bahamasuncensored.com
JULY 2006
Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames Updated every
Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 4 © BahamasUncensored.Com 2006
While material on this web site can be used freely by other sections of
the press, as a courtesy, journalists are asked to attribute the source
of their material from this web site.
9th July, 2006
16th July, 2006
23rd July, 2006
30th July, 2006
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|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - It
was a glorious service, full of pageantry and drama. There were all
the Bishops from the Caribbean, led by the Bahamian Archbishop Drexel Gomez.
Even the Roman Catholic hierarchy in The Bahamas showed up in the persons
of the Archbishop Patrick Pinder and Monsignor Preston Moss. The
leaders of the state were there led by the Governor General Arthur D. Hanna
and Mrs. Hanna, Prime Minister Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie, several
Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition Hubert Ingraham and
several FNM Parliamentarians. The Christ Church Cathedral was packed,
and seats had to be provided outside. It was simply glorious.
This was the ordination and consecration of the Bishop coadjutor of the
Anglican Church in The Bahamas Laish Zane Boyd. In the midst of his
wife, children, other family, friends and the wider community, he pledged
to take on the responsibilities with the help of God. The community
applauded, and for three hours the time was lost in the beautiful music,
including fine singing, ancient hymns, blended trumpets, the pipe organ
at its best. It all took place on Thursday 29th June. The photo
of the consecration by Donald Knowles is our photo of the week. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
WHAT IS ANGLICANISM?
As
the country watched the consecration of Laish Zane Boyd on Thursday 29th
June as only the fifth Bahamian bishop of the diocese of The Bahamas (only
two diocesans), it was watching history take place. Bahamian Anglicans
chose Drexel Gomez to succeed Michael Eldon. Archbishop Gomez brought
to the church the international dimension and involvement in the world
community; less emphasis on evangelizing and proselytizing. His predecessor
Michael Eldon had a reputation for pastoral care. Archbishop Gomez
took the church in The Bahamas to historic heights by bringing the office
of Archbishop the Province of the West Indies to The Bahamas. Now
he was arranging for the hand-off to his successor. This is a great
example of how leadership ought to act.
By all accounts the Archbishop is a healthy man, with a strong intellectual
gift that is useful throughout the world. While there have been some
mutterings about the involvement in the international debate on human sexuality;
that it is not an issue for the Bahamian church, he has heightened the
profile of the West Indian province in the world. What is often a
problem in many small countries, indeed third world countries is that many
leaders don’t know when it is time to go. They stay until the bitter
end, leaving their flock in total disarray and in bitterness. This
is not to be the fate of Archbishop Gomez. The choice of Laish Boyd
has gone down well in the community. It seems just right. It
appears that it was done with a minimum of acrimony and in 2008 when the
Archbishop demits office, there is to be a smooth transition to a new diocesan.
Many people keep saying that Anglicanism is at the crossroads.
This is because the American and Canadian Churches, to a lesser extent
the Australian and New Zealand Churches , have decided that they will deal
with the issues of humans sexuality by fully involving homosexuals in the
life of the church including to the level of Bishop. It set off a
crisis in the Anglican Communion in the United States and Canada, and certainly
in the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury who is the titular head
of the Church called together a Commission to study the matter and make
recommendations about the issue to the world wide communion. You
may click
here for a copy of that report called the Windsor Report.
The essence of the report was that the American and Canadian churches
should refrain from ordaining any further homosexual Bishops and that there
should be no further blessing of same sex unions. The Archbishop
in The Bahamas like other third world prelates was vocal in his opposition
to what the American church had done, and vocal in his opposition to homosexual
priests in the Anglican Church. He said that he would not countenance
a homosexual priest in the church in The Bahamas. The whole issue
threatened to break the loose bonds of what was really a politically created
church that ultimately served the purposes of the British colonial power.
Unfortunately issues like this are never just black and white.
It was no surprise then that with a new Bishop on the way to be chosen
and as the requests for interviews came and were honoured by Bishop Boyd,
that the issue would be placed squarely on him. Bishop Boyd is from a younger
generation being born in 1961. The views on human sexuality in that generation
are more tolerant. However, he is not the man in control and the
traditional teachings of the church are very certain on this, and have
been reaffirmed by the Anglican Communion in this province through the
voice of Archbishop Gomez. It is really a marketing decision where
uncertainty on the question will cause a run on the church’s membership
in a homophobic society.
When the question was asked of the putative Bishop on last week’s
Love 97 programme, what his view was on the question of homosexuality in
the church and amongst priests, the commentator Wendall Jones said that
the Bishop took a long pause to answer. What came next though
was a thoughtful and careful answer.
Bishop Boyd said: “The church is open to everyone but the reality
is the whole question of sexuality is one area in which I don’t think the
church has been very honest.
“Now why do I say that? We know that homosexuality is a reality,
that it is something that occurs in six or seven percent of the human population.
It is a subject that we as a church seem to be afraid to discuss.
We cannot deny that there are many, many persons who live struggling with
this reality.”
As to how he would deal with an openly homosexual priest: “That would
present some difficulties. That would present some difficulties because
the traditional teachings of the church on the question of sexuality has
been, as it is, that homosexuality is wrong.
“We really need to be careful that we honour the traditional teachings
of the church while at the same time we are prepared to be compassionate
and we are prepared to affirm the gifts that everybody has. That’s
all I’m prepared to say at this time.
“The church needs to be a place where we encourage persons to be
honest with themselves and also to understand the very complex issue of
human sexuality because human sexuality is not a simple issue. It
is very, very complex and I think the church needs to be a place where
we encourage that honest discussion so that we may help our people to be
their full selves and to learn how to love and accept themselves.”
Dr.
John Holder who is the Bishop of Barbados and was Bishop Boyd’s Professor
at Codrington College, delivered the sermon and addressed the issue in
similar terms. In a masterful sermon and in reassuring terms he posited
that the extremes that were being advanced of conservatism on the one hand
and liberalism on the other hand on the discussion of human sexuality were
just extremes and there must be an Anglican middle way. He cautioned
the new Bishop to be careful of the company he keeps and be careful that
he didn’t feed the need of the regional press for instant answers on every
question. Please click here for
Bishop Holder's full sermon.
Bishop Boyd will for the moment continue as the Rector of the Holy
Cross parish until 31st December 2006. He then moves into the careful
tutelage of Archbishop Gomez until 2008 when with the help of God he becomes
the Bishop of the diocese. One era will have passed away and we will
enter a new phase. Many people, are watching because Anglicans are
uncertain about what their church believes, the changes of accepting women
priests, the uncertainties over human sexuality: all of these are challenges
that the new Bishop will have to provide some leadership on. A failure
to provide certainty could lead to schism and to an exodus to the certainty
of Roman Catholicism or the anti intellectualism of fundamentalist Christianity.
The latter would be bad for this society.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 1st July 2006 at midnight:
85,273.
Number of hits for the month of June up to Friday 30th June 2006
at midnight: 422,621.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 1st July 2006 at
midnight: 2,533,404.
TOP: Father Laish
Boyd awaits his consecration in deep thought; ABOVE: Roman Catholics Archbishop
Patrick Pinder and Monsignor Preston Moss on their way to the consecration.
Photos by Peter Ramsay
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
THE
MISLEADERS OF THE TEACHERS UNION
Ida Poitier and Belinda Wilson are at it again, the President and the Secretary
General of the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT). This time having
walked out of the negotiations with the Minister of Education Alfred Sears
(pictured) without allowing him to finish what the Government wished to
offer on salaries, they ordered the teachers to withdraw their goodwill
and work in the summer activities of the school system. This included
Report Card Day on Thursday 29th June. Ida Poitier claimed that they
had the full support of the teachers on that score.
The Minister of Education said that the actions
of the Bahamas Union of Teacher’s leaders were misguided. It turned
out that he was right. The teachers ignored the request of their
leadership and the teachers turned up to ensure that grades were presented
as scheduled. In Grand Bahama there was one hundred per cent compliance
with the Ministry of Education. In New Providence, the overall participation
in the unlawful industrial action was under twenty per cent. What
is going on here? It is clear that the teachers are sending a signal
to the government that they are sick and tired of the antics of their leadership
and they want the Government to take the lead and pay the money.
If the Government does pay, this will be the most
significant pay and benefits paid to any professional class within the
public service when one adds the fact that the entry level pay of teachers
is to rise from $21,000 per annum to $27,000 per annum over the life of
the contract. Further, the Government will be paying the same per
capita amount over the life of the contract as they offered to doctors
and nurses. The BUT's leadership still wants more. They are
pushing the envelope as they have throughout the negotiations where their
view seems to have been: “My way or the highway!”
You are dealing with two leaders, or more properly
misleaders who have intemperate dispositions and if they are not careful
will break up the union. Since the announcement of the pay increases,
teachers have been calling the Government and asking the Government to
ignore their union and pay the increases directly on to their salaries.
The Minister of Education Alfred Sears speaking at a press conference on
Friday 30th June said that the Government did not want to be irresponsible
and that the payments had to await the conclusion of an agreement.
We are on the side of those who say that the Government
must take decisive action. It is clear that the attitudes of the
two leaders of the BUT are unacceptably irresponsible. The Government
must now act in the best interests of the system even if it means that
the BUT will crack under the strain of the foolishness of their own leadership.
The national interest demands it.
Bahama Journal photo
WHAT
WAS THAT DAME IVY?
When you become Governor General it means that you are out of the politics
of the country no matter what political stripe you were before you got
to the job. This applies to those who actually are Governor General
and those who are no longer in the post and are retired. Interventions
in public should be neutral, non partisan and more importantly not perceived
to influence or attempt to influence in any way the general political debate
in the country. In fact reporters themselves ought to know better
than to even raise certain questions to those who are in the job or who
are former occupants in the job. Sir Gerald Cash, the country’s second
Bahamian Governor General so scrupulously adhered to that creed that he
did not even vote in general elections.
The public woke up to their newspapers on Monday
26th June to find that Dame Ivy Dumont, the former Governor General was
being quoted liberally in a story in The Tribune on Monday 26th June about
an apparent breakdown in communication between the Minister and the Director
of Education; the Minister and the Permanent Secretary. All of it
no doubt speculative nonsense to fit The Tribune’s anti PLP agenda.
When you actually see what Dame Ivy said it is really
just a description of the relationships which exist under the constitution
with regard to responsibility for education. The Prime Minister is
ultimately responsible, then the Minister for Education, the Permanent
Secretary and the Director. But the comments placed in the story
as they were by the reporter, juxtaposed with the political comments in
the story about the actual relationships with the individuals at work today
in the Ministry clearly put the former Governor General Ivy Dumont into
a position where it appears that she was making a political comment.
Many people took it that way as well.
We are convinced that the fault is with the reporter
and The Tribune, the latter of which exercises no restraint in the protection
of Bahamian institutions. It was clearly wrong to do so, and The
Tribune is condemned once again for its irresponsible behaviour.
One footnote to history: at the Minister’s press
conference of Thursday 29th June, the Director of Education Iris Pinder
announced her retirement from the public service after 38 years, eight
of them as Director of Education. Mrs. Pinder is the sister of Independent
MP for Bamboo Town Tennyson Wells. No successor has been named.
THE
LEGACY BALL
Each year Lady Marguerite Pindling, widow of the
founding Prime Minister of the country Sir Lynden Pindling, carries on
the work of Sir Lynden in the form of charitable work through the Pindling
Foundation. Its principle fundraising activity is the Legacy Ball.
The ball is held each year just around the time of the Independence Day
of the country. The Ball was held this year at the Crystal Palace
Hotel on Saturday 1st July. The country’s leaders were there including
Governor General the Hon. Arthur Hanna and Mrs. Hanna, the Prime Minister
Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie and Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell.
The tie worn by Sir Lynden in the photo that graces the one dollar note
in The Bahamas sold at auction for $15,000. Photographer Peter Ramsay
was there and we present this montage of his photos from the event.
PM
TO ST. KITTS AND NEVIS
The Prime Minister Perry Christie will lead a delegation
to the Caricom Heads of Government Conference on Monday 3rd July.
At that meeting Haiti will be accepted back into the Councils of Caricom
for the first time since its suspension following the removal of former
President Jean Bertrand Aristide from office in 2004. The seat will
be taken by the new President Rene Preval. The Prime Minister will
be accompanied by the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, the Ambassador to
Caricom Leonard Archer and First Assistant Secretary Rhoda Jackson of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
HEALTH
INSURANCE TO COME
One of the most important parts of the PLP’s new
manual for election 2007 will be the fact that the PLP will implement National
Health Insurance. Dr. Bernard J. Nottage, the Minister of Health
was speaking at the annual general meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on
Wednesday 28th June. He told the business community that National
Health is coming and could come in two years. That will be not a
moment too soon.
It is clearer than day that in The Bahamas if you
do not have access to money, then you have substandard health care.
You will die prematurely if you do not have money. Even though the
present system of those who cannot pay being provided free care is a good
thing, in practice too many people fall between the cracks and have substandard
care or suffer from neglect and long delays. It is important therefore
that the PLP fight the FNM on this issue. The PLP can only win on
it.
THE GREAT
ESCAPE
The Detention Centre’s fences or walls as the case
may be appear to be as porous as old shoes. This past week it was
reported that five persons escaped from the Detention centre including
two that had previously escaped and were recently turned back over to Bahamian
authorities when they were interdicted by U.S authorities on their way
to the states from Grand Bahama. This is the third reported breakout
this year. It is clear that something needs to be done to stop it.
One thing that might be done is to make sure that no one is in the detention
centre. As fast as they come in, they should be shuttled back to
their home countries.
There is a need to change the leadership of the
Detention Centre. Edwin Culmer who was shunted over to the detention
centre when it proved that his leadership at the prison was something
less than spectacular, still does not have an office down at the
facility, and it seems clear that there is just not the interest in the
job. The Defence Force needs to be moved from guarding the facility.
The troops are clearly not suited for this duty. The country is constantly
being embarrassed by the escapes and pretty soon if we don’t do something
about it, the governing party will suffer because it will look like it
is unable to provide the most basic security for the most basic facility
in this country. The breakout took place on Wednesday 28th June.
Defence Force guards patrol the Detention Centre in this Nassau
Guardian photo
MARCUS
BETHEL TO LEAVE POLITICS
Speaking in the Senate during the debate on the
country’s Budget, Senator Marcus Bethel, the PLP’s former candidate for
High Rock (2002), announced that he will not be seeking political office
after the next general election. Senator Bethel told the Senate that
he will be returning to private life before the next general election,
and will be watching his esteemed colleagues from the private sector.
