BahamasUncensored.Com Archive

CHRISTIE’S DECISIVE ACTION
On two public occasions within the last week the Prime Minister has acknowledged publicly the criticism of his style of decision making. While delivering the Budget Communication on the country’s annual finances on Wednesday 28th May, he said that people criticize him for being indecisive and taking too long to make decisions. Again as he was speaking at the official opening of the Constituency Office of Shane Gibson, the Minister of Housing, he acknowledged the same criticism. The acknowledgement was in juxtaposition though to the decisive actions taken and announced within his Budget Communication.

The most major and decisive action taken and announced was that the pay raise of $1200 per annum negotiated with the public sector unions by former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham would not be paid. He said it could not be paid without his levying a special tax on the Bahamian people to do so. Observers say that this would have meant an increase in the tax on petroleum and an increase on the stamp taxes. The Prime Minister said that he did not propose to increase any taxes but to apply modest increases in user fees in order to raise the additional revenue that he needed. He hoped that he would be able to simply grow the economy and at some time later in the year fulfil the obligation to pay to the salary increases.

The salary increases were negotiated at a time to buy the election for the FNM. The former Prime Minister did it as part of a five year deal with the unions. The problem with five year deals is that the economic changes over that span are hard to predict. The economy has changed dramatically since that contract was negotiated.

The public sector unions are the Bahamas Union of Teachers, headed by Kingsley Black and the Bahamas Public Service Union headed by John Pinder. Last December when the Prime Minister agreed to pay the scheduled anomaly increases, he told the public sector union presidents at that time that he thought it would be difficult to pay the salary increases scheduled for 1st July.

Then the Minister for the Public Service Fred Mitchell met with both union presidents about six weeks ago and informed them that it was unlikely that the pay increases would take place because of the Government’s declining revenue situation.

The final out turn for the fiscal year 2003/04 will mean a revenue shortfall of 60 million dollars behind what was predicted. Last year it was predicted that there would be 970 million dollars in revenue and now it is expected only to be nine hundred and ten million dollars. The overall deficit in spending will be something of the order of 122 million dollars. While that is a substantial improvement over the 186 million dollars that was predicted, the country cannot go on this way.

The Budget for next year plans a deficit in the order of 144 million dollars. That is said to be about 2.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in Government Finance Statistics (GFS) terms. It will also take the national debt close to the 40 per cent of GDP where the international community begins to get concerned about your ability to pay. Given the fact that the Government is going to the market to rewrite the 125 million dollar loan that they got to keep us afloat last year, this would not have been a good time to talk about 24 million dollars in increases for the public service especially when the country is widely dissatisfied about their level of service.

The Prime Minister said that if the situation turns around within the year, he may be in a position to pay some of it by Christmas time. While this is disappointing news to public servants, the fact is Mr. Christie has taken a decisive and correct action and no one can complain now that he cannot make decision. The decision is made, and it is not the popular thing to do.

Those who are complaining should remember that it was Hubert Ingraham who gave the last giant raise but after he gave it he promptly raised the taxes on gasoline by 30 cents. So that is how he paid for the raise and in effect he put the price of gasoline up and took the money back from civil servants in costs that he had given them with one hand.

The Public Service Union President John Pinder was most unhappy about this and he announced in The Tribune that there would be a pay revolt by civil servants. We will see. We just hope that common sense prevails.

In summary, we think that it was the right decision by the Prime Minister. It was the best decision in the interests of the country. We think that it is necessary for some short term pain for some long term gain.

Number of hits for the month of May up to Friday 30th May, 2003 at midnight: 113,852.

BUDGET TIME

The Prime Minister who is also the Minister of Finance presented the 2003/2004 National Budget for the country on Wednesday 28th May. The total planned expenditure is just about 1.2 billion dollars. The revenue is expected to be 920 million. The shortfall will be approximately 122 million. The Government proposes to raise certain fees but no taxes in order to pay for the Government’s activities during the ensuing fiscal year. The capital budget is about 145 million dollars. The Prime Minister has said that public servants who expected a raise of $1200 during the year will not get that raise on 1st July but may get the raise mid fiscal year if conditions permit. In the capital budget, one major investment is planned and that is a Defence Force base at Inagua to deal with the illegal migrant problem. You may click here for the full budget address. BIS photo of Prime Minister Christie presenting the Budget communication in Parliament by Peer Ramsay.

SUN INTERNATIONAL PHASE III

    The top news of the week must have been the excitement created around Phase III of the Kerzner International tourist project at Paradise Island. When the new investment is completed it will bring a total of 1.7 billion dollars of investment into The Bahamas by Kerzner. It will be the largest single investment ever in The Bahamas. The total number of employees will be 7000, up from the present 5,000. The investment value of this phase is 600 million dollars. Some 1500 construction jobs will come with the investment.
    On the news that was announced in Nassau live on Bahamian television at 7 p.m. EDT Monday 26th May and in an exclusive with the Wall Street Journal by Christian Brinkley, the share price of Kerzner’s stock rose 20 cents. Butch Kerzner who is running the company for his Dad Sol is said to be delighted that the investment agreement has been signed. Some of his shareholders and the markets are said to be worried about putting too much of their investment in The Bahamas. And so Mr. Kerzner's comment that this shows a tremendous confidence by their company in The Bahamas is noteworthy.
    The PLP now finds itself on the other side of the possible criticism that it sold out the country. But the FNM who wanted to copy the PLP's arguments in Opposition could not muster themselves. The jobs are needed in the country and there was simply a relief that an investment of this kind that Prime Minister Perry Christie says will rival Disney is now underway. Our photo shows the Prime Minister with Members of his Cabinet watching as the Secretary to the Cabinet Wendell Major signs the Heads of Agreement with Butch Kerzner. The photo is by Peter Ramsay.

SOME WORRIES ABOUT THE P.I. INVESTMENT

    Now that the good news has come out, there are a whole set of new worries. These are not deal breakers, nor worries that will cripple the project, but concerns that the Government will have to face. The first issue is the fact that with the number of projects that have been announced within the last few weeks, the Government must be concerned about the labour pool being available to service the investments. Even with the economy being at the present low ebb, there is a difficulty with finding workmen to do manual labour in The Bahamas, particularly in carpentry and masonry. So judge what is bound to happen when the economy really takes off. The last time that Kerzner built in The Bahamas there was one controversy after the next about the rates paid to Bahamian workmen and about the level of their skills. There were problems finding Bahamians who can do dry wall construction.
    Then there is the other labour problem that will come when the hotel is up and running, the specialized skills that are required at a five star property. There is said to be a training component in the new agreement. A more difficult problem to get a handle on is what happens after old man Sol Kerzner dies. Mr. Kerzner is 76 and given how nature goes, he has a shorter rather than longer time span left. He is the genius behind the company, and the question is can the company survive his absence. The son has some of the business skills, having piloted this present project but does he have the creative ideas to make it work? Does the market have the same confidence in him that they have in his Dad and what will that mean for The Bahamas?
    Finally, New Providence itself now needs a face lift. The Cable Beach product is shoddy and rundown, and if it weren't for Jamaican capital investment in Sandals and Breezes, Cable Beach would be dead in the water. Phil Ruffin who owns the Wyndham Crystal Palace does not investment any money in the hotel and quite frankly guests are complaining about how run down the property is. What is the Government of The Bahamas to do about that? Photo of Butch Kerzner with Prime Minister Perry Christie by Peter Ramsay.

