Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames... Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 7 © BahamasUncensored.com 2009
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
OF GRAVEDIGGERS AND PALLBEARERS
The headline on Tuesday 28th April was as startling as it was untrue.
According to the Nassau Guardian Obie Wilchcombe, MP for West End, Grand
Bahama and a PLP said that the PLP was in chaos. He warned the party
that it must stop fighting in the press. It would seem off then for
an experienced politician to say such a thing because it seemed to be doing
the very thing about there was a complaint. The old people say that
a fisherman never calls his own fish stink. The entire statement
as reported by the Nassau Guardian is reported below in his own words.
The statement of Mr. Wilchcombe was one of a number of public exchanges that have taken place over the past two weeks, which is the public dialogue of change that is going on in the PLP. The PLP is trying to decide whether or not someone will challenge Perry Christie for Leader of the PLP in 2009 at its convention and various people have various ways of getting at the problem.
We said last week from this column that there is no internal process or mechanism within the PLP to discuss the matter of a transition and the need for change, so it is playing itself out in public.
First, there was Jerome Fitzgerald’s remark that Mr. Christie and Mr. Ingraham should not run again in the next general election. Then came Raynard Rigby, the former chairman, who said that the party had done nothing to implement the reforms recommended by the study that it commissioned after the last general election.
Then there was a comment made by Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, who is perceived to be an ally of Mr. Christie, who indicated that there is a process for disagreeing with the party and if you did not accept the process, you could leave. This took further the comments of Kendred Dorsett, a Deputy Chairman and another ally of Mr. Christie, who said that Mr. Rigby had not followed protocol in the matter. Few seemed to get the point of the criticism, so keen were they to get at Mr. Rigby, seeking to kill the messenger instead of looking and taking heed to the message. No one has so far come to Mr. Rigby’s defence.
The message from the special report on why the PLP lost 2008 in a nutshell; the PLP won only people with a high school education and below and in the over 60 category in age. The report commissioned by the PLP says that unless the PLP does something to turn this around in a country that was getting richer, younger and more educated, it was headed to the graveyard. All Mr. Rigby said is two years after that fact, the PLP has done nothing to address those issues. That is a cold hard fact. Attacking Mr. Rigby aint going to change that fact. Doing something about it will.
Then there were the comments by the former news reporter turned lawyer Mark Symonette Rolle who seemed to take the same tack that both Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Rigby should not have said what they said, when they said it and where they said it. The disinterested observer would be forced to ask, were these comments and letters put up jobs, or simple cases of jealousy of the authors against the individual Mr. Rigby, who was getting all the attention and publicity? Or are they were seeking to eliminate a rival by sucking up to Mr. Christie?
Then there was a comment made by Keod Smith, the former MP and again an ally of Mr. Christie, who said that Mr. Rigby was damaged goods and that he had no future in the PLP because Mr. Rigby had answered Philip Davis.
Before you say poor Raynard Rigby; think again. No eyes need to weep for him. He can defend himself. Right now he says he is on the side of right and history and has captured the popular imagination and the important demographic that the PLP needs to win the next election. Those attack him, he says, do so at their peril.
Mr. Smith suggested that Mr. Rigby would be expelled from the PLP. Will the PLP go down that road again? It can see the carcasses of the expulsions of yesteryear. They are now running the country and the PLP is sitting on the outside nursing its wounds and struggling to get a handle on why it lost. Yet in sticking with its present course, at least according to these countervailing voices of Rigby and Fitzgerald, they are surely headed toward the graveyard.
When you read Mr. Wilchcombe statements, you will see that he uses a metaphor with regard to Mr. Christie and the people around him. He says that Mr. Christie is a great guy, that he, Mr. Wilchcombe, supports him. He says that Mr. Christie’s problem is the people around him. That what he needs is a good Deputy who will do the heavy lifting. That Deputy, Mr. Wilchcombe argues, is Obie Wilchcombe. He says that he is a loyal person. He is not ungrateful. He lists all the reasons why he is the best person to be the Deputy. Then he says that the problem with Mr. Christie is that he can’t tell the difference between the gravediggers and the pallbearers. A reference presumably meant to say he can’t tell the people who are acting in his best interests but the metaphor seemed so apt or inapt depending on your point of view.
To say that Perry Gladstone Christie cannot tell the difference between a gravedigger and a pallbearer is to damn Mr. Christie with faint praise.
Both pallbearers and gravediggers preside at a funeral. Ultimately, though, let us remember that it is the role of both to ensure that the corpse is buried in the ground. Are we all presiding over the funeral? And whose funeral is it over which we are presiding?
It would seem unwise for anyone to think that a man who has survived a generation in public life, five years of it as Prime Minister would fall for the blandishments of faint praise. But that may be the politics of The Bahamas and the PLP in 2009.
The PLP is not in chaos and even if it were that would not be the wise thing to do for someone so senior to so describe it. The public dialogue is good. It is refreshing. The PLP should embrace it, not reject it. It is frank. There should be more of it and the public can expect more of it to come, until and unless there is an internal procedure worked out as to how the party will deal with the transition to a new voice and a new generation. It is as simple as that, and no amount of threats, cajoling, bribing, cussing, ducking and feinting, trying to suck up with blandishments, is going to change the fact that change is coming, whether we like it or not.
When an internal, credible discussion process on change has been launched, then and only then will it stop.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 2nd May 2009 up to midnight: 132,106.
Number of hits for the month of April up to Thursday 30th April 2009 up to midnight: 636,021.
Number of hits for the year 2009 up to Saturday 2nd May 2009 up to midnight: 3,990,131.
WHAT
RAYNARD RIGBY SAID IN HIS OWN WORDS
“The PLP is ineffective and out of touch.
There has been no outward sign of the party reenergizing itself and retooling
its message to attract a broader spectrum of supporters. I think
by and large we have continued with the modus operandi of the last election
where the message remains unclear, and where people are not certain what
the PLP stands for on critical issues. And I believe too that on
critical issues facing the country, the voice of the PLP is still too silent.
“It is time for the PLP to address the question
of the leadership.”
GRAVEDIGGERS
AND PALLBEARERS - OBIE WILCHCOMBE IN HIS OWN WORDS
The Nassau Guardian reported on Tuesday 28th
April that the PLP MP for West End said that the PLP was in chaos.
They reported that in quotes but did not supply the exact words of the
quotation. Here is what they went on to say in reported, direct speech:
“There’s so much to do. There’s no time to fight. It’s time to work.
PLPs are coming across as a disorganized bunch, fighting for political
power.
“I think what you’re seeing is we have a lot
of new blood within the organization and we have many who would like the
party to head in another direction -- many who have refused to accept the
protocol of the organization -- so they’re there and you hear a lot of
things being said left, right and centre. Again, my argument is,
that’s not confidence building. That doesn’t help us to build our
party and take our party forward.
“Strong leadership is required for us to understand
that we have to close ranks and that our differences [we need to] put them
on the shelf, take our egos and leave them outside the door and get busy
in trying to build the Progressive Liberal Party in the interest of the
Bahamian people.
“I think the party has strong leadership.
Perry Christie is not a weak leader... I think he requires next to him,
a strong (deputy) leader as well. The country needs a new brand of
leadership right now.
“It does not require what we had before.
We have seen leadership obviously from an era that required a particular
type of leadership.
“We had a different cause at that time. There’s
a new cause now and that new cause must be pursued by ideas. It must
be pursued by creativity. It must be pursued by a sense of greater
involvement by more people. We have to open our tent even bigger
because we are not going to build a country as a Progressive Liberal Party,
we are not going to be given the opportunity to build a country any further
unless and until we understand that our tent must bring in more Bahamians,
Bahamians from all over this country — black Bahamians, white Bahamians,
rich Bahamians, poor Bahamians, all Bahamians, gay Bahamians. We
have to bring them all in.
“The next deputy leader must assist the leader
in meeting this challenge. I am still very much interested in running
for the deputy leadership post. I have not yet made a final decision.
I am still meeting with constituents and others to discuss the matter further.
“I do not think the bad publicity I got after
being arrested by police and questioned in January about an alleged extortion
plot against American actor John Travolta would hurt my chances at the
deputy leadership bid.
“I believe the truth will prevail.
“My role would be as deputy — if I get the support
of my constituents and I get the support of the wider country and the wider
delegation that comes to the convention — to do some heavy lifting.
I think that you have to appreciate that you can make a difference by filling
the deputy spot if you're going to help us reorganize our party, reorganize
the message and ensure the message is getting where we want it to be.
I want to be a part of that group that begins to write a new Bahamas.
“A key problem Mr. Christie has is surrounding
himself with the wrong people. He fails to distinguish the difference
between the pallbearers and the gravediggers.
“I think what he does too often is he finds comfort
with individuals who would dig a grave for him as opposed to individuals
who would not. The old folks always say you must know the difference.
And I think that he has for the most part been betrayed by people who he
has brought close to him, who he has given opportunities to. I’m
not an ungrateful individual. I am not a person who represents disloyalty...
Teams are predicated and built on loyalty.
“The PLP will not throw its leader or the new
generation that is emerging in the party under the bus.
“I have no plans to run for leader as long as
Christie is serving in that position.”
PHILIP
‘BRAVE’ DAVIS MP IN HIS OWN WORDS
In an interview given in Cat Island, Philip Davis
aka Brave gave an interview to the press on Friday 24th April. The
comments were reported in the paper of 27th April. It appears that
he was responding to earlier reported comments by Raynard Rigby, former
PLP Chair, that the party had not addressed the needed reforms since the
last general election. Here is what Mr. Davis said in his own words:
“For my part, people have the right to say what
they want and to say how they feel, but when you are part of an organization,
I think you have to choose where to say what you say and sometimes it is
not appropriate to share all of your views in a particular forum unless
you intend to part from that organization.
“What we must understand is that we do have a
leader, we do have a leadership [structure] and even though you may not
share their views or you do not wish to follow that leader, you don’t go
outside.
“You do your work inside the organization and
you speak within the organization and then if you find you are unable to
make the changes that you would wish and if you are unable to accept the
democratic process that has been set up by that organization then you go
elsewhere.”
RAYNARD
RIGBY RESPONDS TO BRAVE
“This attitude and approach can only lead to the destruction of the PLP
and will cause many enlightened Bahamians to remain isolated from the Party
and its leadership.
“The recent comments attributed to Philip Davis
must be a clear case that he misspoke. He could not have intended
to convey the view that I, or any one in my generation, should leave the
PLP if we have opinions that are not similar to those held by the mainstay
of the Party.
“I would have thought that Mr. Davis, as a deputy
leader hopeful, would be actively encouraging the engagement of ideas and
free thought and would recognize that these qualities can only strengthen
the Party. I can only therefore arrive at the conclusion that he
was not intending to convey the message that the Party is a closed shop,
one where only one view can prevail.
“Further, I would have thought that Mr. Davis
would be a strong protector of one’s freedom of thought and freedom of
speech; whether it is exercised in or outside the PLP. History has
proven that this is what creates strong leaders and strong parties.
“During my tenure as national chairman from November
2002 – February 2008, I made it known that the PLP was only as strong as
its members allowed it to be.
“I also encouraged and facilitated the holding
and voicing of diverse views, opinions and perspectives, within and outside
of the Party.
“I believe then as I do today that our Party
must be a big tent housing a melting pot of ideals. This creates
a strong and dynamic party.
“I will not and cannot be bullied into silence,
nor am I intimidated by the threats of expulsion.
“I am on the right side of history. I want
to be a part of a movement that creates a stronger and more dynamic PLP;
one where the exchange of ideas becomes the centrepiece of our debates.
I will continue to hold true to my core beliefs and principles and I remain
ever steadfastly committed to ensuring that the majority of Bahamians recognize
that there are some of us in the PLP who firmly believe in the sacred tenets
of democracy.”
KEOD
SMITH FORMER MP ATTACKS RIGBY
Keod Smith, the former PLP MP for Mt. Moriah was on radio with Orthland
Bodie, the radio talk show host, on Thursday 30th April. It appeared
to be an orchestrated attack on Raynard Rigby the outspoken former Chairman
of the PLP. He referred to the former chairman of the Progressive
Liberal Party (PLP) as “damaged goods“. Mr. Smith resigned his post
as Ambassador for the Environment during the term of the PLP from 2002
to 2007 following a fight with then PLP MP Kenyatta Gibson in the Cabinet
room. The fight between the two men figured heavily in the FNM’s
successful campaign to defeat the PLP. Here is what Mr. Smith said
in his own words as reported by the Nassau Guardian:
“I will not be surprised if someone does not
cause the disciplinary committee of the PLP to call Raynard Rigby before
it to give reasons why he should not be expelled from the PLP. In
fact [at any time], the leadership council could call him before it and
cause him to come and explain [his actions].
“Mr. Rigby has lost all chance of garnering any
sort of leadership position in the party after he publicly described the
PLP as ineffective and out of touch in a recent Guardian interview.
“He spoke out of turn and should seek to fix
his own shortcomings as opposed to attacking those within his own party.
“He should be restricted to commenting on himself,
and what he is going to do to fix himself because he is damaged goods at
this point in time.
“Any of the comments that he’s said out there
thus far could have been said with as much fervour as you could have mustered
in the council. Why is it that he is saying it out there if you are
not trying to destroy the organization?
“Raynard is not known to be the most effective
speaker when it comes to using the right words. Brave Davis was a
backbencher when we were in [government]; he was a backbencher when [Sir
Lynden] Pindling was prime minister of the country; he is a backbencher
now. What [is there] about Brave Davis [that] could be seen in terms
of him being a dictator? Brave Davis is seen as one of the statesmen
of the PLP; he is also highly regarded in the legal profession.
“If he [Mr. Rigby] understands the PLP, which
he is supposed to be able to understand by now, he would know that by attacking
Brave Davis that if there was any hope of him [having any sort of leadership
position in the party] that is all gone now. How could Raynard who
got a pass to come in and serve in the party at a high-level come in and
attack Brave Davis? Even if I had a disagreement with Brave Davis,
I would not attack him publicly like Raynard is doing.
“Politics is about winning friends and influencing
people. If you don’t want a person to be your friend, you should
certainly be able to influence them. Now Brave is not [Mr. Rigby's]
friend and he certainly can't influence Brave because he’s basically calling
him a dictator. And in the scheme of things now, if you go down the
line in the PLP, you will find many people similar to Brave who share his
views, like myself.”
Keod Smith file photo
MARK
SYMONETTE ROLLE RESPONDS TO IT ALL
The former journalist and now attorney at law is
nipping at the heels of politics. He is sticking his toe in the water,
but so far is not jumping in. From the outside, he is criticizing
those who are in the arena. It is easy to call from the armchair
on a Monday morning. We believe he supports the PLP.
What is fascinating however is when you look at
the comments of Mr. Rolle and Keod Smith, you wonder what could be the
motivation of two young men who are contemporaries of Messrs. Raynard Rigby
and Senator Jerome Fitzgerald to seek to stop them from speaking out on
a situation that needs gravely to be addressed? If Rigby Fitzgerald’s
points are successful, it makes it better for both Rolle and Smith as young
men within the PLP, but their commentary suggests that theirs is a view
that does not quite follow in logic. How do people who bring a message
that is truthful get to be villains because they said it in the wrong place
or because they did not follow protocol?
The PLP and the critics must remember that Hubert
Ingraham is now the nemesis of the PLP because of that fatal mistake made
in throwing him out of the party. Now look what we have. Here
is what Mr. Rolle said in a letter to the editor published in the Nassau
Guardian on Thursday 30th April:
“It is questionable in my view that the PLP has
successfully since its defeat in 2007 projected an image of unanimity in
its public utterances, it is fair to say that the machinery of discipline
in the party is in desperate need of oiling.
“Quite frankly, it is high time that this public
undermining of its leaders is strongly discouraged by the National General
Council. Which lest it be forgotten, has the power to effectively
discipline offending members, parliamentary or rank and file.
“It would serve no useful purpose to go into
the public record of Mr. Rigby as Chairman of the PLP. The record
is there for all to see and judge. But Mr. Rigby should recognize
that it would serve no useful purpose to the cause of the PLP if divisive
statements are made in public which have the effect of eroding confidence
not only in the leader but also in the party itself.
“Now to Mr. Fitzgerald… his public call for Mr.
Christie’s head came as rather a shock to many. Not only was it made
in the wrong forum, but it also raised questions of the Senator’s political
judgment.
“Of course the Senator has provided further ammunition
to the PLP’s political opponents – a brilliant tactical feat. But
the harm is done. The PLP must now do its best to minimize it.”
STAN BURNSIDE’S VIEW OF BRAVE AND RAYNARD
 |
FOREIGN
AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETS WITH THE U.S.
The Opposition Committee on Foreign Affairs and
Foreign trade met with US Chargé Tim Zuniga Brown and other embassy
officials. Fred Mitchell Opposition spokesman is pictured at centre
with Mr. Brown to the left and Ryan Pinder, Co Chair of the Committee on
the right. Others include from left Ed Bethel, former Consul General,
New York; Paul Jukic (U.S. Embassy), Demathio Forbes, Jeff Dubell, U.S.
Embassy; to the right of Mr. Pinder is Viraj Perpall, Young Liberals Chair;
Elcott Colby, Tyson McKenzie and Carlos Smith. The Committee met
with the U.S. Embassy officials at Gambier House on Thursday 30th April.
Photo: Miguel Taylor
THE
ETHICS OF THE NASSAU GUARDIAN
Last week, for the second week in a row we wrote
about the ethics of newspapers in The Bahamas. It has now turned
vicious in some quarters because there appears to be some personal animus
by one of the editors toward one of the writers who is no longer with the
organization. Savaging a young writer is one thing but paying attention
to ethics is necessary all the same.
