Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames... Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 9 © BahamasUncensored.com 2012
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THE SECOND TIME AROUND: the Cabinet met promptly at 10 a.m. on Tuesday 15th May, for the first time since the general election which swept Hubert Ingraham and the FNM out of power and put the PLP back into office under Perry Christie at the helm. It was an assortment of the old and the new. The cartoonist Stan Burnside couldn’t resist. He decried any claim by the PLP that this was a new Cabinet and he posted a list in one of his cartoons: Perry Christie, Bernard Nottage, Glenys Hanna Martin, Fred Mitchell, Allyson Maynard Gibson, Obie Wilchcombe and Alfred Gray. How he begged the question could this be a new Cabinet? Well one supposes that what critics are for and you cannot please everyone all the time. The fact is the whole thing had a fresh look with lots of new faces, not just those who had been there before. Our photo of the week is the meeting of that first Cabinet under the new Perry Christie on Tuesday 15th May in the Churchill Building Nassau. The photo is by Peter Ramsay. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE FIGHT WITH INGRAHAM IS NOT OVER
There was a report doing the rounds last week from friends of the former Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson who remains in place over at the Financial Intelligence Unit. That report was that agents of the FIU were to be dispatched to assist the police in investigating whether or not donations were given to the PLP by the people who run the number houses in Nassau. The first question is even if that were the case, so what precisely turns on that. But it shows that agents of the former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham are well in place and ensconced in the system and that to us is a problem.
The PLP was voted into power to bring about change in the system. Yet one week after it is all over, the agents of the old regime are still in place. There is a need to move with dispatch and quickly if the change is not yet again to be frustrated by the agents of Mr. Ingraham.
It isn’t as if we do not know his playbook. In the year 2002, just before the general election he promoted 16 people to the rank of Undersecretary all of them supposed FNM supporters. That is the rank just below the top rank in the service. Very few people were promoted to Permanent Secretary during the PLP’s time. The result was that during the whole time that the PLP was in power from 2002 to 2007, the agents of Mr. Ingraham sat there and reported what the PLP was doing and did their best to sabotage what the PLP was seeking to accomplish.
We suspect the same thing is now at work. This is no time to get soft hearted. That is why the PLP must act quickly before the inertia sets in to move those who are associated with the old regime. Mr. Ingraham set the precedent. He was famous for saying that when you are in power, you have to be prepared to live with what you do while you are in government. We hope that he remembers that rule as the people who were associated with his reign of terror in this country are eliminated from the body politic one by one.
Here is an example of the problem. Last week there were screams and howls from the woman who markets herself as Krissy Love. She was brought in as a radio talk show host to replace Darold Miller on radio just after the FNM came to office in 2007. This was after Philipa Russell and Steve McKinney were summarily dismissed from the radio stations owned by the government. She is a rabid FNM. One of the web sites reported that shortly after the PLP returned to power she said from the public broadcasting network that she hated the PLP. They described it as a rant, like she was losing it. How could she expect to survive in this atmosphere saying such a thing? Her contract was terminated using the clause within the contract that either side could give thirty days notice or pay in lieu of notice. That was done. Legally followed. Now she is screaming victimization.
Krissy Love is Anglican. There is a line in the Anglican service that says: if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We recommend that passage to her.
Second case is that of Johnley Ferguson. He is a former Vice President of the Senate under the FNM. He ran twice for the FNM and campaigned against the PLP with all his might during the last election notwithstanding that he was a public servant. He too was given his walking papers using the thirty day clause. The same thing that Hubert Ingraham did to Al Dillette former BIS Director General and the same thing that was done to Calvin Brown who worked at Urban Renewal in Fox Hill. No more no less.
What was that Mr. Ingraham said about being prepared to live with what you do in government when you are out of government.
Enough of the stories though. The more general point is this: we need for the PLP to put its people in place. The Permanent Secretaries have to be reviewed retired changed around. The staff to support Ministers in their work must be provided. The public relations battle against the silly cows like Eileen Carron of The Tribune must continue. The people who ran the PLP’s war room must be placed in the apparatus of the state to ensure that this battle is not lost.
