Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames   Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.

Volume 1 © BahamasUncensored.Com

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The photo of the week is a picture of Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell at the annual church service marking World Aids Day. World Aids Day is 1st December but the service was held on Friday 29th November at Salem Baptist Church in Nassau.  Rev. Charles W. Saunders presided.  In his important message, he urged Bahamians to stop the discrimination against people with Aids.  He said that ignorance had led to much of the discrimination.  He preached the virtues of abstinence even though he recognized the recommendation of condom use.  The Foreign Minister attended the services regularly as an Opposition member and continued that tradition in his first year as a Government Minister.  The disease Aids kills more Bahamians in the age group 15-44 than any other. BIS photo by Derek Smith. Front row from left are Minister Mitchell; Ron Pinder, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Mrs. Elma Garraway, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

WORRIES ABOUT THE ECONOMY
Brent Symonette, the FNM’s Member of Parliament for Montagu (pictured) is not known for elegance of language but seemed inspired as he spoke near the end of the debate on a tiny bill put forward by the Government on Thursday 29th November in the House of Assembly to amend the Business Licence Act.  The Bill is to create a new temporary business licence.  It is meant to force contractors to The Bahamas who are foreign to pay one percent of the temporary contract value to the Government in order to get a business licence.  The licence is mandatory.  The mischief it is designed to cure is to stop foreign contractors, mainly in the construction business, from competing with Bahamians.  There are complaints from Bahamian contractors of construction contractors coming into The Bahamas for one big job and then entering the local contracting market with their greater resources.  The debate took a somewhat nasty turn when government backbenchers and some Ministers began what appeared to be a whole scale attack on foreign businessmen coming into the country.

Nothing of course warms the heart of an FNM more than foreign businessmen, but notwithstanding our cheek, Mr. Symonette had a point.  His point was that in an economy that requires foreign investment to survive, one should not be sending out signals from the front bench that the Government does not welcome foreigners to the country.  In this regard, he said that all of us had better pray that there is some big job down the pipeline because when that job comes it creates jobs for Bahamian workers.  And right now he said there was nothing in the pipeline to create projects that will provide jobs.

It was a sobering message, and one that resonates far more than the silly comments made by the former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham who was called the “Chief Clown” with a dunce cap by Bradley Roberts, the Minister of Works.  The Minister was later reported to have withdrawn the remarks.

The Prime Minister on his feet expressed similar concern to that of Mr. Symonette.  He admitted in the House that we need those jobs in the pipeline.  And he said that the issue of protecting Bahamians is one that the Parliament should not divide on.

We all know of the problems we face with foreign contractors competing with Bahamians.  But the question that was rightly asked is whether or not this was the way forward.  The Bill now goes to Committee.  The Parliament was rightly sobered by Mr. Symonette's warning.  For once it appeared that we had a Parliament that was ready to accept what its true role is and that is enhancing the opportunities and benefits for the Bahamian people.
 It looks like the Bill will go to Committee where the Attorney General Alfred Sears has promised that the suggestions made by the Opposition will be studied.

The number of hits for the week ending Saturday 1st December 2002 at midnight: 32,301.

The number of hits for the month of November 2002: 107,701.

The number of hits for the year up to Saturday 1st December 2002 at midnight: 2,036,626.

ON TRIAL FOR A PRIEST’S MURDER

    Neil Brown is on trial for the murder of Archdeacon William Thompson in the Supreme Court.  Archdeacon Thompson, the former Rector of St. Agnes Anglican Church in New Providence was killed in July 2000 in the rectory of the church.  The killing sparked widespread outrage in the community.  Mr. Brown is defended by Attorney Michael Hanna.  The irony is that Archdeacon William Thompson did not believe in the death penalty that is mandatory upon murder conviction in The Bahamas. Tribune photo by Felipe Major.

US AND CUBA AND THE BAHAMAS
    The Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell travelled to Beloit, Wisconsin for the second time in two years to speak to a convocation on matters relating to The Bahamas.  This time he spoke on US/Bahamian relations.  He was hosted by the International Relations Department of the School.  The School is located about one and a half hours from Chicago just over the Illinois/Wisconsin border.  Bahamians have been going there for the past decade due to a scholarship from Harry Moore; the now retired head of the Lyford Cay Foundation.  Keeval Hanna is likely to be the last of the Bahamians going there.  She was the Bahamian who organized the visit.  She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Hanna of Sans Souci in Nassau.
    The Foreign Minister said that The Bahamas is in the midst of a cold war between the US and Cuba.  He argued that this is a national security problem for The Bahamas.  He urged the US to end the embargo against Cuba and to stop pressuring The Bahamas in diplomatic matters that were not of vital interest to the United States.
    The Prime Minister Perry Christie revealed in the House of Assembly that he or the Deputy Prime Minister would be visiting Cuba on 7th December with other Caribbean leaders to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Caribbean big four Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba.  You may click here for the Foreign Minister’s full remarks.
 
 

PROTESTING TAXI DRIVER

    A lone taxi driver caused some excitement this week.  It is the first demonstration against the new PLP regime.  Both daily morning papers carried pictures of Mark Sawyer, the protester, on the front page with Bradley Roberts the Minister of Works speaking to him.  The protester's complaint is that he thinks that the Government should have the customs exemption on taxi cars, livery and tour cars open ended, so that it does not start in 2003 and end in 2005.  He thinks that cars should be duty free for that group once every five years.  He also believes that the Government should exempt cars up to five years old, not three as the law will say when it comes into force.
    It was explained to Mr. Sawyer that the PLP does not want to bind a future Government and so it is not giving a concession beyond its term.  Further, the PLP does not want old taxi cars on the road.  But the protester and his helper would have none of it.  But they could not seem to agree on strategy.  They started to argue amongst themselves about whether the chief protester ought to speak in the language that he did.  Oh well!  The protest took place on Wednesday 27th November in Rawson Square. Tribune photo by Omar Barr.
 

RIGBY’S FIRST STATEMENT
    The Tribune published an interview with the PLP’s new Chair Raynard Rigby.  Mr. Rigby told them in their Monday 25th November edition that the PLP needs white Bahamian support.   This what he said in his own words:

    “In order to ensure the PLP remains the government of The Bahamas, we are going to have to reach across the brow (sic) and invite white Bahamians into the PLP…

    “There is no doubt that the people have been fortunate to bring into the fold, white Bahamians but my objective is to invite them en masse...

    “I am not certain that the PLP has the support of even one per cent of the white voting populace…

    “And so the job of the Chairman between now and 2007 is to at least ensure that the percentage of support that we get from white Bahamians in my mind is closer to ten per cent.”

    In a statement later in the week, responding to an attack by Senator Tommy Turnquest, the Leader of the FNM, Mr. Rigby said that Prime Minister Perry Christie would not be responding to Senator Turnquest's attacks since he is not the Leader of the Opposition.  That post belongs to Alvin Smith MP for Eleuthera.
 
 

BAHAMIAN VS. FOREIGN
    The news in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas is not good.  The feeling is that despite the rosy picture being painted by some about the economy next year, thing will not go well.  It is already a bad year and it will get worse.  The Government itself will have to get its act together and decide whether it is going to allow this nationalist diatribe to be a death knell for the country or will it manage the nationalism to get benefit for the country.
    Clearly some members of the PLP Government have to get used to the idea that they are no longer in Opposition but a Government.  That seems to be the lesson of the debate over the last week in the Parliament.  It is no longer a case of Bahamians vs. Foreign.   Bahamians have to be able to manage this economy using foreign expertise to help it grow.  So it may be that we have to tone down the rhetoric, leave that to the Opposition party and act the part of what the PLP really is, the Government of The Bahamas.
 
 

KERZNER SENDS A SIGNAL?
    The tongues were a-wagging on both sides of the political divide this week when the startling headline appeared in the newspaper that the Kerzner group, which has nearly one billion dollars in the ground at Paradise Island, announced that it was not going to buy the Sheraton Grand Hotel after all.  The Sheraton Grand is the hotel next door to the Kerzner property at Paradise Island and its purchase was said by many to be a signal of the seriousness of the island’s developers that they were indeed going to carry through with the next 500 million dollars phase of their development.
    No comment came from Government spokesmen but privately business people are said to be worried that there are no new projects in the pipeline that will jump start the economy.  Many are urging the Government to get its finger out from it and make some decisions that will bring jobs to the country.
 

ONE BAHAMAS CELEBRATION

    PLPs are said to be ambivalent about the whole thing; this One Bahamas bit.  It is perceived in many PLP circles that the whole thing was invented by FNM ideologue and former Minister of Culture Algernon Allen in order to counter balance Independence that was achieved under the PLP.  It does not receive widespread participation, and some suggest that next year the whole thing will be dropped.  The Cultural Commission has been asked to review the whole matter of whether it is to continue.  White Bahamians are said to think it is a good idea because during the first PLP administration they felt that they were second class citizens in their own country.   The Government this year was loathe no doubt to cancel the thing lest they face protests from that community that this was the same old PLP.
    Nevertheless the question is being asked why, if we have Independence Day, which in fact means One Bahamas, do we need yet another festival called One Bahamas?  Some say it doesn’t hurt.  Others say it is a waste of money and time.  The One Bahamas celebrations got off to a start with a church service on Sunday 24th November at St. Matthew’s Church.  Attending were Minister for Social Services Melanie Griffin; Minister of Youth Neville Wisdom; Prime Minister Christie; Governor General Ivy Dumont and Lady Marguerite Pindling.  One Bahamas is co-chaired by Sir Durward Knowles, the Olympic sailing medalist and Obie Ferguson, the President of the Trade Union Congress.  Dame Ivy is pictured raising the flag at Rawson Square in this Tribune photo by Felipe Major.
 

PUBLIC SERVANTS PROTEST
    As the Foreign Minister and Minister for the Public Service returned home from Wisconsin, he heard the news that John Pinder of the Bahamas Public Service Union was demanding that the pay anomalies of some 6.9 million dollars owned by reason of an agreement between the FNM Government and the Union in 1999 be paid forthwith.  He was disappointed that the monies would not find their way into the pay packet for November and they did not.
    The Public Service Minister in a statement to the media said that he was surprised that Mr. Pinder would make such statement since he had been informed personally by the Minister that it could not be done.  The Union head later met with the Finance Minister Perry Christie and the Minister of State for Finance James Smith.  A statement was later issued by the PM on the floor of the House.  The 6.9 million would be paid in time for Christmas but it was possible given the dire economic situation of the country that no further increase would come in particular the raise of 1200 dollars across the board scheduled for 1st July next year.  The PM said this might have to be postponed because of the revenue situation.
    Many are dismayed that the Government is even going through with the present exercise given the problems with revenue that the country is now facing.  Clearly though the PLP did not have the stomach to fight the Union just before Christmas.  It seems to many that there is a need to drastically cut back.  The Union ought to be prepared to discuss all options.
 

FEMALE PIONEERS

    The past week in The Bahamas was celebrated as National Women’s Week.  The week marked the fortieth year since women got the vote and universal adult suffrage came to The Bahamas.  Women voted for the first time in The Bahamas on 26th November 1962.  To mark the occasion was a church service at the start of the week but the highlight of the week was when Minister Melanie Griffin hosted women to a luncheon in honour of occasion.
    Five pioneering women were honoured for their contributions to Bahamian public life.  Among them the first female Speaker of the House R. Italia Johnson; the first female Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont; the first woman elected to Parliament former Foreign Minister Janet Bostwick; the first woman to register Ruby Ann Cooper Darling; the first woman Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt. Photo of Mrs. Bostwick marching to Parliament in 1982 courtesy of the FNM website.
 

BRADLEY ROBERTS RESPONDS TO CRITICS
    The Free National Movement in an official statement condemned Bradley Roberts MP for his attack at the convention on the former Leader of the FNM Hubert Ingraham and former Speaker Italia Johnson. They were referring to remarks made at the 47th Convention of the Progressive Liberal Party.  We reported what was alleged last week.  You may click here for that story and for the text of Mr. Roberts address.  For his part Mr. Roberts denied that he called the former Speaker “ugly”. In a press statement, Brent Symonette who is the MP for Montagu for the FNM called for Mr. Roberts to go as a Minister saying that he was not fit to be Minister because of the crudeness of his remarks.  Interestingly, Mr. Symonette can talk about fitness to be a Minister when he was removed as Chairman of the Airport Authority for being in a conflict of interest when he awarded a contract to do repairs at the Nassau International Airport to a company that was in part beneficially owned by himself.  You may click here for the relevant parts of Mr. Robert’s address on video (Windows Media Players is required).
 

THERESA MOXEY ON BRADLEY ROBERTS
    The former Minister for the Public Service and Culture, Theresa Moxey Ingraham was upset.  She did not like what Bradley Roberts MP for Grants Town and Minister for Works had said about her female colleague Italia Johnson.  And so she wrote in protest to The Tribune and it was published on Friday 29th November.  Here is what she said in her own words:

    “[On behalf of the Women’s Association of the Free National Movement]… We want to express our great disappointment and dismay over the negative comments about former House Speaker Ms. R. Italia Johnson, made by Minister of Works and outgoing PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts, in his address on Tuesday night of the PLP’s National Party Convention being held at the Wyndham Hotel this week.  Mr. Roberts made comments to the effect that former Speaker Johnson was “ugly” and that he was happy that he no longer had to sit in the House of Assembly and look at “that ugly face”

    “It is unfortunate that at this time when we are celebrating and commemorating 40 years of women’s ability to vote and therefore, participate in the political process, that Mr. Roberts chose to use his party’s platform as a launching pad from which to hurl abuse, ridicule, scorn and disrespect at one of the women who has made an historic and significant contribution to political life in this country…

    “We call upon the PLP to dissociate itself from Mr. Robert’s remarks (we know it is useless expecting Mr. Roberts to apologize)…

    “And finally since the party in convention (at least those present on the convention floor and visible and audible on national radio and television) endorsed Mr. Robert’s tasteless and vulgar comments with great guffaws of a laughter and approval, we call upon the Progressive Liberal Party to offer a vote of apology to the former House Speaker, Ms Italia Johnson.”
 

