Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 1 © BahamasUncensored.Com
10th August, 2003
17th August, 2003
24th August, 2003
31st August, 2003
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| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The people of New Providence and the rest of The Bahamas were awakened to the shattering news that there had been in the dark and early hours of the morning of Saturday 2nd August a tragedy at sea. The early reports were of 30 deaths but the number soon was officially confirmed at 6 deaths, 17 injured and the other souls with numbers varying from 157 up to 175 said to be well and accounted for. The Sea Hauler and the United Star, the latter a barge, collided at sea at some time between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. on Saturday 2nd August. Most passengers were asleep at the time. The entire Government and emergency services swung into operation, with the assistance of the United States Coast Guard. The photo of the week must surely be the Deputy Prime Minister as she comforted the injured, the survivors and the merely curious at the Prince Margaret Hospital. The photo is by the Bahamas Information Services. We report more on the story below. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
FLEXING YOUR MUSCLES FOR NOTHING
The mantra of the week by Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell as he did
the talk show rounds to try to undo the irresponsible damage done by the
anti CARICOM crowd was that Bahamians should stop being so frantic and
hysterical about the proposed Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME;
see story below) and what it means. He told the country at one point
on the Jeff Lloyd ‘Issues of the Day’ Show: “This is The Bahamas – take
it easy”
At another point in the programmes on radio, the Minister was being asked in his capacity as the Minister for the Public Service how the negotiations were going with the public sector unions. The lead spokesman for the negotiations on the postponement of the salary increase for Government workers is Kingsley Black, the head of the Bahamas Union of Teachers. Mr. Black had issued an ultimatum to the Government. He said: “Pay us by 1st October or else.” He predicted that there would be widespread industrial action if the civil servants were not paid by that date.
Mr. Mitchell told the country that there would be no fight from the Government’s side. He said that he could not understand in an easygoing country like The Bahamas why all this hysteria was being whipped up over these negotiations. He said that the media had an interest in trying to portray this whole thing as an epic drama between two elephants in the jungle but it simply was not that. The facts on the economy were all agreed between the Unions and the Government. The fact is the economy is in deep do do. The only difference between the sides is when is the pay increase going to come. The Government says December, the Unions have now moved from July to October. According to Mitchell and the Government, “We are only quibbling over a couple of weeks.”
Later in the week, the National Congress of Trade Unions, the umbrella union to which Mr. Timothy Moore’s BEC management union belongs met with the Government. What emerged out of that meeting was a Union ultimatum to the Government that Mr. Moore should be restored to his job at BEC from which the Corporation had sought to dismiss him or there would be industrial action. There was said to be the same demand from the Board who it was claimed by some would resign en masse if Mr. Moore were taken back. (Click here for last week's story on Timothy Moore).
Again the question one asks oneself is how is it that we have come to the point in The Bahamas that no one wants to negotiate? It is always my way or the highway. It is as if we have lost our national character or something as we try to flex our muscles for absolutely nothing. There is always a price for flexing muscles, and very often the threat is more potent than the actual act. Almost everyone loses in a war.
The United States is finding that out now as it tries to repair its reputation in the world after the silly exercise that it conducted in Iraq. As the body bags come back home, and the economy goes into a nosedive, and they now need the help of the international community, it turns out that even giants have their limitations.
And so we echo what the Minister said: This is The Bahamas, take it easy. Why are we getting all hyped over these maters that have nothing to do with life and death?
The number of hits for the week ending Saturday 2nd August at midnight: 22,879.
The number of hits for the month of July ending Thursday 31st July at midnight: 129,969.
The number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 2nd August at midnight: 4,176.
The number of hits for the year up to Saturday 2nd August at midnight: 816,812.
LOST AT
SEA
As we go to upload today, the nation is numbed by the
tragedy that unfolded at sea in the early hours of the morning of Saturday
2nd August in the Bahamas. The first weekend in August is a bank
holiday weekend, marking the anniversary of the freeing of the slaves on
1st August 1834. It has increasingly become a time when mail boats
have special hires with masses of people going to the Out Islands for a
weekend of relaxation and fun. Weekend excursions of overcrowded
boats leave New Providence on the evening after work on the Friday and
return in the early hours of the morning of the following Tuesday.
Everyone suspects that the ships are dangerously over crowded and ill equipped
for transporting people. They are after all mail boats, and essentially
cargo ships.
There have been warnings for years that there needs to be a stricter regime
for inter island travel. The report is that sometime between
12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. on Saturday 2nd August, the barge United Star, said
not to have had its running lights on, collided with the Sea Hauler, a
mail boat. The barge was coming from Cat Island. The mail boat
was loaded with 194 passengers and 7 crew. Most of the passengers
were sleeping on the deck. The Sea Hauler has a crane on it.
The captain of the Sea Hauler saw the barge coming at the last minute and
tried to take evasive action. The action may have saved lives, since
the impact of the hit was on the side near the crane on the mail boat.
The boat did not sink. But the crane fell over and crushed several
people. There are six people reported dead. There were some 17 injuries.
The police were informed at 1:37 a.m. The
Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt who is responsible for the
police was informed at 3 a.m. She left for the hospital as soon as
the injured began arriving and spent the entire morning comforting the
crowd that gathered at the hospital. The Prime Minister was informed
later in the morning and he arrived at 9:30 a.m. to be fully briefed.
A review must now be done to see if these reporting procedures are effective.
The question is: when was the Disaster Preparedness Committee notified?
The emergency services went into action with the hospital calling doctors
and ambulances. The news started to spread and the crowds of weeping
and noisy onlookers turned up at the hospital. The police set up
a reception centre at their barracks.
The survivors were brought back to Nassau on the Sea Wind, owned by Bahamas
Fast Ferries at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday 2nd August. The survivors pronounced
themselves happy with the way the emergency services performed. The
Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin has appointed a special Committee
to investigate the accident and report its findings according to law to
the Government. Special kudos to the United States Coastguard for
swinging into action with its helicopters to get people off the boat and
into Nassau for treatment. Of the serious injuries there was one
amputation and one person paralyzed from the neck down. The whole
thing just left the country deeply saddened. We show some of what
happened in pictures.
OUR
CONDOLENCES TO THE NATION
This column wishes to extend condolences to the
people of the country on the tragic deaths at sea over the past weekend.
All Bahamians have been deeply moved by the events, and more importantly
by the great work that was done by our emergency services in this matter.
There are lessons to be learnt to be sure in this tragedy. Some lives
are shattered forever as a result of what looks like a careless act by
some person or persons. We think that the full weight of the law
must be brought against those who are responsible. But just like
the rest of the nation we are in mourning.
HOW
THE EMERGENCY SERVICES PERFORMED
There is a Disaster Preparedness Committee that
is supposed to swing into action once a disaster of this nature occurs.
Or are they supposed to be involved? It did not appear that they
were very much involved in what happened over the past weekend on the Bahamian
high seas. Certainly then, we call for an investigation into the
effectiveness of the Disaster Preparedness Committee, how it functions
and its reporting mechanisms. It appears that the police and the
hospital emergency services were the ones who were running the show, without
a specific central person who deals with the event, one person to whom
the decisions could be referred and who could decide amidst the chaos.
