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

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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

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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.

NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE ON PAY DEFERMENT
After a rowdy week with the Trade Unions, there seemed some sense and sensibility coming to the whole process of what the unions will do come 1st July when the Government will officially postpone the agreement that it has with the trade unions of the public sector to pay a $100 per month increase in salary to all public servants. The Minister met with the unions at the Central Bank on Wednesday 11th June so that they could get a full briefing on the question, and has subsequently met with them to lay out the plan for the future. According to Love 97 news, the Minister received from the unions on Friday 13th June certain prerequisites for the union that must occur before they would consider a postponement of the obligation in a positive light. The radio also reported that a meeting is to be held with the Secretary for Revenue on Tuesday 18th June for the unions to get a full briefing on the revenue collection for the country.
The view here is that the unions really should consider their position as an untenable one. There is no support in the country for the pay raise, and they have to be careful that they do not strike an unreasonable posture in the public domain.

BUTLER ON BLANKENSHIP

Craig Butler is one of the grandsons of the late first Bahamian Governor General of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas Sir Milo Butler. He writes a weekly column in the Nassau Guardian and has a penchant for strong views in keeping with his family’s disposition to public service. This week he wrote a column under the headline: ‘GOOD BYE’ on Friday 13th June. The column was about the departure of the US Ambassador to The Bahamas from the United States J. Richard Blankenship, recently announced. Here is what Mr. Butler had to say in his own words:
“In the jackass class, Mr. Blankenship was definitely at the head of the line. There is no need regurgitate any of his many comments.

     “In the annals of how not to behave as a diplomat his picture occupies the cover page.
    “However I can only assume that he was given directives on what the American position was and he pursued the same with a single-minded attitude.
    “… Now that he is gone, it does not mean that the pressure being applied to our government and or the message being sent will change.
    “No I believe the song will remain the same, it will just be delivered with a softer melody.”
    In fairness to His Excellency, one of our readers did write in lauding his frankness in dealing with the Bahamian people, "I don't care what those people in Washington told him about how he must go, 'cause he was too rude, some people you could only talk to one way." The correspondent, who signed as 'The silent majority' also said that Bahamians should be grateful to Mr. Blankenship. Foriegn Minister Mitchell and Ambassador Blankenship are shown at a ball for the Defence Force in this file photo.

MASSIVE HUNT FOR MISSING BOYS
    Joe Darville, the Human Rights campaigner, was busy on the radio threatening mayhem on the Government and making all kinds of accusations about what was and what was not done with regard to the search for the missing boys whose pictures are seen at the top of this site. He appears to blame the police and the Government for being slow off the mark in finding the missing boys. In one interview he claimed that if these had been the children of white people or rich black children foreign experts would have been allowed in to help find the boys. Then he appeared to suggest that the Government was actually blocking foreign help from coming in.
    The Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe joined the search for the boys on Wednesday 11th June. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security went to Grand Bahama to help with the search. She took with her a contingent of Defence Force Officers and Royal Bahamas Police Force recruits. Nothing found. Kudos to businessman Mike Edwards who offered $10,000 in reward money for information leading to the finding of the boys. He also called for the FBI and Scotland Yard to come in to help find the boys.
    Some people recalled that twenty years ago another three boys went missing and were never found in Grand Bahama. The stories coming from the side are interesting about the plight of children in Grand Bahama. Often it is said mothers send their children out looking for money, and they have to come back with a certain quota. It leaves the children vulnerable to all kinds of forces. It is also said that the disintegration of families often leads to children shifting between mother and father and other people and sometimes the children are missing for days at a time before an alarm is raised.
    Whatever the case with these missing boys, the community in Freeport is on edge. We hope that the renewed effort actually finds some clues as to what has happened to these children.

BERMUDA CALLS ELECTIONS

    The Premier of Bermuda Jennifer Smith has decided to call General Elections in that country, a dependent territory of Great Britain on 24th July. We think that the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) patterned after the PLP in Nassau will win again. There have been constitutional changes since the last election. There will now be single member constituencies where there were dual member constituencies before.
    The Premier has been under fire in Bermuda from her own side for being aloof and for surrounding herself with a cabal of persons who act as a praetorian guard. There was a vote of confidence raised against her by her own Parliamentary caucus that she won by one vote. She has a rocky relationship with the press that is controlled by the white establishment. But she has forged ahead and is expected to finish off the United Bermuda Party once and for all in the next election.
    It would be a good idea for a contingent of PLPs to travel to Bermuda to monitor the elections. Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell was in Bermuda on Friday 16th May on his way to the United Kingdom to talk about CARICOM matters and met the Premier at the House of Assembly in Bermuda. While there he also met with Bahamians in Bermuda and discussed the possibility of the appointment of an Honorary Consul for The Bahamas in Bermuda. A reception was held for Bahamians in Bermuda on the Thursday evening at the Fairmont Princess hotel. Corydon Mitchell is President of the Bahamian Club of Bermuda. He is on the far right of the picture. We wish the PLP luck in their elections.

CUBA’S SPECIAL CASE
The Bahamas told the Cubans along with CARICOM and the rest of the civilized world that they were wrong to lock up those dissidents in March, and to execute the highjackers of that Cuban ferry at the same time after a two day trial. In response, the Cubans have angrily withdrawn their application to join the Contonou Agreement with the other African Caribbean and Pacific countries. The Agreement is the successor to the Lome Agreements with the European Community. What is interesting is that the Cuban Foreign Minister was so derisive of the effort to join the Agreement when it was the CARICOM countries that worked so hard to get them into the agreement to help solve their capital problems.
Now that the European Union has announced further diplomatic sanctions against Cuba for its errant behaviour, Fidel Castro has led a march in Cuba of hundreds of thousands, denouncing the Union as fascist. This only goes to show what a case this man is right now. He comes off as a doddering old fellow who no longer has a true sense of proportion. All the more reason why there ought to be democratic and pluralistic elections in Cuba and now.

INAGUA INCIDENT TO BE INVESTIGATED

Alfred Sears, the Attorney General, announced in the House of Assembly on Thursday 12th June that there is to be a Commission of Inquiry into the allegations made by US Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship on 6th December 2002 that The Bahamas Government covered up an investigation into missing drugs on a boat being towed into Nassau in a controlled drug operation by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. The Ambassador’s remarks caused the adjournment of the Joint Task Force meeting between the United States and The Bahamas. The talks are to resume on 27th June. Mr. Sears said that retired Supreme Court Justice Stanley Moore is to conduct the inquiry.
Brian Bachman who is the political officer at the United States embassy said that the US will be watching the inquiry closely. Our view is that whatever the result of the investigation the US will not accept the result and will again accuse The Bahamas of being involved in a cover up. The importance of this is to ensure that the Defence Officers who by the US’ own admission are being unfairly denied visas into the US will get their names cleared once and for all. The attack on the character of the Defence Force was unwarranted and perhaps this will bring some closure to the matter but, given the apparent attitude of the Americans, we doubt it. Bahama Journal photo of Attorney General Sears in the House of Assembly giving his contribution to the Budget Debate by Otis Forbes.

MAYNARD GIBSON ADDRESSES CEOS

The buzz among business circles this week was well-known Bahamian entrepreneur Debbie Bartlett’s 7th annual CEO conference, which brought foreign entrepreneurs to rub shoulders with their Bahamian counterparts over a few days at the British Colonial Hotel. The conference was officially opened by Prime Minister Perry Christie and Minister of Financial Services and Investment Allyson Maynard Gibson shared the country’s strategy on repositioning financial services. Please click here for Minister Maynard Gibson’s address.

GRAND BAHAMA WATER LINK
In what is being billed as a major new tourist link between South Florida and Grand Bahama, Bahamians are organising the ‘First Annual Poker Run’ linking American powerboat enthusiasts with Grand Bahama through water sports, festivals and celebration. Please click here for the story.