TRANSITIONS
Dr. Offfff Dies

    His work is known throughout The Bahamas as a songwriter and as a Junkanoo aficionado.  He has been ailing for at least a year with cancer of the spine, and fighting a valiant battle.  Two weeks ago, the Prime Minister Perry Christie, the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and the Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller, all childhood friends were called to his bedside because his family felt the end was near.  He was alert and laughed and talked.  The Foreign Minister reported in a tribute at the House of Assembly that Dr. Offfff told the three of them that no one should cry for him because he knew where he was going and he was ready to go.
    The Prime Minister said that what he remembered was Dr. Offfff saying that he had asked his doctor: how do you die?  He did not know how to die.  Tyrone Fitzgerald, known as Dr. Offfff also as “Rooney”, passed away on Wednesday 28th November at about 6 p.m.  He is survived by four children including attorney Tyrone Fitzgerald Jr.  Mr. Fitzgerald Sr. was the co-author of Funky Nassau, the million selling hit of 1970 and also the popular local hit Get Involved.  Tribune photo.

Nurse Deanna Charmaine Saunders Holland Dies at 50
    The Leader of the Opposition Alvin Smith announced in the Parliament on Thursday 29th November that Nurse Deanna Holland nee Saunders had died suddenly from an asthma attack.  She was 50 years old.  She is survived by her husband William Holland Jr. and two daughters.
    Nurse Holland was well known and lived in the Eleuthera community where she moved early in her career as a nurse, married and stayed.  Her life had an earlier tragedy when an infant son predeceased her when he drowned.  She recovered from it and set about the continuing of her community work.  Now she herself has succumbed to an illness that most people no longer think of as life threatening.  The Opposition Leader expressed his condolences and so do we.
 
 

BAD TASTE MR. MP
    There are simply some times when you should know what to say.  There are some times that you ought to simply keep your counsel.  And then there is the saying it is better to say nothing and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and confirm it to the public.  Nothing is a better example of this than the interventions made by the Members of Parliament Tennyson Wells MP and Whitney Bastian MP during the tributes being paid to Dr Offfff in the House of Assembly.
    In the middle of the intervention being made by the Leader of the Opposition Alvin Smith, the Member of Parliament for South Andros entered the House chamber and interrupted the address on a point of order.  His point, he wanted clarification on the rules as to whether you could pay tribute to someone who is not a former Member of the House.  This broke the ambience in the House and the tribute.
    Mr. Bastian was roundly condemned by members for the insensitivity of his intervention.  Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell pointed out that the House can by unanimous consent change any rule it wishes, even though no rule prohibited the tributes.  And at the time the tributes started Mr. Bastian was not in the chamber and did not object.  Neither did Mr. Wells who tried to defend Mr. Bastian’s action.  In the end both were directed by the Speaker that he had the discretion to allow it, with the unanimous consent of the House.  The tributes continued.
    The Prime Minister roundly condemned Mr. Bastian and Mr. Wells saying that the problem in the country was that we were always so ready to praise politicians as nation builders.  The PM said that the tribute was not about rules but about decency and honour to someone who was a cultural icon and transcended politics.
    No Mr. MP, your intervention was in bad taste.
 
 

Back To The Top
 

THREE BODIES IN THE WATER

    A curious thing happened on Thursday 28th November, three bodies were fished out of the water in the middle of the Nassau Harbour in full daylight.  There was no immediate identity but the police caused more problems on themselves by seeking to stop the cameraman from ZNS TV from taking pictures of the whole exercise.  Later the official police spokesman apologized for the behaviour of the police at the scene.  What was even more curious is that at first the police said that they would release a sketch of the faces so that anyone who knew them could identify them.  But they later said that they had decided that they were Haitians and so they would not release the sketch after all.  Things that make you go: hmmm!
    If indeed these are Haitians who drowned trying to get to Nassau, this is yet another reason why The Bahamas Government must actively work to try to stem the tide of illegal migrants coming in rickety and unsafe craft to this country.  Late breaking news said that another body was fished out of the water on Friday 29th November. Police remove one of the bodies found in waters off Woodes Rogers Wharf in this Tribune photo by Felipe Major.
 

HAITIAN TALKS POSTPONED
    The Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Philippe Antonio was to lead a delegation to Nassau this week to start talks on a new treaty with Haiti to try to stem the tide of illegal migration.  But at the last moment, the Government of Haiti postponed the talks until mid December.  Their reason was that the deteriorating situation in Haiti did not allow them to travel.  There have been continuous demonstrations in cities of Haiti including Gonaives and the capital Port-au-Prince.  The demonstrators from Convergence, the Opposition party, have been calling for Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide to step down.  His supporters from Lavellas have been calling for him to stay.  There have been scattered reports of violence.  The Government has also been condemned by university students for interfering in the governance of the Universities in Haiti.  The situation is said to be deteriorating.
    Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell said that he was disappointed that talks are not coming off as scheduled and he told The Tribune of Friday 29th November that this would only strengthen the resolve of the Government in its unilateral measures, namely the building up of the base at Matthew Town Inagua for the Defence force.  The Prime Minister has promised that Matthew Town will become a virtual garrison town.
 

THE PM’S CONVENTION ADDRESS
    Last week we reported that Prime Minister Perry Christie invigorated his supporters with his address to the PLP’s 47th National Convention held at the Crystal Palace.  The address was delivered on Friday 21st November.  This week we have the full text of that speech. You may click here for the address.
 

FNM REBEL WEBSITE
    Last week we reported on what appears to be a rebel FNM website, the "FNM United" web site put out by a group calling itself the "Free National Movement Resource Group, a union of young FNM members committed to the Party’s advancement".  Good luck to them. You may click on the following link to visit that website.  http://www.fnmunited.web.aplus.net/
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
CDR Calls Revised Budget
    In a news release this week, the Coalition for Democratic Reform called on the Government to tell "the whole truth about the economy and bring a revised budget to Parliament... If the IMF says that we (the country) are doing well financially" said the release "then the IMF does not mean us well."

Sylvia Darling Passes
    Freeport was saddened this past week by the sudden death of one of its outstanding daughters, Mrs. Sylvia Darling on Thursday, November 28th.  Mrs. Darling was the head of the Northern Campus of College of The Bahamas.  Our condolences go out to her husband Thaddeus and the rest of her family and also to the COB family.

FNM Leadership
    The march toward a leadership contest in the FNM has begun in earnest.  This past week Algernon Allen took to the airwaves to try to remain relevant.  He was the guest on Steve McKinney's afternoon talk show.  As usual, Mr. Allen was very dramatic.  Mr. Allen, we believe, has seen the move being played out by Brent Symonette, the man with a plan and purpose to become the next leader of the FNM.
    We have been told that we should watch Brent in the House of Assembly as he goes head to head with the PLP.  We are also informed that Brent has grown tired of the inactivity of his party.  This week, to our surprise, he was reportedly able to pick up two endorsements; one from a local clergyman and another from a high ranking cleric whose view is for our democracy to be strong.

Tourism In Grand Bahama
    The hotel and tourism sector in Grand Bahama is in serious trouble despite the glowing reports given by the Minister of Tourism at the recent PLP convention.  The facts on the ground are as follows:
    Discovery Cruises' daily ferries between Fort Lauderdale and Grand Bahama are reporting low bookings.
    'Our' Lucaya resort is operating only two of three hotels, with the Reef Village still closed. Staff report working only an average three days a week due to low occupancy.
    Royal Oasis Resorts (the old Princess Properties) reports that business is down and Royal Oasis Tower remains closed from Monday to Thursday.  Financial losses at this property are said to be staggering in the battle to keep it open along with approximately nine hundred jobs.
    Running Mon Resort and Marina which employed twenty people has closed, leaving only the docks and boat yard open for service.
    Merchants in the Freeport International Bazaar and Port Lucaya Marketplace are holding on for dear life in the hope that the Christmas season will bring them some local business.  Reports are that if business does not improve high numbers of closures are on the horizon.
    The Minister should now move without delay to try and turn the situation around.  Sweet talk and wishful thinking will not bring us out of this dilemma, but careful planning and a sound business approach with all the tourism partners working together might turn our situation around.

A Sad Story
    Last week, a former CDR candidate was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay back the Grand Bahama Port Authority $140,000.00 with interest.  We say that this is an unfortunate turn of events.  We wonder why the ordeal was not handled differently.  It is a pity.
BS

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The photo of the week is a picture of Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell with U.S. Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship.  The Minister and the Ambassador appeared at a Royal Bahamas Defence Force Ball in the presence of the Governor General and the Prime Minister on Friday 6th December at the Sheraton Grand Hotel.  The picture takes on added significance by the fact that a harsh set of words were exchanged between the two persons on behalf of their respective countries earlier in the day when the Ambassador made a statement that was interpreted as insulting to The Bahamas as a country and seemed to accuse the RBDF of being corrupt.  The photo is by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

FOREIGN AFFAIRS TURMOIL
Under Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell what happened on Friday 6th December should not have happened.  The man has bent over backwards in the face of public criticism to defend the interventions of the US Ambassador in the country.  The country was saying that the Minister had gone soft.  The Foreign Minister’s view was that the U.S. Ambassador conducts the diplomacy of his country at the behest of his president and in the manner that his President requests.  He has said often that J. Richard Blankenship, unusual though his style might be, had the right in a free country to say what he wanted to say.  Bahamians, he argued, had the right to say in response what they wanted to say.  He had apparently hoped to leave it there.

The difficulty now is that egg is on his face.  According to the press present at the occasion of the official opening of the scheduled bi-annual talks between the two countries on drug interdiction matters, the mood turned sour as soon the Ambassador read his statement at the meeting.  The Bahamian public officials that included the Deputy Commissioner of Police, the Commodore of the Defence Force, the Head of Customs all bowed their heads and kept fidgeting throughout the intervention.  The essence of the intervention was that Royal Bahamas Defence Force was corrupt and that it was not now a reliable partner in the drug war.  Further, that there had been a politically motivated sloppy investigation into the alleged disappearance of some drugs from the HMBS Inagua in 1992.  The allegation made by the Ambassador said that the investigation into the loss of drugs from a controlled operation in Nassau Harbour in 1992 was poorly handled and seems to have had some institutional and political motives.  This is no attack on the PLP alone.  This is also an attack on the FNM since the investigation was never completed during the ten years of the FNM.

The question that must now be asked is, what is behind this attack?  The Prime Minister speaking at the RBDF banquet where the Ambassador and the Foreign Minister attended said that the Ambassador had spoken to him and had assured him that he never intended to call the RBDF corrupt.  But the question of etiquette and comity must be raised.  And this is all the more so since the Foreign Minister had gone out of his way to ensure that the people of The Bahamas saw a particularly close relationship between the two men.  They must surely now ask him: how could Ambassador Blankenship do this to you?

The Foreign Minister is obviously embarrassed by this.  He is now struggling, having put his career on the line for this relationship, to bring some semblance of order back to the process.  His release said that he expects to propose a new date for the adjourned hearing of the talks that he abruptly adjourned within six weeks.

We think that it is important to put this behind the two countries.  Most of it must lie on the US and its Ambassador.  An Ambassador simply does not say things in public unless he can clearly demonstrate to his capital that there is no other means of dealing with the matter.

The country is now in a serious dilemma about where to go from here, having been slapped in the face because it thought that being compliant would assist The Bahamas in its international relations with its greatest neighbour.  That now seems a failed strategy and one for which the US shows only contempt.  What now Mr. Foreign Minister?

You may click here for the full statement of the Foreign Minister, and here for the statement of the US Ambassador to the Joint Bahamas / US Task Force meeting.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 7th December at midnight: 20,794.

Number of hits for the month of December up to Saturday 8th December at midnight: 20,794.

Number of hits for the year 2002 up to Saturday 8th December at midnight: 2,057,420.

THE TRIP TO CUBA
    It was left to the Cuban Consul General Felix Wilson to confirm to the Nassau Guardian that yes indeed it would be the Prime Minister who would travelling to Cuba with the other Heads of Government of the Caribbean to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the big four of the Commonwealth Caribbean: Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.  That was a bold step in that day.  The Bahamas followed in 1974.  It was also another era.  The Cold War was its height and the US government proceeded to destabilize one Caribbean regime after the next because of the move by those states.  Nevertheless, the decision has turned out to be correct.  You have a population of ten million people sitting astride the Caricom nations and there ought to be practical co-operation with Cuba.
    The Bahamas is the only one of the Caribbean states that does not have a resident Ambassador or Consul General in Cuba.  This is strange since we are the country that is closest to them.  We have a number of issues: Bahamians travel there for tourism, business, health care and education.  There are Bahamians in jail there.  There are those who are Cuban who wish to travel there.  It is simply untenable for the British to continue to conduct our consular affairs on our behalf.  We are 30 years old as a nation next year.  It is simply time to get going with doing it ourselves.
    What causes great reluctance and should have gone into the planning of this trip by the Prime Minister, the first for a Bahamian head of Government was the reaction of the United States.  In fact, the news was rife with rumours that the reason why the US Ambassador was pushing the envelope on all the other issues was the fact that they were uncomfortable with the Prime Minister’s proposed trip to Cuba.
    The Foreign Minister has been saying for weeks why the relationship between The Bahamas and Cuba was developing the way it was, and said in as many words that the US should stop being so sensitive about it.  The Cubans must be aware also that while they celebrate the fact that all the Caribbean leaders are visiting, The Bahamas deplores their system of Government, which has an ageing tyrant at its head who runs on with speeches of five hours in duration or more.  It is really time for him to give it up and for there to be pluralistic elections in Cuba.  But the die is now cast.  Perry Christie should by now be the first Bahamian Prime Minister to ever touch down on Cuban soil.  Going with him will be other Ministers of the Government.  We hold our collective breaths.