Hubert Minnis is the Leader of the Opposition in name only. He does not run the FNM. The FNM is run by Hubert Ingraham, never mind him pretending to retire and playing possum up there in Abaco. He is alive and kicking and we had better recognize it and be prepared to finish him off is this battle is to be won.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday19th May 2012 up to midnight: 120,819
Number of hits for the month of May up to Saturday 19th May 2012 up to midnight: 425,705
Number of hits for the year 2012 up to Saturday 19th May 2012 up to midnight:3,422,032
PLP ANNOUNCES ITS SENATE APPOINTMENTS
The Progressive Liberal Party has announced seven of the new senators who will take their seats in the Senate when the Parliament resumes on 23rd May. The seven will join Senator Allyson Maynard Gibson and Senator Keith Bell already appointed and serving in the Cabinet. The seven are all persons who lost in well fought races in the last election: Alex Storr, candidate for Long Island; Tanisha Tynes, candidate for East Grand Bahama; Frank Smith, candidate for Montagu; Julian Russell, candidate for Central Grand Bahama; Jerome Gomez, candidate for Kilarney; Gary Sawyer, candidate for South Abaco and Greg Burrows, candidate for St. Anne’s. The photo is from The Tribune.
PLP SWEARS IN PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIES
Prime Minister Perry Christie completed the formation of the executive branch of the government last Monday 14th May at Government House with the appointment of three Parliamentary Secretaries who will assist various ministers. They are Anthony Moss, MP for Exuma and Ragged Island, who will serve in the Ministry of Local Government; Renward Wells, MP for Bamboo Town who will serve in the Ministry of Works; and Cleola Hamilton, MP for South Beach, who will serve in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration. The photos of the presentation of the instruments and the swearing in ceremony are by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services.
FNM ANNOUNCES ITS FOUR SENATORS
They say when you get married, you should try something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. We were trying to match that axiom to the choice by Hubert Minnis, Leader of the Opposition of those in the Senate for the FNM. Dr. Minnis chose Desmond Bannister, the former Minister of Education who pretty much pissed off voters in North Andros by attacking old people during the campaign ( that’s something old); then there was Kwasi Thompson, the loser in the contest in Grand Bahama, who is generally well respected but couldn’t help but be one of the lemmings and jump off the cliff after Hubert Ingraham ( that must be something blue); Zhivargo Laing, the loser in Nassau in the Ft. Charlotte seat and who ahs developed a reputation for being one of Hubert Ingraham’s vicious attack dogs ( that must be something borrowed); the new kid on the block was Heather Hunt, whose first foray into politics ran her up against Jerome Fitzgerald, now the Minister of Education and the new MP for Marathon. The photo is from The Tribune.
THE NEW SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
Dr. Kendal Major, the newly elected Member of Parliament for Garden Hills for the PLP, is to be elected Speaker of the House of Assembly. In this he will succeed the hapless and hopeless Alvin Smith who was the most biased of Speakers in the history of the modern assembly. Mr. Smith could never turn down a request or suggestion from the Government side. Dion Smith, the MP PLP for Nassau Village is to be the Deputy Speaker. Let us hope they rule a fair house with decorum. Frankly we would expect nothing less from Dr. Major coming as he does from the Myles Munroe stable at Bahamas Faith Mission. What we hope is that with the new Leader of the House Dr. Bernard Nottage, the nastiness and bitterness of the Ingraham era is finished and that together the Speaker and the Leader of government business with the new Leader of the Opposition will run a different kind of House of Assembly. It is our suggestion that the Government provide the Speaker with a budget to run the House of Assembly and its committees and that all travel will be done directly from the budget of the House. We hope that there will be a management committee of the House which will be responsible for the running of the affairs of the House and the setting up of proper support for MPs so that they can do their work. If Dr. Major is able to do that and we think that he is, he will go down in the history of the country as the greatest of the modern speakers.