The PLP has not announced who will replace him as the standard bearer in
the High Rock constituency in Grand Bahama, to run against incumbent Ken
Russell (FNM).
MITCHELL
VISITS GRAND BAHAMA
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell spent
two days in Grand Bahama from Tuesday 27th June to Thursday 29th June.
While there he met the press to talk about the United States Customs pre
clearance lounge in Freeport. He also addressed the issue of the
negotiations with the Bahamas Union of Teachers. On the pre clearance
lounge he indicated that while closure of the facility in Freeport was
not going to be immediate, there might be problems if the volume of passenger
traffic going through the Freeport airport did not improve and if the security
breaches at the airport were not lessened. There is a reported rise
in drugs being found on board aircraft leaving Freeport bound for the United
States. Mr. Mitchell said that he expected to meet with the U.S.
Secretary of State sometime in July in order to discuss the issues related
to the lounge and to the future of the anti drug effort by the United States
in The Bahamas.
CHARLES
MCKINNEY IS BURIED
The Governor General Arthur Hanna came to say farewell to his old friend
Charles McKinney, the liquor store owner and Stalwart Councillor at his
funeral on Saturday 1st July at the Annex Baptist Church. Mr. McKinney
was more than just that. He was praised for a lifetime’s contribution
to the work of freedom in The Bahamas, and for assisting many in the education
of their children and the development of their lives. The people
of Rolle Avenue and Culmerville, a part of the old Centreville constituency
in New Providence, were represented by Brave Davis Sr., a former resident
of Rolle Avenue. Mr. Davis talked about the many loans that Mr. McKinney
made, the many school fees he paid. He said in so many instances
people did not pay back the money.
Mr. McKinney and his brother George were well known
freedom fighters in the PLP and their business establishments on Wulff
Road were frequented by the powerful in the PLP hierarchy. The Prime
Minister Perry Christie spoke of Mr. McKinney as one of the heroes of the
revolution. Also attending were Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt,
Minister of Works Bradley Roberts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell,
Minister of Agriculture Leslie Miller, Minister of State James Smith, Frank
Smith MP, Ron Pinder MP, Senator Traver Whylly and a host of Stalwart Councillors
of the party. Mr. McKinney was 89 years old at the time of his death.
A
COMING OUT FOR NEW COB PRESIDENT
The new President of the College of The Bahamas
Jayne Hodder was at the Legacy Ball on Saturday 1st July. (See
story above). She was there to accept a cheque from the Pindling
Foundation for the sum of $100,000 toward the Harry Moore Library.
The Library will have a special room dedicated to the memorabilia of Sir
Lynden O. Pindling. It was the first official function of the new
President who was appointed in the midst of angry and bitter statements
in the press about whether or not she was acceptable to the staff of the
College.
It will be the task of Mrs. Hodder to take the college to University status.
Photo: Peter Ramsay
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Clifton Heritage
Prime Minister Perry Christie toured the site of
the Clifton Heritage Park this past week. Mr. Christie is seen with
Clifton Heritage officials Ken Dorsett, left; and Sean McWeeney, centre
overlooking the ocean at Clifton. The Prime Minister saved the historic
site from residential development as a main plank in his election effort
for 2002. The site is thought to be the only remaining place where
the history of the Lucayans, the Loyalists and the Africans of The Bahamas
intersects.
Support for Downtown Redevelopment
The Prime Minister gave encouragement to members
of the business community who have formed into a group to support his move
to redevelop downtown Nassau. The group held a meeting at Atlantis
on Paradise Island Friday.
Christies attend consecration of Bishop Laish Boyd
The Prime Minister is pictured with Mrs. Bernadette
Christie about to enter Christ Church Cathedral for the consecration of
Bishop Laish Boyd, Anglican Coadjutor.
In Step
The Prime Minister is shown enjoying a dance with
Lady Marguerite Pindling during the Legacy Ball staged by the Pindling
Foundation at the weekend.
Bahamas Information Services photos by Peter Ramsay
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - Today
Sunday 9th July is the eve of Independence Day for The Bahamas. Tomorrow
will mark 33 years since the country achieved full self government.
The country is doing well. Our people are proud of their accomplishments
and believe that there is a great future in front of them. You have only
to see the cars driving around town with flags on each side, the flags
that fly at full staff on public and private buildings, the festive bunting
in the colours of the flag everywhere, the people themselves dressed in
the colours of the flag. This is the month of The Bahamas.
It was fitting therefore that the founder of the modern Bahamas Lynden
O. Pindling, its first Prime Minister who died on 26th August 2000 would
be honoured during this week. On Thursday 6th July, Nassau International
Airport got a new name in a moving and colourful ceremony.
The widow of Sir Lynden, Lady Marguerite Pindling headed the list of special
guests for the ceremony presided over by the Governor General, her husband’s
former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Hanna and her husband’s protégé
Prime Minister Perry Christie. Our photo of the week by Peter Ramsay
of Bahamas Information Services shows Lady Pindling at the newly renamed
Lynden Pindling International Airport. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
WHAT DOES INDEPENDENCE MEAN?
When the debate on whether The Bahamas would participate in the
Caricom Single Market and Economy ended last year, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs Fred Mitchell in his final address on the subject said that the
irony of the whole debate was that those who had opposed the independence
of The Bahamas in 1973, were now the very ones opposing what was a regional
trade pact for the benefit of The Bahamas on the ground that this would
dilute the sovereignty of The Bahamas. It sparked an interesting
round of discussions on what precisely the sovereignty of The Bahamas meant.
There is the thinking amongst the misinformed that the sovereignty
of The Bahamas means that the country and its leaders can do exactly whatever
they want to do. There is nothing further from the truth. Perhaps
in the realm of academic classes on legal theory one can persuade the students
that Parliament is supreme in that it can legislate for anything, anywhere
at anytime. However, we know that in many ways big and small that
is simply not practical nor possible. The fact is sovereignty is
hemmed in by all sorts of real and calculable issues.
Let us deal with a very simple example. There is the question
of illegal migration to The Bahamas. The legal theory is and certainly
the legal responsibility is that Bahamian authorities who claim a sovereign
right over the territory called The Bahamas should be able to protect the
borders of the country. This means not just from the incursions of
a declared war with enemies with guns but also from criminals and other
miscreants, including illegal migrants. Judging on that alone, it
is clear that The Bahamas does not have unlimited sovereignty in fact.
The country does not have the ability to stop the illegal migration.
It is struggling from a resources point of view. It does not even
have the full support of many of its people on how to deal with the issue.
It is also subject to international legal obligations that limit what can
be done with the illegal migrants within its’ territory.
The Minister for Immigration Shane Gibson in his communication to
Parliament on Wednesday 5th July on the illegal migration problem said
that the Cuban government was refusing to take back certain migrants who
had been in The Bahamas for over a year or who had been convicted of crimes
while overseas as illegal migrants from that country. He hopes to
be able to begin negotiations on a new accord that will agree with the
government of Cuba on how this problem is to be dealt with. The fact
is, however, we cannot impose our sovereign will.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell speaking after he came
back from trade talks in Washington D.C. said that it was clear that
The Bahamas had to decide if and how the country was going to integrate
itself into the world economy. The Bahamas at present stands aside
from the international system of trade in which all of the countries in
the Caribbean are a part. We have an application before the World
Trade Organization (WTO) to become members of that body but the application
has gone nowhere fast. When the Government last year sought to join
the single market of Caricom in order to prepare the country for accession
to WTO within a rules based system of trade, there was full scale revolt
led by the same idle and retrograde merchant class that tried to keep the
country from going independent in 1973 and before that had tried to subjugate
the majority population prior to 1967. For the time being they were
able to use the lack of knowledge amongst that majority on a very complex
issue to derail what was the best move for the country. In the next
five years, this is not a problem that will go away. It will get
more complex the longer we delay. This retrograde class did a great
injustice to our country.
Two strands are emerging on trade talks. Trade talks are tied
up with development assistance. The United States and Caricom in
their trade policies believe that trade must be liberalized to get rid
of preferences and border tariffs. This will allow the freer flow
of trade with all countries in both goods and services. The Bahamas
at present has a system of border tariffs and protections around Bahamian
enterprises in order to help boost local production and raise revenue.
The planning for a change in revenue base is rudimentary, and the merchant
class continues to believe that they can protect themselves by border tariffs
and legal discrimination against non nationals in certain areas.
Many argue that this is to the disadvantage of the poor because it results
in higher prices but that argument has gone nowhere. But the preference,
for example, which allows for lobster to go duty free into the United States,
expires in 2008. What then for the crawfish industry that hires an
estimated 20,000 souls who export some 98 million dollars worth of crawfish
a year into the United States? The U.S. has made it clear that if
we want a trade agreement, they would prefer a comprehensive trade agreement,
and further they would want a regional trade agreement because our market
is simply too small for a bilateral trade agreement.
The largest amount of development assistance comes from the European
Union. They will give nine million euros to The Bahamas this year.
As the present Contonou Agreement comes to an end, it will have to be replaced
by a new trade pact. The discussions are beginning now and The Bahamas
is unable to say whether it is fish or fowl. It sits at the table
with Caricom which is the only practical way to negotiate a trade pact
but we care not to be a part of the single market. That single market
and economy is going to become the only way forward into the international
trade pacts that will protect our services industry. Our sovereignty
is plainly limited by these practical decisions that we have to make.
This has been a rather dry economic text. We have left out
the all important cultural aspects that demonstrate to the world that we
have a unique way of life that we wish to protect. But even that
is changing before our eyes with the constant assault of cultures from
all around us by Americans, Jamaicans, Haitians and Cubans to name but
a few.
This is not a picture of gloom and doom, however. These are
simply the facts on this the 33rd anniversary of our independence.
It is time to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done, but it is
also time to think about the future.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 8th July 2006 at midnight:
96,497.
Number of hits for the month of July up to Saturday 8th July 2006
at midnight: 105,524.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 8th July 2006 at
midnight: 2,638,928.
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
CONGRATULATIONS
TO ALFRED SEARS
At long last an agreement has been signed with the troublesome Bahamas
Union of Teachers (BUT) led by the two people who lead, but who seem to
have a specialty in crude and disgusting behaviour. We call them
misleaders Belinda Wilson and Ida Poitier. The real hero of this
piece is Alfred Sears the Minister of Education who must have had the patience
of Job to put up with the foolish antics and silly behaviour of those two.
In the end, the Government gave up nothing and got
all that it wanted. The problem is the leaders of the BUT were too
blind and slow to see a good deal when they really had one. It took
them a long time to get to the point, and they got not a little help from
Bishop Neil Ellis. They finally saw the light. Better late
than never! The public service sanctity is now preserved without
breaking the bank. Hopefully, this crew will now live up to their
commitments and there will be some industrial peace in the work place.
The Minister signed the agreement on Friday 8th
July. He said that the overall package over five years will cost
the government 20 million dollars. The total amount per capita for
five years will be 785 dollars. The total amount to be paid to them
over the five years will be $3900, just slightly above where the nurses
are. They should not have gotten a penny more, given the costs that
they imposed on the country because of their silly antics during the negotiations.
We find it disturbing that there appear to be no consequences for the number
of blackmail artists that seem to be passing themselves off as leaders
in this country. It is a real shame but there it is.
BUT President Ida Poitier, left; and Minister of Education, Science
and Technology Alfred Sears sign a five-year industrial agreement between
the Government and the Bahamas Union of Teachers Friday at the Office of
the Prime Minister. BIS Photo: Raymond A. Bethel
GOVERNOR
GENERAL CITES 'LEVEL OF IGNORANCE'
The Governor General Arthur Hanna speaking at the
naming of Lynden Pindling International Airport said that the level of
ignorance about our country's history "distressing", especially amongst
young people. In addressing the ceremony, Mr. Hanna himself gave
a short history lesson about the forming of the modern Bahamas, noting
that "Once upon a time, The Bahamas was a very different place and that
time was not very long ago. It is important that our young understand
this. It is important that they understand the Distance from which
we have come. It is important that they know that it was a long and
difficult journey." Please click
here for the full address by the Governor General.
BIS Photo: Peter Ramsay
AN
END TO REVISIONISM ON PINDLING
“At the snap of his fingers he could have broken
Bay Street’s back… He could have… laid the rough hand of recrimination
and reprisal upon those who had themselves laid the rough hand of oppression
on the Bahamian people all through the years. But Lynden Pindling
chose another way”.
The address of Prime Minister Perry Christie at
the naming of Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau was an impressive
repudiation of the current attempts to revise history in relation to the
‘father of the nation’. Mr. Christie reminded the country that “all
Bahamians were the beneficiaries of what Pindling and his government did”.
Please click here for the Prime Minister’s
full remarks.
LEFT: Prime Minister Christie at the podium during the renaming
of Lynden Pindling International Airport; RIGHT: Minister
of Transport & Aviation Glenys Hanna Martin resplendent in independence
aquamarine at centre, beams at the success of her event as she is congratulated
by, from left Mrs. Bernadette Christie, wife of the Prime Minister; Her
Excellency Mrs. Arthur Hanna, wife of the Governor General and mother of
the Minister; Chairman of the National Commission on Culture Winston Saunders;
and Marguerite, Lady Pindling, widow of Sir Lynden. BELOW: Lady
Pindling and daughter Senator Michelle Pindling Sands join Prime Minister
Christie and prominent Junkanoos in a celebratory 'rushout' to mark the
occasion of the renaming of the airport. BIS photos: Peter Ramsay
PHILIP
GALANIS SWATS THE TRIBUNE
Philip Galanis, the Senator, is almost single handedly carrying the battle
joined some months ago by PLP Party Chairman Raynard Rigby against the
biased press of The Bahamas. Mr. Galanis who took on the Tribune
several weeks ago was at it again this past week when he sent another letter
to The Tribune indicating that as usual they had missed the point of his
first letter, and objecting to the racist invective of John Marquis, the
Managing Editor of The Tribune. In the process of responding, The
Tribune’s editorialist revealed that Mr. Marquis does not have a work permit.
It appears that the work permit is still pending.
Our view is quite clear; John Marquis' work permit
should not be renewed. Let Mr. Marquis go back to England where he
can cuss this country that gives him his livelihood all he wants from afar.
No amount of disingenuous double talk by them about freedom of the press
and the fear of foreigners can cover up their pure race hatred and political
bias.