WHAT IS THE FOREIGN MINISTER TO DO?
    For many many months now since the PLP returned to office, there has been a carefully orchestrated minuet between the Foreign Minister of The Bahamas and the US Ambassador.  The idea seems to have been to create the image that there was a partnership between the countries that was reflected in the personal relationship between the two men.  Where does that now stand, given the direct and deliberate embarrassment to the Minister at the hands of the Ambassador?
    The facts show that every time someone would attack the Ambassador, the Foreign Minister came to his aid, explaining how he thought things worked in US diplomacy, defending the Ambassador’s right to speak on behalf of his country.  This was so even as columnist after columnist, newspaperman after newspaperman begged and pleaded with the Minister to attack the Ambassador, even to send him home.  That was not on and still is not in our view in the cards.
    Somewhere in the back of the minds of all Bahamians was the feeling that at some point the Ambassador would learn the value of a quiet diplomacy, that his term could be so much more effective if he worked quietly to bring about change in a proud, small society.  Instead, he has chosen to use the big stick policy.  It is simply inexplicable.
    The Foreign Minister has plenty to answer for to his colleagues for a failed strategy but we urge him to continue what he is doing.   There must continue to be balance and nothing should get in the way of the relationship between the countries.  We need to find out first of all whether this is a policy of the US Government or the personal policy of Mr. Blankenship.  We think it is the former.  Then we need to find out why it is that this very public strategy is being used, and what is intended to be accomplished by it.
    There are difficult times ahead.
 
 

TRYING TO SMEAR THE PLP
    The conspiracy theorists are busy at work on why Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship did what he did on Friday 6th December.  In both PLP and FNM circles it was widely thought to be a slap in the face to the Bahamian people but most of all to Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell.  The idea, say these theorists, is to try to link the present PLP with the old PLP under Pindling.  They want to try to paint the PLP as a party that is linked to drug corruption.
    The Punch started the ball rolling at the start of last week by publishing the news that several PLP Ministers travelled to Bimini for the funeral of Glen Rolle, a well known PLP in Bimini.  They said that Glen Rolle was a drug baron.  Mr. Rolle had not been convicted or arrested for a drug offence during his lifetime.  The attendance at the funeral was a routine attendance at a service for a prominent member of the Bimini community and a prominent PLP out of respect for his family.  No explanation really is needed for that.
    Then came the blindside on Friday in which the Ambassador said that the US said that they were willing to forget an incident in 1992 involving the HMBS Inagua.  He said that the investigation was sloppy and incomplete.  He said that this is probably due to “institutional and political motives”.  Now the attack took place in the face of a PLP Minister with public officials who have been serving for at least ten years.  The incident happened in 1992.  That means that the incident was investigated during the tenure of the Free National Movement.  So the attempt to smear the PLP really is a smear on the Ingraham administration.
    The PLP is now bound to investigate the matter to find out the truth of the allegations of the Ambassador on behalf of his country.  Oh what tangled web we weave…
 

IT’S CHINA!
    In all the months since the PLP came to office and Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell has held office, no more intense lobby has existed than that of Korea and China for the vote of The Bahamas at the Bureau of International Expositions, the agency that decides who holds the World’s Fair of the year 2010.  Most Bahamians don’t think that far but the Chinese have that proverb about the journey of a thousand miles beginning with the first step and they kept up the pressure.  The Koreans had an intense lobby themselves, expertly organized.
    In the end, The Bahamas Government chose to vote with China on 3rd December 2002 in Monaco.  The winner China came on the fourth ballot with Mexico, Russia and Poland all dripping off on the previous ballots.  The vote: China 54; Korea 35.
 

WHAT THE FNM’S RESPONSE SHOULD BE
    We hope that the Leaders of the Free National Movement have been provided with the statements of the Foreign Minister and the Ambassador for the US to The Bahamas on Friday 6th December. If they have not received them, they should ask for them and have them examined carefully.
    We believe that this matter crosses party lines and is in fact an attack on the country.  Together, we have to decide what to do.  Even if the FNM wanted to say that it was a matter that the PLP had to deal with, the Ambassador’s attack relates to a specific incident that happened in 1992 and was largely investigated over the ten years of the Free National Movement regime.  The PLP cannot claim that was the FNM and not the PLP.  It has the obligation now to answer for the Bahamas Government.
    Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and former Defence Force Minister Frank Watson ought to examine all of this very carefully before they make any political response.
 
 

GUILTY - MURDERER OF THE ARCHDEACON
    A jury found Neil Brown guilty unanimously on Thursday 5th December in Nassau of the murder of the late Archdeacon William Thompson, the former Vicar General of the Anglican Diocese of Nassau, The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands and rector of St. Agnes Church.  The trial lasted just over a week and the jury did not take long to reach a verdict.  Mr. Brown was seen on videotape confessing to the murder.  He said that the whole thing was not to have gone down that way.
    Here is what he had to say in his own words: “I feel so bad I had to shoot the man; that was not suppose to happen like that… And when he see me, he come running back in my direction and I fired the gun and I hit him; and he run pass me like he bump me, and I fired the gun and I hit him…[Brown then said he went to burn his clothes and found out later that day that he had shot a priest from the radio news]…a suck vibe, that aint suppose to happen like that.”
    The robbery was planned when he and man named Barry were in jail.  They heard that there was a house on market Street with a safe and money and they planned to rob it when they came out.  They did just that.  Following the playing of the videotape, Mr. Brown had another story.  He and his lawyer of course had another story in the Court.  The lawyer insisted that Mr. Brown had been beaten to confess.  The doctor said that there were no signs of injury when he came to be examined.  From the dock were he could not be examined as if he had made a sworn statement, Mr. Brown said that he did not do it and he was innocent.
    The verdict was guilty, on all counts; the murder the armed robbery.  Anyway the judge droned on about suffering death as prescribed by law, hanged by the neck until dead.  It will be quite a long time before that sentence can be carried out if at all.  But the fact is the police have gotten their man, and the community is relieved that justice appears to have been done.  It was a great tragedy and another sad time for the widow of the Archdeacon to have to relive the whole thing in the witness stand.
 

PLP CHAIR GETS TO WORK
    Raynard Rigby, the new Chairman of the PLP has gotten off the ground running.  The hard part comes with discovering the actual nuts and bolts of running a party.  The branches are in a state of disarray throughout the country, but building themselves back.  Election and other debts are mounting.  The one bright spot is that the annual Carnival has come to town, and the proceeds are to go to the PLP for its operational expenses.  Mr. Rigby was in Grand Bahama on Saturday 7th December trying to organize the branches of the Progressive Liberal Party for the young liberals.  This is a good idea.  If you can energize the young people of the party, then you are on the right path to ensure the survivability of the party.
 

HUBERT INGRAHAM’S BEHAVIOUR
    More and more people are getting frazzled by Hubert Ingraham's behaviour in the Parliament.  Mr. Ingraham who had come to be known as the ten minute wonder for the brevity of his stays in the House of Assembly during the past week showed up for two days of the week, Monday 2nd December when he spoke to the Bill before the Parliament on Stamp Tax and refused to end, just wandering from one topic to the next.
    M. Ingraham seemed on top of his political game, except that he had to be reminded every once in a while that he was after all a former Prime Minister and should be setting the example of more responsible language.  But his act is a fizzled act, and is becoming more replete with errors.  He tries to pretend that he still has a handle on what is going on in the public service but while at first he could say that, he no longer has a firm grasp on what is going on.  He had to be corrected on several points.  But the point of this piece is not what he said on any of the issues; mainly it was drivel.
    The fact is that there is now a rumour going on that the ex-Prime Minister is trying to make a comeback of sorts.  He has been commanding the Opposition into a certain performance, even cancelling a deal that the Leader of the Opposition made for the conduct of the debate in Parliament.   Where precisely this can all go, no one knows.  There cannot be much future in the FNM supporting a discredited leader as the new leader of the FNM.  Mr. Ingraham must be careful that his currency does not devalue.  The better thing for him to do is to retire and disappear into the sunset.
 

BRENT SYMONETTE ON LYFORD CAY
    Prime Minister Perry Christie was furious with the Member of Parliament for Montagu Brent Symonette (pictured).  He was debating the Amendment to the Stamp Act, which provides relief for those who are buying first homes on Monday 2nd December.  The regime of the bill is that if you are buying a first home, you do not pay any stamp duty on the conveyance or the mortgage if the value is under 250,000 dollars.
    The FNM took umbrage at the comments of some PLP members about foreign persons investing in The Bahamas in a previous debate and sought to say that the PLP had an anti foreign bias because the stamp act discriminates between foreign purchasers and Bahamians.  What brought the Prime Minister to the House was a comment by Mr. Symonette that some 75 people had resigned as members of the Lyford Cay Club.  The Prime Minister said that by leaving the matter hanging as it was Mr. Symonette was giving the clear impression that it was the policies of the PLP that had led to the resignations of the Lyford Cay Club members.  Later Minister for Financial Services Allyson Gibson revealed the figure was the regular attrition rate for the Club.  It turns out the Club only has 1258 members.  It also has a deficit of some six million dollars and the fees for the Lyford Cay Club were recently raised by some 4000 dollars to ten thousand dollars a year.  That led to some additional people leaving.
    My Symonette did a quick mea culpa after the Prime Minister’s objections but the comment left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.
 

TAX RELIEF ON THE WAY
    The PLP has now honoured two of its campaign promises by passing through the second reading stage the Bill to provide real property tax relief for persons by raising the ceiling for a tax exemption up to 250,000 dollars.  It has also passed the Amendment to the Stamp Act that provides for relief from stamp duty on conveyances for people buying first homes up to a value of $250,000.  The only naysayer was Hubert Ingraham who did not stay around the House long enough to vote for or against.
 

STUART AND SMITH MACE ANNIVERSARY
    Cassius Stuart and Omar Smith held a press conference on    December to mark the first anniversary of their seeking to throw the Mace out of the House of Assembly on 3rd December.  The two reminded the country of their stellar event last year this time.  They were prosecuted under the FNM regime by then Speaker Italia Johnson.  The PLP Attorney General Alfred Sears stopped the prosecution.
    The two men said that their issues remain the same and threatened mayhem against the PLP if it did not bring about constitutional reform as it promised.  They reminded the country that the Prime Minister has said that he would appoint a constitutional reform commission within 90 days of coming to office and nothing had yet been done.  Their protest last year was against the rigging of boundary lines for constituencies by the FNM administration.
 

SAN SALVADOR OPENING FOR CLUB MED
    Tuesday 9th December is the day when Club Med is scheduled to reopen for business in San Salvador.  The country’s eastern most island and the site most people accept as the landing of Columbus in the new world gets a jump start from Club Med, the French resort company.  The Government is in the midst of negotiations to ensure that Club Med gets the support it needs to get the San Sal community going again.  No word on what is to happen to the Eleuthera property that has been closed since Hurricane Michelle put it out business one year ago.  There is now said to be full employment in San Salvador.
 
 

DR. OFFFFF IS BURIED
    Our friend and brother Tyrone Fitzgerald Sr., known as Dr. Offfff was buried on Saturday 7th December Nassau.  The funeral service was an extravaganza of music and was held at the Mt. Tabor Full Gospel Baptist Church.  It was presided over by Bishop Neil Ellis and the sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Stuart.  Half the Cabinet showed up for the funeral.  Prime Minister Perry Christie, Ministers Bradley Roberts, Fred Mitchell, Leslie Miller, Glenys Hanna Martin, Alfred Sears and Neville Wisdom were all there.  A tribute was paid to Dr. Offfff by his son Tyrone Jr. You may click here for a eulogy by the Honourable Fred Mitchell delivered at the funeral.
 
 

Back To The Top
 

ANCELLA EVANS MARRIES
    She is now an Attorney, called recently to the Bar of The Bahamas.  The former COB Student Council president Ancella Evans tied the knot with Magistrate Franklin Williams on Saturday 7th December in Nassau.  Congratulations to the couple - two very decent people.
 

FINANCIAL CONSULTATIVE FORUM
    Brian Moree, the Senior Partner at the law firm McKinney Bancroft and Hughes, a traditional FNM supporter, was announced by Prime Minister Perry Christie and Financial Services Minister Allyson Gibson on Thursday 5th December to be the Chair of the Financial Services Consultative Forum.  Some 35 other persons are on this Board that is meant to help the Government keep abreast of developments in the sector that need tracking.  This is hopefully to avoid the pitfalls of the former Prime Minister’s administration where The Bahamas was constantly caught with its pants down with new developments in law and new products coming on to market.
 

