Highest on that list of big talkers, would be a broad cross section of pundits, pontificators and armchair philosophers.
In one telling instance, where talk has run ahead of the economic facts of life, is the call for the government to do ﾑsomethingﾴ about Bay Street and its immediate environs. In one magnificent presentation, a call has been made for the container terminals on the Bay street foreshore to be removed. The attitude seems to be that their removal would facilitate the renewal of Bay Street, and thus enhance the aesthetic appreciation of the city centre.
As far as talk goes, all of this is well and good. On its own it does little harm. And, indeed, there might be some residual good attending the idea that Bay Street can be turned into a Parisian style mall, or something similar to the ambience on Beale Street. We could cite numerous instances of pie in the sky pronouncements, coming from any number of Bahamians. For current purposes, reference will be made to two others which come to mind.
Apart from current pronouncements concerning the renovation of Bay Street, are proposals for the ﾑtransformationﾴ of Cable Beach and the introduction of a comprehensive health care plan for The Bahamas. While we have no doubt that Cable Beach can be transformed, ours is a wait and see attitude. As for the proposed health care scheme, like a number of other people we have been there and heard some of that before. Our concern is to find out where the money for it is to come from. In other words, we are not holding our breath, against the hope that it will come any time soon.
Granted the Bahamian penchant to ﾑtalk bigﾴ about all manner of things and plans for the future, we seriously wonder whether some of their authors are working on this side of sanity. In the real world, choices must be made as to who will get what, when, where and how. Before such priorities are made, there must be capacity to produce the goods which are to be allocated. There is, after all, no free lunch.
Given to both hype and gripe, there are any number of Bahamians who talk a good talk, but when pressed, fail to deliver. The game played usually involves grand gestures, large talk and extravagant promises. Politicians on the campaign trail routinely use some of these devices, in order to seduce people into voting for them. The problem which arises, on the morning after, is that if they are successful, economic reality kicks in.
Something like this has happened to the ﾑNewﾴ Progressive Liberal Party. Locked out of office for a decade, hierarchy members, their intellectual sidekicks and other strong supporters had time and more to conjure up any number of large schemes. Most of these were generated as part of a larger effort, to convince the electorate that they had answers.
Prime Minister Perry Christie is on the record, with a lament about the need for him to make choices in what he and his team can do with the resources at hand. In talking about the need for his government to be balanced and judicious in decision making, Mr. Christie signals his understanding and appreciation for the economic facts of life. This realization is encapsulated in the word ﾑpriorities.ﾴ
Since human kind has not ever and will not ever live in a world where resources are unlimited and there for the taking, choices must be made. This happens at all levels of human social intercourse. People decide how much of anything they will put on matters which come their way for attention and decision. This is the point an exasperated prime minister was putting, as he expatiated on the decision he would make, were he to be put on the spot to decide between uprooting casuarinas pest trees, and proper toilet facilities. The key question is to determine ﾖ granted the reality of finite resources ﾖ which is the more important concern.
In some instances the gap between rhetoric and action is directly proportional to the speakerﾴs ignorance of the law of supply and demand. As the old adage so neatly puts it: if wishes were horses, even beggars would ride.
Editor, The Bahama Journal
