Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 1 © BahamasUncensored.Com
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| HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRED MITCHELL - Today is the 50th birthday of the founder of this site Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service. His birthday comes at a time when he has reached the height of his career to date. The country appears to be generally pleased with the work that he is doing for and on its behalf. It also marks 26 years since he first became a public figure on radio and TV in October 1977 as the head of the Public Affairs Division of the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas, and later as its Director of News and Public Affairs. Television was new in 1977 and, as a commentator on political events, he marked himself on the public imagination at the age of 24. Last week, he presented the country’s annual statement to the United Nations on Wednesday 1st October in New York. The photo was taken on that occasion. We thought as we wished him happy birthday that it was only fitting that this photo be our photo of the week. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
ANOTHER BOY GOES MISSING
The
news reverberated around Freeport, and then around New Providence and the
country. There is now missing boy number five in Freeport.
His mother last reported seeing him on Sunday 28th September. He
had been working at the downtown Winn Dixie Food store as a packing boy
and having departed from there went to a game room, where he was captured
on a fuzzy video with a fresh haircut. The barber confirmed that
he had given him the haircut. But having left his job at 11 p.m.
on Saturday 27th September, he was not seen again but for one report that
he was seen on the beach at Williams Town near his home at around 6:30
p.m. on Sunday 28th September. The police searched that area and
found nothing. The mother sounded the alarm after he had not returned
home for twenty four hours. The police started their processes all
over again.
We must confess that this has our country in a tizzy. No one
seems to know the answer. Where are these kids? Some say that
there is a grim reaper who is plucking them off the streets for organ transplants.
Others say that they have been abducted and taken out of the country.
Some say that they are still alive. Others say that they are long
dead. 
The
police are not in the business of speculating. They say that they
are not giving up on any ideas or theories but not embracing them either.
The evidence is simply not there. They have called on their international
partners but there is nothing substantial yet.
The Bahamian public and some members of the Government were getting a little exasperated with the police, thinking that they have not been taking the matter as seriously as they should have. But everything points to a very serious investigation that has the police force under a great deal of stress because unlike the general crime situation in The Bahamas, they seemingly cannot and have not solved this one. Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade spoke to Freeport to calm fears in the middle of the week.
Why did he have to calm fears? As the Minister of Foreign Affairs arrived in Grand Bahama on Thursday 2nd October fresh from his UN speech, his press briefing at the airport had to be delayed because the press was in a frenzy following up on the rumours that had spread around Freeport that body parts had been discovered in the freezers of a food store in Freeport, and that three men had been arrested, and the public had supplied names of an undertaker, a doctor and any number of other prominent businessmen. The telephone and rumour mill had gone into overdrive.
The
facts were nowhere near that. One person was under arrest and remains
in custody as this column goes to print. They do not know if this
is connected with the matter but the police are saying that he is assisting
them with their inquiries and they are checking out various leads.
There are no body parts and there is no prominent businessman, undertaker
or doctor involved in the matter up to now.
The mob scenes in Freeport took place after the police executed a raid in the full force of daylight on Thursday 2nd October at the Winn Dixie Food store in downtown Freeport where at least two of the boys including the last one worked as packing boys. People emptied their offices and poured into downtown, and the rumours started. The police sealed the back of the Winn Dixie where the freezers are, some people started the rumour that they had found the dead bodies there and the people went into a screaming frenzy.
The international press from as near as the Palm Beaches, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and as far away as London are now interested in the story. What has happened to five boys who simply seemed to have disappeared into thin air?
The Minister of Foreign Affairs in his address to the United Nations spoke of the concern that The Bahamas has for children in his address (Click here for the full address). The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt has assured the police and the country that they will provide all the resources that are necessary to solve this issue. There are a lot of people who are still praying.
But what is clear is that the central message has not gotten through it seems to both the children, mainly adolescent boys, and their families that children need special protection from themselves and those who would prey on them. Clearly, the boys have gone somewhere, and maybe just maybe what will come out of this is the recognition by this country of the special measures that must be taken to assist little boys as they run the gauntlet of growing into their maturity, in a society that leaves them largely to their own devices.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 4th October 2003 at midnight: 50,087.
Number of hits for the month September ending Tuesday 30th September at midnight: 154,744.
Number of hits for the month of October up to Saturday 4th October at midnight: 21,907.
Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 4th October 2003: 1,120,793.
MITCHELL
AT THE UN IN WORDS AND PICTURES
It was clearly a busy and productive ten days for the Minister of Foreign
Affairs. The time started with his departing Nassau for the start
of the General Assembly debate by US President George Bush on Tuesday 23rd
September. This was followed by his accompanying the Prime Minister
Perry Christie to the breakfast with US President George Bush. Then
the Minister departed New York for meetings with the Prime Minister in
Washington, including attending a reception for US Congresswoman Maxine
Waters, wife of former Ambassador to the Bahamas from the US Sidney Williams.
The next day, it was accompanying the Prime Minister to meet with the President
of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); this was followed by a meeting
with the Government’s Lawyers Hogan and Hartson and then the Government’s
Public Relations firm Webber and Shandwick.
On Friday 26th September, Minister Mitchell attended the award ceremony
to the Prime Minister by the group 100 Black Men. At 3 a.m., he departed
Washington for New York for a meeting later that morning at the Helmsley
Hotel as a part of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to decide
whether or not Zimbabwe and Pakistan amongst others ought to be returned
to the political councils of the Commonwealth. Nyet! On both
counts. And then it was the signing ceremony for the exchange of
notes on diplomatic relations between the Ukraine and The Bahamas later
on Saturday 27th September. On Tuesday 30th September, he met with
Bahamians who work at the United Nations.
On Wednesday, he spoke at the United Nations then
later that same day, he departed for Freeport where he spoke at a banquet
for public servants and on Friday 4th October, he spoke at a function to
honour public servants in Governors Harbour, Eleuthera. Some of the
week in pictures. At top, Minister Mitchell took the opportunity to
meet with Bahamians working at the UN. Seated (L-R) Ms. Magdella
Chotoosingh (Office of Internal Oversight Services) Under Secretary Marco
Rolle (MFA), Minister Mitchell, Ambassador Paulette Bethel (Bahamas Mission
to the United Nations) Ms. Clementina Pinder (Executive Office of the UN
Department of Management. Standing (L-R) Mr. Willie Ferguson (Retired
UN Staff Member,), Ms. Karen Moss-Timothy (UN Trust Fund), Ms. Candace
Pratt (UN Oil for Food Programme), Ms. Sheryl Simmons (UN Budget Division),
Ms. Joan Quant Mullen (UN Procurement Division) and Ms. Helene Seligman
(Consultant-UN Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee). Next
photo, Minister Mitchell briefing representatives of the Organization of
American States (OAS); bottom, with the representative of the government
of the Ukraine toasting the beginning of diplomatic relations with The
Bahamas.
A
“TERRORIST” AT THE TRIBUNE
Bradley Roberts, the Minister of Public Works and Utilities, also known
as Big Bad Brad, let go a scud of his own during the debate on the Terrorism
Bill before Parliament during the past week. He called Eileen Carron,
the publisher of The Tribune “the terrorist of Shirley Street”. Not
since the then Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell accused
then Senator Lynn Holowesko of being “Osama Bin Lynn”, the Osama Bin Laden
of the Senate, has there been such a scathing condemnation. Mr. Roberts
said that Mrs. Carron was one of the reigning practitioners of terrorist
behaviour, using as her weapon of mass destruction The Tribune. The
problem is not its news pages. It’s the editorial done by Mrs. Carron
that is a problem. It is anti Black, anti Bahamian and most times
intellectually dishonest as she utilizes the lack of knowledge of Bahamians
about history to distort the true picture of the PLP’S record. There
is nothing that the PLP can get right. Such is her pure and unadulterated
hatred of the PLP. You may click
here for the full House of Assembly address by Mr. Roberts on Thursday
2nd October. Mrs. Carron is pictured at left in this file photo; Mr.