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STALWART COUNCILOR B FROM FREEPORT ON EILEEN CARRON AND THE TRIBUNE
PEACE
Eileen Carron is the owner and publisher of the Tribune News Network. With the help of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, she was granted a radio license in 1992. By all accounts, the Tribune News Network has had some degree of success. Mrs. Carron is a Bahamian and instead of celebrating her success, this lady seems bitter.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was cast out of the PLP and banished; he however, survived and became an Independent M.P. Then, subsequently, he was made leader of the FNM; and, in 1992 led the FNM to victory at the polls and became the second Prime Minister in an independent Bahamas.
Again a measure of success which few could ever imagined.
In these two cases of Carron and Ingraham we see what should be success stories that should be celebrated by all Bahamians, but instead we see bitterness. In Mrs. Carron’s case, we see a lady who has held a grudge for the Bahamian people for having rejected her father, the late Sir Etienne Dupuch. Mrs. Carron, in an editorial, reminded the Bahamian people how her father had done so much for them and in the end was rejected and defeated at the polls by Mr. Sammy Isaacs who she took great pains to outline that he as a mere plumber.
Mr. Ingraham, on the other hand, likened himself to a “Papa.” We say he was a shepherd of his flock. On election night when it became clear that the Bahamian people had had enough and rejected his message; Mr. Ingraham showed us just what type of papa he was. On election night we saw the crudest form and unstatesman like conduct by our former Prime Minister who led us for fifteen years. No orderly transition, just I gone, is our interpretation.
Finally, it would appear that Mrs. Carron and Mr. Ingraham suffers from the same malady call rejection. In the words of Martin Luther might help them to come to terms with their present condition. “Hatred paralyzes life, love realizes it, love harmonizes it, hatred darkens life, and love illuminates it.”
Stalwart B
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Forrester Carroll writes from Freeport about Eileen Carron, the publisher of The Tribune and her editorial the day after the general election in which she chastised the Bahamian people for their ingratitude, she said. Mr. Carroll quotes an old Bahamian saying: “There’s no fool like an old fool” to describe Mrs. Carron.
There is a saying which goes “there is no fool like an old fool.”
“Eileen Dupuch Carron,” Publisher/Editor of the Nassau Tribune since 1972, would certainly qualify for the category of “Old Fools” if we were to hold such a contest in search of the best of the old fools.
I read the opening statement to her editorial in the Tribune, appearing 8th May 2012, and concluded that only someone like her would compose a column filled with such diatribe. She said (for the information of those who didn’t read it) that “Bahamians went to the polls yesterday (meaning May 7th) and showed the depth of their ingratitude to a man (meaning Hubert Ingraham) who had dedicated 35 SELFLESS years to their service” unquote. I say to Mrs. Carron; “madam the contents of that column surely qualifies you (as a contestant) and puts you far over the top of all others in the business; for you have now attained the dubious distinction of being the first female Bahamian journalist to win the award as “ YELLOW JOURNALIST OF THE CENTURY.” You, madam Carron, ought to be ashamed of yourself. We are all aware of your close relationship with Hubert Ingraham, and the FNM, and we expect nothing less from you. We fully expect you to prop up Ingraham no matter how obviously silly it makes you appear; never mind his bad policies. We fully expect that while you’ll defend to the hilt Ingraham’s dirt you will never endorse anything good and proper the PLP does so let’s get that straight. No one is under the illusion that you, madam, would ever write positively about the PLP. What can you possibly mean, though, when you say that by exercising our democratic rights, to vote for the party/individual of our choice, that we are showing our ingratitude to Ingraham? The former prime minister, I submit, never performed any public service for free or selflessly; his service, in my opinion, has always had a huge price tag attached; he has never been that generous in his entire miserable life time. Much learning, madam, surely doth make thee silly. Do you not believe that we have a right to chose or not to choose as we wish? Do we not have the right (constitutionally) to chose or reject Ingraham or Christie or Branville? Or are you suggesting that we exercise those rights only when Ingraham is not in the mix? We have rights, madam, and we have exercised those rights (well) when we ousted that destructor on May 7th. Your father, I would imagine, would be most displeased to see just how twisted your views and opinions have become when it comes to matters involving Hubert Ingraham.
