Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 4 © BahamasUncensored.Com 2006
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
WHATEVER DOES THE MIAMI
HERALD MEAN?
The matter of the two Cuban dentists appears now about to become
part of the history books (see story below). The whole matter has
been quite instructive. You never know who your friends are until
there is a period of stress. It is clear that the Miami Herald, the
Cuban American community; are not the friends of The Bahamas.
If you were to judge by what was said over these past few weeks by the
Cuban American representatives in the Congress of the United States, by
the leaders of the Cuban American community in South Florida, by the Miami
Herald, you would have thought that The Bahamas was headed by some totalitarian
regime that truncated and violated the rights of its people and those who
came to be with us both legally and illegally. Nothing could be further
from the truth than that assertion.
The most insulting of the comments was the Miami Herald editorial of Wednesday 1st March. In that editorial it talked about the need for us to stand up to Fidel Castro. How he got in it, God only knows. They talked about The Bahamas being more afraid of Castro than of being a friend to the United States. This was a false equation, and their reasoning is disgracefully illogical. You may click here for the full editorial.
We have been down this road before. The loony fringe in South Florida who cannot get over the fact that they were defeated in the revolutionary war in Cuba in 1959 are intent on causing any mayhem to anyone in any place. In 1979 or thereabout, Peter Drudge was The Bahamas Consul General. He frantically called Nassau to his Permanent Secretary because Cuban American protestors had broken into the Consulate and had his office under siege. Every Bahamian consul in Miami ought to know then that they are constantly under threat from that loony fringe. Thankfully, they have not killed anyone but there is nothing that you would not put past them. In the latest round of protests in Florida, one of their number called in a bomb threat for which she was charged and later said that she was sorry. Sorry does not always make it right.
This latest matter does seem to have gotten quite out of hand. The fact is the whole thing is the fault of American public policy on this issue, driven by the loony fringe in South Florida. There are said to be some 500,000 people who want to emigrate from Cuba. It is driven not by the policies of their Government but by the encouragement of the United States and its émigrés from Cuba and an embargo which is unlawful in international law that has crippled the Cuban economy. Instead of driving the Government of Cuba toward openness, the whole economy and government has hunkered down to protect themselves and their people.
The policy is foolish. It should be abolished but the holdouts who remember their displacement from Cuba can’t let go. They think that once Castro dies that they will be able to walk right into Havana and take up where they left off in 1959. Even their children don’t believe that. For the children Cuba is no memory at all, and just a place that they would like to see one day.
The Bahamas then gets caught in the middle of this foolishness. We have an agreement with Cuba. Every Cuban who enters our country illegally without exception must be repatriated to Cuba. How the FNM happened to sign such an agreement which is not subject to the international protocols on human rights is unbelievable but sign it they did. So in this latest round, The Bahamas Government no doubt thought it prudent to engage in consultations with the Cuban government to solve the problem. The loony fringe in South Florida believes that because of their hatred of Fidel Castro that our international agreements must be ignored. Mind you, the U.S. itself has an agreement with Cuba which allows them to directly repatriate the Cubans caught at sea to Havana.
Let us hope that Bahamians learn the lessons to be had from all of this. The first is that country’s have no friends; it appears that there are only interests. When it suits a country’s interest, they discard their “friends” for other friends. The Bahamas is then left to scrap its way on its own. The United States Government did nothing publicly to allay the fears of the Bahamian public with regard to this matter. It appears that they fed it by silence and constantly raising the “freedom” of these dentists in the public domain. A lot of damage control and healing has to be done over this. But the first part of the healing must be purgative. The Bahamas Government and its principal spokesmen should say in clear and unexpurgated terms how distressed and concerned we are about the things that our American “friends” have said about The Bahamas.
It might also be that Bahamians ought to now become more circumspect about where they go shopping in Florida and perhaps start picking Atlanta as the spot of their shopping of choice. The people down south obviously have no affection for us.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 4th March 2006 at midnight: 108,627.
Number of hits for the month of February up to Tuesday 28th February 2006 at midnight: 395,081
Number of hits for the month of March up to Saturday 4th March 2006 at midnight: 48,978.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 4th March at midnight: 851,797.
PM
SAYS CUBAN ISSUE IS RESOLVED
It appears that there is to be denouement to the
Cuban doctors’ saga. You may click
here for last week’s comment on the matter. We don’t know how
it will be resolved, but the Prime Minister Perry Christie speaking in
the House of Assembly on Wednesday 1st March said that he had been delegated
by the Cabinet to solve the problem, and that he thought that he had resolved
the problem. The country should then wait and see. In the meantime,
the Bahamian press and the foreign press have been ganging up on The Bahamas.
(Click here for Comment above).
The Prime Minister was incensed by the fact that
The Bahamas had been manoeuvred into a position where it was discriminating
against Haitians in matters of migration, distinguishing between white
Cubans and black Haitians. He said that as a black country, The Bahamas
would not be a part of it. He said he gave that message to Governor
Jeb Bush of Florida when he visited here last month.
Prime Minister Christie adamant in the House of Assembly on Wednesday
1st March - BIS photo: Peter Ramsay
TWO
WHALES BEACH THEMSELVES
Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Leslie Miller had hardly been
in the job for hours when he was called to help rescue a whale that had
beached itself in Andros on Friday 24th February. The whale brought
attention to the fact again that whales are subject to the influence of
and possible damage by the testing facility of the United States and British
governments in Andros, known as AUTEC.
The U.S. and the Brits use the facility which sits
astride the 6,000 foot trench underwater. They get to test sonar
and how it works and update their methods and technologies. The U.S.
Government admitted before that the whales were being adversely affected
by the testing and promised to stop doing whatever it was that was harming
them. So the death of this whale, a forty plus footer, immediately
cast a light on the facility.
On the face of it, it looked like the whale died
of old age. That of course was immediately cast aside when another
whale turned up dead almost a week later in Walker’s Cay. People
in Andros say that the beaching in Andros was the fourth one within a year.
It was a busy week for Mr. Miller, the newspapers
reported within days of the whale business that a dozen or so birds, flamingos,
cormorants, and spoonbills were found dead in Inagua, the southernmost
island of The Bahamas chain. The term ‘bird flu’ passed someone's
lips to the annoyance of the Minister of Tourism and his Director General
and no doubt also to the annoyance of Paradise Island, where they experienced
some cancellations. The fact that the whole notion of bird flu actually
came from Government sources seemed to have passed everyone by in their
indignation.
At week’s end any talk of bird flu turned out to
be a false alarm, and it appeared that the birds had also died of old age;
either that or had been shot. The Pan American Health Organization
has sent samples to the U.K. to be definitively tested. What it shows
is that the environment is central to The Bahamas as a tourist Mecca, and
that we do not pay enough attention to it and protection of it and what
we say about it.
Bahama Journal photo of the Sperm whale on a Central Andros beach
THE
TEACHER’S UNION STRATEGY
No one can quite figure out if there is political sanity or insanity down
in the headquarters of The Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT). They
seem to have elected the most irresponsible leadership in their history.
The Union’s negotiating strategy for a new contract seems to be entirely
that you have to walk out at every turn. During the week on Wednesday
1st March as the Parliament met, and shortly after the school mid term
break, the teacher’s union called hundreds of its members out. The
unruly, unlawful assembly was a poor example to the children of The Bahamas.
When you don’t like it, just act unlawfully and create as much mayhem as
possible.
The school system has a D+ average. That means
that these teachers who are out in the street are producing graduates from
the school system who are less than ready for the job market – to put it
politely. The main thrust of their ire in the streets outside the
Parliament was that they are going to be forced into agreeing to improve
the standards of their pupils in exchange for more money and better pay.
Not a bad idea to us. The Union says they cannot agree to it.
We suspect that there is something else going on
in this union. Just after they came to office, they spent valuable
money from the Union in chasing after their former President Kingsley Black
who tried to teach them good industrial relations strategies, and who tried
to expose them to training to be good trade unionists. They refused
and then started a campaign to smear Mr. Black. They tried to use
money or rather allegations of misappropriation of it – that smear usually
works like a charm. There was an audit done of the previous administration.