Roberts at right from The Tribune.
FNM
MP SAYS PLP TERRORIZES FREEPORT
Let’s call this one, the ‘far stretch’ department. Kenneth Russell,
whom we dubbed the most miserable man in Parliament, told the Parliament
this week while dealing with the Terrorism Bill that the PLP terrorized
the people of Grand Bahama, by politically manipulating the summer jobs
programme and only hiring PLPs in that programme. This was an allegation
made by he and his fellow travelling FNM MPs in Grand Bahama during the
summer and it was denied by the Ministry of the Public Service. Even
if that were true and it was clearly not, how that gets to be part of the
Terrorism Bill debate is really a stretch. Mr. Russell goes from
the sublime to the ridiculous. Later in his address, he tried to
bring in matters about the Ministry of Public Works and the New Providence
Road Improvement Project, that great failure on his watch as Minister of
Works. The Speaker had had enough and told him to cease and desist
and follow the rule of relevancy. Nassau Guardian photo of Mr. Russell
in Parliament by Donald Knowles.
A
LOCAL COUNCIL UNDER THREAT
People on Grand Bahama, particularly PLP supporters were confused by the
announcement by Local Government Minister Alfred Gray that the local government
council in Freeport will be dissolved. The feeling is that this is
a group of FNMs fighting together and we should simply let them fight.
There is felt to be no capital to be gained by easing the FNM out of its
difficulties. Many people argue that if there were a stronger Administrator,
none of this would happen. Watching the Minister’s move carefully,
in cancelling the will of the people, are town councils in Governors Harbour,
Eleuthera and Marsh Harbour, Abaco. The Council in Freeport
wants the Chief Councillor to resign, and has passed a vote of no confidence
in the Chief Councillor that has no legal effect. She refuses to
go. There has been a big row in the press but the councillors should
be made to work together until in the normal course of things they have
to face elections. Freeport News photos Chief Councillor Marva Moxey,
left; Council member Harold Williams, right.
ZHIVARGO
LAING GETS IT WRONG AGAIN
Everyone has unanimity on the issue of the missing five boys in Grand Bahama.
As this column goes to print and upload, the police had called a press
conference on Saturday 4th October to announce that they had asked a magistrate
to extend the time in custody of the one suspect they have to a total of
96 hours. He has already been in custody for 48 hours, the maximum
allowed in law unless a magistrate agrees on application by the police
to extend the time for investigation. The man is described only as
a Bahamian male.
Cynthia Pratt, the Deputy Prime Minister asked people
to remain calm and let the police do their work. Well Mr. Smarty
pants Zhivargo Laing had another tack in his column for the past week in
The Tribune. He claimed that it is somehow the Government’s fault
that this matter has not been solved. How this gets to be so, we
don’t know. It is another desperate attempt to make political hay.
Seems like he has been attending the same mix up class that his party Chairman
Carl Bethel attends.
Let us repeat, this matter is a police matter and
the Government is giving the police all the resources they need and demand
to ensure that this problem is resolved. We would also remind dear
Zhivargo that Perry Christie is not Hubert Ingraham. The latter embarrassed
the then Commissioner of Police and his men by calling a press conference
to announce that the murderer of two tourists on Paradise Island was not
a Bahamian. The Commissioner of Police sat silently as the then PM
expounded. We dubbed the then PM Chief Inspector Ingraham, with his
sidekick Sergeant Watson, who was then the Minister for National Security.
You won’t see Perry Christie doing that. Crime is for the police
to investigate and solve. As it turns out, a Bahamian was later charged
for the murder of the two tourist women.
THE
CHINESE CELEBRATE THEIR NATIONAL DAY
The Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont and the Acting
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Marcus Bethel joined the Ambassador to
The Bahamas for China in celebrating China’s National Day on 30th September.
The National Day of modern China is considered 1st October. This
is the day that marks the establishment of the Communist China. This is
53rd anniversary of the founding of the modern China. Nassau Guardian
photo of Governor General Dumont and the Chinese Ambassador by Donald Knowles.
PM
FLIES TO TRINIDAD
Prime Minister Perry Christie was the guest speaker
at the commencement exercises for the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad
and Tobago. The Prime Minister spoke at the ceremonies in Trinidad
on Saturday 4th October. He was accompanied by Allyson Maynard Gibson,
the Minister of Financial Services and Investment. The delegation
is expected to return to the country on Sunday 5th October.
PUBLIC
SERVICE WEEK CONCLUDES
The end of Public Service Week came on Saturday
4th October. The week was marked by special ceremonies honouring long serving
civil servants. The Minister for the Public Service Fred Mitchell
attended special dinners for public servants in Freeport on Thursday 2nd
October and in Governors Harbour, Eleuthera on Friday 3rd October.
The Minister expressed his concern than the Ministry of the Public Service
does not support the work of committees outside New Providence and pledged
to try to work toward that goal for next year. A seminar is to be
held on Thursday 9th October on the role of the Public Service at the College
of The Bahamas.
BENEFITS
CONCERT FOR FOX HILL
On the occasion of the 50th birthday of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs and MP for Fox Hill Fred Mitchell, a group of friends
are holding a $500 a plate dinner to raise monies for the Fox Hill Community
centre on Saturday 11th October. The day before at the Christ Church
Cathedral, the same group of friends will hold a concert of religious music.
The featured artist will be the Allegra Singers, featuring Antoine Wallace.
Tickets can be obtained at the door or from the Fox Hill Constituency Office
at 364-0333.
FRANK
SMITH MP MARRIES
Last week, too late for the Sunday deadline we added
the story of the marriage of Frank Smith, the MP for St. Thomas Moore and
Sharlyn Wilson, the daughter of businessman Franklin Wilson and Senate
President Sharon Wilson at the Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday 27th
September. We repeat the story for those who missed it. We also hope
to have a photograph to upload. - Frank Smith, the handsome
and dashing first time MP for St. Thomas Moore married the beautiful, intelligent
and engaging Sharlyn Wilson, daughter of businessman Franklyn Wilson and
Senate President Sharon Wilson on Saturday 27th September. Mr. Smith
is the son of Richard Smith, brother to Philip Smith, High Commissioner
to Canada for The Bahamas and George Smith, former Minister and now Chair
of the Hotel Corporation. The ceremony took place at the Christ Church
Cathedral, presided over by Archbishop Gomez with rites by Dean of the
Cathedral Patrick Adderley and Suffrugan Bishop Gilbert Thompson and the
homily by Fr. Glen Nixon of St. Thomas Moore. Prime Minister Christie
and his wife Bernadette attended the ceremony fresh in from their New York
and Washington official visit.
PARTY
CHAIRMAN TO MARRY
Progressive Liberal Party Chair Raynard Rigby has
announced that he is going to tie the knot, get married that is.
The wedding takes place on 18th October at St. Barnabas Anglican Church.
We wish him and his new bride well.
OSWALD
BROWN BACK AT FREEPORT NEWS
Oswald Brown fired from the Nassau Guardian is now
back at the Freeport News, the Guardian’s sister publication. He
is a former Editor of both the Nassau Guardian and The Freeport News. We
hope this time that the lesson has been learnt by him that political ideology
and personal spite for people should not influence what is news in a paper
that is to serve the people by simply reporting the news. The Nassau
Guardian in its present incarnation does not seem to get that point, and
we wonder whether we should dread what is now to happen to the Freeport
News, again?
