bahamasuncensored.com
SEPTEMBER 2007
Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames   Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 5 © BahamasUncensored.Com 2007
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9th September, 2007
16th September, 2007
23rd September, 2007
30th September, 2007
Columns From 2002 - 2003

 
 
2nd September, 2007
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com
  How do you do today?  It's great to have you as a reader.  We have the most incisive political news about and from The Bahamas!
Please tell all your friends about us.

...THE SAGA OF INTIMIDATION...

THE POWER OF THE STATE... SUCCESS AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS...
JOURNAL & MIAMI HERALD PARTNERSHIP... BAHAMIANS BEWARE TRAVEL TO THE US...
PORT AUTHORITY CASE DECIDED... IN PASSING...
FOX HILL FESTIVAL PHOTOS... LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...
The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party... The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web... Interesting Places...
Vincent Peet / PLP North Andros & Berry Isl. 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 Kayaking News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Keod Smith / PLP Mount Moriah
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return to the top of the page.


PHOTO OF THE WEEK: The Progressive Liberal Action Network (PLAN) did it again.  They held another demonstration in Freeport, Grand Bahama.  You will remember the pictures of people who felt victimized by the FNM in photos on the front page of the newspaper parading in front of the Government's administration complex.  Click here for that story.  This time the PLAN had an FNM join them on the line with a paper bag over his head so that the person could not be seen.  It shows you how things are going from bad to worse on this front in Freeport and throughout the rest of The Bahamas.  Once again kudos to the PLAN in Freeport and Grand Bahama for leading the way in ending the silence.  The criticism is coming from all quarters that the PLP is not standing up for its people.  In the face of Hubert Ingraham's policies that are doing great violence to the Bahamian people, the PLP seems paralysed and silent.  Our photo of the week is that of the demonstration in Freeport, Grand Bahama to protest the FNM's victimization of public servants by firing those who are thought to be PLPs.  The demo took place on Thursday 30th August.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

THE SAGA OF INTIMIDATION
On Wednesday 29th August, Brent Dean a Tribune reporter wrote a story in which he quoted the Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson.  Mr. Ferguson in the quote was confirming an earlier story sourced from Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade who told the Freeport News that an investigation was being conducted into the comments written on this site (click here) because they threatened violence against the Prime Minister.  We say simply this: the police obviously have good time to waste.  They have 54 murders in this country and they are now going to spend time investigating this web site.

The police have no jurisdiction to investigate this matter because there is no reasonable suspicion that any crime has been committed is being committed or will be committed.  Any investigation will be a politically motivated use of the police in order to stymie free speech.  The Police ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves to be involved in this matter.

We have however made the point before.  The people of The Bahamas are losing faith and trust in the police force because it has so clearly and obviously displayed a political agenda.  The police force appears to be so FNMised that when police show up on the scene now, one has to be careful whether you are PLP or not to expect justice from that institution.  There is palpable suspicion that they will not act according to law but according to political dictates.

Let us then examine the history of what they are saying they are going to investigate.  Hubert Ingraham spoke to PLP MPs with disrespect and indifference in the House of Assembly when it last met in July.  This column took offence at his rudeness and his boorishness and the way the PLP MPs dealt with the matter.  We suggested in this column that the PLPs ought to write Mr. Ingraham a letter and wrote a suggested text.  That text told him nothing more than any mother in this country would often tell their child.  Now suddenly that becomes a threat to the Prime Minister and an actionable criminal offence.

The matter would surely have been left there, since obviously no PLP MP took up the matter.  What revived the issue is the now Tribune/Guardian/ FNM conglomerate that runs the press in The Bahamas.  It started with their political stooge Oswald Brown at the Freeport News who somehow claimed that violence was being threatened against the Prime Minister.  He argued that PLP MPs should dissociate themselves from it.  What the PLP MPs had to do with it, God only knows; but such is the twisted logic of Oswald Brown.  The next thing we knew Eileen Carron, the other third of the conglomerate was at it in her editorials on the matter, talking about threatening violence against the Prime Minister.

The final piece of the puzzle was a press conference called by Johnley Ferguson, the Vice President of the Senate, and the FNM's Chairman, who said that this was violence threatened against the Prime Minister and he called for an investigation.

Next come the police.  You will remember that in this column, we said quite plainly that the PLP ought to find the backbone to oppose the appointment of Reginald Ferguson as Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police.  We have heard nothing from the PLP.  But we still say that Mr. Ferguson should be opposed and that under no circumstances can he be supported as the Deputy Commissioner of Police by the PLP.   Our view was that there appeared to be a political agenda in the execution of his job, and that the PLP had moved him from his position in the Force of long standing where he was in charge of crime to another area shortly before they left office because of the inability to deal with the crime situation in The Bahamas.

It also happens that Reginald Ferguson is the brother of Johnley Ferguson, the very same FNM Chair who had been calling for an investigation and who had pronounced the words on this site a threat.  So you go figure out what is happening here.

If you want to know what the power of Johnley Ferguson is, you have only to remember that he was the one who said that the school in Acklins that the PLP proposed to build for the children in Acklins would not be built because the school was too good for the children of Acklins.  Within days, that proved to be the case when the Government confirmed that indeed the school would not be built.  This then is someone who is not without power.  In recent days PLP voters in South Eleuthera have been complaining to this site and PLP officials that Mr. Ferguson has been going up and down South Eleuthera using the same tactics of intimidation to frighten people because they supported Oswald Ingraham in the last election in that constituency.  This is a real UBP at work.

So we are deeply concerned now that the Oswald Brown, Eileen Carron, Johnley Ferguson (FNM) axis has successfully gotten the police to investigate what is a non matter.  It is now clear that politics drives the Force.  It is clear that Mr. Ferguson, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, does not understand when to leave well enough alone, and reinforces our view that he should not be the Deputy Commissioner of Police.  The PLP should find its voice on this matter and soon.

As for Oswald Brown at the Freeport News, we understand is lobbying for a job as the Ambassador to Washington.  FNM circles are saying that his having offended a very powerful family in the FNM makes this appointment unlikely.  In any event, we believe he is not qualified for the job.  We are further embarrassed each week that a black man who was born to part of the quiet revolution of 1967 could have such an Uncle Tomish attitude.  Not only does he not seem to understand the fundamentals about journalism but he allows his prejudices constantly to influence what goes into his paper.  He  is enamoured of the Port Authority so he reportedly destroys any letters that come to the paper  about the Grand Bahama Port Authority that are against the current power brokers at the Port, whoever that happens to be on any given day.  With the FNM, he has a special love for them and their UBP masters.  It is quite simply embarrassing.  No other word for it.

We are ashamed of Oswald Brown as a black man in the modern Bahamas.  He should know that as good as Uncle Tom was, in the end he was dumped by the master and discarded when he was no more good.  We have learned that a formal complaint is now to be lodged with his employers to remind them of their responsibility to the public and the legal requirements of accepting the work as the gazette.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 1st September 2007 up to midnight: 237,859.

Number of hits for the month of August up to Friday 31st August at midnight: 1,124,678.
 


CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com

THE POWER OF THE STATE

    We have received a number of inquiries with regard to the report of an investigation into this column that have appeared in the press of The Bahamas over the last week.  This so called investigation is politically inspired and politically motivated.  It is a waste of public resources.  These reports have been confirmed it appears by the Police.  Bahamians should take note of this. The use of the police to intimidate lawful criticism of a political figure in The Bahamas is quite a serious intrusion and unlawful incursion on the freedom of the press.
    Some have sought to make a distinction between this column that is a weekly internet site of news and opinion not a blog as it is derisively called in the mainstream but FNM biased press.  Even if it were a blog, its right of free speech is protected by our constitution.  The government ought to think very carefully before it goes down that road of using the police to do their political dirty work.
    This column has nothing to hide.  Its activities are lawful.  There is a right to criticize and that right is protected by the constitution.  There is also a right to privacy as well.  However, we are now experiencing since 2nd May the most vicious, vengeful and vindictive government in our history.  There is nothing that we believe they will not do including sending that black booted secret police into the homes of writers to get at their political critics.
    Just take a look at the additional pictures we print along with this piece of the demonstration against victimization in Freeport held last week.  People are afraid to demonstrate showing their faces because they will be victimized by the FNM government.
    A state that wishes to destroy an individual can use its power to do so, it can certainly try, but the power of one has so many times in history shown  that it can triumph over the government.  Look at who sits in the government, a number of lawyers, all supposedly trained to know what is lawful and what is not, but not only that to have a sense of what is right and what is wrong.  They should be ashamed to be associated with an action to throttle free speech.  But that is what often happens when people get political power.  They stand condemned to the extent that they have participated in this folly.  Who next will hear the rap on the door?  A word of warning is sufficient!
 
 

SUCCESS AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
    Just when you think that The Bahamas has exhausted its supply of athletes, a new one pops out of the hat.  We congratulate the athletes of The Bahamas: Donald Thomas who is surely this year’s star who won the high jump on Wednesday 29th August at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan; Derrick Atkins who won the silver in the men’s one hundred metres race on Sunday 26th August, going past the world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica.  As we go to upload comes word that the Bahamian mens team has won silver in the 4x400 metre track relay!
    Get this: Mr. Atkins is Mr. Powell’s cousin.  Remember all that talk about Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and how we are against the free movement of people?  There you have it.  How did Mr. Atkins get to be Mr. Powell’s cousin?  How is one Jamaican and the other Bahamian?  Mr. Atkins in his post race interview said that he came to Osaka for the gold but he was satisfied with the silver for now.  He said he was proud to have accomplished this for The Bahamas.  He was proud to be a Bahamian from a country of 300,000 people.
    Mr. Thomas was the wonder of it all.  The commentators reported that he started the high jump in ordinary trainers (sneakers or tennis shoes) when he told his basketball coach that he thought that he could do the high jump, just eighteen short months ago.  Now he is the world champion.  This is quite a story.  We regret that Chris Brown did not have success this year at the worlds in the 400 metre men’s race.  He came in fourth.  But when you think that means fourth in all the world - good job!  We think that Mr. Brown is the real hero.  He does not have the pizzazz and dazzle but he has used his raw talent and hard determination to keep at it and we have no doubt that ultimate success is within his gasp.  His race was run on Friday 31st August.
    Congratulations must go to the Federations in The Bahamas who support these young athletes.  We are reminded of Curt Hollingsworth, an official of the Bahamian Basketball Federation and Vice Principal of St. Anne’s School in New Providence.  Not so long ago when the now World Champion High Jumper Donald Thomas was leaping over desks in a high school classroom, we are told that Mr. Hollingsworth nurtured and protected the talent.  Well, just look at Mr. Thomas now.  Mr. Hollingsworth and others who recognized and helped to develop these athletes must be congratulated.  We must also congratulate the expertise of the American coaches and other Bahamian coaches who help these athletes and their parents for supporting them.
    Now the question is what does the nation do for them?  The answer is not enough and under the FNM it is likely to get worse.  Go to www.wcsn.com for all the video highlights and interviews.  Internet Image
 
 

JOURNAL & MIAMI HERALD PARTNERSHIP
    One casualty of The Tribune/ Nassau Guardian merger has been the Miami Herald’s distribution in Nassau.  You will remember that The Tribune used to have within its folds a copy of the daily international edition of the Miami Herald.  That has now stopped.
    The Tribune has negotiated a new deal with USA today.  They wanted to move the distribution of The Herald to the Nassau Guardian.  Now that should tell The Guardian something.  They are very much the junior partner in the deal.  In other words, The Tribune decided that USA Today was better off for them so they tried to shuffle off The Herald on The Guardian.  The Herald was having none of it.
    The Herald and The Bahama Journal have now announced a deal where The Herald will now be distributed in Nassau by The Bahama Journal.  Good news for Wendall Jones, the owner of The Journal.  We say again with regard to The Tribune: when thieves and rogues fall out, honest men come by their rights.
 
 

BAHAMIANS BEWARE TRAVEL TO THE US
    Usually at this time of the year, the Consulate of The Bahamas in Miami will issue a warning to Bahamians who are shopping in Florida to beware of people stealing your rental car or stealing packages out of your rental car.  While that warning is still appropriate, there is a new warning that should be given.
    It appears that the U.S. has decided that they will now start catching Bahamians involved in misdemeanours in the United States so long ago that the case has been forgotten.  What they do is allow you to pass through the system here in Nassau and when you get off the plane in Miami, you are met by the Customs people who promptly arrest you.  Perhaps the Bahamian authorities ought to have list of lawyers on standby for these occasions at public expense.
 