DON’T
TOUCH THAT DIAL... BUT LEAVE THEM ALONE
Raynard Rigby, Jerome Fitzgerald, Paul Moss are
among the names that have been providing all of the excitement in and around
the PLP of late. Why should the PLP want to stop it? In the
end, it is better in mid-term to be talked about than not talked about.
These men are flexing their muscles, trying out their wings. Let’s
see where this goes. It can’t be that the old PLP instinct to suppress
dissent in the name of some unscripted orthodoxy that is stale dated is
the way to go.
DRY
BREAD FUNERAL PHOTOS
Cyril 'Dry Bread' Ferguson was put to rest in Grand
Bahama last Saturday 25th April. Perry Christie, PLP leader attended
the funeral. Mr. Ferguson was the author of many favoured Bahamian
tunes. He was PLP all the way. Click here
for the previous tribute to him in a photo of the week. The photos
are by Grand Bahama photographer Derek Carroll
CHRISTIAN
COUNCIL IN SAN SALVADOR
The Priest in Charge of Saint Augustine’s Anglican
Church San Salvador, Reverend Father Jude Edomwonyi was unanimously re-elected
on Thursday, 30 April, 2009 as President of the Bahamas Christian Council
San Salvador Branch.
Father Edomwonyi is the first non-Baptist Minister
to serve as president since the inception of the Christian Council in San
Salvador. The Annual General Meeting, held at the Pastor Ethelyn
Arnette Hall on Cockburn Town, had a 100 percent representation.
Also elected were: Pastor Mavis Major, vice president;
Rev. Alrick Butler, treasurer; Deaconess Judith Gibson, secretary; Pastor
Allan Fernander, administrative assistant to the president; and Rev. Nathaniel
Walker, public relations officer.
DONORS,
ANYONE?
Tommy Turnquest, the Minister of National Security
and the Minister responsible for broadcasting, told The Tribune that the
PLP owes ZNS almost a quarter of a million dollars. How much does
the government owe BEC? In the millions! We find this kind
of one-upmanship with FNM politicians to be so tiresome.
Clearly the PLP since the election has not been
able to raise money. The economy has gone south, largely because
of the FNM. And many people spent their money on what they considered
the best bets in the last election are still recovering, so there are few
dollars to be found for this kind of discretionary spending. Clearly,
the PLP is eventually good for the money.
What we do have to fix is that politicians have
to become full time. Political campaigns and parties have to be publicly
funded as the only means of leveling the playing field. What is also
clear is that before the election, some donors were happy to donate.
As soon as it was clear that the PLP had lost and was no longer in power,
Opposition politicians report that the excuses came fast and furious. ‘The
budget is exhausted’; ‘we have reached our limit for donations’; ‘the economy
has gone bad’. Let an FNM Minister call them up, though, and money
begins to pour. That’s just the way it is.
MOREE
MAKES SOME SENSE, BUT WHERE WAS HE?
On radio on Wednesday 29th April, Brian Moree, the
sage who heads McKinney Bancroft and Hughes, but who, because he was hanging
out with the PLP, was ditched by Hubert Ingraham and his kith and kin after
election 2007, has a lot to say these days. If you did not know it,
you would think that he had been following the script of Fred Mitchell,
the former Foreign Minister whose policies he opposed at every turn in
favour of narrow parochialism. Now he is suddenly the convert to
internationalism. He was speaking about the need for a Ministry of
Financial Services. He finally has found his voice, two years too
late. Then he says that there is a need for more overseas missions
to bolster our international trade. Don’t you just love this guy!
Here is what he said in his own words as reported by the Nassau Guardian
on Wednesday 29th April from a radio programme on which he appeared the
day before:
“The fact of the matter is we just need a dedicated
resource on a sustained basis to focus exclusively on financial services.
I’ve often thought, does it make a lot of sense for us to have a Ministry
of Agriculture and not have a Ministry of Financial Services?
“If agriculture deserves its own ministry then
don't you think the second largest industry in the economy which contributes
18 to 20 percent to GDP [deserves] some sort of focused staff under a ministry
whose mandate it is to make sure we stay competitive? I don’t understand
it. To me it’s so simple.
“The Ministry of Financial Services and Investments
that existed under the Christie administration was a step in the right
direction. The Ministry of Finance has too large a mandate to provide
the kind of focus the financial services industry needs to remain competitive.
“The Bahamas is still not competitive with many
other jurisdictions as it relates to product driven legislation.
“We can't survive by putting products on the
books five years after our competitors.
“This is our second largest industry. It
should have greater resources, in my view, than it currently has.
It deserves greater priority in terms of the legislative agenda and we
have to delegate to appropriate persons the authority to make the kinds
of market changes that are necessary to stay competitive.
“The Bahamas is still operating under a 1968
insurance act. We have been talking about amending and replacing
that act for at least eight or nine years.
“The Securities Commission Act is also antiquated.
“We have a capital markets sector now which is
really operating under a hopeless piece of legislation. The Securities
Commission [members] do not have the power to do their job properly.
“The current system of governance works against
the financial services industry. There is a need for more parliamentary
draftsmen in the Office of the Attorney General so The Bahamas could be
more responsive to industry changes and become more competitive.
“If I need a product in the market today and
I’m going to get it two years from now, by the time I get it the market
forces have gone to other jurisdictions.
“...While we are working on products that people
had four years ago, our competitors are developing new products.
“The Bahamas should have diplomatic offices in
competitive jurisdictions to offer industry intelligence.”
WHEN
YOU ARE A MODERATE, THE NUMBERS FALL
CNN is worried. The New York Times may go
bankrupt this year. The reason is the numbers. Fewer people
are tuning in. Fewer people are reading. Both organizations
pride themselves on being right down the middle, seeking to give a balanced
view of the news that they report. What has been happening is that
people tend to view the extremes or read the opinions that most support
their point of view. The result is that rabid, often racist opinion
spinners like Fox News have been growing by leaps and bounds.
In our own country, the loony tabloid The Punch
is by far the most popular newspaper. On the web, there is also no
room for centrist, deliberative opinion. We think about this subject
because we like think that we represent, from a PLP perspective, the nearest
to a centrist and rational position. What do we do to encourage that
as a way of life and a way of thinking, instead of giving in to the loony
tunes?
CRAIG
FLOWERS: A TARGET BUT HE’S THE MAN
We said here in this space before that Hubert Ingraham
and his Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson were going to try to get
Craig Flowers. It is said that he refused to give the FNM donations
and is thought to be funding the PLP. Mr. Flowers is head of an operation
called FML that from all accounts has the corner on the numbers business
in The Bahamas. Despite high profile raids in the past, they have
never been able to convict Mr. Flowers. Chances are they won’t convict
him again. The law is a nuisance and the enforcement of it is extremely
unpopular. So unpopular that even the Minister of National Security
Tommy Turnquest is saying that he thinks that there ought to be a referendum
on a national lottery.
Another high profile raid by the police following
on the ones in Grand Bahama by ACP Marvin Dames that were equally unpopular
took place in Nassau at the start of last week. Mr. Flowers was taken
into custody and by his account they took some $800,000. No one believes
for a moment that this was about law enforcement. As they were taking
away 20 customers, one of whom was reportedly a daughter of FNM politician
Earl Deveaux, someone shouted, “bring back Perry Christie.” That
according to the Nassau Guardian.
Mr. Flowers himself often tells the story that he
was arrested once, taken to the police lock up, held for several hours
then released. No charges were preferred on that occasion, but when
he went back for his $120,000 that the police confiscated during the raid,
he was asked “what money?” So some think this is either a political
plot or a shakedown. What it is not is a legitimate law enforcement
exercise.
Nassau Guardian photo: Edward Russell III
PLEASANT
BRIDGEWATER’S CASE ON 21 SEPTEMBER
Former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and her co accused
appeared before the Supreme Court on Tuesday 28th April for the arraignment
on the charge of attempted extortion of American Actor John Travolta.
The case is to be heard on 21st September before Senior Justice Anita Allen.
The Justice refused to allow the case to be transferred to Freeport.
She said she would give her reasons later. Counsel for the Defence
argued against the decision. The case is completely tied to Grand
Bahama and the expense to the litigants seems to negate the very reason
for having a Supreme Court in Grand Bahama and being judged by a jury of
your peers.
Bahama Journal photo: Torrell Glinton
KELLY
BURROWS OFF FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT
Our friend, Kelly Burrows, along with his dutiful
wife Angela (pictured) summoned close friends to Friday morning mass at
the Pro Cathedral, Christ the King, in Freeport. They gathered to
offer prayers for Kelly as he leaves this week for two months medical treatment
in Florida. As Mr. and Mrs. Burrows entered the sanctuary for
special prayers, one friend recalled the Book of James, 5/13-14 ‘Is
any among you afflicted? let him pray… Is any sick among you? let him call
for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him…’ We
wish Kelly a safe operation and a speedy recovery.
IN PASSING
Ingraham Does Not Participate In Exuma Ceremony
What was that about? Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and eight
of his “boys”, mainly cabinet ministers were in Exuma to celebrate the
national regatta. The Prime Minister’s cup is the top prize and it
was won by Tida Wave, the sloop made famous by the late Rolly Gray of Staniel
Cay. The Prime Minister, though in Georgetown, refused to participate
in the ceremony. Instead, he sat on the wall drinking beer.
Go figure!
No Flu in Nassau but Lots Of Swine
Minister of Health Dr. Hubert Minnis has been all over the press the
past week talking about the swine flu. It is now not politically
correct to call it the swine flu but rather by its scientific name H1N1
virus. Reason being the government of Egypt ordered the slaughter
of all 300,000 pigs in that country in a misguided attempt to stop the
flu from coming there. The fact is the disease is described as such
because of the history of the flu coming from pigs but pigs are not the
cause of the present disease. In The Bahamas, 12 people were quarantined
in Freeport because they had recently travelled to Mexico where the recent
epidemic started. The Bahamian football team travelled to Mexico
last week and is being threatened with quarantine upon their return.
There were rumours aplenty of those who were suffering from the disease.
Some barracks humour on the point: while there is no such flu in The Bahamas,
there are certainly plenty of swine. The question is, are they the
two legged or the four legged kind?
 |
Stan Burnside On The Speaker
Philip ‘Brave’ Davis MP for Cat Island in his statement to the House
on Wednesday 29th April described the Speaker as being a puppet of the
Government. The Speaker, not surprisingly, jumped in to force the
MP to withdraw the statement. What would you like me to withdraw?
said an incredulous Mr. Davis. Would you like me to withdraw that
you are a puppet? Okay, I withdraw that you are a puppet since you
would like me to withdraw that you are a puppet. It was hilarious.
The speaker sat fuming. The cartoonist Stan Burnside reflected the
humour of it in his cartoon of Thursday 30th May.
Loretta Thanks Melanie… Applause
The House of Assembly was simply incredulous when Loretta Butler Turner,
the Minister of Social Development, during the debate on sexual abuse in
the House on Wednesday 29th April, actually thanked the former Minister
of Social Services Melanie Griffin for her contribution to the debate.
It was a moment when the House members thumped their desks in approval.
Mrs. Butler Turner usually seems to take a special dislike to anything
that Mrs. Griffin has to say on social services, almost as if she has some
personal dislike for the former Minister.
Select Committee On Sexual Abuse
The Minister’s stalling is over. He got over his own cynicism
and that of the government and a chastened Minister of Education Carl Bethel
agreed to the committee requested by Glenys Hanna Martin to look into all
matters concerning the sexual abuse of children at the Eight Mile Rick
High School. Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham speaking in the debate
said that the mother of one of the boys who was abused knew of the allegations
long before the matter was reported. He said that other parents,
despite the national outrage did not want to come forward because they
did not want their children to be the subject of ridicule. The man
wanted in the instant case at Eight Mile Rock is Andre Birbal, a Guyanese
national, who taught in The Bahamas for twenty years and who has absconded
from the jurisdiction. There is now an international All Points Bulletin
for his arrest. The Minister of Education told the House that there
are now 15 other allegations of sexual abuse that are now being investigated.
Mitchell To Move A Committee On Land
Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill has tabled a number of questions in the
House of Assembly on the distribution of publicly owned lands. The
questions came after press reports of land being given out to the relatives
and friends of Tex Turnquest the Director of Lands and Surveys, the government
official responsible for identifying and surveying grants of government
land. Mr. Turnquest told the press in answer to their queries that
there was nothing wrong with his relatives receiving land and in any event,
he had not made the decision, it was the Prime Minister’s decision.
No Sex For Kenyan Politicians
The BBC reports that Kenyan women are organizing a threat to the sexual
activity in the bedrooms of politicians. They have even asked the
wives of the Prime Minister and the President to join in the strike where
women will refuse to have sex with their husbands for one week. They
say this is the way to threaten the politicians to peacefully settle Kenya’s
political problems. The BBC says that many say that the men in Kenya
are unable to do without sex for even two days. The link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8025457.stm
Public Servant Forced Out Over Sexual Harassment Claims
During the course of his intervention in the House of Assembly, Prime
Minister Hubert Ingraham on Wednesday 29th April on the request for the
select committee on sexual abuse in Eight Mile Rock said that a senior
public servant had for the first time been retired in the public interest
for sexual harassment. He did not name the public servant.
Attorney Derek Ryan Charged
The Bahama Journal reported that Derek Ryan, attorney-at-law was charged
with threats of harm toward his wife Michelle before Magistrate Roger Gomez
on Monday 27th April. He pleaded not guilty. The case is to
resume before another magistrate because of the family link between his
counsel Damien Gomez and Magistrate Gomez.
Postmaster General Retires
Postmaster General Godfrey Clarke retired on Thursday 30th April after
44 years in the public service.
Fox Hill PLP Visits Bahamas Harvest Church
The Fox Hill PLP Branch and Fred Mitchell MP visited this past Sunday
with Bahamas Harvest Church in the Fox Hill constituency, pastored by Mario
Moxey. From left: Altamese Isaacs, PLP Branch Fox Hill, Fred Mitchell
MP, Yvonne Williams, PLP Branch Fox Hill Charlene Marshall, Branch Chair;
Branch Chair, Marathon PLP, Sharon Martin; Pastor Moxey; Deidre Rolle,
Fox Hill Branch Secretary; and Shereen Glinton Armbrister Fox Hill Branch
member.
| 10th
May, 2009
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com |
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| JUSTICE LYONS IS GONE... | LYONS IN HIS OWN WORDS... |
| CHARLES JOHNSON DIES... | RAYNARD RESPONDS TO KEOD... |
| OBAMA’S PROMISES TO INGRAHAM: WHAT THEY MEAN... | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR... |
| IT'S MOTHERS DAY!... | LATE NEWS - LYNN HOLOWESKO FOR GG?... |
| IN PASSING... | |
The Official Site of the Progressive
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| PLPs On The Web... | Interesting Places... |
| Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town | Bahamas Government Website |
| Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte | Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte | Bahamians On The Web |
| Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw | Bahamian Cycling News |
| John Carey / PLP Carmichael | FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES... |
| Grand Bahama PLP | |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
TWO YEARS OF DO NOTHINGNESS
We allowed last weeks date of infamy 2nd May to pass without comment.
That was the day two years ago that the Bahamian people for their own reasons
decided that they had had enough of the PLP after five years in office
and put in place the Boss Hog who runs the country today and his crew of
infidels. Not even the usually ebullient FNM could muster up much
for this anniversary. They have two years of failure behind them,
hopeless wandering around on policy issues, add a few dashes of blaming
the PLP for everything under the sun, the stop, review and cancel programme
and that is the record of the FNM over the past two years.
What more could we say?
Perhaps though there is a need to rehash some of what has happened in detail. Let us start with the question of the economy and the fact that it is now in the pits. When the PLP left office with voters complaining about leadership and indecisiveness, there was a strong economy. The international financial organizations talked about the momentum of the economy. The country was poised for a period of unprecedented growth that would was unequalled in its history. The FNM came to power and the first thing they did was to put all the public works projects on hold including that for the straw market. They held up the project at Rose Island for the Ritz Carton Hotel. Then the bottom fell out of the US economy. The IMF quickly revised the growth figures downward toward zero. Standard and Poors then said that the FNM’s stop, review and cancel programme had taken the momentum out of the economy. Today the country is facing lay offs, and unemployment benefit programmes, increased social services payments, and business liquidations and bankruptcy. That is just one detail.
Let us look the crime situation. The PLP left office with a functioning Urban Renewal programme for the inner city, the areas of the crime factory. There was the feeling for the first time that maybe someone understood what the policy implications are for trying to lift people out of poverty, by taking care of the whole man or woman. There was the feeling that the entire community was being given a chance to take care of itself, a stake in their own wellbeing. What did the FNM do? They came to office and immediately said that they would change the Urban Renewal programme that was so effective at all of what we have spoken about. They moved the police out of the schools. That led to a rise in violence in the schools. They moved the police from Urban Renewal. That led to the collapse of the interface with young people directly with the police in those neighbourhoods. Now we understand that the National Youth Service programme started by the PLP is on the chopping block. So what do we have today? By every measure, no matter how many commissions on crime they put together, no matter how many reports, by every measure crime is worse than it was when the PLP was in power. The murder count continues to alarm the country, and the courts are under ever more pressure in a situation where they themselves are unable to cope with the demands on them.
Let us look at education. The national average for students is D plus. They have made no progress, despite all that they said about the PLP when it was in office. Now the same members of the FNM who were busy attacking then Minister of Education Alfred Sears for his policies are there defending the very policies that were left in place because they were simply the right policies for the government to pursue. But what we do have today in the schools is that children and their parents do not feel safer. It was a mistake to take the police out of the schools. We also know that parents are concerned about the safety of their children with their teachers, while they are in their care with one high profile example of a teacher who was allowed to molest children and was able to escape the country without any charges being brought against him in the courts. (Click here for latest report below)
Let us look to their record in housing. Under the PLP, there was an unequalled investment in public housing. The FNM came to power, stopping the programme under the guise of reviewing and repairing. It took them two years before they started to build new houses. Up to that time, they claimed that they were repairing houses built by the PLP. Yet it is does not seem possible for them to build their promised 3000 houses in five years if in the first two years they have not even built 300. People complain still that they cannot get a home in a timely fashion for an affordable price from The Bahamas Government.
