I sometimes get very tired of Atlantis bashing.The Royal Towers certainly isn't the prettiest thing to ever grace a skyline ... at least from the New Providence side of the bridge.
But there's no denying that the Bahamas of the last 13+ years would not have been possible without the Kerzners.
I see and hear sooooo many negative remarks ... including one pseudo Bahamian poster on the Cruise Critic website's boards who said, in as many words, that [she] wished the man's island would sink into the sea!
Sweetie ... there wouldn't much of a tourism infrastructure left in place if it hadn't been for the "Russian Jew from South Africa" to quote from Larry Smith's "Tough Call" of Dec. 2005 (click on the text of the paragraph to see the whole hilarious article).
"Of course, we had to find a Russian Jew from South Africa with the smarts to build a replica of an Out Island village on Paradise Island, where a single drink costs $14 plus tip. But we managed to do it, and now tourists can safely browse the marina shops and listen to Bahamian music without fear of being harassed, cursed or spat upon."
And just in time to put the lie to those who continue to say the Kerzners give little back, Butch and co. donate $250,000 for a swimming pool/facility at St. Anne's - one of the local Anglican secondary schools.
Here's the article from the archives of the Nassau Guardian: Kerzner gives to St. Anne's
3 comments:
compared to what they make $250K is nothing...around the same time they gave that money to st. anne's their was also a govt school in need of a gate or wall in the palmdale area...where was the benevolence then...maybe its just me not liking that monstrous atrocity that will be bulldozed in 25 years but I dont buy it...the kerzners recently gave $3 mill to the toursim program of s. african university could Cob get at least 300K...
Agreed. A drop in the bucket.
But who's gonna give anything to Govt. schools as long as their maintenance track record doesn't improve? Talk to someone familiar with the Betty Kenning Swimming complex.
And if you were familiar with the Kerzners' history with COB maybe it wouldn't be surprising that they don't get the money ... and of course the whole COB presidency thing doesn't inspire confidence right now. For anyone.
But nevertheless the main point still stands ... despite the fact that I personally am not in love with the salmon-coloured monstrosity over the bridge, if it weren't for their resurrection of the Bahamian tourist product (and it really was pretty single-handed on their part) in 1993 and on, the Bahamas would NOT be enjoying the level of tourism, the reputation or economic position we do today.
Let's be realistic here...it was Kerzner the man not his country of origin or his religious beliefs that SAVED tourisn in the Bahamas.
Not to forget the approximately 6,000 jobs he created!
God bless the Kerzner family and the Bahamas.
A friend of the Bahamas from Canada
BAC
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