MARK KNOWLES IS NUMBER ONE
    We say congratulations to Mark Knowles and his partner Donald Nestor for being ranked the number one doubles tennis players in the world.  Mr. Knowles is a Bahamian of whom we are all very proud.  Congratulations again!
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
Bahamas / US Relations
    The imperial governor of The Bahamas, US ambassador J. Richard Blankenship fixed our business for us this past Friday.  No one was surprised at Mr. Blankenship's statements.  In the past he has commented on drug cases before the courts, he has intimidated members of the press and insulted parents and faculty at the College of The Bahamas.  At no time was he rebuked publicly in any official way for overstepping his bounds.  For our part we believe that the Government has turned a blind eye publicly and continued to suck up to our neighbour and friend the United States.  We believe that this time, the ambassador is interfering in the internal affairs of our country.
    We are told that the Americans have three main concerns that caused them to make their statement, in essence demanding that we do certain things, by a certain time.  Word around is that the first perceived thorn was the dropping of a case against a Grand Bahama drug lord, where the Americans were having difficulties producing a witness, so the case was dropped.  The second issue, said our sources, is the attendance of high-level Government officials at last Sunday's funeral of Glen Rolle in Bimini who at the time of his death was blind and confined to a wheelchair.  Again, according to several sources, the third concern is the visit by the Prime Minister and delegation to Cuba this weekend.
    Our advice to the Government is to engage the Americans intellectually and express to them that we are still a sovereign country and we share common values.  We also suggest that this is a good time to bring to the table the fact that the Americans will reportedly be engaged in test firing of missiles off Andros and what compensation if any is The Bahamas to receive?  But in any event the public ought to be brought up to speed on that matter.
    Reaction on the streets to the flap in relations with the US ambassador have been swift and unanimous.  "We should have put him in his place long time", said one Bahamian.  Another widely held point of view holds that if anything is lacking in the success of the war on drugs in The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, the Americans have only themselves to blame.  Said one source, "They handle the boats they pilot the aircraft and they police the waters... the level of co-operation with the United States is so high now that the only thing left for The Bahamas to do is to lower the flag and hoist the stars and stripes."
    The consensus from one group of seasoned observers was expressed this way "With a shortfall in national revenue that is already at twenty million dollars a month, if The Bahamas were to do just half the things that the Americans are demanding it would bankrupt the country... Where is the money going to come from to pay for all of these things... The ambassador should remember his own words and 'get a life". Mr. Blankenship is pictured leaving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Friday 6th December in this Bahamas Information Services photo by Derek Smith.

Nobody Move
    While reaction to this website from ordinary people on the streets was strong and everywhere you spoke or listened, notably no one of any official status had any comment to make.  According to one friendly reporter, "Except for the Foreign Minister, everyone official on both sides, including the independents is silent about this so far, I believe for fear of upsetting the Americans and maybe losing their travel visas... They're all running for the tall grass."

What Is Ingraham Up To?
    Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was in Grand Bahama yesterday, Saturday to attend the funeral of the late Vincent DeGregory.  One underlying reason - some say the 'real' reason for Mr. Ingraham's visit to Grand Bahama was to meet with the movers and shakers of the FNM here.  We understand that he was given an earful from the party's heavyweights here about the present state of the FNM.  We wonder whether this is not setting the stage for Mr. Ingraham to be invited back to take over the leadership of the FNM, perhaps being called an "interim leader"... Our friends on that side tell us that the whole thing smacks of a staged job.

The Race Question
    Can a white Bahamian become the Prime Minister of The Bahamas?  One Grand Bahama FNM power travelled to the 'Same Ole Place' restaurant in Nassau this week with his message of Brent Symonette for leader of the FNM:  "They have had there time," he was told.  Another party rank and filer protested, "We are not going back there."  Still another disagreed, "The only thing we need from them [white Bahamians in the FNM] is their money."  We are informed that from the highest levels of the FNM the Symonette supporter was instructed to stop his campaign or risk losing his place in the party.  Meanwhile, Raynard Rigby the new Chairman of the PLP was inviting white Bahamians to sit at the table and become a part of the party and yet the FNM who historically could claim 95% support from white Bahamians was running an underhanded campaign to discriminate against our white brothers.  We say, how times have changed!

Local Government
    It seems that the problem of underage drinking has gotten out of control on Grand Bahama.  At every public function nowadays we can see young people whom we know are not of age engaged in the drinking of alcoholic beverages in plain view.  We call on the local government authorities to step in and warn liquor merchants through its licencing authority to intervene in this matter.  We further call upon the Government to enact strict laws to try and arrest this problem which seems to go unnoticed.

Reef Village
    In response to our assertion in last week's column that 'Our' Lucaya's Reef Village is closed, a reader wrote to inform us that not only had he stayed at the property twice in recent times, but had also recently reconfirmed bookings at the hotel.  Yes, we agree that may be the case, but even though the public areas of the hotel remain open - the bars, restaurants and the like - at the "back of the house" the maids and other staff know that the property is in fact, closed.  Still, we had and have no intention of affecting 'Our' Lucaya's bookings.  Guests should know that if and when they come, there are many empty rooms (too many in fact) available.
BS

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The photo of the week is the Cabinet of The Bahamas with the Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont at Government House on Friday 13th December.  The lunch is an annual event and is meant to mark the Cabinet that led the country for the year preceding. Dame Ivy Dumont is the Governor General.  Members of the Cabinet seated with the Governor General (centre) are from left Bradley Roberts, Prime Minister Christie, Deputy Prime Minister Pratt and Fred Mitchell.  Standing, from left: Dr. Marcus Bethel, Leslie Miller, Obie Wilchcombe, Alfred Sears, Vincent Peet, Glenys Hanna Martin, Allyson Maynard Gibson, Melanie Griffin, Neville Wisdom, Alfred Gray, James Smith and Shane Gibson.  The photo is by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

THE BACKLASH TO BLANKENSHIP
If it were the intention of the United States Ambassador to The Bahamas to destabilize The Bahamas by his comments about corruption in Bahamian society last week on Friday 6th December, it did just the opposite.  Apart from the Tribune’s racist inspired words in the Editorial of Monday 9th December, there was unanimous support for the Foreign Minister of the country Fred Mitchell.  The country felt generally that the US Ambassador had had it coming for his continued interference in the affairs of The Bahamas.  Many called for his recall.  By midweek, the Government itself was clearly trying to settle the country down so that it could be clear that this did not go to the essence of the relationship between the countries.

The Minister spoke to Parliament on Monday 9th December on the adjournment and he told Parliament that the relationship between the US and The Bahamas remains intact.  The question many people asked was whether or not this was the Ambassador’s mission, or was it the mission of the United States?  The Ambassador’s words were counter productive, and all week long the radio talk shows were going with denunciations of his actions.

It is clear that we ought to draw a distinction between the issues that he raised and the forum in which he raised them.  The Bahamas clearly has no problem with the United States representative responding or raising any issue with The Bahamas government.  But it is also clear that you raise issues with friends in a certain way, you do not embarrass them if that is not what you intend to do.  When you do so, it then must be taken that you intended to embarrass the country.  The country then has no alternative but to respond.

That is all that happened last week.  The Foreign Minister defended the country from an attack by a diplomat who is not diplomatic.  The US Ambassador started off his address by saying how much he enjoys controversy.  Controversy sometimes has a place but not in the relationship between The Bahamas and the United States.  The envoy has done tremendous damage to the American cause in The Bahamas.  It behooves his advisors at the embassy to have a quiet word in his ear and have him cease and desist.

The Ambassador spent the last week in Washington on a routine visit for Ambassadors of the Western Hemisphere to meet with the State Department.  In the news release in The Bahamas about the trip, the Embassy tried to give the impression that it was the Foreign Minister’s response that caused the Ambassador to go to Washington to report what happened.  This kind of ham fisted diplomacy is unnecessarily difficult.  We trust that it will stop.

This week, we show the reaction across the country to what happened last week.  And we report on a strange melee in the St. James Road, Kemp Road area of New Providence that saw one man shot dead by the police and a constable seriously injured.  Six police cars and a fire engine were destroyed.

You may click here for the addresses of the Foreign Minister and here for the US Ambassador.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 14th December at midnight: 15,218.

Number of hits for the month of December up to Saturday 14th December at midnight: 36,002.

Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 14th December 2002 at midnight: 2,072,638.

A SUMMARY OF THE US/BAHAMAS EVENT
    For those who did not follow the controversy between The Bahamas and the United States Ambassador on Friday 6th December, we give this summary of the events.  There is a joint task force between The Bahamas and The US Governments and their law enforcement agencies to deal with anti drug matters.  This has been going since 1985.  The meetings of the task force are held formally every six months, and are said to be mandated by the laws of the United States where monies are being given by the US.  Bahamian law enforcement officials have been unhappy about the format of these meetings for years.
    The meetings are meant to be an exchange but they have tended to be a reporting relationship of ‘inferior’ police officers to ‘superior’ US officials.  The Foreign Minister appears to have been struggling with trying to change the format since he took office following upon reported complaints from Bahamian officials.  The public format is that the two political representatives, the Minister and the Ambassador give a speech in public which is largely ceremonial.
    On 6th December 2002, the US Ambassador departed from that format and launched a public attack on the Bahamas Government and its law enforcement agencies.  The Foreign Minister adjourned the meeting and issued a press statement in response to the attack.

THE CHRISTIAN COUNCIL SAYS RECALL
    Bishop Samuel Greene, President of the Bahamas Christian Council, has called for the United States Ambassador to stop interfering in the affairs of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.  The Bishop issued his statement following the adjournment of the Joint Bahamas/US Task Force on Friday 6th December in Nassau.
    Here is what the Bishop had to say in his own words:
    “Of all the diplomats representing the United States over the many years since the US Embassy was established in The Bahamas, this is the first time we are experiencing undiplomatic interference in the internal affairs of our country.  Foreign Diplomats are guests of this country and as such must understand that any attempt to dictate openly, criticize or interfere in the governance of The Bahamas, is contrary to diplomatic conventions, which govern the exchange of diplomatic arrangements between countries.  We admonish the good Ambassador to emulate his predecessor and allow us to accord him the friendliness and co-operation for which Bahamians are well known and at all costs to cease and desist from interfering in the internal affairs of our Bahamas… Bahamian Ambassadors in the United States do not interfere in the internal affairs of the U.S., and if they do, they are likely to be thrown out; therefore The Bahamas expects no less from Ambassador Blankenship.”
 

THE NASSAU GUARDIAN’S RESPONSE
    The Nassau Guardian supported the Government and the Foreign Minister’s response to the actions of Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship of the United States to The Bahamas when the meeting was adjourned by the Bahamian Foreign Minister.  Here is what the Guardian had to say in their own words in the Editorial of Friday 6th December 2002:
    “Well once again United States Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship has shown that despite whatever criticism comes his way, he will continue to put his foot in his mouth and say whatever he feels…  No matter what, the Ambassador never apologizes for anything and continues to step on toes.
    "The fact that the US Ambassador is in the middle of the new controversy comes as no surprise to many persons, considering he has made controversial statements since he has entered this country, causing upset to many different persons and organizations.  People were just wondering what next would come from the Ambassador’s mouth…
    "Minister Mitchell said that he acknowledged that there needs to be some changes in the fight against drugs.  However, as the Minister also said, there is a time and place for all things to be discussed and planned.”
 
 

THE TRIBUNE’S RESPONSE
    Well you guessed it, The Tribune and its anachronistic publisher Eileen Carron was the only one who was out of step with the rest of The Bahamas.  Needless to say, The Tribune will argue like the mother watching her child march out of step with the other soldiers: “Look at how my Johnny is the only one marching on time.”
    Eileen Carron has a problem with black people – their existence and the fact that they must know their place.  That is then projected on to the Progressive Liberal Party, the party that traditionally represents Black people.  And so to The Tribune’s editorial of Monday 9th December.  She too was commenting on the adjournment of the meeting with the US Government’s Anti Drug Task Force in Nassau on Friday 6th December.  Here is what she had to say in her own words:
    “In our opinion Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell did untold damage Friday to US-Bahamas Relations when he lost his cool with US Ambassador Richard Blankenship, and prematurely ended a US Bahamas Joint Task Force meeting…
    “The PLP has been returned as the government.  It calls itself 'new' but there are too many old faces around to remind us of our past.  Also in view of the bold boasts of some drug operators during the run up to this year’s election of their plans to go back into business should the PLP win the government, one would have thought that instead of calling The Tribune a liar for having reported their intent, the new Government would have immediately launched an all out public war on drugs to prove to the world that the Bahamas dignity and honour was still intact…
    “The Ambassador spoke frankly as a man addressing equals.  Obviously, he did not realize that he had to mince words because he was in the presence of little colonials. We would have thought that by now Bahamians would have outgrown this ridiculous inferiority complex.
    “If Mr. Mitchell expects to move in the international world, he has to be made of sterner mettle.  It would seem that his over sensitive sensibilities have taken The Bahamas beyond its depth.
    “We see Mr. Blankenship’s visit to Washington as ominous.  And we do not think it will end, as did Andrew Antippas, who became persona non grata with the Pindling government especially after he testified in the Joe Ledher case and told of The Bahamas’ unwillingness to co-operate…  No from Mr. Blankenship’s Washington visit we predict serious fallout.”
    Dishonest and is how you aptly describe the claptrap that is contained in this Tribune article.
 

THE STORY OF TRENT LOTT
    In an earlier article on this site, we analyzed the results of the mid term elections in the United States. You may click here for that previous analysis.  We expressed the concern that we did not understand the ethics or morality of the new people running the United States.  One person we singled out was Trent Lott who appeared to us to be a racist.  The words were hardly cold on the press when the controversy now brewing in the United States over Mr. Lott began.  Mr. Lott’s words clearly show that he supported segregationist policies in the United States and that he still harbours anti black thoughts.  So we feel especially vindicated by the turn of events.
    Mr. Lott has tried through formulaic ‘apologies’ to rid himself of what he has done but the only answer is for him to step down as one of the leaders of the United States Congress.  His credibility and that of his nation is shattered so long as he remains.  Mr. Lott said the following words at a birthday bash for 100 year old Strom Thurmond, a US Senator who is retiring this year and who ran for President of the United States in 1948 on a segregationist platform: “I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for President, we voted for him.  We’re proud of it.  And if the rest of the country followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all of these problems over all these years either.” There was said to be stone cold silence in the room after he said the words.  Now he must resign.
    Bahamians who watch what is done and said by the US President’s present envoy in the Bahamas have a sneaking suspicion that much of what we see transpiring in The Bahamas is a secret manifestation of a deeper disrespect for Bahamians in his private discussions, a la Trent Lott. That is the reason why Trent Lott should resign, because so long as he is there every Republican will be suspect as harbouring those thoughts.
 