NASSAU GUARDIAN AT IT AGAIN
On Monday the Nassau Guardian published excerpts of remarks made by the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell at the Organization of American States General Assembly in Chile on Monday 9th June. You may click here for the full remarks. In those remarks, Mr. Mitchell called for more training for reporters so that they can have a more fruitful profession. Not to be outdone, the intrepid Guardian publishers wrote an editorial the next day that was as trite as it was brief. They accused the Government of not living up to the talk of the Foreign Minister and claimed that it was too difficult for The Guardian's reporters to get a hold of Government Ministers.
The Foreign Minister answered the Nassau Guardian in his address to Parliament on Wednesday 11th June. He was dismissive of their complaints. We wrote a comment some week’s ago about the state of the Nassau Guardian. There is a really sick individual behind these short editorials, one who obviously suffers from low self esteem and who is a stranger to the truth. Further, the standard of The Guardian has deteriorated so low now that the paper is virtually all advertisement, and its editorials are printed in big print because they have so few words to put in them, and they have no relevance to The Bahamas. It is complete disgrace. To add insult to injury they are clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel when they have to ask fired former Editor Oswald Brown to come back and write a column for the paper.

NEW RADIO JOB FOR SWEET BELLS
    This story by Larry Stewart, from the Los Angeles Times of Thursday, 5 June, 2003 brought to our attention by a reader:
    “After 15 weeks of tryouts with a variety of guests, XTRA [690 and 1150 AM] has decided on former Laker Mychael Thompson [of Nassau, Bahamas] as the permanent partner for talk show host Steve Hartman.
    Thompson, who begins his new job Monday, is also the leading candidate to become the Lakers' new radio commentator. ‘We're still negotiating, but it's looking good,’ Thompson said Wednesday of the Laker position.
    The Lakers need to hire a radio announcing team now that the simulcasts have been scrapped. Laker flagship station KLAC [570 AM] is a Clear Channel sister station of XTRA, but according to XTRA program director Don Martin, one job has nothing to do with the other.
    Thompson will be Hartman's new partner on the noon-3:00p "Loose Cannons" show whether things work out with the Lakers or not.
    Thompson, a member of the Laker championship teams in 1987 and 1988, was among more than 30 tryouts and guest co-hosts since former "Loose Cannon" Bill Werndl quit on February 27th.
    Thompson has done commentating for the Seattle SuperSonics, Vancouver Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves over the last 11 seasons, and he did a talk show with Kermit Washington in Portland for 4 1/2 years.”
    Hey, good luck Mychael, and to think, there are those who remember when he was a little boy in the Gospel Hall!

MITCHELL AWAY FROM OFFICE
Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has left The Bahamas for the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota for his annual physical.

MAILBOX
This one from Kele Isaacs –
    I don't regularly give feedback on your website but this week's column generated two questions.
    Nottage's Ordination: ‘Looking on in what seemed incredulity was the Prime Minister and the Attorney General Alfred Sears’ - Was your feeling about Nottage's one of disbelief and if so why?
    For what it's worth, I think your website is well balanced and also Minister Mitchell's presentation at the Pindling Lecture Series was nothing short of brilliant.
     I do however have concerns about the Minister launching a book while sitting as a Cabinet Minister and also how if one were to analyze the Minister's language and compare it to the writing on your website one could get the impression that he still controls the Editor's pen....
    On the looks of incredulity at Rev. Nottage’s nomination, we just call them how we see them, Keli and about the editorship of this site, well, thanks for the compliment about our writing styles, but just check the notes at the top of the page. Ed.

From a reader who signs ‘The people of Long Island’ –
    I must admit I am quite fond of your reviews and the like. However, I think that you need elevate your thinking a bit out of the days when civilization was defined by skin colour. If you have yet to notice most of the intelligent people who read this page realize that civilization is now determined by culture and not the days of past, institutionalized slave mentality. I would hate to think that someone so well versed in the art of language such as yourself will continuously feed your readers as well encourage the public to maintain this racial divide.
    Being the well read individual I trust that you will look toward the other nations as improving the country for all ethnic and religious members and not creating tensions as the order of the day and believe me if it were not for our pluripotentiality and multicultural makeup we would be a struggling nation.
    The reader also attached a lengthy letter wondering why, in his words, Long Island had been ignored in the plans for development now being talked about in many other Family Islands. We’ll check it out. Ed.

THREE MISSING BOYS (UPDATE)
Last week the efforts of the committee to locate the three missing boys Jake Grant, Mackinson Colas and Deangelo McKenzie was enhanced by the arrival of Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt who brought with her the top brass of the Police Force and the Defence Force along with Police recruits and Defence Force officers to take part in the search for the boys.

The Commissioner of Police said that from the very beginning, the police have been on the case. And revealed that the assistance of Interpol is being sought.

A town meeting is to be held, 16th June, 2003, at the Foster B. Pestaina Hall at 7:00 p.m.. The DPM & Minister of National Security as well as the police, and other community leaders will speak to the Grand Bahama community.

ROYAL OASIS
The Royal Oasis this week has followed the lead of the Our Lucaya properties and has terminated fifty of its employees. The reasons given for the terminations were a downturn in the hotel occupancy level. Notwithstanding all the talk of new job opportunities and signing of Heads of Agreement more than one hundred people have been put on the unemployment lines in Grand Bahama.

CLOTHES DUMPED
A dispute between a local landlord and tenant this week ended when the landlord cleared his warehouse on Oak Street near the College of the Bahamas in the industrial area of Freeport. Some of the clothing was new and some used but in good condition. It was placed in the warehouse parking lot in a mound, 30'x40'x3'. Once word of the dumping got out, scores of shameless locals could be seen rummaging through the pile. It was indeed a pity that this dispute could not be settled amicably. The clothes could have been donated to various charities as opposed to being left to the elements.

PLP WRONG ON COMMISSION
Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Christie stood up in Parliament and spoke directly to the Bahamian people when he presented the 2003-2004 budget. At the time, Mr. Christie told us about the state of the country's finances and how sacrifices had to be made in order to keep our economic house in order. He also said at the time that the public service salary raises would have to be deferred at least six months until the cash situation improved. We felt that this was a reasonable position.

So it was with surprise when Attorney General Alfred Sears announced that a commission of inquiry was to be appointed to look in to what is now known as the ‘Inagua’ incident, which took place some eleven and one-half years ago.

The question must now be asked: Why should the PLP go back to review an incident that they had no responsibility for, unless the PLP is prepared to take responsibility for actions they had no control of. We feel that the proposition is a ludicrous one. We will remind PM Christie that since that incident, the country has had three consecutive General Elections and have judged all those who were in office at that time. So to waste the scarce resources is not a proposition that should be entertained.

Since the ‘Inagua’ incident, The Bahamas and the United States have had numerous operations conducted where arrests and convictions have followed. So, it does not make sense to now try and resurrect A DEAD ISSUE. At the very least, Hubert Ingraham and his government should have been the ones to hold a commission of inquiry. But, Mr. Ingraham himself is on record as not having any evidence to support a commission or charges to be brought.

Finally, after 30 years of Independence it is an insult to the Bahamian people for the Attorney General to announce that a retired foreign judge is to be appointed as the commissioner. The question must be asked: Is there not one competent Bahamian to be found to sit as arbiter of the facts and then to report? No wonder we are sometimes treated as slaves because it is that type of thinking that perpetuates the notion that Bahamians are not "good or honest" enough, and it is a pity that it is the Government who sanctions this notion.

It seems that FTAA will bring us nothing but another form of slavery to be perpetrated on cowardly leaders who do nothing more than ‘talk the talk’. SHAME ON THE PLP.
BS

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FAREWELL TO THE US AMBASSADOR
We were a bit surprised but then again no we weren’t at the cautious comments of the Foreign Minister as he addressed the press on the announced departure of the United States Ambassador to The Bahamas. The Minister’s explanation to the House on Wednesday 8th was that he has never commented on the departure of any Ambassador save at the time that the Ambassador is formally leaving by way of a reception held by the Foreign Ministry. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say on that occasion.

