Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis addressed the promises and perils of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement in a speech delivered at a meeting of the Grand Bahama Chamber Of Commerce last Monday. The speech is being likened to the Bend Or Break speech given by Lynden Pindling in 1969.
Davis told attendees, “following the 1955 signing of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement both the promise and the peril of that arrangement were apparent.”
He continued, “the government did not have the resources to develop Grand Bahama into a full fledged economy, and so offered extraordinary concessions to those who did.”
Prime Minister Davis said the Bend Or Break speech delivered by Pindling “has long been considered consequential. He questioned in his address, “do any of you fault him for having the courage to point out that the canals built by the developers had deprived local communities of the clean fresh water that they always relied upon.”
Davis also questioned “where is the magic? Where’s the prosperity that supposed to be the reward for submission? How many Bahamians have been enriched and empowered enough to justify the billions in concessions?”
The Grand Bahama Port Authority and the government of The Bahamas are embroiled in a dispute over repayment for services rendered by the government in the city of Freeport.