TENNYSON WELLS COMMENTS
    No one was sure where Tennyson Wells was going with his intervention on Wednesday 11th December.  He started as if he were supporting the Minister of Foreign Affairs in his decision to adjourn the talks with the US Ambassador.  Then he suddenly started talking about no matter how much we dislike the messenger, we ought to listen to the message.  What was that all about?
    Mr. Wells’ curious and meandering path in speaking to the issue of the statement made by the US Ambassador appeared ultimately aimed at trying to smoke out Hubert Ingraham, the former Prime Minister who had remained silent.  Mr. Wells called for an investigation into the matters raised by Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship. He was particularly concerned about the allegation made about a “sloppy” investigation into the events of the arrest by the crew of the HMBS Inagua on 20th June 1992 of a drug-laden ship near Nassau Harbour.  Here is what Mr. Wells had to say in his own words:
    “Now think ladies and gentlemen, we are now in December of 2002 and this is an incident that took place back in June 1992.  The US Ambassador is prepared to go in front of the press and say that the investigations were poorly handled… I believe that a lot of games are being played in what has been going on during the past 35 years or more.  On both sides: the PLP Government and the FNM Government.  Games…
    “People who are trying to protect their friend and associates and so forth and I believe that it is time for us in this Parliament to stand and speak for what we believe.  Citizenship imposes a duty on the individual to be of service to his country.  That is what it does to us all and it is something we should not play games with…
    “I do not believe that 70 per cent of the persons in the FNM cabinet back in 1992 to 1993 knew anything about this incident… [Mr. Wells said he knew nothing about it and he was Attorney General from March 1997 to 15th December 1999]… Somebody in the previous PLP administration knew about it, and someone in the previous FNM Administration knew something about it.”
 

FOREIGN MINISTER ON HIS FEET
    The Foreign Minister clearly had had enough of the meandering when Mr. Wells took the position that the Minister overreacted to the Ambassador’s statement.  Further Mr. Wells said that he would have chastised the US Ambassador right there and then before the cameras.  Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
    Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell rose to his feet in the House to indicate that he thought that Mr. Wells should cease and desist with his line.  He said there was no overreaction.  The fact is that when the matters were raised by the Ambassador, he was unaware of them and unable to deal with them.  The meeting had not been called for the matters raised by the Ambassador, and the proper thing to have done in the circumstances was to have adjourned the meeting.  He stressed that the meeting was not cancelled, merely adjourned to a date to be fixed.
 

THE PM INTERVENES
    The Prime Minister also intervened.  He said to Mr. Wells that he ought to find it curious that Mr. Wells was a former Attorney General and he did not know anything about it as Attorney General.
    The PM said that he was advised that no US Ambassador before Mr. Blankenship had raised the matter of an arrest by the crew of HMBS Inagua on 29th June 1992 and the loss of the drugs from that ship.  Mr. Blankenship had asserted in his statement that a “sloppy” investigation motivated by political and institutional matters was a concern for the US.
    The Prime Minister said that the police had investigated and reported on the matter to him and they had assured him that the first time they heard anything about political interference was when the US Ambassador had raised it.  The investigation into the original matter was carried out with the Bahamian police and the US DEA, reported the Prime Minister, and each side knew exactly what the other side knew.
 

HUBERT INGRAHAM’S COMMENT

    Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was also on his feet in the House of Assembly speaking to the matter of Ambassador Blankenship's comments on the HMBS Inagua investigation.  Mr. Ingraham said that at no time during his Prime Ministership did any American ambassador raise the issue of political interference in the investigation. You may click here for the full text of Mr. Ingraham's remarks.
 

NATION BUILDER AWARDS

    The Committee for a Better Bahamas has given a total of 15 persons a ‘Nation Builder’ awards.  The Awards ceremony took place at Government House.  Amongst the awardees was Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt, the Deputy Prime Minister.  She received the award on Thursday 12th December from Pastor Jeremiah Duncombe of the Committee.
 

THE TRUMPET AWARD

    Prime Minister Perry Christie has been named a 2003 Trumpet Awardee.  The awards ceremony is to take place in Atlanta, Georgia on 6th January.  The Trumpet award is given to African American Achievers in the fields of law, entertainment and politics.  The awards creator is Xernona Clayton who said that the Committee was inspired by Mr. Christie’s commitment to progress and development of his people and nation throughout his 30 year political career.
 

KEMP ROAD MELTDOWN

    On Friday evening 6th December, there was a war in Kemp Road and St. James Road.  The police had stopped late on Friday evening a car and were searching it.  While they were searching it, another car pulled up behind and one man got out and ran.  They abandoned the search of the first car and ran after the man.  They said that as he was coming from behind a building in a dark area, they thought he was pulling for a gun, they discharged their firearms five times and struck the man, killing him.  A crowd gathered.  They left the body on the scene while all of this unfolded.
    The crowd grew and then a melee ensued.  The result: a fire engine was broken up along with six police cars.  Two police constables were injured, one had to have surgery to save his eye.  There has been no statement from the Government.  The police promised a coroner’s inquiry.  But no one has confidence in those steps, including – apparently - the family of the deceased, who is reported to have been a small time drug pusher well known to the police.
    The problem is that it appears that the police may have been excessive in their response.  But given the mood of the society, the police can get way with anything.  The fact of the matter is that in the young male population, there is too much criminality.  There is also seething rage about their lives and the emptiness of them.  The Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt has announced in response a civilian oversight panel to examine contentious complaints against the police like this one.
    The nation was stunned by this, but many of our sociologists warn that more of it is to come if we don’t get on top of the failure of the young male in The Bahamas and the complete lack of socialization. Further the incident revealed how the police are not prepared to deal with crowd control without lethal force.
    The crowd was finally calmed after 100 police showed up armed to the teeth.  They could have killed scores of people if it were not for the restraint of senior officers.  We again warn the police and the Government that the first line of defence against civil disorder cannot be lethal force. Pastor Randy Frazier of the Kemp Road area Pilgrim Baptist Church is seen controlling 10 year old Janiece Mackey, the daughter of the shot man and her mother in this Tribune photo by Omar Barr.
 

CIVILIAN OVERSIGHT PANEL
    The Deputy Prime Minister has announced that complaints by civilians against the police are now to be handled by a civilian oversight panel.  The feeling of many is that without this kind of oversight, the police will cover up the cases of wrong doing.  There is a belief that the coroner’s inquest is not a good process either, since the juries are often hand picked by the police.
    The civilians named by the Deputy Prime Minister are: Businessman Carleton Williams, who is to head the civilian panel; Sir Albert Miller, Co-Chair of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and retired Deputy Commissioner of Police; Mrs. Olivia Saunders, the College of The Bahamas; Apostle Walter Hanchell.
 

Back To The Top
 

POSTPONEMENT OF NINETY’S CASE
    Everyone is angry with the Magistrate. The lawyers for the defendant; the U.S. Government, The Bahamas Government and the defendant himself.  Bahamians generally are mystified as to why the case of Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles seems to be going on interminably.  Why can’t the Magistrate make a decision?
    Last week when the case was to have come to an end, the Magistrate announced that the matter would be adjourned for the next day.  The next day all were there for the case and she said it would be adjourned again.  Now the latest is that there is to be a final ruling on Monday 17th December.
    People keep asking whether or not the Court has not rendered a decision because the decision may go against the United States who has made such an issue of this.  Some argue that perhaps it has come time to put someone else in the drug court.  Who knows?  But we hope that the decision will be made and that the case can move on to the next stage.  It is taking far too long!
 

THE TRIBUNE LOVES FURY
    The Tribune seems to have been in love with the word “fury" over the last few weeks.  Their headline writer chose the word three times in the last week. On Saturday 7th December, the headline was: MITCHELL’S FURY AT BLANKENSHIP.  On Monday 9th December the sub headline was: KEMP ROAD RESIDENTS’ FURY AFTER SHOOTING.  On Thursday 12th December, the headline was: NINETY’S COURTROOM FURY.  Perhaps the news headline writer needs to go in the dictionary for a new word.
 

JUNKANOO TICKETS

   The public was asking, why would the Cabinet get involved in making a decision about Junkanoo tickets?  But that is what the Nassau Guardian said on Friday 13th December and they seemed to be quoting a Minister of the Government.  Surely the Guardian must be getting it wrong.  In the end it seems that the controversy over Junkanoo tickets was no controversy at all, because the tickets for Junkanoo were all sold out.  We are all waiting with bated breath to see that they are sold out on the proper Junkanoo nights. Lots of rumours of arm twisting by Government officials on the private sector to get that sector to buy the expensive tickets.  But the bit about the Cabinet was just one of another of the strange twists of the saga of Junkanoo this year.  In the end though the Bahamian way seems to have prevailed and it has all worked out. A dancer from the winning Government High School group is shown in this Tribune photo by Felipe Major.
 

THE CASTRO VISIT

    They are all back from their one day visit to Cuba.  No Government press conference, just a brief statement to the House about what happened there.  The photos appeared on the front pages of the newspapers with the Prime Minister and President Fidel Castro of Cuba.  Seems the Bahamian people are intent on closer relations with Cuba.  The young PLP MPs have a thing for this man Castro.  The standout in the whole thing is reportedly Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell.  The photos are by Peter Ramsay.
 

THE ECONOMY
    The Prime Minister when he closed the House for the Christmas Holidays on Wednesday 11th December made the point that from where he sat things looked like there were plenty of opportunities for growth coming in 2003 if things went well.  Not so said Julian Francis, the Governor of the Central Bank.  Mr. Francis told the Bahama Journal just the opposite.  He said that The Bahamas is heading toward a cloudy 2003; that there will be no economic growth recorded in 2002 and that people ought to cut back on their spending to prepare for the bad times.  He said that for the first three months of the fiscal year, the budget deficit was 30 million dollars and that it is expected that the budget deficit will significantly exceed the originally projected 180 million dollars. Mr. Francis made his comments in the Bahama Journal of Wednesday 11th December.
 

PLEASE, SOMEONE SUE CIBC!
    We always thought there was something funny about this Barclays CIBC deal that resulted in First Caribbean, the new bank.  The Bahama Journal reports that because CIBC Bahamas Ltd. allowed Barclays to buy their shares at $6.10, when the market price of the share at the time of the sale was $10.70, overnight the value of the other shareholders’ shares was devalued.  They reported that one pension fund may have lost as much as two million dollars in value.  Terry Hilts of CIBC defended the decision saying that it would not have been fair to Barclays to make them buy at the market price but they sought to assist other shareholders by offering them additional shares at the same price that Barclays got their shares.  Someone should be sued for this.
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
Quote of the week: "A man can only ride your back if it is bent over." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Blankenship Flap
The widely held view in Grand Bahama this past week was that the US Government is unhappy with the election on 2nd May of the PLP.  Observers believe that elements of the US Justice Department are now engaged destabilizing tactics in The Bahamas.  Most observers talking with News From Grand Bahama see this as just the beginning.  They further believe that there may be certain elected members in The Bahamas prepared to work as operatives for the US Government.  "It appears," said one observer, "that Mr. Blankenship in merely the conduit for these elements at US Justice, but he should still use accepted protocol."  We say that if the ambassador continues with his contentious and inappropriate public interventions, at the very next incident the government should ask for his recall.

Stand Your Ground Foreign Minister
By any standards, the war on drugs in The Bahamas must be considered an energetic and ongoing success with unparalleled seizures co-operation between The Bahamas and the US second to none, notwithstanding recent American utterances.  We believe, then, that any suggestion that The Bahamas cannot be trusted is unfounded, especially when you take into account that the assets of our small country are already stretched to the limit.  To Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, we say, you have found solid ground on which to stand in conducting our relations with the United States.  It would be inappropriate now for you to take a Peter Rabbit approach by running into the hole to hide or to allow your colleagues to take such an approach.  Stand your ground Foreign Minister.

Bahamian Fishermen
Somewhat distant from Grand Bahama, but a local fisherman contacted this site in outrage to say that for the second time in one month, one Captain Vivian Lockhart, a Bahamian fisherman down in the southern Bahamas has sent out a vain call for help to the Defence Force.  Captain Lockhart called in to a radio talk show and reported that Dominican fishermen in the area were harassing Bahamian fishermen.  It seems that the Defence Force has been so preoccupied working with our friends from the United States in the war on drugs that they have been unable to give this matter their full attention.  We say to our leaders that our primary concerns and duty are to the Bahamian people first and that this is indeed shameful that a captain would have to call to a radio talk show and plead for assistance in his own territorial waters.  We call on the Minister for the Defence Force to intervene.

Royal Oasis Closes Rooms
Royal Oasis hotel, formerly the Princess Country Club or the old King's Inn have told their staff that due to low bookings, all rooms will be closed for two weeks and the guests consolidated into the neighbouring 'Tower' hotel building.  This is being pitched as a cost cutting measure, but we wonder if it has anything to do with the recent successful strike vote taken against the properties by the casino workers union.  The present owner of the hotel can sometimes be overbearing, but we call upon the union to stand down for at least ninety days and suspend negotiations until a clearer picture develops on what is to take place in the tourism industry as we approach the New Year with war looming in the Middle East.

