As noted yesterday, I've been sorting through filing cabinets of old documents, including some Letters to the Editor. The following "letter" is from 2003. Do you think it stands the test of time?

Every so often a politician offers up some food for thought regarding Bahamian culture and how it must preserved at all costs from the invasion of Globalisation. The impression is that Junkanoo is the only aspect of Bahamian culture. Maybe calypso, architecture, literature, dance and food should be added to the list, because as a people there is more to offer than simply Junkanoo.

Preserving these aspects of the culture is necessary, however, the fact is the positive aspects “Bahamian culture” is a mixed bag of African and European influences, imported over time.

•    Negative undertone

What is disconcerting about the message being conveyed is the negative undertone that this culture must be preserved from the pervasiveness of Globalisation that will destroy it. This amounts to little more than fear mongering by the politicians, with the unspoken assertion that they will save the country from the big white bogeyman of foreign influence.

This message is replayed with more urgency at election time of course, but politicians today feel a sense that they might be losing their influence in a world where the individual is becoming more independent and therefore more sovereign of government’s long, powerful arm.

An interesting aspect of all the fear mongering is that for the most part it is unfounded. Tourists and foreign residents in the Bahamas tend to enjoy the aspects of the local culture more than many Bahamians do.

•    Borrowed Culture

Paul Simon, a famous American pop music star received a tremendous amount of flack with charges of “musical exploitation” when he released his album titled Graceland which drew on the mbaqanga music of South Africa. It turns out that this music does not resemble the traditional African music and is more akin to rock and roll. Believe it or not, “both South Africans and foreigners accused mbaqanga music of being a cheap commercial corruption of Western swing and jazz.” (Creative Destruction. How Globalisation Is Changing the World’s Cultures by Tyler Cowen, 2002)

Before politicians get off on rants about preserving what is exclusively Bahamian, maybe they should spend some time with historians and musicologists to determine exactly what is borrowed or not. They might get a few surprises.

Of course this is not to say they should not be preserved, but it would help make comments like these a little more intellectually honest.

It is fair to say, that parts of other cultures will be borrowed and intermingled with Bahamian culture in the years ahead, no matter how much politicians would like to keep them out.

•    People naturally enjoy other cultures

Generally speaking, people enjoy the cultures of other countries while politicians drive hostility toward foreign cultures. This is evident now with the French and British or the Canadian’s and the American’s as a result of the Iraq conflict.

On the other hand, minority populations tend to preserve their culture with the tenacity of a Bahamian in the U.S. Marine’s in Iraq when they live abroad. (Well go figure…a Bahamian Marine! Is that an oxymoron or cultural diversity?) Witness the Chinese, Japanese and Italian people to name a few and how they create their own cities in the urban areas of the countries they inhabit.

When taking a city tour in a major city, the guides point with pride to how they have the largest Chinatown outside of Hong Kong etc. They are in fact proud of the contribution these people make to their society.

•    Poppycock

In recent years, there has been a resurgent interest in things Bahamian. This is good. Bahamians like and dislike aspects of local culture but it can do no harm to stretch the collective imagination with other cultures. The Bahamas might be able to use them to its advantage as other countries do.

But for politicians to convey the message that globalisation, and by extension, foreigners will destroy things Bahamian is absolute poppycock, and Bahamians are saying so with their appreciation of things Bahamian and foreign.

So what is all the fuss?

Sincerely,
Rick Lowe

Date: April 13, 2003