 

PORT AUTHORITY CASE DECIDED
    What is old Jack Hayward going to do now that his case against the St. George Estate has gone down in flames?  The Judge of The Bahamas Supreme Court Anita Allen ruled last week that yes indeed that which we all suspected was so is so.  Edward St. George and Jack Hayward (pictured) were fifty fifty partners in the grand Bahama Port Authority.
    Sir Jack as most of us know him asserted that Edward St. George his late partner who earned him gobs of money off the Port during his lifetime was not a fifty fifty partner but that he, Sir Jack, owned 75 per cent of the Port Authority.  Sir Jack did not show up in court to prove it.
    The press also reported that there were two new lawyers on the case when the judgment was delivered.  No word on what has happened to Greg Moss, the previous lawyer, who was put in the unfortunate position when the case resumed of pleading for an adjournment for his absent client Sir Jack.  The court did not buy it and said they were going to continue the trial in his absence.
    The recourses now are an appeal or he could accept it or he could simply bail out of the Port all together and move to another country.  No word on what the Government’s position is on this or what Sir Jack will do and whether or not they will allow another private shareholder to buy the shares in the Port now owned by Jack Hayward.  The PLP should get ready to enunciate a policy on this matter.
 
 

IN PASSING
Leadership Of The PLP
We think that it is important for there to be a convention by the PLP during this year.  One should have been held before the last election.  But that is prologue.  The question is what do we do now.  The question of the leadership of the PLP must be settled.  This week the press led with headline by a Member of Parliament for the PLP who claimed that no PLP was going to run against Perry Christie for the leadership of the Party.  That of course is and only can be one man’s opinion.  There ought to be a convention this year and we will see what happens.

Why Bacardi Closed?
The FNM government must be smiling from ear to ear now that Bacardi has announced that after being in The Bahamas for two generations it is packing up it bags and moving all its production capacity from Nassau to Puerto Rico.  The spokesman for the company said that their capacity made here can be done without additional cost and investment in Puerto Rico.  The rum was being made here because it gave access to Europe by way of tax concessions that could not be gotten for that shipped from Puerto Rico.  That tax disincentive has now gone away and so Puerto Rico is the more efficient place to do it.  We could see this coming a mile off and the PLP struggled hard to develop a trade policy that would keep this capacity here in Nassau.   No doubt the FNM government of stop, review and cancel will be happy that the 119 persons or so who work for Bacardi can now join the 200 others that the FNM have fired from the Government on the unemployment line.  Congratulations to the FNM! Keep it up.

Cabinet Looks At Ginn and Albany
There was great sound and fury about town meetings that were to be held on the Albany Project and the development of the South Ocean Hotel complex.  These were multi billion dollar projects approved and signed off on by the PLP before they left office.  The FNM government of stop, review and cancel wanted to cancel these.  The Government wanted to invite the public or should we say incite the public to rise up against the PLP’s decision to grant Albany and the developers of South Ocean permission to go ahead.  The Albany project requires a rerouting of the road on the south coast of New Providence.  Every FNM rabble rouser, you know the usual suspects, turned up at the meeting.  But alas, Perry Christie never spoke truer words than those he delivered in Fox Hill on Friday 10th August when he opened the exhibition by former Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell.  He said that the FNM government has no choice but to go ahead with the development.  They have now announced that Albany has the go ahead and so does Bahamar at Cable Beach.  They also called in the Ginn developers for the multi billion dollar project in West End to a meeting at the Police Force’s office complex built by money donated by private businessmen to listen to what Bobby Ginn plans to do in West End.  It appears that the FNM have to give that the go ahead as well.  So you see the government of stop, review and cancel has to make some hard choices: either create jobs in the country or face having to pack up shop.

Crisis On Sexual Violence
Dr. Sandra Dean Patterson, head of the Bahamas Crisis Centre, has announced that The Bahamas is the number one on the list in the world in terms of sexual violence and incidents of rape.  The Bahamas Crisis Centre is going to host a conference on the issue in the region here in Nassau in late September.  Dr. Patterson was quoting from a World Bank report.  Others on the top ten list in the region are St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica.  The report of Dr. Patterson's comments came from The Bahama Journal of Wednesday 29th August.

The Passport Issue
It seems to us that too much energy is being expended by the tourism sector in this country and the Caribbean on trying to stop this passport initiative of the United States that will require all passengers on planes coming from the Caribbean to use passports to get back into the U.S.  The U.S. has eased the requirement that came into force at the start of the year because the U.S. State Department has been unable to keep up with the demand for passports.  That restriction ends on 31st October.  The industry in the region wants it further extended to 31st December.  We say again, the resources of this country are best spent trying to get the marketing of the product up to scratch to meet any demand problems, not wasting time with the U.S. government on the issue.  What should be instructive is Charles Rangel, a member of the US Congressional Black Caucus and Chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. Congress who told Caribbean leaders when they met in July in Barbados that he is not convinced that the deadline needs to be extended.  That should tell you, when your closest friend gives you that line, that it is a lost cause.

Condolences To Jeffrey Lloyd
Bernadette L. Lloyd, the wife of Real Talk Live Talk Show Host Jeffrey Lloyd, died at 3:40 p.m. Saturday, 1st September at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau.  She suffered a life-ending stroke late Thursday evening 30th August.  Funeral services are scheduled for St. Francis Xavier the Roman Catholic Cathedral, West & West Hill Streets, Friday, 7th September at 11:00 a.m. Archbishop Patrick Pinder will officiate.  Monsignor Preston Moss will deliver the homily.  Our condolences to Jeff and his family.

And To Bradley Roberts
Merle Roberts, the mother of former PLP Cabinet Minister Bradley Roberts died in Nassau on Thursday 23rd August.  She was 87 years old.  The funeral service will be held at St. Francis Xavier’s Catholic Cathedral on Saturday 8th September 10 a.m.  We extend our condolences to Mr. Roberts and his family.

Kelly Burrows – Diplomat?

The word about town is that Kelly Burrows, the former hotelier and now businessman in Freeport is being considered for a high level diplomatic job overseas by the new FNM administration.

One Thunderclap
"But I only heard one thunderclap!"  That was the talk around Nassau Sunday afternoon when the electricity went out just as many people were getting ready to watch the Bahamian 4x400 relay team at the World Championships from Osaka, Japan.  Sadly, 'one thunderclap' BEC cut the power back on shortly after 3 p.m.; just a little too late for anyone to catch the show.  Ah, life in the third world.  As we go to upload comes word that the Bahamian mens team has won silver in the 4x400 metre track relay!
 
 

FOX HILL FESTIVAL PHOTOS

    The Fox Hill Festival 2007 climaxed 10 days of activities in the historic village on 14th August with perhaps the most successful Fox Hill Day celebrations ever.  Please click the following links for a full photographic review of the week's activities.  The official opening of Fox Hill Festival 2007.  A review of Fred Mitchell's tenure as Foreign Minister '02 - '07Emancipation Day Junkanoo in Fox Hill'Party Day' & The Greasy Pole - Fox Hill Festival 2007.
 
 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Unions Not Worker Friendly
    The recent spate of news regarding “Lay-offs” and “Terminations” of workers in and around the Public Service, has caused me to wonder why  there is so much public silence and so little outrage on the part of certain segments of our society.
    A little less than five years ago, shortly after the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Government took office, it was confronted by an angry group of temporary employees on the steps of the Churchill Building who presented letters of temporary employment, which terms had expired.  These were letters that were issued at the instance by the previous Free National Movement (FNM) Government.  It would have been easy for the powers at that time to simply say “I knew nothing about this – I am washing my hands of this issue”.  As a responsible government, this did not happen.  Instead, the PLP Government consciously took the decision to retain the services of every single individual and no doubt today, many of these three hundred plus persons are settled and secured in government agencies.
    Fast forward to today, and we read the disgusting statements of Ministers Laing and Deveaux  who have broadly hinted, that in addition to those temporary workers who had been recently let go, there is the intimation that the same would happen to others.  What a shame this is.  What selective memories these Ministers now have.
    More sad, still, is the fact that there has not been one murmur nor one expression of concern by any of the Trade Unions regarding the manner in which “Workers” have been treated.  It is not sufficient to raise voices of concern involving one’s membership, but rather Trade Unions by its very nature should be concern about all workers.  Where is the outrage?  Where is the concern?  It leaves one only to speculate that many of these unions must be in bed with or firmly support the actions of a renegade and uncaring government.  Workers are workers no matter what the circumstances.  While I would not expect an employer or any employer groups to voice concerns, one would most certainly have thought that all unions, but particularly the Public Sector Unions, would at least voice its concerns and regrets, if taking no other actions.
    There have been no voice of complaint, either, from an organization such as The Bahamas Christian Council and it leaves one to wonder whether they truly care about issues such as justice, fair play and opportunity for the less advantage in our society.
    There is a concept call the “drawbridge mentality”.  Put quite simply, this concept espouses the view, that once we are on the inside safe and secured, we pull up the drawbridge and care little about letting others come in.  I have a strong feeling that we in The Bahamas now live in a drawbridge mentality.  It matters not what happens to others – so long as we are safe, secure and comfortable.
Jethro Cooper

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9th September, 2007
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com
  How do you do today?  It's great to have you as a reader.  We have the most incisive political news about and from The Bahamas!
Please tell all your friends about us.

...HUNG OUT TO DRY...

A VICTIMISATION PURGE OF PLPS ON THE FORCE... MASS FIRINGS IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE...
A JUDGE RULES ON SIR JACK... WITCHUNT AT ZNS...
IN JAMAICA DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN... IN PASSING...
CARTOON... LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...
The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party... The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web... Interesting Places...
Vincent Peet / PLP North Andros & Berry Isl. 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 Kayaking News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Keod Smith / PLP Mount Moriah
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return to the top of the page.


PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Bradley Roberts, the former Minister of Works and his siblings buried their mother Merle on Saturday 7th September in the Western Cemetery in New Providence following a service at St. Francis Xavier's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Nassau.  Archbishop Patrick Pinder presided over the service.  Mrs. Roberts was 87 years old.  Colleague PLPs including the former Prime Minister Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie turned out to the funeral.  The photo of the week is by Peter Ramsay.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

HUNG OUT TO DRY
There has been massive psychological injury done to Ellison Greenslade, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police, and to the stability of the Royal Bahamas Police Force by the Royal Bahamas Police Force through the failure of the Commissioner of Police to stand up for Mr. Greenslade.  We have no doubt that it was not really the Commissioner; there are some wicked politicians in the FNM who have to take the blame.  You know the story.  To refresh yourselves you may click here [GREENSLADE DEFENDS HIMSELF] [SLAYING GREENSLADE].  The headlines in the papers of Friday 6th September also told it all.  Mr. Greenslade who was ordered to give up the possessions that the police had given him as gifts had to watch the headline that said than Greenslade’s Gifts were to be auctioned.  How embarrassing.  You would think that with such a valuable member of the Force if the Force had a point to make they could have made it another way.  But it is clear; it is transparent what is happening.  Reginald Ferguson is to become Deputy Commissioner of Police.  We know that this could not have happened under the PLP.  So Mr. Greenslade who like Marvin Dames is the real future of the Force had to be embarrassed by the FNM political directorate as an excuse to sideline him and have Mr. Ferguson overstep him to become the Deputy Commissioner of Police.

That is where we are in the Force today.  You will see in another story how there is a move seeking to purge the Police Force of all PLPs at the senior ranks.  It is a systematic plan by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to eliminate the PLP from the body politic.  What Mr. Ingraham has done will engender hatred for a lifetime.  He may not care for himself but the sins of the father are visited upon the children.  There is no question about it.  He should be so advised.

A newspaper columnist who also appears on the internet who shall remain nameless was apparently at it again last week.  His mental fatigue and an apparent depression over losing his wife caused him not to let it go.  His Uncle Tomishness, his FNMishness, his being the number one apologist in the country for wrongdoing continues.  We have come to the conclusion that this man is simply stupid.  Yet he continues to defend the indefensible with his own curious brand of illogic.  Last week, we gave an excellent review of what is happening with the police force and its potential use by politicians to carry out their nefarious ends.  That writer defended that position.  It is incredible.  But you know, when you wish jail on one, you should understand that jail is not too far away for the one who is doing the wishing either.  This is sad.

Any true blooded Bahamian must be offended by what is happening here in The Bahamas today under the Free National Movement.  At a press conference by the Progressive Liberal Party on Wednesday 5th September, spokesman on the Public Service and former Public Service Minister Fred Mitchell said that he had never seen such mean people in his life like the FNM.  He said that he could not believe that these people actually grew up in the same country that he did.  Nevertheless, that is who the people of this country have elected for five years.  The hope now is more than ever that by some event this will be reversed so that the PLP can again bring some humanity to the situation we face today.

There are more and more horror stories.  How about the story of the Deputy General Manager for the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas who ran the station in Freeport.  He was reportedly fired in the parking lot of the Corporation in Grand Bahama.  Again, the only reason he would have been fired is because he was PLP.  The interesting thing is that his sister is Vernae Grant, a newly elected MP for Eight Mile Rock.  Does that add up?  How can she stand by and let that happen?

