HOPEFULLY THIS IS A PRECURSOR FOR A MORE FOCUSED RETURN TO A POLICY OF USING BAHAMIAN ENTERTAINERS TO PROMOTE TOURISM
By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 1, 2022—I had been in self-imposed exile from Facebook and the Internet generally for the past couple days as I contemplated my future in 2022 and beyond, given the very serious financial problems I am currently experiencing.
After I got out of bed shortly after noon today, my first order of business was to go through my daily routine of thanking my Lord and Savior for granting me another day on His Earth and for being in the driver’s seat of my life throughout my struggle to survive in 2021.
When I logged on to the Internet and saw the wonderful news that SHABACK — the superb entertainment ensemble, headed by Clint Watson, Press Secretary to Prime Minster Philip “Brave” Davis – will perform at the World Expo in Dubai, I immediately posted the following under the photo that accompanied the announcement:
“Clint, I have not been on Facebook for the past two days, so may I belatedly congratulate you and SHABACK on this wonderful news. Based on the group’s performance in Washington, D.C. during the 2016 Bahamas Independence Celebrations, the people of Dubai will be exposed to a remarkable entertainment experience. Please keep me up-to-date on your performances by email for BAHAMAS CHRONICLE.”
Indeed, SHABACK’s participation in The World Expo in Dubai from January 12—20 is fantastic news, and those attending the World Expo — which opened on Friday, October 1, 2021 and will end on March 31, 2022 – are in for a special treat.
I became a huge, huge fan of SHABACK when I was Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager at the Bahamas Embassy in Washington, D.C., and they performed at The Bahamas’ 43rd anniversary celebrations in D.C. in July of 2016.
They participated in High Tea and Concert at the Hyatt in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, July 10, 2016, and performed several gospel songs at the beginning of the concert and came back on stage later to close out the concert with a medley of traditional Bahamian songs.
I certainly hope that SHABACK’s performance in Dubai is a precursor for future use of Bahamian entertainment – secular and otherwise – for a more focused return to a policy that was popular during the former United Bahamian Party (UBP) government.
As Minister of Tourism and Finance in the UBP government, Sir Stafford Sands relied heavily on the use of Bahamian entertainers in the 1950s and 1960s to promote tourism.
Popular entertainers of that era – like Peanuts Taylor, King Eric and His Knights, Ronnie Butler and Richie Delamore, to name a few – made frequent trips abroad promoting The Bahamas.
Current Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who is also Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, has already demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is extremely capable and that his legacy will include having done a remarkably good job as Tourism Minister when tourism is no longer a part of his ministerial portfolios.
I have always advocated that Bahamian entertainers be included in The Bahamas’ “tourism promotion package,” especially in the United States and Canada, from where the volume tourists generally have established The Bahamas as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations.
Neighboring Caribbean countries like Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – among others – also embraced the concept of including entertainment in a big way in their tourist promotions. In Washington, D.C. and cities across the United States, the Mighty Sparrow of Trinidad and Tobago and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires became immensely popular in the 1960s. Of course, Jamaica produced a galaxy of world-recognized entertainment superstars, in the aftermath of the universal success of Bob Marley And The Wailers.
There are many Bahamian entertainers who likewise could have achieved similar consistent international success, but they were quite satisfied with their achievements locally and did not expose their talent on the world stage as effectively as they could have.
Hopefully, the Ministry of Tourism will give some of them a “second change” to do so, as well as some of the immensely talented young entertainers, to also demonstrate their talent abroad during tourism promotion trips and in tourism promotion advertisements.
Meanwhile, over the years, as a former news editor of the award-winning Washington Informer newspaper when I previously lived in Washington, D.C. for 21 years before returning to The Bahamas “permanently” in 1996, I have been trying to convince successive governments in The Bahamas to advertise in The Washington Informer. After seeing a recent article on the Washington Informer’s Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes in The Washington Post, I have decided to reinforce that campaign.
Here’s an excerpt from that Washington Post article published on December 28:
“As owner and publisher of the Washington Informer, Denise Rolark Barnes faces many of the challenges putting local newspapers out of business: fickle revenue streams, aging readership and the rise of social media as a primary source of news, just to name a few.
“Between 2005 and the start of the pandemic, about 2,100 newspapers closed their doors, according to Margaret Sullivan, media critic for The Washington Post and author of the book ‘Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy.’ Since covid-19 struck, she says, at least 80 more papers have gone out of business, as have an undetermined number of other local publications.
“And yet in the past five years, the Informer, which is focused primarily on the region’s Black community, has been undergoing an impressive expansion. Readership for the D.C.-based weekly has nearly doubled to roughly 50,000. Unlike some local newspapers, which have shrunk to the size of a supermarket supplement, the Informer has grown from an average 36 pages per issue to 56 pages…”
Given the fact that the core aspect of my lobbying efforts in recent years to convince the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism to advertise in the Black Press generally and the fact that The Washington Informer is widely circulated in the Washington metropolitan area, including Northern Virginia and Prince George’s County, Maryland, which has been enhanced by the fact that the newspaper is the sponsor of the Prince George’s County Spelling Bee, through which a spelling champion from P.G. County is selected to participate in the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. As I noted in several previous articles on this subject, it was because of my previous ties to the Washington Informer that The Bahamas became a participant in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Hopefully, Deputy Prime Minister Cooper, in his capacity as Minister of Tourism, will see the tremendous tourism promotional benefits for The Bahamas in advertising in The Washington Informer and The Black Press generally.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my friends in The Bahamas and the United States as well as followers of BAHAMAS CHRONICLE and my Facebook page. May you enjoy tremendous happiness, prosperity and good health in 2022 and beyond.
