Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames... Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 6 © BahamasUncensored.com 2008
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE SLOW STORM DEATH MARCH
This is perhaps the worst time to live in The Bahamas, if you were
to take weather as the only factor. The hurricane season is at its
height. The Bahamas has had problems with hurricanes for centuries.
Indeed the word hurricane comes from the aboriginal inhabitants of these
islands. That means that it was such a frequent phenomenon that they
had a word for it. We, with our fancy new technology, get to see
it approaching; no guessing. We can see it coming on the satellite,
and we often give the hurricane human characteristics and expect it to
behave in a logical, predictable fashion.
Someone and we have not done the research on it, decided to start calling these storms by names, like a pet dog. Therefore, as we watch the entertainment weather business on American and Bahamian television, they start describing the storm as if it were a person. She, or he, is going to head north. He is slowing down. He is moving at a clip. She is being erratic. We are under threat and we must take the matter seriously.
We do take it seriously but unlike dealing with a human being we cannot convince it to turn away. Those who watched the destruction that was wrought on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, in The Bahamas Michelle, Jeanne, Francis or Wilma, take the matter seriously. The problem is that it is a lesson that has to be repeated every year. Human memory being what it is, we quickly forget the last tragedy, often to the detriment of our own public safety.
We know for example, that in two years Grand Bahama was hit by three hurricanes. The damage was significant. Last year, Tropical Storm Noelle dumped tons of water on our islands and set us back significantly. At one time former Prime Minister Perry Christie was flying up to Freeport every day in order to bring some order to the hurricane relief efforts during his term. The PLP thought that people would remember the Herculean effort made by the government to get relief to that stranded community. It turns out that when election came, no one remembered at all and the PLP lost all of the seats that it had gained in 2002. There is no political gratitude in hurricane relief.
But a government has a responsibility all the same to make sure that its people are ready for the storm. The first and long-term way of dealing with this is through the building code. The buildings must be built to withstand the high winds; the roofs have to be tied down. You should not build in the swamp, which is subject to flooding. The building inspectors have to be honest people and not let substandard buildings get through. If you do all of these things, the country will withstand the hurricane.
The secondary measures are that you must take shelter from the wind. You have to protect your glass windows from projectiles going at fast speeds when the high winds come. Today you can get hurricane proof glass so that should not be a problem. You ought to prepare for being without electrical power, since the power is turned off after 40 mile an hour winds. You ought to have batteries for your radio. These days you can even get a satellite phone that will keep you in touch with the world.
Our issue today is The Bahamas Government under Hubert Ingraham and the lack of information as the storms come and go. They do not seem to take these issues seriously. You have the impression that there is a completely disorganized hurricane effort. That is why most people are tuned into the radio and television stations in the United States for information. What you get often from your own station and weather service is absolute nonsense.
Nothing demonstrated this more than the recent storm Hanna. It was coming; it was not coming. Then when it was coming, they did not seem to know where it was and what its effects were likely to be. People went scrambling for their shutters and stocking up expecting the storm one day. It never came. When it did come, it did not come where they said it would come and without the ferocity.
Perhaps this is an idle complaint because you may not be able to predict with absolute certainty where any storm is going to go. But even conceding that, there should be in this day and age more reliable information from The Bahamas about what is going on in The Bahamas. For example, is Bahamasair going to be flying? You look on the website of Bahamasair and there is not a word about anything to its passengers.
The Lynden Pindling International Airport has a website http://www.nas.bs. That is perhaps the best source of information on whether flights are flying or not flying to The Bahamas. But there is still no general information about what you ought to expect.
A more serious concern of course is the state of the national broadcasting station. Last week as Hanna bore down on the country, people in Inagua said that they could not pick up the Broadcasting Corporation's newly refurbished station 1540. The station is supposed to broadcast with 50,000 watts and should reach the entire archipelago. Up to a month ago, it was only putting out 8,000 watts. They said they put in a new transmitter. Yet with the new transmitter and the 50,000 watts, you could not pick it up in Inagua. The FNM has to explain that.
Our point is that The Bahamas does not usually suffer the fate of Haiti, if it follows it building code, and follows the precautions. The first is long term; the second is short term. The short term requires good , reliable information. If you don’t have reliable information, you will be a sitting duck, like on a slow death march.
Obviously, the PLP must tour the affected Bahamian islands immediately after the passage of the hurricane.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 6th September 2008 up to midnight: 162,675.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Sunday 31st August 2008 up to midnight: 882,662.
Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 6th September 2008 up to midnight: 145,219.
Number of hits for the year 2008 up to Saturday 6th September 2008 at midnight: 9,073,327.
MORE
LATE NEWS
Michelle Fields resigns as Financial Officer of the Colina Insurance
Company... Omar Archer, former Bahamas Democratic Movement (BDM
candidate), now a PLP who sought the Chairmanship of the party at the last
convention in Febraury 2008, was reportedly shot in the stomach on Friday
evening 5th September in Black Village, in New Providence.
VANDALISM
IN INAGUA
The dispute between the Morton Salt Company and
its unionized employees was settled; at least the announcement last week
said so with great flourish. All the matters between the two parties
were referred to the Industrial Tribunal. The result will be binding
and the parties have agreed to respect the result. This is amazing.
All of that disputation, anger and damage to property, not to talk about
loss of revenue and man hours only to get exactly what was offered at the
start of the dispute.
The Industrial Tribunal was forced to make a statement
when the employer mistakenly described what was agreed to as “private arbitration”.
The Tribunal explained that its rulings are binding in law. It did
however note that the Tribunal cannot enforce its own decisions and the
Supreme Court must do so. In the meantime, as Hurricane Ike is bearing
down on the island of Inagua, full frontal, reports came of vandalism of
a company vehicle on Friday 5th September. At least one vehicle was
burned and others had their tires flattened. It seems that some still
do not accept that this is not the way to fight the battle.
The community is concerned that the police and the
authorities are not taking the matter seriously. One of the reasons
PLPs on the island say that the Minister of Labour former FNM candidate
for the area Dion Foulkes is not taking it seriously is because the man
whose dismissal started the whole dispute is a big FNM general.
BAHAMIANS
STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND EPA
If and when The Bahamas signs the Economic Partnership
Agreement (EPA) with the European Union, it will mark a turning point in
the trading relationship with Europe and our Caribbean neighbours.
The Bahamas will be bound in phases to lower its trade barriers, including
customs duties imposed at the border on goods, and will be forced to relinquish
discrimination in national treatment in access to the services provided
in the country. This should have a revolutionary affect on the provision
of goods and services in The Bahamas.
The signing of an EPA with Europe will also be revolutionary
in its effect on the tax structure of the country. The Bahamas will
have to introduce value added tax (VAT). That will lead us to the
end of the line with rich people, poor governments in the Bahamas.
The volume of trade with Europe is small, so the effect is not going to
be as dramatic as most people think on the revenue side. Maybe 7
million dollars will be lost in revenue on the import of goods but in the
case of services, there could be a real benefit from around the world at
cheaper prices. This will be good for The Bahamas.
There are many people who oppose this pact on the
basis that Bahamian markets cannot stand up to the competition unless we
continue with the practice of protectionism. We do not agree.
In our view, this will be the start of allowing Bahamians in joint ventures
to break the traditional stranglehold that the merchant elites have on
this economy. It is important that this be done and done soon.
On 10th September, we hope that a representative
of The Bahamas will travel to Barbados for the special summit called by
the Prime Minister of Barbados to discuss where the region is going to
go with the EPA. We are heartened by the fact that David Thompson,
the Prime Minister of Barbados has announced that there will be no changes
to the pact. The negotiating is done. Now is the time to sign.
We are heartened by the fact that Dominica's Prime Minister has agreed
to sign. We are disappointed in the attitude of the Jamaican Opposition
party the PNP in walking out of the House when the Government there refused
to amend the EPA and remove the Most Favoured Nation clause (MFN).
The Nassau Guardian in an editorial last week was
trotting out a line no doubt inspired by the reactionary forces in the
country that says if the MFN clause stays in then we will be forced to
offer a Tax Information Exchange Agreement that we now have with the U.S.
to the Europeans. This they say will wreck our financial services
industry. Gloom and doom! Seems the simple answer to that is
that it will not wreck our industry, and secondly the EPA refers to agreements
prospectively, not preexisting agreements. One thing you must give
the opponents kudos for and that is there ingenuity. We have simple
advice to Hubert Ingraham, the bull in the china shop that leads us; stick
to your guns and sign. Enough of this already!
FINCO’S
DRAMATIC DECLINE IN NET INCOME
We have been waiting for the penny to drop in The
Bahamas. The realization through empirical evidence in the economy
that we are going in reverse. We have heard how both Standard and
Poors and the International Monetary Fund have all revised their growth
projections downwards since the FNM took office last year. Now the
report of the Nassau Guardian of Tuesday 2nd September reveals that the
nation’s largest mortgage lender Finco has suffered a 21 percent drop in
net income for the first nine months of the fiscal year. This has
to be seen against an 11 percent growth in mortgages.
Shares of Finco dropped in value on the news, perhaps
the first drop in years. The drop was by 50 cents. Managing
Director former Senator Tanya McCartney said that the drop in income was
within manageable limits and was not “unduly alarmed”. There was
also a report of Fidelity Bank increasing by 800 percent monies for lost
loan provisions. Fidelity is a much smaller player in the market.
While there is no collapse yet, the signs are beginning to show that as
the U.S. economy begins to slow down, The Bahamas is right behind.
SCHOOLS
REOPEN
With a compliant Bahamas Union of Teachers and a
lame press on the job, the school year opened quietly this year on Monday
1st September. That does not mean that there was not plenty wrong
with the schools. No one spoke about it. All you could read
was praise for this and that, even while some of the schools are in bad
shape. Of course, it helped that one of the persons the press went
to for information and comment just happened to be the wife of the Prime
Minister Delores Ingraham, Principal of C.C. Sweeting School. What
is worse than the silence of the press, was again the PLP’s failure to
make some sort of statement to shape public opinion on these matters.
Interestingly Belinda Wilson who is now the President
of the Bahamas Union of Teachers is now backtracking on the question of
police is the schools. Ms. Wilson told the press last week that she
never said she supported police in the schools. She was reprimanded
for disagreeing publicly last year with the last Union president Ida Poitier
on this point and for saying that there should be police in the D.W. Davis
Junior school to protect the teachers. Ms. Wilson in last week’s
statement pleaded democracy by way of explanation. She said that
what she always said was if the teachers want police in the schools then
she is for it. Oh well, we’re glad that was cleared up.
IAN
STRACHAN’S COMMENTS ON PLP SURVEY
Many of you might remember our Comment of
The Week last week about the release of the report by the Nassau Guardian
on the PLP and why it lost the 2007 election. No word from the PLP
about its authenticity so silence appears to give consent. Ian Strachan,
a quarrelsome writer at the College of The Bahamas attacked the PLP in
his Nassau Guardian column of 1st September. We repeat what he said
in his own words:
“Is it just me or was there something sad and
deeply frustrating about The Guardian's Monday, August 25th, piece ‘Secret
PLP Report Revealed’? ‘Restoring the PLP’s Primacy’ was a June 19,
2007 study by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, an American research and strategic
consulting firm, produced at the behest of PLP heavies, after the May 2nd,
2007 defeat.
“According to The Guardian story, “Researchers,
who also did pre-election work for the PLP, polled more than 1,000 Bahamians
using focus groups in New Providence, Grand Bahama and several Family Islands
. . .In response to the question, 'Which two of the following were the
most important for you in deciding not to vote for the PLP’? Fifty-seven
percent of those polled answered that it was the weak leadership of Perry
Christie; 47 percent answered the alleged corruption and scandals; and
19 percent answered the Shane Gibson issue involving Anna Nicole Smith.”
“The firm describes itself as “a global leader
in public opinion research and strategic consulting. Whether you
want to win your election, lead your country, increase your bottom line,
or change the world, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner can help you find the answer.”
Just what we need. Now why is this sad and frustrating? First
of all, the level of accountability and the democratic processes within
the 55-year-old PLP are so weak that somebody had to leak this story to
the press in the hopes of nudging the party into action. So despite
the fact that last year's whooping falls squarely on Perry Christie’s shoulders,
PLPs who want Christie gone are powerless to do so because, after 55 years,
the party has no open, democratic process by which to renew itself and
no real tradition of accountability.
“Since Ping, the only thing one seems accountable
for in the PLP is mouthing off against the leader. And everyone seems
at the mercy of the leader; even if it is a failed or discredited leader.
Thanks to the PLP personality cult style of governance, the leader gets
to decide when and if he will move on, presumably because he is still ‘popular
and well liked’. His actual abilities mean nothing. Popular
or not, though, one would expect that the PLP was bigger than one man and
the nation was more important than one man's pride. And if the PLP
cannot embody democratic ideals in its own affairs, how the heck can it
promote democracy in the country?
“The PLP then is a monarchic institution with
a king who must name a successor, abdicate and let his heirs duke it out
or just ‘t’row crop’ for there to be change. This is preposterous”.