But as the former Minister said, there is meanness and mean spiritedness in the FNM.  How for example does Phenton Neymour, a new Minister of State in the FNM allow his leader Hubert Ingraham to get up in a public place and embarrass his father Basil Neymour, saying that Mr. Neymour who won two contracts to build roads fairly and squarely under the PLP will have to choose which one he is going to get or get nothing.  Mr. Neymour, the younger said nothing that we could hear in his father’s defence.

Hubert Ingraham told his Members of Parliament that they are not to interfere in the system. That whatever the system does is well done and that it should be done by the book.  That tells you something.  It means that politicians are not to exercise their discretion, their individual consciences to bring about equality, fairness and to correct injustices, if the system has done it by the book.  You have only to remember that the system is run by people who themselves have prejudices and can sometimes be wrong.  That is what political discretion is there for to right wrongs that cannot otherwise be corrected.  It is the mercy seat.  But with Mr. Ingraham there is to be no mercy and no justice.

The list of injustices are growing under the FNM.  We cannot stand by in silence.  Fooling with the general public service is one thing.  Fooling with the police is another thing.  What we face here is nothing short of a conspiracy to seize political control of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and then come against the Opposition PLP with a vengeance, setting it out for elimination.  Those who are on the Force who support the PLP want only a sign that their party will stand up for them and then they too will assert the will for right.

You have only to remember that the FNM did this before.  They simply summoned police officers to their offices and fired them on the spot.  The PLP had to end up paying the costs to settle the matter.  That is where we are again.  Each police officer who is asked to leave should immediately report to their lawyer.

In the mean time, we are happy to report that despite the bidding that took place on the goods given to Assistant Commissioner Greenslade, the public did not respond with any bids on Friday 7th September except on the cell phones.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 8th September 2007 at midnight: 259,929.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 8th September 2007 at midnight: 274,218.
 


CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com

A VICTIMISATION PURGE OF PLPS ON THE FORCE
    The story is that a number of senior police officers have been called in by the police top brass and invited to resign.  The supposed idea is that you ought to go if you are 54 years old and have 40 years of service on the Force.  Amongst those reportedly asked to go are two Assistant Commissioners of Police and several Superintendents.  All of the people who have been asked to go are thought by the FNM to have PLP leanings.  Reginald Ferguson who is the brother of FNM Chairman Johnley Ferguson is 62 years old and has 40 years on the Force but he is not being asked to go.
    There are at least a dozen people who have been invited leave.  We have a word of advice for these people.  Tell the Commissioner to put his request in writing.  Tell him that he must go back and stand up for the Force.  Tell him that if he does not stand up Hubert Ingraham is going to ruin the Force and make it a political instrument.  Tell him that he has a protected position and no politician can do him anything if he would stand up for the Force.
    Mr. Ingraham is proceeding with a political purge the likes of which Josef Stalin would be proud.  Someone must stand up and speak.  This is the classic job of an opposition political party.  Speak now or the next ones they come for will be us.  We already know how this site has been threatened.  A word to the wise.
 
 

MASS FIRINGS IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE
    On Wednesday 5th September, the Government published a statement about the firing of people from the public service.  The Progressive Liberal Party has been attacking the government front and centre on the issue for several months.  The government’s statements seemed designed to forestall the press conference that the PLP called to deal with the rank victimization that is being practiced by the FNM in the public service.
    On Friday 7th September it seemed to get worse with the news that the 40 people that had been hired by the former Minister of Education Alfred Sears at the Ministry who had been complaining that they had not been paid were all fired.  They were given a cheque and told to go home.  The Government’s statement was legalistic.  It denied that people were being fired from the service but it was confined to dismissals for any established civil servant.  The problem is that the PLP’s statement was not confined to established civil servants.  The Government’s statement suggested that because the people being dismissed were contractual workers or on temporary month to month terms then dismissing them was fine.
    Former Minister of the Public Service Fred Mitchell pointed out that many of the contract workers were hired on temporary month to month terms because the Public Service Commission takes a long time to put people on the payroll and it was easier in the circumstances to bring employees on as month to month workers until the Commission’s processes caught up with the hiring.  So for example an employee would be brought in at a minimum qualification until the Commission  reviewed all the paper work and confirmed that person at which time, his salary would reflect the proper grade and level of qualification.
    Further, Mr. Mitchell pointed out that many people who were hired were hired on contract because their skills were needed but they could not be paid at the levels in the public service because they did not have the requisite academic qualifications.  But the service needed their skills and they were taken on by contact outside the service.  The FNM has pushed all of that out of the window and fired them.  These include Edmundo Moxey, former swim champion, Eddie Forde the all around athlete, and Peter Pratt, the athletic coach.
    Mr. Mitchell said it best, the FNM are simply mean people, mean spirited.  He said he cannot believe that these are people who actually grew up with him in The Bahamas they are so mean.  We agree.  This cannot be the party of Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield and Sir Kendal Isaacs.  This is clearly Hubert Ingraham’s FNM: mean and bitter.  The PLP should develop an action plan, a street plan and lead a national revolt against this mean spiritedness.
 
 

A JUDGE RULES ON SIR JACK
    Madam Justice Anita Allen’s ruling in the matter of the dispute between the St. George Estate and that of Sir Jack Hayward was a stunning rebuke for Jack Hayward.  Sir Jack who most people believed before his late partner's death was the fifty fifty owner of the Grand Bahama Port Authority group of companies  with Edward St. George asserted after his death that it was actually 75 per cent for Hayward and 25 per cent for St. George.  The matter ended up in court.
    Sir Jack did not show for the case and the Judge has ruled that this 75 to 25 plan was: “hatched in someone's fertile imagination” in 2006.  She added in her written ruling of Wednesday 5th September: “Alas, however, there was too much water under the bridge, too long a paper trail and too many persons with intimate knowledge of the relationship for the plan to be successful.”  She said Sir Jack’s claim that he is a 75 percent owner of those companies was baseless.  The oral ruling was Thursday 30th August.
    The Judge added:  “The figures don’t add up.  They don’t support a 75-25 shareholding – neither does the paper trail.  There is no evidence of any such assertion prior to 2006 and, indeed on one occasion after 2006, he [Jack Hayward] contradicted that assertion.”
The decision was based on the civil standard of justice on the preponderance of evidence that there was a shareholding of 50-50 between Sir Jack and Mr. St. George.
    Justice Allen wrote: “Having heard and considered the evidence of the plaintiffs’ witnesses, having observed their demeanour as they gave their evidence, having read and considered the numerous documents adduced by the plaintiffs (Edward St. George’s estate) and there being no evidence challenging the credibility of the witnesses or the substance of their evidence and no attempt on behalf of the first defendant (Sir Jack Hayward) to challenge the documentary evidence adduced by the plaintiffs, I find that the plaintiffs have proven their case.”
    Next move Sir Jack!  Rumour has it that he has thrown his hands up in the air and will leave The Bahamas. He tried to sell his share holdings and late last week that sale was blocked by the St. George Estate by way of injunction.  This report was based on a report in the Bahama Journal of Thursday 6th September.
The Bahamas government has been silent in the matter that will affect the lives of the people of Freeport.
 
 

WITCHUNT AT ZNS

    Reports are that there is a political witch hunt in the newsroom of the Broadcasting Corporation going on.  More next week.  Earl Deveaux, the Minister of Works (pictured) needs to make a trip to ZNS because there is an apology that he needs to make.  More next week.
 
 

IN JAMAICA DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN
    Reading the press reports from Jamaica it seemed like The Bahamas revisited.  The election of 3rd September was a cliff hanger, see sawing throughout the evening from 26 to 26 and then ultimately to 31 to 29 and then on the recount finally 33 to 27.  There is to be a recount by the courts.  The election should have been certified on Friday 7th September and the result is that Bruce Golding (pictured) of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has ousted Portia Simpson Miller from the Office of Prime Minister and the Peoples National Party (PNP) from the government after 18 years.
    The mood seems sour in Jamaica as Mrs. Simpson Miller refused to concede saying that she would not allow criminal elements to usher in a new government in Jamaica.  The PNP brought a period of prosperity to Jamaica that was unknown including 9 per cent unemployment and 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in reserves.  However, the change theme went over well with the young who in 18 years had known no other government.
    Also, people were faulting Mrs. Simpson Miller for her timing.  Even Bruce Golding, the JLP leader said in the Jamaica Gleaner of Tuesday 4th September that if Mrs. Simpson Miller had called the election in July of last year when she was at a 78 per cent approval rating, she would have still been Prime Minister today.  She was also criticized for relying on self declared prophets and numerologists to pick the election date.  So another ally of the PLP is lost in the Caribbean.
 
 

IN PASSING
A New Cuban Ambassador
Jose Louis Ponce has been appointed the new ambassador to The Bahamas for Cuba.  Mr. Ponce succeeds Felix Wilson who was that country’s first Ambassador.  We welcome the new Ambassador and hope that fraternal relations continue.  Bahamas Ambassador to Cuba Carlton Wright and his wife Audrey were in The Bahamas last week on a brief vacation.  He and his wife returned to post last week.

Jeff Lloyd’s Wife Is Buried

Bernadette Lloyd, the wife of Jeffrey Lloyd, the radio talk show host, was buried Friday 6th September following a church service at St. Francis Xavier’s Catholic Cathedral.  The service was led by the Archbishop of the Catholic faith Patrick Pinder.  She was 48 years old and had been suffering from chronic renal failure when she suffered a catastrophic stroke which led to her death.  She was buried in the Catholic Cemetery in New Providence.  Monsignor Preston Moss delivered the homily.  Photograph by Peter Ramsay.

Senate PLP Court Action To Proceed
Paul Adderley, the former Attorney General who is representing the PLP before the courts in the matter of the challenge to the appointment of senate seats has now been given the go ahead to proceed with his constitutional motion.  You may remember that Hubert Ingraham wants to claim the 3 seats that are to be allocated on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition.  Remember that according to the constitution, those choices are to be made with the political balance of the House in mind.  With the PLP having 18 seats and the FNM 23, the political balance in the Senate means that the three seats should go to the PLP.  Mr. Ingraham does not agree that he has to pick the choices of Perry Christie, the Leader of the PLP.  The matter is being challenged in the courts.  Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall gave Mr. Adderley leave to proceed to challenge the appointments by originating summons and the matter is to be heard in November.

Oswald Brown’s Wings Of A Dove

We understand more clearly now why Oswald Brown, the tomish newspaper columnist in the Nassau Guardian has been singing lately.  With apologies to Patty Larkin and her songwriters, it goes something like this: “Give me a ticket for an airplane, aint gat time to catch the fast train.  Lonely days are gone. I’m a going home. My baby wrote me a letter.”  Mr. Brown wants to be the Ambassador for The Bahamas to Washington.  If Hubert Ingraham wants to embarrass our country further let him fool with that.  FNMs are scandalized; particularly the Turnquest family.  Poor Ozzie, he has gotten the news that it’s a no go and he is sitting as a recluse at the watering holes in Freeport.  We can hear the song now: “If I had the wings of a dove, I would fly, I would fly away!”

Kelly Burrows Revisited

Tongues were again wagging about Kelly Burrows and his accepting service in The Bahamas diplomatic corps overseas.  The job that he presently holds in the shipping business in Freeport is being advertised in the press.  What does this mean?  Many people were connecting it to the report on the site last week (click here) that said he was to be offered a job overseas in the Ingraham administration.

Ambassador To Washington

Former FNM Minister of National Security C.A. Smith is to get the post of Ambassador to Washington.  He will succeed Joshua Sears.

Stolen Photos

The Tribune has not explained how it obtained stolen photos from the computer in the home of Anna Nicole Smith. These photos published of former Minister Shane Gibson were taken off the stolen computer it was revealed during the week from the Simpson house.  The Tribune always speaks of morality yet it is using stolen material and presumably is still in receipt of it.  In law, the receiver is just as guilty as the thief.  Hmmm!

Carl Bethel Should Thank Alfred Sears

Carl Bethel , the now Minister of Education gave no thanks to his predecessor Alfred Sears (pictured) for all the hard work Mr. Sears did to make Mr. Bethel's job easy this year.  He settled all the infrastructural issues for the schools last year.  Mr. Sears made sure all the issues with the quarrelsome Bahamas Union of Teachers were settled so that this year Mr. Bethel had none of that to deal with.  Instead, he had a school year that appeared to open smoothly.  Truth be told the poor opening of the school years past during the PLP were all in the imagination of the press.  Only three schools of 157 in the country did not open on time last year, yet the press said that the school opening was not smooth.  So the press this year is all FNM and so no criticism despite the fact that there was a walkout at Mabel Walker last week.  Then you have the two women who head the Bahamas Union of Teachers not standing up for teachers’ rights since the FNM, which they support, is in power.  The press and union leaders purring like pussycats, despite the facts, make for a good school opening.  The very least Carl Bethel could do is say thanks.

Abby LaFleur Buried
Entertainer and performer Abby LaFleur, born Genevieve Sherman, who brought the thrill of Bahamian culture to thousands of tourists was buried yesterday.  Ms. LaFleur had been honoured for her contributions with the prestigious Cacique award from the Ministry of Tourism.

