Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames... Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 7 © BahamasUncensored.com 2009
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
TARGETING THE INDEPENDENTS
The news is good. The trend is toward PLP popularity and a
PLP victory at the next election if the election were called today. That
is the feeling for the PLP in the country. Except that we know the
election is not going to be called today. We also know that trending
toward popularity, with people identifying themselves as PLP does not guarantee
a PLP victory. The FNM lost the popular vote in the last election
but still won the general election. The question is; does the PLP
know how to read the tea leaves or are too many people putting their heads
in the sand? Forgive the mixed metaphors.
By the time this column goes up next week, history should have been made. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, the son of the Stalwart Councillor and one time Pindling confidant and enforcer ‘Brave’ Davis senior, is to announce on Tuesday 4th August at the Cat Island Association Hall in Grants Town that he is putting his hat in the ring to become the next Deputy Leader of the PLP, succeeding Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt, who has announced that she is stepping down at the next convention of the party scheduled for 18th October 2009. Given the fact that he is going to do it, and against the background of what we have been reading in the newspapers, the news must be good for his prospects. He has been, after all, the silent defender of the PLP in the courts for everything and anything thrown at the PLP in one election after the next. We wait to see what his programme will be.
The soldiers are starting to move. Two weekends ago, Paul Moss who has had a voice on every subject since the last general election, adopting every cause, held a meeting with Stalwart Councillors and other PLP supporters in Grand Bahama to seek their support for his run for leader of the Party. If he nominates, then that means that our comment of several weeks ago, that it was virtually certain that all positions would be challenged at the next convention will come true. Challenge is good. We wait to see what happens. Challenges are also difficult in the kind of organizational culture that exists in the PLP.
The PLP is like a family. Seniority counts for most things and you must wait your turn. Will that orthodoxy be successfully challenged at this convention? We spoke, to the consternation of many, in a previous column under the headline ‘The Choice Of The PLP Establishment’. That choice is Perry Christie. You can witness the hardening of views unfolding. No matter what has been thrown at the PLP and its leader, the arguments come back the same. Who will lead? ‘It can’t be that one’. ‘It can’t be this one’. ‘For this reason, it can’t be the other one’. Within the establishment, there is the land of the 10,000 reasons why change should not happen.
So what the country can look for at the PLP convention in 2009 is a new Deputy Leader; and that’s it. There appears to be a challenge for Leader but not by someone who can be Leader of the Opposition. There might be a race for the Chairmanship. Things will look the same.
So far, no one has grabbed the imagination of the country with a philosophy, an ideology and change of direction that truly portends afresh that the winds of change are blowing. The result is that many of the younger members are dissipating their energy in battles with windmills. Many of the older members simply relish the glory days; there needs to be no fighting. Can’t we all get along is the creed. Things should remain the same, sticking to core principles, the FNM will collapse in the face of a bad economy and victory will belong to the PLP.
Sometimes family businesses die because after the founder of the family business dies, those who are left to take it to the next level have no interest or no talent nor any talent for recruiting someone who can take the business to the next level. A family business can become moribund by a refusal to infuse fresh blood or a refusal to let the next generation take over. The business is in danger of becoming incestuous. Something has to be done to break out of the old mould or the business dies a slow death.
That is what happened to the United Bahamian Party. They refused to allow ordinary black people in the country into leadership positions and to run the party. The result was an oligarchy of old families that all knew each other. As long as there was a certain cultural and social construct, things worked fine. When change came, they were unable to adapt and the UBP era was swept away in 1967. Four years later, they were officially consigned to history.
At its core, the PLP is the repository of the African march toward freedom in The Bahamas. That fight for racial justice has now been expanded into social justice. It has now 40 percent of the support in the country. The FNM has roughly the same. In fact the surveys show that the base of either party is really around a third each. That means that every party is fighting for the middle group that ranges from 20 to 33 per cent of the electorate. Who will capture their imagination?
The PLP fought the last campaign directed at its base. It forgot that in 2002 it won the election by playing to the middle, not to the base. So, as the country looks toward the next general election, the PLP ought to be seeking to find the answer to getting that group of swing voters while holding on to a base hungry for state power. The FNM is busy playing to their base with a familiar playbook. It is now eliminating PLPs in the public service and stacking the service with its members. They have captured many of the children of the PLP’s base. Too many PLP parents at home are fighting to get their FNM children to come over to the PLP side. The children believe that the PLP is too tradition bound. There is no modernity reposed there. The image is that young people get crushed and defeated.
As Philip Davis MP and the others contemplate where the Party will
go, the point must be; what does the party stand for, what does it believe?
What will it fight for? That will be the clue as to who will emerge
as leader.
FOX
HILL FESTIVAL OPENS
The 175th anniversary of the abolition of slavery
in The Bahamas was the 1st August, 2009. Each year the Fox Hill Community
has gathered under the shade of the Silk Cotton Tree to celebrate the occasion
and to remember. It is the only community in The Bahamas to have
continuously done so. On the second Tuesday in August, the community
celebrates what is known as Fox Hill Day. In Fox Hill itself, it
is called “Party Day”. The children at the Baptist churches in the
village get together at 11 a.m. in their respective churches with songs
and recitations for the adults. It has been going on since the 1880s
at least.
Since 1986, there has been a Fox Hill Festival;
two weeks of activities that stretch from the weekend before Emancipation
Day up to Fox Hill Day. This year’s festivities began in Fox Hill
on Friday 31st July. Junkanoo is held in Fox Hill on Monday morning
3rd August at 1 a.m. The climax comes on Fox Hill Day, Tuesday 11th
August 2009.
The festival was officially opened by Minister of
State for Culture Charles Maynard, who declared in his opening statement
this year that he is committed to finding more resources for the Festival
next year. Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill remembered the fallen Chairman
of the Fox Hill Festival Charles Johnson after whom the festival is named
this year. You may click here
for Mr. Mitchell's full remarks.
A
FAREWELL FIT FOR A KING
The Sunshine Group of Companies paid a formal farewell
to its Deputy Chairman and a founding Director A. Bismarck Coakley.
Mr. Coakley retires from a formal role after 40 years with the group.
His life long friend and the Chairman of the group Franklin Wilson led
the tributes at the British Colonial Hilton's Governors Hall. Mr.
Wilson described the contribution that Mr. Coakley made to the development
of the company. The idea behind the Sunshine Group was that men of
ordinary beginnings should build a solid company and remain together.
He said that the group admired the courage of the men who started the Penny
Savings Bank and saw the company as a step forward in the march toward
economic progress.
Mr. Wilson said that the CEO of Deloitte in the
United States offered the view that there are four keys to a successful
career in business and each is inextricably linked to the others: have
passion, make smart choices, be a people person, be original.
US
AMBASSADOR DESIGNATE BEGINS CONFIRMATION PROCESS
The new United States' Ambassador designate to The
Bahamas, Nicole Avant, has begun the confirmation process to her appointment
with a statement before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 15
July, 2009. Ms. Avant cited the usual successes of the Bahamas/US
relationship; the drug interdiction programme OPBAT; the Megaports Initiative,
which allows the Americans to board and search ships of Bahamian registry
suspected of carrying nuclear materials; and the strong ties anchored by
tourism. In addition to these issues, however, she specifically referred
to “key areas highlighted at the Summit of the Americas this past April:
regional security, social and economic development, sustainable energy
and progress protecting the environment.” Ms. Avant said she looked
forward to “...working with Bahamians to advance our partnership in finding
and making use of clean, alternative energy.” You may click
here for Ms. Avant's full remarks.
Internet photo
THE
SKIP GATES INCIDENT
Henry Louis Gates should be amongst the most well
known faces in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cambridge, Massachusetts
is a small town of about 100,000 people next to Boston, a larger city across
the Charles River. It is the home of Harvard University where Mr.
Gates is the head of the Afro American studies programme. So it was
surprising that when a call was made after someone saw two men allegedly
breaking into his home, that he would be arrested on his own property for
disorderly conduct. That was two weeks ago.
The furore that it caused said much about the state
of race relations in the United States. The charges were ultimately
dropped and the Mayor of Cambridge, a black woman, issued an apology.
The Police issued a statement of regret but stood by the conduct of an
officer called Sgt. Crowley on the matter. Sgt. Crowley said he would
never apologize and he has not. Mr. Gates called the man a “rogue
cop”.
The U.S. President Barack Obama who is supposed
to be presiding over a post racial America weighed in by saying that the
police behaved stupidly. There was a furore over that, saying that
the President’s comment was a racial one. He ended up backing down
and saying that he ought to have calibrated the statement differently and
on Thursday 31st July invited Mr. Gates, Sgt. Crowley and his Vice President
Joe Biden to the White House for a beer in the garden to discuss the matter.
Mr. Gates has said he is ready to move on. Sgt. Crawley comes out
the winner it appears.
There is no doubt that the action of the policeman
was racist. It may have been inadvertent but it is in the DNA of
so many actions by police of all races in the United States. There
is no doubt that had the person been white the arrest would not have taken
place no matter how vociferous the owner of the home became over being
accosted in his own home. That is the way it seems to us. What
is sad also is that we in 2009 are still so polite on this issue that it
cannot be discuss openly and frankly. The situation is even worse
in our own country. It is possible to be a lecturer on racial profiling
like the police officer Crowley and still have that in your cultural memory.
The president called it’s a “teachable” moment. We hope so.
MINISTER
BACKS HIS BROTHER ON GAMBLING
Well now, let’s see where we are on this gambling
issue. The last time we checked the Committee set up by the Minister
of Education Carl Bethel to plot a course forward for the next ten years
in education reported that education funding should be supported by a National
Lottery. A group of fundamentalist pastors headed by the Minister’s
brother Lyall Bethel responded that this should not happen. They
condemned the move. Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham got into the mix
by saying that the Committee had overstepped its bounds. So it appeared
that the Prime Minister and the brother of the minister were repudiating
Carl Bethel.
Not so fast said Carl Bethel last week. Mr.
Bethel claimed that those who have known his views would have known that
he was always against a national lottery for education support. So
now, the brother and the Minister and the Prime Minister are all on the
same page. But where does that leave education? Under funded,
under resourced. The Minister says that we must concentrate on the
larger issues and leave the funding issue alone. The Committee insists
that the best way forward is a national lottery to support education.
Meanwhile, the merry go round in the courts continues
with Craig Flowers, the owner and operator of the prolific web shops in
Nassau back in court for selling numbers. He appeared in court again
on Monday 26th July. The case has again been postponed. Numbers
selling continues unabated and the government gets no revenue.
SHORTS...
Police
Assistant Commissioner Raymond Gibson admits... that the police
shot a young man and killed him by mistake in cross fire with alleged criminals.
Brenton Hector Smith 18-years-old was killed by police gunfire on 9th July,
2009. There is a link to www.brentonhectorsmith.com
for those who wish to express sympathy.
Women Work The Same, But Earn Less... was the report of the Department on Statistics as carried in The Tribune of Tuesday 27th July. The survey said that men are paid more for the same work done by women. Senator Allyson Gibson speaking in the Senate on Thursday 30th July called for an equal pay act.
The St. Georges Are Worried... about Hannes Babak, the Chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the compensation package he is getting, which could run the company into millions of dollars that it cannot afford, said The Tribune's Business Section on Tuesday 27th July. The St. George family is fighting what appears to be a losing battle for control of the Grand Bahama Port Authority with Sir Jack Hayward.
Report That Disaster Relief Is Ineffective... The Tribune of Tuesday 27th July’s Business Section reports that the Inter American Development Bank reporting on the PLP’s performance on hurricane relief in 2004 said that the programme was ineffective. The report said that money was borrowed and simply not spent. It said there were reports of political interference.
Haitians Drown In TCI... The waters off our neighbour were awash in bodies. Some two hundred Haitians trying to flee their homeland were packed in a 30-foot boat. As they sought to avoid detection by a Turks and Caicos patrol, their boat ran aground. 120 of the 200 are missing and believed drowned. The others were rescued and repatriated. These reports appeared in The Nassau Guardian and The Tribune of Tuesday 27th July and Wednesday 28th July. The problem we have is that the United States must step up and do something to stem this tide of death.
Bahama
Journal Says PLPs To Be Charged... Quoting unnamed police
sources, the newspaper reported they say that there is a 7 million dollar
scam involving several PLP politicians. They are not identified.
The file is supposedly at the Attorney General's office. The Ingrahamization
of The Bahamas has seen this pattern of conduct by the police leaking selected
information in order to sully the name of the PLP. Unfortunately,
the PLP does nothing in response to it.
LESLIE
MAYCOCK BURIED
Police Sergeant Leslie Maycock was buried in Freeport,
Grand Bahama Saturday after a funeral service at the Freeport Bible Church.
Sgt. Maycock was murdered at his shop in the Hawksbill area of Grand Bahama.
The funeral took place on Saturday 2nd August.
While the solemnity of the service was challenged
in a political attack from an FNM ideologue (see story below), The Freeport
Bible Church should be congratulated for a dignified and orderly home going
service for Sgt. Maycock, whom Pastor Outten described as good man.
Let us hope that he rests in peace and that his killers are found and brought
to justice.
Among the national leaders present for the service
were Neko Grant, Minister of Works, Zhivargo Laing, Minister of State in
the Ministry of Finance and Fred Mitchell MP, who spoke.
FREEPORT
FNM ATTACKS IN CHURCH
Winston Pinnock is an FNM activist, part of the
local government apparatus of Freeport, and friends say he is not able
to control his worst impulses. They worry about him. So there
he is in the church service for the fallen police officer Sgt. Leslie Maycock.
Everything is going calmly. Yet he chose the moment to attack politicians.
He blamed them for the murders of Sgt. Maycock and others and said that
they all sit in the House of Assembly and do nothing. He claimed
it was not a party political attack, but he riled up the home going service.
The leaders of the church urged the congregation to act with sensitivity.
The Pastor Wilbur Outten told the congregation that he did not believe
that it was the responsibility of politicians alone to solve the crime
problem. He said that it was the work of all in society, including
parents. There is a saying that the old people say: “When you don’t
know what to say, just keep quiet”.
JEROME CLARIFIES
In an earlier report on this site, we quoted the
words of Senator Jerome Fitzgerald on the question of the leadership of
the PLP. He was quoted as saying that it would be a mistake for both
Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie to run again. The press went into
overdrive and the FNM called for Perry Christie to dismiss Mr. Fitzgerald
from the Senate. Mr. Fitzgerald appeared on the radio again with
Algernon Allen, on Issues of The Day on Wednesday 29th July. Here is what
he said in his own words:
“Perry Christie is the leader of the PLP.
I support him as the leader and I will be supporting him in this upcoming
convention. The point is this, if people listened and if you read
the newspapers, I made it very clear that I will support Mr. Christie until
such time as he decides to step down.
“I do not support any group or anyone trying
to overthrow the leader of the Progressive Liberal Party. I don’t
think that is the way to go in the best interest of the party and what
I was really talking about was the best interest of the party.
“The leader has sufficient support within the
party to win on the convention floor. He is still extremely popular
and you have to consider that even though we lost the last election, Mr.
Christie did a lot with regard to the development of the country.
“He is a visionary leader and he had his vision
set out for the country and he followed that. Unfortunately, at the
end of the day that wasn’t promoted properly and people didn’t get the
full impact of it. And now that we’re now able to compare, I think
people are better able now to judge the impact that his leadership had.
“Mr. Christie sacrificed a lot and is like U.S.
President Barack Obama who often speaks about a vision for his people.
“Mr. Christie is not a weak leader.
“Some people confuse what leadership really is.
To them leadership might be a dictator, now for me, that’s not leadership.
Leadership for me is someone who has a vision, communicates that vision
and then is able to convince those around him to buy into that vision and
move forward to execute it.
“If you use the definition that I use and that
I understand, when you compare Mr. Ingraham to Mr. Christie; to me, it
really is (Mr. Christie) hands down, as far as leadership is concerned.”
THE
BOIL JUST GOT HOTTER
Article Contributed...
Fresh from celebrating its eighth anniversary on the air, ISLAND 102.9
FM has big plans for its ninth year, beginning with an exciting new concept
for the “Morning Boil”.
Long the place for listeners to hear the news of
the day, as well as crisp, irreverent banter, the Morning Boil, twice voted
the number one morning show by listeners, is now going to the next level,
interweaving news and newsmakers with commentary from listeners and hosts,
and talking about the stories of the day before the usual noise in radio
talk starts.
Beginning at 7 AM, ISLAND FM will have the first
complete and extensive news in the market, followed by the 8 AM headlines
that will be accompanied by in depth interviews and commentary to bring
out the stories behind the stories so that ISLAND’s listeners can become
the best informed about what’s REALLY happening in the nation.
Bringing this new format into homes, offices and
cars all over the island every morning will be a newly formed dynamic duo,
comprised of one of the most recognizable voices in the marketplace plus
a brand new talent on the scene.
The former is Eddie Carter whose irreverent take
on almost everything that is happening in The Bahamas and the world, past
and present, has enlivened the Morning Boil for eight years, keeping everyone
on their toes as they wait for the next outrageous comment. His new
co-host is Bahamian journalist Danielle Stubbs who began her career in
journalism just months out of high school when she joined the Tribune,
working her way up the ranks to become staff reporter, then court reporter,
as well as the person at the helm of the popular “Why You Vex?” column.
But Danielle did not stop there. While pursuing
a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Media Arts with a concentration in Radio,
Television and Film at Clark Atlanta University, she worked at the University’s
television station, in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
She was accepted for the coveted news internship at Atlanta’s leading local
news station, WSB-TV, following that with a summer long stint with CNN’s
Larry King Live at the global headquarters in Atlanta and as a one of eight
students chosen from across the United States to participate in the prestigious
Meredith-Cronkite Fellowship Program at KPHO in Phoenix, Arizona.
