Thanks for your response. I have never been to Belize, but it is perhaps the country in the region that has intrigued me the most.

Respect

MrAkata:



Yeah it was a bad example because it has more going on. I was really speaking of Belize where my family is from . We dont have shit going on there . Financial Services as well but doesnt concern to average person because most the bankers are foreigners because most their customers are white .Our minimum wage is not even $2 and to find work u must go work in the tourist section . Which are primarily located on the islands (Ambergis or Caye Caulker) isolated from the general population . Not to mention when the big resorts go up a majority of the time they bring their own workers with them . So the only jobs we would be able to get are the lowest grunt work if any

I spent a lot of time in the Bahamas in the 90's early 2k and like I say never stayed in a hotel . I was born and raised in Miami so my whole childhood was w/ Jamaicans and Bahamians . So Ive been around to say the least . My history of Bahamas goes b4 the Haitians were what they r now . Jamaicans were the ones at the bottom( and top) of the Bahamas(no disrespect). My Bahamian friends were mostly Jamaicans and Newbolds but I got see EVERYTHING when it came to the Bahamas. I never experienced the Bahamas through the eyes of a tourist.

Respect bredda

urahara:


I heard because of Bahamas small size , it's very easy for immigration officers to fish illegal migrants , how true is that ?

Quite true, but still many illegal immigrants are present. 300 Haitians were caught coming ashore on boats and repatriated so far this year.

MrAkata:


Did I say I was from the Bahamas ?? I never specified which Caribbean country I was from . The Minimum wage is 1.60 where Im from. I just mentioned Bahamas as an alternative suggestion to countries w/ tourism. From the outside it looks good but the average Bahamian is not living in those areas and only the ones who are in those areas benefit from it. Ive been to the Bahamas over 10 x's and never stayed in a hotel . Ive walked the streets of New Providence my self . Ive stayed "over the hill" and I can tell you it is not a depiction of what u see on brochures.

Bahamas tourism can not compare to the tourism where Im from. It is a bad comparison but none the less represents what I see on a larger scale. income inequality in these tourist destinations do not compare .

Minimum wage in the Bahamas ,yes but the price in Bahamas is 2x's more expensive than what u would find in America. Even groceries in the Bahamas are extremely expensive .

Since u know so much , show me an example of the price of living in Bahamas to America . When even the locals make $5 an hour but the cost of living is just as high as Miami

I understand your general point, but the Bahamas is a bad example. I never said you said you were from the Bahamas. I am from the Bahamas, though, and felt the need to correct the impression that it is somehow a country where the average person is not benefiting from the tourism sector.

I also agree with you that it is a very expensive country. But, although the minimum wage is only $5.50 an hour, very few people make that little and those that do are generally illegal immigrants (from Haiti, Jamaica etc.) the average wage is $14.00 an hour.

Because of its small population, tourism has done the Bahamas very well (it has the highest human development of any black country and - together with Barbados- is the only black country that is ranked by the UN as "very high human development). Bahamians can travel visa free o anywhere in Europe, North America, Japan, China etc. because of this, and inward immigration is massive.

Also, it is not only tourism but international shipping and financial services (banking) that dominate the economy.

I am not attacking your greater point, which has some validity. Am just pointing out that my country hardly fits the bill of your generalization.

MrAkata:
Oh...well that's unfortunate that you agree with your Nigerian brother about "me"...lol.
But yes, you are right....men and women are wired differently. Isn't that a lovely difference?
But the brother on the thread was in support of you relocating there; he was just giving you "tips" on how to navigate through Lagos or Abuja.

So you are a Caribbean American...very cool.
So both of your parents are from the Caribbean...but you were born and bred in the U.S.
I have never heard of Garifuna people...but that's quite interesting. If you are from New York, there is a huge West Indian population there...if I'm not mistaken.


I'm truly African American. My mom was Black American and my dad's Igbo.
I've always had some difficulty cause growing up the black folks called me an "African bootie-scratcher" undecided
Then the very few Africans (including western and eastern Africans) I encountered where I lived, didn't think I was "African" enough due to my mom.
So it's been a challenge...
I've practically only identified as a Black American...although my name is fully Nigerian.

