Hawaii's sports economic focus

From this space, the central administration in this country has often been challenged to utilize the Bahamian sports commodity to the fullest.

The cry has fallen on deaf ears, seemingly. Unfortunately despite the high level of excellence attained by various sports programs in the country our governments have merely scratched the surface in maximizing this gift. To put it quite plainly, it's nothing other than shortsightedness on the part of our politicians who are elected to drive the resources of our land to the collective benefit of the people.

Just this past week, the Mayor of Honolulu, Hawaii, Mufi Hannemann went public with his intention to use "sports" as the vehicle to help the flagging economy in that state. He spoke directly to the National Football League's Pro Bowl, a flagship economic event for Hawaii. Whereas there are those who have expressed some concern over the amount of funds expended to prepare for the Pro Bowl, many others, like Mayor Hannemann, see the big picture and the great spill over financial gains for the state.

He also wants to piggyback on Chicago if it wins the bid to host the 2016 Olympics. The Mayor sees these events and other aspects of the sports industry as future targets to help Hawaii climb out of the economic depression. I just returned from London. In the entire United Kingdom and throughout Europe, the respective countries pay full attention to their sports industries. It's a common sense approach for them.

In London, there is a big controversy over how members of parliament are spending their allowances. Then, there was the G20 Summit, with United States President Barack Obama and host British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the stars. They were joined by other big world names like Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Medvedev, and Merkel. They left London with a world united front and a $1.1 trillion boost to the international economy.

Oh, there was a lot happening in London, but sports did not take a back seat at all. Soccer, rugby, cricket, motor racing, and boxing maintained their places in the spotlight. The system there, understands the importance of the sporting industry and everybody functions accordingly. Now more than ever, our Bahamian political leaders ought to follow the pattern of much larger nations and focus on the sports industry. The Bahamas is considered a tax haven. Well, one of the priorities decided upon by the big 20 powerful nations was to go after the tax havens. According to a report in The Times of London, "tax havens were put on notice to clean up their act or face sanctions by the end of the year."

Prime Minister Brown was quoted: "This is the start of the end. People will increasingly see it as unsafe to be in a country that wants to declare itself a tax haven."

This is terrible news for such countries. There is this blacklist compiled by the G-20. Costa Rica, Malaysia, The Philippines and Uruguay have been reported thus far as being tops on the list. They are considered non-cooperative. Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham and the rest of our political leaders are up against it to show that The Bahamas plans to be cooperative.

There is an economic savior waiting in the wings. Reference is of course, to the sports industry. In the weeks to come, a nation will see what PM Ingraham's thinking is on this matter.

Source: Fred Sturrup in the Nassau Guardian