Danielle, who will be anchoring the morning news
components of the Boil, as well as hosting with Eddie, brings a fresh,
young outlook to life and times in The Bahamas. Combining that with
Eddie’s unique perspective on life, this new duo will be certain to not
only inform and entertain ISLAND FM’s listeners in the glorious Boil tradition
but bring a new and different point of view that will not only please Boil
fans but attract even more every morning.
FUNDRAISER
FOR THE AIDS FOUNDATION
We show photos of the fundraiser for the AIDS Foundation
of The Bahamas at the Balmoral Club, the old Tomlinson Estate home in New
Providence. Folk gathered in white to listen to the sounds of
Ambassah and a Junkanoo Rush from the Original Congos of Fox Hill.
A good time was had by all to raise funds for a worthy cause. Above left
is Camille Barnett, Chairman of the AIDS Foundation and her husband Michael
Barnett, Attorney General.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Why Is The Economy So Bad? - [Refers to items published in The Tribune
29/07/09]
The Government’s broad response to the question of why the Bahamian
economy is so bad is the “global recession”.
However you may wish to consider the implications
of the following information reported on page 6B of today’s Tribune relative
to the project which had been approved by the Christie Administration for
Inagua.
(i)
“The Hotel Corporation Chairman (Mr. Michael Scott), added that the Mayaguana
project was currently ‘at a standstill’ … Mr. Scott admitted that one factor
holding up the project had been the Government’s attitude to it, with the
Ingraham Administration having revealed suspicious about it and the deal
struck by the Christie Administration…
(ii)
‘Acknowledging that this may have resulted from a lack of understanding
of the I-Group project, Mr. Scott said the Government’s failure to approve
matters such as the importation of fuel duty free had contributed to delays
of Mayaguana.
(iii)
“The I-Group, (is) bleeding” said Mr. Scott. It’s costing ten
millions of dollars in equipment sitting there idle and they’re not able
to get the goods and construction equipment in duty free. It is an
unhappy situation.”
(iv)
“But, at a recent town meeting on the island, attended by Dion Foulkes,
Minister of Labor and Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, Minister of Tourism,
the Minister of Tourism had revealed strong support for the I-Group”
and the development.”
All of the above would appear to provide direct
confirmation of a basic point which the PLP has been making for sometime
– that the FNM’s policy of stop, review and cancel has contributed to the
depressed economy within the Bahamas.
Additionally, it is impossible to ascertain the
extent to which this conduct by the Government would be impacting the reputation
of the Bahamas as a civil society, friendly to investors and with respect
for the rule of law. However, it is highly likely to be quite adverse
since reality is that the I-Group is composed of creditable and substantial
investors from The New England area.
Furthermore, this report again raises questions
about the lack of coherence in public policy – here is the Minister of
Tourism revealing “strong support” for an investor who “is bleeding” because
of unwise public policy – a situation so bad that it is characterized by
the Government appointee as “an unhappy situation.”
(name witheld)
Kudos & More on TCI Coverage
I would like to commend Bahamas Uncensored on
their coverage of the Turks and Caicos Islands. It has been the leading
publication on covering the dismay in the territory.
I would like to bring to public attention an
interchange between Sir Robin Auld (Commissioner of the Inquiry into the
Turks and Caicos Islands) and now former Premier Michael Misick on the
opening day of questioning. (Source: http://www.tci-inquiry.org/transcripts_pdf/TCI_transcript13_01_09.pdf)
Sir Robin Auld interrupts a line of questioning
from his assistant by asking "what is the institutional basis for the awarding
of allowances and assessing? Is there an ordinance, is there a piece of
subordinate legislation which provides for this? How is it organised?"
(slide 21) Mr. Misick eventually contended that "It is all decided in cabinet."
(slide 22)
Many things have changed since 'opening day'.
The Commissioner's final report has been issued and headlines spewed around
the world of 'political amorality and immaturity'. Regardless of view and
right to prosecute, removal of a voter's voice is never the answer. Removal
of the voice of the minority against the views of the majority should never
happen. To allow the Governor powers that only answer to London and not
the residents and voters should NEVER happen. A country that promotes human
rights in other lands should recognize the failures in their own land.
As so, Mr. Misick, with his legislature, should
have prepared a long standing white paper on compensation starting that
very day. It should have been presented in record time. It should have
been enacted without hindrance or delay. It should be published on its
website and it should not be confusing to the general public. Should we
dwell on the insult of 'immaturity' or should we mend our oversights and
build a stronger institution?
Mr. Misick later contended in the exchange that
"My position is that we are building a nation and we are establishing institutions
for that nation. As Premier I am here today and in this business we are
here today, gone tomorrow. Again, it is not about me, it is about building
the institutions for this generation and the generations to come." (slide
23)
The Legislative Council is charged by the most
powerful force in any democratic land, the people. The people should submit
that they form lasting legislation in a timely fashion. Whether the instruments
of government are suspended will be, for now, a matter for our courts.
But today, we hold our future. Everyday is a challenge and there seems
to be a huge lack of worry-free days in sight.
Mr. Misick's assessment of his performance insinuates
that he has, I guess until his retirement, been 'building'. His predecessor
should therefore be well learned on protecting the land that Misick has
built.
G. Don Forbes Butler
Forbes and Walkin Family of the Turks and Caicos Islands
IN PASSING
Charges Withdrawn Against Keod Smith
The Tribune reported that the case against former MP and attorney for
hotel union candidate Kirk Wilson, Keod Smith for assault against former
trade unionist Basil McKenzie has been withdrawn. You will remember
the hilarious incident involving Mr. Smith when he ran up the stairs at
the Hotel Union’s headquarters in Nassau to serve a summons on the Union.
He ended up being backhand slapped by Mr. McKenzie on 11th May. They
both filed cases in the court with Mr. Smith claiming that he had lost
his $600 glasses. The Tribune says that the matter has now been dropped
as of Wednesday 29th July.
Judge Sets Aside Union Case
Keod Smith former MP and Attorney for Trade Union insurgent candidate
Kirk Wilson is on a roll. He had the case against him for assault
dropped and he now has a major court victory. Despite lifting the
temporary injunction to stop the Union elections brought by Keod Smith
on Mr. Wilson’s behalf, the Judge Jon Isaacs ruled that the election held
by the Hotel Worker Union was invalid. Nicole Martin was declared
the winner in that election by a landslide. The Judge has ruled that
the election must be held within 30 days of his ruling on 31st July.
The press is saying that former President Roy Colebrook is now to be President
until fresh elections can be held. For the 30-day period, another
section of the press is saying that the ruling means that Mr. Wilson’s
group is effectively in control of the Union for the 30 days. Mr.
Colebrook was a minority in on his executive board before he was ousted
and the ruling seems to say that the Executive Board controls the Union’s
direction. Mr. Smith was delighted with the result. It reminds
us of his lone fight for Sidney Stubbs, the PLP MP who was declared a bankrupt
by the courts in contravention of the law. When others abandoned
Mr. Stubbs, Mr. Smith hung on tenaciously. In the end, the Privy
Council agreed with him. No word on whether the ruling will be appealed.
Two up for Mr. Smith.
Chamber President - Debate On Lottery “Nonsensical”
We agree with the new Chamber President Khalis Rolle, the debate over
the legalization of gambling and the national lottery is nonsensical.
The Tribune reported the comments on Thursday 30th July. All this
back and forth with the church and church leaders about the issue is tiresome,
and we need simply to legalize gambling for Bahamians period. It
just smacks of hypocrisy the church taking the monies through the collection
plate from the web shops and elsewhere where the modern incarnation of
number buying takes place but they keep preaching against the numbers.
Things that make you go “Hmmm!”
Debate on Marital Rape
Pastor Cedric Moss of Kingdom Ministries ignited a firestorm of controversy
in the country over the past week with comments that suggested that he
was opposed to the law which the government proposes to pass that will
create a new charge of marital rape even when divorce proceedings are not
instant or when the parties are not legally separated. The modern
law permits such charges and for some this is in direct opposition to the
Bible, which says that a wife must submit to her husband physically.
The country appears divided on it.
What Does Ingraham Have Against Janet Bostwick?
Friends of Janet Bostwick are beginning to wonder out aloud what Hubert
Ingraham has against the now retired first female Member of Parliament
who is an FNM. Her husband Henry used to be the President of the
Senate and at one time was the Leader of the Opposition. They say
that want her to be the next Governor General to succeed A.D. Hanna when
he retires. We reported on this site that Mr. Ingraham has promised
the job to now Senate President Lynn Holowesko. Mrs. Holowesko made
an intervention this week that was very curious. Speaking in the
Senate on Wednesday 29th July, she attacked her own fellow Bay Street merchants
for not painting their buildings in the city to welcome the Miss Universe
contestants. This is the kind of idle commentary that we get for
public policy these days. The town is falling apart; the President
of the Senate says paint your buildings. Let them eat cake as Marie
Antoinette famously said. No doubt, this will show Mr. Ingraham why
Senator Holowesko is suited for the job of Governor General because of
her care for the buildings. Meanwhile Henry and Janet Bostwick are
steaming that once again, there is no knighthood in Janet’s future and
the job of Governor General seems yet again to be slipping away.
This is another example of the Ingrahamization of The Bahamas; under the
FNM and Hubert Ingraham, the UBP is large and in charge.
Viciousness of Earl Deveaux on Jerome Fitzgerald
We were trying to figure out the other day why the usually unflappable
Earl Deveaux the government’s front man on the container port moving to
Arawak Cay and the Minister of the Environment is so hyped up over the
criticisms by PLP Senator Jerome Fitzgerald that the Minister has leaked
government documents to try and sully Mr. Fitzgerald’s name, suggesting
that there is a conflict of interest in his advocacy to stop the Port from
moving to Arawak Cay. It occurred to us that this is because Mr.
Fitzgerald is nursing the constituency that Mr. Deveaux represents.
In other words, Jerome Fitzgerald is coming to get Mr. Deveaux's seat.
He has to fight with all his might, clean or dirty. But, not to worry
Mr. Deveaux: you stand on the beachhead of history but you cannot hold
back the tide. You may click here for Senator Fitzgerald’s latest
salvo delivered at a Town Hall meeting on Thursday 30th July to discuss
the move of the Port to Arawak Cay. You may also click here for the
Committee's
specific response to Mr. Deveaux.
Fight Among Top Police Brass
There are persistent but unconfirmed reports that there was a major
dust up in the upper chamber of the police force with men having to be
parted after one slapped the other. The reports have named names
on different web sites and in the public domain. One name of one
top brass member after another has been called and they are saying that
two of the top men had to be physically parted. It appears that jealousy
of the connection of one of the men to the Minister is at the root of the
problem. No comment from the Minister of National Security Tommy
Turnquest who is on holiday. This latest report comes hard on the
heels of last week’s report that someone inside the Force may have tampered
with the bolts on the wheel of the official car of the Commissioner of
Police.
Mass Customs Lay Offs
Zhivargo Laing, the Minister responsible for the day-to-day running
of the Customs Department and the Minister responsible for the day-to-day
running of the Public Service talks often about how he had such a hard
time when he was in opposition making ends meet. He even wept in
the House of Assembly when he remembered that he almost could not feed
his family, or so he said. He blamed the PLP. So what then
are the 30 customs officers and counting, who are the latest in the chapter
of victims of Hubert Ingraham and his ‘restructuring exercise’ to do?
We talked last week about the Ingrahamization of the country with the stop
review and cancel and firing people. The press reported just before
the holiday weekend that 30 people were either sent home in the public
interest, 16 among them have been interdicted on suspected corruption charges
and others among them have been transferred out of the Customs Department.
This comes after another Ingrahamite who heads the Customs Department announced
that Department for which he has worked for 27 years is corrupt.
This is Ingrahamization at its best; or is it at its worst? What
has Zhivargo to say remembering his own experience? What does he
expect these people to say to their children?
Police Commissioner Cracking Down On Phone Cards
There is a scene in the original Pink Panther movie with Peter Sellers
where he is Inspector Clouseau and he is outside a bank, hassling a beggar
with a monkey. He asks him if the monkey belongs to him: “Is that
your minkey?” The pronunciation of monkey as “minkey” is the British
mocking the French accent. The beggar is non-plussed and blind to
boot. He asks the beggar to move along in the name of the law.
The irony of it all is that while the beggar is being hassled by the Inspector,
we can see from the audience behind the beggar a glass window to the bank,
and the bank is being robbed in full daylight with the Inspector busy hassling
the blind man. That is what we thought of the Commissioner of Police
Reginald Ferguson’s intervention on Friday 31st July on cracking down on
the ubiquitous vendors selling phone cards all over New Providence.
There were two more murders last week. Each week, more bodies piling
up. The Commissioner of Police had nothing to say on those things
but he is busy worrying about phone card vendors. Yet again: Ingrahamization
at its best; or is that at its worst?
Freddie MacAlpine: “I Did Not Beat My Wife”
Senator Frederick MacAlpine who during the campaign as a recently converted
FNM from the PLP accused the PLP of being “limp wrested”. He essentially
charged the PLP of being a party that was a haven for gay men and women.
He was amongst the nastiest of the campaigners for the FNM. This
is a man of God now. He did his job well and for that, Hubert Ingraham
amply rewarded him with a Senate seat. But the story is that Mr.
Ingraham does not quite go for the Reverend and the Reverend has been quite
unhappy that he has not been offered any substantial job with the FNM.
He is also worried, say his friends, that Mr. Ingraham may be about to
replace him in the Senate with another Senator. So the man who was
so interested in limp wristed people, has some explaining to do about his
own wrist himself and the fist at the end of that wrist. The grapevine
and the web sites have been buzzing, with a picture of him in silhouette
in one case, that he had mashed his wife’s face up pretty badly in a wife-beating
episode. The suggestion was that this was not the first time.
The last report surfaced on Thursday 30th July. He was ready for
his critics. With his wife standing at his side, posing for a picture
in The Tribune of Friday 31st July, the senator denied that he beat his
wife and the wife supported his claim. She stood by her man.
Mr. Ingraham would be pleased. But this would not be the first time
that public statements are made by a public official and his wife and in
the end, well it turns out that it’s another story. We await time
to pass.
Jamaican Independence
Happy Independence greetings to the Jamaican Community in The Bahamas.
Jamaica obtained independence from Britain in 1962 on 7th August under
then Prime Minister Alexander Bustamante. The Hummingbird Association,
the Jamaican group in The Bahamas led by Honorary Consul Patrick Hanlon
will mark the occasion by observances at Zion Baptist Church at 4 p.m.
today. Opposition spokesman Fred Mitchell will send a message to
the community on behalf of the PLP.
Congratulations
A word of congrats to the romantics and their parents over the fact
that Justine, an attorney at McKinneys and daughter of Campbell the third
and Sharon (former COB lecturer) has gotten engaged to Kimani, an executive
at a leading beverage company and son of former PLP Minister of State for
Finance James Smith and the late Portia, in whose honour and memory the
Student Life Building at the College is named.
| 9th
August, 2009
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com |
|
| ANOTHER MURDER... | HOTEL UNION IN CHAOS... |
| TOWN MEETING BACKFIRES ON THE GOVT... | PLP HOLDS SEMINAR... |
| SHORTS... Hubert Out of Town; | OBIE WILCHCOMBE IN AN ACCIDENT... |
| RODNEY MONCUR AMUSES THE COUNTRY... | |
| MISS UNIVERSE BEGINS... | |
| EMANCIPATION DAY... | |
| FOX HILL DAY IS TUESDAY... | |
| IN PASSING... | |
The Official Site of the Progressive
Liberal Party... |
The Official Site of the Free National Movement... |
| PLPs On The Web... | Interesting Places... |
| Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town | Bahamas Government Website |
| Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte | Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte | Bahamians On The Web |
| Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw | Bahamian Cycling News |
| John Carey / PLP Carmichael | FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES... |
| Grand Bahama PLP | |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THEY MUST STOP SAYING THAT
There is an interesting and conventional orthodoxy in The Bahamas,
in our politics and in our religion that asserts that once you have been
in charge of an institution for a long time, it is never time to go.
The best political example is the failure in 1997 of the PLP to see that
notwithstanding the pre-eminence of its then leader as the political colossus
of The Bahamas, it was time to move on. That was one reason for the
party going down in flames. In religion, the Anglican Church has
been the best at it by arranging two orderly transitions since independence.
Michael Eldon arranged his succession so that Drexel Gomez moved smoothly
into place. Then Drexel Gomez arranged his succession so that Laish
Boyd moved smoothly into place.
But in religion, there are plenty of examples of the church not being able to come to grips with the fact that their leader good as he was, had reached the end of the line and it was time to move on. What happened at St. John’s Native Baptist Church is an example.
The Americans have institutionalized the practice throughout many levels of their politics. Most notably at the presidential level, following the death of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, after being elected to four consecutive terms, the Congress passed a constitutional amendment which mandated that you have to retire after two terms. The result is that no one can serve more than eight years as President. Human nature being what it is, that has not stopped many from trying to change it, most notably Ronald Reagan who when he landed back in California after demitting office after his second term met chants of “Four More Years” on the ground and he told them that they had a right to another term of Reagan, the communicator. But it could not happen.