What became of the audit no one knows, but probably nothing untoward was
found. Wasted money! Then, say inside sources, the banks gave
some leeway to the new administration to get themselves established and
they have now gone and run up what some say is a $150,000 overdraft, which
they have no idea how they are going to repay.
To add insult to injury, Freeporters and fully 11
of the Executive officers of the Union are fed up with how the Union is
being run. We have obtained copies of documents signed by the Executive
Committee asking probing questions abut the Union and how it is run.
Could this be the real reason why they are out in the streets instead of
at the negotiating table? In other words, is it a smokescreen?
You may click here for copies of the documents that came into our possession;
pages 1, 2,
3,
4
&
5.
Protesting teachers sitting in the street. Bahama Journal photo
by Timothy Clarke
WHAT
IS INGRAHAM UP TO IN THE HOUSE?
He actually arrives on time, looking nervously across at the Government’s
benches. He is often surrounded by his men, all in place by the starting
time at 10 a.m. He keeps looking at the rule book which says that
if a quorum is not present by ten minutes past the starting time, the Speaker
should adjourn the House to the next day. That hasn't happened in
living memory. Even when he was in power, he couldn’t get people
to come to the House of Assembly meetings on time. It has become
ridiculous in these days. The House’s starting time was changed under
Mr. Ingraham from 10:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. because he couldn’t get people
to the House until 10:30 a.m. That is usually when the House starts.
No matter the preaching of the Deputy Prime Minister on this point, the
House of Assembly never starts on time.
The “he” we are talking about is Hubert Ingraham,
the once and now Leader of the Opposition, former Prime Minister.
He has himself tightly scripted these days. Sticking to the 30 minute
rule. Not interrupting speeches of members, and pleading for the
Government not to interrupt his members. Then during the debate on
the Speech from the Throne, he raised the issue of asylum seekers in particular
the Cubans who are detained at the Centre. He gave a history of the
agreement between Cuba and The Bahamas, and was the very picture of co-operation
and agreement with the Government, particularly after the Prime Minister
sought to stick him with racism by making a distinction in his regime between
white Cubans and black Haitians. Mr. Ingraham quickly withdrew from
that line, but never explained why he signed a treaty that did not make
an exception for the Government’s international obligations on human rights.
But all this niceness, that’s what we mean by our
headline. What is Mr. Ingraham up to? He has a schizophrenic
political personality. One day he seems like the Leader of the Opposition
he should be, then next he is making wild and nasty allegations.
In short he cannot be trusted politically. The end result is, whatever
he is up to, the PLP should be on its p's and q's, he is almost certainly
up to no good.
LOCAL
GOVERNMENT MONTH
The Minister for Local Government and Consumer Affairs, V. Alfred Gray
has said that he has been mandated to look at the possibility of establishing
a system of Local Government in New Providence. “…all of the other
Islands presently have a system of Local Government in place, except New
Providence.” The Minister said that he will soon begin town meetings
“to hear from Nassau people as to whether they feel Local Government should
come to them as well.
March is ‘Local Government Month’ in The Bahamas,
and Minister Gray was in Grand Bahama on Wednesday for the official opening
of a 2-Day Induction Training Workshop for Local Government officials on
that island.
Mr. Gray said that activities during the month would
be designed to hear from the general public on what they think Local Government
can do better; “we believe that Government closest to the people is best
for the people.”
Minister Gray is pictured in Grand Bahama as he announced Local
Government Month. From left are Charles King, Administrator for West
Grand Bahama; Mr. Gray; and Mr. J. Anthony McKinney, Deputy Permanent Secretary
in the Ministry of Local Government and Consumer Affairs. BIS Photo Vandyke
Hepburn
A
FORMER MISS FOX HILL MAKES THE FRONT PAGE
Former Miss Fox Hill Dashanique Poitier is now Miss
Teen World Bahamas. The Fox Hill girl was featured on the front page
of the Nassau Guardian making friends with a dolphin on Monday 27th February
at the Dolphin Encounters on an island just behind Paradise Island.
We thought that the beautiful and engaging picture is something that you
should see. The picture is by Farreno Ferguson.
FAMILY
ISLANDS ‘TRANSFORMATION’ GAINS INTEREST
The Government’s policy of establishing “anchor”
properties in major Family Islands has begun to attract the interest of
the international press. A major article in the New York Times of
19th February entitled ‘The
Flip Side of The Bahamas’ was headlined ‘The Out Islands, comprising
more than 700 islands and cays, are emerging as alternatives to the busy
tourist haunts of Paradise Island and Nassau’.
SIR
ARLINGTON ON ACCESS BY U.S. AMBASSADOR
The Nassau Guardian published an interesting interview with Sir Arlington
Butler, former Speaker of the House of Assembly, later Minister of the
Government and then Ambassador to Washington. We thought that he
had an insightful comment about the relationship of Ambassadors to Ministers
of the Government and the Prime Minister. Here is an excerpt from
that interview published on Saturday 25th February 2006:
“[The period of my ambassadorship] was an interesting
period, a chance to meet with some of the movers and shakers of the world.
It was a learning experience because you were engaged in the highest level
of thinking. You weren’t allowed to slow down on your thinking and
the opportunity to discuss with the individuals who were experienced, particularly
the career diplomats and people of that nature.
“It is interesting to note that I see sometimes
in your publication and other publications that the US Ambassador is unable
to see or get an answer from the Prime Minister and so on. But as
Bahamian Ambassador the chances of seeing anybody higher than an assistant
secretary were remote – if you met them it would be at social occasions.
It is remarkable to see that some people are more equal than others.
“Guardian: So the PM wouldn’t seem discourteous
if on some occasions he does not see the U. S. Ambassador?
“The chance of seeing a Secretary of State was
remote, even on social occasions. If you made an appointment with
someone, you would see an assistant to an assistant and that is the level
at which we are treated and I can’t see anyone complaining that not being
able to see a minister of our Government is equated to a secretary of state.
“Guardian: So you have no problem with the PM not
seeing the Ambassador?
“I see no difficulty at all. We are a sovereign
nation. I was Ambassador to the USA, United States of Mexico and
Columbia from 1996 to 2000. I became knighted in 1996 upon my completion.”
THE
NEW ANGLICAN BISHOP ELECT
The Bahama Journal published a picture on Monday
27th Monday of the new Bishop Coadjutor elect of the Anglican Communion
in The Bahamas, Rev’d. Fr. Laish Boyd. It showed that he was a happy
man, that his parishioners were happy for him. In general, the response
has been a good one to his election. There was a bit of concern when
the Bahama Journal published that Archdeacon Ranfurly Brown had decided
in the wake of the election to resign as Archdeacon. It was later
learned that this was unrelated to the choice of the Bishop but with his
unhappiness about some betrayals that he thought were unconscionable, having
regard to certain assurances given to him by those close to him.
The issue has reportedly been resolved and the Archdeacon has now resiled
from his position. The Bishop has promised that changes will come.
It would have been a pity if the Anglican Church then had descended into
the same kind of bitter and acrimonious infighting that is known in other
parts of God's vineyard. Let us work with the new man. Let
us remember that when Drexel Gomez became a Bishop of Barbados he was 35
years old and he was an ordinary priest. We have been that route
before. Congratulations to the new Bishop.
Father Laish Boyd, newly elected co-adjutor bishop of the Anglican
Church, shares a moment with a parishioner at Holy Cross, his home church.
Bahama Journal photo by Timothy Clarke
MRS.
CHRISTIE LAUNCHES A SHIP
The Clipper Group that favours The Bahamas shipping
registry has launched yet another ship. This time the ship was built
in India and launched in India. Mrs. Bernadette Christie, the wife
of the Prime Minister, went to India this past week to launch the ship
called the Clipper Target. The Clipper Group has one of the largest
contingents of ships on The Bahamas Registry. The photo shows from
left: Steffan Christie, Lowell J. Mortimer (attorney for Clipper Group
Management Limited), Paula Hanna, Bernadette Christie, Henrik Lund Dal
(Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer, Clipper Group , John
Moyell (Clipper Group), Gurli Moyell.
FOOTNOTES
It’s Ash Wednesday
Hundreds of Bahamians went to church on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, the
start of Lent in the Catholic and Anglican calendars. Bradley Roberts,
the Minister of Works was headed back from Carnival on that day and all
is well with the world.
