Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 4 © BahamasUncensored.Com 2006
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| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The George Mackey Fox Hill Festival officially opened this week. The Fox Hill Festival Committee named the Festival for this year in honour of the former Member of Parliament for Fox Hill who died in January. The Free National Movement’s wannabe candidate planted stories in the treacherous lousy John Marquis run Tribune to subvert the effort claiming that the Festival had been highjacked by the Member of Parliament for Fox Hill Fred Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell refused to be drawn into it, and the next day the Committee for the Festival told the country that the critics were sadly mistaken. The decision was theirs alone. You may click here for the full address by Mr. Mitchell. Our photo of the week from the Fox Hill Festival Committee shows young Fox Hill girls from the troupe 'Charlene's Angels' as they perform during the opening ceremony. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE DESPERATION OF JOHN MARQUIS
The Tribune may finally have ended its one thousand part series
of anti PLP editorials; for now. First it was day after day of attacks
on Bradley Roberts, the Minister of Works, which can only be described
as sick. Then there was a series of attacks on Senator Philip Galanis
that can only be described as twisted and demented. Finally they
described that rather than comply with the request of the Minister for
Immigration Shane Gibson to unveil their training programme for Bahamians
to explain why John Marquis, a man of seedy opinions, is still running
their newspaper and not a Bahamian, they would battle it out in their news
columns. Mixed up in all of these Tribune editorials was their favourite
whipping boy Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We understand
that a law suit is pending against The Tribune for defaming Mr. Mitchell.
On Thursday 3rd August, The Tribune on its front page did a hatchet job on Fred Mitchell that proves the point that his attacks on their bias and their anti Black, anti PLP hatred are correct. The story led with the headline FOX HILL DAY HIGHJACKED (LOCALS CLAIM MP FRED MITCHELL IS POLITICISING EMANCIPATION DAY EVENT). The story went on to quote from sources (presumably local of Fox Hill) who it said were concerned that Mr. Mitchell was bringing in politicians from the Caribbean to the Festival to secure his alternative job if he lost so he could be Secretary General of Caricom. It also repeated a number of lies, all of which were deliberately planted by partisans close to the wannabe candidate for the FNM for Fox Hill, whom we call the Faker of Fox Hill and whose leader does not even know her proper name, sounds like he's saying “Juice in dere”.
So, for the moment, PLPs in Fox Hill are calling the wannabe candidate “Juice in dere”. We use Juice in dere and Faker of Fox Hill interchangeably.
The campaign that is being run is one of deceit, lies and faked allegations. The Chairman of the Fox Hill Festival Committee Charles Johnson when he spoke at the opening of the Fox Hill Festival on Friday 4th August spoke without calling any names about how she left the Committee high and dry, leaving him to take over without notice. The facts are that the wannabe candidate resigned without notice from the Fox Hill Festival Committee and then sought to blame the MP for Fox Hill for the fact that she couldn’t get along with her own home people and is simply too intemperate and difficult, and phony to get along with anyone. So much for leadership.
Then Juice in dere showed up at the Ministry of Tourism sponsored public meeting in Fox Hill on Thursday 3rd August with little children in tow, all dressed in red T shirts in a demonstration designed to do exactly what no one could quite tell. She got up made a foolish intervention in which she had to admit that the MP for Fox Hill and his team were in part responsible for her PH D. The audience was surprised that she didn’t refer to herself as Doctor more than the usual 20 times that she does in every sentence. Doctor Juice in dere strangely enough did not have the courage to show up in one of her own red T shirts. That is why some people call her the Faker of Fox Hill. It is a game of political fake and feint.
The latest inside dope is that Juice in dere is supposed to be officially nominated by the Free National Movement on Wednesday of this week. The people of the Fox Hill constituency are waiting for her. Their arsenal is full.
So the idea of The Tribune story was to push this agenda. Looking at the layout of the Tribune newspaper on that day, the lead story was clearly slammed in at the last minute. Mr. Mitchell who announced that a Caribbean Prime Minister might be coming to the Festival did not make his announcement until well after The Tribune's usual deadline. All the other papers led with what was really the news of the day, a potential hurricane bearing down on the country. The Tribune removed that story to second fiddle so that John Marquis’ hatred for Fred Mitchell could be displayed in full flight with this stupid story about Juice in dere.
Mr. Marquis who according to a long editorial note on a letter published in The Tribune on Saturday 5th August is an experienced journalist, should know that first using an unnamed source for such a defamatory attack is just bad journalism. Secondly, the writer (there was no byline suggesting that it was Mr. Marquis himself who wrote it) ought to have contacted the other side that is Mr. Mitchell’s side to find out if he had any response. Thirdly, the story certainly does not rank as front page, much less banner headline material.
It continues to be important therefore to always expose The Tribune for its lousy worthlessness. Mr. Marquis has a pattern of this kind of behaviour. He for example has written a book in which he claims to have new information on the Harry Oakes murder. The book takes us nowhere and is simply based it appears on the cocktail conversation of two inebriated men at a bar in Nassau. What was particularly offensive in the book however is that Mr. Marquis also interviewed the venerable Levi Gibson who was taken advantage of in the interview without Mr. Marquis getting proper permission to interview Mr. Gibson from responsible relatives. Lawyers are looking into this matter as well. It would be like someone calling up Lady Dupuch, the mother of the owner of The Tribune and interviewing her without first getting the permission of her daughter. But Mr. Marquis would go to any length it appears for his commercial ends, to the extent of taking advantage of a senior and distinguished Bahamian citizen. That appears now to be the ethics that he has taken to The Tribune.
The latest tack now at that establishment is the opinion piece. Stung by the criticism that The Tribune mixes in editorial opinion with fact, we suddenly now have all the Bahamian reporters with opinion pieces so that the biases of The Tribune can work their way through the mouths of the Bahamian reporters. That can't work either because no one believes a word that is said is really a free word. They either write material that is sympathetic to The Tribune’s point of view or they are out. They simply have to speak to Nicki Kelly, now consigned to the dungeon of the down market Punch, to find out what freedom of expression brings you at The Tribune.
We want to congratulate Fred Mitchell, Bradley Roberts, Senator Philip Galanis, and Shane Gibson for all that they have done to defend the PLP cause. Trying to keep this crew at The Tribune honest. John Marquis should leave, not a moment too soon should he leave.
The Tribune claimed that they found out about the fact that they had to provide to the Minister material on their training programme to show why a Bahamian is not running the paper from a story in the Nassau Guardian. The Guardian on Monday 31st ran a story saying that Mr. Marquis’ work permit had been deferred pending this explanation. The Tribune said they read similar words on this site last week, again using that to try to show some how that the Minister of Foreign Affairs was involved in the matter. Their last editorial on the subject on Friday 4th August was they could not care what Minister Gibson and his “buddies” do about the work permit of Mr. Marquis.
Fine! But we care, and we think that since the work permit is expired Mr. Marquis ought to be given 21 days like other illegal migrants to leave the country.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 5th August 2006 at midnight: 72,610.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 5th August 2006 at midnight: 42,486.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 5th August 2006 at midnight: 2,986,248.
INGRAHAM
TO REDUCE THE PUBLIC SERVICE
Hubert Ingraham’s hubris was its best as he huffed
and puffed around Sol Kerzner’s Paradise Island project on a tour on Tuesday
1st August. It must have felt like being Prime Minister again.
He told the press that he intends to shrink the public service if he gets
to be Prime Minister next year. So you saw it in cold print folks.
The public service has an acute shortage of manpower now. Imagine
if he cuts it back any further. Thankfully, he won’t get that chance
to see the door of government again. But remember, Mr. Ingraham is
promising to cut the public service. Look out!
THE
FAKER OF FOX HILL’S AMBUSH FAILS
Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service and
the Member of Parliament for Fox Hill is at the height of his constituency
activity and profile during these days. He is the representative
for the constituency that has celebrated for 172 consecutive years the
emancipation of the slaves throughout the British Empire. He is also
a lightning rod for the press and the Free National Movement. Both
have decided to target him and his constituency with a view to discrediting
him and causing him to lose. If you read our editorial comment for
this week, you know what has happened and how the Faker of Fox Hill, the
potential opponent for Mr. Mitchell in the Fox Hill constituency has been
busy with a campaign of lies and deceit (click
here for the previous story on the Faker of Fox Hill).
This week, the Faker’s campaign sunk to a new low.
It was apparently not low enough for the campaign to claim falsely that
the Roman Catholic Church in Fox Hill was built by the Faker’s husband
for free. The campaign went further and tried to sabotage a community
event, the town meeting on Thursday 3rd August, sponsored by the Ministry
of Tourism on heritage tourism and community tourism and how Fox Hill can
be a part of it. She had all of her supporters show up in red T shirts
symbolizing the Free National Movement. The community was deeply
offended by it, turning a community event into a political one. What
was worse was that she herself did not have the courage to show up in a
red T shirt but instead profiled herself on TV and told how she had a PH
D.
Once again, the Faker of Fox Hill failed to get
any traction. The PLPs in Fox Hill are just waiting for her to get
the nomination officially. They will certainly fix her business for
her. You may click
here for the Minister’s comments on heritage and community tourism in Fox
Hill, delivered on Thursday 3rd August and his
address officially opening the Fox Hill Festival on Friday 4th August 2006.
Sideburns from The Nassau Guardian of 5th August, 2006; young Fox
Hill girls from the troupe 'Charlene's Angels' perform during the opening
ceremony of the Fox Hill Festival. Photo: Fox Hill Festival Committee
TRIB
SPECULATES ON ELECTIONS
The headline in The Tribune of Friday 4th August
was: ELECTION ON SIR LYNDEN’S BIRTHDAY? (MARCH 22 TOUTED AS MOST LIKELY
DATE). Nonsense! The Tribune was up to mischief and this is
the great problem with a newspaper that is supposed to be a paper of record
and should therefore be scrupulous with the truth of their position.
Instead, they have become a propaganda rag, just barely differentiated
from the down market tabloid newspaper. The thinking of this entirely
speculative story is that since Sir Lynden Pindling’s birthday is 22nd
March then the Prime Minister will call the elections on that day.
While that is idle nonsense, what the article did was it gave an opportunity
for a few words of analysis to be given by Felix Bethel, a lecturer in
political science at the College of The Bahamas. He did not speculate
on the 22nd March date but here is what he had to say in his own words:
“Sir Lynden’s death in August 26 2000 catapulted
the Progressive Liberal Party to power. There is no doubt about that,
that event was a singular event in the history of the country as important
to the mind of the black Bahamian as significant as January 10th, 1967.
The death of this man who became patriarch chief…
“This is the year 2006 going into 2007 the Pindling
card is being played. We saw it being played in the naming of the
airport, a massive event that shows you that the legacy of Sir Lynden is
real and therefore politically potent. I suspect that there will
be some honour or other for Lady Pindling which will secure in the mind
of the people the place of this man and woman and that family.
“It is a family with a large legacy, a large
name so the party that secures itself in that and owns that legacy gains
that support. But will it get support from people who are removed
in time from that legacy? That remains to be seen.
“Going into the next election it would really
be Pindling vs. Pindling. Perry Christie and his former law partner
Mr. Ingraham is one aspect of the Pindling legacy.
“I do not believe (Mr. Ingraham) has to this
point made a compelling case for his return as leader of the country.
He was able to make a case for being leader of the FNM because the men
who would be leaders of the FNM were so massively mediocre.
“Mr. Ingraham is now remaking the FNM.
The question for him is does he have the time to do it? I don’t believe
he has sufficient time. If I was told that he was preparing the groundwork
for the year 2012, I would say he is off to an excellent start.
“The history shows you that in 1987 when the
PLP was wallowing in scandal and corruption the PLP won. The Bahamas
is not a place where scandal, unfortunately brings down anyone. You
have to mix scandal with hard times. That is the brew, scandal and
hard times. But if you have scandal and money, the Bahamian who has
moved from piracy to all sorts of plundering as part of his psyche will
say let the good times roll.”
GALANIS
MAINTAINS HIS POSITION
There was blood all over the newsroom floor in The Tribune last week.
