Portal:Bahamas

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The Bahamas ⁱ/bəˈhɑːməz/, officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets (rocks). It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its total land area is 13,939 km² (5,382 sq mi), with an estimated population of 330,000.

The name Bahamas is of Lucayan Taino (Arawakan) derivation, although some historians believe it is from the Spanish bajamar, meaning “shallow water.” The islands occupy a position commanding the gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the entire Central American region. Their strategic location has given the history of The Bahamas a unique and often striking character. It was there that Christopher Columbus made his original landfall in the Americas. The subsequent fate of the peaceful original inhabitants remains one of the more tragic episodes in the development of the entire region, while the early attempts at European-dominated settlement were marked by intense national rivalries, interspersed with long periods of lawlessness and piracy. As a result, the society and culture that has evolved in The Bahamas is a distinctive blend of European and African heritages, the latter a legacy of the slave trade and the introduction of the plantation system using African slaves.

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The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had led to solid GDP growth in recent years, but the slowdown in the US economy and the attacks of September 11, 2001 held back growth in these sectors in 2001-03. Financial services constitute the second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy, accounting for about 15% of GDP. However, since December 2000, when the government enacted new regulations on the financial sector, many international businesses have left The Bahamas. Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the US, the source of more than 80% of the visitors. In addition to tourism and banking, the government supports the development of a "2nd-pillar", e-commerce.

Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (born 16 January 1976) is a Bahamian sprint athlete who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres. She had her first major successes with the Bahamian 4×100 metres relay team, winning gold at the Pan American Games and World Championships in Athletics in 1999, and taking another gold at the Olympic Games the following year. She won her first individual gold medal at the 2001 World Championships – having initially won silver, gold medallist Marion Jones was later disqualified.

The 2002 season was a career high for Ferguson-McKenzie: she won five gold medals, with victories at the IAAF World Cup and Grand Prix Final, and a 100 m, 200 m and relay gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Her performance in the 100 m remains a personal best and Commonwealth Games record, and her time in the 200 m was the fastest by any athlete that year. She won her only individual Olympic medal in 2004, taking bronze in the 200 m. Injury ruled her out for the whole of 2005. She failed to reach the finals at the 2007 World Championships, unable to compete with the new generation of American and Jamaican sprinters. However, she managed to reach the 100 and 200 metres finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

• November 28: United Nations passes Declaration on human cloning
• July 6: Bahamas become fourth country to ban shark fishing
• June 24: Tropical Storm Paula weakens to remnant low
• October 5: Plane crash in the Bahamas kills eight
• August 31: The Bahamas halt all new applications for oil exploration
• September 30: Court revelation by John Travolta of son's disease sparks autism debate
• September 24: Testimony by John Travolta that son was autistic raises Scientology questions
• March 26: Somali pirates seize two European tankers, Seychelles yacht
• January 3: Wikinews Shorts: January 3, 2009
• September 4: Tropical Storm Ike upgraded to hurricane status
• September 1: Government of the Bahamas isssues warning over Hurricane Hanna
• December 26: Leaders throughout the world deliver Christmas messages

Wikinews Bahamas portal...

The Northwest and Central Bahamas as seen from space.

• ...that Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling (pictured) is known as The Father of the Nation in the Bahamas as he lead the country to independence from the British in 1973?

• ...that there are a total of 32 mammal species in the Bahamas, of which 0 are critically endangered, 2 are endangered, 3 are vulnerable, and 0 are near-threatened?

• ...that the first meeting of a legislative body for the Bahamas took place on 29 September 1729, when twenty-four members representing the islands of New Providence, Eleuthera, and Harbour Island gathered together as the General Assembly?Template:/box-footer

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Caribbean	United Kingdom	Jamaica	Grenada	Cuba
Dominican Republic	Puerto Rico	North America	Haiti	Trinidad and Tobago
British Virgin Islands	United States

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