bahamasuncensored.com
APRIL 2007
Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames Updated every
Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 5 © BahamasUncensored.Com 2007
While material on this web site can be used freely by other sections of
the press, as a courtesy, journalists are asked to attribute the source
of their material from this web site.
8th April, 2007
15th April, 2007
22nd April, 2007
29th April, 2007
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK: This
is an interesting country in a lot of ways. One way is how it claims
not to be doing something that it knows that it is doing and does it by
another name. Case in point; the notion that no political rallies
would take place during Lent. Say what? That was the claim
of Hubert Ingraham for the FNM at the start of Lent, the same man who called
an election in 1997 for 10th March and campaigned the most nasty and vicious
campaign during Lent. The PLP seemed to be following right along.
But each party has had branch openings, prayer breakfasts and of course,
the grandest day of all, they have now launched their candidates.
The most exciting launch of all of the candidates (click here for last
week’s report now confirmed) was that of the PLP at the Radisson Hotel
on Tuesday 27th March. The hall was overflowing with excited people,
chanting ‘PLP! – ALL THE WAY’ and ‘SO SAID; SO DONE’. The ceremony
was crisp and direct; the candidates were introduced on time without fanfare
but to loud cheers by the Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt and then
the Prime Minister came on to thunderous applause and this was followed
by a comprehensive policy speech answering point for point the campaign
of lies and deceit being run by the Free National Movement (Click
here for the full address, with pictures). So our photo of the
week is that of throngs of Progressive Liberal Party supporters cheering
as the Prime Minister stands in the glow of the light and the applause.
Photograph by Peter Ramsay. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
DEY COMIN’
If
you had any doubt before this week that the general election was near,
then that doubt should have been wiped out after Tuesday 27th March.
On the evening of that day, the Prime Minister Perry Christie announced
and introduced his candidates to the country. As we predicted in this column
last week, the PLP will field 39 candidates. The two seats
that will not be contested it now appears are Bamboo Town, held by incumbent
Tennyson Wells and Long Island and Ragged Island held by the FNM’s Larry
Cartwright. James Miller, a former FNM MP, will reportedly run in
the Long Island seat as an independent.
As you can see from the pictures in the photo of the week and the
others throughout this essay, the launch of the PLP’ s candidates created
the highest excitement. People came from all over the island and
flew in from across the country to be there to support their candidates,
in applause that simply shook the earth. The pictures of all those
gold T shirts portrayed a party that is poised to win again. The
elections are now expected in early May.
The Free National Movement had to scrap themselves up the same kind
of show a few days later and its showed. This is the party who wasted
valuable news space to say that the PLP had been copying their programmes
but it was clear that the changes in the boundaries caught them unawares
and Brent Symonette in particular was having a problem deciding where he
was going to run. It appears that Hubert Ingraham, the FNM leader,
had to finally order him to run in the new constituency called St. Anne’s
where he lives rather than the constituency where he grew up which is now
Montagu. He took his sign down saying ‘Headquarters for Montagu’
that could be seen on the Eastern Road once the boundaries were announced
and on the night of the House of Assembly meeting on Wednesday 28th March,
the cars could be seen into the road, meeting late into the night to decide
what to do. Mr. Symonette was boasting all about the place that he
is the only one who has a choice where to run and no one would tell him
where to run because he did not need politics. Yadda! Yadda! Yadda!
In the end, he went like all the other FNM lambs to the slaughter, precisely
where he was told to run.
The
reviews are in and there is no surprise that the FNM’s show fell dead flat
on Thursday night at the Radisson in the same hall as the PLP’s golden
show a few days earlier. The election as you know is very much about
numbers and perception. The PLP has the momentum with it. The FNM
has been reduced to carping, and nastiness throughout their campaign.
The PLP simply has to continue its work, with its teams in the field and
the work being done, focusing on the issues. The Prime Minister’s
address seemed to cover all the points of the campaign of lies and deceit
being run by the FNM.
One of the most telling points of course is the continued deception
being staged by the FNM with regard to Hubert Ingraham's pension, a most
embarrassing thing for them. Hubert Ingraham collects $9,500 per
month as a pension from the Government each month. He was supposed
to be retired. It is clear that he designed the law in such a way
that he politically blackmailed Sir Lynden to resign from office before
he could get the pension and then took the pension himself while retaining
political office and seeking to become Prime Minister again.
How greedy can you get? How much do you want?
Then
to add insult to injury he gets up in the House of Assembly last week during
the debate on the resolution on Monday 26th March to increase national
insurance pensions to attack the Government for seeking to raise national
insurance pensions by 30 dollars for the old age pensions. So here
is a man who gets $9500 per month, trying to stop someone who gets $200
per month from getting an additional $30 dollars per month. Something
is wrong with that picture. And yet you have a group of diehard FNMs
dressed in their blood red T shirts wanting to have this greedy, disrespectful
politician back at the head of our country. Again, something is wrong
with this picture.
There are now 41 seats in the House of Assembly to be won in the
next general election. The PLP believe that the PLP will win the
majority of those seats. The PLP has done its work. It has
a record of accomplishment that is enviable and unmatched in this modern
era. The levels of investment, of the reserves, the rise in household
income, the reduced levels of unemployment, the buoyant tourism figures,
all show that the proof is in the pudding. The PLP has done its work
and done it well and it deserves a second opportunity under Perry Christie
to govern again,
We use this opportunity therefore to urge those who have not yet
registered to do so. Get it done this week. The Prime Minister
said last week in the House that the general election is only a heartbeat
away. That is close indeed. Every PLP should now be in readiness
for the battle when the bell rings. The horses are walking toward the gate.
Our bet is on the PLP. The people’s bet is on the PLP and that is
what matters.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 31st March 2007 at midnight:
194,072.
Number of hits for the month of March up to Saturday 31st March 2006
at midnight: 893,630.
Photographs by
Peter Ramsay
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
FNM
FOLLOWS FASHION BUT FLOPS
You have to ask yourself what is going on with the
party opposite the PLP. They have now become a party of follow fashion.
As usual, Mr. Ingraham claimed that it was not he who was following fashion
but the PLP. The facts speak otherwise.
The PLP launched its candidates in an extravaganza
at the Radisson Cable Beach Hotel on Monday 26th March. The FNM followed
suit on Thursday 29th March in the same place with the same format, only
they couldn’t get the crowds out and their message was flat. Then
the PLP had a prayer breakfast, attracting massive crowds on Sunday 18th
March . Guess what, the man who does not go to church and says that
he does not because he is not a hypocrite was busy copying Prime Minister
Christie and the PLP again. Hubert Ingraham led the FNM to a prayer
breakfast on Saturday 31st March.
They need now to come up with a real new idea and
stop following fashion. You may click
here for a sound bite of how the country should see Hubert Ingraham.
AFRICAN
HERITAGE CELEBRATIONS
During the week that passed beginning on Monday
26th March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education
cosponsored a number of events to observe the 200th anniversary of the
abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The actual anniversary
and day set aside by the United Nations was last Sunday the 25th March.
The Bahamas began its observances on Monday 26th March in the House of
Assembly with a communication by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.
Mr. Mitchell laid out how The Bahamas was affected in the 19th century
by liberated Africans. You may click
here for the full communication.
There was a reception at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs for the press and the diplomatic corps. Then on Friday 20th
March there was the launch of the learning channel by the Ministry of Education
by its Minster Alfred Sears. The channel will provide distance education
and education programmes by cable with two hours now and twenty four hours
by September of this year, beginning first on channel 12. There was
a panel discussion led by Dr. Thaddeus McDonald of the College of The Bahamas
and Dr. Gail Saunders historian. This was followed by a panel discussion
with the Minister of Education of South Africa Naledi Pandor who spoke
at a luncheon hosted by her counterpart here. In the evening there
was a lecture by George Lamming, the Barbadian writer who is the author
of the famous work In The Castle Of My Skin.
The week ended with a march led by the Royal Bahamas
Defence Force Band through the streets of Fox Hill, a religious observance
in Fox Hill and ending with a cultural show. This essay of photographs
by Tim Aylen provides a sample of what happened in Fox Hill on Saturday
afternoon.
AIRPORT
HANDOVER
Glenys Hanna Martin and her team at the Ministry
of Transport and Aviation along with the Airport Authority, the owners
of the Lynden Pindling International Airport have completed months and
years of hard work at crafting an agreement with Vancouver Airport Services,
a Canadian management company to manage the Lynden Pindling International
Airport. The deal was inked on Friday 30th March in a ceremony attended
by the Prime Minister Perry Christie. Security and fire and rescue
are still in the hands of the Airport Authority but all the rest is in
the hands of a management company that is jointly owned with the government.
The deal gives the management to the company with
the Canadians in the management and control of the joint venture.
But it sets certain benchmarks and timelines for improvements to the airport.
Ultimately there must be significant capital development that will see
new buildings for both, domestic, international and US travel. We
think that this is a landmark accomplishment and look forward to the improvements
at the airport. We congratulate the Minister on her accomplishments.
ABOVE - From Left: Melanie Roach, director of Public Works; Archie
Nairn, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Transport and Aviation; Anthony
Kikivarakis, Chairman of the Airport Authority; and George Casey, president
of Vancouver Airport Services, sign several documents for the official
handover of management of the Lynden Pindling International Airport to
the Canadian-based Vancouver Airport Services Friday, March 30, 2007. (BIS
Photo: Tim Aylen)
Left: Minister of Transport & Aviation Glenys Hanna Martin.
Centre: Airport Authority official Gerry Hutchinson and Minister.
Right: Prime Minister Christie. BIS photos: Peter Ramsay.
US
AMBASSADOR MISSPEAKS SAYS LETTER WRITER
We
ordinarily post correspondence to this site in our 'Letters to the Editor'
section. However, this letter writer's subject speaks directly to
the story above, so we publish it here:
Dear Editor:
His Excellency, Mr. John Rood, the Ambassador of the United States
of America to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, ended his tour of duty to
our sovereign nation on a less than diplomatic note.
There are two cardinal principles of diplomacy. The first is
that no foreign envoy should publicly offer any comments, much less criticisms
of or about the policies and domestic affairs of the host Government.
This is particularly the case where such comments are clearly critical
and may be viewed as offensive to the host Government. The second
fundamental principle is that the conduct of foreign policy, i.e., the
business and relationship between states, should be conducted so far as
possible through secure and confidential channels. There are well
established protocols in this regard. It follows, therefore, that
the news media is not the place for a discourse or worse the venting of
views between any ambassador and the host country.
Could one imagine the reaction if the ambassador of The Bahamas to
Washington were to publicly criticize the actions of the Government
of the United States on, say, drug interdiction, human rights or illegal
migration? The end would never be heard.
Based on these recognized and established principles and conventions,
it is shocking and downright embarrassing for any patriotic Bahamian to
sit with smugness and read the comments of the outgoing ambassador.
It may be that on a personal level he might be forgiven for the sin of
inappropriate behaviour and perhaps ignorance, but when the ambassador
speaks publicly he should be most conscious that he speaks as the representative
of the Government of the United States of America. The professional
hands in the embassy should, therefore, share the blame for this egregious
breach of protocol. Is there a hidden motive behind his action?
Who Knows?
The Hon Glenys Hanna-Martin has made a substantive rebuttal of the
offending remarks in her Thursday evening statement. It was reinforced
by the news events of Friday, 30th which saw the signing of the agreement
between the Airport Authority and the new management team at the Lynden
Pindling International Airport and the unveiling of plans for the re-development
of the facility.
All well thinking Bahamians and those who cherish our sovereignty
should condemn Ambassador Rood for his statement and bid him a fond farewell.
Samuel Weir
RIGBY
ON THE ATTACK
PLP part Chair Raynard Rigby has had a week swinging
away at the FNM. Can you believe that The Tribune, that lousy, slimy
newspaper that purports to be balanced and fair, had not one word to say
about the launch of PLP candidates on Tuesday evening 27th March?
This after clamouring for the PLP to name its candidates. This after
stealing the list of PLP candidates from this site last week and not attributing
it to their sources. They didn’t even bother to change the order;
just outright stole it without so much as a by your leave. The Chairman
flailed away at them.
| I was shocked and gravely disappointed at the actions and decision
of the Tribune to refuse to provide coverage in the today’s edition of
the newspaper of the PLP’s public unveiling of its Candidates held last
evening at the Radisson Cable Beach Resort. This is a blatant abuse of
journalistic professionalism and it again confirms that the Tribune would
stoop to the lowest denominator in its effort to show bias against the
PLP.