BLANKENSHIP NOT LEAVING

Who knows why the Nassau Guardian has a particular headline in its newspaper? The paper has deteriorated into a kind of slapstick version of a newspaper, with a voice behind its editorial position that seems to have hatred for the PLP and is too afraid to say so, so he hides behind little vignettes of sarcasm that pass for editorials. The result is a newspaper that is hardly worth the print it is on. That is not a new situation at the Nassau Guardian, but once again even with Bahamian owners, the Bahamian public is ill served by a daily morning newspaper that does not provide news and that is so prejudiced that it cannot be relied on to report faithfully the news. We report on this below but the headline said: ‘BLANKENSHIP DENIES CLAIMS OF HIS LEAVING’. And so the natural question would be: who said that he was leaving? The Nassau Guardian said that published reports said he was leaving. The next question is where were those published reports? The paper never said. But they had the US Ambassador in the newspaper denying the claims and in his characteristic undiplomatic style he was quoted as saying “No I am not leaving any time soon. There are too many drunks around town starting rumours”. File photo of US Ambassador Blankenship.

A FATHER ON TRIAL

    The public has been fascinated and watching with unease and with rapt attention in The Bahamas the trial for murder of Garth Rolle, the father of 4 year old Ackiem Rolle. The trial has revealed that the young boy who was reported missing from his father's car outside a primary school was in fact killed by blunt force trauma. The force was so strong that it fractured 11 of his ribs.
    The father at first gave the story that he had left the child sleeping in the car and then came back to find him missing. During the trial it was revealed that one story he gave the police was that the kid had choked on a marijuana cigarette that he gave him and the child had suffocated and died. The father later led police to the place where the child's body could be found. The trial is about to go to the jury.
    On Friday 30th May, the Defence Attorney asked for the jury to find Mr. Rolle guilty of manslaughter saying that while he did kill the boy he did not intend to kill him. That seems a strange thing for a Defence attorney to do. The prosecution was having none of it, saying that the man was a cold blooded murderer of a child, and the evidence of his intention is by the different stories that he gave the police. No doubt the case will go to the jury on Monday 2nd June and we will have a verdict soon thereafter in this very sad case of an innocent little boy who has died for nothing. Guardian photo by Patrick Hanna of jurors in the trial being led to the area where the body was found.

A TRAGEDY HITS EXUMA

These kinds of things don’t happen in The Bahamas. You hear it all the time as if The Bahamas is somehow isolated from the world craziness that leads to strange deaths and killings, even mothers turning on their children. The latest of the surprises in this department was the story of a woman who apparently fed poison to two of her children and then gave herself poison. When the father came home he found the mother dead at the table. The infant child was also dead, and another child in a frightful fever. The surviving child was airlifted to Nassau where he is recovering. Another child escaped without harm. The father is now trying no doubt to make sense of it all. Some talk about depression of the mother because of domestic problems.
The police are investigating the matter and for the moment are treating the matter as a murder suicide. The father is Samuel Newchurch. The baby's name was Destiny, and the son Samuel is in hospital. Natasha Flowers was the mother. Exuma is in the midst of a boom that is changing the way the society functions, all kinds of pressures. What could have led to this? The tragedy took place on Thursday 29th May. The family released this photo of father Samuel Newchurch with baby girl Destiny, now decesed and young Samuel Jr., now hospitalised.

MORE TRAGEDY - THIS TIME IN ANDROS
Late reports from Nicholls Town, Andros say that Police are holding a forty year old Andros man for the killing of his two year old child and the stabbing of his wife, Saturday night 31st May. Unconfirmed reports say that the man is thought to be mentally unbalanced and is believed to have burnt down the family home some months ago in a pyschotic rage. Further unconfirmed reports say that he had been remanded to the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre but somehow escaped and turned up in Andros ending with the resulting mayhem. Sources are saying that there may be some liability on the part of Government if indeed the reports of his escape from Sandilands are confirmed. Again, the refrain from the story above 'These kinds of things don't happen in The Bahamas' was on everyone's lips.

LOU ADDERLEY IS BURIED

He was teacher, mentor, surrogate father, all around supporter and headmaster to thousands of children who passed through St. Augustine’s College, who played sports, who were Catholic and non Catholic. He was an all around great Bahamian man. This week, the Parliament met on Wednesday 28th May and stopped its regular business for the testimony of the Members of Parliament to the greatness of Lou Adderley.
His proper name was Leviticus Adderley. He was a product of his age. He was one of the early graduates of St. Augustine’s College and went away to St. John’s University and came back home in 1955 with a degree in business. While in Minnesota he excelled as the state champion in tennis three times and the state Greco-Roman wrestling champion. According to a classmate

MP Pierre Dupuch, Lou Adderley was also a 4.0 student at University. He returned to The Bahamas and sat at home cooling his heels because in The Bahamas of the day he was too black to be hired in the company that had offered him employment until they actually saw who he was. That led him to accept a teaching job at St. Augustine’s. He served the institution for the rest of his life, first as a PE and Math teacher, then as the first lay headmaster, and then as the President of the Development Council. He was ordained a Deacon in the Catholic Church and served in the last ten years at St. Anselm's in Fox Hill.
Mr. Adderley was lauded by Monsignor Preston Moss as a good man, a holy man. He said that there was no need to ask what a true Bahamian man was because we had seen and touched and felt it in Uncle Lou and he did not fall in the well. The service was a moving turn out to man who touched so many lives. The Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont, the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers Fred Mitchell, Neville Wisdom, Allyson Gibson and Bradley Roberts attended the service. The Archbishop of Nassau Lawrence Burke was the chief officiant at the mass.
Following the service Mr. Adderley was buried in the St. Augustine's Monastery’s cemetery. The Tribune reported that the present students at the school who never knew him lined the road leading up to the graveyard. Dominic Duncombe whose father was taught by Mr. Adderley wrote that as the casket was lowered in the grave, the present principal Sonia Knowles who was taught by Mr. Adderley in the class of 1970 broke down and wept. The writer added that she was not alone. The photo inside the church is by Peter Ramsay, the Tribune photo of St. Augustine's students lining the route to the grave by Dominic Duncombe.