So that is the FNM over the past two years. There are many more examples. They are a government of public relations and boasting but do nothingness. They had some half hearted attempt themselves to “celebrate” their two years in office but they know and the Bahamian people know that they have nothing to cheer about. They are embarrassed. From the photos, the fun run that they had may have attracted twenty people, if that.
In the House of Assembly, the FNM throttles democracy. Through the Speaker Alvin Smith, there is no freedom to speak, and he is an embarrassment to the very word Speaker. Yet at every turn, the Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham keeps saying how committed he is democracy.
The PLP is certainly committed to democracy and we believe that when the question is asked again about who to support to run the country, the best answer is still the PLP. We hope that is sooner rather than later.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 9th May 2009 up to midnight: 83,579.
Number of hits for the month of May up to Saturday 9th May 2009 up to midnight: 111.465.
Number of hits for the year 2009 up to Saturday 9th May 2009 up to midnight: 4,073,710.
You talk too much you worry me to death
You just talk too much
--Floyd Price
JUSTICE
LYONS IS GONE
It depends on who you talk to whether people are glad or sad about the
quick and ignominious departure of Senior Justice John Lyons from the bench.
Without a public whimper. Justice Lyons is pictured at right with
the Governor General and below, left. Some time on Thursday 6th April,
the news started leaking out over town that Mr. Justice Lyons who had attacked
the PLP when it was in office and said that as he had sunk the PLP he would
sink the FNM, was himself sunk. For our part, we say good riddance.
His departure it appears came when the chief justice, who had been compiling
a dossier of complaints and missteps by the judge, finally put to the Judge
that he ought to show cause why constitutional proceedings for his removal
should not be initiated. With that, Mr. Justice Lyons gave up the
ghost and has now agreed to take leave and finally retire in August.
He will walk away with a pension of a full salary. No doubt, the
secretive judiciary will say nothing of why he departed and then we will
go on as if nothing happened. Except that it should not be the case.
The Judiciary is in a mess. There is a lack
of leadership there. Mr. Justice Lyons and his issues are just one
set of problems. He was the focus of them because he was so voluble
and arrogant. He finally crossed the wrong people. It appears
that his current and most immediate end came in sight with his decision
last September to appoint the brother of his special friend Shonel Ferguson
as the accountant in a high profile but heretofore in camera dispute in
the Bahamian courts between two brothers. Following that order for
Mr. Ferguson as accountant, Justice Lyons removed himself from the matter
and it landed before Justice Allen. That led to an application by
the side of one of the brothers for Senior Justice Anita Allen (below,
centre) to recuse herself from hearing the case, a case that Mr. Justice
Lyons abandoned it appears in hindsight with premeditation because he knew
there would be a problem.
Mrs. Justice Allen as reported on this site pounced
on the appointment of the accountant and said she would not recuse herself.
She virtually accused the judge of corruption (click
here for previous story). The case against recusing herself was
led by the law firm Callenders and Co. Now the interesting thing
is Justice Lyons and Fred Smith are/were thick as thieves. In fact,
it is believed that because of their perceived closeness that Dame Joan
Sawyer (pictured, right) who was then the Chief Justice had Mr. Justice
Lyons removed to Nassau from his original Bahamas posting in Freeport where
Fred Smith practices.
Fred Smith of course is no one’s friend. He
has only interests. As soon as it appeared that Callenders were on
the wrong end of the wrath of Justice Lyons, (see report below) he moved
the Court of Appeal to have Justice Lyons remove himself from that case.
We reported on this site that Mr. Justice Lyons who was upset at the words
of Anita Allen against him described Callenders as having their fangs dripping
with blood. That was confirmed in the Nassau Guardian reporting of
the affidavit evidence of the lawyers for Callenders. Even Justice
Lyons himself now says that those words were injudicious. We report
more fully the words below. But enough about the back and forth.
We think that there is some explanation for all
of this that is needed from the government. Some explanation is also
needed from the Prime Minister and his Attorney General on what this all
means. The Judiciary appears to be in a mess, with one judge attacking
another after another. In fact some joke that the outcome of the
case which Justice Lyons describes as the W case would turn on whether
Joan Sawyer, the President of the Court of Appeal known for some injudicious
statements herself dislikes Anita Allen’s decision more than she dislikes
Philip Davis who represents one of the litigants. In fact, it was
interesting decoding the commentary of Dame Joan as she sat on her perch
in the Court of Appeal sparring with Fred Smith who was having a go at
Justice Lyons. Dame Joan seemed to be quite tolerant of the intolerant
expressions of the judge. No doubt, she had a wish to protect her
own signs of intolerance. But what a mess.
There are rumours abounding that Prime Minister
Hubert Ingraham now intends to pack the Supreme Court with FNMs and get
rid of all PLPs on the bench. He is perfectly capable with scientific
ruthlessness to do that. The system of criminal prosecutions and
criminal trials is so backed up and no one seems to know what to do.
This is a judicial mess. In Justice Lyons defence, many attorney
worry that commercial law cases will be even further backed up now because
he dispatched cases with quick efficiency even though you had to put up
with quite a lot of guff to get the hearing done. He did his work.
Decisions by and large in this country take far too long for the most routine
of tasks.
In Guyana, the government there was so exasperated
by similar delays in the courts that they passed a law saying that the
Courts must make a decision within six months of the case being completed.
Something desperately has to be done here. We don’t think that it
is necessarily something in law but the Judges themselves and potential
judges need to look at this system together with the government to see
what we are going to do before there is not collapse. Indeed, the
bright Keith Bell as he went out the door of the Police Department said
that we are already in collapse. Maybe, and if that is the case then
Lyon’s departure is just the tip of the iceberg. We pity the Bahamian
people in this mess.
Top - Justice John Lyons is sworn in by Governor General Arthur
D. Hanna in file photo: BIS/DEREK SMITH
LYONS
IN HIS OWN WORDS
On 30th April 2009, Senior Supreme Court Justice John Lyons delivered a
written ruling refusing an application brought by Fred Smith for the Judge
to recuse himself from the case Central Bank of Ecuador vs. Conticorp.
The case has been appealed to the Court of Appeal on a preliminary point
of law that the Judge Mr. Justice Lyons should have recused himself from
the case because he cannot act impartially in the matter because he is
hostile toward Callenders and Co. the lawyers for the defendant Conticorp.
Fred Smith, a partner in Callenders & Co. who led the arguments before
the Court of Appeal, read from transcripts of the evidence before Justice
Lyons including in particular the remarks of the judge about his firm.
He is asking the Court of Appeal to overrule Justice Lyons and have him
removed from the case. The point is now moot since the Justice has
now resigned.
The Nassau Guardian reported parts of the transcript
and here they are in the judge’s own words. The application for recusal
was supported by affidavits from three partners at Callenders -- Stephen
Turnquest, Sidney Cambridge and Tracy Ferguson -- as well as from Michael
Saunders, an associate at the firm. It appears that Mr. Justice Lyons
was upset that Callenders represented one of the parties in the W case,
where Senior Justice Anita Allen refused to recuse herself and instead
attacked Mr. Justice Lyons (click
here for previous story). The allegation of Callenders is that
Mr. Justice Lyons was hostile to their case because of their actions in
support of Justice Allen. Dame Joan did not allow Mr. Smith to mention
the other case in court. Part of what the Guardian reported from
the matter in quotes as words of Justice Lyons:
“I see that Callenders is here, blood dripping
from them after the execution.
“I think it [is] reasonable for any person to
infer that when process is not followed, that persons not following process
harbor ill intent.
“In 15 months after making [the] appointment
[to appoint Daniel Ferguson accountant in the W case], I was given no right
of hearing. Information on a sealed matter was made public to which
I have no right of reply. The finding thus made is that I lied when
I put out my full written responses. I have yet to see any evidence
that supports that I lied in [making the appointment]... The point I make
about your firm (Callenders) and the other firms there is that the process
was not followed and therefore must be mal-intent…
“Some persons decided to do me harm. This
was an execution, no doubt about that. I am a liar. So on your
application Fred Smith, it must be inferred that I am a liar and my judicial
career is over...
“There was mal-intention which unfortunately
included your firm (Callenders). Persons appearing in that matter
(the “W” case) waited until I left the country, ignored due process, [so
it is] reasonable to draw inference of mal-intent by your firm... If you
want a judge to recuse himself, come to court with clean hands. I
do not think Callenders came with clean hands…
“For the purposes of this decision [to recuse
myself], I must say that recent occurrences invoked in me a wide range
of emotions. That, I believe, is quite understandable. Anger
was but one of those emotions.
“By its very nature, anger is indiscriminate,
irrational and difficult to contain. Anger is, often justly, aimed
at large. With the value of hindsight, whilst it was necessary that
I return from leave, (I was on leave in Australia when the controversy
occurred), it was unwise of me to undertake active court duties until my
emotions had fully settled…
“Anger has now dissipated. I am not a person
who, after the original explosion, holds on to anger, nor is it my character
to personalize any matter... In my judgment, the objective observer would
come to the conclusion that temporarily anger got the better of me, perhaps
even understandably. Now it has passed. He or she would conclude
it was just that and no more. He or she would not have any apprehension
that there exists a real danger of bias against any clients of Messrs.
Callenders…”
(Ferron Bethel representing the Central Bank of
Ecuador argued that Mr. Smith and the Judge had a good relationship and
that the anger had in fact dissipated and there was no prejudice to Callenders’
clients. According to Mr. Bethel, the anger displayed by Justice
Lyons to Callenders attorneys in hearings before him on April 7 and April
17 had clearly dissipated by April 20 [when Callenders reappeared before
Justice Lyons]. Mr. Bethel relied again on the transcript and the
words that followed to prove that Fred Smith’s application was ill conceived)
(As evidence of this, he said Justice Lyons had
told Mr. Smith that his mother -- whom he was visiting in Australia when
the Allen ruling was delivered -- had sent her warm regards. According
to Bethel, the judge also told Mr. Smith that his mother told him that
if there was one person in The Bahamas who would defend him, it would be
Mr. Smith. And Mr. Bethel said Justice Lyons had taken Mr. Smith
out to lunch while a hearing was ongoing.)
(“Where was the hostility to Mr. Smith?” Bethel
questioned. “If any animus was held [toward Mr. Smith] it had dissipated
by April 20.”)
CHARLES
JOHNSON DIES
Charles Johnson, Chairman of the Fox Hill Festival
Committee has died. Mr. Johnson apparently collapsed at home early
Sunday morning. He was a pillar of the Fox Hill community, serving
as the leader of the Fox Hill Festival, the major community fundraiser
in Fox Hill, which stages a week of activities each year between Emancipation
Day and Fox Hill Day. Mr. Johnson was also president of the Bahamas
Petroleum Retailers Association and a dedicated member of St. Anselm's
Roman Catholic Church in Fox Hill. He is survived by his wife Eulise
and several children. Fred Mitchell, Fox Hill Member of Parliament,
issued the following statement:
“I wish to announce with distress, shock and
sadness, the death of Charles Johnson, Chairman of the Fox Hill Festival
Committee and a well-known Bahamian businessman of Fox Hill origin in his
own right. Mr. Johnson is the third Fox Hill festival Chairman to
die within the last year, the others being Eric Wilmott and William Rahming.
All of these men died at relatively young ages.
“Mr. Johnson’s death adds to the deficit of knowledge
and experience of the culture and traditions of Fox Hill as a community.
The community mourns his passing and will miss his presence. His
death has stunned us all.
“In addition, I know that he will be particularly
missed by the Roman Catholic community in The Bahamas, both at St. Anselm’s
in Fox Hill and by the wider Catholic community which he served as a fundraiser
with distinction.
“On behalf of the Fox Hill constituency and in
particular the village of Fox Hill, I wish to extend condolences to his
widow Eulise and his children.”
RAYNARD
RESPONDS TO KEOD
Last week in this column we reported on the comments
made by Keod Smith, former PLP MP (pictured,right), on Raynard Rigby’s
views about where the PLP ought to go and where it is now, two years after
its defeat at the polls in 2007. Mr. Rigby’s response came after
our weekly upload. We think for completeness that you ought to have
the benefit of his response in his own words. Mr. Rigby (pictured,
left) promised to stay the course.
OBAMA’S
PROMISES TO INGRAHAM: WHAT THEY MEAN
You remember, despite its few weeks of existence,
that now iconic photograph of a grinning Hubert Ingraham in the bear hug
of Barack Obama, the US President. The picture was taken at the Summit
of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago last month. There were lots
of smiles and our Prime Minister even said that the new U.S. President
had promised him that The Bahamas would not have anything to fear about
the changes in U.S. policy toward the financial services sector.
At the time we doubted that this is what Barack
Obama said. We also doubted that the U.S. legislators promised any
such thing to the Prime Minister either. We think that it was all
the summit talk, similar to rally talk, and could not in any event translate
into real policy. The policy of clamping down on the offshore sectors
for financial services like The Bahamas was a central policy of Mr. Obama’s
campaign. How could he abandon it so quickly? Turns out he
did not. We were right. The press reported last week that Mr.
Obama says that he is going to crack down on tax competition jurisdictions.
So Mr. Prime Minister, our lord and liege; your move. What next?
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Dr. Krista Thompson Honoured
Just wanted to drop a line and draw attention to a young Bahamian
academic making waves in the art world. Last month, Dr. Krista Thompson
was honoured with the 2009 David C. Driskell Prize. The prize goes
to a scholar or artist in the beginning/middle of his or her career whose
work makes an original and important contribution to the field of black
art or art history. It is the largest and most prestigious prize of its
kind and has been awarded to a Bahamian art scholar this year. Thought
it might be something your readers would appreciate.
In the interest of full disclosure, Krista is my sister-in-law and
her family and I are inordinately proud of her achievement and wanted to
ensure that our pride is shared with the Bahamian community at large.
See the links below for more details:
http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=2,4,1,6
http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/announcements.php?entity_id=30
Warm regards from a regular reader in Hong Kong.
Andre L Carey
“Greater than the tread of a marching army is an idea whose time
has come”
I think this wraps up succinctly what is happening
in the PLP. All the threats of expulsion and censure really do not
benefit the PLP. If those courageous souls who are speaking up are
seen to speak truth, really the party expels them to their detriment.
I support what Messrs. Fitzgerald and Rigby have had the courage to do,
and trust me courage matters. More importantly I think they are right.
While I understand from a political point of
view where you [the PLP] would prefer debate and dissent to be internal,
it invariably insulates the power base and the status quo. Just imagine
a scenario where a voter who has been generally opposed to the PLP for
whatever reasons. How would I as a voter be aware that there is a strong
resistance to the status quo on varying levels? The unified front
is good if the fruit you present is palatable. If the fruit was found
just a bit bitter, you cannot expect the lapse of time to cause it to be
accepted again. Changes must be seen to have happened.
The public dissent means to me that not all agree
with the status quo and that is in line with my thinking, [which]
I would venture has support with those in the middle. I am not concerned
with whether one is a good or faithful PLP, but more so with whether that
PLP’s thoughts and beliefs are more in line with my own.
Those who publicly admit that there is need for
reform I admire and I do certainly think that they are on the right side
of history. What Mr. Rigby has said to me seems to be pure, naked,
stubborn facts, probably hurtful, but true none the less. It is reassuring
to those who want to support the PLP but not in its present manifestation.
Name withheld
----------------------------
The PLP and the Dodgers: Both are Watching and Waiting
Now that Manny Ramirez, the popular Los Angles
Dodger, was caught taking dope to deal with some unspecified personal problem
and is off the Dodgers baseball roster until early July, the PLP might
take note. The connection is this. The Dodgers now have to
manage a marketing disaster because it built its marketing around Mr. Ramirez.
He is out until July, so what do they plan to do. The New York Times
reports today that they plan to do nothing, the marketing equivalent of
watchful waiting as they say in the medical field. They reason that
he is coming back and the market will adjust. His fans in LA believe
that he has been punished enough. His basic popularity hasn’t changed
and so just wait, they say, and when he comes back see how it pans out.
With any luck, the Dodgers marketing men say, the home runs will continue,
the clowning in the field and the seats will fill up again as the team
heads to the pennant.
There are many who think that also sounds like
a winning strategy for the PLP. They pray that with the way things
are going with the economy, with the FNM under Hubert Ingraham just mashing
up every group of people in town, that things will simply fall back to
the PLP again. Just watch and wait, they say, and we’ll be back.
One good thing about this watchful waiting is
that when Manny Ramirez returns to the field in July, we will see how that
works for the Dodgers. Stay tuned!
Sam Weir
IT'S
MOTHERS DAY!
Today, on Mothers Day, Fred Mitchell MP Fox Hill had the
following message for the congregation of St. Paul's Baptist Church in
his constituency. We thought we'd share it with our readers:
“Mother’s Day for me is bitter sweet and will
be so for the rest of my life. On 4th May 1999 my own mother Lilla
passed away. That was just before Mother’s Day. I remember
sitting down to lunch shortly after her death with my brothers and sisters
and how devastated we all were. There was a great void in our lives.
My father was there as well. Sadly two years later he too
was gone and in the same month around the same time.
“There is not a day that we do not think of our
dear departed mother.
“It is therefore a special blessing to be able
to have your mother alive and with you. Those who have that experience
should cherish it. They should try to make every day mother’s day
so that your mother will always know that she is something special in your
life.