Hubert Ingraham was so exasperated in 1992 that the late Sir Lynden Pindling was serving his fifth consecutive term that one of his campaign themes in 1992 was that he would serve for ten years only and that he would seek to see if the matter could be enforced by legislation. He was a young man though, then in his forties and to young men ten years seems a long time until the ten years have flown by. By the time he reached 55 in 2002, well, he wanted to remain and he tried to finagle the result so that he could stay on. His party told him he had to go. So he went away, his party lost, but he was sulking and skulking in the background the whole time and was called back to rescue the party, which he did in 2007.
The PLP now faces the same difficulty it faced in 1997. It has a good leader. He has a powerful intellect and is full of great ideas. He is terribly underrated. Yet even in the face of all of that and a good economy, the party lost in 2007 and has been mired in the cauldron of recriminations about who was responsible for the loss. Most bitter of all is the charge that the party lost its connection to its base, so that its base thought that it was preaching lofty ideals while the base did not prosper. When the party lost, the recriminations became worse because it appeared that the PLP was tenuous during its term and allowed its fear of the use of state power to so cripple its programmes that the FNM was able to keep its operatives in place, the PLP lost and the small gains made during the five years from 2002 to 2007 are now being wiped away.
Over in the FNM camp, there are only the slightest stirrings of discontent. We quoted on this site the comments of an unnamed source who says that FNM Chairman Johnley Ferguson has to go because he is not a unifier. That has not gotten any real traction. Senator Jerome Fitzgerald, who is PLP, has said that both Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie have to go. The word coming out of the FNM camp is that Hubert Ingraham is waiting to see whether Perry Christie goes before he (Ingraham) says he is going and some PLPs are saying that Mr. Christie is waiting to see if Mr. Ingraham goes before he decides to go.
Inside the PLP, the powerful conventional orthodoxy is at work. It is natural. Don’t go. We can’t do without you. You have not had your full opportunity to carry out your mission. The organization must be stabilized and an orderly transition arranged. Powerful stuff and leaders have to know when to ignore this stuff and when to listen to their best instincts.
The FNM appears to want to hand the general election to the PLP. They are thrashing around without ideas. They are firing civil servants in unprecedented numbers. Last week another batch of customs officers received their layoff notices and were sent home, some for infractions long ago. This no doubt is the further Ingrahamization of our country where everyone is a crook except Mr. Ingraham and his acolytes. The question the PLP asks itself is if the election were held today, how would the PLP fare? The answer it gives itself is that the PLP will win easily.
Our answer is; that depends. It depends on how the question is framed at the time the election is called. For we know that the election is not being called today. We also know that the empirical evidence as of now is that the PLP and the FNM are in a statistical dead heat which means that, if that evidence is to be believed, the situation has not changed since 2007, despite all that we see happening around us. The centre is still holding for the FNM.
And who can blame the centre, when the Opposition party that says it wants to win just doesn’t seem to be hungry to do so. Last week, the Minister of Education Carl Bethel issued a statement saying that the scholarship programme of the government would be suspended indefinitely. While a press conference is scheduled for today to deal with this matter, if it happens that would mean it has taken the PLP four days to respond.
Clearly, this is a problem that existed when the party was in government. It cannot even defend itself.
Is it another sign that the conventional orthodoxy must go out of the window?
And is it time for the PLP establishment to stop saying, “please
don’t go” and start thinking about the future with some new ideas and alternatives?
ANOTHER
MURDER
It has happened again. This time on a Friday
night in the late hours as a young mother was coming home to her Sea Breeze
residence, she stayed in the car to feed the young baby at her breast.
A robber came up to her, it is alleged, and asked for money. He then
shot the young mother Tagea nee Soles at point blank range in her car while
the babe was feeding and made good his escape. Death in the evening.
She is the granddaughter of the well known Aurelia Austin and the daughter
of Gordon Soles, a former Young Liberal.
HOTEL
UNION IN CHAOS
Sometimes judges may not appreciate the nature of
their decisions. That is why an apt expression in the law of equity
is that ‘equity does not act in vain’. It is usually an expression
that applies where the court is being asked to enforce a relationship of
personal services, forcing people who do not want to work together to work
together. It is said that the Court cannot force people in these
circumstances to work together. The case was not one in equity.
It was a case in labour law and an interpretation of the rules governing
elections of leaders for the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers
Union.
Last week, we reported that Justice Jon Isaacs ruled
that the elections, which took place 60 days before, to decide the leadership
of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union, were to be set
aside. There was no word on what the consequences of such a decision
would be to the employees who had to be paid and to other vendors who expected
bills to be settled. The effect seemed to be that the old Union executive
that Nicole Martin, first female President of the Union defeated in what
was a widely accepted democratic mandate, would take over the union again
to hold fresh elections.
The two executives Kirk Wilson, who was a Vice President
and who brought the action against his then nemesis Roy Colebrook, the
outgoing Union President, suddenly joined hands and said they would move
back in and set new elections and run the Union for 30 days. The
lack of practicality of this seemed to incense Mrs. Martin’s supporters
who are thought to be an even greater majority than in the elections.
They went up to the Union's headquarters to physically restrain Mr. Colebrook
and his group from retaking the headquarters.
The Banks froze the accounts. The lawyers
went back to court to get a stay while they appeal the order. The
Court could not quite decide and by week's end would say only that the
status quo before the order should remain in place until a further order
on Tuesday 11th August.
Keod Smith, the Attorney for the insurgent side,
the side that won the case that is causing all the chaos, has an even more
novel interpretation. His side argues that because the Union Executive
had a majority controlled by Kirk Wilson and held nominations on a different
day from the one that led to the disputed election, only the nominees nominated
on the day set by the insurgent team he represents are qualified to run
and so all others including Mrs. Martin and Mr. Colebrook are disqualified
from running in the elections that are to be set. The Judgment did
not address the fact that the Union in its general meeting ratified the
actions of the now Union leadership including the setting of the nomination
and election days.
The consequences of this are more far reaching than
simply the Hotel Catering Workers Union’s immediate issues. The Union
has been in chaos for over a year, the consensus on the old Board having
been broken down. Just as the Union seemed to be settling with a
new Board, comes this decision, which has thrown the matter in chaos.
We think that this might be a case where the legislature should intervene
and overturn the court decision and validate all the elections held so
far.
In a related matter, the same Judge has also stopped
the elections going forth of another union the Airline Airport and Allied
Workers Union, throwing the leadership of that Union also into further
chaos. This is the union that represents the line staff of Bahamasair.
There it is the same problem of Union executives in a squabble over who
is in charge of the Union.
TOWN
MEETING BACKFIRES ON THE GOVERNMENT
Oh for those heady days after the last general election
when Hubert Ingraham and his merry band of Ministers were parading around
The Bahamas full of their new found power and stopping, reviewing and cancelling
everything in sight. Bahamian old people would say it was only a
matter of time before they 'bucked their toe' somewhere. It seems
that somewhere is as they seek to force the people to accept a private
deal to put the container port in downtown Nassau on Arawak Cay.
Most people seem to think that the last government made the right decision
by deciding to move it to southwest Nassau at Clifton Point. Not
so Hubert Ingraham and his ministers. They held a town meeting on
Wednesday 6th August at the British Colonial Hilton and they heard from
the public.
One thing a Minister will find out is notwithstanding
all that they say about cabinet collective responsibility, when a decision
is unpopular, you will be left alone by your colleagues to defend it and
God help you. Fred Mitchell found that out with the struggle over
the Caricom Single Market and Economy. So, Earl Deveaux, who is the
Minister of the Environment and the point man on moving this port and running
a road through the upscale neighbourhood Vista Marina, was left defenceless
at the town meeting. Yes, his ministerial colleagues Minister of
Works Neko Grant and Tourism Vincent Vanderpool Wallace showed up to speak,
but they were drowned out by a chorus of cries that people did not want
to hear about shopping downtown and tourism. They came to hear about
the Port.
Poor Vernice Walkine, Director General of Tourism,
had to beg to say only a few words. Neko Grant could not get the
facts straight. He said that he had nothing to say about a causeway
to New Providence to bring the goods from Arawak Cay instead of over the
existing causeway, even though on the government’s own fact sheet, the
plans call for a causeway to be built. An even more glaring contradiction
was the concern voiced by Health Minister Hubert Minnis that a rise in
bacteria might accompany the dredging up of silt in the harbour.
The next day, Earl Deveaux went on the radio and said that would not be
so. But the Health Ministry wants the conch moved from those waters
just in case. So much for the assertion that there will be no adverse
environmental impacts.
Dr. Minnis is feeling the heat from his silence
on this proposal from his upscale constituents in Vista Marina. He
is now seeking, some think, to distance himself from the cabinet decision.
The press pointed out in their Saturday editions a comment by Mr. Deveaux,
which seemed to leave an out for the government. He said that if
the private sector thought that this was too much for them, then they could
always withdraw. That would save the government’s face. They
could say the investors no longer have the stomach for this and so we rest.
The comments appeared in a speculative piece by The Tribune about whether
or not this decision on the Port will lead to the FNM losing the general
election. They quoted Fred Mitchell PLP MP Fox Hill and they quoted
former Chamber President Dioniso D’Aguilar.
You may click
here for a video of the meeting.
PLP HOLDS
SEMINAR
The Leaders of PLP Branches were called to Gambier
House, headquarters of the Progressive Liberal Party on Saturday 8th
August to a seminar on how branches are run. The Branch executives
were addressed by the Leader of the Party Perry G. Christie. Our
photos show the Leader addressing the group and executives of the Fox Hill
PLP Charlene Marshall, Branch Chair; Deidre Rolle, Branch Secretary and
Branch Trustee Altamese Isaacs.
SHORTS...
Hubert
Out of Town; Tommy & Brent Too; Carl Acts… Yes you read it right.
The Prime Minister took off with his family on a cruise to Alaska on 6th
August. The Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette also left town
and so did number three the Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest.
That left Carl Bethel, the Minister of Education to Act as Prime Minister
for the days the trio are away. It also means he has to take the
heat for cancelling the scholarship programme without Ingraham to back
him up.
National Grade Is D… That is just the overall average. But get this the national grade in Maths has moved from E plus to E! The Minister of Education Carl Bethel who came to government attacking the PLP on the low grades has a lot of explaining to do.
‘Brave’ Announces… At the Cat Island Association Hall in Wilson Street off Market Street in Grants Town that he will run for the office of Deputy Leader of the PLP at the next convention, which is scheduled to begin on 18th October. Present at the launch were his Rector Archdeacon Keith Cartwright. Also present were Archdeacon James Palacious, former MPs Loftus Roker and Charles Carter, Senator Allyson Maynard Gibson and MP for Fox Hill Fred Mitchell. His slogan: ‘Be Brave’. You may click here for Mr. Davis' full remarks.
Obie says, ‘Soon’… He will announce that he is running for Deputy Leader of the PLP. He did not say when and it may have been delayed as a result of a recent accident, but he is likely to be a formidable candidate.
Michael Barnett Is All But Confirmed… As the next Chief Justice to succeed Sir Burton Hall, who is leaving to join the International War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia at the Hague in the Netherlands. This confirms what we first reported here. Brian Moree, now Managing Partner of McKinney Bancroft and Hughes is set to go back home to the FNM and become Attorney General, replacing Mr. Barnett.
Jerry Wisdom Dies… The well-known
former sporting coach passed away yesterday at Doctors Hospital.
Among Mr. Wisdom’s brothers are broadcaster and media executive Dr. Keith
Wisdom and former Cabinet Minister of Sports, businessman Neville Wisdom.
He was predeceased by his sister Arlene Albury, late of the College of
The Bahamas and his parents Dorothy and Walter Wisdom. We will miss
him.
OBIE
WILCHCOMBE IN AN ACCIDENT
Some time between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday
6th February there was the freakiest kind of accident. West End and
Bimini MP Obie Wilchcombe was getting into his truck to make a combined
meeting of the PLP’s Leadership Council and Political Committee.
He forgot his cell phone. The truck unfortunately was not in park
but in reverse and began to slide back. He tried to stop the truck
but lost his footing and in the end the truck rolled over his ankle breaking
the ankle. He has had surgery and three pins have been permanently
placed in the ankle. He is now out of hospital convalescing at home.
We wish him the very best.
RODNEY
MONCUR AMUSES THE COUNTRY
It looks like the government is losing the argument
on the question of whether or not rape by a spouse should be a crime.
We reported on this site that the government just before the summer break
tabled a bill to criminalize sex without consent within a marriage in pursuance
of its international treaty obligations. The preachers are having
a field day, with Pastor Cedric Moss, brother of PLP insurgent Paul Moss,
leading the way. Pastor Moss told the Rotary Club that the law proposes
to make the country a nation of rapists. With respect, that is hyperbole.
Sandra Dean Patterson, the social worker at Sandilands,
now retired, tried to explain that there are circumstances in which a wife
within a marital relationship that is not on the verge of divorce can in
fact be raped. The most obvious example is that of a wife who fears
her husband has a venereal or other disease and says no and is forced to
have sex by him. But this was no time for rational discourse.
Sex is a sensitive subject at the best of times and with the preachers
leading the way that it is a wife’s duty to submit sexually to her husband,
the government will have a hard way to go. Further, the argument
is why would the government want to tackle this when there are so many
other problems that need fixing.
Pastor Moss did not seem to have a problem with
sanctioning husbands for using force against women but he thought it ought
to be called something else. The man of the hour though on this point
was Rodney Moncur, the activist who is known for his mercurial ways, peripatetically
jumping about on one issue after the next. Here, there and everywhere.
This time he told a radio audience on Wednesday 6th August that there he
is in bed, naked; and his wife is in bed, naked; why is Hubert Ingraham
in my bedroom? He said that in any event in these days and at his
age, he has no time for foreplay. That, he claimed, was a young man’s
game. He had to get it while he could because if he missed the opportunity,
he may not get another chance to be able to perform for some time.
He said his wife understood this and he understood it, so why is that a
problem. No doubt that is a fifty something year old man’s complaint.
One thing we say is the country is surely exercised
about it. Some argue that this is Hubert Ingraham seeking to create
a distraction for something he has no intention of bringing into force.
MISS
UNIVERSE BEGINS
The contest for the new Miss Universe takes place
at Atlantis on Paradise Island on 23rd August but already, the women are
in town. Everywhere there is excitement about it in Nassau and The
Bahamas. Bimini was in a tizzy on Saturday 8th August as the women
gathered there at the Bimini Bay Resort, the Straw Market and at Ansil
Saunders’s Boat Yard. They visited the Governor General at tea on
Wednesday 5th August and the roads were closed on Bay Street as the women
were feted to a special welcome on Friday 7th August. Eighty of the
world’s most beautiful women are in Nassau for the occasion.
Poor Miss Bahamas Kiara Sherman, she can’t seem
to win for losing. The local crowd is complaining that she does not
show up at the events and is not playing the proper role as host.
This forced members of her family to come to her defence in the press on
Saturday 8th August, saying that he was performing other duties and was
not simply in the meet and greet business. Some say that Miss Sherman
is far too defensive about her role and that she is overly sensitive to
the controversy which ensued after there were allegations of cheating when
she was named Miss Bahamas. The photos are by Peter Ramsay.
EMANCIPATION
DAY
The people of Fox Hill celebrated the 175th anniversary
of the emancipation of the slaves in the British Empire on 3rd August 2009.
In attendance at the ecumenical service led by the Fox Hill Festival Committee
was Governor General Arthur D. Hanna. He was joined by Fred Mitchell
MP for Fox Hill. The photos of the event are by Miguel Taylor.
The preacher for the service was Rev. Dr. J. Carl Rahming, pastor of St.
Paul’s Baptist Church. Among the photos below, Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell
is pictured with Miss Teen Bahamas and her father Carl Kemp; Governor General
Arthur Hanna fellowships at the Fox Hill Community Centre with girls from
Williemae Pratt School for Girls on Emancipation Day; and the VIPs and
platform guests at annual National Emancipation Day service.
FOX
HILL DAY IS TUESDAY
The annual Fox Hill Festival continued Saturday,
with 'Police Day' when the community was treated to various demonstrations
by the Royal Bahamas Police Force, including the marching band and the
pop band. The crescendo of the Festival comes Tuesday with the traditional
celebration of Fox Hill Day, or 'Party Day' as its known in local circles.
Baptist churches in the community stage special programmes of performances
and recitations and the giving of gifts to the children. In another
annual tradition, Fred Mitchell MP will host Progressive Liberal Party
Leader and Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie MP as he visits the
various churches.
IN PASSING
Former HCC Bahamas In Town
Michael Young and his wife Patricia visited The Bahamas for two days
last week. Mr. Young is the former Bahamas Honorary Consul in Atlanta.
He was replaced recently by former Senator Kay Forbes Smith who is now
the Consul General. A formal launch of the office in Atlanta takes
place on 20th August.
Andrew Young Visits
Former Mayor of Atlanta and UN diplomat Andrew Young visited The Bahamas
during the week, staying at the Atlantis Resort and Casino.
Land Committee Meets
The Committee appointed by the House of Assembly before it adjourned
for the summer met for the first time on Friday 7th August. All members
attended: Fred Mitchell MP Fox Hill, Philip Davis MP Cat Island Rum Cay
and San Salvador, Charles Maynard MP Golden Isles and Branville McCartney
MP for Bamboo Town. Mr. Mitchell was elected Chairman and Charles
Maynard Deputy Chairman. The pair said that they intended for the
Committee to work in a bipartisan manner and that the public would soon
get an opportunity to provide material to the committee.
Mitchell On Elections
Speaking to The Tribune and published on Saturday 8th August, the MP
for Fox Hill Fred Mitchell said it was too soon to say whether the government’s
actions on the container port would lead to their defeat. He said
that the PLP should focus on strengthening itself to gain power and cannot
rest on any possible points gained from current public disapproval of the
government. He said the PLP “must ensure that it has an organization
to fight an election in 2012 and have a properly framed debate which shows
that the PLP is the best for the country.”