Perhaps, nothing succeeds like success, so this comment might be much ado
about nothing. But one can’t help the feeling that a review is in any case
necessary to see if there are not lessons to be learned. Generally
though the Bahamian people and the Government were pleased with the manner
in which matters were conducted.
EMANCIPATION
DAY IN WORDS AND PICTURES
The Fox Hill Festival for 2003 has commenced. The Chairman of the
Fox Hill Festival Committee John Bullard pronounced himself pleased.
The Member of Parliament for Fox Hill and the Minister of Foreign Affairs
officially declared the festival open on Friday 1st August. The festival
is organized around the anniversary of Emancipation Day. The day
is named after the day when the British law freeing the slaves in their
empire came into force. That was 1st August 1834. It has been
169 years since that time. Fox Hill is one of the few communities
that celebrates the anniversary. The other is the community of Gambier.
The activities during the week will include the traditional plaiting of
the maypole, the climbing of the greasy pole and sale of refreshments on
the parks on the Emancipation Day holiday celebrated on August Monday,
4th August and Fox Hill Day 12th August. The symbolic torch of freedom
was lit on the Freedom Park at the official opening on Friday 1st August.
We show pictures of some of the ceremony.
BATELCO
OFFICE OPENS IN FOX HILL
The new BaTelCo business office in Fox Hill is open
for business. It was officially opened by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs and the representative for the Fox Hill constituency Fred Mitchell
on Saturday 2nd August. At the opening Mr. Mitchell congratulated
BaTelCo for reopening the office that had been closed under the FNM's administration.
He said he thought it was a mistake to have closed the office. He
indicated that the closure had caused a lot of pain in Fox Hill.
He remembered in Opposition how he had led a protest against the closure
of the office and pledged that if he were elected he would try to have
it reopened. He thanked the Minister for BaTelCo, Bradley Roberts
and the Chairman of the Board Reno Brown for their reopening the office
in Fox Hill. He said it meant a lot to the community. He also
said he had a special affinity for BaTelCo having served as a director
of the company when Loftus Roker was the Minister responsible in 1977 and
1978. He said that it was an asset of the Bahamian people and we
had no right to dispose of it at fire sale prices. From left are Rev.
Dr. J. Carl Rahming, BaTelCo Chair Reno Brown and Mrs. Brown; Minister
Mitchell, former MP Frank Edgecombe, Developer Derek Davis and Mrs. Jan
Davis; Rev. Dr. Phillip Rahming and Mr. C. John Bullard, Chairman Fox Hill
Festival Committee. Festival Committee photo.
ANOTHER
BOY IS MISSING
We have now added yet another picture to the masthead of this site of a
missing boy in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Joe Darville, the human rights
and child advocacy activist, was beside himself saying to the press that
parents had relaxed their precautions, since none of the three previously
missing boys had been found after three months. Scotland Yard's Caribbean
Regional Advisor Larry Covington flew into Freeport to offer advice on
the subject and to consult with Superintendent Marvin Dames of the Bahamian
police. The Bahama Journal reported in its Thursday 31st July edition
that Myrthia Jean Tinrod 33 reported her son missing on Wednesday 30th
August. She last saw him when her son had asked for $4 to go to a
local movie theatre. Missing is 11 year old Junior Reme. The
police are stumped and the community is frightened. The profile of
the disappearances on the surface seem the same. These are pubescent little
boys who are vulnerable to the lure of money in circumstances where there
is a lack of available resources in their families.
A
THREAT AFTER THE MINISTER TESTIFIES?
No one is quite sure why the Minister of Foreign
Affairs Fred Mitchell who is also responsible for extraditions was called
to the witness stand by the defence counsel in the extradition case of
Austin Knowles of Eleuthera and his three other co accused. The four
persons all from Eleuthera are said to be involved in a large drug ring
and are wanted by US authorities. The case resumed on Wednesday 30th
August and the Minister was subpoenaed to testify at the trial. He
appeared at 2:30 p.m. At that time he was asked whether or not he
was the Minster during the period 13th February to 20th February.
He was asked whether he was in The Bahamas at that time, which he answered
in the negative. He was asked was he still able to perform
the functions of Minister. He answered yes. On cross examination,
the Crown asked him if he had left an acting Minister in place. He
answered yes. He identified that Minister as Dr. Marcus Bethel.
He said that it was Dr. Bethel who had signed the extradition papers.
That said he left the box.
Later that day, a call was said to have come in
from what appears to be prankster that because the Minister was not in
town to sign the extradition papers that he would be the subject of a drug
man’s hit. It shows how being dragged into these matters can bring
out the crazies and some unintended consequences. Counsel ought to
be careful then how decisions are taken to drag persons into matters when
it is not absolutely necessary because of the special dangers they might
pose. Fighting drugs in The Bahamas is serious and sometimes a life
threatening matter.
A
NEW GAME OF NUMBERS
It is said that it is getting more and more difficult
to control the numbers racket in The Bahamas. That is because the
numbers fellows are not just selling numbers on slips of paper on the street
anymore. Numbers have now gone high tech in The Bahamas, a number
of them (forgive the pun) have taken to opening Internet cafes, and selling
their wares over the Internet. You get an account by computer and
your account is credited with the money if you win. The result is
that you have no slips of paper with numbers lying around for the lawmen
to capture, making an already difficult crime to prosecute, even more difficult.
Our suggestion is that since gambling is so widespread
in our community, it should be legalized and the Government get its cut
by way of taxes. Everywhere you go in New Providence, there is a
slot machine, in every bar, in the wide open and nothing is done to enforce
it. The problem is now, that the police having read this will probably
launch raids to stop it. But we can tell them, they are only wasting
time and should go fight other crimes because the reality is that Bahamians
do not support the ban on gambling and the law must catch up with that
reality.
WHEN
IS SUN GOING TO START?
It has been several months now since Butch Kerzner
and the Prime Minister announced that Kerzner International, formerly Sun,
and the owners, managers and developers of the Atlantis Resort on Paradise
Island, was to invest a further 600 million dollars on the island.
No shovel has gone into the ground yet and the natives are getting restless.
The question is whether this most signature of projects expected to jump
start the economy and settle the natives down with jobs will in fact get
started. And so the question is being asked: when is it going to start?
The reply has been given that the Kerzners are reliable developers and
it is known that they stick by their word and contractual obligations,
but equally important is the responsibility of the Bahamian people through
their elected representatives to have an update on where things now stand.
GILBERT
MORRIS ON THE PRIVY COUNCIL
Gilbert Morris provided for the press an excellent commentary and explanation
as to why the Privy Council continues to be an important Court for The
Bahamas. In the case being brought by Maurice Glinton and Leandra
Esfakis, the Privy Council forced the Government's lawyers to concede that
the law as it applies to the Compliance Commission in The Bahamas is to
be on hold until such time as the Privy Council hears and rules on the
matter in October. This is in distinction to the short shrift and
discourteous actions of the Court of Appeal in The Bahamas (Click
here for last week's story). This is the second example of the
Privy Council showing the Bahamian Court of Appeal how sensible judges
and lawyers act toward each other. There is no need for insulting
language and gratuitous comments.
