In Passing

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WHERE ARE WE ON HAITI

03/19/23 11:14 AM

Fred Mitchell following a meeting with Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta at Marlborough House in London in discussions on support for Haiti. 15 March 2023.

Last week while in London, Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell had two meetings with Rwanda and Kenya about the support which is needed to help the Haitian National Police.  Both countries agree subject to clarity on the mandate and mission.  Help cannot come too soon as the situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate daily.

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Fred Mitchell At The Commonwealth Day In London

03/19/23 11:02 AM

13 March 2023

Hon. Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs (front row, 2nd on the right) at this morning’s Commonwealth Day Service, Westminster Abbey, London. Pulled from the Town & Country Magazine online collection of photos.

Fred Mitchell greets the Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle in London in the United Kingdom, marking Commonwealth Day 13 March 2023.

Fred Mitchell at Commonwealth Day observances at the UK Parliament at Westminster in London 13 March 2023 with The Right Honourable Lord Goldsmith, Minister of State for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment of the United Kingdom.

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ANDREW ALLEN: ON WACKY LADY FROM TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

03/19/23 10:20 AM

(There is a banker Marla Dukharan from Trinidad and Tobago who seems to have a hard on for The Bahamas.  She used to work for the Royal Bank of Canada as an economist and was noted for her sharp tongue, preaching doom and gloom about The Bahamas and its economy.  Every prediction that she made failed.  It got so bad that the Minister for Economic Affairs actually met with her and showed her the facts about the economy.  She announced that she was convinced for her wrongdoing.  But now she is back with her message of doom and gloom, saying that our debt profile is such that we should turn to the International Monetary Fund for rescue.  She is a damn fool.  Andre Allen, the attorney wrote a letter on the subject with which we agree—Editor)

By Andrew Allen

FOR those of us who are accustomed to Caribbean economist Marla Dukharan’s frequently off-base and usually disproved observations about the nature and prospects of the Bahamian economy, her comments at Tuesday’s RF Economic Outlook were of little surprise.

Some of her assertions relative to our supposed over-dependence on tourism were just plain wrong on their face, while others demonstrated either a limited understanding of our circumstances or a deliberate mischaracterisation of them.

For instance, she lists “deteriorating human development” in support of her argument against our basic development model, when in fact, according to the latest (2022) report, The Bahamas has maintained its status in the “very high human development” category and actually risen three places from 58th to 55th in the world, while its nearest regional rival, Barbados, has fallen from 58th to 70th.

She also makes false comparisons in her analysis, such as comparing our debt history with that of Barbados without pointing out that Barbados has had progressive income tax since before its independence and we (alone among independent countries in the Americas) have none. If we did, our economy would have been in surplus since independence and poverty rates would be minuscule.

Ms Dukharan herself acknowledges this (to quote her: “the tax system is regressive and therefore pro-poverty”). But instead of recommending that we simply fix it, she quickly reverts to her default recommendation that we cozy up to the International Monetary Fund – a monstrous, neoliberal institution that is hopefully headed into oblivion – together with the remaining architecture of post-war western global hegemony.

Instead of admitting that freely chosen top-down economics and a freely chosen regressive tax structure are in fact the whole story of The Bahamas’ self-imposed debt “problem”, she instead advocates that we tie our fortunes to the world’s worst promoter of toxic neoliberal economics whose “cures” have caused Barbados’ precipitous fall from grace in terms of human development.

No that you, Ms Dukharan.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

15 March 2023

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A TRIBUTE TO ED BETHEL IN VERSE BY EARLIN WILLIAMS

03/19/23 10:03 AM

Poet Earlin Williams

EDITOR:

 “Silence! Silence? In this house”,

Mama said.

Her little transistor radio pressed to her head,

Ed Bethel demanded attention

To an about to be born new nation.

We were teenagers;

In love with James Brown, Little Eddie, Diana and the Supremes,

Tony McKay, Priscilla, Elton and Barry White.

Ed was intermission at the 7am, 12 noon, 1pm and 7pm hour;

Our first current events lesson,

Our first international tongue twister,

How Ed sang Valery Giscard d’Estaing,

Ho Chi Min City,

Washington Dee See,

Nyerere, Kaunda, Manley,

Biko, Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali

And Sidney with the pot in the hay.

 ‘Mama’s lil transistor’

Made our world smaller

With Ed at the controls;

Taking on us on this journey;

From colony to country

From British Subject to Citizen free

From Hail Britannia to March on Bahama land

We all grew up to comprehend

Our place on the planet

Our dignity and identity

Un-foretold;

Looking back at Ed’s hurdles:

The nastiness of a hate campaign

Against his staff and crew,

The off years when his boldness

In an editorial on Parliamentary conduct

Suspended his voice

But strengthened his bounce back.

He is gone now

As one writer says,

 “He belongs to the ages”

Yet we aged with him

And we all the better

As a people,

As a nation,

As a culture;

Because Ed from West End

Once led us from 3rd Terrace Centreville Hill;

A rite of passage,

 ‘Only the sun covers the Bahamas better than…’

Ed poured into Mama’s ‘lil transistor’ every day

He will always be on air.

 “Good morning. I’m Ed Bethel.”

James E Williams

14 March 2023

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