Prime Minister Perry Christie has warned of the negative influences of other cultures – and pushed the need for a better and more sustained focus on Bahamian culture and history.
During his contribution to the National Honours and Heroes Bill in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Christie said that one of the great challenges for the Bahamas is that it has yet “in any meaningful way” bothered to teach its children of the nation’s history.
As a result, he said, the country stands glaringly at fault for its failure to a invoke national pride, identity, and awareness of who we are.
“Today’s Bahamas is beset with extraordinary cultural influences coming from out north American neighbors. To a great extent, our entire way of live as we know it historically has been challenged by the modern influences of American culture. We must resist as much as we can the intrusion or the import of those aspects of American culture that are harmful in our opinion to the way forward of our country.
“As a Bahamian it is important for us to come to understand that the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, an independent sovereign country, should define by its own human experiences, its existence in today’s world. The food we eat. the stories we tell our children, the clothes we wear, the songs we write and sing, we are building on the historic experiences of generations of people down through the ages of our country,” he said.
Mr Christie drew an example of the parallels of the “intruding cultures” and its impact on the country’s capital, versus the situation in the Family Islands.
“The manifestation of violence, of the clothes they wear, the funky elements that go on, all of these things represent a tremendous challenge to the way of life we have in our country. And if we are interested as parliamentarians in trying truly to determine strategies to guide this country moving forward, we have to took at the fact that bad behaviour in our country in its broadest steps has developed over the years, and has become worst over the years.
“And it is entirely due to the fact that we have had the intrusion of different cultures impacting. But we have to be aware of the reasons why today in the Family Islands, the level of criminal activity is not where it is in the urban centre of New Providence and in Grand Bahama,” he said.
By PAUL TURNQUEST Tribune Staff Reporter