Junior Junkanoo
A police estimated crowd of fifteen thousand revelers gathered in downtown Freeport Saturday evening 14th December to watch Junior Junkanoo.  School groups from Grand Cay, the most northerly island in The Bahamas, and Abaco Central High School came to Grand Bahama for the event.  The Eight Mile Rock Blue jays swept the Junior Junkanoo, winning in all categories, with the Jack Hayward Jaguars second, Grand Cay All Age School third and Abaco Central High, fourth.  A successful parade, but impressions are that there still appears to be too much underage drinking.  We were also concerned to see that some Junkanoo patrons had bottles in their hands.  Surely functions such as this should be bottle free; the Police and Local Government should insist upon it.
BS

BOXING DAY
Junkanoo Results - posted 1.30 p.m. 26th December, 2002
    "A stunner this morning" is how radio personality Picewell Forbes put it: the closer than close results of the 2002 Boxing Day Junkanoo parade in Nassau which saw 'One Family' victorious overall and the perennial powerhouses Valley Boys and Saxons Superstars relegated to third and fourth place, separated by only five points.  The mood through McCullough corner, home of the Saxons was not great and those who live in the Valley "within the sound of the bells of St. Georges" were also not pleased.  Still, now it's on to New Year's Day!
Overall Boxing Day Junkanoo Results

1st.         One Family   2526
2nd.        Roots           2408
3rd.        Valley Boys  2407
4th          Saxons         2402
5th          New Tribe (formerly Barabbas & The Tribe)  2296
6th          Music Makers    2222
 

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The photo of the week is a picture of Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell (right) exchanging copies of the Joint Declaration by himself on behalf of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and Haitian Foreign Minister Joseph Philippe Antonio on behalf of the Republic of Haiti.  The two met with their respective teams on 19th and 20th of December to negotiate a draft treaty between the two countries on migration issues.  The photo is by Derek Smith of the Bahamas Information Services.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

HAITI HAITI HAITI
The ink was not dry on the draft pact between the two countries when it was learned that some 192 Haitians on their way to Nassau were picked up by the United States Coast Guard in Bahamian waters on Saturday 21st December.  That shows the job that Bahamian authorities have to do to stop the onslaught from the south.  It appears that the Haitian Government, embarrassed though they are by what is happening do not have the resources to bring the flow to a stop.  Some Bahamians believe that the Haitian government is actively encouraging the flow of Haitians out of the country because of the nearly one billion dollars in US currency that is gained by the country from the remittances of Haitians living abroad.

But The Bahamas has to try something and this week the two sides met on Thursday and Friday 19th and 20th of December in Nassau to try to complete a draft treaty to deal with the migration issues.  The fact is that countless numbers of Haitians are on their way to The Bahamas – a land they see as a land of opportunity.  They are coming to join their friends and family here in many cases as they travel by small boats dangerously overcrowded to a land of opportunity where they occupy the cheap labour niche in the market from the north of Haiti where there is no cash and no work.  Bahamians are ambivalent about the issue.  On the one hand you have these cries to do something about it.  On the other hand, you have the pleas to allow one more Haitian to get a work permit because a Bahamian can’t find someone to do his menial labour.  It is pure economics that is driving this.

The Government of The Bahamas has spent some one million dollars this year repatriating Haitians who come here illegally.  Then there are the scores of Cubans who have been coming to these shores this year.  In both cases many are on their way to the US but in many cases they simply see here as a better place than their homes.  In the case of Cubans, Bahamian men have become their greatest advocates.  Bahamian men have been travelling in large numbers to Cuba for sex for years and some have brought back wives, been divorced after their “wives” left them and disappeared into Miami and then brought back second wives.

The Government then appears to be in a no win situation.  Bahamians are less worried about the Caucasian Cubans, than the African Haitians.  Bahamians believe that their culture is being swamped from the south and want something to be done in a draconian way, until you touch some labourer who is close to them.

Notwithstanding the fact of this ambivalence, and notwithstanding the fact that the Haitian Government itself may not have an effective reach, we must have as a country a formal pact with the Haitian Government that will govern in law how we deal with these matters.  It is the only way to go.  But as the Foreign Minister has said, we need to dedicate ourselves to a sense of patriotic discipline in The Bahamas that will get on top of this problem.  One wonders, though, whether Bahamians have the will to do anything, and whether, as soon as the economy gets going again, anyone will worry about the Haitian problem.

The number of hits for the week ending Saturday 21st December at midnight: 23,545.

The number of hits for the month of December up to Saturday 21st December at midnight: 59,547.

The number of hits for the year 2002 up to Saturday 21st December 2002: 2.096,183.

A Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks for reading.

NINETY TO BE EXTRADITED
    Last week we reported that both Bahamian and US officials, together with the defence lawyers were at the end of their ropes in seeking to bring the case of Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles to some kind of conclusion.  Mr. Knowles is wanted on an extradition warrant at the request of US authorities for drug conspiracy charges.  There were four counts against him.  The complaint was that the Magistrate in the case Carolita Bethel kept postponing the decision.  It started speculation that perhaps there was a fear about making a decision.
    The case finally came to its end in the Magistrates Court last Monday 16 December when the Magistrate ordered Mr. Knowles be extradited to the US on two of the four charges.  Mr. Knowles now has 15 days to file for a review of the decision in the Supreme Court.

MORE DRUG SUCCESS FOR THE BAHAMAS
    Six Bahamians have been arrested and are being held in Bahamian prison on requests for extradition by the United States for alleged involvement in conspiracies to import drugs into the United States.  They include Austin Knowles Jr. (pictured in this Tribune photo by Franklyn Ferguson), former Police Constable Ian Bethel, Edison Watson, Sean Saunders, Nathaniel Knowles, and Shervin Emmanuel.  Mr. Emmanuel is still at large, and is believed to be in Jamaica.  US officials at a press conference on Tuesday 17th December made the announcement in Miami.  They were joined by the Bahamas Commissioner of Police.
    You will remember from this column last week, The Tribune in its attempts to discredit the PLP on the issue of drugs and its relations with the United States claimed that instead of the new Government seeking to prove that it was serious in the war on drugs, it took umbrage at the charges of The Tribune.  Of course, the facts now speak for themselves.  The politically dishonest Tribune publisher had nothing to say in the face of the obvious successes under the PLP.  The largest drug busts in the history of the country have taken place during this new PLP administration.  One was back in July worth 20 million dollars; the other was back in November, a find of some 35 million dollars street value.  Now comes the indictment of these six additional Bahamians.  The thirty five million dollar find involved Paul and David Mellor from Freeport who are in involved in the real estate business.
    For its part, The Punch published an article with blacked out photo alleging that an MP from the PLP was contacted on a cell phone by one of the drug persons arrested last week.  Anything to discredit the PLP from The Tribune and The Punch.  The facts again speak for themselves and hopefully The Tribune and The Punch will no longer seek to discredit this country abroad.  But the Government has to continue to be concerned because all of the officials seemed to limit their comments to the law enforcement level of co-operation.  They seemed to make a distinction between the law enforcement level and the political level.  The comment by Tom Hill, DEA Attaché to The Bahamas at the Miami Press Conference on Wednesday 18th December was instructive: “The DEA-Royal Bahamas Police Force relationship is a model in the region.  Others should strive to emulate that level of co-operation and trust that has been developed… It is certainly a significant victory, one which the citizens of both our nations can feel comfortable in the fact that the problems are being addressed at the law enforcement level.”
 

CONCERT PROMOTERS BEWARE

    Commissioner of Police Paul Farquharson (pictured) has announced that the police will now start to probe concert promoters in The Bahamas for their alleged involvement in trying to launder money by using drug profits to promote concerts and then bank the cash.  In recent times, the Government has been concerned about the number of concerts being held in the country that are magnets for young people who are there to view the display of vulgar behaviour on the part of the entertainers.  The Commissioner's remarks now add a new dimension to the problem.
 
 

HAITIAN BAHAMIAN TALKS

    Joseph Philip Antonio and Fred Mitchell are the respective Foreign Ministers of Haiti and The Bahamas.  They met in The Bahamas with a team of other officials on Thursday and Friday 19th and 20th of December to try to reach a framework agreement between the two sides on the question of migration issues.  The negotiations were also joined by the Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet, Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt and Attorney General Alfred Sears.  After two days of negotiations, the draft framework was agreed.  The agreement now has to be approved by the two Governments and the talks are scheduled to resume in April 2003 in Port au Prince.
There were three previous agreements between The Bahamas and Haiti: one in 1971 signed by Arthur Hanna, another in 1985 signed by Clement Maynard and the last in 1995 under Janet Bostwick.  Minister Fred Mitchell said in his statement to the press that he believed that the new feature of this agreement is the Joint Commission that both countries will appoint to review the progress under the agreement.  The Commission is expected to meet annually.  The countries confirm their agreement to repatriation of persons found in their territories illegally.  The Haitian Government has agreed that this can be done at sea, directly without the need to land the persons in The Bahamas.
    The Government of Haiti has also agreed that a temporary worker scheme will be established that it will recruit labour directly from Haiti and that this will be in future the only source of a labour from Haiti.  No one will be allowed to apply for a work permit in Nassau.  They will have to return to Haiti in order to get the permit, and the money they are paid will be paid partially in Haiti and partially in Nassau.  The question the Foreign Minister of The Bahamas asked is, whether or not Bahamians have the discipline to see this through?  There are grave doubts that Bahamians are really serious about this.  The countries have also for the first time agreed that they seek to establish the sharing of information on migration issues between their law enforcement communities. You may click here for the Foreign Minister’s opening statement.
 

LETTER WRITER SUPPORTS THE FOREIGN MINISTER
    Gina Catalano-Pieri wrote the following letter to The Tribune published in its Thursday 19th December edition:
    “I feel I must respond to today’s editorial ‘Mitchell’s Action Does Untold Damage’.  You’re kidding, right?  Minister Mitchell did the right thing.  Ambassador Blankenship was out of line, and has been for a long time.  So much for protocol and diplomacy (look them up).  There is a time and place for everything and that meeting was neither.  Good move Minister Mitchell.  My only complaint is that he didn’t do it before.”
 

FTAA REVIEW COMMISSION
    A Commission of the Private and Public Sector will begin work reviewing The Bahamas and its participation in the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).  These are serious matters for the country and Prime Minister Perry Christie has reportedly been concerned that not enough is being done to co-ordinate these matters and inform the public, and prepare the country for the changes that may come.  The new Commission has 22 members and will be chaired by Wendy Craigg, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank and Ray Wnder, the President of the Chamber of Commerce.
 

CIBC SHARES
    In response to a piece in last week’s column where we asked that someone, anyone, sue CIBC over the loss of value in its shares, one reader offered this response:

    “Was the reported loss a result of the actual sale of CIBC's shares to Barclay's or due to oversight (incompetence) on the part of local pension fund managers?  Did they subscribe in full to the rights issue detailed at http://www.firstcaribbeanbank.com/WIHL-OFFERING.pdf?  If so the dilution effect on their holdings would have been negligible.  If one was to calculate it themselves, it would be clearly obvious, that the rights issue had the effect of pulling the price to within the $6-$7 range, on its own.  So in reality the sale price between CIBC and Barclays was hardly relevant in this case.  I agree with Mr. Hilts' position, especially as this was not an aggressive takeover - he was unnecessarily put in a defensive position.

    Though some would argue from a moral perspective, at the end of the day equities carry risk.  Fund managers should be cognizant of this when managing pension funds - they are in fact acting on behalf of individuals like you and me.  It should be made clear their intent in investing those funds, or they should even be guided by the holders themselves.  It is a pity for this to have happened, but that blame is reserved for the fund managers.

    A creative response to this occurrence would be to invest more resources in educating the general public, whether through actual training or publications, in general financial management. The creation of BISX was a significant step, but for the most part the Bahamian public remains oblivious to the concepts at work in financial markets.”

    While we agree on the need for more resources in educating the public about financial management, the position that the cut rate sale price of shares between CIBC and Barclays had no effect on the general share value is patent poppycock and our position remains the same:  someone should be sued over this.
 
 

SIDNEY STUBBS DEFENDED BY SENATOR GALANIS
    Senator Tommy Turnquest, the Leader of the Free National Movement and Opposition Leader in the Senate has called for the dismissal of Sidney Stubbs as Chair of the Bahamas Industrial Agricultural Organization.  This time it is not over the firing of six employees by Mr. Stubbs who were said to be FNM and their subsequent rehire.  This time Senator Turnquest said that Mr. Stubbs has been wasting the Corporation’s money.  He tabled an invoice from Earlin Williams, a Public relations consultant who is also a PLP, and said that the bill for $6,500 was exorbitant.  Senator Turnquest called it “an obvious waste of money”.  Senator Philip Galanis defended the decision of Mr. Stubbs saying that Mr. Williams was hired as an outside consultant because BAIC did not have the services on staff.  He said that the bill had in fact been reduced by 34 per cent to $4,000.
 

EDISON KEY ON FAMILY ISLAND DEVELOPMENT
    Senator Edison Key, in a thoughtful address to the Senate Monday 16th December, generally exposed nepotism and political favouritism in Abaco and told the country that the drinking water in Hopetown, Abaco is needlessly undrinkable and potentially dangerous.  Senator Key also called for the restructuring of Local Government and “…dramatic changes in attitudes if we are to see the implementation of an orderly Family Island development plan.”  You may click here for Senator Key’s address.
 

BATED BREATH ON JUNKANOO

    Junkanoo has been mired in some controversy this year over the price of Junkanoo seats and the price of bleachers being provided by a Canadian company for which the Government paid one million dollars.  Neville Wisdom, the Minister of Culture has been indefatigable in defending the decision to hire the Canadians.  The proof seemed last week to be in the pudding where all the seats were sold out at the Junior Junkanoo.  Now the country waits to see whether this is money well spent when the real Junkanoo comes up on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.  The Minister is hard at work promoting it to overcome the naysayers who argue that ticket sales are going poorly.  We wish him luck with all his efforts. File photo by the Tribune's Felipe Major of Junkanoo dancer from last week's Junior Junkanoo winners Government High School.
 