We want to put our two cents in before such an eventuality. We do not join the tirade of negative comments that have come since the Ambassador announced his departure. The Minister pointed out that the Chinese Ambassador also left before the end of his usual tour of duty so what we are seeing is a normal part of diplomatic tours. You serve until it is time to move on.

There is no doubt, however that the Minister will have a delicate balancing act to perform in his public comments about this Ambassador's departure. The pundits have rightly pointed out that we have not seen an Ambassador of this disposition before. In many of the countries to the south, they would have acted to declare him persona non grata. The Bahamas did not go that route. The Bahamas simply went with the flow.

Leading us through this was the Prime Minister Perry Christie who refused to be drawn into a public contretemps on the issue, and no doubt encouraged the Foreign Ministry to act accordingly. Bahamians must remember that J. Richard Blankenship whatever they think of him personally represents his country. We must accept that fact. The United States chose him as their Ambassador and he represented their views. There can be no issue then with Mr. Blankenship personally.

In that vein, it appears to us that all of the normal civility, courtesy and ceremony that are connected with a departure of an outgoing Ambassador ought to be observed. It is crucial that there be no missteps on this. Mr. Blankenship has many accomplishments to his credit, not the least of them the highlighting of the war against drugs, which his country has championed as a means to stopping crime and the subversion of society. His wife actively engaged in the community in helping with the spaying and neutering programme. In an interesting irony, his public pronouncements help to bring Foreign Affairs to the front burner in Bahamian public debate.

When Mr. Blankenship departs on 18th July a chapter of US/Bahamian relations will have closed. We trust that there is a return to quieter diplomacy but Mr. Blankenship should be thanked on behalf of the Bahamian people for the service on behalf of his country. That is the proper thing to do.

Number of hits for the month of June up to Saturday 21st June at midnight: 72,082.

THE BUDGET PASSES THE HOUSE
The whole reason that the FNM administration moved the budget year in 1992 from a Christmas time deadline, based on the calendar year to the mid year was so that debate could take place over sensible hours and in reasonable time. The idea was that a budget should be in place by 1st July without the press of the Christmas rush. But House members left the House of Assembly dreary eyed and groggy after two weeks of debate and in the last week, they stayed until 12 midnight on each of the four evenings of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. One person spoiled the show and that was former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham who spoke nine dreary hours, on and on and on droning on about one bit of nonsense or the other. The Prime Minister promised the House that this is the last time that this will happen, and that next year the House rules will change limiting the time in which members can speak. Good! Long overdue!
The budget will require deficit spending again. This is regrettable but a way of life given the state of the economy. Oh yes, House members really had to pull an all nighter. On Saturday morning 21st June, they left the House at 6:30 a.m. shortly after it adjourned. The House sat continuously from Friday 20th June at 3 p.m. to Saturday 21st June at 6:30 a.m. until the budget had been passed. That is totally nonsensical. It is now on to the Senate.

A PRIME MINISTER’S VISION

Perry Christie, the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, is at the very top of the heap. He is at the peak of his career, and is thinking about the future. The question is when he does leave what kind of legacy will he leave for Bahamians? He is fond of saying at one briefing or the next that he has a duty to build in redundancies in the PLP because when he leaves the scene, there have got to be some persons who are able to take his place. As he looks around at his bench today he says that he is pleased at what he sees. Mr. Christie is also determined that he will not make the mistakes that his predecessor did with the FNM, causing an internecine battle that ended up with the party losing office. Down in Barbados there is a pattern developing with Owen Arthur with the agreement of former Deputy Prime Minister Billie Miller anointing Mia Mottley as his successor. Ms. Mottley was the Chairman of the last campaign for the governing party in Barbados and she is now the Deputy Prime Minister. Mr. Arthur intends to leave sometime in mid term.
In our view, however, the question of what the Prime Minister does about succession is not a central question. The country is too occupied by it. What is central is his vision for the country in the future. Many are thinking about next week or next year. He is thinking five, ten years down the road. He has an economy to build, debt to repay, systems to put in place, and the rebuilding of the civil service decimated by years of inattention and abuse. The relations with the unions and workers in the society are so fractious, a legacy of the FNM, that almost nothing can get done in The Bahamas unless there is a crisis. In addition, it seems to us that there is also a need to quicken the political decision making that has a tendency in all Bahamian governments to cause unnecessary delays. We think that the vision is an ample and necessary one. It is therefore incumbent upon all leaders in the country to join in that vision and ensure that the vision comes to pass.

MORE SEARCHING GRAND BAHAMA

    No luck yet in finding the three missing boys whose pictures are found at the top of this site. The search continues. The police issued a statement saying that if international help would cause them to find the children they would be happy to accept it. One remembers the speech of an FBI agent (former) in Grand Bahama who looked into the cases of unsolved murders in The Bahamas. He said that the initial problem is that the police botched the situation at the start and may have caused clues to get lost by not acting quickly and perceptively enough at the start. The Minister of Education Alfred Sears went to visit with the families and the police made an appeal to the public to protect and guard their children. Then there was a bit of a reach.
    Last week we reported that some were linking the three disappearances now with three that happened in 1981. The Tribune published it on its front page almost as fact. They said that the families are convinced that there is a tie between the case of three missing boys from Hawksbill High School in 1981 and these boys. It is unlikely but in times like these no theory should be dismissed out of hand.
    The photo of the Attorney General Alfred Sears shown by The Tribune on Thursday 19th June is by Tim Aylen and it showed Mr. Sears at left, Marilyn Davis, grandmother of DeAngello McKenzie and Linda Davis, the boy’s mother. Francis Singer Hayward, High School patron of the Sir Jack Hayward High School is at right.

MORE ON THE US AMBASSADOR
Our editorial today says that The Bahamas must show good relations with the US in the way it treats the US Ambassador as he demits office but the print media has not been so kind with most comment being quite negative. Last week, we gave a sample of one columnist in the press. This week, there is another, this time from Norman Solomon, businessman and former Opposition leader and Oswald Brown, Guardian columnist. We repeat what they said in their own words:
Norman Solomon, printed in The Tribune Saturday 21st June 2003:

    “Anyone who believes that Bull Blankenship resigned of his own free will is really an innocent at large.
    “If I can get the names of those who believe that he resigned of his own free will, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to try and sell them and of course they [will] all be believers in Santa Claus.”
    Oswald Brown, Nassau Guardian columnist Thursday 19th June:
    “ Since his arrival in The Bahamas in December of 2001, Ambassador Blankenship has been a lightning rod for controversy because of his zeal in fighting the war in drugs. Many Bahamians, particularly those with an exaggerated opinion of the importance of The Bahamas in the global community, have strongly objected to his no holds barred penchant for being outspoken, sometimes on issues that generally are considered to be outside the realm of diplomatic mission…
    “So as Ambassador Blankenship prepares to bid adieu, US President Bush in making a decision as to who should replace him, could well use former Ambassador Sidney Williams as an example of who the next US Ambassador to The Bahamas should be. Of course, President Bush is a Republican and Ambassador Williams is a Democrat, but there certainly must be some Republicans of Sidney Williams’ ilk that Mr. Bush knows well. They need not be black, but it would sure be good to have another US ambassador who would be comfortable at a Banana Boat reunion. In the wake of the controversial storm stirred up by Ambassador Blankenship, such a US envoy would be a welcomed relief."

MINISTRY OF NATIONAL SECURITY ON FLAG USAGE
    The Ministry of National Security has expressed concern over the commercial sale of flags with markings on the flag. The Ministry issued a statement on the matter on Friday 20th June:
    “These flags bear markings and notations that constitute desecration of the national flag. The public would wish to be advised that the desecration of the national flag is against the law and that the police have already begun to act against the display of such flags, and will continue to so act." The Ministry said that the permission to use the flags other than as national symbols has to be authorized by the Ministry. It added that people should treat the flag and national symbols with respect.
    We agree with treating national symbols with respect, but we also say that any law in our opinion that restricts what you can do with a flag is unconstitutional and is a clear interference with free speech. The Ministry of National Security is wrong on their statement and any law enforcement officer who engages in that may find him or her self hauled before the courts in a civil action for interfering with the rights of a citizen. That should be borne in mind by the state as well. The US Supreme Court has gone over this time and again. While we may object to all kinds of things said and done by people, in a democracy you have the right even if it is generally objectionable to object and that includes bad as it may seem burning, tearing the flag up or in the words of the misguided statue defacing the flag. We do not support the defacing the flag but we support the right of free speech.