“The women of St. Paul’s church always do something
special for Mother’s Day and I am sure that this year is no exception.
I always look forward to it but unfortunately because this is also the
time for my annual medical check up I am not be able to be with you.
“However, I want the women of St, Paul, those
who are mothers in the biological sense; those who are mothers in the wider
community sense to know that they are special people. I want to express
my special thanks to the Mother of the church Mother Evangeline Rahming
for all that she does to ensure that the church remains focused and that
Pastor is also able to provide the good leadership that he does.
“On behalf then of all of the people of the Fox
Hill Community and in particular the Fox Hill Village, I want to extend
a special blessing on this day and wish you a special day every day.”
Fred Mitchell MP
LATE
NEWS - LYNN HOLOWESKO FOR GG?
Lynn Holowesko tipped to be Governor General - We
have learned that Lynn Holowesko is tipped to succeed Arthur Hanna as Governor
General of The Bahamas. Sources say that Mrs. Holowesko will become
Dame upon the appointment and is to take up the post following the prorogation
and next session of the House of Assembly later this summer. No confirmation
from the Government or Government House on the matter.
IN PASSING
New Communications Legislation
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham with the support of the PLP in the House
of Assembly passed into law three bills to regulate the communications
industry going forward. The Communications Bill sets out the role
of BTC in a privatized environment, the objectives of the initial telecommunications
sector policy and the universal service obligations for television and
telecommunications and the policies moving forward. A new bill to
replace the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Act called the Utilities
Regulation & Competition Authority Act (URCA) which is to govern the
sector, repealing the PUC legislation and the Television Regulatory Authority
Act, regulating content and competition in the sector. A new Utilities
Appeal Tribunal Act, which will create an ad hoc body to hear appeals from
the decisions of the new Utilities regulator. The House met for three
days last week and passed the bills on Thursday 7th May.
BCPOU Battle
In addition to the leadership battle in the Bahamas Hotel Catering
and Allied Workers Union, there is another battle looming for the leadership
of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU).
This is the Union once headed by Shane Gibson, is now headed by Robert
Farqhuarson, and represents the workers of the Bahamas Telecommunications
Company Ltd. (BTC) and the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB).
BTC is about to be privatized and the BCB is facing a transformation says
Minister Tommy Turnquest into a public service broadcaster which will mean
being stripped of its commercialism and becoming a not for profit station,
with layoffs no doubt. In both cases, the Union head has a tough
road ahead of him. Bernard Evans, a former Treasurer under Shane
Gibson is challenging Mr. Farqhuarson for the second time in three years.
He thinks this will be his lucky time.
No Leadership Crisis Says Frank Smith MP
Frank Smith MP (PLP) for St. Thomas More was the guest on Love 97’s
Issues of The Day. He was asked about all the to and fro in the public
domain about leadership in the PLP. Mr. Smith said that there was
no crisis of leadership in the PLP. He said that he supports Prime
Minister Perry Christie as leader but allows for the dissenting views on
the issue that have arisen in the party.
Bahama Journal photo: Torrell Glinton
Paul Moss A Lone Voice Of Sanity
A picture does say a thousand words. Paul Moss has boldly gone
where few other PLPs have dared to go. Beside Jerome Fitzgerald and
some comments by PLP Leader Perry Christie on the matter, the institutional
PLP has not taken up the cause of saving Saunders Beach in Nassau.
The FNM plans to run a road through Saunders Beach and extend Arawak Cay
just in front of it. This will destroy one of the last public beaches
in the country. Mr. Moss went to the beach and said that it must
be stopped. We agree. But where is the PLP on this issue?
Bahama Journal photo: Torrell Glinton
Is Marquis That Rubbish Really Gone?
Champagne corks were popping all over town to mark the last day of
the country’s most unethical journalist John Marquis of The Tribune.
Mr. Marquis made a profession of trashing Bahamians and Bahamian history
while in The Bahamas to make money for his employers. It is not known
whether he will return to England, which he seems to prefer over The Bahamas.
Not a moment too soon is he gone. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Mitchell At Mayo Clinic
Fred Mitchell MP, former Foreign Minister, was out of The Bahamas for
the week May 4th for his annual physical at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester,
Minnesota.
TCI Bid To Stop The British Fail
Michael Misick, the former Premier of the Turks and Caicos is at one
last-ditch effort in the courts to stop the British from taking away the
democracy of the Turks and Caicos Islands. His lawyer Edward Fitzgerald
moved the courts for Judicial Review of the decision by the British government,
which promises to take away local democracy from the present Turks legislature
and Cabinet for two years. Mr. Fitzgerald did not get past first
base. At the preliminary stage, when he was asking for leave to proceed
with the action, he was denied the chance. The Court said that his
application was plainly hopeless and could not succeed. That decision
is being appealed.
Bernard Turner To Be A Judge
The press in The Bahamas reported last week that the now Director of
Public Prosecutions Bernard Turner (pictured) is to accept a place as a
Judge of the Supreme Court. This follows a pattern set by now Chief
Justice Burton Hall where public prosecutors end up being Judges of the
Court. The Court does not have sufficient practitioners from the
private Bar as Judges. That is the only regret with the loss of John
Lyons. People are looking to see whether or not Hubert Ingraham is
to act out the part of the niggardly man that he is and not extend the
term of Justice Cheryl Albury past her 65th birthday this year. According
to the constitution, the Prime Minister has to okay the extension of service
as a Judge beyond the age of 65. You have to retire at 67.
Bishop Randy Frazer Retrial
The Crown has started again to try Pilgrim Baptist Church Bishop Randy
Fraser. All the salacious untested allegations are once again in
the press about how the Bishop allegedly seduced a young woman who had
gone to him for counselling. The newspaper reports do not seem to
do justice to the case. It appears all one sided but in the court
the evidence is in fact tenuous with what appears to be a pattern of inconsistent
evidence and patching up from the last failed bid by the Crown to convict
the high profile Bishop. The decision of the Court of Appeal in this
matter to order a retrial was perverse. The Crown is trying its best
to make sure that there is a conviction by putting the matter before Deputy
Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethel. It was for similar reasons that
they put the PLP Pleasant Bridgewater before Mrs. Bethel. Word came
on Thursday 7th May that a constitutional motion has been filed in the
matter, which stayed the trial in the Magistrate’s Court. Up to our
upload time, it was not clear what the subject of the motion was but it
appears that the lawyer for Bishop Frazer was taken by surprise by certain
evidence that was adduced in last week’s trial that was not adduced in
the trial the time before.
Christie Says Fitzgerald Made A “Serious Mistake”
The Bahama Journal got a response from former Prime Minister Perry
Christie about the comments of PLP Senator Jerome Fitzgerald that he (Mr.
Christie) should not run for office again in the next election. Mr.
Christie was quoted as saying that Senator Fitzgerald had made a “mistake,
a serious mistake… but there it is.” These are not the words of a
man who feels under any threat of a change.
Of Stevie S and Andre Birbal
Bahamapress.com reports that the songwriter and performer of the famous
‘Hold Your Head’ Lemuel Stephen Smith, aka Stevie S (pictured) has been
convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, following a guilty
plea five years after he was charged for the offence in a Freeport court
(click
here for the song that made him famous). He has been remanded
for sentencing. The same website also reports that Andre Birbal,
the Guyanese teacher who absconded from The Bahamas in the face of allegations
of molesting young boys at the Eight Mile Rock School has been arrested
in New York. The report say that he was detained after failing to
pay for a subway ticket and a search revealed that he was wanted in The
Bahamas.
Photo from BahamasPress.com
San Sal Senior Citizens Luncheon
The church of St. Augustine’s of Canterbury San Salvador in collaboration
with the department of Social Services treated the senior citizens of San
Salvador to a special Easter luncheon on Saturday, 2nd May, 2009.
The occasion was held at the Harlem Square Hall in Cockburn Town, San Salvador.
The Priest-in-Charge of the Parish of St. Augustine, Fr. Jude Edomwonyi
acknowledged the senior citizens’ remarkable contribution to San Salvador.
Seated are Mr. Samuel Hepburn (98 years old, the oldest person on the island
of San Salvador) and Mrs. Idell Jones (89 years old, the oldest woman on
the island). Standing from left, Mrs. Terrece Bethel (Island Administrator-in-Training),
Fr. Jude Edomwonyi, Mrs. Latheria Woods King (Welfare Officer Department
of Social Services) and Mrs. Inga Bain (Social Services).
 |
| DESPITE ALL THE PROBLEMS in the public domain about leadership and such, the discussions back and forth about who is going to run and who is not, the PLP continues to have a strong legislative team. Like the Energizer Bunny the cadre of seasoned and up-and-coming fighters continue to battle for the Opposition case and for the Bahamian people. They say the people get the kind of government they deserve but the Bahamian people do not deserve the government that they have: clueless, shameless and idle. That is the way to sum up the thrust of last week’s debate on the Communications Bills in the Senate last week. The lead in the matter was taken by Senator Jerome Fitzgerald and we provide the full statement of his address below. The new Senator Michael Darville from Freeport was a booming voice from Grand Bahama. He reminded the Senate that the people of Grand Bahama sent him there. Senator Michael Halkitis gave a sound and reasoned intervention. Our photo of the week, however, belongs to Allyson Maynard Gibson who called the government despicable. That they are. She reminded the Senate how the FNM wasted an opportunity to get 260 million dollars for the public purse (Click here for the full statement). The PLP agreed to sell 49 per cent of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limed for that amount. The FNM will be lucky to get half of that now. This was all the fallout from the FNM’s ill fated stop, review and cancel programme. The photo shows Senator Allyson Gibson at the podium in the Senate as she made the final presentation by the PLP on the compendium of telecommunications and broadcast legislation on Wednesday 12th May. BIS photo: Peter Ramsay |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE PROBLEM WITH JUDGES
The energy and money that is spent on getting the two parties elected
to office to run the country needs to be spent on the judiciary.
The Courts of The Bahamas have become the great national shame and embarrassment.
We have gridlock. We have attacks by judges on attorneys and attorneys
on judges. We don’t have the practitioners who want to serve.
We can’t get criminal cases resolved within a short period. We now
have a scandal brewing with the resignation of John Lyons from the bench.
It has been one week and no one from the government has said one word about
why the man has resigned and what the meaning of it all is.
There has been plenty of chat in the public domain, by way of the press and the blogs but there has not been a word from the usually voluble Prime Minister. At the very least the Attorney General must say whether or not these charges and counter charges made against judges, by judges and about the judiciary are in fact true.
As a civic activist and a practicing attorney; as an insurgent politician Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill used to gather a group under the Fig Tree in front of the Supreme Court in order to address the issues that needed highlighting with regard to the judiciary. This is a practice which started in 1989 and ended in 2002 but one which is still badly needed. There is no regular intervention for and on behalf of the Judiciary in the country.
The nuts and bolts of the system are the magistrates’ courts and that system has ground to a halt, with injustice after injustice. There appears to be no redress available, against abusive judges or a slow prosecutorial system.
Let us take the one example of the system of granting bail. Most people who go before a court will be granted bail. The problem is not so much the granting of bail, it is what you have to do to get bail. Carolita Bethel, the Deputy Chief Magistrate grants bail but insists that she will not sign the bail release forms until she is finished with her work on the bench for the day. This happened to Pleasant Bridgewater. Ms. Bridgewater joined the queue with other defendants who suffer this indignity of the ‘perp walk’ by the police because the magistrate sat on the bench and continued to dispose of cases without approving the sureties and signing the bail. It is a matter that works an injustice. You have police bail. There is no reason why the police bail cannot be continued. There is no reason for new sureties to be taken in any event but that is what happens.
So it means that often a person gets bail at a ten o’ clock appearance but is still sitting in the cells of the Central Police Station until three o’ clock in the afternoon simply waiting for the magistrate to approve the bail. She appears insensitive and insensible when it comes to this.
In the court of Susan Sylvester, there is the question of what happened once you get bail and the approval of sureties. The surety, let us say, is for ten thousand dollars. The first requirement is that it must be either cash or there must be the production of land papers. The land papers must come with a value over the amount of the bail set. The Magistrate often insists that there be an appraisal connected with the land papers. That means that you can spend hours if not days trying to get all of these things to get someone released for a simple offence for which the bail is low but the paper work inflicts a punishment on the defendant.
We tend however to look only at the question of the criminal side. The civil litigation issues are just as frustrating. It appears that some of the Registrars and Judges simply don’t know the law or lack the capacity to make a decision. Their manners in court deserve a great deal of improvement. There are too many cases of people who take a simple action before a Registrar only to be left in limbo for years. In one case, it took three years for a decision to be made on that simple case. The decision was made orally after three years but the parties were told to come back for a written decision two days later. The order was perfected but no written decision given.
That is just one small problem on the civil side.
There is yet another issue and when one reads what the practitioners had to say with the fall of Justice Lyons, it reinforces the point. It appears that too many judges have around them a cabal of lawyers who are their friends and drinking buddies. Certainly Fred Smith and Justice Lyons qualified as drinking buddies. The result is that many people feel that there is crony justice developing in the country, where if you want a particular result you go to a particular judge. Lionel Levine, a former Magistrate, made another point and that is the vulnerability of judges, especially foreign judges, to the attractions of private practice in The Bahamas. There is the case of former Chief Justice Joaquim Gonsalves Sabola who was still sitting on the bench and was sending his résumé around to a law firm that he ended up working for.
The résumé got into the hands of a civic activist because the court secretary sent it to the law firm with the same first name but not the same last name.
The problem is that despite all the commentary, the attacks by politicians on the judges, the judges’ attacks on the court and the prosecutors, nothing has happened or is happening to improve this system.
The result is that it is hard to get justice in The Bahamas. Who will answer this call?
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 16th May 2009 up to midnight: 171,096.
Number of hits for the month of May up to Saturday 16th May 2009 up to midnight: 350,965.
Number of hits for the year 2009 up to Saturday 16th May 2009 up to midnight: 4,244,806.
LAWYERS
WEIGH IN ON LYONS
There was considerable fallout and commentary from
the resignation of Justice John Lyons from the Supreme Court last week.
Some thought that he was a bad guy who deserved to be fired. Others
thought that he was a good judge who dealt expeditiously with commercial
cases and understood commercial law. The question is now who will
fill the position and the other positions on the bench. The Judicial
and Legal Services Commission has three vacancies to fill. The talk
around town is that two are to be filled by Rhonda Bain and Bernard Turner.
Now the Lyons vacancy needs to be filled.
The resignation of Justice Lyons also brought forward
the voices of many who had not been heard from on these matters.
Maurice Glinton, a leading Freeport attorney took the opportunity to give
a more general view of the legal branch of government by describing the
Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall as being “invisible”. But perhaps the
most remarkable of all was Lionel Levine, a former Magistrate and an Englishman
now practicing in The Bahamas, who said that the appointment of Justice
Lyons was a mistake from the beginning. In that, he joined Tennyson
Wells, the former Attorney General, who said that at a law conference in
Fiji when he was Attorney General, he was warned not to bring Mr. Lyons
to The Bahamas. He said he shared his information with the Prime
Minister but the appointment went ahead anyway.
According to Lionel Levine, Justice Lyons’ appointment
was a mistake from the start because he immediately set out to try to get
a job in the private sector and live in The Bahamas. This, Mr. Levine
said, made the Justice a target for the predations of local law firms.
Mr. Levine said he is still suffering from that today. This may give
some credence to the theory around town that there was a cabal of lawyers
around Justice Lyons who seemed to be his drinking buddies and who appeared
to be amply rewarded for it. Fred Smith of Callenders and Co., who
led the charge against Justice Lyons in the successful challenge of his
ruling not to recuse himself from the Central Bank of Ecuador case, was
one of Mr. Lyons drinking buddies. The full comments of Lionel Levine
appear in his own words as reported in The Tribune on 13th May:
“Justice Lyons may have done much good work in
dealing expeditiously with the commercial business in recent years, but
the appointment proved to be a mistake. Almost from his appointment,
he made it known that having decided to adopt a Bahamian lifestyle and
make The Bahamas his home he wanted to retire here and carry on the profession
of law after his retirement as a judge.
“Such talk made him the prey of ambitious lawyers
with political ambitions. I know I was the victim of such predation
and the ramifications continue.”
Mr. Levine’s comments seemed quite sensible but
then he seemed to go off the rails with a not too subtle campaign for Brian
Moree the Managing Partner of McKinney Bancroft and Hughes to be Chief
Justice on the ground that he is competent and respected and not politically
affiliated. Few people believe all those things at once about Brian
Moree except Lionel Levine. Mr. Levine savaged Michael Barnett the
Attorney General.
The whole piece in The Tribune seemed suspicious
after the push for Brian Moree. Mr. Levine seemed to think that one
man can solve the problems of the Judiciary. Friends of Mr. Moree
claim that he wants nothing more than a knighthood and that would be the
quickest way to get it. Here is more of what Mr. Levine said:
“The Prime Minster knows that Mr. [Michael, Attorney
General] Barnett is not the person to restore the public confidence in
the standing of the judges or the credibility of the lawyers in this country.
Without that respect restored to the bench and bar, it is difficult to
fight crime. On the other hand, if Mr. Moree can be persuaded to
accept office he may by his standing and recognized integrity more than
anyone else be able to turn things round and restore the expectations of
both the lay and public in The Bahamas.
“Without it, the free falling will continue.”
AG:
WE MUST ACCEPT THE DECISION
Attorney General Michael Barnett on Tuesday 11th
May expressed regret that Justice John Lyons resigned. Mr. Barnett said
told the Bahama Journal: “It was my privilege to come before Justice
John Lyons on many occasions. He was a judge who worked very, very
hard. But we have to recognize and accept his decision to retire.”