Official photograph of the Governor General
Bahamas Information Services has released this image as the official
photograph of the Governor General His Excellency the Honourable Arthur
D. Hanna. We share this soon to be ubiquitous image, which will be
displayed in Government offices and elsewhere – as a Kemp Rd. lady was
overheard exclaiming at the Governor General’s swearing in ceremony, “Hanna
reach!”
C.I. Gibson wins Hugh Campbell
After loads of controversy about whether Grand Bahama teams that have
dominated the tournament would attend this year, with the Minister of Sports
Neville Wisdom getting into the mix to solve the problem, then another
controversy over $15 tickets for the final but the final was sold out,
the C.I. Gibson Rattlers are again the finalists and winners of the Hugh
Campbell Tournament. Their jubilant boyish faces were on the front
page of the newspapers. Now if only Bahamian students can get that
D+ up to B+ and have their picture on the front page for doing well in
adding two plus two and getting their verbs to agree with the subject.
Congratulations all the same! The game was played and won on Monday
27th February.
THREE-TIME CHAMPS -- The CI Gibson Rattlers celebrate their third
consecutive Hugh Campbell championship. Bahama Journal photo by Gerrino
Saunders
Businessman killed in armed robbery
Bahamians were shocked at the brutality of the murder of Keith Carey,
a 42 year old businessman, who was well known in the community, brother
of the Director of Public Health Dr. Baldwin Carey. Mr. Carey was,
it appears, taking his deposit to the Bank of The Bahamas in the ATM at
the branch off the Tonique Darling Highway. A car pulled up behind
him fired two shots into his cab with a shotgun and got away with his money.
What for? Predictably the calls for hanging started again.
But this pattern of killing businessmen is a long established one dating
back to the death of Harry Smith, Bernard Lundy and Billy Butler.
The list goes on. The pattern continues of independent businessmen
being shot dead in these circumstances. The police issued a statement
saying that if you are taking money to the bank call us and we will provide
you with an escort. The murder was committed on Monday 27th February.
Stella Maris Airport Closed
Long Island’s gateway and customs clearance area has been shut down
on the advice of technocrats at the Civil Aviation Department (CAD).
The Stella Maris airport is said to be in such bad shape that it had to
be closed forthwith. While the technical advice is likely correct,
it should be recalled that the leadership at CAD has never been co-operative
with the present Government. Perhaps someone more sensitive to human
concerns would be better to advise the Minister. The order was given
Friday 24th February and the Ministry announced immediate emergency steps
to ease the burden on the people of North Long Island.
New plaza for Freeport
Amid dire and continuing predictions of gloom and doom in the Freeport
economy, a new shopping plaza has opening there. Pictured at the
grand opening of the Britannia Town Plaza on Saturday, February 25, are
from left, Debra A. Glinton-Ritchie, Assistant Managing Director, Trinity
Insurance Agents & Brokerage; Minister of Tourism and Member of Parliament
for West End and Bimini, the Hon. Obie Wilchcombe; and Plaza proprietors
Keith and Dorothea Rolle. BIS photo: Vandyke Hepburn
JoAnn Callender performs with Moscow Soloists Orchestra
Bahamian soprano Mrs. JoAnn Deveaux-Callender is shown performing on
February 27, 2006, a piece by Mozart, during a performance with Yuri Bashmet
and the Moscow Soloists orchestra, at Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau.
She was the first Bahamian vocalist to perform with the orchestra.
(BIS photo: Eric Rose)
THE
U.S. ON MONEY LAUNDERING
The United States Government has issued another
one of these endless, tendentious, holier than thou annual reports on countries
where essentially they mind other people’s business and set up a situation
where they seek to impose their way of life and penalties on other countries.
The latest is the International Narcotics Control Strategy report 2006.
By legislation, the executive branch of the Government
of the United States has to certify that the individual countries around
the world are co-operating with the United States in the fight against
drugs. If you are not a co-operating country as certified by the
people who work for the U.S. Embassy in your country, then the U.S. President
can cut off any possible assistance that you are getting from the United
States. That has not happened to The Bahamas, but it also has not
stopped the report from being used as fodder for the anti PLP press of
The Bahamas.
The latest version of the report showed up in the
Bahama Journal on 3rd March. The Journal reported that The Bahamas
has been identified as a “Jurisdiction of Primary Concern”. This
means that the Americans regard it as a major money laundering country
defined as a country “whose financial institutions engage in currency transactions
involving significant amount of proceeds from international narcotics trafficking”.
The report then lectures The Bahamas saying that while we have passed laws
on money laundering, we need to enforce them. No problem!
Our point is that New York City has more money laundering
than any other jurisdiction in the world. Are the money laundering
laws of the U.S. being enforced there, so that it is not defined as a major
money laundering jurisdiction? But wait, we must a make a mistake,
that’s not within the terms of reference of the report. It’s only
for “foreign”, that is non U.S. countries. That’s right! Sorry
about that!
SOME
PEOPLE SAY THE SILLIEST THINGS DEPARTMENT
Cassius Stuart, just back from who knows where,
found that while he was away someone broke into his house. Fair enough,
that’s wrong and that should not happen. But here is a man who says
he wants to lead The Bahamas, descending into an idle and irresponsible
rant about it. Here is what he had to say in his own words:
“My house was broken into two days ago by some
punk. I want them to know and I want the Government to know that
if anybody breaks into my house and touches my family, I am not going to
wait for them to execute them, I will execute them myself.”
FARM
ROAD URBAN RENEWAL SAYS THANKS
Farm Road Urban Renewal said thanks to its supporters,
sponsors, and helpers for their “significant contributions to the well-being
of the community” and the success of the programme during a recent breakfast
gathering at the British Colonial.
Prime Minister Perry Christie, Member of Parliament
for Farm Road constituency, praised them for their “good citizenship” and
presented certificates of appreciation to supporters of the programme.
Urban renewal has succeeded “beyond my own imagination
and most certainly my own expectations. The evidence is right before
us,” said the Prime Minister; “To be able to perform in the way (the Farm
Road Marching Band) have done takes discipline and discipline is one of
the basic ingredients of good citizenship.”
He commended parents for their support of urban renewal which he said
was a sound investment in their children’s future.
Directed by Nadia Young, the Farm Road Youth Marching Band performs
for supporters; Pastor Tom Roberts (right) of East Street Gospel Chapel
was among those honoured by Farm Road Urban Renewal for his contribution
to the programme. He receives his certificate from Prime Minister
Perry Christie. BIS report & photos by Gladstone Thurston
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Cuban American Protests
I read your articles on a regular basis and,
as a Bahamian who lives in Miami; I am particularly intrigued by the manoeuvrings
of the authorities when it comes to certain political or pseudo political
matters.
Just a few weeks ago, when a group of Cuban-Americans
staged a protest outside the office of The Bahamas Consulate General, one
person saw fit to call in a bomb threat, which seems to have largely gone
unreported in the media, either here in Miami or in The Bahamas.
It appears that with everything else going on, the persons involved in
this investigation have arrested a Cuban-American woman and are now trying
to sweep this matter under the rug by saying that she was caught up in
the emotion of the time and “did not really mean to harm anyone”.
This translates into “now that she has been caught, she is sorry for what
she did”. Perhaps it has not occurred to her that no one in the Miami
office of The Bahamas Consulate had anything to do with the arrest of the
Cubans and the reported assault on the reporter in Nassau. Nevertheless,
this person thought it appropriate to create a panic at the Ingraham Building
by telephoning in her threat. Although this represents a federal
offence, I am certain that the other Cuban Americans who work out of the
Prosecutors office will try to minimize this action and give this woman
a break. Just thought you might be interested to hear about this.
Pedro
Our thoughts entirely – Editor
Criminals on the police force?
Last week, we reported on allegations
in the House of Assembly that criminals were being hired on the police
force. Nonsense, is our opinion.
Criminals being hired on the police force!
No politician directs hiring on the force as he tried to suggest.
I would be wary of making such a bold statement. An examination of
the facts may prove otherwise. There are certainly persons who are
unsuitable for service who would not have been accepted but for some ministerial
intervention.