TROUBLE IN TOURISM IN GRAND BAHAMA
Buddemeyer is a name that will live in infamy in Grand Bahama and Freeport in particular. Pat Bain and the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union had obviously had enough. On Tuesday 17th June, the Union decided that they would withdraw their labour and 200 workers walked off the job at the Royal Oasis, formerly Bahamas Princess. The reason was that the hotel had laid off 36 workers in contravention of the agreement between themselves and the Union. Police were called to the scene as the workers blocked access to the hotel, and some guests could not get back to their rooms. The management of hotel under Buddemeyer refuses to accept that unions are a fact of life. The hotel also has a reputation of threatening the Government and the business community in Grand Bahama whenever they are called upon to pay their bills. For example, they are said to owe huge telephone and power bills. And when called upon to pay, their answer was shut down the hotel if we don’t pay. The hotel has also pushed out Bahamian managers from the property. The Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet spent three days in Freeport trying to sort it out. By week’s end, the tireless work of Labour Minister Vincent Peet paid off and the sides came to a compromise. The negotiations were tortuous but the resounding answer most people feel is that Buddemeyer has to go if there is to be industrial peace in Freeport.

THE DOCKS CONTROVERSY
On Tuesday 17th June, taxi drivers took to street tactics by causing a disturbance at the Prince George Dock. This time, the drivers were upset that with falling passenger traffic for their taxis, Bahamas Experience Tour Company had arrived at the dock to pick up pre arranged tour passengers. The taxi drivers refused to let the pick up go ahead. It was said that Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe and Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin both left their places in the House of Assembly to go to the docks to buy peace, literally. In other words, the press reported that there was a promise to compensate the drivers for the loss in revenue. The question we ask here is how long will the taxi drivers exercise a veto over public policy? The fact is that Bahamas Experience is owned by a PLP and most of its drivers are PLP. The taxi drivers and their union are said to be PLP. So the Government is being asked to choose between two PLPs. This is parochialism at its worse. It is also public policy by threat and crisis. This is also the legacy of Hubert Ingraham who during his term of office would never decide anything unless the unions and workers had his head in a vice grip. The result is that no one knows how to negotiate anything. There is always the recourse to striking and threats, rather than orderly negotiating. The country cannot go on this way. The Taxi Union is not representative of the masses of taxi drivers. Successive administrations have not been able to broaden the representation. The result is that the union cannot speak for the taxi drivers. The non members outnumber the members. The Government needs to have a representative body that can speak for its members. At the same time, some enlightenment must come to the Union. It cannot forever veto decisions on transportation in a modern society. Water taxi licences have been vetoed some argue because the Taxi Union objects. One hopes that a Bahamas Government will have the foresight and courage to deal with this very taxing problem.

INGRAHAM LOVES THE SOUND OF HIS VOICE

Not since Norman Solomon was the Leader of the Opposition in the 1980s has a speaker taken such liberties and abused of the rules of Parliament. The rules now say that the time for a members' intervention is 15 minutes. The PLP objected to that and when they came to office decided to ignore the rule, so that a member can speak as long as he or she wishes. Clearly that was not designed for Hubert Ingraham or Mr. Solomon of old for that matter to speak for two days at a time. It is tiresome and abusive. The former Prime Minister was speaking on the Budget Debate on Wednesday 18th June and again on Thursday 19th June. It was tiresome and repetitive. Some were impressed by Mr. Ingraham’s scorching of the Government. But one must remember the fate of Mr. Solomon who used to speak sometimes for the entire week of Parliamentary debate. It came to naught. He still lost at the polls. It would be different if one believed that Mr. Ingraham really has any thought or feel for this country. He doesn’t. As he always says “It doesn’t matter to me”. Will it help keep Mr. Christie’s men and women on their toes? Who knows? The questions of minutia on budgets is not really a matter for ministers but they ought to be sharp as a tack on policy matters. There was some criticism of the seeming inability of ministers to respond to Mr. Ingraham’s barbs. But what we can say is that Mr. Ingraham's advice on the public service is not worth two dimes. He ought o encourage his supporters in the unions to come round to the Government's side. Instead he is by a wink and nod, and a whisper and sleight of hand trying to say that the increase should be put off for a year, knowing that he is encouraging the unions on the other hand to make as much trouble as they possibly can for the Government not to have the break that it wants. Some PLP speakers seemed to be trying to outdo Mr. Ingraham with lengthy speeches as well. They should judge by the copy that they actually get in the print media. Very brief if at all. We think that what is important now for Alfred Sears and his Committee of the House to bring in the new rules so that we can put a stop to this lengthy speech making. You simply cannot run a modern country like this.

TIEFING TIEFING AND MORE TIEFING
The owner of SuperValue Food stores Rupert Roberts was reported by BahamasB2B.com to be concerned about the amount of stealing going on his shop. Mr. Roberts reportedly said that Bahamians steal some 3-4 million dollar a year from SuperValue alone. This he claims keeps prices some 15 to 20 per cent higher. One wonders how he knows that it’s Bahamians who are stealing the merchandise. Does he for example also factor in that Bahamian merchants (since ispo facto they are Bahamians) may also be teifing from the Bahamian consumer by overcharging? But that said, there is a lack of morality inherent in purchasing and in our attitude toward the distribution systems in this country. The attitude seems to be that the businessman who goes into business is making rapacious profits and should be taxed for it by stealing from him or her. It is a cultural problem that needs to be addressed.

PM SAYS PAY DEADLINE IS DIFFICULT
The Prime Minister told the Bahama Journal this week that even when the pay packet comes due for civil servants in December it will be difficult to pay it. He was referring to the promise made to pay civil servants a postponed raise that is due to them on 1st July. The PM has asked to postpone the raise to December. The view of this column is that it should not be paid that in fact the IMF’s request that the pay increase be postponed for one year from 1st July be negotiated or imposed. The Prime Minister said that he will have to find a way to pay it in December despite the difficulties. It was promised by the Minister of State that half of the money would be paid in December’s pay packet. Everywhere in this hemisphere there are stories of Governments cutting back. In the United States they have been laying people off in the public and the private sector. The public servants in The Bahamas are simply being unrealistic if they expect the Government to be able to pay. Notwithstanding that one supposes a promise is a promise. The view here is that the public is on the side of the Government on this one. The Union leaders must be careful that they do not overstep the mark and then end up losing their leadership positions because they put their membership in an untenable position.

BATELCO SUCCESSFUL BID 14 JULY

The long saga of the privatization of BATELCO, the telephone company may be coming to an end. You will remember that former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham spent 100 million dollars of the taxpayers’ money to downsize a corporation that in the end is unlikely to get more than 150 million dollars when the half share is sold. The whole saga has been a disgrace in terms of the payouts and the displacement of the social lives of Bahamian families. Now it is said that on 14th July we will find out who is to buy the 49 per sent stake in the new BATELCO and who will become in effect its new owner and operator in place of the Government. We think that all tenders should be rejected. The patrimony of the Bahamian people should not be sold for some ideological reasons. The fact is that that the Treasury is counting on this money more than ever to make up the budget shortfall. Can you imagine? This is like selling the family’s assets to save the family. In the end you ask yourself whether the last state is worse than the first.

PRISON GUARD CHARGED FOR DRUGS
Security and safety at the prison has been a matter of concern for some years. The latest incident to show up the threats is the arrest of a prison officer for trying to smuggle some $25,000 of marijuana into the prison. There is a clear need for prison reform. One of the issues is the quality of the people who are prison officers and how much they are paid. The man was caught as a result of a sting operation but it will take much more than that to bring the prison up to scratch.