Perhaps that's why I'm so keen on visiting my other half and immersing myself in the culture that I really don't know too much about.

I laugh about the "akata" word too.
At first, I was offended...but later I actually started liking the word and thought it was cute.
Lots of black foreigners have lots to say about Black Americans... (some of which is founded...some of which is not).
I can't even imagine what islanders call Black Americans..lol.

I just laughed reading the guy on this thread who allegedly didn't know what "akata" meant..lol.
I find that extremely hard to believe....lol. But so he says...
One of my dad's friends (who is from Edo state) was visiting 1 weekend about 5 months ago and he started speaking about an "akata this and akata that"...
Then he looked at me (although I'm also Nigerian) and said, "Oops I'm sorry."
I just laughed and said that it was no problem.
Now he himself is married to an "Oyibo/Oyinbo" ( another word(s) I learned here on N.L.), and his kids will probably be called "akatas" AND "oyibos"...but he couldn't help himself using the word.
I had found out (about 2 years ago..the time i had asked my das about "akata"wink that he absolutely knows the word and definition.
But see, I was clueless because he has never in my entire life used it in our household.

So see I have actual aunts, uncles, tons of cousins (some of whom I've spoken to on the phone) etc. that I'd like to meet. I would never come to Nigeria to take some pics to post on Instagram to connect with my "roots" briefly. I don't even do social media...other than N.L.
It's not a photo-op. It's my real life..real tangible roots...real blood.
But I do believe tourism should be for all people. Why not have blacks come and enjoy tge beauty of the island (food, shopping, amusements etc)...you know the "clean stuff" which could pump money into the economy? Every little bit helps right?

I know Nigeria is a huge market place....so do lots and lots of other folks. I'm first interested in the people..then the culture...then other things can fall inti place.
But neither I nor the other guy was trying to discourage you from going there to Nigeria to make an economic impact nor were we trying to "come for you", as was stated.
I wish you the best...



I really wish Africans would stop spreading this false narrative of Black Americans calling Africans "African Booty Scratchers" That is so childish and completely blown out of proportion. That phrase is almost 30 years old and was not created to disrespect Africans. That was a phrase from a movie BOYZ N DA HOOD used between two Black Americans to disrespect each other. Black Americans called each other that as children in elementary school. No adults or even teenagers used that phrase loosely to address Africans in particulars. Honestly most Black Americans never even met an African in America. I feel that narrative of Americans using that term adds to the division and tension between Africans and African Americans because Africans will come to America believing this is some common term used to refer to them , when it is by no way common. I doubt the average Black American under 35 have ever heard it or know where it comes from.

The only reason u feel so optimistic of tourism is because you are an idealistic America. You have the mindset that Americans waltzing into a coming spending their few dollars is a godsend to the people of that country when it isnt. 90 % of all of that money is owned and controlled by white foreigners and the top 10% and that is who it benefits. You dont know what its like to be a foreigner in your own country . Most of the tourist areas are off limits to locals either due to being over priced or blatantly restricted . Just because u see some old lady selling trinkets or working in a restaurant does not mean it benefits the local population. It doesnt because all the resources are directed towards maintaining those are and making sure the tourist are appeased . Those tourist areas price everything basically in USD but pays the workers local minimum wage ($10 day) I can tell u have never traveled and if u have never had any connection to whats going on w/ the locals. This is the same throughout MOST of the Caribbean. bahamas and Jamaica same way once you leave the resorts. Then they blame us of being drug traffickers and whores. YES , according to most tourist they see our women in these tourist spots of ALL being whores.

Like I say sister we see the world through different lenses through different life experiences. I see u as being sheltered and never actually being outside of that American bubble. I say that with respect because it is common w/ our people. The level of propaganda fed to us in the US is sickening once u open your eyes. The worst part is that we are complicit in the promotion of this propaganda and negative stereotypes.

