OSWALD BROWN WRITES
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 8, 2020 – Throughout my journalistic career and my more than 55 years of active involvement in Bahamian politics, I have a well-documented history of throwing caution to the wind by stubbornly refusing to pay heed to the sage adage, “Do not burn bridges behind you in case you need to go back over them.” Failure to adhere to this dire warning can have serious consequences on one’s professional and personal life, a lesson that I learned the “hard way” on more than one occasion.
Professionally, the bridge that I “burnt behind me” that I have long regretted is my personal attacks on the late Sir Etienne Dupuch in my commentaries in Bahamian Times during the struggle for majority rule in the 1960s. I began my career in journalism in May of 1960 when Sir Etienne, who was Publisher and Editor of the then Nassau Daily Tribune, hired me as a trainee reporter. I have noted on more than one occasion in this column and other commentaries that Sir Etienne and Sir Arthur Foulkes, who was News Editor at The Tribune when I joined the staff, took a special interest in my development as a journalist and laid a solid foundation for whatever journalistic skills I possess.
During my years as a young black reporter at The Tribune, however, racism in the British colony of The Bahamas was rigidly enforced by the white minority United Bahamian Party (UBP) government, and I had some vexing and humiliating experiences on some assignments that I covered, resulting in me becoming a strong Black Power advocate. I left The Tribune in 1965 to join Sir Arthur at Bahamian Times, which he and other members of the National Committee for Positive Action (NCPA) – an activist group within the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) — founded after the PLP lost the 1962 general election. By then, my reputation was well established as a Black Power Advocate who embraced the dictates of that era’s prominent African-American civil rights activists Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, so much so that there are still some Bahamians who are familiar with my involvement in the struggle for majority rule who still refer to me by the nickname “Rap Brown.”
The Tribune was a strong supporter of the UBP, and in my acerbic commentaries I frequently ridiculed Sir Etienne — who was ethnically black, but well respected and accepted among The Bahamas’ minority white population — for not supporting the PLP’s uphill struggle to tear on the walls of racism in the country. I sometimes got too personal with my criticism, and given all that Sir Etienne did to help develop my journalism skills, my behavior at the time can only be described as a shameful character flaw.
Sir Etienne’s youngest son, Pierre Dupuch, and I developed a very good friendship when we both covered Jamaica’s independence in August of 1962, and my subsequent written assaults on his father surely must have disappointed him and may have irreparably damaged our friendship. I would like to use this opportunity to offer a public apology to Pierre; likewise, I also publicly apologize to Mrs. Eileen Dupuch Carron, the eldest daughter of Sir Etienne and current editor and publisher of The Tribune, for what it’s worth. Clearly, if I had not “burned that bridge” behind me, when I returned to The Bahamas permanently in 1996 after living in the United States for 21 years, I would have been welcomed to return to the newspaper where I started my journalistic career.
In the area of politics, the “bridge I burnt behind me” that I mostly regret was my decision to strongly criticize the then Premier of The Bahamas, Sir Lynden Pindling, for some decisions he made shortly before I returned from London in November of 1969 following a year’s training in journalism at the London Evening Standard.
Although I was no longer the extreme radical I was as a Black Power Advocate in the 1960s, I later regretted using “poor judgement” in my response to the firing of my mentor Sir Arthur Foulkes and the late Warren Levarity, who I used to refer to as my uncle, from the PLP cabinet. I was appointed editor of Bahamian Times when I returned from London, but rather than judiciously dealing with the political decision made by Sir Lynden, I strongly criticized him in a face-to-face meeting with him, during which I was very disrespectful, and I also took him to task in a scathing editorial I wrote related to a decision the government made regarding the extension the casino gambling in The Bahamas.
Of course, I was fired by Bahamian Times and subsequently left the PLP along with Sir Arthur and the other members of the Dissident Eight. As a founding member of the Free National Movement (FNM) and founding editor of its newspaper, THE TORCH, I continued my written assaults on Sir Lynden, and there is strong evidence that this was one of the main reasons why I had difficulty finding a job after my tenure with THE TORCH ended.
In June of 1973, I got married in Washington, D.C., to my first wife, Camille, who had a Master’s Degree from Howard University, and she got a job teaching – thanks to the then Minister of Education, the late Livingstone Coakley – within a week after we returned to The Bahamas to live. Unfortunately, I was still unable to find “meaningful” employment, and when Camille decided to return to D.C. she urged me to join her, which I did in 1974.