ALLYSON GIBSON DEFENDS CONCESSIONS

The Minister for Financial Services has been the target of the former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. He chose his intervention on the budget to throw barbs her way. It appears that he is after her because she has made him look stupid in his work on the financial services sector. It is generally accepted that Mr. Ingraham ruined the financial services sector in The Bahamas by bowing down to the international community and did not stand up to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Minister spoke in the House on Wednesday 18th June. She covered all aspects of her Ministry. She defended her negotiations with the Kerzners and said that the 2000 jobs that come with the new investment more than outweigh the 117 million dollars in concessions granted by The Bahamas government. We have already said what we feel about Hubert Ingraham's presentation in the House, too long and too selfish. You may click here for the address by the Minister for Financial Services.

CELL PHONE RELIEF

The Minister of Works Bradley Roberts has announced that the moratorium on cell phone numbers in The Bahamas will be lifted come October. The cell phone system in The Bahamas has been in a state of virtual collapse for about three months. There is a high rate of call failures and disconnections. Many people can't hear the phone ringing on their end, and there is double voice over the line when you get a connection. So the business community and the public should be happy about the relief to come in October. Praise God! The Minister of Works gave his budget communication to the House on Friday 20th June. You may click here for the full report.

FR. JOHN PUGH LEAVES THE BAHAMAS

Fr. John Pugh is the rector of St. Anne’s Church in Fox Hill that most people will remember. He is remembered in The Bahamas as the founder of St. Anne's High School as part of the Anglican system. He adopted many boys in Fox Hill. He was a single white English priest at a time when The Bahamas was colony, one of a generation that included men who came out to the colonies to find their way like E.W.G. Holmes and John Calnan. Fr Pugh renounced his British citizenship and became a Bahamian. Now he is ill, having suffered a serious fracture and is in need of medical care. He left The Bahamas on Friday 20th June accompanied by his sister to return to England for medical care and treatment. It is not expected that he will return. Fr. Pugh is ill at 83. We thought that all former St. Anne’s students might wish to wish him well and thank him for the great contribution that he made to their education and to the betterment of The Bahamas. Father Pugh is pictured at his eighty first birthday party two years ago.

TOWN MEETING
On Monday, June 16th, a town meeting was held at the Christ the King auditorium. The meeting was well attended and Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin was the keynote speaker. Joe Darville from the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association and other community leaders also spoke. What was most noticeable to all in attendance was that there was not one PLP Grand Bahama MP present. We believe that this has something to do with some internal wrangling among local PLPs on Grand Bahama. If this is in fact the case, Chairman Raynard Rigby needs to put an end to this internal strife. In the end, it would only be the PLP who suffers.

CASH 3
The word has gone out: If this government would like to last they better leave CASH 3 alone. The CASH 3 business in Freeport is said to be the largest employer with good wages and the best conditions on the whole of Grand Bahama. Bookies reportedly can make as much as $600 plus a week. The FNM was here and left it alone; now comes
Christie and his smart boys to try and upset something that works. When he closes the numbers houses does he have jobs available for the many people who will be displaced?

Now, if the government was interested they might try to regulate this business and increase government revenue.

ROYAL OASIS & THE UNION
By early Tuesday morning, commuters on their way to work saw Bahamas Hotel, Catering & Allied Workers President Pat Bain along with his officers and union members blocking the entrances and exits to the Royal Oasis properties. The union along with the employees had had enough. They were responding to the dismissal of thirty-five of their members without the union being first notified in accordance with their contract.

The police on the scene should be commended for using wisdom and patience in dealing with what could have been a very volatile situation. But, the officer-in-charge was able to bring calm to this demonstration. Ken Russell, Lindy Russell, David Thompson, and David Wallace, MPs and former MPs were all on the scene by 7:45 a.m. Caleb Outten was the only PLP member present.

A dismissed employee was quoted as saying "They fire me because I ugly". This brought howls of laughter throughout the Grand Bahama community, but what it demonstrated is the lack of sensitivity that has been displayed by the Driftwood group to its employees. The government must now find a way to impress upon the Royal Oasis that it must use a more caring approach when it comes to dealing with its employees or very soon the whole project is going to run into serious difficulty the next time a dispute arises. It seems as if this property is a time bomb waiting to erupt that will cause great harm to the tourism sector in Grand Bahama.
BS

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NO SENSE OF SHAME

The Union Leader Kingsley Black was quoted in the press as objecting to the payment of $500,000 in back monies owed to the Lynden O. Pindling Estate because of the unlawful denial of a pension to Sir Lynden O. Pindling during his lifetime. Mr. Black tied the payment of the half a million to the request that the Government has made for the postponement of an aggregate 24 million dollars to public servants who owed a $1200 per person annual increase beginning 1st July 2003. The payment will be due on the payment date at the end of July 2003, unless agreement is reached to postpone as the Government has asked.

The announcement of the fact that the Government owes the Pindling Estate the money was made in the late and waning hours of the Budget Debate in the House of Assembly on Friday 20th June. The Prime Minister reading an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General revealed that Sir Lynden Pindling had been denied a pension while he served as Member of the House from 1992 to 1998, following his defeat on 19th August 1992.

The history of the matter reveals that the former Prime Minister and now Member of Parliament for North Abaco forced Sir Lynden to retire from the House in 1998, telling him that he would not get the pension unless he retired from the House. Sir Lynden complied. But now it turns out that there was no requirement to retire, and the pension was in fact due to him from 1992. How such an error in law could have been made or even accepted by Sir Lynden and his advisors is one thing. How former Prime Minister Ingraham could have done such a thing raises the question of whether he has any sense of shame.

The question came up again in the House as Member of Parliament for Pinewood Allyson Maynard Gibson took issue with a published statement in the Nassau Guardian that contained words not spoken by Mr. Ingraham in the House of Assembly during the Budget Debate. Those statements by innuendo suggested that perhaps the Minister had given the Club Med group an easier time in negotiations with the Government because the Minister’s firm represented the Government. In fact the negotiations on that matter were carried out by the Prime Minister.

Mr. Ingraham has a thing for Mrs. Maynard Gibson. After the Minister’s complaint on Wednesday 25th June, he stood in the House and said while he did not speak the words, he stood by the words published in the Nassau Guardian. One wonders if he also stands by the unlawful action of denying Sir Lynden his pension. One remembers the stories at the time of Mr. Ingraham on the day that Sir Lynden retired from the House having a champagne breakfast with boiled fish at his home in the Grove out west at which he boasted that he was celebrating the demise of his last enemy.

All of this betrays a difficult and complex psychology. It was just over two years later that he appeared at Sir Lynden’s beside to kiss him goodbye as the older man lay on his death bed.

No doubt, the Pindling family holds no animosity about this. That is all past, and we have all moved on. But the fact is that both the Unions and the Pindling Estate are owed the money. That together with some 50 million dollars in debt accumulated but not discharged by the Ingraham administration which acquired land and did not pay for it, weighs heavily on the mind of the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance as he wonders what to do. The link between the two is not necessary.

In one case, the widow Pindling has waited for 11 years from the date her husband was first entitled. The Unions are being asked to hold on for six months when the country is expected to have an improved cash flow.

Mr. Ingraham and his party the FNM true to form have nothing to say about this except to try to encourage the unions to create more mayhem for the country by suggesting that what the Government is asking is unreasonable. Politics is a hell of thing. As for Mr. Ingraham and the FNM, having no sense of shame after ten years of wasting public monies is quite another.