Name withheld
You may be right but we would beg to differ. There is a difference between a Minister asking the police to have a look at someone's file again, and directing the police what to do. If the Commissioner is opposed to an appointment, we would hazard a guess that no Minister can direct him to do otherwise, and so we feel confident to make the assertion that we did. – Editor
---------------
********
Brain Drain (2/12/06):
Up to a few years ago I had heard the stories
about the brain drain and I am sorry to say that I am one of the people
who has not returned home after University. Opportunities being a
part of the reason, not the whole. I have to now agree wholeheartedly
with the fact that the brain drain is in fact in effect. When I think
of the friends and colleagues I had in High School that went to college
and are still here in the US, the percentage is pretty high. With
the recent creation of BJAM-DC, my eyes were opened. I have lived
and worked in this area for about 10 years now and I was shocked to learn
that there were so may Bahamians residing the Baltimore/DC Metro area that
I did not know. It made me question how many more there may be that
just were not interested in participating with the organization.
I then realized and had to start taking back my statements that Bahamians
stay in The Bahamas. I don't think so anymore.
I think the one point that I have to disagree
with you about is how this helps the Bahamian economy. When you think
about it, most countries in this region get most of their GDP from repatriated
funds that gain value due to the lower value of that country's dollar in
comparison to the US dollar. That cannot be said for The Bahamas.
In fact to send money home you lose value. So where is the economic
gain for the country?
It is a sorry state of affairs and it seems like
The Bahamas is no longer for Bahamians with all the talk about entrepreneurs
not getting there fair shake at business with all these new big investments.
What's sad is that history has shown us when the big investors have had
their fill of us they pack up and leave and the government is then left
with a huge burden that it cannot maintain e.g. Cable Beach hotel and its
properties. So, the cash flow from the major investment is so short
lived. Sometimes I feel like The Bahamas is a prostitute selling
her wares for a quick buck!
We agree and share your concern. That is why we thought the public should see it and pronounce upon it. On the one hand, you can say that just like Hollywood we are in the film business and provided there is nothing unlawful, we are here to facilitate their work and find work for our people. We are incensed when we hear a Jamaican accent representing The Bahamas. But then we also have to consider that we allow Paradise Island; Atlantis to sell themselves as if they were not in The Bahamas but all by themselves. There is a lot of soul searching to be done. – Editor
------------
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Bank of The Bahamas in Exuma
Prime Minister Christie is pictured above against
a backdrop of Bank of The Bahamas executives at the opening of a new branch
of the bank in Exuma. Mr. Christie noted that the opening of the
institution was indicative of the leaps in development in that island.
New Airport Management
Representatives of the Canadian based international
firm, which has been contracted to manage Nassau International Airport
paid a call on Prime Minister Christie during the week to give an update
on the project. The firm is well known for its top class airport
facilities under management around the world. Minister of Transport
& Aviation Glenys Hanna Martin is pictured in the meeting with the
PM.
Cancer Centre
His Excellency the Governor General Arthur Hanna
and Prime Minister Perry Christie are shown with the Minister of Health
& National Insurance Dr. B.J. Nottage during a tour of the newly named
'Cancer Centre'. Dr. Conville Brown, one of the principals of the
Centre proudly displays a scale rendering of the existing and intended
facilities. With the opening of the Cancer Centre, Bahamians need
no longer travel farther than New Providence for radiation and other cancer
treatments.
| 12th
March, 2006
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com How do you do today? It's great to have you as a reader. We have the most incisive political news about and from The Bahamas! Please tell all your friends about us. |
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| DEMANDS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY... | BEC POWER FAILURE... |
| FOSTER PESTAINA IS BURIED... | LONG ISLAND AIRPORT TO REOPEN... |
| MAYAGUANA INVESTMENT... | CUBAN AMERICANS STILL AT IT... |
| FOOTNOTES TO HISTORY... | WICKED TRIBUNE HEADLINES... |
| FOLLOW UP ON B.U.T.... | A CELEBRATION FOR KAYLA... |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR... | THIS WEEK WITH THE PM... |
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 | |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE PRIVY COUNCIL CHIPS AWAY
The Nassau Guardian should be forgiven for not knowing any better
but their headline on Thursday 9th March said that the British Privy Council
hits at mandatory death penalty. Of course, it is not the British
Privy Council at all. The Privy Council is a Bahamian court, strange
as that may seem. Just as the Queen is not the Queen of England but
the Queen of The Bahamas. But that’s a side issue. The fact
is in paragraph 43 of the judgment of Bowe, Davis and the Crown, the Privy
Council on 8th March announced that hereafter the death penalty in the
country is to be considered discretionary and not mandatory, and further
the sentence of the particular individuals who appealed the case should
be remitted to the Supreme Court to be determined in accordance with the
new interpretation.
The decision has a further impact. It means that all those persons who were sentenced to death must have their sentences reconsidered in light of the new interpretation. For those who are still alive, that is a possibility, but unfortunately some of those are dead, having already been executed. How do they get recompense if at all?
It goes further, as a result of the review of the case law and the state of the law prior to 1973, including the 1969 and 1963 constitutions of The Bahamas; the Court decided that the European Convention on Human rights was part of the law of The Bahamas prior to 1973. That would seem to mean that ever after all statutes, regulations; executive acts will have to be interpreted in light of that convention at least as it was applied to The Bahamas as a colony. Quite a mouthful. You may click here to read the judgment.
The Attorney General issued a statement that the judgment is being studied, and in a further press conference indicated that the cases of those who are still on death row will have their sentences sent back to the Supreme Court for rehearing.
The Government must follow the law. The Government must not get caught up in the hysteria of the day. There must be a commitment to the law.
The judgment itself is a useful exercise for historians about the state of The Bahamas constitution; its evolution from letters patent to the 1963 constitution, to the further change in 1969 and ultimately to independence in 1973. But for our money, the whole thing took some mental, linguistic gymnastics. Some might say it bordered on sophistry, but the result is that the policy court of The Bahamas led by some intrepid and ingenious lawyers from The Bahamas have succeeded in chipping away at the death penalty in The Bahamas in the face of popular support for the death penalty.
The announcement of the decision came on the same day that Keith Carey, the popular young Bahamian businessman, who was shot down mercilessly, was being buried. It appears that the church men did not know at the time of the funeral that the Privy Council’s decision had come down. The preacher called on the church to stand, and in the most blood curdling tones demanded that people be hanged, to rousing applause. This within a church, whose central message is Christian forgiveness. There was no forgiveness in evidence. Hang them and hang them high. That is the mood in the country.
The Roman Catholic Church in its CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1994 edition says this on the death penalty:
“… the traditional teaching of the church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty[2266]
“If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. [2267]”
The other irony is that the Bahamian people rejected further relations with Caricom under the Caribbean Single Market and Economy last year. That included the Caribbean Court of Justice which was a court invented so that the judges might be able to take into account and be more familiar and relevant with local norms, including the wish for capital punishment throughout the region. Now they don’t have that court, and it is clear that the Privy Council which sits in Britain, and has mainly British judges is intent on doing away with capital punishment in these former colonies.
We should also say that the judgment leaves a lot unanswered. It is pretty clear for example that there are no guidelines as to how the Courts are to make the decision about whether a sentence was correctly given in a particular case. No doubt that itself will give rise to further litigation. It seems to us that the entire exercise will simply tie the courts up in knots for years. The country wants to see someone hanged before the elections, and it appears that the Government wants to oblige them, but that course seems fraught with legal difficulties. Should the legislature now step in to reflect the judgment in statute? A fat chance with the present climate!
What about the obligation to commute those persons who have been in jail over five years under the Pratt and Morgan standard? That landmark case from the Court of Appeal of Jamaica determined that where the state has failed to carry out the death penalty following the sentencing of a defendant after five years, and provided the persons did not sleep on his rights of appeal then it became cruel and inhumane punishment and the sentences must be commuted. Is the Government compounding an error when it refuses to act upon those? There are 18 such persons.