Shane Gibson’s Birthday

Shane Gibson, the Member of Parliament for Golden Gates marked a birthday yesterday. Mr. Gibson and friends celebrated his birthday at the Blue Note Club in the Nassau Beach Hotel on Cable Beach.

Pavarotti Dies

Not since the death of Mario Lanza in 1960 at the age of 37 has a tenor been so publicly and openly mourned.  While most people would agree that Luciano Pavarotti was perhaps a more traditional success, both Pavarotti and Lanza displayed the ability to bring millions to appreciate the art of the operatic tenor.  Pavarotti was buried yesterday in his native Italy.

Funeral Talk

An interesting and enigmatic photograph of community by Peter Ramsay, as mourners remain under the portico of St. Francis Xavier’s Roman Catholic Cathedral after the funeral yesterday of Mrs. Merle Roberts.

A Rare Picture of the Photographer

Most significant events in Bahamian history have for decades been captured by photographer Peter Ramsay.  Rare, however, are photographs of the photographer himself.  We thought we’d share this image of Mr. Ramsay with His Grace, Archbishop Patrick Pinder at St. Francis.

Ed & Dawn Bethel Celebrate 20 Years
Ed Bethel and the former Dawn Hanna (Adderley) reaffirmed their marital vows at an elegant black tie affair in the gardens of Mountbatten House in Nassau on Friday 7th September.  The event was attended by former Prime Minister Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie and former Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell.  Mr. Bethel is the Consul General for The Bahamas in New York.  Congratulations to the couple on reaffirming their marriage on their 20th anniversary.
 
 

CARTOON

 
 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bahamians Wake Up
   I am regular reader of your paper.  I have seen and read enough of the nonsense that goes on in our land that I feel the need to air some of my views.
    Last week I followed along with the saga surrounding ACP Ellison Greenslade’s issues with the gifts and Abraham Butler’s dismissal at WSC.  I wonder where our men of spine and substance are when things like this happen.  Butler is a well-respected professional.  The list of individuals who can vouch for the high ethical standards he holds himself is too numerous.  But yet his reputation is being maligned by a vicious government minister and a selfish Uncle Tom Chairman but yet there is no public outcry.
    Bahamians wake up.  When things like this happen to one of us, it’s only a matter of time before your time comes.  Wait and you will see.
    All the blame for Greenslade getting the gifts should be placed squarely at the feet of Paul Farquahson.  He was the one who allowed the gifts in the first place.  Only when the heat turned on Greenslade did Farquahson decide it was wrong to have those gifts as a public servant.  Stand up and be a man and say I made a mistake by allowing him to receive those gifts.
    Why couldn’t the gifts received by Greenslade be held in a blind trust for his benefit until he chooses to retire.  I wonder why we are so passive and afraid to call right…right and wrong…wrong…
    I wonder how some men in our country call themselves men?  Their entire life they have stood up for nothing but BS, any way the wind blow you go.  Play politics, dance to the “new” minister’s music, keep a bunch of sweethearts, get fresh with the media girls and keep pushing as long as promotion and slack money keep coming in.  How do you look yourself in the face… cause you are still LITTLE BOYS I went to school with in Long Island who can’t (urinate) straight.  People like us the “little people” we watching you know and sadly plenty of people are following their examples and that’s why the level of social disregard and downright lawlessness is so high.  You can’t simply say don’t do what I do or did.
    So many of our talented young professionals I see following this same spineless do nothingness attitude, just get a Blue plated car, drive up to national events in chauffeur driven car for everybody to see with a new suit from Pat Paul, get VIP tickets at Junkanoo near the PM family and talk a bunch of (excrement) in the House of Assembly if you get elected for one term which is all most are there for in any event.
     When will we see that in order for our country to develop we need everyone fully engaged and on board with a Master Plan.  Our futures are linked.  White and Black.  Young and Old.  Why can’t we have a 2020 plan that all parties sign onto?  Look at Singapore and Lee Kwan Yew.
    When will we get past who is FNM and PLP and whatever else?  If we feel as though all top managers and civil servants should be fired with a new government, then get Paul Adderley and change the constitution to say that.  But in the present situation why in a country of roughly 300,000 we want to do that when all of us related somehow either in marriage or blood. The not so young folks like myself know that we are too small for this.
    I heard on the radio that the Chamber of Commerce was having a panel on why so many people are not coming home from Canada and the US.  I am sure part of it has to do with how backward we are with asking these young people when they come back home at job interviews “who is your family? You PLP?”  If your family is not connected then Jesus alone is on your side.  The (senior FNM politicians) of this world have no time for you.
    Every day I see all these young hungry poor black attorneys downtown without big names behind them.  Ha(ve FNM lawyers) taken at least two under (their) wing and say fellas you are the future of my beloved country let me teach you the ropes?  This is how you have a top tier practice of law.  It is hard work but let me show you what I have learnt.  Only help females so you get some fringe benefits from it or other rich folks children.  Many of them will give all their money to the Catholic Church but can’t speak and help those in front of them at SuperValue.  I wonder what God they feel they serve.  Because all of us are the same in his eyes.  So to my brothers and sisters out there know that a great God is watching.
Name Withheld

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16th September, 2007
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...JOAN SAWYER IS OUT OF ORDER...

THE FIRINGS CONTINUE... IS SIR JACK TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE?...
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PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Former Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell travelled to Barbados and Trinidad during the past week for a press conference and an address in Barbados and for a courtesy call on Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago.  While in Barbados he set the record straight on the question of The Bahamas cancelling the hosting of Carifesta.  Then he spoke at length on what the role of Opposition parties ought to be in foreign affairs at a Rotary Club in Barbados.  From Barbados he went to Trinidad and Tobago where he paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Manning to present him with a copy of the photo of the historic address that the Prime Minister made to the House of Assembly in Nassau on 22nd September 2004.  Our photo of the week then is Fred Mitchell speaking at Rotary in Barbados on Tuesday 11th September.  The photo is by David 'Tajhie' Garner.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

JOAN SAWYER IS OUT OF ORDER
On Friday morning, the telephones starting ringing off the hook from offended PLPs.  Did you hear what Joan Sawyer had to say about Fred Mitchell and Allyson Gibson?  What were they talking about?  It appears that the lawyers for Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles who had been tossed out of court by Justice Jeffrey Lyons following their futile attempt to strike down the government's actions in the matter of Mr. Knowles' extradition had appeared on an appeal of the case before the Court of Appeal.  The case was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Thursday 13th September but not before the Justices of Appeal led by Joan Sawyer attacked the previous administration and the two ministers in particular saying the action of extraditing Mr. Knowles was illegal and that the Minister should have been held in contempt of court.  This set the cat amongst the pigeons.

This column has been forthright in the past with regard to what it considers irresponsible statements made by the Court of Appeal's Justices in the past and in particular Joan Sawyer its President.  We condemn these most recent remarks again as irresponsible and injudicious.  We believe that someone ought to write the Prime Minister to ask that an investigation be held under the constitution for her removal from office.  The fact is no law was broken by the Ministers in question and it is inappropriate for Justices of the Court of Appeal to suggest in the loose manner in which they have that laws were broken by the ministers.

You have to wonder what in the world is going on with the institutions in this country.  It appears that everyone has rights to say whatever they want except PLP politicians who must simply sit by and be quiet in the face of the unremitting hostility and loose talk that emanates from so many quarters.  You have the press that is biased.  You have the police that are biased.  You have the Government that is biased.  Now you have the courts seeming to get into the political fray first by the loose talk of Justice Lyons earlier in the year, now the irresponsible remarks from the bench by the Court of Appeal.  It is reprehensible and irresponsible.

These are the facts on the matter of Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles.  The case against the Government with regard to the extradition of Samuel Knowles was dismissed by Justice Lyons.  That means that the law as it stands in The Bahamas is that there was no illegality in the extradition of Mr. Knowles.  The appeal of that case to the Court of Appeal was dismissed on Thursday 13th September.  That means that Justice Lyons’ decision is the law.  Nothing has changed since then.  The remarks of the Justices of Appeal are therefore what lawyers call obiter, which means that they were not germane to the case, and are no better or worse than the opinion of any man on the street.  The problem is that Judges like Members of Parliament have protected speech and can say anything they wish from the bench without any effective redress by the persons who were not before the court.  If an ordinary person made such remarks, the statements would be defamatory and actionable in the courts.

There is another very serious issue here.  The Justices who made these remarks have to be held accountable if something were to happen in the circumstances of these comments to the former Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson.  You will remember that Mrs. Maynard Gibson had to have police protection as a result of the extradition proceeding.  The matter has now become history.  The Court could have dealt with the matter without the loose talk.  Now they have raised this issue again and in the circumstances, is Mrs. Maynard Gibson now entitled to the protection of the police again, because of what the court has now said?  This matter is regrettable and the Justices ought to apologize for their comments.

We believe that no law was broken.  We believe that the law was followed in this matter.  Until such time as the issue of whether or not the Minister acted properly is before the courts then the matter of the Justices’ comments are neither here nor there.  In fact, the defence of this matter is left to the present government because it is the Minister of Foreign Affairs who is responsible for extradition, not any particular Minister of Foreign Affairs.  That happens to be Brent Symonette these days.  It’s up to them to defend the Government’s position.

The fact is also that no matter what anyone says the PLP is not going to sit quietly and go away.  It has the largest chunk of votes in the country after the FNM and they barely have a percentage point ahead of the PLP.  As a matter of fact when joined with the independents the PLP is in fact the majority party in the country.  It certainly has to represent the interests of those who voted against the FNM, and that happens to be a majority of the Bahamian people.  It seems to us that once the PLP lost it is now the opportunity for each and every one to pile on the criticism with vengeance.  They all ought to remember that the PLP will be back and sooner than they think.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 15th September 2007 up to midnight: 263,876.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 15th September 2007 up to midnight: 550,657.

Number of hits for the year 2007 up to Saturday 15th September 2007 at midnight: 3,588,017.
 


CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com

THE FIRINGS CONTINUE
    There needs to be an investigation into ZNS radio and TV service.  It is reported that 12 persons have been fired from the corporation within the last month despite the fact that they have valid approvals for three year contracts at the Corporation.  In the newsroom of the corporation there appears to be a reign of terror involving an FNM ideologue who has taken over the news department and is making sure that people who are perceived to be PLP are taken off the air.  Nothing of this kind ever happened under the PLP.  Earl Deveaux, the Minister of Works, refuses to apologize to ZNS for his intervention on a reporter’s story.  The same can be said for the police force where we reported last week that a purge of all PLPs on the Force is taking place.
    What is the PLP to do?  Some people think that it is time to take to the streets and bring the Government to its knees by street action.  In the short term though, the PLP has decided to hold a series of public meetings.  At these meetings, its supporters gather with a view to sensitizing the public to the issues.
    Mr. Christie gave a comprehensive address to the PLP gathered at Charlie Major’s restaurant on Fowler Street in Nassau on Wednesday 12th September on the issue of victimization.  He said that the PLP had taken great pains to ensure that it cared for people and that those hired had been properly hired.  He said the FNM had now come in and scrapped all of that.
    Mr. Christie named a number of cases; one was the case of Abraham Butler who was the General Manager of the Water and Sewerage Corporation.  Mr. Butler had been transferred to the Public Service Department by the PLP.  Upon the FNM coming to office, Mr. Butler was told to return to the Water and Sewerage Corporation.  Within weeks, they had fired him with a six month pay cheque.  The matter is going to court.  But the most egregious cases are those of the hundreds of small people on contract who have been fired by the cold, heartless and mean FNM administration.  These people must be defended.  The FNM must get their comeuppance.
 
 

IS SIR JACK TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE?
    Things with regard to the Grand Bahama Port Authority are getting more complicated and litigious by the minute.  Every week there seems to be some new development.  You know that the court has ruled that the St. George Estate has a fifty-fifty shareholding with Sir Jack Hayward.  Following that ruling it appears that the St. Georges got an injunction to prevent the sale of the shares of Jack Hayward.  It appears that an attempt was made to defeat that by filing an action in the courts of the Cayman Islands or in London.  If that is successful, it would defeat the St. Georges claim and victory in Nassau.
    Now comes the report that Sir Jack wants to set aside the injunction here in The Bahamas preventing the sale and he has made an offer by letter of his attorney to purchase the St. George Estate.  Fred Smith, lawyer for the St. Georges says that offer had been rejected.  In the mean time, the receivers appointed by now retired Justice Jeanne Thompson are still running the company and all the employees are on pins and needles because no one is quite sure where it is all headed.
 