Comments On Scholarship Programme
Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill has criticized the government’s decision
to stop the scholarship programme. In an interview with The Tribune
of Saturday 8th August, he said that instead of stopping the programme
it should be tripled in size. He said, “We find it appalling that
government can simply with a wave of the hand say the loan programme is
suspended, leaving scores of parents filled with anxiety. The investment
in education as far as scholarships go should be tripled and not stopped
– this is a disgrace, it is not good enough.”
Ivy Turnquest Dies
Ivy Turnquest nee Culmer, formerly of the Valley, is dead. She
succumbed to cancer after a nearly decade long battle. She was a
valiant fighter of the disease and kept up the spirits of others.
She is survived by her husband Bernard and her children. May she
rest in peace. PLPs in Grand Bahama may know her brothers R.H. and
Sanford and Lowell and sister Ingrid.
Ryan Pinder Called To The Bahamas Bar In Private Ceremony
Ryan Pinder, son of former Minister in the government of Sir Lynden
O. Pindling Marvin Pinder was called to the Bar of The Bahamas in a private
call by Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall on 29th July. Mr. Pinder who
is a Member of the Bar of Florida took the conversion course at the Eugene
Dupuch Law School in Nassau and is an expert in US Tax law. Since
returning to The Bahamas, he has been an activist within the PLP, holding
the position of National General Council member for the Clifton constituency
and the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
Five New Lawyers Called to the Bar
In what may be one of the last public and official acts by the Chief
Justice Sir Burton Hall, he acceded to the petitions of five new lawyers
to the Bar of The Bahamas on Friday 7th August. Among them was his
daughter. The five lawyers are: Tiffany Hall, Alexander Christie,
Antoine La Fleur, Judith Patterson, and George Smith Jr. Mr. Smith
is the son of former Cabinet Minister under Sir Lynden O. Pindling George
Smith. Sir Burton is taking up a new post as Justice of the International
War Crime Tribunal for Yugoslavia at the Hague.
Peter Ramsay photo
| 16th
August, 2009
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com |
|
| CABINET RESHUFFLE... | THE HOTEL UNION FIGHT... |
| NEW EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR... | SULLYING BRENTON SMITH... |
| SHOULD SANDALS BUY EMERALD BAY?... | FOX HILL DAY... |
| CONSTANCE MCDONALD RESPONDS... | ‘BRAVE’ DAVIS’ LAUNCH: A PHOTO ESSAY... |
| GEORGE ANDREW SMITH II CALL RECEPTION... | MISS UNIVERSE... |
| THE BRITISH COMPLETE THEIR COUP IN TCI... | PLP DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED AT TCI SUSPENSION... |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR... | IN PASSING... |
| The Official Site of the Progressive
Liberal Party... |
The Official Site of the Free National Movement... |
| FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES... | Interesting Places... |
| Bahamas Government Website | |
| Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links | |
| Bahamians On The Web | |
| Bahamian Cycling News | |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
LEADERS HAVE TO PAY
You really have to have a lot of faith to believe that the PLP will
win the next election in this country and we do. With all that is
happening, it should sink this government in power: crime out of control,
the economy down in the pit, a funk from which we see no end in sight and
yet the PLP is today in a statistical dead heat with the FNM. We
must ask ourselves why? We comfort ourselves by saying that there
is still time.
There is a general convention coming in the PLP. All posts are available at a convention due to start 18th October. It is not certain whether after that there will be another convention before a general election is called. For all intents and purposes, we are now two years out from a general election. So one would hope that at this convention coming up, several questions will be answered. Who must pay for the loss at the last general election? Is it an individual responsibility or is it collective one? Are the lessons of the last defeat learned, or is this just going to be a party for the delegates? Who will run for office and what is their vision for The Bahamas and for the PLP?
It seems to us that the singular lesson that has not been learned from the defeat in 2007 is that you must take care of your base. The statistics show that the independents voted against the PLP in large measure. But perhaps the disaggregation of the statistics is not as neat as it first appears. How many of those self-described independents were in fact PLPs who simply decided that they were fed up with being ignored and decided to swing to the FNM. It appears to us that another poll should seek to find out just that. We suspect that the answer will be that people are waiting to hear from the PLP, from its Leader and its convention a complete and unqualified apology for the last period of governance and the faults therein and a complete and unqualified promise that yes, we get it, and that many, many things will change the next time around. We think that opportunity will present itself because the FNM is proving no more adept at getting the things done than PLP about which the voters of the general election in 2007 complained.
There is going to be a race for every position at the convention it appears. The position of leader will present a special challenge. There is pressure from every quarter for some Member of Parliament to challenge Mr. Christie and his vision of the future. In the latest salvo in the press on Friday 14th August, the Guardian said that Jerome Fitzgerald and Dr. Bernard Nottage were possible contenders. Mr. Christie himself is taking no chances that Paul Moss, the extra Parliamentary member is going to be the challenger. He is a challenger that presumably Mr. Christie can dispatch without a worry. But out in the press there has been one interview after the next, something not normally associated with Mr. Christie and his leadership where he is striking out at the invisible challenger. One web site quoted him as telling an audience in Grand Bahama that he will shut down anyone who would challenge him and that he is the only one who is capable of leading the PLP at this time.
Mr. Christie told the Guardian: “The question of who will run will be answered by people stepping forward. But you don't just jump in out of the blue and into the PLP and say that you will run without a clear idea of where you are going to take the party. The leader has to have the possibility of winning (the next general election).
“So what is their connection to being able to win and to get people behind them?”
On one of the more contentious websites, their argument is that someone at the Parliamentary level needs to challenge the leadership to show that things are not business as usual in the PLP and that the PLP gets the message of change. The party is in too much of a comfort zone.
Anyone who wants to lead the PLP in these times must have a hole in their head or a pure love for party and country. Here is a party deeply mired in debt; that appears to have lost its self confidence; that is dominated by a vision of the glory days under Pindling and as yet is unable to focus on a message of where to go from here.
There are bright sparks on the horizon: Jerome Fitzgerald’s fight to stop the container port is in the finest tradition of activism, but he does not seem to have the support of the party; Philip Davis’ reliance on professional polling to move his campaign forward; Allyson Gibson’s advocacy on behalf of women; Melanie Griffin’s work in social services and Glenys Hanna Martin’s work in general advocacy for the downtrodden through the party’s chairmanship.
These are elements in search of a central theme. It appears that it needs a conductor to bring all the themes together.
If there is a contest for leader, whoever wins must enjoy the respect of the other side within the party and their co-operation. Many a party has foundered after a divisive race and the losing side simply sits on its hands and does nothing as it watches the other side founder and fail. In the background is the knowledge of the break-up following the 1998 race for leader, which led to the departure of Dr. Nottage; and ultimately, to ministerial level talent ending up in the FNM.
Whoever wants to lead, the next leader of the PLP be it the incumbent or someone else has to be able to pay off the huge bills left by the last election, settle the day to day expenses of the party, and modernize the structure of the PLP and its approach to politics. We say whoever leads because in the end, in PLP politics, it is the Leader who usually pays and pays a lot. Just ask the incumbent.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 15th August 2009 up to midnight: 48,227.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 15th August
2009 at midnight: 155,049.
CABINET
RESHUFFLE
Reports reaching us are that the Prime Minister
Hubert Ingraham is about to shuffle his cabinet again. This time
Minister of Sports Desmond Bannister is to leave the Cabinet at his request
and the Minister of State for Culture Charles Maynard is to get the substantive
job. Michael Barnett is to leave and become Chief Justice.
No word on his replacement since Brian Moree has reportedly turned down
the job. Phenton Neymour is to be moved to new responsibilities from
the Ministry of the Environment. The two ministers Earl Deveaux and
Mr. Neymour are apparently not getting on.
THE
HOTEL UNION FIGHT
Nicole Martin is now out. She was duly elected
as the first female president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied
Workers Union just over two months ago, but a court ruling on which we
have been reporting for the last two weeks has removed her from office.
She went back to court last week to get a stay of that order but the judge
declined. The Judge Jon Isaacs ruled despite having lifted an injunction
to allow the election to proceed, that in the end the other side was right,
the elections were not validly held.
The ruling has thrown the Union into confusion.
Back in office is Roy Colebrook who was soundly defeated and now within
60 days the Union is to hold fresh elections. But at least the confusion
on who can nominate has now been cleared up and about who can sign on the
Union’s accounts. The union’s employees were paid following a conference
between the bank, its lawyers, the Judge and the lawyers for the Union.
This was necessary because the bank in the face of the ruling of the court
had frozen the Union’s accounts. This small practical decision had
the other side of the equation headed by Kirk Wilson howling in the newspapers
that the bank had conspired with the other side to illegally move money
out of the Union’s accounts.
Another casualty of the Judge’s first ruling was
the Union’s inability to mount a successful fight to keep its representation
at the Sandal’s property in Cable Beach. An election was held and
the Union lost the vote 252 to 218 amongst the Sandal’s workers to a new
union. There was some confusion about whether the poll would take
place at all because Kirk Wilson, part of the insurgent team that set aside
the Union’s leadership elections and now the restored Vice President of
the Hotel Union said that the Hotel Union was no longer interested in contesting
the poll at Sandals. Some think that had to do with the fact that
attorney Obie Ferguson who represents the insurgent union at Sandals is
allied to Mr. Wilson. Roy Colebrook, the Hotel Union’s restored President
immediately came back and said that this was not so and that Mr. Wilson
had no right to speak on the point.
So here we go again. Mr. Colebrook quickly
added that he and Mr. Wilson were working together to get the election
date set for fresh elections in the Hotel Union. The lawyers for
Ms. Martin said they would be headed to a vacationing Court of Appeal.
No dates until September when they get back from their summer holiday.
Ms. Martin said that whenever the election is held again she is confident
that she will overcome. It will not be a moment too soon. The
confusion in a time of economic stress for the Union is not helping the
situation and needs to be settled and soon.
NEW
EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR
The Egyptian Ambassador to The Bahamas Tarek Elwassimy,
resident in Havana, presented his credentials to the Governor General Arthur
D. Hanna at Government House on Thursday 13th August. Attending the
lunch for the Ambassador was Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette
and Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell. They stand
next to the Governor General at the centre of the photo during the loyal
toast and Opposite the Ambassador. The Ambassador also brought his
two daughters who posed with the Governor General.
BIS photos: Peter Ramsay
SULLYING
BRENTON SMITH
A news conference was held during the past week
by Damien Gomez, the Attorney for the family of the late Brenton Smith,
the 18-year-older that was killed by a police gun on 9th July. At
first, the report was that Mr. Smith was killed in the crossfire of police
shooting with alleged criminals on the scene at Village Road but the attorney
for the family said that only the police were fired a gun. He called
for better training of the police in the use of firearms.
What really incensed the family of the late Mr.
Smith however were the allegations that Brenton Smith during his lifetime
had been arrested and charged with a criminal offence. This surfaced
in The Punch, the down market rag and seemed like a police leak if there
ever were one. The family’s lawyer said that not only was this not
true, but even if it were true how would that justify killing the young
man who was not engaged at the time in any unlawful behaviour that would
justify killing him. He accused the police of leaking the information
to the press to sully the name of the deceased Mr. Smith. The Commissioner
of Police Reginald Ferguson was righteously indignant. He told The
Tribune on Thursday 13th August that the police did not leak any information.
He said the police were the ones who said that they shot the late Mr. Smith.
A coroner’s inquest is to be held into Mr. Smith’s death.
This is one of a series of matters involving the
police that have led many citizens to conclude that the police cannot investigate
themselves. We believe that an independent inquiry ought to be held
into these deaths at the hands of the police. We also sympathize
with the parents of this young man.
Notwithstanding what the Commissioner of Police
is saying, we agree with the lawyer for the Smiths in his suspicion that
the police were responsible for the leak. In this column we have
been saying from time to time how PLP MPs have been the subject of one
calculated police leak after the next to sully the reputation of PLPs.
We are not surprised then at the charge of Mr. Gomez.
SHOULD
SANDALS BUY EMERALD BAY?
Butch Stewart is the Jamaican hotelier that is doing
quite well with his chain Sandals, thank you very much. He owns the
Sandals Hotel in Nassau and around the world. He also owns an up
market cay in The Bahamas. He now has his eyes set on the old Emerald
Bay property in Exuma that after going into receivership under the Four
Seasons Brand is now up for sale. It appears that all systems are
go for its purchase by Butch Stewart.
The trouble is Mr. Stewart is often trouble.
He is trouble for a government that he does not like. He is trouble
for the employees who he does not like. His properties are generally
thought to be anti union and the allegation is that in Nassau at the recent
poll between the Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and the insurgent
Mechanics Union, the management at Sandals were busy seeking to persuade
the employees not to vote for the insurgent union. That effort failed
with the workers voting last week after many stalls, delays and deferrals
252 to 218 in favour of the new union.
Sandals most notoriously during the St. Lucia
general election in 2006 fired staff at his Sandals Hotel in St. Lucia
in what many believe was a deliberate effort to sink the fortunes of the
then Prime Minister Kenny Anthony. Mr. Anthony later lost the general
election. There were rumours that the company took the same view
of Perry Christie in The Bahamas.
So Mr. Stewart is to become the new owner of the
Emerald Bay property. It will be an all inclusive as all Sandals
properties are. The criticism is that beside salaries there is very
little engagement of Sandals customers in the local economy. But
at this point, one supposes beggars can’t be choosers. Let us hope
that this FNM government that we have looks out for the Bahamian people
in Exuma. Don’t hold your breath on that last score.
FOX HILL
DAY
The second Tuesday in the month of August has since at least the 1880s
been the day when the people of Fox Hill mark what is known as Fox Hill
Day or Party Day. It is the day when the children of the Baptist
Church Sunday schools gather to perform their recitations and get treats.
Increasingly for the Bahamians of the boomer years it is a time of nostalgia
for them and their children.
There was the tradition of the people from the town
of Nassau and its environs over the hill going up to Fox Hill on that day
to celebrate with them the emancipation of the slaves in 1834. In
its modern incarnation there is the Fox Hill Festival which begins on the
last day in July and climaxes with Fox Hill Day.
The day still has the traditional programmes and
ends with the plaiting of the maypole and the climbing of the greasy pole
on the Fox Hill Parade. The festivities end often at 2 a.m. the next
morning. The parade is packed with people. It is generally
a peaceful event but in latter years as the festival winds down you have
young toughs who make a nuisance of themselves. But what we mark
in photos is the visit of the Member of Parliament Fred Mitchell and his
political colleagues including former Prime Minister and Leader of the
Opposition Perry Christie to the celebrations.
Picewell Forbes MP South Andros; Philip ‘Brave’ Davis MP Cat Island,
Rum Cay and San Salvador; Fred Mitchell MP Fox Hill, Senator Jerome Fitzgerald
and PLP Leader Perry Christie tasting some of Rev. Dr. J. Carl Rahming’s
switcher (limeade) at Fox Hill Day observances at St. Paul’s Baptist Church;
PLP Leader Perry Christie receiving a treat from the people of Mount Carey
on the occasion of Fox Hill Day; A Fox Hill Day vendor all set to go.
The photos are by Miguel Taylor on Fox Hill Day 11th August 2009.
CONSTANCE
MCDONALD RESPONDS
Constance McDonald, the PLP’s candidate in the last
general election in Lucaya in Grand Bahama made a simple point in a news
conference last week. This brought the wrath of The Nassau Guardian
and The Freeport news down on her head. No doubt, the writer of the
article on Friday 14th August was the ever obsequious FNM editor Oswald
Brown.
The point was that the notice of investigation posted
on the land in Grand Bahama for the acquisition of the Williams Town land
for the new cruise port was deficient. It did not accurately describe
the land and the notice on the land referred people to Nassau, when the
land is actually in Grand Bahama. Good point.
The FNM politicians went ballistic. Neko Grant
I, MP for Lucaya and the Minister for Public Works who is not the brightest
spark in the fire, claimed that Ms. McDonald was the rejected candidate.
He did not deal with her arguments. Zhivargo Laing accused her of
having a hidden agenda. This is typical of the FNM: attack the messenger,
do not deal with the message. We are with Ms. McDonald. The
notice is deficient and more importantly; is the acquisition for a public
purpose in accordance with the law?
Try as The Nassau Guardian and The Freeport News
may to denigrate Ms. McDonald and her points, we stand by her 100 per cent.
‘BRAVE’
DAVIS’ LAUNCH: A PHOTO ESSAY
Philip ‘Brave’ Davis launched his campaign for Deputy
Leader of the PLP on 4th August. His slogan ‘Be Brave’. We
present this photo essay of the launch and those who were there at the
Cat Island Association Hall in Wilson Street in Grants Town.
MP Davis and family;with Hon. A. Loftus Roker; former PLP Chair
Raynard Rigby, Senator Allyson Maynard Gibson and Fred Mitchell MP; with
attorney Ryan Pinder. Photos: Portia King
GEORGE
ANDREW SMITH II CALL RECEPTION
Last week, we showed a picture of the Bar call of George Andrew Smith
II on Friday 7th August, the son of George A. Smith, the former Minister
in the Lynden Pindling government. The younger Mr. Smith hosted a
reception to mark the occasion of his call to the Bar. Amongst those
present were the oldest serving members of the Bar Sir Orville Turnquest
and Paul L. Adderley, both former Attorneys General. Peter Ramsay
was there for the reception which was held at Sandals Resort on Friday
14th August.