The Tribune’s statement about the work permit being
outstanding was like a dare to the Government: dare to not renew it and
face the consequences. The answer is easy, these consequences we
can live with. Mr. Marquis should go and go now. If he were
a Haitian working in The Bahamas without a work permit, this discussion
here would certainly be academic. He would not be here to join it.
You may click
here for the full text of Mr. Galanis’ letter to the press.
INGRAHAM’S
PARTISANSHIP
Hubert Ingraham, the Leader of the Free National Movement and Leader of
the Opposition is an ever desperate man. He used as a pretext for
not showing up at the national ceremony to rename the airport in honour
of Sir Lynden Pindling, the first Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the
Father of the Nation, the fact that he did not get his invitations until
two days before in the House of Assembly. He and other parliamentary
members of his party refused to show up for the ceremony. For that
the radio talk shows bashed him and his colleagues for being petty and
ridiculous.
As it turns out, Mr. Ingraham actually misled the
country and the House of Assembly about the invitations. Mr. Ingraham
out of his own mouth said to the House that he got an invitation but the
invitation that he received two weeks before was that of the spouse of
Delores Ingraham his wife, the headmistress at a government high school.
It also included the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham. He was miffed about
that. The fact is he got an invitation.
In any event Mr. Ingraham's invitation as Leader
of the Opposition was according to Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe
delivered two weeks before. What Mr. Ingraham was talking about were
the extra five invitations that the Government decided to issue on the
day of the House of Assembly meeting, the day before he event Wednesday
5th July. These invitations were meant to be given to FNM supporters
who would have liked to attend the meeting. Alas their leaders chose
to do otherwise. It backfired badly on them.
Nassau Guardian photo
WHY
INGRAHAM CALLS FOR PARTY UNITY
Beware of This Man
Hubert Ingraham
The Master Triple Dipper of The Bahamas
|
The latest comments from Hubert Ingraham speaking at
a service for one of his meritorious councillors - a 92 year old - confirms
what we have been reporting in this column all along. His party is
in deep, deep doo doo. We have been saying for weeks that he has
a problem with party unity. The FNM mainstream is so cheezed off
at the way he has abused them that they have decided that in this next
general election they will sit on their hands. Tennyson Wells, the
MP for Bamboo Town (Independent) has been almost single handedly carrying
the battle against Mr. Ingraham’s perfidy. He has gotten some help
from MP Pierre Dupuch. But now Algernon Allen, another of Mr. Ingraham’s
former Cabinet Ministers has predicted that the PLP will win, even though
there will be casualties.
The former FNM Minister said that the PLP will win
26 seats and the FNM 14. Mr. Allen said that Mr. Ingraham has gutted
the FNM, cut it off from its history. He says that the party is actually
Mr. Ingraham’s party and does not in any way resemble the party of Sir
Kendal Isaacs and Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield. He said a party that
is cut off from its roots and its history cannot survive. It was
a damming indictment. Mr. Allen said that Prime Minister Perry Christie
has a heart of gold.
You know of the difficulties Mr. Ingraham has had
simply to name candidates. He has a party in full revolt after making
sure that no one who was loyal to former leader Tommy Turnquest could get
a place on the FNM’s ticket. We reported
the dissent. Now the situation has become public with Mr. Ingraham
calling for party unity, saying at the service for the meritorious councillor
that the FNM can only prevail if there is unity. Duh! He called it
“urgent and compelling”. Ah well! A little too late, we would
say. Mr. Ingraham's comments were made on Friday 7th July at FNM
Party Headquarters marking the passing of MC Christopher Roberts.
The comments were reported in the Nassau Guardian on Saturday 8th July.
Mr. Allen’s comments were made on Tuesday 4th July and were reported in
the Nassau Guardian on Wednesday 5th July.
THE
FAKER OF FOX HILL
There is a woman who is going around the Fox Hill
constituency who says that she is the FNM nominee for the Fox Hill constituency.
She is not. The FNM has no nominee in Fox Hill.
She says that she brought Sidney Poitier and the
UNESCO Secretary General to Fox Hill. She did not. She says
that her husband built the Roman Catholic Church in Fox Hill for free.
He did not.
She says that she has 2000 signatures in Fox Hill
of support. She does not.
She says that she has the support of the former
generals of the PLP in Fox Hill. She does not.
She says that she is providing jobs for the young
men of Fox Hill. She does not.
She says that she is so rich she can buy what she
wants including the support of the people of Fox Hill. She cannot.
In fact, so desperate is she for attention that
she had to be led into the Jungle Club Bar to be introduced to the people
of Fox Hill. Even though she claims that she is a Fox Hillian and every
one knows her. They do not. She is using a campaign of deceit
and fakery to try to win love and affection. It cannot work.
The people of Fox Hill are far more sophisticated than she gives credit
to them.
She is now known as the faker of Fox Hill.
Anyone who has to use the word doctor in every second line in a sentence,
to remind people that she has earned a Ph D has a serious problem with
self esteem. What she has to explain is how she is going to carry
all that African pride she claims to have into a party like the FNM that
despises Africans, black people and everything to do with them. Her
situation is certainly quite sad.
CARICOM
MEETING
Prime Minister Perry Christie joined his fellow
Caricom Heads of Government at the semi annual conference held this time
in St. Kitts and Nevis in the southern Caribbean from Monday 3rd July to
Wednesday 5th July. He was joined there with all the Caribbean heads
including new Heads of Government from Jamaica, Haiti and Montserrat.
The high point of the meeting for The Bahamas, a
country that is standing apart from the general trend in the region to
become a single market and economy, was the meeting between the new President
of Haiti Rene Preval and the Prime Minister of The Bahamas. The Bahamian
public learned about it second hand because of the lousy press coverage
by the Bahamian press of the events from Caricom. On the day that
the meeting took place, the news personnel from The Bahamas missed the
story, and the country therefore had to be content with second hand information
about the meeting, and had no opportunity to interview the new President
and give him a chance to discuss with them thoughts about Haitian/Bahamian
relations. The meeting took place on the evening of Tuesday 4th July.
The President of Haiti has been invited by the Prime
Minister to make a working visit to The Bahamas.
Prime Minister Christie and his party returned to
The Bahamas late Wednesday 5th July. They arrived just about midnight,
returning in time for the renaming of the Nassau International Airport
to Lynden Pindling International the next day.
The Nassau Guardian chose instead of highlighting
the grand, beautiful and moving ceremony at the airport; to lead with the
headline that the Prime Minister had been in an airplane emergency.
The story was simply that the hydraulic fluid had been lost from the aircraft,
meaning that the wheels had to be put down by hand, and the plane had only
manual brakes when it landed. The fire engines were there for emergency
purposes on the runway, adding to the drama. But to the Nassau Guardian
a totally inconsequential event suddenly became the main news on the day
when the renaming of the airport was clearly the main news. It reinforces
the point that we have made in this column before, the press in The Bahamas
is not up to snuff. They wouldn’t know the news if it stared them
right in the face. Two examples in this piece today should go a long
way toward proving the point.
FREAK
STORM IN WEST END
Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt, West End representative
Obie Wilchcombe, who is also the Minister of Tourism; and Dr. Bernard Nottage,
the Minister of Health together with the people of West End, had a real
scare on Friday 7th July.
The Deputy Prime Minister told the press that as
she had finished speaking on the occasion of receiving the gift of a fire
engine for the people of West End of a fire engine, a great storm descended
on the area where they were, tornado force winds whipped the scene, throwing
bodies around like paper. She said that she and the other two Ministers
were unscathed. However, several people including executives of the
Ginn Group developing a resort at West End received lacerations and bruises,
and one person had to be airlifted in serious condition to Miami’s Jackson
Memorial Hospital.
The DPM said that she was most impressed by the
fast work of the police who moved to protect her in the face of the storm.
No official word on what the weather phenomenon was. It frightened
the daylights out of the persons there assembled. Thankfully there
was no loss of life.
BRADLEY
ROBERTS BRINGS GOOD NEWS TO NORTH ABACO
In a visit to North Abaco on Friday 7th July, Minister
of Works Bradley Roberts signed contracts for the repair of the Government
docks at Coopers Town, Treasure Cay, Mount Hope and Crown Haven.
The Minister noted that he is developing a reputation as the 'good news'
Minister. The docks, which were damaged in the recent hurricanes,
will be reconstructed using hurricane resistant methods known as 'blow
away', wherein only the more easily replaceable elements of the dock blow
away under wind stress, making for easier, quicker and more inexpensive
repair.
Later Friday evening Mr. Roberts addressed a PLP
meeting of the constituency at which he encouraged a "fresh start by soundly
rejecting Hubert Ingraham, who has become arrogant, dictatorial and places
his personal interest and ambitions above the interest and well being of
the people of North Abaco". Please click
here for the full address of Mr. Roberts at the PLP meeting.
BERRY
FEST IN ANDROS
Last weekend, North Andros MP and Minister of Financial
Services & Investment Vincent Peet was in his constituency. The
Minister is shown above with Mrs. Marrieth Rolle cutting the ribbon at
the grand opening of her niece Lorene Rolle’s restaurant ‘Cafe Lorene’,
on 1 July, 2006, in Nicholl's Town, Andros. At left is Ms. Lorene
Rolle’s father John Rolle, Ms. Lorene Rolle and Ms. Clara Evans.
Below, Terez Hepburn sings for the crowd at the
2nd Annual Berry Fest, in Bullock's Harbour, the Berry Islands, on June
30, 2006. As many as 400 people attended the three-day event, at
its new site on Government Dock. Minister Peet is shown among those
enjoying the evening BIS photos: Eric Rose.
ATTORNEY
GENERAL TALKS LEGAL AID & SWIFT JUSTICE
Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson this past
week addressed a trade and legal aid conference hosted by the Eugene Dupuch
Law School. Mrs. Gibson said that perhaps it is time to expand the
system of legal aid in serious matters, so that the state "itself having
an interest in swift justice", would enable the accused to be properly
defended while acknowledging the right of victims and other law abiding
citizens to have these matters swiftly tried. The Minister also gave
an update on her programme of 'Swift Justice', which, she said statistics
show is working. Please click
here for the Minister's full address.
TURKS
CHIEF MINISTER AND WIFE VISIT
Michael Misick and his movie star wife Lisa Raye
McCoy Misick are in The Bahamas on a private visit. The Misicks were
married earlier this year in a spectacular ceremony in Providenciales attended
by Prime Minister Perry Christie, Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and Minister
of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe who was the best man. The Misicks arrived
on Friday 7th July and will depart Nassau on Monday 10th July.
FRED
MITCHELL AT THE RENAMING
Peter Ramsay, the BIS photographer took this picture
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell at the naming of the airport
in honour of the late Sir Lynden O. Pindling. In the commemorative
booklet for the naming, Mr. Mitchell recalled how he first met Sir Lynden
in 1969 as a high school student, how he as hosted to a visit to the House
of Assembly and later to lunch at the British Colonial Hotel by Sir Lynden.
He said he never forgot it. The Minister is pictured at the renaming
with Lady Marguerite Pindling, widow of Sir Lynden; a Pindling granddaughter
and Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt.
INDEPENDENCE
COUTURE EXHIBIT OPENS
An exhibit of the apparel worn to the many historic
and formal occasions of the original Independence Day in 1973 has opened
at the National Art Gallery. At the opening of the exhibit this past
week, Lady Marguerite Pindling and Lady Zoe Maynard were among the distinguished
guests who themselves had donated some of the articles on display.
Ladies Pindling, left, and Maynard, right, are pictured above with Allyson
Maynard Gibson after the opening.
BIS photo: Peter Ramsay
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
It Is Time We Grow Up
In reading the online version of the Bahama Journal
on 7th of July entitled “Pindling’s
Gateway” by Macushla N. Pinder, I was both shocked and disappointed
in the level of politics still evident in our independent Bahamas some
thirty-three years later.
As we celebrate the contributions of the father
of our modern Bahamas, Sir Lynden Pindling, by the renaming of the Nassau
International Airport, the Official Opposition would choose to use this
time for petty political mileage. Their excuse for not attending
this event is that they received their official invitations with only a
day’s notice. WOW! How petty can you go?
See, I am of the opinion, as I am sure most others
are, if any one of them had received an invitation, if only verbal, to
attend any event being hosted by an investor, they would have happily made
all arrangements to attend. Albeit, even standing grinning from ear
to ear for a photo opportunity.
I think that it is high time that we grow up!
We are now thirty-three, not three years old. We celebrate the achievements
of people, not necessarily those of the party – while I realize that this
some times is hard to do. We need to learn to give credit where credit
is due.
I applaud persons and entities that have taken
up the challenge of celebrating our national heroes. While we might
not always agree on everything, there are some things that history proves
that have taken place.
Let us not be quick to erase those footprints
in the sands of time, for it is those grains of sand that come together
to form a rock - a solid foundation – to build upon.
Again, I plead with you politicians – TIME TO
GROW UP!
A Proud Son of the Soil,
Keith S.
Independence Day
In the age of terrorism, injustices, denied liberties
and the likes, we in The Bahamas must give thanks.
Give thanks not only to God, but to those who
have given their lives for our freedoms, our liberties. Though we
are young in “dis ting” Independence, we are strong, we are proud and we
are few, but that ought not let us be given up to those injustices that
are faced by other small nests of the world.
I am proud to be a Bahamian, at least I am free.
I thank those who gave their life for me.
God Bless our land, God Bless the Bahamas.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE, BAHAMAS.
Icelyn Laverne Butler
A Proud Independent Bahamian.
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
In The Blood
Prime Minister Perry Christie demonstrates the elements
of the famed 'Christie' shuffle to Lady Marguerite Pindling and her grandchildren
during a 'rushout' at the naming of Lynden Pindling International Airport.
Unable to restrain his natural inclinations, the Prime Minister, himself
an historic Valley Boy Junkanoo, joins the rushout.
Independence Beating of the Retreat
Saturday, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the
Royal Bahamas Defence Force staged the traditional beating of the retreat
in downtown Bay Street. Prime Minister and Mrs. Christie (right)
react with delight at the dancing prowess of a talented Defence Force trumpeter
during the event.
Bahamas Information Services photos by Peter Ramsay
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - In
the week when according to The Tribune’s headlines on Friday 14th July,
the press (whoever that is?) was so helpless that it needed defending,
there was an engaging photo taken at the ceremony to rename Third Terrace
East the road leading to ZNS TV and Radio Rusty Bethel Drive. The
photo taken by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services shows Prime
Minister Perry Christie, the Leader of the PLP and Prime Minister of The
Bahamas deep in conversation with the Publisher and owner of the tribune
Eileen Carron. It does not look from the photograph that the Prime
Minister was attacking her or that she was in need of a defence.