 

THE BUT FINDING ITS VOICE
    We have suggested before that Johnley Ferguson, Vice President of the Senate, FNM Chairman, defeated candidate for the FNM in Eleuthera and brother of Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson, is a political bully.  If anything proves that, it would be the ham-fisted attempt by Mr. Ferguson and Education Minister Carl Bethel to bludgeon the head teacher, the vice principal and the parents of the Preston Albury School in Eleuthera to take back into the school a student who was a disciplinary problem.
    The story is that the student was expelled last term for bad behaviour and was to go into the remedial YEAST programme to reform his behaviour.  When the elections took place with the FNM winning on 2nd May, the parent of the child took the view that her government was now in power and she insisted that the child would go back into the regular school.  The head teacher took the view that he would not stand for it and he and the vice principal resigned from the school.  This plunged the school into crisis and the other parents took their children out of the school.
    Mr. Ferguson flew into Whemyss Bight to have a meeting with parents there to get the FNM parents to change their minds.  Parents of both sides of the political divide stuck to their guns. The Union raised its voice.  Belinda Wilson, the Secretary General, said she was sticking by the headmaster and the parents and that the child had to go.  Johnley Ferguson has learned his lesson that when a bully tries to bulldoze his way in and he is met with force the bully has to back down.  The school will reopen tomorrow with the headmaster back in place and the child on his way to the YEAST programme.
 
 

REGINALD FERGUSON DEFENDS HIMSELF
    Nassau Guardian reporter Tamara McKenzie ought to be careful that she is not further perceived as a tool of FNM propaganda.  That was the conclusion of many people this week as they read an interesting and revealing interview with Reginald Ferguson, the Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police, who is said to be opposed in the substantive appointment to that position by the PLP.  The interview appeared in the Nassau Guardian on Friday 14th September.
    The point has been made that it is not a good idea for a divisive individual to be in that position in the Force, and that the PLP does not trust Mr. Ferguson to carry out is duties with equanimity and neutrality.  We have the recent example of Mr. Ferguson confirming that he is investigating this column following a complaint made by his brother Johnley Ferguson who happens to be the Chairman of the FNM and the Vice President of the Senate for the FNM.  That joins the list of things that should not inspire confidence in any PLP that Mr. Ferguson can dispense justice neutrally.  Today when the police come to the scene of a crime, the first thing PLPs think is there goes an FNM.
    Mr. Ferguson was  defending the fact that he has not been asked to leave the Force even though he has passed the forty years of service, is past the age of 54 and others in that category have been asked to go.  The only difference is that the FNM who now head the country believe that those officers are PLP and so they are asked to go.  Mr. Ferguson is believed to be an FNM and so he is allowed to stay and one day may displace Paul Farqhuarson as the Commissioner of the Force.
    In one part of the interview, the reporter asked him about the allegations that he was a political figure.  His response was curious in that he used the words “political operative”.  This is an expression that Hubert Ingraham uses frequently to describe PLP officers on the Force.  It is a clue to what Mr. Ferguson is about.  Mr. Ferguson's remarks were published in the Nassau Guardian Friday 14th September:
    “I have not been asked to retire because I have done my job well and no one should be surprised.
    “I know that I make an excellent contribution.  I know what I have been doing and what I am able to do.  I know what I am able to contribute and I know that I contributed distinguished service to The Bahamas as the Bahamian people demand.
    “I have given distinguished service all my life and even up to this day there is no doubt in my mind about that.  I am proud of the service that I gave my country and I will serve wherever I am as long as I can.”
 
 

THE NEWS ON HIV/AIDS
    Hubert Ingraham who is the Prime Minister of our country and his Minister of Health Dr. Hubert Minnis went to Trinidad and Tobago on Friday 14th September for a one day special summit on non communicable diseases that plague the region.  These include heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and obesity.  Sir George Alleyne, former head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) was commissioned by the region to produce a study on this issue.  That study was presented last year to The Bahamas Cabinet.
    Now it is time for action by the region on non communicable diseases that are sapping the productivity of the region.  The cost to The Bahamas alone is estimated at some 54 million dollars a year.  Mr. Ingraham took Dr. Conville Brown, Dr. Duane Sands, Dr. Ronnie Knowles with him.  So all his boys are down there in Trinidad and one can expect that they will have good time.  We hope that the Prime Minister actually takes the matter seriously.  We doubt it but there is always hope.  In the meantime, the HIV/AIDS stats are out for The Bahamas for this year.
    The Bahama Journal published on Thursday 13th September the statistics released by Nurse Rosa Bain, Director of the HIV/AIDS secretariat.
    According to the most recent statistics compiled by the Ministry of Health HIV/AIDS Centre, up to 31st March, 2007, there were 69 new cases of HIV infections reported. By the end of the year, the number of new HIV infections in The Bahamas would likely be fewer than in 2006 when 293 new HIV cases were reported.
Based on the Ministry of Health’s research, between August 1985 and 31st March 2007, 10,928 HIV cases were reported in the country.
    The number of people living with HIV/AIDS up the first quarter of the year stood at 7,080.  Of this figure, 5,373 people had the HIV virus while the remaining 1,707 had developed AIDS.
    The National AIDS programme has monitored the AIDS epidemic since the first reported case in 1983. Statistics have proven that adolescents and young people account for the fastest growing group of new HIV infections.
    Cumulative figures from August 1985 to 31st March 2007 show that between the ages 10 to 30, females outnumbered males two to one in terms of new HIV infections.
    Statistics show that in the 10 to 14 age group, 23 females were infected with HIV compared to 10 males.  In the 15 to 19 age group, those figures stood at 183 females and 75 males.
 
 

MITCHELL SPEAKS IN BARBADOS
    Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister of The Bahamas, travelled to Barbados to speak with the press there about the fact that the government of The Bahamas misrepresented the reason for cancelling the hosting of Carifesta scheduled for next year.  Mr. Mitchell issued a statement there in the press defending the reputation of the PLP and the Christie administration that had been blamed by the FNM for not preparing for Carifesta.  The FNM administration claimed that they had to cancel because of the lack of preparedness.  Mr. Mitchell read the PLP statement issued on 27th July in Nassau that put the lie to that fact.
    Mr. Mitchell also took the opportunity to speak to a Rotary Club in Barbados in the presence of Barbados’ Caricom Ambassador John Williams on his ideas about Caricom and the role of the Opposition parties in the processes of Caricom.
    Speaking to regional media in Bridgetown, Mr. Mitchell said, “I am here today in defence of the Progressive Liberal Party that was up until 2nd May 2007, the government of The Bahamas.  You will know that the new Free National Movement government of The Bahamas announced in July following the meeting of Heads of Government with the Canadian Prime Minister here in Barbados in July that it would no longer honour the commitment made by the Progressive Liberal Party administration to host Carifesta in Nassau.  The record will show that this has caused grave concern in the artistic community at home.
    “Our concern, however, is that the impression being given is that our party and government was somehow at fault in the matter and that we had not done the necessary preparatory work to host Carifesta.  That is not true.
    “We issued a statement from Nassau but that statement was not carried by the Caribbean media and so I have come to ensure that the people of the region know the facts on this matter and to defend the reputation of the PLP and the Bahamian people.  We are reliable partners.
    “We concede that the Government has the right to cancel the hosting of Carifesta if it wishes but it should do so on its own account and not give the impression that their predecessors in office did not adequately prepare the country to host the event.  We did so prepare; the decision not to host Carifesta X is entirely that of the government.
    “I will now read the statement of the Progressive Liberal Party, which has already been delivered in Nassau.”
    You may click here for the address to Rotary.
    While in Barbados, there was a response given to the press by Charles Maynard, the Minister responsible for Culture.  Mr. Maynard has to defend himself and that is fine but it is the following with which we quarrel.  He said of Mr. Mitchell “With him going and making these statements he might just make a fool of himself.”  This is Dud Maynard’s little boy talking in big people’s world.
    Mr. Maynard is the real fool because he is the Minister who went to Parliament boasting about how Carifetsa was to be hosted by the FNM administration and then his Prime Minister and Leader Hubert Ingraham went to the Caribbean and told the Heads of Government that it was cancelled without even telling his own Minister.  Mr. Maynard found out in the newspapers just like everyone else.  So who’s the fool?  It is pathetic, these new FNMs who have to go overboard to show off in front of their new leader about how FNM they are.  Mr. Maynard should not go so far that when he needs rescue the PLP where he actually belongs is not able to help him.
 
 

IN PASSING
Brent Acting PM Again
Can you believe it; yet again, the son of the last UBP Premier of The Bahamas forty years after majority rule is Acting Prime Minister of this country.  We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.  Mr. Symonette is acting because Hubert Ingraham, the Prime Minister is out of the country until today.

BEC Can’t Keep The Power On
It has been happening since the late 1960s, 1967 to be correct.  When the UBP lost power, they left behind inadequate power supply and blackouts.  From that time to this, BEC has been promising that the blackouts would cease.  They have not.  All that needs to happen is one thunderclap and the power goes off.  Now comes the news that BEC in addition to not supplying power will not turn a profit this year and will in fact lose 34 million dollars this year.  The new Minister Phenton Neymour is seeking to blame the PLP for reducing the rates.  But the Corporation made a profit during the PLP even with reduced rates that came into effect two years ago.  This year they will lose 34 million dollars so the Union is saying that it is something else most likely bad management at BEC.  Last week as this site was uploaded the power went off again, shutting down the internet as well.  That is The Bahamas, an unreliable power supply, an unreliable telephone connection, unreliable water supply and unreliable internet.  Need we say more?

Investor Confidence Waning
We thought that we have said it enough but maybe the hard headed, mean FNM can hear it from an investor in the country.  This quote comes from Christopher Anand who is the Managing Partner of Albany Beach and Golf Resort, an investment conglomerate that includes golfers Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and billionaire Joe Lewis.  The FNM is threatening to renege on the Albany project that was approved by the previous PLP administration.  He told the Bahama Journal: “One of the ways they analyse risk is stability from an investment perspective and if you start having these situations, as governments change agreements change, that’s a big problem because that starts to introduce political uncertainty from a business climate perspective.”  Mr. Anand went on to tell the Journal that he was confident that the FNM would honour the agreements in place.  We are not so confident.  The project will create 1000 jobs.  But that doesn’t stop the cruel FNM from stopping anything that was started by the PLP.
 
 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The demise of the School Policing Program
    I concur with Mr Alfred Sears MP that if the police are to be removed from the public schools, then its replacement should be better and more effective. The Secretary General of the BUT believes that the old school policing system should be reinstated until such time as the government can iron out the kinks of their new system of periodic patrol and surveillance before and after school hours. The FNM government clearly did not have a more effective plan, as a matter of fact; they had no plan because the number of officers and patrol cars available in each school district is woefully inadequate and the police could not interdict effectively in the event of a school emergency. The partnership between the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Education to vet and train suitably qualified security officers was envisioned by the PLP government to be the permanent solution to the ongoing security challenges facing the Ministry of Education. This was intended to replace the police presence on school campuses and it had the endorsement of the Commissioner of Police as the security officers would be trained at the Police Training College. The FNM government is well advised to follow through with this plan. To not do so and to abruptly remove the police officers from the schools simply because they were “PLP ideas, programs and practices” is demonstrative of political immaturity and selfishness, to the peril of our teaching professionals and students. Without being overly redundant, this is clearly not good governance. The focus of the government should be on national development and empowerment, not the PLP. The FNM government has stumbled and erred on this one.
    I wish to remind the government about the goals of public policy: Public Policy must either fulfill a national need or solve a national problem, or both. The personal desire of the Prime Minister is immaterial. I say this because our Prime Minister does not like the idea of police officers on school campuses. It could very well be that former Prime Minister Christie did not like the idea of school policing either, but it is clear that he was prepared to place the national interest above any personal agenda or desire; this kind of dispassionate approach to governance makes for good public policy formation. The gradual and deliberate use of security guards as a permanent solution was a good exit strategy. Reports of a reduction in violence on school campuses qualify the PLP’s school security policy as successful. There is a popular saying that if it aint broke, don’t fix it.
    The record shows that in the short term, the removal of the officers from the school campuses is a policy failure for the government as two individuals were stabbed and two teachers were assaulted on our public school campuses in a relatively short period of time. I call on the government to reconsider its policy on public school security.
    The argument put forth by the FNM that the presence of police officers on school campuses causes them to somehow usurp the authority of the school administrators and teachers is a ludicrous one. There is no confusion as to the roles and responsibilities of the teachers, administrators, and the police. The police officer does not believe that he is the teacher, the senior master, or the principal. The police presence acts as a pre-emptive strike against school violence (which is a crime). We do not want to react to the violence; we want to prevent violence on our school campuses. The police also acted as mentors to the male students as there are not many male teachers and administrators in the school system so the police played a pivotal role in social development. Further, the amount of weapons taken from students in addition to a dramatic decrease in school violence is a testament to the success and effectiveness of the school policing program. Acting Director of Education Lionel Sands must explain to parents, teachers, and the general public why he now supports the removal of police officers from the schools in light of these positive, documented and easily verifiable results. As a senior officer, Mr. Sands would have been part of the team that was consulted and provided feedback that led to the policy of school policing to address ongoing security challenges.
    Carl Bethel and Hubert Ingraham can be excused as they are politicians and play the game of politics. Their game is transparent and people generally dismiss them. Mr. Sands, on the other hand, is a technocrat, a career civil servant who is expected to use his skills, knowledge, and experience to advise the political directorate of the government on issues of public policy as they relate to education development. He does the Ministry of Education and by extension the country, a disservice when he allows himself to be used as a pawn in the game of politics. Mr. Sands must always remain true to his professional discipline and all that is in the best interest of the advancement of education and by extension, the country.
Elcott Coleby



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23rd September, 2007
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...SOME THINGS ARE BETTER LEFT UNSAID...