In their vicious campaign to get at PLPs for attacking their integrity,
they have printed any garbage without checking the facts. One such
allegation was made against Senator Philip Galanis in a letter written
to the press by Rick Lowe, who is part of the right wing think tank the
Nassau Institute. Mr. Lowe in his anxiousness to savage Mr. Galanis
and the PLP made the assertion that the Senator had asked for the revocation
of the work permit of John Marquis, the Managing Editor of The Tribune.
Mr. Lowe had to eat humble pie and admit that Mr.
Galanis did no such thing and he had to apologize in The Tribune of Friday
4th August. Perhaps Mr. Lowe might get his graceless friends at The
Tribune to do the same thing to Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell who from
all the press releases we have seen has never indicated that he concerned
himself at all about the work permit of John Marquis. But that is
by the way. What is important is that The Tribune lied on Mr. Galanis
again by saying in one of its news stories SENATOR CALLS FOR WORK PERMITS
OF ALL FOREIGN SENIOR EXECUTIVE TO BE DEFERRED. The story written
by Mark Humes was not true.
The Senator’s statement on which the story was based
laid out a compelling case for there to be time limits on how long a foreigner
can hold a work permit in The Bahamas and for there to be a plan laid out
for the Bahamianization of the position.
Hubert Ingraham The Master Triple Dipper of The Bahamas |
A WORD
ON CASTRO
On Monday 31st July it was announced that the President
of the Republic of Cuba Fidel Castro would temporarily give up power to
his brother Raul, the Minister of Defence. Mr. Castro said in his
announcement that he had over extended himself on his recent visit to Argentina
and that this had resulted in internal bleeding. He required surgery
to stop it. It appears that until his recovery, power is passed over
to the younger Castro brother. The U.S. press made much of it saying
that this was the first time since he took over in 1959 that he had not
been effectively the President of Cuba.
In Miami, the Cubans who live there immediately
began celebrating and there were party like scenes in the streets.
That community and its leaders including some leaders at the U.S. federal
level started making plans for the post Castro Cuba. The scenes
were unseemly and seem to betray a fundamental misconception or illusion
about what the post Fidel Castro Cuba will be like, as if when Fidel Castro
dies the exiles can turn back the clock in Cuba and march in and take over.
We think they are dead wrong on that.
The Cuban system of today is so opaque that it is
difficult to know what is going on behind the scenes. Certainly a
man of 80 years (his birthday is 13th August) will have a difficult recovery
in these circumstances. There was a subsequent announcement that
suggested that all had gone well with the operation but that he had to
spend time recovering. In Miami, Juanita a sister of Mr. Castro said
that she had been told that he had left intensive care and was recovering.
She criticized the exiles for their behaviour in Miami.
The U.S. officials at the federal level including
the Secretary of State and the President urged the Cuban people to
work toward multi party American style democracy. There was also
some concern about whether in the face of change of leaders in Cuba there
would be collapse in Cuba like in the former Soviet Union that would lead
to an implosion and a refugee crisis. There was no immediate sign
of that but it was impossible to know. Bahamian authorities had no
comment on the situation but should be watching events closely as they
unfold.
SOME
VIEWS ON ISRAEL
The Israeli Defence Force has launched at the behest
of its Government a series of attacks on the neighbouring state of Lebanon.
In the space of almost three weeks of bombardment by Israel, the state
of Lebanon and its infrastructure patiently built up after years of civil
war has been reduced to rubble. This attack appears to have the tacit
support of the Western powers. It is being done it appears with a
view to trying to destroy the resistance to the occupation of the West
Bank territories by the Israeli Defence Forces. This occupation of
Palestine has been continuous since 1967 and continues in the face of resolution
after resolution of the United Nations to roll back the occupation.
It is ironic now that yet another U.N. resolution
is being fashioned to try to protect the new status quo that Israel seeks
to impose on Lebanon. The scenes of carnage in Lebanon are distressing.
The lack of balance in the reporting by the Western news media is even
more distressing. The whole thing appears to have been turned by
the news media into entertainment with various correspondents reporting
from the battle scenes with bombs bursting in the back ground. This
is a tragedy for the people of Lebanon and the long suffering Palestinian
people.
THE
FIRE DEPARTMENT UNDER ATTACK
On Saturday 29th July, fire broke out in a shopping
centre owned by Rupert Roberts in Mackey Street. That centre houses
one of his Super Value stores and at first it was thought that the fire
originated there. It turns out that the fire started in another one
of the shops earlier on that Saturday. Observers said that the fire
looked at first to be completely under control but later in the evening
the media was called back to the scene and watched as a building went up
in flames. The store Super Value itself was damaged by smoke and
later had to be closed temporarily by health officials.
A round of public recriminations against the Fire
Branch of the Royal Bahamas Police Force then began. Mr. Roberts
himself accused the fire department of dereliction of their duties and
allowing one of the buildings in the shopping centre to be destroyed without
making a sufficiently valiant attempt to end the fire. The Fire Department’s
spokesman rejected that claim saying that the heat was extremely intense
and that the best decision in some circumstances was to let the fire burn
itself out while saving the nearby buildings.
One fireman was said to be hurt in the fire.
An investigation will follow in due course. Several of Mr. Roberts’
Super Value stores have burned down before. We do not know what the
investigation will uncover but certainly the observations made by the public
and with the memory of the lack of performance in saving the straw market
in the fire of 2001 suggests that we need to have a careful look at the
ability including skills and equipment of the fire department what with
all the mutli story buildings that are going up in the country as part
of the tourism sector. This is no playing matter.
Firefighters battle Mackey Street Hilltop Plaza blaze - Bahama Journal
photo by Stephen Gay
OSWALD
BROWN’S CONSPIRACY THEORY
In his column of Friday 4th August Oswald Brown
took a curious course. Preston Stuart, the Freeport businessman,
who died it appears by his own hand in Freeport and was buried in Freeport
on Saturday 30th July, was Mr. Brown’s friend from childhood. Mr.
Brown claimed in the column that the two were so inseparable that they
were often even as recently as within the past month mistaken for one another,
with people actually calling him Mr. Stuart. He said that to say
that he knew Mr. Stuart so well that he could not have taken his own life.
That was not the Preston Stuart that he knew. He said that until
the police can convince him otherwise he would not believe it.
Around Freeport it appears there is a conspiracy
theory about how Mr. Stuart met his death. This is normal in a society
that relies on oral traditions for its news. That means it is subject
to every little rumour that makes the rounds. These rumours persist
often in the face of strong, obvious and cogent evidence. The experts
will tell you that this is also often a reaction of friends who are seeking
often unknowingly to disguise their regret and remorse that they did not
pick up the classic signs of depression leading to suicide and further
that they failed to do anything about it. The same comment of Mr.
Brown that Preston Stuart, the man he knew would get over it and not do
such a thing, is often a mistake that friends and family make in the face
of these signs of depression. That is why we said in the column when
we reported the matter that it is clear that there needs to be greater
public education on the subject of depression in The Bahamas.
It is important that you grieve for your friend
but it is also important to learn to accept the truth of the matter and
that is he is dead and by rewriting history or seeking after the fact to
reorder those facts, the fact of his death won’t change. The investigation
will show what happened in the end. In the meantime, you can say
of your friend: “He was good man, bless him”. Remember him
fondly but life must move on.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Another
Englishman in our Business Again
...as
a friendly reminder
Well, the International Airport issue certainly
rattled your cage and you then followed the well-recognised path of propagandist
invective and damning someone with faint praise! The issues aired
have, and will, occur again...
Anyway, by way of adding one or two genuine comments,
I've attached a photo of the very kind gift presented to me by the staff
of the Freeport Harbour Company on my departure from the Bahamas in 1988...
the Queen conch is real and the comments well-meant by Bahamian folk!
John Hinchliffe
Padstow, Cornwall UK
Capt. Hinchliffe’s opinions are as incorrigible as ever. You
can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
The plaque which is pictured (yes, he actually sent it) reads: Awarded
to Capt. Hinchliffe for being a conscientious boss to the staff of Freeport
Harbour and the restructuring of our Port, placing us high among world
ports. Many thanks for all your charitable contributions and in return
may you have great success. Staff, Freeport Harbour Company, Bahamas
1980-1988
I wonder how much he paid them to say that? Just joking – Editor
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Photos from This Week with the Prime Minister will
return.
| 13th
August, 2006
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com |
|
| THE HOUSE IS ON VACATION... | LIFE AT THE TRIBUNE... |
| FNM DENIES INGRAHAM... | THE BEC UNION... |
| SHANE’S IMMIGRATION POLICY... | THE AIRPORT SECURITY... |
| MITCHELL IN BIMINI... | THE WEEK THAT WAS IN FOX HILL... |
| TELEPHONE OUTAGES... | ARTHUR FOULKES ON ISRAEL... |
| STADIUM CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT SIGNED... | THIS WEEK WITH THE PM... |
The Official Site of the Progressive
Liberal Party... |
The Official Site of the Free National Movement... |
| PLPs On The Web... | Interesting Places... |
| Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town | Bahamas Government Website |
| Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte | Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte | Bahamians On The Web |
| Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw | Bahamian Cycling News |
| John Carey / PLP Carmichael | FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES... |
| Grand Bahama PLP | |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
UNCLE TOM IS ALIVE AND WELL
John Marquis of The Tribune is busy as bee trying to stay in The
Bahamas, a country he hates, with a government that he despises, a people
who are the wrong colour. We have been relentless on him because
he practices the worst kind of sloppy, slimy journalism. He is a
bad example for the journalists of The Bahamas, and further The Tribune
cannot explain why after more than a decade in The Bahamas, he is unable
to provide a training programme or a Bahamian to become the Managing Editor
of The Tribune.
This week the Minister for Immigration laid down the rules: comply with the request that was made to supply the training programme or no work permit. The response of The Tribune was continued defiance of the rules. They are busy working themselves up into a political campaign using the Bahamian reporters who work for them. Operative words “work for them”. Then there is an assortment of toadies and FNM supporters who wish the PLP ill like Guardian columnist Oswald Brown who are busy trying to prescribe what the PLP should do in the situation. It is quite safe to ignore their twisted advice. They even got the country’s resident carpetbagger politician Cassius Stuart to venture an uninformed and Uncle Tom position.
From our point of view, the matter is quite simple. Mr. Marquis should go. If he had been a Haitian living in The Bahamas on an expired work permit, the Immigration officers would have picked him up on a bus and escorted him via the detention centre to an aircraft where he would depart for his homeland. That is what should be done, and there should be no further discussion about it. The case that he and his supporters present is unremarkable.
Consider this. If you had a doctor in this country who was botching up medical cases, killing his patients, he would be out of the country, work permit cancelled. The same case could be made if you had an accountant who was simply defrauding his clients or not up to the mark; he would be gone. Our criticism of John Marquis has nothing to do with whether or not he criticizes the Government. He is free to do that. He simply does not provide a good example for journalists in this country and is not a proper teacher for the values of this country.
One has only to look at the number of stories printed in The Tribune that lack certain basics. Who, what where when and why are missing. The reporters do not know that they have to quote who they are quoting accurately and within context. The reporters don’t seem to know that they have an obligation to print the other side. The Tribune that is considered by many to be the paper of record in The Bahamas has descended into a competition with the down-market Punch, seeking to grab headlines by reporting salacious material. John Marquis must go and he must go now, not later.
This week, The Tribune plans to carry a piece under the headline INSIGHT. It is a weekly column written each week anonymously by John Marquis. What they intend to do is to publish the views of Bahamian journalists about the so called work permit controversy. No doubt, there will be the line up of reporters who will say how this is wrong, and then the rub: it is an attack on freedom of the press. The press does not have the right to break the law. Mr. Marquis does not a have that right. He needs a work permit. The work permit has expired. Every day that he remains gainfully employed within The Bahamas is a further breaking of the law in this country. The Tribune has not complied with the rules to explain their training programme. Mr. Marquis and The Tribune continue to defy the rules. The reporters have to ask themselves whether they support the law and the rules in this country or whether they support breaking those rules.
The rules are in place to support the right of Bahamians to live and work in their own country. Does this generation of Bahamians believe in Bahamianization or not? That is the question.
