what if we broke the chains of
neocolonialism
[Music]
neocolonialism is the dominance of
developed nations over developing
nations by economic and cultural
influence versus traditional colonialism
in which dominance is asserted through
direct political control if our media
wasn’t saturated with American
programming perpetuating a specific
aesthetic what would our standard of
beauty become would we still marginalize
ourselves as we were once marginalized
by our colonial oppressors
if tourism wasn’t our main industry and
we broke the pattern of subservience
could we sustain our economy without
relying on foreign entities with that
fifty percent of the labor force
employed in tourism what could be
achieved maybe a change of mentality
with less emphasis placed on being
accommodated and more placed on being
focused focused on performing systems
that have been failing us focused on
making strides in Science and Technology
health care the arts focused on
developing entrepreneurship and
encouraging the innovations of young
Bohemians focus on ending poverty and to
use the language of post-colonial theory
undoing the harmful ideological
co-optation
and mimicry that allow us to practice
and tolerate corruption and allow
ourselves to be exploited mimicry
involves colonial subjects imitating the
behaviors of their colonizers our
government-sponsored education system
which follows a curriculum that’s
modeled after those who suppress our
autonomy is failing to prepare us to
compete in the global arena in our days
of colonization we were taught to serve
a foreign nation in our days of neo
colonization we are taught to serve
foreign national
the parallel is disturbing when you take
into consideration the impact that
neo-colonialism in the form of American
economic influence food dependency media
saturation and mass tourism has on our
country we must seriously begin to
evaluate the legitimacy of our
independence if we are proud to make the
affirmation that I am a bohemian why are
we so reluctant to complete our
decolonization and independence the
commonwealth of the bahamas saw the
challenge from of transitioning from an
economy designed for the sole purpose of
benefiting a mother country to an
economy that must now be cognizant of
the needs of the natives the motif of
economic dependence has evolved into
bilateral agreements loans from the IMF
and World Bank and foreign investment
what if the tentacles of foreign
investment weren’t so deeply intertwined
in our industry would our attention
shift from blending storing and shipping
foreign oil to harnessing the abundant
renewable resource of solar energy to
benefit our country and not the
financial interests of foreigners of
course as a small island nation we need
allies and trade partners however in
this neo-colonial era we revert to over
reliance on an external power this
neo-colonial cushion at which those at
the top are content has led to
complacency in the development of our
own economic infrastructure it is
unfortunate that the most readily
available means of generating wealth for
young people in this country is through
activities that tend to be illegal or
socially disruptive what if we placed
more emphasis on fulfilling this image
of paradise that we tried to portray to
quote a report written by the Council of
concern
abroad as Bohemians we essentially live
in a neo-colonial state on an eel
plantation and controlled by
neo-colonial colonists and neo
plantation Asst who keep us subjugated
and controlled on the neo plantation
through foreign direct investment Neil
plant foreign direct investors and
collaborating government leaders keep
the citizenry ownership free of the
major tools of economic development in
their own country and quote so once
again I ask what if we broke the chains
of neocolonialism since the Burma Road
riots the struggle for majority rule and
the acquisition of our independence in
1973 we have succumbed to stagnation of
growth to reference Adrian Gibson’s
analogy thinking of a 44 year old adult
you would think of them as being
established in life maybe married well
into their career financially secure if
we think of foreign direct investment as
financial support from our parents as a
44 year old nation the Bahamas is still
heavily reliant on support from mommy
and daddy we must strive towards
self-sufficiency if we broke the chains
of neocolonialism would we have a more
defined sense of Bahamian national
identity rather than the currently
ambiguous one bohemian writer and
anthropologist Nicolette Bethel
attributes this ambiguity to different
tales that combine to create the
narrative of our collective sense of
self I quote perhaps that’s why we
Bohemians today are so uncomfortable
with remembering that we were once
slaves perhaps it has something to do
with the fact that our freedom is only
half here for we are so quick to
surrender our identities and our
sovereignty for a taste of the comfort