POLICE
COMMISSIONER ON POLITICAL INTERFERENCE
Some readers of this column might remember the Comment of The Week about
the present Commissioner of Police. We made it plain that we do not
find him fit to lead the force. Nothing now shows that more than
his testimony before the Select Committee of the House of Assembly investigating
crime in The Bahamas, headed by MP Dr. Bernard Nottage. The Commissioner
of Police said that there was political interference in the promotion of
police officers. This is a pure FNM line and it is nonsense.
He was also quoted as saying that there is no need for police in the schools.
That too is an FNM line. It is simply remarkable that a political
ideologue now appears to be at the head of the Force. The PLP should
forcefully object to the continued leadership of the Force by someone who
appears to be so much in lock step with the political agenda of the FNM.
Mr. Ferguson is confusing the notion of political
interference with the right of politicians from the government to intervene
where there are wrongs being committed in the Force to the disadvantage
of the rank and file. That is not political interference. We
would be concerned if you were talking about politicians ordering people
who to arrest or not to arrest. Unfortunately, that is precisely
our fear with Hubert Ingraham as Prime Minister and Mr. Ferguson at the
helm of the Force. The testimony took place on Tuesday 2nd September
at the British Colonial Hilton.
We are concerned that members of the Committee did
not challenge him on two fronts. One: the persistent reports that
members of his family are given favours by the police when they are arrested.
Secondly, that he made a statement to the former Prime Minister Perry Christie
that he does not support the PLP. Members should also have questioned
him on the role that he played in the sting operation with the five Bahamian
baggage handlers arrested in the United States in 2006 and sentenced to
terms of imprisonment for smuggling drugs into the United States and the
details of the operational manual for the Royal Bahamas Police Force in
its interaction with U.S. authorities.
Members of the Committee are Dr. Bernard Nottage
MP (PLP), Chair; Kenyatta Gibson MP (Independent), Glenys Hanna Martin
MP (PLP); Branville McCartney MP (FNM); Frank Smith MP (PLP); Kendal Wright
MP (FNM). The Committee is expected to report on 1st October. Here
is what Mr. Ferguson is quoted as saying in his own words:
“I know that persons have been promoted in our
force who perhaps were not sanctioned by the Commissioner of Police or
who might not have been recommended. And as far as I am aware, the
recommendations ought to be coming from the Commissioner of Police with
regards any particular individual that is going to be promoted.
“When interference occurs, it has a negative
vibe on the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
“It has the potential to undermine your situation.
It demoralizes it and I don't think that something like that should happen.
And I think it's important for us to recognize that and let the organization
be the organization it's supposed to be. I think it would do more
for society. It would do more for the development of our country
if it is seen and known that there is not this preferential situation or
politicizing of the situation or anything of that.”
COMMENT
ON SARAH THE U.S. VP CANDIDATE
Maureen Dowd is a New York Times columnist. She is the latest in
the line of satirist contributors to the New York Times. Older readers
may remember Russell Baker before her. Ms. Dowd had her say about
the surprise pick of Sarah Palin as the candidate of the Republican Party
for Vice President of the United States.
It was a cynical choice by the Republicans designed
to fool female voters in the United States. This candidate denies
that women have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies.
She believes in killing innocent and defenceless animals on the basis that
she has the right to bear arms even though the arms that she supports end
up slaughtering the American people in criminal acts throughout their cities.
She does not have the intellectual heft, but like the FNM in this country,
Republicans do not worry about that. They just concentrate on the
glitz, the politics and the one-line zingers and win at any cost.
Ms Palin launched her campaign with a well-crafted
speech on Wednesday 3rd September that attacked Barak Obama, the Democratic
Party candidate as an appeaser, and someone who looks down on poor people.
This charge from someone who describes the difference between a pit bull
and a hockey mom as being lipstick. It was outrageous and a lie but
that’s politics one supposes.
The script of the Bush/Kerry fight is being revisited.
The whole thing smacks of that movie Private Benjamin, starring Goldie
Hawn. A silly, vacuous chick makes it in the army and becomes an
ambassador for her country. American as apple pie. Mr. Obama
has his work cut out for him. Since Ms. Dowd is a woman, it is probably
better for her to speak. Here is what she wrote in her column of
Sunday 31st August:
“…Americans, suspicious that the Obamas have
benefited from affirmative action without being properly grateful and skeptical
that Michelle really likes “The Brady Bunch” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show”
reject the 47 year old black contender as too uppity and untested.
“Instead they embrace 72 year old John McCain
and the 44 year old Sarah Palin, whose average age is 58, a mere two years
older than the average age of the Obama-Biden ticket. Enthusiastic
Republicans don’t see the choice of Palin as affirmative action, despite
her thin resume and gaping absence of foreign policy knowledge, because
they expect Republicans to put an under qualified “babe” as Rush
Limbaugh calls her, on the ticket. They have a tradition of
nominating fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West, like the previous
Miss Congeniality types Dan Quayle and W., and then letting them learn
on the job. So they crash into the globe a few times while they are
learning to drive, what’s the big deal?...
“The movie ends with the former beauty queen
shaking out her pinned up hair, taking off her glasses, slipping on ruby
red peep-toe platform heels that reveal a pink French-style pedicure, and
facing down Vladimir Putin in an island in the Bering Strait. Putting
away her breast pump, she points her rifle and informs him frostily that
she has some expertise in Russia, because it’s close to Alaska. “Back off,
Commie dude,” she says. “I’m a much better shot than Cheney.”
“Then she takes off in her seaplane and lands
on the White House lawn, near the new ice fishing hole and hockey rink.
The “First Dude”, as she calls the hunky Eskimo in the East Wing, waits
on his snowmobile with the kids – Track (named after high school track
meets), Bristol (after Bristol Bay where they did commercial fishing),
Willow (after a community in Alaska), Piper (just a cool name) and Trig
(Norse for “strength”)
“The P.T.A. is great preparation for dealing
with the K.G.B.,” President Palin murmurs to Todd, as they kiss in the
final scene while she changes Trig’s diaper. “Now that Georgia's
safe, how ‘bout I cook you up some caribou hot dogs and moose stew for
dinner babe?”
A powerful country like the United States deserves
to do better than this. But with reports that more people watched
the boring, limping speech of John McCain than watched Barak Obama’s soaring
oratory setting out a vision of the future, you have to shake your head.
It appears that unless there is a hat trick, the world has to face another
four years of a Bush term, insulting other countries, interfering in their
internal affairs, more death and destruction, negating constitutional rights
and freedoms in the name of freedom. To paraphrase: power is wasted
on the powerful.
IN PASSING
Zhivargo Laing Ill
Minister of State Zhivargo Laing spent Tuesday 2nd September in the
hospital. The Minister told the Nassau Guardian that he felt lightheaded
during a Cabinet meeting and went to the hospital to check on it.
They kept him overnight to test him. He came out okay but has a chronic
stomach complaint that is acting up. Mr. Laing is the second Minister
of the Ingraham government to be hospitalized this term for lightheadedness.
Why We Should Sign The EPA
There is a great deal of mental angst now going on in The Bahamas about
signing the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union.
We support the signing unreservedly. The Bahamas and this region
must be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
It is wonderful watching the arguments that the same cast of characters
played to stop the PLP when it wished to sign on the Treaty of Chaguaramus
and the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). The PLP was too
weak to stand up to the opposition, and ended up after sticking its finger
in the wind losing office anyway. The FNM has decided to sign.
Let’s see if they go ahead.
The latest who oppose is the last of the usual cast of characters,
including Brian Moree. There isn’t a cause on which he is not an
expert. Mr. Moree was advocating that The Bahamas sign a bi-lateral
treaty with the EU. How ridiculous? Who is going to negotiate
with a nation of 300,000 people on trade matters when we have already done
so in a group context? Mr. Moree might one day explain. We
hope it is after the pact is signed.
We want to share with you an important essay on why we should sign
by writer Jennifer Hosten in the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian, provided
to us from the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) of which
The Bahamas is a part. Click
here for the piece by Jennifer Hosten.
Photo: Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning (2nd
from left) with, from left, Prime Ministers King, Tillman and Gonsalves
from St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada who have signed to deepen their
co-operation by seeking a political union.
Basketball in Fox Hill
The Young Guns basketball team won the 2008 Fox Hill Festival Basketball
tournament. The tournament was named after Roberto McKinney, a prominent
Fox Hill basketball player who died at a young age. The tournament
ended on Friday 5th September. It marked the end of the Eric Wilmott
Fox Hill Festival. On hand to present the trophies to the winning
team was Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill. The photo is by Al Dillette.
Congratulations to the winners.
Haiti In A Mess After The Storm
Even as The Bahamas faces the problem of the storms Hanna and Ike,
the people of Haiti are in serious trouble again. The President of
Haiti Rene Preval described the aftermath of Hanna as a catastrophe.
The Prime Minister of The Bahamas reportedly was to call the President
of Haiti to offer assistance. More than our assistance is needed
of course. The UN has delivered some aid but much more is needed
with 500 people dead and 600,000 people homeless. Water is reportedly
waist deep in Haiti’s second largest city Gonaives.
Darold Miller Case
Magistrate Renae McKay postponed the ruling in the case of Commissioner
of Police against Darold Miller, the former ZNS Talk Show host. Mr.
Miller is charged with abusing his position as supervisor while he was
working at GEMS Radio to seek sexual favours from a female employee.
Mr. Miller alleges that the charges are politically motivated. The
ruling was to come on 2nd September. Because the transcript writer
was unable to provide full transcripts of the trial, the Magistrate postponed
the final ruling on guilt or innocence to 10th September.
Power Outages In Nassau
All week long, it was burning hot, no wind, no thunder yet the power
failed in the middle of the business morning. BEC had another power
failure on Saturday 6th September, again no wind, bright sunshine.
They are a natural disgrace.
Service In The Bahamas
In the 1970s, one of the most popular ‘fast food’ joints, if you can
call it that, was Keith’s Chicken Shack in Grants Town. At 2 a.m.,
the place was usually packed with customers. The only problem is
you could not figure out quite why. The food was greasy, full of
ketchup and lots of hot sauce and not the kind of thing you should eat
at 2 a.m. But people loved it. The other thing was you could
never figure out who would get served first. It was all hit and miss.
There would be loud cries: “One breast, one thigh, one fries. One breast,
one thigh, one fries.” Somehow, the women behind the stove seemed
to get it. What was really vexing was after you were standing there
waiting to get served after what seemed hours, some guy would come running
in, leaving his car motor running and reach over everyone and get three
bags of chicken, pay and leave.
You would have thought that this system of Bahamian service was left
behind. Not so. Go to the fish fry down at Arawak Cay today
and you find the same thing. You can’t figure out who is going to
be served. No one seems to be talking to one another. The staff
treat the customers with studied indifference. They all seem angry
at one another. And sometimes it takes you an hour to get the conch
salad you were longing for. The Ministry of Marine Resources should
also check these stalls at Arawak Cay because they seem to be serving an
awful lot of undersized or juvenile conch.
No wonder tourists complain about service in this country though.
So many times, it is simply irrationally delivered and you don’t get your
money’s worth.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITORPrayers for Turks & Caicos
The preliminary reports coming out of Turks and Caicos are not good
or encouraging at this time. It has been reported that as much as 40% of
the homes in Grand Turk have been severely damaged or totally lost. I hope
this is not the case for Inagua and Acklins that appear to be in the direct
path of Ike. This morning at 8 am Provo was still experiencing 80-90 mph
winds.
We should continue to keep our brothers and neighbours to the south
in our prayers.
Elcott Coleby
Follow Up On City Markets:
Last week, Larry Strachan, a reader pointed out an error in the
story about City Markets. The correction was made in a later edition.
Thank you for the correction. The competition to City Markets was
described as “Safeco”, when it should have been “Saveco”. Interestingly
enough, the Nassau Guardian’s business section carried a story last week
indicating that the new owners of City Markets had voted themselves whopping
dividends once they took over the company despite its financial troubles.
The report does not seem right but no one from City Market has refuted
it. The stores posted a loss of eight million dollars under its new
owners. There is sure to be a testy shareholders meeting coming up.
(Editor)
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
HUBERT RENEGES
ON A LEGAL PROMISE TO RUBY
If you read the column
of 4th May, 2008 you can see the comment we made shortly after Ruby
Nottage was sworn in as a Judge of the Supreme Court. There was a
controversy at the time about the appointment because there is a 20 year
outstanding indictment against her in a court in Boston in the United States.
After the appointment, most people believed that she fit in well and was
doing her work admirably. She serves in the Family Court and again
the reports are that her work as a judge was firm and thorough.
Our first comment on the matter, prior to the swearing in was to question why she would have wanted to put herself through the indignity of the public process that predictably ensued. The matter of the indictment was old history. The U.S. was obviously not interested in the case. She had secured a good job at the College of The Bahamas. She was the Anglican Chancellor. All that past was behind her. The appointment simply awakened that sleeping issue. Nevertheless, it was her call. The press played up the issue but at the end of the day, it appears that the society felt bullied by the United States on the issue and supported the appointment.
Now let us turn to the Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s role in this. His actions can only be described as despicable. It appears that Ruby Nottage only agreed to do this job as a Judge of the Supreme Court because she was asked by the Chief Justice and the Judicial and Legal Services Commission to do so. There is a shortage of Judges and the courts have slowed to a crawl without competent Judges. She agreed that she would serve save for one issue that she would have to leave her then existing job for a five month appointment since she would turn 65, the retirement age of Judges on the court.