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THE FLAG CONTROVERSY

    This column has been consistently opposed to any restrictions on the use of the flag by its citizens. We have said that this even extends in our view to some uses of the flag that may be socially objectionable, like writing morally repulsive words on the flag or burning the flag. We agree with consistent positions taken in the US Supreme Court that if you agree with free speech, then citizens have a right to do what they will with the flag. That said, there is a law on the books, which we believe is unconstitutional, but until otherwise decided, it stands, that says that you need permission to use national symbols. Hardly any one knows it, and in the spontaneous enthusiasm of the citizens of The Bahamas, national flags started showing up with all sorts of words on them. Some said “Happy 30th Anniversary”. Others had the Coat of Arms.
    The Ministry of National Security in typical Bahamian fashion sought to dampen the natural entrepreneurial enthusiasm by announcing two weeks ago that people were breaking the law. The police were busy confiscating flags. One person who suffered was B.J. Moss an entrepreneur. He decided to take the Government to Court for the unlawful confiscation of his flags and to get the right to sell his material. The FNM’s Deputy Leader Sidney Collie and former CDR candidate Fayne Thompson filed the action. The Ministry appears now to have stepped back from the abyss and has said that all persons who have already invested in the use of the national symbols can have their position regularized by writing to the Ministry. Well that’s one thing anyway.
    The entire flag controversy is a bit too much like the old Pink Panther movie with Inspector Cluseau moving the beggar along who is begging alms in front of the bank; while in the background we can all see the bank being robbed by an armed gunman. We say go out and catch criminals and leave the flag promoters alone. Nassau Guardian photo of one example of a special Independence flag being flown from a passing car.

THE TRIBUNE’S POLL ON BLANKENSHIP

The US Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship is leaving The Bahamas on 18th July. The Tribune’s Publisher Eileen Carron has been one of his staunchest allies, even in the face of plain evidence that her defence was clearly wrong. Last year in December following the adjournment of the Joint Task Force (JTF) meeting between The Bahamas and the United States, The Tribune predicted that the Minister’s actions would wreck the relations between the USA and The Bahamas. No such thing has happened and in fact their relationship is never better. Always the prophets of doom and gloom, anything to injure the PLP.
Now The Tribune's own poll confirms what many Bahamians including former Leader of the Opposition Norman Solomon have been trying to tell Mrs. Carron. In a poll published in The Tribune on Monday 23rd June, fifty five per cent of the callers who responded in answer to the question did they think that Ambassador Blankenship had done a good job as US Ambassador in The Bahamas answered no. The Tribune said 283 readers called. They said 158 said he did not do a good job and 125 voted yes. Things that make you go: hmmm!

CANDY ANDY ALLEN AT IT AGAIN

    And in the kindergarten department. The former Finance Minister’s son Andrew Allen aka “Candy Andy” is at it again.   You must give the boy 'A' for consistency. Mr. Allen has once again launched a crude and inaccurate attack on this website. It speaks volumes that there is such a complete preoccupation. Mr. Allen should get a life and give it a rest. In a week when newspaper columnists Nicki Kelly and Kevin Alcena and the public, including letter writers were praising the work of the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, Mr. Allen found time to be the negative voice. One then is forced to ask: what axe does he have to grind? Here is what Mr. Allen said in his own words on Monday 23rd June. It caused this editor to smile:
    “With the departure of Ambassador Blankenship, Fred Mitchell can now be expected to invest even more of his time and energy in his next-best skill: transparent self-promotion.
    “True to form, this week the semi-fictional website of which he is both erstwhile author and long term protagonist/hero covers the Minister’s life over the last week.
    “It also takes up his cause in relation to a complaint from the publishers of the Nassau Guardian that the press has insufficient access to Government Ministers.
    “The viciousness of the website’s attack on the publishers of the Guardian for daring to question an august body (the cabinet) of which Fred Mitchell is for the time being a part echoes earlier attacks on others who have found fault with this particular Minister.
    “It also echoes the website’s constant and undiplomatic attacks on the US Ambassador.
    “It is troubling that a Minister (much less a Minster of Foreign Affairs) would not discourage a website that is closely associated with his name from engaging in tactless and insulting garbage of this kind. It suggests a failure either of will or (more likely) of judgement.”
    (Perhaps we ought to dub Mr. Allen the 'Website Policeman'—Ed)

RAID IN BIMINI
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt ought to be congratulated for the actions taken by the multiple task force of Customs, Police, Defence Force and Immigration at Bimini over the last weekend. In “Operation Blue Marlin” the force swept into Bimini and was able to make 20 arrests for drugs and illegal immigration and to seize some $142, 000 in US cash. The Assistant Commissioner Reginald Ferguson said that this was an attempt by the police to bring law and order back to Bimini. Reports indicate that the drug barons and illegal migrants had taken over in Bimini. Residents were afraid, and the police on the island themselves seemed afraid to enforce law and order. Some residents complained subsequently to the Government that there had been some police excesses. However, for the moment this has been a salutary exercise for the folks of Bimini. Perhaps law and order will now be evidenced in Bimini and the atmosphere of the wild wild west will abate.
Customs revenue has been said to be falling because of the unwillingness or inability of Customs at Bimini to collect the revenue. Now perhaps this too will improve. One day after the raid was reported in The Tribune, they reported again that a source said that the raid came five days too late. It missed a shipment of drugs that went through the town five days earlier. Clearly, the police ought to be talking to The Tribune and their sources.

WEDDING BELLS FOR MITCHELL?

The weekly rag The Punch has started a rumour around town that Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell is to marry in December. The Minister has not responded to the rumour. The interesting thing about this is how quickly gossip is able to fly around the town of Nassau and The Bahamas and how preoccupied Bahamians are about rumours. The story claims that the Minister is getting married to prepare for a leadership push in the PLP. But we remind the Minister and others of the last would be leader of the PLP who is said to have married for that reason.
One supposes that this was all in good fun. However, the serious point is that people continue to take that weekly rag too seriously and it begs the question of the idle complaints made by many PLPs about how vicious the paper is. It continues to be successful in its viciousness because PLPs amongst others continue to buy it. We therefore deserve what we get. The latest news is that its sales are falling because there is another rag that is competing with it called The Source. That publishes daily. One wonders what the website policeman Andrew Allen has to say about this.

RIOT ON BAY STREET

The Minister responsible for the straw market Leslie Miller has a difficult job ahead of him. He has had a difficult time of it since he has been in office. The Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation (BAIC) and its Chair have been at loggerheads with him and it has made fodder for the tabloids and the mainstream press. Then just over a year ago his son Mario was brutally gunned down, and the case against the alleged perpetrators appears to be foundering. Now comes the news of a disturbance, some say riot in Bay Street on the evening of Wednesday 25th June at the Straw Market. Observers say that the matter has been brewing for months. The management of the straw market is inadequate, they say. Straw Vendors have been doing, as they like. The conditions within the temporary market, a tent supplied by the Ingraham Administration has been deteriorating. The market was dirty and hot, the bathroom facilities inadequate. Into this mix comes the politics of which vendors are FNM and which are PLP.
The situation reached a boiling point on the evening of the 25th when the Environmental Health Department tried to move in to clean up the filth in the market. The vendors were angry that they were being forced to move their goods out of the market for the clean up. But the observers say that underlying all of this is the exasperation at the conditions within the market and no word on when the new market is to be built. The latest word from the chosen architect Michael Foster is that no contract has as yet been awarded to him. The straw market burned down on 4th September 2001.

Push came to shove. The market was cleaned up but not before Luke Small, one of the leaders in the market seemed to snap and it is alleged that he ran down Bay Street with a hatchet or hammer in his hand and proceeded to smash some 21 windows of the stores along Bay Street from George Street to Frederick Street causing $12,000 damage. Such is the fractious state of tempers in Nassau. Mr. Small was charged in the Magistrate’s Court on Friday 27th June. He was refused bail by Magistrate Linda Virgil and remanded to Fox Hill prison where she also recommended that there be a psychiatric evaluation of Mr. Small.
Then next say the press, the Minister Leslie Miller was set upon by straw vendors who accused the Government of siding with former Senator Telathor Strachan and PLP supporter Diane Thompson in allowing them to set up stalls outside the market entrance to the exclusion of everyone else. The Minister reversed an earlier decision to allow it. Without intending to do so this embarrassed Senator Strachan. Not to be outdone, the carpetbaggers from the FNM Senate showed up to express sympathy with their supporters in the market. In fact the whole problem is of the FNM's making. But the past is merely prologue. It would be a good idea for Senator Strachan’s situation to be adequately explained to the leadership of the market. She has been our great supporter and she is the mother of Minister Melanie Griffin. That is the least that should be done. But more fundamentally, all the Government should mobilize its resources to help the Minister of Trade and Investment to calm the troubled waters in the market. Nassau Guardian photo by Patrick Hanna (top) shows a hole in the entry door to 'Pipe of Peace' store on Bay Street; Dominic Duncombe's Tribune photo shows angry straw vendors amid the litter of the temporary market.

