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Publishers Statement

September 9th thru 16th

Dr. Daniel Johnson

I begin my statement this week with a simple admission. This is not the article I had ready to go. Certain events in the daily media triggered me to a re-write.

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On Thursday 7th September, The Tribune’s front page used up 37.5 per cent of its space in a banner headline on the top fold which read:” UNION: CUBAN TEACHERS’CAN’T SPEAK ENGLISH’ BUT leader has received complaints from parents about language barriers”.

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The Tribune saw this story as a show stopper. Another cog in the wheel to offset the re-opening of the school year and hang culpability on anything untoward on the Minister of Education and her Ministry.

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On Friday 8th September on page seven of the Tribune, in a story over two newspaper columns with a headline set in reverse type and a 24 point font which reads :- MOE HITS BACK AT UNION CLAIM ON LANGUAGE BARRIERS OF CUBAN TEACHERS”.

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Night and Day.

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Now digest this not unusual newspaper posturing. The Nassau Guardian on Friday published the Ministry’s refute of the Union’s allegations on page 3 under the headline, “Ministry refutes claim that Cuban teachers can’t speak English.”

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Journalism has gone haywire in this country. These newspapers did no investigation of their own. As easy as it is to head on down to the C. C. Sweeting Senior High School which is in walking distance from the Nassau Guardian or to go on over to the C. R. Walker Senior High School on Blue Hill Road which is a five minute drive from the Tribune and to have a look-see for themselves; journalists and editors choose to hide behind a personality who has proven more often than not to have absolutely ‘no there …there.’

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Is it fair for the Bahamian people to be subjected to this kind of journalistic abuse? The dumbing down of the country by media just continues to roll on as if no one gives a damn. 

The roof falls at the R. M. Bailey Senior High School and the Leader of the Official Opposition suddenly is a qualified on site engineer for the newspaper’s unconcealed purposes.

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Cuban professional and technical expertise is not new or novel in this country.

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Bahamians travel to Havana and Santiago De Cuba as their new Orlando.

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One thing we do know for certain and that is the Cuban Educational system turns out some of the brightest bi-lingual scholars in the western hemisphere.

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The Cuban system of citizens being engaged outside the country is a subject of state craft and I have no reason to second doubt the decision of the Cuban Government as to who they felt qualified to take on bi-lingual posts in classrooms in the Bahamas.

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This very same nonsense was floated when Cuban medical doctors, agriculturalists and scientists were hired in this country.

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One would have thought that parents and teachers would be very excited for Bahamian students to get this peculiar immersion in the three “r’s” reading, riting and rithmetic and languages, culture and science.

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But as always the stoke and stroke of xenophobia is always relaxed and waiting in the mischievous quiver of some fire starter.

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My dad, Oscar Johnson was a Publisher and Journalist. He understood from his early days working around Dr. C. R. Walker and “The Voice” and Etienne Dupuch and The Tribune the crucial importance of having our story told.

When dad started “The Bahama Life Magazine” after Independence in 1973, the glow was to present the Bahamas, this new nation and new citizenship and stewards to a world eager to see the manner of our bearing.

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Through the many years we have seen the integrity of journalism squandered for cheap thrills, name call, race baiting and of course the favourite scare-crow of curious minds who think calling people “sissy” is a Pulitzer Prize winning contribution.

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The Ministry of Education has denied the Union’s outburst. Indeed when you dissect what the Union Leader had to say, it is not clear if even she did any fact finding on the ground and on campus. It all came down to who said who said what and who knows who truly said anything.

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I am going to be quite bold in my column today and ask the Bahamian Media to pull their socks up.

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Stop carrying water for political mischief.

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Stop dumbing down the country.

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Have some shame and self- respect.

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There can be no justification to explain how the useless allegation against the Cuban teachers warranted a banner headline that stretches the length of the Prince George Dock. And the Ministry’s defence is buried on the inside.

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“Being bound to swear to the dogmas of no master”should mean something so fundamental.