Under the constitution, the retirement age can be extended if the Judge before her 65th birthday gets an extension for two years from the Prime Minister following consultation with the Leader of the Opposition. The interesting thing about this is that it was clear that both Mr. Ingraham and Mr. Christie agreed and supported this appointment and the extension. The press reported on Tuesday 9th September that Mr. Ingraham has now changed his mind, reneged on the agreement with Mrs. Nottage and will no longer allow the extension. So after serving from 30th April, on what is her 65th birthday, the press says on 7th October, she will have to demit office.
What went off the rails from April to now? Mr. Ingraham is a creature of panic. He was told by the Americans that Mrs. Nottage would not be touched so long as she was a judge of the court and so long as she never tried to set foot in the United States. But it was also clear that this was not a live issue for them. The U.S. had to say for the record however that while the indictment was still extant in the legal sense Mrs. Nottage could be described by the unfortunate term as a fugitive from U.S. justice. She has committed no crime in The Bahamas. Indeed, what she did was what lawyers in The Bahamas do as a matter of routine, forming companies and acting as directors. The indictment against the other lawyers in the U.S. was dismissed without going to trial. Mr. Ingraham decided that the noise in the market was too much and he therefore reneged. So much for his infamous statement: “I say what I mean and I mean what I say.”
The question is whether or not this is a legal issue and what will Mrs. Nottage do. It appears to us that at the very least she has a remedy in damages. The Prime Minister made a promise. Mrs. Nottage left her job on the promise and in the expectation that she would get the extension. The government now owes her at the very least her full salary for the next two years. It is something on which she ought to take legal advice.
That of course is ultimately for herself and her family to decide. What we have one further comment on is what it says about the character of Hubert Ingraham and the kind of man he is. It is simply lousy for you to make a promise to someone, and then break that promise because you get a little political heat. Some of his friends say that when he agreed to the extension, he did not know that the indictment was still a live issue. For a man who claims to be so au fait with Bahamian affairs, how could he not have known? We do not believe it. We believe that this is shameless capitulation in the face of political pressure. We believe that it was a lousy and despicable thing to do.
This is the real Hubert Ingraham for whom the Bahamian people voted. He could not stand up for his own citizen and could not even stick to his word. What then is his word worth? We leave it to our readers to decide.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 13th September 2008 up to midnight: 227,288.
Number of hits for the month of September 2008 up to Saturday 13th September to midnight: 383,911.
Number of hits for the year 2008 up to Saturday 13th September up to midnight: 9,300,615.
HURRICANE
IKE DAMAGES INAGUA
The Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham took a plane
load of officials, the Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie, PLP Chair
Glenys Hanna Martina and MP Alfred Gray to Inagua on Tuesday 9th September
to inspect the damage wrought by Hurricane Ike. The newspapers used
the word devastated to describe the damage there.
One reporter wrote that Ike had “ravished” Inagua.
He meant that it had ravaged Inagua. One wonders about these terms.
You would aptly describe the damage to Haiti as devastation and ravaging.
Can you describe what happened in The Bahamas in that way? There
was no loss of life. The buildings in large measure stood up to the
pressure of the storm. The code, after all, only calls for the buildings
to stand up to 120 mile per hour winds. The reports are that the
winds were more than that. So yes, there was serious damage but not
devastation. That is not to say that the effects of the hurricane
were not devastating on the population, without roofs, no electricity,
no jobs since the only employer Morton Salt has said it is will be closed
for two months.
By week's end despite the outpouring of sympathy,
goods and support and visits by officials, the PLP’s delegation led by
former Housing Minister Shane Gibson, former Education Minister Alfred
Sears and MP for Inagua Alfred Gray reported that the response of the government
to the emergency was poor. They accused the government of giving
out what little help there was on a party political basis. Further,
Mr. Sears said that if the FNM had continued with the plans to build a
new school in Inagua they would not be facing the damaged school today.
There are no reports of any significant damage in any of the other islands
of The Bahamas.
BIS Photos: Kristaan Ingraham
WHAT
ABOUT THE FLAMINGOS?
Eric Carey who is the Director of the Bahamas National
Trust was on the flight to Inagua on Tuesday 9th September. In an
interview with the Broadcasting Corporation, he said that Henry Nixon,
the warden of the Inagua National Park had done an initial inspection.
He discovered some 30 birds were dead. Mr. Carey said that further
inspections are to be carried out but the warden had discovered several
groups of live birds, so it appeared that in the main they had survived.
He said that his concern was for the Bahama Parrot. When hurricanes
come, it destroys their food source and that is an issue the Trust would
have to address. A report about the birds (50,000), the largest colony
of West Indian flamingos in the world was carried in the International
Herald Tribune, the New York Times’ European version published in Paris.
PLP
CHAIRMAN ON HURRICANE IKE
PLP Chair Glenys Hanna Martin issued a statement
in sympathy with the people of Inagua as a result of the passage of Hurricane
Ike and the damage that occurred. The following is the text of the
statement issued on Wednesday 10th September:
“The Progressive Liberal party extends its sympathy
to all those persons who have suffered loss as a consequence of natural
disasters over the last few days. In particular we hold in our prayers
the people of Inagua where today, Tuesday Sept. 9th, we have seen firsthand
considerable property damage and loss on that island.
“We urge all Bahamians to support the national
effort in bringing restoration to the islands affected and we pledge our
full assistance to the Government’s efforts in this regard.
“We particularly urge our membership to contribute
generously as needed to the national agencies such as the Red Cross or
to deliver donated items to our national Headquarters on Farrington Road
where we will ensure all goods reach affected areas expeditiously to alleviate
the hardship of our brothers and sisters and so as to ensure that people’s
lives resume normalcy as soon as possible.
“We stand in full solidarity and support with
our brothers and sisters who are today seeking to recover from the terrible
experience of being impacted by a major hurricane.”
A
PHOTO ESSAY OF THE DAMAGE
We present the photo essay of photos taken by Kristaan
Ingraham, photographer of the Bahamas Information Services, on the damage
at Inagua. Photos were taken both from the air and on the land.
What concerns us, however, is the Prime Minister’s boast that the country
was prepared for the hurricane but from all that we see on our television
screens, it is the U.S. Coastguard that represents his version of preparedness.
Something is wrong with that picture. Indeed the report is that the
Prime Minister took a ride in a U.S. helicopter to get from Inagua to Mayaguana.
Have some pride, man.
THE
SITUATION IN THE TURKS AND CAICOS
Before Hurricane Ike struck Inagua in the southern
Bahamas, it struck the island of Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Prime Minster of The Bahamas Hubert Ingraham has promised aid to help
the Turks and Caicos and Haiti. You may click here for a video of
the damage in the Turks and Caicos Islands (http://www.turksandcaicosontv.com).
Deputy Opposition Leader Oswald Skippings has accused the Turks’ government
of not responding adequately to the Hurricane damage. Mr. Skippings
said that relief in the island was being distributed only to the supporters
of the governing party of Premier Michael Misick. Yesterday GEMS
radio’s proprietor Debbie Bartlett led a mercy flight to the Turks to provide
relief supplies donated from The Bahamas. She was accompanied by
Senator Jerome Gomez.
CRIME
COMMITTEE CONTINUES HEARINGS
The Select Committee of the House of Assembly on Crime led by the PLP’s
Dr. Bernard Nottage continued its hearings this week. Appearing before
the Committee amongst others was Dr. Elliston Rahming (shown in centre
at right). What a difference it makes when you have an educated and
sensible man before you. He talks “sense” not “nonsense”. You
will remember we took
issue with the claptrap by the Acting Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson
when he testified the week before.
Dr. Rahming himself headed a Commission on Prison
Reform under the PLP and is now the Superintendent of the Prison.
He repeated much of that advice: too many people are sent to prison for
minor crimes and on remand. He thinks that the prison population
should be reserved for major crimes.
Committee members (pictured from left) are FNM MPs
Kendal Wright and Kwasi Thompson; PLP MPs Dr. Bernard Nottage (Chairman),
Frank Smith and Glenys Hanna Martin and Independent MP Kenyatta Gibson.
The hearings are being held at the British Colonial Hilton and are open
to the public. You can call the House of Assembly from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. at 242-322-2042 for further details. It is disgraceful that
these hearings are not being carried live on the television and radio.
The FNM government refuses to approve the funding for it and turned down
Dr. Nottage’s request.
Photos of the Committee at work and Dr. Rahming’s
appearance are by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services.
Here is Dr. Rahming’s statement as reported in the
Nassau Guardian in his own words. He appeared before the Committee
on Wednesday 10th September:
“Over the last four years, only seven people
were sentenced to prison for murder. Since January 2006 there were 185
murders.
“Punishment works best when it is swift and sure
and I am afraid that it is neither swift nor sure… Between 1997 and 2006
the average arrest rate for murder was 67 percent; 14 percent for serious
wounding; 46 percent for rape; 25 percent for armed robbery and 18 percent
for other robberies, for an average arrest rate of 36 percent for crimes
against the person.
“This means that two out of three personal crimes
did not even yield an arrest, much less a conviction or incarceration.
Over the same period there was an average arrest rate of 15 percent for
property crimes, which means that one in six property crimes led to an
arrest…
“The grim arrest rates are not so much a reflection
on the police as they are a portrait of our unwillingness to organize neighborhoods
to assume ownership in crime prevention…Arrest rates can improve through
community organization, parental skills training, conflict resolution training,
anger management training and anti-crime environmental design strategies…
“Of course, once we enhance our arrest rates
we must broaden the menu of punishments. In my view, prison should be reserved
for dangerous, violent offenders, drug and arms traffickers, child molesters
and predators, multiple recidivists and corruption offenders…
“In order to reduce overcrowding in the Maximum
Security Unit of the prison, authorities should introduce a form of plea
bargaining which would lead to more guilty pleas; seriously look at alternative
sentencing, including weekend sentences for non-violent, non-dangerous
offenders; allow indigent offenders who are fined a reasonable time to
pay the fine before imposing a custodial sentence; introduce electronic
monitoring instead of remanded custody for minor, non-violent offenders;
expand the prison's remand facility and systematically assess the readiness
of long-term sentenced persons to determine their suitability for early
release…
“There is a prevailing view in The Bahamas that
crime trends are driven downward by the severity of punishment. Research
has shown that the certainty of punishment is a far greater deterrent to
criminality than an over-emphasis on severity.
“I am not suggesting for one second that those
who commit serious crimes should be punished lightly. I am a strong advocate
of strict, even severe punishment. I am suggesting, however, that we look
at the intent, the purpose of custodial punishment and when that purpose
has been served, we resort to alternatives on a case-by-case basis…
“As of September 8, 2008, 1,380 inmates were
incarcerated, virtually half of whom are awaiting trial. Last year, the
prison admitted 2,556 inmates, 32 percent of whom were sentenced and 68
percent remanded, he said. The prison head also reported that during the
first eight months of 2008, there were 1,751 admitted inmates, 31 percent
of whom were sentenced.
“By now, it is widely accepted that for a country
our size, there are too many persons behind bars, notwithstanding the fact
that there has been a 12 percent decline in total admissions to prison
between 2005 and 2007.”
Peter Ramsay photos
THE
ARCHBISHOP ON SOCIAL DECAY
Perhaps the fact of demitting office in January 2009 makes it possible
for the Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez to be more frank in his views.
The Archbishop (shown addressing the Committee in this BIS photo by Peter
Ramsay) appeared before the Select Committee of the House of Assembly investigating
crime and made a set of statements with which we agree without reservation.
We repeat, it is refreshing to hear “sense” as opposed to “nonsense”.
The Acting Commissioner of Police did not acquit himself well when he appeared
before the Committee. The Committee did not question him vigorously
enough. We recall the Lorequin in 1991, an incident in which U.S.
officials accused the government of The Bahamas of covering up the smuggling
of drugs from a controlled operation in Nassau Harbour. The Commission
of Inquiry report into the matter led to a finding that Mr. Ferguson who
was in charge of the investigation had to take responsibility for it going
off the rails. No questions were asked of him on that matter by the
Committee. Since that finding, he was promoted to Deputy Commissioner
of Police.
Here is what the Archbishop had to say in his own
words; and we support his call for a continued dialogue in an objective
fashion on this subject. The report of what he said comes from the
Bahama Journal of 12th September:
“The church continues to toil in a nation where
people are not practicing Christian values. The church has not been as
effective as it could have been. The battle for the soul of the nation
and home and family life are taking a battering almost as forceful as the
recent Hurricane Ike.
“Whatever we do in the future, we will not succeed
if we do not improve the quality of home and family life. There can be
no substitute for that…
“I bemoan the backlog of the court system. However,
I disagree with the notions that revamping of the country’s laws would
fix the crime problem. Stricter laws, bigger prisons, longer sentences,
more police officers, resumption of hanging – there are people who believe
that these are the ultimate solutions – they are not…
“These measures, while necessary, only attempt
to deal with the consequences and the results of the crime. We must look
beyond consequences and get the root causes of the problem…
“The country does not need new laws on the books.