I just advise you to travel period . There is no better time that now , do not continue procrastinating and your world views will change.
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You are lost. Minimum wage in the Bahamas is $10 a day? Try $5.50 an hour. Where do you get your information, exactly? Obviously not by direct experience or travel. Inside the resorts AND outside the resorts we use US dollars, which trade 1 to 1 with Bahamian dollars. You accuse Americans of being ignorant and unexposed, but you seem so yourself.

[quote author=MrAkata post=74541848][/quote]

You are lost. Minimum wage in the Bahamas $10 a day?? It is $5.50 an hour and set to rise later this year.

urahara:



How developed is the Bahamas ?

Developed in what sense? It is a small country with a population of only 350,000. But it has a very high income level and standard of living. It attracts many migrants.

MIKOLOWISKA:
Should have pointed out the following populations
Switzerland 7 million
Scandinavia 6,7 and 8 million respectively
Israel 7 million
Singapore 7 million
All economic and military advanced nations

And Bahamas not run by Bahamians
But by western hotel chains and investors
Y'all just lucky

Ignorance seems like a sport with you. Have you been to the Bahamas? "Western" hotel chains? Is the Bahamas part of the east in your opinion? Last I checked it was squarely in the western hemisphere. In fact, it is the place where Columbus discovered the hemisphere. You appear to be deluded by colonialist and white-supremacist thinking. Otherwise, you would know that EVERY country's relative prosperity is a result of LUCK. Do you think Europe would have been developed if it were not on the hinterland of Mediterranean civilization when the later was declining? They would not even have an alphabet if their location did not permit them to borrow it from others!! Do you think the Atlantic western European nations and USA would have industrialized had not Britain (a backward outlier of renaissance Europe) opportunistically created migrant communities in the Americas that spawned first an agricultural revolution, then a trading empire in the absence of competition?? Same with the Bahamas. It is prosperous for the same reason most of Africa is not (yet): because it occupies a favourable geographic position in relation to the world's economic and trading patterns and is to some extent an extension of the the greater western Atlantic economy (and not just in tourism, but banking, shipping and numerous high-income services). No place is rich or poor because of the intrinsic ability of its people. ALL places are rich or poor as a result of accidents of history.

vickyboy22:
, please advise me, i need a current contact of some one living in bahamas.

I am someone living in the Bahamas. What do you need?

Cromagnon:
AMERICANS DO
BUILT BY THEM
FINANCED BY THEM
NOW SELLING TO CHINESE AND MOVING THEIR TECH TO SOUTHEAST ASIA
WHAT ARE BAHAMANS DOING
STAGNANT COS THEY COMFORTABLE
JUST WAIT TILL AMERICANS CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE VACATIONS THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE JUST WON GEOGRAPHIC LOTTERY

You are lost. New York has a population of over 10 million. Yet your answer ignores my question (whether "locals", i.e. ppl from New York) own the hotels there and asserts (wrongly) that "Americans" (population 340 million) own them.

By comparison, there are 350,000 ppl in the Bahamas (less than the smallest borough of NYC) yet you expect them to own (in ABSOLUTE rather than proportional terms) as many hotels not only as New Yorkers but as 340 million Americans!!!!!

For an intelligent debate, let's look at hotel ownership PER CAPITA among Bahamians and Americans. No contest there my friend. We win hands down.

As for your comment about accidents of geography, it suggests to me you have no understanding of history, since the only differentiating factors between any peoples in terms of development have been historical accidents. How else do you explain the sudden rise of the denizens of the most peripheral parts of Europe (the US and Britain) just within a few centuries of their having colonised the Americas largely by historical accident and default on the part of more advanced Mediterranean counterparts? Coincidence?

Cromagnon:
who owns the resorts
no bahamians
working as hoteliers and cabana boys is not exactly tech advanced

Look up Baha Mar and Atlantis resorts and see how many of the jobs there are cabana boys. Lol. Average wages are $35,000 annually for both and the vast majority of jobs for locals are professional. All of the menial labour is performed my immigrants.