The retirement becomes effective on 1st August,
Emancipation Day. The resignation is said to have come about after
a show cause letter that came from the Chief Justice after Justice Lyons
made certain allegations of misbehaviour against the Chief Justice.
Bahama Journal file photo
HANNA
MARTIN SCOLDS INGRAHAM FOR ATTACK ON IMMIGRATION OFFICERS
PLP Chair Glenys Hanna Martin (pictured; file photo) issued a statement
in answer to a statement made by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to Immigration
Officers at seminar last week. He accused them of being corrupt and
being ill mannered. It never ceases to amaze us how a Prime Minister
thinks that he can talk to grown people in this way. He has decimated
their ranks and then accuses them of being corrupt. But these people
voted for him. Here is what Mrs. Hanna Martin to say in her own words
on 13th May:
“I am embarrassed at the recent reported comments
of the Prime Minister, Right Honourable Hubert Ingraham in a presentation
at the first annual customer service conference for Immigration officers.
While we acknowledge that there are some amongst us at all levels of the
spectrum, including the political spectrum, who would seek personal advantage
over and above national interest, by and large, and I believe certainly
in the Immigration Department, we have some of our nation’s finest sons
and daughters at work every day in the task of building our country.
“Immigration officers, in particular, are entrusted
with the protection of our borders, sometimes at great personal risk to
their safety; That a person no less than our Prime Minister would see a
gathering of such Bahamians at an event designed to enhance and improve
their profession as an opportunity to negatively impugn them in such a
blanket fashion, is very unfortunate and deeply offensive. While
I agree wholeheartedly with the Prime Minister’s message that there should
be institutionalized respect for all peoples it is a pity that he chose
to overshadow an otherwise positive message with what I would call most
unfortunate remarks.”
KEOD
GETS BACK HAND SLAP
We present both sides of the story as told to the
press during the week. Last week, it appears that Keod Smith got
an order against the Hotel Union’s executive and instead of getting a process
server to serve the document, he went to serve it himself. In the
process he ended up getting punched in the face and; according to Mr. Smith,
his $600 glasses got broken. This all happened on Monday 11 May.
Keod Smith is no stranger to fighting, having lost his job as Ambassador
for the Environment because of a fight with Kenyatta Gibson, the now FNM
MP in the Cabinet Room when they were both PLP MPs in the last administration.
In the post election report, the fight was one of the reasons given for
the PLP losing the general election. Here is what Mr. Smith said
in his version of the fight:
“I dropped it [the order] in front of him [union
executive Basil McKenzie] as he was turning away from me, and as I turned
away from him I was struck in the face then I realized it was him.
He hit me on the right side of my face, knocked my glasses off and the
person escorting me through the building grabbed me and stood between us
until he walked away.
“I have been an activist for a great part of
my adult life so I have been well around and pushed about before.
I am not delicate and I am one who believes you can’t expect to be in the
boxing ring saying you are a boxer and not expect to be hit, literally
or figuratively.”
Basil McKenzie who is the one who is alleged to
have slapped Mr. Smith had this to say to The Bahama Journal:
“He [Keod Smith] had no right to touch me.
I did slap him, I did not strike him, I slapped him, and I ‘back-hand’
slapped him. I saw him at the foot of the steps and he came pushing
on me screaming, ‘Basil McKenzie, I serve you.’
“He is saying that he was attacked. But
how could somebody attack you when you have nothing to do with them?
I turned around and hit him one slap. If he did not touch me, I would
not have had anything to do with him.
“My name was not even on that [summons]. So I do not see why
he was all up in my face demanding that I accept it. He provoked
me and I did what I had to do to defend myself.”
Tribune photo: Felipé Major
WHAT
DOES INGRAHAM GET FOR THE APPOINTMENTS?
Last week, we reported from this space that Lynn
Holowesko is to get the job of Governor General to succeed Arthur Hanna.
The press of The Bahamas followed up and spoke to Mr. Hanna about it.
He said he does not comment on matters of the world. Silly of them
to call him. Why would they not call the Prime Minister who is responsible
for the appointment? Perry Christie, Leader of the Opposition, said
he had not been consulted on the matter. The question we have is
even more fundamental: what is it that Hubert Ingraham owes these people
that he gives them so much?
BAY
STREET SPLIT ON THE PORT
The Tribune reported last week that a meeting of
the private group of investors in the new Port that is to be put on Arawak
Cay was held to consider the final offer from Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham
on the project. The paper said that the investors have been instructed
by the Prime Minister to be quiet about the details. It is clear
that the FNM have learned from the Clifton experience, which was derailed
by PLP activists on the question of destroying the cultural heritage of
The Bahamas. This time, Mr. Ingraham intends to simply act without
any publicity and do what he intends to do, shifting the facts on the ground
before the PLP can act.
Mr. Ingraham's Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette,
who is involved in a conflict of interest, in that he chaired the Port
group that chose the site at Arawak Cay when he is an owner of property
along Bay Street, got into the mix last week. Mr. Symonette denies
that the road that is to cross Saunders Beach to join the causeway from
the new container port in front of Saunders Beach is part of that project.
He told the press that it is not part of the project, but simply part of
the road improvement project being paid for by the Inter American Development
Bank.
Meanwhile, there appear to be cracks in the Bay
Street merchant group on what should happen at the Port, with a letter
being published last week from John Bethell, second generation Bay Street
Boy. He thinks the Port should stay where it is or be moved to southwest
New Providence as the PLP envisaged. Here is what he said in his own words:
“There will be 50-80 million required to invest
in this project. Considerable time will be needed to construct new
facilities.
“A major public investment for the improved surrounding
roadways would be required. Private shipping companies currently
located on East Bay Street would be required to relocate to the new facility.
Business operations of both shippers and clients would be disrupted during
a fragile economic period.
“Shipping would be placed at the entry to the
Nassau Harbour in plain sight of arriving cruise ships and other ocean
going visitors.
“The use of Arawak cay for lodging, retail or
other tourism or civic uses would be compromised by the introduction of
this new industrial use to the island.”
Mr. Bethell thinks a new bulkhead should be constructed
north of the existing port, with one exit and entrance for the containers
into and out of Bay Street, but this will provide for continuous shopping
along Bay Street. He thinks that the Port should stay where it is
for now with adjustments and then plan a proper move to southwest New Providence.
SCANDAL
BREWING IN LANDS & SURVEYS
Tex Turnquest (pictured) is the Director of Lands
and Survey, at least he was up until last week. He was ignominiously
forced out by all accounts. In a signed article by Paul Turnquest,
the other Mr. Turnquest was reportedly forced out by the Prime Minister.
Kudos to reporter Paul Turnquest for carrying this through to the end.
We knew it was just a matter of time when a civil servant who is responsible
for land says that there was nothing wrong with his family getting land
from the Government and further more it was not him, it was the Prime Minister
who made the decision. Mr. Ingraham moved quickly to stop the damage
from getting close to him.
Fred Mitchell MP who has asked for a Select Committee
of the House to look into this matter of the disposal of public lands said
now more than ever answers are needed from the Prime Minister. The
people who got the land in Exuma involved in the scandal are all FNM.
One of them is Tex Turnquest’s mother-in-law. Tex Turnquest said
it was Mr. Ingraham who granted the land. Why then was Tex Turnquest
made to resign from the public service last week in the wake of the charges
of giving away land that have now come into the public domain? Hubert
Ingraham must answer and fully disclose!
PARTY
FOR JOHN MARQUIS
One of the strangest pictures was Rodney Moncur,
the political activist, hosting a party for John Marquis, the racist anti
Bahamian editor, in Black Village, one of the traditional centres of African
culture in the island of New Providence. Boy, talk about Uncle Tomism.
It is quite something for a celebration to be given
for a man who actually trashed the Bahamian people, who hated black people
and Bahamians. Self-hatred is quite something as well.
But what was even more curious was the fact that
Felix Bethel, a known Bahamian nationalist, a COB lecturer and radio commentator
was there at the party as well. It appears that Mr. Marquis gave
Mr. Bethel an outlet at The Tribune, which helped to solve a problem he
was having at the College of The Bahamas. Whew! We know he
is not an Uncle Tom, but… Great God almighty, what a surprise!
OUTRAGEOUS
SCANDAL AT GRAND CAY
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday 14th May PLP Senator Jerome Fitzgerald
questioned why the brand new, state-of-the-art clinic that was fully furnished
and built by National Insurance more than two years ago in Grand Cay, Abaco,
is still unopened and unoccupied.
Mr. Fitzgerald told the Senate: “Residents of
Grand Cay are forced to use the old cramped-up clinic while a modern state-of-the-art
medical facility just sits. In addition to the new clinic, the brand
new residence fully furnished for the doctor and or nurse also sits unoccupied.”
Mr. Fitzgerald while speaking on the Communications
Bill in the Senate said “Here we are today speaking about the wonderful
changes taking place in communications, e-mails, e-health, e-education
etc. and the Member of Parliament for North Abaco and the Minister Health
both failed to discharge this vital obligation to the people of Grand Cay.”
Senator Fitzgerald said this was a pattern under
Hubert Ingraham because the Prime Minister did the same thing in South
Andros when the FNM came to office in 1992. The result was the clinic
stayed unused for ten years and began to rot for 10 years. You may
click
here for his full statement.
Incredibly, the Minister of Health claimed in the
press that there was no compromise to the health of the people of Grand
Cay as a result of the unopened clinic. He said that he did not want
to open the clinic because there was still some landscaping to be done.
We have the photos of the clinic that were tabled in the Senate.
It shows the great neglect and waste of the FNM, government even in Hubert
Ingraham’s home seat in Abaco.
Said Senator Fitzgerald: “Here we are, two years
later, and this virtually completed building just sits unoccupied. What
a waste. Where is the Trust? Where is the accountability? Where is the
transparency?”
CHARLES
JOHNSON REMEMBERED
The Fox Hill Community, together with friends and
family of the late Chairman of the Fox Hill Festival Committee Charles
Johnson held a memorial service Saturday evening on the Fox Hill Parade.
Mr. Johnson died suddenly last Sunday 10th May. He was the third
chair or former chair of the Fox Hill Committee to die within the last
year. He was also Chairman of the Bahamas Petroleum Retailers Association
and the chief fundraiser of the Catholic Church in Fox Hill St. Anselm’s.
Scores of people turned out for the public memorial
on the Fox Hill Parade. Among those speaking were Jamal Davis, a
nephew as well as the Member of Parliament for the area Fred Mitchell,
who led a tribute to Mr. Johnson. Following the service, family members
and friends released balloons into the air, commemorating Mr. Johnson.
He is to be laid out at Gambier House, the PLP’s headquarters in Farrington
Road on Tuesday 19th May at 11.00 a.m. His funeral service will take
place on Wednesday 20th May at 11.00 a.m. at St. Anselm’s in Fox Hill.
He will be buried in the Church’s cemetery.
ABOVE: from left Janet Davis, sister of Mr. Johnson; Patricia Burrows, Fox Hill Festival Committee Member; Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell; Sanchez Johnson, son; Eulise, the widow Johnson, Christian Johnson, son; and Dexter 'Sweet T' Thompson. Below left, Jamal Davis, nephew, addresses the congregation at the memorial. Below right, the release of the balloons by Mr. Mitchell. Bottom, A shot taken as the wider congregation regain their seats after a short raid drizzle.
IN PASSING
Turks Premier Speaks Out
Turk and Caicos Premier Galmo “Gilly” Williams has asked the British
to hold a referendum before taking the step of suspending the constitution.
He was speaking at the decolonization conference in St. Kitts sponsored
by the United Nations. The British are pursuing their policy of suspending
the constitution. They are just awaiting the final report of the
Commission of Inquiry due to come out on 31st May.
Guardian Deal With Trib Falls Through
Last week the public editor of The New York Times took the paper to
task for not reporting the threat to shut down the Boston Globe, its sister
paper. Newspapers have a hard time reporting their own problems objectively.
Seems both The Tribune and the Guardian here at home are sleuths when it
comes to others’ problems but not their own. You remember the ‘great
deal’ on operations that The Tribune and The Guardian put together with
Eileen Carron, Tribune Publisher as Chair and Emanuel Alexiou Guardian
owner, as Deputy Chair and Robert Carron, Eileen’s son as the President.
Well, the deal had gone sour. No announcement, but it appears that
The Guardian has simply walked away. There is a complaint circulating
that they found no value in the deal for them, but worst of all, it appears
that Robert Carron was too generous with the compensation for himself in
the deal. This is the second time that he has had problems with such
generosity. Once he reportedly invested Mummy Carron’s money and
bought a home for one of his assignations. Of course, we also know
that there was a falling out between The Tribune and Sol Kerzner of Atlantis.
The latter reportedly was annoyed that someone at The Trib tried to make
a play for his dead son’s wife. Tribune privileges were reportedly
cancelled at the happening. But the Trib should report the news.
Talk dat!
Billy Saunders At His Ugliest
Perhaps William ‘Billy’ Saunders, the self-described “poor conchy joe”
who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, will be pleased now that Charles
Johnson is dead (see report above). Mr. Saunders carried on like
a natural ass on the night when PLP Fox Hill branch members showed up at
Charles Johnson’s home to visit his wife and children following his sad
and untimely death last week. Mr. Saunders, who himself is only this
side of the grave, is annoyed at the fact that black people live in his
neighbourhood. He hates the PLP, pathologically so; and black people
in particular. As he pulled up in his car, he was annoyed that night
because there was a car coming in the opposite direction and he would not
be able to pass unless the driver or he backed up the car. He put
on the brakes of his car, came out, and tried to threaten the young man
who was driving the other car. He told the man that he was an ass
and a few threats came back from the young man, who said that he had a
good mind peel his behind over the car. “The man is dead!” said the
young man. To which Mr. Saunders replied “I don’t give a F*** what
he did!” There is a special place in hell for lowlifes like that.
He is a shameless racist. This is the same man who was accused of
firing a gun at Dr. Judson Eneas because of the same thing, over cars and
parking.
Emerald Bay To Close
The pattern is the same as under the FNM in San Salvador and Club Med
during their last time in office. They allowed the facility in San
Salvador to close and put people out of work. It took the PLP to
come to office to have Club Med reopen even if it meant subsidizing the
facility. Mr. Ingraham and his government sit just like ducks and
do nothing. Emerald Bay, the crown jewel of Exuma, where some 500
people work, announced last week that they will close their doors on 26th
May and everyone will be furloughed. Some 100 people will be kept
on to maintain the facility. The owners, the mortgage holders, said
that the property continued to lose money and it was better to shutter
it rather than sell it as a going concern. Anthony Moss, MP for Exuma
told the press that this would devastate his constituency. He said,
“Without
a doubt, it will certainly affect the economy of Exuma to the point where
I can say, it will be devastated. When you look at the persons who
have rental properties, that persons are going to lose their clients, transportation
provided by taxi drivers is going to be affected, even the small business
people, people who have grocery stores are going to be affected... If you
have a population of 6,000 on the island, if you lose 500 jobs the effects
are going to trickle down to small business, beauty salons, food stores,
people are going to feel it.”
Bishop Fraser Trial Continues In Magistrates Court
The press reports that the lawyer for Bishop Randy Fraser is to return
to Magistrate’s Court and the trial is to resume after a brief suspension
for a matter to be dealt with by the Supreme Court. It appears that
Supreme Court Justice Sir Burton Hall turned down the appeal of the Bishop’s
lawyers that because he was taken by surprise by new evidence that the
venue for the trial should change. The trial must now proceed in
the Magistrate’s court it appears.
The Politics Of Kay Smith Calling ZNS Mediocre
It seems quite strange to us why the FNM continues to attack the public
service and are always calling the Bahamians who work for them lazy, and
other such negative names. The latest was Kay Forbes Smith who is
into her last days as a Senator and will head off to Atlanta as the Bahamas
Consul General and who described the workers at ZNS as mediocre.
We wonder why people would want to vote for someone who is always calling
them bad names. What a nasty business.
Hywell Jones Murder Case
The Bahamas press is trying to make murdered Englishman Hywell Jones
a saint, what with all the pictures in the press of friends and family
grieving for the loss of their dear departed. We are all saddened
when one man dies and we hope the police get their man or woman.
Problem we have is that the Commissioner of Police and his Prime Minister
have agreed to start an incident room and suddenly, ostensibly because
this a foreigner and an Englishman, all the attention and high publicity
around it means that we must take special measures to solve the murder.
But what about the others who can’t find out who killed their loved ones,
with some 24 murders so far this year.
Rodney Burrows Shot
He is a major businessman and building contractor in Exuma. Last
week he was shot six times and seriously wounded in a robbery attempt at
his home in Exuma. This is reportedly the second time such a robbery
took place, only with more serious consequences this time. He was
airlifted to Nassau for treatment and is said to be in serious condition.