It needs some citizens who would have the divine law imprinted on their
hearts. We have to stop treating the symptoms and deal with the causes…
“There is a sub-culture of disrespect and non-discipline
that has fuelled crime…I believe that we as a society have ourselves to
blame for failing to pay attention to what was going on around us. We are
now at the stage that we cannot ignore it any longer and we must now take
measures, and in some cases desperate measures, and address the situation
so that we can produce a more harmonious society. What I am suggesting
is objective discussions of our realities…
“The government must have the political will
to lead the charge. The private sector in The Bahamas is not making the
kind of contribution that it should be making given the fact that we allow
companies to repatriate their profits – there should be some way in which
those profits are directed locally. I think people who make a profit in
The Bahamas should return some of that profit for the benefit of The Bahamas…
“I hope the Select Committee will encourage objective
discussions to deal with the problem…
“All of these considerations point to the fact
that lasting solutions must begin with a more objective, in depth and interdisciplinary
discussion on crime and violence. It must not only happen with professionals
but with the public at large.”
PLP
INFIGHTING REPORTS EXAGGERATED
Last week, the press of The Bahamas had a field
day with reports from one faction or the other of the PLP indicating that
there was infighting in the PLP. It appeared to suggest that the
PLP chair Glenys Hanna Martin was seeking to stop an insurgent crop of
newcomers into the PLP including a group supporting Senator Jerome Fitzgerald,
who is tipped for the Marathon seat, activist Paul Moss in St. Cecilia
and Derek Ryan in Kennedy, from ascendancy in the PLP.
It was reported also that a meeting of the Marathon
Branch of the PLP ended without agreement on a way forward and in a walkout
on the National Chairman. One report said that the insurgents at
the Marathon branch are prepared to take the PLP Chair to court if her
actions persist. Paul Moss, the activist seemed to suggest that similar
actions were planned for a meeting in the St. Cecilia area where he is
being challenged by officials in attempting to take his seat as National
General Council (NGC) member for St. Cecilia’s.
Before the FNM starts rubbing their hands with too
much glee, what is clear is that hundreds of people still want to be PLPs
and will fight for their right to be PLP. That is a good thing.
What is also clear is that, in dealing with a fight to participate, it
would behoove the official PLP to deal sensitively with the aspirations
at branch level and let democracy prevail. No one likes to see these
reports of in fighting. They are false. This is just the vigorous expression
of democracy and those who have ears to hear should hear. The PLP
is a sound organization.
ERIC
WILMOTT B.E.M. AND PLP STALWART IS BURIED
Fred Mitchell MP Fox Hill paid tribute to Eric Wilmott,
B.E.M. and Stalwart Councillor of the PLP at a memorial service on Thursday
evening 11th September at St. Paul’s Baptist Church, Fox Hill. You
may click here for the full statement
of Mr. Mitchell. Also speaking were Fred Ramsay, former FNM candidate
for Fox Hill, Senator Jacinta Higgs, also another losing FNM candidate
in Fox Hill, Rev. Dr. Philip Rahming, former President of The Bahamas Christian
Council, Charles Johnson, Head of the Fox Hill Festival Committee and Maurice
Tynes, also a Committee member.
Mr. Wilmott died suddenly last Sunday of an apparent
heart attack at the age of 74. He was eulogized by Monsignor Preston
Moss of St. Anselm’s Church, Fox Hill at the funeral service on Friday
12th September. He was buried in St. Anselm’s graveyard. He
is survived by his son Eric Wilmott Jr.
Above from left: File photo of Eric Wilmott Sr., Eric Wilmott Jr.
addressing the memorial service in photos by Vaughan Scriven; and Monsignor
Preston Moss is shown officiating at the funeral in this picture by photographer
Peter Ramsay. Please click here
for a full photographic retrospective of the funeral and the memorial service
by photographers Vaughn Scriven and Peter Ramsay.
SENATE
CHALLENGE WRAPS UP
It is now up to the Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall
to decide at first instance whether or not the Prime Minister acted unconstitutionally
in the matter of appointing Tanya Wright and Anthony Musgrove to the Senate.
The PLP led by former Attorney General Paul Adderley argued before the
CJ that he did. The Prime Minister used government counsel to say
that he did not.
No idea when the judgment will come. Given
the record of this court though you can expect anywhere from this Christmas
to next Christmas and by the time the ultimate ruling takes place at the
Privy Council, all of us will likely be dead. If the Court is worth
its salt, it should have a ruling by next week given the fundamental public
importance of this matter, and then it should be on to the Court of Appeal
and thence to the Privy council so that it is all wrapped up by 31st October.
But we remember the Methodist Church case that has been outstanding for
more than a decade with the local Courts refusing to rehear the matter
as directed by the Privy Council. Unbelievable!
FOX
HILL JUNKANOO CHEQUES
Representatives of major Junkanoo groups were on
the Fox Hill Parade Sunday, 14th September, 2008 to collect their cash
winnings for participation in the Eric Wilmott Fox Hill Festival Junkanoo
Parade staged during August in the village. Vice Chairman of the
Committee Maurice Tynes, along with Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell presented
the cheques. Mr. Mitchell thanked the Junkanoo groups’ representatives,
saying that they were key to “…this year’s Festival being the most successful
ever”. From left (at front) are Charlene Curry, Olive Mackey of the
Fox Hill Festival Committee; Anthony Gibson and son, One Love Junkanoos;
Wilson ‘Kook-Aid’ Bain, Saxons Superstars; Paula Tynes, Fox Hill Festival
Committee; Lynden Rahming, Prodigal Sons. At rear, Fox Hill MP Fred
Mitchell; Trevor Pratt, Original Fox Hill Congos; Roddy Knowles, Maurice
Tynes, Youri Kemp and Leon Taylor, Fox Hill Festival Committee.
LETTER
TO THE EDITOR
BEC tax holiday is no picnic for consumers
In his 2008/2009 budget communication, the Prime
Minister proposed a two year tax holiday for BEC amounting to a 17% rebate
on the cost of imported fuel. He suggested that this tax holiday would
translate into significant savings to Bahamian households. He further
stated that these tax concessions were the most important in recent history.
To date, the empirical data from BEC do not support the expressed policy
intents of the government. Specifically, Prime Minister Ingraham
had this to say:
“The tax holiday afforded to BEC for a 2 year
period in this Budget is designed to slow the continued increase in energy
surcharge passed on to customers by BEC. Additionally, the 2 year tax relief
now being given should ease BEC back to a position of financial soundness.
“We expect that the relief given to BEC for
two years on customs duties and what was stamp tax amounting to 17% overall,
will allow BEC to limit any further fuel surcharge. The impact on household’s
incomes and savings could be significant.
“As with consumer retail items, we will also
monitor BEC pricing closely so as to ensure that any further fuel surcharge
increases are limited by the amount of the concessions given to BEC on
Stamp Tax.
“The reductions in the customs duties in the
2008/09 are among the most important tax concessions granted to families
in the recent history of this country”.
Further, the Minister of State with responsibility
for utilities promised significant relief by August of this year.
He and this government argued that the significant increase in the cost
of electricity was due to the hike in oil prices and beyond the control
of the government and BEC.
To add perspective to this, between May and July
of this year, BEC increased its surcharge from 21.2 cents per kilowatt
hour to 24.8 cents per kilowatt hour, or 3.6 cents. One can only
imagine what the surcharge increases over the past eighteen months were.
During the last three months, BEC has benefitted
from revenue windfalls on two fronts: Firstly, a 17% tax concession on
duty and stamp tax on imported oil, and secondly, a significant reduction
(some 30%) in the price of oil on the international market. It is
important to note that BEC pays the oil companies current market prices
on consignment. BEC carries no inventory and their benefits from
global price reductions are immediate. Having said that, it is disappointing
and unsatisfactory to consumers to learn that during the August 2008 billing
cycle, BEC passed on a paltry one cent per Kilowatt hour to its valued
customers. Monopoly obviously has its privileges.
If the policy intent of the government was to
focus on the balance sheet of BEC rather than facilitating the “impact
on household’s incomes and savings”, they should have said so. Suffice
it to say editor, BEC is enjoying one hell of a “tax holiday”, but the
empirical data shows that consumers across the board must work overtime
to pay for this holiday.
Elcott Coleby
IN PASSING
The Ambassador To Cuba
The government has recalled Carlton Wright in mid contract from Cuba.
No official word on who is to succeed Mr. Wright as Ambassador. We
have found out that Vernon Symonette, the former Speaker of the House is
set to be tipped for the job.
The Future Of Morton Salt
Demoralized after Hurricane Ike, with damage to buildings and plant
in the tens of millions, news is that the US parent company of Morton Salt
says that it is dedicated to bringing the plant back online. The
report quoted Emily Riley, spokesman for Rohm and Hass, the new owners
of the plant. The plant hires 150 people in Inagua and is the only
employer in the town except the government.
EPA Signed
Thirteen of the fifteen Caricom countries agreed at the Summit in Barbados
to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.
The Bahamas was a part of the group. Guyana and Haiti are not.
Haiti asked for a delay and will sign later. They have little to
lose. Being the only least developed country in the region, they
get all kinds of aid assistance. Guyana’s resistance is inexplicable
and hypocritical. Barrett Jagdeo its President said that he would
soldier on alone in the fight. He thinks that it will break up Caricom
although he did not repeat that statement at the meeting. He says
that the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) responsible for
the negotiations did not follow Caricom’s instructions. He says he
will only sign if Guyana, which exports the largest amount of goods to
the EU, will suffer penalties on its exports to Europe. The Europeans have
already said they will impose the penalties. That means Mr. Jagdeo’s
complaint is an idle one. He will have to sign if he follows his
own logic. We support the EPA without reservations.
Why We Should Sign The EPA
Last week, we attempted to share with you an important essay on why
we should sign by writer Jennifer Hosten in the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian,
provided to us from the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM)
of which The Bahamas is a part. The link was faulty. Please
now click here for the piece by Jennifer
Hosten from the Trinidad Guardian.
Cuba Rejects US Aid
The United States Government through its Assistant Secretary of State
for Latin American Tom Shannon offered aid to Cuba following the damage
by Hurricane Ike that struck the island last weekend. The Cubans
said no dice. They said that instead the US should end the embargo
against their country that prevents them from buying goods they need from
the US on the open market. A new version one supposes of trade not
aid. The US said they did not think that now is the time to end the
embargo.
Basil & Cheryl
Albury Celebrate 40 Years
Basil and Cheryl Albury celebrated 40 years of marriage over the weekend.
Basil, a senior Civil Servant and Cheryl a Justice of the Supreme Court,
were married on 31st August, 1968. The couple renewed their marriage
vows in a ceremony at St. Anselm's Roman Catholic Church in Fox Hill, followed
by a luncheon at their home and a celebratory dinner at Luciano's restaurant
on East Bay St. Among the dignitaries attending was former Prime
Minister Perry Christie.
Omar’s Recovery
We reported last week that former candidate for the House on the Bahamas
Democratic Movement’s ticket Omar Archer was shot in Nassau Village on
Thursday 4th September. Mr. Archer from his hospital bed seemed to
relish the moment as he repeated in gory detail in an exclusive to Paul
Turnquest of The Tribune how he was shot and dodged the bullets that could
have taken his life. The Nassau Guardian reports that Marvin Newbold
a 32 year old of Yellow Elder Gardens has now been charged with attempted
murder in the matter. Mr. Archer joined the PLP this year and ran
for the party’s chairmanship at its February convention.
George Cox Falls Ill
George Cox, the engineer, husband of Setella Cox, godmother of PLP
MP Fred Mitchell, took ill at the funeral of Eric Wilmott at St. Anselm’s
Church in Fox Hill on Friday 8th September. He was taken to Doctor’s
Hospital. He was expected to be released today.
Winter Olympics Participant For The Bahamas
Korath Wright, son of Ethric Bowe, a PLP activist and former CDR supporter,
is to be the first Bahamian in the Winter Olympics in 2010, if he gets
his way and makes it through the qualifiers. Then Minister Sports
Byran Woodside attended an official launch for Mr. Wright’s campaign in
the gardens of the British Colonial Hilton. No word on when it took
place but the Guardian reported the matter on Tuesday 9th September.
Tim Aylen's photo shows Ethric Bowe with his son Korath.
Tourism’s Ad Every Two Years
An interesting comment from Vernice Walkine, the Director General of
Tourism, on the Ministry of Tourism’s ad campaign for The Bahamas.
The Nassau Guardian reported on Tuesday 9th September that
the Ministry of Tourism will only be doing new ads every two years, because
that is the full life they can get out the ads. They don’t have enough
money to do more. Curious! Two years? In the marketplace,
that is a lifetime, and a two year old ad will be useless and tired.
That can’t be right. It must be a misquote.
The Scum, Excuse Us The Scribe Writes Again
The Scribe, a columnist that appears in the down market rag The Punch
was at it again on its favourite topics: this website and Fred Mitchell.
It is an unhealthy preoccupation. The Scribe said that Mr. Mitchell
should come out from under his rock and admit that he writes this column.
We will not dignify such foolishness with a reply but we know that the
person in the Churchill Building who is hiding behind the nom deplume the
Scribe should follow his own advice and come out from under his own rock.