In the Thomas Reckley case, the Privy Council told
the Court of Appeal in The Bahamas that in death penalty cases, even where
the appeal is plainly hopeless they ought to put in place a conservatory
order to allow the litigant to get his last day in court. They reminded
the Court of Appeal that the death penalty is uniquely irreversible.
We agree with the interlocutory relief in this case brought by Mr. Glinton
and Ms. Esfakis. Our view is that the Court should eventually roll
back all of the laws passed by the Ingraham administration that have hobbled
our financial services industry. You
may click here for the full story by Gilbert Morris.
GAY
MARRIAGES—MITCHELL COMMENTS SORT OF
Everywhere Ministers of the Government go there
is a trap waiting on the question of gay marriages in The Bahamas.
It is an artificially created issue in The Bahamas. This is a matter
which came up out of the blue at the Independence anniversary service on
Sunday 5th July by the President of the Bahamas Christian Council.
Most Ministers have studiously avoided the topic. Fred Mitchell happened
to be on the radio talk show Issues of the Day only to be blindsided by
the question what is the position on gay marriages. The Minister
according to the Bahama Journal was nudged into a clipped comment on the
issue. Here is what he said in his own words: “My view is that
the position is really clear. Marion Bethel wrote a letter that I
saw in the press that said there is no issue on the matter pending; there
is none under consideration. It is really not an issue at all.”
The Minister’s remarks were made on Wednesday 30th August and reported
in the Journal on Thursday 31st August.
THE
FUTURE FOR THE PRIVY COUNCIL
The British Government has published its much anticipated
paper on the future of the Courts in Britain, which will now lead to the
abolition of the House of Lords as a final Court of Appeal in Britain.
The Supreme Court is to become the ultimate Court in the United Kingdom.
Of importance to The Bahamas is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
made up of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary; that is a special group of
the Law Lords in Britain’s House of Lords. Some had argued
that the paper would herald the abolition of the Privy Council as the final
court of appeal for some Commonwealth countries. There are said to
be about 70 cases per year before that body.
The British have decided that they will keep the
Privy Council and that it is to be manned by the judges from the new Supreme
Court. That will be a welcome relief to the human rights community
in The Bahamas and elsewhere that oppose the creation of the Caribbean
Court of Justice (CCJ) that the CARICOM wants to replace the Privy Council.
The most recent arguments by the CCJ’s proponents is that the British will
be abolishing the Privy Council in about three years. No such luck.
The British have obviously decided that notwithstanding the pull toward
Europe there is still money making and prestige in the Privy Council business.
ANSBACHER
UP FOR SALE
The South African parent company of Ansbacher Bank
in The Bahamas has announced that the company is for sale. It is
said that the priorities of the company’s parent have changed and is more
focused on economic developments in South Africa. They are looking
for a buyer. Hey, know anyone who wants to by a bank?
A
LOT OF WORK ON CSME
The reaction to the visit of Barbados Prime Minister
Owen Arthur who was in Nassau to talk about the Caribbean Single Market
and Economy (CSME) has unleashed a flood of uninformed and ignorant commentary,
based largely in prejudice against West Indians. That said; there
is a need for further public discussion on the issue. The question
that is paramount: will it be good for The Bahamas? We think that
the answer is an unequivocal yes.
BERMUDA
ELECTIONS FINAL
Jennifer Smith, the former Premier of Bermuda, had
a fast exit last week after the members of her governing Progressive Labour
Party's caucus gave her an ultimatum. Alex Scott is now the new Premier
and Ewart Brown, the Deputy Premier. Ms. Smith was offered a Cabinet
post but refused it to sit on the backbench. (Click
here for last week's report) Mr. Scott is said to be a consensus builder
and is thought to be a friend of The Bahamas and the Caribbean.
B.S.
NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA -
A Fourth Boy Missing in Grand Bahama
Life was slowly beginning to return to some degree of normalcy as the
May disappearance of three Grand Bahama boys, Jake Grant, Mackinson Colas
and DeAngello McKenzie was beginning to fade in the public's mind.
Then on Tuesday 30th July, came word that 11 year old Junior Reme of Garden
Villas, commonly called 'The Ghetto' was reported missing. Junior's
mother reported that on Tuesday morning, he asked her for four dollars
to go to the movies. She told him that she didn't have it, so he
should stay at home. After she left him to deal with another of her
children and when she returned Junior was gone and hasn’t been seen or
heard from since.
There seems to be pattern developing. Two of the four missing boys worked as packing boys at the local downtown food store. Two of the boys were of Haitian descent. All of the missing boys lived in relatively close proximity to each other and all of them were around the same size. The Ministry of National Security in a statement said that they have sought the assistance of Scotland Yard who have sent an expert in the area of missing persons to assist the local police with their investigations. The statement also said that the Government is considering putting up some reward money in the hope of obtaining information. Private citizens have already donated about $85,000 in reward money.
Local Government
The Local Government Council was in the news again this week.
This time staff were complaining that they were not paid for the month
of July. The Chief Councillor for the Freeport area, Ms. Marva Moxey
explained that it had nothing to do with the City of Freeport Council,
but was an administrative problem with the Island Administrator who was
not in place to sign the pay vouchers. The Administrator was in the
newspaper on Saturday making a public apology for the glitch. The
employees, he said, should have been able to access their money this weekend.
Justice of Attrition
This week we focus on a court case that has so far taken eleven years
and is today no closer to being resolved. It is the case of the Methodist
Church of the Caribbean and the Americas and the Parliament of The Bahamas
and The Bahamas Conference of Methodists. It is one of those politically
unpopular cases where Parliament passed a law that facilitated the transfer
of the property of the historic body (MCA) to the newly formed Bahamian
church body. The case was fought all the way to the Privy Council,
only to be sent back to the lower courts to be heard, where it has remained
permanently stalled. Maurice Glinton is a lawyer who has taken the
lead in this case. He is also a Methodist who is proud of his Methodist
heritage. He has waged a crusade to have his day in court and for
these questions to be adjudicated and settled - to no avail.
The question must now be asked of Attorney General Alfred Sears - Where
does the case stand? Why has it not moved forward since his appointment
over a year ago? It would seem that the old practice of stalling
is still in place, carried over from the previous FNM administration, where
it is hoped that the aggrieved either tires or runs out of money and gives
up the challenge. The question of Parliament's right and how far
it goes will never be known unless the case is heard. For those who
believe in the rule of law, this state of affairs - no matter the outcome
- should never be allowed to persist in our Commonwealth.