We won’t say so directly but the result of this present mish mash of statute and interpretation of statute by a policy court that is against the death penalty seems to point inescapably to one conclusion. But that conclusion will be a heavy cross for any Bahamian government to bear in these circumstances. It has no more than a snowball’s chance in hell.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 11th March 2006 up to midnight: 114,530.
Number of hits for the month of March up to Saturday 11th March, 2006 at midnight: 163,508.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 11th March, 2006 at midnight: 966,327.
DEMANDS
FOR THE DEATH PENALTY
Predictably, the country is in a tizzy about the death penalty. There
have been 11 murders since the start of the year. The most recent,
high profile one was the brutal gunning down of Keith Carey, a popular
businessman. The same day that Mr. Carey was buried on Wednesday
8th March, the Privy Council ruled that the deaths sentence in The Bahamas
is not mandatory. They remitted the matter to the Supreme Court for
the
men who had brought the appeal to be re-sentenced according to the new
interpretation of the law.
The lawyers for the men who brought the appeal were
Maurice Glinton and Kier Starmer Q.C. They described it as a new
dawn for human rights in The Bahamas. Mr. Glinton was quoted in the
Bahama Journal as saying “[It] also means that the mandatory death penalty
is now abolished through litigation, in every English speaking Caribbean
country except Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.” Mr. Starmer described
the case as a culmination of a 10 year litigation strategy to abolish the
mandatory death penalty in the English speaking Caribbean. While
the lawyers were crowing about their good work and their success, the other
side was not happy at all. The press immediately went out to the
public to find the almost unanimous view amongst their admittedly flawed
survey group that hanging should commence and commence now.
Pastor Rex Major at the funeral service of Mr. Carey
warned the Government to stop the lousy prosecution and called for hangings
to resume. He said: “We know that those people on death row who are
truly convicted should be dead now.” Hazel Roach, mother of Dion
Roach, who was murdered by one of the appellants who appealed to the Privy
Council, called the decision of the Court ridiculous. She said that
as far as she was concerned The Bahamas severed its ties with Britain long
ago and was supposed to be charting its own course. You can forgive
her lack of knowledge on the point.
The Attorney General Allyson Gibson called a press
conference on Friday 10th March to say that she would do all in her power
to ensure that the cases of all convicted murderers were swiftly remitted
to the Supreme Court for sentencing. She said that no new legislation
was required for this to happen. We will wait and see what happens.
Mourners at Keith Carey funeral - photo: Peter Ramsay
BEC POWER
FAILURE
Bradley Roberts, the Minister of Works and formerly
the Minister for Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) must have slept
easy Sunday morning, knowing that it would not be his telephone that rang
because of the power failure by BEC during the early hours. The power
failure in Nassau lasted for more than two hours, beginning just after
4 a.m. It is winter time, a time of low demand. People are
complaining that BEC never answers their phones to determine what the problem
is.
The power failure was in Nassau. Marcus Bethel,
the new Minister for BEC lives in Freeport. So what is a consumer
to do about this? When the BEC customer looks over at Paradise Island,
lights are burning bright; no power failure there. But the long suffering
people of New Providence, the majority of whom have no generators were
again as they were about to go to church suffering in the dark.
FOSTER
PESTAINA IS BURIED
The late Rev. Fr. Foster Bancroft Pestaina was cremated
and interred next to his wife on Friday 10th March in the Gardens of Christ
Church Cathedral. This followed a funeral service at Christ Church
Cathedral on Thursday 9th March. The Chief Celebrant was the Archbishop
of the Province of the West Indies Drexel Gomez.
Fr. Pestaina was a beloved figure in The Bahamas.
He came to The Bahamas from Antigua in 1951 shortly after he graduated
from Codrington College in Barbados. He had been recruited by the
then Bishop of The Bahamas Spence Burton. He was ordained to the priesthood
in The Bahamas and spent his entire professional life here. Fr. Pestaina
served in parishes throughout the islands including at St. Andrew’s in
Exuma, St. Patrick’s in Governor's Harbour. He developed a reputation
of being a builder both of congregations and of structures. When
he was transferred to New Providence in 1966 he started the Holy Cross
Parish with 12 members in his home, his dining table serving as the altar.
That parish has now produced the next Bishop of The Bahamas who is its
present rector with a modern church edifice, rectory and parish hall.
In 1971 Fr. Pestaina went to Grand Bahama to head
Christ the King, and is credited by the Archbishop with transforming the
Anglican Church in Freeport from an austere and almost foreign entity to
one embraced by Bahamian Anglicans. As he did in Eleuthera, he built
a parish hall which serves the whole community. It is now known as
the Foster Pestaina Hall. He returned to Nassau after 20 years of
service in Grand Bahama, and spent his final years as the Dean of the Cathedral.
There he transformed the dodgy old structure into a completely refurbished
parish church, a multi million dollar refit, and a growing congregation.
He was not an ostentatious man. He quietly
went about his work. He was honoured by the Queen in 1994 honours
with an OBE. When we heard all the hullabaloo about West Indians
who came to The Bahamas to take over our country, and how we must reject
the Caribbean Community, we wondered did those who spoke these cruel words
remember how Foster Pestaina and others came to this country and helped
to build up the common life. We express our condolences to the family
of the late Foster Bancroft Pestaina.
LONG
ISLAND AIRPORT TO REOPEN
The Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin announced
in Parliament that the Ministry will seek to make some short term repairs
to the Stella Maris Airport at Long Island to make it minimally usable
so that flights might resume to that airstrip. The closure of the
airstrip was like a death knell to that part of Long Island which attracts
the most tourists and which is the most PLP part of Long Island.
The short term measures are expected to cost in the vicinity of half a
million dollars.
The owners of the Stella Maris resort, one of two
hotels in that area that attract foreign tourists, said that they were
pleased that the Government had made the decision, and that the decision
would help to keep the resort alive. The other resort in that area
is the Cape Santa Maria Hotel which is located on perhaps what is the finest
beach in all of the country. There is an expansion of the property
going on now, and the owners had said that if the airstrip closed permanently,
they would have to close.
We think that the decision to do the sort term work
is good one and we congratulate the Minister. As a result of the
work being done, the Government will become the owners of the strip.
For the ninety days that it will take to fix it, the flights will have
to be rerouted to Deadman’s Cay. The Minister said that a contract
is being given to purchase and install financing around the perimeter of
the Deadman’s Cay airport to stop stray animals from crossing onto the
runway, making it unsafe. Modular buildings will have to be purchased
in order to accommodate the additional traffic including a building for
customs clearance.
MAYAGUANA
INVESTMENT
The Government has signed an investment Heads of Agreement with the I Group,
headed by Stephen Roy. It is a joint venture between the Hotel Corporation
and the I Group. The group is out of New England. The development
will represent 1.8 billion dollars over fifteen to twenty years.
It will mean the creation of a free trade zone, similar to Freeport, Grand
Bahama on Mayaguana, which is an island of 110 square miles, 78 miles by
24. The island is totally unspoiled. It has a population of
just about 400 souls. The developers say that they already have 30
people on the payroll. They plan to have the longest runway in the
hemisphere at 16,000 feet. It helps that the runway is already there
because the U.S. tracking station for their space programme in the 1950s
and 60s left the runway there. The people of Mayaguana were visited
by a group led by the Prime Minister on Thursday 9th March.
The residents of Mayaguana were said to be excited
about the possibilities. In the meanwhile, the Imperial College of
the University of London has listed The Bahamas as having a delicate environment
which threatens the lives of species in our waters to extinction.
It pointed out that unregulated development and laws which do not protect
the 20 or so marine mammal species in Bahamian waters are a matter of concern.
The Prime Minister reassured Bahamians that some of the world’s most experienced
environmental experts had been contracted to work on the project, however
and that a majority of the area under development had been earmarked as
“environmentally sensitive no-build zones”.
Prime Minister Perry Christie is greeted by schoolchildren in Mayaguana
- BIS photo: Peter Ramsay
CUBAN
AMERICANS STILL AT IT
The apogee of the criticism of the Cuban American
community of The Bahamas was reached this past week on Thursday 9th March
when Congressman Connie Mack of Florida and some of the families of two
dentists who came to The Bahamas illegal migrants and are still in custody
appeared on the Fox National News. Suddenly Bahamians are now calling
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs frightened that the U.S, is going to eliminate
the pre clearance lounge at the Bahamian airports and that they will not
be able to travel to Miami. Such is the view of the United States
in this country as a vicious and capricious country when it gets a notion
in its head about something.