11th September Anniversary
Fred Mitchell, the Opposition’s spokesman on Foreign Affairs, has written
U.S. Ambassador Ned Siegel to The Bahamas to offer expressions of support
on the occasion of the anniversary of the 11th September 2001 attacks on
the World Trade Centre Building in New York.
Darold Miller Free On Charge
The first prosecution for Sexual Harassment in The Bahamas has failed.
Darold Miller the former talk show host was accused by an employee of GEMS
radio who worked with him of sexual harassment. Mr. Miller accused
the station’s owners of firing him because they owed him 100,000 dollars
and because he had fought against “sissyism”. He also accused them
of firing him for political reasons. When he was acquitted, he repeated
those charges outside the courtroom and said that he would take legal action
to pursue his rights. He was surrounded by his mother and other family
members at the time of the acquittal. Following his acquittal, he
pitched a celebration at his establishment at the fish fry. The GEMS
radio station has responded that Mr. Miller’s claims are nonsense and that
they will vigorously defend themselves against any legal actions.
The photo following the acquittal on 10th September is by Donald Knowles.
The victim lashed out at the system saying that it had failed her and that
she had lost confidence in the system.
Jacinta Higgs Under Fire
Nicki Kelly wrote a column in the down market rag newspaper called
The Punch two weeks ago. In it she accused FNM Senator Jacinta Higgs
of not knowing what she was talking about with regard to the Clifton Heritage
site created by the PLP government and of which she is now in charge.
Ms. Kelly accused her trying to rewrite history. In less polite circles,
it is called you know what. It did not take long for someone
to run to her defence to say what a great lady she is. We believe
Nicki Kelly somehow.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH
CITY MARKETS?
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Bahamas Supermarkets Ltd. (BSL)
was held at the British Colonial Hilton on Tuesday 16th September.
BSL is the company that trades as City Markets, one of the two large food
market chains in The Bahamas. City Markets was originally a company
owned by the late UBP Finance and Tourism Minister Stafford L. Sands.
The company was sold to Winn Dixie, a food chain in Florida in 1968.
It is now a publicly traded company with thousands of Bahamian shareholders.
The major share up until 2006 was owned by Winn Dixie.
Winn Dixie ran into financial trouble. The Bahamian stores were a cash cow and they offloaded it by a competitive bid. The bid was won by a group called Bahamas Supermarkets Holdings Ltd. That company is headed by Basil Sands, Chairman and other Board members include Barry Farrington of the Hotel Workers Pension Fund, Franklin Butler of Milo Butler & Sons. There are also shareholder representatives from Barbados Shipping and Trading, now Neal and Massy of Trinidad and Tobago. Another major Bahamian shareholder in the holding company is Craig Symonette, brother of Brent Symonette, the Deputy Prime Minister. The deal was put together by Anwar Sunderji of Fidelity Bank. He too is a director and may represent the largest single shareholding.
The company was not able to hold an annual general meeting last year because of late financials. The rumours around the market were that the company was going to announce substantial losses when the financials came out. In the room on Tuesday 16th September when Basil Sands announced that the company would lose 10 million dollars this financial year, there was an audible gasp from the group there assembled.
The explanation from the company was that they did not have and could not get from the previous CEO of the Company and the previous CFO of the company reliable financial information. Mr. Sands said that as recently as February of this year, they were told that the company would make a 4.7 million dollar profit. That turned out to be false and the loss will be more like 10 million. That is a provisional figure.
The small Bahamian shareholders who could therefore rely in the past on City Markets to send them a dividend cheque every month won’t be seeing a cheque any time soon. The question is how did a company with all this expertise, selling a simple product, groceries, allow itself to get into a situation like this? Their explanation really amounts to the fact that they had no inventory control. There was some 6.3 million dollars in what is euphemistically called shrinkage, meaning theft. In other words, the inventory was coming in the door, leaving the premises or never arriving, and they did not notice that money was not coming in for the losses until much too late. They said that 48 people were fired in the last year for dishonesty.
The PLP gave permission for this deal to go ahead with the participation of the Barbadian company as a lender. That company’s representative at the meeting made it clear that this was only done to facilitate the deal. They never had an interest in being a lender. They always wanted to be an owner. They only agreed to be a lender to get regulatory approval from the PLP. It appears to have been done with a wink and a nod to the policy that did not allow non Bahamians to participate in the retail distributive trades, including grocery stores. That is observed more in the breach. Today Saveco has foreign participation in direct competition to Bahamian food stores. Robin Hood is foreign owned and competes directly with Bahamian food stores. If you look behind the success of Kelly’s you will probably find some foreign connection that allows them to get a product line in here to beat all the competitors. We say a wink and nod because we suspect the root of City Markets’ problems is exactly the policy of Bahamianization that encourages people to use artifices to get around the policy. The net result in this case was that the foreign owner had no control over the financials and the groceries simply walked out of the door before they could spot it. The artifice also caused the cost of this deal to go up too high and the holding company simply paid too much for the company
The question is how, even after management was fired, does the Board continue to survive in the face of that? The answer is the board is in many cases a derivative of the shareholders on a one to one basis. Most have vested interests in making it work and for them to be at the table.
For the poor Bahamian shareholder, there is no one to look out for their interest. There is not even a probative press, even though you had a Tribune reporter sitting inside the meeting as the Board was grilled about the lack of performance of the company.
The meeting itself seemed to concentrate too much on financials though, and not on its core business which is selling groceries. What is its marketing strategy and what will City Markets do to hold and grow its market? There was a lot of crowing about holding market share but with respect to all, holding market share, even falling slightly back allowing for the state of the compression of the economy is not good enough. If you are simply holding where you are, you are falling back and not growing.
One problem when a Board and a company are dominated by bankers, lawyers and accountants is that they will do what they know best and seek to put in place overly strict controls. They are not grocery men and so selling is not their forte. Neal and Massy that provides the expertise has also to find out whether they truly understand this market or will this be their first failure in the region.
There is clearly a need for a more rigorous regulatory regime to look after the interests of the public at large and the interests of minority shareholders.
What we say again about this company is that most people think about popular regular product lines, good prices and for small shareholders a regular dividend cheque. When you are pensioner getting $205 dollars from the government or even $500 from National Insurance, a cheque for $20 makes a difference. In some cases, City Markets has now robbed those individuals of that opportunity. Who will account to whom for this?
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 20th September 2008 up to midnight: 297,725.
Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 20th September 2008 at midnight: 693,803.
Number of hits for the year 2008 up to Saturday 20th September 2008 at midnight: 9, 598,340.
PORTIA
IN, MBEKI OUT
Late yesterday 20th September it became clear that
at the end of a day of voting Portia Simpson Miller, former Prime Minister
and Leader of the Opposition of Jamaica, had defeated insurgent candidate
Peter Philips, former Minister of National Security in the leadership race,
the second in three years for the leadership of the People’s National Party
(PNP) of Jamaica. Mr. Philips reportedly lost by 300 votes.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, Thabo Mbeki is now past history. The
President announced that he would resign following upon a meeting of the
National Executive Council of his ruling African National Congress (ANC)
party which called upon him to do so. The Council believes that he
is behind the attempts to try his former Deputy and now likely successor
Jacob Zuma on corruption charges.
IT’S
VERNON BURROWS FOR CUBA
We made a mistake, a rare one last week, when we
reported IN PASSING that Vernon Symonette, the former FNM Speaker, was
to replace Carlton Wright as Ambassador for The Bahamas in Cuba.
It was the wrong Vernon. The real Vernon in the job is to be Director
of Immigration Vernon Burrows. Mr. Wright is to return to The Bahamas
on 30th September.
The talk is that Jack Thompson, now Road Traffic
Comptroller, is to succeed Mr. Burrows at the Department of Immigration
as Director. While Mr. Burrow is competent, no doubt, it is a little
curious that a government would send its former Director of Immigration
who was only the month before deporting Cubans back home to be its Ambassador
to Cuba. What sort of political message does that send to the Cubans?
THE
ECONOMIC MELTDOWN AROUND THE WORLD
The Bush administration has scrambled with the Congress
of the United States over the past week to contain what they said would
be a meltdown of the U.S. economy if drastic steps were not taken to stem
the tide of defaults and bad loans that saw the demise of major banking
and investment houses in the United States and in Britain. Within
the last week Lehman Brothers, the investment bankers of New York, no friend
of The Bahamas, bit the dust. The U.S. government allowed them to
fail. The government did not allow the insurance company AIG to fail,
on the grounds that a rescue package of 85 billion was necessary because
of the extent of the impact on U.S. markets, if AIG failed.
In the United Kingdom, the Bank of Scotland was
on the verge of another run similar to the one that sank Northern Rock,
a main street bank in the United Kingdom that was nationalized earlier
this year. At each stage of these interventions, the US and the British
governments indicated that they thought that would stem the tide of failure.
It did not, and with the promise of more failure to come, the United States
President stepped in with a rescue package said to be worth up to 800 billion
dollars. That package will see the bad debt be absorbed by the taxpayers
of the United States.
In Britain, the Government dispensed with anti competitive
legislation and allowed the Bank of Scotland to be purchased by another
main street bank Lloyd’s. Things get curiouser and curiouser.
Enter John McCain, the US presidential hopeful who was boasting that the
fundamentals of the US economy were sound all last week and that there
should not be any intervention. He obviously supports Mr. Bush’s
position now.
What we find amusing, curious is a better word,
is that these big companies, these super capitalists, these government
officials, were the very ones who were arguing for no regulation, let market
forces decide and despising poor people on welfare. Now that their
rich friends are in trouble, they have no compunction to use the public
treasuries of their countries to rescue their rich friends. No one
is going to jail. They simply put their hands out and the US and
British governments shell out the cash. There is something sickeningly
wrong with it.
STALLED
PROJECTS IN THE BAHAMAS
The press reported last week that the Rum Cay development
project that was approved by the PLP and that was going when it left office
is no longer going. This adds to the tale of woes in this economy
where as a result of the stop, review and cancel policy of the FNM, the
economy has come to a dead stop, with credit at a stop and unemployment
rising. The Lehman Brothers failure has rung the death knell to an
already dead deal that of the Ritz Carlton project on Rose Island.
They were the financiers. This was another project approved by the
PLP and stopped, reviewed and now cancelled. We warned the FNM that
when people want to spend their money let them do so and stop looking under
every rock for crookedness where there is none. That is when you
come to office with no agenda.
MOTHER
PRATT IS BACK
Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt MP for St. Cecilia and the
Deputy Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party has been out ill for at
least six weeks with an over active thyroid condition. Her doctors
prescribed rest and medication. The House of Assembly resumed on
Wednesday 17th September and Mother Pratt turned up fresh as daisy to the
House. Welcome back Mother. Peter Ramsay, the BIS photographer,
captured the moment. Some sad news though and that is her husband
Joseph Pratt is not well and has had to be hospitalized.
THE
PLP AT PEACE
The press of The Bahamas has had a field day over
the past two weeks promoting what it called infighting in the PLP.
According to the various scenarios, there are factions in the PLP fighting
to maintain or to remove the PLP’s leader Perry Christie. As evidence,
the press went to two branch meetings of the PLP and published bits and
pieces of correspondence and interviews with various proponents of PLP
members and the would be candidates themselves. The idea was to paint
confusion. There is no confusion, although there might be if PLPs
do not stop reading these stupid newspapers that defame the PLP every week
and worse not only reading it but believing it.
Fred Mitchell at his monthly press conference on
Wednesday 17th September made the point that the so-called infighting,
that is really about people fighting to be members of the various branches
and to be PLP candidates is really good for democracy and the PLP.
It shows that people still want to be PLP, despite what the press is arguing.
The press thought there was going to be some sort of showdown on Thursday
18th September when the PLP Council met to reconsider the decision to hold
re-elections for branch officers in the St. Cecilia and Marathon constituencies.
As it turned out the Council affirmed the Chairman Glenys Hanna Martin’s
decision. The elections will be rerun.
The next morning though, the private meeting’s contents
appeared in the press under the by-line of Candia Dames with full blow-by-blow
descriptions of what was said in the meeting. Oh well, we guess no
publicity is bad publicity.
INGRAHAM’S
KNEE JERK ON ELECTRICITY
On Wednesday 17th September, the House of Assembly
resumed from its summer break. The government had no legislative
agenda. Instead, they insisted on reading a communication in which
the chief Communist-like Commissar Hubert Ingraham ordered the Bahamas
Electricity Corporation (BEC) to reconnect the power of some 5000 BEC customers
whose lights were turned off because of their inability to pay the bills.
This was greeted with great happiness in the country, even amongst the
laissez faire capitalists. The public would be happy and ease some
of the pressure on the failing FNM government.
...Except if you look at the details, it does not
help the poor at all. You are to pay one quarter down on the bill
and have 24 months to repay it. You must keep your current bill current
with BEC. That is the problem. The current monthly bills are
simply too high and it is only a matter of time before the consumer is
back in trouble again. It is a foolish scheme, designed to fool people
that they are being helped.
What we find particularly objectionable is the Government
overreaching the Board of Directors and ordering BEC to turn lights on
when the people owe them money and the Corporation is losing money hand
over fist. If we learnt anything from that wasteful Commission of
Inquiry brought by Hubert Ingraham to ruin Sir Lynden O. Pindling, it is
that the Board controls the company not the shareholders. The directors
must act in the best interest of the company. The Directors must
ask themselves if this is the best for BEC. You may click
here for the full text of Hubert Ingraham’s statement.