BS
 |
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION—On Thursday 7th August the morning daily newspapers in The Bahamas led with a photo of the Most Reverend Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the Province of the West Indies and the Bishop of the Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The reason for the photo was the expressed indignation at the fact that an openly gay Bishop had been ordained into the American version of the Anglican Church. Fire and brimstone came from the local Bishop. He said that as long as he was Bishop no openly gay clergy would be allowed to celebrate mass here. He extended that to the newly elected gay Bishop of New Hampshire, and he said that any clergy that blessed gay unions in The Bahamas would have their licenses revoked. The headlines said that there was the threat of a schism in the Anglican Communion, as it is euphemistically called. We report on the matter below, but we thought that the expression of righteous indignation on the face of the Bishop was enough for photo of the week from The Tribune. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE THREAT TO ANGLICANISM
Let us go back in history as to why the Anglican Church exists today. The conventional wisdom is that Henry VIII, King Of England, decided that since the Pope in Rome would not grant him an annulment of his first marriage so that he could marry a woman that could bear him a son, he nationalized the church in England and made the Roman Catholic Church, the English Catholic Church, hence Anglican. After the fall of British rule in the colonies of the United States, the church in the US became known as the Episcopal Church but in its worship service and liturgy, it is indistinguishable from the Bahamian practice of the faith. The Bahamas even had an American Bishop Spence Burton in its history. So there was no grand theological issue that founded Anglicanism, like the Lutherans who came out of the German Martin Luther’s revolt against the selling of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church. This is a church founded on political considerations.
The truth be told, the decision by Henry VIII was able to succeed so popularly in England because Henry VIII by his decision to seize church property was able to enrich the English treasury, increase his power, tap into a popular anti foreign sentiment in England and get to remarry as a bargain. He made himself Defender of the Faith (fidei defensor), a title which Queen Elizabeth II now has and which Prince Charles, the British heir has promised to remove from the title when he takes it, seeing that he is now living with his mistress next door to his apartments in Kensington Palace. This then is a church founded in politics.
That much must be clear: the political genesis of what is today the
Anglican Church. The church itself was for a long time the state
church of The Bahamas before it was disestablished by the Methodist majority
in the House of Assembly in 1869, and the stipend paid by the Government
to priests was discontinued.
During much of its life, the church covered up the racist sins of
previous Governments in this country. It was the colonial church.
It has of course transformed itself today into an indigenous church
of African majority that is responsible for shepherding sensible and reasoned
political and social debate. It must not depart from that image in
its commentary over the recent ordination of the “gay” Bishop in the United
States.
But also as we reach today, as the number of Anglicans is falling, due to the competition from the evangelicals and the charismatics, there are fresh challenges. Despite the church’s change in the liturgical practice to add loud amens and hallelujahs, people have continued to drift away. So the response of the church by its Bishop to the ordination of the gay Bishop would not be surprising. The church cannot afford to lose any more members by being perceived as soft. It must also be seen to be theologically preeminent in The Bahamas since despite the drift away from the church by the great majority, the leaders of the country continue in the main to be Anglican. It is one thing for Bishop Sam Greene to denounce something. It is quite another, according to some, coming from the Anglican Archbishop.
There is said to be a similar problem in the West Indies generally
and in Africa, where the competition from other protestant religions and
from Islam in Africa challenges the masculinity of the church. So
the church is forced to defend its masculinity by the harsh response to
the ordination of an openly gay bishop.
Our concern as always is the temperature and passion with which
this is all being spoken. It smacks in so many circles of a frightening
demagoguery, that absolves some for sin and others not. That some
sins are more equal than others. Nothing said about the widespread
reports of adultery and fornication amongst clergymen. That presumably
is acceptable. From a doctrinal point of view that cannot be so.
We say a church of forgiveness does not exclude people.
Further, the logical response of the church in The Bahamas, given what has been said before about the incompatibility of doctrine with the stand of the US church is to break away from the total worldwide Anglican Communion. The Bishop appeared to rule that out by saying that the Province remains committed to the maintenance of communion while not compromising the integrity of the mission to uphold the faith. We think that is a sensible approach.
But what is unfortunate is the tone of the public debate generally on this from Christian gentlemen in The Bahamas, which seems to lack the principal of Christian charity.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 9th August 2003 at midnight: 34,101.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 9th August 2003: 38,277.
Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 9th August 2003: 850,913.
THE
POLICE SHOOT A YOUNG GIRL
The police in The Bahamas seem to have a problem. It is not a problem
that is unusual to The Bahamas. It is a problem that we see happening
every day in Jamaica where the police have the reputation of being executioners,
extra constitutional killers of civilians who cross their paths.
We only hear about it occasionally in The Bahamas but when it happens,
it contradicts the goodwill that Commissioner Paul Farqhuarson and his
senior officers are trying to build up in the community through their community
policing effort. The story this time is another shooting. This
time it was fatal.
The Commissioner told the country that the shooting
was committed by Reserve Police officers who were said to have given chase
to a man on motorcycle. The chase ended in the death of a 16 year
old girl about to go into the 12th grade at the Government High School.
The public and the family wanted an explanation immediately as to how someone
could be running away from you on a motor bike and shooting at you at the
same time, with a female girl on the back seat. The Commissioner
promised an investigation. The names of the officers have not been
revealed.
The shooting took place on Thursday 7th August.
The dead girl is Jiselle Glinton (pictured). The man who was riding
the bike was shot twice: once in the arm and another time in the wrist.
He is Kenneth Dorsette of Yellow Elder Gardens. The girl was shot
in the back. We think that although we have not reached the point
of Jamaica, something must be done, for this same old story is happening
in The Bahamas all too often.
THE
TRAGEDY AT SEA IS REHASHED
Last week, we presented the most update and comprehensive coverage of the
tragedy at sea in the waters off Eleuthera in the early hours of Saturday
morning 2nd August. It spoiled the Emancipation Day holiday for many
people. Four people lost their lives in what appears to have been
a combination of bad regulatory practices, resulting in overcrowding of
the boat and the fact that it appears that when the accident occurred,
no qualified person was at the wheels of the vessels United Star and Sea
Hauler. There are some persons who are threatening to sue of course.
But for most unless there is nervous shock there probably is not much by
way of damages that they can collect. People should thank God that
they are still alive. The Captain gave a tearful account of what
he remembered (See story below). But over and over throughout the
country, throughout the week, at the coffee shops and the watering holes,
the conversations in The Bahamas turned to this accident and how this could
have happened. 
The
Government tried to be proactive on the matter, even as the carpetbaggers
that run the FNM were trying to get brownie points for calling for a public
inquiry. Too late. The Government had already through its Minister
of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin secured the services of retired Justice
Joseph Strachan to be the Wreck Commissioner under the Merchant Shipping
Act to conduct a formal inquiry into the matter. The others assisting
the Commissioner in his work are Sir Durward Knowles, retired boat captain
and Dwaine Hutchinson of The Bahamas Maritime Authority in London.
We await the formal reports conclusions. Prime Minister Christie
is shown comforting concerned relatives outside the hospital during the
aftermath of the accident. Photo by the Tribune's Dominic Duncombe.
Tribune cartoonist Stan Burnside tribute from the Tribune of 5th August,
2003.
THE
CAPTAIN WENT TO THE BATHROOM
The Chief Executive at the Port Authority in Nassau believes that he already
knows the cause of the accident. It appears that it is blamed on
the fact that on the fateful morn when four souls perished on the high
seas off Eleuthera, no qualified person was at the helm in either boat.
Some have already said that the barge had no running lights on, and so
it could not be seen by the smaller passenger carrying vessel. Port
Director Anthony Allens is pictured at left [centre] announcing a preliminary
investigation of the incident.
