accompanied environmental concerns, there is something about the phrase “600 room low density development in Bimini” that makes no sense at all. The Prime Minister may know something that I do not know; and since he is a “leader” he may be able to do something in Bimini that seems impossible to us who have to live with the consequences.
July 22, 2013