As a young Bahamian who loves The Bahamas this is not what I would expect
to see in our democracy. It is always important for newspapers to be fair
and unbiased in its reporting. The Tribune has shown its hands again and
is obviously content on being the propaganda machinery for the FNM.
The responsibility of the media is to present information to the public
and allow them to make choices based on the facts. The Tribune’s abuse
of its role as a media house in The Bahamas implies that they do not have
confidence in the citizens of The Bahamas to review all of the issues and
make decisions which are best for their country.
We in the PLP have the full confidence that the people of The Bahamas,
when all of the facts are unveiled, will make the right choice for the
future of The Bahamas.
Raynard Rigby, PLP Chairman
|
Then Mr. Rigby was incensed at the nonsense spoken by FNM Leader Hubert
Ingraham who instead of making atonement for taking his 9500 dollar pension
while trying to stop old age pensioners from getting an increase, attempted
to attack the PLP’s record of investment. Lastly, Mr. Rigby exposes
today the FNM as being ashamed of their record on the stewardship of Bahamian
land. Please click here.
IN PASSING
Stephen Mitchell Buried
We offer our condolences to the Mitchell family
on the passing of their loved one Stephen ‘Daddyo’ Mitchell. Mr.
Mitchell was a well known political figure in the country, being a supporter
of the PLP and a close confidant of Dr. Bernard Nottage even in his wilderness
years in the Coalition For Democratic Reform (CDR). Mr. Mitchell
died suddenly after a brief illness following surgery. We have no
doubt in our minds that Mr. Mitchell looked forward to this campaign for
the general election and accompanying Dr. Nottage back into the halls of
the House of Assembly. That is not to be but his spirit will live
on with all PLPs and men and women of goodwill in this community.
The funeral service for Mr. Mitchell took place on Saturday 31st March
at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. The service was attended by the
Governor General Arthur Hanna, the Prime Minister Perry Christie and other
members of the Cabinet including his friend Dr. Bernard Nottage.
Carvel Francis, the publicist and political consultant, wrote this tribute
to him. May he rest in peace:
The man who believed in a second chance…
Stephen ‘Daddyo’ Mitchell
By: Carvel Francis
St. Matthew's Communications
On this eve of the laying to rest of my good
senior brother and friend, the sorrow and grief of losing another good
churchman has begun to set in. This morning however I rose up in my prayerful
hour, remembering the kind friend that was Stephen Mitchell.
Yes, kind, because it appeared that not
only was he good-hearted and gracious to my siblings and me, but he appeared
to be equally humane and considerate of everyone he knew. Yes he
forgave my failings, and Yes he also believed that we should all take that
leap of faith and extend the hand of friendship to all.
I first became acquainted with this friend
to all Bahamians when I was just a freshman entering St. Anne’s High School.
I would remember waiting for the bus early in the morning and there would
pull up ‘Daddyo’ and shout “Let’s go Carvey”. He was then the publisher
of Goombay Magazine, among other things, Bahamasair’s in-house magazine,
and spared me from being late for school. He, like my aunt Stephanie,
never was in too much of a rush to pass me while I was sitting on that
road. (Click here for the continuation
of the full tribute)
Building In Fox Hill After George Mackey
On Thursday 29th March, the village of Fox Hill paused to pay tribute
to the late George Mackey, their friend and brother and their representative
for ten years in the House of Assembly. Mr. Mackey was honoured by
the Governor General Arthur Hanna, the Prime Minister Perry Christie and
the representative for the area Fred Mitchell at the ceremony. The
name was unveiled by his widow Betty with their children and grandchildren
watching. Dr. Bernard Nottage, the Minister of National Insurance
and the Chairman of the National Insurance Board spoke to the importance
of the occasion. The MP for the area Fred Mitchell paid tribute to
George Mackey’s contribution to his own political life and to Fox Hill.
You may click
here for remarks prepared for delivery by Prime Minister Christie and
click
here for the full address of Mr. Mitchell.
LEFT: Mary Mackey, right, pulls the cord to unveil a plaque in honour
of her husband, the late George Mackey, at the official naming ceremony
of the National Insurance Board Fox Hill Building to the George W.
Mackey Building in Fox Hill on Thursday, March 29, 2007. Shown looking
on are (from right) Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, Minister
of Health and National Insurance Senator Hon. Dr. Bernard J. Nottage, Lennox
McCartney, director National Insurance Board; Portia Nottage and
Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service and Member of Parliament
for Fox Hill the Hon. Fred Mitchell. RIGHT: Governor General
His Excellency Arthur D. Hanna lets go of the curtain unveiling a
sign on the side of the building at the official naming ceremony
of the National Insurance Board Fox Hill Building to the George W. Mackey
Building in Fox Hill on Thursday, March 29, 2007. The Governor
General's wife Beryl Hanna is shown along with Prime Minister the Rt. Hon.
Perry Christie and Minister of Health and National Insurance Senator Hon.
Dr. Bernard J. Nottage.
Bahamas Information Services photos by Tim Aylen
The Wicked Witch of The East
The faker of Fox Hill aka Doctor Doctor Juice in dere was at it again
with her ugly aggressiveness in Fox Hill; rude, insolent, fumbling and
pushing herself up in business that does not concern her. This time
it is reported that she has a man who is parading round as a reverend who
went to various schools on her behalf to tell them they were going to be
in a tournament. The schools were duped into thinking that it was
for the betterment of the kids only to come to find they were in a political
promotion by doctor doctor. The kids were forced to wear T- shirts
with her picture on it. As soon as the game was over, you could see
the kids stripping the shirts off and throwing them away. She also
put up without permission a huge canvas size photo of herself asking people
to vote for her. Still not speaking to people. It is her breath
so one supposes she can hold it. Charity is not puffed up, said the
good Bible but she sure is.
What’s The Matter With Joan?
Dame Joan Sawyer made some extremely unfortunate remarks in the case
where the government sought leave to withdraw their appeal from the Court
of Appeal of the legally flawed decision of Justice John Lyons who stopped
working because he claimed that he is not apart of an independent judiciary.
We wonder if he is going to take the most recent raise offered by the Government
and start working again. You will remember his unfortunate and impolitic
remarks that in our view ought to have led to an action for dismissal through
the procedures of the constitution. Dame Joan in the course of hearing
that the Government was no longer pursuing the appeal thought she would
give her five cents, saying most startlingly that she does not think that
laymen should criticize judges and what they do. This is laughable.
Here you have a public institution, paid for by public funds, and it can’t
be criticized by the public? This lady must be joking.
The Slime of John Marquis
This is a quote from John Marquis, an Englishman, whose country allows
same sex unions by law from The Tribune of Thursday 29th March: “I
once had a lady friend who said I could walk around in a ball gown and
still not be mistaken for a fairy.” Mr. Marquis then went on to say
in answer to some foolishness about an alleged plot to smear him when pictures
showed up on the web that were allegedly computer generated showing him
in gay sex that this showed what the Bahamian people were up against.
To the contrary the comment above shows what the Bahamian people are up
against by allowing this purveyor of hatred to remain in The Bahamas.
Mr. Marquis is busy telling his friends that he does not want another work
permit to stay in The Bahamas. Of course he is only saying that because
he thinks the PLP will win the election but if his Uncle Tom buddies of
the FNM win, he will be dancing at their door and happy to accept one.
Time is ticking on his stay in The Bahamas and the sooner the goes the
better. The Truth Committee, headed by Ricardo Smith was demonstrating
against him again last week and has him on the run.
WHO Recommends Circumcision To Protect From HIV
The press in The Bahamas reported this week that the World Health Organization
(WHO), a UN specialized agency believes that circumcision is one route
to greater protection from HIV/Aids. The risk to men who are circumcised
decreases about 60 per cent in heterosexual sex. The theory is that
the cells within the foreskin are more susceptible to infection and that
often the area is not washed and the virus incubates. So the deal
is to wash properly say the doctors to cut down on infection rates in unprotected
sex . There is no suggestion in The Bahamas that men should suddenly
go out and get circumcised said the doctors but it is one strategy that
is said to help to cut down the rate of infections.
Rood On Haitians
Judging from the letter to the editor published today, it appears that
some Bahamians believe that the outgoing Ambassador to The Bahamas John
Rood is sort of cursing out the family friend as he walks out the door.
There was a clash with Glenys Hanna Martin about the Lynden Pindling Airport
when the Minister responded to a statement by the Ambassador on the airport
that she was disappointed in his remarks about the security at the airport
since he knew it was being addressed. What would probably have raised
more eyebrows though was his statement about the death of ten Haitians
who drowned in a tragic incident at sea two weeks ago. The Ambassador
said that he could not understand how there was not more outrage in the
country over the death of the ten Haitians who drowned in the Exumas
two weeks ago and were buried within 24 hours. Tell you the truth,
we wonder ourselves. He said imagine that were 10 Americans who drowned
instead of ten Haitians. The remarks were made at the British Colonial
Hilton at a joint meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Clubs
on Wednesday 28th March.
Farewell MPs
Five Members of Parliament are retiring from office voluntarily.
They are Bradley Roberts, PLP Bain and Grants Town; Pierre Dupuch, Independent
St. Margaret’s; Agatha Marcelle, PLP South Beach; Sidney Stubbs, PLP Holy
Cross; and Robert Sweeting, FNM South Abaco. They each said farewell
to the House on Wednesday 28th March. You may click
here for the full remarks of outgoing PLP giant Bradley Roberts.
PLP Website
The PLP has launched a new website. The Prime Minister Perry
Christie hosted hundreds of young people to a meet and greet at Sandals
hotel on Friday 30th March to launch the site. You may click
here for access. The PLP website continues to be available in
the links section at the top of this page.
New Links
Other new website links on the site this week are Vincent
Peet, MP for North Andros & The Berry Islands; Alfred
Sears, MP for Fort Charlotte; Keod
Smith, MP for Mount Moriah and a new
website about kayaking in The Bahamas by Randy Albury. The websites
are now permanently available in the links section at the top of this site.
Enjoy.
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
A Sea of Gold...
Wildly enthusiastic Progressive Liberal Party supporters
press forward to hear Prime Minister Christie as he addresses the event
to launch the Party's slate of candidates for the 2007 General Election;
sailing on a sea of gold. Please click
here for the Prime Minister's full address to the crowd, along with
additional photographs of the event.
Bahamas Information Services photo by Peter Ramsay
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK: It
is one of the more strange rituals connected with politics. It is
the Prime Minister’s exclusive prerogative and it seems like it should
be consigned to by-gone era. The date for the election is set by
the Prime Minister. The present Prime Minister Perry Christie tried
to make it more transparent by announcing months ago that the election
would be held on or before the 2nd May. True to that promise he advised
the Governor General on Wednesday 4th April to dissolve the Parliament
and the Provost Marshal, a title also from another era who is really the
Commissioner of Police went to the steps of the House of Assembly and read
the proclamation of the Governor General, setting the elections for Wednesday
2nd May. So it’s all set. The days of proclamations being read
to announce something seems again from a by-gone era but it still happens.
What with television and radio today, why do you need to stand on the steps
of the Assembly? Anyway it is quite quaint. The photo of the
week is that of the Commissioner of Police Paul Farqhuarson reading the
Governor General’s proclamation. The Bahamas Information Services
photo is by Tim Aylen. |
 |
Stan Burnside's
'Sideburns' from The Nassau Guardian Thursday 5th April 07
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
ENDORSING THE PLP FOR
ANOTHER TERM
We
are happy that the general election has now been called. This matter
of who will govern for the next five years needs to be settled. The
Free National Movement and its disingenuous leader and their disingenuous
words have destabilized the country in the sense that while they carry
out a democratic and constitutional function, the lies are simply too much.
The public has been faced with a barrage of inaccuracies and counterpoints
going back and forth, back and forth. The nastiness emanating from
the leader of the Free National Movement, fundamental political dishonesty
what with his promising to serve two terms or ten years, saying that was
enough for anyone but now deciding that it is not enough.
Then there is that question of the pension. It is clear no
matter how many time he tries to wiggle out of it that he is collecting
$9,500 per month as a retiree. He forced Sir Lynden Pindling to retire
from the House of Assembly or he would not get the pension, and now Hubert
Ingraham accepts his pension but continues to serve in the House.