The Captain of the Sea Hauler is Allan Russell (pictured
at right in a Nassau Guardian photo by Kristaan Ingraham). According
to the Nassau Guardian, he gave a tearful interview about what happened.
In addition, he has hired Philip Davis, the Member of Parliament for Cat
Island as his lawyer. The police are now investigating the matter
with a view to determining whether or not there is any criminal culpability.
Captain Russell was the only qualified boatman on his vessel. He
told The Guardian that the accident happened in the space of two minutes
when he went to the bathroom. Here is some of what was said by Captain
Russell in his own words as reported to the Nassau Guardian on Tuesday
5th August:
“As I ran out of the bathroom, I said that there aint no reefs in the
middle of this ocean. It is impossible. So I asked him [the
person at the helm] what he saw and he said nothing. And I looked
at the radar screen before I even moved to go to the bathroom, and I didn’t
see anything. My radar was in working condition and I still didn’t
see that boat.
“It was a very bad scene...very, very, very bad
“I felt like those people were my sons and daughters.
That’s how close I felt to them. It was a very bad scene. I
could just picture it. When I went down there and saw those people…ohhhh!...
bad scene. I will remember this to my grave…
“From my experience, if you see an object, you
can deal with it by protecting and shunning yourself from it, but if you
haven’t seen the object, it is difficult to shun something that you can’t
see.
“It was chaos. A lot of people panicked, but I was able to calm them
down as much as possible and there were some men who were experienced and
they assisted me very, very well in keeping them calm. Trust me,
they reacted very good because it was a very very bad scene. (One
of the Captain’s daughters received serious head injuries. The Captain
said that after the hit, he was unsure that the barge United Star was aware
that they had hit another vessel and another vessel radioed the barge to
return to the scene. He had already established that his ship was not in
danger of sinking.)
“She did come back. By that time, Bahamas
Air Sea Rescue Association (BASRA) and the coast guard made some contacts
with me and advised me to go alongside and tie up ship to ship until they
arrived. They said that it would be between an hour and an hour and
a half before they could get us, which they did. We had already transferred
all the capable passengers from the Sea Hauler on to the deck of the United
Star.
“The ones who were not able to move remained
on board the Sea Hauler. Then I waited until the authorities reached,
which was the coast guard. They conducted first aid on the people
and took over the whole operation from there.
“When I left Potters Cay, the count was 191 people, and you know our people
have a very bad way of jumping on these boats after the count has been
scored. We come with extra people at the time of the accident when we were
trying to find out if any went overboard…
“I am still in shock from this incident.
My deepest regret to this day is that those people got hurt. I always
believe that God is in control. It could have been worse. The
whole ship could have gone down, but thank God we didn’t lose a lot of
people. Although in losing four people, it is still very very sad
but it could have been everybody. And that could have been a real
disaster to families in this country.”
A
MOTHER IS OFFERED PHOTOS FOR DOLLARS
Judy Johnson and Luther Riley, the parents of a
14 year old Lynden Riley were incensed at the hucksters who have been coming
up to them and offering money for a photo of their dead son, taken shortly
after his death on aboard the Sea Hauler in the wee hours of Saturday 2nd
August on the high seas. The parents said that they were being harassed
by insensitive and uncaring photographers who were either aboard during
the incident or arrived shortly after and that as many as six had offered
to sell them pictures of their son’s dead body in prices ranging from $200
to $1000. The extent of commercialism is quite incredible.
“These people are sick,” the boy’s father told The Nassau Guardian: “They
have no respect for people’s feelings.” Nassau Guardian photo
of parents by Donald Knowles.
THE
ARCHBISHOP IN HIS OWN WORDS
Our photo of the week shows the Anglican Archbishop
Drexel Gomez denouncing the ordination of an “openly” homosexual priest
to the office of Bishop in the United States. The Nassau Guardian
criticized the comments of the local Anglican prelate in its editorial
of Thursday 7th August a bit of “homophobic ecumenism”. But the Archbishop’s
words were direct and stinging. He said that the Bishop Elect from
the US would not be allowed to serve here, and that no “openly gay” priest
would be ordained nor allowed to practice in The Bahamas. Further,
he said that if same sex unions were blessed by any Anglican priest his
license would be revoked.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has summoned all the
Anglican Bishops to London for an emergency conference on the matter.
Here is what Archbishop Gomez had to say to the press on Thursday 7th August
in his own words:
“What was surprising to me was the number of
votes they [the supporters of Bishop elect Robinson of New Hampshire] were
able to garner because when we started this dialogue, we were only certain
of 24 Bishops who would vote no and 25 voted no. So they were able
to influence some others. And so while I expected this result, I
didn’t expect for this to be this close…
“As long as I am in this office, the practice
of homosexuality will not be permitted… And any evidence that that is going
on will be dealt with very firmly by the Bishop and no person who is openly
practicing a gay lifestyle will be considered for ordination.
“While we remain committed to the maintenance
of communion, we cannot compromise the integrity of our mission to uphold
the faith once delivered to the saints. In the present situation,
we applaud the noble efforts of the bishops, clergy and laity in the Episcopal
conference of the United States of America who upheld the church’s teaching
in the wake of the revisionists’ onslaught. While we encourage them
to remain faithful, we pray that a Communion response to our present difficulties
will be given urgent attention.”
HEADING
TO LONDON
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the nominal
head of the Church of England, has convened a conference of Bishops in
London for October to discuss what is now being called a crisis in the
Anglican Church. The American church has asked for a separate province
to be carved out that allows the conservative elements to exist as a separate
province in the United States. The Africans are threatening to split
altogether and well we don’t quite know what The Bahamas plans to do as
part of the West Indies. Our suggestion to the heads of the churches
in the West Indies is that people are more tolerant than all that, and
there is no need or requirement for the West Indies province to split from
the Church of England. It will be an overreaction and unnecessary
since the decision does not affect the West Indies in any way shape or
form.
ARTHUR
FOULKES CHASTISES BISHOP GREENE
Arthur Foulkes, the retired politician and ambassador
is usually a good read and last week was no exception to that comment.
He spoke mainly about the Caribbean Single Market and Economy and how the
Government must engage in further public education on the issue.
But his ire was reserved for Bishop Sam Greene of the Bahamas Christian
Council who in Mr. Foulkes' view sought to rest the defence of his statements
about blowing up the Parliament of The Bahamas on the Pope’s statement
that the Vatican was opposed to gay marriages and urged legislators to
vote against any such laws.
When asked for his response to the Pope's statement,
Bishop Sam Greene said that he was basking in pleasure. In other words,
he felt vindicated by the Pope's statement. But Sir Arthur pointed
out that Bishop Greene is missing the point. The point that people
take issue with is not his right to say and believe that he disagrees with
gay marriages, the only point is he needs to apologize for saying that
he will blow up the Parliament. Until that time, the statement will
continue to haunt him.