offered to us by the master
today and quote we face a greater
challenge in eradicating the
neo-colonial system due to the nature of
slavery in the Bahamas
the infertility of the line resulted in
a side-by-side relationship between
slaves and masters in which there was
less emphasis placed on the traditional
field labor but instead enslaved
Bohemians would engage in skilled labour
such as cooking baking carpentry masonry
cooking sewing and so on however any
assumptions of poverty are just proven
when you consider the brutality the
denigration the whips and the shackles
our apprehension and acknowledging every
part of our history including that of
bondage speaks to our current state of
servitude our reluctance to look back
beyond our colonial existence has
translated into a disconnect from
deep-rooted cultural values artistic
essence spirituality and knowledge of
self in this new colonial era if we were
left to define ourselves without
neo-colonial influence what our
alignment transcend region and branch
out into closer collaboration with our
ancestral mother lines independence is
not just the legislative the
transformation must result in a paradigm
shift in which we release our ideals of
inferiority inferiority with regards to
our intellectual ability with regards to
our beauty and our self-worth what would
this mean for bohemian culture and art
what our cultural markers extend beyond
one festival can there be true
creativity and imagination in a place
where there’s no self-determination as
we move beyond colonial era paintings of
pretty landscapes beaches posts and
carriages and then post-colonial era
paintings of Bohemians in their struggle
against the price
and prominent bohemian figures can we
begin to move into a modern era in which
our art reflects the state of the
Bahamas today how was the Neo colonial
mindset hindering this process although
our country was never physically bombed
to the ground we face the same challenge
of rebuilding from the rubble of
shattered identities with distorted
self-image and misconceptions of the
nature of prosperity we must remove the
shackles from our minds in order to
remove the shackles from our economy if
our little archipelago could overcome
geographical separation and develop a
national identity box by assurance in
our economic sovereignty we could
redefine what it means to be a bohemian
what if we each made a personal
declaration of freedom what if we broke the chains of neocolonialism
neocolonialism
[Music]
neocolonialism is the dominance of
developed nations over developing
nations by economic and cultural
influence versus traditional colonialism
in which dominance is asserted through
direct political control if our media
wasn’t saturated with American
programming perpetuating a specific
aesthetic what would our standard of
beauty become would we still marginalize
ourselves as we were once marginalized
by our colonial oppressors
if tourism wasn’t our main industry and
we broke the pattern of subservience
could we sustain our economy without
relying on foreign entities with that
fifty percent of the labor force
employed in tourism what could be
achieved maybe a change of mentality
with less emphasis placed on being
accommodated and more placed on being
focused focused on performing systems
that have been failing us focused on
making strides in Science and Technology
health care the arts focused on
developing entrepreneurship and
encouraging the innovations of young
Bohemians focus on ending poverty and to
use the language of post-colonial theory
undoing the harmful ideological
co-optation
and mimicry that allow us to practice
and tolerate corruption and allow
ourselves to be exploited mimicry
involves colonial subjects imitating the
behaviors of their colonizers our
government-sponsored education system
which follows a curriculum that’s
modeled after those who suppress our
autonomy is failing to prepare us to
compete in the global arena in our days
of colonization we were taught to serve
a foreign nation in our days of neo
colonization we are taught to serve
foreign national
the parallel is disturbing when you take
into consideration the impact that
neo-colonialism in the form of American
economic influence food dependency media
saturation and mass tourism has on our
country we must seriously begin to
evaluate the legitimacy of our
independence if we are proud to make the
affirmation that I am a bohemian why are
we so reluctant to complete our
decolonization and independence the
commonwealth of the bahamas saw the
challenge from of transitioning from an
economy designed for the sole purpose of
benefiting a mother country to an
economy that must now be cognizant of
the needs of the natives the motif of
economic dependence has evolved into
bilateral agreements loans from the IMF
and World Bank and foreign investment
what if the tentacles of foreign
investment weren’t so deeply intertwined
in our industry would our attention