The FNM has all around the country these flags saying ‘Trust’. They
have made the word a mockery, since there is everything in the FNM but
trust. Further, they have made red an ugly colour. To many
people it simply has come to represent some pretty bad things.
The two parties are to come out of the gate full steam ahead on Wednesday
11th April. The PLP will gather at the Carnival Grounds at the Queen
Elizabeth Sports Centre. The FNM will gather at Fort Charlotte.
Their traditional R.M. Bailey grounds are in the hands of another circus,
only this time; it’s a real circus and won’t be available to them until
16th April.
The PLP is not leaving anything to chance with this election.
The FNM plans to baffle people with b.s. They do not have issues.
They are seeking to make this a personality show. Perry Christie
does not do this or that. The problem is for them by focusing on
Perry Christie, they put their man Hubert Ingraham on the stage.
What it shows is all his harshness, nastiness, biggityness and all the
things that were rejected in 2002. Five years later, having washed
his face and taken a nap he comes back to the Bahamian people and says:
“I’m a new man”. No one is fooled by this for one moment.
The Progressive Liberal Party came back from a ten year abyss.
Over the past five years, the party has performed more than admirably.
The FNM was good at fooling people about what wonderful things they were
doing. The fact is they left debt, they left the public infrastructure
in a mess, and all of that was handed over to the PLP to fix. You
have only to remember that one of the first acts of the new PLP parliament
was to borrow some 125 million dollars to get things right. Then
there was the fact that the Prince George Dock needed new equipment, with
the cruise ships threatening to leave. The airport runway needed
fixing, with the airlines threatening to pull out. What a way to
start a government.
The fact is the economy has grown under the PLP. The Prime
Minister listed in his speech launching the campaign (click
here for that) how household income had grown, how the reserves had
grown, how the unemployment had fallen. In every material respect,
The Bahamas has prospered. This material prosperity has led to the
expansion of public services, raises in the public service, new industrial
agreements that were landmark in nature.
For all of these reasons we think that the PLP needs to be reelected
to office. When you look at the atmosphere in the country, there
is no nastiness emanating from PLP politicians. There is not a Prime
Minister who is threatening this one and the next one. People have
a sense of freedom which they have never enjoyed before. It is necessary
for this freedom to exist in order for the country to flourish and survive.
No one has any fear that they will lose their job or that their life will
be jeopardized because of their opinions. It has perhaps gone too
far the other way, with public servants defying the instructions of their
ministers. A remarkable fact which should not be but that in fact
exists.
In making his announcement to the country, Prime Minister Christie
said that The Bahamas was one of the oldest democracies in the hemisphere
and that it was time for Bahamians again to exercise their choice as to
who will govern them. He asked that there be a peaceful and lively
campaign, and that the personal nastiness that has been associated with
the FNM’s campaign should be left behind. He pledged that his candidates
would not engage in any such exercises. You may click
here for the full statement by Mr. Christie.
Soon the posters will be up, the bill boards are already up and the
race is actually to start. This election must be fought to turn back
the tide of UBPism that is threatening us again. Forward ever! Backward
never! There is no turning back now. PLP ALL THE WAY!
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 7th April 2007 up to
midnight: 240,793.
Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 7th April 2007
at midnight: 240,793.
Prime Minister
Perry Christie advises Governor General Arthur Hanna to issue the writ
for the General Election of 2007 - Bahamas Information Services photo Peter
Ramsay
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
HUBERT
IS A LOST SOUL
 |
Stan Burnside's
'Sideburns' from The Nassau Guardian Tuesday 3rd April 07
A Personal message to Hubert Ingraham. The
tail does not wag the dog. This is necessary because of a silly statement
issued by the Free National Movement and its Leader Hubert Ingraham in
response to the announcement that the House of Assembly was being dissolved.
Mr. Ingraham criticized the Prime Minister for dissolving the House during
Holy Week. This is incredible.
This is a man who said there would be no campaign
rallies by the FNM during Lent and he proceeded to have rallies everywhere
calling them official openings of headquarters. Then he said that
they would suspend all advertising of a political nature during Holy Week,
and the advertising continued. Then he failed to remember that he
called the general election for the 19th March 1997 in the middle of Lent
and there was a campaign during the entire Lenten season.
This is the same man who when the Prime Minister
Perry Christie said that he would consult Mr. Ingraham about election dates,
shouted back that he did not need to be consulted and Mr. Christie could
do what he liked. Now that Mr. Christie has done what he likes he
has a complaint. This is the same man who said that Mr. Christie
was taking too long to call the election. Now that he has called
the election he says that he should not have called it. What does
he want? Does he know? Can he make up his mind? This
is yet another reason why the Bahamian people should not vote for Hubert
Ingraham.
TEN
YEARS OF LEADERSHIP
The Progressive Liberal Party called together the
masses to Gambier House, the Lynden Pindling Centre for a prayer service
of thanksgiving for the team that has led the PLP for the past ten years.
Perry G. Christie and Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt have led the Progressive Liberal
Party for ten years, succeeding the late Sir Lynden Pindling and Sir Clement
Maynard respectively as Leader and Deputy Leader of the party. In
that time, the party rose from the ashes of the ignominious defeat of 1997
and became the majority party in the country today.
The Deputy Prime Minister is noted for her reliance
on God and she is fond of saying that this is the PLP’s season and that
God lifts up Governments and he takes them down. These are the kind
of general statements that those like Hubert Ingraham who are annoyed at
religious sayings in public life take strong objection to. It got
him into trouble with PLPs when what he said was interpreted as an attack
on Mrs. Pratt who has an image of sainthood in the country. Mr. Ingraham
said he was not a hypocrite, talking about the fact that religion is quoted
so liberally in PLP circles. It is a strange logic. What utility
is there in attacking the church?
We congratulate the Leader of the PLP Perry Christie
and the Deputy Leader Cynthia Pratt on the visionary and successful leadership
that they have provided for the PLP and we look forward to their leading
us for another five years.
PLP Deputy Leader Cynthia 'Mother' Pratt and Prime Minister Christie
and family listen during the service of thanksgiving for leadership.
Photo by Peter Ramsay.
THE
PLP AND KERZNER
The Free National Movement’s propaganda machine
has been in full gear with one untruth after another. The latest
salvo is the untruth that the PLP refused to deal with Sol Kerzner of Atlantis
and that it was the Free National Movement who allowed his investment to
come here.
The truth of the matter is that the PLP was dealing
with Mr. Kerzner but the problem was that at the time the South African
investments were not possible because of the Gleneagles Accords of the
Commonwealth which called on all countries to boycott South African investments.
The Bahamas stuck to its commitments under those accords. When Mr.
Ingraham came to office in 1992, the situation had changed with South Africa
and the investment was possible. Some report that friends of Mr.
Kerzner apparently also harbour this difficulty with the PLP notwithstanding
the fact that he signed the largest deal ever in The Bahamas with the PLP.
It is important that the truth be known. Please
click
here for a release by PLP Chair Raynard Rigby on the matter.
THE
U.S. AMBASSADOR LEAVES
John Rood, the U.S. Ambassador formally demits office
and leaves The Bahamas after a successful tour of duty on Tuesday 10th
April. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell hosted a formal
farewell reception for the Ambassador on Thursday 4th April in the gardens
of the Ministry on East Hill Street. The evening ended with a salute
by the Congos Junkanoo band. The Bahamas Information Services photos are
by Patrick Hanna.
CONCERNS
ON LITTLE SAN SALVADOR
There are a number of small islands in The Bahamas
to which ships go directly. These mega vessels carry their passengers
there for special trips that give the impression that they are going to
islands that are very much like the home of Robinson Crusoe. One
such cruise goes to Little San Salvador, just off the northern tip of Cat
Island and to the south of Eleuthera. It has been renamed Half Moon
Cay by the ship’s promoters.
The cay has had a kind of checkered history in tourism.
In its early stages, the Bahamian staff revolted because they said that
there were various gay intimacies that caused them moral difficulties and
a strike took place that crippled the operations there. All the then
staff was dismissed and there was a fresh start. The cay is in the
news again. The report this time from one of the employees is again that
there is nude bathing and there are gays coming to the cay. This
has again upset the moral sensitivities of the particular staff complaining.
The Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe has promised
to investigate but the view has been repeated that in The Bahamas that
is open for business generally there can’t be any discrimination against
any law abiding tourist who comes here.
THE
PUBLIC SERVICE AND PROMOTIONS
The Senior Police promotions are done and the restructuring
of the Royal Bahamas Police Force is now complete. The most significant
change has been for the first time there is an Assistant Commissioner of
Police who is female Mrs. Juanita Colebrook. Then there is a new head for
crime Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade.
Heading security for the Ports and the airport is Assistant Commissioner
of Police Marvin Dames, the youngest ever to achieve that post and in record
time.
In turn, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Promotions
have released some 262 promotions, the largest ever in the history of the
Force. The promotions for the junior ranks of the police force are
to come. There are also promotions due for the prison. In the
case of the Defence Force, they have received an increase of $150 per month
starting 31st March 2007 and backdated to 1st July, 2006. That means
they received a lump sum of $1350 in their hands with $150 of that being
an advance payment for the month of March. This means that in April,
a $150 per month increase will be reflected in the salaries.
The Bahamas Public Services Union and The Bahamas
Government recently signed a supplemental agreement which will provide
a shift allowance for the Customs and Immigration Department amounting
to $120 per month with effect from the 1st April. Notwithstanding
all of this, there are some who are spreading rumours and seeking to cause
upset within the public service.
The PLP has given the most generous agreements and
benefits in the history of all of the public service. These agreements
and benefits are generous to a fault. Yet FNM operatives through
the service are seeking to cause disruption on the grounds that the PLP
does not support the disciplined forces and the uniformed branches.
This is a sad thing and clearly there is a need for greater public education
on these matters about what the actual role of the disciplined force is
and of course the public service generally.
PALM
SUNDAY, GOOD FRIDAY, EASTER
By far, this time of the year in The Bahamas is
the most glorious in terms of the weather. The last of the cold fronts
have come through, and the air is generally without humidity and sunny,
the air is still, the sea calm. The sunshine is absolutely brilliant
and the flowers are out in full force. It is Easter time and Bahamians
celebrate with church going, dressed in white, the kids all have new shoes
and suits and dresses. We celebrate Easter today with you and wish
you all a happy Easter from The Bahamas.
MISUSING
FRANKLYN WILSON
Franklyn Wilson, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arawak Homes,
the nation’s largest home builder, and generally one of the country’s most
successful businessmen has issued a statement clarifying a statement used
in an ad by the Free National Movement on the radio. The ad seeks
to show that Mr. Wilson supported the FNM and gave them praise for starting
the stock exchange BISX. The ad is dishonest because Mr. Wilson’s
actual remarks said no such thing. In fact what he said was quite
the opposite.
Mr. Wilson said that while they started the stock
exchange, the FNM did nothing to support it and when the PLP came to power
the exchange was on the verge of collapse and had in fact to be rescued
by the PLP government making a decision through the Central Bank to support
the exchange. It is in fact today owned 49 percent by public funds.
Mr. Wilson released a detailed statement about Mr. Ingraham, the FNM and
its record on the economy.
THE FNM MANIPULATES THE POINT AND MORE
________________________________________
It has been brought to my attention that, without my knowledge or
consent, excerpts from remarks made by me regarding The Bahamas International
Stock Exchange (or BISX), have been manipulated to form a significant portion
of an advertisement sponsored by the Free National Movement.
This is regrettable because, in doing so, the FNM deliberately takes
the remarks entirely out of context, and in doing so, manipulates the essentials
of the points. The basic facts are that having encouraged the creation
of BISX, the FNM went back on it’s word and did not support it, as the
FNM Government had promised to do. It was the PLP Government that
helped to save BISX through increased financial support and more importantly
through progressive policies which have led directly to investors in companies
listed on BISX having accumulated hundreds of millions of additional wealth.
Here are the details:
-
The idea to create BISX was a good one, but the FNM Government having
encouraged the formation of BISX, then turned and did a tremendous disservice
to the entire investing community. Specifically, as a part of its
efforts to promote the formation of BISX, the FNM Government made certain
promises as to initiatives it committed to take to help encourage the success
of the enterprise. These promises played a significant role in causing
various Bahamian companies to put money into BISX, the business.
Sadly, the FNM never fulfilled the key promises. As a result, BISX
did not perform as expected and by May 2002 had come close to actual failure.
It was left to the PLP Government to save the enterprise and help to keep
BISX alive.