This is tragic. He is the second largest employer in Exuma behind
Emerald Bay, which is now closing its doors. Mr. Burrows supports
the FNM but was reportedly quite upset that the FNM closed off the tax
concessions for buildings and caused the building sector to dry up in Exuma,
throwing scores out of work.
 |
| THE DREADED SCHENGEN VISA: Ever since the Dutch for false reasons of economy closed their consulate in Nassau, it has been one hell of a problem to get a visa to travel to Europe. In response to the formation of the European Union’s common border and the issues of immigration, 19 EU countries joined together and soon they will be joined by Switzerland to form a treaty known as the Schengen Treaty. It imposes a common visa policy and standard. In order to get into Europe, the individual countries no longer issued different visas; you had to get the Schengen visa. Bahamians have been inconvenienced because there is no way to get it here, and you have to be without your passport, sometimes for weeks at a time, in order to get one. Fred Mitchell MP PLP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs began the process to the opposition of the Free National Movement and the bureaucracy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get a visa waiver abolition agreement with the Schengen countries. Some harsh words were said sometimes as the process moved through. The then French Foreign Minister Dominic de Vilpin refused to see Mr. Mitchell when he was foreign minister on the grounds that he was too busy. The Bahamas was seeking to find out why France continued to object to the removal of the visa restriction. Then after the European Commission agreed, the matter was held up because Austria got ticked off that Caricom imposed a common visa for entry during the cricket tournament. The Bahamas was not part of those arrangements, but there was yet another delay. The result is the FNM administration now gets to benefit from what was done under the PLP. On 28th May, the visa abolition agreement is to be signed by The Bahamas. On 1st June, the waiver is to come into effect. Hopefully the Schengen countries are more efficient than our bureaucracy and Bahamians won’t arrive at the European shores only to be told that the policy is not yet into effect. The French Ambassador Marc Olivier Gendry ironically came bearing the good news. He presented his credentials to Governor General Arthur D. Hanna on Thursday 21st May. Our photo of the week is the presentation of credentials by the French Ambassador (Click for more photos below). BIS photo: Peter Ramsay |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
OF MICE OF MEN
(BURYING CHARLES JOHNSON)
There is nothing like the death of a good friend, a good father
and husband, a confidant, a great civic and community leader, without notice
to concentrate the mind. When that person is a relatively young man,
in the prime of his life, it is even more shocking. That is really
the best way to describe the death of Charles Johnson, a PLP Stalwart Councillor
and the head of the Fox Hill Festival Committee and the Chairman of the
Bahamas Petroleum Retailers Association (BPRA).
Two Sundays ago on Mother’s Day 10th May, Charles Johnson awakened his wife at 6:30 a.m. to say that he was going downstairs to fix breakfast for the wife and children and for the church’s morning after-mass group. She went back to sleep. The next thing she knew their youngest son, all of four years old, awakens his Mum to say that Daddy was asleep on the kitchen floor and that the boy could not get him to wake up. Death had come.
This man was so full of life, just the evening before entertaining his Kiwanis friends at his beautiful home on the Eastern Road. He is gone too soon.
Charles Johnson was not famous or prominent in the way that Perry Christie and Hubert Ingraham are prominent. But we can assure you that without men like Charles Johnson there could be no Perry Christies or Hubert Ingrahams. But he was prominent just the same. Our country is in fact run by the Charles Johnsons of this world. He was a businessman who ran two Shell gas stations. He led the BPRA. Fred Mitchell MP, when eulogizing him, said that he ran the best auto body repair shop in the country: Johnson’s Auto Body Shop in Fort Fincastle. He was once the Chairman of the Fox Hill PLP Branch. He was made a Stalwart Councillor of the Party, entitled to sit in perpetuity on the lead council of the Party. He was the chief fundraiser for his church St. Anselm’s in Fox Hill. He was an officer in Kiwanis of Cable Beach. He was an officer in the auto body club that restored old cars. He was a man with a plan, a vision. He was a good father, brother, husband and friend. His death has left an unimaginable hole in the lives of many. It is simply stunning; the swiftness, the certainty, the finality of it.
Charles Johnson was the quintessential type of Bahamian man that pulled himself up by sheer force of will and determination. Imagine the story of being born to an unwed mother, taken into the tutelage of a stepfather assuming that stepfather’s name following his mother’s marriage. Wanting to go to St Augustine’s College, but his father and mother could not afford to send him there. He had to go to trade school instead. His obituary says that he determined that he would make something of himself and he did.
Out of the poverty of his birth and childhood in Fox Hill, he was able through his intellect and hard work and perseverance to be able to move in his lifetime to a home on the Eastern Road, over the ridge from the poverty in which he grew up. Billy Saunders, the self-described “poor conchy joe” who so objected to Charles Johnson moving into his neighbourhood, had in fact the same story, but hated Charles Johnson for it. We reported on this last week. That too is sad not to be able to overcome racism in the 21st century.
The family kicked in, the community kicked in, the church kicked in, the party kicked in, to say farewell over the past week to Charles Johnson. Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill described him as the ‘go to’ guy in Fox Hill. The man to whom you could turn if you got into a jam. Mr. Mitchell said that this happened on two occasions. One time, the Chairman of the PLP branch left the branch without leadership and later defected to the FNM. Charles Johnson stepped in to run the branch. Then the FNM’s candidate Jacinta Higgs left the Fox Hill Festival Committee in the lurch after only six weeks on the job as Chairman. She was not an FNM then, or so it was then thought; and so she would have had no ulterior motive. Again, Charles Johnson stepped in and finished the job.
Charles Johnson was buried in St. Anselm’s cemetery on Wednesday 20th May in Fox Hill. He leaves behind his wife Eulise, his children Primrose, Charles Jr., Crystal, Sanchez and Kristjian. He leaves his brothers and sisters and the wider Fox Hill family, that of the PLP and the Roman Catholic Church.
Death be not proud! You have not done a kind thing. But horseman, pass by!
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 23rd May 2009 up to midnight: 144,539.
Number of hits for the month of May ending at Saturday 23rd May 2009 up to midnight: 495,504.
Number of hits for the year 2009 up to Saturday 23rd May 2009 up midnight: 4,389,345.
BAD
BUDGET NEWS
The country’s annual budget will be presented to
the House of Assembly by the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Hubert
Ingraham on Wednesday 27th May. It should be a real doozy.
The press in The Bahamas all got copies of a memo which shows that drastic
cuts have to be made across the board to all government departments of
as much as 17 per cent. The talk these days is that the situation
is so desperate that the government cannot even meet routine bill payments.
They say that there might even be job cuts coming. The president
of the Bahamas Public Services Union John Pinder who is close to the FNM
government says that he has been assured not, but we all know that a promise
for Hubert Ingraham is not worth the paper its written on. Look for
people with 30 years service or more in the service to be forced to retire
as a cost cutting measure.
THE
FRENCH COME CALLING
The new Ambassador for France Marc Olivier Gendry
presented his credentials to the Governor General Arthur Hanna at Government
House on Thursday 21st May. There was an official lunch that day
by the Governor General and then a reception hosted by the Ambassador for
his citizens and the Diplomatic Corps and Bahamian officials at Graycliff
later that day.
Above left; Opposition Foreign Affairs Spokesman Fred Mitchell MP
escorting Natalie Scott, President of Alliance Française in The
Bahamas; above right, the Governor General and the new French Ambassador
greet Mr. Mitchell. Below left, with Agriculture Minister Larry Cartwright
and PLP Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Committee co-chair Ryan Pinder;
below right, from left Tim Zungia Brown, US Chargé; Foreign Minister
Brent Symonette and the Ambassador; bottom left, with the Haitian Ambassador;
and bottom right, with Senator Lynn Holowekso, President of the Senate
at lunch in Government House. BIS photos: Peter Ramsay
FAREWELL
TO CHARLES JOHNSON IN PICTURES
We present the pictures of the formal farewells
of the community of Fox Hill and the PLP for the late Charles Johnson,
former Chairman of the PLP Fox Hill, Chairman of the Fox Hill Festival
Committee, Chairman of the Bahamas Petroleum Retailers Association, Chief
of Fund Raising for St. Anselm’s Catholic Church in Fox Hill and Kiwanian
on Wednesday 20th May and at PLP Headquarters Gambier House on Tuesday
19th May.
Photos: Peter Ramsay
CABLE
BAHAMAS CRY BABIES
We could not believe it, but that is what he called
them. T. Baswell Donaldson, the Chairman of the government’s privatization
committee called Cable Bahamas Ltd. “crybabies”. The reason: Cable
Bahamas did not like the position put out by the committee (see btcprivatisation.com)
in the Universal Service Obligation (USO) paper with regard to television
service.
Cable Bahamas said that the process was not a pure
process because it was too much influenced by officers from the Bahamas
Telecommunications Company Ltd. (BTC). It said that this meant that
it could not get a fair shake in the design of the obligations. It
said that it had never heard of a universal service obligation for television.
The obligation for television would force the provision
of a minimum level of service to each community in The Bahamas for television
services of a basic minimum of six channels including ZNS and the parliamentary
channel to each settlement in The Bahamas, defined as a group of ten households
or more.
Tim Donaldson did not like the criticism.
He said that the objection to the BTC having too much influence was nonsense.
He said that Cable Bahamas simply wanted its monopoly position to continue.
He called them crybabies. He said that there was very little sympathy
in the society for Cable Bahamas. We agree. It is a lousy company
and needs no sympathy.
What Cable Bahamas needs to do is to perform its
obligations to the Bahamian public before its monopoly runs out.
There are still large swaths of the Bahamian community that have no cable
service, but by the magic of their technical formulas, they claim that
they have fulfilled their obligation to the government by providing service
to most of the market in the country. South Andros and Western Exuma
are still without basic cable service.
MRS.
MACDONALD RETIRES AFTER 46 YEARS TEACHING
Sylvia L. McDonald was treated like the queen of
the profession that she is by the Principal, Staff and students of the
Sandilands Primary School on Friday 23rd May. Mrs. McDonald’s Tribute
came at the Fox Hill Community Centre. Her life’s work was saluted
in song and skits by the children of the school. She was bestowed
with gifts from the school and then treated to lunch at the Crystal Palace.
Mrs. McDonald spent 30 years teaching at the Sandilands Primary School.
Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill was there for the event.
Photos: Miguel Taylor
IT
WAS 1982 - AN ARCHIVE PHOTO
We thought that you might be interested in this
piece of history. The year was most likely 1982. It was the
year of the general election and the cry was “Step Now”. There was
a mass PLP meeting that launched its campaign called “the University of
Wulff Road”. Andrew ‘Dud’ Maynard, the father of now FNM Minister
Charles Maynard, was the PLP’s Chairman and Lynden O. Pindling was the
Prime Minister and Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party. This
looks like the end of the evening and the photographer Vincent Vaughn caught
the Chairman Mr. Maynard with the PLP hand symbol in his hand, photographer
Peter Ramsay and Sir Lynden. Mr. Ramsay is still with us today chronicling
events. Dud Maynard no longer supports the PLP and Sir Lynden, well,
he has gone on to his reward.
Photo: Vincent Vaughn
PLPS
IN THE HOUSE
The House of Assembly met on Monday 18th May to
debate Amendments to the Insurance Act. Even though the government
of Hubert Ingraham has not brought into force the act that the PLP passed,
here it was the House was brought back to amend the PLP’s bill. The
reason is that they are about to bring the Act into force, but they want
to have a provision to allow for the appointment of a statutory administrator.
This is someone who will act as a receiver of the insurance company if
it runs into CLICO-like trouble.
The only point is, the CLICO debacle has already
happened. The horse is out of the gate. Add to that the fact
that there is already in the PLP’s bill the provision for a Judicial Manager
whom the court can appoint to do the same thing. The FNM’s ideas
did not seem to make sense. In any event, there was an ample debate
with the PLP heaping scorn on the FNM for their conduct in the CLICO matter.
The photos show PLP House Leader Dr. B.J. Nottage with Fred Mitchell MP,
MPs Alfred Gray and Picewell Forbes MP.
BIS photos: Peter Ramsay
RICARDO
DEVEAUX HONOURED BY ALMA MATER
Contributed
article...
It was an historic day on Saturday, May 9, 2009
when Ricardo Deveaux returned to his alma mater, Bethune-Cookman University
to deliver the coveted 2009 Spring Commencement Address. Deveaux told more
than 450 college graduates that despite the doom and gloom being predicted
that the future is bright and the possibilities are endless, if they are
willing to dream big dreams and work hard at achieving those dreams.
He urged the graduates during his commencement address
to embrace their future because Bethune-Cookman and indeed the world are
expecting great things from the Class of 2009. He noted that they were
ending a chapter in their lives but more importantly about to begin a new
chapter. The past that they were leaving meant a future that they are winning.
Deveaux, a 1990 honour graduate from Bethune-Cookman
University, spoke to some 8,000 in the Daytona Beach Ocean Centre. Deveaux
recalled how in 1983 he was required to withdraw from his private academic
institution due to failing grades and a public school in The Bahamas gave
him a second chance and Bethune-Cookman afforded him the opportunity to
prove that he was capable of achieving a college degree. In his address,
he highlighted the support of his parents – Edward & Beverly Deveaux
and a high school guidance counsellor – Zoie Miller-Powell, who never gave
up on him.
He also told the graduates that they had the power
to make things happen in their lives. He gave the example of at his graduation
some 19 years ago envisioning himself returning to Bethune-Cookman one
day to serve as a commencement speaker and note that this is “The Power
of our Dreams”.
He also noted that he felt honoured to join the
long list of distinguished citizens like Sir Lynden Pindling, Bill Cosby,
Jeremiah Wright, Cicely Tyson and Earl Greaves who had graced the podium
to deliver commencement addresses at Bethune-Cookman. Ricardo Deveaux was
awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by the University.
Ricardo was joined in Daytona Beach by his wife,
daughter, parents, his high school guidance counsellor and about 50 family
members and friends from The Bahamas and the United States.
Above: Dr. Deveaux delivers the Commencement Address; below, left;
Dr. Deveaux and Bahamian Miss Bethune-Cookman University 2008-2009 Tempetts
Stubbs of Freeport, Grand Bahama; below right; honorary doctoral recipients
Ricardo Deveaux and Lee Rhyant with Dr. Truddie Kibbie Reed – University
President; and bottom are family members and friends who travelled in support
. Photos: John Reeves – University Photographer
POWERFUL
NEW YOUNG LIBS WEBSITE
Contributed
article...
PLP will win youth vote in 2012 - The Progressive Young Liberals
is serious about winning the youth of this nation and they understand that
they must use the Internet in order to have that done, so they have launched
their first website: www.progressive242.com.
This is the first fully powered youth political
website in the country's history and the first youth website for the PLP.
PYL Chairman Viraj Perpall has said, "If we embrace technology, we will
reach our youth. Whoever wins the youth of the nation, wins the election."
He went on to say, "The FNM is always talking this and that about them
being the party for youth well it is the PLP who has established the first
COB youth chapter, which is the first youth chapter of a political arm
at a tertiary institution in The Bahamas. We again are first in reaching
the needs of our people."
The COB chapter called HYPE stands for Honourable
Youth Proposing Empowerment. The chapter was established in April and the
progressive242 website was completed last week in May.
"When I became steering committee chairman of the
young liberals, my goal was to increase our presence in the party through
the NGC and being on several committees, also to establish a political
website and a COB chapter.
To date we have done all of the above and are ready
now to win the hearts of youth around this nation." Perpall says
he plans to do much more with the PYL in the months and years to come as
his heart is with the youth of The Bahamas. He said that the youth
will see and are seeing that it is the PLP who is concerned about their
future and as has happened before they will come to the party for direction,
vision and a better way of life.
Perpall added that though he is a PLP supporter
and head of their youth branch, he also wished to bridge the political
divide between the FNM and the PLP to reach all youth in the nation on
a bi-partisan level. As a result of this, he has undertaken efforts
with Torchbearers President and the FNM's Torchbearers Association and
he has worked on several committees with FNM Minister of Youth Desmond
Bannister to reform national youth service and to reach youth with a message
of peace and nationhood.
In January, Perpall and Torchbearer's President
Jamal Moss travelled to the Inauguration of Barack Obama on request of
the Minister of Youth Desmond Bannister. Recently Moss and Perpall
were apart of group of youth who met with Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham
to discuss the concerns of young people in The Bahamas. However,
he still believes the PLP is the party of choice to lead the Bahamian people
forward and feel that in the next general election the PLP will get the
youth vote and form the next government of The Bahamas.
LETTER
TO THE EDITOR
Budget Cuts Foreshadowed
There was a recent interview with the state minister
for Finance published in the local dailies. In the interview Laing talked
about poor government revenue performance and subsequent pressure being
placed on the government which will force the government to act (i.e. alter
its present fiscal policy of deficit spending).
I am sure you are aware of the headline
in the Nassau Guardian about probable cuts in the upcoming 2009/2010 budget.
This confirms a shift in the government's fiscal policy from a mode of
deficit spending into a mode of fiscal austerity, a complete reversal.
This policy shift then raises the question of the wisdom of the allocation
of scarce financial resources in the Government's Economic Stimulus Package;
I note again that the government's stimulus package exceeded one half Billion
dollars or 7.5% of the Gross Domestic Product of the Bahamian economy.
Was the package to narrow in scope to meet the short-term needs of the
country? This apparent policy shift is also an admission by the government
that the borrowing was unsustainable.
Since the single largest public expense
is salary/emoluments, it is a fair and educated guess that the government
will seek to trim its budget by reducing its headcount. So in a nutshell,
we can look forward to more misery as the economy is predicted to shrink
by 4.5% (according to the IMF), the largest economic contraction since
the Great Depression. At this rate and in light of the closing of Emerald
Bay in Exuma, we could very possibly see 20% unemployment at the end of
the year, also the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression.
I suppose the revenue from the sale of
the Bahamas Telecommunication Company is badly needed to offset the government's
poor revenue performance and subsequent borrowing. It is important that
the Bahamian people receive the best possible price for BTC, which should
be at least $270.4 million for 51%. Lastly, but not least, the government
must revisit its methodology for the allocation of scarce financial resources
with a focus on the creation of diverse and broad-based employment opportunities.
We must watch this upcoming and critical
budget debate with eagle eyes and critique it objectively. The Bahamian
people deserve no less.