AUDLEY
KEMP DIES
When the news came of the death of Audley Kemp at the age of 82, it was
a shock. It shouldn’t have been given his age and the fact that all
things being equal someone his age would die sooner rather than later.
But such has been his stature in Grants Town, such is the ubiquitous nature
of his presence at St Agnes Church in the Grants Town community that you
had the impression that he would live forever. It seems like forever
that he has been cashing cheques in that bar on the corner of Hay Street
and East Street. It is just across from the Mission Baptist church
of Rev. R. E. Cooper Sr. who has long been gone and passed on the church
to R. E. Cooper Jr. What a juxtaposition and an accommodation: the
bar across the street from the church. But that is how they co-exist
in Grants Town, cheek and jowl.
Audley Kemp outlasted Sir Lynden Pindling whom he
fought bitterly against in the 1972 General Election, although all his
life he had been PLP. He thought he ought to have gotten the nomination
for the PLP once Arthur Foulkes defected from the party. But Sir
Lynden chose his protégé Franklin Wilson who represented
the next generation of leaders. But all of that was forgotten as
he put himself into his version of community service over the years, and
became an icon to the community - a big contributor to every church in
the area, and a real presence in his home congregation, his voice booming
out the hymns during morning mass at St. Agnes at 7 a.m. each weekday morning.
Mr. Kemp was seen as a successful businessman.
His wife, Ethel, predeceased him. He is survived from his marriage
by Cyprian, Margaret, Michael, Theresa and Peter. He is to buried
from St. Agnes Anglican Church this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. May he
rest in peace!
THE
PLP AND ITS COMMUNICATION TO SUPPORTERS
Last week, a letter writer to this column who is
a teacher in Freeport wrote to condemn the PLP even as she is a supporter
of the PLP on various policy matters. It struck us that while one
can understand the exasperation in the letter writer, much of the commentary
was ill conceived. Perhaps, the real commentary is that the PLP does
not link very well with its supporters in these troubled times. There
was for example a criticism that the Government should not have passed
on the savings in electricity to the Bahamian people but should have instead
used the money elsewhere. But apart from the clumsy and unlawful
diversion of resources away from the Bahamas Electricity Corporation that
this would mean, the fact is the PLP pledged in its platform for 2002 to
reduce electricity costs to the public and to pay interest on deposits
left by consumers at the corporations.
Clearly, there is something systemically wrong with
PLP communication, and there is a great problem that the PLP has to figure
out. Its communication machine has pretty much been lousy in times
outside of elections. When one thing or another gets started, there
are internecine jealousies that start up about who is getting more prominence
and who isn’t, and whose man is getting most of the play in the PR world
and who isn’t and then it disintegrates from there. But the clear
result is a supporter who is sitting at home seeing the world inside that
home for his or her oyster and getting some of it right but much of it
wrong and then deducing their own theories. The PLP has first of
all to get it policies right, and then communicate those policies to those
who support it and the people generally who it serves.
DO
OR DIE IN THE CIVIL SERVICE
Kingsley Black, the leader of the Bahamas Union of Teachers (pictured),
spoke to the press and has indicated that the meeting planned with the
Government for Monday 6th October to discuss the question of the pay raise
that was due the public service on 1st July will be a “do or die meeting”.
He told the press that if the meeting did not produce the results that
he believes it should that there would be no further meetings with the
Minister for the Public Service that the Unions would only meet with the
Prime Minister alone. He said that if the raise did not come in October,
some unspecified industrial action would take place. And so it seems
that the stage is now set for a show down between the two sides.
The language of the Union President is an exercise
in hyperbole and one wonders whether or not he actually reflects the mood
on the ground on these issues. The Government has asked for the pay
increase to be postponed until December 2003. The Unions are insisting
that part of the raise comes in October and part in December.
IN
DEFENCE OF ALFRED SEARS
A letter writer to The Tribune on Friday 2nd October Steve Simmons, with
The Tribune no one knows whether this is a real name or not, has called
for the resignation of Alfred Sears as Minister of the Government or for
the Prime Minister to remove him. Mr. Simmons claims that Mr. Sears
has not been doing a good job as Minister of Education and has not been
able to attend to his constituency responsibilities because of the two
posts he holds, that of Attorney General and Minister of Education.
We take grave offence at this patently unfair letter.
The comments are foolish and designed to impugn the competence of a good
Minister and a good representative. The fact is that Mr. Sears has
the vision and drive for both posts, but the fact also is that both posts
call for much work. The Prime Minister in choosing a Cabinet did
not want to have a Cabinet larger than his predecessor who loaded up the
Cabinet with Ministers and so the country operates now within the fiscal
constraints that it does.
When you read the letter, it appears that the key
to its criticism is when the letter writer asks the question of how Mr.
Sears was able to defeat “a vibrant and popular” Zhivargo Laing.
Now we see the real reason for the letter. This is a propaganda piece
written by someone close to Mr. Sears’ predecessor Zhivargo Laing who had
developed a reputation for arrogance and detachment and as a result was
defeated at the polls. It turns out that he was not so vibrant and
popular after all as to not suffer defeat. And those are the facts.
We support Alfred Sears. We say that he should stay and go nowhere.
Mr. Simmons (if he indeed exists) ought to withdraw his comments and apologize.
KOZENY
IS CHARGED
The so called ‘Pirate of Prague’ Victor Kozeny,
a resident of Lyford Cay, has now been charged in the United States with
stealing 182 million dollars by the Manhattan District Attorney.
This was reported by The Tribune on Friday 3rd October. The indictment
arises out of the privatization of the oil sector in Azerbaijan.
There are very few people in The Bahamas who are sorry about this.
Mr. Kozeny ran into trouble with Bahamians after his development of a cay
in the Exumas appeared not to follow the sensitivities required for an
eco sensitive area.
WRECK
COMMISSION PROCEEDS
Justice Hugh Small has ruled that the Merchant Shipping
rules of the UK are applicable to the inquiry in The Bahamas now being
pursued by former Justice Joseph Strachan. The former Justice ruled
on the submissions of the lawyers from one of the parties in the Wreck
Commission investigating the accident at sea between the United Star and
the Sea Hauler that the Commission of Inquiry Act governed the procedure
of the Wreck Commission.
Justice Small on application from the United Star's
attorney Charles MacKay that this was not the case and that the Merchant
Shipping rules were not inconsistent with the Commission of Inquiry rules,
quashed the decision of the Wreck Commissioner and ordered that it proceed
according to law as he had declared it. But what is troubling about
this is what difference does it make which rules apply? The parties
to the matter have to be careful that in relying on technical rules they
don’t give the impression that they are deliberately trying to hide something.
SEXUALITY
DISCUSSED
We warned Bishop Sam Greene who started this whole
thing at the Independence Day service on 5th July that he was opening a
Pandora’s Box by raising the non issue of gay marriage in The Bahamas.
The Prime Minister has affirmed that the laws of the country respect the
rights of all individuals including those who are homosexual but that the
Government will not change the law to include gay marriages. But
the unintended consequence of Bishop Greene’s comment is that a subject
that has been taboo for years in The Bahamas, that of human sexuality and
same sex orientation, has suddenly come from underground. The College
of The Bahamas sponsored a discussion on the subject of human sexuality
last week. People demanded answers from the panel of a priest, a
psychologist and a politician. They wanted to know whether same sex
orientation was right or wrong, normal or abnormal. The answer from
the experts is that there is no right or wrong, and no normal or abnormal.
