The text that follows is intended to provide a background for the crafting of a cinematographic screenplay for either a full length film or alternatively a twelve episode television show about the Bahama Islands. It is closely based on the book ‘Bahama Saga’ by Peter Barratt. More background to the story can be gleaned from the book.

EPISODE 1 – A LAND REVEALED (CIRCA 40,000BC – 600AD)

LOCATION: Mongolia   (or any other steppe-like location)

Screen subtitle: Mongolia

The screenplay opens with a view of the seemingly endless steppes of Central Asia in winter. The camera slowly focuses on a huddle of Stone Age people trekking through the snow with a herd of Bactrian camels, goats, sheep, and cattle (the route of the trek shown in form of an animated chart). The scene zooms in to their wizened old leader, a shaman, who holds up his staff to bring the caravan to a halt.

In a close-up a shaman is seen to rub furtively an oval-shaped piece of translucent jade that becomes a talisman and is carried to the continents of North and South America. Eventally the migrants arrive in the Caribbean. (…fade…)

EPISODE 2 - THE LUCAYANS  (600 - 1513 AD)

LOCATION: At sea, village settlements

The first Indians are shown arriving by canoe in the Bahamas from Hispaniola. They build settlements of beehive-type huts, they fish and cultivate manioc. By most accounts the Lucayans were an idyllic society. Their sojourn in the islands is interrupted by Columbus in 1492. There is a shot of a Lucayan bringing the talisman to the Bahamas The scene ends with three sailing vessels on the distant horizon…( fade to sound of Carmina Burana)

Q & A on pet adoption with the Humane Society of Grand Bahama

We will be announcing a fantastic holiday adoption special very soon and thought it might be useful to answer some commonly asked questions and debunk a few myths along the way.

You have so many dogs and cats - why don't you just give them away for free?

Good question!  We charge a nominal adoption fee for two reasons.  One; it costs us (often far more than the adoption fee) to care for each pet, to provide medical care like vaccines, deworming and preventatives for heartworm and fleas and ticks.  Sometimes animals come to us with injuries and illnesses and this adds to the cost of their care. The nominal adoption fees we normally charge - $75 for dogs and puppies, $50 for cats and kittens - allow us to recoup at least some of these costs which then allows us to continue to treat and care for more animals in need.  And two: if adopters can't afford our very reasonable adoption fees, we wonder if they can afford to provide proper care for their adopted pet.  However; we often run specials with much lower fees, and senior citizens (65 and over) are never charged a fee.  (Although we welcome donations at all times!)

You have so many dogs and cats - why are you so picky and why do you have to come to my house?

One of the reasons we have so many dogs and cats is because not everyone buys, adopts or takes in a stray animal for life.  Not everyone is truly prepared to provide everything that pet needs.  A large number of the animals that enter our shelter are surrendered by their owners for various reasons.  A small sampling of those reasons: moving and can't take the pet, fleas or ticks, the pet is sick or injured and don't want to pay a vet bill, the kids are not taking care of the pet, the dog barks too much, or not enough; the cat is scratching the furniture, the cat or dog  "won't stay home", the dog digs up the plants or pulls the clothes off the line, tired of the dog or cat having too many babies, can't afford to take care of anymore, and we've even heard "got new furniture and the cat has to go", and "moving to an upscale area and the dog and cat won't fit in"!  Many more animals are picked up or brought in as strays, yet they are friendly, some even wearing a collar, and it's obvious they had a home but no one ever come looking for them.

The following letter was published in the BAHAMAS GAZETTE and signed by ‘M.Z.’ dated London, 1786. The most interesting thing about this letter is that the fledgling United States has just introduced paper money and the Loyalist writer considers it might be a ruse to delay or avoid settling debts. The writer would clearly have preferred his American creditors to settle their debts in easily negotiable hard specie like gold or silver. In any case the writer was ultimately to be disappointed, the Federal government agreed to paying reparations to the Loyalists who had lost their property in the United States but cynically put the onus of paying reparations on the States. The States, of course, ignored the matter.

The making of paper money in the American States, is most evidently done to injure foreign creditors, and the injustice is aggravated by its being committed under the sanction of law. The Americans say, their paper will be faithfully redeemed, and that funds are provided for that purpose. If this were actually the case, the injustice would be softened but still it would exist. For creditors who expect payment, agreeable to their contract must suffer, by being put off to a distant period, let the security given to them be ever so good; and the more so if this security, be it note, bill or bond, cannot be passed in payment to foreigners. But nothing, in fact, can be more idle to pretend that the paper thus emitted will ever be paid at its nominal value.

© Peter Barratt

By Cheri Wood

If you think the police are looking the other way when an empty box of chicken flies by their windshield, think again. If an environmental offender is seen throwing that empty box of leftover lunch out of his car window it will cost him a lot more than the embarrassment of getting pulled over and picking up his tossed out trash. It will cost him $100 in cold hard cash. And those who think they can continue to dump their household debris all over the island, they just better watch their back. The fines for dumping start at $500 and there are many eyes watching.

Environmentalists on Grand Bahama have been waiting a very long time for littering offenses to be taken seriously and the time we have all waited for has now arrived. In the past, officers would issue a citation for individuals to appear in court to face accusations of environmental unfriendliness. Many of the offenses would be ignored and prosecution pursuit was minimal. Now with new laws in place, Road Traffic officers nationwide are taking trash tossing much more seriously. They are now empowered to issue littering citations on the spot for fines incurred for environmental offenses.

In March of 2012 the Bahamas Road Traffic Regulations were updated to include section 21 (e) which states that a $100 fine will be issued to persons “unlawfully or willingly discharging or throwing objects from a motor vehicle”. For the more serious offenders who drive around in vehicles that spew debris all over the road, their fine escalates to $200 as per the Road Traffic Act 220. These regulations are just a couple of ways the RBPF (Royal Bahamian Police Force) is enforcing the message that we must keep our environment clean.