Bahamas News
Meet Sir Sidney Poitier
Hollywood’s Oldest Legend & Caribbean Icon takes his final bow
#TheBahamas, January 15, 2022 – Sidney Poitier was a famous Bahamian-American actor, ambassador, film director, film producer and author. He was born on February 21, 1927 in Miami, Florida and died on January 6, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. He went from a premature two-months early baby to being a successful actor; the first Hollywood Black movie star and the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar.
He was the oldest living as well as the earliest surviving winner of an Academy Award for Best Actor.
He was the youngest of seven children of Reginald James Poitier and Evelyn Poitier, nee Outten (who was from the Turks and Caicos Islands). His parents originally worked the land and owned a farm on Cat Island, Bahamas.
Poitier’s father also worked as a cab driver in Nassau in the Bahamas. While Poitier’s parents visited Miami to sell tomatoes, he was unexpectedly born. Hence, he was entitled to American citizenship as well. Poitier lived on Cat Island until he was ten. Then the family moved to Nassau. He saw his first automobile in Nassau and experienced electricity, plumbing, and motion pictures for the first time. He stayed in the Bahamas until age 15 until he moved to Miami. Then he moved to New York at the tender age of 16.
Poitier came from an impoverished background, he was without education, and was faced with several rejections. He was rejected by filmmakers because he could not sing and had a strong Bahamian accent. However, he softened his accent, improved his reading abilities and landed a number of star roles in movies that empowered the Black community and allowed audiences to confront racial tensions in America.
“I was not what I was required to be in Florida. I was not that. I couldn’t be that. I was taught that I had basic rights as a human being. I was taught that I was someone. I knew we had no money, still, I was taught that I was someone. We had no electricity and no running water, still, I was taught that I was someone. I had very little education — a year and a half, in fact, was all the schooling I was exposed to –still I knew that I was someone,” said Poitier in a 2000 interview with Oprah Winfrey. He added that being a Hollywood star did not shield him from certain struggles faced by a black man in America.
When Poitier moved to New York, he first held various jobs as a dishwasher. He then lied about his age during the Second World War and enlisted in the army. He was discharged from the army in 1944. After, he again worked as a dishwasher and later landed a spot with the American Negro Theatre.
Though he had joined the American Negro Theatre, audiences rejected him. Eventually, Poitier earned a leading role in the Broadway production called Lis Estrada. He soon became a famous stage actor and started receiving offers for acting in films. In 1950, Poitier appeared in a successful film titled No Way Out. A year later, he travelled to South Africa with the actor Canada Lee to play the lead role in the film of The Beloved Country.
Poitier’s breakout role was in Blackboard Jungle, which was released in 1955.
In 1958, he starred in The Defiant Ones with Tony Curtis. Then appeared in the first production of A Raisin in the sun on Broadway in 1959.
In 1961, Poitier starred in the film version of A Raisin in the Sun. In 1965, he performed in The Bedford Incident and in that same year, he appeared in the hit film, A Patch of Blue. In 1967, he appeared in three popular films, including In The Heat of the Night, to Sir With Love and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Poitier also directed various films and the most successful film is Stir Crazy, the Richard Pryor Gene Wilder comedy. He made his feature film directorial debut with the Western Buck and the Preacher. He also starred in this film. He also recorded an album called Poitier meets Plato.
He appeared in a few thrillers and TV roles during the late 80s and early 90s. In 2014, he appeared alongside Angelina Jolie at the 86 Academy Awards. This famous actor presented the best director award at this event. Poitier received a standing ovation and Angelina thanked him for his contributions to Hollywood.
Poitier was the first actor to place footprints and autographs in the cement at the Chinese Theatre of Grommet.
In 2005, Premiere Magazine ranked him number 20 on the list of the greatest movie stars of all time. The American Film Institute then ranked him number 22 on the list of the 50 greatest Screen Legends.
In 1974, Poitier was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He served as the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2007. Sir Sidney was the Ambassador of the Bahamas to UNESCO from 2002 to 2007. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian honour of the United States which was presented by President Barack Obama.
Sidney Poitier, who stood at 6.2 inches, is also the winner of two Grammy Awards; in 2001 and 2009 for Best Spoken Word album.
Though he only learnt at the age of 16 how to read, he spoke Russian fluently.
Poitier married Juanita Hardy and remained married until 1965.
In 1959, he started a romance with the famous actress Diane Carroll, whom he dated for nine years.
In 1976, he married Joanna Shimkus of Canada, whom he is on record as calling “the one”.
Sir Sidney leaves behind six daughters, four with Juanita: Gina, Sherry, Pamela and Beverly and two with Joanna: Sydney Tamiia and Anika.
Sidney Poitier has eight grandchildren as well as three great grandchildren.
Poitier’s networth is listed as $20 million.
Source: Lifestyle & Networth
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
-
News5 days agoDDME Staff Strengthen Disaster Management Capacity Through Professional Development Workshop
-
Caribbean News6 days agoLiberty Caribbean Supports Regional Forum on AI, Cyber Resilience and Digital Inclusion
-
News5 days agoThe Turks and Caicos Islands Set Positive Start to 2026 with Increase in January Stayover Arrivals