Happy Discovery Month, Bahamas! Another October month is upon us, the five hundred and nineteenth (519th) since 1492. That celebrated Discovery for the Europeans through the lead sea captain and explorer, Christopher Columbus, was a new awareness to the Europeans, which established a new trading route and link between the ‘old world’ and a ‘new’ hemisphere, the Americas. This ‘new world’ was always there, however, it was a discovery to the Europeans who acquired for their first time the knowledge of its existence.

Discovery is the attainment of knowledge or awareness of things not known of before. People are discovering every day.

Since fate has had it that one of the most significant discoveries in recent human history occurred in The Bahamas when Mr. Columbus set foot for the first time in the ‘new world’ on the island of Guanihani, which he renamed San Salvador, we in The Bahamas should make this whole month as a celebration of Discovery. Not only commemorating the fateful day, October 12th, but using the month to re-discover who we are as a people; reflecting on where we have come from; analyzing where we are; and determining where we want to go or be in the future. Let’s do it for us.

Columbus’ act was an act of internationalism, it caused a new hemisphere to be widely known, the Americas, the most progressive part of the world today. The Bahamas was the start place for the new dispensation of globalization and it continues to be a part of it. Bahamians today are mostly descendants of ‘old world’ people, Africans and Europeans, who are the inhabitants who own and govern this ‘new world’ state. There is a lot to be reflected on and to be resolved in our nation today, we can do a better job of coming up with solutions organizing under the umbrella of the oneness of Bahamian. Let us take this most significant month to us and the world to focus on building a better Bahamian and improved Bahamas, officially.