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Bahama Islands News, Articles and Information
Historical highlights - The Out (Family) Islands
Introduction: The archipelago of The Bahamas comprises about 700 islands, cays and rocks, stretching some 500 miles south-easterly from just off Florida in the north to Cape Haitien in the south. New Providence Island which contains Nassau, the capital city of The Bahamas, is the most populous island. Out from New Providence, are the Out (or Family) Islands which are scattered over the blue-green waters of the Atlantic. The Out Islands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the majority of the population of The Bahamas lived on the Out Islands. These islands were isolated and more rural in character than New Providence, although at this time much of New Providence was under agricultural cultivation. The most populous islands outside of New Providence in 1891 were Eleuthera (7358), Cat Island (5244)and Andros (4589).
An explosion od Crafts
Admiral Forbes is hoping his hand-made model sloops and the miniature model vessels he has framed against Nassau and Andros water scenes will develop into a product marketable to tourists and locals.This 60-year old part-time boat builder who started building kamalamee boats twenty years ago with his church's Pathfinder boys club, has also co-founded a boat-building camp for boys.
Last year, Mr Forbes, a native of Kemp's Bay Andros and his cousin, Alexander Forbes, a former carpentry and joinery teacher at the R. M. Bailey High school and fellow boat builder started the Summer "Miniature Boat" Camp together. Mr Forbes feels that the coming to the 9th Bahama Arts Festival handicraft and souvenir show– put on by the Bahamas Agriculture and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) for the last three years - has helped in his quest to turn the hobby into a budding business.
Breaking the seal of silence
The Rotary Club of East Nassau recently presented thirty hearing impaired children throughout the Bahamas with new hearing aids and hearing aid replacements. As the children gathered in Doctors Hospital's conference rooms to be fitted with molds for their new hearing aids, or replacement hearing aids, the excitement could be felt in the air. The children, from Nassau, Andros, Abaco, Freeport and Eleuthera, enjoyed a day of fun and play, complete with clowns, face painting, games and balloons as Audiologist, Kim Scriven, and visiting Audiologist, Dr Ronald Jones, who traveled to the Bahamas at his own expense, to render assistance, adjusted the new hearing devices to fit each child's specification. Dr Ronald Jones who is also a Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders of the Department of Allied Health, Norfolk, Virginia, also presented a public lecture on "Current Theories And Practices In Teaching Reading And Writing To Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing" to the parents and attending teachers from The Centre For The Deaf.
A new, uninsured reality
According to meterological data collected by the website hurricanecity.com, Grand Bahama is the second most frequently hurricane-hit land mass in the world, following Grand Cayman. Since 1871, Grand Bahama has weathered a hurricane on average once every 2.45 years, and Andros, Abaco and Bimini are close behind in the top 10 list. Hurricanes are a reality in the Bahamas, and so, too, are increasingly expensive premiums for hurricane insurance. Since 2004, insurance rates in Grand Bahama have jumped 20-40 percent, according to several insurance providers. The cost of hurricane insurance, according to Patrick Ward, CEO of Bahamas First General Insurance, has a lot to do with the cost of reinsurance—insurance for insurance companies. Each year reinsurers put up billions of dollars in capital in a gamble against the likelihood of a catastrophe, and when disaster strikes, they pay dearly.