Weekly Comments

DR. MINNIS GOES TO FREEPORT… PINTARD ON DEFENCE

January 29, 2023

Every time you open the newspapers and listen on What’s App, Facebook, or the radio and television, there is the peripatetic Michael Pintard, the Leader of the Opposition, opining on some subject or other, usually an attack on the PLP and Philip Davis, the Prime Minister. Last week alone he was accusing the Government of unlawfully supporting late reports on the fiscal performance of the country. Then he said that the Prime Minister should shuffle his cabinet. One supposes this is in part what a Leader of the Opposition should be doing: critiquing the government. The problem is that all

OPPOSITION LEADER HAS DIARRHEA OF THE MOUTH

January 22, 2023

You can hardly open a newspaper these days without seeing some statement or other from the Leader of the Opposition. He has an opinion on this or that. You know what they say about opinions, like a butt hole everyone has one. Michael Pintard is clearly fighting for his life and fighting to be relevant to the times. He has accused the government of all kinds of nefarious things, using the rubric of illegality or unlawful behaviour to couch his attacks. The Government’s trip to Bermuda was unlawful he said. He said that the Government’s award of contracts was unlawful.

DAME MARGUERITE DID A DISSERVICE TO US ALL

January 15, 2023

Tribune photo Every year, for so many years now you cannot count, Fred Mitchell and Dame Marguerite Pindling have gathered at the mausoleum of her late husband Sir Lynden O Pindling in order to honour his memory and that of the coming of Majority Rule on 10 January 1967. The holiday was initiated by Fred Mitchell in Parliament and the campaign for it was led with almost singular devotion by Fred Mitchell. So the question that all sane people were asking is what could have happened to cause the outburst by Dame Marguerite Pindling at the graveside on 10 January

THE FREEPORT CONTAINER PORT MISSTEPS

January 8, 2023

One of the biggest employers in Freeport, Grand Bahama is the Hutchison Group with their partnership with the Grand Bahama Port Authority. They run something called the Freeport Container Port They were the company that was brought in under the late Edward St George to build a container port that was to provide employment to support a critical mass for Freeport to survive as a city. Unfortunately, after making substantial profits, the company has turned south in terms of its commitment to Freeport. They obviously do not see that they have any social role in the country or the island.

IT’S NOW A NEW YEAR FOR THE PLP

January 1, 2023

21 September 2021 brought a new day for the Progressive Liberal Party and the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. With that new day came a relaxation of the strangling rules of the Covid pandemic, imposed by a heartless and clueless Prime Minister Hubert Minnis. The country breathed a collective sigh of relief. The economy began to open up and U S dollars were flowing as the tourists packed our shores from America. That was almost one year and a half ago and now the honeymoon is over, the public is getting restless and the troops are in a sour mood. Some

FTX FTX ARENT YOU SICK OF IT

December 25, 2022

Bahamians must be sick and tired of FTX. Every day for the past two weeks or so, it’s been one thing or the next about FTX, its spectacular collapse, the loss of 30 billion or close to it with its collapse. They then switched to the fact that the man who caused it all allegedly one Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) lived in luxury in The Bahamas and well it was the fault of The Bahamas, because after all we were crooks. The United States government did nothing to disabuse the world of that fact, even as they moved to cause

ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF ALL THE FTX TALK?

December 18, 2022

John Ray III defaming The Bahamas in the FTX litigation in the U S All of a sudden the American politicians have found religion: trust is upper most in their minds and consciences. They are talking out of all sides of their mouths on this matter of FTX. When you examine the hearings at the Congress last week in front of the Committee headed by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, all that it demonstrated was the woeful ignorance of U S politicians about the world and how it works. They don’t understand other systems and it is clear that they make no

KEMSLEY FERGUSON HIDING BEHIND BELINDA’S GOWN TAIL

December 11, 2022

Hen pecked, pussy whipped (excuse our French) but whatever you want to call him, he is proving to be a man who does not have a mind of his own. He allowed himself to be led into an unlawful strike, shutting down the airport facilities in the country in the middle of a busy tourism season. If that embarrassment were not enough, he was led again into threatening a strike after rejecting the generous offers of the government which every union had accepted including the bellicose Belinda Wilson. He kept braying and braying at the moon. The government kept quiet

