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Bahamas response:
To USMA readers:
Has anyone been to the Bahamas from the list? Can
anyone state for sure the extent of metric in the market place, such as the sale
of gasoline/petrol, road signs and automobile instrument panels, supermarket
products and scales, weather reporting, etc.
Euric
From the CIA factbook on the Bahamas:
Area:
total: 13,940 sq km
water: 3,870 sq km
land: 10,070 sq km
Population:
297,477
note: estimates for this country explicitly take
into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in
lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population
and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex
than would otherwise be expected (July 2003 est.)
Economy - overview:
The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an
economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism alone
accounts for more than 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of the
archipelago's labor force. 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 11
September 2001 held back growth in these sectors in 2002.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
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 most of
the visitors.
Exports:
$560.7 million (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
fish and crawfish; rum, salt, chemicals; fruit and
vegetables
Exports - partners:
US 39.1%, Germany 15.4%, Spain 10.8%, France 7.4%,
Poland 4.6%, Switzerland 4.3% (2002)
Imports:
$1.86 billion (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, manufactures,
chemicals, mineral fuels; food and live animals
Imports - partners:
US 20.3%, South Korea 20.1%, Germany 11.5%, Norway
11.5%, Japan 10%, Italy 7.2% (2002)
Summary:
Their majority of import/export partners are all metric countries. Industrial
equipment is imported from metric countries. They import 3.3 times more then
they export.
They may use FFU as far American tourists are concerned, but the bulk of
their economy is metric. In short, the Bahamas is not an impressive example of
FFU usage.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, 2004-05-10 17:49
Subject: [USMA:29720] honeymoon in the
Bahamas
Euric - I need your "help" again.
We are planning on spending some of our honeymoon in
the Bahamas in October.
However when I look at marvellous balanced unbiased
sites like the US metrication Association it complains that only three
countries use the imperial system. I think it was Myamar, the US and Burma.
(I wasn't aware that we metricated our roads here in the UK but perhaps my
eyesight is failing me).
However I was shocked to read (in a book about the
Bahamas) that they use Imperial! How can this be? The USMA site must be
right and all the Bahamians must be wrong!
Is there an email address for the Governor of the
Islands we can use to tell them that they don't use imperial?
Is there anything I should do when I visit them?
Perhaps shout about the FFU to them?
Now I am aware that their head of state is our Queen,
so we could say "imperialist" or something.
What are we to do Euric? I fear my honeymoon
might get ruined by "inch" and "yard" etc - but this would mean that USMA
are lieing. Who should I believe? An entire country or a website?
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