Indeed, there is no evidence in the photo of any animosity at all.
It appears from the photo that she was perfectly able to speak for herself.
It is a great pity we cannot know what they were talking about. It
only goes to show that this business of the PLP attacking the press is
a myth, and that the only ones who say that they are under attack are the
press themselves but not because it is true or because they believe it
but because it makes good headlines and will earn a special line in the
annual human rights report of the United States Embassy on The Bahamas.
Our photo of the week is the politician and the press talking to each other.
Perfectly at peace! Hmmm! |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE PRESS AMBUSHES THE PLP
The poor press of The Bahamas. They are so weak, frail and
helpless that apparently they need defending. You know what happened.
Perhaps you may recall. Over the past weeks and month of this year
first the Chairman of the PLP Raynard Rigby, then the Minister of Foreign
Affairs Fred Mitchell, then Senator Philip Galanis and then Minister of
Works Bradley Roberts all pointed out that the press, the institutions
that is, are biased, unfair and down right lousy. Particular fire
was aimed at the importance of reporting the simple facts without editorializing.
Special attention was drawn to the work of John Marquis, the Englishman
abroad, whose views seem to show a hate for Black people and The Bahamas
but who makes all his money here. His work permit is said to be outstanding
and should not be renewed. But we know in the end the PLP will capitulate,
scared we guess of this press that needs so badly to be defended.
The Tribune headline of Friday 14th July read WILCHCOMBE DEFENDS
THE PRESS. The lead paragraph read: “Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe
has stood up defiantly against some PLP colleagues defending the freedom
of the press.”
The story went on to use a number of quotes that clearly were taken
wildly out of context and with a bit of editorializing put two and two
together to make five. The important point though is that the story
about what was said by the Minister proves exactly the point that his other
colleagues made and which when you read the full story, Mr. Wilchcombe
himself also makes. The only problem is the editorializing in the
story put there by The Tribune and not Mr. Wilchcombe is that Mr. Wilchcombe
was attacking his fellow Ministers which he was not. And the juxtaposition
in the story, again editorializing, which gave the impression that Mr.
Wilchcombe, was attacking one colleague in particular.
We think that Messrs. Rigby, Mitchell and Galanis are entirely right
in their criticism of the too often poor writing, the bad journalism, the
tendentious nature of the reporting in The Bahamas, the sleazy political
agenda of the media houses, and the shifting down market to embrace every
salacious and prurient interest that will sell newspapers.
The press needs no defending because the press is not under attack.
What is under attack is the bias and often deceitful behaviour of their
masters, which masquerades as news. In one public piece, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs told the House of Assembly that he wondered why some
of the reporters who work for these newspapers were getting all out of
joint because of the comments about the press. In fact as we have
pointed out in this column, it did not seem to us that anyone was talking
to the reporters. The talk was aimed at their bosses who chop up
their stories, put in misleading headlines and misuse the trust which these
reporters have built up with individuals in the government to obtain information
which they would not normally release.
We think that Senator Philip Galanis who we again report on this
week is spot on as he keeps up his campaign and pressure. It is unfortunate
that when The Tribune was on the ropes for its lack of integrity and the
tendentious nature of its reporting that the words of another PLP colleague
were misused by The Tribune to appear to give them some respite.
But as you can see from the actual words below, all is not what it appears.
In a free society, just as the press is free to attack politicians,
the politicians are free to attack them. The point of concern is
whether politicians exercise political power to prevent access of the press
to public information or prevent them by law or policy from doing their
jobs. None of that exists in The Bahamas, so the notion of having
to defend the press is a figment of someone’s imagination in The Tribune
and The Nassau Guardian; a strategic political decision so they can go
crying that they are under threat.
So much nonsense about the PLP is written in the press and untruthful
nonsense that the PLP must respond to it. The PLP has no voice in
the media giving its point of view. What it must do however is to
ensure that its supporters are armed with as many facts as possible, one
of which is that it is a fact of life that you have a biased press in The
Bahamas and that you should not accept what is written and said in the
press uncritically. Simple as that.
So we consider what was done in The Tribune of Friday 14th July a
political ambush by The Tribune. It proves the very point that was
being made about the ethics of institutions that would do such a thing.
They ambushed the Minister and twisted his words out of their context.
We continue to make the point that the press must be honest.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 15th July 2006 at midnight:
94,698.
Number of hits for the month of July up to Saturday 15th July 2006
at midnight: 200,222.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 15th July 2006 up
to midnight: 2,733,626.
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
EMBASSY
TO OPEN IN CUBA
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday
14th July that the Embassy of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas will be officially
opened for business in Havana on Monday 17th July. The Minister of
Foreign Affairs is to lead a delegation to Havana for the opening.
According to the official statement this opening represents the fulfilment
of an undertaking by the PLP administration to provide services for Bahamians
who are in Cuba. When the announcement was made, the local media
immediately started to dredge all the flotsam and jetsam of the political
history to impugn the decision.
When speaking on relations between The Bahamas and
Cuba, the Foreign Minister has always described the relationship between
the two countries as cordial but correct. The Opposition Free National
Movement’s leader Hubert Ingraham insulted the Cuban Government by saying
recently with regard to a vote at the United Nations that the Cubans would
not dare have the gumption to come and ask him to vote for them to be on
the Human Rights Council. He neglected to point however that when
he was Prime Minister, The Bahamas voted for Cuba to become a member of
the old Human Rights Commission.
The FNM seems to think that there is political mileage
to be gained by dissing Cuba, and attempting to make the case that The
Bahamas is anti US under the PLP by establishing an office in Cuba.
They neglect to point out that the United States itself has an office in
Cuba. We congratulate the government of The Bahamas on this correct
decision.
WILCHCOMBE
IN HIS OWN WORDS
On the day that The Bahamas Government chose to rename the street that
leads to ZNS Rusty Bethel Drive, the press chose to ambush the Minister
for Broadcasting, and then quoted words which were designed by them and
used out of context to try to sow the seeds of discord. Of course
the PLP is all together, and the only people who think that they can sow
discord are the wicked mistress and master of The Tribune.
The Tribune headed their pernicious story on Friday
14th July WILCHCOMBE DEFENDS THE PRESS. The Tribune’s characterization
gave the false impression that there was an attack on the press by the
PLP and that the press needed defending. Here is what the Minister
reportedly said in his own words:
“I am a broadcaster, and I believe in integrity.
I hate the insults that are being thrown at the media. It is really
annoying me because politicians love to do it.
“When you work with them, they love you.
When you don’t work with them they hate you. And then they say things
that bring shame and disgrace to me as a broadcaster, and I hate it.
I am politician, but I hate it.
“We [media] are the watchdogs for the state,
so why are we criticizing, the media? Are we criticizing The Tribune?
For what purpose? What are we criticizing the Guardian for?
“I look at what the media does, and I appreciate
that the media, in many circumstances, is privately owned in this country.
They have an editorial opinion, and that’s their right to have an opinion.
If the truth is not being told, you have a way to challenge that.”
The Tribune commented that when the conversation
with Mr. Wilchcombe turned to a recent speech to North Abaco residents
by MP Bradley Roberts, Mr. Wilchcombe said:
“When the politician goes out of line, you have
to bring them back in line. You have to point them out and not be
afraid to point them out because what’s important in leadership?
Character, and what creates character? Integrity.
“If I am going to be lying, what kind of integrity
do I have?
“To hell with the politician. We come and
we go. The broadcaster must recognize that his audience and his public
is who [sic] he reports to.
“We have a free society. I want to see
a better country. I want to see honesty and integrity, and I want
to see the professional broadcaster respected.
“I want to see the media practitioners respected,
and I do not like what we are doing in this country right now. We
pull people down when we think it is to our advantage, particularly the
political advantage.”
BIS photo of a pensive Obie Wilchcombe against the backdrop of
legendary broadcaster H.R. 'Rusty' Bethel by Tim Aylen
WHAT’S
HAPPENING AT THE PORT?
The question in the headline is one that is being asked all over New Providence
and Grand Bahama. The reason is this. Edward St. George, the
visionary and head honcho of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, died suddenly
Christmas 2004. The Port’s management flounders while they try to
pick a successor. Eventually they pick Julian Francis, the retired
Central Bank Governor. He takes up his position on 1st May 2005.
One year later, the cash cow the shareholders had expected was not producing
the milk under Mr. Francis; and with relations between the Government and
Mr. Francis and Mr. Francis and the shareholders becoming testy, Mr. Francis
resigns. The two sides part company with the usual blandishments,
but it sure looks like a dismissal to everyone else.
To everyone’s surprise the shareholders of the Port
then pick a little known Austrian businessman Hannes Babak who is apparently
intensely disliked by the local white Bahamian business community and treated
with suspicion by some Black businessmen in Freeport to lead the Port as
Chairman. The brilliant and adept Sir Albert Miller (pictured), the
former Chair and CEO under Edward St. George, comes back to fill in while
a search for a new CEO takes place.
In the meantime, the rumour mill starts flying in
the company town about a list of people who are to be fired now that Hannes
Babak has his hands on the wheel. The news seems to be confirmed
when Barry Malcolm is let go, but few people shed tears for Barry Malcolm
who is known as a dedicated FNM political ideologue who takes no prisoners
himself.
The rumour mill is further fed when Willie Moss,
the sister of former Foreign Minister under the FNM Janet Bostwick is let
go. Her job is made redundant. It appears that despite the
usual blandishments she is not happy. Days later Sean McWeeney, the
former Attorney General and Senator Sharon Wilson, the wife of the Chairman
of the College of The Bahamas, resign in a very public way saying that
they were not consulted on any of the management changes at the Grand Bahama
Port Authority. That is why the question is being asked.
For our money, it is simply that with the changing
of the guard new people must come in and old ones go. That’s the
way it is and only the PLP in Government post 2002 did not practice that.
The conspiracy theorists say that this is a move to displace Bahamians
at the Port and that more is to come. It appears that there is a
concerted attack on Mr. Babak. Senator Philip Galanis took time out
from his well reasoned assault on the tendentious press of The Bahamas
to make the case that Hannes Babak is not acceptable as the Chairman of
the Port Authority. The jury is still out.
GROUNDBREAKING
FOR THE NEW STADIUM
The Chinese Government is now fulfilling its promise
made to Prime Minister Perry Christie on his state visit to China in 2004.
While in China, the Prime Minister signed an agreement by which the Chinese
agreed to provide a 30 million dollar stadium to The Bahamas for national
Olympic sports and other uses. The design work is now finished and
groundbreaking took place on Monday 10th July in Nassau. The new
stadium is to take its place beside the existing Thomas A. Robinson Stadium
in Nassau. The photo of Prime Minister Christie and Minister of Sports
Neville Wisdom accompanied by Chinese officials and Bahamian sports dignitaries
is by Derek Smith of Bahamas Information Services.
FOULKES
TAKES THE FNM’S SIDE
Sir Arthur Foulkes, the former colleague of Sir
Lynden Pindling both in the Cabinet and in the House, has decided to take
a partisan role in the matter of the naming of the Nassau International
Airport after Sir Lynden. On the radio programme Jones and Company
last Sunday, its host Wendall Jones was incredulous when Sir Arthur maintained
that the airport should not have been named after Sir Lynden because during
the 1980s the country had the reputation for drugs and corruption and that
the international media would see the naming of the airport as a form of
glorifying that era.
Sir Arthur repeated the sentiments in his column
in The Tribune of Tuesday 11th July. He wrote: “Some members of the
media may be tempted to revisit the seventies and the eighties when The
Bahamas was in the throes of a corrupt drug culture that attracted international
attention and will forever be associated with Sir Lynden and his Government.
They will consider why we named an international airport after him.”
Sir Arthur went further to say that the Opposition Leader was right not
to attend the ceremony for the naming of the airport because he got the
invitation late or not at all, and he was not consulted on the naming of
the airport after Sir Lynden and did not have a part in the programme.
With respect, we think that the comments of Sir
Arthur are wrong, misguided and partisan. It reminded us of the FNM’s
position on Independence. We agree with Independence but not at this
time. The question of drugs and corruption in this connection features
only in the minds of the partisan crowd in The Bahamas. What we have
is a situation where Sir Lynden has never been forgiven for beating them
for 25 years. In Sir Arthur’s case, he was dismissed from the Pindling
Cabinet in the early years of the PLP’s government. Hubert Ingraham
is still smarting because he too was fired from the Pindling Cabinet.
The decisions of the FNM in this matter were entirely
politically motivated. No one for a moment believes that the lack
of an invitation to the function was the reason they did not come.
In fact, Mr. Ingraham had an invitation, and not just one day before either.
He chose not to come because, he is politically opposed to Sir Lynden,
his party and all that it stands for, even in death. Mr. Ingraham
had to make a political stand but why not be bold instead of hiding behind
etiquette as an excuse?
The fact is the decision not to attend the ceremony
renaming the airport has backfired on the FNM. They ought to have
been there. That is water under the bridge now but all we say is
that Sir Arthur has reached the time in his political life when he should
be beyond this kind of petty grudge because, with respect, that is the
way his objections come off. Sir Lynden is the father of the nation.
Nothing can change that fact; warts and all. The airport was properly
named after him and that as they say is that.
PHILIP
GALANIS HITS BACK
On Friday 7th July, The Tribune wrote an editorial to complain
about the fact that Prime Minister Perry Christie did not respond to a
request to place a message for independence inside their commercial supplement
to mark the independence of the country. They ended the piece with
the line that they had waited until the end with their print deadline but
that PLPs should know that this was the reason why “their” Prime Minister
was not in the supplement. Senator Philip Galanis was on them again.
(Click here for last week’s
story)
Senator Galanis was rightly incensed. This
is the kind of low down, slimy thing for which The Tribune is now noted.
They on the face of it are making a case for balance and fairness but deep
down inside they have no respect at all for the office of Prime Minister
because a PLP holds that office. The Prime Minister is the Prime
Minister of The Bahamas, all The Bahamas, and all Bahamians including Eileen
Carron of The Tribune. We urge Senator Galanis to stick to his guns
in this matter. It is the only way to try to keep them honest.
You may click
here for the full text of what Senator Galanis had to say.