THE NASSAU GUARDIAN AND THE PRESS ARE DISHONEST

December 4, 2022

The Nassau Guardian and The Tribune have a fixation about the trip to Bermuda made by the Prime Minister in November of this year, Weeks after the successful foreign affairs trip, they are still seeking to characterize it as a political trip. They are working in concert with a politically dishonest Opposition FNM who keep going at this as if they have found a hot dog. The confusion is further bred by the dissembling response of the government on the matter which was on the face of it a straight out foreign affairs trip. There is no need for the

HARASSMENT OVER FTX

November 27, 2022

The day was to be a day to mark the 60th anniversary of women exercising the vote for the first time. 23 November 2022 in the Houses of Assembly. The actual date is 26 November. The women were gathering and MPs were preparing for that. The day was also the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Progressive Liberal Party, the party that made it possible for there to be a free press and for the youngsters today to exercise all the freedoms they have. But the press of The Bahamas was not interested in that. What they were interested

THE FNM TRYING TO MAKE A MESS OF FTX

November 20, 2022

FNM Chair Duane Sands and Michael Pintard Leader Michael Pintard violated the rules of the House of Assembly when he stood up to try to rebut the communication of the Prime Minister on the FTX collapse. Mr. Pintard was also wrong in his assertions in his text. He claimed that the Prime Minister did not affirm the strength of the jurisdiction. That was a lie. The Prime Minister was full, direct, and clear in his defence of the jurisdiction. But the attempted rebuttal in the House of Assembly on Wednesday 16 November 2022, was just another in a series of

THE STORM IS OVER OR JUST BEGINNING

November 13, 2022

There was fear and trembling in Abaco and Grand Bahama as the waters threatened to cover the sea. Last week Tuesday and Wednesday 8 and 9 November 2022. The news was that it was only a Tropical Storm named Nicole and the winds would barely be a category one. However, there was going to be a high tide and full moon, and the surges were expected to be significant. As it turned out over the two days of discomfort, the seas did rise on the streets of Marsh Harbour, in West End, there was water damage in Moore’s Island, the

MINNIS: THE IDIOT IS BACK ON THE SCENE

November 6, 2022

It is clear that the FNM is not singing from one hymn sheet. It looks like when they get up in the House of Assembly that they haven’t spoken to each other. You can see why because all over the media last week, there were reports of them cussing and fighting with one another in their council meetings and in the streets, One of their activists and a Vice Chair of the party were suspended from participation in the Council meeting because he attacked the Chairman of the Party outside at a press conference. Then Omar Archer, the star of

THE BERMUDA TRIP: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

October 30, 2022

Prime Minister Philip Davis with Minister JoBeth Davis with their counterparts in Bermuda. You have never heard and dealt with so much foolishness in all your life than with this simple trip to Bermuda with the Prime Minister Philip Davis serving both roles as Prime Minister and Leader of the PLP. This past week the PLP allowed itself to get off message by not dealing forthrightly with what was quite a simple matter. For cogent reasons, the trips of the Prime Minister of this country whether private or public in nature are handled by the Office of the Prime Minister.

LINCOLN BAIN: WHEN A SCREW IS LOOSE IN THE HEAD

October 23, 2022

If you want a poster boy for that of a false prophet it has to be Lincoln Bain. People are entitled to ask if this fellow has a serious or truthful bone in his body. He is so desperate for power that he will do anything, saying anything and change into anything. So he was at it again in the public square on Wednesday 19 October 2022. This time he said he was there to present a bill to amend the laws on citizenship. That’s fine and a standard practice of civil disobedience and protest. The problem is when you

THE PLP IS THE ONLY ORGANIZATION TO DEFEAT THE PLP

October 16, 2022

There is one message that we would like to give to the Progressive Liberal Party. Danger! Danger! Danger! It is one year in and it appears to some in the public domain that the coalition that was built and stitched together patiently by Philip Davis is threatening to unravel. This must be stopped and stopped right now.The most difficult of the most recent public policy decisions was that of the increase in electricity. That did not go down well with the public. The explanation for it while logical did not sell. So it has left a sour taste in the