JAMAICAN
NATIONAL DANCE COMPANY
It has been thirty years since Rex Nettleford and
the National Dance Company of Jamaica performed in The Bahamas. They
are back. This time at the Rain Forest Theatre at the Crystal Palace
to mark the 60th anniversary of the University of the West Indies.
There was a gala at which tickets went for 125 dollars a pop, and a champagne
reception afterward. The function was put on by the Medical Association
of UWI alums and the UWI Alumni Association, headed by A. Missouri Sherman
Peter, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security.
UWI graduates work across the spectrum in The Bahamas. They include
Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall and Dr. Perry Gomez, the National AIDS medical
consultant. A part of the Dance Company is shown at top; above left
Professor Howard Spencer UWI Nassau, Missouri Sherman Peter, UWI Alumni
Head and UWI Vice Chancellor Nigel Harris; above right, Fred Mitchell former
Foreign Minister attended the performance and the photo shows him with
Mrs. Peter and Professor Nettleford. Performances were also held
for schoolchildren and the general public. The performances took
place on Friday 19th September, the gala and Saturday 20th September for
general audiences.
HENRIETTA
ST. GEORGE HITS THE JACKPOT
The Nassau Guardian reported on Tuesday 17th September
that Henrietta St. George has sold her interest in the holding company
ICD Utilities that owns Freeport Power, supplier of electricity to Grand
Bahama. The stake was sold to a Canadian company for 41 million dollars.
People who are sympathetic to her cause and not sympathetic to the shabby
way they perceived she has been treated by Sir Jack Hayward, the other
partner in the Grand Bahama Port Authority, breathed a sigh of relief.
In fact the press speculated that Henrietta had
with this sale now found the money to fight Jack Hayward and his millions.
The feeling is that Sir Jack has the money and blocked the payment of dividends
to the St. Georges so that he could stop them from having the ability to
continue paying their lawyers. Don’t be too happy for her, the word
is that much of that 41 million will probably go to other bills.
Lady Henrietta hardly spends any time in Freeport these days.
MURDERERS
SPEAKING TO CHILDREN
During the past week, the Ministry of National Security
and the Prison Department held a rally for primary school children featuring
convicted murders and robbers as the guest speakers. While we know
that something has to be done to encourage children to follow the right
path, we do not think that this is the way. We profoundly disagree
with putting convicted murderers and robbers in front of these kids, and
promoting it on television and in the press. To us this is glorifying
the crimes that these people committed. It should be stopped and
another way found to address this issue. The Minister of National
Security ought to revisit the issue before he is scared straight.
FRED
MITCHELL’S MONTHLY PRESS CONFERENCE
Each month, the PLP’s spokesman on Foreign Affairs
gives a press conference to update the country on the PLP’s perspective
on foreign affairs and on events in the public service. Mr. Mitchell
made a demand for the FNM’s Minister of Foreign Affairs to start to lobby
the government of Canada to provide greater support for Bahamian students
applying for visas to study in Canada. Right now the process takes
six to eight weeks. He also spoke about the purging of the public service
of PLPs. You may click here for the
full statement.
BASIL
ALBURY AND THE JUDGE 40 YEARS ON
Last week, we reported that Basil and Cheryl Albury
celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on 31st August of this year.
They held a special dinner at Lucianos on Saturday 13th September and the
next day a special mass was held to allow them to renew their wedding vows,
followed by a lunch at their home. Joining them were many friends
and family including Fred Mitchell former Foreign Minister and former Prime
Minister Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie. Mr. Albury is a Judge
and Mr. Albury a retired Tourism Ministry executive. We present
a spread of photos by photographer Neville Bethel.
‘DESTINATIONS’
SOLD TO BARBADIAN FIRM
The Nassau Guardian of Thursday 18th September reported
that Destinations, a leading travel agency in The Bahamas has been sold
to Caribbean World Travel Services, a Barbadian company, months after the
death of the Bahamian company's founder.
According to the Guardian: “Going Places Travel
(a subsidiary of Caribbean World Travel Services) is a full-service travel
agency offering air, hotel, car, cruise, and package vacations with offices
in eight countries across the Caribbean including Antigua and Barbuda,
Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
Trinidad and Tobago, and now The Bahamas.” The acquisition became
effective on Monday 15th September.
Now, for us the real significance of this is not
about the 70 jobs that may be at risk in The Bahamas, but the fact is that
another Caribbean investment has gobbled up a Bahamian investment. This
is not to be negative it but to state the fact. This now joins with
the last five years the Jamaican investments in Saveco and in City Markets
and in Family Guardian. You will remember that the FNM led a campaign
to stop the PLP from signing on to the Caricom Single Market and Economy
(CSME). Now we have CSME through the back door, but without the protections
that Bahamian companies would have gained by being able to take advantage
of the free movement of capital to guard against raids of this kind.
At the time Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister
warned that there was nothing that could be done to stop it. His
prediction is coming true. The Bahamas made a mistake by not signing
on to the CSME but the FNM that opposed it is busy approving one purchase
after the other by Caribbean firms of Bahamian assets.
NEW
PORT MUST BE STOPPED
The Nassau Guardian is reporting that a number of
shipping interests in The Bahamas have put together a company at the behest
of Hubert Ingraham, the Communist style Commissar Prime Minister of The
Bahamas, to develop the new Arawak Container Port on Arawak Cay.
The paper said the company is seeking to buy land where the Sand Trap is
now located on West Bay street to develop the bridge or causeway over to
Arawak Cay. The government of the FNM plans to scrap the idea of
the PLP to put a Port at southwest New Providence but instead bugger up
the works with a port at Arawak Cay, right near the entrance to Nassau
Harbour for the cruise passengers to see as they first enter Nassau.
It is stupid idea. But the Communist type Commissar that Hubert Ingraham
is he has ordered it to be done.
Joining in the consortium at Arawak Cay will no
doubt be all Hubert Ingraham's UBP masters from the old minority rule government
who will bring in a foreign partner, it appears. The government is
to provide a terminal on land they own at Gladstone Road to facilitate
the storage of the containers. The roads will then have heavy traffic
in the wee hours of the morning, moving the containers to Gladstone Road
from midnight to 6 a.m. Ridiculous. PLP leader Perry Christie
has said that there is a “fundamental difference” between the PLP and the
FNM on the point. The government and the shipping interests, it seems,
proceed at their peril.
The Guardian reported that the Consortium says they
plan to be in operation within 12 to 16 months. The PLP will have
to act fast. The Prime Minister has directed that each shareholder
is not to have more than 15 per cent in the company. Bottom line
though is that the same people will end up with the money in their hands.
Some PLP Parliamentarians are shown during last week's House meeting
in this BIS photo by Peter Ramsay
THE
SPEAKER AT IT AGAIN
Something must be done about Alvin Smith, the Speaker
of the House of Assembly. We have written before about the great
danger it is to have someone so limited and with a short temper to boot
as Speaker of the House. The result is that his limitations are covered
up by a tendency to depend on the Government for every word. The
person comes off like a bootlicker.
Alfred Sears MP for Ft. Charlotte rose after the
communication to Parliament by the Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham on the
hurricanes and sought to question certain assertions made in the House
by Mr. Ingraham. The Speaker refused to allow the inquiry at the
time but promised that Mr. Sears would have an opportunity to address it
at a later time. It was clear that the Speaker wanted nothing to
interfere with Hubert Ingraham's scripted agenda to take all the headlines,
talk about BEC and about the hurricane relief.
The FNM has no agenda and so they were not ready
to proceed with their legislation. Instead, they immediately after
the communications suspended the House. Mr. Sears was not provided
an opportunity to speak and the Speaker walked out leaving every PLP disgusted.
PLPs refused to honour him while he rose and stayed in their seats.
The moment on Wednesday 17th September was captured by Peter Ramsay, BIS
photographer.
LETTER
TO THE EDITOR
Bahamas Electricity Corporation
'Sideburns' in his Cartoon on 18th Sept. 2008 Nassau Guardian referred
to the Prime Minister as “Hubert ‘Alexander De Brightest’ Ingraham” and
declared “You light up my life, chief…das what you call a bright idea!!!”,
referring to the financial relief for BEC consumers.
I am advised that never in the history of BEC
were so many customers’ lights disconnected for failing to pay their bills
in full. BEC’s policy for donkey’s years has been to work with its customers
utilizing an installment payment program. The simple question is,
why the policy, without notice to the public, changed; and who was responsible?
Thousands of struggling Bahamian families were
disconnected because of the policy introduced by Hubert Ingraham’s heartless,
uncaring FNM Government, which was first approved by BEC Board of Directors
led by its Chairman Frederik F Gottlieb and sanctioned by Ministers Earl
Deveaux and Phenton Neymour. One may get the impression that the
first time the Prime Minister heard of the level of cruelty placed on the
shoulders of tens of thousands Bahamian men, women and children was when
the Leader of the Opposition raised the matter with him on a flight to
Inagua following the passage of Hurricane Ike. Clearly the numerous
complaints made to FNM MP’s about BEC’s refusal to agree to installment
payments all fell on deaf ears.
There is an old Bahamian saying that there is
nothing wrong in giving the Devil his/her due but it should be earned and
certainly not if he/she created the same.
Bradley B.E.Roberts, Former MP &
Cabinet Minister Of The Bahamas
Mr. Roberts is pictured in this file photo
IN PASSING
Murders No. 49, 50, 52, 52, 53
Within the past week, the murder rate has climbed again. Three
men were charged with murder number 49, which took place on Wednesday 17th
September. But it was murder number 50 that got the attention of
the country when the body of a man was found in a burning car on Thursday
18th September. It is said that he was the largest marijuana drug
distributor in The Bahamas, and that a hit had been organized by someone
named Mel in Her Majesty’s Prison. The hit was reported to have continued
early Saturday morning 20th September when three people were gunned down
in Augusta Street south in Bain Town, two are said to be the men of the
marijuana dealer. The police have no witnesses. What has the
FNM government to say to us?
Quote Of The Week - Too Sexy for his…
Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade speaking
on a motivational TV programme about youngsters and their behaviour: “I
told my 17 year old son, you don’t see me wearing my pants dropped down
below my waist. And I’m a sexy fella. If weren’t a sexy fella,
you wouldn’t be here.”
The Trial of Mario Miller’s Alleged Murderers
The retrial of the men who allegedly killed Mario Miller, son of former
Cabinet Minister Leslie Miller began in the Supreme Court on Monday 15th
September. Fifteen jurors, 12 including alternates were selected.
It is a mainly female jury. The two men charged
were convicted before but there was a mistrial because a juror was related
to one of the defendants. A new trial was ordered. That was
over a year ago. Mr. Miller was killed in June 2002. It is
absolute agony for the parents.
The Future Of Morton Salt
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham told the House of Assembly when it met
on Wednesday 17th September that he would be meeting with the executives
of the Morton Salt Company to establish the plans for reconstruction of
the company. Morton is the largest employer on the island of Inagua,
which suffered significant damage to its infrastructure when Hurricane
Ike hit The Bahamas. The government wants to find out no doubt whether
Morton intends to rebuild.
Rudy King In Trouble Again
You will remember this name from legend. Mr. King is the man
who sometimes goes around by the name Dr. Rudy King. He has a foundation
called the King Foundation. Mostly he is famous for photos with famous
people from across the world. But he is also notorious for having
been able to run up a $400,000 odd bill with American Express and seemingly
escape civil or criminal penalties. He has been adjudged a bankrupt
but that matter is under appeal. He is also charged in the United
States with trying to stiff the Internal Revenue Service, the income tax
collection arm of the U.S. government out of money by seeking a refund
in the millions of dollars to a fictitious applicant, himself by another
name. He came home to The Bahamas supposedly on bail but the U.S.
says that he skipped bail. One condition of the bail was to surrender
his passport, most people would guess. Now he is back in the news
again in The Bahamas, this time he is charged with deceiving three police
officers by telling them that his passport was stolen. No doubt,
he needs a new passport. He was allowed bail and trial is now set
on those matters.
Automatic Cheque Clearing
At last, it appears that the day of automatic cheque clearing is coming
to The Bahamas. The Nassau Guardian reported that the system that
was promised years ago is finally to be implemented this month. This
brings The Bahamas in from the dark ages of physically running cheques
from bank to bank in order for them to clear. It will stop the Banks
from putting a hold on your money while the cheque clears. It will
also unfortunately for some stop the ability to float money – writing a
cheque and getting time to put the money in the Bank before it is returned.
Sam Gray Is Buried
Exuma Businessman Sam Gray was buried on Saturday 20th September.
He was 77 and had been suffering from prostate and colon cancer.
Mr. Gray hailed from Williams Town in Little Exuma and became a businessman
of extraordinary stature in his native Exuma after beginning as a bartender
at the Peace and Plenty in Georgetown. He is survived by his wife
Valerie. The funeral took place at St. Andrew’s Church in Georgetown.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham attended. Fred Mitchell former Foreign
Minister and PLP MP Fox Hill attended as well along with his colleague
Anthony Moss MP for Exuma. Mr. Gray was the first cousin of the late
Levi Gibson MBE.
