In December 2014, lawyers
submitted an application to the Registrar General’s Department for the
incorporation of a non-profit organization to be known as “Creative Nassau”. This
organization had been founded in 2008 by my late husband, Jackson Burnside III
and I, together with a group of patriotic Bahamians who believed in Creative
Nassau’s mission to “celebrate and promote Bahamian Art, Culture and Heritage
from the INSIDE OUT”.
For almost six years we had met,
discussed, strategized and worked towards submitting our application to the
prestigious UNESCO Creative Cities Network (en.unesco.org/creative-cities/home)
in May 2014 for the City of Nassau to be designated as a Creative City of
Crafts and Folk Arts, based on our unique Bahamian Straw and Junkanoo
traditions.
On December 1, 2014 Creative
Nassau was informed by the Director General of UNESCO, Dr Irina Bokova, that
they had been successful in this quest. The news was received with much pride
and elation, as the City of Nassau was one of the very first island states in
the region to obtain such an honour, and Creative Nassau had achieved this
without any assistance from government, several entities having refused to even
acknowledge or endorse our efforts.
Since then, in the misguided
inaction of the powers-that-be to cut off their nose to spite our face, the enormous
potential for the City of Nassau that is inherent in this designation, is being
completely ignored – and to whose detriment?
So here it is, June 2016 - a year
and a half later, and Creative Nassau is still waiting for its incorporation
papers and Business License! Needless to say, we find this mind boggling,
frustrating, and totally unacceptable!
Because our papers had not been
processed, last summer Creative Nassau lost a 5-figure grant that would have
positively impacted the lives of 60 students in an amazing cultural after
school programme we designed! Another summer is now upon us and we are still in
limbo!
If this is the government’s often
touted plan for encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation and creative economic
enterprises, having boldly signed up at the 2015 CELAC Conference in Havana as
chair for “the development of entrepreneurship and creative industries”, then
we cry ‘shame on you’!
Bahamian people continue to
suffer, and no matter how many tsunami-sized waves try to engulf us, Creative
Nassau will not be deterred from carrying out our mission, because we believe
wholeheartedly in our Bahamian Art, Culture and Heritage, and we loooove The
Bahamas!
Yours sincerely,
Pam Burnside
Disclaimer:
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private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of
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