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Remarks by
Hon. Fred Mitchell
Fox Hill MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs & The Public Service
Naming of the Fox Hill
National Insurance Board Building after George Mackey MP
29th March
2007
I am pleased and honoured to
participate in this ceremony this afternoon. In addition to
welcoming to Fox Hill the Minister of National Insurance my
colleague Dr. Bernard Nottage, I would like to pay special tribute
to the wife of the late George Mackey and his family. I hope that
what we do here this evening is in your view an appropriate and
fitting tribute to your late husband and father, our former
representative and a former leader of the Commonwealth of The
Bahamas.
In paying tribute as I do to
George Mackey this afternoon, I should also like to acknowledge
another of my predecessors in office Frank Edgecombe. Mr. Edgecombe
apart from being a former Member of Parliament for Fox Hill, a
former principal of the Sandilands Primary School, a former Vice
President of the Senate, remains a leader in this community. The
government is searching for an appropriate way to honour him and we
have offered a suggestion that I believe he has accepted and so we
will be hearing more on this in the not too distant future.
Let us say as we express
pride in our sons and daughters of Fox Hill, that we are pleased to
welcome also the Principal of the Sandilands Primary School Mrs.
Norma Dean who has followed in her father’s footsteps as the
Principal of the Sandilands Primary School.
I have a friend whose name
is Felix Bethel. He is a raconteur of the first order and an
incisive commentator on public affairs. I heard him say once when
there was a manufactured dispute over the renaming of the Nassau
International Airport after the late Sir Lynden Pindling that those
who win the power of public office get to name things. I think
that is so apt to remember today. I do not think that there is any
quarrel that George Mackey's name deserves to be on this building.
He was a stellar son of Fox Hill. He served this community as an
acolyte at St. Anne’s, a civic leader and as a Parliamentarian and
Minister of the Government. If I am correct this is the first
public building in the history of this village to be named after a
native son of Fox Hill. Of this the people of his village should be
very proud.
I was brought to this
village and this community some ten years ago by George Mackey. He
came to my office in Dowdeswell Street, one morning just after 7
a.m. to say that he was retiring from politics and he wanted my
permission to give my name to Sir Lynden Pindling as his possible
successor and the nominee of the PLP for the Fox Hill constituency.
As they say: so said so done.
But he did not leave it
there. He literally took me by the hand and went from House to
House and introduced me to his friends and supporters. I remember
that amongst the first that we met was Don Brice who lives along the
Fox Hill Road. And he said that once the people of Fox Hill take
you into their hearts, you cannot lose. We have never lost this
village and I am proud to be their representative and proud to be
successors to this great son of Africa who did so much for an on
behalf of this community.
He called everyone “My
beloved”. He was known as “Honest George”. This place that we
stand at today was his vision and his creation. He wanted to create
a town centre in Fox Hill that would serve the east of New
Providence so that you did not have to leave Fox Hill to pay bills
and get other government services. He accomplished that and once he
left office, it was reversed with the closing of Batelco in Fox Hill
but in this new administration, BTC is back in Fox Hill again. We
have also expanded the services provided by the Department of Social
Services as well here in Fox Hill.
That he was first and
foremost a Fox Hillian and proud there was no doubt. He told me as
he handed me the baton that when he was a boy and you mentioned that
you came from Fox Hill, people responded negatively. He determined
that if he ever got a chance to get into public life he would change
that perception. No one can argue that he did not do that in his
life time. Upon his death, he brought the entire Government to Fox
Hill to march behind him and carry him not his final resting place,
a funeral that I as his successor decided ought to rival in size and
grandeur that of the late L.W. Young who also represented this
village in the House of Assembly.
He was a strong Africanist.
He believed in the nationalism of The Bahamas and he put his all
into Fox Hill, not just with his vision but with his own hands, he
built much of what we see here today.
I want to thank him from the
bottom of my heart even as I thank the people of Fox Hill for the
proud honour to be your representative today and help to bestow this
recognition on this community and one of its finest sons.
Over the next five years,
the vision of George Mackey will be enhanced. Sheldon Maycock and
other architects and specialists in urban planning will be asked to
produce sketches of how the public spaces in Fox Hill can be
enhanced and made more people friendly. The Ocean Hole Park has to
be developed and reclaimed. The Government of Sierra Leone assisted
by the Karathanassis Foundation will help with the development of
the Old Society Hall and work has already started on that. We are
seeking to bring the additional services of BEC and the Water and
Sewerage Corporation back to Fox Hill so that the town centre idea
can endure.
The Community Centre will be
completed within the year, with an 800 seat auditorium, kitchen,
computer room, reading room and offices for the Fox Hill festival at
the corner of Romer Street. We hope that the Governor General will
join us on 17th April at 2:30 p.m. to lay the cornerstone
for the building.
I want to thank the
Government for agreeing to this honour for my friend and mentor to
George Mackey. He was a great leader and son of the soil.
It is fitting that we honour
him in this season when we remember the ancestors, the liberated
Africans who made this village what it is today that we honour
George Mackey. Thank you Minister Nottage and the team at the
National Insurance board. Mr. Mackey is its former Minister.
I look forward to the
services from this office continuing and I am sure that the building
will continue to be put to good use.
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