A Nassau Guardian editorial dated 3 May, 2005, titled, “A dangerous trend”, denounces the BahamasB2B.com website, saying the people responsible for it are, “dangerous and will cause untold damage to this country and its citizens if they are allowed to continue in the vein they are going.”
Why? Because the website tells the truth about the Bahamas, instead of sugar-coating the news for the sake of tourism?
The Guardian editorial takes issue with the way the news is edited on the extremely popular Bahamas website, which appears on page 1 of all major search engines for over 1,000 Bahamas related keywords.
The editorial says the manner in which BahamasB2B publishes the news is “wrong”.
“It is criminal and should be denounced in the strongest terms.”
The news on BahamasB2B is published for the public’s interest as a community service. Much of the inside information comes from trusted sources -concerned citizens – in the community. BahamasB2B wonders if the rampant copyright infringement that is ignored by the government of the Bahamas is considered wrong. BahamasB2B wonders if the Guardian thinks THAT should be denounced in the “strongest terms”.
BahamasB2B wonders if the corruption that exists in the Bahamas government, the legal profession, the public service, the police and defense forces, and the business world is “criminal”? Shouldn’t that be “denounced”?
Guardian insiders wonder if the editorial wasn’t really prompted by calls to the Editor from alleged Bahamian gangsters. ﾠThese individuals, who reportedly have hired “cyber-hitmen” to attack BahamasB2B.com, don’t like the fact that the independent website is so popular, and that it constantly refers to these individuals negatively, albeit accurately.
Over the past five years BahamasB2B has become a storehouse of horror stories about the Bahamas, including many secret documents that show certain high-profile Bahamians (including prominent government ministers) in a very bad light. Only a small portion of this information has ever been published on the site.
However, BahamasB2B.com ALSO has, literally, thousands of pages of content that are extremely favourable towards the Bahamas. And a staff of dedicated volunteers who praise the Bahamas daily in various sections of the site, including the Bahamas Vacation Message Board and in e-mail responses to hundreds of site visitors every week. ﾠThe website is also responsible for the booking of over 600 room nights, at various Bahamas hotels, in the past year alone. Perhaps The Guardian should focus on that.
BahamasB2B.com can do nothing to the Bahamas that Bahamians aren’t already doing to themselves, through the continuous neglect and apathy towards government corruption, the dysfunctional legal system and the many serious social problems that are rampant throughout the islands, including racism! the information published on BahamasB2B is not new or shocking to most Bahamians.
We, as a community and as a country, all know these ugly truths, we just don’t like to hear them aloud, or admit them, because then we are forced to look at the ugliness and take responsibility. It is so much easier to write a scathing editorial and give someone a scolding, but perhaps we should all look at ourselves and our country and strive to clean up the mess it is in, rather than hide it under the rug.
The Guardian editor says BahamasB2B is not a friend of the Bahamas. Sometimes, a real friend must be tough, for the benefit of their troubled friend. BahamasB2B.com is indeed a friend to the Bahamas, but are not passive “yes-men”. BahamasB2B wants a better Bahamas and in order to achieve that, we must all come face-to-face with the very real evils that are destroying our beautiful nation.
