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THE HON. FRED MITCHELL MP
FOX HILL CONSTITUENCY
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
2nd November 2005
I
am proud to speak today to the Disaster Preparedness and Response Act. I
support the Bill and I look forward to its early implementation.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minster
has foreshadowed a number of amendments to the Bill and of course they
will have my support. I was
asked by him to join the Member of Parliament for North Andros and the
Berry Islands for a site visit to Bimini and the Berry Islands following
Hurricane Wilma. The damage in Bimini though less severe than that in Grand
Bahama is serious, with structural damage to the Bimini Beach Hotel,
with the loss of some 30 jobs. The
second homeowners on the ocean coast of South Bimini also lost their
homes and property. There
was, however, no loss of life. The
Government will have to move post haste to dredge the channel between
North Bimini and South Bimini because it has silted up further as a
result of the storm.
In the Berry Islands, the
causeway between Bullocks Harbour and Great Harbour has further eroded
as a result of the storm, but again there was no loss of life.
However, what was pointed out to
us in each of the islands that we visited was the need for a further
rationalization of the process of decision making for hurricane
emergencies and other disaster preparedness.
I describe it as the ability to prioritize during the time of
emergencies. There ought to
be some one, who has the right for those critical hours after the
emergency occurs to make the decisions as to what is a priority.
We saw this in Bimini where the water was off for some
twenty-four hours or more, and needed to be restored by the assistance
of the power company, and some special work by the water company. But
there was no authority there that could say in the early hours of the
storm, you go and do this, or you go and do that, as opposed to each
agency doing something, which each agency felt was important.
Each agency reports directly to Nassau.
The Family Island Administrator
has some informal authority as the titular head of the process, but
there is no statutory authority. So
what one expects is that there will be replica of the decision-making
processes in the islands, a replica of the decision making tree that
this bill envisages for the national disaster preparedness.
My feeling is that in terms of
disaster preparedness, the first few hours after the storm are often the
most critical.
It is in this connection
therefore that I wish to spend some time talking about Grand Bahama, the
island that has been hit by three storms within twelve months.
In many respects the damage wrought by Hurricane Wilma is more
severe than the damage wrought by the other two hurricanes last year.
There has been a significant loss to the housing stock of West
Grand Bahama, and to the physical infrastructure, and the public
buildings. The commercial
life of the country’s largest settlement has been disrupted.
There was the loss of a young life.
The psychological trauma must be significant.
I wish to extend to the people
of Grand Bahama, to the people of Grand Cay, and to the hurricane
victims everywhere the sincerest condolences and sympathy on behalf of
the people of the Fox Hill constituency.
I would also like to thank on behalf of the Ministry of Public
Service, and the Government generally all the public servants who have
rallied so effectively to the call for duty.
In particular, we were moved by the work of the police, social
services, the Defence Force, local government, urban renewal, the health
care workers and emergency services generally to assist in helping with
this emergency.
I wish to say that the Ministry
of Public Service will be sending out a circular shortly to all
Ministries as we did last year to ask all public servants for
contributions to help the victims of the storm.
Last year some $16,000 was collected for last year’s storm
victims. I intend to make a
contribution to that appeal and I wish that all civil servants would
give whatever they can afford to this fund.
I wish to speak, however, more
generally Mr. Speaker about the nature of our country.
It is clear that it is an archipelagic country.
It spans as we well know over 125,000 square kilometers of water,
with scores of population centres in at least 25 populated islands. But the important thing for us to bear in mind is that this
is one country; from Abaco and Grand Bahama in the north to Inagua in
the south. And we in New
Providence, which is the largest population centre and the largest part
of the economy, have a responsibility, a moral obligation, and a legal
obligation to support all of the parts of the whole, just as they
support us.
This country is not held
together by military coercion, or by force of arms.
It is held together by the consent of the governed.
The people in every island support the fact that Nassau is their
capital, and that we are their leaders, and we in turn have to show and
demonstrate this in every way. And
so the people of New Providence have a responsibility to ensure that
Grand Bahama recovers, and that we support Grand Bahama and every island
in this chain.