The Prime Minister announced in the House of Assembly
two weeks ago that the matter has been resolved. Congressman Mack
is threatening The Bahamas. He said that The Bahamas obviously fears
Castro more than it values the friendship of the United States. This
is typical of a certain category of persons in the Cuban American community.
We believe that The Bahamas is getting a bum rap for trying to help the
United States out, and the American embassy in Nassau will have a lot of
explaining to do to the Bahamian people about why they did nothing to stop
these vicious attacks on The Bahamas for something which would be done
as a favour to the United States. Let us hope that the issue is resolved
soon.
FOOTNOTES
TO HISTORY
A Passage to India
Bernadette Christie, the wife of the Prime Minister
was the special guest who launched a ship of the Clipper Group in India
(click here for last week’s
story). Before returning home, she took time to visit the famed
Taj Mahal which was built by one of the Mogul Emperors of India for his
deceased wife. He did it as an act of love. The photo shows
Mrs. Christie at the Taj in Agra, India. Taj Majal means head crown
in Hindu. From left, Fred Mitchell, John Moyell, Gurli Moyell, Lowell
Mortimer, Mrs. Christie, Steffan Christie, Paula Hanna, Warren Johnson.
While Mrs. Christie was in India, Aisish Saraf, an Indian businessman
and friend of The Bahamas, held a reception in her honour. The special
guest was Indian Minister of External Affairs Anand Sharma. The guests
are shown at the home of Mr. Saraf in Delhi on Saturday 4th March of the
reception and dinner. From left are Anand Sharma, Indian Minister
of External Affairs, Mrs. Christie and Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred
Mitchell.
Kozeny Before the Courts
The Crown pulled an unusual manoeuvre in court on
Friday 10th March, when it presented a new authority to proceed before
the Court in the extradition of Victor Kozeny, a Czech citizen, the man
known as the pirate of Prague. Mr. Kozeny is wanted on a U.S. warrant
for allegedly ripping off investors in the U.S. His
lawyers sought to dismiss the warrant on the ground that the cases from
the U.S. do not disclose offences in Bahamian law. So the crown came
back with offences in Bahamian law. The magistrate said that this
was an unusual matter to have two authorities to proceed at one time.
The Court is adjourned to 14th March and the Magistrate will take time
to settle what to do.
Carl Bethel at it again
Carl Bethel, the silly FNM Senator, who thinks he
has a case against Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell on visas when in reality
he has no case at all, was at it again. Last week on Wednesday 8th
March, he tried to introduce documents in the Senate to show that a stalwart
councillor whom he said was an aide to Mr. Mitchell was the sponsor for
visas from the consular section of the Ministry. He claims that is
a conflict of interest. The Senate president prevented him from tabling
the documents. Rightly so.
First, Carl Bethel could not say or vouch for the
authenticity of the documents. Secondly, even if they disclose what
he says they disclose on the face of it, it is the lawful right of any
Bahamian to be a sponsor for visa applications. The question is whether
any law was violated. He claimed that there was a conflict of interest.
What conflict was there since the Minister has clearly said he does not
get involved in the issuance of visas? Unlike Mr. Bethel himself
who used political influence to get visas on a number of occasions when
his party was in office. The Minister has earlier tabled documents
to show that this is what Carl Bethel did. Mr. Bethel can show no
such evidence about Mr. Mitchell.
Half a Million Dollar Judgment
Japanese citizen Atain Takitota was unlawfully detained
in The Bahamas for eight years. He has now been awarded half a million
dollars in compensation for the mistake made by The Bahamas government.
The Court of Appeal made the decision on Thursday 9th March.
WICKED
TRIBUNE HEADLINES
On Thursday 9th march, The Tribune carried a headline
CONDOLEEZZA RICE WILL NOT BE VISITING IN NEAR FUTURE. They knew that
this would panic the country, and it was deliberately designed to cause
mischief. It was to give the impression that The Bahamas was being
punished by the U.S. because of the matter of the Cuban dentists (see
story above).
The Tribune based their story on a quote from Mike
Taylor of the US. Embassy who said this: “At this time, no plans to visit
The Bahamas have been publicly announced”. The next day, but not
on the front page where they carried the first story, it was explained
on page two under the headline: DETAILS OF RICE TRIP TO BE CONFIRMED SOON,
that a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said that an announcement
was expected on the Bahamas visit within a week or so, and that the option
of a visit to The Bahamas was still on the table.
It should be pointed out however that this is not
a visit to The Bahamas, on US/Bahamas relations. This is a Caricom/US
meeting. One wonders why the United States would want to jeopardize
relations with Caricom over a bilateral matter. Anyway, it only shows
how you have to be careful what your read and believe in The Tribune.
FOLLOW
UP ON B.U.T.
Last week, we reported that the Bahamas Union of
Teachers has internal problems which may provide a clue as to why they
took part in the unlawful strike by bringing teachers to Bay Street on
Wednesday 1st March. This website published documents
that show what the ruling group in Nassau is facing. The Freeport
part of the BUT is in full revolt over the dictatorial practices of the
pair of leaders in Nassau.
The Tribune carried a story in their newspaper during
the week based on what they said were documents obtained from a website.
They did not have the decency to attribute their source, which is BahamsUncensored.Com.
This is typical of the lousy journalism that they practice. It is
elementary in journalism that you attribute your sources.
The Union of Teachers was asked to respond, but
Ida Poitier their leader was for once compelled to silence. Her big
mouth was not heard this time. All she could say was that it was
an internal matter and she would not comment. Negotiations on a new
contract were supposed to have started on Friday 9th March.
A
CELEBRATION FOR KAYLA
Last Sunday 5th March, many of those whose lives
have been enriched by working with Kayla Lockhart Edwards gathered at the
National Centre for the Performing Arts to celebrate the performing artists
in an evening in true Kayla style full of laughter, old stories and joyful
music, song and dance. The Chamber Singers, a group formed
by Kayla Lockhart Edwards over thirty years ago, reunited for the event
and were joined in the “Celebration of Love” by Robert Bain’s Dance Bahamas
Troupe, Claudette Allens, Sara Fox, Giovanni Stuart, youthful singing sensation
Osano Neely, Bel Canto, Pat Rahming and many others in the cultural community.
Co-ordinator JoAnn Callender said that the organizing committee made a
special presentation to Kayla from the evening’s proceeds. Patty
Roker contributed to this story.
Chairman of the Cultural Commission, Winston Saunders CMG, looks
on at left with family members and well-wishers as Kayla Lockhart Edwards
is greeted at the National Centre for the Performing Arts by Prime Minister
Perry Christie. BIS photo: Peter Ramsay
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
I am a Bahamian studying in Georgia. Although
I label myself bipartisan (because I have voted both PLP AND FNM in the
past), I find that your site is more comprehensive than the national newspapers.
Maybe you should in the near future broaden your scope to become a news
site. Most often, after reading the Bahama Journal and the Nassau
Guardian, I click on your site and find that they have not reported essential
details or information on a subject.
I do agree with you that Bahamians
should find another port of entry to shop within the U.S. instead of
Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Bahamians should be educated on the value
of their spending dollar. Also, why are Bahamians not upset about
the beached whales? Do you think that this lack of concern will harm
us in the future?
Gloria Strachan
Thank you for your comments. One day we will expand into a news site with proper reporting staff. We think Bahamians are concerned about the whales. Sam Duncombe, Margo Blackwell and others have mounted fierce campaigns to speak up for them. – Editor
THE U.S. ON MONEY LAUNDERING
The above captioned article that appeared on
your website of Sunday March 5 contained a slight misstatement. In
the article you stated that the US in naming countries of “primary concern”
in the fight against money laundering failed to name itself, that is incorrect.
In the
report the US does indeed include itself in that list of countries
and also includes other ‘industrialised’ nations such as the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, and Russia.
I initially read the story on the Bahama Journal’s
website as well, and was also outraged at the level of shoddy journalism
that did not rightly name some of the other ‘developed’ countries that
appeared on the list. In failing to do so, the proper context of
the report could not be seen and a jaundiced view was presented.
