I remember the childhood story of the three little pigs. There was the naive pig who built his house out of straw and when the Big Bad Wolf came he huffed and puffed and blew down the house and gobbled up the pig…. Poor pig. But that wasn’t enough for our friend the wolf so he went to the second pigs house, this pig was a cheap pig, and he built his house out of sticks. You guessed it, Mr. Wolf ate him as well. Feeling on top of the world Mr. Wolf went to the third house, that of Ms. Pig. Ms. Pig had put great thought into the construction of her house and built it out of bricks. So when the wolf failed to blow the house down he thought he could outsmart her and climb through the chimney. But to his dismay Mr. Wolf landed in her boiling pot and was later served as her diner….. What a smart pig!
We have pigs in The Bahamas, the most famous are the pigs that live at Big Majors in the Exuma Cays. It baffles me that these pigs have become an attraction that we celebrate and are featured in advertisements that promote The Bahamas. (To be honest, I often wonder about the potential environmental impact of those pigs. Studies show that pigs on islands threaten the native, near extinct or endemic (meaning only found in The Bahamas) plants, seabirds, lizards or snakes that cohabit the island.)) HOWEVER, today I am going to focus on the three little pigs. I will agree it is rather picturesque and a bit bizarre to see pigs in our crystal clear waters. But I can’t help but think, as we develop our great country, are we following along the path of the naive pig, or the cheap pig. Are our current actions because we are naive and don’t know any better? As a result, will the Big Bad Wolf eat us? Or is it that we are just cheap and don’t want to make the long term investments required to build a solid foundation that will protect us from the huffs and the puffs? Ms. Pig was a super smart swine. Not only did she ensure that her house was built on a solid foundation out of material that would withstand the greatest huffs and puffs, but she also had a back up plan. As I sit at my desk and I think about The Bahamas I don’t think we are in a position to withstand the huffs and the puffs. It is important to give credit where credit is due and managing The Bahamas is a task. The Government of The Bahamas is responsible for managing 30 inhabited islands spread across a 1,200-kilometer archipelago. Our geography makes it challenging. If you want to go to some of the southern islands there are only two flights a week! Logistically, managing The Bahamas is expensive and complex. Because of this we need a plan, a wolf proof plan. I think it is important to acknowledge the realities that exist in The Bahamas. We can’t side step the truth and be afraid of our dirty laundry. What we have to do is acknowledge that as a country we have serious challenges and we need to start doing our laundry. We need to plan for a Bahamas that has a population of greater than half a million people. We need to be able to make tuff but proactive decisions. We need to strategically think about how sea level rise will impact us. Exploring the economics of natural disasters is a must. What we really need to do is to stop filling in wetlands, but I will leave that dialogue for another day. The reality is that we need to think about how we manage our waste and our natural resources. Those famous pigs wouldn’t be so famous if they were in dark murky water. It’s our crystal clear waters that give them their fame. When the graduation rate in the public school systems has been roughly 50% for the past 15 years we have a problem. Reflecting on the words of the Minister of Education when he stated that "as a country we have failed to implement meaningful reforms to improve decades of dismal [education] performance that now threaten…a ‘social disaster,’” it makes me question what do we do to circumvent this disaster. What are the abled bodied Bahamian Citizen going to do? Seven years ago I started Young Marine Explorers (YME), a non-profit organization that has a mission to educate and inspire youth to become the leaders needed to address the social, economic and environmental challenges of The Bahamas. I have a long term goal that by 2025 at least 10%, approximately 4,000 Bahamian public secondary school students will be enrolled in YME. YME inspires academic excellence and fosters behavioural change that will translate into sustainable lifestyle choices. YME takes a non-traditionally Bahamian approach to education through student centered learning with activities, games, drama, art, and field exploration, all focused on the Bahamian environment. The YME three-year curriculum has been designed to correspond with learning objectives from the Ministry of Education. It is anticipated that successful YME graduates will demonstrate:
Taking advantage of the power of technology, YME graduates who are selected to participate in our two-year internship will be enrolled in a distance learning Associate Degree program at Miami Dade College. What this means is that when YME has programs established throughout the country students in Acklins, Crooked Island, Cat Island and Mayaguana, or any of the 30 islands can get an Associates Degree without having to leave their island. I don’t think every Bahamian has to go to college, I don’t think that college is for every Bahamian. But I firmly believe that increasing access to post-secondary education is critical for national development. Studies show that quality education have long-term benefits on countries, and can have positive effects on individual earning, capacity and national growth. Like Ms. Pig I have a plan. I believe that there is a solution to every problem. I may not have the perfect solution, ut if we can develop enough smaller plans that can fit into a National Plan we might be able to build a Bahamas that can withstand the huffs and the puffs. References for this blog can be found in the Manuscript 'Young Marine Explorers: Capacity Building through a Youth Outreach Program in The Bahamas by Nikita Shiel-Rolle, Suzanne Banas and Kathleen Sullivan Sealey 2015
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I live in one of the most beautiful countries on earth, a biodiversity hot spot with crystal clear waters and white and pink sandy beaches that can rival any beach on earth. From the outside looking in The Bahamas could be considered the Garden of Eden, a befitting title given that we are a Christian Nation. There really is no better place on earth. To borrow from Dante’s Inferno, if you were to explore the depths of The Bahamas, like Dante and Virgil visited the after world, you might think you were entering the seventh pouch of the Eighth circle of hell.