The lady suggested, further down her editorial, that it was because of Ingraham’s tenacity, level headedness, farsightedness and hard work that the economy of the Bahamas was kept from imploding as did other economies of so many other, larger and more prosperous, countries. Mrs. Carron knows this to be a bunch of hogwash and she knows, as well, that what she said here represents a deliberate distortion of the facts. Hubert Ingraham’s bad management of our economy, 1992-2002 and 2007-2012, has gotten us where we are presently; in this deep hole of national debt and deprivation. The so-called economy you are talking about, Mrs. Carron existed only because of the billions of dollars the FNM government borrowed. If Ingraham had to balance a cheque book, in order to feed himself and his family, he would certainly starve to death. The man has never, in his lifetime, had to run a business where he had to make a profit in order to make a payroll so I don’t know where you, Mrs. Eileen Carron, would have gotten the idea that Hubert Ingraham could manage anything successfully. Borrowing money, at taxpayers’ expense, to actually pay civil servants’ salaries and other bills, is not my idea of good and prudent management.
Your real problem, I submit Mrs. Carron, is that you are so pissed off about losing your grip on political power, that your editorial reflects, very vividly, the degree of your disappointment in the loss. Well you’ll just have to live with that loss, baby, as no amount of trash talk and imaginary lies will gain you any comfort from the hurt. Your concern has never been for us ordinary Bahamians because you never cared or showed any concern for the things that concern us local folk. Rather it’s the “agony of defeat” that has you all ticked off. Get used to the loss, Mrs. Carron, because fact of the matter your FNM party and Hubert Ingraham are not coming back any time soon; they have gone to the land of no return and you had better get comfortable with the idea. The 7th of May 2012 will be recorded in the annals of our history as the date; month and year Perry Gladstone Christie retired the man who claimed he was politically invincible. If it will be any comfort to you, though, I would like to assure you that time heals all things and this hurt too will pass.
Poor lady, she is so confused that, she went on even to accuse PLP Grant’s Town Member of Parliament, Dr Bernard Nottage, of actually paying persons, in his Constituency, cash for their votes. I ask you (Eileen Carron) which fool you think would give a voter in Bain and Grant’s town $5000, $10,000 or $15,000 (as you charged) for their votes. I wouldn’t believe that nonsense even if the fool, accused of such an indiscretion, were Hubert Ingraham himself. Get over it, madam, Perry Christie has successfully run Hubert Ingraham out of town and there is nothing that you, Bay Street or any other of his apologists can do about it. I couldn’t help reading on further, in her editorial, and making due note of the other asinine statements she made; statements such as; “we heard of instances of yellow shirts being presented with money wrapped inside as an inducement to take off the red and put on the yellow;” “there is no wound so painful than a man’s ingratitude;” “we urge FNMs to stand up and-yes, once more for the sake of their country expose this evil. If not, we shall all be guilty of silently acquiescing in a corrupt society. Are we to return so soon to being a “nation for sale?” unquote; this is what that intelligent (or so-called) woman wrote; she wrote as if FNM supporters (which are in the minority as indicated in the recent polling) have the exclusivity on common sense; Bahamian dignity; patriotism and the sincere best interest of the country at heart. She wrote as if it is exclusively PLP supporters who would destroy the country and not care a blast, when in fact it is the FNM’s leadership which is responsible for the mess with which we have to contend presently. The FNM is responsible for our economy being in this steep decline; they are responsible for our out of control national debt; for the high crime wave sweeping our nation; for our substandard education; for Bahamians being pushed aside and left out of ownership of major components of the country’s economic engines; for the poor performance of our GDP & GNP; for our diminished international presence and for all the reasons there are no effective plans in place for combating these problems. This is the kind of gross incompetence this well-learned, over-exposed world-class Journalist would have us believe she supports wholeheartedly; I don’t believe her for one minute that she would sit there, look me in my eye and tell me that this is the kind of crap she supports. Can it be that her age-old hatred for the PLP could drive her to this degree of journalistic insanity?
