A NATIONAL NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Haitian migrants caught at sea in The Bahamas

PLP Chair Fred Mitchell appealed to Bahamians to stop with the acceptance of rumours and stick to the facts.  He believes the present preoccupation with social media and the inaccurate information contained therein is leading to a national nervous breakdown that can only do injury to the individuals who are so preoccupied and to the nation generally.  Here is what he said in a voice note on Wednesday 27 August 2025

There was an emergency meeting of CARICOM foreign ministers on Monday afternoon to discuss the security developments in the region, and the realities of relations with our neighbors to the north. We are in interesting times and no school of diplomacy could have prepared us for this.

In this connection it behooves me to say to Bahamians that this propensity to adopt and embrace every rumour and nonsense posted online is doing damage to your mental well-being, not to mention our country. Some of this stuff comes off as entirely irrational and deranged.

The latest was a story circulating about passports and Haitians and the Turks and Caicos Islands. After the best of our investigation, the story was debunked as nonsense after discussions with the Turks and Caicos officials and the airlines and our own immigration authorities. The facts just don’t lineup with the narrative, but still the narrative persists. 

When you pronounce such a narrative calling your own fish stink, you’re contributing to devaluing your own passport. It is self-defeating, so what I say is to people of goodwill and PLPs: embrace the rational conclusions before jumping to irrational conclusions. That will be best for your own mental well-being and for the country as a whole. 

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