Mr. Marquis and Eileen Carron are insidious and wicked. They are using this matter as if it is some campaign for freedom of the press. There is no such issue except in their own minds. Oswald Brown in his usual twisted and contorted way claimed in his column of Friday 11th August in the Nassau Guardian that if Mr. Marquis does not get his work permit, The Bahamas will be attacked as having attacked the freedom of the press, particularly since The Bahamas has opened an embassy in Cuba. Mr. Brown’s continuing ignorance even in the face of his sickness is amazing. It never ceases to confound us. Clarence Bain had the right expression: the weak kneed apologetic negro.
Enter into the fray a 22 year old school teacher, a public servant who is prescribed by his contract from engaging in political polemic. For that he can be subject to discipline and even dismissal. Adrian Gibson (aka the wild man of Borneo) admits that he is in the above mentioned category. Yet he continues to defy the rules of his contract, and writes political opinions in The Tribune every week. He claims that John Marquis should be given a work permit because Mr. Marquis gave him the courage of his convictions, and gave him the chance to write the rubbish that he writes in The Tribune every week. Uncle Tom is alive and well. No Minister of the Government insofar as we are aware has threatened anything against this very foolish young man. He claimed in his letter to the editor that his job had been threatened. This is a figment of his vivid and lying imagination. What he must answer is whether or not as a teacher of our children, he stands as a good example when he himself is not obeying the rules, when presumably that is what he should be teaching our children. No wonder the country is in trouble. We would support disciplinary action against him so that he can answer this important question. When the rules go out of the window, then order collapses. Presumably that is what he and his fellow travelers at The Tribune want in their anti Black, anti PLP campaign that they use every opportunity for illogic to defend.
Let us once again be clear. Mr. Marquis must go. There are no compelling reasons for him to stay. There are six direct flights to London every week. This week ahead of us, he should find himself on one of them and do not return. Take all of his belongings with him. Remember that no gels or liquids are allowed in your luggage on board the plane, and oh yes on planes flying to London, no lap top computers are allowed. That means that you will have to wait to write badly about The Bahamas when you land in jolly old England.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 12th August 2006 at midnight: 63,306.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 12th August 2006 at midnight: 105,792.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 12th August 2006 at midnight: 3,049,554.
THE
HOUSE IS ON VACATION
The House of Assembly has finally taken its summer
break. The House adjourned on Wednesday 9th August and will reconvene
on Wednesday 27th September. The resumed session will likely take
us to the Christmas break, following which there will be a General Election.
The Prime Minister advised all House members to try to get their constituents
to register to vote. He said that it was important for the Constituencies
Commission to be able to do its work based on the registration of voters.
Before ending, the House passed a resolution that will transfer parcels
of land used by the Ministry of Housing for public low cost housing to
the Minister of Housing from the Treasurer.
LIFE
AT THE TRIBUNE
Usually we put all letters to the editor under one
head so that readers can have a full sense of what other readers were interested
in during the week. This week, we got a letter from a source close
to The Tribune. The note describes what life is like at The Tribune.
There are a couple of points that we would like
to highlight from the letter. First, that all Tribune reporters should
not be put under the support of John Marquis camp. The reporters
recognize who their employer is but in the main do not subscribe one way
or the other to the political and racist views of the owner and her right
hand man. Secondly, the letter makes the point that one of the reasons
that The Tribune carries so many anonymous articles is that it does not
want to run afoul of the immigration laws. Mr. Marquis is hired to
be the Managing Editor. The letter writer insists that Mr. Marquis
barely speaks to reporters and provides no training at all. He spends
his time in his glass cage writing anonymous articles.
The letter writer questions where the quotes come
from to support The Tribune’s political point of view. The letter
says that in writing anonymously Mr. Marquis and The Tribune hope to be
able to circumvent the Immigration problem. They know that they can’t
get a work permit for writers but The Tribune actually prefers writers
like Mr. Marquis to the Bahamian writers. When the articles are published
without a by line, immigration will not know who actually wrote the piece
and would not then be able to question what is being done by The Tribune
by someone who is supposed to be the Managing Editor. We will forward
the letter on to the Director of Immigration for his perusal.
We repeat the full letter below and you then click
on a number of pieces written by Mr. Marquis that show clearly why such
a person should not remain in The Bahamas.
John Marquis fraud
The debate over whether the denial of John Marquis’
work permit is a crackdown on free speech has largely missed the point.
Yes, he’s biased, but so is The Tribune as a whole. Yes, he looks
down his snobby English nose at Bahamians. But he does so at all
non-British nationals, including Americans. There are two more relevant
points that need to be examined: First, is he doing the job of a managing
editor? The answer is no, he works primarily as a writer, which is
a profession that is supposed to be the exclusive domain of native Bahamians.
Even Eileen Carron’s defence of Marquis referred exclusively to his ability
as a writer. Any former Tribune employee — and since the arrival
of Marquis there are plenty — can tell you the man spends all day in his
glass cage, interacting with hardly anyone. He does not edit and
he certainly does not manage.
John Marquis’ management skills? Don’t
make me laugh. If successful management is geared toward constant
staff turnover, he’s the best. Second, is he a good, ethical journalist?
Surely, this is a fair requirement for the government to ask of him.
A work permit would not be granted to a builder who did not rise to the
standards of his profession. Marquis fails on this account.
Included in this e-mail are two examples of Marquis’
work. The first is a story
that appeared in 2003 when virtually all of Marquis’ writing was published
without a byline — an appalling breach of journalistic accountability that
would not be tolerated at any legitimate news outlet. And he’s rising
to the defence of journalism here? He doesn't know the meaning of
the word. (Part of the reason his stories ran without a byline is
because both he and Mrs. Carron were well aware that to employ a foreigner
who worked primarily as a writer was forbidden.) In it, Marquis employs
his usual tack of using unnamed sources, but in this one — and his condescending
writing style is unmistakable — he actually refers to himself in third
person and includes quotes from himself. At any self-respecting news
organization, this sort of fraud would result in immediate dismissal.
But at The Tribune, the manager is, of course, the one who is committing
the offence. No punishment there.
The second article
is an entire rambling treatise about how awful the Bahamas is based
entirely on unnamed sources. Civilization is crumbling and we are
to believe there is no one on the island who is willing to allow their
name to be used in the paper? Maybe they just didn’t want to be associated
with Marquis’ shabby approach to journalism. Or maybe they don’t
exist at all. Here he quotes a leading academic who desires to be
more vocal about issues — but declines to be named. It would be laughable
is it weren’t so sad. And he actually put his name on this one.
Marquis’ frequently used defence is that everyone
is afraid to have their name used. This is nonsense. Certainly,
there are stories where a source cannot be revealed for legitimate reasons.
But Marquis uses this as an excuse for his lazy brand of shoddy journalism.
People speak out in newspaper articles all over the world in situations
where the reality of reprisal is much more prevalent and brutal than in
the Bahamas.
The image of John Marquis as the brave crusading
journalist being persecuted by government is ridiculous. Marquis’
use of secret sources is more supermarket tabloid than Woodward and Bernstein.
Of course, anyone who would quote himself in an article has long since
relinquished the right to refer to himself as a journalist. Perhaps
the publishers of the books he is now writing — notice there is no mention
of the word researching — would be interested in this most egregious violation
of basic journalistic standards. The government should and so should
any newspaper that lays claim to the legacy of Etienne Dupuch.
(Name Withheld)
FNM
DENIES INGRAHAM
On Wednesday 9th August, you could hear the sound
of cockle, doodle doo in the House of Assembly as FNM Members of Parliament
got up to defend and to deny on behalf of Hubert Ingraham, their vacationing
leader. Mr. Ingraham was on a cruise and so was not able to say for
himself what Brent Symonette, the Deputy Leader and Alvin Smith, the one
time leader had to say. Keod Smith, MP PLP for Mt. Moriah told the
House that Mr. Ingraham had said that if he became Prime Minister again
he would shrink or reduce the public service. That had the FNM members
jumping up.
You read that on
this very site last week. It was a comment reported by our friends
at The Tribune. The direct quote is that he would “shrink” the public
service. They finally had to settle down when Minister of Works Bradley
Roberts took to the floor to read the direct quote from The Tribune’s article.
There it was in black and white. The FNM was then mum.
THE BEC
UNION
We support the Government’s decision to refer the
most recent trade dispute between the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union
and the Bahamas Electricity Corporation. The capital city was once
again plunged into darkness on Thursday 10th August because the leadership
of the BEC Union decided that they are entitled to 9.1 million dollars
worth of back pay for which they have no legal entitlement. As a
consequence, they marched 300 workers to the BEC plant at Clifton and sabotaged
the equipment that led to the failures across the island of New Providence.
The Government seems powerless in the face of this kind of blackmail.
Clearly, the House of Assembly should have been
called back into session to pass an emergency law that would make it possible
for the tortious liabilities as a result of the Union’s action to be charged
personally to the leaders of the Union. That would put a stop to
the illegal walk outs immediately. The irony is that the PLP in Opposition
fought the FNM government on this matter because they thought that responsible
leadership of the Union would prevail. But with the economy going
great guns, it has simply become impossible for the country to rely on
the BEC workers who seem to walk out at will.
Incidentally the same tactics were used by the two
silly leaders of the Bahamas Union of Teachers in their recent negotiations.
No surprise there since Denis Williams the leader of the BEC Union was
their principal advisor.
On Thursday 10th August the Minister of Labour Shane
Gibson ordered the workers back to work as a result of his referring the
dispute to the Industrial Tribunal. The Union's leaders rather childishly
ducked the process server all day on Friday 11th August. The workers
did not return to work. The Government went to court to get a Supreme
Court order to get the workers to comply. If they breach the order,
there is imprisonment and fines waiting them on the other side. You may
click
here for the Minister of Labour’s full address to the nation on Thursday
10th August.
Minister of Immigration, Labour and Training the Hon. Shane Gibson
(centre), at a press conference on Friday, August 11, 2006, at the
Ministry of Immigration, Labour and Training in the Main Post Office
Building, East Hill Street, to discuss the strike action by members
of The Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU). Minister Gibson
has sent the dispute between BEWU and The Bahamas Electricity Corporation
(BEC) to the Industrial Tribunal for arbitration. Also present were
Dr. Hon. Marcus Bethel, Minister of Energy and the Environment,
whose portfolio includes BEC; and the Hon. Allyson Maynard-Gibson,
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs. BIS Photo: Raymond
A. Bethel
SHANE’S
IMMIGRATION POLICY
The Minister responsible for Immigration Shane Gibson
has promulgated a new set of procedures and policies for the issuing of
work permits. It is really a clarification of a longstanding policy
of the Department. What the policy means to do is support the idea
of Bahamianization. The applicant for a work permit has to show that
a Bahamian is not available for the job, then there has to be a training
programme in place and finally there will be a time limit set in any case
on how many work permits an individual can hold in succession. This
is the policy of Bahamianization envisaged by his illustrious predecessors
like Arthur Hanna, Loftus Roker, Darrel Rolle and Sir Clement Maynard.
THE
AIRPORT SECURITY
Here we go again. The Government of The Bahamas
called a press conference on Thursday 10th August with three Ministers
(Transport, Foreign Affairs and Tourism) to announce that because the British
and the Americans had declared a heightened security alerts at their airports
that the Bahamian airport would be on a heightened security alert.
Of course one has to take the business of threats
seriously but really you have to take anything that comes from the British
police with a grain of salt these days. First, they shot a completely
innocent Brazilian man for which they have refused to apologize and give
compensation or prosecute the perpetrators of the death. Secondly,
they arrested, detained and trashed the home of a group of Pakistanis in
London saying that they were suspected in a plot to cause terror in London.
In that case they shot a man again without it appears any warning.
That turned out also to be a false alarm and the arrested persons let go.
Now these same police report that there was going
to be mass murder on a vast scale by 21 people who were plotting to blow
up planes in mid air, one of whom they have now released. The latest incident
is now causing all the disruption at the airports in this part of the world.
The instructions seemed ludicrous: you can’t take
gels and liquids on the plane-- tooth paste is out for example. On
planes to Britain you can't put your lap top or cell phone in your hand
luggage. You have to pack it in checked luggage. Imagine, some
people never have checked luggage, so imagine now the inconvenience of
all this on the strength of dubious information from a police force that
has not been very reliable. The Ministers advised that passengers
be patient and arrive at the airport as early as possible.