FYI hotel jobs in the USA are paid about half as much as in our country.

Cromagnon:
who owns the resorts
no bahamians
working as hoteliers and cabana boys is not exactly tech advanced

Who owns the resorts in New York? Locals?

omoiyamayor:
I'm afraid you have Nigerian blood in you, you know too well about us,confess for its allowed.we will not judge you lol.

I do indeed have Nigerian blood in me. My father's great great grandfather was probably a Yoruba slave brought to the Bahamas around 1810.

emekaHD:

I want to live and work. But i want to know if it is conducive for family to accompany me

Either way, you will need a work permit. I was asking on what basis, because it is very difficult to get a work permit.

emekaHD:

Hello momoyama, I learnt you're a Bahamian. I would like to relocate my family to Bahamas, I guess I would need an invitation? Would you be able to assist me? For now we are a family of 3.

But on what basis would you be relocating?

seunny4lif:

Nooo
I'm from Nigeria and since am a Nigerian
I can't travel West Africa without Visa

If you are a Nigerian how and why do you have a Sierra Leone passport?

seunny4lif:

I know
I have a female friend from Bahamas since 2012

Is Sierra Leone strict, too?

seunny4lif:

Ooooh
Your country immigration are too strictly

Yes, but they have good reason for it. Many thousands of illegal immigrants are here and it is just too small to permit so much immigration.

seunny4lif:

Aren't you Nigerian ?

No. I am from the Bahamas, as I told you.

seunny4lif:

I used Tap Airline becos of British immigration wahala
I know Germany too has no problem but Uk na wahala

what is wahala

seunny4lif:

I dont know about Nigeria Passport becos i used SL Passport

I think Sierra Leone is also a commonwealth country, so no visa will be required to enter the UK

seunny4lif:

I said it before.
BA airways
San Paulo to Panama city
Panama to Bahamas is just 2.5 hours
Panama require no transit visa

I still feel that the easiest route from Nigeria is Lagos to London and London direct to Nassau. Nigeria is commonwealth country and I do not think any visa is needed to visit the UK.

seunny4lif:

SL need transit visa thru USA same with Cuba
Passing thru Brazil require no Visa
That's the route I used then

But there is no direct flight from Brazil to the Bahamas. You would have to go through Panama to take Copa airlines.

seunny4lif:

I know
I have been to Nassau before.
I have a friend from Bahamas.
But no direct flight from any Africa country.

No, but there are direct flights from West Africa to Cuba and also I believe to Miami.

seunny4lif:

SL is visa free to Bahamas but Bahamas immigration are really hard.
They know most Africans use Bahamas route to USA
Tap airline to San Paulo
Copa airline to Nassau

Yes, immigration here is very hard. But SL is visa free for now.

expertman:

Hello bro,

Please are you currently in Bahamas?

Yes I am

Jb10:


Hello mate.... I heard Sierra Leone is visa free to Bahama's...how true is that can you confirm it for me Sir..if true I have my Sierra leonean passport ,would you enlighten me more about Bahamas...

Yes, that is true. Sierra Leoneans do not need visas to travel here.

Lady39:


Thank u for the info. I have yet to visit any Caribbean island, (although I have a few in mind) but I may have to check out The Bahamas.

Yes, you should.

Lady39:
Hi,
I think u may have mixed me up with the general poster of the thread. I'm only speaking about my experience. I should've been more specific. But I don't have a "fish to fry" in this situation. I was just commenting. I thought that thr French portion of St. Maarten was pretty wealthy also. The Bahamas & Barbados acquire most of their "wealth" mainly through Western tourism correct? I could be wrong, so thanks for educating me in advance.

You are correct. French St. Maarten is also wealthy, and it also derives its wealth mostly from tourism. In this respect St. Maarten, the Bahamas and Barbados are just like South Florida, Las Vegas, Orlando or the French Riviera, which also derive their "wealth" from tourism. Tourism is like any other service industry, in that it is the export of an intangible (non-physical) product. The wealth that it produces is therefore very real and it helps strong tourist-related economies to deliver first world lifestyles to their communities. In the Bahamas, average wages at large resorts like Atlantis are $40,000 annually (which includes everything from cleaners to accounting, legal and corporate professionals, all of which are local).