OXFAM’S ATTACK ON THE BAHAMAS

October 9, 2022

This is what appeared in the publication EU Observer by Andrew Rettman 26 September 2022: “For tax justice campaigners such as UK based group Oxfam: Anguilla, The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands “ clearly deserve” what they got.” The quote is tied to Chiara Putaturo said to be a lawyer for the anti-poverty, food campaigners Oxfam. It appears under the headline: EU ADDING BAHAMAS TO TAX HAVEN BLACK LIST The Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell referenced the article when he spoke at the Organization of American States General Assembly in Lima, on Thursday 6 October 2022. He said that he

SQUANDERING OPPORTUNITIES ABROAD

October 2, 2022

The job of working for the Foreign Service of The Bahamas is a wonderful job. It is an opportunity that is in high demand. There are more people chasing after the places in the service than the service is able to absorb. The problem is that many deserving people do not get the opportunities to serve as they should because of the high demand and the use of the opportunities for sinecures. This is all the more reason why those who get a chance at serving overseas ought to use the opportunity wisely. These are once in a lifetime opportunities.

THE TRAFFIC JAMS IN NEW YORK FOR THE ANNUAL UN SHOW

September 25, 2022

Nice picture but because of traffic jams it took two hours to get there 21 September 2022 in New York city at the U S President’s cocktail reception When Perry Christie was Prime Minister of The Bahamas, he invited George Bush, then President of the United States to come to Nassau. Mr. Bush said to Mr. Christie: “ Are you sure that you want me to come there because you know that I travel with 1200 security people?” That is what you call over kill. The security for the American President. That overkill was on full display at the United

CORPS OF THE DISHONEST AND THE DISGRACEFUL PROTESTORS

September 18, 2022

From The Tribune: this idiot Lincoln Bain protesting over a bill that doesn’t exist. The Bahamas is at an interesting point. They are “mourning” the Queen who died last week. That’s mainly the old people and those who have sentimentality about the monarchy. They are probably in the majority when you add them to those who just don’t care one way or the other. Certainly the formal state has all the trappings of mourning: the flags at half-staff, the black bands around their arms, the proclamation of a public holiday when the Queen’s funeral takes place on Monday 19 September

THE QUEEN DIES, SO WHAT?

September 11, 2022

So all the monarchists are in a thrall of sorrow, if such a thing is possible. The irony in the life of a monarchist is that they live for a day like this. On Thursday 8 September 2022, Buckingham Palace, the official home and office of Elizabeth II, Queen of The Bahamas and the United Kingdom, her other realms and territories passed from mortality into immortality. The Anglican Church Bells in The Bahamas ( she was defender of that faith created by her ancestors when the Ronan Catholics wouldn’t give him a divorce) rang out the bells 96 times. The

REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF DORIAN

September 4, 2022

This past weekend: 1, 2, 3 September 2022 is 3 years after the worst natural disaster in living and modern memory in The Bahamas. Hurricane Dorian sat over the northern Bahamian islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco for three days and devasted the islands. Today, we still do not know how many people died or are missing. The Government of The Bahamas led then by the Free National Movement fumbled the ball and ended up with mass graves and with people still three years later sitting helplessly waiting for rescue. One heroic figure was Billy Joe Rolle of Grand Bahama.

THINGS ARE GOING WELL YET PEOPLE UNHAPPY

August 28, 2022

A political party in The Bahamas has to be very careful in its craft because the electorate of The Bahamas has proven to be fickle. It is almost a perfect democracy in that for the last 25 years no political party has been able to govern this country for more than five years. No matter how they start off with a popular and lopsided majority, within five years that majority fizzles and the recriminations against those in power are amazing. Last year when the PLP won office, it thought “well we have to break this cycle”. The Prime Minister at

A SAD END TO A LIFE WITH GREAT POTENTIAL

August 21, 2022

The death of a smart young man has unveiled the sometimes grimy life of gay male sex in The Bahamas. Omar Davis Jr was a smart young man. In 2017, there was not a dry eye in the room when he obtained his public scholars scholarship from The Bahamas government. He told the story of how he lived in the home of his father who was a drug dealer, with the threat of police breaking down the door on a regular basis, and ultimately watching the father die after being shot. He said his father told him: “ Short man

