Do they on Shirley Street believe in Bahamians?
BY PAUL JOHNSON
Last week when 11-year-old Lauryn Rolle of St. Thomas More Catholic Primary School was declared the Bahamas Primary School Student of the Year Foundation’s ‘2013 Student of the Year’, The Tribune didn’t carry one line on this remarkable achievement by this young Bahamian. Lauryn won the award over 122 other outstanding students from primary schools throughout The Bahamas.
Back in March, when St. John’s College student Danielle Smith, 12, won the 16th annual Bahamas National Spelling Bee at the finals of the competition in Crown Ballroom of the Atlantis resort, The Tribune again did not cover this prestigious event.
Yet almost religiously, The Tribune dedicates major space on its front page to crime and other negative stories. Recently, they have devoted a good deal of space to a couple ridiculous stories generated by comments made on Facebook that by any stretch of the imagination could hardly be considered front page material and indeed important enough to be considered news items. The question has got to be asked: Exactly what is The Tribune’s agenda?
Clearly, it would seem as if The Tribune has no concern about how much damage their obsession with reporting crime stories could possibly have on tourism, the lifeblood of The Bahamas’ economy. Of course, this irresponsible behaviour is part of its ongoing “negative campaign” against the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), which Editor and Publisher Eileen Carron seems to hate with a passion.
Meanwhile, the Nassau Guardian, the other major daily, quite rightly gave both accomplishments by our two young students a lot of coverage. The Guardian quite perceptively suggested that Primary Student of the Year Lauryn Rolle’s educational achievement may very well have something to do with the fact that she “great-granddaughter of legendary educator Theodore Grant Glover.
And of course, the major coverage that they gave to Bahamas National Spelling Bee Champion Danielle Smith may have been because the Bahamas National Spelling Bee has been sponsored by The Guardian since it was introduced in 1998, with the winner annually representing The Bahamas at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which takes place on May 28, 29 and 30 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C.
This year, 281 spellers will participate from eight countries: The Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea and the United States. U.S. competitors hail from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe.
As a potential visitor to The Bahamas I find this article’s contents to be VERY disturbing. Is this newspaper, Bahama Press, basically wanting to hide the reality of the murders and crimes that are occurring in your country? If you are going to try to paint The Bahamas as some sort of perfect place for tourism…. then that is fraud and dishonesty. If you have a serious crime problem then SOLVE IT. That means you need to deal with it head on and it deserves front page attention AND discussion. If you want to focus on primary school achievements while ignoring a problem that will CRIPPLE your country in in the future, then that is very sad. The murders and violent crime in The Bahamas will hurt tourism FAR GREATER if you don’t deal with this problem head on and quickly. I appreciate that another news source is willing to address this problem seriously, and with more honesty. Quite possibly their “agenda” is to solve this problem vs. hiding it or ignoring it. The media has a responsibility to readers, and that isn’t to hide the reality of a real problem that is plaguing your community. Nearly 50 murders in 5 months. That is a serious problem! I would hope that for the sake of your own citizens that everyone would work towards getting this issue addressed quickly. It isn’t all about tourism. It is also about the families that live there full-time.
I’ve visited high crime cities and countries. I did so willingly knowing what I was stepping into. However, the crime in The Bahamas seems rather scattered and unpredictable. In other words…. widespread and dangerous. Where will I be safe as a tourist? Certainly not near downtown or by the cruise ships. How about in a gated community? Where is it safe? Should I forget The Bahamas and focus on the Caymans?
I don’t know much about the news sources in The Bahamas. But, I am very saddened that THIS news company wants to hide some very serious problems and to scold another news source for actually focussing on this serious epidemic.
I think The Tribune´s agenda is same as your paper (media). When FNM was in power, the only thing I read in your paper how the crime rate was going up and FNM was not doing anything about it. I was able to follow the murder count better in BP then any other media. And should the media hide the crimes and the horror that is going on in the country. Newspaper are obligated to tell people what is going on in the country, and the crime rate in The Bahamas is one of the biggest problems. And another thing, I think the only people that care about who wins some spelling bee or who is Primary School Student of the Year, is the family of those kids. It´s not a front page story. It´s not like the most of the students in Bahamas are doing so well anyhow.
Comments are closed.