The matter is entirely a complex one. The audience at COB was packed.
A
WEEK WITH THE PM
As reported above, the Prime Minister was off to
Trinidad at upload time, due to return to The Bahamas today. Please
recheck this site later for photos of 'A Week With The PM'.
B.S.
NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA -
DESMOND ROLLE,
Desmond Rolle is the fifth young boy in Grand Bahama to go missing
without a trace. When the news broke on Monday around six p.m., it
seemed that it was just too much for the residents of Grand Bahama to absorb.
The police efforts were set back, not withstanding the contingency plans
that were put in place in the event another boy should go missing.
It was reported that the mother waited a full day before she reported Desmond
missing, so all of that precious time was lost. The police immediately
started a door-to-door search in the Williams Town area where Desmond and
his family live. We are informed that the police were also given
some tips. From this information, they brought in some adult males
for questioning. As to who they were, we do not know, however, with
the exception of one, they were all released. One still remains in
custody, his identity unknown to the public. These are the facts,
as we know them to be.
By Wednesday morning, the news of the arrests spread through Grand Bahama like wildfire. The rumor mill was in full gear spinning false stories of leading citizens arrested by police. The crowd then started to assemble in the downtown area where the last boy worked as a packing boy last Sunday. Then word came that the boys were all found in the supermarket’s freezers. This turned out to be nothing more than a rumor. Then it seemed that anyone who had a score to settle started calling and speculating that his or her enemy was also involved in a sophisticated organ for sale international ring. The police were quick to quell these rumors. The only thing that came out of all this speculation was the fact that most observers say, it had to be a single person acting alone, because Bahamians are known for not being able to keep secrets or telling a friend.
Local Government and Minister Gray
It is a well-known fact in the Freeport community that the nine members
that make up the Freeport City council do not get along. Seven out
of the nine councillors are said to be staunch supporters of the FNM.
Marva Moxey was elected by this grouping to be their Chief Councillor and
there is no provision in law for the removal of a chief councillor once
elected. That is for a very good reason.
On Wednesday morning, in comes Minister Gray, Minister responsible for Local Government and announces what the local daily describes in their headline as a BOMBSHELL. Minister Gray said that he would ask the Governor General to have the city of Freeport Council dissolved. News from Grand Bahama believes that the Minister must have misspoken; surely, we feel he did not think out his plan to a logical conclusion. Firstly, there is no outstanding business on the local government agenda. Had he checked with the administrator before his press conference, he would have found out the night before that some eighty thousand dollars in contracts were decided upon by the full nine-member body. So, it now seems that the only outstanding issue at the Freeport City Council is that the members do not like the Chief Councillor.
If Minister Gray has the Governor General dissolve the city of Freeport Council, he would go down in history as the Minister who destroyed the local government experiment. The Minister should be aware that every local government township from Abaco in the north, to Inagua in the south, is paying close attention to what is about to happen. And, I am sure should he go ahead with this ill-conceived notion that he would have opened up a Pandora box. So, in the end, the Minister misspoke. It is always in the public's interest when elected officials do not get along.
SWINGER HEPBURN
Swinger Hepburn, a long time supporter of the FNM has now become a
card-carrying member of the PLP. His FNM friends say that surely
he would have gotten an FNM nomination this time around. He has also
angered others and they have given stories that cannot be repeated.
In the end, the best comment came from a senior FNM in Grand Bahama who gave a quote from Winston Churchill, which has to do with ratting or changing parties. We believe that Swinger coming on board the PLP could be a great asset to the PLP's public relations machinery on Grand Bahama.
PROFILE OF COACH DWAYNE JENNINGS
In just two and one-half short years, Grand Bahama Golden Eagles head
coach Dwayne Jennings has set a standard in assisting high school athletes
and academically inclined students in obtaining partial and full scholarships
in the United States.
This fall semester, thirty-eight (38) students were the recipients of such scholarships; track and field, (twelve), tennis, (one), baseball, (four), soccer (one), swimming (one), basketball (three) and academics (eighteen).
Coach Jennings is quick to say that his efforts in placing these students has not been single-handedly achieved, but he has been ably assisted by persons like Ms. Garnell Weech, Ms. Kayshala Ramsey distance coach, Allie Rolle, sprint coach, Ricky Seymour along with Assistant coach, Eulah ‘Granny’ White. On the academic side, assistants that go above and beyond the call of duty as dedicated teachers, Mrs. Patricia Innis and Mr. Scott Miller, who both act as SAT instructors and Counselors in helping them to achieve remarkable success in scoring high on their SAT's through weekend classes. These two teachers were collegiate athletes so they are able to give some insights on college life to the would be recipients and they see it as their privilege to give back to their community. Finally, thanks goes out to Mr. Ross Smith, Principal of Freeport Primary School.
On the personal development side of coaching, Jennings has taken advantage of the many summer coaching programs offered across the United States. Last summer, he was able to take advantage of a course in Coaches Education and Inter Sports at Life University in Alabama. This past summer, he attended Kennesaw State University in Atlanta, Georgia where he was awarded the ‘top coach’ of the summer program.
This school year, Jennings believes that the petty in-fighting of a small village mentality is behind him and he hopes to meet with all high school principals and guidance counselors to assist them with their course of studies for students from tenth grade to graduation and map out a strategy that college enrolment officers look at when coming up with a criteria for awarding scholarships.
Mr. Jennings says that too often Bahamian students excel only in one area and should concentrate in becoming well rounded athletes, academics and also, to become more versatile and socially active with the high school clubs such as, Key, Interact, Anchor, etc.
The Scholarship recipients are: Southwest Christian College, Oscar Greene, Rimard Rolle, Kerryan Telford and Tenisha Joseph; Michael Meeres, Missouri Valley College; Nakera Rahming and Ronald Forbes, Voortees College; Don Wood, Liberty State University; Betley Simmons, South Plains College; Shara Rolle, South Plains College; Dion Frazier, Central Methodist University; Wells Palacious, Lindenwood University; Samantha Moxey, Fort Valley University; Elkon Knowles, Starrano Brenner, Barba Scotia College; Laquita Ellis, Arlington Rolle, Barba Scotia College. Kalera Seymour, Missouri Valley College; and Andrew Bell, Lindenwood University; Dwayne Martin, Barba Scotia College; Travis Strachan and Robin Lightbourn, Missouri Valley College; Glendia Sands, Eljin Morrison, Shashada Russell, Lashando Burnside, Shemia Williams, Tracey Brown, Shantria Smith, Vannesa Bethel, Dion McDonald, and Allan Rolle, Voortees College; Takera Knowles, Terrell Knowles, Crista Burrows, Peadura Knowles and Carla Hall, Lindenwood University.
This week's contribution from DM deals with the issue that is on the
minds of all of us in Grand Bahama and many more besides: the missing boys.
BS
On the missing boys
I along with many others in this country am distraught over the issue of the 5 missing boys. Those boys could easily have been my brother or cousin. It is a crying shame, but it caused me to reflect on something. That issue sheds light on two nagging problems in our country… the tough economic crisis in our country and the break down of the family structure, on which I will focus.
The media has done a magnificent job in broadcasting the fact that all or most of those boys were packing boys and were clearly underage workers. There are also facts to substantiate that there might be the lack of a positive father figure in many of those homes. Thus, those young boys had the responsibility of ‘bringing home the bacon’. When we entrust the responsibility on children to be the ‘men’ or ‘women’ of the house, there poses a big problem. Being labelled in that way gives them the opportunity to walk, talk, and act like a man or woman. Thus, escaping the childhood pleasures and quickly being placed at another level of society, which causes the development of other issues.