shift from blending storing and shipping
foreign oil to harnessing the abundant
renewable resource of solar energy to
benefit our country and not the
financial interests of foreigners of
course as a small island nation we need
allies and trade partners however in
this neo-colonial era we revert to over
reliance on an external power this
neo-colonial cushion at which those at
the top are content has led to
complacency in the development of our
own economic infrastructure it is
unfortunate that the most readily
available means of generating wealth for
young people in this country is through
activities that tend to be illegal or
socially disruptive what if we placed
more emphasis on fulfilling this image
of paradise that we tried to portray to
quote a report written by the Council of
concern
abroad as Bohemians we essentially live
in a neo-colonial state on an eel
plantation and controlled by
neo-colonial colonists and neo
plantation Asst who keep us subjugated
and controlled on the neo plantation
through foreign direct investment Neil
plant foreign direct investors and
collaborating government leaders keep
the citizenry ownership free of the
major tools of economic development in
their own country and quote so once
again I ask what if we broke the chains
of neocolonialism since the Burma Road
riots the struggle for majority rule and
the acquisition of our independence in
1973 we have succumbed to stagnation of
growth to reference Adrian Gibson’s
analogy thinking of a 44 year old adult
you would think of them as being
established in life maybe married well
into their career financially secure if
we think of foreign direct investment as
financial support from our parents as a
44 year old nation the Bahamas is still
heavily reliant on support from mommy
and daddy we must strive towards
self-sufficiency if we broke the chains
of neocolonialism would we have a more
defined sense of Bahamian national
identity rather than the currently
ambiguous one bohemian writer and
anthropologist Nicolette Bethel
attributes this ambiguity to different
tales that combine to create the
narrative of our collective sense of
self I quote perhaps that’s why we
Bohemians today are so uncomfortable
with remembering that we were once
slaves perhaps it has something to do
with the fact that our freedom is only
half here for we are so quick to
surrender our identities and our
sovereignty for a taste of the comfort
offered to us by the master
today and quote we face a greater
challenge in eradicating the
neo-colonial system due to the nature of
slavery in the Bahamas
the infertility of the line resulted in
a side-by-side relationship between
slaves and masters in which there was
less emphasis placed on the traditional
field labor but instead enslaved
Bohemians would engage in skilled labour
such as cooking baking carpentry masonry
cooking sewing and so on however any
assumptions of poverty are just proven
when you consider the brutality the
denigration the whips and the shackles
our apprehension and acknowledging every
part of our history including that of
bondage speaks to our current state of
servitude our reluctance to look back
beyond our colonial existence has
translated into a disconnect from
deep-rooted cultural values artistic
essence spirituality and knowledge of
self in this new colonial era if we were
left to define ourselves without
neo-colonial influence what our
alignment transcend region and branch
out into closer collaboration with our
ancestral mother lines independence is
not just the legislative the
transformation must result in a paradigm
shift in which we release our ideals of
inferiority inferiority with regards to
our intellectual ability with regards to
our beauty and our self-worth what would
this mean for bohemian culture and art
what our cultural markers extend beyond
one festival can there be true
creativity and imagination in a place
where there’s no self-determination as
we move beyond colonial era paintings of
pretty landscapes beaches posts and
carriages and then post-colonial era
paintings of Bohemians in their struggle
against the price
and prominent bohemian figures can we
begin to move into a modern era in which
our art reflects the state of the
Bahamas today how was the Neo colonial
mindset hindering this process although
our country was never physically bombed
to the ground we face the same challenge
of rebuilding from the rubble of
shattered identities with distorted
self-image and misconceptions of the
nature of prosperity we must remove the
shackles from our minds in order to
remove the shackles from our economy if
our little archipelago could overcome
geographical separation and develop a
national identity box by assurance in
our economic sovereignty we could
redefine what it means to be a bohemian
what if we each made a personal
declaration of freedom what if we broke the chains of neocolonialism
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