AS ONE YEAR APPROACHES: O YE OF LITTLE FAITH

August 14, 2022

So a video is circulating, that of an activist in Grand Bahama, engaged in a rant about the fact that there is going to be a concert in Nassau to mark the passing of Hurricane Dorian three years ago. This is a particularly vexing problem for the people of Grand Bahama and Abaco who see it as a kind of slap in the face for them when many of them are still not back to normal but it appears that nothing will be done in terms of marking the occasion in those islands. The reason we mention this is because

THE NEW DIPLOMATS

August 7, 2022

There are now seven new diplomats sworn into the service of the Foreign Service of The Bahamas on Wednesday 3rd August 2022. They are Ambassadors of Goodwill Rick Fox and Chris “Fireman” Brown, Taran Mackey to Kuwait, Dr. Dexter Johnson to Brazil, Sebastian Bastian, Ambassador to the Central American countries, William Wong to Morocco, Joseph Curry to the Holy See at the Vatican City. Congratulations to them all. The Deputy to the Governor General presented the instruments of appointment on Wednesday 3 August 2022 at Bahamar in the absence of the Governor General who had earlier tested positive for Covid

ONE YEAR OUT AND THE BLOOM IS OFF THE ROSE?

July 31, 2022

The realities of government are falling upon us. The euphoria of the days on the 16 September 2022 and the days after have evaporated. Now we are in the hard slog of governing. The Party’s Chairman Fred Mitchell warned many that the business of government is hard work. The glamour is not what you think it is. The problems are real: the poverty, the homelessness and the hunger. The telephone calls are relentless and voters are not thankful. The other point too is that you understand when you come into government that even amongst your colleagues, decision are transactional. Dud

DEATH BE NOT PROUD

July 24, 2022

As his former master is laid to rest, the dog remembers So a man in his middle age is feeling the weight of melancholia. He has found out that a good friend has been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and is now confined to a wheel chair and will soon be dead. Angela Neymour, the song bird of Sandilands Primary School and in many respects the life of the party and the engine that once drove the primary school in Fox Hill is dead. From diagnosis to death perhaps a month. Shocking and sad. Bishop Albert Hepburn at 89. A

A QUEER QUESTION FROM A QUEER QUESTIONER

July 17, 2022

So the Prime Minister Philip Davis went to the University of The Bahamas 12 July 2022 to talk about he National Development plan, only to be sandbagged or attempted to be sandbagged by a questioner, probably an FNM plant, to ask what is he going to do about queer Bahamians. The questioner said that he or she ( couldn’t tell from the pitch of the voice) wanted to know what would be done to protect queer Bahamians i.e. LGBTQ Bahamians, seeing that the PLP was among the queerest in Bahamian history. This is part of the gotcha culture imported from

THE PROBLEM OF BORIS JOHNSON AND BRITISH HONOUR

July 10, 2022

British politics and the question of honour is something else. The facts: Boris Johnson, who everyone knew was a lout when they elected him, lying through his teeth at every turn, racist and mocking of the dispossessed. The British elected him anyway, even though all the economists told the country the United Kingdom was going to suffer badly from a stupid decision to leave the European Union. Now the country is in deep trouble. The country is the worst performing in Europe. It is going into recession they say. They say inflation is raging, stagflation even is predicted. Out East

WHY WE HAVE TO SAVE THE GORRILLAS

July 3, 2022

The movie in 1988 Gorillas In The Mist about the life and times of Dianne Fossey who discovered and studied the family structures and life and times of the Mountain Gorillas of central and eastern Africa has caused a boom for tourism in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC). Tourists pay tens of thousands of dollars just to come see them. They are in for a treat. There is a picture we have posted of the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell who was left behind by the Prime Minister in Rwanda for meetings with the Rwanda Government,

PATRICIA SCOTLAND DEFEATS BORIS JOHNSON

June 26, 2022

Baroness Patricia Scotland with Paul Kigame, President of Rwanda and Chair of the Commonwealth Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister set his dogs on Patricia Scotland, the Baroness from Dominica who grew up in England and rose to become the first Black woman to be Attorney General of the United Kingdom under then Prime Minister Tony Blair and who is now as of Friday 23 June 2022 reappointed Secretary General of the Commonwealth. Congratulations In his explicable effort to oust her from the job, he was joined by the Liberal Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau who seemed to have some

