Word: bahamians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...which bear such prayerful names as Bon Dieu Bon (God Is Good) and Dieu Est Mon Pilote (God Is My Pilot). Since the late 1960s, Haitians have been emigrating illegally to the nearby Bahamas, where an estimated 40,000 now live, working as gardeners, servants and day laborers. But Bahamian officials, faced with an unemployment rate of nearly 25%, in June ordered the Haitians to leave. Explained Bahamian Information Services Spokesman Chris Symmonett: "They have been taking jobs Bahamians could perform and putting pressure on our social service system...
...Bahamian crackdown greatly increased the stream of Haitian immigrants to Florida. A record 600 refugees landed in June, including five boatloads on a single day; another 300 arrived by mid-July, swelling the total since November to 1,400. In the comparable period a year earlier, the total was 344. Hundreds more may have died of hunger and thirst or drowned during the passage. Two weeks ago, for example, 23 Haitians died when their crowded boat capsized in choppy seas outside Freeport harbor. Says Truman Carr, an agent of the U.S. Border Patrol: "The boats are overloaded and there...
...Bahamian exodus has encouraged a cutthroat smuggling trade, with boat captains charging from $50 to $500 per person and pilots of small planes demanding fares as high as $800 for illegal flights to small Florida airfields. One group of 13 Haitians paid a Bahamian boat captain $450 to take them from Nassau to Miami. But he put them ashore on a deserted island in the Bahamas, telling them, "This is Miami." After three days without food or water, they were rescued by a passing fishing boat...
Even Cooder's fans may be caught off guard by the direction of Jazz, an unexpected anthology of tunes from Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, even the great Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence. As the surprise wears off, though, and the rhythms become less remote, they will hear some of the loveliest, liveliest music in the air. Cooder, with band, gospel quartet and full orchestra, last week performed virtually the entire album at Carnegie Hall...
Many of the Crescent personnel also are younger than they used to be. The Washington-to-Atlanta sleeping-car porter is amiable John Fox, a 29-year-old Bahamian. The chef who takes over in Atlanta confides that he is "25 years, six months and five days old." Not that the old guard has changed entirely. Grizzled Luther King, the black sleeping-car porter who replaces Fox in Atlanta, is a kindly, dignified gentleman, typical of the old Pullman employee. He has worked the rails since 1942, when he made $150 a month; now he makes a guaranteed...