DURWARD KNOWLES RETIRES

    He is an Olympic Champion, winning the country’s first gold medal in Olympic competition way back in 1964.  He has been a harbour pilot for fifty years, bringing in the big ships and making sure that they dock safely within the harbour of Nassau.  He has been knighted by the Queen.  He had bypass surgery some two years ago.  He is now 88 years old.  He is still actively involved in civic work.  Sir Durward was lauded by the Minister for Transport Glenys Hanna Martin who said that she had heard of Sir Durward's reputation and she loved his sense of humour.  Sir Durward said that he was saddened to be leaving the Port Authority where he had worked for all these years, but he hoped that his expertise and knowledge would continue to be used even after he has departed.  He said he hoped to continue to be associated with the Port Authority until he passed on.  We wish Sir Durward well.
 

STICK A FORK IN TRENT LOTT
    Trent Lott is now the former Majority Leader of the United States Senate.  This is a good thing.  But we hope that what this now does is that it widens the debate in the United States about its role in the world and the treatment of its own Black population and how it projects its values overseas as a result of that treatment.  What the whole incident uncovers is that some people in their heart of hearts have not given up on the values of the old era.  One asks oneself, how can a supposedly intelligent man say what he did when almost forty percent of the United States Armed Forces that he will have to rely upon in the war on Iraq are Black?  It is simply an amazing bit of arrogance.  Mr. Lott was given a fair chance by his President to rescue himself, but in the end the President could not and did not save him.  There is a saying “Stick a Fork in that boy! Like a turkey, he’s done!”
 

MICAL ELECTION COURT CASE

    All the evidence is in.  The submissions by the lawyers have been done.  They were completed by Michael Barnett for the Free National Movement’s candidate Johnley Ferguson in the Mayaguana Inagua Crooked Island Acklins and Long Cay Constituency in May 2002.  They were completed by Philip ‘Brave’ Davis for the PLP's Alfred Gray who is now the sitting representative (shown here in this file photo from a previous Election Court appearance).  The Court heard the submissions on Monday 16th December.  The hearing was before Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall and Puisne Justice Jeanne Thompson.  The Chief Justice said that there would be a ruling sometime near the end of January 2003.  There are some 1600 pages of evidence that have to be reviewed.  There is no appeal from the decision of an election court.
 

Back To The Top
 

A WORLD HEADING TO WAR
    If it were not clear before now, it should be abundantly clear that the US with its British allies intend to plunge the world into a war.  Their Secretary of State Colin Powell (file photo) has announced that the US considers the declaration by Iraq that it has no weapons of mass destruction as incomplete and therefore Iraq is in breach of the resolution passed by the United Nations.  While US officials say that this does not mean that they are committed to a war, the people of Iraq clearly believe so.  Many of the left in the United States are frantically visiting Iraq appealing for peace.
    The troop build up is coming fast from the US.  Smallpox inoculations are being given.  The idea is to start a war before the weather gets so hot that the gear the troops will have to wear to protect themselves from gas and biological warfare will be unbearable.  The Saudis under pressure themselves from their American friends have announced that they are going to make up any shortfall in the supply of gas as a result the Iraq war.  This suggests that the US now has all its ducks in a row.  Turkey will acquiesce in the use of its bases to bomb Iraq now that the US has given them assurances that they will not dismember Iraq.
    Informed opinion is that the US plans to head into Iran after conquering Iraq and many think that Iran is the real target anyway.  And so as we head toward Christmas, there is the dreary thought that young men and women from the United States and Britain will be leading us into a war that no one else in the world wants but we will have anyway because no one else is powerful enough to stop it.  The rest of us will have to suffer because of an ill advised policy, but hey that's the way it has always been and The Bahamas will survive.  Don’t worry!  Be Happy!
 

PROPAGANDA AGAINST U.S. FRIENDS
    A report from the Associated Press this week says that there is a debate going on within the Defence Department of the United States about committing money in friendly countries to improve the image of the US aboard.  The Department is said to be concerned about the negative image that the US has in many friendly countries.  They are especially worried about Germany.  This is interesting.  Should The Tribune be expecting some money or are they already getting some?  What about this column?  Will we be getting some money for the propaganda effort?
 

ROGER SMITH TO LEAVE THE BAHAMAS?
    It is inexplicable how the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association cannot mend fences with Roger Smith, the nation’s top tennis coach, to the extent that they can utilize his services to train the next generation of tennis athletes for The Bahamas.  Mr. Smith (shown in this file photo) is now the head pro at the Nassau Beach Hotel.  There was a famous row between himself and the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association resulting in his ouster as the Director of the facility at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre.  Now The Tribune in a story by Julian Lockhart on Thursday 19th December reports that the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has made a six figure offer to Roger Smith to be the coach for their juniors.
    The USTA’s Director Rodney Harmon confirmed to Mr. Lockhart that the offer has been made.  He told The Tribune: “He is definitely a guy who can bring up the next group of American champions.  We feel bad taking Roger from The Bahamas because he is a great coach and he can produce the next Bahamian champion, but we want him here and he has to do what is best for him.”
 

CHRISTMAS IN FOX HILL


    The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Public Service Fred Mitchell has celebrated Christmas in Fox Hill with constituents.  Mr. Mitchell helps Santa distribute gifts (top left); singing with the Sandilands Primary School choir (top right); the Fox Hill Mass Choir under the direction of Mr. Eric Wilmott of the Fox Hill Festival Committee (bottom left) and a special Fox Hill child confined to a wheelchair gets a gift as her grandmother (seated at bottom right) looks on.  Mr. Mitchell's helper in this photo (Santa Hat) is Mrs. Jan Davis, one of the leading citizens of the Fox Hill community who was instrumental in organising both the children's Christmas party and the festive seasonal lighting on the Fox Hill parade..

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
Foreign Junkanoo ‘Experts’
Bahamian designer Vangy McBride took to the airwaves in Grand Bahama this past week, claiming discrimination over foreign decorators being brought in to construct Junkanoo themes at ‘Our’ Lucaya hotels.  After Ms. McBride’s complaint, several foreign decorators were ‘interviewed’ by Immigration officials, only to return the next day to the property as ‘consultants’.  Hotel management is obviously embarrassed by the flap and released that they had contracted with a Nassau firm, which could guarantee the quality and standard of work.  Yeah, right.  That firm, it was said, was responsible for bringing in the foreign Junkanoo “experts”.  ‘Our’ Lucaya management let it be known that a local contractor might very well get the contract next year.

Operation Blue Water
    This is the now revealed code name for the joint US / Bahamas drug dragnet operation that has netted several Bahamians (see report above). There is a great moral to this story and a great lesson to be learnt, particularly for young men:  If you’d like to live to be forty years old it is now better to learn a trade or obtain a profession and work diligently until you succeed…  The alternative is that you either die at a young age (and Grand Bahama has many examples of gunned down drug dealers) or you spend the rest of your natural life behind bars… We pose the question to these young men, is it really worth it?

Ambassador Blankenship & Operation Blue Water
    We wonder; if Bahamian officials were so corrupt, how was it possible to conduct an 18-month investigation?  How was it possible to take down a former police officer who was said to be working with the drug organization?  Perhaps Ambassador Blankenship was only ‘showing off’ for brownie points when he talked down to the Bahamas and all at the risk of wrecking a co-operative joint venture.   Now the truth is known to all.

Club Fortuna Bargaining Unit
    The Bahamas Hotel, Catering & Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) has announced that there are to be new elections to determine the bargaining agent for hotel workers at Club Fortuna.  Hotel management had protested the last vote as unfair to the Ministry of Labour.  In that tally, taken on 17th September, 2002, the BHCAWU won by four votes over the Commonwealth Group of Unions headed by the now deceased Hurye Bodye.  Now, according to one angry employee: “I am surprised that the union [BHCAWU] has agreed to this, because they will surely lose… Since the last vote, management has been buttering us up with bonuses and other benefits while the union did nothing but wait for the Minister to declare them the bargaining agents… it seems that need for this union no longer exists.”

Royal Oasis’ Casino Closes Rooms
    In response to our story ‘Royal Oasis Closes Rooms’ last week, where we urged casino workers at the property not to act on their successful strike vote for at least ninety days, one croupier had this to say:

“I am a croupier at the Royal Oasis Casino and things are bad at that property because [the owners and management] have run business into the ground.

Every week we hear customers complain about the way management is treating them.  They complain about the 'slow/low' payouts of the slot machines.  They complain about the lack of casino comps given to them.  They complain about the fact that the comp program has changed.  They complain about the lack of concern management has for them.  [These high rollers] went through the construction with us, they welcome and enjoy the change, however, they feel that Driftwood only bought the property to sell it.

Just [recently], I counted 9 persons - all weekly regulars who said that they are not coming back to Grand Bahama.  [Some say] they only go to Atlantis now… Driftwood is a renovations company.... buy low and sell high.  It is easier for them to sell a vacant property without any baggage than one with employees.

How are their properties in Nassau doing?  If the company doesn't have any cash how is it that they can purchase two more properties recently? [Driftwood actually had the Nassau properties prior to purchasing in Freeport. – Ed.]

Why should casino workers be treated like second-class citizens?  Regular hotel workers get better benefits:  they have more sick days (up to ten more than us), they have a guaranteed workweek, they get more vacation time (like two paid weeks more) and the list goes on.

At least we were receiving Christmas bonuses until Driftwood.  You see, we did not have a union and hence no contract so they feel that they are not obligated to pay.  I think this is wrong.  According a section of the new labour bill, I think if a company has a benefit in place, they cannot reduce the benefit to met the minimum standard of the bill or take the benefit(s) away.

We only took the strike vote because all talks between management and the union have failed.  [We understand that one senior manager has told the owner] ‘…give him two weeks and he would have the union dismantled...’ - NOT!!!

We only want what benefits we were receiving before and to have it put in writing.  [The Personnel Department’s] hands are tied.  [They’re] only trying to save [their] jobs.

We don't want to strike.  I sure if it came to that, a lot of the casino guests would join us as they also feel our pain.

DRIFTWOOD needs to be bought out.

I have already asked the guests to send a note to the Ministry of Tourism regarding the way customers at the Casino are being treated.  Something needs to be done - Ain't Nobody Listening To We!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Holidays”

Sunland Shocks Falcons
    It was a feat worthy of mention.  Sunland School, which has had its share of controversy this year to do with funding, accusations of racial intolerance and the high-handed treatment of faculty, was in the spotlight again this weekend - this time in a positive light to do with sports.  The Sunland boys basketball team stunned the Tabernacle Baptist Falcons, the number one rated high school basketball team in the country by ejecting them from the Grand Bahama Catholic High School Christmas Invitation tournament with less than a second to go in the game.  Fans were shocked and the players from the Tabernacle team seemed dazed.  ‘How could this be?’  Sunland is known for its academic, not sporting prowess.  The team went on to lose the finals against tournament hosts Catholic High, but it was something of an anti-climax.
BS

New Year's Day
Junkanoo Results
Nassau - Posted 2.00 p.m. 1st January, 2003
Overall Group 'A' Junkanoo
1st One Family (repeat winners from Boxing Day, 2002)
2nd Valley Boys
3rd Saxons
4th Roots
5th New Tribe
6th Music Makers
 

Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl+home to return to the top of the page.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - This week’s photo of the week is a picture of an expressive One Family dancer.  One Family won the Junkanoo contest for the Boxing Day parade of 2002.  This was a shock to many.  The traditional winners the Saxons and the Valley Boys were relegated to third place and fourth place respectively.  Junkanoo itself was mired in some controversy over the bleachers that were hired from a Canadian firm.  The price of the seats was most unpopular in The Bahamas and many stayed out of the seats, especially on Shirley Street where many remained empty.  Minister of Sport Neville Wisdom was undiminished in his enthusiasm, however.  The photo is by Peter Ramsay.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

DIPLOMACY GONE MAD
The US Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship was at it again this week.  He had published an Open Letter to the Bahamian people, which the embassy billed as a year in review.  The letter was patently offensive, and raised the hackles of Bahamians again.  The tone of the letter was insulting, and tried to invite officers of the Defence Force to treason against The Bahamas.  Within the halls of the government, some were arguing that the word “recall” is in everyone’s mind, though not on everyone’s lips.

The intellectuals are furious with the Government because the Government has not moved to decisively put a stop to the loudmouth, foulmouthed words of the Ambassador in and about this country.  The atmosphere has become polluted with the foul odour of mistrust and angry words.  It is the Ambassador who has caused it, and Bahamians wonder aloud how in God’s name he expects to get his work done in The Bahamas.  Apart from the rump of the racist United Bahamian Party, led by the retrograde Eileen Carron, no true Bahamians support what is being done by J. Richard Blankenship.  He is now having to endure people shouting insults in the street at him everywhere he goes, telling him in not so polite language to go home.

Within the confines of the world that he lives in in The Bahamas, Mr. Blankenship announced that he had received personal threats against him and that he would not be deterred.  The reality was somewhat more subdued.  He was referring to a single incident where an office of a local NGO was trashed and there were derogatory pictures and threats written in graffiti on the walls of the office referring to the Prime Minister and the Ambassador.  No one else seemed to be bothered by it and simply went about their work.  The Ambassador leapt on it and milked it for all the publicity he could get.  This letter and the reference to personal threats were played out across the front page of each of the daily newspapers.  The Foreign Ministry immediately summoned senior officials of the Embassy of the United States in The Bahamas to explain what personal threats had been received against the Ambassador.  The statement issued by the Ministry said that they had just seen Mr. Blankenship on 23rd December and he mentioned nothing about personal threats.  The Commissioner of Police confirmed that he had received no reports of threats.