BISHOP GOMEZ DENOUNCES GAY BISHOP

    Drexel Gomez, the Anglican Archbishop of the Province of West Indies, has been at the forefront of the anti-homosexual effort in the Anglican Communion worldwide. The Bahamas learned this week that he along with eight other Bishops has taken issue with the ordination in the United States of a Bishop in the Communion who has acknowledged that he is homosexual, with a partner of 27 years though celibate. The word celibate really means not married so that does not say much, since what they probably mean is not having sexual relations.
    Archbishop Gomez was reported by The Tribune to have written a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams with eight other Bishops calling for the resignation of Bishop Jeffrey John. The Tribune said that the Archbishop spoke to the BBC saying that he objected to Dr. John's consecration based not on his lifestyle but on this writings. The Archbishop told the BBC: “I was surprised by his appointment because I have read some of his writings in which he is not only critical, but super critical of the church’s traditional teaching on the whole issue of homosexuality."
    Suffragan Bishop Gilbert Thompson of The Bahamas commented further: “The West Indies position is that if someone is gay, you can’t do anything about that, but if you are gay you should not be sexually active. If you are gay you should be living a celibate life. If there is any bad behaviour in terms of sexual misbehaviour the church has regulations where you can be censured.”

BAHAMASAIR PULLS OUT OF SOME ISLANDS
    Bahamasair has celebrated 30 years of existence. It was born in the same year as the nation in 1973. It has been pretty much a commercial disaster, although it has not lost one plane or passenger in an air accident. That aside there is not too much good you can say for it. It is always late. It is the bane of the businessman who can never rely on it to travel in The Bahamas on a timely basis. It is a headache for the Ministry of Finance, which may have to dump 30 million dollars into it this year. The answer: Sell! Sell! Sell! Some ask: “Who will buy?”
    The Director General of Tourism Vincent Vanderpool Wallace explained to The Tribune’s Business Section on Friday 27th June that Bahamasair has now decided now to pull out of service to North Eleuthera, Andros and Treasure Cay, Abaco because Bahamas Fast Ferries has such good service there that people now have reliable alternatives to air travel by Bahamasair. We thought that the reason Bahamasair flew into a place was to make sure that there was some reliable air service for Bahamians who wish to get up and on a timely basis. Well so much the better for Bahamas Fast Ferries one guesses.
    Let us hope that the monitoring of the ability of Bahamians to get up and down continues so that we are not caught dropping the ball when the private sector finds it inconvenient. Minister of Works Bradley Roberts spoke to a reception marking the 30th anniversary of Bahamasair. You may click here for the full address.

NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR DOCTORS
Things are going from worse to “worser” with Doctors Hospital. At the height of the money lending craze in The Bahamas two years ago Doctors Hospital that up to that time had been doing well engaged in a public offering, got a lot of cash and then embarked on spending that cash as it turns out foolishly. They invested in a big expansion called the Western Medical Plaza on Blake Road leading to the airport. It was supposed to attract the upscale customers at Lyford Cay. The bubble burst, the market never materialized. Doctors Hospital was left with an albatross around its neck. Enter the financial knight in the form of Senator Darron Cash, accountant, to try and fix it. He slashed and burned, let go but it is still not enough. There is a report that the Western Medical albatross has been sold. But the shareholders want blood. The Tribune reported in its Monday 23rd June edition that the entire Board of the Hospital is to be replaced.
The new Board members are Joe Krukowski, of First Caribbean, Owen Bethel, Montaque Securities; Dr Duane Sands, Cardiac Surgeon and Felix Stubbs, IBM executive. Barry Rassin is expected to leave as CEO next year when his contract runs out. He is already out as Chair of the Board. Dr. Charles Diggis, Dr. Keva Bethel and Jeffrey Robertson remain members of the Board. When Mr. Rassin goes that will cut the link with Doctors Hospital, which was started by his father Meyer Rassin as the Rassin Hospital.

WRITE OFF AND DEFAULTS FOR ABACO MARKETS
The news is equally bad this week for Abaco Markets that was set it seemed at one time to become the Wal-Mart of The Bahamas. This week, they announced that 25 million dollars in debt had been written off. What was not publicized was a report that they have defaulted or are about default on 15 million dollars in preference share payments. If this is confirmed it begs the question of the regulation of the public share offerings in The Bahamas. The question is the monies that they raised for all the expansion that they did, would they have gotten it if a bank had been watching over them and lending them the money?

SENATE PASSES THE BUDGET… MPS SUMMER BREAK

The country’s annual budget was passed without dissent in the Senate on Thursday 26th June. The debate was led by Senator James Smith, the Minister of State for Finance. The bills now go to the Governor General for signature. The House of Assembly met on Wednesday 25th June and approved a resolution for the borrowing of 200 million dollars. This completes the total borrowing authority for The Bahamas for this fiscal year. It includes 105 million for the recurrent deficit for the year 2003/03; 142 million for capital works for 2003/ 04; 125 million rewrite of an existing loan facility. There was existing authority to borrow 173 million. Nassau Guardian photo of Minister James Smith presenting the annual budget in the Senate by Donald Knowles.

A BAHAMIAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
Monsignor Patrick Pinder is the to be the first Bahamian Catholic Bishop. The Roman Catholic Archbishop Lawrence Burke announced that Pope John Paul has agreed to the appointment of the country’s first Auxiliary Bishop. The Monsignor Patrick Pinder was born on 1st November 1953 in Nassau. He was ordained deacon on 20th July 1978 and priest 15th August 1980. Monsignor Pinder is from the second generation of Bahamian priests. The first generation included men like John Dean (formerly Fr. Bonaventure), the late Charles Coakley and Monsignor Preston Moss. Of that first generation only Monsignor Moss remained a priest. All of the others left and married.
The policy of celibacy is a difficult sell in The Bahamas and vocations have been slow. The Archbishop of The Roman Catholic Church at one time reportedly sought permission to ordain married priests. This was refused by the Pope. Now the hopes are pinned on the new generation. Monsignor Moss was said to have turned down two earlier offers to become a bishop including Bishop of The Bahamas. Congratulations to Monsignor Pinder, a graduate of St. Augustine’s College.

DROP IN ELECTRICITY AND TELEPHONE RATES
The Minister of Works announced in his budget communication that electricity rates are to drop on 1st October. This should be welcome relief for Bahamians consumers. Telephone overseas rates are also expected to drop dramatically in October, once the new cell phone system (gsm) has come on stream. Late reports have it that the bids for Batelco are to be opened on 14th July. The Tribune is speculating that the bids are expected to come in well below the Government’s expectation of at least 150 million. Bids are said to be in the 70 million to 100 million dollar range. We repeat our view that all tenders at those prices should be rejected.

TRANSITIONS AND FOOTNOTES
The Queen vs. Major and Major

Drug kingpin from Long island Dwight Major and his wife Keva Major are both in jail, although presumably in different parts of the jail, awaiting extradition to the United States on drug conspiracy and importation charges. Mr. and Mrs. Major were paraded in full view of the public and the press as they were carted off to jail from the courts. Dwight Major is shown in this Nassau Guardian photo by Donald Knowles.

Death at the Cabinet Office
Condolences to Elbert Thompson, the only son of Ellona McKenzie, the financial officer at the Cabinet office. Shortly after her arrival at work, Ms. McKenzie left in a Government car to run an errand on Friday 27th June. She never made it back. Her car was smashed to the point of a write-off at a junction along Montrose Avenue. It took twenty minutes to free her. This is a great shame. Ms. McKenzie was a loyal, pleasant and productive public servant. She will be sorely missed.