George Smith II; above, left with Hon. Paul Adderley and Sir Orville
Turnquest' centre, with former Attorney General Sean McWeeney; right, at
podium. Below, with Dr. Gail Saunders, Sir Orville and Fred Mitchell
MP; with Sir Arthur and Lady Foulkes; Fred Mitchell, 'Brave' Davis and
Ho. George Smith, father; Attorney Campbell Cleare, Journalist Paul Turnquest
and Attorney Raynard Rigby; with part of the next generation of lawyers
and family friend at his right.
MISS UNIVERSE
We hope that The Bahamas is not getting Miss Universe
fatigue. The pretty ladies have been in town for half a month and
they have another seven days to go. The contest is to be held at
the Atlantis on 23rd August. In the meantime, there are the preliminaries.
One of them was a silent auction held for the Aids Foundation on Thursday
13th August. We thought that Miss Bahamas Kiera Sherman was particularly
dazzling on that night. Peter Ramsay was there and captured the moment
as she was welcomed to the auction by Vincent Vanderpool Wallace, Minister
of Tourism and then with Minister of Social Development Loretta Butler
Turner.
THE
BRITISH COMPLETE THEIR COUP IN TCI
The British Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands
announced on Friday 14th August that he has completed the takeover of the
Turks and Caicos government, ousting the legitimately elected government
of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Gordon Wetherell with a straight
face said it was not a takeover.
Caricom, The Bahamas are all silent in the face
of this coup by the British. The British are themselves mired in
scandal and did not suspend their own constitution but have decided for
the second time in 23 years that the way in the colonies is to seize power
in the Turks. This is a shame.
The Premier Gilly Williams denounced the move but
there is not much that he can do. Mr. Williams can take comfort in
this fact, when Franco seized power in Spain, he thought that fascism was
going to kill the socialist movement in Spain. He died, restoring
the monarchy before he died. When elections were held after his death,
the socialists that he defeated in a bloody civil war and suppressed during
his decades as military dictator won power.
The solution to the British is to organize and remove
their influence from the body politic in the Turks.
You may click
here for the outgoing Premier’s statement and here
for the British Governor’s statement.
PLP
DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED AT TCI SUSPENSION
The Official Opposition Progressive Liberal Party issued the following
statement as we went to upload, expressing "deep disappointment" at the
suspension of democracy in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Fred Mitchell
MP, Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs said:
“The suspension of the democratic organs of the
government of the Turks and Caicos Islands by the British colonial power
is deeply disappointing. It is deeply disturbing that the right to
trial by jury is also suspended. The position of our party is that
the British ought to have found another way to deal with the issues of
alleged corruption in the Turks and Caicos. This position is well
within the public policy on this matter by Caricom of which we The Bahamas
are a member.
“This is the second time in 23 years that
the British have used the same method to solve issues relating to governance
in the Turks and Caicos Islands. This says something about the lack
of effectiveness of the methods employed by the British and a failure of
their administration of the territory.
“We reiterate that Britain as the colonial
power in the Turks and Caicos Islands has the responsibility
not only for the economic development and well being of the territory but
also its political development. The need to impose direct rule and suspend
the elected government of the Turks and Caicos Islands speaks not only
to the failure of the internal mechanisms of governance but also to failures
on the part of the colonial power.
“Britain as the colonial power cannot by
this action absolve itself of the responsibility for the corruption that
they allege.
“The examples of other public policy instruments
available to deal effectively with this matter are there for all to see.
Even in Britain itself which recently a saw a crisis in governance as a
result of corruption; it did not result in the suspension of their democracy,
but rather a realignment of the institutions to reflect the demands of
the public for openness, transparency and accountability.
“We call again for an all party conference
in the Turks and Caicos Islands to ensure that this suspension of the organs
of democracy in that country are for a limited period of time, much less
than the two years envisaged and that democracy is restored to legitimately
elected representatives of the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Trial by jury must be restored. The people of the Turks and Caicos
Islands are part of the world community and as such are entitled to the
same standards of democracy, transparency and accountability in public
life.”
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
On The U.S. Constitution
Dear Sir:
I believe, if you check the 22nd Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, you will see that Presidents are limited to two
terms plus 2 years or less. For example, Lynden Johnson served as
President when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 until the end of that term
which was January 1965. He was eligible to run for two terms, eight
years, on his own. However, if the term he had to finish was two
years or more, he would have only been eligible to run for one four-year
term.
Patty Roker
On The Privatization of BTC
Dear Sir:
I believe it to be true that a significant number
of Bahamians are concerned about the privatization of BTC in terms of the
National Security (not economic) implications. For example, the potential
for foreign interests to be engaged in activities such as the interception
or monitoring of messages.
The matter is not unique to the Bahamas.
I recently read an about a possible plan of the
Indian Government which would require that private telecommunications companies
fill senior management positions with “resident Indians”.
While any such plan for the Bahamas would likely
have to be accompanied by the acceptance of a discounted value, the official
opposition may wish to consider other measures for inclusion in the final
legislation that relates to the privatization.
Specifically for example:
(i) Ensuring that the owners and managers of the private entity
know by law that any such activity would be viewed as a serious crime with
harsh penalties.
(ii) Ensuring that the Government retains the right to authorize
such activities in the national interest, again with harsh penalties for:
(a) Any refusal to carry out a proper instruction and/or
(b) Any breach of confidentiality.
Obviously all such measures would be accompanied
by measures to protect against abuses by the relevant Minister.
Just a thought.
(Name withheld)
IN PASSING
Nassau Flight Services Loses A Chairman
Last week began with David Wallace former MP for West End and Bimini
facing an allegation in the press that he was removed as Chairman of the
Nassau Flight Services company because money was missing from the company.
Nassau Flight Services is a government owned company that provides the
ground services for the Lynden Pindling International airport. Mr.
Wallace was quick to denounce the article saying that his time as Chairman
had simply expired and that the Prime Minister had something else for him
to do. He said that he was not taking the calls of Bahama Journal
Publisher Wendell Jones and that he was contemplating suing the Journal
for the story.
Rescue At Sea
On Saturday 8th August, four men went missing with a 13 year old.
They were found after a search by the US Coastguard, the Bahamas Defence
Force and Bahamas Air Sea Rescue. The US who help The Bahamas with
these matters have been complaining that too often our fishermen go to
sea without emergency equipment causing expensive rescue operations when
with some simple equipment they could save themselves a lot of trouble,
Mitchell On Ian Strachan
Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill appeared on the radio programme on Thursday
13th August with talk show host Ian Strachan. Mr. Mitchell said that
the PLP had to take steps to capture the imagination of the next generation
of voters. He sidestepped the issue of whether he will run for his
leadership of the PLP in the fall at the October convention but urged the
press to be vigilant about the process of leadership elections in the PLP.
Was The Murder Mistaken Identity?
Gordon Soles, the father of TaGia Soles Armony, wife and mother who
was brutally shot down last week 7th August as her babe suckled her breast
in her car is inconsolable. He should be. He wrote the press
last on Friday 14th August to say that he had forgiven the culprit and
that God will deal with him. The police sources have said that the
woman might have been the victim of a mistaken identity. A strange
thing to say. What we do know is that the city is on edge because
of it. It appears that there is one brutal murder after the next
with no respite in sight. The count is now up to 52 homicides.
The Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson is busy trying to stop phone
card vendors from selling without permits but has nothing to say about
stopping the murderers in their bloody rampage across the land.
BEC Plunges Us Into Darkness
At the height of the cocktail hour on Friday 14th August, the island
of New Providence was plunged into darkness for about three hours.
The reason the generators at both the Blue Hills site and the Clifton Pier
site all stopped working. This confirms the stories going around
that BEC will have to start load shedding because they simply do not have
the capacity to keep up with the power demands. Also it is alleged
that maintenance has fallen behind because of money problems. Phenton
Neymour, the Minister of State went on radio Sunday to say that it was
an act of God. You can try to blame God for many things, but one
of them is not the generator maintenance at BEC. Come clean, Minister!
 |
Newspaper Websites In The Bahamas Don’t Work
We have complained before and we complain again. The websites
of the newspapers in The Bahamas are not up to snuff. The Tribune
has now launched an electronic paper, a step up from the lousy service
that they had with a PDF version of the paper, but even that they do not
update on a timely basis. You have to wait until 2 p.m. in the day
to get the day’s news. The Nassau Guardian, which has had an electronic
paper for some time is a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes the paper
is there; sometimes it is not updated at all. The Bahama Journal
used to be the best but lately they simply don’t check. These are
the same papers that routinely criticize the public sector for bad service.
PLP Should Oppose Michael Barnett
Michael Barnett, the Attorney General, is touted to become the next
Chief Justice, replacing Sir Burton Hall who is to leave to go to the international
Tribunal for Yugoslavia at the Hague in the Netherlands. While Mr.
Barnett is a competent lawyer, the PLP ought to take the position that
this is an FNM going on the bench and that in this country it is unprecedented
that someone who is a candidate one day, an attorney general the next is
being leapfrogged over other judges to be placed on the bench in what is
a purely political appointment. The party must stiffen its spine
on this. Even the Bar Council dominated as it is by FNMs have sought
to stop this as an affront to the Senior Judges on the Bench.
Brian Moree Turns Down Hubert
Last week reported that Brian Moree, a Managing Partner at McKinney
Bancroft and Hughes, had accepted the offer of Hubert Ingraham the Prime
Minister to become Attorney General replacing Michael Barnett who is to
become Chief Justice. Friends of his are now saying that Mr. Moree
has turned down Mr. Ingraham’s offer, made through friends. We did
not think that the two of them could get along anyway and whether they
did or not, it is not an appointment this column would support.
Lockhart & Munroe Break Up
Notices in the press last week confirmed that the law firm of former
Bar President Wayne Munroe and former Supreme Court Justice Elliott Lockhart
has broken up. This is a major disappointment in the black legal
community. The fellows seemed to be doing so well. The announcement
in the press said that Elliott B. Lockhart and Norwood Rolle have formed
a new firm called Lockhart & Co. No word on Wayne Munroe’s plans.
Obie Wilchcombe Convalescing
West End and Bimini Member of Parliament Obie Wilchcombe is convalescing
at home after an operation to repair a broken ankle. He is on the mend
and resting comfortably. Mr. Wilchcombe is about to announce his
bid for Deputy Leader of the PLP.
Ivy Turnquest Buried
Our condolences to husband Bernard Turnquest, to sons Mark and Brian
and to the wider family of the Culmers (RH, Sanford, Ingrid, Lowell, Stewart)
in the Valley. Their sister Ivy was buried on Saturday 14th August
after a service at St. George’s Church, in the Valley. At 64 she
is gone too soon. The service was attended by Opposition Leader Perry
Christie and by Fred Mitchell MP Fox Hill.
Jerry Wisdom
Former coach and Olympian Jerry Wisdom was buried yesterday following
a service at Faith United Baptist Church in New Providence. He is
survived amongst others by his brother Dr. Keith Wisdom of Cable Bahamas
and Neville Wisdom, former Minister of the government. Mr. Wisdom
was laid out at Gambier House, the PLP headquarters where he was eulogized
by Party Leader Perry Christie and Party Chairman Glenys Hanna Martin on
Friday 14th August. Our condolences to the family.
Eugene Robins Passes
Our condolences to the family of the late Eugene Robinson Senior.
He is famed for his business the Base Road Bar. The service was at
St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Nassau on Saturday 14th August.
Bishop Harcourt Pinder Dies
Bishop Harcourt Pinder of the Church of God at Lilly of the Valley
Corner has died on 13th August. Bishop Pinder, a former president
of the Bahamas Christian Council was predeceased in July of last year by
two daughters and a granddaughter who perished in a drowning accident in
Long Island.
Loretta Attacks Wayne Munroe’s Statement
Wayne Munroe, former Bar Chief, spoke at a Seminar last week in which
he claimed that the new law to criminalize marital rape without the need
for a divorce proceeding or a legal separation, was a precursor to same
sex unions in The Bahamas. For once we agree with Loretta Butler
Turner, the Minister who is responsible for the carriage of the new law.
She described it on Friday 14th August as “utter rubbish”.
What’s Happening At LPI?
Vancouver Services in its Bahamian incarnation NAD is coming under
heavy fire in e-mail traffic. Employees are disgruntled at their
treatment. One employee wrote us to say that people are being fired
and replaced by Canadian workers. Another complaint was this: “Could
you believe when they had the groundbreaking for the new terminal, they
send an e-mail to staff telling us we could attend but we couldn’t sit
in the chairs or eat any of the food. Afterward, when the ‘dignitaries’
didn't eat the food, a manager came around begging the staff to eat the
food like we are some hogs to do the clean up.” The note ended that
Bahamian employees have no one to speak up for them. Please help
us said the employee.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THAT BOLT IS SOMETHING ELSE
The place is City Markets Harbours Bay, check out counter.
The head of the packing boys crew, a settled man in his early forties is
saying to one of the cashiers “You see your boy just broke the record 19.19
seconds.” She knew what he was talking about and no doubt everyone
in the shop could guess. The Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt had on
Wednesday 19th August broken his own world record at the World Championship
Games in Berlin, Germany. You may click
here for the IAAF website if you'd like to watch video of 100-metre
race final and the 200-metre race final.
It sank in. Then there was the buzz of the text message. “Did you see the run by Usain Bolt where he broke his own world record in 19.19 seconds? It was spectacular,” it said. It was spectacular indeed. It had obviously captured the imagination of The Bahamas and the Bahamian people, Jamaican though he is. That is the kind of thing we like to see. Respect for talent and pride in the region, not just in country.
The supervisors of the packers then said a curious thing. He warned the youngsters around him that Mr. Bolt would have to be very careful what he ate and what he drank. He said that the Americans would try to put something in his drink and then the next thing you know they would accuse of him taking something. Obviously, we don't agree that things might go that far, but a fellow in Mr. Bolt’s position is indeed a valuable commodity, and it seems to us that if his government is not taking steps already to protect him, then the Jamaican Federation and his government ought to be acting pretty quickly to help him.
The first time this came up was when Mr. Bolt, driving in Jamaica on one of their brand new highways, smashed up his brand new BMW motor car. He was barefoot, jumped out of the car with his shoes off, and got slight injuries to his feet when thorns in the side brush stuck him in his feet. Only a 20 something could do something so foolish, put at risk the very thing that gives him his living by walking barefoot on the side of the road. Walking barefoot should be a thing of the past for those precious feet. Mr. Bolt was out of commission for a month. We don’t know what his coaches and the Federation in Jamaica had to say but Ronald Reagan used to describe that situation as taking you out to the woodshed. At the very least, there had to be a real stern talking to.
What is special about the victory of Mr. Bolt is that his critics now know that this is not a one shot wonder. They also know that it is possible for a small country, with a small population to be able to train a squad of athletes that can compete successfully at the world level. The Bahamian athletes showed that at the previous games both the Olympics and the World Championships. They were so successful in 2000 at the Olympics that then Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson wanted to know what it was we were doing.
Well, we have to ask the question, what is Jamaica doing now? One thing is that the University of Technology in Jamaica has become a specialist organization in training athletes. In other words, it appears that Jamaica has now done what the Cubans did long ago and that is they have developed specialties in training athletes for international competition. All those little boys and girls from all over Jamaica now know that no matter the circumstances of their birth, they have a shot at the top. Usain Bolt shows them that. This was no son of the elite. This is a man of the people.
That is why we say that The Bahamas should be watching carefully. Bernard Nottage, who used to head the Bahamas Association of Amateur Athletics (BAAA) and was responsible for the modern version of the Carifta Games in the region, tells the story of how there was a carefully plotted programme of training young Bahamian boys and girls that ultimately led to our dominance in some sports in the region and then the world. Pauline Davis Thompson was one of them. We have to ask the question: is the same thing happening now to other younger Bahamians?
The athletes that are running for The Bahamas are aged athletes. They are still doing relatively well considering their ages as mature individuals in their thirties. But the question is, what about the younger athletes? Derek Atkins has not performed as well as we had hoped, although getting into a world championships final is no mean feat. But we remember when he was competing against Asafa Powell of Jamaica, how he boasted in 2007 that Mr. Powell was his first cousin and how he would upstage Mr. Powell. Mr. Powell of course has had his own problems since then but Mr. Atkins has not come up to his potential.
Congratulations to the women of The Bahamas 400 by 100 relay team for their silver medal. The old ladies still have it.
Sports is big business and big money. Our athletes have subventions now from The Bahamas Government, which depend on how well they perform in international competition. We ought to have from the Minister of Sports a comprehensive report on how the farm team is doing. What is coming up behind us? The reason is that we think that one of the surest ways of helping to lift people up from poverty is education. Being a good athlete is one way of getting a free education and then exposure at the world level, training young Bahamians far beyond where they would ever have gone, and experiencing much beyond these shores.
As we salute Usain Bolt for his blistering speed, for his mighty accomplishments, let us also then remember the Bahamian athletes who are in Berlin. We remember especially Debbie Ferguson McKenzie who won the bronze in the 200-metre women’s final on Friday 21st August. She is still hanging in there. That Usain Bolt though, he really is something.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 22nd August 2009 up to midnight: 90,708.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 22nd August
2009 up to midnight: 245,757.
CONGRATULATIONS
TO DEBBIE AND THE WOMEN
The Bahamian team at the IAAF Championships known
as the World Championships being held in Berlin, Germany won the silver
medal in the women’s four by one hundred metre relay in Berlin on Saturday
22nd August. They were bested by the team from Jamaica. Debbie
Ferguson McKenzie, who anchored the winning team, earlier won the bronze
medal in the women’s 200 metre race on Friday 21st August. The photo
show Ms. Ferguson in her triumph.