RUSTY
BETHEL DRIVE
Thursday 13th July, the politicians and media gathered
with the family of the late Harcourt R. ‘Rusty’ Bethel to witness the renaming
of the street called Third Terrace East, Centreville to Rusty Bethel Drive.
Mr. Bethel was the first Bahamian General Manager of Radio Station ZNS.
He joined in 1936 when it started and retired shortly after the PLP came
to office in 1970. He was well known for the ads that he did for
OK Flour. The slogan “If it’s OK flour, it’s OK” is forever associated
with him in the minds of Bahamian above a certain age.
Mr. Bethel was remembered as good public servant,
and as an avuncular figure who took the radio station through its developmental
years. The Prime Minister Perry Christie officially renamed the street.
Mr. Bethel’s daughter, Sheila Ashton, who lives in Cherokee Sound, Abaco
did the honours in unveiling the new street sign.
Oh, by the way, General Manager of ZNS Anthony Foster
has responded to the letter sent by Dr. Juliet Storr who questions whether
ZNS is properly celebrating 70 years of broadcasting. He says that
while the station officially began in 1937, test broadcasting did in fact
start in May 1936. We will print the full letter next week.
BIS photo: Tim Aylen
BRADLEY
ROBERTS SCORES INGRAHAM
Beware of This Man
Hubert Ingraham
The Master Triple Dipper of The Bahamas
|
While speaking before an audience of PLPs rearing to
go in North Abaco on Thursday 6th July, the constituency of the Leader
of the Opposition Hubert Ingraham, the Minister of Works Bradley Roberts
made the point that Mr. Ingraham was living off a fat pension and other
perks that he gave to himself shortly before he left office. More
specifically Mr. Roberts made the point that Mr. Ingraham was collecting
the monies that Parliament allocated for the use of a constituency office
in North Abaco and not using the money for the purposes for which it was
intended. Please click here
for Mr. Roberts' full address in Abaco.
The Tribune in reporting the speech of Mr. Roberts
on Wednesday 12th July editorialized through the report of the speech.
This again shows the malicious intent in their journalism. Mr. Roberts
said that the Ingraham Cabinet had given him monstrous benefits just before
he left office. Mr. Ingraham in his response was as usual disingenuous.
He claimed that the benefits he gets as a former Prime Minister are the
same as Sir Lynden. Not so. Mr. Ingraham collects over $200,000
from the public purse directly and this does not include the allowances
for his driver and house maid. These additional benefits were granted
to him just before the re-election in 2002, and they were not available
to Sir Lynden.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Ingraham denied the full
pension and benefits to Sir Lynden, forcing him to retire with the thought
that he could only collect the pension if he left office. Mr. Ingraham
wrote to the Secretary to the Cabinet on the file to ensure that Sir Lynden
had retired before the first cent was given, even though the law, as we
now know, does not require a resignation. So he sits and collects
a fat pension, his salary as an MP and as Leader of the Opposition, and
collects the allowance for a constituency office which he does not use
because there is no office in Abaco.
We agree with Mr. Roberts in what he said as follows
about Hubert Ingraham: “A lying representative, who is double minded, is
as dangerous to your health, wealth and welfare as it would be if you had
walked into a lion’s den, with a pork chop suit on.” Mr. Ingraham
has admitted that he has taken 108 payments of $1500 each since the allowances
were started. He claims that he is holding them in an account called
the North Abaco Constituency Account. He fails to acknowledge that
the funds beneficially belong to him. He fails to acknowledge that
the funds are not being used for their designated purpose. That is
it, plain and simple. You may click
here for the full response of Mr. Roberts to the Tribune articles.
Mark Humes who wrote the story about Mr. Roberts'
initial remarks ought to check one additional fact. The trip to Abaco
was not a Government sponsored trip. It was paid for entirely by
the Mr. Roberts and the Progressive Liberal Party. As Ronald Reagan,
the US President used to say: “There they go again!”
INDEPENDENCE
2006
The country celebrated the 33rd anniversary of its
independence on Monday 10th July. The traditional observances were
held up because of bad weather on the eve of the anniversary. They
did manage to get the ecumenical service done before the rains came down.
The next night was a perfect night though. All of the Bahamian glitterati
were out in force at the state reception at Government House led for the
first time in this capacity Arthur D. Hanna as the Governor General.
BIS photo by Peter Ramsay shows Governor General Arthur Hanna at centre
with Prime Minister and Mrs. Christie, left; and Deputy Prime Minister
and Mr. Pratt, right as the enter the upper gardens at Government House.
FOX HILL
FRIENDS
The state reception for Independence 2006 was a
grand affair, with many Bahamians using the opportunity to greet old friends
and comrades. Our photo shows Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell together
with some of his constituents who attended the event.
FLAG
RAISING IN FOX HILL
Fred Mitchell is the Member of Parliament for the
Fox Hill constituency and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public
Service. In response to the suggestions of the National Independence
Day Committee, the Minister led the people of Fox Hill in a service to
raise the flag to commemorate the anniversary in the local community on
Saturday 15th July.
Mr. Mitchell took the opportunity to address the
people on the reason for celebrating freedom from slavery which comes on
1st August 2006 and that of freedom from colonialism. He pointed
out that the qualifications to run for the House of Assembly are that you
must be 21 years of age, a Bahamian, not a bankrupt and of sound mind.
He emphasized being of sound mind. He also took the opportunity following
an the appearance in the press by the Faker of Fox Hill (click
here for last week’s story) that she had donated some $5000 to the
Congoes Junkanoo group to remind the people of Fox Hill what bad form it
is to boast about what you have given people. He quoted from Corinthians
that charity is not puffed up. You may click
here for the full address and the photos are by Patrick Hanna of Bahamas
Information Services.
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Health Heroes
Prime Minister Perry Christie and Minister of Health
Dr. Bernard Nottage joined Governor General Arthur Hanna at Government
House this past week to honour persons who have distinguished themselves
through service to the national health. The Prime Minister and Minister
are pictured above on the steps of Government House with the 'Health Heroes'.
Bahamas Baptist College Graduation
Also this past week, Mr. Christie delivered the
commencement address to the graduating class of Bahamas Baptist College.
Please click here for the Prime Minister's
full address.
Laura's Birthday!
The Prime Minister and Mrs. Christie joined
Marguerite Lady Pindling at Gambier House this weekend for a special birthday
celebration. It was the 63rd (oops) of party supporter Laura Williams,
which was celebrated in fine style at Progressive Liberal Party Headquarters.
Laura and her family are pictured above with the VIP guests. She
is known throughout the party for her elaborate hairstyles in party colours,
especially during convention. Happy Birthday Laura!
Bahamas Information Services photos by Peter Ramsay
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - Sol
Kerzner and his son Butch are quite a team. In 2002, the Government
of Hubert Ingraham with whom they were mighty close, passed from the scene
by edict of the Bahamian people. Without missing a step, the Kerzners
and their business in The Bahamas at Paradise Island, the Atlantis Resort
has prospered and gone from strength to strength. They have formed
a clearly close and significant partnership with the existing Progressive
Liberal Party government under Perry Christie. This has resulted
in a billion dollars or more of additional investment in The Bahamas, and
on Thursday 20th July, Sol and his son Butch had the topping off ceremony
for the new part of their tourist dream machine. The project is known
simply as Phase III but with their tourism machine generating healthy profits,
they have been able to expand into other countries and to buy their company
back from the stock exchange and now there is talk of Phase IV. Prime
Minister Perry Christie, the Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt, Senior
Minister Bradley Roberts and other Ministers joined the Kerzners
at Paradise Island with their 1800 construction workers to celebrate the
topping off ceremony. A giant Bahamian flag was unfurled and a tree
was set atop the roof of the new structure. It is expected to open
to guests within 8 months. Sol Kerzner announced that some 3000 new
employees will be needed to run the new hotel. And so our photo of
the week is the view of Sol Kerzner, the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister
Fred Mitchell and others looking up into the sky as the topping off ceremony
took place. The photo is by Peter Ramsay of Bahamas Information Services. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
ENGLISHMEN ABROAD
The term ‘guest workers’ is one that is generally associated these
days with the near slaves who inhabit the fields of United States agriculture.
They come over from Mexico to the United States, legally or illegally and
perform the menial labour in construction and farming that the United States’
citizens won’t perform. Today we extend that term to the Englishmen
abroad who inhabit the work stations of The Tribune and The Nassau Guardian.
If the policy of the immigration department of The Bahamas is to be believed,
they are here because they have jobs which no Bahamian can do, and they
have an obligation to train Bahamians to replace them.
On that rationale, it is clear that they have no place in the politics
of The Bahamas. Secondly, they are guests and they should stay out
of the politics of The Bahamas, enjoy themselves, do their jobs and go
back home when their jobs are finished. For the life of us, we cannot
understand why John Marquis, the Englishman who has been here now for a
decade or more since the Ingraham administration gave the Carrons of The
Tribune permission to hire him, is still here. We cannot understand
what he is still doing here. It was revealed in The Tribune's own
columns that he has an outstanding work permit application, and while no
word has been given about whether it has now been renewed, we do know that
up to the time it was first reported by them, he had been working without
a work permit in The Bahamas for nearly six months. If he had been
a Haitian, he would have been put on the boat and sent back home.
Our position on this is clear; if the work permit is outstanding, the same
courtesy extended to illegal Haitians should be extended to Mr. Marquis
without regard for race or nationality.
Again, if the rationale of the Bahamian immigration policy is to
be believed, it is clear that Mr. Marquis has failed in doing what he was
brought here to do. He has certainly not trained a Bahamian, and
you cannot tell us that there is no Bahamian who is qualified to be the
Managing Editor of The Tribune. By a perverse twist of fate, the
Nassau Guardian has obviously been able to sell the same argument it appears
to the now Government which allowed that paper to import two Englishmen.
Again, the view was that they could train Bahamians who were unqualified
or that Bahamians were unwilling to work for The Nassau Guardian, and secondly,
the qualified Bahamians who were here did not want the job.
So today, the newsrooms of the two major dailies of The Bahamas are
run by three Englishmen. John Marquis who has blatantly racist and
anti Bahamian views, continues to lead The Tribune. He and Eileen
Carron suit each other, anachronisms from an age when the black man was
expected to apologize for his existence. The two who came here as
consultants to the Nassau Guardian, appear now to have the full range of
management over the paper, to the point where they are writing anonymously
comments about the Government and what they perceive is an attack on the
press.
This leads us to the piece that was written we believe by one of
these Englishmen abroad who work for the Nassau Guardian. The headline
of the article written on Tuesday 18th July was GAGGING THE PRESS BY STEALTH.
In the article, the writer who we believe to be one of the Englishmen argued
that The Bahamas Government is trying to gag the press because it is being
suggested by someone; it doesn’t say who, that Mr. Marquis’ work permit
should be revoked. They argue that this is gagging the press.
This is false logic and the piece is entirely dishonest.
This is one of these Englishmen sticking their noses into the affairs
of The Bahamas again. We remind him that he is a guest worker and
ipso facto should stay out of the politics of The Bahamas.
An Englishman who is on a work permit at the Nassau Guardian, is
writing a story to defend another Englishman who has a work permit that
has expired, who does not then have a current legal status in the country,
and should simply return home.
The fact is there is no attack on the press, what we have is simply
two guest workers who want to stay in The Bahamas. One at the Nassau
Guardian who is arguing before a similar fate comes to him that Mr. Marquis,
another Englishman, should have a work permit in perpetuity. Another,
Mr. Marquis, is arguing in a racist and anti Bahamian fashion that the
Government of The Bahamas ought to change.
Under Mr. Marquis’ editorship, lies, tendentious slants, misinformation,
garbage is being printed, and in the name of press freedom, they are arguing
that no one from the PLP or the government should respond. They are
simply trying to protect their lives in paradise on vacation.
The argument as the obtuse Mr. Marquis appears not to see has nothing
to do with how politicians are treated in England. The argument from
us is simply that in the free society that they say they are arguing for,
the politician is also free to attack them if they are attacking politicians.
What this crew of Englishmen is simply doing is setting the story up for
the Americans so they can report next year that the US thinks there is
a human rights problem in The Bahamas over freedom of the press.
We can see it coming now.
We will not stop. We encourage those members of the governing
party like Fred Mitchell, Senator Philip Galanis and Bradley Roberts to
continue with this present tack. We are reminded of the African proverb
often quoted by the Prime Minister Perry Christie: "Until lions have their
own writers, the tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter".
The supporters of the PLP must know that the information that is being
printed by these two papers is not only slanted, but often simply wrong
and inaccurate and must not be read uncritically. If that is attack
on the press then so be it.
We can examine story by story the gross inaccuracies and poor journalist
ethics in both The Tribune and the Nassau Guardian. For example,
The Tribune under Mr. Marquis and his minions have taken to quoting from
this column and attributing the quotes to Fred Mitchell. We hope
that they do not get a libel letter from Mr. Mitchell for continuing to
perpetrate that lie. It is simply dishonest. Mr. Mitchell can
certainly speak for himself and does not need this column to speak for
him.
Then The Tribune has this habit of siccing its Bahamian writers on
the Bahamian politicians. Rupert Missick Jr. was used in one such
foray when the matter had nothing to do with him. This week, we publish
a
letter from one Mark Humes whom we do not know, but who took offence
at the comments made in this column last week about a tendentious story
written under his name. This column is a purely political column.
We make no apology for that. The Tribune, however, counts itself
as a paper of record, and has an obligation to fairness. This column
has no such obligation, although we try to maintain a high standard of
accuracy. The letter reveals a certain naiveté about politics,
and the fact that when big people are in an argument, you simply stay out
of it.
What is wrong and under attack is the often racist and anti Bahamian
slant in the press, engineered by guest workers in the country. The
press is not under attack. Such a notion is only the figment of the
fanciful and grand imagination of some wicked interfering guest workers
– Englishmen abroad.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 22nd July 2006 at midnight:
83,943.
Number of hits for the month of July up to Saturday 22nd July 2006
at midnight: 284,165.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 22nd July 2006 at
midnight: 2,817,569.
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
PRESTON
STUART JR. FOUND DEAD IN HIS CAR
The talk of the ruling class of a certain age this week was all about the
mysterious disappearance and then untimely death of Preston Stuart Junior,
a businessman who ran the numbers in Freeport and was a hotel investor,
and taxi cab company owner. He was well liked, indeed well loved
and his disappearance set off alarms throughout the island of Grand Bahama
and in New Providence. His death caused deep concern and is a great
loss to many. What could have happened? As it happened, Mr.