A NEW CHAIRMAN FOR DOCTOR’S HOSPITAL
Doctors Hospital has announced that it will get a new Chairman of the Board of Directors, named in a story by the Nassau Guardian as Joe Krukowski, a banker. Barry Rassin is to step down from that position and stay on as Managing Director. This must be an especially painful choice for Mr. Rassin whose father founded the Rassin Hospital that was the predecessor to Doctors. But the handwriting has been on the wall for some time as he was the one who led the company into the disastrous purchase of the Western Medical Plaza for some 5.1 million dollars that led to the present financial troubles of Doctors.
Former Senator Darron Cash as the new Financial Controller is trying desperately to rescue the company. The feeling is that there is a need for a private hospital in Nassau but the company has such a bad reputation for treatment of ordinary people. That reputation was not enhanced when it announced that it was no longer going to accept National Insurance's word for payment for those persons who claimed on National Insurance. That announcement set the tone for how the allies of the Government feel about Doctors and that is that they deserve what they get. No doubt as the seriousness of the position becomes clear, cooler heads will prevail.

KENDAL NOTTAGE ORDAINED

The picture showed Kendal Nottage, the former Minister of the Government, who was amongst the most controversial in the Pindling Cabinet putting on his robes. Looking on in what seemed incredulity was the Prime Minister and the Attorney General Alfred Sears. The photo was taken by The Tribune's . Mr. Nottage has withdrawn from politics and both he and his wife have become extremely religious. His wife has all the qualifications to become an Anglican priest but has not taken the step. She was recently appointed the Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese. Now Mr. Nottage is Reverend Nottage at the Bethel Baptist church where he is said to have a successful men's ministry. We wish him well. Photo by Peter Ramsay.

FIRE BURNS DOWN HAITIAN ABACO VILLAGE
    Prime Minister Perry Christie wanted to see for himself and first hand the damage done in Marsh Harbour, Abaco where fire razed some 70 homes to the ground, displacing 191 families, some 800 people on Wednesday 28th May. The fire took place in a clutch of wooden houses that have been allowed to build up in the Marsh Harbour swamp that was filled in after the harbour was dredged called The Mud. The community is all Haitian. There is also another cluster across the road called Pigeon Peas. Same problem. There are houses cheek by jowl and people living on top of one another with inadequate sanitation, no garbage collection, no housing permit. It is a virtual no-go area for the police. No idea how many people live there. On Wednesday 28th May, fire swept through the area.
    Fighting the fire was hampered by the lack of access roads and the fact that many people kept liquefied petroleum gas tanks in their houses to prevent them from being stolen and so they posed a safety risk for firemen. The Prime Minister addressed the Haitian community with his Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe and the Haitian Ambassador Harold Joseph present on Saturday 31st May. He said that the community must work together to solve the problem.
    The Prime Minister said that he was firm that something had to be done to stop the incursion into The Bahamas but he intended to deal with the persons who were in The Bahamas illegally, compassionately. There were charges of racism in fighting the fire saying that because the Abaco business community wants to get the Haitians out, the firefighters refused to aggressively fight the fire. The PM is to appoint a task force to deal with the issue.

SHARE OFFER FROM KERZNER
The announcement that Kerzner International will offer some 500,000 of its shares to Bahamians has resonated well in some business circles in The Bahamas. Some would have wished to have the shares already because with the announcement the price went up by 20 cents. That would have been a good time to cash out after a quick gain. The deal is said to be circumscribed by a number of factors, one of them is that you need the permission of the Central Bank in order to invest in shares overseas. Right now in order to get those dollars you are charged a premium of 25 per cent on each dollar. The Central Bank did however relax that demand on the capital side for investments up to one million dollars.
Allyson Maynard Gibson, the Minister for Financial Services told the Bahama Journal in its Wednesday 28th May edition “What better way to demonstrate to the Bahamian people the feeling that - and the reality when it comes to fruition - that the Bahamian people are owners, as it were, not just of the spin-off the project but actually of some of the equity in the project.”

NASSAU GUARDIAN ON THE PLP’S CASE
    Reports are reaching this column that yet again, the Nassau Guardian is being governed in its editorial policy by a political ideologue. First came the report that a writer and photographer were refused the fare to travel to Haiti with the Bahamian delegation that was concluding the agreement between Haiti and The Bahamas because it was a “Fred Mitchell publicity stunt”. Then came a report that the Nassau Guardian refused to carry a picture of the Prime Minister and his party in Andros on Friday 27th May because that too was a publicity stunt and “the Guardian isn’t into that”. The Nassau Guardian took the matter even further when it described in its editorial the trip of The Bahamas Government to Haiti as having in its words the markings of a “stage managed publicity drive”.
    The question one has to ask oneself in this country is when are we actually going to get a newspaper that deals with the facts and stops censoring material that they find ideologically objectionable. First there was Oswald Brown who determined that he would not cover Fred Mitchell as the Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs simply because he “can’t stand him”. Mr. Brown was finally dismissed as the newspaper’s editor. He practiced that policy on other PLPs as well. Now you have someone lurking in the shadows who is accused by his own reporters of being so racist and anti PLP that the prejudice extends now to censoring material by the Government in the newspaper.
    One would have thought that with Bahamians having taken over the Nassau Guardian that we would at last have a newspaper that simply reports the news. Here you have the Prime Minister and the Government spending public monies, publicity drive or not, the Bahamian people should have the opportunity to see how their money is being spent and make their own judgments about the wisdom or otherwise. What The Guardian's action shows is that the Government is doing well and it is afraid that the PLP may as a result win again, so it has made a political decision that it will ensure that the PLP does not win again.

THE TRIBUNE HAS ITS OWN PROBLEMS
There is a need for The Tribune to address potential labour problems within its organization. The reports come that reporters are unhappy about the fact that some of the requirements of the labour laws in The Bahamas are being given short shrift by The Tribune. The newspaper often champions the causes of workers itself but refuses to allow a union in the place but the laws of overtime and days off do apply to all organizations and employees whether at The Tribune or not.

JULIAN FRANCIS ON GOVT’S BUDGET

Julian Francis, the Central Bank Governor, who oftentimes seems to be on the other side of the fiscal policies of the Government has issued a statement in which he calls for Bahamians to support the Government’s budget. No doubt, he would be pleased about the restraints on wages and spending announced by the Prime Minister when he gave the Budget address on Wednesday 28th May. Civil Servants are not to get the promised raise, which would mean some 24 million additional dollars for the next year. The Central Bank now has a cap on consumer spending in place that cuts back severely on credit in the banking sector. This is to protect the foreign currency reserves.

NEW HQ FOR SHANE GIBSON

Colleague Ministers of the Government and officials of the Progressive Liberal Party travelled to Carmichael Road Friday 30th May to celebrate the opening of a new constituency headquarters for Shane Gibson, Minister of Housing and National Insurance and MP for the area. The group was joined by hundreds of supporters at the headquarters just west of Kentuck Fried Chicken's restaurant. Minister Gibson feted the entire gathering with a sumptuous dinner.

SENOR FROG’S NEW POLICY
It is difficult to tell whether this means that the hooligan element is winning or not, but the popular eatery on Nassau’s waterfront has now implemented a cover charge of $35 to get into the doors. The restaurant is a favourite haunt of some powerful and well known people on the Bahamian scene including it is said the US Ambassador and the Minister of Tourism. But the restaurant is plagued by its own success. You have the young black males who can't seem to behave, showing up and ruining the fun by raising trouble for other patrons. The young men have no home training and can’t hold their liquor. The owner responded at first with increased security, now he has announced the $35 charge. That ought to keep the low lifes out?