AP Photo: Anja Niedringhaus
LAWYERS
OBJECT TO MICHAEL BARNETT AS CJ
The Bar Association has now found its cajones and sent a letter to the
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to object to the appointment of Michael
Barnett as the Chief Justice. This rejection must be distinguished
from whether or not he is competent as a lawyer or a judge or whether he
is friends with all the people involved. Mr. Barnett himself should
have turned down the appointment.
What is happening is that a politician, raw boned,
is being sent to head the Judiciary. It confirms the impression that
the Prime Minister is packing the courts with his FNM colleagues.
The Bar President Ruth Bowe Darville, herself an FNM, said that the appointment
undermines the integrity of the Judiciary. Reports say that Mrs.
Bowe Darville sought to convince Mr. Barnett himself to withdraw from the
process.
The Senior Justice at the Courts Anita Allen reportedly
attacked the appointment saying reportedly that she would have great difficulty
following Mr. Barnett. Alfred Sears, the former Attorney General
and Mr. Barnett’s opponent in the last general election has come down squarely
against the appointment.
So far under Mr. Ingraham three FNMs have been appointed
to the Bench of the Supreme Court; Claire Hepburn, former Attorney General;
Rhonda Bain, who served in his law office, and now Mr. Barnett. Mrs.
Bowe Darville, Bar President said that the appointment is an intrusion
into the independence of the judiciary. To say the least. But
this is the Ingrahamization of The Bahamas.
Where is the Leader of the Opposition on the matter?
He refused to comment for the press saying only that he had made known
his views on the matter to Mr. Ingraham.
WHO
WILL RUN FOR LEADER OF THE PLP?
The press has been engaged in speculation on this
subject for at least a month now. The position of Leader of the PLP
and all other officers becomes available at the party’s convention in October.
So far, only Paul Moss, the National General Council Member for St. Cecilia,
has declared that he is in the race for Leader of PLP. He is given
little chance of winning since he is new to the PLP and not in the House
of Assembly.
Last week, The Tribune in its Saturday 15th August
edition, reported that there are moves afoot to prevent Mr. Moss from running
against Mr. Christie by passing a constitutional amendment. That
would be a fatal mistake and we hope it has no chance of passing.
All this has led inevitably to speculation about
whether or not someone from the Parliamentary group will run. Fred
Mitchell MP for Fox Hill sidestepped the issue when he spoke on Ian Strachan’s
radio programme two weeks ago. Not so Alfred Sears when he appeared
on the same programme on Wednesday 20th August. Mr. Sears, the former
Minister of Education, said that he would be disappointed if one of his
colleagues did not step forward and enter the race for Leader. No
word on whether he is in the race.
‘BRAVE’
DAVIS LAUNCHES IN GRAND BAHAMA; MITCHELL CALLS FOR YOUTH IN NGC
PLPs in Grand Bahama turned out in numbers Friday
night 21st August, for the launch of Philip 'Brave' Davis' campaign there
for the deputy leadership of the Party. Mr. Davis told his story
of success from humble beginnings and touted his new vision for the party,
including new solutions jobs of the future and the fight against crime
and corruption. Among the other speakers was Fred Mitchell MP, who told
the PLP audience that he was there to “...stand up for certain principles:
the principle of internal party democracy; the principle of the fight for
new ideas and for what I call an ‘agenda for change’.
“We have to stop singing ‘Abide With Me’ and start
singing let’s go out to the ball game,” said Mr. Mitchell, “Let’s
stop giving a thousand reasons why we cannot change and think of the thousand
reasons why we should and we will change.” Mr. Mitchell called for
consitutionall mandated set asides for young people in the leadership of
the PLP. “We have resisted the structural involvement of young people
in the party. I am therefore now in favour of mandatory set asides
to force this change. We have to set as a constitutional requirement
of the Party that 50 percent of the delegates at the convention and in
the National General Council should be below the age of 40 and at least
33 per cent ought to be women.”
You may click
here for Mr. Mitchell's full remarks.
SENATOR
JEROME DEMANDS MINISTER’S RESIGNATION
Poor Earl Deveaux (right), Senator Jerome Fitzgerald
(left) of the PLP has him running ragged. Just when he thought it
was safe to get back into the water, the water became muddy. You
will remember that Mr. Deveaux is the minister responsible for defending
the government’s foolish decision to move the container port to Arawak
Cay. Part of that is the extension of Arawak Cay because of the dredging
of the harbour. Mr. Deveaux has maintained that the work was environmentally
safe and that there would be no adverse environmental impacts on the public
beach at Saunders Beach. Uh Oh! He was wrong.
When you passed Saunders Beach last week, you could
see a plume of particles in the water, which clearly showed that the methods
of the dredgers had failed, and the beach might be adversely affected.
It appears they caught it in time, but not before Senator Fitzgerald jumped
all over Mr. Deveaux for misleading the public on the safety of the dredging.
Mr. Deveaux then went into overdrive on Thursday 20th August, he had the
press with him the whole day taking them around and showing them how things
were on Arawak Cay.
All we say to Jerome Fitzgerald is: ‘Keep it up!’
There are more questions than answers. You may click
here for the full statement of the Senator on the matter.
FRANK
SMITH MP ON NEW UNEMPLOYMENT STATS
Frank Smith MP has gone after the FNM over the newly
released unemployment figures. In a news release, Mr. Smith juxtaposes
and compares the dismal figures to what they were in 1992, at the advent
of the first FNM government. You may click
here for Mr. Smith's full remarks.
BRITISH
TCI COUP NOW COMPLETE, SUSPEND FROM CARICOM
The Caricom Secretariat has issued a statement denouncing
the British coup in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Last week the British
announced the advisory council of people in the Turks who will govern the
country in complicity with them now that its Parliament and Cabinet have
been ousted. The British have reportedly had warships in the Turks
just to reinforce the point of who is in fact in charge. The Governor
of the territory Gordon Wetherell is in fact a dictator and does not have
to listen to this advisory council.
The Caricom statement follows almost exactly the
line that the PLP took in the matter. We think that since the British
do not practice democracy in the Turks and Caicos Islands and just as Haiti
was suspended from the organs of the Community when Jean Bertrand Aristide
was removed from office in Haiti, so should the Turks and Caicos Islands
be suspended as an associate member of the community. The British
are in violation of the civil society charter of the Community.
We have not heard from the Opposition Party in the
Turks in some time. They appeared to be complicit in what has happened
in the Turks. But this week they sent us a statement that indicates
that while they were unhappy with the British decision on suspending the
House and Cabinet, they believed that corruption had taken over the government
of the Turks. We do not think that the two things need to be confused.
There is corruption in the British government as well, but they did not
suspend their Parliament in order to resolve it, nor did they suspend trial
by jury.
Here is
the statement from Caricom’s website.
You may click this
link to find out what the Opposition People's Democratic Movement in the
Turks and Caicos think about the British moves.
ATLANTA
CONSUL GENERAL’S OFFICE OPENS
Hubert Ingraham flew up to Atlanta, Georgia for
Wednesday 20th August to officially open the new consulate general of The
Bahamas in that city. This was a process that was begun by former
Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and a process that the FNM opposed
when they were in Opposition. Mr. Ingraham sent former Senator Kay
Forbes Smith to Atlanta as the Consul General. Clearly, this is a
special relationship between them when the Prime Minister himself travels
for the opening.
There have been questions raised about the expenditure
in relation to the opening of the new office, including the cost of the
purchase of the new home for the Consul General; whether it was purchased
in an appropriate city and why it was purchased where it is. None
of that for the opening though. Mr. Ingraham ordered special supplies
of conch and fish to take with him for the opening. A special treat
was provided by the Grand Bahama Youth Choir led by Kevin Tomlinson.
We agree that the office should be opening.
What is inexplicable is that the Ministry of Tourism has now closed its
office in Atlanta. This is the same city that is the hub for Delta
Airlines and all the passengers that it sends to The Bahamas. Mr.
Ingraham and his government are full of contradictions. He says on
the one hand that Atlanta is a city of commerce, travel and trade for The
Bahamas and so there ought to be a consulate general there, then he closes
down the tourist office abandoning the travel business in that city?
POLICE INFIGHTING
Tommy Turnquest should be a worried man. On
20th August Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill and the Opposition party’s spokesman
on the public service demanded answers
from the Ministers of National Security and the Public Service on the
state of the police force. It was an extraordinary week all on the
public record. First on Tuesday 18th August, the Commissioner of
Police denied in The Tribune that there was infighting amongst the senior
ranks of the Force that was hampering the ability fright crime.
The next day the Chairman of the Police Staff Association
Inspector Bradley Sands contradicted the Commissioner telling the reporter
that no fisherman would call his fish stink. The Minister was having
his own version of a bad day. Bishop Simeon Hall who was head of
the Crime Commission appointed by the Government to make recommendations
on fighting crime said that the Government was not carrying out the recommendations
of the task force. Not true said Mr. Turnquest but he went further
and said he will not be speaking to Rev. Hall again about it. Well
excuse us, but there goes the crime strategy. The Commission was
an integral part of the crime fighting strategy of the FNM.
Zhivargo Laing, the hapless Minister of State for
the Public Service now says that crime is an individual thing and not a
community issue. That’s just great. The Chairman of the Staff
Association now says that he will not be speaking to the Commissioner about
the matters of concern to him again. So another one is not speaking
to another one.
The Minister Mr. Turnquest says that he knows that
there is a breakdown in the communication between the Commissioner and
the Staff Association. Again, he says that this is not hampering
the fight against crime. In the meanwhile, another woman was blasted
in the face with a gun in a robbery at a welding business in the Valley
on Friday 21st August. It sure looks like the murder rate is getting
worse. Many pundits believe that the police force is in disarray
because of Ingraham’s doing. Unfortunately, poor Tommy can’t do anything
to change it, even though he knows that Reginald Ferguson was the wrong
man for the job; but that was Mr. Ingraham’s choice. Could this be
a sinister plot of Mr. Ingraham to get rid of Tommy? Is he being
Ingrahamized?
File photos: Tommy Turnquest; Commissioner Reginald Ferguson; Inspector
Bradley Sands; Bishop Simeon Hall
ON
LIBYA, BRITAIN SEEMS UNPRINCIPLED
On Thursday 20th August, there was an extraordinary
scene in the newspapers, on TV and on the net. The man who was convicted
of killing the 270 people in what is known as the Lockerbie bombing of
Pan Am Flight 103 was being escorted to a Libyan jet and flown home to
Libya where he received a hero’s welcome. The Scottish government
agreed to release the man on compassionate grounds because it is said that
he has three months or less to live. As a condition of the compassionate
release, he had to drop all appeals, which means that his conviction stands.
Understandably, the families of the victims of the bombing of the aircraft
over the small town in Scotland were outraged. So they should be.
The British and Scottish seem in this matter to
have made a grave mistake; in fact, they must have taken leave of their
senses. They come off as weak and ineffectual, even craven in the
face of their thirst for Libyan oil. We would go so far as to venture
that time will show that they were duped in this matter. The
back and forth has already started, with the Libyan Leader Khadafy saying
that there was a deal between the Tony Blair government of Britain and
the Libyan government to let the man go. The former British Prime
Minister has denied this.
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote to
the Libyan leader to ask him to treat the arrival of the man back home
with sensitivity. In other words, he was appealing to the Libyan
President not to show him off. But that is precisely what happened,
causing the British Foreign Secretary to describe the scenes as “deeply
distressing”, as if that would help. We say again, the release was
a mistake on the part of the British. We contrast it to what they
are doing in the Turks and Caicos Islands, speaking with such high-mindedness
while acting with such lowness in taking away the democratic rights of
the people of that country. Then on the other side of the world,
simply bowing down to what appears to be the altar of money and releasing
someone who should have spent his last days on earth in jail. Let
us also put in that the Americans should not complain too much, they just
pulled a fast one on Britain by sneaking in the Uighurs from China via
Guantanamo into Bermuda without British permission. Maybe one sets
off the next.
TAGIA
SOLES IS BURIED; SOMEONE IS CHARGED
Surely it was one of the saddest of funerals the
country has seen for sometime. A young woman shot down at 29 years
of age with a babe at her breast, allegedly as a result of a car jacking
gone wrong. She was killed at point blank range on 7th August.
Her family and friends gathered with civic leaders on 19th August to bid
her farewell. The service was held at the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral
of the Roman Catholic Church. Valentino Hanna Dorsette 25 was been
charged with her murder.
At left, the reception of the body of Tagia Soles Armony; at right,
the widower Armony holds the couples baby, with Tagia’s father, Gordon
Soles, standing at centre. Photos: Peter Ramsay
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Where Is Our Minister of Foreign Affairs?
Events continue to unfold which lead to the simple
question -- where is our Minister of Foreign Affairs, and how ineffective
/irrelevant can he possible become?
The latest event in this context would be the
recent visit made by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister to Atlanta, Georgia for
the business of officially re-launching the Bahamas Consulate in that City
and State. The visit took place at a time and under the planning
circumstances where, based on local media reports, The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister
was not received by the Governor of the State, or even the Mayor of the
City but by an employee in the Office of the Mayor of the City.
If this media report is correct, it is truly
a sad reflection on the Hon. Minister of Foreign affairs because it is
clearly his responsibility to ensure that the national interests of The
Commonwealth of The Bahamas are advanced internationally and it is extremely
difficult to see how those national interests are best advanced when our
prime minister is seen to be so irrelevant that even when travelling on
official business he is relegated to being received by a non-elected official,
even at the municipal level.
This is real sad.
Yet it is but the latest event that calls into
serious question whether or not this Minister really even understands his
role or has an iota of effectiveness. For example, a few months ago
the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister went to Trinidad to attend a meeting with the
Heads of State from virtually every country on this side of the Atlantic.
In virtually every instance the Head of State was accompanied his Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton. And all for good reason since the meetings
were designed to take place at two tracks -- one set for Heads and another
for Ministers. Yet our Minister of Foreign Affairs was not in attendance.
This is amazing because of the simple fact that the primary capacity of
the Government of the Bahamas to effectively be a part of any position
agreed by either the Heads or the Ministers would rest in the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. Yes, it is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs
to ensure execution of positions adopted on behalf of the Country.
The performance of Hon. Brent Symonette as Minister
of Foreign Affairs helps to drive home the point that this is an era of
national governance where there is definitely time for a change.
His performance here is worse than it was in the Ministry of Tourism in
1992, because then there was evidence that he accepted that he had a role
-- even though his ill-advised strategy to change the Country's marketing
tag-line to ‘Hip to Hop’ has been shown to have been a blunder that cost
the Country millions and millions of dollars.
Name withheld
IN PASSING
Brent Defends The Port Move, Of Course
The 19th August 1992 is a day that will live in infamy in The Bahamas.
It ushered in an unprecedented period of meanness in government from which
we have never recovered. Hubert Ingraham, with his dog in the manger
attitude, became our Prime Minister and it has been down hill ever since
but for a brief respite in the years 2002 to 2007 under Perry Christie’s
PLP. The people could not see and there are none as blind as those
who cannot see. The Bahamas songwriter says: “Look what you could
get when you tried of what you gat.” But never let the truth of the
depression and bad governance, the economic destruction and meanness that
is now upon the Bahamian people, interfere with a good story. Speaking
in church, no less, and on the radio Brent Symonette who was acting as
Prime Minister because Hubert Ingraham was salmon fishing in Alaska (well
on a cruise anyway) said that the FNM had been a wonderful government,
bringing relief for electricity for people who found themselves unable
to pay their bills and paying unemployment benefits. Well, let’s
look at that. If they had to bring relief then they also have to
admit there was destruction. If they had to bring an unemployment
benefit, maybe they will admit they also brought unemployment. Of
course, Mr. Symonette also defended the move of the container Port to Arawak
Cay despite the howls of public protest. But he would. He has
an interest to protect. The improvement of the city of Nassau where
he owns land will benefit by the government’s decision, which he helped
to make as Chairman of the committee that first decided on this move.
Jon Isaacs To Senior Justice
Jon Isaacs has been appointed Senior Justice of the Supreme Court.
This follows the resignation of John Lyons as Senior Justice. He
joins Anita Allen as the other Senior Justice. Mr. Isaacs has been
a justice of the Supreme Court since 2000. His most recent ruling
has sent shock waves through the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers
Union, causing confusion in its governance and setting back the timetable
for reform in that union.
H.C. Walkine Dies
Herbert Cleveland Walkine CMG, Secretary to the Cabinet under two prime
ministers, has died. Mr. Walkine, known within the Public Service
as ‘H.C.’ served as the top civil servant during the administrations of
both Sir Lynden Pindling and Hubert Ingraham. He was elevated to
the rank of Permanent Secretary during the time of former Minister A. Loftus
Roker in the Pindling Cabinet. At the time of his death, he served
as the Chairman of the Public Disclosure Commission.
Jim Boocher Dies
He was not a well-known figure in The Bahamas, but in the scheme of
things, he was an important contributor to the wealth that we have in the
country today. Jim Boocher who was head of the then Sun Development
Company, later Kerzner Development Company was the driving force behind
the construction at Atlantis, the resort at Paradise Island. Mr.
Boocher moved to Dubai where he constructed the Atlantis property after
his successful stint in The Bahamas. He is remembered for having
dealt fairly with the PLP even when it was in Opposition, which was a difficult
thing to do in Hubert Ingraham’s Bahamas, and when his boss Sol Kerzner
did not care for the PLP. Mr. Boocher died suddenly of a heart attack
in Dubai last week.