Many of us seem not to recognize the fact that many of the parents of these missing boys waited a day or two before reporting them missing. What is that saying? It is clear that that is accepted behaviour from ‘the man of the house’ to come home at any hour or days later.
It is a common consensus that Bahamian men seem to take pleasure in shunning the responsibility of looking after their offspring. Thus, there is a prevalence of single parent households headed by a female… who is not necessarily the breadwinner. Gone are the days of the nuclear family where the father was the head and provided for his family, and the mother took care of the home. Gone are the days when the responsibility of children were to shoot marbles, play ‘dolly’ house, have fun, and go to school. Gone are the days when you did not see a child without parents and vise-versa. Gone are the days when children were sent on errands and were timed by a parent or guardian spitting on the rock (just pray it was not a scorching hot day). Gone are the days when going to Church was a weekly family event. Gone are the days when individuals in the community kept an eye out for each other and each other’s children.
We are in a crisis. When we decided that corporal punishment was a crime and we did not want our children’s teachers to beat them, and our neighbours to rebuke our children, we developed a problem. Our mothers seemed to have forgotten their purpose in the home and decided that is easier to let BET and 100Jamz raise their children while they focused on their careers, friends, or entertainment. Our mothers decided that they would cloak our baby boys for as long as they could so that they could cause the horrors in our society or the abuse of an innocent woman. When we decided that girls should do house chores and boys shoot marbles we created a problem. When we decided, as parents, that we are too tired to study God’s word with our children and too selfish to model good moral behaviour, issues fell in our laps that we were not prepared to deal with.
The breakdown of the family structure transcends all arenas of our society as we ask ourselves why our national exam average is a ‘D’, why so many young men are in prison, why drug trafficking and drug use continue to be a problem, why alcohol abuse is still an issue, why teenage pregnancy and STD cases continually pop up, why there is little regard for life, and the well-being of others and why 5 boys are missing. I am not blaming anyone because we should all be held accountable, however, though the subject of missing boys is focal, we need to stop, think, and listen…the underlying issues are just as important as finding those boys alive. DM
"...just as lightning makes no sound until it strikes, the revolution
will be generated quietly..."
 |
| PHOTO OF THE WEEK - It was Monday 6th October and all seemed quiet at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Minister had just begun what promised to be a long day, preparing for negotiation with the troublesome public sector unions over the pay increase due to them. But into the mix came a surprise birthday party thrown by the officers and staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – a real genuine surprise party, complete with the Royal Bahamas Police Force Pop Band, a cake and lots of food. There was some dancing as well. The first pieces of cake were given by the Minister to Permanent Secretary Dr. Patricia Rodgers and his private personal secretary Claudia Williamson. Peter Ramsay of The Bahamas Information Services was there to snap the photograph that is today our photo of the week. More pictures are shown below. |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
NERVOUSNESS ABOUT COLINA
(A guest editorial by SI)
The Bahamas does not have anti trust laws that make it illegal for the market share of a company in a particular industry to go beyond a particular size. Developments in The Bahamas within the last decade have certainly highlighted the need for such legislation. Parliament ought to consider such legislation. The recent announcement that Solomon Brothers group will join up with liquor giant ABDAB and create a giant marketing force for goods on Bay Street, the near monopoly already in the retail and wholesale liquor industry in The Bahamas, have all created a demand among some that the legislature intervene to prevent monopolies in the market. The Grand Bahama Port Authority is the ultimate monopoly that many believe ought to be removed.
Nothing compares, however, to the whispers of dissatisfaction going on about the market as the country awaits another announced and successful purchase by the Colina group of yet another insurance company in The Bahamas. It has many people worried about the lack of competition. Many people wonder whether the government is protecting the interests of the Bahamian people by allowing too much expansion, too fast, without due and proper regard for the resources available to the company, its management expertise and the ability of the company to service its new clients properly.
There is nothing that you can put your finger on that suggests that the bottom will drop out. There is just a bit of unfocused disquiet in the market. It is simply too much expansion, too fast. Too much buying of too many insurance portfolios. First there was the purchase of Colina by the Bahamian group not so long ago. That was fine. Then came the purchase of Global’s assets, then Canada Life, and now it is learned that Imperial Life’s portfolio is next.
At no step in the process was the consuming public asked whether or not this was something with which they agreed, having invested their insurance money in one company on the basis of diversifying of risks. Now they find themselves with their monies invested in the same company, a company whose expertise on this scale is largely untested.
No doubt there will be the cry that this is an anti Bahamian attack, that if it had been a foreign company no one would say a word. But reflect on this part of our recent economic history, the story of Abaco Markets. Abaco Markets was allowed to gobble up, one company after another. A company that had its origins in Abaco as a supermarket then suddenly became a multi million dollar company with everything from pizza restaurants to bookstores. Pretty soon it was revealed that things were overstretched and coming part at the seams, there was talk of default of its obligations to its preference shareholders. There was default and it is clear in retrospect that the management expertise simply was not there to watch over the expansion of the company. A similar story can be told for Doctor’s Hospital who overstretched themselves in a boom market and now are having to seriously contract. All of this was done on publicly raised money, and no one seemed to have the power or the interest to regulate or restrain the unbridled growth by these companies.
So all that is being asked of the government with regard to an insurance company that has the investment of millions of dollars of the savings and retirement money of Bahamian customers at risk, to watch over this latest request carefully. It is our view that the purchase of Canada Life's assets should not have bean allowed, and we believe that certainly Imperial Life should be persuaded to look elsewhere for a buyer.
Our concern is that this is too much growth, too fast. Customers of Colina are complaining that their services to their customers have been suffering because of its aggressive growth strategy, with mistakes being made and not enough supervision of their interests both new and old. A warning flag then is sent up, to watch this matter very carefully.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 11th October 2003 at midnight: 56,008.
Number of hits for the month of October to Saturday 11th October 2003 at midnight: 77,915.
Number of hits for the year 2003 up to Saturday 11th October 2003
at midnight: 1,176,801.
CHARGES
IN THE MISSING BOY’S CASE
The murder mystery of the century in The Bahamas has had a partial solution.
It is not what you think. After all the hysteria, and the speculation
about someone grabbing boys to get body parts or to have sexual relations
with them, some secret pedophile, the initial charges do not amount to
anything like that. The press overseas broke the story first.
The Miami Herald repeated the story told by the mother of one of those
subsequently charged that her son who was in police custody reportedly
told the police. He said that the first boy Jake Grant drowned in
a swimming accident and that he and others took the body and buried it.
Several other boys were in on what happened and it may include some of
the other missing boys. Whether that is so or not, the police charged
on Friday 10th October, after five long months in the case, four male children
ranging in ages 11 to 14. By law their names cannot be revealed.
They have all been charged in the disappearance of Jake Grant, 12 years
old. They have been charged with manslaughter.
The island of Grand Bahama is overwhelmed with grief
that the truth turns out to be more sick than they thought. The truth
about our children being charged for a homicide, and the stories coming
out of their actions, does not say much for The Bahamas as a country. The
four were not granted bail and have been remanded to the Simpson Penn School
for Boys in Nassau. Jake’s body has still not been found, despite
extensive searches in Freeport. Nassau Guardian photo by Lededra Ferguson
shows GB Assistant Commissioner Ellison Greenslade (centre) in a cordoned
off area being searched by police.