In a related but unconnected story, the pre-clearance
for US customs and immigration at the Lynden Pindling International Airport
was interrupted on Friday 11th August as a result of a computer crash brought
on by a failure of the lines of the telephone companies of The Bahamas
and the U.S. and some suggested because of power surges in the electrical
supply to the units.
Government Ministers and Ministry of Transport and airport officials
brief the media on new security measures. BIS photo: Tim Aylen
MITCHELL
IN BIMINI
Every year at this time the Minister of Foreign
Affairs visits Bimini for the annual Glenda’s Road Race. The race
is in its 39th year. Glen Rolle, a popular businessman in Bimini, died
three years ago. In memory of Mr. Rolle, his friends keep doing the
race, started in honour of his daughter. The Minister of Tourism
Obie Wilchombe who is also the representative for the area supplies the
trophies for the race.
This year, the Ministry of Tourism headed by Norma
Wilkinson got into the act and put together the Julian Brown Walk/Run in
addition to the Glenda’s Road race. Mr. Brown, son of famous businessman
Harcourt Brown died tragically in a fire last year when the famous Compleat
Angler, the drinking bar of American writer Earnest Hemingway, burned to
the ground.
Several of Mr. Brown’s former customers showed up
to participate in the walk. The prizes were presented by the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, with the sister of Mr. Brown and the wife of Mr. Rolle.
The race took place on Thursday 10th August.
BIS photo: Derek Smith
THE
WEEK THAT WAS IN FOX HILL
This past week started off with the public holiday to commemorate the 172nd
anniversary of the abolition of slavery. Governor General Arthur
Hanna came to Fox Hill to mark the occasion. He used to be the representative
for the area. The current Member of Parliament Fred Mitchell in welcoming
him said that he (Mr. Mitchell) was the third member of his family to be
the representative for Fox Hill. The first was Sammy Isaacs, a cousin,
then Arthur Hanna another cousin and now himself.
The Fox Hill Festival was officially opened on Friday
4th August in honour of the late George Mackey, another representative
for the area who died earlier this year. Fox Hill Day was celebrated
the next day and with it the Prime Minister traveled to Fox Hill to visit
the churches in Fox Hill and speak to the various congregations.
He visited St. Paul’s, St. Marks’s, and Macedonia and Mt. Carey churches.
Then the fun began with the climbing of the greasy pole and the plaiting
of the maypole, and the music and dance. The representative Fred
Mitchell joined in the festival.
When Parliament met on Wednesday 9th August, Mr.
Mitchell thanked the Government for all of their support. You may
click here for the Minister’s statement
to the House of Assembly. The Faker of Fox Hill, also known as
Juice in Dere (click here
for last week’s editorial) was there at her stall, making money for
the FNM Association. This came despite the attempt by partisans close
to her to sabotage the Festival by adverse publicity in The Tribune.
Fox Hill Festival Committee Chairman Charles Johnson, Mrs. Betty
Mackey and Fred Mitchell MP after Mrs. Mackey's unveiling of a commemmorative
plaque in honour of her late husband, former Fox Hill MP George Mackey
- BIS photo: Patrick Hanna Winners of the Greasy Pole climb with
Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell (centre) and Festival Committee Chair Charles
Johnson (right) - photo: Fox Hill Festival Committee Please click
here for more photos of the week of the Fox Hill Festival.
TELEPHONE
OUTAGES
Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation had a strange
story to tell this week. They described their situation as challenged
as it related to the service of pre paid cell phones. What the public
knows is that on Thursday 9th August the cell phone service went down.
There was hardly a telephone connection. This is disgraceful in a
country that is supposed to be fully wired.
The fact is the system of communications is poor
and the Government needs to do something with BTC or the service it provides.
The company has simply run out of excuses, particularly in the face of
the progress made in other countries on telecommunications issues.
Tellis Symonette, the Vice President for Wireless Services for BTC, held
a press conference to say that once they got the prepaid cellular system
up and running, they immediately allowed access to the system even though
they were unable to bill for the use of the calls. The rumour went
out that calls were free; the system was overloaded and crashed again.
Oh well!
ARTHUR
FOULKES ON ISRAEL
We think that Sir Arthur Foulkes, the former Ambassador
to the United Kingdom, Cuba and China has it about right in his comment
reported in the press abut the current invasion of Lebanon by Israel.
You may click here for our thoughts
on the matter last week. Here is what Sir Arthur said in his
own words as reported in The Tribune of Saturday 12th August:
“The attacks by Israeli forces on the civilian
populations in Lebanon are uncivilized. These civilians are not military
targets, and should not be treated as such. I support the statement
of Amnesty International and their request that the U.N. Security Council
call for an immediate, full and effective ceasefire to protect civilians
in Lebanon and Israel from what they dub unlawful attacks.
“Civilized people for a long time have come to
the recognition that even in war, there are rules. One of these is
that people and property that do not contribute to the war effort be protected
against unnecessary destruction and hardship.”
STADIUM
CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT SIGNED
The
Bahamas and Chinese Governments signed a contract to build The Bahamas
National Stadium at the Cabinet Office on Tuesday, August 9, 2006.
Present at the signing were, (seated from left) Personal Secretary in the
Chinese Embassy, Shen Ging, General Manager of Qilu Construction Group
Corporation Zhang Shi, Secretary to the Cabinet Wendall Major and Permanent
Secretary at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Housing Leila Greene.
Standing from left are Public Relations Officer Zhang Yu, Vice General
Manager Qilu Construction Group Corporation Li Guangren, Chinese Ambassador
to The Bahamas His Excellency Li Yuaming, Director of Legal Affairs Debra
Frazer, Minister of Youth, Sports and Housing, Neville Wisdom, President
of the Olympic Association Sir Arlington Butler, Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Public Service Fred Mitchell, Chairmen of the National
Stadium Committee Thomas A. Robinson, and President and Senior Architect
at Architects Limited Iram D. Lewis, Project Manager for the National Stadium.
BIS Photo: Raymond A. Bethel
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Fox Hill Day
Prime Minister Perry Christie this past week maintained
his seven year tradition of touring the Baptist churches of Fox Hill on
Fox Hill Day. Mr. Christie mused that he has been able to follow
the progress of the growth of many children in the village, simply by encountering
them each year on the day. In a tradition of many generations, each
Fox Hill Day 'party' services are held at the Baptist churches in the village,
featuring musical performances, recitations and the exchange of gifts surrounded
by the teaching of the history of Emancipation. The Prime Minister
is pictured during his visit to the 164 year old Mount Carey Baptist Church
on the Fox Hill Road.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE D PLUS GRADE IN SCHOOL
Can you believe it? The summer is almost over; the children
have to get ready to go back to school. The lines are long at the
U.S. Embassy as parents scramble to get visas to go to school. They
are late. The airport is frantic, not enough parking spaces at Lynden
Pindling International to be able to accommodate the cars. People
are leaving for Miami. It seemed like yesterday that school was closing
and parents thought that they could relax until they had to think about
the dreaded school fees.
This is also the time when The Bahamas begins to scramble to get the public schools ready for the opening of the school year. Invariably, it is a last minute business. It is in the culture. This year the Minister of Education Alfred Sears and the Minister of Works Bradley Roberts have had weekly meetings leading up to the summer and during the summer to ensure that the necessary contracts had been issued to get the construction crews on the job in order for the schools to be ready for the start of the year. Governments invariably get judged by how successfully the school year opens. We wish that this school year goes well. It is important that it does in this period just before a General Election. We think it will.
The Ministry of Education this week released the statistics on how the children performed in the BGCSE around the country. The result is that the average for the system is D+. The country went ballistic. The country was incensed. The school system seemed not to be doing the best for the country. What are we going to do? It is a typical response for too many things in The Bahamas. There is a lot of gum flapping and complaining, a lot of beating of the breasts but not much action. The problem of what we do is invariably complex and certainly cannot be laid entirely or we would go so far as to say at all at the feet of the present Minister of Education Alfred Sears, as some would have you believe.
The cold hard fact is that there is something wrong. The employers in the country are worried. The politicians are worried. The employers are worried because they see the quality of the pool of potential employees declining and the pool of the potential employees declining. This is not just on matters like Maths and English but in important non academic areas like the social skills that one should take to a job. The young men who cannot remember what time and day they are supposed to report to work, who think that because they are spoken to in a harsh manner by an employer this means they can walk off the job and go home sulking. Then there are the young women who report to government jobs like they are dressed for a cocktail party. The potential waiter and waitress hires who can’t set a table to save their lives. The result is that employers don’t get employees with the basics and they themselves have to spend money trying to build on a bad foundation.
The politicians have to be worried. It is difficult to lead a country anywhere, to talk about improving the gross domestic product and the terms of trade when the people you govern can hardly comprehend simple English sentences. The public policy of a country is infinitely easier to design and apply in a situation where you have a literate population. We are not talking about simple reading and maths. We talk more importantly about comprehension. There must be an ability to understand what is being said. You find increasingly in a society that depends on gossip for news, that it is difficult to generate complex policies because they get derailed by the slightest nonsense.
How then do we address the situation that faces our schools and which has already negatively affected our public life? The answer most people think lies in getting parents more involved directly in the education of their children. One of the interesting aspects of the criticism of the performance of the schools is that you have many parents who don’t go to PTA meetings, don’t pick up their children from school, don’t know the teachers of their children, never check to see that the homework of the children is done, yet complain about the national outcome and say we must do something about it.
We think that talking about and encouraging parental involvement is great and certainly is necessary but we also note another complaint; that increasingly the parents themselves, given that they have children when they are at such a young age, do not themselves have a clue as to how to be parents. We think that the state must step in and actually seek to provide paid for supervised homework and recreation for children in public schools after the normal school day is done. That is one suggestion.
The other suggestion that we have is that a concerted effort must be made and special attention paid to boys in the primary school classrooms and beyond. It is clear that given the disproportionate results in favour of women in schools even with these bad results, and given all the social problems based around male malperformance, it is seems imperative that special programmes must be established to save the young men. These programmes must not be to the detriment of the girls in the school system.
We also do not think that the society actually spends enough on education in the aggregate. The Government should agree to double the budget of the Ministry of Education over the next four years. It seems to us even if that means raising taxes then that is a decision that will have to be made. The fact is that what we are about to say is an overworked phrase but we say it anyway: we cannot continue in the present vein.
The Minister of Education Alfred Sears has worked overtime to solve these problems. He is finally beginning to get the team that he requires to get things done in his Ministry. He has a new Director of Education. We think that he deserves another term in the House of Assembly and will do all that we can to persuade the people of Fort Charlotte to support him again for the House of Assembly. Another four years under Mr. Sears and we think that a solid foundation would have been built.
The Minister held a press conference and in the conference he did indicate that there are some bright spots on the horizon. He said that seven schools in the Family Islands, all public schools were able to obtain a C average in the BGCSE. He indicated that for the first time two schools, although both private schools were able to maintain a B average in the BGCSE results this year: St. Augustine’s College with a B minus and Lucaya International with a B. Let’s hope there is more of such good news next year.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 19th August, 2006 at midnight: 61,804.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 19th August at midnight: 167,596.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 19th August 2006 at midnight: 3,111,358.
19TH
AUGUST A DATE THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY
The Free National Movement had the most awkward
ad in the press during the week. They announced that they were celebrating
the 14th anniversary of their first victory at the polls. They were
of course dreaming of that date that lives in infamy whereby the once and
would be leader of the country Hubert Ingraham led a lucky but infamous
rag tag band of misfits to election victory in the face of an economic
recession in 1992 and a tired and worn out Lynden Pindling.
The portent of what was to come was Hurricane Andrew
that bore down on the country almost as soon as the victory was secure.
It beat us up badly. For the next ten years, we got a licking like
when you go down to Bimini. Anyway, in Nassau, the FNM had a fair
on Saturday 19th August to mark the day and we fear they did not do well.
In Grand Bahama, Ken Russell, that wisest of FNM
sages, pronounced at a press conference that election time is nearer now
than it has been. He smiled to himself as if he had said something
very clever. Good one Ken!
Late news is in on the disastrous FNM meetings in
Nassau, Eleuthera and Grand Bahama. Hubert Ingraham could not find
the courage or the time to stay in GB overnight. Reports say that
he flew in and flew right back out.
