Prime Minister Philip Davis’s Remarks at the 7th World Telecommunications/ICT Bahamas Welcome Reception

Good evening, friends.

Tonight, I want to begin with the power of memory. 

Before we speak about where we are going – artificial intelligence and digital transformation – I think it is important that we begin by remembering where we came from.

For Bahamians, few things are more powerful than Junkanoo. Before you see anything, the first thing you notice is the sound – the goatskin drums, the cowbells, the whistles. The rhythm reaches you first. Because Junkanoo is the sound of drums coming down Bay Street at 2 AM on Boxing Day morning. It is the smell of glue and paste the night before. It is the colour of crepe paper – and the feeling of a people united in love and service moving to the same rhythm.

My friends, Junkanoo is a celebration, but it is also something deeper. It is memory made visible. 

It carries the creativity, resilience, and identity of generations of Bahamians, and it bears witness to the fact that even when people are faced with constraints and challenges, they are still capable of creating something beautiful.

If you look closely at a costume, from afar it is the most elaborate of colours, but up close you find crepe paper, wire, cardboard, paste. Simple things. 

But in the hands of a creative community, those simple materials become something extraordinary.

Technology is much the same. On its own, technology is simply potential. 

A cable is a cable. A satellite is a satellite. A piece of code is a piece of code. 

What gives these things their meaning is what we do with them. It is our imagination that turns technology into innovation. It is our policies that determine whether it creates opportunity or deepens inequality. It is our choices that determine whether connectivity brings people closer together.

We inherited the traditions of our ancestors, but we cannot simply inherit their achievements. The world does not stand still. Technology does not stand still. And neither can we.

There is a line in a collection of Bahamian reflections by Bishop K. D. McPhee, called Potent Quotes, which says simply: “Excuse is the enemy of progress.” 

There is wisdom in that. 

There will always be reasons why something cannot be done, always constraints, always challenges. 

But the countries that shape the future will be the ones that keep asking: What can we do? What can we build? What is possible now that was not possible before?

That is the spirit of innovation. It is the spirit I hope we carry forward from this Forum – the courage to imagine and the determination to shape the change that will come.

Earlier today, I told this Forum that the people of Hope Town should have asked for the keys rather than burn down the barge. 

I also made the case for a stronger SIDS voice at the ITU, including our candidate for Deputy Secretary-General, Stephen Bereaux. 

I won’t give you that speech again tonight – you’ve already heard it.

What I will say is this: we have the keys. 

The work of building begins now, and we are building it together with our friends in this room.

Access to technology is important, but opportunity is what allows people to turn access into possibility, and possibility into progress. As we gather tonight after a day of discussing the future of our digital world, I hope we remember that the future is about people. 

Just as Junkanoo has connected Bahamians through rhythm, the technologies we build must connect people to greater opportunity and to a world of limitless possibilities.

Tonight, we get to do something just as important as talking about connectivity – we get to experience it.

So, on behalf of the people of The Bahamas, welcome! 

Enjoy our food. Enjoy our music. Meet someone you have not met before. Start a conversation that may continue long after you leave these shores.

And if the Junkanoo rhythm gets you moving tonight, don’t fight it! Embrace that Bahamian connection.

Thank you, and enjoy the evening.