THE
PM AND MOTHER PRATT ON THE SCENE
Whatever went right or wrong during the fateful
weekend of August Monday 2003, the Government seems to have done something
right. Its main asset in the handling of the crisis was clearly Cynthia
‘Mother’ Pratt whose instincts told her shortly after being notified that
the accident had occurred to head down to the Princess Margaret Hospital.
She was the first to arrive and she immediately went about comforting the
people on the scene. It was later that her voice was heard over national
radio relaying the information, as it was then known to the public.
The Prime Minister arrived on the scene at about 9: 30 a.m. Saturday 2nd
August. He stayed in the background, observing, giving hugs and words
of comfort himself. This engaging photo by Dominic Duncombe of The
Tribune and published on Tuesday 5th August showed the combination and
the contemplation.
YOUNG
ALLEN ON GAYS AND CSME
Bill Allen, the former Minister of Finance, has
a good boy Andrew who writes for The Tribune. Many times, young Allen
falls into error with tangential arguments and attacks on individuals in
the Government and mischievous comments about this column. But for
two weeks now, it appears that he has found the right tack. He has
preached tolerance and honesty in the great gay debate going on in the
country. He has been a proponent of the Caribbean Single Market and
Economy. It only goes to show that political opponents can find common
cause on issues.
SIMEON
HALL’S CALL IN THE GREAT GAY DEBATE
Not to be outdone in the great gay debate, Bishop
Simeon Hall has now called for a conference of church leaders to be convened
in The Bahamas to mount a defence against the current discussions in the
society on gay and lesbian issues. No doubt this conference will
stamp out gay and lesbian activity in The Bahamas once and for all.
The interesting phenomenon is as the Nassau Guardian pointed out in a series
that it is running with interviews between two homosexual men, the phenomenon
in The Bahamas is so suppressed and secret that the folks who are shouting
the loudest about this issue might not even realize who they are talking
to and who may be surrounding their very selves as they talk. It
is just like those condemning Haitian Bahamians and not knowing that right
around them are people of Haitian descent.
FOX
HILL FESTIVITIES CONTINUE
The Fox Hill Festival is drawing to a close this
weekend as it moves toward Fox Hill Day on Tuesday 12th August. Fox
Hill day is the day the second Tuesday in the month set aside by Baptist
Churches in the village of Fox Hill for talent concerts at the churches
followed by a fair on the Fox Hill parade grounds. The Prime Minister is
expected to visit the churches on Fox Hill Day. He will officially
open the Park Plaza Building in Fox Hill owned by Mr. and Mrs. Derek Davis
on Monday 11th August. But in Fox Hill the sports activity and Junkanoo
came to a highlight with the presentation of trophies and monies on Thursday
7th August. Minister of Sports and Culture Neville Wisdom made the
presentations. MP for Fox Hill Fred Mitchell rode on the fire engine
on police day in Fox Hill on Saturday 9th August.
THE
GREASY POLE
One of the most popular features of the Fox Hill
Festival is the climbing of the greasy pole, where the trunk of a large
Yellow Pine is liberally coated with heavy grease and a cash prize is attached
to the top. Teams of young men from the village of Fox Hill strategise
together to reach the coveted envelope. Crowds gather to watch the
fun. Here is the climbing of the greasy pole in photos.
SHORT NOTES
Philip “Brave” Davis MP for Cat Island announced that a fund has been opened
at the Royal Bank of Canada to assist the victims of the accident at sea
on the weekend of August Monday. The trustees for the fund are all
Cat Islanders: Kemuel Hepburn, Fritz Stubbs, B.K.Bonamy, Dorothy Gilbert,
Melvin Seymour, Bishop Albert Hepburn and David Bowe. It is called
the Cat Island Excursion Disaster Relief Funds 2003 account number at Royal
Bank of Canada is 2812956. Mr. Davis (right) is shown with Mr.
Kemuel Hepburn announcing the formation of the relief organisation in this
Nassau Guardian photo by Patrick Hanna.
Philip “Brave” Davis has responded to allegations
that the Kerr McGee oil exploration licences granted by the Bahamas Government
were granted by the Government because he was the former partner of Prime
Minister Perry Christie. Sam Duncombe, an environmental activist,
accused the Government of cronyism because of the decision. Mr. Davis
said that the allegations were not only incorrect but also potentially
libelous.
The difficulty with environmental activists is that
often they overstate their cases, and go a bit over the top in an effort
to cause public reaction and debate. The fact is that the firm Davis
& Co in its previous incarnation Christie Davis and Co developed a
reputation and is still one of the only firms with expertise on Bahamian
law in the area of oil exploration. Sam has gone over the top.
CHANDRA
STURRUP FOR ONE MILLION
The Tribune of Saturday 9th August reported that
Chandra Sturrup, one of the Golden Girls of The Bahamas at the Olympics
of 2000 is on target for a one million dollar jackpot as a runner’s prize.
The prize is for the top athlete in the six race Golden League series.
The Tribune reports that she and Mozambique’s Maria Mutola are the only
two women in contention for the gold bullion haul. Ms. Sturrup runs
the fourth race in the series in Belgium today.
SCHOOL
OPENING COMING
The Bahamas Government will have to find a way and
soon to finance tertiary education. The loan underwriting scheme
invented by the Free National Movement administration was and is a disaster
for so many reasons. But mainly today, it is because the programme
has run out of money and many want to recommend that no loans be granted
this year. That will knock the socks out from under any parents who
have no other means of paying for the necessary tertiary level education
of their children. The Government should address this on an emergency
basis since the time is running out and no decisions have been made about
who is going to get money, and the rumours are that very few if any will
be able to get money from the programme.
B.S.
NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA -
Mike Pilgrim
Mike Pilgrim is a former teacher at Hugh Campbell Primary School who
has taught in The Bahamas for the past 20 years. He was back in court
this week to answer a charge of vagrancy. He was charged in May of
this year and given bail in the sum of $20,000, later reduced to $10,000.
The charge – if guilty – carries a fine of $50. When he turned up
to court, the prosecution was not prepared to go forward with his case
and asked for an adjournment to December 17th. The attorney for the
defence objected calling the charge frivolous and asked that it be dropped;
instead in was adjourned until December 17th.
Upon attempting to leave the court, Pilgrim was rearrested and charged
with bestiality and the assault of two minors, charges for which the allegations
go back to 2000 and 2001. This time, he was remanded to prison until
a preliminary enquiry in December. It now appears that Pilgrim is
being singled out by the criminal justice system and it is hoped that the
police have the evidence to support these charges and that this individual
is not being made a scapegoat for the inability of the police to solve
the disappearance of four little boys from the Grand Bahama community.
Backsliding Bishops
When one Canon Robinson was elected this past week to be the new Bishop
of New Hampshire it caused some believers in Jesus Christ worldwide to
pause and say that we are indeed approaching the long anticipated time
when Christ will soon return to rapture his church.
The American bishops electing an openly gay person to be a bishop have departed from the truth. In the first instance Robinson does not meet the biblical qualifications for the office of a bishop according to the standards set in first Timothy Chapter 3. Robinson can be the president and CEO of any Fortune 500 company. He could even be the president of the United States or head any secular organisation, but according to the Holy Scriptures, he does not meet the standard of qualifying for a bishop and no amount of debate will change that. As believers, we either accept the Holy Scriptures as God inspired instructions or we do not. It is not something that we pick the doctrines we believe and reject the ones we don’t.
