I will be off to London shortly, but will try to post photos and goings-on while I'm away.

Other Articles: Famous Bahamians | Better in the Bahamas . . .Indeed. | The Bahamas Blog Comments

The Bahamas Electricity Corporation, BEC as it's known here, must have been listening to old Pat Travers CDs yesterday.


It was "Boom, Boom. Out go the lights!"


Being a country that is. . .well. . . sort of. . .kind of. . .not exactly third. . . more like "second" world, the Bahamas has its share of structural issues.


Sometimes its Batelco (or the soooooo exciting new moniker for the company, "BTC") with the phones.


Sometimes its Water & Sewerage (but to be fair, they have provided better and more consistent service than any of the others. Quite commendable, actually.)


But more often than not, it's the Bahamas Electricity Corporation. The power went out in our area for nearly 5 hours yesterday, amid wrangling between the union and company management over some dispute. It really doesn't matter who is to blame--I'm sure both sides are entitled to their fair share--it's the regular consumers who suffer. What's more, the price of electricity has skyrocketed in the face of this less-than-sufficient service.


Although the time without power allowed the family to play cards, and a testy game of Yahtzee,

as well as to spend some time lighting off fireworks with the neighbors (taking advantage of the darkness, of course), the situation struck me as being ripe with Five Important Life Lessons:


Lesson One (learned a long time ago by other nations): Governments should not run utilities.


Lesson Two: It might not be such a good idea to let your 12-year-old break the stick off a bottle rocket and light it. The rocket tends to shoot in unexpected directions.


Lesson Three: Don't wait for the power to go off to do something with your neighbors.


Lesson Four: Kids can roll Yahtzee as well as adults do.


Lesson Five: Maybe it's time to dig out those old Pat Travers albums, buy an old record player from some electronics store with retro-items to sell, and crank up the tunes!


Boom! Boom!


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Highlighting the ever-increasing problem of illegal immigration of Haitians into the Bahamas, this Haitian sloop recently washed ashore on the southeast end of New Providence.


(For a good read on the plight of the dispossessed and the often brutal reality that faces them, check out the novel The Origins of Solitude by the Bahamas' very own Garth Buckner.)


The tattered sails of the vessel stand as a testament to just how resourceful humans can be when faced with such desparation: the sails are made from modern banner advertisements for a car company and a custom home builder, lashed to the mast with a banner ad for Corona beer.


If not for the decidedly modern theme of these ads, this vessel looks eerily like something out of Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirates of the Caribbean.

Although Bahamian officials don't know when the vessel landed or what happened to its passengers, it's a good bet that they quickly vanished into one of Nassau's many Haitian enclaves in the hopes of finding work and a life better than the one they left behind.


Other Articles: New Pirates Movies - Dead Man's Chest Filming in The Bahamas | Famous Bahamians

I've just returned from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, where the Bahamas baseball team participated in the Little League Championships for the Caribbean.


Although the Bahamas fell short of expectations, (congratulations to a fantastic Curucao team that won the whole thing), the island of Puerto Rico was a very pleasant surprise. It was my first trip there.

View of the Puerto Rico northern coastline along San Juan, looking east from El Morro fort to San Cristobal fort in the distance


The Puerto Rican people were helpful and friendly. They enjoy what I found to be the near-perfect mix of United States amenities (such as good roadways, well-stocked shops and stores, and good communications) and a healthy dose of native Caribbean soul.


The topography of the island consists of both mountains and a fantastic shoreline. The history of island boasts Spanish influence, pirates, and US intervention.

Looking down one of the avenues in Old San Juan, complete with colorful facades and blue brick streets


The Puerto Ricans have maintained much of their history and kept alive the rich past that forms a large part of their modern character.


The Bahamas--with an equally interesting and significant history--could do many of the same things with its forts, holdovers from the bygone days of pirates and privateering.


The renovation and maintenance of many beautiful colonial structures in the country could also become part of the nation agenda, rather than an unfortunate mistake of history that should be ignored and forgotten.


The benefits to tourism and national identity could be tremendous.



Keep your eyes on this space for additional write ups on Puerto Rico in the coming days.

The Tribune's A Felicity Ingraham reported on Tuesday that nearly 100,000 Bahamians--or about 28% of the country's population--are using the Internet. This figure represents nearly a 610% growth rate between 2000-2005.


In the Caribbean, Ingraham reports, Jamaica has the highest number of Internet users (1.67 million, or 39.6% of the population), while Barbados has the highest percentage of users in the Caribbean, with 56.2%.


As businesses in the Bahamas learn to effectively use new electronic tools that are already available--such as blogs, websites that actually work for them, and podcasting, for example--I suspect that Internet useage will continue its solid growth.


It's only a matter of time.