“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The new year has gotten off at a frenetic pace. Following his unending, unfounded lies and persistent prevarications about winning the presidential election last November, Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results ultimately failed. But not before stoking the flames of an insurrection and chaotic riots at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on January 6, representing an unparalleled level of domestic terrorism that the United States has not witnessed in over a century.
The sycophantic domestic terrorists were rapidly countered by the most fortified security presence ever surrounding a presidential inauguration. In the week before the presidential inauguration, more than 25,000 National Guard troops, multiple police departments, FBI, and Secret Service personnel gathered to ensure that the constitution of the world’s “greatest” putative democracy would survive its near-death experience.
On January 20, the entire world breathed a universally collective sigh of relief and applauded the departure of the most scandalous, misguided, corrupt, delusional, egotistical, narcissistic president in American history. The world joyfully witnessed the exit of a president who could not have departed that office soon enough.
President Joseph R. Biden’s inauguration was accompanied by a level of hopeful anticipation that American presidential politics would return to some semblance of normality. On day one, the new president signed 17 executive orders, reversing many of the diabolical deeds that Donald Trump implemented.
On the first full working day of his nascent presidency, President Biden signed several more executive orders designed, among other things, to reverse the monumentally mismanaged COVID-19 pandemic. One of the more prominent executive orders included one that focused on “Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel”.
That executive order immediately foreshadowed a negative impact on The Bahamas’ tourism industry, prompting the minister of tourism to announce that it would be “simply devastating” to Bahamian tourism.
Therefore, this week, we would like to consider this — will the executive order that imposes extraordinary restrictions represent an existential threat to Bahamian tourism?
The executive order
The executive order “On Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel” begins by recognizing that “Science-based public health measures are critical to preventing the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by travelers within the United States and those who enter the country from abroad.”
Among other things, it mandates the requirement to “wear masks in compliance with CDC guidelines in or on airports, commercial aircraft, trains, public maritime vessels, including ferries, and intercity bus services”.
The international travel restrictions are significant. That provision states: “It is the policy of my administration that, to the extent feasible, travelers seeking to enter the United States from a foreign country shall be:
(i) required to produce proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test prior to entry; and
(ii) required to comply with other applicable CDC guidelines concerning international travel, including recommended periods of self-quarantine or self-isolation after entry into the United States.”
The CDC guidelines include testing for COVID-19 within three to five days after arriving back in the United States from higher risk activities during international travel. Persons are advised to stay home for seven days after travel abroad, even if they test negative. Those who are not tested are advised to stay home for 10 days after returning to the United States.
The executive order also states that the secretary of state, in consultation with other US departments, “shall seek to consult with foreign governments, the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association, and any other relevant stakeholders to establish guidelines for public health measures associated with safe international travel, including on aircraft and at ports of entry. Any such guidelines should address quarantine, testing, COVID-19 vaccination, follow-up testing and symptom-monitoring, air filtration requirements, environmental decontamination standards, and contact tracing.”
The executive order also addresses sea travel. That section requires that the secretary of homeland security and other agencies “… shall…submit to the president a plan to implement appropriate public health measures at seaports. The plan should implement CDC guidelines, consistent with applicable law, and take into account operational considerations.”
The executive order recommends that quarantine and obtaining a negative COVID-19 PCR test within three days of travel for all returning visitors imposes another impediment and cost for Americans coming to The Bahamas.
Public reaction
Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism, immediately responded to the executive order. He emphatically stated: “This is potentially economically devastating. COVID-19 took us to the edge, and this will keep us on the edge that much longer. It’s quite depressing, really. It’s a major setback. I presume it’s going to be impactful on our hotel partners, our airline partners and certainly our cruise line partners, and all the spinoffs that feed those things.
“I cannot imagine what’s going to emerge from this, but at least we’re handling COVID-19 well, and hopefully, that resonates with the powers that be at the CDC and we fall into a category that allows an exemption from those requirements. It’s a problem. It’s a major problem.
“The fact that you have to get a COVID-19 test to return to the US is an impediment that we could potentially overcome, but this one, having to comply with the CDC guidelines on quarantine, which I think is for between seven, 10 or 14 days… I don’t know if we can get down to Level 2, but that is what we have to push for.”
The Bahamas is currently at Level 4.
The requirements of the new executive order will acutely aggravate our already anemic tourism industry. Key stakeholders in the tourism sector have expressed similar concerns about the implications of the new order. Some of our primary hotel properties have already slashed or furloughed their staff or have delayed reopening. The effects of this new mandate will create even more significant uncertainty about our tourism sector’s future in the short-term.
The realities that we face
There are several realities that we must face in light of these developments.
First, the most important imperative of any government is to safeguard its own best interests and its citizens. To this end, the new Biden administration decided that it must take unprecedented action to contain and mitigate the pandemic.
This becomes even more critical because of his predecessor’s shameful abject negligence and lack of attention to the rising number of positive US COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. This executive order’s urgency was accentuated by recognizing a mutated strain of the virus that originated outside the United States and is exponentially more infectious and possibly deadlier than its original permutation.
Secondly, we should recognize that COVID-19 is not going anywhere soon and will be with us for most of 2021. Until we are vaccinated for the virus in large numbers, it will continue to present a clear and present danger to our health and lives. It will not simply disappear overnight as was suggested one year ago. Therefore, we must learn to live with the pandemic, exercise good judgment, and observe best practices that have been reiterated, ad nauseam.
Thirdly, while it is vitally important to understand the ramifications of the new executive order, the time ahead can be used to plan more effectively for how we refine our mitigation procedures and, more importantly, how we can use the time to prepare for an effective, methodical, systematic national vaccination plan.
We have not yet been informed which vaccine will be available to us, when, and at what cost. These critical issues must be urgently addressed, so that we can curtail this crisis and bring it under control here at home. Also, serious consideration must be given to a distribution plan that is methodically framed and executed to avoid long lines, frustration, distribution dysfunction, and other chaotic public responses to the vaccination’s delivery efforts.
Fourthly, we should wisely use this opportunity of diminished international travel to promote and encourage domestic tourism. There are islands of The Bahamas with lower incidents of the virus. Bahamians should seriously consider staying in the country to support our domestic tourism product on the many Family Islands that offer distinctively different experiences.
Our beautiful islands are prized by tourists as the real jewels of The Bahamas; we should really plan to get out there and see why. Perhaps those hoteliers and other hospitality-related businesses in the Family Islands can create some very attractively priced packages to entice Bahamians to visit.
Conclusion
While the recent international travel restrictions have created a stir, we could use this setback to explore and identify the streaks of silver lining that are certainly embedded in this dark cloud.
For a brief moment in 2020, the pandemic emphasized our vulnerability as a predominantly single-industry economy: tourism. During the crisis last year, many Bahamians, out of necessity, explored entrepreneurial opportunities, some of which worked and continued to provide a steady income to those displaced. That reality provided us with an instructive, albeit brief, foretaste of what the future portends and the possibilities that lie ahead of us.
We must learn to identify the needs created by this pandemic, as the various new shopping and delivery services have, as well as the plethora of new online businesses and services, and then create our own new business by filling these needs.
Sometimes, the very abilities and talents we each have and take for granted, are the very things that will enable us to not only survive this dark time but to thrive as the dark clouds draw back and the bright silver light is revealed and shines down upon us all.
• Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.
The post The dark cloud and silver lining appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/the-dark-cloud-and-silver-lining/
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