Speaking out of his head in Grand Bahama he appealed
for unity and saying that the FNM must stick together. He must know
why since the whole process for nominations is held up because he asked
for two names for Marco City and they came back with four, one of them
is David Thompson who is insisting that he run again, while Mr. Ingraham
is insisting that he retire.
Mr. Ingraham also has a fixation with Foreign Minister
Fred Mitchell's constituency. He claims that he has the Fox Hill
seat. Dream on... but what is interesting is that Mr. Ingraham’s
camp is circulating that they have in their possession a tape that has
the Foreign Minister making critical remarks about the U.S. We would
bet 100 cases of Kalik that such a tape does not exist and if it does the
material on it is a complete and utter fabrication. Poor Hubert,
he just does not know what he is going to do.
FNM
SHOWS CLEAR SIGNS OF DEFEAT
A statement by the Chairman of the PLP issued today
in the wake of the FNM's 'victory' celebration says that party is showing
clear signs of defeat. Said Rigby:
"In fact, if Hubert Ingraham would just speak the
truth he would say to his party that the PLP has been accepting former
and disgruntled FNM supporters in large mass since his return to the leadership
of the FNM. Many of them say that Hubert Ingraham is the same old dictator
and that he believes and acts as if only he has all of the answers.
"At the FNM’s flopped mini-rally, Hubert Ingraham
again used the podium to speak untruths and to cast the most nasty and
vicious mischaracterizations against the PLP and the outstanding record
of this Government since we came to office on the 2nd May, 2002. The simple
fact of the matter is that Ingraham is disturbed and is walking around
like a political demon because of the following facts, which he knows he
cannot lie about:
"(1) The Bahamian economy is performing far better
than it did in May 2002 and is projected to reach a positive growth of
nearly 6% before the next general election;
"(2) The national reserves are at the healthiest
than they have ever been before in our history;
"(3) We have put more Bahamians in their own homes
than the FNM did in almost 10 years in office;
"(4) We have taken positive steps to reform the
educational system and to improve the grade averages; and
"(5) Bahamians everywhere, in Bimini, in Eleuthera,
in Inagua, in Grand Bahama and in Rum Cay, all over The Bahamas, have the
confidence in the future because this PLP government has brought real sustainable
economic growth right to their homes and settlements. All Bahamians know
that they are better off today than they were in 2002.
"These are the facts and nothing echoed out of the
mouth of Hubert Ingraham will distract from these facts."
Please click
here for Mr. Rigby's full statement.
THE
U.S. BAHAMAS RELATIONSHIP
A letter writer to this column advanced the following
arguments with regard to the public discussion on US/Bahamian relations.
The writer asked to remain anonymous but we thought that the analysis and
perspective was important to share:
The Tribune, Dr. Dexter Johnson (the one man party),
The Nassau Guardian, The Punch, Brent Symonette, the FNM’s spokesman on
Foreign Affairs, Oswald Brown and some would argue even the U.S. Ambassador
seemed to be piling it up on Fred Mitchell, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and the PLP as it relates to the relationship between the United States
and The Bahamas. With nothing else to grab at, these very desperate
people were seeking to make political brownie points. It is strange
that the U.S. Ambassador would end up in such a mix.
It all started off with a column written by the
Ambassador and a report on the front page of the Nassau Guardian, based
on the exclusive column written by the Ambassador for the Nassau Guardian.
The central focus of the piece, there were good things in his first two
years as U.S. Ambassador but he thinks that The Bahamas and himself don’t
see eye to eye on human rights issues, and that he reported that The Bahamas
only voted with the U.S. 11 per cent of the time on general issues compared
to 40 per cent of the time in 2000.
It was interesting that the Ambassador chose
the years 2006 and 2000. The year 2000 was of course when the Free
National Movement was in power. The year 2006 the PLP was in power.
So, did the U.S. Ambassador mean to intervene in the election politics
of The Bahamas and support the FNM? Brent Symonette certainly saw
it that way and said on Tuesday 15th August in The Tribune that it was
clear that the PLP had to take notice and adjust its polices to suit the
U.S. Ambassador. Hogwash!
Does Mr. Symonette mean that if The Bahamas is
told to go to attack Haiti with its Royal Bahamas Defence Force that The
Bahamas should do so, even if we suspect that it is to our own detriment?
The lack of patriotism by this motley crew is quite sad.
The fact is the U.S. has its own human rights
record to think about and as the position has been explained by The Bahamas
Ambassador to the U.N., The Bahamas does not vote on country specific resolutions
in the area of human rights. If we did, then imagine the position
we would be put in if there were a resolution to condemn the United States
for the way it treats prisoners of conscience, Black prisoners, and the
detainees at Guantanamo, which even the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated
that prisoners are being held there in violation of the Geneva Convention?
The Bahamas should not get involved in our view, stay out of it.
Only Paul Moss, the anti foreign trade activist,
seemed to get the point. He congratulated the Government for not
voting with the United States and said that more should be done.
As for the FNM, Brent Symonette clearly has forgotten that the FNM voted
exactly as the PLP did to condemn the embargo of Cuba by the United States
and also voted to put Cuba on the Human Rights Commission. No different
from the PLP. The question is whether it is right for The Bahamas.
As for the United States, if there is indeed
a problem with Cuba and The Bahamas having a relationship, which there
is not as far as the Bahamian side is concerned, perhaps the Ambassador
ought to explain to these desperate people why it is that the U.S. has
the largest embassy in Cuba, even though they call it the Swiss Interest
Section.
The Ambassador calls our country a friend but
proceeds to undermine that very friendship and feed the political enemies
of the present administration by writing what he has written. Surely,
some may now question just how friendly we are when such a piece is written.
(Name withheld)
(Editor:
Here is what the U.S. Ambassador wrote in his own words as published
in The Nassau Guardian on Monday 14th August and in The Tribune Thursday
17th August:
“Each year, the State Department is required to present a report to Congress analyzing the voting records of countries in the United Nations. For 2005, we reported to Congress that The Bahamas and the United States agreed in the United Nations only 11.9 per cent of the time on issues requiring individual votes. This has dropped from 39 per cent agreement in 2000.
“On human rights issues, involving countries such as Sudan, Iran and Cuba we agreed only 16.7 per cent of the time, down from 44 percent agreement in 2000.
“Overall in assessing the commonality of our voting patterns on these individual votes, The Bahamas ranked 29th of the 33 nations in the Western Hemisphere, down from 16th in 2000. The only countries in the Western Hemisphere with less compatibility were Cuba, Venezuela, Dominica and St. Lucia.
“While we recognize that Bahamian and U.S. interests are not always the same and that on many issues friends can disagree, I nevertheless believe the downward trend in the commonality of our perceptions on important international issues points to a trend that deserves more of my attention in the coming years. It simply should not be that such good friends, who share so many values, cannot find common ground in addressing human rights violations, seeking peace in the Middle East, and promoting global prosperity.
“Examples, I have talked about before—our failures to agree to condemn
the terrible human rights abuses in Iran and the Sudan, and our failure
to agree to keep this hemisphere’s only non-democratic country – Cuba –
from the Human Rights Council – highlight the need to work more closely
together on international issues.”
THE
FARRINGTON CASE
After weeks of testimony, most of it prurient and scandalous, Cordell Farrington
was convicted on Friday 18th August of the murder of Jamal Robins of Freeport.
Mr. Robins’ parents pronounced themselves happy with the verdict.
They said that their son could now rest in peace. The prosecution
was justly proud of the verdict. They needed a conviction on this
very simple and straightforward case. The jury did its job too, and
quickly. Now comes the sentencing phase.
Of course the evidence did reveal something, which
we do not know if the jury considered; and whether it may form the basis
of an appeal if the Judge did not leave it to the jury. While the
psychiatrist and the psychologist who testified, Michael Neville and Timothy
Barrett respectively said that Mr. Farrington was clearly not insane because
at the time of the act he appreciated right from wrong, it was also clear
that they said that he had a disease of the mind which would suggest the
defence of diminished responsibility. This is the same defence that
allowed the Hanna son who murdered his entire family to get life imprisonment
in the 1980s. It is not clear from the newspaper reports whether
the defence attorney raised it in her arguments.
The result of a successful defence of diminished
responsibility is a manslaughter conviction. The penalty is up to
life imprisonment. Perhaps at the sentencing phase on the murder
conviction, these arguments will come out. However, the sordid life
of Mr. Farrington is one that the sociologists of The Bahamas should study
for years to come. Here was a homosexual man who has three children
with a woman with whom he also claimed he had a loving relationship.
She came, testified and confirmed it. He said in his confession to
the murder that he killed Mr. Robins because he loved him so much that
he wanted him to be with him forever. Killing him was a way to do
that. They became sexual lovers at the Sandilands Rehabilitation
Centre where both were recovering from drug addictions.
According to the accused, Mr. Robins reverted to
his addiction when they moved to Freeport, and he killed Mr. Robins because
he was so angry that Mr. Robins would not stop stealing from him and using
drugs. He asked another lover with whom he was also living to help
him dispose of Mr. Robins’ body. It was a strange thing also that
the lover who helped him dispose of the body was so frightened that he
did not tell the police. He said he was afraid that he would be exposed
as homosexual. This is really the stuff for a movie. Anyway,
the matter is over for now. Mr. Farrington is either headed for the
death penalty or life imprisonment. We understand that Mr. Farrington
now has to stand trial for the death of four young boys in Freeport.
Bahama Journal photo
THE
IGNORANT OSWALD BROWN
We have tried our best while Oswald Brown is suffering from prostate cancer
to treat him as a sick man and leave him out of the cut and thrust of public
debate. We tried even when he was not a sick man to excuse his ignorance
and wilfully malicious behaviour as a journalist with euphemisms to describe
his reprehensible behaviour. He has even been named JACKASS OF THE
WEEK in this column as a means of trying to get him to stick to the truth.
Most recently, Mr. Brown wrote a story about a conspiracy
to kill his dead friend Preston Stuart, which read like some of the first
bad drafts of a Robert Ludlum novel. Foolishness of course, but he
gets to write it in the press. You may click
here for our comments on him last week. Nothing, however, has
stopped his persistent mean spiritedness and the just plain untruths, inventions
and figments of his wicked imagination from finding their way into the
press.
This week in his column on Friday 18th August Mr.
Brown was talking about who should be chosen as the next Bahamian Ambassador
to the U.S. This was just a contrivance of his to attack his favourite
target, the Foreign Minister of The Bahamas, Fred Mitchell who is unquestionably
the best Foreign Minister this country has produced in a decade.
He claimed to be giving advice to the Prime Minister that if Mr. Mitchell
advised the PM to appoint MP Sidney Stubbs as Ambassador to Washington
he must not do it. He claimed that Mr. Mitchell has a habit of ignoring
advice and making decisions to the detriment of The Bahamas. There
is no evidence of any such decision or action on Mr. Mitchell’s part.
The Cabinet of The Bahamas, not Mr. Mitchell, determines
the foreign policy of The Bahamas. That is a fact of governance in
The Bahamas and a journalist of Oswald Brown’s years should not and cannot
be excused for such ignorance.
PM
TO CELEBRATE HIS BIRTHDAY
Prime Minister Perry Christie turns 63 on Monday
21st August. Members of his Progressive Liberal Party’s National
General Council hosted him to an impromptu birthday party at the Party’s
Lynden Pindling Centre at Gambier House on Thursday 17th August.
The event turned into a mini rally with the Prime
Minister saying that he had been up and down the country and had determined
that the party was in good shape. He asked all the delegates to prepare
themselves for the General Election that was coming.
Mr. Christie was accompanied by his wife Bernadette.
Council members must have in a good mood because there was a spontaneous
pledge made to the party’s coffers. Total cash and pledges $13,800.
THE
CASE OF NINETY KNOWLES
A voice from the dim dark past was raised from the
diplomatic graveyard this week when The Tribune on Wednesday 16th August
quoted from Richard Blankenship, the former U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas
who left in the middle of his term to return to the U.S. But it seems
he can’t keep his big mouth shut when it comes to interfering in Bahamian
business.
Richard Blankenship was quoted in The Tribune -
of all places - who in its anti PLP, anti Fred Mitchell posture was trying
for some reason to say that pressure was being put on the Minister of Foreign
Affairs to extradite Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles to the U.S. now that the Privy
Council has indicated that his appeals have been exhausted. There
is still one further application pending in the Bahamian courts to be decided.