Egbert Tertullien
He was the first Director of Statistics for the independent Bahamas.
He hailed from St. Lucia but was married to Bahamian and PLP Senator Mizpah,
a former Duncombe. Mr. Tertullien died at the age of 80 last month.
We neglected at the time to mark his passing and we do so now to mark all
that he did for our country in its infancy.
*A previous version of this article wrongly named Mr. Tertullien's
birthplace as Grenada. He hailed from St. Lucia, not from Grenada.
- Editor
A Pan Am Film On The 'Contented, Carefree Negroes'
A correspondent sent a link to the site from youtube that is a 23 minute
film on The Bahamas in the 1940s, even though it says 50s. It has
to be the 40's because the Duke of Windsor is the Governor and he served
from 1940 to 45. Anyway, the thing that struck us is the hyperbole
and almost frantic nature of the voice and commentary. It sounds
ridiculous. The fact is The Bahamas has been portrayed a playground
since that time, with carefree negroes as they show when they flick to
Adelaide and not just a little historical inaccuracy as well to help the
tourist message. Do you think that things have changed that much?
Do they still think of us as the contented carefree negroes? Is that
the image we want of our country? Take a look. Very interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXz6BIC7pVs
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
JOHNLEY; SHUT THE … UP!
It is simply incredible that the Chairman of the FNM is always trying
to get into the PLP’s business. The Bahama Journal carried an interview
with Johnley Ferguson, the FNM Chairman, on Friday 26th September in which
of all things he was commenting on what he called the “infighting” in the
PLP. We find this remarkable that the Chairman of the FNM has nothing
better to do with his time than to speculate on who will be the leader
of the PLP.
You have to ask yourself, what business is it of the FNM? You have to ask yourself, who called it “infighting”.
The answer to question number one is that it is none of the FNM’s business. Of course, what is their business is to try to confuse the picture so that it looks like the PLP is in some sort of disarray. They go to the press and make sanctimonious, but inaccurate comments about fighting within the PLP, as if they are so concerned. They make the comments seem judicious as if this is something that they have been sitting up all night trying to figure out.
The answer to the second question is that “infighting” is a word that was chosen by the FNM dominated press. This is based on a fight going on within branches over a ruling by the PLP’s Council that branch elections for Chairman and for National General Council member need to be held again in the constituencies of Marathon and St. Cecilia. How the fact that people are upset over a ruling of the governing body of the party translates into infighting is an amazing non sequitur. Fights take place in branches all the time. It just so happens that the FNM dominated press found their way to these branch meetings and the stories made it to the front pages of the newspapers. In any other situation, no one would be interested in what happens at a branch meeting.
These are obviously slow news days. The fact is the core leadership of the PLP is safe and sound. There are some FNMs who don’t like that and they, including their leader, have been working to try to destabilize the PLP’s leadership. The fact is the PLP will rebuild and as the economy of the country collapses around this hopeless government, the rebuilding of the PLP and the need for its policies will be clear as day. The real issue is the economy. That is what the press needs to concern itself about. That is what the FNM Chairman ought to concern himself about, not what is happening in the PLP.
Mr. Ferguson’s remarks from the paper are reprinted below. Then we also have the stooge of all stooges Oswald Brown who writing in his column also on Friday 26th September was also busy prescribing the formula for Perry Christie to ‘re-establish his credentials’ as leader of the PLP. Who needs advice from this clown? He is just another FNM ideologue, who is on his way out in the newspaper that he works for, who is again seeking to get into the business of the PLP. It is reminiscent of Tommy Turnquest making catcalls at Perry Christie, very much his senior, asking him to retire and let someone else take over the PLP. You have to ask yourself the inexplicable: why is it that they are so concerned about who is leading the PLP?
You will remember it was the FNM’s leader Hubert Ingraham who started this whole business by calling the PLP’s leader “wutless”. Somehow, Mr. Ingraham thought that this would poison the public’s view of Mr. Christie, make him damaged goods and either the PLP would sour of him or Mr. Christie would feel so demoralized that he would quit. The result was the exact opposite. PLP’s instead were incensed, and the result was that their attitudes hardened and people said to themselves, we will show the FNM and decide for ourselves who will lead us.
When will the FNM get going on trying to do something on this economy? Everywhere, people in the country are complaining that the FNM is doing nothing to resolve the issues of unemployment. In their stop, review and cancel policy, they have caused one project after the next that the PLP had started to collapse, and the people no longer have the money to spend, given what is happening in the United States. It is like the story of Rome burning and the Emperor is busy fiddling.
There is a message then for the FNM today. You need to get to the business of running the country. You are busy trying to run the PLP instead of running the FNM. The FNM should run the FNM and since they happen for the time being to be the government they ought to try to run the government. We know they are clueless, but they should try anyway while they are there. In the meantime, we have quite a direct message for Johnley Ferguson, Oswald Brown and the other busybodies in the FNM trying to get up in the PLP’s business. Shut the... up!
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 27th September 2008 up to midnight: 294,203.
Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 27th September 2008 up to midnight: 999,752.
Number of hits for the year 2008 up to Saturday 27th September 2008 up to midnight: 9,892,543.
JOHNLEY
FERGUSON IN HIS OWN WORDS
In our editorial comment this week, we sent a special message to the FNM
for getting up in the PLP’s business. The comment was based on the
report of an interview with the Bahama Journal in which the Chairman of
the FNM Johnley Ferguson (pictured at left in this file photo with now
House Speaker Alvin Smith) insisted in trying to decide who the leader
of the PLP will be. It is a classic “goosie”. He says at the
end of his statement that no one is fool enough to challenge Perry Christie.
That’s an interesting statement and of course, it presumes that such a
challenge will be necessary. Here is what Mr. Ferguson had to say
in his own words. Again, we say to him “Shut the … up!” By
the way, Mr. Chairman, the FNM will be defeated in the next general election
whenever that is.
“When they would have cleansed themselves, five,
six years down the road, they may be ready to serve again. For the
PLP it is going to take a while. You see, the PLP is an older organization.
And if you go in the PLP, the PLP breaks up ever so often, but they were
always able to kind of almost destroy the opponents. Anybody who
rises up in the PLP over the years, you get hushed. You get hushed.
You get hushed or they throw you out.
“But you have a, you have a younger generation
that you are dealing with. You have a more mixed breed; the PLP is
more mixed now, with former FNMs, former CDRs. So they have a more
coalition kind of organization than they have ever had before because people
were taking from them, now they began to take back from all the persons.
So it makes the mix more difficult to control.
“The party will come back. The question
is how long it takes? The real battle within the party, however,
has not yet began.
“The stories about the infighting in the PLP
are no different than the periods when the FNM had its leadership struggles.
Throughout the tenure of Tommy Turnquest as FNM leader from 2002 to 2005,
the media was filled with stories questioning his leadership, culminating
in the ouster on Mr. Turnquest when Mr. Ingraham defeated him at the 2005
convention.
“I do not see any PLP being able to defeat Mr.
Christie and become party leader. There isn’t anybody in the PLP
that can beat Mr. Christie.
“There is a level of loyalty to a serving leader
that you cannot really break down in any short period of time. And
with Christie, say what you like about Mr. Christie, and I listen to those
who say that he is the best man for the PLP, I concur with them.
But at the end of the day, there is not one of them that can jump and stand-up
side by side with Mr. Christie, and take Mr. Christie out in (a) vote.
No way. No. And I don’t think any of them (are) that fool to
try it.”
INGRAHAM
AT THE UN
The Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham went and gave
the country’s annual speech himself on Friday 26th September at the United
Nations. No one is surprised with this one man government.
He did a much better job, not withstanding mispronouncing “poverty”.
He said “powerty” and MDGs. He said MDGS (each letter separately)
when it should have been “MD Gees”, the pronunciation of the plural acronym
for Millennium Development Goals. Fault the speechwriters on that
one who should not put technical terms in speeches for politicians in these
fora. But just compare and contrast that to Brent Symonette’s performance
last year which was positively abysmal with an error of pronunciation in
every line delivered. As for the text, some interesting comments.
We agree on a call for an international conference on tax matters.
This continues the PLP’s policy on this matter. Also of note, a call
for more resources for Haiti. Haiti needs $54 million to recover
from the recent storms. So far they only have one million dollars.
Of course we disagree with the Prime Minister wearing his FNM red tie at
the UN. This was not a party political forum. But what can
you expect? Loved the picture of a rapt Brent Symonette, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs with an admiring look from his seat in the UN’s hall.
See the archived presentation at www.un.org. Herewith the direct
link to the full text: http://www.un.org/ga/63/generaldebate/pdf/bahamas_en.pdf
DEBBIE
AND CYP RESPOND TO DAROLD MILLER
Radio personalities Debbie Bartlett and Cypriana Munnings (pictured, Nassau
Guardian photo), the owners of GEMS radio and the former employers of Darold
Miller who was recently acquitted of a sexual harassment charge, held a
press conference during the week to refute allegations that Mr. Miller
made that he was owed money by the station. The press conference
was held on Thursday 25th September. Ms. Bartlett began by saying
that she reported to the police a death threat from Mr. Miller. His
lawyer Godfrey ‘Pro’ Pinder denied that there was a threat and said that
he is not yet ready to file a civil action against the two women and their
station. Their lawyer Wayne Munroe said that he was willing to meet
whatever civil case Mr. Miller brought. Here is what the two women
said in their own words as reported in the Bahama Journal:
“Basically, he fell into a rage. He said
between God and the devil and himself he will ensure that I die a vicious
death if he does not get his money. I reported the matter to the
police because of the environment we know we all live in. It was
not a charge, it was just a record.
“Mr. Miller was terminated after three employees
made complaints against the former GEMS’ executive. I am certain
it was Mr. Miller who made the call. I do recognize and know his
voice very well.
“It was not GEMS who prosecuted Mr. Miller.
It was he who chose to slander GEMS.
“Part of that slander was using a contract that
the radio station was awarded in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“It was the Crown against the defence.
The defence used the opportunity to ‘vindicate’ their names (sic) by slandering
GEMS, Cyp, and myself. They used slanderous dialogue using that contract…
“The then government of the Turks and Caicos
Islands the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) allowed Mr. Miller to host
an election show (2003). The PDM won and the leader of the opposition
at that time and came on the air and said ‘This will be the shortest lived
government’ and Darold proceeded to tell him go wait for your four years
and accept his defeat. The PNP, which is led by Premier Michael Misick,
who Darold told ‘go wait for the four years,’ won through the bi-election.
Darold resubmitted a contract to the Progressive National Party (PNP) but
it was not accepted.
“We [GEMS] were approached; we did not go after
the contract. When we got the contract, we offered to include Mr.
Miller in it.
“Darold came to my office and said he wants to
leave ZNS. He said one day he went to ZNS and he was locked out his
door without notice. He was fumbling around with his keys and everyone
was laughing at him.
“He said, ‘I honour the way you treated me with
the contract and because of the way you treated me I want to come to GEMS.
I said, Darold, it’s an honor. I would never think to ask you. I
said are you sure?
“Darold is not owed any monies by the radio station.
“The only thing I have in this country is my
name. I don’t steal ideas, I don’t steal contracts and my history
I think would bear me out and so to be very specific we never stole anything
from Darold Miller.
“He was not a part of the contract and we have
done nothing to Darold Miller except good and do what is right and that’s
all we have done throughout this process.”
MITCHELL
ON THE ATTACK
Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill attacked the government
during debate in the House of Assembly for its programme of exposing children
in the school system to convicted murderers in a programme borrowed from
the United States that is designed to scare the children into staying straight
and out of trouble.
Mr. Mitchell’s objection was whether or not the
families of those who had been brutally murdered by these people would
appreciate the boastful nature of these convicted felons on television
talking about how they beat their loved ones to death.
Mr. Mitchell, speaking in the House of Assembly
on Monday 22nd September, said: “Someone who is convicted, who is standing
up saying in the presence of these children how he committed the murder
and what he did and the years that he is spending in prison for it.
Now If I were a member of the family of one of those victims how would
I feel seeing this man standing on television saying this outside the prison?
Something just seems wrong with that and I would urge the minister of national
security to reconsider that approach.” Mr. Mitchell was speaking
on the government’s bill to bring into effect plea bargaining in criminal
cases in The Bahamas.
The series of candid shots are by Peter Ramsay the BIS photographer
who is the official chronicler of events in the House of Assembly
BAILOUT
NONSENSE IN THE US
The question you have to ask: why is Senator Barack
Obama getting involved in this business of a bailout for Wall Street to
the tune of 700 billion dollars that we are now witnessing in the United
States? All of the Democrats and the Republicans have been lining
up in front of the cameras, following the speech delivered by President
George Bush with his characteristic hubris, well short of an understanding
of the script. He said that the Congress needed to act because his
country was in crisis. If the Congress did not act to find a solution
to the crisis, the country would go under. We do not believe it.
There should be no bailout of anyone.
The fact is, these people, the Wall Street fat cats,
friends all of the McCain/Bush cabal, took the risk, and they ought to
pay with the lessons of failure that they prescribed for others who fail.
Now that they are in problems, the Government must come to their rescue?