After returning to The Bahamas permanently in 1996, I was editor of both The Nassau Guardian and the Freeport News, at different times, and my separation from both of those publications was because I still had not learned any lessons from my previous “bridge burning” experiences because of my “tell-it-like-it-is” writing style, but I have no desire to provide details about those editorial confrontations.
Yesterday, March 7, was my 78th birthday, and I want to thank my Lord and Savior for His blessing of a long life. I spent the entire day and most of the night reflecting of the mistakes I have made in my life — including the examples cited above – that are mainly responsible for the dire situation that I now find myself in.
When my diplomatic appointment as Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager for four-plus years with The Bahamas Embassy in Washington, D.C. was rescinded following the change of government in The Bahamas in May of 2017, I decided to remain in D.C. and have established THE BROWN AGENCY LLC, which offers a variety of services, including writing press releases, promotional articles and editing.
I also publish an online news publication BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which was launched to keep Bahamians and nationals from other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries living in the diaspora up-to-date on selected news from their respective countries. In addition to The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE has attracted a huge following across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. However, I am having difficulty attracting clients, and having not collected a paycheck in almost three years; hence the critical financial situation I am now in and on the brink of being evicted from my apartment, the rent for which was previously paid by the Embassy.
I received a Superior Court MOTION FOR JUDGMENT last week from the lawyer for my landlord, Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC, requesting me to appear in Court on Thursday, March 19, because I failed to live up to a Court-sanctioned agreement I signed on November 19, 2019 to pay my accumulated back rent over an extended period and pay my monthly rent on time at the first of the month. Judgment in favour of the landlord will almost certainly lead to eviction.
Given this fact, I have decided to “bury my pride” and take the extraordinary step of launching a GO FUND ME DRIVE, with the hope that I still have some friends in The Bahamas who would respond to my urgent need for financial help. I really would not be in the position I am in if it were not for the fact that when my diplomatic appointment was rescinded, I submitted a proposal to the government for me to continue doing what I did at the Embassy through THE BROWN AGENCY on a contractual basis. That proposal was revised down to a very affordable rate, and I was told more than a year ago by Ambassador Sidney Colliie that it had been approved and sent to the Attorney General’s Office for review.
Attorney General Carl Bethel likewise confirmed more than a year ago that my proposal was approved sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, supposedly for implementation. When I contacted Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield, he advised me to get in touch with Permanent Secretary Peter Deveaux-Isaacs, which I did, and he promised to get back to me. He never did. Sources tell me that final approval of my proposal is being blocked by a senior member of the government, but I do not want to become a “serial bridge-burner” as long as there is hope that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will eventually implement my proposal.
Ambassador Sidney Collie, who is doing a remarkable job, will confirm that the services I am offering are needed. However, Ambassador Collie does not receive the level of support that former Ambassador Dr. Eugene Newry received when I was attached to the Embassy. Indeed, the physical structure of the Embassy was been allowed to deteriorate and the Embassy itself has been without a receptionist for more than a year. Indeed, at its prime location among the embassies along the Embassy Row area of Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., the Embassy of The Bahamas is a structural embarrassment for a country that reputedly is the richest country in the Caribbean. Hopefully, I am not burning yet another bridge.
I have written a number of “distress appeal letters” over the past year to persons that I know very well in The Bahamas, and was very disappointed by the few responses I received. However, I would like to thank the following persons for their generous assistance over the past year: Denise Rolark Barnes, Publisher of the Washington Informer, where I worked as news editor for more than 12 years when I previously lived in D.C.; Sir Franklyn Wilson, chairman of Sunshine Holdings Limited (SHL); R.H. Culmer, CEO of Jarol Investments Ltd. and CHANCES Games; Craig Flowers, CEO of FML webshops; Anthony Ferguson of CFAL, who essentially was my boss when I was editor of the Freeport News, given the fact that CFAL owns the Freeport News; Michael Turner, my boyhood friend with whom I developed a brotherly relationship when we were both living in London in the late 1960s; my friend Leon R. Williams; Sarah St. George, acting chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA); and my good friends Dr. Roger Weir and Chris Gardiner, who like myself are Bahamians living in the Washington, D.C. area diaspora.
Regarding my GO FUND ME DRIVE, my Royal Bank of Canada account number is 735-231-3.