Eileen, you have really shown your true colors. I submit that it is the “agony of defeat” that has gripped you and have you writing such nonsense. You talk as if only persons supporting the FNM have the best interest of this country at heart and that persons who support the PLP are those who are only looking for personal gain; that we have no interest in advancing this country only breaking it down. You are so foolish madam for, lest you forget, if it weren’t for the PLP, and people like us who supported this organization from its inception, we wouldn’t have a country called the Bahamas. It is us who brought the Bahamas into existence when you and many of your people were screaming for secession; remember? If it were left to colonials, like yourself and others, we would still be a dependency of Great Britain just like our neighbor to the south, the Turks and Caicos Islands. Never in your life, madam, have you cast a vote in any general election in favor of the Progressive Liberal Party. That fact I can state with the greatest degree of confidence and, I might add, you never will. Therefore nothing you write, negatively, about the PLP and Perry Gladstone Christie would surprise me. The only thing that does surprise me, however, is the extent to which you are prepared to go (into the gutter) to prop-up that scoundrel Hubert Ingraham. I can suggest a good topic which could occupy your time more usefully; may I suggest that you dedicate the next few editorials, challenging your puppet ex-prime minister to address the matter of his alleged involvement as an undercover agent (confidential informant), for the US Drug enforcement agency? It is alleged that while he served in the cabinet of the Bahamas, as one of Sir Lynden’s trusted ministers he involved himself in the spy game against the Bahamas. Challenge him please (I challenge you) to answer the questions put to him (over time) by Gorman Banister and Bradley Roberts and have him to say whether any of the accusations are true. Challenge him, I insist, to explain the contents of the letters going back and forth, allegedly, between him and members of the American drug enforcement agency. Ask him what role, if any, he played as an alleged Conspirator against the Bahamas when it is alleged that he cooperated with agents of the United States of America’s narcotic agency? It is alleged, further, that his ID # was C.I 1622; ask him to explain its meaning. Please write and inquire about this matter and maybe we would finally be able to put that issue to rest. For my part though I will always have questions as to whether we, do in fact, have a real live traitor in our midst, walking around free, one who should be put before a firing squad for treason. Ingraham’s persistence in remaining silent on this score will be his undoing. It might be, madam, that because of the very obvious influence you command over this mongrel you just might succeed in getting him to come clean with us. This would be a far more useful and important issue for you to pursue than the nonsense you talked about in that May 8th editorial.
I am appalled, to say the least, at the low degree to which journalism has sunk in this free and democratic country. I can see clearly now why, in some jurisdictions, governments muzzle nasty, no good journalists who are of your mindset, madam Carron. Don’t put words in my mouth because I didn’t say that I condone such press restrictions but rather that I understand why some governments do what they do. You, Madam Eileen Dupuch-Carron, are a total DISGRACE to the profession.
Ingraham has departed the political scene just as shamefully (in my view) as he came onto it and I, Forrester J Carroll, say good bye and good damn riddance (he should have been chased off the scene a long before now). He will now live high off the hog while we, the people, who his policies have affected so adversely, must adjust to existing on the mega crumbs and be grateful for them. Thank God, though, help and hope with the PLP is here. You should now do the country a favor, Mrs. Carron, and take your leave of absence (as well) from the journalism scene. Maybe you can join your friend, Hubert Ingraham, on weekends on his yacht for cocktails and reminiscence over how the two of you screwed up this country.
Thank you
Forrester J Carroll J.P
Freeport, Grand Bahama
May 2012.
A Comment On Krissy Love From Bahamaspress.com
Miguel Taylor writes from Freeport
The following commentary was taken from a letter written to bahamaspress.com:
May 15th, 2012
Dear Bahamas Press,
Chrissy Love was relieved of her duties as host of the talk show Immediate Response, and I don’t think I am alone when I say, she was asking for it!
I am not a fan of her style as her tone was often confrontational, she often talked down to her callers, she never really broadened the debate and she never hid her love for the FNM! But what was so ironic was how she often chided Bahamians for being “diehards” to any political party when she so obviously displayed the same behavior.
For someone who always talked about the Bahamian people needing to do and become better in order to take this country to the “next level,” her behavior on air at times undermined her very plea.
