Dear Editor, I recently attended an interesting lecture on ‘our right to know’ at The College of The Bahamas (COB) and was intrigued by a comment made by one of the panelists, retired Justice Jeanne Thompson, who bemoaned the sense of apathy that exists amongst the students at that institution as well as the complacency that has pervaded the country on the whole. She was asking, quite rightly: Where is our spunk? As the foremost tertiary institution in the country, COB has a crucial role to play in molding the young minds of this country and shaping our future as a nation. It is at institutions such as this where the younger generation should be encouraged to constantly question the obvious (as my late father-in-law, Dr. Jackson Burnside, would say) by getting involved in, and carrying out in-depth research in all aspects of our society and environment whilst agitating for change. Justice Thompson spoke about her social activism in the days of her youth, whilst activist Sam Duncombe spoke despairingly about the immense lack of public support for the many efforts to combat issues that are negatively impacting our country and the generations yet unborn. So what has changed? Bahamians have always been a complacent race of people, not known for radical thinking and civil unrest, although there are significant points in our history that demonstrate undeniable spunk that led to positive change: e.g. when the women’s suffrage movement took off, or when Burma Road happened, when the mace was pitched out the House of Assembly window, or when the unions marched in solidarity against social injustices. Where is this passion now? Is it because we do not have burning issues to unite us, is it because we have lost our sense of community and therefore are not united in our stance? Are we no longer developing strong leaders who can unite and ignite passion for our causes? Have we lost our powers of observation, questioning and debate? Are we no longer focused on long-range goals that contribute to the building the country’s future? Are we content to satisfy our concerns amidst the many radio talk shows and social media sites? Have these entities diminished our ability to think for ourselves? Or is it just that we really could care less? This, in itself, is a topic worthy of research and debate right there at COB. – Pam Burnside
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:54:25 +0000
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