Three Boys Go Missing
The city of Freeport this week has had to come to grips with what no city should ever have to deal with, the unexplained disappearance of three young boys. They are Jake Grant, age 12 of Sir Jack Hayward High and resident at Glenroyal apartments, Bruce Avenue; Mackinson Colas, age 11 of Lewis Yard Primary School and resident at Redwood Lane and Diangelo McKenzie age 13 of Sir Jack Hayward High and resident at Pioneers Way. These boys went missing over a three week period and all seemed to come from less than privileged backgrounds.
Police have now sent out warnings to the Grand Bahama community asking parents to caution their children. Police have also spoken with school administrators to advise children not to accept rides from strangers. Fliers have also been released with pictures of the three boys and the police hotline 352-1919 for anyone with information on the boys to call.

Our Lucaya Lays Off 55
Fifty five workers in the non bargaining area, mainly supervisors and middle managers were this past Thursday given termination notices by Our Lucaya. The company said the measures became necessary due to soft business in the hotel industry and said that - after consultation with Government - they gave their terminated employees separation packages that were above the industry norm. Now comes word that some foreign employees are still networking to the point where they leave one job and within weeks are employed with another hotel property, while Bahamians go without work. We say if this is in fact the case, that the Immigration Department should be very vigilant and look out to make sure that these trends do not become the norm.

All Politics Is Local
This must have been the message sent to the Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe when he attended a church service in his native West End last Sunday at St. Mary Magdalene Church as part of the 30th anniversary of ZNS in Grand Bahama. Minister Wilchcombe is responsible for the Broadcasting Corporation. A reliable source with close ties to the PLP has told us that the FNM also attended this service and when they were asked to stand, clearly outnumbered Minister Wilchcombe’s group by four to one. The source told us “What use is there of having a Minister of Tourism represent the area and even some of his generals are suffering. Let him keep it up, signing these big deals all around the place while his people have nothing. He should use C.A. [Smith] as a caution because a novice was able to beat him.”
In a nutshell, we say to Minister Wilchcombe, all politics is local and a billion dollar deal means nothing if at the end of the day the people you represent have nothing to show for it or are unemployed.

Ingraham & The Free Press
We have criticized former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham severely from this quarter for his many hasty actions and ill conceived ideas about how The Bahamas should move forward, but we never felt moved to criticize him for his stance on the free press and freedom of expression. We feel his stance on free press will stand as his legacy to the Bahamian people. On the other hand, we have again some unconfirmed but disturbing reports that operatives in the PLP administration are indeed meddling in the day to day operations of ZNS. The reports are that a former Minister along with a current Parliamentary Secretary were to give analysis of the budget communication, but were rescheduled and eventually dropped. We say this is indeed a pity, because politics must be a dynamic that lends itself to critical debate which means you must have forces for and against at all times. We feel that if this trend continues at the end of the day, Prime Minister Christie will have to take responsibility for the actions of his minions. Just as in the case of Ingraham the people of the country only remembers who was the captain of the ship at the time. So we say to Mr. Christie that wherever possible he should insist that a contrasting point of view is always heard, particularly on the public broadcast waves.
BS

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

THE PLP AND THE UNIONS

The meeting took place in the Bahamas Public Services Union Hall on East Street South. Fred Mitchell, now the Minister for the Public Service; Shane Gibson, now the Minister of Housing and James Smith, the Minister of State for Finance were the invited guests to what was supposed to have been a meeting of union leaders to discuss the Government’s request to postpone the $100 per month raise due to all public servants on the 1st July. The Prime Minister announced in his Budget Communication on 28th May that the Government could not afford to pay the salary increase given the state of the economy.

The meeting place was certainly familiar to Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Gibson but the experience on Tuesday was not. This one was quite different. This time they were on the firing line, as public servant after public servant pilloried them for not being able to pay the raise. ‘We want our money’ was the cry. This was like an ambush. It was a venting exercise, with rowdy public servants saying all manner of insulting things and setting a bad example of discipline for the rest of the country.

The meeting was raucous and rowdy. The obvious problem is that the Government cannot pay without sending out a signal to the international community at this time that the country is being undisciplined and in trouble. It has the makings of an impasse.

To be sure, as you looked out through the crowd, the FNM operatives and agents provocateur were in the audience and outside the audience. One of them proclaimed to the persons gathered around the hall that Prime Minister Christie would not be able to stand the heat and the money will be there on 1st July once the public servants keep up the pressure.

The Government seemed a bit taken aback by all of this and went into full scramble mode in order to try to recover their position with a series of meetings designed to fully brief the Unions about the true state of the economy. The question is how did such a credibility gap develop within a year of the General Election when there was there was a virtual love fest between the unions and the PLP.

The biggest blow of all came when Pat Bain, fresh from his victory at the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Worker’s Union poll and speaking as Head of the National Congress of trade Unions (NCTU) and said that the PLP was anti worker and anti union. This must have been a great shock to Shane Gibson and to Fred Mitchell and to Alfred Sears (Attorney General) and also to Vincent Peet (Minister of Labour); all of whom have been in the struggle for an on behalf of unions and workers over the years in Opposition. The ultimate insult: to be called anti worker and anti union.

At the end of the day, it appears that everyone vented their spleens on these spokesmen for the Government. The real hard business of negotiations must now get underway. The unions and the Government will have to form a pact of understanding that should lead to the postponement of the raise for at least six months. It really should be 12 months. Then there ought to be another kind of conversation and soon. That conversation is whether or not there is enough money around to pay for all the services and goods that the people of the country demand from the Government.

Dare we say it? The time has come to propose radical tax reform. We need to consider everything and all possible solutions. That may mean value added tax, it may means sales taxes, it may mean income tax. That's where we are, unless there is some dramatic growth in the economy within the next year or two.

But also, the PLP has to now get back to the drawing board by getting its labour house in order. It should never have to hear these messages from public platforms for the first time.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 7th June, 2003 at midnight: 27,770.

Number of hits for the month of June up to Saturday 7th June, 2003 at midnight: 27,770.

Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 7th June, 2003 at midnight: 571,923.

Photos at the BPSU meeting with Cabinet Ministers, from top:
Minister of the Public Service Fred Mitchell, part of the animated audience;
NCTU head Pat Bain and Minister of Housing & National Insurance Shane Gibson.