Murder again
We are now at murder number 23 in The Bahamas. The latest victim is 25-year-old Geran Michael Kelly. He was shot in the chest say the police in what may have been a case of mistaken identity.

THE NEED FOR A FRED MITCHELL TYPE
One day the Minister of Foreign Affairs was ruminating in public about the fact that he was no longer an activist. He said half facetiously: “I miss Fred Mitchell”. That is a comment that is being heard about town from time to time, as it is clear that the voice of independent advocacy for causes outside of political ones seem to have been lost or muted. It is reported for example that there is no advocacy for the courts, and the conditions in the courts continue to worsen. In the Court of Appeal Mrs. Cyprianna Fox was told that her contract would not be renewed. Many of the practitioners feel that a great injustice has been done to her, but there is no public advocate for redress.
Many attorneys now try to avoid the Court of Appeal like the plague. Practitioners complain that it is too difficult to make their arguments and that the manner in which even senior counsel are addressed leaves much to be desired. Some are even talking of moving the Prime Minister under the relevant article of the constitution in order to address the situation. But we have said it before as in all things; the Judiciary needs someone to be a watchdog. They make public policy every day, and without public scrutiny the same abuses that you may find in the executive may be found in the judiciary. It is important then for some new voices to rise up and bring the public commentary that is necessary to avoid those consequences.

MAILBOX
Free Speech in Parliament
    This thoughtful contribution came in from reader Montello Gibson:
    “I read with interest your comments which I have pasted for ease of reference, 'One person spoiled the show and that was former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham who spoke nine dreary hours, on and on and on droning on about one bit of nonsense or the other. The Prime Minister promised the House that this is the last time that this will happen, and that next year the House rules will change limiting the time in which members can speak. Good! Long overdue!'
    "Quite contrary to your view, there are many like myself who happen to enjoy Mr. Ingraham or any other parliamentarian who is capable of speaking in my word intelligently about many aspects of this economy. If there are members of Parliament who are inept and do not take the time to do the necessary research and can only speak for one hour on one particular topic that is their issue.
    "Further, if Prime Minister Christie does not want to speak on as many aspects of the economy as does Mr. Ingraham then that is his choice. But for him to seek to limit members speaking time is clearly in my view unacceptable.
    "Mr. Christie as well as you sir, should realize that no other bill comes before Parliament that is as important as the Budget. The Budget is the government's plan as to what, among other things, they intend to do over the course of a fiscal year. (Con)sequently, this piece of Legislation ought to in my view garner the most debate in any one year.
    I should hope that Mr. Christie does not allow Mr. Ingraham's thoroughness and preparedness which is (a) desirable attribute to cause the public to suffer by limiting the speaking time of members.
    Be advise(d) that we elect members to speak for us in Parliament and any limiting of time will be viewed as the government's attempt at not allowing the public the opportunity to have their concerns addressed."

Who Was Neutered?
   A chuckling clarification:
    "I love your website and I read it the second it is posted.
    "One small comment about June 22nd's intro on the departure of the US Ambassador.
    "You wrote: 'His wife actively engaged in the community in helping with the spaying and neutering programme.'
    "If one didn't know about the Bahamas Humane Society and their efforts to control the potcake population, one could read double meaning into this sentence. (Human neutering?) I had a laugh, but the sentence could be misunderstood!
     "I appreciate all the effort you put into your website."
Ann V. Dean, Chair, Educational Studies, SUNY New Paltz

FLAGS
Compusec this week weighed in on the flag that they are selling which has as its backdrop the national coat of arms. A spokesman for the printing and novelty company that before it ordered any flags or official paraphernalia that it first sought approval from the government. Not only was approval sought, said the spokesman, but samples were also supplied and approval was eventually given from the Ministry of National Security. It is in fact the Government, it appears, that must bear the fault if any in this controversy.

SOCIAL SERVICES
A retired civil servant told News From Grand Bahama this week that the Parliamentary Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister in Grand Bahama was “a bit harsh” in her comments over the Social Services Department on Grand Bahama when she said that the department should be revamped. The retiree said that before any aid could be given from that office background checks and investigations into individual cases must first be made. The retiree went on to say that even after background checks and verification, the persons in need still may not get any assistance if the local food stores in Grand Bahama have not been paid and would not honour the government’s vouchers. So to blame Social Services for something they have no control over, said the source, is being unfair.

PASTOR SOBIG STEPS DOWN?
Reports reaching News From Grand Bahama today, Sunday 29th June, say that popular Grand Bahama Pastor Sobig Kemp of Calvary Temple, Assemblies of God has stepped down as Pastor. Inside sources say that Pastor Kemp had hoped to replace General Overseer Vernon Moses who recently retired but Pastor Kemp was runner up in the voting and is said to be the new number two man in the Assemblies of God. Many parishioners were said to be sorry to see Pastor Kemp move on. We give him our best wishes.

A MESSAGE TO MITCHELL
    What is currently becoming a problem for the new PLP Government was encapsulated by well-known Grand Bahama political observer Churchill Tener Knowles as he asked News From Grand Bahama to convey a message to Minister Fred Mitchell.
    Minister Mitchell, according to Mr. Knowles, was until his election considered to be ‘Mr. Bahamianization’. Mr. Knowles remembers that it was Minister Mitchell under the fig tree in downtown Nassau who led a crusade for at least a decade about the indigenization of the judiciary in The Bahamas. Mr. Knowles asks that the Minister now cut the fig tree down. “It seems that since his election and appointment he has brought very little if any policy change to his government’s thinking that Bahamians should be first.”
    Also during the discussion with Mr. Knowles, Attorney General Alfred Sears was criticized –although to a lesser extent – by his friends in Freeport. The feeling is that The Bahamas Bar has some 600 plus attorneys practicing at the Bar but every time a good appointment comes along to a judgeship or commissioner’s post, “we bring in people whom we know very little about and who have few ties to The Bahamas and place them at the top of the heap… sad to say that after thirty years of Independence that this is the case.”
    We agree with the message; cut the fig tree down.
BS

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

22^nd June, 2003 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com*
THE BUDGET PASSES THE HOUSE...	A PRIME MINISTER’S VISION...
MORE SEARCHING GRAND BAHAMA...	MORE ON THE US AMBASSADOR...
MINISTRY OF NATIONAL SECURITY ON FLAG USAGE...	TROUBLE IN TOURISM IN GRAND BAHAMA...
THE DOCKS CONTROVERSY...	INGRAHAM LOVES THE SOUND OF HIS VOICE...
TIEFING TIEFING AND MORE TIEFING...	PM SAYS PAY DEADLINE IS DIFFICULT...
BATELCO SUCCESSFUL BID 14 JULY...	PRISON GUARD CHARGED FOR DRUGS...
ALLYSON GIBSON DEFENDS CONCESSIONS...	CELL PHONE RELIEF...
FR. JOHN PUGH LEAVES THE BAHAMAS...	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

29^th June, 2003 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com*
THE FLAG CONTROVERSY...	THE TRIBUNE’S POLL ON BLANKENSHIP...
CANDY ANDY ALLEN AT IT AGAIN...	RAID IN BIMINI...
WEDDING BELLS FOR MITCHELL?...	RIOT ON BAY STREET...
BISHOP GOMEZ DENOUNCES GAY BISHOP...	BAHAMASAIR PULLS OUT OF SOME ISLANDS...
NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR DOCTORS...	WRITE OFF AND DEFAULTS FOR ABACO MARKETS...
SENATE PASSES THE BUDGET… MPS SUMMER BREAK...	A BAHAMIAN CATHOLIC BISHOP...
DROP IN ELECTRICITY AND TELEPHONE RATES...	TRANSITIONS AND FOOTNOTES...
THE NEED FOR A FRED MITCHELL TYPE...	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

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