-
Not only did the PLP help to save BISX by providing direct financial
assistance, but more significantly the PLP caused BISX to become increasingly
relevant because the overall economic policies of the PLP created a climate
such that Bahamians who had invested in companies listed on BISX enjoyed
unprecedented levels of economic benefit—17% in 2004, 26% in 2005 and 34%
in 2006. These benefits translate into hundreds of millions of dollars.
It is particularly worthy of note that these financial benefits have been
widespread since some 7,000 to 10,000 Bahamians have invested directly
in the companies listed on BISX and some 15,000 others have done so via
Pension Funds. This is a phenomenal record which could only have
been achieved if Bahamian investors were satisfied with the future prospects
for companies listed on BISX; a clear manifestation of Bahamian investor
confidence in the management of the economy under the PLP Administration.
Now that the FNM has established that I have their attention, and have
reinforced that I am a creditable source, I take the opportunity to point
out that on the same occasion when I spoke about the formation of BISX,
I provided details of the fact that it was the personal and vindictive
victimizing actions of the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Ingraham which led directly
to:
-
The closure of the Cotton Bay Club at South Eleuthera.
-
A billionaire investor from South America, not proceeding with plans
to initiate a major new development at South Eleuthera. Worse still
was the reality that the same Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham then proceeded to
abuse the power of his Office to paint the billionaire investor as having
been a mere speculator.
I said then and repeat now that it is difficult for me to understand
how Mr. Ingraham can go and ask the people of Eleuthera to support him
when there is just so much evidence that these vindictive actions have
accounted directly for the protracted hardships at South Eleuthera, from
at least 1995 until relatively recently.
Finally, it has been brought to my attention that at a Partisan event
on Friday past, the same Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham called my name in the
context of land which his Government acquired from a company of which I
am the Chairman. Mr. Ingraham may also wish to let the public know
that his actions in that regard are the subject of a matter before the
Courts and it is not long now before we will know if his conduct in that
matter showed appropriate respect for the rule of law.
Franklyn R. Wilson
|
IN PASSING
Keturah Wright Dies
Keturah Wright nee Bain, a former principal of the L.W. Young High
School and a 38 year veteran of the Ministry Education passed away last
week after a long struggle with cancer. Mrs. Wright was lauded by
her student and former colleagues at a memorial service at the L.W. Young
Junior High School on Thursday 5th April. In attendance were members
of her family and the representative for Fox Hill the Hon. Fred Mitchell.
Mrs. Wright was buried on Saturday 7th April. She is survived by
her husband, two children and her brothers and sisters including Mrs. Emily
Demeritte of the Bank of The Bahamas and Rhonda Bain, the former Director
of Legal Affairs.
New Miss Bahamas Universe
The Miss Bahamas Universe contest doesn’t quite have the cachet and
public prominence that it used to have but the contest still goes on.
The Nassau Guardian reported that Trinere Laing was crowned Miss Bahamas
Universe 2007-2008 on Sunday evening 1st April at the Rain Forest Theatre,
Crystal Palace on Cable Beach. Photo by Donald Knowles.
Calvin Lockhart Bahamian Actor Dies
There were three famous Bahamians on the stage and screen that those
who were mature adults in the 1960s, 70s and 80s came to love, respect
and admire. One was Anthony Carroll, better known as Tony Carroll.
The other was Calvin Lockhart, known first in The Bahamas as Berkeley Cooper.
The third and greatest of them all is Sidney Poitier. In the past
month Mr. Carroll died. He was the youngest of them all. Now
Calvin Lockhart has died. Mr. Lockhart was a contrast to the clean
cut image of Sidney Poitier. He was more ruggedly handsome, a ladies’
man and played well the types in so called ‘blackxploitation’ films.
He worked with Mr. Poitier on several films, produced by Mr. Poitier.
He had been living in The Bahamas for a while and died in Nassau at the
age of 73. He is survived by his widow Jennifer Miles Lockhart, his
mother Minerva Lockhart Cooper, his sons Michael Lockhart and Julian Miles
Lockhart. Internet photo from www.grandbahamainfo.com
Basketball Tournament Ends in Fox Hill
The end of the official observances for the 200th anniversary of the
transatlantic slave trade came on Monday 2nd April in Fox Hill when the
winner of the basketball tournament was presented with their trophies.
The final game was an exciting contest between the Shonas and the Congos.
The winning team was the Congos. The Minister of Foreign Affairs
and Member of Parliament for Fox Hill Fred Mitchell presented the trophies
to the winning team. The photo shows tournament organizer Trevor
Pratt (red cap), one of the leaders of the ‘Original Congos’ Junkanoo group
beams as Fred Mitchell MP (windbreak jacket) presents trophies to the champion
Congos team after the final game of the week long Fox Hill African Heritage
Basketball Tournament staged at Freedom Park in the historic freed slave
village. All teams in the tournament adopted the names of ethnic
African groups. Photo: Tim Aylen
Voters’ Cards
The Parliamentary Commissioner has announced that voters’ cards will
be available in each constituency beginning Tuesday 10th April from 10
a.m. to 9 p.m. In Fox Hill, they can be collected from the Sandilands
Primary School.
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Farewell to US Ambassador Rood
Prime Minister Perry Christie this past week received
a farewell courtesy call from outgoing US Ambassador John Rood. The
two are pictured during the courtesy call at the Office of the Prime Minister.
Bahamas Information Services photo by Peter Ramsay
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
Massive Support at PLP Rally in Grand
Bahama Saturday 14th - FNM in Full Retreat
|
| PHOTOS OF THE WEEK: They
used to call it 'FNM Country', but Saturday night 14 March in Freeport,
Grand Bahama told another story. The Prime Minister and PLP Leader
Perry Christie was welcomed by waves of thousands in gold shirts at the
Party's mass rally in downtown Freeport. Supporters at the neighbouring
FNM rally were stunned by the PLP turnout and closed down their event early
to watch the PLP on television. Our series of photographs by Peter
Ramsay shows leader Christie acknowledging the throngs and breaking into
dance as the crowds look on. The leader pledged his commitment to
each and every supporter and introduced the Party's candidates for the
Grand Bahama constituencies to a thunderous ovation. Said one observer
of both rallies, "The FNM is in full retreat!" Expect a dispatch
from Grand Bahama in our second edition. Please click
here for the leader's released remarks. |
 |
Stan Burnside's
'Sideburns' from The Nassau Guardian Friday 13th April 07
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE NUMBERS GAME
The election campaign is punctuated at various junctures by various
events. For example, there is the launch of the campaigns, started
by mass rallies by both parties. Then there is Nomination Day.
Then there are the special rallies that take place on a weekly basis to
keep the base together. Then there is the rally of the final night.
At each point, the press, the people, the supporters all seek to find out
and discover who has the largest numbers. The press usually lines
the photos up side by side on their front pages. For the PLP, it
is such a beautiful sea of gold, a slick elaborate campaign that has the
country wowed.
Bahamians count like “speeret”. That means in ordinary English that
there is no real scientific count. We look at the crowd and make
an estimate and the numbers get wilder and wilder. One thing we know
is that each party has at its base 40 per cent or so of the vote.
And that means that each party can generate huge crowds. That means
each party can put thousands into the parks. There is also a phenomenon
known as the swing voters, the ones in between who go to all the rallies
just to watch and see who is there and what the numbers are. So you
get the impression that swing voters are encouraged by the party that appears
to have the larger numbers.
One thing that needs to be pointed out is the fact that you cannot
rely on the media of The Bahamas to provide you with any legitimate figures
on who appeared at what rally. All of the print media and much of
the electronic media are opposed to the PLP. They hate the PLP and
the headlines each day in the press and in the electronic media bear witness
to this blatant bias and one sidedness. The PLP of course has systematically
failed throughout its term to stand up to this bias, always trying to be
the nice guy. Nice guys finish last. We have to meet Mr. Nasty
head on and defeat him, consigning him to the dust bin of history.
We had our spies attend the FNM’s rally on Wednesday 11th April on
Ft. Charlotte. What they did was very clever. They started
the stage about one third of the way in the field and they couldn’t even
fill that. So when you saw the pictures, you thought that you were
looking at a field covered in people. When the PLP holds its meeting
on the same park this coming week, the public will really see what a huge
crowd is.
Apart from the trickery with cameras and photos and lies in the press
and clever staging, the other trick is to seek to sully the waters with
nastiness and propaganda. For example, the candidate in Fox Hill
showed up with a bunch of drunks at her nomination day, spoiling for a
fight. One individual was in her entourage who is known for sending
around defamatory and nasty e mails and who being insecure with himself
about his colour and some other secret things is busy spoiling for a fight
where there is none and where none is necessary. He drove his truck
with FNM flags into the middle of the PLPs parade and had to be sent away
by the police but not before he tried to knock down PLP supporters with
his truck. That is the tactic of the FNM in Fox Hill. He is
just a nasty individual. There are two known ex cons that go door
to door with her. It is said that you are known by the company you
keep. They spread the propaganda of nastiness, while she walks around
saying God Bless you. Except that when the words come out, they sound
like a curse and your friends would probably say God help you.
That is what the Hubert Ingraham team is made up of in part.
Down in Exuma, with Mr. Ingraham unable to mount a sustained campaign
to protect Joshua Sears, the former Ambassador who worked for the PLP administration
for four years then left without so much as a by your leave and was busy
negotiating with Hubert Ingraham even as he was serving as Ambassador.
It was a special form of treachery. They say poor Mr. Sears had to
hustle for a ride when he landed at the airport. No crowds, no one
even seemed to recognize him. Then there was the shocker of all shockers.
Everett Hart, the former Local Government Administrator, who most people
took for PLP, and who was sent to Exuma to help save the seat for the PLP,
it turns out was an FNM. No one has to wonder then why it was so
difficult for the incumbent Anthony Moss to get anything done during his
first term. He had a man dressed up in PLP clothes who was really
an FNM. Now we know. Let us hope in the next term the PLP has
learned its lesson.
We believe it was the late Canadian philosopher Marshal McLuhan who
once said: “Perception is reality”. That is what the FNM hopes.
They hope that by spreading the b.s. in the public domain that people will
believe that there is a problem and will succumb to their blandishments.
We don’t think so. We believe that the people of the country are
smarter than that.
Yes indeed it is a numbers game. We tell you what though, the
only number that will count will be those coming out of the ballot box,
and we believe that when the votes are counted, there will be more in the
PLP column than the FNM by a substantial and workable majority. Vote
PLP! Amen!
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 14th April 2007 up to
midnight: 233,661.
Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 14th April 2007
up to midnight: 484,850.
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
THE PLP’S
NOMINEES
There was a huge crowd outside the returning officer’s
station in Farm Road at Centreville Primary School. This was the
scene for the nomination day in the Farm Road and Centreville constituency.
This is the Prime Minister’s return as the nominee to the constituency
where Perry Christie began in elective politics in 1977, thirty years ago.
There was a huge Junkanoo festival going on and there was dancing in the
street as the clock ticked toward nomination time. The Prime Minister
danced his way into the room, nominated and then told the assembled crowd
outside that they were looking at the next Prime Minister of the Commonwealth
of The Bahamas.
So the election now is officially on for 2nd May.
Candidates have nominated for all forty one constituencies throughout the
country. The PLP has nominated in 39 constituencies and two are being left
for independents to try their hand: Bamboo Town and Long Island.
PLPs will likely support them. The PLP is expected to win the next
general election.
We present the list of the candidates for the PLP
and the constituencies for which they nominated. We believe that
these 39 men and women will form the next government. The photos
show Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Fred Mitchell on nomination day.