LABOUR DAY PARADE

    Labour Day is the day that it is in The Bahamas thanks to the tireless work of the late Sir Randol Fawkes, widely considered the father of Labour. It was Sir Randol who piloted the legislation through the House of Assembly in 1962 that brought about the first Labour Day. And he chose a time that would serve as a commemoration of a day that had fired the imagination of the workers in the generation before him. That day was 1st June 1942 when the workers of the country who were building the field that is presently the site of the now Nassau International Airport took to the streets in riots protesting the disparity in pay and working conditions between themselves and the foreign workers coming into the country to build the field.
    When the two days of riots were over, two people had been shot dead and scores had been injured by the bullets of the British Army. Labour Day is in accordance with the custom and law celebrated on the first Friday of the month of June. This week that turned out to be the 6th June. And each year, the Labour Day parade is a time for the Labour Minister to reaffirm his commitment to the work force. It is a time for the workforce to show up in numbers. All the unions turn up to march, and the political parties do so as well.
    At this year's Labour Day parade, both the PLP and the FNM showed up. This year: no Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) and no Bahamas Democratic Movement (BDM). Dr. Bernard Nottage and Cassius Stuart, the leaders respectively of those extra parliamentary parties were nowhere to be found. The parades have taken on added public interest since the Junkanoo groups have started using it as a dress rehearsal for Christmas time Junkanoo. The Prime Minister was there with the Minister of Labour Vincent Peet, the Minister for Financial Services Allyson Maynard Gibson, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service Fred Mitchell, Minister of Works Bradley Roberts. PLP Chairman Raynard Rigby was also on the march. On everyone’s mind was the dispute over the Government’s decision not to raise the pay of public sector workers. But that was the sub text. Next week the battle begins afresh but for Friday 6th June, there was glorious celebration of workers and a remembrance of those who died on 1st June 1942. Freeport News photo of Labour Day Parade in Freeport by Patrick McGregor.

A MAN IS CHARGED FOR VAGRANCY
    Both the police and the press have a way of trying and convicting innocent people in the press. Such is what appears to be in the making with the charging this week of a physical education teacher from the Hugh Campbell Primary School in Grand Bahama. The teacher was said to have been spotted in the bushes at the rear of an apartment building in Grand Bahama at 2 a.m. and the police were called. The man was unable to give a satisfactory account of himself said the police so he was charged with vagrancy. That is a charge that carries with it maybe a fine of 50 dollars and perhaps three months in jail if you default or both. The Crown objected to bail but bail was granted by the Magistrate in the sum of $20,000 in cash. The police told the magistrate that the man was wanted in connection with “other matters” and therefore may have an incentive to flee. Now the public was left to guess what the other matters were. But the rumour mill supplied the answers, somehow connecting the charge of vagrancy with the other alarming news in Grand Bahama of the day. It did not take long for the whole community to put two and two together and make five.
    The man said in his defence the following to the Magistrate: “The position the police found me was very embarrassing. I am guilty of how they found me, though I plead not guilty to the charge initially. I have been in The Bahamas for 23 years and teaching for 20 years. I have had no involvement with the law and I have custody of my 13 year old son. If you grant me bail, I would comply with whatever I am ordered to by the court.” The representative of the Ministry of Education who joined the big crowd at the Court Room hearing said the following: “Today is a sad day for the teaching profession. It is now up to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education to decide what will happen to the teacher (name deleted) if he is in fact able to make bail.”
    Now the rub! The next paragraph in the news story was that the police continue to search for the missing three boys (see story above). Get it? You get it!   You see how small communities can jump to conclusions that do not necessarily follow. The Court joins in by granting bail that is clearly excessive for the offence. The Ministry joins in by finding the man guilty before the trial. And the press has the man’s picture all over its pages. The Tribune had a picture of the man charged with vagrancy, which is an insignificant offence, on the front page. Something smelled very rotten about this but we could of course be entirely wrong. This does not appear to be just.

CHARGE OF SOLICITATION

The morality police were out in the late night streets of New Providence over the past week in ‘Operation Summer Storm III’. The police have been casing a music and dance joint or joints owned by Lionel Evans, 41. The joints are called Clubs Fantasy. It is alleged that women were in the clubs giving out sexual favours for money. They and the women were charged on Tuesday 3rd June. Two foreign women were charged with solicitation of sexual favours, a fancy word for prostitution. While we obviously don’t sanction prostitution, there has to be an air of reality about all of this and at the very least one has to ask oneself whether or not it is in the public interest to be busting clubs where men gather to watch naked women dance or women gather to watch men dance in the nude, provided it is an adults only activity and there is not actual sex which would offend present law. Who cares? The two foreign women are shown in this Guardian photo by Donald Knowles on their way to court to answer the charges of solicitation.

MANSLAUGHTER MOST FOUL

The picture showed a wary and weary young man convicted of killing his four year old son. How could he have been so stupid to have killed his son, apparently panic and then get himself in worse trouble because of what he did - lying about it? When Ackiem Rolle died last year in July in the midst of a strange story by the father, the country was captivated then horrified as the truth came out. His lawyer asked last week for a conviction of manslaughter by negligence. That was clearly unsustainable. It was not negligent. It was not an intentional killing but the consequences of what he did led to his son's death. For that he should get a life sentence. It was stupid, irresponsible and inexcusable. Sentencing is still to come. Convicted manslaughterer Garth Rolle is pictured in this Guardian photo by Donald Knowles leaving the Supreme Court under police escort after the guilty verdict.

THE PLP AND THE COUNTRY (NO THIRD VOICE)
One of the problems in which the PLP now finds itself is that there is no one out there seeking to defend its interests. One year after the General Election brought the PLP back to victory it is suffering from the problems that existed in Opposition. The only persons defending the PLP are the elected persons in office. There is no third voice to move the debate beyond the direct bread and butter issues to more philosophical points. For example, teachers are threatening to leave the classrooms to demand their $100 a month pay increase as of 1st July. Where is the voice that demands from them standards of behaviour and results in the classroom? There is none. Perhaps the leader of the PLP ought to think about reviving the think tank idea that died a quick death shortly after its formation five or so years ago.

US AMBASSADOR IS LEAVING AFTER ALL

The news rattled around Nassau like rocks in a soda can. Could it possibly be true? It turns out that it is true. J. Richard Blankenship one week after denying that he was leaving and saying that a drunk around town was spreading rumours on him, he is out. He is to leave his job on 18th July. The news was not like a bolt out of the blue. There were rumours around the political community that because he had offended everyone under heaven and earth including his own staff in the Embassy that he was going to be recalled. In demitting office, a press statement issued from the US embassy said that he was going back to the private sector and listed amongst his accomplishments his reinvigoration of the anti-drug effort in The Bahamas and the help that his wife gave to boosting the spay and neutering programme for canines in The Bahamas. No word from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Minister was travelling in Chile at an OAS meeting and could not be reached for comment. File photo of US Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship during an address to the College of The Bahamas.

