a945: Bahamian attitudes towards Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Schweissing <dan_schweissing@hotmail.com>

Tommorrow Bahamians will vote in a referendum to approve/not approve five
proposed ammendments to the Bahamian constitution.  Amongst other things,
some of these ammendments attempt to correct the inequities that currently
exist for foreign born spouses and children of Bahamian citizens.

The following is an excerpt from a letter to the editior of the Nassau
Guardian regarding the referendum which illustrates the xenophobia on the
part of some Bahamians towards Haitian immigrants.

The complete editorial is available at:
http://www.bahamainfo.com/news_display.php?prid=4353&src=nassau

More information about the Bahamian referendum is available at:
http://www.thenassauguardian.com
_________________________________________
Commentary
Sheer rubbish emanating from Parliament

Released Wednesday, February 20, 2002 by transporter

Editor

The Nassau Guardian

Dear Sir:

[Do we realise what giving a Bahamian foreign spouse the right to work will
mean ? Are we forgetting that 13 % of our population are Haitian ? As soon
as you give a Haitian a Bahamian passport he goes home and starts collecting
wife / husband , son , daughter, pregnant daughter-in-law and anybody else
that can squeeze through. Yes, I said 13% as stated in Parliament. Recently
a count was taken in Florida to see how many Blacks were living there and
they found that 15% of the Florida population was Black . They went futher
and analysed how many of that 15% was Haitians . The count was 2% of the
Blacks in Florida were Haitians . Give them 5 more years and I bet you it
will be close to 10%. This kind of exercise must be carefully worded. And
yet, Amnesty is calling on us to embrace more Haitians - can you believe
that? Well, maybe Colin Powell can release some of those frozen millions and
send some our way. How can a people put in power a man who has been treated
for a mental condition like schizophrenia ? Surely there must be other
leaders in Haiti. Caricom is not helping the situation by welcoming Haiti
into the union. Aristide should have been told to go back home until he
pulls his pants up, and if he does not do the right thing Bahamas will start
to send back to Haiti ALL Haitians,even those that were born in the Bahamas.
I would do that if I were Prime Minister and to hell with Amnesty and
anybody else. Once this happens, can you not see the future? Is this the
start of preparing this nation for the results of signing FTAA agree-ments?]



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