The Tribune said that the Minister of Foreign Affairs
was facing pressure. We wonder pressure from whom and over what?
As far as it was publicly known, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is on
leave until the end of the month. Further when he was contacted by
The Tribune he said he had no comment to make as he does not comment on
extradition matters and that Richard Blankenship does not represent the
U.S. government.
MICHAEL
HOOPER MOVES ON UP
Congratulations to Michael Hooper, the natural son
of King Eric Gibson, the Bahamian musician and brother to Shane Gibson,
the Minister of Immigration. Mr. Hooper was appointed Vice President
and General Manager of the Wyndham Resort. His previous job was that
of General Manager of the British Colonial Hilton. He did a creditable
job there, and obviously as the Bahamar project develops in Cable Beach
they would be looking for Bahamian talent. Congratulations to Mr.
Hooper.
BARBADOS
PM GETS MARRIED
I’m a married man
That’s what I am…
I’m a happily married man
--Ronnie Butler
The Barbados Nation newspaper has reported that
Owen Arthur, the Prime Minister of Barbados remarried on 12th August 2006
at his official residence Ilaro Court in Barbados. This is Mr. Arthur’s
second marriage. The new wife is a former executive assistant of
his, Julie Price. They have a seven year old daughter. She
is 39 years old and he is 56 years old. His previous wife was Beverley
Batchelor. Congratulations to the PM.
THE
SAY WHAT DEPARTMENT
The Bahamas at the NAM Conference
The Tribune in its Friday 18th August edition could
not find out whether or not The Bahamas will attend the non aligned summit
in Havana from 11th -16th September. That is fine as far as it goes
but what we thought is interesting about this unpatriotic paper is how
they thought that they had to run to the U.S. Embassy to see what the Embassy
had to say. The Embassy instead of simply saying that it was none
of their business and declining to comment said that they thought it was
appropriate.
Craig Butler on John Marquis
The columnist Craig Butler sometimes gets it right
but many times gets way off track. This week’s column in the Nassau
Guardian was one of those times. Mr. Butler thinks that John Marquis
should be given a work permit in The Bahamas essentially because it is
easier to give it to him, rather than fight the principle of a man and
a company who has been in The Bahamas for ten years, refusing to train
a Bahamian, and refusing to put in place a plan to train a Bahamian for
the job, and now refusing to respond to the legitimate requests of the
Department of Immigration.
We continue to ask what kind of country we think
we are building in the face of this kind of argument. The argument
is that the very basic sovereignty that the government needs to assert
in immigration should be denied just to keep the peace, while the influence
that is being wielded over the society to undermine its values continues
to be exercised by this individual. We again say that John Marquis
must leave The Bahamas on the next plane smoking for England.
This has nothing to do with freedom of the press.
It should not be confused by the self serving arguments of a reactionary
group that simply do not wish to comply with what is required of them by
the Department of Immigration.
Grand Bahama Port Authority
Senator Philip Galanis is continuing in his programme
of enlightenment for the people of Grand Bahama about what is going on
at the Grand Bahama Port Authority. There is to be a public meeting
at Foster Pestaina Hall, Christ the King Church on Tuesday 22nd August.
Maurice Glinton, Fred Smith, Senator Galanis, Doswell Coakley from the
Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce are all slated to speak.
Caribbean Bottling Is Sold
The Nassau Guardian reported on Wednesday 16th August
that Caribbean Bottling, the company that bottles Coca Cola in The Bahamas
has been sold by its Bahamian owners for the sum of 10.6 million dollars.
It has a customer base of 1,100 outlets and 118 full time employees.
The new owners are Caribco. The new partners include Banks Holdings
Ltd of Barbados who bottle Coca Cola in Barbados.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Why are we debating the matter of John Marquis'
work permit? Even though he carries the title of managing editor,
everyone knows he spends his time WRITING. He thinks that by not
putting his name on the stories he's tricking those “fool Bahamians”.
And he'll just cry freedom of the press if anyone catches him.
But the matter is a simple one. He works
as a WRITER — all this talk is about him having the right to WRITE what
he wants. Don't Bahamianization laws clearly state that you can't
employ a foreigner as a WRITER? The Tribune and Mr. Marquis may not
like the law, but it is the law of the land. They must obey it and
fight to change it. Case closed.
Too bad the PLP is so caught up in the wrong
reasons for trying to get rid of Mr. Marquis.
The use of anonymous sources has also reached
a ridiculous level in The Tribune to the point where you have to wonder
whether these people exist at all. Whenever there's no name of the
person who wrote the story, you have to wonder what are they hiding. This
sort of unprincipled approach to journalism is not practiced at any credible
news organization. These stories are also the ones that read like
they’re written from someone who grew up outside the Bahamas. I have never
in my life seen a newspaper that uses so many unnamed sources, even on
stories where it's hard to imagine any threat of reprisal from anyone.
The so-called Insight articles are famous for this. And who writes
those? Three guesses.
It looks like piracy is still active in the Bahamas,
only this time it’s the truth that's being plundered. After all,
when the accepted rules of journalism don't apply, you can write whatever
you want. To defend a work permit by saying there's no Bahamians
who can write stories from suspect research and of questionable legitimacy
is ridiculous. Anyone can do that! It’s time to get rid of
this preposterous imposter masquerading as a journalist.
Surely if a foreigner is to be employed at any
position in the Bahamas, it is reasonable to expect evidence that he or
she is bringing some sort of real expertise and has elevated the practice
in that field beyond what it was. Apparently, at The Tribune press
freedom means freedom to put out a sham of a newspaper that is steadily
eroding the credibility it had built up over a century.
Nathanial Ferguson
We differ with you only in one respect. Those from the PLP
who have spoken on this issue want only that journalists fairly report
the facts and that the Tribune comply with what is required of them by
the Department of Immigration comply with what is required of them by the
Department of Immigration. Those are hardly the 'wrong reasons'. - Editor
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Bay Street Redevelopment
Plans for the redevelopment of downtown Nassau continued
apace this past week as Prime Minister Perry Christie met with the Bay
Street Redevelopment Committee (pictured) and the Minister responsible
for the project, Dr. Marcus Bethel. The plans call for an ultimate
transformation of Bay Street in Nassau from Arawak Cay to Montagu Beach.
IDB Mapping Project
Also this past week, Prime Minister Christie attended the signing of
an agreement with the InterAmerican Development Bank where the institution
is partnering with The Bahamas in a mapping project aimed at making the
identification and regulation of real property in The Bahamas easier and
more efficient. The Prime Minister is pictured with Ronald Thompson,
Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister and the IDB representative.
12 Year Old University Student
Twelve year old genius Kevin Rolle standing with
the Prime Minister and Ministers Fred Mitchell and Obie Wilchcombe.
Master Rolle is enrolled in the University of the Northern Caribbean and
will pursue a degree in theology. The Prime Minister congratulated
him and expressed the view that special attention must be paid to his finances
and his emotional development, because at 12 while he is academically brilliant,
he is still a 12 year old and needs the protection of a parent and mentor.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
RUM & COCA COLA
WORKING FOR THE YANKEE DOLLAR
The Free National Movement celebrated the anniversary of its coming
to power on 19th August. That was a week ago Saturday. It was
a sad occasion. The expression in The Bahamas is that they were jonesing
for power. It was interesting though because it brought into sharp
relief how the FNM intends to fight its campaign in the next general election.
It also showed a party that is in a state of confusion as it tried to put
together its list of candidates for the next election.
Mr. Ingraham has promised that he is going to win Fox Hill and Bamboo Town. Dream on! In this he has the support it appears of the entire press and of course the ignorant Oswald Brown. Later in this column, we respond to a most vituperative attack, wrapped up in ignorance by a sick man who ought to know better but knowledge of the usual kind is quite frankly beyond his reach. But this part is dedicated to Hubert Ingraham and his politics of vendetta. He is a very bitter man indeed and once Perry Christie has finished him off in the next general election, he may need psychological help to get over the shock of it.
We would simply like to quote from what he said to his audience in Grand Bahama last Saturday. The day was a long one for Mr. Ingraham and the beers were cool. We think that what he said speaks volumes more than any commentary from us about what is happening in the FNM:
“Marco City and Eight Mile Rock and West End and Bimini trying to play me too close. Cut me some slack. Cut me some slack so that we can make the right decisions for the best people to run in those seats. So, carry the word forward. We’re not going to be prisoners to a few.
“We’re going to act on behalf of the many. We believe we’ve heard from the people and we can now make a good judgment as to who will be where in Grand Bahama. The fat lady is about the sing, and when she does I want FNMs to remember, you don’t hear no arguments from the PLP who their candidates [are] going to be, you know.
“They picked up [Pleasant] Bridgewater at the last minute and made her a candidate and they elected her. All this argument about who should be here and who should be there, only six we got. So that’s all we got. We ain’t got 20. And at the end of the day we have to decide on who [are going] to fill those seats. We got two in now and we got four to fill…
“So Marco City, Eight Mile Rock, West End, cut me some slack or otherwise I [will] take some slack. I came back to this party to lead you to victory. I didn’t come back for no one to put no handcuff in my back. I came here to listen, I came here to consult, and I came here to take advice, but I came here at the end of the day for us to be able to decide.
“FNMs will ‘roll’ the PLP out.
“We want you in Grand Bahama to do like the PLP does. When election time comes along, they all come together. They can be fighting like cats and dogs. They know what they’re fighting for; they’re fighting for your things – the Government of The Bahamas.
“So, if some people are foolish enough and want to fight among themselves, cut them off. Don’t even be hanging around having no conversation with them in the morning at the coffee place… We’re on our way, on our way to winning this government and we’re not going to let the few stand in our way; understand that?”
The reasonable inference that can be drawn from this is that the FNM is in deep doo doo. They have a problem with who is going to be a candidate for where. The question is whether or not this is an acceptable organization to put to the Bahamian people to ask for their votes. The organization appears to be divided.
The other inference that can be drawn is that Mr. Ingraham must surely be losing his touch. He seems to be rambling all over the place, making threats to his own people. How is this going to endear him to them? Take the comment he made about not having any conversations with “them in the morning at the coffee place”. Those who know Freeport, know that part of the culture of Freeport is to sit in the mornings between about 7:30 a.m. and 9: 30 a.m. — FNMs and PLPs together talking about the public issues of the day. Now why would Mr. Ingraham want to interfere with that? Clearly, he is losing it.
Over all the PLP Chairman Raynard Rigby said it best in his statement last week that in effect Mr. Ingraham is admitting defeat. He admitted that he can’t put a team together. He admitted that he has problems of unity in the FNM. His voice sounded at once desperate and hopeless. It was a plaintive cry, as if he were about to throw in the towel. We can assure him that despite his warning, FNMs and PLPs were together at the coffee place drinking together and talking about the public issues of the day.
The other curious point that is developing in the campaign is that all guns seem to be pointed at Fred Mitchell. This is a backhanded compliment, it would seem. By our calculation, Mr. Mitchell has made no public statements on any matter in at least one month, yet every day every newspaper columnist seemed to have their guns firmly trained on him. What is all the public hullabaloo about? The answer we think is that the FNM believes that it can obtain the support of the United States government in order to win the election against the PLP. Mr. Ingraham wants to be able to say to the Bahamian people that the FNM has the support of the United States government and therefore they are the better persons to lead. He must be careful with this since it appears that there is not much fodder to be gained in that strategy.
The Free National Movement is already the party that is perceived in The Bahamas to be associated with giving away The Bahamas and not protecting the national patrimony of The Bahamas. Mr. Ingraham stands to lose much if he pursues this strategy.
And so we have learned that the FNM under Mr. Ingraham plans to put much of its money and resources into a campaign against Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is almost as if it is a personal act of vengeance. That too is a losing strategy.
As we say, we can go on and on in our comments about the pure ineptness of the FNM’s campaign but the fact is we have no better way to express this than to point to the desperate words of Mr. Ingraham himself. We remember the song DRUNK AGAIN by Geno D. We think that this would be an apt song to respond to all the political claptrap spun by Mr. Ingraham. That is why we also recall the 1950s song “Rum and Coca Cola… working for the Yankee dollar.” We remind Mr. Ingraham and his friends of what they are fooling with and for the future advise him to speak from a prepared text.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 26th August 2006 at midnight: 62,889.