Stuart was suffering it seems from depression for some time. The
news now comes out from various family and friends that for several weeks
if not months, he had been talking about death, putting his affairs in
order, and was especially down about the recent deaths of his friends.
He reportedly lamented that he had been to too many funerals of his friends.
The reports say that Mr. Stuart told his family
that he was putting his house in order by arranging his financial accounts
and making provisions for his significant other. This concerned the
family but apparently did not set off alarm bells sufficiently. Mr.
Stuart was last heard from on Saturday evening 15th July. His car
was later spotted by the police on a video camera film from a food store
and then the car was found in 40 feet of water in Queen’s Cove, an area
in which he owned considerable real estate. There was apparently
no truth to the back channel chat that his businesses were in trouble.
Mr. Stuart’s body was found in the car. He was pronounced dead on
the scene.
If it does turn out to be depression, it also points
out the need for there to be a real public education exercise on depression
and what it is. Depression is a disease, a mental illness that is
caused by physical and chemical changes in the brain. And like other
diseases of a physical nature, it can be cured or controlled. It
takes friends and family to recognize it and to step in and step in aggressively.
The result of deep and chronic depression is often suicide. Businessman
and lawyer Cay Gottlieb of Grand Bahama suffered a similar fate.
We think that this is quite a sad thing to have happened, and we wish Mr.
Stuart’s family well. His body was found on Wednesday 19th July 17th
2006.
EMBASSY
OPENED IN CUBA
Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has
another success to add to his considerable list of accomplishments as foreign
minister of The Bahamas. Having opened an Embassy for The Bahamas
in Beijing in January 2006, the Embassy in Cuba has now been officially
opened. The Minister accompanied by colleague Minister Melanie Griffin
and MPs Tennyson Wells, Whitney Bastian and Ambassador Keod Smith officiated
at the opening of the Bahamian Embassy in Havana located on Fifth Avenue
in that city. The Ambassador for The Bahamas is Carlton Wright.
He is joined on the staff by his wife Audrey Wright, Nestor Sands, Vice
Consul and Shari Hall as Secretary. Able Seaman Oral Woods has joined
the Embassy as an attaché. The Minister said that the event
was accomplished after many years of preparation and hard work. He
said it marked another step in relations between Cuba and The Bahamas.
The two countries are closest geographical neighbours. The Minister
rejected concerns about the United States Government and the Embassy opening
as propaganda by his political opponents. The National Children’s
Choir of The Bahamas was also in Havana for the opening along with a number
of Bahamian private citizens. The embassy opens officially for business
on Monday 24th July. You may click
here for the Minister’s full statement.
The Bahamian flag is shown being raised at the new embassy in Cuba
in this Nassau Guardian photo by Farreno Ferguson
ANOTHER
ENGLISHMAN IN OUR BUSINESS AGAIN
John Hinchliffe was one of the minions of Jack Hayward
and Edward St. George of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. He left
The Bahamas after by all accounts a moderately respectable performance
as the head of the Sea Port in Freeport. From time to time, he has
made interventions in political matters since he has left The Bahamas.
Once he sought in a previous incarnation of this column to defend the nonsense
that Jack Hayward spun about the Grand Bahama Port Authority and Bahamians.
You would expect a loyal former employee to go in that direction.
But both he and Jack Hayward are anachronisms for the dustbin of history.
Now comes another bit of nasty mischief, perpetrating
in death against Sir Lynden Pindling what they could not successfully say
in life. You have the worthless views of John Marquis, an Englishman
of a similar ilk, spewing venom about Sir Lynden; aided and abetted by
Eileen Carron, The Tribune's owner. They have now published a letter
by John Hinchliffe in which he by a wink and a nod accuses Sir Lynden of
being involved with drug traffickers. There is no such evidence and
it is patently untrue. The letter quotes a U.S. Liaison Officer to
The Bahamas Helmut Schlichtinng and DEA officer R.C. Gambel as implicating
Sir Lynden. Well he doesn’t quite say it, but by clever juxtaposition
that’s the idea. He then brings the minority report of Archbishop
Drexel Gomez who claimed in the report on a balance of probabilities that
you could not say that the monies that Sir Lynden got in cash donations
did not come from drugs.
Mr. Hinchliffe’s letter is all revisionist nonsense.
There is no evidence that Lynden Pindling took drug money. It is
propaganda, and we now know that American intelligence is not the most
reliable in the world, what with the British and the Americans having lied
to their people about another matter based on faulty intelligence.
No thank you Mr. Hinchliffe. Why don’t you stay out of our business,
mind your own, and correct the problems in your own society? We can
tell tales about Winston Churchill if you want to start down that road.
The letter was published in The Tribune of Saturday 22nd July 2006.
BAHAMASAIR
SHUTS DOWN FOR A DAY
The national flag carrier is having is challenges again. On Wednesday
19th July, the whole schedule of the airline into Miami was thrown in doubt
and chaos when the airline closed down its operations in Miami due to what
the press called a maintenance review. The review was initiated by
the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States. The angry
public was again cursing at the airline. An investigation into the
matter is likely. The next day, weather played havoc with the schedule.
ARTHUR
FOULKES ON OBIE WILCHCOMBE
What the heck has gotten into Sir Arthur Foulkes?
You know the former Ambassador to China and to Cuba, the former Minister
of the Government, the former PLP MP and then FNM MP. You know in
last week’s column we took issue with him because of his illogical attack
on naming the airport after Sir Lynden Pindling. But this time we
know he’s really gone over the top, he attacked Obie Wilchcombe, the Minister
of Tourism. My God! He will risked being dropped from the Ministry
of Tourism’s invitation list or is it that he is interested in becoming
a consultant for the Ministry? We’ll soon find out. Here is
what the columnist Arthur Foulkes said in his own words.
“Minister Wilchcombe seems to be in a pandering
mode these days and one can only wonder why. The people in his own
party and many of his friends who saw in him a future leader or prime minister
must be having second thoughts.”
Why is Sir Arthur’s getting into the PLPs business?
In any event, we have in the Minister of Tourism a man who said that press
criticism doesn’t bother him at all, so we would expect that the harsh
and unkind words of Sir Arthur will not bother him at all. Sir Arthur
Foulkes’ column and sentiments appeared on Tuesday 18th July 2006.
D'BRICKASHAW
COMES TO TOWN
D'Brickashaw Ferguson is six feet, six inches tall
and weighs 300 pounds. He was the U.S. National Football League’s
fourth draft pick. He is now chosen to play with the New York Jets
and a contract figure of 60 million dollars is expected. The 22 year
old is a Bahamian and had come to town to renew his Bahamian passport.
He asked for a Bahamian flag to take back. He is the grandson of
Tom Ferguson of Fox Hill.
The Fox Hill MP joined other Members of Parliament
in congratulating the young man on his accomplishments. Mr. Mitchell
reminded him that Fox Hill was a free African village. The people
of Fox Hill were never slaves, and wherever he went in the world he should
carry that tradition of freedom with him. Tim Aylen of the Bahamas
Information Services took the photo at the House on Wednesday 19th July.
RANDY
FRASER IN COURT
The press reported that during the height of the
salacious testimony against accused Bishop Randy Fraser in the Magistrate’s
Court on Monday 17th July, the Bishop was tying his shoe laces. Each
newspaper gave full and lurid accounts of the accusations of a 17 year
old congregant of the Bishop at the Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. James
Road. The Bishop was accompanied by members of the congregation who
tried to shield him from the press as he arrived at the hearing.
One wonders why his attorneys allowed this matter to proceed in the midst
of such a circus.
The young woman who is now 17 said that she had
sex several times this year and last year the relationship began allegedly
with oral sex performed on her at the Bishop’s office. The matter
was reportedly uncovered when it was reported to a church friend who persuaded
her to tell her mother. The matter has been adjourned to 17th October.
GALANIS
ANSWERS THE TRIBUNE
Trust The Tribune to try to pollute the issue. This one is a classic,
even for them. They were being pinned to the mat on the question
of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the criticism levelled by Senator
Philip Galanis about why the government has taken a hands-off attitude
toward who owns and controls the Grand Bahama Port Authority and what they
are doing with their employees. You may click
here for last week’s story on the Port.
So what did The Tribune do on Wednesday 19th July
2006? Well everyone knows their links with Jack Hayward at the Port.
Anytime the Port wants to savage someone in the press somehow Jack Hayward’s
views show up in The Tribune's columns. So many people think they
are two peas in a pod. There was no surprise then when on 19th July
Eileen Carron ran an editorial in The Tribune saying that it was sour grapes
why Senator Galanis was concerned about the state of the Port. We
wonder why when Arthur Foulkes made the same point in his column in their
newspaper on Tuesday 18th July that was not sour grapes, although the point
was the same.
It appears that Hannes Babak, the Chairman of the
Port Authority who is at the centre of controversy, is being stung by the
criticism. Mr. Babak unwisely got himself quoted in the press giving
the clear impression he has a vendetta against Senator Galanis, which is
the point the Senator is making on why he should not have the job of Chairman
of the Port in the first place. Bad move Hannes.
The sour grapes? Well Senator Galanis made
a bid with a group to buy the Port and Jack Hayward indicated that he did
not want to sell. That, The Tribune claims, is the real reason why
Senator Galanis is making his points. Interesting! So when
Mr. Babak asked to buy the shares, he was rewarded instead with a contract
to run it right? Meanwhile, we have the text of Senator Galanis’
letter and we say go right ahead, full steam my brother!
THE
AG’S SWIFT JUSTICE CRUSADE
Attorney General Allyson Gibson continues to press
her swift justice initiative. This week in the House she led the
Parliament in passing a bill to amend the criminal law to amongst other
things make it possible for the Crown to appeal the refusal or grant of
bail by the Supreme Court. There were also changes in the law with
regard to the possession of firearms. You may click
here for the full text of address to the House.
BRADLEY
HAS THEM ON THE RUN
Beware of This Man
Hubert Ingraham
The Master Triple Dipper of The Bahamas
|
It’s been a real tit for tat battle with the dishonest
Tribune over the past week. Each time Bradley Roberts struck back
at the untruths told by The Tribune to justify the fact that Hubert Ingraham
went back on his word to leave the Prime Minister’s job after ten years,
and each time Hubert Ingraham was pinned to the mat for misleading people
about the amount of money he gets as Leader of the Opposition and former
Prime Minister, Eileen Carron would come to the rescue with a new propaganda
untruth. Bradley Roberts was on top of them each time.
Of course, what will happen is something the now
Governor General used to say about the Dupuches and their paper.
In the end when it appears that you have pinned them to the mat by spotting
one lie after the next, they stop publishing your letters. The Tribune
published the letter on Wednesday 19th July, but the editorial note was
longer than the letter almost. What the editorial note said was that
the country or more properly some of his colleagues were relieved that
Mr. Roberts did not become acting Prime Minister when Prime Minister Perry
Christie was ill. Mrs. Carron said that even some of Mr. Roberts’
colleagues feared for the country and according to Mrs. Carron were happy
that Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt was there to step in.
Of course, poor Eileen Carron doesn’t know or more
likely conveniently chooses to forget that on several occasions during
that time and since then Mr. Roberts has acted as Prime Minister.
But you know, never let the truth interfere with a good story. And
with the greatest of respect to the smart bunch at The Tribune, Eileen
Carron and John Marquis would not have a clue what is going on in the PLP.
FOOTNOTES
TO HISTORY
Felix and Antoinette Celebrate 50 years
Felix Seymour is well known for his work in the
hotel business in Grand Bahama. At the tender age of 76 and with
7 children and a wife of 50 years Antoinette, he must be pleased indeed.
He was so pleased that he and his wife joined hands and hearts with their
friends and family in Freeport on Saturday 22nd July at Christ the King
Church to mark the 50 years. The service was conducted by Canon Harry
Bain, a reception followed in the church’s auditorium. Sons Kirk
Seymour, attorney at law, and Brian Seymour, the self described mender
of drapes and his mother’s partner in Antoinette’s Interiors and other
siblings were present for the event.
Fr. David Cooper in Hospital
There was a fire at the Catholic Rectory of the
Church of the Holy Family on Robinson Road on Friday 21st July. It
appears that the fire was contained before significant damage could occur.
However, the priest Fr. David Cooper had to be hospitalized because of
smoke inhalation.
Edison Key Joins the FNM
It appears all but certain that former PLP Senator
Edison Key who left the PLP in a huff is now to be the FNM’s standard bearer
in the next general election for the South Abaco seat. He hopes to
succeed present FNM MP Robert Sweeting who is retiring. The PLP’s
nomination is being pursued by businessman Gary Sawyer. Senator Key’s
transformation to an FNM seems quite aberrant and is a crying shame.
The Murder Rate
An argument between two men left one dead after
one of the persons, a sixteen year old hit the other with a piece of wood.
The man died and that makes 27 homicides for the year. The incident
happened on Friday 21st July. The Assistant Commissioner of Police
Reginald Ferguson was quoted in The Tribune of Saturday 22nd July
as decrying the culture of drinking and being unable to enjoy oneself without
fighting and uncontrollable arguments.
Voter Registration
A chart being circulated on the internet shows that
voter registration for the next general election is still not where it
should be, less than fifty per cent overall. The hope is that now
that the Prime Minister has announced that he proposes to name the Members
of Parliament to the Constituencies Commission, that will have the responsibility
of delimiting the new boundaries for the election, there will be a boost
in national interest on the subject. The Commission is headed by
the Speaker and there are two Members from the Government side and one
member for the Opposition side, all MPs. The final member is a Judge
of the Supreme Court.
Shorter Lobster Season Next Year
The Tribune of Saturday 22nd July 2006 reported
that the Minister of Marine Resources Leslie Miller has said that next
year the crawfish season is to be reduced from the present 8 months to
six months. Instead of the season opening on 1st August 2007, it
will open on 1st September. The closing date will still be 31st March.
The Minister reportedly said that in the past four years there has been
a dramatic decline in the crawfish catches. He also announced new
fisheries rules for sport fishermen and for tourists coming to The Bahamas.
He said that conch catches are reduced from 6 conchs per day per person
to 3 conchs per vessel. For scale fish, the limits will go from 20
pounds per person per day to 20 pounds per vessel per day. For dolphins
(mahi-mahi), the limits will be go from 6 per person per day to 6 per vessel
per day.
