Deepening bonds of friendship: Bahamas China Friendship Association observes 20 years since founding | News

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Twenty years ago, a group of Bahamians founded the Bahamas China Friendship Association (BCFA) with a goal of promoting friendship on a people to people basis.

“The idea was to do that by several means: cultural exchange, education, and other programs like that,” said Sir Arthur Foulkes, who served as non-resident ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, and is a BCFA founding member.

Formed on September 29, 2004, the core objectives of the apolitical group are: To foster and encourage good friendship and goodwill between the people of The Bahamas and the people of China; to promote economic and trade opportunities through entrepreneurial development and participation in trade fairs and investment tours; to promote good understanding of the cultures of the people of The Bahamas and China through cultural exchanges, and to facilitate the study of the language, culture, and history of both countries.

Joseph Curry, the current Bahamas ambassador to the Holy See, was the first president of the BCFA.

“We were very keen to avoid politics from either government, meaning that we are not going to promote the ideology of The Bahamas nor that of the government of the People’s Republic of China, but we will be more interested in promoting the culture, the language, the history of both countries and also business and trade ties, and so those were the key focus of the association then and even now,” Curry said.

A long-time foreign service officer, he said his time as president was an “eye opener”.

“I think the experience gave me the opportunity to use what I had learnt as a foreign service officer, a diplomat, the understanding of China and what it could offer, also the understanding of The Bahamas, having promoted and represented The Bahamas globally. It became that much easier for me,” he said.

Sir Arthur, who was the association’s vice president when it was founded, said the BCFA has been tremendously successful in achieving its objectives over the last two decades.

“I’m very proud to see the progress that has been made and I’m so glad that a younger generation has taken over and are progressing with the idea and the organization, and I wish them well,” he said.

The association’s current president, Dr. Donovan Moxey, said that amongst its core objectives, the BCFA is concerned with demystifying China for Bahamians.

“I got interested in joining the association because China has always been a mystery to me,” Moxey said.

“When you look at how China is viewed both locally and globally, it’s one of those things where you have some persons who have negative mindsets about China, you have some persons who have positive mindsets about China, and so from my perspective, I’m always one who wants to discover things on my own, and so, I looked at the Bahamas China Friendship Association as an opportunity to do that.”

An opportunity to learn and serve with other individuals led to the further development of programs and opportunities to deepen bonds of friendship with China.

“One of the things I wanted to do as president is really establish initiatives that the organization could undertake that would actually help to further the mandate that we were founded on, and so, what we did is we put in place a structured trade mission ... and our focus on the trade mission was really looking to engage small and medium sized businesses in The Bahamas,” Moxey said.

The association picked the Yiwu Commodity Market as a focal point of its trade missions to China, with Moxey leading a trade delegation there in April. Another trade mission to China is planned for October.

The goal of exposing Bahamians to Chinese culture led to the BCFA hosting its Calligraphy Sip & Paint event last year.

During the event, Bahamian phrases were translated into mandarin with participants transforming them into Chinese characters and learning to pronounce the various Bahamian sayings in the Chinese language.

The successful event is set to return on Thursday, September 5 at 6 p.m. at Margaritaville hotel in downtown Nassau.

The BCFA also hosts a kite flying event for underprivileged youth.

“It’s our way of exposing young people to the culture of Chinese kites; being able to assemble their own kites, fly their own kites and learn about Chinese culture and why they find the kites so important to them as a culture,” Moxey said.

The BCFA also helps Bahamians connect with various scholarship opportunities to study in China, and helped with the establishment of the Confucius Institute at the University of The Bahamas. The institute educates UB students and members of the wider community about Chinese language, culture and society.

Philip Simon, a founding member who served in various BCFA positions, including secretary, vice president and president, and who also served on the China-Latin America and Caribbean Friendship Association board, expressed pride in the BCFA’s accomplishments since its founding.

Simon noted that the association’s visibility has increased tremendously over the years, and pointed to the signing of sister city friendship agreements with various Chinese cities.

“One of the things I was really happy to be a part of was the whole growing exposure of a country that had seemed so far away, but yet was so very near in every aspect of our lives from a manufacturing perspective. When you flip something over it often says ‘made in China’,” he said, adding that learning more about China “was a real opportunity for all of us”.

Moxey added, “I think one of the things that we’ve also done is that we brought the relationship between The Bahamas and China from a people to people perspective to the forefront, and so what is does is it decreases a certain level of intimidation that people may have in learning more about China, so we become that bridge, that buffer, which is again the reason for the association.”

It’s a point Sir Arthur also made, noting that knowledge of and interaction with the Chinese make genuine friendships between the nations possible.

“We would be less likely to have prejudices and to fall for prejudice views from other sources,” he said.

“We can learn a lot from the Chinese people. The Chinese people have an ancient culture, one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world. We need to know about them.”

Anyone wishing to learn more about the organization may visit its website: www.bcfa242.org

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Deepening bonds of friendship: Bahamas China Friendship Association observes 20 years since founding | News

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