Hotel Union To Discipline Nicole Martin
There was a report at the start of the week that Nicole Martin the
first female President of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers
Union who was ousted by the courts from her job after 60 days in office,
is to be disciplined by the Union. The report shows that people who
say they are interested in reform and often the victims of unfair practices
do not learn and are themselves often vindictive. It does not make
sense. Why would Kirk Wilson and Roy Colebrook who often see themselves
as victims be associated with that threat? Then came a report in
the press of Saturday 22nd August that Ms. Martin and another union organizer
had been fired from the jobs they reverted to in the union after they were
ousted by the Courts. The letter was reportedly signed by Kirk Wilson,
the Vice President of the Union, who was restored after the decision of
Justice Isaacs. Mr. Wilson and his counsel Keod Smith no doubt feel
that since they have the majority on the Board they can determine what
happens within the union and they have accused Ms. Martin of misappropriation
of funds because during the interim between the ousting by the courts and
the clarification by the judge of his order certain monies were moved from
the bank account of the union to pay staff salaries. This, the Wilson
faction claims, is misappropriation of funds. This is farcical and
Ms. Martin said that she and her colleague would ignore the letter.
This position was boosted by the position of the restored President Roy
Colebrook, who told the press that the letter is of no effect. In
the meanwhile, the Union is suffering as it tries to set a new date for
elections, divided as it is, as it tries to cope with the decision of the
judge that has caused the disarray. Further, the Court of Appeal
is still on vacation and will not reconvene to hear this matter as a matter
of urgency.
More Hotel Job Losses
The Port Lucaya Hotel In Freeport, Grand Bahama has closed its doors,
putting 32 people out of work. The RIU Hotel at Paradise Island has
also closed its doors for three months, throwing 300 people out of work
in Nassau. These two closures add to the closure of the Crystal Palace
on Cable Beach, which has shuttered its property for two months: August
and September. The Grand Bahama community is surprised at the closure
of the Port Lucaya Hotel because it is owned by the Grand Bahama Port Authority
and it shows that the Port itself has no confidence in the future of Freeport.
They are not interested in spending the money to improve the hotel.
One report says that what they intend to do is to lease the property to
the Ross University Medical School. If this happens, this will cause
Ross to stop leasing properties from ordinary Grand Bahamians who have
been making it off the rents that the students pay for their stay in Freeport.
The List Of Deputy Leader Challengers
Philip Brave Davis MP for Cat Island Rum Cay and San Salvador is in
a lonely field of official candidates for the race of Deputy Leader, a
field of one but other names have surfaced. Obie Wilchcombe MP says
that he will launch his campaign soon. Jerome Fitzgerald has reportedly
been doing private canvassing for a run as well. No word on what
the position is of Dr. Bernard Nottage MP on the matter.
Unemployment Figures Up
The Department of Statistics has released its survey on employment
in The Bahamas. The figures show that there is 14 percent unemployment
in The Bahamas up from 8 percent last year and 17 percent in Grand Bahama.
This is not a good picture. Yet Brent Symonette the FNM Deputy Prime
Minister said that the FNM is doing a good job.
PLP On Marital Rape Ban
Melanie Griffin, spokesperson for the PLP on Social Services has called
for the bringing into force of the Child Protection Act. She said
that the PLP is studying the bill on marital rape that the government proposes.
Mrs. Griffin said that the PLP believes there needs to be more consultation
by the Government.
Hung Jury Again
A man was shot down dead in the middle of Bay Street. They caught
the shooter and charged him. A witness said he saw it and he “done”
it. The jury could not decide. This is the third time in as
many weeks that a jury has been unable to make a decision on the guilt
or innocence of an accused before the courts. Algernon Allen speaking
on his radio programme has reportedly said that it looks like witness tampering
may be involved. We wonder, though, if it isn’t bad prosecution,
bad investigation and lack of preparation. But something is amiss.
| 30th
August, 2009
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com |
|
| PLP TRUSTEE LEANDER MINNIS DIES - 10 YEARS AS MP... | USELESS CRIME STRATEGY- TOMMY IS SIMPLY LOST... |
| OBIE WILCHCOMBE LAUNCHES: IN HIS OWN WORDS... | JEANNE AND BARRIE ARE WRONG ON MICHAEL... |
| CATHOLICS AND SEVENTH DAYS SUPPORT RAPE LAW... | HUBERT INGRAHAM - A PORTRAIT IN FAILURE... |
| SOME WORDS FOR THE PLP... | BEGGING FOR THE AG’S JOB... |
| THE CHAMBER'S STATEMENTS ON JUDGES & CUSTOMS... | GRAND BAHAMA CHOIR IN ATLANTA... |
| A ‘WOE IS ME’ ON MINISTERIAL SALARIES... | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR... |
| IN PASSING... | |
| The Official Site of the Progressive
Liberal Party... |
The Official Site of the Free National Movement... |
| PhilipBraveDavis.com... | Interesting Places... |
| FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES... | Bahamas Government Website |
| Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links | |
| Bahamians On The Web | |
| Bahamian Cycling News | |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
MICHAEL IS SWORN IN
Whenever you see Brian Moree, the Managing Partner of McKinney Bancroft
and Hughes out to a public function that is mired in controversy and is
there for the apparent purpose of offering a comment, searching for a camera
and a microphone; look out. You know that wherever he is, and you
are not on that side, you are on the right side. Mr. Moree was there
to support the appointment of Michael Barnett as Chief Justice. He
was - as ever - the master of apparent equivocation and judiciousness.
Don’t believe it though. It is a game to try to fool you that he
is being considered in his opinions but you know exactly that he is there
to tell you that what you think is bad is not bad at all. This is
a man who is rumoured to be the next Attorney General of The Bahamas succeeding
Mr. Barnett, fresh out that job. Don’t you just love the musical
chairs?
You guessed it. Mr. Moree offered that Mr. Barnett was a fine lawyer and a good man and had integrity. Yes! Yes! He (Mr. Moree) understood the controversy that surrounded the appointment of Mr. Barnett and the concern about the independence of the judiciary being compromised. Yes! Yes! But; and this is the important point, he had no doubt that Mr. Barnett would acquit himself in the job. Well, what a big surprise.
As you will see later in this column, others joined in that chorus to counter balance what the Bar Association had said against the appointment (we reported that last week) and we also report below what the Chamber of Commerce had to say on the appointment. The two important joiners in were Jeanne Thompson, former Justice and an iconoclast in her own right and J. Barrie Farrington, the Vice President of Atlantis and Chairman of Bahamasair, an FNM in his own right. The latter two are wrong and the former two are right.
The most potent argument advanced by the protagonists in this appointment is that it’s been done before. Most notably, Sir David Simmons, the Attorney General in the Cabinet of former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur served as Attorney General and then went straight into being Chief Justice of Barbados. What is good for Barbados is therefore good for The Bahamas say the critics. They conveniently forget that there was controversy in Barbados about that appointment, which continues to this day.
The
Tribune’s publisher, the colonial egghead of Shirley Street Eileen Carron,
went back even further; she remembered that, amongst others, Sir Gordon
Bryce went from being the colonial Attorney General to the Chief Justice
of The Bahamas. Unfortunately, she forgot to do a proper analysis,
but we are not surprised. Sir Gordon was not an appointed member
of the senate who had just run in the last general election seeking to
slaughter the other side politically in a partisan debate.
The U.S. Supreme Court was asked to define pornography and some of the justices tried, but one justice reportedly said that it defied definition in one sense but if you showed him pornography he would be able to say that’ s it. It’s the same here with this appointment to the Bench of a sitting cabinet member into the seat of the Chief Justice and head of the Judiciary. It does not look right. It does not meet the smell test. It is simply wrong.
But this is Hubert Ingraham at the helm of the country. There are so many facts that surround this travesty, but as they say in the movie ‘Lion In Winter’, “power is the only fact”. In a country that is increasingly Ingrahamized, this is what we face. It does not matter what is right or wrong. What matters is that he simply has the power to do it. He feels like doing it and so he will do it.
Two institutions seemed to have the courage to stand up to this nonsense. One was the Bar Association, which said that this would adversely impact the integrity of the judiciary. The other was the Chamber of Commerce, which statement was the most strongly worded. They simply believed that the appointment was wrong.
The Official Opposition PLP’s Chairman Glenys Hanna Martin issued a statement in which she criticized the appointment. No word from the Leader of the Opposition who has part of the constitutional responsibility for the appointment.
Mr. Barnett was not amused by the controversy. Here you have a sitting Chief Justice coming and the Bar Association says his appointment is bad. The business community’s leaders are saying the appointment is bad. Mr. Barnett got them back on the day of his appointment when the press asked him if he had an answer for the critics and their points. No grace. No charm on this. He said he would not dignify them with an answer. In other words, what they said amounted to nothing and here you have a devout Roman Catholic whose response says that the people who made he comment are nothing. He would not dignify them with a response. Wow! His training tells him better than that.
You are now the Chief Justice of The Bahamas. By that answer, you demonstrate precisely the point that the critics were making. Are you able to distinguish in your judgments between the judicial and official and that which is personal? The criticism was not personal. In fact, most, including this column went so far as to say there was no question about competence as a lawyer. It was official and about public policy. How does the dignity of the individual get in that?
That is the Ingrahamization of The Bahamas. Hubert Ingraham,
the man who boasts about his rise up from poverty, was able to say about
Franklyn Wilson who had the same rise, that he would not respond to someone
of the “ilk” of Franklyn Wilson. The denigration of the humanity
of the person in answer to a point of public policy. The absolute
destruction of the individual who opposes you until they are dead.
The total partisan division of the country into FNM and PLP tribes so you
can win an election. That is Hubert Ingraham’s Bahamas.
PLP
TRUSTEE LEANDER MINNIS DIES - 10 YEARS AS MP
PLP Trustee Leander Minnis has died. Mr. Minnis
represented the constituency of Bamboo Town for the Progressive Liberal
Party from 1977 - 1987. Our condolences to his family. He will
be missed.
USELESS
CRIME STRATEGY - TOMMY IS SIMPLY LOST
The Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest
had to face the music last week. Crime has gotten completely out
of control. So, two years after promising a strategy to fight crime;
two years after a campaign in which the FNM said that if you get rid of
the PLP you get rid of crime, the Minister unveiled what he said was a
strategy to fight crime, except that it was no strategy at all. The
strategy, which came at his press conference with a sober Commissioner
of Police Reginald Ferguson at his side, was forced upon him following
a very public row with Simeon Hall, the Bishop who headed the Crime Commission
appointed by the FNM.
Last week we reported that the Minister said that
he would not speak to Bishop Hall again because the Bishop had attacked
him publicly for doing nothing to carry out the Commission’s recommendations.
After the crime strategy was unveiled, the Bishop thanked the government
for what it was doing. We are not sure why the thanks, because there
was nothing new in the strategy. You will remember of course that
the FNM criticized the former Prime Minister Perry Christie for appointing
commissions. Yet the first part of their crime strategy was to appoint
a commission. Then the commission took 90 days to complete its work
only to tell the public that the solution to crime was to start hanging
people. We said at that time that we could have saved them time and
money and told them that this is what the public wanted from day one.
The Minister himself at his press conference had
an answer to crime last week: the government would start hanging.
He then quickly added that as Chair of the Committee on the Prerogative
of Mercy he had to be careful what he said. Well he should since
the former Attorney General under his FNM government explained to the public
that hanging is stopped because the judiciary has stopped it. We
provide the link to the total address by the Minister, but what was interesting
were the four points to fight crime, as well as the link to the crime statistics
he released. The last point of strategy was “Enhance public confidence,
with a view to reducing the fear of crime.” Can’t you see it now?
The Commissioner of Police or the Minister on their mission to enhance
public confidence going into Montell Heights and proclaiming to the people
there ‘Fear not, there is no need to fear crime, for we are with you even
until the end of the world.’ This is simply laughable. The
four points are:
“The Crime Reduction Strategy has four main
tenets. It will:
OBIE
WILCHCOMBE LAUNCHES: IN HIS OWN WORDS
The Nassau Guardian reported on Thursday 27th August that Obie Wilchcombe
MP for West End and Bimini and the former Minister of Tourism is to announce
formally his candidacy for the Deputy Leadership of the PLP on Friday 4th
September. This makes two people now formally in the race.
Here is what Mr. Wilchcombe said in his own words:
“I was trained under former Prime Minister Sir
Lynden Pindling and because of my understanding of that philosophy, I know
where we have gone off track; I know how to get back on track.
“I think it is experience. That is what
has prepared me for this job.
“We are in urgent need of change - change to
get our party back on track. We’ve lost our way. Our base was
always the ordinary people of this country. We’ve moved so far right
it’s time to get back to the centre and understand that our country has
gone beyond the stage of black and white, we’ve gone beyond the stage of
the narrow confines of discrimination. We are now at the critical
stage where a combined people must work on what I call empowerment.
“I believe it’s a transition effort. I
do believe that Christie sits on the most significant spot in our party
as the man in our party as the bridge to the future. I believe I
represent the future, but I am not going to be foolish and say I have all
the experience to take over the PLP today. I still believe Perry
Christie has more to offer and more to offer people like me who wish to
learn. And I believe in the next stage and the next step, I’ll be
ready to take the step for that position.
“I was a victim of a criminally conceived conspiracy
that was actually created by internal forces.
“I’ve been involved in politics now for 15 years.
I’ve served in many capacities in my party and never been involved in any
scandals at all. Well, if you are considered a high end player and
you’re considered one of the major players for the future then it’s expected
that they’re going to come after you and they’re going to find some way
to do so.
“At the end of the day the truth is, you’re going
to see the internal forces that drove this are more of the villain than
anybody else whose been accused of anything. I think it was a conspiracy
to try to destroy my name, to do as best they can to get me out of the
picture.”
JEANNE
AND BARRIE ARE WRONG ON MICHAEL
In all the public debate about the appointment of
the Chief Justice Michael Barnett, one fact seems to have been missed or
not properly highlighted. The question is the potential for back
up in a system that is already backed up. There are at present almost
400 cases awaiting trial in the criminal courts of The Bahamas. The
courts at the rate they are going can hear maybe ten cases per year.
Imagine the mess we are now in.
So the Government has now appointed two people to
the bench who are former Attorneys General who will out of necessity for
the next two years have to recuse themselves from every case in which the
government is involved, which means that they have no berth for criminal
cases. Then you have the Director of Public Prosecutions Bernard
Turner going to the bench. Again, he will have to recuse himself
from cases over which he had superintendence, and this will be for at least
two years. Rhonda Bain is a former Director of Legal Affairs.
She is now a judge. To a lesser extent, the same issue of recusal
applies.
None of this occurred however to Jeanne Thompson
or J. Barrie Farrington as they wrote letters to the press to defend the
choice of Michael Barnett as the new Chief Justice, fresh out of the FNM’s
cabinet. J. Barrie Farrington was the last Chairman of the United
Bahamian Party before it voted itself out of business. He is now
a Senior Vice President at Atlantis. The letter was published on
Friday 28th August:
“…Notwithstanding the comments of the naysayers,
I wish to say without reservation, I support his appointment. I feel
qualified to make this statement because I have known him for years, professionally
and personally.
“I am fully satisfied that as Chief Justice he
will dispense justice in a way that ignores political, personal or commercial
considerations. He values the Rule of Law and as such recognizes
that only through the strict adherence to this rule can we hope to strengthen
the character of our society as a whole.
“I admire Michael Barnett for what he has contributed
to our country and people. In recent years, he has made decisions
that have taken him out of the commercial practice of law and into the
area of service to country. To me, this change in direction truly
illustrates the character of Michael as it has been done at considerable
personal sacrifice.”
Jeanne Thompson is a retired Justice of the Supreme
Court. She works as Consultant to the law firm of Branville McCartney,
the Minister of State for Immigration. Her letter was also published
on Friday 28th August:
“Several years ago a friend made the observation
that Bahamians were delusional… A good example of this propensity
for delusion is in the recent objection by the Bahamas Bar Association
and the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce to the appointment of the former attorney
general as chief justice of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the objection
being ostensibly that this would weaken the judiciary and create ‘far too
great an appearance of a lack of separation between the executive and the
judiciary.’
“I find this objection extraordinary as anyone
who has studied Constitutional law 101, and is familiar with The Bahamas
Constitution, the various acts of parliament setting up the various courts,
and the statutes relating to the judiciary, would surely be aware that
any real separation of power between the executive and judiciary in The
Bahamas is a myth.
“These two bodies would be better advised to
promote a strong judiciary with a strong chief justice as a weak judiciary
with a weak chief justice is a greater threat to the little separation
of power left than a former attorney general attaining the position of
chief justice.
“We have only to look at Barbados where a former
Attorney General in the person of Sir David Simmons became chief justice.
“There has been no hue and cry concerning a lack
of separation of powers in that jurisdiction and Sir David has served his
country well. I am acquainted with both Sir David and Mr. Barnett.
“I have known the Barbados Chief Justice longer
but I worked with Mr. Barnett when he was first called to the Bar and I
see nothing in his character, his ability and his love of and knowledge
of the law which would lead me to believe that he would not serve his country
as well as Sir David has served his…
“The energies of both bodies would be better
served, as I see it, in objecting to the continued practice of appointing
so many former public officers to the judiciary, when the reputation of
our bench is under constant assault by the international financial sector.
With Mr. Barnett as Chairman of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission,
this practice should dissipate.”