For the last few months, she boldly and brazenly campaigned for the FNM on air! It wasn’t subtle at all! She let her FNM bias hang out for all to see and she didn’t care!
Now there isn’t anything wrong with supporting the FNM or PLP, but as the host of a national show, it was unbecoming and she never even tried to show a measure of restraint or fairness the closer we got to the election.
I think she acted the way she did because she, like Papa, thought victory on May 7th was a sure thing! And if victory was a sure thing, she then could behave without fear as she knew her position at ZNS was secure.
So as the voting results poured in on the night of May 7th and it became clear as time went on that her party had been bitched slapped out of office by the people, her belly “break down” as we say and started praying to the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Ally Baba as she knew her ass was grass!
Seems like Chrissy made the calculation that if they fire me, I’ll scream victimization; if they keep me as host of the show, I will carry on just as bad or even worse and criticized the new government relentlessly! She essentially put the management of ZNS between a rock and a hard place.
ZNS and this new government was damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Whatever the decision, she assumed, she came out the winner. So ZNS fired her and the next day she is in the papers, screaming victimization.
Now here is what is so ironic about this, Steve McKinney and Phillipa Russell was fired as soon as the FNM took office in 2007 and Ms Love was their replacement. The FNM replaced hosts that were anti-FNM with a host that wasn’t! Its that simple! But we were not appalled by the firing, many Bahamians were appalled at the way Mr Ingraham did it, at a mass rally, less. So where was Ms Love’s outrage when these two people obviously got victimized?
How is what happened to Steve and Ms Russell any different than what happened to Ms Love? If Ms Love is claiming that the PLP victimized her, then she is also claiming that the FNM victimized Steve and Phillipa!
Is Ms Love suggesting that its only victimization when the PLP takes this action and not when the FNM does the same? All the FNM’s who are coming to Ms Love’s aide, where were you in 2007 when something similar happened to others, who presumably, were not FNMs? Victimization is bad regardless of who does it right?
Ms Love says free speech is dead in the Bahamas because of her firing! No Ms Love, free speech didn’t die when you were fired, it died five years ago when the FNM administration lead by your Papa, fired Steve and Lady Russell. Papa set the precedent and now you tasted it!
Are Steve and Ms Russell’s right to free speech less than your Ms Love’s? Let’s just call a spade a spade, Ms Love was an FNM tool! Is that simple! She put herself out there and precedent had already been set as to how to deal with people like her by her own party’s former leader! So she needs to stop acting the fool, collect her severance and move on.
Her own actions since the elections was one that suggest to me that she was begging for ZNS to fire her and they granted her wish! So as far as I am concerned, her cry of victimization is weak and without merit! She can not point a finger at the PLP without pointing a finger at the FNM!
If she hates what was done to her, then she should have hated what was done to others whom she replaced, publicly stand up to her party and denounce victimization regardless of who did it and not accept the job when it was offered to her in 2007!
This “look at me, I’m a martyr for free speech” act by Ms Love is a bunch of Bimini bullsh**. She knew what she was hired to do and she did her job well. Her party loss and she, like every other political appointee, she have resigned the following day!
Altec
AltecBahamas2012@yahoo.com
Miguel Taylor writes from Freeport on the theme of victimization. He quotes Thomas Jefferson to support his argument.
Dear Editor,
Please afford some of your valuable space on your website at next posting to offer a brief commentary.
Thomas Jefferson one of the Americans founding fathers, principle author of the American Declaration of Independence, and third American President was quoted for saying
“Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them in future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they sow with a large hand will not fail to produce their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape and deem infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain.”
This couldn’t be more fitting, especially when we take into account what is happening post-election 2012 here in The Bahamas. The intelligentsia (some) in our society would have many to believe that we have now re-entered the dark ages where the politics of our country is concerned. All manner of rumours, baseless accusations, hidden agendas find themselves surfacing, all in an attempt to discredit a new government that is not even a month old yet. Amazing isn’t it? One such would be the cry of VICTIMIZATION. Seriously, how naïve of and oblivious to reality can these folks be?