Imagine you are witnessing swarms of snakes jumping and attacking naked sinners where their souls instantly catch fire and burn up, only to rise from the ashes to return to the pit of serpents…… OKAY, maybe that was a bit melodramatic, what can I say I have a vivid imagination. As Bahamians we live in a high-income country, based on our Gross National Income (GNI) per capita we are likened to the United States, Germany and Australia. I am not going to discuss how our GNI is not an adequate representation of wealth distribution in The Bahamas because that is a story for another day. But if you can humour me for a minute lets pretend that we are like Dante and Virgil and we are within the 8th ring of The Bahamas. Let’s pretend the sinners have no faces and we are focusing on the “snakes” that plague this country. As Bahamians we have to move beyond this passive life that we live and kill the “metaphorical snakes.” (Metaphorical because you should never kill real snakes. We have no venomous snakes in The Bahamas and the snakes that we do have help to control the rat population, but I digress). I am going to take the liberty and assume that you are familiar with the “snakes” that plague the 8th ring of The Bahamas and that we can agree that as a country, we are in a state of crisis, economically, socially and environmentally. That as a nation there is no room left for vacillation. We need to take a top down bottom up approach. The government does not have the sole responsibility to solve our problems. Private entities have to work with and support the government because the government cannot build a nation by themselves. We as citizens have to invest in our country, and in our future. What this means is that we have to put youth development at the forefront. The government must put education first. The reality is if we want a better Bahamas we need an educational system that builds better citizens. This is where we struggle as a nation because we don’t know what it truly means to be active citizens. We have not been equipped with the skills to rationally solve our problems or to build a life that doesn’t depend on hand outs. The empirical evidence exists, nations that put education first and make education a priority prosper economically and are in a better position to deal with social issues. As a country in crisis we don’t have time for games. If you want to play the odds there are number houses on almost ever corner of this island, good luck. What we need is to implement the universally tried and tested solution of equitable and quality education for all. We cannot continue to teach using the same methods as the years before and be surprised when the results don’t change. We cannot continue to put a Band-Aid on a tumour and wonder why we are not getting any better. As a young Bahamian I refuse to let this country spiral into a 9th ring of hell. In Dante’s inferno the sinners that live in the 9th ring are the most evil sinners, the traitors to Benefactors, like Judas, who betrayed Christ. In my youthful eyes the greatest betrayal to Bahamians and the future of The Bahamas is that if you are in a position to influence the development of this country and you don’t demand for education and youth development to be a priority. Building a brighter Bahamas is not the sole responsibility of the Government and as Bahamians we have to work together but I am humbly asking the decision makers in our country that if you are working on new and innovative programs that will change the face of this country then share that information with us and give us hope; present opportunities for able bodied citizens to work with you. But the reality is this country cannot continue with the status quo. Nation building isn’t about creating a personal legacy. How I see it, those of you with real power have two options, the first is to step up and be radical and work with us to change this country for the better, or to humbly step aside. |
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The Science BlogIn the spirit of scholarship and adventure my writing explores a range of topics about the ocean, conservation and Small Island Developing States. This island girl, although not always writing from an island hopes to introduce you to the fun and wild side of science! Archives
September 2019
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