This week I find myself, along with columnist Craig Butler, being subjected to condemnation on Fred Mitchell’s former website as having “let that column down” based on the position I took criticising the government’s lethargy in handling the Cuban dentists’ predicament.
If, indeed, I did infuriate the faceless coward(s) behind that site for not toeing the government’s beeline, I accept their bashing comments as compliments.
According to the website’s essayists, they seek “to spot some new voice for reason, some voice of liberalism, some leader for the future out of the next generation of people who will support democratic liberalism”.
However, while these PLP propagandists claim to seek liberalism, they contradict this by attacking opposing opinions to their own. It is evident that these individuals are espousing the old PLP dictum in toeing the line – my country, right or wrong – and reproving free thinkers as unpatriotic because of their egocentric conviction that patriotism means unquestioning concurrence with their standpoint.
Mr Mitchell, the facts are that your government gave every appearance of dallying along in resolving the recent tense international crisis, seemingly failed to abide by the Bahamas’ memorandum of understanding with Cuba, and were essentially badgered by Fox News and the Cuban-American lobby into the decision that led to the dentists being sent to Florida.
In the March 28, 2006, edition of The Tribune, Mr Mitchell was reported to have told Bahamians living in Florida that the decision to send the dentists to Jamaica from where they travelled to the US was not influenced by outside pressure.
Mr Mitchell went on to say: “We are an independent and sovereign country, make our own decisions within the world community, and no matter who shouts and screams, and threatens, the decisions have to be made in the best interest of all concerned.”
The Foreign Affairs Minister’s statement is nothing short of laughable. From my perspective, it is a bunch of baloney – just absolute hogwash eloquently spoken to spin his government’s fumbling and convince gullible audiences of their decisiveness during the latest, embarrassing saga.
Re-examining the misinforming website, it is noticeable that its material attacks any independent thinker and vehemently defends Mr Mitchell, almost as if it were the minister himself constructing its contents.
Although the site purports to be managed by a Russell Dames, I persistently find myself asking: who really is the writer? After all, it was formerly known as fredmitchelluncensored.com.
The baseless assertion by the site’s writer(s) that no-one at The Tribune expresses a conflicting view to that of Tribune owner/publisher Eileen Carron is ludicrous, and a spineless resort to personal attacks rather than addressing the issues.
The writer(s) would be mindful to effectively conduct research before enunciating nonsense, upon which time they’ll discover that my stance to adhere to our agreements and deport the doctors to Cuba was in stark contrast to Mrs Carron, who fervently lobbied for the dentists to be reunited with their families in America.
As so-called writers purporting to represent an uncensored outlook upon the Bahamas, Mr Mitchell’s website should consider unfastening genuine news from government propaganda rather than seeking to keep Bahamians in the shadows.
But, I deduce that now that the PLP is in power, Fred Mitchell’s former website is the perfect propaganda complement to ZNS, where the news casts such a favourable outlook on the government, it’s utopic!
Reprinted from the “Young Man’s View” column in The Tribune