Well, if I may add my ‘five cents’ I’ll say this…To those that cry out victimization, and that the new govt should be seekers of change and set new standards, instead of the ole ‘tit for tat’......well my questions are, why now....why set the new standards now.....why wasn't this done in the last 4 1/2 years? Certainly it can't be that now because the tables have turned, there is a need to cry for fair play. In the words of Edith Wharton: “People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead. ”
Karma is indeed an unsuspecting b&^ch!
I am etc.,
Miguel D. Taylor
For comments and/or fee back email:
migueldctaylor@Hotmail.com
IN PASSING
The Composition Of The Senate
The FNM has named four senators ( see story above). The PLP has named ten senators. They have two more they can appoint. Since the PLP won the three quarters majority in the House, the Senate will reflect that fact with three quarters of the seats going to the PLP.
BTC The PLP Must Stay The Course
The Trib business carried an article last week that was quoting liberally from some British expert that the PLP should not take back the majority shares in BTC, the phone company from Cable and Wireless. The argument of this expert was that this was going to send a bad signal to the international community about the reliability of The Bahamas as a place to invest. No one in their right mind should take this expert of The Tribune seriously. The fact is Hubert Ingraham and his FNM made a corrupt deal with Cable and Wireless and ever since they took the company over there has been a steady deterioration in the quality of the phone service: dropped calls and the inability to hear what people are saying on the cell system. We have two recent examples, one in Belize and the other is in Zambia where the telephone companies have been renationalized. The PLP needs to move with dispatch to get the majority shares back n BTC.
Speech From The Throne
The state opening of Parliament will take place on Wednesday 23rd May with Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes reading the speech from the throne which will map out the legislative programme of the government for the next session.
No Contest For FNM Leadership
It appears that Tommy Turnquest, Dion Foulkes, Carl Bethel and Zhivargo Laing, the former Ministers of the FNM who all lost after jumping over the cliff with Hubert Ingraham in the last election have all accepted their fate and will not contest the position of leader of the party against Dr. Hubert Minnis. Loretta Butler Turner, also a former Minister and now the MP for Long Island says that she will run for Deputy Leader. Anthony Musgrove,a former Senator is going to run against Carl Bethel for Chair. Desmond Bannister, now a Senator and a former Minister of Education, said he will run as well for Deputy Leader as will defeated candidate Cassius Stuart. The convention for leader of the FNM takes place on 25th May.
Zhivargo Laing Should Shut Up And Be Quiet
He was one of the most nasty of all of the lieutenants of Hubert Ingraham. He was prepared to do anything or say anything it appears that Hubert Ingraham wanted him or needed him to say. He was so horns waggled by Mr. Ingraham that he gave up a seat in Grand Bahama where he had a fighting chance to fall on his sword in Ft. Charlotte in New Providence. Yet now he is appointed to the Senate to the FNM and still has a lot to say. He claims that the PLP is backtracking from its statements made during the election campaign with regard to the economy. He seeks to dismiss it as public relations. The difficulty with this is that Mr. Laing is not credible. He claims to be a biblical scholar. He needs to go and read Proverbs which tells you that there is a time for every purpose under heaven. This is the time to be quiet Mr. Laing
Davis On FNM Issued Contracts
The Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis told the press last week that the new government despite the economic challenges in which it finds itself will have as its top priority jobs and crime. He also told the press that he had discovered that within the last days of the FNM, they had issued 80 contracts valued at some 80 million dollars.
Telcine Turner Rolle Dies
She had one child and during that difficult pregnancy she had a serious stroke. She was not expected to survive. Yet she did and recovered and made a contribution to the writing community of The Bahamas with her play Woman Take Two. Mrs. Turner Rolle sadly passed away last week. She is survived by her husband the artist James Rolle and one son Arien. The poet Obadiah Smith wrote his tribute to her:
Do You Think Cassius Is Sexy?
