back to Environment - Bimini, Bahamas

5/28/2005

we had quite a surprise the other night..

we recieved a radio call on wednesday that there was going to be a "meeting" at the All Ages School on thursday, and we were urged to attend.. we didn't really know any more than that when we showed up the next evening..

3 news cameras, well over 100 Biminites, the local Bimini District Council,  several members of the Bahamas central government ( including Bradley Roberts, Glenys Hanna-Martin,  Alfred Gray-Joseph, Koed Smith, and Obie Wilchecombe), and Gerardo Capo himself all filled the room, with Biminites spilling out into and filling the courtyard at the school.

as a result of the protest the on monday, and all the press it generated, this meeting was put together to try to get answers to a lot of the questions people are raising..

the first thing of the meeting was a video that Bimini Bay had put together.. one of the strangest things i've ever seen.  about 3 minutes of shaky footage of different Biminites standing and smiling, cut with images of white girls in bikini's standing in front of local shops laughing and flaunting their big boobs, all over layed with the Coldplay song, "We Live in a Beautiful World."

then, Obie, Capo, Smith and several other people made speeches addressing certain things, all while reiterating that there would be several hours for questions to be asked and answered... initially, it was very hard to keep people quiet enough to hear what was being said.. Capo was almost laughed out of the room when he referred to himself as a "Bahamian" and a "Christian." 

Another of Capo's staff showed some of the plans for development, and addressed some of the issues from the protest, such as the presence of a guarded gate blocking the road, access to East Wells for Biminites, acces to the beaches north of the development, the lack of employment for Bahamians thus far, etc.. some of the answers were straight forward. "they will no longer block access to people", "everyone will have access to the beaches that wants", etc.. some of the answers were a little harder to decipher, "it is our plan to employ 300-400 bahamians, in the future"(why not now?), "east wells will not be effected by our development"( just ignore the map behind me that has the entire area developed) kind of stuff....

most of the Bahamian officials, like Obie and Koed Smith, made a huge point to stress environmental issues, and Smith said that after Phase 1 is done, each piece of the development will have to be preempted by an Environmental Impact study before it is ok'd.  Koed made it seems like is would be ludacris for anyone to even suggest taking out more mangroves, but then also said to "make an omelet, you have to break some eggs" several times...

once it got time for questions, things got quite passionate again, and it was hard to maintain order in the room. there were some people that were definitley for the development, some that were just being considerate and trying to listen to everyone, and some that were screaming opposition to it all and being escorted outside (including Blocker from the airport)..

probably due to all the commotion, the question/answer portion of the meeting was cut quite short, well less than an hour..

afterwards, Bill Keefe (from Bimini Undersea) and I talked with Koed Smith outside to address more of the environmental concerns that there wasn't time for in the questions portion... he made it seem like the diagram they have of the whole North Sound being developed is old and completely out-dated.. he also said that as the diagram shows the golf course wrapping around the Sound and down by East Wells, he guaranteed that that would not be allowed... whether or not you can believe him, he made it seem like at least they are very aware that people won't stand for that area being destroyed..

he also said that the more data we can present him on the importance and diversity of that lagoon, the better the chances are for it being preserved...

over all, there is tons more to say and to discuss, but the protest definitely had a big impact ( and the people of Bimini said they wont hesitate to do it again if thats whats needed)... also, from what was said in some of the speeches, our website is having a huge impact in getting international attention to this, and flooding the Bahamian government and press with letters..

i'm not sure if this meeting will effect the meeting planned for the 15th of June, it would be nice to have had a little more notice as to what was going to happen.

i thought you guys would want to know whats going on, we're definitly going to keep spreading the word over here, trying now to emphasize the environmental side since many of the other issues were more or less settled.

stay tuned,

grant

Grant Johnson
Bimini Biological Field Station - Sharklab
Bimini, Bahamas
www.miami.edu/sharklab