We have to show it in tangible
ways by our money and our goods and the nation’s taxes in good times
and in bad. We have to show
it by our prayers, and by physical presence in all of the islands.
Those who work with me in the public service will tell you that
it is distressing to me in the extreme that there is a culture of ‘we
don’t go to the islands, the islands must come here’.
I believe that every Permanent Secretary, every public official
who is involved in decision making should visit and be seen to go to the
islands in the country, but especially Grand Bahama, our second largest
population centre.
Someone in Eleuthera just asked
me about this over the weekend and it is appropriate; do you in Nassau
actually think about us in the islands when you are making your
decisions? I know that I
can speak for the political directorate when I say that we do, but this
must be replicated in the public administration generally, and more
importantly in our thinking as a people.
We are one country. All
of we are one.
On 5th August 2005,
Freeport celebrated the 50th anniversary of its existence and
founding. Some 221,500
acres of land in several agreements make up the city of Freeport.
This started out as a pine barren, and at the statistics
available in 2003, the population of Grand Bahama was said to be 44,994
with 23,024 men or boys and 23,970 women or girls.
There were 10,731 building units, and 16,919 housing units.
This translates therefore into significant GDP for The Bahamas. Some argue that Grand Bahama has a gross domestic product
that is larger than some of the independent Caricom countries.
That story of Grand Bahama tells
us some important things. The
island of Grand Bahama is essential to the economic well being and
progress of The Bahamas. Without it, The Bahamas would be a lesser
place. We need Grand Bahama
for our country to progress and develop, as we need the other islands as
well, but it is essential that Grand Bahama be rebuilt and refurbished.
Just imagine Mr. Speaker; where
would the Eleutherans, Exumians, Cat Islanders, Long Islanders and
people from New Providence have to go to look for work and to raise
their families if there were no Grand Bahama?
It would mean, if Grand Bahama did not exist today, the migration
of our population to other countries.
It would mean that our standard of living in New Providence would
be lower. It would mean our
island would be more crowded, that social problems would be magnified.
It would mean a less dynamic country, a less safe and secure
country.
I think any political leader
must know and understand Grand Bahama; how it fits into the whole.
Our Prime Minister spent nine hours just after the storm talking
with people there with the Members of the Cabinet and Nassau’s church
leaders to reassure them that the central Government will come to their
rescue. It will take tens
of millions of dollars to do so. We
must support him to be sure that Grand Bahama comes back roaring like a
lion. The housing stock
will be improved, the sea walls replaced and the public buildings
restored, the infrastructure rebuilt.
It is our obligation to do so, and I think all the people of this
island and all of the islands have their hearts and minds dedicated to
that task.
Grand Bahama is one of those
islands that I have spent time on.
I voted there in 1987. I
can say then in one sense that I too am Grand Bahamian.
I did that because I thought that I ought to become resident
there, as a leader of this country as part of understanding the people
there, the independence of spirit, their economy, and how they are
interlinked with us, and what public policy decisions we must make to
ensure that the city of Freeport and the island of Grand Bahama grows.
I have many friends there, too numerous to call; from George
Curtis, Brian Seymour, Maurice Glinton, Rawle Maynard, Sir Albert
Miller. This then is
a simple message, a reaffirmation to support Grand Bahama, to support
Bimini and Grand Cay and all the areas that have been affected.
They are all a part of us, one country, one Commonwealth.
I want to send a word of
encouragement to Ivan Deveaux and his staff at the Passport Office and
to Laurie Bullard and the staff at the Ministry of Public Service in
Grand Bahama.
Mr. Speaker, the word hurricane
comes from the Arawaks, and for that to be a word in their lexicon it
must have been quite a frequent phenomenon even back in their day.
It certainly is in our time, and the only answer we have to this
phenomenon, which is part of our region, is to be prepared.
That is what this bill seeks to do.
I wish to say that our missions
overseas and the Ministry's staff have notified all foreign mission
accredited to The Bahamas that an appeal has been launched for hurricane
relief. I am grateful to
all countries that have responded to the appeal, the United States of
America was one such country. Spain
is another, and I am certain that there will be others.
I support this bill Mr. Speaker
and I continue to pray that we will recover and that all will be well
again.
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