HOW THE NY TIMES HANDLED THEIR CRISIS
    The Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd of the New York Times have both resigned their jobs and left the newspaper. Their resignations were announced to the New York Times newsroom on Thursday 5th June, the culmination of scandal that began when they announced that Jason Blair a young black reporter at The New York Times was guilty of plagiarism and making up quotes from people that he never interviewed and of reporting from places that he never went.
    Mr. Blair, who is a diminutive black man, resigned but he was not very contrite and seemed a little stupid as he dealt with the havoc that he created. There seems to be a lot of soul searching at The Times as to how this could have happened. The news reporters said that Mr. Raines who was their ultimate boss on the professional side was aloof and distant and rewarded people for loyalty. They thought that since he had come from the racist south, he was too soft on Mr. Blair - a black man - and allowed him to get away with serious mistakes even when the trail of personal perfidy was everywhere to be found in Mr. Blair’s history. Mr. Blair was not beyond blaming what happened to him on race, and some others joined to that side. That seems a little stupid. Mr. Blair is simply a dishonest man, a prevaricator who is compulsive. He is sick, and there is nothing to be said for any of this except the dishonesty of a man, not his race.
    We think that the New York Times handled this matter haltingly at first but in the end got it right by forcing out the two Editors, one of whom is also black. That does not matter. The right thing had been done. Those who edit and write for this column believe the New York Times to be among the finest newspapers in the world. And credibility is important to the paper.   We pattern our behaviour behind it. The fact that everyone ought to have a point of view, no matter how objectionable, within the bounds of law and propriety. Some people thought that the writer from Grand Bahama last week who wrote the pieces about the Minister of Tourism ought to have been censored. But our view is that that was his opinion and his analysis and he is entitled to have that view and to be able to say it in a free country. The Times reported their misfortunes on their front pages and on their editorial pages. Would ZNS, for example, do that if something happened to them or The Tribune for example? When Nicki Kelly was summarily dismissed, there was not a word in the Tribune’s columns about it, except to defend their bad decision against attack by political figures like Fred Mitchell. The Times story is instructive therefore on all kinds of levels.

PREPARING FOR ANOTHER BUSH TERM
Caribbean leaders were thoroughly depressed by the victory of George W. Bush as President of the United States. It appeared to them that the inevitable consequence of that election was a rise in racism throughout the United States in its official policies and the discrimination in immigration and economic policies against Black nations and the Caribbean in particular. The events of 11th September 2001 in New York provided a cover for just that bad news. Now we have what appears to be inveterate racist opinion right through the administration, covered up in anti terrorism rhetoric, moving to exclude more and more people from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Now that elections are coming up again, there appears to be more trouble on the horizon. The Democrats who are traditionally the friends of Caribbean people are not certain just what to do and seem to have no viable alternative candidates. What it seems is coming is a rout in favour of George W. Bush. That would be a tragedy for the Caribbean. So quietly you have a country like The Bahamas stepping up to the plate to try to forge a new consensus amongst Caribbean countries about who to deal with four more difficult years with George Bush as President after 2004. It will require all the skills of our slave ancestors to get through this period. But one thing we know and it is not much comfort: this too shall pass.

HOW THE ECONOMY IS SHAPING UP

The Prime Minister has asked public servants to be disciplined and to allow him the opportunity to postpone the raise that they expect on 1st July to a later date. The civil servants have threatened to come out into the streets and bring the country to a halt. Such is the level of mistrust between the Government and those who work for it one year after the election. The problem is that there is not an understanding of how serious a problem The Bahamas really faces. The Prime Minister should have asked for even more concessions. The fact is that that it looks like some 100 million dollars in taxes will be needed to keep this country going if we don’t manage to grow this economy within the next year. That's the bad news. The good news is that if the projects valued at one billion or more come on-stream then it should help to ease the burden. Allyson Maynard Gibson who is the Minister of Financial Services and Investment announced the development of Crab Cay at Exuma this week. This is an investment of 240 million dollars in a tourism project. The Donald Knowles photo from The Nassau Guardian taken on Monday 2nd June is shown. We keep our fingers crossed.

THE TRIB AND THE PLP ON THE SAME SIDE?
    The PLP must be asking what in the name of heaven they had done wrong. The fact that The Tribune was actually supporting a position taken by the Progressive Liberal Party government must be a signal that something is wrong. But strange as that may seem, The Tribune was busy urging public servants to defer their demands for a pay raise come 1st July. This is remarkable, and it gives one the impression that there is a different editorial writer at work these days. Most days it is still Eileen Carron at work in the subtext of racism. This week she was busy attacking Raynard Rigby, the PLP’s Chairman. It seems like a strange love affair almost. He has become her favourite whipping boy. But here is some of what The Tribune had to say to civil servants in The Tribune’s own words on Thursday 5th June:
    “If government pays out more than it takes in, the IMF, which has so far given very sound advice, will be the undertaker that will walk in when everything collapses to take out the carcass. And the civil servants who want it all now, will be like those Bahamians who took everything out of the till, allowing nothing for a rainy day. Not only will they be jobless – finally, the top heavy civil service will have been pruned - but merciless taxes will be imposed on all citizens to pay off the national debt.
    “This is the spectre that now faces The Bahamas. Civil Servants would be wise to defer their demands for the present so as to secure their future in a stable country.
    “They have the choice of either pulling their weight to help save their country, or creating so much havoc that everything will be lost - themselves and their jobs included.”
     Wonders never cease!

ALLEN MISSPEAKS ON BARBADOS
    The former Finance Minister under the Free National Movement has a son named Andrew who does a weekly column for The Tribune. It is usually an apology for FNM policies and sometimes wanders into foreign affairs matters. In the column of Monday 2nd June, Mr. Allen gave advice to the Prime Minister that Mr. Christie should reshape his Cabinet in the way that (according to Mr. Allen) Owen Arthur reshaped his Cabinet in Barbados following his third victory in a row at the polls in Barbados on 21st May.
    Mr. Allen claimed that several Ministers including Foreign Minister Billie Miller had been demoted. It is that with which we take issue. Billie Miller was the Deputy Prime Minister in the previous administration, and for health reasons this is said to be her last term. She has no wish to become Prime Minister. She has been an excellent Minister. She is still the Foreign Minister and has been named Senior Minister in the Cabinet. The reason for her stepping down voluntarily from the post of Deputy Prime Minister had nothing to do with poor performance or disagreement with her PM. It is the combination of the two factors just named.
    Further, Mr. Arthur is in the process of planning a transition and hoping to avoid the mistakes of his friend Hubert Ingraham in Nassau by naming a putative successor long before he will demit office. That person is Mia Mottley, his Attorney General and now Deputy Prime Minister. Ms. Mottley is a contemporary and good friend of Michelle Pindling Sands, Senator and daughter of the late Prime Minister of The Bahamas Sir Lynden O. Pindling.

SIR SONNY VISITS
The Chancellor of the University of the West Indies was in Nassau for a visit in connection with University business all last week. He took the opportunity to speak as a former head of the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) that is responsible for the negotiations on behalf of CARICOM for entry into the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). Sir Shridath Ramphal (aka Sonny) must have brought smiles to the faces of Reginald Lobosky and other nationalist conservatives in The Bahamas as Sir Sonny said that we must slow down the pace of entry into FTAA because the country’s economies were simply not ready for it. We think that he is right. The task of preparing for it by 2005 is daunting and the countries do not have the resources to deal with it.
One of the issues generated by the prospect of the FTAA that most frightens is the question of free movement of people. To many in the Caribbean this means one way movement for American business into our societies. The United States does not intend for Caribbean and Latin people to have easy access to their societies. In fact, they are making it more difficult to access their societies. Nevertheless, we believe that the FTAA will be good for The Bahamas provided we are able to negotiate the best package. We believe that there is more to do in public education. We also believe that there ought to be a referendum before we sign on conclusively to the pact.