The Ambassador’s statement was carefully calculated to appear on the day that George Bush Sr. and his son Jeb Bush with their families were in Nassau visiting Nicholas Brady, former Treasury Secretary under the Bush Administration who lives out in posh Lyford Cay on the western end of New Providence.  This time Bahamian psychologists have weighed in, and they described in Mr. Blankenship a man who comes from a redneck southern background who has an inferiority complex when it comes to dealing with Black people of intelligence.  That is one theory.  The other theory is that he simply does not have enough to do, and is filling his vacant time occupied with matters that don’t concern him.  The theory is that he is doing this in a way of “bigging himself up”.  He is trying to show his bosses that even though this is a diplomatic backwater he still has value if it can be shown that he is threatened.

This Ambassador appears to have more security than any previous ambassador.  Bahamians question whether it is all necessary but the Government insists that in the name of the larger relationship it must continue.

And that is the point in this column.  The larger US/Bahamian relationship must be seen in its context.  This man will not last, and we must now rethink how if we get someone like this in the future we deal with that person.  The times are difficult.  The present US Ambassador will not improve the relationship with The Bahamas. He has made the situation decidedly worse, and he is intent, if he is not hauled in or recalled, at making it worse.  It appears that he gets a perverse pleasure out of the obvious unhappiness that Bahamians have about his presence here.  The sad thing about it is that he is the only one that does not accept what the truth is.

You may click here for the end of year statement of the Ambassador.  You may click here for the response of the Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Congratulations to two very special friends of this site, John Edward Cox and Erica Cox, formerly Wells, who were married Saturday 28th December in Nassau.  We wish them well.

The number of hits for the week ending Saturday 28th December at midnight: 23,022.

The number of hits for the month of December up to Saturday 28th December at midnight: 82,570.

The number of hits for the year 2002 up to Saturday 28th December 2002: 2,119,205.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AT FOREIGN MINISTRY

    The annual carol service was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the ninth year running.  The event was planned by a committee headed by Under Secretary Carlton Wright.  Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information services was there and took these pictures.  The Minister addressed the gathering including guest speaker Dr. Myles Munroe on Tuesday 24th December.  You may click here for what the Minister said. Photo by Peter Ramsay: Seated at front from left Missouri Sherman Peter, Permanent Secretary; Dr. Miles Munroe, Hon. Fred Mitchell.

THE WINNING GROUPS
    As we have reported, the winning groups were: 1st., One Family- 2526; 2nd, Roots-2408; 3rd., Valley Boys-2407; 4th, Saxons-2402; 5th, New Tribe (formerly Barabbas & The Tribe)-2296 and 6th, Music Makers-2222.  But the public was quite surprised.  Many thought that The Tribe should have gotten the best for music, since they were in a class by themselves. And many thought that the Saxons deserved a bit higher.  The Valley Boys were devastated by their third place finish behind the group that broke away from them.  They lost by a heartbreaking one point.
    Junkanoo is big business with the major groups now spending as much as 100,000 dollars on each parade.  The idea must so be to see if this can’t get on a basis where the parade sustains itself economically.  The search for sponsors at that level is getting more and more difficult.
    This year, in order to quiet the criticism about judging, Dr. Nicolette Bethel of the College of The Bahamas, who is a social anthropologist, conducted a Ministry of Culture sponsored course to teach judges what to look for in Junkanoo.  Did this make any difference to the complaints about the judging?  Probably not.  But where it seems to have ended up is the fact that the intelligentsia as opposed to the working class now has control of Junkanoo. The result is that the judging ended up with the upper class groups winning and the traditional working class group being relegated to last place.  That says something about the subjective nature of any judging.
    For our money why don’t we just enjoy the festival and forget about who wins.  Of course, the Saxons are our favourite. And one argument is that since One Family broke away from the Saxons, the Saxons have won anyway.
 

FRED MITCHELL ON LEAVE
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell leaves The Bahamas on Sunday 29th December for Ireland and then on to London on a mainly private visit. He is scheduled to return to the country on 15th January 2003.  Upon his departure from Nassau, Minister Mitchell spoke with the press.  Please click here for his remarks.
 
 

WHAT THE AMBASSADOR SAID
    The COMMENT OF THE WEEK has already referred to the statement of the US Ambassador (pictured in this file photo) issued over the Christmas break as a year-end review, and the misleading statement in it about personal threats to him. Now we look in more detail about a particular part of the statement with regard to the so-called HMBS Inagua incident in 1992.  Those who have been following this may remember that during the Ambassador’s outburst at the Joint Task Force meeting of 6th December, the US Ambassador for the first time raised the issue of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force being unfit to be partners with the US in the fight against drugs.
    The former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and a former FNM Attorney General Tennyson Wells had never received any complaint about the matter that happened 20 June 1992.  The incident happened when a controlled drug operation was carrying an alleged amount of cocaine from Exuma to the US.  While on route the boat is said to have run into engine trouble near New Providence and was stopped and searched by the RBDF.  They did not know that there were informants on board.  The boat was taken in tow to the Coral Harbour base of the RBDF, when the police were called.  The US informant alleged that some of the 190 kilogrammes of cocaine that had been put on board were missing.  An investigation could not bring any evidence before a court, and there the matter rested.
    The Ambassador now takes those facts and makes this case in his so-called letter:  “Members of the Defence Force are wrongfully excluded, through no fault of their own.  Many innocent crewmembers of the HMBS Inagua do not enjoy the privilege of  traveling to the United States because 10 years ago, it seems, it was not important to determine responsibility.  As the United States Ambassador, I say we will now welcome those members of the Defence Force into the war on drugs who are willing to step forward, as members of the Police Force do now, and put duty, honour and their country before all else.”
    Contained in that statement is a direct appeal to the Defence Force officers that is unacceptable from any foreign diplomat and warrants the immediate recall of an Ambassador.  But the second and more important element is that the US Ambassador admits in his statement that Defence Force officers have been wrongfully accused of wrong doing, and that innocent crew members of the HMBS Inagua can no longer travel to the US.  The question then must be begged: if he and the US are aware that they are innocent and wrongfully excluded, why is the US persisting in denying these “innocent” men their visas. The statement is an amazing admission of the quirks of US visa policy that is causing so much agitation around the world.
 
 

AMBASSADOR GOES NATIVE
    Some people come to The Bahamas and as the British would say: “Go Native”.  It is an expression that means that the person comes to the country and forgets their identity in their attempt to fit into the regime of things in the island nation.  They start trying to speak like the natives.  They start sleeping with the native women or men as the case might be, and they start trying to dance like the natives.  They become more native than the natives, and for most natives and the countrymen of the individual back home, it is a painful embarrassment to see and hear it.  It comes off as an unflattering caricature of what the island nation is.  All of this heretofore is just a for instance.
    Here are the words of the US Ambassador: “Since our efforts against narcotics have intensified, I have received personal threats, and been the object of rumour and innuendo.  Neither the United States nor I will be deterred.  Sip-Sip is not a part of American foreign policy.  I am confident you, the citizens of the Bahamas wish us well and want to be partners in our efforts.  When all is said and done, we will expose for all to see, those who do not share our Christian values.  We will become again like ‘One Family’.”
    Can’t you just hear the groans of embarrassment?  No doubt this was an attempt to sound like he was one of the natives, the reference to being ‘One Family’, done because it was that group that won the Junkanoo parade.  But the Ambassador should just be what he is from that part of the south and its traditions, and not seek to go native.  The Bahamian people understand well what he is saying and it does not come off as flattering.  It is insulting. Ambassador Blankenship is pictured in this file photo beating a Junkanoo drum.
 

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM COMMISSION
    The Prime Minister has at long last announced the Constitutional Reform Commission.  It appears at the almost unwieldy size of 22 with the awkward formulation of two co-chairs from each side of the political divide and two deputy co-chairs.  Some of the immediate criticism is that the committee is too big.  Some say that the head of the Commission had his bite to write the constitution back in 1972 and should leave the task today to another generation.  Others say that the Commission has no legal foundation, parameters, structure and time to report.  The co-chairs are Paul L. Adderley, former Attorney General under the PLP (pictured) and Harvey Tynes QC.  The Co-Deputy Chairs are Lester Mortimer Jr., a PLP and Michael Barnett, an FNM. The problem is that there are no known republicans (small r) on this Commission.  And the commission should report in favour of the abolition of the monarchy.  We think that the work of this Commission should be supported nonetheless.
 

AMBASSADOR PREEMPTS THE GOVERNMENT
    When the meeting of the Joint Task Force between the US and The Bahamas was adjourned on 6th December as a result of the US Ambassador’s uncalled for outburst, the US Ambassador asked that the meeting be resumed within six weeks.  The Bahamas was said by sources to have been waiting for a response to a proposed date formally put to the US side.  No reply was forthcoming.  The US Ambassador simply went to the press and announced without reference it is alleged to The Bahamas and said that the meeting would resume on 20th June, even though no agreement had been reached on the resumed dates.  Again, this is the kind of stuff that gets an Ambassador recalled.  Also in his preemptive statement was a call for a timetable to accomplish certain policy of objectives that the Ambassador has or else.  Or else what?  This is a helluva way to conduct foreign policy.  Of course most Bahamians say to the Ambassador that he knows what he can do with his timetable. Mr. Blankenship is shown at the podium in this file photo.
 
 

GET RID OF CORRUPTION SAYS GILBERT
    Gilbert Morris, the economist and public commentator, (pictured) is on the warpath again.  This time he is making strong statements about corruption.  Dr. Morris told The Tribune on Monday 23rd December that if the Bahamian economy is to go into a growth mode by the last quarter of 2003 it had better seek to get 2.3 billion dollars in foreign direct investment and stamp out corruption at every level in the country.   Dr. Morris said: “In my view, the scandals which we have seen – 30 million missing from departure taxes, the scandal where people are using the Government’s petrol for their own cars, the smuggling of luxury cars in the country – these things make us look bad in the eyes of the world and in terms of the loss of revenue to the Government that’s also very bad… I would say the Government is losing almost half a billion dollars to corruption and theft so the Bahamian people are being robbed and we've got to stop it.”
 

JULIAN PREDICTS DOOM AND GLOOM
    The Governor of the Central Bank Julian Francis was in The Tribune’s business section just the day after Boxing Day, to tell the country that there would be no growth in the year 2003 in the economy.  This is not good news since the Government is now catching hell for being a Government that talks and consults but makes no decisions, and is too busy trying to find crookedness under every rock.
    Mr. Francis said that it was unlikely that The Bahamas would experience any significant change in its economic performance during 2003, particularly with the threat of war in the Middle East hanging over potential foreign investors.  He added: “I would say the short term outlook is for the continuation of what we are experiencing, which is no growth.”  At the same time Mr. Francis told The Tribune that the foreign currency reserves at the bank stand at $376 million dollars, which is fifty million dollars better than last year.
 

OIL LEAKING IN THE BAHAMAS
    Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin announced on Tuesday 24th December that a tanker ‘Front Highness’ located some 70 to 100 miles northeast of Hole In the Wall, Abaco was leaking through an eighteen inch hairline crack in the hull.  The Ministry of Transport sent a plane up to monitor the spill.
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
Royal Oasis Casino Shuts Doors
    On Saturday evening, employees of the Royal Oasis Casino, former Princess Casino, suddenly started falling ill and had to leave.  Others called in sick and brought the operations of the casino to an early close last evening.  Today, Sunday, patrons had to be turned away from the casino and the games tables were closed because of this apparent industrial action.  We are informed that some workers did, in fact, turn up this morning, but not in sufficient numbers to open the operation.  It is believed that by evening the casino should be up and running.  It seems that the company is locked in negotiations and a dispute with the gaming union over a reportedly promised Christmas bonus.  No one was surprised, but this could not have come a worse time when hotels are reeling from low levels of occupancy.  We hope that cooler heads will prevail this evening and the employees and employer are able to settle their dispute in an amicable fashion.

Crossing The Line
    Today, News From Grand Bahama focuses on Bahamian / US relations and the US Imperial Viceroy Richard Blankenship.  Over the past six months, we have on occasion, commented on the antics of Ambassador Blankenship.  It some instances we have ignored him and in others we have given our opinion, but this past week we feel that the US Government’s envoy has crossed that line from which there can be no return.  Firstly, there was a condescending and insulting press release issued by the embassy, the content of which said that there was no reason to reconvene the joint task force meetings that were suspended in early December because of the ambassador’s inference that the Defence Force and the Government, by extension, was corrupt.  The release, in essence, said all that was needed from The Bahamas was for the Government to implement the suggestions made by the ambassador at that meeting.  To this there was no public response from our Government.
    The second assault from the Ambassador came in the form of an open letter to the people of The Bahamas.  In the letter, Viceroy Blankenship in our opinion broke with protocol and spoke directly to the Police and Defence Forces, knowing full well that these are disciplined forces.  He further repeated a ten-year-old alleged corrupt operation involving the Defence Force, where he implied that the Government was corrupt.  The tone and tenor of both releases showed a servant / master relationship and further showed a total lack of respect for diplomatic norms and we consider his remarks an offence to the dignity of our people.
    We say that there can only be one response from the Government to these incursions into our internal affairs; that is to firstly immediately suspend any joint operations involving the Police and Defence Forces with any US agencies and further the Government should insist on the immediate recall of Blankenship and ask that he is replaced with someone less divisive and confrontational.  Thirdly, meetings should be reconvened to establish new diplomatic channels.
    The Government of The Bahamas, if it cowers in the face of this aggression, will find in short order other states knocking at its door with a list of demands, so we call upon the Christie administration to stand and protect the dignity of our country.
BS