Number of hits for the month of August up Saturday 26th August 2006 at midnight: 230,485.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 26th August 2006 at midnight: 3,174,247.
EDISON
KEY RUN OUT OF MOORE’S ISLAND
Prime Minister Perry Christie spent the day at festivals
throughout the country on Saturday 26th August. He flew up to Moore’s
Island, Abaco, the strongest PLP division in Abaco and a PLP ward if ever
there was one. The latest political intelligence is that Hubert Ingraham
on the comeback trail thinks that he can, using former PLP Senator Edison
Key, make some inroads into Moore’s Island. Yesterday was to be the
testing ground.
Here’s what we heard. Edison Key showed up
but the atmosphere was so antagonistic to him that he did not even dare
go into the centre of the celebrations. He turned tail and ran.
A sign of things to come!
And congratulations to B.J. Moss and Danny Ferguson,
they are hard workers in the Perry Christie vineyard. God Bless ‘em!
The photo of the PM’s day in Moore’s Island is by
Jeffrey Cooper. The Prime Minister also attended festivals in Fort
Charlotte and in Englerston supporting Minister Alfred Sears in Fort Charlotte
and Minister Glenys Hanna Martin in Englerston.
REMEMBERING
SIR LYNDEN
Lady Marguerite Pindling visited the tomb of the
late Sir Lynden Pindling on Saturday 26th August 2006 to mark the 6th anniversary
of his passing. Sir Lynden was the country’s first Prime Minister
and is considered the Father of the Nation. You may click
here for remembrances of his funeral.
Lady Pindling was joined at the mausoleum by Duke
and Joan Hanna, friends of Sir Lynden and Felix Bethel, lecturer at the
College of The Bahamas. The Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell joined
them as well.
Mr. Mitchell told ZNS news that he as Foreign Minister
of The Bahamas serves in a job and represents a people and a nation crafted
by Sir Lynden. He said, “The Bahamas is an independent nation.
We are at peace with all people. We do not get up in the ideological
wars of other people and nations no matter who wishes us to do so.
We stay out of it.” This is believed to be the first public statement
by the Minister in more than a month on matters relating to Foreign Affairs.
Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services
took the photo, which shows from left: Fred Mitchell, Lady Pindling, Joan
and Duke Hanna and Felix Bethel.
PEOPLE
RESPOND TO U.S. CRITICISM
The radio talk shows took up the challenge of the foreign policy of The
Bahamas and whether or not The Bahamas was wrong in any way with regard
to its votes at the United Nations.
Last week a letter writer (click
here) took issue with the words of the United States Ambassador on
the question of the votes of The Bahamas and the United Nations.
The radio talk shows on ZNS ran virtually 100 per
cent with the position of The Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On Love
97 it was more like 75 per cent. What this shows is that the Bahamian
people are not simple minded. The policy of The Bahamas is not offensive
and no one would know unless unnecessary publicity is given to the positions.
The policy has so far kept us out of any international public controversy.
It is the domestic political opponents of the PLP
who keep dragging up the issue and the unfortunate support by impolitic
statements being made in some quarters that feeds this as a political issue,
where there is in fact none.
Now the Cuban Ambassador has joined the fray.
Felix Wilson in a statement published in The Tribune on Saturday 26th August
made the point that the US is starting an international crusade against
Cuba and is soliciting the support of The Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean
to join. He expressed faith that the Bahamas Government will “do
what the Bahamian people want them to do and is mature enough to know where
it stands on the issue.”
The Tribune quoted Sir Arthur Foulkes (pictured),
their own columnist and former non resident Ambassador to Cuba: “I don’t
believe that The Bahamas should interfere in the internal affairs of the
Cuban people, and I don’t believe that the U.S. should either.” Well
said! Perhaps the message will get through since it is not Fred Mitchell,
everyone’s favourite target, who is making the statement.
HUBERT
GETS A MESSAGE FROM THE COFFEE SHOP
You may click here for a view of that editorial
of ours quoting Hubert Ingraham warning FNMs to stay out of the Freeport
coffee shops. Well, we have a message from the coffee shop.
We are asked to put it in direct quotes.
For this, a site that is PLP, we find the message
extraordinary but here goes:
“You asked for two and we sent you four.
Now you must do what you have to do. Your answer was to say: ‘I don’t
do sh—’. Very good! We don’t either. We know you want Freddie MacAlpine,
a disgruntled PLP. But we warn you, if you choose him, you will see
why a lobster is red.
“We are not going to give another quarter
to any more disgruntled PLPs. We allowed you Phenton (Neymour) and
Charlsie (Maynard) and Desmond (Bannister party Chair) and Edison Key but
not another one. We know that the real reason that you left Grand
Bahama last Saturday (19th August) without meeting with anyone is to duck
us. But we are waiting. Of course, we know that when the alpha
male takes over the pride for the first time, his first instinct is to
kill all the cubs he did not sire, but sir be assured, we are waiting for
your decision. We are not Tommy and we are not Mr. Red.”
Boy! What a message? Too hot for us to handle!
CONGRATULATIONS
TO BASIL SMITH
The Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe announced
on Thursday 24th August 2006 (reported in the Nassau Guardian Friday 25th
August) that Basil Smith who now serves as the Senior Director for Communications
for The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism would be leaving to return to Jamaica
where he served previously with the Jamaican government.
Mr. Smith, a dual national who is the son of former
Director of Agriculture Claude Smith and the former Rose Hanson of Jamaica
is to become the new Director of Tourism for Jamaica. We congratulate
Mr. Smith. He is well qualified for that job; an outstanding, creative
and well liked manager and we are certain that he will serve Jamaica well
in this new job.
OSWALD
BROWN – CRY BABY SOUR LIME
Last Friday 25th August 2006, Oswald Brown (pictured), who espouses the
views of ignorance in the Nassau Guardian, wrote a column that revealed
much about him and his psychology. He needs help. You may click
here for what we wrote last week in this column about him. The
best thing to have done was to simply ignore what was written here last
week. His response shows how easily his pride is wounded. Curiously
though instead of dealing with his own integrity in his “response” Mr.
Brown chose to engage in a demented attack on Fred Mitchell, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service, who to our recollection (and
we have said so many times this week in this column) has made no public
statement on any issue, certainly not on Mr. Brown (at all) it appears
to us for almost one month.
How what appeared in this column last week is related
to Mr. Mitchell is beyond us, but Mr. Brown blames Mr. Mitchell for what
was written in last week’s column. No doubt the appropriate legal
proceedings will be following in short order. We would not bother
to analyse or repeat anything that Mr. Brown wrote. To quote from
another one with demented views, Hubert Ingraham: “If our mother told us
that what Mr. Brown wrote was the truth, we wouldn’t believe her”.
Mr. Brown’s approach is demented, evil and malicious.
It is also sad that a grown man who ought to be fighting to recover his
health ought to be allowed to engage in such a spiteful, sick set of statements
in a responsible newspaper. All we can say is that it is sad indeed.
As for Mr. Mitchell, he can defend himself. The Nassau Guardian has
a responsibility to say whether or not it condones this kind of behaviour
from one of its employees.
We recently received evidence that Mr. Errington
Watkins and Craig Butler, both of whom are columnists for the Guardian
in public affairs, are to discontinue their columns in the Nassau Guardian
until the General Election is over. The letter signed by Nassau Guardian
publisher Charles Carter said that Tamara McKenzie who recently returned
to The Bahamas with a Master’s degree in Journalism is to become their
political editor. It goes on to say: “In consequence of this, and
by this letter, I wish to inform you that the Guardian will cease all political
contributed columns from now and until the general elections.” There
is no word, however, on the fate of Oswald Brown who is the most glaring
offender in that department. These other men are not employees of
the Nassau Guardian.
We hasten to say however, we do not agree with taking
away the right of Messrs. Watkins nor Butler to express their views as
columnists. During the regime of Hubert Ingraham, he stopped all
the radio telephone chat shows during the run up to the last general election
period on the grounds that this somehow violated the laws on balance.
The private sector radio stations capitulated in the face of the Government’s
insistence. We hope no such thing happens this time.
All we say to Oswald Brown is get well soon.
You are going to need all the strength you can get. We repeat what we said
about him last week and stand by every word without a change. If
there were a more odious word than Jackass that we could safely use to
describe his views without causing offence to our standards we would certainly
have used it to describe Oswald Brown’s views. Boo Hoo Hoo!
MEANWHILE
OVER AT THE TRIBUNE
Say goodbye to my horse’s ass…
You can count your reign in weeks
---Henry of Anjou from the Lion in Winter
John Marquis should be shaking in his boots this weekend. The sword
of Damocles is hanging over his head as his fate is being decided by the
Department of Immigration. Mr. Marquis (pictured) was busy at it
last Monday 21st August savaging, yes, you guessed it - Fred Mitchell,
the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
We repeat that our research shows that Mr. Mitchell
has made no public statements on any matter in almost one month.
He has certainly never made any comment about John Marquis and whether
or not he should get a work permit. But again, that is for Mr. Mitchell
to answer if he so chooses.
What we do say is that the present PLP administration
cannot be so weak kneed as to capitulate to the Tribune's blackmail on
the issue of Mr. Marquis’ work permit. Mr. Marquis must go.
The article on what Mr. Marquis calls “A Lurch to
the Left” is filled with inaccuracies, distortions of the truth, and simple
slime. All of this is vintage John Marquis. He is a bad example
of what a Managing Editor of a newspaper should be — an Englishman aboard
who allows his racially charged and prejudiced views to influence how he
writes and what he writes. The PLP cannot capitulate in the face
of this racism and prejudice.
EMPLOYMENT
LAW CLARIFIED
Just before Hubert Ingraham left office in 2001,
the Government passed and brought into force the Employment Act.
That Act was supposed to have done away with the common law remedy of wrongful
dismissal, which was really just a measure of the damages that the courts
has through various decisions dating back to the 19th century determined
a fired employee could get. The problem with wrongful dismissal as
a legal remedy was that you could not get damages for injured feelings.
The result for the dismissed employee was often less than satisfactory
because the courts could not compensate you for the manner in which you
were dismissed.
The only thing the court could do was to calculate
what reasonable notice was. When the new act came into force it was
meant to copy the British law, which abolished the common law remedy of
wrongful dismissal. That is what most people thought up to now, but
in two recent cases reported in The Bahamas Court of Appeal, that can no
longer be regarded as settled law.
The Tribune in its Business Section reported that
on Wednesday 23rd August the Court ruled that wrongful dismissal was a
remedy still available in Bahamian law since the Employment Act did not
specifically abolish the common law remedy, that instead of codifying the
law of employment it merely established a minimum standard for employee
compensation upon dismissal. What this means is that a dismissed
employee can now pick and choose which remedy is better for he or she when
dismissed.
An employee who has been working for a long time
would do better going by way of wrongful dismissal since that has no cap
in the liability. The unfair dismissal remedy available under the
employment law has a cap of a maximum of 18 months salary as compensation.
That was usually as high as the awards would go in wrongful dismissal cases
as well but in theory there was no cap.
The matter should however be appealed to the Privy
Council and not left to stand at the Court of Appeal that has been reversed
by the Privy Council so many times. The two cases are Paula Deveaux
vs. the Bank of The Bahamas and Thalberg Wells vs. Snack Food Wholesale.
The Court pointed out that the employee who chooses wrongful dismissal
as a remedy in the Courts should know that if they lose they will have
to pay the legal costs of both parties. However, in the unfair dismissal
system through the Tribunal, there is no provision for costs, and each
side pays its own costs.
GRAND
BAHAMA PORT DISCUSSION
The citizens of Grand Bahama, many of them Bahamian licensees of the Grand
Bahama Port Authority appear to be in revolt. On Tuesday evening
22nd August, Maurice Glinton, Attorney at Law; Fred Smith, Attorney at
Law; Senator Philip Galanis (pictured) and Dr. Doswell Coakley of the Grand
Bahama Chamber of Commerce held a town meeting at the Foster Pestaina Hall
in Freeport. They were discussing the role of the Grand Bahama Port
Authority.