Gay and Lesbian Project
The local Gay, Lesbian, Transgender organization
has announced what it called The Bahamian Sexuality Project. The
project is a fact finding one part of a research initiative called the
International Sexuality and Mental Health Research Project, which is seeking
to examine the experience of black gay persons in the Caribbean, Africa,
the United Kingdom and the United States. The Director of the Project
is Dr. Kaminlah Majied, Professor of Social Work at Howard University in
Washington D.C.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Press Ambushes PLP
Typically, I would not respond to individuals
who read any of my pieces and find it necessary to comment on them.
In some ways, I find it flattering to know that there are interested persons
who find my work interesting enough to read so closely that they would
want to produce lengthy commentaries. So I would first want to say
thank you for reading my piece on Minister Wilchcombe and the media.
Thank you as well for making such an in depth commentary on the piece on
your web page. Its purpose was to be engaging, as I think news reports
should be.
In your response to the article, however, you
made note that “the only problem is the editorializing in the story put
there by the Tribune and not Mr. Wilchcombe is that Mr. Wilchcombe was
attacking his fellow Ministers which he is not.” As the writer of
the piece, I can assure you there was no editorializing on the part of
the Tribune, and the “I refuse and will not join the chorus of those who
wish to criticize the media, even if they are being unfair to the Progressive
Liberal Party” attributed to Mr. Wilchcombe were his very words, in that
order. I can assure you that because I have the taped version of the conversation.
You then go on to say in your response that “they
ambushed the Minister and twisted his words out of context.” As you
do preface this by saying “we consider what was done . . . a political
ambush,” I cannot argue with you if that is what you considered it to be.
But whereas I do have a copy of the tape with
Mr. Wilchcombe’s words, and I can provide the full transcript of the conversation,
I would like to know if you can do the same to support your claim that
Mr. Wilchcombe was ambushed and that his words were taken out of context.
I hope that my request is not an unfair one, seeing that there are serious
allegations being made against my integrity as a journalist and writer.
And in actuality, the piece was not to intended
to sow discord among PLP’s, but was written because it was important for
the public to get an idea of the media's role in our society, particularly
from a veteran news personality on a day when another veteran news personality
was being celebrated, fortunately for us and maybe unfortunate for you,
it turned out to be the minister responsible for broadcasting in the Bahamas.
Again, I do thank you for reading and commenting
on the piece, but I will ask that when you make comments, in particular,
about the minister being “ambushed,” you provide substantial evidence in
your piece to support your claims, and the best support that I can think
of would be commentary from the minister himself saying that he was ambushed
into saying what he said and that his words were taken out of context.
From one writer to the next, thank you for your
time.
Mark Humes
As we note in this week's editorial, above
- This column is a purely political column. We make no apology for
that. The Tribune, however, counts itself as a paper of record, and
has an obligation to fairness. This column has no such obligation,
although we try to maintain a high standard of accuracy. The letter
reveals a certain naiveté about politics, and the fact that when
big people are in an argument, you simply stay out of it. - Editor
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Allyson Ma Gal
Attorney General, Minister of Legal Affairs and Pinewood MP Allyson
Maynard Gibson is in fine form at right, throwing out the first double
pitch with the Prime Minister at the Pinewood softball summer camp in her
constituency. Prime Minister Perry Christie joined Minister Gibson
for the red letter day, which saw the opening of a park dedicated to the
area and established with the support of Kerzner International.
Bahamasair Signing
Prime Minister Perry Christie and Minister of Labour & Immigration
Shane Gibson were on hand this past week for the signing of an industrial
contract with Bahamasair. Bahamasair Chairman Basil Sands is shown
at centre with Mr. Christie and Minister Gibson (right) along with Bahamasair
unionists and officials in an informal exchange at the Office of the Prime
Minister after the signing.
Sky Bahamas Opens
The Prime Minister Perry Christie and Minister of Transport & Aviation
Glenys Hanna Martin did the honours in the grand opening of Sky Bahamas
a new and newly licenced scheduled air carrier about to begin scheduled
service between Nassau and Exuma. Exuma native Heuter Rolle (third
from left) is pictured with Prime Minister Christie and Minister Hanna
Martin along with other dignitaries at the commissioning.
Senior Civil Servants
Permanent Secretaries, the most senior permanent officials in Government
were addressed by Prime Minister Perry Christie this past week. The
Prime Minister gave the senior civil servants a pep talk, encouraging them
to polish their knowledge of conditions relevant to their Ministries in
all areas of The Bahamas. "You are the experts," said Mr. Christie...
"those upon whom the policy makers depend for information and professional
evaluation. Financial Secretary Ruth Millar is shown seated at right.
Bevans Town Beauty
Virginia Bridgewater, centre, is all smiles between Prime Minister
Perry Christie and Romeo Bridgewater at the official reopening of the of
The Albert Sr. New Star Club in Bevans Town. BIS PHOTO by Vandyke
Hepburn
New York Jet in Nassau
New York Jets Offensive Line Left Tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson the
fourth overall pick in the first round of the 2006 NFL Entry Draft was
at the Office of The Prime Minister this past week. Young Mr. Ferguson
(seated at left) and friends paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Perry
Christie. Ferguson was animated as he told media of the pride he
has in his Bahamian roots. Mr. Ferguson's grandfather was the legendary
Fox Hill businessman, Stalwart Councillor Tom Ferguson.
Bahamas Information Services photos by Peter Ramsay
[Except where noted otherwise]
Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl + home to return
to the top of the page.
|
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - Keod
Smith, the Member of Parliament for Mt. Moriah and the man who defeated
then FNM Leader Senator Tommy Turnquest, was at his rhetorical best in
the House of Assembly on Wednesday 26th July. He was the seconder
to the motion for the passage of two landmark bills, the National Heroes
Bill and the National Honours Bill and the accompanying regulations.
Prime Minister Perry Christie who moved the Bills said that they would
lead to the abolition of the present British Honours and would lead also
to the changing of the name Discovery Day or Columbus Day as the new National
Heroes Day. Keod Smith set the cat amongst the pigeons by suggesting
two things: that the statue of Columbus should go from the front of Government
House and that the statue of Queen Victoria in front of the House of Assembly
in the public square also ought to be removed and replaced by a full length
statue of Sir Lynden O. Pindling. This provoked a firestorm of comments
from the reactionary forces in The Bahamas including the two main daily
newspapers The Nassau Guardian and not surprisingly The Tribune.
But the fact is that each generation has to put its own stamp on the history
of the country and Keod Smith is as much entitled to his suggestions as
are the reactionary forces entitled to theirs. The fact is there
needs to be a discussion on all of these matters and we congratulate Mr.
Smith for starting the debate. The photo the week is a file photo
of the statue of Queen Victoria sitting in the public square and perhaps
now headed for the chopping block. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
NATIONAL HONOURS, NATIONAL
HEROES
We support the Government’s proposals to replace the British Honours
that we presently use to honour our best citizens with entirely Bahamian
honours. We congratulate Prime Minister Perry Christie for moving
the Bills on National Honour and on creating a National Heroes Day.
Quite frankly, we don’t know what the big deal is all about and why the
need for any discussion on the point. There is no British Empire
and so why should we be passing out medals to Bahamian citizens making
them members or commanders of the British Empire? Why should policemen
in The Bahamas 33 years after independence be getting a Colonial Police
Medal? The arguments against are so ludicrous as to be incredible,
and so incredible that you wonder where these people are living.
But such is life in The Bahamas of 2006. No confidence it appears
amongst some about our national character, no confidence that anything
good can come out of Nassau.
In a way the Government is to blame for this dilly dallying.
There really is too much discussion about it. The matter has taken
too long to be decided. First the disingenuous former Prime Minister
Hubert Ingraham trying to swing the head of the National Heroes Day Committee
Rev. Fr. Sebastian Campbell put a bill before the House of Assembly prior
to the last election. He never did anything with it. He simply
parked it there and it died when the House was dissolved in 2002.
We know the FNM’s tricks of course. They did the same thing with
water pipes. They had no intention of actually laying the pipes on
Inagua. They just delivered them there so that people in the run
up to the election could think that the water pipes were going to be installed.
But they did nothing.
The PLP came to office and drafted the new bills based on the reports
of the National Cultural Development Commission headed by Charles Carter
and Winston Saunders. Those souls could not give the Government a
unanimous report, however. They divided over whether or not the 12th
October should continue to be celebrated as Discovery Day or changed to
National Heroes Day. This kind of silly dithering is unbelievable.
It should have been like the situation where a jury comes back and from
sheer laziness refuses to come back with a unanimous verdict. The
judge tells them that he will not accept it. They must come back
with verdict, either guilty or not guilty.
For example, the minority report suggests that those who want to
change the day to National Heroes Day are seeking to rewrite history.
No such thing. And if that is their only argument then we can simply
argue this: the second Monday in October will be National Heroes Day and
those who want to continue to celebrate 12th October as Discovery Day or
Columbus Day can celebrate to their hearts content. It will just
not be a national holiday.
The point is that we need to move forward in this matter. This
country has plenty of examples where reactionary forces have been able
to stop the forward progress of nationalism by the resort to retrograde
arguments. Just pass the law. No sitting in Committee over
the summer as it is proposed, no nothing. Pass the law and move on to the
next thing. If some future Government wants to change it then let
them change it, but the present Government has a responsibility to finish
the work of the previous PLP administration toward establishing the national
institutions of the independent country.
Keod Smith MP Mt. Moriah made some great points in the House on Wednesday
26th July. He wants the statue of Queen Victoria moved from the public
square to another place and replaced by a full length statue of Sir Lynden.
He wants the statue of Columbus removed from Government House. That
drove the reactionary press crazy. Eileen Carron and
her anti Black, and Uncle Tommish philosophy was at her best when she resurrected
a sickening stupid story about “Aunt Vicky”. She claimed in her editorial
on Friday 28th July that the Black people of The Bahamas in the early 20th
century called the British Queen Victoria “Aunt Vicky” because they thought
that Victoria had freed the slaves. Queen Victoria had in fact not been
the queen at the time but according to Mrs. Carron, the apprenticeship
period of four years starting in 1834 ended in 1838 when Victoria was Queen.
But really now, while that it is an interesting historical aside which
may or may not be true, to use that as an argument to the proud and self
confident Africans who inhabit this land today and who govern the country,
particularly one like Keod Smith is a complete and utter insult.
It shows you how inveterate the racist views of Eileen Carron and that
bunch at The Tribune are.
What concerns us is that the Government has not paid sufficient attention
to some of its own members who were a part of the real Committee that drove
this issue for over decade bringing into the attention of the Bahamian
public. Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs started the
National Heroes Day Committee. It was way back in the year 1990 that
Loretta Butler Turner, now an FNM supporter, suggested that the Committee
have as a goal to have national holiday to celebrate Sir Milo. The
Committee turned that idea into a national holiday to celebrate all heroes.
It also turned its objectives toward a system of truly national honours.
Rev. Fr. Sebastian Campbell who heads the Committee and who drove its work
ought to be congratulated for what he has done and really being responsible
for bringing the matter to this point. Keod Smith, Rev. C.B. Moss,
Freddie Munnings Jr., Wanda Moss were all a part of that Committee.
The delay and discussion led us now to have to entertain the inane
argument of the Nassau Guardian that nothing The Bahamas could offer as
National Honours could be as superior as a British knighthood from the
Queen. It is simply remarkable the ignorance of the people who run
our institutions. The fact is if they believe in this system, Elizabeth
is the Queen of The Bahamas, and we can pass a law which she assents to.
If The Bahamas wants to keep knighthoods, it can do so and the Queen would
be bound to award them. It is as simple as that.
Where are we now? The Bill is still being debated. On
Wednesday 2nd August when the debate resumes in the House, one day after
the 172nd anniversary of the abolition of slavery, Alfred Sears, the Minister
of Education will take to his feet to defend the Government’s bill.
We say full steam ahead. Pass it and move on!
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 29th July 2006 at midnight:
96,069.
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 29th July 2006
at midnight: 380,234.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 29th July 2006 at
midnight: 2,913,638.
CONTACT US AT E-MAIL:placid_point@yahoo.com
THE
FNM ROW OVER ABACO SEAT
We reported last week that the Free National Movement
intends to nominate the former PLP representative for South Abaco, former
PLP Senator Edison Key as their candidate in the next general election.
That did not go down well even though it was mandated by Hubert Ingraham
and the now Member of Parliament Robert Sweeting. Fred Gottlieb who
was once the representative was concerned that the process was not above
board. He served as MP for the constituency from 1987 to 1992.
Mr. Gottlieb questioned how the people who endorsed Mr. Key from the FNM
Constituency Association got to do so since he was not sure whether they
were elected or appointed to do so. Further he questioned how Mr.
Key could be the candidate for the FNM, presumably after being a PLP for
30 years. We have the answer. It is called vengeance.
Mr. Gottlieb said: “I don’t know what criteria are
now used in determining the eligibility and suitability of a candidate
for the FNM. I was always under the assumption that long time loyalty
would have been one of them.” This is a reference to the fact that
for all of his political life until now Edison Key fought against the FNM.
Of course Fred Gottlieb knows why he did not run in 1992. He was
sick and tired of Hubert Ingraham. Now that Ingraham is back and
he - Mr. Gottlieb - is perceived to be a Tommy Turnquest man, Mr. Gottlieb
is out. No surprise there. But the surprising news is that
Mr. Ingraham himself is for the first time vulnerable in his own constituency.
Bradley Roberts MP tells the story of Mr. Ingraham
getting lost in Green Turtle Cay, a part of Mr. Ingraham’s constituency
which is only 2 by 4. Mr. Ingraham had not been there in a long time,
in that part of his constituency. And in Grand Cay, the residents
there were shocked to see that he spent the night there and is going door
to door there. Fritz Bootle is to be the candidate for the PLP in
that area.
BRENT
ON THE CONSTITUENCIES COMMISSION
Hubert Ingraham, the Leader of the Opposition has
announced that Brent Symonette, his Deputy Leader will serve on the Constituencies
Commission to be established under the Constitution to delimit the new
boundaries for The Bahamas as it goes into the General Election of 2007.
Mr. Symonette will be the first UBP member to sit on the Constituencies
Commission since his father Sir Roland (see the Bahamian 50 dollar bill)
was Premier in 1965. That led at the time to the largest demonstration
in the then history of The Bahamas by the PLP against the gerrymandering
of the boundaries. The then Leader of the Opposition Sir Lynden Pindling
ended up throwing the mace out of the window in a protest against the actions
of Mr. Symonette’s father.