Top photo: Peter Ramsay; above: Fox Hill PLP
1. Perry Christie - Farm Road & Centreville
2. Cynthia Pratt - St Cecilia
3. Vincent Peet - North Andros and the Berry
Islands
4. Obie Wilchcombe - West End and Bimini
5. Fred Mitchell - Fox Hill
6. Alfred Sears - Ft. Charlotte
7. Alfred Gray - Mayaguana Inagua Crooked Island
and Long Cay
8. Leslie Miller - Blue Hills
9. Melanie Griffin - Yamacraw
10. Bernard Nottage - Bain and Grants Town
11. Neville Wisdom - Killarney
12. Allyson Gibson - Pinewood
13. Glenys Hanna Martin - Englerston
14. Oswald Ingraham South - Eleuthera
15. Shane Gibson - Golden Gates
16. John Carey - Carmichael
17. Veronica Owen - Garden Hills
18. Ann Percentie - Pineridge
19. Ron Pinder - Marathon
20. Michael Halkitis - Golden Isles
21. Frank Smith - St. Thomas More
22. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis - Cat Island, Rum Cay and
San Salvador
23. Yvette Turnquest - Montagu
24. Hope Strachan - Sea Breeze
25. Malcolm Adderley - Elizabeth
26. Ricardo Treco - St. Anne’s
27. Keod Smith - Mt. Moriah
28. Jackson Ritchie - Clifton
29. Pleasant Bridgewater - Marco City
30. Constance McDonald - Lucaya
31. Doswell Coakley - High Rock
32. Caleb Outten - Eight Mile Rock
33. Gary Sawyer - South Abaco
34. Fritz Bootle - North Abaco
35. Anthony Moss - Exuma
36. Picewell Forbes - South Andros
37. Wallace Rolle - South Beach
38. Chrisfield Johnson - North Eleuthera
39. Kenyatta Gibson - Kennedy
|
THE
CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES
The Progressive Liberal Party launched its campaign
with a mass rally at the carnival site at Oakes Field in Nassau on Wednesday
11th April. The PLP would usually go to Ft. Charlotte but the FNM
was holding its rally there at the same time. The reason why the
PLP did not get first chance is because they had planned their rally on
the Tuesday 9th April. The rally date was changed because the PLP
was to match up with the FNM crowd for crowd and does not want PLPs wandering
to FNM rallies.
Further, there is a security element in that some
police think that it would be a good idea to keep the supporters separated.
In any event, the FNMs couldn’t stay at their rally long enough; they tried
to come to interfere with the PLP’s rally. All around Nassau there
were bands of marauding, drunken FNM supporters. But the numbers
tell the story and so we present this photo essay of the crowd at the PLP's
rally including the group that came from Fox Hill. The Prime Minister’s
address
at the rally can be accessed here.
Photos: Peter Ramsay
BOYCOTT
READING THE NEWSPAPERS
There is a boycott that is developing as we get
closer to the elections of the newspapers. Some people have become
so sickened by the bias and anti PLP bent of the newspapers, especially
The Tribune, that they have determined that no money will go into their
coffers. Silently then some people have organized a boycott and are
refusing to buy the papers. We think that this is a good thing and
perhaps PLPs might by this method bring home the nature of their discontent
with the actual bias of the press in this country toward the PLP.
We encourage those to make that make the sacrifice and not buy any newspapers
during this election period, and if you must buy a newspaper then the paper
to exclude is The Tribune.
THE
STORY OF FRUITCAKE AND JOHN MARQUIS
On Monday 9th April, The Tribune’s managing editor
John Marquis, took up several column inches of the op ed page of The Tribune
to defend himself against the charges made in an ad that was run in the
Nassau Guardian about him from a column that appeared on this site (you
may click here for that original column).
The problem with The Tribune and Mr. Marquis is
that they seem to believe that somehow they are the arbiters of public
opinion, morals and truths in The Bahamas. None of that is true.
Mr. Marquis sought to denigrate the article claiming that what was said
was not true, and that it contained gross libels. He said that a
writ will now be issued against the Nassau Guardian. What a great
big cry baby. Here is the man who has called public officials of
this country, ordinary citizens of this country, every name in the book
but now he is going off to court to cry on the shoulders of a judge.
John Marquis claims that he can have the pick of
countries to live in. Well he should go pick one that is not The
Bahamas. There is really not much more you can say in answer to someone
whose writings and opinions are so totally obtuse, except to repeat what
we have said before, the quicker he leaves The Bahamas the better.
IN PASSING
Defence Force Pay Raises
The Bahamas Government has approved pay raises for the Royal Bahamas
Defence Force officers. The raises were paid in March 2007.
They took effect on 1st July 2006. In March, each RBDF officer received
the sum of $1350, representing back pay from July 2006 plus $150 in advance
for the month of March. That means that when the pay cheque of each
officer is examined on pay day April, they will have an additional $150
in their pay packet. For the prison officers, the amount is $100
per month extra on their pay packet for the month of April. They
should have received a lump sum payment of $800 in March representing the
sums owed from July 2006 on an annual increase of $1200 per annum, plus
the advance on March’s salary of $100. The pay packet in April should
reflect a $100 pay increase.
The Don Imus Saga
The United States is a remarkable country. Suddenly there is
this a feeding frenzy about a man named Don Imus, one of these inveterate
racists, who appear on American talk radio and television and who are tolerated
in the name of free speech. And then suddenly, that country seems
to get a conscience. Mr. Imus’ offence was to call a group of mainly
African American female basketball players “nappy headed hos”. In
ordinary English, it means nappy headed whores. It did not go over
well and he was fired from his popular radio show. Mind you rap music
is full of it all the time and worse things have been said by these right
wing ideologues in their coded language about blacks, Jews, women and homosexuals.
We recall how the racist senator from Mississippi Trent Lott forgot himself
when he crossed the line and said he supported a former segregationist
Senator’s policies when that Senator Strom Thurmond ran for President.
There was a feeding frenzy and he was gone. We quite frankly don’t
understand it. The racism does not change. It’s not as if people
in the US did not know what these people believed and what their code words
were. But there you have it. What a strange country.
Whose the Baby’s Father?
The press of the United States is still in The Bahamas in full force.
They are here in pursuit of the entertainment value over the death of Anna
Nicole Smith, the B movie actress who died of a drug overdose in a Florida
hotel earlier this year but who also left a trail of fantastic stories
that have titillated the public imagination in the United States.
There was breaking news from The Bahamas on both CNN and Fox News when
the courts ruled that Larry Birkhead, a sometime lover of Ms. Smith, was
the father by DNA testing of the baby Danielynne born in Nassau last year,
and not Howard K. Stern, the live in lover at the time of her death.
The US press is still here because an inquest is to be held into the death
of Daniel Smith, the only son of Anna Nicole, who died of an apparent drug
overdose while visiting his mother in hospital in Nassau last year.
They are also here because there is a custody battle between the biological
father, newly declared, and the mother of the child. The publicity
and the tourist dollars keep rolling in. The U.S. public does not
seem to tire of this tiresome entertainment.
George Smith Will Not Run
The Hon. George A. Smith, the Chairman of the Hotel Corporation, and
the former Cabinet Minister in the Pindling Administration and former Member
of Parliament for Exuma, announced on Tuesday 10th April that he will not
be running as an independent in the election of 2007 for the Exuma seat.
He did not nominate on Friday 13th April. There had been speculation
that he might do so.
Gay and Lesbian Rights Advocate Responds
Erin Greene, who heads the Gay and Lesbian organization Rainbow Alliance,
has come out strongly against a man named Cleaver Duncombe who threatened
to run as an independent candidate against Shane Gibson in Golden Gates.
Mr. Duncombe who was most recently known for his advocacy for father’s
rights seems to be searching for another cause now that the PLP has passed
the legislation to deal with father’s rights. He claims that he wants
all candidates to declare their sexuality and true to The homophobic penchant
of the editor of The Tribune John Marquis who calls homosexuals “fairies”,
he printed what Mr. Duncombe had to say, anything sensational to sell newspapers.
Ms. Green struck back at Mr. Duncombe on Tuesday 10th April in The Tribune
and said: “To reveal someone’s sexual orientation in this heterosexist
and homophobic social environment is a violent act that could to only lead
to the demise of her/his political career, extreme psychological and emotional
trauma, but could also result in physical violence and death”. Of
course Mr. Duncombe and The Tribune couldn’t care less about any of those
things.
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
PLP Rally in the Berrys
Prime Minister and PLP Leader Perry Christie touched down in
the Berry Islands Saturday night to a tumultuous welcome from Party supporters
gathered at the airport. Host candidate Vincent Peet explained to
the excited crowd that the Prime Minister had thousands waiting for him
in Grand Bahama and so would cut his visit short. The crowd surrounded
Leader Christie would could not resist leading a forty car motorcade through
Bullocks Harbour, where he stopped to address the rally and break bread
with most of the five hundred or so residents in the settlement.
Photos by Peter Ramsay
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
PLP Rally on Clifford Park Friday 20th
- PM Commits to National Health Insurance Next Term
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK: PM
AT CLIFFORD PARK RALLY - They have been turning out in their tens of thousands
to one venue or the other. The gatherings have been entirely peaceful.
The newspapers in The Bahamas, for whatever reason, having been trying
to make it appear that there is violence on the way in this election.
There is no sign amongst the people that this is the case. For example,
the press reported early last week that an office in the headquarters of
Tommy Turnquest, the FNM’s candidate for Mr. Moriah, was torched, if you
will forgive the pun. The report coming to us is that the office
was not torched by anyone. The evidence suggests that it was simply
an electrical fire. But people from all over the world were calling
Bahamians to find out what was happening. The FNM of course has been
fomenting the violence, such as it is, by directly instructing its people
to take down the posters of the PLP candidates. The PLP has been
telling its people to remain restrained. That must be the advice
because when you see the crowds and the enthusiasm of the crowds, it is
clear that the PLP is on a wave. There is a virtual sea of gold T shirts.
And so our photo of the week was the Prime Minister Perry Christie at his
rally on Ft. Charlotte on Friday 20th April, when he urged the crowd in
the chant “Forward Ever! Backward Never!” You may click
here for the Prime Minister's full address. The photo is by Patrick
Hanna.. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE NEUTRALITY OF THE
PUBLIC SERVICE
A report came to this site that on the day of nomination, a group
of police officers were seen just outside the Supreme Court dressed in
red shirts that were ostensibly their Staff Association uniform, and it
appeared that they were giving out more shirts and making the point that
the day was Nomination Day and so all off duty officers were being encouraged
to wear their shirts. It just happens of course that the uniform
shirt is red, the same colour of the Free National Movement. On the
face of it, and without more, it appeared that there was some demonstration
in favour of the Opposition Free National Movement.
There has been speculation in the press for weeks that the former
Prime Minister and now Leader of the Free National Movement Hubert Ingraham
has been openly organizing the police and compromising their neutrality
by encouraging them to openly support the candidate of the Free National
Movement. This has now been denied by the Staff Association President
for the Police Bradley Sands. Mr. Sands said that the colour was
just coincidental. But Mr. Sands has to be extremely careful because
his public pronouncements tend to support the theory that interventions
are being made to support the FNM, thereby compromising the neutrality
of the Force.
Prior to the 2002 general election, it was said that officers of
the Royal Bahamas Defence Force did not support the then Government because
they removed the parity from the Force with the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
The Defence Force which started off with higher qualifications and better
pay, ended up falling behind the Royal Bahamas Police Force. The
PLP had promised parity for the two Forces and they will accomplish that
on pay day of April 2007.
Hubert Ingraham went on a public platform at his party’s rally on
Thursday 19th April to say that he was of the view that public servants
ought to be able to express their political views, and to be able to run
as
candidates for political parties without having to resign from the Government,
only if they won election to the House. In other words, if they lost
the election, they can simply come back into the service and begin where
they left off. Can you imagine such a scenario where a Permanent
Secretary decides that he or she wishes to run against the Government of
the day, does so, loses and then comes back to be a Permanent Secretary
in a government that is not of his party.
The Minister for the Public Service Fred Mitchell spoke at his party’s
rally on Friday 20th April to explain to Mr. Ingraham and the country exactly
what the present situation is with regard to public servants and their
political participation, and why there is not a need for the kind of change
urged by Mr. Ingraham. Mr. Mitchell said that what Mr. Ingraham was
advocating was the kind of sabotage that had been going on under the PLP
for the past five years in office. You had FNM candidates in waiting sitting
in Government positions, actively campaigning and only when the election
was upon them did they declare themselves and choose to run. The
list includes Dr. Hubert Minnis, a consultant at the Princess Margaret
Hospital, Joshua Sears, the Ambassador to Washington and Brensil Rolle,
the Controller of Road Traffic. Each is now an FNM candidate but
each worked for the government and waited until the last minute before
resigning and then choosing to run for the FNM. It now appears that
this was something that they planned to do all along.
By the present rules, there was nothing done wrong by them but certainly
something does not smell right, it does not pass the smell test of the
right kind of behaviour. If you are an FNM candidate in waiting,
then you should leave the service and go and canvass and run for your party,
and not sit in waiting and give rise to the suspicion that all along you
may not have been as co-operative in your policies as you should have been
because of the fact that you were FNM all along.