There are some things so obvious that a person need not seek counselling
on. A good example is if a young man is engaged in sweethearting,
he need not go to his parish priest to ask what should he do in order for
him to take communion. We all know that all he need do is to repent
and cease his sweethearting and then he will be accepted back into the
communion, but if he partakes of communion without first repenting, he
does so unworthily. The same is true with the gay lifestyle; this
is according to the Holy Scriptures. It seems that the American bishops
have departed from the truth and have embarked on a course of human secularism
that will eventually lead a lot of the sheep astray and God will judge
them for that.
BS
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
A NEW CATHOLIC BISHOP
The
Catholic Community in The Bahamas, a church that came to be established
here relatively late in the history of the country, is about to come of
age. Patrick Pinder of the St. Augustine’s College Class of 1971
is now the Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Church in The Bahamas. We
congratulate him.
The first stage of the establishment of the church was the missionary phase during the 19th century. During much of the twentieth century, the church was looking for converts, and they did that by an investment not in church buildings but in the schooling of Bahamian children. The work of mission was entrusted to the Benedictine monks. They supplied the first Bishop. The next Bishop Leonard Hagarty expanded the education effort, with the establishment of Aquinas College, the Bishop Leonard High School (now closed) and of course the expanded work of St. Augustine’s College and the Xavier’s Elementary School.
The new Bishop Lawrence Burke who succeeded Bishop Leonard in 1981 and who is now the Bishop was Jamaican born and he has in addition to the role of education taken the church in The Bahamas to a second phase. He has expanded the infrastructure of the church with a new hall for education at St. Augustine’s, a new all purpose hall on Gladstone Road and several new church buildings that show that the church has in fact arrived. He expects to consecrate a new cathedral church to replace the old St. Francis building sometime next year.
The consecration of the Auxiliary Bishop, a product of the Catholic school system, a child of the dispossessed, born himself out of wedlock, is a remarkable accomplishment for the church, and made all Catholics, indeed all Bahamians beam with pride.
During
the tenure of Lawrence Burke, the diocese of The Bahamas became an Archdiocese,
no doubt in part to compete with the Anglican Church whose Bishop became
head of the Province of the West Indies and is the first Bahamian Archbishop.
In his homily, the Roman Catholic Archbishop appealed for tolerance and for an end to prejudice. He called most notably in the list of those who are the victims of prejudice: lesbians, gays and immigrants. As if to reinforce the immigrant life amongst us, he had the gospel delivered in Haitian Creole. The Archbishop also attacked the protestant denunciation of the Catholic veneration of Mary, as the mother of Jesus. He said that he could not understand how his protestant brothers could not see her special role. He also attacked the creed of materialism that can be found in various protestant churches, where he said there is a view that the words of God can be heard and interpreted by mere mortals, and that religion and God are reduced to slogans. He said that he was concerned that the current popular religions had the emphasis on the size of your bank account as a sign that God had blessed you.
While many applaud that frankness, because the signs are that many of the charismatics and evangelicals are behaving as if The Bahamas is some kind of theocracy, some were put off by the convoluted announcement at the mass that those who were not Catholic should not apply for communion. It was insensitive and insulting, but that aside it was a glorious ceremony. Today, we have pictures from the ceremony for our readers including (top) Bishop Pinder greeting wellwishers, followed by Archbishop Burke and the Papal Nuncio greeting the congregation. The photos are by Peter Ramsay.
Congratulations to the new Bishop and we wish him well.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 16th August at midnight: 30,878.
Number of hits for the month of August ending Saturday 16th August at midnight: 69,155.
Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 16th August 2003 at midnight: 881,791.
BASIL
KELLY DIES
There is a picture that many people remember from 1967. That is a
picture of Basil Kelly in a cape with the words UBP written all over it
as he flew in from his Crooked Island constituency where he had been victorious
in a bye-election. That bye-election had been called because of an
irregularity at the time of the nomination for the General Election of
1967. The courts said that the election had to be held again.
It was the UBP’s last stand. The General Election of 1968 wiped them
out as a political presence in The Bahamas. Basil Kelly lost the
seat he had held since 1962. They are now safely entombed in the
bowels of the Free National Movement. This quintessential UBP and
Bay Street Boy, whose family came to The Bahamas in 1780 and has stayed
for seven generations was hailed on his death at 73 after a brief illness
on Monday 11th August (the 90th birthday of the
late Sir Milo Butler) as a decent man and a good Bahamian son. The
tributes came from his party the Free National Movement, from his kith
and kin like Robert Carron and Lynn Holowesko and from the Prime Minister.
Government Ministers Fred Mitchell, Allyson Maynard Gibson and the Prime
Minister attended the funeral on Friday 14th August at St. Anne’s Anglican
Church. The former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was also there.
Photo
by Peter Ramsay.
FAYNE
SOLOMON DIES
It was if the angel of death had some how visited upon the Bay Street Boys.
Fayne Solomon, the Bay Street merchant who was not involved in politics
but came from a family of politicians and activists so that he was identified
as a Bay Street Boy died on Monday at the age of 85 at his residence in
Treasure Cay, Abaco on Monday 11th August, the same day as Basil Kelly
(See story above). He had no funeral. He was cremated and his
ashes spread at sea near the lighthouse that he built on the Eastern Road.
Mr. Solomon while a supporter of the Free National Movement was seen as
an independent thinker and actor to the black community. In
the case of Basil Kelly and Fayne Solomon their life’s work reads so differently
from the experiences of today’s Bahamians. It is like they lived
in a different world, and yet their fortunes were made here in The Bahamas.
A chapter in Bahamian history is fast coming to a close.
TOMMY
TURNQUEST ON THE GAY ISSUE
The statement of Senator Tommy Turnquest on the
FNM’s position on same sex marriage was an extraordinarily brave statement
given the tenor of the times. There is a witch hunt going on, with
all of the politicians and intelligentsia scrambling for the hills.
There is a fear that if you defend tolerance or if you say that you have
no issue with gay and lesbian people that you will be called a sissy.
The fact is that most people believe that marriage
is a religious concept that has a civil character to it. It is clear
that there is no support then for same sex marriage, since that would obviously
be a contradiction in terms. Marriage in its religious aspect means
a relationship between a man and a woman solemnized by the church. But
the pure civil character of marriage is really a contract between two individuals
to reorder their property and family relationships in a particular way.
It was that aspect of the Canadian constitution that caused the Courts
of Canada to rule that the laws on marriage in Canada were discriminatory.
In other words, strip away the whole question of marriage and its religious
character, if two people want to arrange their property and family
relationships in a particular way and choose to do so, what role does the
state have in preventing that from happening. Solemnizing those relationships
in a church is quite another thing. It cannot and should not be imposed
upon a church. Such an action would be clearly unconstitutional.
The Free National Movement's leader Senator Turnquest
said that his party does not support gay marriages. We agree with
that. There is no support in The Bahamas for it. He said that while
there ought to be latitude for what goes on between consenting adults,
the party did not support same sex marriages. He said further:
“The FNM has always had a position of inclusion
of all Bahamians, but we do not support same sex marriages as a party,
but we don’t believe that we should be intolerant to segments of our society.