(Now what is interesting about both these comments that none of
these people answers the objective questions? Their responses are
only in personal terms. “I have known him for years. I have
worked with him.” What in heaven’s name has that to do with the objective
argument about whether this is a proper appointment. But when elites
decide that it is so, we guess it is so. – Editor)
CATHOLICS
AND SEVENTH DAYS SUPPORT RAPE LAW
The Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder has
offered his prayerful support for the law, which seeks to criminalize rape
of a woman in marriage. This should provide some comfort for Loretta
Butler Turner, the embattled Minister of State who has the whole country
up in arms against her on the proposition. Most people think that,
despite her boast that the government is willing to pay the political price
for passing the act, the government will never pass this bill.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church headed by Pastor
Leonard Johnson also announced that denomination's support for the bill.
Pastor Johnson said that people often misread the passage from Ephesians
that suggests that a wife must subject herself to her husband. He
added that there was a need for more consultation.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop seemed to take a similar
tack. He added that marriage is a complementary relationship and
no person in marriage can be the possession of the other. “Human
dignity does not allow this. The legacy of slavery and abolition
has surely taught us this lesson”, he said. No word from The Bahamas
Christian Council, which is dominated by the fundamentalist religions who
have all come out in opposition to the bill. The Anglicans are also
so far silent on the matter.
HUBERT
INGRAHAM - A PORTRAIT IN FAILURE
He called himself the delivery boy. And boy
did he deliver. He has delivered nothing more nor less than abject
failure. When you compare what he met to what we now have, how can
he boast about anything but abject failure?
You have to measure the success of a government
and a Prime Minster by where we started and then determine if, after 17
years of Ingraham’s rule, The Bahamas is better off than it was when he
first came. The answer is no. We have gone backwards.
This country led the region in sports and in its
economy. Today, we are being defeated in the region even in basketball,
a sport in which we dominated 17 years ago. In fact, many coaches
complain that they cannot even get the athletes who are the best in the
country to turn up to try out for the national team such is the lack of
interest, lack of patriotism that exists today. Crime is worse than
it ever was. The economy is in the pits, with unemployment higher
than it ever was. Agricultural output has fallen to a sliver of what
it once was. The financial services sector is in deep trouble.
Tourism figures are falling. The police, the judiciary and the public
service are in disarray, divided along political lines. Yet the FNM
government believes they are doing a great job. All around them is
failure.
The difficulty is that now that the delivery boy
has run out of ideas, there is no one else in the FNM government that can
help him out. The country is in for a rough ride. Let’s try
the PLP.
SOME
WORDS FOR THE PLP
As the PLP faces the unusual spectacle of a possible
challenge to its leader for the top post at the upcoming convention and
as the race heats up for the Deputy Leadership position, new names are
also surfacing for the positions of Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Vice
Chairmen. The contest is likely to be heated. Fred Mitchell
MP in anticipation of that fact, spoke in Exuma about the need for the
party to remain united even in the face of some harsh words and heated
emotions. You may click here for
the full address delivered in Exuma on Thursday 27th August.
BEGGING
FOR THE AG’S JOB
Brian Moree, Managing Partner of the law firm McKinney Bancroft and Hughes
has been on a relentless and not so subtle campaign to get a job in Government.
He was thought just after the general election to be a PLP lover by the
FNM so they refused to entertain him. But as time marched on since
the PLP’s loss and his accommodation of the PLP in 2002 to 2007, the FNM
appears to have forgiven him. He is useful for the same reason he
was useful to the PLP, to seek to give credibility to a regime in trouble.
And so with Michael Barnett out of government to
the post of Chief Justice, Brian Moree is said to be the number one choice
for Attorney General. We do not think Hubert Ingraham will actually
do it, although he will dance with it. Our guess is that Carl Bethel
will be moved from the Ministry of Education and put in the AG’s office
or Desmond Bannister who is fighting to leave the Cabinet will be persuaded
to stay on and take the job. That has not stopped Mr. Moree from
begging for the job and here it is in his own words spoken to the press
at Government House at the swearing in of Michael Barnett as Chief Justice
on Monday 24th August:
“I believe that there comes a time when we as
Bahamians have to give something back to our country, particularly those
who have benefited from the country and I personally feel a burden that
I need to contribute to the development of The Bahamas. I think it
is a propitious time to try and contribute to finding solutions to some
of the serious problems, which are confronting our system.
“The administration of justice is critical to
everything in this country. It is critical to our tourism; it is
critical to our financial services industry; it is critical to our quality
of life and it is at the moment confronting very serious problems.
I think that all of us who are Bahamians and who have something to contribute
need to be prepared to give back something to the country through public
service.
“[The judicial system]… needs more financial
resources, it needs more human resources, and it needs more technological
resources. It needs to demand a higher priority with regard to the
allocation of funding in the Ministry of Finance, and I think that the
window for fixing these problems is rapidly closing. I think that
the new chief justice is committed to addressing some of those problems
and working with his colleagues and with all of the stakeholders to try
and address some of these problems.”
THE
CHAMBER'S STATEMENTS ON JUDGES & CUSTOMS
It was a good statement. We support the statement,
but we are slightly worried that the Chamber of Commerce issued a statement
that is so nakedly political. The FNM under the Ingrahamization of
the country is so vicious that the stand of the Chamber puts it, in a political
sense, in opposition to the FNM government. Since the statement about
the choice of Chief Justice on Monday 24th August, there has been another
statement on how customs is stopping the movement of business by their
insistence on bureaucratic procedures. Again, this is a good statement.
For the moment, we note it for observation because Khalis Rolle who is
a young African Bahamian and it’s now President must succeed. Forewarned
is forearmed.
The statement on the Chief Justice as reported in
the Nassau Guardian:
“If justice must be done, and through appearance,
appear to have been done, this appointment would —regrettably— leave open
to rife speculation issues of conflict of interest, favoritism and outright
bias in favor of the government or select political interests.
“In the long run, consistent doubts about objectivity
of the leader of the court could not redound to the benefit of the judiciary
and would vitiate any of Mr. Barnett’s laudable intentions going into the
role. In essence, this appointment would erase the already thin line that
separates the political administration from the judiciary and its administration
of laws.
“The Bahamas has not yet reached the degree of
political maturity where the appointment of a sitting Cabinet minister
— however eminently competent he may be — can be viewed as apolitical.
“On the contrary, the substantial extent to which
politics is believed to influence a considerable degree of both governmental
and legal decision-making would leave far too many people with the lingering
view that this appointment is nothing but a direct attempt by government
to not only influence, but direct decisions of the judiciary. Whether true
or not, these doubts would not be in the best interest of the business
community or the country.”
GRAND
BAHAMA CHOIR IN ATLANTA
We reported last week that the Consulate General
of The Bahamas opened in Atlanta, Georgia on 20th August. Present
for the opening was the Grand Bahama Youth Choir under the Direction of
Kevin Tomlinson. They got the opportunity to see CNN and to meet
former Ambassador and Mayor Andrew Young. We present a photo essay
of their visit.
A
‘WOE IS ME’ ON MINISTERIAL SALARIES
We agree that Ministerial salaries are poor and we believe that the salaries
of Members of Parliament are disgraceful. Desmond Bannister, the
Minister who has now denied he is stepping down, was doing a Hamlet number
when he appeared on the radio as the guest of Algernon Allen last week
on Love 97 on Thursday 17th August. He complained about the salary
and said that he is contemplating his future. Here is what he said
in his own words:
“One of the discussions we don’t have in The
Bahamas… is that ministers in this country have not gotten a raise in over
20 years. I make less money – almost $10,000 less than a permanent
secretary makes. I think it’s about $8,000 less.
“And whenever politicians raise this issue with
respect to the income they make I think it’s so clouded by political rhetoric
that Bahamians don’t really get to analyze what the issues are: That professional
people leave their firms… and so we all have to consider what is in the
best interests of our families when we do this (because) you have to be
able to live and survive. Quite frankly, for a minister to live on
a salary that we pay ministers is an amazing thing.
“If you care and you are doing what you would
need to do to take care of your constituents and if you’re not taking kickbacks,
if you’re not cutting corrupt deals, if you’re doing your job properly,
you will end up as many politicians have ended up in really difficult and
dire circumstances.
“We are at the halfway point in our term.
We were elected to a five-year term. One of the wonderful things
of my life is I have parents who have served over 90 years collectively
in public service. One of the things that they imbued in their children
is the interest and the desire to give public service.
“So, I’ve given public service first as a minister
of state in legal affairs and secondly as a minister of youth, sports and
culture. When you get at the halfway point of your term it’s time to look,
evaluate and make decisions. In making decisions, and I’m doing that
now, I’m making decisions about my future.
“One of the things that really concerns me is
that… I kept thinking to myself, ‘I am serving in a public office,
I’m giving all of my time, my parents are at that stage now where I need
to consider how much time I have with them – time to spend with them and
be with them.
“And the second factor is my son, who is going
off to university and the other issue is how much time did I spend with
him and how, on a minister’s salary can I afford his education. So,
these are critical issues that I am considering now. I can assure
you and the Bahamian public that the answers to those issues will be forthcoming
and very soon. I am going to make a decision that is in the best
interest of my family, the best interest of being able to afford first
of all to educate my son, because he has indicated that when he’s finished
he would like to go to medical school. I have to be able to do that.”
Mr. Bannister will find that despite all of that
it is better in these hard times to stay right where he is.
 |
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
The letter published below questions the money that was spent on
Miss Universe and the benefits that we obtained. The website bahamaspress.com
claims that the audience according to the Nielsen monitoring company was
only 5.4 million people, not the billion people round the world that the
Ministry of Tourism said would look at it. We searched the Caricom
countries and their daily newspapers online and there was not one mention
of the Miss Universe contest in those papers. But the all-important
market is the US and the audience for Miss Universe has been in steady
decline for years. We wonder whether then this was actually worth
the money. The Stan Burnside cartoon above tells the story for us.
We thought the thing was a monumental waste of money. One final point;
Donald Trump who owns the franchise for Miss Universe was fulsome in his
praise for the Kerzners of Atlantis not the Bahamas Government which he
thanked as an afterthought. It is clear that Atlantis was the reason
the Miss Universe contest came here and not for The Bahamas. - Editor
Miss Universe - The Real Cost!
I read with great interest an article in the
Thursday’s Tribune, the Business Section with the headliner ‘$3-4M Pageant
Boost for Bahamian Firms’. Like most Bahamians even though I enjoyed
supporting our local queen, I would like to know the real cost of this
mega event to us. I noticed in the release it stated that a number
of Bahamian business (30-40) received benefits inclusive of major airline
- from this $3-4 million. To the best of my knowledge - Contestants
Airfares were paid by their country - so who did we fly in? Hopefully
its not the Miss Universe Organization Big wigs - who received $3.9 million
dollars as a hosting fee. Could you please ask for me - I would like
to know. Further there is a report circulating that Mr. Owen Bethel
received a handsome salary of $265,000 for three months work. As
a matter of clarity we would like to know, as many students still await
financial assistance to get a much needed education - as the Educational
Wealth of a Nation sustains it far better than hopeful tourism dollars.
You know talk bring talks, while in the beauty
salon I overheard a conversation of the Florist still waiting to be paid.
So how many businesses already rendering their services are still in the
"Accounts Payable" bracket after Miss Universe is long gone? Further
along that line, it was also my understanding that the Franchise Fee, not
hosting fee, was paid for by the holders of the various franchises.
But this was stated in the same article as being paid for out of the $3-4
Million. Can we confirm if the Government also paid the franchise
fee or the Franchise Holder. Or was the fee paid twice? One
thing I do admire, is Mr. Trump's ability to cash in on the Bahamian People
in a legitimate way: The Host Country pays a hosting Fee, say $3.9M… The
Host Country pays to host the Ladies, say $4M… The Host Country’s undisclosed
expenses, say $5M+… A Double whopper, say $13M… How do we pay for this
three months bill - At the expense of future leaders of the Bahamas, we
subtract our commitment to their continued education.
Mr. Trump receives Franchise fees from every
country (an estimated minimum $2.1 million in franchise fees yearly) with
the promise to provide housing, meals and transportation for each and every
contestant sent to the Miss Universe Pageant ‘The Most Important Pageant
in the World’ as stated by him during the live broadcast - so why did the
government - Mr. Vincent Vanderpool- Wallace take on the expenses, Mr.
Trump already received payment for? This is baffling. I think
that Mr. Owen Bethel and Mr. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace should be made
to give an itemized expense account of taxpayers money to the tax payers
- after all the Hon. Mr. Ingraham promised transparency. PLEASE DELIVER
ON IT!
A CONCERNED VOTING BAHAMIAN CITIZEN
IN PASSING
The South Koreans Come Calling
There is a new Korean Ambassador to The Bahamas. He presented
his credentials to the Governor General Arthur Hanna at Government House
on Thursday 27th August. Present were Brent Symonette, the Foreign
Minister, and Fred Mitchell Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Honorary
Consul for Korea Max Gibson and his wife Senator Allyson Maynard Gibson.
The photo is of the loyal toast.
BIS/Peter Ramsay
Cutting Down the Casuarinas
The Casuarina trees that have been on the New Providence foreshore
at Saunders Beach since 1920 have been cut down by the FNM government,
ignoring the protests of even their supporters like Kim Arahna. The
government has accepted the argument that the casuarinas are an invasive
species and need to be eliminated from the island. Of course, their
arguments are selective. It is silly what they have done; they have
ruined the look at the front of the island and at Saunders Beach.
It is a stupid move and shows how hard headed this government really is.
Brave Launches In Exuma
Philip Brave Davis took his campaign for change to Exuma on Thursday
27th August. Travelling with him Fred Mitchell MP, Frank Smith MP,
former MP Philip Smith and Kendred Dorsett, the Deputy Chairman of the
PLP. Please click here for Mr. Davis'
remarks, and here for his website at www.philipbravedavis.com
H. C. Walkine Is Buried
Former Cabinet Secretary Herbert Walkine was buried following a ceremony
at St. Barnabas Anglican Church on Friday 28th August. The Governor
General Arthur Hanna attended the service, as did Deputy Prime Minister
Brent Symonette. Absent were Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and former
Prime Minister Perry Christie. The PLP was represented by Dr. Bernard
Nottage, Vincent Peet, Cynthia Pratt, Fred Mitchell, Senator Allyson Gibson
and Alfred Sears. Mr. Walkine was 79 when he died on 20th August
2009.
Nassau Guardian photo
Bishop Harcourt Pinder Is Buried
Former head of the Bahamas Christian Council and the Church of God
in the Bahamas Harcourt Pinder was buried following a service at the Church
of God Auditorium at Joe Farrington Road. Bishop Pinder was hailed
a champion of civil rights in The Bahamas and a friend of the PLP.
In his last year, as he suffered from illness himself, he was at a beach
in Long island, his retirement home, and watched as two daughters and one
granddaughter drowned in the freakiest of accidents at a famous blue hole
in the island. It was like a story from the book of Job. The
Bishop was 77 when he died.
URCA and Communications Bill Come Into Force
The new legislation governing communications in the country, the Utilities
Regulation and Competition Act (URCA), has started to come into force.
The new regulatory body is now appointed with all foreign people on the
Board of Directors. The executive director of URCA Michael Symonette
is the only Bahamian on the Board. The Communications Act is expected
to come into Force next month. The latter act lays out the new regime
for telecommunications and cable ownership, operation and licencing and
anticipates the sale of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Ltd.
Clever Duncombe Attacks Loretta Butler Turner
The male rights activist Clever Duncombe launched a stinging attack
last week on Loretta Butler Turner, the Minister of State for Social Development.
He urged her to bring into force the Child Protection Act, which grants
the right of access of men to their children born out of marriage.
Mr. Duncombe said that instead of the martial rape law, the Child Protection
Act needed to be brought into force.
Cornell Moss Now A Bishop?
Reports are coming in that Archdeacon Cornell Moss has been elected
a Bishop of the Anglican Church for the Diocese of Guyana.
It Would Be The Male Athletes
The newspapers in The Bahamas all reported that three male athletes
from the team of The Bahamas were detained for 11 hours by the German police
after a fracas outside a Berlin nightclub at 4 a.m. Friday 21st August.
None of them were charged with an offence. The long story is that
they didn’t do anything except be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Not! What the heck were four Bahamian male athletes having not succeeded
to the level of their female team mates doing in a place at 4 a.m. which
would be fraught with trouble? They should have been home in their
beds or amongst their own company. The old folks often repeat the
line from the poem: “Had you not with the crows been found, you would
have been safe and sound.” According to Leevan Sands, the oldest
in the group, he simply tagged along after Donald Thomas was arrested because
he and the other two did not want to leave him alone. The third athlete
was Shamar Sands. The Minister of Sports Desmond Bannister has asked
the country not to judge the men, but it is hard to see how that is going
to be avoided. He has called for a full investigation. Unfortunately,
it does not matter what any investigation reveals; the damage is done.
Star Struck Ministers
The bahamaspress.com website published an unflattering photo of the
Prime Minister at last Sunday’s Miss Universe contest. While they
commented on the Prime Minister, our attention was on the Ministers and
how absolutely star struck they are in the jobs they have. They were
positively falling over each other to be next to Miss Universe. Can’t
blame them, one supposes; pretty woman. But what really brought out
the star struck quality of the ministers was an interview published in
the press with Charles Maynard, the Minister of State for Culture,
who was filling in for Sports Minister Desmond Bannister in Berlin at the
World Championships. Mr. Maynard was cooing with praise for the trip.
He was enjoying it. He was wowed by all the important people that
he met. Pauline Davis Thompson introduced him to so many important
people. He felt so well connected and what was interesting he said
is that what took place in the stadium was completely different from watching
it on TV. It was embarrassing. So this why we become ministers
eh?