FELIX BETHEL’S COLUMN
We thought that you would like to get an opinion from another columnist in another news medium. This week, we present an opinion about the weapons of mass destruction debate raging in Britain and the United States and whether or not their Governments lied to their people and the world about the state of Saddam Hussein’s weaponry and his ability to fight. It is no secret that this column never believed George Bush or Tony Blair’s assertions about weapons of mass destruction. It was in our view a lie from the start and that Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, should not have been used by these men to sell a bad and untruthful message. It turns out we are no alone, and Felix Bethel who is a lecturer at our College of The Bahamas managed to capture it all in an article that appeared in The Bahama Journal on Thursday 6th June. We commend it to you. Please click here to read it.

MISSING BOYS
This week efforts have intensified for the three missing boys. They are Jake Grant, Mackinson Colas, and D'Angelo McKenzie. These three boys have now been missing for well over three weeks without a trace. A command center has been set up at Zion Baptist Church, Freeport, where the pastor is Reverend Peter Pinder. The center is been headed by retired Assistant Superintendent of Police Archie Ferguson who is to co-ordinate the search efforts. He has been joined by Bahamas Air Sea Rescue, concerned citizens from the Susan Wallace Teen Center and the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association, and other community minded volunteers. But, to date, all the efforts have turned up nothing. A prayer service was scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. at the Government complex located in the BaTelCo building. This effort is being spearheaded by ZNS Northern Service.

DOMESTIC TOURISM
This weekend ABOVE the RIM held its fourth annual STOP THE VIOLENCE weekend of activities.
The Royal Palm Hotel is boasting a healthy occupancy for the weekend along with the Royal Oasis where we understand most of the suites have been booked for the weekend. The car rental companies have all fared well and we are reliably informed that the BERES concert was sold out. The Camelot Room and Palm Pavilion were both opened to accommodate the crowd.

While most older people in the community tend to frown at these types of concerts, no one could deny the fact that these concerts have boosted the economy.

BAD WAYS
The Lewis Yard Primary School is said to have all the amenities that all the local primary schools in Grand Bahama boast of. It has a pre-school, computer lab and also, it has the lowest student-teacher ratio in Grand Bahama. While other government schools have a problem of overcrowding, we are informed that a good number of students who attend the school are of Haitian descent. Most Bahamian parents along with some Haitian parents prefer to send their children to Walter Parker or Freeport Primary and bypass their local school. If this is the case, the Ministry of Education should put an end to this practice of segregation. We believe that segregation is wrong and the only way of uplifting our Haitian brothers is through integration. Lest we forget, 40 years ago America went through the same problem of segregation with the Negro population. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now.

TEACHERS UNION
Members of the Bahamas Union of Teachers are among the best and the brightest of the Bahamian work force. Most of their members can boast of having Bachelor degrees in varying subjects and a considerable amount have Master's degrees or are on their way to completing the master's program. So it is against this backdrop that most Bahamians have some difficulty understanding why the Teacher's union cannot appreciate that the government must postpone their $100 a month pay raise by at least six months.

Prime Minister Christie, we believe, has put all of the cards on the table and has made the case why these pay raises must be deferred. We believe that the Teachers union position is not a reasonable one and if followed could cause The Bahamas the same type of problems that Dominica is now experiencing.

We also must keep in mind that we live in a hurricane zone and what if, God forbid, our Islands were to suffer a direct hit from a hurricane and we were force to go abroad to borrow. So, to defer the pay raise is not an unreasonable position for the government to take.
BS

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

IF THEY ONLY KNEW

Summertime is coming to The Bahamas in earnest. In one week’s time, the line will have been crossed by the sun firmly into the northern hemisphere and we will be into official summer. It is scorching hot now. It will become hotter. Civil servants are angry because they are not getting the money they were promised as of 1st July. If they only knew how lucky they are. They are the lucky ones. They are working.

A trip through the bowels of New Providence can only depress you these days. On every street corner, in every household, on every park, you see them sitting with nothing to do. The young men, some in their twenties, with some skills are on the Eastern Road in New Providence, selling guineps. They go for one dollar a bag, and they fight over customers. On other streets, if a politician stops, there is a deluge of requests for money, give me five dollars. I need some lunch. I need a cool beer. Even the employed, the workmen on the streets from the Water and Sewerage Corporation, BEC and BaTelCo, have the same cry. I have no lunch money. I need one five to buy a cool drink. Sometimes in The Bahamas it is difficult to tell need from begging as a habit.

Many little children once they see a stranger in their midst seem programmed to beg. As soon as the stranger walks up, they run almost as if programmed by their parents to ask for one dollar. And so it goes. Five to six years ago this was not the case. The conclusion some draw is that with the economy down in the dumps the begging has increased dramatically.

The stories of genuine need can be repeated here as well. The people who are ill, some who have children with serious disease. There is no real social net. The Government’s food stamp programme is about the only form of emergency assistance for those in need. But if you have problems finding shelter, you are in big trouble. Representatives are overwhelmed and forced themselves to go on the hustings begging for money to assist. The summertime is coming and the little children should not be on the streets without some form of assistance, otherwise we are looking at mayhem come high noon.

And so the Government it seems to us is absolutely right. There should be no pay increase as of 1st July. The country clearly cannot afford it in the circumstances of dire needs of people who are not working. The revenues are down in the tank, and it simply does not make sense to pay it. Here you are hale and hearty, getting your weekly salary. Yes it is difficult to make ends meet but think about the others who have no ends to meet. It would seem to be supreme selfishness if some consideration is not given for the national good.

The judgment of most people is that the country is not with the noisy group of public servants who sought to embarrass the Ministers of the Government at their meeting two Mondays ago in Nassau. The situation we now find ourselves in requires more caution than the country would know. We are quite simply in real financial trouble. The evidence must be there for all to see. The roads are falling apart; the buildings in need of repair; nothing works.

What we do have, however, is hope and we believe that we have a national will that this situation will improve with the application of that national will and discipline. The first ones though who must engage in that exercise are those who are working, have their health, their good jobs and who are being asked to take a postponement for an obligation by the national treasury for six months to December’s pay packet. Those are the civil servants. If they do not allow this postponement, then something in the national will is terribly amiss.

Number of hits for the month of June to Saturday 14th June at midnight: 50,627.

Photo of the animated audience at BPSU meeting with Cabinet Ministers.