THE TEACHER’S REVOLT... OSWALD BROWN IN HIS OWN WORDS...
BROWN ON THE DEATH OF WIFE NO. 2... MITCHELL ON TRADE MATTERS & AFRICA...
IN PASSING... LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...
The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party... The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web... Interesting Places...
Vincent Peet / PLP North Andros & Berry Isl. 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 Kayaking News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Keod Smith / PLP Mount Moriah
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return to the top of the page.


PHOTO OF THE WEEK: This week the Africa Foundation for Democracy headed by Fred Oladeinde in Washington D.C. held its tenth anniversary conference in Miami, Florida where it is headed by Anthony Okonmah.  The Foundation is dedicated to Africa and themes of good governance and economic development.  This year’s theme was culture and development, the question of how does one use the culture of Africa to promote its development.  Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister of The Bahamas was invited to Miami to be the luncheon speaker for the Conference on Thursday 20th September.  Mr. Mitchell addressed the theme revealing the need for Africa and Africans everywhere in the Diaspora to come together and rely more on their own resources.  You may click here for the full address.  Our photo of the week is of Fred Mitchell with organisers of the Miami Conference of the Africa Foundation for Democracy held at the campus of Florida International University.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

SOME THINGS ARE BETTER LEFT UNSAID
Redrum! Redrum!
                ---The Shining (1980)

There is a series of e-mails being circulated on the web to various addresses mainly in The Bahamas.  They have caused quite a stir.  The subject matter is Oswald Brown, the editor of the Freeport News in Grand Bahama.  Mr. Brown seems not to be a very bright man.  He is obviously not doing well.  He lacks judgment and lacks the ability to know when to simply shut your mouth.  These e-mails have made him a figure of derision and some pity.  The content of the e-mails we have not seen but it must have something to do with his wives and the death of the second of his three wives.  Whatever was said in the e-mails, Mr. Brown thought it sufficient to address the matter in the press.  Below, we repeat in his own words what he told The Tribune about the matter and then we repeat an excerpt of the opinion piece that he wrote in the Freeport News on the matter on Friday 21st September.

We feel sorry for him and then again we don't feel sorry for him.  He gets whatever opprobrium he deserves.  He is full of himself, for a man of such limited talent.  He is apparently now separated from his third wife, the sister of former Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest.  Perhaps this is why he is feeling isolated, and has overreacted to something that any normal person would simply leave alone.

One thing he has is a preoccupation with this site and who writes this site.  In his editorial in the Freeport News, he mentions this site bahamasuncensored.com about seven times, literally.  He accuses the site of spreading the e-mails, and of generating the information, and then says some pretty uncharitable things about the writers of the site.  He appears to believe that it is one writer, who he has previously identified, and then makes a series of libellous statements that could cost his employer The Freeport News dearly.  We have asked his employers before to restrain him before he causes them a problem.  This site had nothing to do with the e-mail circulation at all.  We have no idea who is circulating them or why.  What we do know is that it is not the official website of the PLP that is genesis of it, nor is it this site.  However, we congratulate the writers of the e-mails for circulating them and doing their best to ask relevant questions.

It must be that there is some comeback against a man who is so hopelessly biased in his views and who has compromised the neutrality and independence of the newspaper that he runs.  He is so personally caught up in the politics of being FNM that he attacks anyone and everyone.  He also appears to have gotten his knickers in a twist over Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister of The Bahamas as if it is his singular preoccupation and pet hatred, to the point of it being unnatural.  It is to the point where he cannot write anything it appears unless it is an attack on Fred Mitchell.  Editorial after editorial on Fred Mitchell.  It is almost like it is a sickness.

One is reminded of the line from Hamlet: lady doth protest too much.  It is a line that Hamlet speaks to himself after confronting his mother about the death of his father, and he says it because the overreaction tends to bespeak a guilty conscience.  In any event, the result of what was said in the e-mails has led to Mr. Brown digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself.  He has gone now to great lengths to speak about the death of his second wife, and what he did.  He does it to defend himself against this e-mail that no one has seen.  Whatever it has accused him of, it must be some pretty nasty stuff because he goes into what happened by date and time in the death of his second wife by apparent drowning on Saunders Beach in Nassau.  At the time of the death tongues were wagging but now the matter was long past and gone.  Mr. Brown by his reaction has put the whole thing again in the public domain and now any comment made on the matter is a fair comment.

If you are a diligent policeman, and you read what he had to say, and you had suspicions before about the first story, would you not be going back to the files on the death of the second wife and just maybe checking word for word the story Mr. Brown now tells the public and what he told the police then.  Why would he want to open himself up to that, making himself unnecessarily a target for that kind of mischief?  No doubt, he believes that because the FNM is now in power the police will not act against him.  It really is quite an incredibly stupid thing for him to do.  And it has spawned even more e-mails now circulating on the web, making him the butt of jokes and suspicions.

It is of course interesting also his depiction of what happened in Jamaica when he was on a trip with his third wife and family it appears.  The story is told in great detail about what happened and what they did, again to contradict some assertion that is being made in this e-mail that is so bad that no one can apparently print the e-mail.  The interesting point about his response however is that he does not say whether or not he is now headed for the divorce court and why and if the trip in Jamaica has anything at all to do with the present state of his married life.

Further in his follow up editorial, Mr. Brown calls for an apology from Perry Christie, the Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party.  What the hell Perry Christie has to do with this is beyond us but there is no logical link.  The PLP had nothing to do with what is being circulated on the web and in any event after what Oswald Brown has said about Mr. Christie, why should Mr. Christie apologize for anything said about Oswald Brown?  Instead Mr. Christie should be applauding the person who is circulating the e-mail.

But all of this is simply idle titillation.  It has nothing to do with the public policy of The Bahamas with which this site is primarily concerned.  But what it does show you in that regard is that we have some pretty dumb people involved in public life in The Bahamas who have gotten way beyond where there competence would have carried them.  You whistle and we’ll point.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 22nd September 2007 up to midnight: 204,167.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 22nd September 2007 at midnight: 768,760.

Number of hits for the year 2007 up to Saturday 22nd September at midnight: 3,806,120 [Does not reflect hits prior to 14th February, 2007]
 


CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com

THE TEACHER’S REVOLT
    Belinda Wilson, Secretary General of the Bahamas Union of Teachers, was clear she was not leaving the grounds of the R.M. Bailey High School until the police had been put back into the school.  There have been a series of stabbings and injuries as a result of fights in the government schools since the “smooth” opening of the schools by the FNM.
    With teachers out in the yard Carl Bethel, the embattled Minister of Education, said that he would not put police officers back in the schools.  The Ministry threatened to fire the teachers.  Ms. Wilson said that she was not leaving until they were back.  The police were called to R.M. Bailey on Thursday 20th September and tried to move Ms. Wilson, whereupon she called GEMS Radio live and frantically shouted to the police on air for all to hear that they must not touch her.
    Ida Turnquest Poitier, the President of the Union, had another idea.  She called the union together the next day to say that Ms. Wilson does not represent the Union.  The Union’s position is that they do not need police in the schools.  The opinion to bring the police back is only Ms. Wilson’s said Mrs. Poitier.  Uh Oh!  Does this mean that the Union is not together?  We thought so.  It appears that teachers in the meeting where Mrs. Poitier made the announcement on Thursday thought that was strange.  They accused Mrs. Poitier of not fighting for their rights.
    The PLP had police in the schools to help keep the peace.  Because it was a PLP idea, the government removed the police from the schools.  Now the FNM is reaping what they have sown.
 
 

OSWALD BROWN IN HIS OWN WORDS
    Oscar Wilde, the Irish writer in the nineteenth century, got into problems when he overreacted to an allegation sent to him by way of short note from the father of the Marquis of Queensbury, with whom he was linked.  Mr. Wilde’s overreaction by filing a law suit led to his going to jail for two years, breaking his spirit and his life.  One wonders then why Oswald Brown, the editor of The Freeport News would react in the way he has to an e-mail that is circulating around the Internet, and responding in such a detailed way, given the personal and intimate subject matter that it apparently addresses.  Here is what he said in his own words in The Tribune of Thursday 20th September:
    “I wasn’t aware that one was in circulation.  I just saw it for the first time.  I see who the e-mail is coming from.  I’m going to turn it over to the police, and see if they can determine who that person is.  It’s a criminal matter, they are accusing me of (accusation withheld)…
    “Five of us were in the car.  We were driving up into the mountains.  We stopped on the side of the mountain to allow another car to pass…a bus actually.  After the bus passed, we pulled off and the car skidded on some leaves, and went on the side of the mountain but it was stopped by some big trees.
    “Probably, if the trees weren’t there, the car might have gone down.  But we all got out of the car, and there was no question of leaving or anything else.  I actually paid $12,000 in Jamaican money for some Jamaicans to assist me in retrieving the car.
    “After the incident which occurred last New Year’s eve, my party and I went out to dinner and had a happy time before returning to Nassau.  No one left anybody or anything like that.”
(Mr. Brown says that he has reported the matter of the e-mail to the police. But we would thank him to stop accusing this site of circulating the e-mail. His allegation about this column is condemnably false and an actionable libel – Editor)
 
 

OSWALD BROWN ON THE DEATH OF WIFE NO. 2
    The following is an excerpt from the personal column of Oswald Brown, the Editor of The Freeport News that appeared on Friday 21st September in which Mr. Brown addresses the question of the death of his second wife by drowning.  The opinion piece was written in response to an e-mail that circulated on the web by an anonymous writer.  Mr. Brown blames this column and the PLP for its circulation.  This site has nothing to do with it but we congratulate those who did for doing so in the public interest:
    “My second wife, Enid Gbenyon, was a magnificent lady, who was a member of a very prominent Liberian family. Her father, Lawrence Gbenyon, Sr., worked in various capacities for the Liberian Government, including stints as a diplomat assigned to Liberian embassies in Rome, Italy, and Accra, Ghana.  They were given asylum in the United States following a military coup in that West African nation that brought dictator Samuel Doe to power.
    “Enid had a Master's Degree in economics and finance, and gave up a high-paying job in Virginia to move to The Bahamas after I returned home permanently in 1996 and we were married a year later.
    “On the Saturday morning that she drowned, I had gone to The Guardian, as I usually did, to do an editorial for Monday's paper.  When I returned early in the afternoon, she was not at home, and I assumed she had gone out with some friends she had made during the five months she had been living in The Bahamas.  After she did not return by early that evening, calls were made to all of the friends that I thought she might be with, but none of them had seen her.  I then reported the matter to the police, and the next morning I received a call that a body was found floating off Saunders Beach, across from the complex where we lived.  Accompanied by the police, I went to the morgue and identified the body as hers.
    “What caused her death is still a mystery to me.  She used to exercise virtually every day by walking up and down that beach, but she was not a strong swimmer and would only wade into the water slightly above her ankles occasionally after exercising.  She had been depressed after several months of searching for a job and being unable to find one, even with her excellent qualifications, and for a brief moment I entertained the thought that she may have committed suicide, but knowing what a strong person she was, I quickly eliminated that as a possibility.  In any case, the official cause of death, after a thorough investigation, was listed as drowning.
    “I would be telling a lie if I were to say that being reminded of this painful occurrence in my life and being accused of possibly having had something to do with Enid's death did not hurt…”
 
 

FRED MITCHELL ON TRADE MATTERS AND AFRICA

    Zhivargo Laing, the Minister in the government responsible for trade matters, was in the press saying that the Government has decided not to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the European Union. Mr. Laing said that they need eight months in which to determine whether they can or not.  They do not have enough information.
    Fred Mitchell attacked this decision during his talk in Miami in which he said that it was a mistake not to sign the agreement because it would remove some of the pressure on the country to modernize its economy.  He added however that many other Caribbean countries were not ready to sign the EPAs and the Europeans themselves had made mistake in making the demands that they had about singing.
    The statement of Mr. Mitchell came as he addressed a lunch at the 10th annual conference of the Africa Foundation for Democracy in Miami on Thursday 20th September.  You may click here for full address.  The photo shows Mr. Mitchell with Dr. Gershwin Blyden, a Bahamian doctor of renown living in South Florida who is a member of the Foundation For Democracy.
 
 

IN PASSING
Police Commissioner To Retire
Reports now say that amongst those who have been asked to retire from the Royal Bahamas Police Force is Commissioner of Police Paul Farqhuarson.  Mr. Farqhuarson is set to go in January.  He has been reportedly offered as an inducement the post of High Commissioner for The Bahamas to the United Kingdom.

