OSWALD BROWN

Writes...

The current depressed state of Grand Bahama's economy is being compared by some of the island's long-time residents to the economic stagnation that gradually began to develop in the aftermath of the Progressive Liberal Party's historic victory in the January 10, 1967 general elections. Indeed, the PLP's defeat of the United Bahamian Party (UBP) sent shock waves of fear throughout the thriving business community of Freeport.

Big-time gambling had transformed the once 'frontier town" into an exciting, fastly developing city with top-rated entertainment at the casino and hot spots like the Holiday Inn, which had constructed a $5 million hotel, the company's largest at the time; the Monaco Lounge in the Lucayan Beach Hotel; the Island House's Junkanoo Room, and sundry other smaller local night clubs.

Marcella's on The Mall, where Geneva's Restaurant is now located, remained open around-the-clock to take advantage of the all-night business provided by the foreign croupiers, mainly from Great Britain, who worked on shifts at the casino. Marcella's, which was famous for its Italian food and pizzas, also had a Calypso Room, in which it featured live entertainment.

On the industrial front, Wallace Groves and the Grand Bahama Port Authority had successfully attracted an impressive number of investors. U.S. Steel in 1963 built Bahamas Cement Company, a $50 million cement plant; Syntex Corporation had announced that it would build a $7 million pharmaceutical plant; and Bahamas Oil Refinery Company (BORCO) was soon to be opened.

Freeport, however, over the years had gained a reputation as being a racist town, and even today there are some old-timers who insist that in the early days of Freeport's development, the sweeping powers granted to the developers of Freeport by the Hawksbill Creek Agreement were used to control the number of black Bahamans moving in and out of the Freeport area.

In fact, some of them steadfastly maintain that gates were physically set up for this purpose at certain entry points to the Port area. This clam, however, has been rejected by others as hogwash. However, although there is no record of an actual gate being erected, check points indeed were established in certain strategic areas – for persons going to Eight Mlle Rock, for example – to prevent the duty-free concessions granted to the Port Authority under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement on "bonded" items from being abused.

Certainly, preventing items imported into the Freeport area under "bond" from ending up in a business establishment or home in one of the surrounding settlements outside the Port area represented a very real problem.

Brenda Cheong, who came to Grand Bahama in 1957 as a young bride after her husband Edmund was recruited by Wallace Groves to work as a surveyor, categorically stated in an interview for an article that ran in a supplement published by The Freeport News in 2005 to coincide with Freepport's 50th anniversary celebrations that "there was no gate."

"There were two posts, one on the left and one on the right, and that was to tell people that beyond that mark, they could not take the bonded vehicles," Cheong said. "It was always a customs duty thing, but there was no gate."

But rumours of a gate being established "to keep black people out of Freeport" were rife when the PLP came to power in 1967, and combined with repeated reports of other real or imagined instances of racism being exercised against blacks, there was a tense atmosphere of uncertainty within the white business community in the immediate aftermath of the PLP's victory.

The result was that Freeport's growth and development went into a tailspin, precipitously so after then Premier Lynden Pndling's controversial "bend or break" speech after an inspection tour during the opening ceremony for BORCO.

Following is the relevant excerpt from that speech that triggered so much controversy: "I have always been concerned about this lack of soul in Freeport; the absence of honest concern for the human and social needs of people. I was so concerned in the days when I stood alone. I had hoped that an early change would have been evident by now, but have been severely disappointed. It is a fundamental part of my basic political philosophy that people are more important than things; that men are more important than machines. In this city where, regrettably, almost anything goes, where, promisingly, some economic opportunities have come to Bahamians, Bahamians are nevertheless still the victims of an unbending social order which, if it now refuses to bend, must now be broken."

There are differing opinions on just how damaging that speech was to the development of Freeport, but the overriding consensus is that it was responsible for many investors leaving Freeport and potential new investors abandoning their plans.

In an article in its 2000 edition, although not specifically mentioning the "bend of break" speech, The Bahamas Handbook made this observation: "Freeport residents were becoming accustomed to prosperity. By 1969 you could buy a sixth-floor, one-bedroom apartment for $33,000. Flights to Miami cost $28 return and there was a weekly direct flight from London. Car rentals were $10-$16 a day and a two-and-a-half-hour bus tour cost $5.

"That prosperity was short-lived. From 1972-78, a recession hit Freeport, grinding the rapidly developing city to a halt. The Lucayan Beach Hotel closed for lack of tourists. The economic recession in the U.S. affected tourism and development of Grand Bahama, but Freeport/Lucaya continued to be promoted as a model city. The economic hope of the nation rested on the once bustling new-comer."

It was during this "recession" that the stage was set for Freeport's phenomenal growth and development to get back on track after Sir Jack Hayward and Edward St. George, in 1976, took over the management of The Grand Bahama Port Authority Group of Companies, with Sir Jack serving as chairman of The Grand Bahama Development Company and Freeport Commercial & industrial Ltd. and St. George as chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority.

In August of 1978, they bought Wallace Groves' complete shareholding and subsequently bought out the other shareholders and became equal owners of The Grand Bahama Port Authority Group of Companies, although in the aftermath of St. George's death in December of 2004 after undergoing surgery for a heart valve replacement at a hospital in Houston, Texas, a court battle has developed as to whether or not he and Sir Jack were ever indeed equal owners of the GBPA.

In the opinion of many residents of Grand Bahama, it is a case of déja vu, in that the court battle is having a similar detrimental impact on Grand Bahama's economy as Pindling's "bend or break" speech did almost four decades ago.

Oswald T. Brown is editor and general manager of The Freeport News. Comments on this column can be sent to oswald@nasguard.com