According to Travels.com in an article entitled “What Type of Houses do people live in the Bahamas?” by free lance writer, Nellie Day. As you can see the link to that story is no longer available, because it was taken down after a massive Bahamian hissy fit over this massive pile of bullshit (parts of the article can be seen here).
I was born and raised on New Providence, and the only grass hut I’ve ever seen at home in my 28.5 years were on display as part of an Arawak Indian set. In fact, I’m pretty damned sure no one has lived in huts in the Bahamas since Columbus spread European diseases and obliterated indigenous Bahamians circa 1492 through to the early 1500′s.
This lady even claimed that only upper middle and upper class families live in multi-room concrete houses. And according to her, this middle,upper middle and upper class is a very, very small part of the population. But the last time I flew over Nassau, Grand Bahama and Eluethra, the majority of the houses from the sheer size had to be multi-room concrete houses. I wonder why this is Miss Day? It’s called construction regulations. We do have building codes yanno. I know we may seem like ass-backwards members of the Commonwealth, but we do have building codes which are adhered to for safety. Wonder why that is? Maybe because we live in a hurricane zone?
But Miss Day, you know this cause you mentioned the hurricanes, which according to you, blow all our thatch and hut houses away. So why are there never high death tolls?
The last Hurricane to hit an impoverished area with substandard housing occured in 2004, when Hurricane Jeanne slammed into Haiti killing thousands. This is most tragic Miss Day. And we take this very seriously.
But, if our homes were substandard, I would expect the same death toll- especially since the frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico are actually much higher than the central Caribbean, don’t believe me check Wikipedia which has more accurate information on class dividision and building construction in the Bahamas than you do. Fatality rates due to hurricanes in the Bahamas usually result in a maximum of 5 deaths. FIVE!!!!
And Miss Day, I am not upset because you have somehow “insulted” Bahamians, because we aren’t shallow or turn our noses down at anyone who has to endure living in such conditions. No, I am upset because you said that most Bahamians make a living by farming or selling goods in the straw market, when according to Forbes.com, the Wallstreet Journal and the New Yorker, most Bahamians are employed through tourism and finance. Which translates to hotels and banks. Everyone knows that. One of our problems is that we do not have an efficient agro-economy.
I guess what I am really upset about, Miss Day, is the bad name you give to free lance journalists around the globe, some of whom risk their lives to share the TRUTH with the world. Instead, you stumbled onto the set of 1492 and went apeshit with your recorder. So much for responsible journalism.
Have a nice DAY!
P.S. The name of the Travels.com article should have been “Shit ignorant people say about shit they know nothing about”.