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, he Cassius, Caesar’s assassin was described as having a lean and hungry look. Cassius Stuart who abandoned his Bahamas Democratic Movement (BDM) just before the last election after being swallowed up in the blandishments of Hubert Ingraham to become an FNM candidate in Bamboo Town in a losing effort has the same characteristics. He is also getting the reputation of having bad judgment. Bad enough that he abandoned his father-in-laws PLP to run for the FNM. He was on his Facebook page on Friday 18th May pleading with the public that he did not say what The Tribune reported him to have said. First that he would run for leader of the FNM. We thought he must have had mud in his head to think so. Then he said did not say that he was sexy and people would vote for him. He said he actually said that the FNM had to reshape its image and become sexy for people to vote for it. Oh well. The press reported that he said that he was sexy and the ladies would vote for him. He said on his face book page that he wanted an apology from The Tribune. Sounds like he simply needs to keep his mouth shut. The Trib obliged by printing the sexy photo of Mr. Stuart from his Facebook page which we print below. Add to that laughing stock.
Spitting In The PM’s Coffee
When the Prime Minister Perry Christie moved into his office at the Office of Prime Minister on the day after his swearing in, he got a message from one of the lower downs in the building who supports Mr. Ingraham that she would spit in his coffee when it was being made. If this is true should this person still be around him?
Mitchell At The Mayo Clinic
It’s that time of year again, Fred Mitchell MP has been making the annual trek to Rochester, Minnesota for the annual physical. Here is pictured in front of the Mayo Building on Friday 18th May.
Moody’s And The Mortgage Plan
The PLP now has the same complaint that the FNM had just a couple of weeks ago. The people at Moody’s who do these ratings exercises of your sovereign credit simply don’t know what they are talking about. For some reason they have taken a dislike to the PLP’s plan to try and save people’s homes. They say that the plan will cost 250 million dollars and that there is a significant moral hazard involved in that there is with the rescue of bad mortgages a disincentive to people who regularly pay their mortgages to continue to do so. First: the plan is not going to cost 250 million dollars. Secondly, Michael Halkitis the Minister of State for Finance said that not every defaulted mortgage is going to be rescued. The point is this: you cannot sit back and allow people who have been living in their homes for years to lose their homes in the circumstances of this extraordinary crisis without government intervening. Even the banks in the United States recognize that they must take some responsibility for the mess in which we find ourselves today. So Moody’s needs to get a life. Needless to say The Tribune who opposes everything the PLP does was busy stoking the fires of opposition to the plan, carrying what ordinarily be a business story on its front page section A instead.
The Scramble For Opportunities
Time is almost up. The day that the general election was decided you had people lining up in front of the doors of the new PLP MPs asking for jobs and contracts. It is as the former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham would say: unbelievable. There is no time for the new government to catch its breath. But there is a saying in The Bahamas, you must be careful what you wish for. This is one of those times. Our system is brutal. We see from the crime issues and other issues that they are no longer FNM problems, they are now PLP problems. The PLP must move with dispatch or lose the goodwill and the initiative.
Mitchell Represents Christie In Barbados
The Second Caricom/Mexico Summit takes place in Barbados on Monday 21st May at the Hilton Hotel there. Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration will attend the meeting with the Mexican President Felipe Calderon on behalf of Prime Minister Perry Christie.
Mitchell To South Africa
The Global Diaspora Conference spear headed by the South Africans and initiated by the African Union is to meet in Johannesburg, South Africa in its finale on 25th May. The meeting will be led by South African President Jacob Zuma. The conference was the idea of former President Thabo Mbeki who wanted to establish linkages around the world with people of African descent and to plot a common future. It was postponed following Mr. Mbeki’s departure as President of South Africa but his successor has now embraced the vision and the conference climaxes on 25th May. Fred Mitchell MP and Minister Of Foreign Affairs is to lead the delegation for The Bahamas representing Prime Minister Perry Christie and will join Alfred Sears, the former Minister of Education who is in South Africa as a representative of civil society for the conference.
Clay Sweeting Misses The Cut
In announcing his Senate team, Prime Minister Perry Christie said that it was the greatest regret that he was unable to appoint Clay Sweeting to the Senate but that he was not old enough to get the appointment. Mr. Sweeting is 26 years old and you need by the constitution to be 30 in order to get that job in the Senate.
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