We are sorry that Senator Obama did not get out of this and then scorch
John McCain his opponent for supporting policies that got the US into the
mess.
Why would The Bahamas be concerned? We should
be concerned because if the United States goes bankrupt, there is a problem
for The Bahamas. What the US promises to do with this bailout will
bankrupt their country. There is this feeling there that they have
an infinite capacity to print money and there is no end to it. This
is not true. Just see what happened in Zimbabwe for a lesson in what it
costs to print money with no underlying productivity. At some point,
the bill has to be paid. The bill has to be paid and it should be
paid by those who caused the problem not the poor Joes including those
of us in The Bahamas who have no say in this matter.
MORTIMER’S
80 YEARS OF SWEETNESS
Ulric J. Mortimer hailed from Inagua, the southern
most island in The Bahamas. From the humble start in Nassau, he became
one of the country’s great Black businessmen. His place, Mortimer’s
Candy Kitchen, owned by the Best Ever Candy Company got its start 80 years
ago this weekend. The family still runs it and people still stop
there for snow cones, cotton candy, peanuts and popcorn. When Richard
Blankenship, the U.S. Ambassador who was otherwise alienated from the Bahamian
people, lived in Nassau, he used to stop at Mortimer’s every day to get
his supply of peanuts. Over the weekend the family celebrated their
80 years in business. Peter Ramsay, the photographer was there for
the fun and relaxation and the candy. Above, three of the Mortimers
mingle; please click here for more photos of Mortimer's
patrons and well wishers.
WELCOME
BURROWS; GOVT’S INJUSTICE TO WRIGHT
Last week, we published the fact that Vernon Burrows is to become the second
Ambassador for The Bahamas in Cuba. The government is hoping that
the appointment will begin on 1st November. The Bahama Journal called
Mr. Burrows, who is now the Director of Immigration, to ask about it and
he refused to comment. The paper said that it believed that no comment
was being offered because the Cuban government has not said whether or
not they agree with Mr. Burrows being the new Ambassador.
We think that Mr. Burrows is eminently qualified
but we have said that it is quite unusual for a government to send its
former immigration director who is busy deporting Cubans one week to be
the Ambassador to Cuba the next. Just this past week, the problem
came into stark relief with the news that there is a hunger strike at the
detention centre because of the long periods of time it is taking for people
to be repatriated from the Centre. When the PLP was in office, there
was a protocol worked out to try to speed this process up.
The other point we make is that Carlton Wright (pictured),
the now Ambassador, speaks Spanish fluently. He and his wife worked
together to start up the Embassy. It was anticipated that he would
have six years or two terms to work there. His wife had to leave
her career in Nassau to take up the position in Cuba and it was simply
unfair to ask them to uproot themselves for a three year appointment in
this manner. But we have always said Hubert Ingraham is a mean man.
He recalled Mr. Wright and his wife out of political spite. He does
not care about the feelings of anyone. Brent Symonette, the Foreign
Minister, in addition to being mean is simply disengaged. He has
no feel for what it is to be poor and has no means of comprehending the
kind of suffering of ordinary Bahamians. Everything is about dollars
and cents to him.
So back home come the Wrights, in goes Mr. Burrows.
We are certain Mr. Burrows will do well and we wish him well. Thank
you to the Wrights for a job well done. Audrey Wright is holding
a final concert in Cuba on 4th October. Mrs. Wright is a talented
musician, director and writer. Contact the Embassy in Cuba for more
details.
DONALD
‘NINE’ ROLLE IS BURIED
Former Prime Minister Perry Christie was the keynote
speaker at a laying out ceremony at the PLP’s headquarters on Farrington
Road. With a picture of Sir Lynden in the background, the former
Prime Minister and party leader spoke in intimate terms of his friend Donald
‘Nine’ Rolle, the golfer and PLP activist who was a faithful apostle of
Sir Lynden Pindling and a son to PLP Treasurer Percy Munnings. Mr.
Rolle was laid out in an open casket. Mr. Rolle died on Thursday
18th September. He was buried following a funeral service on Thursday
25th September at Zion South Beach.
Amongst the other speakers at the setting up on
Wednesday 24th September were Fred Mitchell Fox Hill MP, Glenys Hanna Martin,
PLP Chair; Vincent Peet, MP North Andros and the Berry Islands.
The best speech was given by Craig Flowers the benefactor
of the funeral service. Mr. Flowers recalled how he met ‘Nine’ Rolle
when he and some fifteen or sixteen other boys along with his brother and
Nine Rolle and his brother Charles Rolle Jr. were taken to the Bahamas
General Hospital in Prospect Ridge to be circumcised. He said that
he woke up from the operation and spotted a tricycle and leapt from bed
to jump on it, only to howl at the pain and have to spend another day in
hospital when the other boys had been released. He later learned
when he met the Rolle brothers that they were there. Mr. Flowers
said the older Rolle brother Charles said “I remember you. You were
the boy who jumped on the tricycle”. Mr. Flowers said he had tried
to forget the incident because it was so painful. He said he was
about three or four years old at the time.
Here is the official statement by former Prime Minister
Perry Christie.
“I was very deeply saddened to learn of the death
of Donald ‘Nine’ Rolle, a Stalwart Councillor of the Progressive Liberal
Party, one of its most loyal and ardent supporters, and a close and valued
friend for more than 40 years.
“Nine achieved notable success in the sporting
sphere. He was the first professional golfer produced by our country.
For years, he was a dominant figure in that sport, helping to popularize
it at the grass-roots level, and paving the way for the other professional
golfers who would later come to the fore. Nine played not only in
tournaments here in The Bahamas but in important golf competitions in the
United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Nine was also one of the
earliest proponents of golf tourism and was successful in attracting to
The Bahamas a number of important PGA players, including Lee Elder, whom
he counted among his personal friends.
“Just last Sunday, the Bahamian Professional
Golfers Association paid special tribute to Nine in a tournament held in
his honour at the Cable Beach Golf Course, saluting him for his pioneering
contribution as the first professional golfer in The Bahamas.
“It is also noteworthy that Nine was among the
top ranked tennis players in our country in the 1960s, achieving great
success in tennis tournaments.
“In addition to his sporting achievements, Donald ‘Nine’ Rolle was
also a fearless, frontline warrior for the PLP in the struggle for Majority
Rule. Indeed, he was one of Sir Lynden Pindling's most loyal and
trusted street captains for many years.
“Nine would go on to become a civil rights activist
in the early 1970s when he led a pressure group known as the Citizens Committee.
To the very end of his days, he would remain an absolutely unflinching
and extremely vocal supporter of the PLP. I am personally indebted
to him for his exemplary steadfastness and loyalty.
“I extend deepest condolences to Nine's widow,
Willimae, his son Michael and all his other relatives.
“May he rest in peace.”
LETTER
TO THE EDITOR
Hath Hell a Fury this Fine?
Gilbert Morris on the Wall St. meltdown
There are two main problems facing the American
economy reflected in the current crisis on Wall St. : First, there are
over 8,000 banks in the United States . There are too many banks chasing
too few actual qualified borrowers. This has cultivated an industry in
defiance of supply and demand. As such, a new class of borrower was added
to the loan rolls, a borrower that could not repay.
Second, at the same time these unqualified borrowers
have been convinced into buying houses at approximately 30% - 60% above
their actual objectively appraised value and at a higher interest rate.
(This is what is known as a B or C borrower).
If this were the basic situation – just having
given bad loans – then the problem would be easily solved. Simply repossess
the houses, revalue them, write down the loss in value and rid oneself
of the inventory by means of “fire sales”. However, things are not that
simple.
Please click here for the full
press release
IN PASSING
Mitchell on Canadian Visas
Fred Mitchell opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs
brought to the attention of the public his month press conference on 17th
September, the issue of the student visas for Bahamians wanting to study
in Canada. The press carried the statement during the week.
Here is what he said in his own words:
“By late summer, my office received a number
of enquiries from frantic parents with regard to the granting of 'Canadian
student visas for Bahamians who wish to study in Canada. In one case, the
processing of visas resulted in the student having to give up his place
in school for this term and enter instead in January 2009.
“Relations between Canada and The Bahamas in
my view remain very good. This issue seems an unnecessary irritant in the
relationship.
“It is complicated by the fact that there is
no Canadian High Commission in The Bahamas.
“As you know most Embassies and High Commissions
serve The Bahamas from Kingston, Jamaica. The processing time for visas
is approximately six to eight weeks. The matter is further complicated
by the need for a medical examination of the visa applicant, including
a requirement for chest x ray because The Bahamas is listed as a tuberculosis
country. The medical processing takes place in Trinidad and then is sent
to Jamaica. All of this leads to delay.
“In a number of cases brought directly to my
attention, I have been in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
with a view to getting the individual cases resolved.
“The Canadian High Commission has been most helpful
in resolving most of the issues.
“However, my view with regard to most of these
matters is that there needs to be a systemic approach to solving them,
not reliance on individual contacts and solutions.
“I therefore urge The Bahamas government to lobby
the Canadian government to seek to provide additional resources so that
this matter does not occur again next year.
“Further, Bahamian parents and students would
do well to understand that the deadlines are in fact six to eight weeks
before departure; that Canada is not The Bahamas, where if you know someone,
you can fix a missed deadline. Also, students and their parents should
not travel to Canada if they do not have a valid student visa or travel
permission from the Canadian High Commission or they will be turned back
at the border.
“Lastly, the Canadians should revisit the requirement
for chest x rays. Tuberculosis is no more a problem in this country than
it is in the United States and so the requirement seems an onerous and
unnecessary one given the realities on the ground."
Anita Allen And The Courts
The Bahama Journal reports that Anita Allen had to give up her court
because the Director of Works declared the building of 1800 vintage to
be unfit and unsafe. She said she was not engaged in a strike but
simply worked to ensure that there was a safe premises for her and her
staff. The Chief Justice is looking for a new place for her to hold
court. Meanwhile, Attorney General Michael Barnett confirmed last
week to the press that the Supreme Court Building itself has to be vacated
by all judges because it is in need of urgent repairs. That means
more delay for frustrated litigants and defendants and the families of
victims. Former Attorney General Alfred Sears on radio last week
said that in the present circumstances the Judges should go on strike.
John Pinder Reelected
Bahamaspress.com reported that John Pinder (pictured, file photo) has
been reelected as the President of the Bahamas Public Services Union in
an election that took place nationwide on 26th September. The result
was declared at 1 a.m. on Saturday 27th September. Mr. Pinder defeated
three other candidates to serve for another three years.
Government Computers Censored
Bahamaspress.com reports that the government is denying access to websites
that are not government sites on the government’s computers. That
means that those who are government employees who want to access this site
on their computers at the government offices may have a problem.
Oswald Brown Is An Idiot
Yet again, Oswald Brown, the FNM ideologue who was up until last week
the Managing Editor and General Manager of the Freeport News was at it
again. This time, he claimed in his article of Friday 26th September
that the Leader of the PLP Perry Christie had a chance to show that he
was really in charge of the PLP by putting Paul Moss, Jerome Fitzgerald
and Derek Ryan in their places. These are the three younger PLPs
who want nominations and caused all the excitement in the branches of the
PLP in St. Cecilia, Marathon and Kennedy. We say again: how does
this stuff get to be the business of a would be, ne’er do well journalist,
an FNM ideologue and propagandist, who has not a bone of fairness in him,
so that anything he says is worthless? He is a shameless social climber
and a cry baby to boot. Word has it, the press in fact printed that
when he was fired, shall we say replaced as General Manger of the Freeport
News for the grandson of Etienne Dupuch Ollie Ferguson, he burst into tears.
Oh well! He owes that crocodile one.
Plea Bargaining Bill Passed
The FNM with no agenda brought a set of bills to Parliament to pass.
The first one was to be debated one week after the House returned from
its summer recess on 17th September. It did not happen. The
House opened and after some grandstanding on turning people’s lights back
on, it was abruptly suspended. That was the Plea Bargaining Bill.
This bill would allow the crown and the defence to strike a deal rather
than go to trail with a case. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis told the Parliament
he did not think that such a bill was a priority. Fred Mitchell MP
Fox Hill said that you can plea bargain now without such a bill.
The bill was sent to Committee where it will stay. The Bar Council
has not been consulted. Bar President Wayne Munroe (shown, file photo)
thought the bill might be unconstitutional and he did not think that it
would ease the backlog but in fact cause a greater backlog. Mr. Munroe’s
comments came at a Rotary meeting On Thursday 25th September and were reported
in the Nassau Guardian and the Bahama Journal.
Rudy King Drama Again
As if being before the Courts for one thing or the next is not enough,
The Tribune, on a day when the country was heading for an economic crisis,
and Hubert Ingraham left to address the UN, led with the story that Rudy
King (pictured, file photo), sometimes called Dr. King, a man famous for
being infamous, had to be taken to hospital. They said that he was
suffering from a heart attack. Turned out to be nothing more than
a headache and an elevated blood pressure. The whole thing was reported
to the paper by telephone from a correspondent who said that there were
scores of people in the hospital seeking after Mr. King’s welfare.
It came off like a publicity stunt by; you guessed it. You whistle.
We’ll point. What a drama king! The Tribune story appeared
on Tuesday 23rd September.