Joan Sawyer’s Remarks Cause Security Scare
Security has to be beefed up around former Minister Allyson Gibson and Fred Mitchell as a result of the remarks of Dame Joan Sawyer in the case in which she described their conduct as ministers in the extradition case of Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles as illegal.  Last week on this site, we described the dangers and the irresponsibility of the President of the Court of Appeal’s statements.  If anything happens to these individuals then we know exactly who is responsible for it.

The Straw Market – Take It Or Leave It
Tommy Turnquest, the Minister of National Security and head of a special cabinet sub committee on the straw market has met with straw vendors and told them that the government will not spend any further money to repair or replace the existing tent under which they now work.  The Government has cancelled the plans the PLP had for building a new straw market.  He told them that they will have to leave the market and go to temporary accommodation at Prince George Dock or stay where they are and suffer: take it or leave it.

Former Jamaican Foreign Minister Loses His Son
Our condolences go to the former Foreign Minister of Jamaica K.D. Knight on the unexpected death of his only son Karmal Knight on Tuesday 17th September from leptospirosis.  The disease, which is usually contracted from the faeces of rats, has become a problem for Jamaica since the hurricane and the clean up has not gone as rapidly as it should have.  Mr. Knight was 32 years old at the time of his death.

Brent Must Answer
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and the son of the last UBP Premier in the country, has to explain why a senior police officer who is the son of a well known PLP was abruptly transferred from the Fox Hill police station where he had just been sent since the election to take command of the station.  Reports are that Brent Symonette complained to the Commissioner that the officer did not give him the proper respect when he visited the station.  Officers at the station contradict what Mr. Symonette is saying.  It is known that the officer’s views were quite strong about interference on Mr. Symonette’s part in the station in that the officer said it was inappropriate for the Commissioner to have accepted funds from Mr. Symonette to build the station because Mr. Symonette now thinks the station is his.  Mr. Symonette must now explain why he removed the officer.

ZNS Layoffs
Reports reaching us say that the Board of the Broadcasting Corporation met on Saturday 22nd September to decide on further layoffs in the Corporation.  Estimates of the numbers range from as low as 82 persons and as high as 108 persons who are to be laid off from the Corporation.  Staff members are on pins and needles.  Last week the Corporation cancelled the contracts of 12 persons including reportedly veteran announcer Carl Bethel.

Happy Birthday
They were born during Hurricane Donna in 1960 in Boynton beach, Florida.  They were given the names Matthew and Marva.  They are the youngest children of the late Mr. Frederick and Mrs. Lilla Mitchell (nee Forde).  Happy birthday to them both for the 47th time.
 
 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
“Judgement Fled To Brutish Breasts”
    The irrationality and sheer dumbness of the public utterances of the leadership and acolytes of the FNM government, were they not so dangerous and destructive, would be laughable. For the last few weeks there have been a series of pronouncements on the state of unrest, mayhem and unpreparededness in many of the public schools.  The FNM’s propaganda machinery, however, would have the Bahamian public believe that because of their efforts in painting and brushing up schools that schools were in the best state of readiness ever.  This is a tissue of lies.  Everyday occurrences in schools across The Bahamas reveal just the opposite, which proves the point that a place of learning is about more than fresh paint on the walls and new chalk boards.  It must be a safe place for teachers and students and place of learning above all.
    There are still three weeks into the term some schools on half-day schedules and there are several schools which are grossly understaffed.  Individuals such as Senator Johnley Ferguson, one of the chief apologists for the government should pull their heads back into their carapaces and slink away in shame.
    Then there is the master spin-doctor for the FNM, Oswald Brown, who in his besotted state, now truly believes that fiction is stronger than truth.  To read his recent meanderings on the two day crime strategy workshop is nauseating and confirms that Brown is nothing but a windbag.  If the leadership of the FNM is unable to silence him for their own good, then the owners of the Nassau Guardian/Freeport News must muzzle this blathering nuisance in order to preserve some scintilla of journalistic respectability and propriety in their newspapers.  Clearly, Oswald Brown has lost it completely.
    All of this has lead one to the conclusion that reasonableness and decency in public conduct and discourse has fled our beloved land and in the words of Shakespeare in Julius Caesar: “O Judgement! Thou has fled to brutish breasts, and men have lost their reason.” (Act 3, scene ii)
Granville Forbes
 


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30th September, 2007
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...OUR RELATIONS WITH THE US...

THE STORY OF HANGINGS... INGRAHAM'S MEAN MAN KEN...
BREAKING CONTRACTS... FOX HILL SENIORS VISIT ATLANTIS...
THE STATE OF THE PARTY... IN PASSING...
CARTOON... LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...
The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party... The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web... Interesting Places...
Vincent Peet / PLP North Andros & Berry Isl. 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 Kayaking News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Keod Smith / PLP Mount Moriah
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PHOTO OF THE WEEK: During the run up to the General Election campaign of 2007, the Free National Movement sought to make political ogres of the Progressive Liberal Party.  The FNM criticized the foreign policy of The Bahamas which was forward looking and expansive, compared to the laid back, sloppy foreign policy of the FNM.  The FNM’s position seemed to be that as long as you say yes to the United States all is well.  The facts on the relationship were quite different from the propaganda.  The Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie hosted a lunch against that background, and against the background of the claim by Brent Symonette the now Foreign Minister that because he and the U.S. Chargé were neighbours on the Eastern Road, the US/Bahamian relationship was closer than under the PLP.  The lunch took place at the Eleuthera Room of the Crystal Palace Hotel and the official statement of the PLP said that the two sides the PLP and the U.S. discussed current issues related to US/Bahamian relations.  Our photo of the week then is the class photo of the entire group gathered for the lunch with the Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie and Brent Hardt, Charge of the U.S. in Nassau on Monday 24th September.  The photo is by Andrew Burrows of PLP Media.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

OUR RELATIONS WITH THE U.S.
Dr. Cleveland Eneas Sr., the late dentist and national raconteur, used to tell the story of a Bahamian who went to the then U.S. Consul General before Independence to ask about how he could travel to Miami.  The Bahamian was incredulous when he was told that he would have to apply for a visa to travel to the United States.  The Bahamian told the Consul General: “But I don’t want to go to the United States, I only want to travel to Miami.”  Then Dr. Eneas would finish his story by saying that one definition of a Bahamian is someone who believes that he has an inalienable right to travel to Miami.

Once, a Bahamasair plane landed in Miami and as the passengers were disembarking, the U.S. Border Control agents were waiting in the airport to examine again the passengers getting off, despite their having cleared border control in Nassau.  The passengers were visibly annoyed.  Some had their luggage and persons searched as well.  One passenger complained to this column that in going over the reason for his visit the border control agent asked him why was coming to the United States.  He told him that he had come to collect parts for his auto business in Nassau.  The control agent asked him why he could not order the parts on the internet.  The Bahamian was insulted because the agent did not seem to understand that part of the fabric of the Bahamian culture is the proverbial one day trip to Miami.

Bahamians helped to build Miami and to settle the small town as it built up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  So if you travel for example to a church like St. Agnes in Overtown, Miami which was started by  Bahamians who had gone to St. Agnes in Nassau, the names that are called out for the sick and the infirmed, the death notices are all Bahamian.  It is like sitting in a church in Nassau.

Samuel 'Ninety' Knowles is in prison in Florida awaiting trial on charges for which he was extradited not without some controversy from The Bahamas.  His case together with the case of the five baggage handlers who were arrested after they flew to Florida last year on a training course and later convicted on drug charges caused a huge political uproar in the country in the lead up to the General Elections in The Bahamas.  There are still some who argue like the President of the Court of Appeal Dame Joan Sawyer that the extradition was illegal.  There are many who argue that the five were entrapped.  The Privy Council has pronounced on neither but that has not stopped the ill informed commentary on the subject.  There is some animosity toward the United States in that it is believed and argued by some that the U.S. government has had both the PLP and the FNM governments in their back pockets.

Former Prime Minister Perry Christie met with U.S. President George Bush in New York in August 2004.  In that meeting he reminded the President that he was the first Bahamian Prime Minister to travel to Cuba.  He spoke up for the necessity of The Bahamas to have good relations with both the United States and Cuba.  Both are close neighbours and it simply makes good sense.  In domestic politics, the FNM would have the country believe that because the PLP upgraded the diplomatic presence in Cuba to that of the level of Ambassador that this means that there is a problem between the U.S. and The Bahamas.  There is no problem but that does not stop the FNM from letting the facts interfere with a good story.  The embassy in Cuba benefits Bahamians and it has not been closed by the FNM since they came to office.

The Bahamas begins geographically some 48 nautical miles off Palm Beach.  Bimini is some 50 miles away from Miami and in the distance you can see at night the lights of Miami from the Bimini western shore.  In a fast boast in three hours you are across the Gulf Stream and into Bimini.  If you take off by plane from Miami within minutes you are over The Bahamas.  There is no doubt about the closeness of the two countries.

Arthur Hanna, the Governor General, was hosting a South Korean diplomat at lunch following the formal presentation of credentials of the diplomat.  The Governor General in his official toast said that the two countries were in similar positions in that both countries lived in the shadow of giants and could only exercise their sovereignty to the extent that the giants would allow.

That is the practical situation which The Bahamas faces in its dealings with United States of America.  Largely the foreign policy is to get along well with the United States.  You will note that in the first paragraphs of this comment we talked about visa issues.  It is clear that this is the main interest of Bahamians, that of travelling to the United States.  No Bahamian government can survive it appears if that ability is in anyway jeopardized and this extends very much to the facilities in Nassau and Freeport known as the Pre-Clearance Lounge which allows U.S. Border control agents on Bahamian soil to process visitors travelling to the U.S. and Americans going back home to their country as if they were in the United States.  Those facilities exist in The Bahamas, Aruba, in Canada, in Bermuda and Shannon, Ireland.  The U.S. can cause a shaking of the political firmament in The Bahamas by the mere suggestion that one government or the other is jeopardizing that lounge and its facilities.  Successive U.S. Ambassadors know how to push that button by getting to know and channel information and opinions to Eileen Carron of The Tribune, who is a more than willing tool and agent at anti PLP mischief through her columns.

The PLP however takes the position that relations with the US and good relations do not mean that we do not have other interests to pursue, and that as long as jurisdictionally we are separate and equal from other countries of the world we must pursue the interests of our country: protecting Bahamians.  For the FNM this now means the job of continuing the expansion of honorary consuls overseas, expanding the number of embassies overseas including putting an Ambassador in Jamaica to represent us to the Caricom region and it also means an Ambassador to Brussels and elevating Philip Miller the present head of mission in China to an Ambassador and supplying consular officers for the mission.

The Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas while dealing with the US/Bahamian relationship as the major one must not be totally centred on it.  We show this week photos of the luncheon meeting of the U.S. side with the PLP side on Monday 24th September.  This is a good sign in that the PLP must continue to put the pressure on the FNM to continue the forward looking policy of the PLP in foreign affairs.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 29th September 2007 up to midnight: 230,854.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 29th September 2007 up to midnight: 1,010,028.

Number of hits for the year 2007 up to Saturday 29th September 2007 up to midnight: 4,047,388.  [Does not reflect hits prior to 14th February, 2007]

Photos: PLP Media / Andrew Burrows

CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com

THE STORY OF HANGINGS
    The National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest told the Bahama Journal in a strange interview published on Friday 28th September that more hangings in The Bahamas are unlikely.  You know that this column opposes the death penalty.  But the PLP supports hanging.  The problem is the leaders of the country and the irresponsible comments made by politicians like Branville McCartney, when he was in Opposition, about resuming hangings.  The FNM’s Attorney General Claire Hepburn had to quickly clarify when they came to office that no hanging could take place because the matter of the death penalty is still being litigated in the courts.
    Now comes the National Security Minister who recognizes what is actually happening.  We wonder if he checked with Hubert Ingraham, his boss first.  Mr. Ingraham is entirely cynical on the point.  He says he is against capital punishment but does not have the political courage of his convictions.  Few persons were executed when he was last Prime Minister and we think it was done entirely to appease the public, not for any other reason than a political one.
    The Minister told the Journal: “It’s obviously an issue that many people continue to talk about.  As a proponent of capital punishment, I continue to look at it, but from a realistic point of view it appears that we are moving away from capital punishment rather than toward capital punishment.  That’s been the way of our system.  I don’t want to say the [way of the] world because capital punishment is taking place in parts of the world, including the United States of America.  Given what’s happening [here] it’s not likely to take place."  It is more complicated than that.
    Since the Privy Council struck down the constitutionality of the death penalty in the country and ordered a re-sentencing according to law, three men have been sentenced to death.  But even this is in doubt because Dame Joan Sawyer the President of the Court of Appeal in one of her rants recently in the Courts claims that since the ruling by the Privy Council that the Government, read PLP, should have passed a law giving sentencing guidelines for how the Courts are to apply the death penalty.  She says since that has not been done, so Dame Joan says, the Courts cannot act.  Does that throw into doubt the three sentences that have been passed?  Should anyone gave credence to what Dame Joan has said given the number of times she has been overturned by the Privy Council?  Tommy Turnquest has to say what he is going to do about that.
 