Elcott Coleby
IN PASSING
Rosel Wilson, Frankie’s Daughter, Marries
We offer our congratulations to the new couple Dr. Beverton and Rosel
Moxey of Nassau. They were married yesterday at the Christ Church
Cathedral in ceremony at which former Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese
Drexel Gomez presided. He is the son of Captain Lesardo and Malvese
Moxey and she is the daughter of Franklin and Sharon Wilson. He is
a doctor at the Doctor’s Hospital and she is an attorney with the Royal
Bank of Canada. The father of the bride spared no effort for the
last child out of the nest. It was a day of great celebration and
the church was packed with guests who included former Prime Minister Perry
Christie and Congressman Maxine Waters of the United States with her husband,
former Ambassador to the Bahamas Sidney Williams. Baritone
soloist Wintley Phipps (US Dream Academy) performed with Dr. Sean Jackson
(St. John’s, Stamford, Connecticut) at the organ and Bahamian soloist Candice
Bostwick sang the Ave Maria. Congratulations to them all.
Above, the newlyweds leave the church; row on below left, parents
of the bride; and below right, a cross section of wedding guests, including
Dame Marguerite Pindling, Max Gibson and Senator Allyson Maynard Gibson;
Fred Mitchell MP; and in the background, Leon Griffin and Melanie Griffin
MP. Row two below left, the mother of the groom; row two below right,
Archbishop Patrick Pinder, Perry Christie MP and Sir Orville Turnquest;
bottom centre, groomsmen gather as the bride's garter is taken. Photos:
Peter Ramsay
Hotel Union Elections Stopped
A court injunction has apparently been obtained which stops for the
time being the elections of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers
Union from proceeding without Kirk Wilson, Vice President on the nomination
ticket. Mr. Wilson’s lawyers obtained the right to have judicially
reviewed the decision to exclude him from the ticket. Mr. Wilson
claims that the date set by the group he chaired is the correct nominating
ticket and date and not the one by the Secretary General of the Hotel Union.
The fight goes on.
Commissioner Of Police Honoured
A group of Acklins Islanders headed by Rev. C.B. Moss, the defeated
candidate for the Bain and Grant’s Town seat and the former Senate Vice
President under the PLP, honoured the Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson
for his accomplishment. They were lavish with their praise for Mr.
Ferguson. We cannot help but think that in the objective sense and
without more, that it is fine to honour him for his accomplishment.
However, we do not think he is the right person for the job and honour
him as much as you will; he is still not the right person for the job.
The Rains Finally Come
Heavy rains have brought the drought period of March, April and May
to an end. Forest fires had been breaking out in the forests of western
New Providence and in Grand Bahama, it was so bone dry. The Water
and Sewerage Corporation was having problems meeting its water quota per
day. The rains have now come with a vengeance, causing localized
flooding.
PJ Patterson Attacked In Jamaica
P.J. Patterson, the retired Jamaican Prime Minister, was furious following
leaked reports in the press in Jamaica that a plane that he took back from
a same day trip to Cuba had been searched after he left the plane and that
half a million dollars U.S. were found on the plane, but that nothing could
be done because the parties were Cuban diplomats and one senior Jamaican
politician (translation, Patterson) who all had diplomatic passports.
The talk shows in Jamaica went into overdrive attacking the former PM and
he had to respond by press statement. The police played coy, which
compounded the problem. Later in the week, after a promised investigation,
now Prime Minister Bruce Golding clarified the matter, saying that while
the plane had been searched, Mr. Patterson himself was never under arrest
or suspicion and that in fact the search took place after Mr. Patterson
and the other passengers had left the airport. They were unaware
of it. No one on board was a Cuban diplomat. The plane was
in fact chartered by the phone company Digicel for a commercial trip to
Cuba. The Jamaican former PM is their consultant. The now Prime
Minister says they there is a suspicion that there is mischief afoot in
the matter and this is being investigated.
It’s Confirmed: Andre Birbal In Custody
The teacher from Guyana who fled The Bahamas after he was put on administrative
leave for allegedly molesting boys at the Eight Mile Rock High School in
Grand Bahama has been arrested in New York. We reported it on this
site some time ago but it is now confirmed by the Minister of National
Security Tommy Turnquest and the police and the Attorney General's Office.
The AG’s office says that they have not yet filed extradition papers for
him but they understand that he has not agreed to waive the extradition
proceedings.
The Traffic Lights Don’t Work
Neko Grant, who has to have gone down in the history of The Bahamas
as the worst Minister of Tourism if not the shortest time in office Minister
of Tourism, is now the Minister of Works. He is making a right mess
of that too. He has not been able to get the traffic lights in Nassau
to work. Bulbs are blown, lights have been twisted to one side, some
knocked down, and others simply blink away dumbly. The company that
was hired to fix them told the press that it is the bureaucracy that prevents
them from simply fixing the lights. True to form, the FNM Minister Neko
Grant came back the next day to say that a special contract had been awarded
to fix the lights and that not to worry they would all be working shortly.
Where have heard that before?
Bahamaspress.com The PLP Report
Someone has made available to the website bahamaspress.com what purports
to be a copy of the report that was commissioned by PLP interests in the
last election about why the party lost the election and what it will take
to win back the government. This puts fully into the public domain
what was apparently leaked to the Nassau Guardian last year.
Kenyatta Gibson Crosses A New Line
There is a line in the movie A Man For All Seasons when Sir Thomas
More has been sacked for refusing to give the oath of allegiance to the
king as head of the church in England on the grounds that it offended his
conscience to do so. His successor in the job had no such principles.
The two meet as More is leaving yet another confrontation with the king
and More realizes that his successor and a man whom he thought was a protégé
had betrayed him. He notices as he passes him that he has the crest
of Wales on his chest. More says to him “And you did this for Wales?”
The Welsh part of the kingdom was the lowest of the low in those days.
So when Hubert Ingraham trotted out the Kennedy MP, already not in good
graces for breaking his word with the PLP and the people of Kennedy and
crossing the floor to the FNM, to savage Fred Mitchell, the MP for Fox
Hill because Hubert Ingraham was too cowardly to defend himself against
Mr. Mitchell’s principled attacks in the House on Monday 18th May, the
public would be entitled to ask Mr. Gibson “And you did this for Ingraham?”
Anglican Bishop On The Mend
The Anglican Bishop Laish Boyd appears to be recovering from his prostate
cancer surgery. He hosted the Anglican Church Women at their annual
service at the Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau last week. It is
not known when he will return fully to his office and administrative duties.
TCI In Great Britain
A delegation of the Turks and Caicos Islands headed by Premier Galmo
‘Gilly’ Williams spent last week in Britain seeking an audience with the
Foreign Office Minister responsible for the Turks and with Gordon Brown,
Prime Minister and the British Leader of the Opposition David Cameron.
No word on their success. The British are intent on suspending the
organs of the constitution in the Turks and Caicos Islands for two years
on the purported grounds of corruption. They have a nerve given their
own corruption scandals. No government there has been suspended though.
The Speaker of the British House, Michael Martin resigned. A new
Speaker will be chosen. So why can’t the same be said for the Turks?
They have a new Premier, why should he not be given a chance to see how
he can clean things up.
Cayman Islands Elections
The Opposition party headed by McKeva Bush is back in power in the
Cayman Islands. There is hope for the PLP yet. The new constitution
was voted for by most Caymanians and in three years time they will get
a new constitution which will have the government headed by a Premier and
a Cabinet responsible for running the country’s affairs instead of a Leader
of Government as the job is now titled and styled.
Tami Ferguson Culmer Has A Boy!
It was about this time last year that Fox Hill celebrated the wedding
of Tami nee Ferguson to John Culmer, a son of the Valley. This morning,
Mrs. Ferguson gave birth to the couple’s first child, a son whose name
is to be John, after his Dad. Congratulations to the Culmers!
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
A WOMAN LEADS THE HOTEL UNION
Nicole Martin and her team trounced Roy Colebrook and Leo Douglas,
the incumbents of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union.
Ms. Martin thus became on Thursday 28th May the first female President
of the most powerful union in the country, a union that is largely female.
Roy Colebrook who initially came to power by a one-vote victory, lost after
only one term, and a turbulent term at that. He did not seem to grasp
the nature of the job he had. By the time the elections took place,
the Union was mired in one controversy or another. There was always
some fight or other. The defeat seems to have settled all of that
convincingly. Let us hope that the trouncing of all the opponents
now leads to better leadership for the Hotel Workers in the country who
so badly need it.
The final tally: Nicole Martin 1358, Tyrone Butler 416, Andrew Smith 297, Roy Colebrook 270. Mr. Colebrook came dead last.
It is a shame that Leo Douglas, the long serving Secretary General, who was there with Bastian, Pat Bain and then Mr. Colebrook is now out himself, the victim of being connected with an unpopular President. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be that Mr. Colebrook was a creature of the hotel establishment; that during his tenure Barrie Farrington of the Hotel Employers Association controlled the union. It got so bad that there were accusations that the lay offs that took place at Paradise Island took place with the complicity of the outgoing team of the Hotel Union.
As the election neared, Kirk Wilson, one of the Vice Presidents of the Union and who was gearing up to run against Mr. Colebrook, got the legal counsel of former PLP MP Keod Smith. Mr. Smith did not give successful legal advice to Mr. Wilson. It appears that Mr. Smith made the mistake of getting too involved in his own case. At one point getting slapped by a Union executive when he tried to serve a process on the union, something a professional process server should have done. The result is that the man who had led the fight to straighten out the Union’s problems in the face of a truculent Union president was left off the ballot and unable to compete for the office he so badly wanted. On Election Day, he was reduced to the sidelines of the contest. There was a last minute injunction obtained by Keod Smith to stop the elections but the Union went to court and it was discharged and the elections went ahead. The substantive case is to be heard on the 26th June. One wonders in the circumstances of such a trouncing defeat whether or not the matter should go ahead. It is better for Mr. Wilson to leave the matter alone and sue for terms with Ms. Martin.
The candidate whom we thought was a good man and who was also hard done by the outgoing team was Tyrone Butler. Mr. Butler is a decent fellow. He worked hard. There was a problem at the union between him and one of its employees. The Union team fired him summarily and without any mercy. Then they proceeded to want to strip him of his membership of the Union. This was an incredible act of ungraciousness and pettiness. In the end, he came a distant second to Ms. Martin but hopefully she will see the wisdom of lending him some support.
Now Ms. Martin has her work cut out for her. There are a couple of issues that will immediately present themselves. First, the industry is in meltdown given the financial crisis of the hotel owners. This will require all her skills to keep the Union relevant and on course. Secondly, the issue of the finances of the Union must be put on even keel, with full accounting to the public. Mr. Colebrook and his team did not seem guilty of any malfeasance; they simply did not seem to know what they were doing. The union’s use of monies to pay for the emergency needs of its members in these hard times needs to be fully accounted for. We do not think that an Ingraham style witch-hunt is necessary or desirable. Thirdly, the critical area of Freeport needs to be addressed. The Union might have some ideas about what the government can do there. There is a great depression in Freeport. Lastly, Ms. Martin can restore confidence to the core mission of the Union, that of representing workers and protecting their terms and conditions and improving them on the job. It is a tall order but from all accounts, she is up to the task.
What does the election of Ms. Martin mean to The Bahamas? The PLP should draw a lesson from all of this. It might mean that the country is beginning to accept that the need for nastiness and hostility in public life is over. The Colebrook regime in the hotel union got a reputation for being odious and contemptuous of the people they led. Everyone was stupid but them. Everyone was wrong but them. That is the national temperature under Hubert Ingraham. He is the only man with any idea. He is always right, and no one else has anything in their head except him. He is difficult, cantankerous and insulting to people. There needs to be an end to that era nationwide, and a new era ushered in of kinder, gentler, without sacrificing the need to act decisively on matters of national importance.
Last week, someone leaked copies of the report commissioned by a PLP after the last general election to figure out what went wrong with the PLP. The report had been earlier leaked in parts to the Nassau Guardian. Now the full report and the executive summary are in the public domain. The report clearly places the blame of the loss of the government on perceptions about weakness and indecisiveness by the PLP leader Perry Christie, some 57 per cent of those surveyed. It is clear then what result should have followed from the election. The report had some redeeming things to say about how those perceptions could be corrected but the fact that nothing has been done in the two years since the report, authenticates the very thing the report discovered. The same team is now to lead the PLP into the next general election.
One of the redeeming things that the reports points out is the fact that the PLP’s leader was known for his compassion for people but the decisiveness point trumped that consideration. So if we were to guess on a winning formula it has got to be that there must be a combination of strictness and decisiveness with compassion for people. Hubert Ingraham is a dog in the manger. He cannot help himself, and the era of nastiness is going to get worse as the economic problems worsen. It is the job of the PLP to push Hubert Ingraham to show his true colours.
Ms. Martin's election shows that it is possible for things to change. It is possible with new leadership. The old often has to be swept out, if they won’t go away, new has to be swept in. That is the way of time. Everything must change. Let us hope that this is the real meaning of Sharon Martin’s election to the Presidency of the Hotel Union. Congratulations to her and best wishes to her full team.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 30th May 2009 up to midnight: 197,667.
Number of hits for the month of May up to Saturday 30th May 2009 up to midnight: 693,171.
Number of hits for the year 2009 up to Saturday 30th May 2009 up to midnight: 4,587,012.
INGRAHAM’S
BUDGET
Hubert Ingraham and his Ministers came proudly strutting
across the public square from their redoubt in the Churchill Building on
Wednesday 27th May. It has become a tradition with him to have his
Ministers and his Parliamentary team accompany him across the square to
present the country's budget. Zhivargo Laing, his Minister of State
is the bag carrier for the occasion. This is what we have come to
after working to get his education, a bag carrier for Hubert Ingraham.
They seemed to be proud to be doing what they were
doing, hubris, grinning from ear to ear. They have no shame.
They actually looked as if they were proud of themselves. But when
you later heard the budget, heard the news of what they actually plan to
do, the destruction of the economy over which they have presided, you wonder
what in the world they are proud about. Mr. Ingraham himself described
the situation in the country way back in March as disastrous. He
could not say anything better this time.
Perry Christie, the former Prime Minister, had a
press conference on Wednesday 27th May, right after Mr. Ingraham’s statement
and he called it depressing, sobering. He said that it was a budget
without hope. We agree. These people ought to be ashamed of
themselves. They will run a fiscal deficit that will exceed any in
the history of the country with the deficit scheduled to be a whopping
422 million dollars, twice the 07/08 budget. He expects to borrow
310 million 09/10, with a deficit of 374 million dollars. The latter
will be the highest in the history of the country. He hopes to sell
BTC, the phone company to avoid having to borrow more to make up the revenue
shortfall.
The whole idea of a debt to GDP ratio of under 40
percent is gone said Mr. Ingraham and will be gone for a long time.
He expects that it will be 43.9 percent next year. All of this is
happening under Hubert Ingraham. There is no point in him talking
abut the world economy and what is happening in the world. It happened
on Hubert Ingraham’s watch. Doom and gloom. He took away the
nurses insurance. He has frozen the pay of civil servants.
He cut 80 million dollars from the budget of last year. He cut 12
million dollars from tourism, the area that is supposed to get us going
again. He offered no relief for the poor. Hubert Ingraham is
a disaster. We hope that during the ensuing weeks as the debate in
the House of Assembly unfolds, that he is scorched over and over again
for being a lousy, worthless Prime Minister.
You may click
here for the full budget statement of the Prime Minister. You
may click here
for the response of Perry Christie, Leader of the Opposition.
BIS photo: Letisha Henderson
THE
BAPTISTS COME OUT SWINGING
The Bahamas Baptist Missionary Educational Convention
held its annual convocation at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on Tuesday 26th
May. Outgoing President Dr. William Thompson is in his last year
of a nine-year stint as leader of the nation’s largest denomination.
There was an election for a new president. The choice was between
Anthony Carroll of Antioch Baptist Church and an ally of Dr. Thompson and
Rev. Dr. Philip McPhee, the sometime sailor and pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist
Church. Rev Carroll predictably won. Rev. William Thompson
will demit office next year and Rev. Carroll will serve as President elect.
The Convention runs the Bahamas Baptist College and two high schools in
Nassau. At the convention, Dr. Thompson threatened protests if the
government goes ahead with legalizing gambling for Bahamians. We
do not think that this should stop the legalization. It should be
legalized and forthwith and without discussion. It is always interesting
to see that even as the church members in church clap for stopping gambling
you know that some of the members that very day were in the web shops buying
numbers.
MITCHELL
ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE
Fred Mitchell MP for Fox Hill and the Opposition’s
spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and the Public Services, held
his monthly press briefing at the Committee Room of the House of Assembly
on Tuesday 26th May. Mr. Mitchell warned the government in advance
of the budget that civil servants should not be made the scapegoats for
the inefficiencies of the government. The warning went unheeded.
The Prime Minister announced the next day in his budget statement that
civil servants including teachers, nurses and doctors will not get their
raises this year. Worse, nurses will not get the insurance that they
bargained for under the PLP. The head of the Nurses Union Cleola
Hamilton was apoplectic. Mr. Mitchell’s full
statement can be seen here.
WHAT
THE NURSES HAD TO SAY
Nurse Cleola Hamilton spoke to the press on Thursday 28th May responding
incredulously to the budget statement by the Prime Minister. Here
is what she said in her own words:
“I think the government, at least the Minister
of Health, should have been in consultation with us…The prime minister
said that we will not have insurance nor a salary increase and our position
is to at least come up with something because those are things, especially
the insurance that they should have had in place since last year.
“We would have spoken with them but quite frankly
we do not expect anything from this government because this government
really, really does not treat nurses generally very well so that did not
come as a surprise to us.
“The promotions would have come out for the nurses
from the Department of Public Health so in that aspect the promotions came
out but whether they are going to be paid I do not know but they got a
letter saying they were promoted. This government does not want nurses
joining together and out of everything that was negotiated in our agreement,
under this government, we have not gotten anything.
“The government is using the lull in the local
economy as an excuse to take certain actions.
“[The economy] is a factor but we have to look
at good governance. I find that with not only the government but with most
employers they use the excuse of the economy not to do some stuff.