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

June 19, 2022

HENFIELD THROWS MINNIS UNDER THE BUS Former Prime Minister Hubert Minnis with former Foreign Minister Darren Henfield. The story was in the days when they were in power together that Darren Henfield, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, were like two peas in a pod. In other words, it is Mr. Henfield was the twiddle dum to Mr. Minnis as twiddle dee. You could not have one without the other. So imagine the surprise then of the country when the Minister for Immigration Keith Bell made an allegation of abuse in an embassy of

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

June 12, 2022

WE HAVE TO AVOID THROWING PEOPLE OUT THE HOUSE Sir Clifford Darling was Speaker of The House for two terms. During that time he never once threw anyone out of the House of Assembly. Whenever things got too heated, he would simply suspend the House until such time as order was restored. That we believe was the value of history and knowing history. The PLP did not want to be associated with that had happened to its members when they were in opposition, with the Speaker of the House Bobby Symonette throwing Arthur Hanan and Milo Butler out of the

SHANE GIBSON FACES DOWN MINNIS THE DRAGON

June 5, 2022

Shane Gibson, former Minister and MP told the Juan McCartney Radio show these words on 31st May 2022: “When Minnis was running for leader [of the Free National Movement], I was in the smoker’s room [in the House of Assembly] one day and he came to me and said, ‘Shane, the Eastern Road boys want Loretta [Butler-Turner] to be leader and they won’t give me any funding, so I need you to help me raise some money.’ “He came to me. I didn’t come to him. I helped him raise money, like $100,000. I went to his little jam up

CARICOM DIVIDED

May 29, 2022

There was a big surprise in the race for Secretary General of the Commonwealth last week when the Prime Minster of Belize Johnny Briceno announced that the would be supporting the insurgent Jamaican candidate for Secretary General Kamina Johnson Smith. To many this came off as a betrayal of the help and trust which Secretary General Patricia Scotland has invested in Belize. The Caricom region is split between support for the British backed candidate Kamina Johnson Smith and the incumbent Patricia Scotland. This should never have happened. There was a meeting in Belize in March where the Caricom region pledged

THE BRITISH COME OUT FROM BEHIND THE CURTAIN

May 22, 2022

Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, came out from out of the shadows and in a Tweet announced that Kamina Johnson Smith, the Jamaican Foreign Minister, is their candidate to unseat Baroness Patricia Scotland. the Labour Peer who is now the Secretary General of the Commonwealth. She has done a first class job in what was a moribund organization before she got there, and especially she has been a voice for the small developing states of the Commonwealth. That is the source of the irritation of the British. All along it was simply a whisper campaign. The Jamaicans were asked

THE CASE FOR STOPPING CLIMATE CHANGE

May 15, 2022

Prime Minister Philip Davis pictured with Secretary General Patricia Scotland and High Commissioners of the Commonwealth on 10 May 2022 in London. Philip Davis, the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, spoke at the Marlborough House Dialogues on Tuesday 10 May 2022. This was a set piece designed so the Prime Minister who leads a small island developing state (SIDS) could make the case for the SIDS for more vigorous efforts to counteract climate change. Mr. Davis has been leading the charge on this issue since he came to office. He said that he is not satisfied that the case is

CENTRAL BANK SWIMMING IN CASH

May 8, 2022

John Rolle, the Governor of the Central Bank, despite the bank’s unpopularity with consumers in The Bahamas, seemed a happy man during the past week as he announced that at the start of May 2022, the reserves in The Bahamas reached the princely sum of US 3 billion. This is a first for the country. This is the highest ever. He also said that in the first quarter, there was a net increase in the reserves of 524 million dollars. That also must be a record. The Tribune’s Business Section, usually a font of doom and gloom , was forced

THE NEW ECONOMY OF CRYPTO HITS THE BAHAMAS

May 1, 2022

Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister, Bill Clinton, former U S President and Prime Minister Philip Davis. So the new craze is crypto. Everyone it seems is talking about it. What we find fascinating is how the world gets into these crazes and everyone is in a head long rush to cash in. There are all these fantastic stories about people who have made great wealth off it. There is a company called FTX and they have made a big splash in The Bahamas by setting up the headquarters here after decamping from one of