 

INGRAHAM’S MEAN MAN KEN

    Even winning the government has not removed the scowl off the face of Ken Russell who is now the Minister of Housing.  We have come to the conclusion that he is simply a mean and miserable guy as we've said before and the scowl is permanent and can’t be removed.  If anything proves what a mean guy he is it came in the form of an order given by his Ministry that he defended to expel people who had been living in a trailer in West End, Grand Bahama since the hurricanes ousted them from their homes.
    West End and Bimini PLP MP Obie Wilchcombe was beside himself.  He said that it was wrong for the people to be moved.  Mr. Mean Ken Russell came back with his own explanation about how the people living in the trailers wouldn’t pay the fifty dollars per month to stay there and that it was time for them to go to other accommodations.  He said he had agreed to let them stay for three months to let Mr. Wilchcombe find some place for them to go.
    What we know is that the PLP would have built houses for them to move to and not put the people out in the streets.  But with Ken Russell and the FNM at the helm, anything is possible.
 
 

BREAKING CONTRACTS
    The government of The Bahamas continues with its folly in breaking contracts that were entered into by the PLP.  They have yet to settle the claims of the contractor against them for the losses sustained when they cancelled the straw market contract.  Late word is also that the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Unions who represent ZNS and BTC (telephone) workers are to meet in convocation discuss proposed cuts at the Broadcasting Corporation (ZNS).  Some 102 people are expected to be laid off by ZNS within the week.
 
 

FOX HILL SENIORS VISIT ATLANTIS

    Fred Mitchell, the Member of Parliament, arranged for members of the senior citizens organization of Fox Hill to visit Atlantis on Paradise Island.  Before lunch, the Fox Hill seniors toured 'The Dig' where the fish roam in the so called lost city of Atlantis.  A great time was had by all.  The pictures of the visit are by Dennis Fountain.  Please click here for more photos.  The visit took place on Thursday 27th September.
 
 

THE STATE OF THE PARTY
    The PLP lost the general election; virtually gave it away to a group of infidels who have now set about with great speed to dismantle everything that the PLP stood for.  PLP supporters at the base level are fired up but those in the middle class are despairing.  Too many are pointing fingers: what the PLP did and didn't do.  Little credit is being given for what has been done.  The FNM has now come and is able to capitalize on the groundwork that was done in the first term of the PLP under Mr. Christie.  The PLP was not given a second chance to finish its agenda.  The question is will they ever get a chance again?
    The banks come calling on PLPs.  They want their money.  There is no let up from one bill collector to the next.  This is the price of losing power in The Bahamas apparently.  Then there are the taunts on the streets.  There is a loss of prestige and pride of place.  People now have to deny their links to others.  People now have to use the devices of duck and dodge to save themselves.  What is even stranger is how friends now begin to pick on one another, blaming them for the loss, losing patience.  All of it is part of the depression of losing.
    All of this puts the burden on the leaders who in the face of the loss, in the face of all of the demands must find a way forward, with bill collectors calling for the 2 million dollars in debt and no friend in sight.  Suddenly the people at Atlantis are clear that they don't like the PLP.  Suddenly the phones are not being answered in places where there was an entrée before.  The hope that the PLP has, is coming back to power quickly, but clearly the business community does not buy it, and even PLP friends in business who are supporters are busy touting Hubert Ingraham who has seized them and given them what they want without deliberation.
    Many are in despair because they don’t see the party getting its act together; as if you can simply magically recover from a devastating and unexpected loss without some psychological and other difficulties.  But the spirit and the answer is at the Party's base level.  They are fired up.  They are ready.  Their strength and enthusiasm must flow to the Party's middle class and to the leadership.
    Interesting point in time.
 
 

IN PASSING
C.A. Smith Confirmed
Former National Security Minister Cornelius Anderson Smith has been appointed Ambassador to the United States.  This confirms what you first read in this column.  He will live in Washington.  Mr. Smith is not a bad choice as FNMs go.  He was not a vicious and vindictive FNM like the Hubertites who now inhabit the power of the FNM.  He had a long career as the Human Resources Manager for Syntex Pharmaceuticals in Freeport and wielded deftly its hiring practices to ensure that FNMs were hired at Syntex.  He then went to serve in the House of Assembly for 20 years until he was dumped by the people in favour of Anne Percentie of the PLP.  Mr. Smith revealed an ambitious list of projects that he would like to pursue as Ambassador.  Unfortunately, all of the list has already been accomplished by the PLP before him including the replacement of helicopters from the US Army that will leave The Bahamas on Monday.  New helicopters will come in on Monday.  There is already a data base for students as well.  Someone should really brief Ambassadors designate before they speak.  This job is simply to shake hands and win friends.  Mr. Smith has a good personality and he should let the diplomats do their jobs.  Mr. Smith succeeds Joshua Sears, the former civil servant, who served under the PLP then stabbed the PLP in the back by turning and running against the PLP in Exuma.  Thank God he lost!  That is the price of perfidy!

Morrison Comes Out Against The Police In Schools
Terence Morrison the leader of the Zion Baptist Church on Shirley Street has now entered the debate about police in the schools.  He has come down on the side of the government on the issue that police should not be in the schools.  The church must be careful how it enters into a political fray.  It is clear that only the police have the authority that it will take to bring order back to the schools.  The government is going to wait until someone is killed before they reverse themselves.  At least 12 children have been injured in the schools since school opened as a result of there being no one to police the children when violence breaks out in the schools.  The Bahamas Union of Teachers is divided on the subject with the President saying she is opposed and the Secretary General says that she supports it.  Then the FNM threatened to fire the teachers who sat out in the schools to protest the police being taken out of the schools.  Brother Morrison should do what he does best and pray.

Burma
We deplore absolutely the military government’s crackdown on the protest in Burma against the rule of the military.  Scores of deaths have now been reported in the face of repeated protests over the past weeks by the civilian population there.  The Nobel Peace winner Aung San Suu Kyi is the country's elected leader but whose election was set aside by the military in 1988 has now been taken from her house where she has been under constant detention to a jail.  This is reprehensible.  The Chinese government that has the most influence on this repressive government should use its influence to stop the killing.  We are further saddened by the silence of the government of The Bahamas.

Foreign Minister’s U.N. Address

Brent Symonette, the Foreign Minister, is to deliver the annual statement of The Bahamas at the United Nations on Tuesday 2nd October.  The address can be seen on www.un.org

The Montreal Declaration

Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister, travelled to Montreal, Canada on the weekend to begin work on what is reportedly to be called THE MONTREAL DECLARATION, a blueprint for The Bahamas in international trade over the next ten years.  Mr. Mitchell visited McGill University and began researching the point.  He is convinced that the future of The Bahamas is in expanding its international trade and entering into international trade pacts which will modernize the Bahamian economy and enhance the ability of the country to survive economically.  Mr. Mitchell returns to the country on Monday.  The Bahamas competitiveness in tourism and financial services appears to be deteriorating.  Mr. Mitchell has been critical of the FNM for not signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Europeans and having a myopic view of its relations with Caricom and the single market.  It is believed that the Montreal Declaration will take anywhere from six weeks to three months to be completed and then will be unveiled in an announcement.  We think that this is a most interesting development and we await word on its results.

Oswald Brown Revisited
The subject matter last week Friday 28th September of the column of Oswald Brown, the columnist and editor of the Freeport News who is on an anti Fred Mitchell crusade to the point of a sickness, was an expose on where he was before the FNM came to power in 1992.  We did not have to read the column because everyone knows where Oswald Brown was before 1992.  He was lost in space then and he is lost in space now.

Parliament To Open
The House of Assembly will resume its sittings on Wednesday 3rd October following the summer break.  We hope that the PLP mounts a demonstration against the FNM on that day.
 
 

CARTOON

 
 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
    Recently, The Nassau Guardian published an editorial entitled 'Your'e hired; You're fired'  Correspondent Elcott Coleby this week publishes a rebuttal.
    You’re Hired; You’re Fired: A Rebuttal.
    In the Guardian’s editorial, “You’re hired; you’re fired”, the writer was exceptionally kind to the FNM government and the President of the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU), Mr. John Pinder, clearly giving both parties the benefit of any available doubt. The editorial states that “they (the temporary workers) were offered a job, perhaps by an MP, which they no doubt accepted and had the expectation that they had finally landed permanent, safe and secure employment. They were not responsible for issuing their own letters of appointment. That is the function of the permanent secretary under delegated authority conferred by the Cabinet. Indeed, the permanent secretaries should have been aware of exactly how many of those workers were brought into his or her ministry and should have conveyed that information to the incoming administration so that adequate provisions could be made in the upcoming budget. If the permanent secretaries did not carry out their duties in this instance then one must conclude that they failed the workers; they failed the incoming administration and they also failed the out-going administration.” I interpret this statement as a deliberate attempt by the writer to absolve the FNM cabinet of any responsibility for the termination of these employees. The writer seeks to hold the permanent secretaries culpable, but how is it that the government (the FNM cabinet specifically) knew about and stopped $90 million worth of contracts committed by the PLP government and was unaware of the number of these temporary employees? The needs assessment conducted by the PLP administration was well publicized and the FNM cabinet had full access to this report; Operation Second Chance was also widely publicized and funded with $3 million; the Minister with responsibility for the Public Service was forthcoming with an explanation about the genesis of Operation Second Chance; the existing budget (2007/2008) reflects an increase for the Operation Second Chance program; at the close of the last session of the senate before that 2007 general elections, Mr. Carl Bethel could be heard smarting at the PLP senators about hiring 1,200 employees. In the face of these very public and transparent developments, why does the writer not find it necessary to place the blame where it rightfully belongs, at the feet of and on the shoulders of the FNM cabinet? They failed those workers, not the permanent secretaries. Like I said, the editor is being very kind to the FNM government.
    Delegated authority is a constitutional provision found in chapter 31 of the Bahamas Constitution that allows a government to fill an immediate labour need in the public service until such time as the “paper work” if you will is completed; for some reason the Public Service Commission is always inundated with a backlog of work, but the business of government must continue. Employees are usually hired month to month, but it is clear to all and sundry (and definitely the cabinet) that the employees are in transition and as soon as the paperwork is completed, the temporary employees will become permanent and pensionable. There should be no debate or argument over this point because it is essentially moot. The irony and hypocrisy in this redundant public debate is that the politician with the most experience in the use of this instrument of government (delegated authority), is the very person who seeks to use it and general orders to victimize hundreds of Bahamians; this politician is non other than the Prime Minister.
    His government used delegated authority in February 1997 to hire hundreds of temporary workers. We know that the elections of 1997 took place in March, literally days after the approval was granted to hire temporary employees. This process was repeated again by the FNM government in the weeks leading up to the 2002 general elections. Regardless of the initial intent of the FNM when these people were hired, the incoming PLP demonstrated the political will and maturity to find the necessary funding to make these 300 persons permanent and pensionable.
John Pinder, no doubt, observed both developments and is now the beneficiary of the union dues paid by these workers who are now permanent. You know the workers who were hired before they received letters of appointment from the Governor General. You know the same workers who were hired just before the general elections of 1997 and 2002. This same John Pinder who conveniently lost his voice and winked at the FNM on these two auspicious occasions, has now found his voice. The editor writes, “and in agreement with the BPSU president, poor, unemployed people ought not to be used as political pawns”. I wonder what Mr. Pinder thought those poor, unemployed  people were being used as when hired by the FNM in the days leading up to successive general elections in 1997 and 2002.
    Further, he is fully aware of the actual process, vis-à-vis the textbook procedure. This same John Pinder now supports the termination of these employees because, according to the editorial, “he has not seen any appointment letters and therefore these hapless souls are probably temporary hires and not worthy of help from the Union. In his words, they need a letter from none other than His Excellency The Governor General of The Bahamas outlining their posting, terms and conditions of work and reminding them they are on one year's probation.” I hope the membership of the BPSU keep this in mind during the next BPSU election of officers.
    I hasten to again remind the Bahamian people of the role of government: Duly elected officials are to use the instruments of government to continuously improve and empower the lives of the people they serve. The instruments of government were never intended to and ought not to be used to disempower and disenfranchise any citizen. Firing some 1,000 persons does not empower them and amounts to poor governance. This politically convenient argument about “proper procedures” not being followed is hogwash because there are many cases where persons received their letters of appointment from the Governor General after retirement from the civil service in order to qualify for old age pension benefits.
    In light of all of the developments mentioned above, I am of the considered view that the editor of the Guardian is being extremely kind to the FNM government and has selected “kid gloves” when dealing with them.
Elcott Coleby
 


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