Xenophobia and the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian

Sep 15, 2019 Countryman, News

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By Dennis Nichols

Eighteen years and four days ago, two monolithic skyscrapers of the World Trade Centre collapsed in New York City. Almost simultaneously, America’s Defence Headquarters, The Pentagon, was gutted, and a hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Thousands of lives were lost. From that day on, citizens of the United States became a little more xenophobic.
As the US government zeroed in on suspect Osama bin Laden and so-called Islamic terrorists, Muslims in the United States and elsewhere began to feel the heat. Turbaned, bearded men and hijab-wearing women were increasingly viewed with suspicion. And just weeks after 9/11, the so-called war on terror was launched in Afghanistan.
Today, in countries all over the globe, fear and intolerance of unfamiliar faces and cultures repeat an age-old refrain, from a time when, for example, Roman and Greek citizens felt themselves superior to the so-called barbarians of that era. In the Holy Bible, the Israelites are depicted as a peculiar people destined to be different; set apart for God’s purpose. Yet, in an ironic twist, they became oppressed in Pharaoh’s Egypt, due at least in part to their ‘strange’ religious customs, obviously at odds with Egyptian polytheism.
Having a different culture or a different perspective on how to live one’s life can be justifiably threatening to a host nation’s status quo, if the people feel their welfare and well-being are being disrupted or corrupted. Thus, it may be necessary for a country or community to act cautiously; even firmly, when accommodating foreign nationals and their mores. For example, how many Americans would be comfortable with Islamic Sharia law in their state or community?
Skepticism of, fear of, and discrimination against, foreigners, ‘strangers’, and ethnic minorities are spread far and wide – from the United States to the United Kingdom, in regions as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and South Africa; and right here in the Caribbean. My unofficial sniff sense tells me that many Guyanese are gradually waxing xenophobic towards some foreigners in our country, particularly Chinese and Haitian nationals.
The horrific hurricane that struck The Bahamas two weeks ago, has heightened an overtly xenophobic stance taken by many Bahamians towards Haitians in the island chain. It is directed toward both illegal and legal immigrants, although the former bear the brunt of citizens’ verbal assaults, and the government’s strict immigration policies. As help, search, rescue, and recovery efforts, spearheaded by the US, continue in Abaco and Grand Bahama, it is obvious that the Haitian population of the Abaco Islands has been hardest hit. And scapegoated.
Located in Marsh Harbour are two areas known (derisively one would assume) as The Mudd and Pigeon Peas. They can best be described as shanty towns, and were home to thousands of Haitians, many of them undocumented and living in closely-packed, dilapidated structures made with abandoned construction materials, on low-lying, flood-prone terrain. Those locations have been all but wiped out. Hundreds may have died, over a thousand are still missing, and most of those who survived the devastation have fled. Search-and-rescue teams, survivors, and the media all report the same lament, “The stench of death is everywhere.”
A recent Washington Post story by Latin America Correspondent, Kevin Sieff, exposed what he called ‘one of the world’s great faultlines of inequality’ referring to the huge economic gulf between the Mudd folk and the ultra-wealthy celebrity homeowners of nearby Baker’s Bay. He said some 2000 Haitians from The Mudd and Pigeon Peas were employed as construction workers, cooks, and cleaners at their mansions and golf courses (NFL quarterback Tom Brady and former NBA superstar Michael Jordan stay and play golf there).
Sieff disclosed that many Baker’s Bay properties and facilities were damaged by the storm. He noted that homeowners and developers there need the manual labour of Haitians to rebuild, but said there are none left except for a few who returned a week later to sift through the rubble or to find jobs with their old employers. He added that the simple truth was that the Haitians needed to repair other people’s properties so they can fix their own. An executive of the Baker’s Bay Golf and Ocean Club is now considering docking a mini cruise ship off the Abaco coast to temporarily lodge Haitian workers.
In the bigger picture though, successive Bahamian governments have been urged by their constituents to ‘do something’ about the Haitian situation in places like The Mudd and Pigeon Peas, and have made intermittent promises to get rid of Abaco’s shanty towns. Now some are saying that Hurricane Dorian may have done what the government failed to do, but as Sieff alluded in his article, the country may lose the tourism and investment dollars from Baker’s Bay, since there will be no, or few, Haitians left to help rebuild it. Some Bahamians don’t seem to mind.
Last week, I quoted a Bahamian lady’s outburst concerning rumoured looting and shooting in Marsh Harbour after the passage of Dorian. A male compatriot’s contribution to Haitian xenophobic hatred was his disbelief that some Haitians and their ‘clapboard house’ had actually survived the hurricane after being submerged in its storm-surge waters. He suggested that this may have been due to them practicing ‘voodoo and obeah’ and asked plaintively, “You mean the hurricane can’t kill them – they still there?
In the aftermath of Dorian, Bahamian notions of pride, its relative insularity with respect to other Caribbean nations, and its vulnerability to Mother Nature’s wrath, have also been exposed. Still one of the wealthiest per capita nations in the region, it is now accepting aid from countries around the world, including some Caricom member states it had seemingly distanced itself from. (Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis recently reiterated that his country still does not, and will not, support the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME)’s free movement of people.
The Bahamas will eventually recover from Dorian’s destructive passage over its northern islands, but it will be a long and drawn-out operation, especially for Abaconians, and to a lesser extent, Grand Bahamians. For Mudd and Pigeon Peas survivors, illegal Haitian immigrants, and maybe Haitian-Bahamians too, it could be the end of a fitful dream to fully integrate into Bahamian society and the start, or continuation, of a waking nightmare. The realization of what actually happened still hasn’t registered for some, and it may be months before the full social and economic impact is felt and analyzed. It is sure to hit illegal Haitian immigrants hardest.
The Haitian dilemma in The Bahamas may be just an average blip on the screen of global xenophobia, but as we say here in Guyana ‘those who feel it know it’. I have lived in The Bahamas, and I have seen and heard it. Saying it isn’t nice is putting it mildly. Pray for all the victims of ‘misplaced’ xenophobia wherever it occurs, but make a special entreaty for Haitian immigrants in The Bahamas.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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