Most of the speakers seemed to suggest that the
appointment of Hannes Babak as the new Chairman of the Grand Bahama Port
Authority was not good for Grand Bahama. The conflict of interest
issue seems to be the main issue as far as public policy is concerned.
It would seem that the Government would have to intervene if it is clear
that Mr. Babak is using his position as Chairman of the Port to compete
with companies in Freeport.
All eyes appear to be on the contract awarded for
the construction of the Associated Grocers Warehouse in Freeport and whether
a Babak associated company is going to get the job to build the warehouse.
The Grand Bahama Port Authority was not without
its own support. There were 110 persons reportedly in the Hall to
listen to the panel. At the same time as the panel discussion took
place, the Port Authority had run on radio a programme competing with the
Forum: an interview with Sir Albert Miller, President of the Port and the
new Chairman Mr. Babak.
The Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, who is
the representative for West End also weighed in during the week saying
that he took issue with what was being said at the public forum because
it was sending an adverse message to investors. Senator Philip Galanis
was the only PLP on the panel and you may click
here for his remarks. He has been on this message now for more
than a month and it appears to be gaining traction in the Freeport society.
Doswell Coakley, the usually cautious President
of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, was quite forthright when he argued
that the role of the Port Authority must be examined and that the Government
must investigate how the Port conducts its business.
BISHOP
NEIL ELLIS STOKES HUBERT
Last week at the ill fated rallies of the Free National Movement in Grand
Bahama and around the country, Hubert Ingraham took the opportunity to
attack Bishop Neil Ellis, the Full Gospel pastor at Mt. Tabor Church for
his work in seeking to bring various labour disputes to an end. Mr.
Ingraham wondered aloud whether we have a Prime Minister or a Bishop in
charge of the country.
The Prime Minister Perry Christie had to school
Mr. Ingraham that the Government of the PLP is not like Ingraham’s was,
a know it all, do it all government; and that there are some things that
the church can do best or better. He defended the role of the Bishop
and the church in the civic life of the country.
Bishop Neil Ellis, however, did the Prime Minister
one better. In a story published in the Nassau Guardian on Thursday
24th August, the Bishop reminded Mr. Ingraham that the first time he was
called in to help settle a labour dispute was when Mr. Ingraham was Prime
Minister. The Bishop said that it was during Mr. Ingraham’s administration
that the country was on the verge of a general strike with the Trade Union
Congress and the National Congress of Trade Unions and Mr. Ingraham summoned
him to his office to act as a mediator.
How convenient is our memory these days? This
is typical Ingraham though, a master at trying to rewrite history.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Victimization – Mr. Marquis has the right to write whatever he
wants...
But he has no right to work in the Bahamas…
During the last election campaign, the FNM quite
cleverly started using the term victimization to try to scare voters from
electing the PLP. Unfortunately, the press in our nation, led by the FNM
mouthpiece The Tribune, adopted this term as though it were fact and not
a matter of political perception. Does the PLP reward its own and
punish others? Of course, as does every political party in every
country in the world.
There are now articles being written regarding
the John Marquis work permit matter that refer to it as another case of
PLP victimization. This again is a matter of perception. Of
course, The Tribune coverage of this matter has been biased, self-serving
and pointless if you want the truth. But now other agents of the
press have started reporting the matter in a similar one-sided manner.
This neglects the possibility that there may be legitimate reasons for
not renewing his work permit that have nothing to do with his viewpoints
or what he has written. No one has bothered to question the timing of his
anti-PLP reports as perhaps part of a strategy to support a press freedom
argument should his work permit be denied. Perhaps there is a deliberate
strategy to paint himself as a government critic so he can claim he's being
kicked out because of his views rather than for a legitimate reason, such
as working as a writer, which we all know is not allowed.
Why would a managing editor be writing a story
assessing the government anyway? This is highly unusual and would
normally be written by a political reporter who spends his days in the
House. Something's fishy.
Work permits at newspapers has been a touchy
matter and it is not just the PLP. In his re-election speech, former
prime minister Hubert Ingraham cited newspapers as among a list of industries
that he thought should not be allowed work permits. Work permits
get turned down regularly under the PLP just as they did under the FNM,
but not everyone has the option of mobilizing a newspaper that is not hindered
by questions of ethics and conflict of interest the way The Tribune obviously
is not. But why is the rest of the press not asking questions?
There are enough stories lacking bylines, use
of unnamed sources and other irregularities at The Tribune to raise suspicions
of how the business is being conducted for even a casual reader. The Ministry
of Labour is well within its rights to ask a few questions and demand a
few answers.
In the meantime, it appears Mr. Marquis is continuing
to work without a work permit. I wonder if a Bahamian journalist
went to England and decided to work illegally how he would be treated.
I doubt the British government would be restrained by cries of freedom
of the press. Illegal is illegal! Mr. Marquis has the right
to write whatever he wants. But he has no right to work in the Bahamas.
That is a privilege that he must prove worthy of. For the government
to give in to The Tribune now would mean the end of Bahamians working in
the news media. If you allow Mr. Marquis to stay how can you justify
denying anyone else ever?
If the PLP is targeting Marquis solely because
of his criticism, you really have to wonder why. It's hard to imagine
that his long, boring tomes are even being widely read. I stop reading
at the first anonymous source. His articles all have an anti-Bahamian
whiff about them and are increasingly self-serving stories about how important
he is to the country. Perhaps as a cure for insomnia. I'm sure
his readership among old British men who long for the days of The Empire
is extraordinarily high. But The Tribune should be handing out medals
to anyone who actually manages to get through these irrelevant snore-fests.
And now he's taken his tiresome prose to writing
books? Can't wait. The real victim in all this has been the
truth. And The Tribune. The latter no longer seems to serve
any purpose other than as a vehicle of shameless self-promotion for Marquis
and his British views.
Etienne Dupuch, who believed The Tribune should
be a "vehicle of service" for the Bahamian people, would be appalled to
find out his newspaper is now being used to serve one man.
Samuel A. Thabe
We think that this quite accurately sums up the position. - Editor
Work Permit
Let me say from the break I am a firm believer
in the Bahamianization laws. It cannot be after over thirty three
years of independence that we are giving work permits to foreigners in
our number one industry, tourism: General manager, Assistant Manager, Assistant
Financial Controller, Food & Beverage Cost Controller, Corporate Liaison
Officer, Stores Manager, and Guest Service Receptionist.
These investors cannot use a loophole to try
and short circuit our immigration laws, bringing in employees as Animators
or Disc Jockeys, send them on a two week vacation then bring them in as
Assistant Managers and gettin work permit. However that is before
D. Shane Gibson
An investigation has to be done. Bahamians
are being dismissed weekly and replaced by foreigners on work permits.
Some are working without work permits.
Do we have corrupt senior immigration Officers?
Yes. Do we have corrupt senior immigration officers who sell out
this country for a eight dollar dinner? Yes. Do you believe it is
happening in Grand Bahama? Yes
A call was placed to the immigration office
on Friday in reference to this same business about foreigners working without
work permit. The answer was, they can bring them in if they need them urgently.
I am a PLP. My mother is a Stalwart
Councillor. I was not always a PLP. I was a CDR. I returned
November with our leader.
If I know about the corruption at the Immigration
office don’t you think Hubert know about it?
The matter will be brought to the immigration minister's attention. – Editor
Cordell Farrington
I read your
article on the Cordell Farrington case. It appears that you are
against the death penalty and hence have suggested that the trial judge
may not have properly directed the jury with regard to the special defence
of diminished responsibility (let the defence do its work, let's not provide
them with ideas of what to do because of our personal stance on capital
punishment). Let me say from the outset that it is your right to
agree or disagree with the death penalty, but your suggestion in the context
that it is made raised my eyebrows. You also raise the issue of disease
of the mind (abnormality of the mind).
I am not a lawyer but from a layman's point
of view Farrington should be given the death penalty for this particular
gruesome crime. When he is tried for the deaths of the 4 boys in
Freeport and found guilty (yes am jumping to conclusions) are we to plead
a special defence again to escape the hangman’s noose? From the law books
that I have read my understanding is that diminished responsibility is
a special defence that can be raised in a murder case. It is up to
the defence to establish it on a balance of probabilities; the trial judge
cannot raise this defence on his own motion and hence it differs from provocation,
which is the other special defence created by the English Homicide Act
1957.
According to the English Homicide Act 1957
Section 2 “Where a person kills or is a party to a killing of another,
he shall not be convicted of murder if he was suffering from such abnormality
of the mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development
of mind or any inherent cause or induced by disease of injury) as substantially
impaired his mental responsibility for his acts and omission in doing or
being a party to the killing.”
This section raises/creates the special
defence of diminished responsibility. Disease of the mind as used
in the defence of insanity is a metaphor, and is used to indicate that
the defect of reasoning must result from some internal factor (usually
degenerative) and may be likely to recur. Since the mind is a philosophical
concept, it is clear then that the process of thinking is dependent on
correct stimulus being recorded in the brain and correct ratiocination
occurring within it. The fact that some disease of the mind means
that the defendant cannot control himself, his impulses (R v Kopsch (1925)
19 Cr App R 50 his emotions or his beliefs is irrelevant. It is only
a condition which prevents liability when there is a defect in the thinking
process.
This special defence would extend to psychopaths
who usually have high levels of mental ability and would not have had limits
of ratiocination sufficient to give rise to the defence of insanity even
though they have a recognized mental condition. In respect of this
element the onus is probably on the prosecution to show on a balance of
probabilities that the defendant was aware of the nature and quality of
his acts (the prosecution proved this point and the defendant admitted
it according to the newspapers) -- at the next trial it will be argued
that he is a serial killer and a menace to society. Although I was
not at the trial I would think that a seasoned judge would direct the jury
along the lines used in R v Byrn (1960) 2 OB 396 (see also All ER 569)
which is the principal case interpreting this ingredient of murder.
There must be clear evidence of a mental imbalance, and killing by an excessively
jealous boyfriend is not itself evident of a clear mental imbalance (R
v Vonagre).
From what was said in the papers Farrington is
not mentally insane; he was fully aware of his acts and gave considerable
thought to them before carrying them out; he does not have a problem with
recall as he said he struck him over and over again and again. He
picked the flesh off the bones and then took the bones back to his apartment
(this is bizarre) yet he went about his normal duty as he normally would
without showing any signs of distress or depression (model worker).
The defence lawyer(s) who would probably be reading this website should
not waste the court’s time by lodging an appeal because an appeal cannot
succeed as there is no evidence of the abnormality of Farrington’s mind
that substantially impaired his mental responsibility (at least the jury
thought so). It would have been better if he pleaded insanity from
the beginning. Let’s not bend the rules by assisting the defence
by raising possible grounds for an appeal – let’s assume that the judge
knew what he was doing and correctly instructed the jury. Farrington
admitted he committed the crime, so let the chips fall where they may
George
First of all the Judge was female and not male. Secondly, we
did not suggest anything at all to allow Mr. Farrington to go free.
Our point was that it was not clear from the newspaper reporting whether
the defence had in fact been raised and if it had not been raised or more
properly put to the jury, then the crown may have to face the unnecessary
expense of an appeal when the lawyer for the defence raises on appeal that
the matter was not put to the jury. It has happened before.
That was the only point. All the other stuff about being against
the death penalty and all is guff and was not a part or an intention of
the report. But it was otherwise quite an instructive letter. -
Editor
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
National Progressive Institute
Among the Prime Minister's engagements this past
week was a cocktail reception of the National Progressive Institute (NPI),
which is a group of young enterprising PLPs that functions as one of the
party's think tanks. The event was held at the home of the Chairman,
Raynard Rigby. Pictured sharing a laugh with Mr. Christie (centre)
are from left Danny Ferguson, Mr. Rigby, Sean Albury and B.J. Moss.
Leeden Hanna Dies
The Stalwart Council is the highest body of the
Progressive Liberal Party; a council to which the most loyal, longest serving
and most illustrious of the party's warriors are elevated. One such
Stalwart Councillor was laid to rest this past week after lying in honour
at Sir Lynden Pindling Centre's Gambier House. Prime Minister and
Party Leader Perry Christie is pictured above remembering and paying tribute
to the life and times of Leeden Hanna, mother of Audley Hanna.