Fred Mitchell made the point that public servants are already free
to express their political views, and that the policies with regard to
running for political parties are fine as they are. That policy requires
you to resign from the service once you are nominated as a candidate for
election to Parliament. He said that there is one category of workers
who are absolutely politically free although they cannot run for office
and that is workers under $19,000 per annum. He said that there is
a middle category that can participate in some events with permission and
then there is the category of First Assistant Secretaries and above who
must refrain from any political activity.
Mr. Mitchell said that what he would agree needs to change is the
policy that forces Ministers and the new government to accept those persons
who are their principal advisors. He believes that a policy ought
to be put in place that allows the Government to choose its top advisors
in the way the Americans do and when that Government or Minister leaves
those advisors leave with him. This is clearly an issue that the
next Government must address.
The public service must, however, in the main be politically neutral.
This is so that the people of the country can rely on the fact that
services offered by the government are given not on the basis of party
favours but on the basis of need and merit. Mr. Ingraham obviously
does not want that instead he wants a situation where he can flood the
service with his FNM partisans if he should God forbid get in power and
then once he is removed from power, the next government is crippled because
the only people, working for the government are FNM partisans.
We support the Minister in his views expressed on behalf of the Progressive
Liberal Party. You may click here
for his full address. We think that Mr. Ingraham is wrong and misguided.
He is pandering. We think that the blatant encouragement of the police
in their displays of support for the FNM is irresponsible and compromises
the integrity of the Force and its political neutrality. We think
that the police themselves ought to be careful and should stay out of the
political debate that is ensuing lest they be comprised in the future in
their role on the Force. We think that all political parties ought to be
so careful how they manage these affairs so that all the public service
remains neutral in fact and in appearance.
Hubert Ingraham destroyed the public service as we knew it,
he brought a vicious culture into its practices and left behind a legacy
of destruction and ruination. He must not be allowed to come back
again and destroy the fabric of the service. That is why we think
Public Servants ought to vote PLP in the next general election.
The PLP is the best way forward for the Service.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 20th April 2007 at midnight:
272,646.
Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 20th April 2007
up to midnight: 770,465.
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
BAHAMASAIR
PLANE WHEEL GEAR COLLAPSES
A Bahamasair flight bound for Governor’s Harbour,
Eleuthera on Friday 20th April crash-landed at the Governor’s Harbour airport
with thirty souls onboard. No one was injured when the left wheel
collapsed upon landing. The airport had to be closed as a result.
This would have been major news at any other time but in the middle of
the campaign it seemed almost a footnote, although it did oust news of
the rallies as the headlines in the press. The photo is from
the Nassau Guardian of Saturday 21st April and is by Allan Ingraham.
WHAT
HAPPENED IN FOX HILL?
The FNM candidate in Fox Hill is trying to use intimidation
in order to win. She had a motorcade that passed through the Fox
Hill community trying to silence PLPs. She got what she was looking
for. As she passed by the Blueberry Hill area, she met a PLP motorcade
coming in the other direction. And her people started to taunt and
throw aerosol cans and other projectiles from her truck. One of her
persons actually fired a shot into the air. The police were called.
It is clear who started the incident. No one was hurt. The
FNM candidate who seems to have a lack of acquaintance with the truth suddenly
gets on her party’s platform and says that it was the PLP who tried to
stop her motorcade. The number of lies that have been told by the
FNM in Fox Hill are now too numerable to mention. But that is the
truth of what happened in Fox Hill on Thursday 19th April.
THE
FOX HILL COMMUNITY CENTRE
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament
for Fox Hill has accomplished one of his major goals by building a community
centre as a gift for Fox Hill. Mr. Mitchell led in the cornerstone
laying of the centre on Tuesday 17th April. Mr. Mitchell thanked
the Committee members for their hard work and dedication to the protect.
They are: Co Chairs Rev. Dr. Carrington Pinder and Benjamin Rahming;
Rev. Dr. J. Carl Rahming, Eric Wilmott, Jacinta White, Danny Ferguson,
Edgar Moxey, Al Dillette, Calvin Brown, and Bertram Knowles, representing
the Friends of George Mackey. The architect was Fox Hillian Sheldon
Maycock and the general contractor was Ashley Glinton of Woslee Dominion.
The Governor General Arthur D. Hanna and the Prime Minister Perry
Christie laid the cornerstone. You may click
here for Mr. Mitchell’s full remarks. From left are Fred
Mitchell, Prime Minister Christie, the Governor General, REv. Dr. J. Carl
Rahming (partially hidden) Rev. Dr. Pinder, Mrs. White, Benjamin Rahming,
Al Dillette and Danny Ferguson. The photo is by Peter Ramsay.
CAN
THERE EVER BE ENOUGH T SHIRTS?
 |
Stan Burnside's
'Sideburns - The Nassau Guardian of Wednesday 18th April
The ammunition for the political warfare in The Bahamas
is T shirts and flags. The PLP wears gold. The FNM red.
No candidate can seem to order enough. They go like hot cakes and
people fight over them, threatening not to vote for candidates if they
don’t get one. The women have them altered into fancy designs.
So the short answer is that there can never be enough. That is why
we thought Stan Burnside’s cartoon was so apt. It shows that people
must be taking them from both sides and you won’t really know who they
are voting for. But we know the PLP is on the winning side.
There is simply more gold around.
THE
PRIME MINISTER’S MARATHON SCHEDULE
It was an impressive day in the life of what has
proven to be a busy campaign. The PLP put on a show to end all shows
on Clifford Park on Friday 20th April. The Prime Minister Perry Christie
left Nassau for Black Point, Exuma. There he spoke at a rally.
From there he took off for Georgetown, Exuma. When he arrived he
was overwhelmed by the support: a motorcade to end all motorcades.
Meanwhile the Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt was in Freeport, Grand
Bahama, where she headlined a rally there. Remember only the PLP
could bring out that kind of star power without the Prime Minister there.
She wowed the Freeport crowd. Her remarks were simulcast from Grand
Bahama live via BTC. Once that was finished she left for Nassau.
The Prime Minister was leaving Georgetown and at 12.30 a.m. they joined
each other for the final address by the Prime Minister to the crowd.
It was a great day and a great show. The FNM cannot compete.
Photo of Prime Minister Christie being greeted in Exuma by Peter
Ramsay
MITCHELL
DEFENDS PLP LAND POLICY
Fred Mitchell, the Foreign Minister, told the crowd
gathered at the Clifford Park rally of the PLP on Friday 20th April that
Hubert Ingraham has the unmitigated gall to accuse the PLP of selling land
when in fact it was just the opposite. He listed land that was bought
back from the private sector by the PLP for the heritage of the Bahamian
people forever at Clifton. The FNM proposed to make it a private
development. He listed land bought from the Bahamas National Trust
in Harbour Island that was put into public use by the PLP. He
said that 220 acres of land had been bought from the private sector in
West End and put into public hands. He said that the Government had
gone into a joint venture with Winding Bay’s Developer in Abaco in an investment
that would accrue to the Bahamian people. Then there was the
Mayaguana project where there is a joint venture between the developer
and the Government; again an investment for the Bahamian people.
The Fox Hill MP said that the FNM was now seeking
to attack the Bahamar Development at Cable Beach because of the 8000 jobs
it promised and the FNM did not want the jobs to come. The Bahamar
project has one key component, no land passes hands until and unless the
full deal is complete . If the project is not completed then the
land comes back to The Bahamas government. Mr. Mitchell reminded
the crowd that it was Mr. Ingraham who repealed the Immovable Properties
Act of the PLP making it possible for Mr. Ingraham and his real estate
friends to sell Bahamian land to their heart's content. You may click
here for the full address of Mr. Mitchell.
Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell greets supporters in the massive crowd
at Friday night's PLP rally on Clifford Park.
Nassau Guardian photo by Letisha Henderson
IN PASSING
Jerome Fitzgerald on Love 97
Businessman Jerome Fitzgerald is set to appear on Love 97 at 5 p.m.
today, Sunday. Mr. Fizgerald is an attorney and the founder of RND
cinemas as well as a director of severa;l companies. It should be
well worth a listen if - as we suspect - Mr. Fitzgerald is encouraged to
comment on business, politics and public life in The Bahamas.
'Doc' Rahming Dies
We mourn the passing of Leon 'Doc' Rahming, long a well known fixture
of the Valley community at Hampton Street. Doc Rahming was the founder
of Economy Jitney service and was generally credited with having established
the jitney business in The Bahamas as it exists today. He was a member
of the Elks Lodge and a close friend of the Prime Minister. Doc Rahming
was recently honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
Boycott The Press
We again repeat the sentiment that there needs to be an organized boycott
of the Bahamian press. PLPs should decide that for the next ten days
they will not buy any newspaper. The continued bias of the press
against the PLP is reprehensible. We have said that if you
must buy any paper then buy the Bahama Journal or at worst The Nassau Guardian.
By all means, The Tribune should be avoided.
Taking the PLP’s Food
 |
doctor doctor enjoys Fox Hill PLP hospitality...
The FNM has been running an extremely aggressive campaign against the PLP.
They have targeted Fox Hill as one of the must win seats on their list.
They have been using psychological tactics like tearing down PLP posters
and knocking down the PLP’s signs. Fred Mitchell, the PLP’s candidate
for Fox Hill, told how FNM’s led by their Fox Hill candidate came to a
PLP grill out on the Fox Hill parade on Saturday 14th April and ate the
PLPs food and also wanted to take some away. It was at that occasion
when the FNM's candidate was asked when she lost if she would stick with
the people of Fox Hill. Her reply was: “Who, me; stick with these
people here after they don’t want me? Why should I stick with them
when I could be making millions.” Now that’s something for a candidate
to say. But that is the good doctor doctor. She has a reputation
for not sticking to any project when she can’t get her way. She also
has a reputation for undermining her allies so that she can get what she
wants. The PLP will win Fox Hill handsomely.
Looking For Salt and Pepper
The Deputy Leader of the Free National Movement Brent Symonette has
virtually disappeared from the platforms of the FNM. Ever since the
PLP made him an issue in the election, following on from the assertion
by the FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham that he would only be around for 18 months
and then give up the job. Mr. Symonette is his Deputy. That
raised the spectre of the United Bahamian Party’s heir being the new Prime
Minister of the country, taking us right back to where we were in 1967.
The PLP has started the slogan No Turning Back. Fred Mitchell, the
PLP's candidate for Fox Hill, told his party’s rally on Clifford Park Friday
20th April that when the FNM first started their campaign, they used to
talk about salt and pepper referring to Brent Symonette who is white and
Hubert Ingraham who is black as the winning combination. At their
convention, the two marched up to the strains of Stevie Wonder’s Ebony
and Ivory. Now all of that is gone since the PLP's attack and Brent
Symonette has not appeared on any FNM platform. Mr. Mitchell said
that salt had virtually disappeared and called on salt to come out from
wherever he was. You may click here for the full address.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
FNM In full retreat in Grand Bahama
For the past twenty years, the FNM dominated
the political landscape of Abaco and Grand Bahama. Out of the eight
seats in these two northern islands, the FNM controlled six, thus, this
region became known as FNM country. That all started to change five
years ago when Obie Wilchcombe, Pleasant Bridgewater and Ann Percentie-Russell
of the PLP, unseated FNM incumbent candidates.
This past week, what was supposed to be the FNM’s
start of its campaign to reclaim its dominance of the north, was met with
the stunningly strong challenge from the PLP. It seems that the constant
fighting of the past five years has taken its toll on the once vibrant
FNM; in fact, it has left the once energetic organization fragmented and
fractured. Observers believe that the squandering of the political
capital could all be blamed on Hubert Ingraham. They say that the
man doesn’t listen; further, they refer to the political lineup of the
FNM candidates from Grand Bahama, and ask, “What has happened to Burton
Miller, Barry Malcolm, Mike Edwards, and Kay Forbes-Smith?” These
were all strong-willed personalities that brought something to the table.
Ingraham could not risk ratifying an independent thinker who might question
his decisions, so now, the party does not have their strongest slate, and
if they lose, it would be Ingraham’s fault; he does not understand that
his style of leadership will not work in a modern Bahamas.
On the PLP side, the PLP sensed the FNM’s vulnerability
from nomination morning at the opening of the Marco City headquarters.
On Nomination Day evening we saw a boldness that has not been seen displayed
by the PLP in many years, at the opening of the Marco City headquarters.