How can a media house that bears the name of its country so recklessly
play games with its the international reputation is beyond me, but then
again the Bahamian media in general baffles me when reporting stories of
this nature.
Kele’ Isaacs
Oops! We stand corrected and thanks. – Editor
THIS
WEEK WITH THE PM
Mayaguana Signing
Prime Minister Perry Christie is pictured above
with the principal investor in a joint development partnership with Government
for the island of Mayaguana. The Mayaguana Island Development project
is expected to bring $1.8 billion in investment to Mayaguana over the next
15-20 years. The signing of the agreement took place during the week
at the Cabinet Office.
A Message for Kayla
Mr. Christie was among several ministers of Government
attending a celebration of the cultural contribution of Kayla Lockhart
Edwards. The Prime Minister is shown presenting Mrs. Lockhart Edwards
with a framed copy of a message of honour for her cultural ambassadorship,
signed by Mr. Christie. The celebration took place during the week
at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Nassau.
Senseless Murder
Businessman Keith Carey was buried during the week.
Mr. Carey was the victim of murder as he approached a bank to make a business
deposit. The Prime Minister Perry Christie was among the mourners
at the funeral and is shown sharing the feelings of many others during
the funeral at the senselessness of the tragedy.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE TROUBLE WITH IDA
On Tuesday 14th March, the Government’s team negotiating with the
quarrelsome, troublesome, confused leadership of the Bahamas Union of Teachers
gathered at the Ministry of Public Service. The idea was to start
negotiations on a groundbreaking industrial agreement for the teachers.
This would be a first.
Unfortunately, the quarrelsome, troublesome, confused leadership of the Bahamas Union of Teachers were not in the mood for negotiating at all. They came for showboating, histrionics and tomfoolery. We have said before there is an issue of credibility of here, some argue even sanity or the lack thereof. After delivering a letter threatening the Government, they refused to negotiate in good faith, and instead declared an impasse and said that they were not prepared to negotiate until the matter of defining and settling a new recognition agreement had been settled. With that they then committed a trespass by inviting the press into the Government’s room and holding a press conference to declare the impasse.
Now something must be going on in the heads of these two women who presently lead the Bahamas Union of Teachers that the rest of us simply can’t comprehend. They declared an impasse. They said that they were not prepared to negotiate until the matter was settled by the Industrial Tribunal, the thing over which they are quarrelling. The meeting of Tuesday was adjourned sine die. Yet when Thursday came, the two misleaders of the BUT were there in the Government's offices claiming that they were there to negotiate. They then called a press conference again trespassing in the Government’s offices to say that the Government side had not shown up. There really is an issue of sanity of the process here or the lack thereof.
There is a saying that not only one woman born a crazy child. That needs to be demonstrated here, and we are clearly in favour of the Government negotiators taking the gloves off and dealing with these folk as if they were dealing with a fruit cake, full of nuts.
There appears never to have been a more confused, quarrelsome, troublesome group in the history of trade unionism. Their inexperience is costing their union hundreds of hours of wasted time and thousands of dollars. Their inexperience and quarrelsome nature has caused the loss of classroom man hours, damaged irreparably the children of the country by creating dissension and discord in the classroom. Even worse for individuals who are teachers, they simply don’t seem to display basic knowledge or intelligence about the most elementary matters, the leading one of which is civility and courtesy.
What is it that they are actually rowing over? A recognition agreement was signed with the Bahamas Union of Teachers and the Government of The Bahamas in 1965. That agreement pre dates the present law which came into force in 1970. The agreement confines recognition to dealing with salary matters only. The BUT wants an industrial agreement which reflects the modern law and practice. That means that they will need a new recognition agreement to reflect the present state of issues which are to be covered by it. One of the matters which must be settled is who will form the bargaining unit, that is, the unit of persons that the Union will represent and for whom they will bargain.
In line with the law and modern practice, the Government says that the bargaining unit cannot include the managers of the system. For the school system this means: line staff teachers or classroom teachers must be separated from principals and vice principals. The latter are managers, the former group line staff. This means that under a proposed new agreement principals and vice principals will not be in the bargaining unit. If the teachers call a strike, the managers have to run the system. Ida Poitier, led by the even more quarrelsome Belinda Wilson can’t understand it, and say they won’t agree to it.
Then they say they want the matter referred to the industrial tribunal. The Department of Labour takes the position that there is no jurisdiction for claims by public servants to be heard by the industrial tribunal. It appears to be a matter that has to be heard before the Supreme Court.
Our view is that it is time to get tough with silly billy tactics of a confused and quarrelsome group.
First, the Government should announce that it will agree with this group that they do not, cannot and will not discuss anything to do with the bargaining unit, but will only discuss salary matters, strictly in line with the industrial agreement. That is it. If the BUT does not want to discuss salaries then the Government can also declare an impasse.
Secondly, the government should unilaterally take the union to court by way of judicial review to determine the question of the nature and extent of the present recognition agreement. Any action before the Industrial Tribunal, such as it is presently in place, would stop automatically since the Supreme Court is a superior body.
Thirdly all teachers who participated in the walk out from their jobs by going to Parliament in the middle of the school year should be penalized by having their salaries docked.
The next thing is police ought to be brought to the Ministry of Public Service to ensure that this rowdy group behave themselves in Government offices. Further, before any further discussion goes on, there must be an insistence by the Government’s negotiators on a code of conduct. Such a code would probably we worthless, not worth the paper it is written on since this crew have already violated an agreement not to negotiate in the press. If these people can’t be civil and behave like normal human beings instead of the vile things that they say around the table, then the treatment ought to be reciprocated.
It is clear that the issues are contentious but it is also clear that everything can be negotiated if you have people of good will, and if you have people who have simple understanding at the table who intend to get things done. Since this is the election season, since the tactics simply don’t make sense, one could quickly come to a conclusion that there are political motives, and political operatives at work here. The teachers who are in the school system ought to start asking the hard questions to these folk about why they are dragging this matter on, when the Government was prepared to settle this issue since December of last year. Maybe it is just pure politics at work here.
We of course don’t believe for one moment that the Government has the stomach for all of this with elections coming up. No doubt there will be some softly/softly line taken, and the school system will end up in further chaos for refusing to take a stand. But that’s us, and whatever.
That to us in summary is the trouble with Ida.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 18th March 2006 at midnight: 90,513.
Number of hits for the month of March up to Saturday 18th March 2006 at midnight: 254,021.
Number of hits for the year 2006 up to Saturday 18th March at midnight: 1,056,840.
THE
CUBAN AMERICAN ISSUE IS SETTLED
Telemundo, the Florida based Cuban American Spanish
speaking station said that they had gotten a call from the detention centre
in Nassau in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday 14th March.
It said that the two Cuban dentists Dr. Marialys Daris Mesa and Dr. David
Aquino Gonzalez Mejais were leaving the detention centre on their way to
a destination unknown. At about 3: 30 p.m. that same afternoon the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the two dentists had in fact
left The Bahamas and gone to Jamaica. From there, they were ferried
to the United States which was their destination of choice. You may
click
here for the official announcement.
The departure of the Cubans set off a whole round
of congratulations on the one hand and some carping on the other hand.
The congratulations came for a skilful job done by the Prime Minister Perry
Christie and his Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell for ducking
a bullet from the gun that the Americans held at the head of the country.
From the left wingers, and the dissatisfied FNMs, they thought it was capitulation
to the American lobby and thought that the people ought to have been returned
to Cuba. One Tribune columnist called the explanation that the Foreign
Minister gave in great detail in the Parliament of Wednesday 15th March
a “bunch of baloney”.
For our money, the end of this episode was expertly
managed. It was flawlessly carried out and we join the Minister in
thanking all those Bahamians who ensured that it was carried out.
The reality is that we live in the shadow of a giant. The way The
Bahamas works it has to keep its independence and way of life without making
the giant too angry and upsetting the apple cart.