In turn, these jobs support lawyers (like me), dentists, insurance professionals and others whose clients are the direct and indirect employees of the tourist industry. As to the ridiculous comments of that other person who said the hotels are all 'foreign owned', is this not the same with Las Vegas, New York or London (often Chinese owned, like ours)? It is simply that like any globalized industry, you cannot expect the brands to be owned by people among a population of 10 million, like New York, much less of 300,000 like ours.

Lastly, I would point out that, as good as tourism is when well managed, both Barbados and especially the Bahamas have a lot more than tourism. The Bahamas has some 400 international banks and 6,000 financial services employees among a workforce of less than 200,000. In addition, it has the largest container transshipment terminal along the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, a massive ship repair facility and some of the largest convention facilities in the world, which promote employment and income on a large scale.

All of this explains why we do not migrate economically and are the target of so many immigrants. It also explains why we are defined as 'high income' and 'very high' Human Development, which means that our standard of living across the board is unlike genuinely developing countries and on a par with developed ones.

I wish every black country can improve themselves, as we also have room for improvement. But my annoyance with that other commenter was based upon the ignorance generalization he/she used in labeling "the Caribbean" as a single economic zone, which it is not. There are HUGE differences between the countries that make up this region.

onila:


the only immigrants flooding bahamas is refugee hatians

ghanaian cedis is also on a par 1 to 1 with the US dollar, so what's your point
does that mean Ghana is better than Nigeria whose dollars equals t0 350 dollars

the only rich bahamian i have ever met was a child of a government worker
the rest i have met, I am far richer than them

bahamians are just content people who love staying in their country just like namibians and botswans, south Africans who are also visa free to europe and America

If only Haitians are flooding here, why do we have Nigerians, Jamaicans and Colombians in the Detention centre and bring deported daily?

onila:


the only immigrants flooding bahamas is refugee hatians

ghanaian cedis is also on a par 1 to 1 with the US dollar, so what's your point
does that mean Ghana is better than Nigeria whose dollars equals t0 350 dollars

the only rich bahamian i have ever met was a child of a government worker
the rest i have met, I am far richer than them

bahamians are just content people who love staying in their country just like namibians and botswans, south Africans who are also visa free to europe and America

you are list. Travel, read and open your mind. Your ignorance is staggering. Instead of your uninformed observations, why can't you quote me a statistic to support your laughable thesis?

onila:


bahamas is poor
all my Bahamian friends raised in single homes

all those hotels are owned by foreigners

st kitts is visa free to US and UK but still a poor country

bahamas no jobs. .Africans go to the caribbean to buy houses and not look for greener pastures there
as for now, there is no rich black nation

KidStranglehold: who falsely claimed black Americans are better off financially than both Caribbean and black America

are the same black americans i saw in a group, that thinking of returning to Africa because Africa has more billionaires and they are better off financially in Africa

if bahamas is rich, why aren't thinking of moving to bahamas, barbados or bermuda

LOL. You are laughable and your envy makes you blind to reality.

Check your facts. The Bahamian dollar is on a par 1 to 1 with the US dollar. My housekeeper (from Haiti) earns more than average US wages and, unlike in the US, there is no income tax on that income.

Western Union and Moneygram in the Bahamas do ALL of their business sending money out of the country and NONE of it sending money in. I think that answers the question of the wealth of the country more eloquently than anything I can say.

FYI, the Bahamas has a far bigger immigration problem than the US. Every year we deport thousands of immigrants (including from the US) and immigrants looking for work make up 20 percent of our population. I guess they like to risk their lives trying to migrate to a "poor" country.

Do yourself a favour and look up the Bahamas' position in the UNDP's Human Development Index, rather than ranting nonsense.