THE
ANGLICAN BISHOP GOES TO LONDON
That emergency session of the Anglican Church heads that was called by
the Archbishop of Canterbury in London is to begin this week. The reason
for the meeting is the fact that an Anglican Church in the United States
has elected and will ordain a priest who is openly homosexual, a Bishop
in the church. The Anglican Bishops of the Caribbean and Africa are
unalterably opposed to the consecration, and are threatening to bolt from
the Anglican Worldwide Communion. Archbishop Drexel Gomez of The
West Indies and Bishop of The Bahamas will attend the session from 15-
16 October at Lambeth Palace, official home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
He will have ten minutes to speak to defend the position.
The last Anglican Synod in Nassau passed a unanimous
resolution at the Archbishop’s behest reaffirming their opposition to same
sex unions and homosexuality, a position the Archbishop does not anticipate
will change. The Archbishop told the Bahama Journal in its Thursday
9th October edition “As a church we believe that the homosexual practice
is wrong, but there is no sin in having the homosexual orientation and
that God loves all his children. But the old saying still holds true-
although modern people laugh at it- that God loves the sinner but hates
the sin and this is what we try to practice.”
Speaking of ten minutes, the Archbishop of Canterbury
got a meeting with the Pope two weeks ago and was lectured for ten minutes
on why what the Anglican Church has done on homosexuality, is making it
impossible for the two churches to come together. Well schism is
the order of the day, and that’s that we suppose. From a church founded
in politics and surviving off political compromise, this seems a strange
tempest. Bahama Journal photo of Archbishop Gomez.
BOYCOTT
OF SOUTH ANDROS SCHOOLS
Parents in South Andros are said to be returning
their children to school after keeping them out of school for two days
last week. The reason is that the school has had no English teacher,
and there is no headmaster. The headmaster who is said to be popular
amongst parents, was removed summarily it appears by the Ministry of Education
because of some unspecified complaints about his character. Some
have accused Whitney Bastian, the MP for the area, of engaging in a witch-hunt
of individuals in the constituency who are the heads of the public service.
The parents have had enough, and organized by PLP
and FNM generals, moved to have the matter resolved. The Minister
of Education Alfred Sears intervened at week’s end. The children
were back in school. No word on when or if the headmaster will return.
But this once again shows how fraught with danger it is for anyone to serve
in the Family Islands. The least rumour or innuendo or you cross
the Member of Parliament and the teacher, the nurse, the administrator,
the doctor, the head of police could be moved without a chance to explain
or defend themselves. It has been that way for the better part of
the thirty years of our independence. One wonders when we will put
a stop to it. No wonder no one wants to serve in the islands.
DAVIS
AND WELLS SPEAK OUT ON TERRORISM BILL
It appears that Government members were taking the bill trivially or had
not read the bill, but the full truth about the terrorism in the Terrorism
Bill has now come out. Philip Brave Davis MP for Cat Island (pictured,
left) made an impassioned and detailed attack on the Bill now before Parliament.
The Bill is designed to stop the flow of money to terrorists and to tighten
the laws against those who are claimed to be terrorists. This is
an American inspired bill, arising out of a number of badly drafted treaties
that were passed at American insistence in their overreaction to the events
of 11 September in New York in 2001. The whole world like a bunch
of lemmings dropping off a cliff have been following behind, eroding the
civil rights of their citizens without a word.
Speaking on Wednesday 8th October, Mr. Davis said
that the matter was a serious one and should not be trivialized.
In a strongly worded analysis, he warned of the consequences of the erosion
of rights, and the lack of protection for those who are accused by a definition
of terrorism that is so broad that it could be used by an Attorney General
or Minister of National Security to accuse, threaten or persecute his political
rivals.
Mr. Davis was joined in his attack on the Bill by Tennyson Wells MP for
Bamboo Town (pictured, right). Mr. Wells who is an independent said
that he was deeply concerned about the Bill. He identified with the
analysis of Mr. Davis. He spoke about the Judiciary, about why there
is a need for judges in the country to have feel a for and know the community
in which they live, and that is why it was so crucial for judges to come
from the society in which they were judges.
We add our words of concern. We do not support the
Terrorism Bill and believe that the House should not pass it. The
Bill is a dangerous piece of legislation that should not be entertained
by a Bahamian Parliament in its present form. We identify with the
sentiments of Mr. Davis and repeat that we are in danger of being seen
as marionettes and puppets to world powers. The Government needs
to think again and all those civil rights activists in the Government had
better open their mouths and quickly or risk being discredited.
THE
STRUGGLE OVER PUBLIC SECTOR SALARIES
The parties met for five and half hours on Friday
10th October with Rev. Timothy Stuart as the mediator in the dispute between
the public sector unions in The Bahamas and the Government over the payment
of a salary increase due to public servants in the pay packet of July 2003
but which the Government is seeking the concurrence of the unions to pay
in December of this year. The Unions are saying no, and they want
part of the back pay, paid in October’s pay packet and the balance in December.
The Government says no, but is said to have offered to announce the general
promotions and pay the arrears and the moneys due upon promotion on 9th
December.
The Union's leaders made bitter statements as they
left their meeting on Monday 6th October, threatening mayhem in the country
including industrial action. The Minister for the Public Service
who has been leading the negotiations on behalf of the Government appealed
for calm but said that the Government could move no further. And
so came Rev. Stuart. No word on the outcome but it is difficult to
see how the sides can really come together on this. The parties are
scheduled to meet with the Prime Minister again on Wednesday 14th October.
THE
TOURISM DISASTER MONTH
Jeremy McVean, the President of the Bahamas Hotel Association (pictured),
described for The Tribune the month of September in hotel bookings as a
“total disaster”. This was reported on the front page of the Business
Section of The Tribune Wednesday 8th October. He said that September
2003 was the worst September in living memory. Frank Comito of the
Nassau Tourism and Development Board said that all tourism related businesses
experienced a ten per cent drop in their business this September.
Here is what Mr. McVean said in his own words “September
was the worst September for the hotel industry in The Bahamas in living
memory for most people. It was a total disaster. There was
nothing there at the beginning and it never got going.” Now while
all of this is true, it seems like a little too much doom and gloom to
us. What we don’t understand is why is there is low occupancy during
September anyways. It seems that hotels simply accept it as a given.
Further, instead of talking in total terms of disaster, more conservative
or positive terms could be used. You don’t want to talk down the
economy. Perhaps as doom and gloom merchants the tourist sector is
its own worst enemy. But Mr. McVean does go on to say that his bookings
or next April are good and he thinks that’s some light at the end of the
tunnel. A hairbraider at Festival Place in downtown Nassau makes her
pitch to a tourist in this Tribune photo from Dominic Duncombe.
THE
TRIBUNE’S IRON LADY STRIKES BACK
Last week we published the comments of Bradley Roberts,
the MP for Grants Town/Bain Town and the Minister of Public Works about
Eileen Carron, the editor of The Tribune. We agreed with his comments.
There is much sickness inside The Tribune. Predictably, Eileen Carron
struck
back with a load of invective and more lies against Bradley Roberts in
her editorials this past week. It reminded us of the days when you
could provoke her father the late Sir Etienne Dupuch into a rage by simply
saying something derogatory in a tongue in cheek manner. Arthur Hanna,
once the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, used to do it all the time.
He once said that Sir Etienne’s mother was Black. This led to a series
of articles by Sir Etienne about the fact that, well he never quite said
she wasn’t black, but he didn’t say that she was either. It was quite
amusing. Eileen Carron is the same kind of person. She takes
herself and The Tribune entirely too seriously.
Now Mrs. Carron has in her editorial position tried
to fashion a response that makes her the champion of free speech and freedom
of the press. She recalled the glory days of her father when he single
handedly in her words stopped the PLP from threatening the press in The
Bahamas. Nonsense! She is trying to cast Mr. Roberts’ remarks in
terms of a threat to the press and urging PLP MPs to dissociate themselves
from Mr. Roberts. First there is no threat to freedom of the press.