It is clear that within the U.S. there are many,
many people who have no respect for this country because of its size and
its ethnic make up. Many Bahamians themselves seem to lack the basic
self esteem to stand up for their country, with thousands worried that
the pre clearance lounge would be stripped away from the country, and
thousands more worried that the U.S. would stop them from travelling to
Miami. Such is The Bahamas today. So the right decision was
executed, and we hope that is the last we hear or see of them and their
congressional friends who threatened and insulted this country. You
may click
here for the full statement of the Government to the House of Assembly
by the Foreign Minister.
US/CARICOM
MEETING NEXT WEEK
Foreign Minster Fred Mitchell announced to the public
last week on Friday 17th March that The Bahamas will host the Foreign Ministers
of Caricom at their meeting with Dr. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of
State of the United States on Tuesday 21st March and Wednesday 22nd March.
Unfortunately, the Minister said the Secretary will not get an opportunity
to interact with the Bahamian public.
This is the third meeting with the U.S. Secretary
of State since Mr. Mitchell became the Chair of the Council of Foreign
and Community Relations of Caricom, known as COFCOR. The first was
held in Ft. Lauderdale in the margins of the General Assembly of the Organization
of American States (OAS). The next one was held at the United Nations
in the margins of the General Assembly.
The idea is to have structured dialogue with the
U.S. on a regular basis so that the region which is closest to it can have
an understanding of each other’s positions on various matters. Haiti
is likely to be the subject of continuing discussions, the future of the
region more generally will be the subject of the conference.
LESLIE
TELLS OFF THE BUS DRIVERS
The death of six year old Faith Mackey in Nassau two weeks
ago as she exited a bus and was about to cross a pedestrian crossing on
Carmichael Road has caused a huge furor in the country. Leslie Miller,
the Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, has called in the past
for a crackdown on bus drivers. In that he has the support of the
public. On Wednesday 16th March, here is what he said in the House
of Assembly in his own words:
“I said in this Parliament over two years ago
that some of the wild drivers that we have on our streets should be dealt
with and the owners of those franchises dealt with in a serious way.
“Eighty per cent of the bus drivers will overtake
you, they have no respect for the other drivers on the street, they have
no respect for the law, they run the red lights every single day, and they
come down the middle lane. They are a law unto themselves.
“So until the franchises are taken away from
the owners on the first infraction, nothing is going to happen. I
don’t care what you put in place. You can go and fix every road,
you can put in all the markings you please, but if the man behind the wheel
is reckless, it doesn’t matter to him.”
Minister Leslie Miller in the House of Assembly Wednesday 16th
March, 2006 - BIS photo: Peter Ramsay
WORKS
MINISTER SIGNS CONTRACT
The Minister of Works Bradley Roberts had to point
out to Robert Sweeting, the MP for Marsh Harbour, that he was not present
when the contract was signed to expand and upgrade the Marsh Harbour airport,
something that he had been asking about for months in the House of Assembly.
Mr. Sweeting claimed he was not invited. Mr. Roberts said he was.
Curious this business of standing on invitations.
As an MP, you should not need an invitation to go anywhere especially a
public function in your own constituency, just come. It turns out
that he did come but he came late and said he did not want to interrupt
the programme and so turned back instead of coming in.
The upgrade of the airport at Marsh Harbour is important
for the tourist expansion in Abaco. Here is what the Minister had
to say in fulfilment of the Pulps promise to help make sure that Abaco
stays in the big leagues of Bahamian tourism. Click
here for the Minister’s full address.
CAN
WE STAY OUT OF WTO?
James Smith, the Minister of State for Finance spoke
to the issue of The Bahamas trade policy in what appears to have been an
interview with The Tribune’s Business Section on Friday 17th March.
Mr. Smith indicated that The Bahamas can’t afford to stay outside the World
Trade Organization. The Bahamas presently has observer status.
Mr. Smith said that staying outside of WTO would leave the country exposed
to “discrimination by a country in the WTO, negatively impacting the economy.”
He argued that The Bahamas could not stand isolated and remain outside
the WTO, because in that position it would be unable to influence the development
of international trade rules that could impact the major industries in
its economy.
Mr. Smith added: “I think that you have more to
lose being outside the game, as you can’t affect the rules. It will
be much easier for other countries to discriminate against us blatantly
and we will have no recourse. Our risk is that by being outside of
it, we leave ourselves open to discrimination by people in it.” He
gave Barbados as an example of being able to defend itself against the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) harmful
tax practice initiative by threatening to take the nations in the OECD
to court for engaging in a discriminatory practice against Barbados.
The effort against that country collapsed.
We agree with the Minister and it is refreshing
to see at least one other Bahamian public official join Foreign Minister
Fred Mitchell in expressing a world view. The jingoists in our midst
have been having their say for far too long.
MITCHELL
ON INGRAHAM’S LOSING STRATEGY
Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and
the Public Service held an extensive press conference Friday 17th March.
In it he responded to the spurious, some would say silly allegations in
the name of the Free National Movement that the appointments of Ambassadors
to China and Cuba were rushed and that somehow there was something wrong
with the diplomats in those countries working out of hotels until the embassies
are properly established. It shows the depravity and silliness to
which the FNM will stoop in order to get a headline.
The Minister said that he had no doubt that the
press release was not the FNM’s at all but Hubert Ingraham’s, the Leader
of the Opposition. He said that he noticed that Mr. Ingraham took
the time during his address in the House on Wednesday 15th March when he
responded to the matter of Cuban dentists, to personally attack Fred Mitchell
in the conduct of the matter. Mr. Mitchell said it was clear to him
by the personal nature of the attacks that Mr. Ingraham had been seething
about the heat put on him back in November 2005 at the PLP convention when
Mr. Mitchell accused Mr. Ingraham of actually coming back to be leader
of the FNM because he would be able to collect three salaries; the salary
of Leader of the Opposition, Member of Parliament and his pension as the
former Prime Minister.
Mr. Mitchell said the strategy of Mr. Ingraham in
response to the attacks was to put the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a
hit list and the Minister in particular. He said he took this as
a back handed compliment because it meant the Ministry was doing exactly
what it was supposed to be doing. This of course is ‘par for the
course’ for Mr. Ingraham, his begrudgefulness, his niggardly ways, his
dog in the manger attitude. He sat there and started this attack
in the House, while none of the other members contributed except to snicker
and encourage him. He was slapped back in his face so many times
that day.
Mr. Mitchell questioned Mr. Ingraham’s patriotism
when Mr. Ingraham sought to put the case for the United States of America
in the House. It was shameful. Mr. Mitchell kept saying to
him: “My country right or wrong”. On Saturday 18th March, The Tribune
quoted Mr. Ingraham as saying that he was not receiving three salaries.
He said he had instructed his bank not to deposit the salary as MP and
as Leader of the Opposition. This amounts to $78,000. He gets
$100,000 as a pension as a former Prime Minister and an allowance of $18,000
for his constituency office. Not bad for a retired politician.
You may click
here for the speech given by Minister Mitchell at the PLP convention last
year.
Mr. Mitchell had a new twist this time. He said
that he agreed with Mr. Ingraham that he was not double dipping, in fact,
he was triple dipping. Mr. Mitchell must as Minister responsible
for pensions cause an investigation to be done as to where Mr. Ingraham
is listing these benefits as part of his public disclosure since whether
he collects it or not the money is for his benefit and belongs to him.
If he refuses to collect it, there must be a suspense account opened for
him to be held in trust until he collects it but collect it he must.
You may click
here for the full statement by Minister Mitchell on the embassies in China
and Cuba, responding to the FNM’s press statement.
HARAJCHI
LOSES AT THE PRIVY COUNCIL
The Privy Council ruled on Monday 13th March that
the former Central Bank Governor Julian Francis was justified in winding
up the Suisse Security Bank and Trust. The licence for the Bank owned
by the controversial Iranian émigré Mohamed Harajchi was
suspended on 5th March 2001 and the licence revoked on 5th April 2001.
Mr. Harajchi later claimed that the Central Bank Governor had an improper
and personal motive for closing down the bank.
The Privy Council rejected all the grounds of appeal
and said that it was inconceivable that the institution would be allowed
to continue operating a bank. Mr. Harajchi also tried to implicate
the PLP and its leader in his nefarious work by suggesting that the PLP
promised to give him back his bank licence if it won the 2002 election
in exc