The FNM candidate whose headquarters is just across the street was forced
to retreat to the political tall grass, turning the lights off at his headquarters
and going home that night because of the overwhelming numbers of PLP supporters.
On Saturday afternoon, the PLP again displayed a boldness that indicates
a confident people who were prepared to ‘possess the land’ with the massive
motorcade through the streets of Freeport; leaving FNMs bewildered.
At last Saturday’s rally the turnout of the supporters
spoke for itself. A sea of gold t-shirts which was broadcast live
over television 13 started cell phones ringing, even PLPs again were surprised.
It was generally thought that the PM was spending too much time answering
Hubert Ingraham. It is believed that the PM should be reminded of
the biblical story of Nehemiah and the building of the wall. Answering
Hubert Ingraham should be left to a Minister like Bradley Roberts.
The PLP is the only party that represents the
social agenda of the masses, having had the foresight to pass into law,
the National Health Insurance Act. If left to the FNM, the NHI scheme
would never be implemented because of the FNM’s ‘market forces’ philosophy
that opposes the upliftment of the masses. The FNM represents the
social agenda of the ‘haves’.
Uncle B (Full name withheld)
Some observations on Education Development
Much has been said about the present state of
our education system and in particular, the academic performance of our
students. The leader of the Opposition is on record as saying that our
education system went from “bad to worse” when Minister Alfred Sears relinquished
the portfolio of Attorney General. Mr. Ingraham insists that the education
minister does not know what he is doing. While expressions of concern are
not without merit and I know that there are opportunities for improvement
in education, the achievements of the Ministry of Education over the past
five years are impressive, but there is much work to be done. I urge Bahamians
to put the achievements of the Ministry of Education into perspective and
consider what more they can do as parents and students to forge a stronger
partnership with the government as we expand the intellectual capacity
of our nation. I have some observations and perspectives that I would like
to share with your readers:
The national grade mean of the BGCSE improved
from D minus to D plus between 2002 and 2005. It remained at a D plus in
2006. This is relatively impressive because the grade mean languished between
a D minus and a D for nine years between 1993 and 2002. At one point during
that period, the ministry had the benefit of two full time ministers, Mrs
Ivy Dumont and Mr. Zhivago Laing. Minister Sears, for all intents and purposes,
was a part time Education Minister.
As for low performing students, the government
addressed the vexing issue of social promotion by implementing the Extended
Learning Programme (ELP) which is a remediation programme designed to enable
failing students to improve their academic achievement levels before being
promoted to the next grade level. The ELP involves instruction in Mathematics
and Reading for four weeks during the summer break.
As regards to the physical plant, the FNM government
did construct ten schools in 10 years and the Grand Bahama Port Authority
(GBPA) constructed two schools. This translates into about 332 class rooms.
When one considers the amount of class rooms constructed by the FNM government
alone during its 10 years of governance, that number is below 300 class
rooms. The record will show that the PLP government constructed 519 standard
class rooms and 33 preschool units in five years, more than doubling the
24 pre-school units that were in place in 2002. This is the single largest
upgrade and expansion exercise of the education physical plant in more
than fifteen years at a cost of over $70 million. It covered a network
of 161 schools. Further, the government hired 57 pre-school teachers and
tabled legislation regulating the operation of pre-schools in the Bahamas.
These are the unvarnished facts...
Elcott Coleby
Please click here for the full letter
of Mr. Coleby - Editor
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
PM Deplores Idea of Election Violence
At the first hint of the possibility of election
violence, Prime Minister Perry Christie issued the following statement
on Tuesday of this past week:
"I deplore the use of violence and destruction of
property as instruments of political campaigning. Such behaviour
is wrong and indefensible, even where there is provocation. I cannot
condemn it strongly enough.
"Recent events suggest that both major political
parties may have been victims of criminal behaviour by unknown perpetrators.
These matters are, I believe, under active investigation by the police.
We should await their findings before jumping to conclusions that the incidents
were politically motivated. In the meantime, however, it is important
that all political parties, candidates and campaign workers recommit themselves
to a peaceful and non violent campaign based on mutual respect and adherence
to the democratic values we hold so dear. For my part, I renew my
commitment in this regard and I invite all other leaders to follow suit.
"We live in a great democracy. Let’s keep
it that way."
PLP Rally at Clifford Park
Prime Minister and PLP Leader Perry Christie has been criss-crossing
the country, headlining PLP rallies before hundreds of islanders.
Above, the Leader is shown surrounded by members of his team just after
ascending the stage at Clifford Park on Friday night. Having just
come from two rallies in Exuma, the Prime Minister mounted a ringing commitment
to implement National Health Insurance in his next term. Please click
here for that full address.
PLP Rally in The Bluff, South Andros
Prime Minister and Progressive Liberal Party Leader Perry Christie
at a rally in The Bluff, South Andros with candidate Picewell 'Hometown
Boy' Forbes.
PLP Rally in Exuma
Above, the Prime Minister is shown with supporters at a rally in Black
Point, Exuma. Earlier in the week in Harbour Island, he officially
launched the campaign of PLP candidate Chrisfield Johnson, telling the
crowds "Don’t worry North Eleuthera! The time of famine is over.
Your season has come! The commitment of your Progressive Liberal
Party Government to return Eleuthera to its glory days has begun to pay
off." Please click here for the
Prime Minister full address at the rally in Harbour Island.
Photos by Peter Ramsay
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
 
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK: The
election campaign is nearing its denouement. The rallies continue
to keep the faithful in their places. Each day that comes, each rally
that takes place there is a count and a counter count. This one says
they had ten thousand, the other says they had twelve thousand. We
don’t speak for the others, but we speak about the PLP. The crowds
have been massive and enthusiastic. The young people that have joined
the floats and doing the work as disc jockeys and enlivening the crowds
are doing a great job. The musicians have been in plenty work.
They have kept the crowd jumping. It is simply amazing to see the
colour of gold everywhere you look. The FNM has been trying to counteract
with a surplus of red but it just isn’t working. Gold is what we
see, and gold is what we want to see. And so this week, it is clear
that the momentum is going in favour of the Progressive Liberal Party,
another quiet revolution in the face of the overwhelming onslaught of money
– cold cash and plenty of it – aimed at driving the people back into the
subjection and control of a selfish and self serving elite that are the
remaining rump of the UBP. Our photo of the week is two young supporters
of Prime Minister Perry Christie in T-shirts which speak to the importance
of Election 2007. |
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Collect from Fox Hill PLP Headquarters - Davis Plaza
opposite the Fox Hill Parade… Monday & Tuesday from 9.30 a..m..
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THERE MUST BE AN INVESTIGATION
The talk around town is that Hubert Ingraham, the now Leader of
the Opposition and former Prime Minister, was summoned to the meeting room
by the leaders of the oligarchs, the rump of the old United Bahamian Party.
Most of them are in their 80s and this is their last shot at political
power. They are jonesing for power. They decided that Tommy
Turnquest and Sir Orville his father were simply not cutting it, and they
needed to persuade Hubert Ingraham to come back again. And so was
born the idea that Hubert Is Back, that is one of the slogans that the
FNM is using in this campaign. It is egotistical, but they had to
do it. They do not have a deep bench, it is only Hubert Ingraham,
and while the man they would really trust is Brent Symonette, who as the
son of a former UBP Premier is one of their own, they knew they could not
get him elected to the top spot just yet.
Hubert Ingraham was diffident and imperious. He was also tired.
He had had heart trouble and was enjoying his life what with his double
dipping into the Treasury collecting both his pension and salary, with
the pension amounting alone to the some of $9500 per month. Why should
he bother? They made a simple proposition: the sum of ten million
dollars would be put at his disposal. If he committed to coming back,
the sum would be put into a bank account at the Royal Bank of Canada and
he could do with it as he wished. They guaranteed that Sir Orville
would get his son Tommy to step out of the way for Mr. Ingraham return.
The party would also agree to accept whatever he said he wanted in terms
of the directions, philosophy and candidates. As the PLP says: So
Said, So done.
The campaign of the FNM was therefore one of money and deceit from
the start. Mr. Ingraham came back into the full light of the FNM
torch with one agenda: that was to deliver the country back into the hands
of the United Bahamian Party and then depart. He almost gave the
game away when he said that he would only stick around for eighteen months
and then he would leave the scene. Of course, the FNM knows that
they can’t really trust him but that was good enough as a fig leaf.
The oligarchs got what they wanted. With the FNM back in power, Brent
Symonette, one of their own, would be in the Prime Minister’s office in
eighteen months and he would not have to sweat to get it. He would
only need three years to fix things so that the wealth and power would
continue coming their way.
The oligarchs told their black friends in the FNM, Mr. Christie is
nice man, or as they would say Perry is a nice man, but he isn’t our man
and we have to get rid of him.
And so was born salt and pepper, and ebony and ivory, Hubert and
Brent. But it backfired. FNMs were uncomfortable with that,
and it immediately raised the question of why race was so important in
the question. That theme disappeared. The oligarchs had to
be patient. Mr. Ingraham has done a good job in confusing the issues.
He is good like that turning truth into lies and lies into truth.
He for example has made leadership and trust the central part of his campaign.
This is an affront to the intelligence of the Bahamian people. They
know that it is Mr. Ingraham who cannot be trusted because he stabbed his
own compatriots in the back when he told Tommy Turnquest, I will not run
against you, and then the next morning threw his hat into the leadership
race for the FNM and decimated Mr. Turnquest and his reputation.
So why are the oligarchs so set on getting back into office?
For them it is in the natural order of things. That is how it has
been since slavery in The Bahamas. A certain set of people are destined
to reign. You have to ask yourself why in a situation where the country
has prospered and the oligarchs and their descendents have made more money
than they ever have in their lives, that there is hatred for the PLP.
And why is it that when you pass the cars on the streets of New Providence,
inevitably the people who are driving around with the red flags are
clearly descendents of the oligarchs and their families and their Long
Island cousins, the latter of whom seem to have an inveterate hatred of
anything darker than a mango’s flesh.
We think that one thing they have their eyes set on is the crown
land in The Bahamas. Perry Christie has been very protective when
it comes to the dispensation of crown land. In fact hundreds of thousands
of acres are off the market because of the PLP’s decisions. The real
estate market has gotten so tight in the country, and there is just not
any new land coming on to the market. What do the oligarchs mainly
do? They buy and sell land. For example, even though Brent
Symonette is a lawyer by profession, he is really a real estate agent.
Can you imagine the profits that will come from putting Bahamian crown
land on the market? The oligarchs and their friends in the real estate
market, including Brent Symonette will have field day.
We think that once this election is behind us, God willing the PLP
wins, there must be an investigation into how the FNM financed their campaign
and who the businesses were behind their campaign. It will make it
clearer to Bahamian young people just what it is they face and why it is
that the PLP is saying: FORWARD EVER! BACKWARD NEVER!
Number of hits for the week Saturday 28th April 207 up to midnight:
250,332.
Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 28th April 2007
up to midnight: 1,033,619.
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
THE
POLICE STAFF ASSOCIATION DEFIES ORDERS
The Police Staff Association and its leadership
have committed an egregious error, a faux pas that will live long beyond
this General Election, and one for which they must be called into account.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force is the nearest thing that The Bahamas has
to an army. It is coercive at its source. In other words, there
is a command structure in the Force that is not democratic. When
the Commissioner says move, they have to move. They are not like
the police forces in the United States. The Force here deals with
crime but it also deals with insurgency and the defence of the country
from both the internal and external enemies. The Force therefore
has to be seen as independent and neutral. It cannot be seen as partisan.
Yet that is what the FNM has sought to do.
When the FNM came to office it took the Force above
where the other branches of the disciplined forces were in terms of salary
and benefits. This knocked the whole thing out of whack. The
Royal Bahamas Defence Force which is an elite Force, with higher qualifications
than the police force and the prison, were soon set aside and Mr. Ingraham
literally tried to dismantle the Defence Force while he was in office.
No matter that history, the fact is both Forces as well as the Prison ought
to be perceived as politically neutral and in fact should be politically
neutral.
The question is what is the country now to do about
the Force that is clearly tainted by the FNM? The Commissioner of
Police issued an instruction that no police officer was to turn up in their
red T shirts with the Police Staff Association emblazoned upon it on the
day they reported to the advance poll to cast their ballots. The
advance poll is the day that the disciplined forces and the parliamentary
commissioner’s employee’s vote so they will not have to leave their work
of security and other duties on the day of the election itself.