We do take issue with volatile statements being made on the issue.
For example, we don’t; think that it was appropriate for Bishop Sam Greene
to talk about blowing up the House of Parliament… We don’t believe that
we can just cut off a segment of our population because they happen to
be gay or lesbian, and we do feel that it is moving ahead.”
A
CASE OF POLITICAL DISHONESTY
The person in question is now out of political office
but he tries to keep his name alive by writing a politically dishonest
column in The Tribune every week. The name is that of former Minister
of the Government Zhivargo Laing. And every week, he is calling on
the Prime Minister or the Government to state its position on one thing
or the next. This week his column is taken up with the subject of
homosexuality. He says of the Government: “Oddly, it seems to feel
no need to speak to these issues despite the wide public debate”.
Speak precisely to what? What widespread public debate? It
is as clear as day that no Government of The Bahamas today or in the past
has contemplated nor is contemplating same sex marriages. The column is
clearly pandering to the lowest common dominator in pursuit of petty political
gains, one expects someone supposedly well-trained to use intellect to
calm fears that arise out of ignorance, not seek to inflame them.
The former Minister writes under the headline: PLP
LEGALISED SEX BETWEEN SAME SEX PARTNERS. The story says that it was
under the PLP’s government pre 1992 that the laws on sexual relations changed.
He is right but his comment is disingenuous, politically dishonest.
He knows or should know that the law was passed with the unanimous consent
of all members of the House including the members of his party the Free
National Movement. There was not one objection or dissent.
He also claims that the passing of the act was done in secret. That
is a lie. The Act took two years to pass Parliament, because of the
controversy over it. The provisions on homosexuality were not the
least of the controversies. If Mr. Laing would only trouble himself
to research the record of the same paper that he writes for, he will find
the same lurid headlines that we see today in the years when the bill was
debated.
But what Mr. Laing has to say for all is whether
or not he is able to put aside his religious views and tell us what business
indeed does the state have in the bedrooms of any two adults. The
arguments for the bill turned essentially on that question. The Supreme
Court of the United States has now upheld that position. That does
not touch and concern religious doctrine, which also outlaws fornication.
The rate of births out of wedlock in the country shows that both fornication
and adultery are rampant. No one argues that this behavior should
be criminalized.
The fact is that we are facing a manufactured issue,
manufactured by persons who ought to know better. It has come at
a time when the economy is at a low ebb and is a sure sign that people
have nothing better to do with their time, than spend time and effort not
on building up the common life but rather seeking to destroy in idle chatter.
Mr. Laing should not be a part of that but should be a part of uplifting
the human spirit. We expect nothing less from him.
FOX
HILL HAS A GRAND TIME
The Fox Hill Festival came to a close on Tuesday 12th August after 12 days
of activities. People were seen stretching as far as the eye could
see on the two parks that form the staging ground for the festival.
Both newspapers led with the climbing of the greasy poll on Tuesday 12th
August. 
The
day before, Jan and Derek Davis officially opened their new Plaza on the
Park Building at Fox Hill. There was a grand party. The Prime
Minister Perry Christie was there for both occasions. He spent time
walking about the community, and on the Tuesday morning Fox Hill Day visited
three Baptist churches in Fox Hill: St. Paul’s Baptist Church, St. Mark's
Church and Mt. Carey Baptist Church. There is a full spread of pictures
of the events by Peter Ramsay. Greasy pole photo from The Tribune by
Dominic Duncombe.
MAILBOAT
VICTIMS BURIED
Two of the victims of the tragic boat crash on the
high seas of The Bahamas during the Emancipation Day holiday weekend were
buried on Saturday 17th August. Their names were Brendamae Smith
Ellis known as Big D and Brunnell Smith Leslie better known as Poompey.
They were 40 years old and thirty years old respectively. The service
was held at the Joe Farrington Road auditorium of the Church of God.
The Prime Minister attended the service and spoke on behalf of the nation.
The Deputy Prime Minister cut short her vacation to join the service for
her constituents. Also in attendance were the Minister of Foreign
Affairs Fred Mitchell and the Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller.
THE
FROG SOUP BAHAMAS
Kudos to Brian Nutt, head of the Bahamas Employers
Confederation (BEcon) for his thoughtful presentation in the newsletter
of his organization recently reported in The Tribune of Thursday 14th August.
He described the condition of The Bahamas as that of the proverbial frog
soup. He said that The Bahamas has been losing market share in tourism.
The statistic he quoted is a decline in the total Caribbean market share
of 15.4 percent in 1993 to 10.7 percent in 1999. Notwithstanding
the FNM’s propaganda, there has been deterioration under their watch.
The PLP’s job now is to stop the obvious rot that took place, and the steady
deterioration of the social fabric of our lives. To do this, the
country must undergo radical change. It will be difficult but it
must be done. The newsletter wrote:
“There is an urban legend that if you drop a
live frog into a pot of boiling water he will, by reflex action jump right
out. But if you drop him into water of a comfortable temperature
and turn up the heat, he will sit there until he boils to death.
The analogy used is to show the consequences of failing to recognize and
react to slow incremental changes in an environment. Bahamians are
in danger of becoming frog soup. The socio economic environment around
us is slowly deteriorating, and we are failing to recognize and react to
slow, incremental changes in an environment.”
We agree and pledge ourselves to joining people
like Mr. Nutt to produce change.
PLP
IN TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
The Government of The Bahamas sent official representatives
to the Turks and Caicos Islands for the swearing in of the new Chief Minister
for the colony Michael Missick. He replaces outgoing Chief Minister
Derek Thompson. Mr. Thompson was forced to resign after the results
of bye-elections on 7th August saw the defeat of his party's candidates
and the loss of his majority in the Parliament. Also in the Turks
and Caicos for the swearing in was the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal
Party Raynard Rigby.
ALL
HELL BREAKS LOOSE
Following upon the General Election campaign of
2002, many people inside the PLP and out in the country were afraid that
the closeness of the PLP to the Ministers of the gospel might give them
the impression that we are creating a theocracy in The Bahamas and that
the religious leaders had to the power to appoint and disappoint leaders.
For some, the headline in The Tribune of Monday 11th August sent chills
down their spines. One must, however, take what is reported by The
Tribune with a grain of salt but there was no denial of the report.
The Tribune said that in his Sunday sermon Bishop Neil Ellis of the Mt.
Tabor Full Baptist Church said that if the Government dared to take the
words Christian values out of the constitution “all hell will break loose”.
So that seems to mean that you can’t even suggest changes in the constitution.
The Bishop was reportedly reacting to a booklet
circulated by the Commission on Constitutional change for people to consider
various ideas. One of them was the question of whether those words
should remain in the constitution. The words have no legal effect
but one supposes it makes good fodder to row about it.
We are concerned about the rising tide of intolerance
that appears to be coming from some of our Christian brethren and wish
they would really lower the temperature of these remarks and also back
away from the intolerance and crudeness their remarks portray. They