You will remember that Mr. Ingraham has told the
public that he does not expect to be in office as PM for more than 18 months
so he intends to hand it off to the UBP son as soon as that. We have
warned you that the UBP was coming back. It looks like they are back
sooner than we think. Meanwhile the PLP’s leader Perry Christie has
announced that he is finalizing the choices for candidates of the Progressive
Liberal Party. Mr. Ingraham is of course only dreaming.
FOX
HILL BRANCH MEETING OUTSIDE
The Fox Hill and Marathon Branches of the PLP held
a joint meeting on the Fox Hill parade as was done when the PLP used to
be in Opposition. The turn out of 150 or so persons on the park heard
from speaker Ron Pinder, MP for Marathon, Fred Mitchell, MP for Fox Hill
and Bradley Roberts, MP for Bain and Grants Town. Also speaking was
party Chair Raynard Rigby. The meeting took place on Thursday 27th
July.
Meanwhile the Faker of Fox Hill (click
here for previous story) is at it again. The Faker has planned
an opening of a building that will serve as the FNM's headquarters in the
next general election but invitations have gone out to the community at
large as if the building has no political purpose. This is the same
way the faker used the Roman Catholic Church to launch her campaign much
to the chagrin of the members of St. Anselm’s church.
MAURICE
GLINTON ON TWO COUNTS
If The Bahamas did not have Maurice Glinton, we would have to invent such
a person. The value of an individual who takes on the system is clear
now that all of the dissenters have found their way into the Cabinet of
The Bahamas and are trapped there by the conventions against differing
opinions in public. Mr. Glinton lashed out at a judge this week that
is known for talking too much in Court about matters that are entirely
extraneous and making comments that many have concluded are political in
nature.
Australian Judge John Lyons reportedly used the
opportunity in a written ruling about a case involving the owner of West
Island Properties Orjan Lindroth. Earlier we reported that certain
allegations about MP Keod Smith MP had been made by this gentleman Mr.
Lindroth that were vigorously denounced by the Member of Parliament.
Now the Judge has dismissed the case brought by Mr. Lindroth against lawyer
Michael Scott and his firm and the Judge in striking it out and dismissing
the case made the comment that the affidavit sworn in the case was “full
of personal vitriolic speech, the likes of which -- I will be blunt-- I
don’t think I have seen in an affidavit for some considerable time.”
The Judge said that when you plead something as serious as fraud in your
pleadings you have to show the Court that it is “a serious matter and not
just some personal vindictive crusade designed to somehow or other harm
the reputation of persons.”
Mr. Glinton took issue with the Judge. He
said that this matter could have ended with a simple striking out of the
pleadings but that the Judge went beyond that and made certain “gratuitous”
remarks about the clients motive and character. Mr. Glinton wrote
“In this case the Judge’s remarks were not only gratuitous and mischievous,
to the extent they were unnecessary to the ruling he had to make, but obviously
gratifying to those persons needing the benefit thereof them by making
them the “business” of (if only) a small segment of the public for whom
they could be news.”
The story appeared in the Business Section of The
Tribune on Monday 24th June. Mr. Glinton's letter appeared on Friday
28th June. Mr. Glinton was also in the press to express concern about
a ruling by the Privy Council which upheld the right and decision of Chief
Justice Sir Burton Hall to strike out pleadings in a constitutional motion
on the grounds that it was frivolous and vexatious. The point we
make here is that there is feeling around that Courts and Judges are beyond
reproach and above criticism. It is necessary to comment on the actions
of Judges when they speak foolish things and criticize or explain the impact
of their decisions for better or worse. Mr. Glinton is one of the
few who are left who still understand this role of a member of the Bar.
A HAPPY
COUNTRY
Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist
at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom has studied 178 countries
and has determined that The Bahamas is the fifth happiest country in the
world. The Bahamas was right behind Denmark, Switzerland, Austria
and Iceland. The United States ranked 23rd on the list. The
least happy are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe and Burundi.
Germany was 35th, Britain 41st, France 62nd, China 82nd, Japan 90th, India
125th and Russia 167th.
Mr. White was quoted as saying: “The concept of
happiness, or satisfaction with life, is currently a major area of research
in economics and psychology, most closely associated with new developments
in positive psychology.” According to Mr. White, whilst the data
collected is often subjective, the measures used are very reliable in predicting
health and welfare outcomes. The statement was reported in the Bahama
Journal of Friday 28th September.
JULIAN
FRANCIS IN HIS OWN WORDS
The former Chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority Julian Francis has
spoken to the press for the first time since his quick departure as head
of the Port in Grand Bahama. He appeared on the Love 97 programme
Jones and Company last Sunday. He explained in his own words why
he ended up parting company with the shareholders of the Port Authority.
According to Mr. Francis he was recruited by the
late Edward St. George but once he got in the job it was clear that he
and the shareholders did not see eye to eye on the direction in which the
company should go. Mr. Francis said that he agrees that there ought
to be reform of the Port Authority but the he believes it ought to be limited
to the regulatory responsibilities of the Port. “There needs to be
more transparency with respect to the regulatory operations, it seems to
me of the Port area,” he said. He said that the rule ought to be
more clearly known to Freeport business people. “We are living in
evolving times. You can’t maintain these antiquated arrangements
forever, you have got to change.”
As for his leaving the Port, Mr. Francis said that
the departure was amicable. He added: “I want the public to understand
perfectly that I have no desire to take a kind of recriminatory position
vis-à-vis the Port Authority… As it turned out, I would say that
the owners of the Port Authority and I see the way that Freeport needs
to go forward somewhat differently and really, that is at the heart of
my decision, and I think their being quite reconciled also to the view
that this was not a viable partnership.”
Meanwhile the embattled Hannes Babak, the new Chairman
of the Port Authority met with the Bahamian business community this week
in order to meet the concerns of the licensees. It did not seem to
do much with the businessmen openly expressing their views about the licensing
functions of the Port. Senator Philip Galanis, the PLP, who has been
on a crusade for Mr. Babak to be removed from his role as head of the Port
issued a press statement in which he again called for Mr. Babak to go.
In the week, Senator Galanis was joined by another PLP Senator Damian Gomez
who also called for Mr. Babak to go. You may click
here for the full statement of Mr. Galanis.
THE
TRIAL OF THE GAY LOVER
For a country that is opposed to homosexual behaviour, it appears that
it is the judgment of the newspapers that the Bahamian public likes to
read about it. No doubt, it provides the evidence for the Christian
community to rail against it, which no doubt makes it good thing.
Those who think that way got a good read this week, what with the Nassau
Guardian leading with the headline on Thursday 27th July GAY LOVER HID
THE BODY. This was a report of the trial of Cordell Farrington (pictured
in this Nassau Guardian photo by Donald Knowles) who is charged with the
death of Jamal Robins of Grand Bahama.
The evidence so far is that Mr. Farrington walked
into the police station and confessed to the crime. A now pool attendant
at Lyford Cay Oterrio Floyd testified that in 2002 in Mallory Lane in Freeport
where they (the accused and the witness) lived and he (the witness) worked
as a cleaner at Burger King, he was forced by Mr. Farrington (the accused)
whom he (the witness) described as his lover to dispose of the body of
the dead Mr. Robins who was killed it appears as the result of an argument
the night before his death.
Mr. Floyd said that he heard Mr. Farrington fussing
the deceased Mr. Robins and telling him that if he sold his body he would
catch AIDS. Mr. Farrington then came to Mr. Floyd and said about
the deceased “I would kill that boy”. The witness said that early
the next morning at about 6:30 a.m. he was awakened by the shouts of the
accused that he had in fact killed the deceased and wanted help to dispose
of the body. The witness said that he felt threatened by the accused
and is still afraid of him. He felt that if he did not co-operate
his homosexuality would be exposed to the police and his family.
Last week, we reported that the Gay and Lesbian
Alliance in The Bahamas is sponsoring a project about the lives of gay,
lesbian and transgender people in The Bahamas. The professor from
Howard University who is leading the project said that one of the issues
that they will be looking at is how people are forced to hide their situation
for fear of reprisals like losing their jobs.
OTHER
COURT NEWS
Ninety Knowles Appeal is Dismissed
It appears that all options are exhausted by Samuel
‘Ninety’ Knowles, the alleged drug trafficker who is incarcerated in Her
Majesty’s Prison Nassau awaiting the outcome of the challenges to his extradition
to the United States for a trial there on charges of drug trafficking.
The Privy Council, the highest Bahamian Court, made the decision on Thursday
27th July. The next day Francis Cumberbatch, the prosecutor in the
Attorney General’s office who represents the United States in the matter
said that the fate of Mr. Knowles now lies in the hands of Foreign Affairs
Minister Fred Mitchell. Mr. Knowles was indicted in the U.S. in the
year 2000.
Kozeny Awaits his Fate
The Nassau Guardian reports that a ruling is expected
on 18th September by the Magistrate in the extradition case against Victor
Kozeny, the so called Pirate of Prague, who is in a Nassau jail awaiting
the request by the U.S. against him. Mr. Kozeny who is also wanted
by the Czech Republic his country of origin for looting small investors
in that country is a resident of Lyford Cay.
Guana Cay Stopped Again
That pesky fly and all around nuisance lawyer Fred
Smith is at it again. This time he went off to London to bring the
Bakers Bay project on that Abaco cay to a halt. The Court of Appeal
dismissed his last application when it refused to continue the undertaking
indefinitely to stop the project. The developers argued that they
could not get the Judge to rule in the case and their project was simply
held up. The Privy Council gave a stop order and said that the Court
of Appeal was wrong and should simply have ordered the judge to deliver
his judgment. Now the project has come to a halt and the only one
to blame for this situation is Fred Smith. We hope that he ends up paying
the costs for this action and the damages personally.
DARROLD
MILLER LEAVES ZNS
There does not appear to have been any official
announcement from the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas aka ZNS,
the national radio station of The Bahamas, government owned. However,
the well known and popular Darrold Miller has left ZNS radio and his show
Immediate Response behind for what is believed to be the new station owned
by businesswomen Debbie Bartlett and Cypriana McWeeney.
Mr. Miller brought radio talk shows in earnest to
ZNS in the face of the invention of the format at the private radio stations,
and took it to another level. He loses with the transfer his television
audience so it remains to see how the decision translates into keeping
his audience and popularity. The show is now hosted by Steve
McKinney.
BAD
CALL ON LNG
The Nassau Guardian’s cartoonist Stan Burnside pictured
a happy Leslie Miller, the Minister responsible now for Agriculture but
who single-handedly it seems drove the action of the Government to
grant a licence to the AES company to have a Liquefied Natural Gas pipeline
run between Ocean Cay in The Bahamas to Florida. The Attorney General
Allyson Maynard Gibson was earlier quoted in the press as saying that a
Heads of Agreement was being negotiated with AES and that it was likely
that it would be signed before the end of the year.
We disagree profoundly with this decision.
LNG is not good for The Bahamas. Sam Duncombe, of Re Earth, the environmental
group, was aghast. She asked for a referendum to be held on the issue.
She said that organization did not accept that there was a need to honour
the decision made by the previous administration on the matter. One
of the newspapers took a different view in their editorial calling for
the granting of an additional licence for a project in Freeport.
We are against that as well. We hope that it will be possible in
the future to reverse this decision, since the scope of the environmental
impacts will then be clear.
SCRAPPING
JOHN MARQUIS
The false campaign for press freedom continues by The Tribune. They
have dragged up some organization whose remarks they have printed over
the past week to say that they support the campaign for press freedom in
The Bahamas. The fact is as we have said there is no issue of press
freedom in The Bahamas. The only issue is the worthless, anti Black,
anti Bahamian views of John Marquis and The Tribune.
We hope by now that you are all able to see the
trick that The Tribune is up to. You can click
here for last week’s editorial. This is simply trying to get
a line or two in the U.S Human Rights report next year that press freedom
is under attack. Again, the reality is that the only thing under
attack are the views of an Englishman who should go home.
Right now, we hope that the Department of Immigration
has gotten an explanation from The Tribune of why they cannot have a Bahamian
as the Managing Editor of the newspaper and why the need for all the foreign
editors that they have, to do the work at the paper. What is the
training programme that they have in place to replace Mr. Marquis and the
others?
NEW PRIESTS
It was a good week for the Roman Catholic and Anglican
Christian Churches in The Bahamas. The Roman Catholics ordained Noel
Clarke (pictured, kneeling) to the priesthood on Tuesday at St. Francis
Xavier’s Cathedral and on Wednesday the Anglicans ordained Michael Shannon
Maragh & Carlton John Turner (pictured, right).
Photo: Peter Ramsay
NEW
HONORARY CONSUL IN BELIZE
Jacqueline Osadebay Marshalleck has been appointed
honorary consul for The Bahamas in Belize. Ms. Osadebay Marshalleck
is the daughter of Justice of Appeal Emanuel Osadebay and Mrs. Osadebay.
She lives and practices law in Belize City, Belize in Central America.
Her instruments of appointment were presented to her on Friday 28th July
by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.
BIS photo: Peter Ramsay
JAPANESE
DELEGATION CALLS ON THE MINISTER
Junji Higashi, member of the House of Representatives
in Japan, paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the
Public Service the Hon. Fred Mitchell, along with a delegation, on Thursday,
July 27, 2006 at the Ministry of Public Service. Shown from left after
the meeting are Basil Sands, honorary consul of Japan; Minister Mitchell,
Mr. Higashi and Ambassador of Japan with residence in Jamaica Hiroshi Sakurai.
BIS
Photo: Tim Aylen
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
NCAA Chief Visits
The Vice President for governance of the US National Collegiate Athletics
Association (NCAA) paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Christie during
the past week. The official was being hosted in The Bahamas by Minister
of Youth, Sports & Housing Neville Wisdom and engaged in talks of mutual
interest to the NCAA and Bahamian athletes.
NBA Talk
Prime Minister Perry Christie and US NBA defensive specialist Bruce
Bowen of the San Antonio Spurs engaged in detailed 'shop talk' during a
courtesy call by the star on Mr. Christie. The US Olympic team member
was accompanied to the courtesy call by Parliamentary Secretary Ron Pinder.
The Prime Minister, an avid fan of professional basketball, though an avowed
Los Angeles Lakers fan; shared thoughts on matters of strategy and the
relative fitness of various other key players. Bowen noted that The
Bahamas is his favourite place to visit.
Bahamas Information Services photos by Peter Ramsay
[Except where noted otherwise]