The red is the same colour as the FNM and the Commissioner believed that
it would result in the appearance that the FNM was being supported by the
police.
Disciplinary action should follow for all police
officers who were engaged in the demonstrations. It cannot be that
the Force’s neutrality is compromised in anyway. We think that the
PLP has been far too permissive when it comes to allowing the flouting
of the rules of the public service generally about the way one can show
your politics. It is time for a line to drawn in the sand on this
matter.
A scene from the advance poll of 2007 by Derek Smith
HOW
MANY SEATS WILL BE WON?
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Garbage at
RM Bailey after FNM rally
Prime Minister Perry Christie has predicted that the
PLP will win 28 seats. You may click
here for his full address. This would give the existing government
another handsome victory and an opportunity to move its agenda forward
without the interference of the retrograde Free National Movement.
We are not ones for predicting specific seats. All that matters to
us is that the PLP wins the General Election and that we rid ourselves
of this irritant that is called Hubert Ingraham from the body politic of
The Bahamas.
What the prediction at 28 seats shows is that the
Prime Minister and his colleagues are confident that they can overcome
the forces of darkness that would now seek to hold the country back by
taking us back to a bygone era. The campaign of 2007 will be marked
down in history for the incredible aggressiveness of the Free National
Movement and its supporters. They do not have the numbers but they
have been able to paint the picture that they are overwhelming the country
with the loud music, the bands of drunken and marauding supporters that
have been assigned up and down in the streets, and something new for The
Bahamas, attacking people by telephone and demanding that they mark they
ballots in favour of the Free National Movement.
What is clear also is that reform of the electoral
process must be a high priority to impose some more discipline into the
process. The policing has been inadequate, and of course we have
already listed the concerns we have about the police force and its neutrality
in the matter of the election. Our request then of all of your readers
and of the Bahamian people is to vote early on Wednesday 2nd May and to
vote in favour of your Progressive Liberal Party candidate in the General
Election. We think that the PLP’s one good term deserves another.
BRENT
SYMONETTE ACCUSED OF LAND GRAB
The Minister of Tourism has brought to the attention
of the country, the question of a possible abuse of the Quieting of Titles
Act. This is an act by which someone that does not have title to
land, and has claims that are part documentary, part possessory or all
possessory, might be able to get the Supreme Court of The Bahamas to declare
that the petitioner to the Court is in fact the legal documentary owner
of the land. The Court issues a certificate of title that is good
against all the world, and can only be set aside on the grounds of fraud.
The process of quieting land is supposed to be exhaustive,
in that the property when claimed must be advertised in the newspaper and
in the public areas of the Family Islands, and those who object can have
their claims tested against the person who is petitioning for the certificate
of title. The Act has been abused by a number of land sharks around
the country who quite literally go around identifying large tracts of vacant
land and using suspicious affidavits of possessory claims and getting Courts
to agree that they own the land. Several working class women and
men have lost their land because they did not have the means or the knowledge
to fight off the land sharks.
In the midst then of the General Election, you have
claims of such an abuse being made about a company owned by the Deputy
Leader of the Free National Movement on land owned by the Russell family
in North Eleuthera. The Minister of Tourism speaking on their behalf
at a rally in New Providence and listed how the family had lost its lands.
The family claims that they were approached by a company of Mr. Symonette
to buy the land, and when they refused the next thing they knew the land
was owned by Mr. Symonette. The Nassau Guardian spoke to Mr. Symonette
who was reported in their paper of Saturday 28th April to have denounced
the entire move as pure politics. Interesting that he did not deny
the substance of the claim.
IN PASSING
New Rules For Election Booth
The Free National Movement and its supporters have been going around
offering money to people in exchange for their vote. They do not
have a means of testing whether not people actually do what they promise
to do. So what they have been telling their supporters to do is to
take their cell phone cameras into the polling booth and take a picture
of them marking the ballot. This is just another permutation of the
old UBP trick in the days when there was open voting and you would get
one half of the bag of rice when you voted and then once your preference
was declared in favour of the individual running you got the other half
of the bag of rice. That was outlawed in The Bahamas in 1949 with
the introduction of the secret ballot. Now the FNM, the heirs to
the UBP are back again with the use of modern technology and encouraging
young people to think that this is as an acceptable practice to sell your
vote for money. The Attorney General announced on Wednesday 25th
April that cell phones will be banned from the polling both and it will
be an offence punishable in law by a jail term and or a fine.
Leon ‘Doc’ Rahming Is Buried
Leon ‘Doc’ Rahming MBE was buried on Saturday 28th April following
a service at St. Agnes Anglican Church in Grants Town. Mr. Rahming
was 82 when he died. Mr. Rahming was a pioneering businessman in
the Valley, the old neighbourhood of Prime Minister Perry Christie and
the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell. Both men attended the funeral
service. Mr. Rahming was a life long PLP and looked forward to the
General Election which of course he will miss. He was the founder
of Economy Jitney Service but later that morphed into a comprehensive transportation
company called Economy Bus Line and Transportation. He was a leader
in the Improved Benevolent Order of Elks of the World. He is survived
by his wife Viola and three daughters and eight sons including Leon Rahming
Jr. who is a clerk at the House of Assembly.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions - by Franklyn Wilson
For the discerning voter, who insists on making informed
and logical decisions, we present today an updated treatise by Franklyn
R. Wilson CMG, entitled 'Frequently Asked Questions'. In this exposition
on the Bahamian economy and its management over the last five years, Mr.
Wilson poses questions and presents facts on issues ranging from economic
performance to taxes, tourism and empowerment and Bahamianixation.
Please click here for Franklyn
R. Wilson's detailed analysis of critical issues facing voters in the General
Election of 2007. It is a must read for all voters.
National Health Insurance (NHI) vis-a-vis Catastrophic Health
Insurance (CHI)
At a recent FNM rally at Clifford Park, the leader
of the Opposition attempted to defend his commitment to universal access
to affordable health care. He talked about appointing a commission and
foreign experts to conduct a feasibility study on universal health insurance
while he served as Minister with responsibilities for Housing and National
Insurance. He further stated that he was fired from the cabinet before
the commission submitted its report. What Mr. Ingraham did not say was
that in 1984, he was executing the policy initiatives and realizing the
vision of a PLP government. This has nothing to do with his record as Prime
Minister of an FNM led government. Within that context, I found his comments
deceptive, condescending, and insulting. He and his government had 10 years
to materialize a financing mechanism for universal health care and the
best they could muster was a scheme called Catastrophic Health Insurance
(CHI). A quick comparative analysis of the two proposals is noteworthy.
The caring PLP government delivered NHI that
offers coverage from the cradle to the grave and is financed by workers
and employers alike. It is based on ones ability to pay and the access
is based on ones need. The indigent and wards of the state are covered
by the government. Children up to the age of eighteen are covered under
the contributions of their parents and tertiary level students are covered
until the age of twenty-five. This proposal was heavily criticized by the
FNM as they claimed it would increase unemployment and bankrupt businesses.
The FNM offered no evidence of this nor did they present any frame of reference
from countries with similar health care models.
Let’s consider the ill-conceived CHI proposed
by the Ingraham led FNM. This policy does not provide for government intervention
until a person is seriously ill and their medical bills exceed $15,000.
Under CHI, the average working Bahamian would still need private health
insurance; $15,000 in savings, the ability and willingness to borrow $15,000,
or resort to cook-outs, walk-a-thons and sponsor sheets. This CHI proposal
is akin to having a health insurance policy with a $15,000 deductible.
Since 44% of working Bahamians earn $15,000 per annum or less and 60% of
them earn $20,000 or less, the FNM proposed plan places affordable health
care beyond the reach of literally tens of thousands of Bahamians. Working
Bahamians may die before they qualify to claim even though they are paying
their monthly premiums (directly or indirectly) at great personal sacrifices.
It is curious that the FNM NEVER, EVER referred to CHI as a viable alternative
during their debate on the NHI bill. The middle class, the working class,
and the poor have NO reason to support the FNM because their policy on
an issue as critical and fundamental as the nation’s health disenfranchises
too many Bahamians. THEY SIMPLY DO NOT CARE.
On the other hand, reception of NHI was so overwhelming
by a broad cross section of Bahamians that the FNM had to unanimously endorse
it; failure to endorse this policy would mean political suicide for the
FNM. In terms of public policy, NHI is more responsive to the needs of
the Bahamian people. The FNM’s support for NHI was driven by political
convenience and the PLP government proposed NHI out of a commitment to
social justice and equality, another PLP core value. The heart of the PLP
government is in the right place and NHI is a bridge to the future. A vote
for the FNM is a vote for a regressive social agenda and a vote for the
PLP is a vote for reform, transformation, and progress.
Elcott Coleby
A FRESH APPROACH TO CULTURE-TOURISM
•
Bahamas Island Hoppers Ltd and Bahamas Festivals Ltd. are collaborating
to launch an innovative domestic tourist product, which will create linkages
throughout The Bahamas for culture events, business and leisure/social
activities.
• This initiative will be initially launched as a Cultural Tour
throughout the Islands of the Bahamas, utilizing a catamaran ship as the
mode of transportation. Utilizing the group’s “Movable Linkages/Bridges
in Motion” Theme, Bahamas Island Hoppers Ltd. will use this opportunity
to conduct the initial time-trial reviews for its soon to be launched Catamaran
Operations Schedule for New Providence and the Family Islands.
• This joint venture will consist of visits to North & Central
Andros, North & South Eleuthera, Exuma, Bimini & the Berries, South
Abaco and Long Island. All of this will serve as a part of formulating
Bahamas Island Hoppers Ltd. final destination plan for the launch of the
Catamaran Operations, which underlying concept is the linking of the family
islands through efficient and fast transportation services. In addition,
initial determinations will be made for continual heritage festival tour
stops.
• Citing this venture as a sensible approach to getting Bahamians
to visit and appreciate all islands of The Bahamas, as they participate
in a ‘heritage festival tour’, Mr. Fred Munnings, President of Bahamas
Festivals Ltd., is confident that the collaboration will achieve its objectives.
He notes that this opens the door for wealth creation and natural bonding
for locals, as the prototype is introduced to all major islands and historical
cultural sites.
• This service will complement a number of core activities, and
facilitate economic opportunities, tourism, and cultural advancement, as
it will be a conduit for the movement of our people. “Visiting Aunt Tita
for breakfast in the morning, Grandma for lunch, and returning home for
dinner is definitely a new concept”.
• Eldin A. Ferguson III, President of both Hidden Treasure Bahamas
Ltd. and Bahamas Island Hoppers, Ltd., notes his excitement with the project
and adds that this venture is a part of a major project that is being negotiated
with the Domestic Investment Board, that will positively impact inter-island
transportation, sports, marine resources, education and culture.
• Hidden Treasure Bahamas Ltd., a Bahamian company and the parent
company of Bahamas Island Hoppers Ltd., has received Approval in Principle
to investigate and complete its multi-phased plans for groundbreaking,
from the Ministry of Labour and Financial Services, in the vital areas
of aquaculture, inter-island transportation, tourism, sporting facilities,
marine resources, education & culture.
• The Domestic Investment Board, in confirming its support for this
project, notes that this joint venture approach is typical of its objective
of encouraging linkages and partnerships, amongst Bahamians, as a means
of strengthening proposals and/or maximizing business opportunities.
Erin Ferguson
FNM's Smoke & Mirrors
We suspected it all along. The FNM's Grand Bahama 'crowds'
shown in the FNM biased press just didn't jibe with the vibe on the streets
that they are in full retreat in Grand Bahama. So, I took it upon
myself to do a little research. The picture above, which was shot
on Saturday afternoon 28th April, 2007 at Walter Paker Primary School playing
field shows for the first time how the FNM's smoke and mirrors game works.
Clearly visible in the photo are stakes with red flags which are meant
to indicate the barriers to hold the small 'crowds' in just a fraction
of the field to give the impression of thousands of people there in support
of the FNM. So sad. There once was a time when the FNM could
have filled this same field by word of mouth only. Those were the
days. I just thought your readers would like to know.
Uncle B
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
PM in South Abaco
The Prime Minister and Progressive Liberal Party Leader Perry Christie
continued to travel to Family Island political rallies all across The Bahamas
during the past week. Mr. Christie is pictured in this photo from
a rally in south Abaco.
Photos by Peter Ramsay
