Brothers and sisters, welcome to Pinewood Gardens.

Welcome to PLP country. Pinewood IS PLP country.

Over the course of the past four years and more, we have seen much, experienced much and achieved much.

And while there are all those naysayers and critics who would accuse us of having done nothing; you know better. You know our record here in Pinewood Gardens. You know our Motto “Pinewood 1st – COMMUNITY, Family Faith”.  You know that together here in Pinewood we are rebuilding one of the strongest COMMUNITIES in The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. We are doing that by together supporting families and commitment to a strong and enduring faith.  EVERYTHING that we do is to build COMMUNITY.

Right here on this Park where we have invited the entire Bahamas to be our guests in our community tonight, since 2002, we have a new Basketball Court, the second new playground since 2002, Lake Pinewood in which we have fish, around which we have a walking track and in which early in the morning and late at night we find birds.  This Christmas 2006, we hosted our 6th Annual Allyson Maynard Gibson Christmas Basketball Camp, conducted by champion coach, Jeff Rodgers.  The Camp is free. ALL young people in our Community are welcome.  Some young people have attended each of the past 6 years and it has been such a pleasure to watch them grow and develop.

Right here in Pinewood we have a new 2 acre park with an international standard baseball diamond, 2 tennis courts and an area laid out for a Junior Soccer Pitch. This summer we conducted our first annual summer baseball camp together with the Pinewood Urban Renewal.  Again all young people in our Community are welcome.

Our baseball league is a part of the Freedom Farm League. We have 5 teams and this Saturday, our Cardinals won their game at home 10 to 7.  There is no charge to receive training and to play in the League. Our baseball diamond is lit so that 24/7 our young and not so young can be involved in safe activities.

All young people in our Community are welcome.  Together we are nuturing our young people into healthy lifestyles and through team sports into community builders. We are building community.

Right here in Pinewood homeowners in the vicinity of Sadie Curtis who for over 20 years had to drive on dirt track roads are now driving on paved roads.

Right here in Pinewood, on this Park, we regularly hold “Drive In” Movies. ALL welcome.

Right here in Pinewood, in 2002 99 wells were cleaned out and are now maintained on a regular basis so that when it rains, water will flow away as quickly as possible.

Right here in Pinewood instruments were presented to establish a Marching Band

Right here in Pinewood we present a prize to the Student of the Year and the teacher of the Year at Cleveland W. Eneas School.

A Computer camp has been established at All Saints Church

A Computer camp will be established at Cleveland W. Eneas

What makes this work exceptional is that ALL of it was to build our Community and especially for our young people AND ALL of it was through SELF HELP…I want to publicly thank my WONDERFUL branch officers and the Pinewood 1st Community Association.

Urban Renewal has also had a positive impact on Pinewood
- a Senior Citizens Club has been established
- assistance has been given with house repairs
- scores of derelict vehicles have been removed
- properties have been cleared

And in our area (including Pinewood), CRIME IS DOWN…

Let me read to you some statistics for the years 2005 - 2006 to show you the impact of Urban Renewal and the impact of effective Community Policing………………………

- Crimes against the person are down except for murder…in 2005 we had 1 and in 2006 we had 3
- Crimes against property are down except for stolen vehicles.
 
 

I want publicly tonight to thank …

The head of the Southern Region Police Station….
AND the head of Urban Renewal, Cpl. Philip Roberts

Brothers and sisters, you know that I am completely committed to serving YOU…Pinewood 1st

The same focus and zeal that I used to work with you to transform our Community I used to establish the Ministry of Financial Services and Investments and the record sets during my tenure there.

AND that same foucs and zeal is being brought to the Attorney General’s Office and to Swift Justice.

Law abiding citizens have a right to be safe in their homes and as they go from place to place on our streets.  Victims have rights. Families impacted by crime want closure. … and I intend to ensure that no one ever forgets that fact.

I assure you that we shall continue to properly equip our brave men and women on the RBPF and RBDF as they protect our land and seas.

AND we shall continue to equip the detection and investigative units of the RBPF.  We hear what you are saying and that is that you want criminals brought swiftly to justice.

I assure you that I shall never sit idly by as drug dealers and other criminal types try to way lay and devastate one community after the other. You deserve safety. Our children and entitled to security.

No criminal has arms longer than the law. And very criminal should know that the long arm of the law will reach in and pluck them out from wherever they lurk; and bring them to justice.

And for sure, we are all encouraged by the successes we have achieved so far in improving the administration of justice.

Brothers and sisters, friends, I can not sit down tonight without lamenting the despicable trend upon with the FNM has embarked in destruction of our nation.

The FNM will stop at nothing in their quest to win the next election.

- character assassination is almost as bad as taking a life…you can’t get your life back and integrity or character can’t be bought
- throwing stones while living in a glass house is hypocrisy
- can you trust your child’s future in the hands of someone who admits that he is judge and jury? He investigated the wrongdoing of his Ministers and HE determined that nothing wrong was done. Nothing wrong when money is traced from a contract awarded by a Cabinet Minister straight to a party held at his house and paid for by the contractor who got the contract? Nothing wrong when school repair contracts were awarded in violation of set procedures?
- YOU CAN’T TRUST THEM.
- Tell them TO THE LEFT
- Tell them stick to the issues.

I sit at the table with the Rt. Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie and I’ve sat at the table with the Hon. Cynthia “Mother” Pratt when she was Acting Prime Minister.  I know and you know that the Prime Minister CARES about people. His every act is ALWAYS about improving the lives of Bahamians…that is his personal philosophy and that is the genesis of the PLP…the PLP was formed for the people and is and has always been about serving the people.

Mother Pratt would never give herself a contract while serving as a Cabinet Minister, which is PRECISELY why Brent Symonette was fired.

Who do you trust? Christie and Pratt or Ingraham and Symonette?
 

Friends and family in Pinewood, Bahamians everywhere, never mind the noise in the market; just mind the price of the fish.

The FNM knows that they cannot beat the PLP on the issues. That is why they are prepared to kick up the dust, spread untruths, create confusion, and engage in character assassination.

The IMF confirms that our economy has been transformed and made secure for steady growth of about 6% for the next 6 years.

Affordable housing has been delivered…more houses built in 2 years than the FNM built in its ENTIRE 10 year term.

Unemployment is at an irreducible minimum.

A training plan for our young people is in place.

The framework for National Health Insurance is in place.

We are as equally determined to detect and prosecute criminals….SWIFTLY.

So said.

 So done.

But brothers and sisters remember well that even Rome was not built in a day. And so I say to you that we shall together aspire to build our nation community by community, person by person, family by family and all of this with the help of God Almighty, a way-maker if ever there was One so magnificent, so complete and so very awesome.

Pinewood do you hear me! How majestic! How wonderful!

Brothers and sisters, together we surely have a nation to build, a journey to continue and a God to serve.