That is only a figment of her inflated imagination. Secondly, there
is nothing for the Government or MPs to dissociate themselves from.
Mr. Roberts spoke for himself and only himself, and is entitled to his
views with which as we say, we agree.
DUPUCH
DEFENDS HIS SISTER
This is the first time that we have seen Pierre
Dupuch MP get up in a matter involving a public attack on his sister Eileen
Carron who runs The Tribune. The Tribune is a newspaper that is founded
by his father. His sister did not support him in his troubles with
the Free National Movement, when they expelled him.
Mr. Dupuch told the House on Wednesday 8th October
that after his friend Bradley Roberts MP called his sister a terrorist;
he was bombarded in his e-mail with comments about the matter. One
asked what was he going to do to defend his sister. We do not think
that she needs any defence.
The fact is that the whole matter by Mr. Roberts
was taken out of context, and without failing to recognize the persistent
and dangerous lies that have been told by The Tribune’s editor on Mr. Roberts.
Mr. Roberts could certainly not have meant she was literally a terrorist.
But Mrs. Carron deserves to be attacked for her persistent intellectual
dishonesty.
Nevertheless here is what Mrs. Carron's brother
Mr. Dupuch had to say in the House in his own words: “[My e mail messages
asked] What are you going to say about your friend Bradley who attacked
your sister. And that was all over my e-mail and I laughed because
people really don’t know us very well. There are six of us, and every
single one of us was trained to take care of ourselves. It has been
said by many that we were trained by a master…[His father the late Sir
Etienne Dupuch]
“She (Mrs. Carron) is capable, very capable of taking
care of herself. But let me give one word of advice to everybody,
especially my male chauvinist friends here, that unless they want to run
the risk of a public trouncing by a woman, my advice is to stay clear of
the lady who sits in Shirley Street”
[Our view is that Mr. Roberts is in no danger
of any such trouncing and in any event what she says is so predictable
it wouldn’t amount to much - Ed.]
CITY
MARKETS HAVE TO CHECK OFF ANYWAY
The people who run the chain City Markets in The
Bahamas have to be as hard headed and as racist as their founder Sir Stafford
Sands, and if they don’t watch it, they may go the way of the dinosaur
as he did. For eight years the employees of City Markets have been
struggling to unionize that store to improve their work conditions.
The Bahamas Government under Hubert Ingraham passed an act to make it easier
and still City Markets after being told that their employees had successfully
gotten unionized, refused to allow the union into the work place.
It took many court cases. It took a public strike. It took
the intervention of the Government. And when it was all done, the
company refused even after negotiating an industrial agreement to agree
to one last thing, that of deducting the dues of members directly from
salaries to the Union.
The company owned by Winn Dixie in the US has said
that it was against their policy to have unions in their establishments
and further that it was against their policy to collect deductions for
anything. Every other company in The Bahamas does it, including The
Bahamas Government. The Union successfully petitioned the Minister
of Labour to schedule a vote to declare agency shop in the workplace.
That means that since the Union has more than 60 per cent of the employees
in the bargaining unit in the Union, then all employees in the unit, whether
members of the union or not have to pay the union. Non-union members
have to pay 90 per cent of the normal dues to the Union for the benefits
they enjoy of Union from successful contract negotiations.
The law requires City Markets to directly deduct
the salary. So they have lost again. No doubt there will be
a further appeal. This is a silly company that is badly run from
the States and really should be sold back to Bahamians or some other group
who has some pathos for human beings as their employees. The company thinks
that by doling out the little bursaries to students that have been stuck
at $2000 per person per year for over thirty years that this is enough
to pacify the country in their favour. Fat chance!
LOSSES
AT THE HILTON
The Tribune reports that a confidential report to the Government of The
Bahamas says that the Hilton British Colonial Hotel has an accumulated
loss of 34 million dollars. The paper reports that the Canadian Pension
Fund that financed the project has told the Government that the 90 million
dollars spent in refurbishing the hotel has not turned a profit but has
instead led to massive losses. It is known that the pension
fund that also owns the South Ocean Beach Hotel wants to get rid of the
South Ocean. The South Ocean has a casino license. The question
is whether the Government would allow the hotel to be closed or sold with
the casino license. Without it, the property is useless. Michael
Hooper, son of entertainer King Eric Gibson and half brother to Minister
Shane Gibson runs the British Colonial hotel. He contradicted key
points in the report. He said that the hotel has turned an operating
profit every year for the past three years. He said that is a different
thing from a return on shareholder’s equity. Whatever the case,
it is yet another sad story in a not so rosy picture in tourism.
IMPATIENCE
WITH THE GOVERNMENT
We have reported before the fact that everywhere
you go in The Bahamas there is impatience with the lack of achievements
by the Government in the field of jobs for its supporters and projects
to get the rank and file back to work. The restraint on public hiring
has frozen the public service at levels that cannot be expanded, and with
the rise in unemployment, more and more people look to the government to
bail them out with a job. That is the number one question asked a
representative. Can I get a Government job?
What is coming across, is that while the people
of the country understand the financial constraints, everyone seems to
exempt themselves from it. That is the lesson of the negotiations
with the public servant leaders who seem to understand the economic constraints
in the economy but will not accept that they have to exercise restraint
by not demanding pay right now. Be that as it may, the grumbling
continues. One visitor to the country doing a brief for a Government
official this week said that he tries to get a barometer of the country
by what the taxi drivers say. He said that when he mentioned that
he was in town to execute a project for the Government, he said the taxi
driver’s reply was: “It's about time they did something.”
People feel let down that their having voted for
the PLP has not resulted in clear progress for them in terms of access
to Government largesse, licenses and contracts. It is too far away
to look at the FNM as an alternative but if nothing is done, sooner or
later, our own supporters will stop trying to help, and the grass will
then look greener to the swing voters.
NATIONAL
HEROES DAY
Monday 13th October is National Heroes Day in The
Bahamas. It is not officially that but the National Heroes Day Committee
has been celebrating it like that for two years. The Cultural Commission
has recommended that the month of October be called National Heroes Month
and that the second Monday in October be celebrated National Heroes Days,
replacing the Discovery Day holiday. Needless to say, we agree with
that but there is a reactionary group in The Bahamas who claims that Columbus'
“discovery ” of the new world ought to be preserved as a holiday.
Hogwash! The sooner we get to the state where we start celebrating,
marking and recording our own history, the better.
LINDY
RUSSELL’S GRAND STANDING
Lindy Russell FNM MP for Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama (pictured in this
Nassau Guardian photo) had the floor all for himself. He was talking
about the Terrorism Bill. He wanted to talk about the case of the
missing boys in Grand Bahama, and the only way he could think of was to
say that the case of the missing boys was a case of terrorism. He
forgot completely that terrorism is a crime with a political or ideological
motive. The PLP MPs tried to stop him but he insisted, and when the
Government sought to introduce the rule on relevance, he claimed that since
Bradley Roberts, Minister of Works, spoke about the Editor of The Tribune
being a terrorist (click here
for last week’s story), he could talk about the missing children being
a case of terrorism. Not so. The rules say that if a subject is allowed
in a previous intervention in a debate then you can answer or expand upon
it. However, you cannot introduce new material. But no one
would have objected if he had simply asked for the leave of the House to
raise the matter of the missing boys. No one would have objected.