GOVERNMENT TO BORROW 200 MILLION DOLLARS
    The Governor of the Central Bank Julian Francis and the Minister of Finance Perry Christie are all singing from the same hymn sheet. The fiscal and monetary policy all agree that the raise for civil servants planned by Hubert Ingraham’s administration at this time would be a bad idea.
    The Bahama Journal reported that the Governor of the Bank confirmed that the Government is going to the market to borrow 200 million dollars. Part of the loan is to get cheaper money and reschedule a debt of $125 million US that was arranged by the FNM administration and followed through last year by Mr. Christie to support the balance of payments last year following the economic shocks of the 11th September crisis. The other 75 million dollars will be to carry out certain capital works for the country over the next fiscal year. The money is being obtained on the international markets. It is at the low interest rates now available and at fixed low interest rates. The 125 million dollars was a five year facility at relatively onerous repayment terms. The Governor told the Journal in its Wednesday 11th June edition that the Government should not have any problem borrowing the money, because the country still has an A3 Moody’s rating.
    Looming in the offing as the Government goes to the market, however, is the fact that the unions are making unreasonable demands on wages. That is why the unions have been asked to exercise restraint as the country faces the international money markets. It must be seen that we are a country exercising that restraint. The problem is that the unions seemed not to believe the Government. A meeting was therefore arranged with the Governor of the Central Bank on Thursday 11th June to review with situation. Love 97 news reported that a further meeting is planned on Tuesday 17th June with the Secretary of the Revenue.

THE SUISSE SECURITY JUDGEMENT

    The Judgment of the Court was handed down months ago but the reasons had not been delivered until now. The Suisse Security Bank is owned by Mohammad Harajchi, an Iranian émigré living on Paradise, Island. The bank’s licence was revoked by the Governor of the Central Bank. Mr. Harajchi has made personal allegations against the Governor of the Central Bank and he, with his own newspaper, has been engaged in a war demeaning Bahamian political figures over the issue of the revocation of his Bank’s licence. The Judge threw the book at the bank’s conduct, saying that the conduct was “apparently beyond redemption”. Here is a part of what was reportedly said in the Judgment of Justice Austin Davis delivered on Thursday 12th June:
    “[Suisse Security’s] conduct borders on contempt in its treatment of the Governor. Its actions engendered obfuscation when clarification was required.
    “On the totality of the evidence in this case, I am satisfied that the appellant showed a complete lack of appreciation of its responsibilities. I am also satisfied that there is ample evidence to show that Suisse Security has fallen short in its obedience to those responsibilities.
    “Suisse Security appears to be establishing its own standard of conduct, which clearly shows the Governor finds to be banking practices he does not wish to see followed. Suisse Security appears to be impervious to the proddings of the Governor and his aides. If drastic action were not taken by the Governor, the situation would have gotten predictably worse.”
    The Judge also found that Suisse Security was evasive in its dealings with the Central Bank of the Bahamas and failed to disclose that 73 per cent of its capital was at risk. The Judge said that Suisse Security was also in clear breach of the law by having client funds deposited into two International Business Companies rather than the bank as customers had intended.
    In a statement issued in April, The Tribune reports that Chris Lunn representing the principal shareholder of the Bank said that the decision of the Judge was an outrage and they served notice of the intention to aggressively seek to appeal. Mr. Lunn, left and Mr. Harajchi, right are shown with their attorney in this file photo.

MITCHELL ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE

Public Service Minister Fred Mitchell spoke in the House of Assembly on Wednesday 11th June. It was his intervention in the House on the country’s annual Budget. He spoke about the public service and where it should be headed and the recent negotiations between the Unions and the Government on the Public Service pay raise. You may click here for the full statement.

MITCHELL ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell has been peppered with questions over the past week about the departure of J. Richard Blankenship, the Ambassador the United States to The Bahamas. The Minister seems to have carefully avoided any comment at all. He was quoted as saying in The Tribune that the Ambassador has stated why he has resigned and he accepts what the Ambassador says. He further explained in his statement in the House of Assembly that he does not comment on the departure of Ambassadors except at the official farewells normally arranged in conjunction with the embassies concerned. At that time, he said, an appropriate statement would be made. That was included in detail in his statement in the House of Assembly on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday 11th June. You may click here for that statement.

1^st June, 2003 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com*
BUDGET TIME...	SUN INTERNATIONAL PHASE III...
SOME WORRIES ABOUT THE P.I. INVESTMENT...	BLANKENSHIP NOT LEAVING...
A FATHER ON TRIAL...	A TRAGEDY HITS EXUMA...
MORE TRAGEDY - THIS TIME IN ANDROS...	LOU ADDERLEY IS BURIED...
A NEW CHAIRMAN FOR DOCTOR’S HOSPITAL...	KENDAL NOTTAGE ORDAINED...
FIRE BURNS DOWN HAITIAN ABACO VILLAGE...	SHARE OFFER FROM KERZNER...
NASSAU GUARDIAN ON THE PLP’S CASE...	THE TRIBUNE HAS ITS OWN PROBLEMS...
JULIAN FRANCIS ON GOVT’S BUDGET...	NEW HQ FOR SHANE GIBSON...
SENOR FROG’S NEW POLICY...	B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S FREEPORT...


The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web...	Interesting Places...
Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town	Bahamas Government Website
Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte	Bahamians On The Web
Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw	Bahamian Cycling News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael	FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Grand Bahama PLP

8^th June, 2003 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com*
LABOUR DAY PARADE...	A MAN IS CHARGED FOR VAGRANCY...
CHARGE OF SOLICITATION...	MANSLAUGHTER MOST FOUL...
THE PLP AND THE COUNTRY (NO THIRD VOICE)...	US AMBASSADOR IS LEAVING AFTER ALL...
HOW THE NY TIMES HANDLED THEIR CRISIS...	PREPARING FOR ANOTHER BUSH TERM...
HOW THE ECONOMY IS SHAPING UP...	THE TRIB AND THE PLP ON THE SAME SIDE?...
ALLEN MISSPEAKS ON BARBADOS...	SIR SONNY VISITS...
FELIX BETHEL’S COLUMN...	B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S FREEPORT...




The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web...	Interesting Places...
Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town	Bahamas Government Website
Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte	Bahamians On The Web
Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw	Bahamian Cycling News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael	FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Grand Bahama PLP

15^th June, 2003 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com*
GOVERNMENT TO BORROW 200 MILLION DOLLARS...	THE SUISSE SECURITY JUDGEMENT...
MITCHELL ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE...	MITCHELL ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS...
NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE ON PAY DEFERMENT...	BUTLER ON BLANKENSHIP...
MASSIVE HUNT FOR MISSING BOYS...	BERMUDA CALLS ELECTIONS...
CUBA’S SPECIAL CASE...	INAGUA INCIDENT TO BE INVESTIGATED...
MAYNARD GIBSON ADDRESSES CEOS...	GRAND BAHAMA WATER LINK...
NASSAU GUARDIAN AT IT AGAIN...	NEW RADIO JOB FOR SWEET BELLS...
MITCHELL AWAY FROM OFFICE...	MAILBOX...
	B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S FREEPORT...


The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web...	Interesting Places...
Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town	Bahamas Government Website
Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte	Bahamians On The Web
Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw	Bahamian Cycling News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael	FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Grand Bahama PLP

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

Volume 1 © BahamasUncensored.Com

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. Click here for the law on copyright as it applies to this website.

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

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

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