“The economy plays a role but I also think management
also plays a role in the finances of a country.
“One of the things we found exception is that
the prime minister said there are some areas that he has put some money
into. I do not really believe that they can not find the funds to pay us
or provide us with insurance but if they want to say that it is because
of the economy then who am I to die over that fact?
“I think if they made the effort, we could have
at least gotten one of the two promises – either the salary increase or
the insurance.”
File photo: Bahama Journal
BRAVE’S
20 PERCENT OFF IDEA
The Bahamian press was full of reports on their
front pages about an idea of Philip ‘Brave’ Davis that he would be willing
to take a 20 percent cut in his Parliamentary salary in order to help the
country through the fiscal crisis. This was quite a surprise.
The official statement of the PLP made no reference to accepting a 20 percent
cut. No other colleague joined him.
We believe that there should be no cut in salary.
What should happen is that provisions ought to be made for full time members
of parliament with the appropriate and commensurate salary, the support
staff, travel allowances and the staffing and equipment support instead
of talk of cutting salaries.
Knowing Hubert Ingraham, he has just the kind of
disgustingness to take this idea and run with it, knowing that it will
disproportionately affect PLPs while his Ministers have nothing to worry
about.
THE
SAC CLASS OF 1969
Some of the graduates are Sean McWeeney, (Brenford) Verdant Christie, Paul
Major and Henry Lightbourne. Today they are amongst the movers and
shakers of The Bahamas. Forty years ago about this time, they were
16 year olders leaving the St. Augustine’s College for the final time.
The photo of the St. Augustine's Monastery above is from the class anniversary
booklet. Henry Lightbourne, one of a team of classmates who publicised
the 40th class reunion, which saw the return of the famous Dean of Men
Fr. Alvin Fong Ben for a special service at St. Anselm’s Catholic Church
in Fox Hill, circulated this summary of the events:
Forty Years Later… The Saint Augustine’s College Class of 1969
Celebrates a Milestone - A transformational chapter in the story of
the Bahamas is being remembered this weekend as members of the St. Augustine’s
College (SAC) Class of 1969 gather in Nassau to commemorate their 40th
anniversary as graduates of their high school.
Aspiring teenagers of the late 1960s, the Class
of 1969 proudly wore the SAC colours at a time when the school earned its
name as "the Big Red Machine" for its outstanding performances in Sports,
particularly in track and field. It was also a time when matching performances
via academic effort and achievement were expected and demanded. In retrospect,
perhaps, there was not all that much to distinguish this year from the
many that came before and after it, but its members enjoyed a unique spirit
of shared pride and experience at the school.
Within SAC, this melting-pot of 125 Bahamians
and expatriates, Nassauvians and Islanders, rich and poor, Whites and Blacks,
Asians and Hispanics, Catholics and Protestants, Christians and non-Christians,
all watched, and in some measure helped to shape the profound changes that
occurred in and around the school. During their tenure the student body
exploded from just over one hundred to well over 1000. They moved from
the hilltop monastery to the modern new campus in the valley – which many
of the boys, in their hours of detention, physically helped to build. An
experiment in boarding school accommodations began and ended. They enjoyed
the switch from a unisex campus to a co-ed one as the all-female high school,
Xavier’s College, was amalgamated with the all-male SAC. They were the
guinea pigs in a pioneering transformation of the curriculum which required
that they meet very high GCE standards and make the necessary preparations
to pursue higher education in the US rather than the UK. A rising Black
consciousness and pride in their school and country were nurtured and promoted
even among the changing faces of the school’s faculty and administration.
Off –campus, the 69ers were in the midst of the
social and cultural upheaval that cut into religious vocations so much
so that many priests and monks moved from the cloisters to the secular
world, marking the beginning of the slow end of monastic life on the Fox
Hill site. Economically, they watched as Bahamian money changed from pounds
and pence to dollars and cents. Politically, they witnessed the arrival
of responsible internal self-government and celebrated the nation’s transition
to Majority Rule and, not long afterwards, joined the many that rejected
colonialism which eventually led to the constitutional dawn of Independence.
Some members of the Class of 1969 pursued higher
education while some did not. But with or without college degrees, they
have helped to not only build lives, but a strong nation. Today their numbers,
though reduced, and sadly so, by a few deaths, are scattered all over the
Bahamas and the world. They have become successful lawyers and teachers,
deliverymen and doctors, writers and radio personalities, radicals and
Rastafarians, artists and activists, bankers and bureaucrats, churchmen
and comedians – many of their names immediately recognizable and remembered
with fond respect by their contemporaries and succeeding generations. We
congratulate and salute them!
An electronic commemorative
booklet has been produced which depicts scenes and activities of the class
both past and present.
CHRISTIE
SAYS IN HIS OWN WORDS
Last week just before we went to upload, it was revealed that someone had
leaked the infamous report about the state of the PLP and why it lost the
2007 general election. You may click here for the copies of the report
on the Bahamaspress.com website; part
1, part
2.
Perry Christie, Leader of the PLP, answered his
critics on the matter in the press in two interviews published in The Tribune
25th and 26th May. It appears that the leaking of the report
may have had the opposite affect in that Mr. Christie appears to be digging
his heels in. He said that the leadership of the party was secure.
He accused the leaker of trying to destabilize the party. He said
that he was happy about where the PLP is today.
It appears that Mr. Christie believes that no reforms
are necessary and that as the economy deteriorates, the government will
once again fall into the lap of the PLP no matter how organized the PLP
is. He said: “The Opposition, however, it is organized becomes the
beneficiary of the view formed against what is happening in the government.”
Here is what he is reported to have said in his
own words:
“The leaders of the PLP are secure. I have
the overwhelming support. [The Leakers] are trying to destabilize
the party.
“There are people who are in possession
of the report and there are people who are prepared to release the report
for their own purposes - we know who they are. It’s fine. The
PLP has to learn from every aspect of these matters and strengthen itself
and move forward.
“[The move to leak the report] was underhanded.
At the end of the day it takes someone with the courage of their conviction
to nominate and contest, and once they are able to do that then the people
will determine who is best to lead in whatever position is being contested.
“Those who wish to take an irregular approach
to the organizing of the party, I bless them and wish them the very best.
“I have moved on in terms of the report.
We have conducted other polls. They are unaware of them and that
is just how it is. So they want to act on information at that time
with that and that’s fine. There is nothing we can do about this.”
26/05
“The PLP is doing all that is necessary to prepare
itself to be the next government of The Bahamas.
“[I am] very happy [right now as the organization
is in a] very good position [as the present government approaches the midterm
mark.]
“In our case, we have the time to reflect to
look at this and we are putting in place now all of the necessary things
to make a strong and viable opposition to the FNM government and quite
frankly I believe that with the conditions of the country and the years
ahead as we move toward the next general election the PLP will be in intense
competitor
“I think the people of the country will see,
as we progress toward the next election and more and more as the FNM approach
midterm, and will be looking very carefully at how the government is handling
the management of the country.
“Having gone through the last 3 or 4 years, that
is 2 years of us, the PLP and the first 2 years of the FNM, they are in
a position to be making judgments as to how effective my party was in its
first term and how effective the Ingraham government is.
“People form a view firstly that they don’t agree
with what the government is doing—they become disaffected. The Opposition,
however, it is organized becomes the beneficiary of the view formed against
what is happening in the government.
“Voters will increasingly be inclined to choose
a PLP whether they would able to return to the glory days of an economy
that was very beneficial to them and which they not now have.
“The critical position for people in this country
is to continue to watch this government and how it it’s trying to manage
a very bad situation in the country. There are serious concerns,
legitimately serious concerns about how the government is managing the
economy of The Bahamas and the social circumstances of The Bahamas.”
GRADUATION
DAY FOR FOX HILL SENIORS
The Fox Hill Senior Citizens Association enrolled
their members in a special course in computer skills at the L.W. Young
Junior High School courtesy of the Principal Telford Mullings. Mr.
Mullings will be leaving L.W. Young Junior High after a decade as a Principal,
Vice Principal and Senior Master. He moves on to the Ministry of
Agriculture. The seniors gathered with their instructor Philip Sweeting
to receive their certificates. The actual presentation was made at
an assembly of the full school on Tuesday 17th May, but no camera
was available. They gathered again, but this time the Principal Mr.
Mullings could not make the photo so Vice Principal, Cheryl Samuels filled
in for Mr. Mullings. The course was sponsored in part by Fox Hill
MP Fred Mitchell.
Fred Mitchell MP in back row at left; Vice Principal Ms. Samuels
at centre; Lecturer Phil Sweeting at right rear. Photo: Tuesday 26th May/Miguel
Taylor
U.S.
MARKS MEMORIAL DAY IN THE BAHAMAS
Memorial Day is not a public holiday in The Bahamas.
This is a U.S. holiday. However on 7th May 1954, ten men crashed
in an aircraft shortly after take off in the waters south of Clifton Pier.
They were part of the anti submarine warfare training that took place in
our country after the Second World War as part of an international agreement
with the United Kingdom then our lords and masters. The families
of the fallen men erected a monument to them on the southwest shore.
It fell into disrepair and was rehabilitated by John Rood the U.S. Ambassador
some three years ago.
This year 25th May was marked as Memorial Day and
the U.S. Embassy again gathered with family members to make the occasion
and to remember the U.S. fallen soldiers. Royal Bahamas Defence Force
officers formed an honour guard and fired a 21-gun salute. The Royal
Bahamas Police Force officers played taps. A U.S. helicopter laid
a wreath into the water and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force laid a wreath
into the water from their vessel. Minister of Culture Charles Maynard
attended on behalf of the government. Fred Mitchell, former minister,
appeared for the Opposition.
At left, US Chargé d'Affaires Tim Zuniga Brown; at right
Minister of Culture Charles Maynard...
At left, Pericles Maillis speaking on behalf of his father, former
Senator Alexander Maillis who helped in the 1954 recovery...
At right, Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore Clifford Scavella
with Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell MP and US Chargé
Brown.
Photos: Miguel Taylor
THE
MOXEY/WILSON WEDDING IN PHOTOS
On Saturday 23rd May Beverton Moxey married Rosel
Wilson. He is the son of Captain Lasardo and Malvese Moxey and a
doctor and she is the daughter of Franklyn and Sharon Wilson and an attorney.
We presented last week some of the photos from the wedding which was held
at the Christ Church Cathedral, Archbishop Drexel Gomez presiding with
Bishop Gilbert Thompson and Dr. Myles Munroe. Coming from overseas
was Dr. Sean Jackson of the St. John’s Church in Stamford, Connecticut
and Wintley Phipps of Dream Academy in Florida, the baritone singer.
Maxine Waters, U.S. Congresswoman and her husband Sidney Williams, the
former Ambassador were special guests.
Above. the couple say their 'I dos' in Christ Church,
while groomsmen look on. Peter Ramsay was the photographer and we
present additional photos from the event. The reception was held
at the Lyford Cay Club. A happy time was obviously had by all.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Why Won’t Mitchell Run?
I often ask the question, what is it that Fred
Mitchell is waiting on? I think he is the best qualified to run this
country. He ought to run for the office of Leader of the PLP and
become Prime Minister. Time is going and we need the brightest and
the best to go forward. From my point of view he seems the most serious,
the most focused and the most organized. Yet I don’t see him coming
forward. From the time I was in primary school, I was always hearing
about Fred Mitchell. It seems to me that it is the natural step to
take. Can you tell me why he is not running?
David Smith
Tourism Budget Must Be Increased
Given the gloomy and depressing picture painted
by the Prime Minister during the budget debate on Wednesday, 27th May 2009,
it is surprising that the government decided to cut the budget for tourism
by $12 million. Further, no comprehensive strategy or recovery plan was
presented to reverse this negative performance trend.
The Prime Minister instead opted to describe
the poor performance of tourism. He said stopover arrivals were down by
10.5% during the first four months of 2009 compared to last year. Arrivals
into Grand Bahama were down by 28.9% and the Family Islands were down by
27.6%. He noted that the short term prospects for tourism “remain challenging.”
I note that other destinations in this region
that offer similar tourism products and are not insulated from the global
recession are enjoying measurable growth in this sector: For example, Cancun
(9.4%), Cuba (2%), Grenada (1.8%), and Jamaica (3.5%). What has become
of the Bahamas, the once “jewel of the Caribbean?” Just four years ago
the Bahamas was the leader in the English speaking Caribbean, with over
$2 billion in tourism revenue.
One would have thought that the area of focus
and the recipient of more financial resources would have been the Ministry
of Tourism, but this current budget did not apparently reflect tourism
as an area of priority.
To their credit, Jamaica passed a tourism rescue
package that boosted advertising dollars by $5 million, or about 20%, says
John Lynch, chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board. The board is posting
Jamaica signs atop 400 cabs in New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.
It signed a $4.5 million revenue guarantee deal with American in September
to add service, such as Dallas-Montego Bay and St. Lucia recently initiated
a $7 million marketing boost.
In the way of strategy locally, the Prime Minister
made some general and non-specific comments about “how the Ministry of
Tourism will undertake a broad spectrum of strategic marketing initiatives
in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Latin America.” The cost is around $12
million. It is important to note that this strategy was used last year
with no improvement in the performance of the sector. There was no mention
of a strategy to improve the tourism product in terms of both quality and
cost.
In spite of its poor performance start, let’s
hope the Bahamas has better luck this year. An increase in the budget for
the Ministry of Tourism is a good start.
Elcott Coleby
IN PASSING
No More Schengen Visas
Well, it’s official. As we reported two weeks ago, there is no
longer a need for Bahamians to have a visa to visit the nineteen European
countries known as the Schengen countries. The government has now
signed a visa abolition agreement begun under the PLP and effective at
the beginning of June, the visa requirement for Bahamians into these countries
falls away.
COB Performing Arts Centre
Keva Bethel and Janyne Hodder, President Emerita and President respectively
of the College of The Bahamas participated in what appears to have been
a soft opening of the Performing Arts Centre of the College of The Bahamas.
Some 3.3 million dollars has been spent refurbishing the old Government
High School Auditorium. The facility is now state-of-the-art for
performing arts, with a brand new baby grand piano, stage, dressing rooms,
improved acoustics and 400 seats. The opening came as the College
celebrated 20 years of the art festival the Colour of Harmony on Tuesday
26th May.
Independence For TCI
Galmo ‘Gilly’ Williams, Premier of the Turks, is back in the Turks
and Caicos Islands after a trip to London to see the officials there, seeking
to change their minds about the suspension of democracy in the Turks and
Caicos Islands. He got nowhere. London turned a deaf ear to
all his proposals. Mr. Williams upon his return said that the only
solution now is to move for Independence of the country from Britain.
Today is the last day of the Turks and Caicos Cabinet and Parliament.
The report of the lone Commissioner of Inquiry is to be made public today
and the British say once that is done, they will rule directly from London
through their appointed civil servant in the Turks, Gordon Wetherell.
Patterson To Sue
Last week we reported the outrageous charges made in the Jamaican media
about former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and his alleged connection
with money allegedly found on a plane that landed in Jamaica from Cuba
on which he was a passenger. There was no truth to the story.
However, the media in Jamaica went into overdrive and may have found themselves
in a steep bit of trouble. K.D. Knight, the former Foreign Minister
of Jamaica, is now practicing law. He decided to take the case of
the former Prime Minister. He told the press that he will be acting
any time now to move against the offenders.
More Hotel Cuts
Ed Fields, who is the publicity front man for Kerzner International’s
Atlantis at Paradise Island, told the media last week that this year Atlantis
will probably be consolidating its Coral Towers and Beach Towers operations,
with one of the properties being closed for the three months in the early
fall as a cost cutting measure. If they do that, they will join the
Crystal Palace, which has already announced that it will do the same.
Miss Bahamas Controversy No Surprise
A pretty young woman won the Miss Bahamas Universe contest last Sunday.
Her name Kiara Sherman. There was a beautiful first runner up Miss
Bahamas Earth Ife Sears, the daughter of former Education Minister Alfred
Sears. Just when you thought that it was safe to go into the water,
someone shouted ‘Cheat!’ Is there anything in The Bahamas that is
done without the contestants, who go into these contests knowing that the
judgments are entirely subjective, that they could; surprise surprise,
lose, later claiming that someone cheated? A curious society!
Tribune photo
Dismal Outlook In Construction Sector
Timothy Wrinkle, the head of the Bahamas Contractors Association painted
a dismal picture for the construction industry of The Bahamas, following
on the budget presentation. Mr. Wrinkle told the Bahama Journal that
there are no new projects on the drawing board that would get their members
going past the fall.
Jerry Hutchinson Shot
General Manger Security at the Airport Authority Jerry Hutchison was
shot while performing a job for Asa Pritchard Company last week at about
6:30 a.m. Thursday 28th May. He is in serious condition and in need
of blood. Doctors Hospital has sent out the alarm for donors to get in
blood. A struggle ensued when a robbery was attempted and he was
shot in the abdomen.
FNM Reneges On Carifesta Again
The Minister of Culture Charles Maynard has told the cultural community
that they have cancelled the Government’s offer to host Carifesta.
You remember as part of the stop review and cancel programme, the FNM cancelled
Carifesta in 2008 saying that the PLP did not do the necessary preparation.
That was a lie. The FNM simply did not want to do it and wanted to
rebrand the festival as their own. Now they are pleading the economy
and have cancelled the entire thing, disappointing the cultural community
once again.
Bimini Resort In Receivership
The Bimini Big Game Resort and Yacht Club is in receivership and up
for sale. It is located in Alice Town, Bimini and comprised of 51
rooms, 2 restaurants, a gift shop, and a 78 slip marina capable of berthing
vessels up to 120 feet. It is situated on 3.6 acres of land and 4.8
acres of seabed.