When the Government front bench reminded him that there was a rule on relevance
and he should stick to the Bill, he claimed that the Government was trying
to stop him from expressing his opinion. It is that kind of tiresome
logic that makes a day difficult in the House of Assembly. He knows
better. In any event, perhaps he can now stop grandstanding, now
that the police have made some headway in solving the puzzle of the missing
boys.
MORE
FROM THE SURPRISE PARTY
The staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held
a surprise birthday party for Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell
on Monday 6th October. The Minister celebrated his 50th birthday last Sunday
5th October. Peter Ramsay was there and captured this image.
THE
$500 A PLATE FUND RAISER
Friends of Fred Mitchell put on a fundraiser at
the Harbour House, Club Med on Paradise Island, donation $500 per plate.
All monies went to the Fox Hill Community Centre Fund. The Fund is
chaired by Rev. Carrington Pinder and Benjamin Rahming of Fox Hill.
The total effort will need one million dollars but the first phase of the
building is $200,000 for an all-purpose auditorium for the use of the children
of the Sandilands Primary School.
Photos are by Peter Ramsay...
YOUNG
LIBERALS ON BDM
The
Young Liberals have issued a statement on the call by the extra parliamentary
political party Bahamas Democratic Movement for the resignation of the
Deputy Prime Minister:
The Progressive Young Liberals find the recent
call for the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National
Security Cynthia Pratt by Mr. Cassius Stuart and the BDM to be unfounded
and preposterous. The fact that Mr. Stuart would chose to politicise
the disappearance of the five missing boys in Grand Bahama, especially
at this critical point in the investigations is both irresponsible and
insensitive. This is a national crisis and not a matter for cheap
political expediency.
The Young Liberals are indeed proud of the yeoman
job that Mrs. Pratt has done to-date. Her leadership at such a trying
and difficult time has been exceptional. Her commitment to resolving
the case of the disappearance of the boys, national security and particularly
the safety and welfare of our nations youth, is unquestionable. She
has proven herself an effective and capable Minister and serves this country
with distinction.
We take the opportunity to remind Mr. Stuart
that the ultimate responsibility for fighting crime in the Bahamas lies
with the Royal Bahamas Police Force. There ought to be no political
or governmental interference with any police investigation in this country.
The Hon. Cynthia Pratt has not been appointed Minister with responsibility
for the Police Force in order to micro-manage the investigations of the
force. This is not her job nor has the Prime Minister mandated her
to do so.
Minister Pratt has been there physically and otherwise throughout
the ongoing investigation providing leadership and support to the police
force. The Police force has stated on numerous occasions that the
Government has provided all of the necessary resources for them to successfully
conduct their investigations, which is indicative that this Government
and the Minister are committed to resolving this matter with the utmost
expediency. The continued presence of Scotland Yard, the FBI and
other international experts are also signs of the seriousness that the
Government applies to this case.
The Progressive Young Liberals demand that Mr.
Stuart desist in his political abuse and prostitution of sensitive matters
to further his own promotion. Undoubtedly his remarks are baseless
and show a lack of sensitivity and political maturity on his behalf.
Mr. Stuart is advised that when he again seeks to break his deafening silence
and rise from the dead that he be responsible in his remarks and be sure
to contribute something of substance to the national debate.
The Young Liberals have the utmost confidence in the ability and
leadership of Minister Pratt. We join the people of this country
in saluting the Minister’s efforts and encouraging her as she does her
best to ensure the security of all Bahamians.
A
WEEK WITH THE PM
Last week, we promised photographs of Prime Minister
Perry Christie's trip to Trinidad where he was the guest speaker at the
commencement exercises for the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and
Tobago. The Prime Minister also paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister
Manning of Trinidad at his office 'Whitehall' in Port of Spain. He
was accompanied by Allyson Maynard Gibson, the Minister of Financial Services
and Investment and Minister for Trade and Industry Leslie Miller. This
week, among the Prime Minister's duties was the opening of the annual exhibition
at the Department of Archives in Nassau. Photographs are by Peter
Ramsay of Bahamas Information Services.
B.S.
NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA -
G.B. POLICE CRACK CASE
“A number of people were in police custody in connection with the case
of the five missing boys in Grand Bahama and our investigations are very
focused in a particular direction," said Assistant Commissioner of Police,
Ellison Greenslade. He further stated that the police would be relentless
in their pursuit of the perpetrators and would leave no stone unturned.
Monday morning saw the police moving to the rear of the Tivoli Gardens apartment complex near downtown, Freeport. They immediately started searching the bushy areas used by the utility companies to access their high-tension cable lines. Later that day saw the arrival of cadaver sniffing dogs brought in from Florida to search the area. Police said they were now treating the area as a sterile crime scene. As we watched, we did not observe any bodies being brought out. Tuesday morning saw the arrival of Defence Force officers and they conducted a grid type search that covered each square inch. We are reliably informed that this search yielded drugs that were stashed.
On Friday morning, the police announced via special bulletin that four persons were to be charged before the courts in connection with the disappearance of Jake Grant. They further stated that each of these cases with the missing boys was being investigated as distinctly individual cases. With that said, no one believed that these cases were not connected.
Almost immediately crowds started to assemble outside the Garnett Levarity court building. The mood of the crowd was that a "hangman's noose" was too good for anyone involved in the disappearance of these boys. Or, it could be described that our belief in the rule of law had suddenly given way to mob rule. Suddenly, the back door of the courthouse opened and four boys with towels covering their faces were brought out under heavy police guard. As the crowd moved in a lady cried out, "they are just babies." Another put her hand on her head and wept openly. "This cannot be who they charged." The facts are, that four boys aged from 11 - 14 were charged with manslaughter in connection with Jake Grant.
The general view in Grand Bahama is that these four boys charged were mere pawns. The police used this as a reprieve from the intense pressure being placed on them to find the missing boys. It is further believed that the police now have a clearer picture of what exactly took place and are moving in on the real perpetrators.
We believe in this instance because of the nature and the implications for The Bahamas and its tourist industry that the court dockets ought to be cleared and a preliminary inquiry held as soon as possible. We feel that February 2004 is too long a time to wait.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
This week the Ministry of Local Government held a four-day seminar
for local government councillors and administrators. Again, the Minister
of Local Government, Alfred Gray, told the councillors that he intended
to dissolve the city of Freeport council. We believe that the minister's
threats are nothing more than a saber rattling. We have spoken to
our friends in the FNM and they are embarrassed, but they too believe that
it would be a dangerous precedent to set if the minister indeed went ahead
to have the Council dissolved.
News from Grand Bahama intends to report on the activities of local
government at their local meetings; and, if necessary, will bring intense
scrutiny to the troublemakers and the rabble-rousers while reporting on
their attendance and contributions.
In honour of the holiday this weekend, The Bahamas' National Heroes
Day in waiting (see story above), we present
a special contribution by out correspondent DM:
On the occasion of National Heroes Day
“We have no history, culture, or identity, we are not independent and
I believe that within the next 10 years will lose our independence.”
Those were the resounding words of a Bahamian youth. Actually, we have history and culture, but we do not acknowledge it, and we are independent, but we lack the willingness to mature as an independent nation. On the occasion of National Heroes Day, I decided to engage a few teenagers in a dialogue about what it means to be a Bahamian and where they see our country in 10 years. I was astounded by the misinformation and the ill regard for our culture and history. We, old and young, are all called to be nationalist, and as nationalists, it is our duty to seek to enable the betterment of our country at all costs regardless of our socio-economic class, or who we know, or who we voted for, or what has happened before, or what we have been exposed to.
Bahamian history is rich, vibrant, colourful, unique, and diverse. Though we have not come from a line o
