Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames   Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.

Volume 1 © BahamasUncensored.Com

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The 42nd President of the United States William Jefferson Clinton aka Bill Clinton visited The Bahamas for one day from Friday 4th April to 5th April.  He was here as part of the start of a campaign in the Caribbean to further the cause of the Clinton Foundation’s work in fighting the scourge of HIV infection.  His foundation raised one million dollars for the cause in The Bahamas.  The former President was greeted by enthusiastic crowds wherever he went.  This was quite a study in contrasts to the response to the United States Ambassador over the last year who has caused some resentment in US/Bahamian relations because of the manner and tone of the carrying out of his work.  Someone said as Mr. Clinton spoke you could feel the two nations were one.  Mr. Clinton is shown with Prime Minister Perry Christie, AIDS administrator Dr. Perry Gomez, Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez and Bahamian children in this Peter Ramsay photo taken at the public meeting at the Sir Kendal Isaacs gym on Friday 4th April.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

A STUDY ON CONTRASTS
Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States was in The Bahamas for two days.  His cause was fighting the HIV virus that has infected and affected some 6000 people in The Bahamas today.  That makes it about six percent of our population which is the second highest in the region behind Haiti.  Mr. Clinton pointed out that while we can talk about the war in Iraq and the cost in human lives and the damage and destruction it is causing, that is nothing compared to the catastrophe that HIV is causing for societies around the globe.  He gave a studied message against ignorance and short-sightedness.  His real worry beyond the Caribbean and Africa is that the leaders of India, China and Russia are hiding their heads in the sand as HIV spreads alarmingly in their countries, and this can have devastating consequences for the world economy.

Mr. Clinton called AIDS the most serious public health problem since the Black Plague killed one third of the population of Europe in the 14th century.

But Mr. Clinton’s visit was a study in contrasts to the present administration and its representatives abroad.  During the visit, it was clear that there was an obvious affection for the former President.  Large crowds greeted him everywhere in The Bahamas and many, many people were concerned that they did not get a chance to see him.  He promised that he would return.

The contrast is to the work of the present US administration that is responsible for the protection of the democratic world and for the peace, good order and security of this region.  The present administration is simply frightening everyone out of their wits with all the military action around the world.  They say they are doing it in the name of freedom but what we have is a demonstration of a power that is so overwhelming that what is going on Iraq can be described as nothing more than a slaughter of a people who are fighting for their own survival.

The present Mr. George Bush’s father stopped the destruction of the Saddam Government in 1992 because he and his advisors realized that you cannot destabilize Iraq without destabilizing the whole region.  And as much as we do not like this man Saddam, the fact is he brought stability to the region by containing armed opposing forces within his country.  When the US becomes an occupying power in Iraq, they risk becoming like Israel a country that will be shot at, picked off one by one by one as the various factions turn their attention from Saddam to the United States.

The campaign in Iraq is not well thought out, and the consequences for the world are not thought out.  And each country in the world wonders who is next, both friend and foe alike.  If the US administration does not like who you are, or what you say, there is then a pretext for them to invade your country and remove the Government.  The Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados Billie Miller spoke for many when she reacted furiously to the words of an envoy visiting the Caribbean that there would be consequences for Caribbean countries if they spoke out against the US war in Iraq.  So much for freedom and democracy.

Right now all Caribbean countries have their heads down, with the exception of Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados.  Even Canada is being blackmailed into submission with threats of economic boycotts.  They are all frightened out of their wits to say anything that would be remotely considered anti-American or anti-British for fear that this would cause some adverse reaction to their economies.  And so the forefathers of the independence movements in these countries must be turning over in their graves.

But in the defence of the present, it is clear their Governments argue that their societies have to survive and there is no point in picking a fight with the US that cannot be won.  And so the societies must simply stay out of the war debate, move forward and look to another less oppressive day and administration.  Those are the facts as many see it.

The Clinton visit was then an interesting interlude in the midst of all the war talk.  It shows that there is still some humanity and decency left in world leadership, and people long for the day when there will be a return to that kind of leadership at the very top of the world’s richest and most successful country.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 5th April at midnight: 21,409.

Number of hits for the month of March up to Monday 31st March 2003: 115,906.

Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 5th March 2003 at midnight: 10,580.

Number of hits for the year 2003 up to Saturday 5th April at midnight: 330,493.

A WEEK OF TALK ON TRAFFIC FATALITIES
    Justin Scott (shown at right) the 24 year old son of Michael Scott and his former wife Ann Bease nee Isaacs is dead.  He died in a traffic accident on Saturday 29th March in the early hours of the morning while returning from a social function.  His picture made the front page, another promising young man dead and gone in what seemed a senseless traffic accident.  It was timely then that Pierre Dupuch, the Member of Parliament for the St. Margaret’s constituency brought a request for a Select Committee to the floor of the Assembly on Wednesday 2nd April when the Government set aside the entire day to deal with Opposition business.  The request was to look into ways that the traffic fatalities on the roads of New Providence can be alleviated, and what legal measures need to be taken to stop the carnage on the streets.
    The fact is that there is too much speed on the streets of New Providence.  There is also too little enforcement of existing laws.  Drunk driving laws are routinely ignored and speeding laws are only sporadically enforced.  Existing laws on faulty mufflers, smoky exhaust systems, and loud noisy music coming from cars are all ignored.  But Bahamians have a great tendency to flap their gums about on problems that have obvious solutions about which they love to talk but about which they intend to do nothing. Mr. Dupuch (pictured at left) tabled his resolution last year shortly after Vanessa Fox, a young woman, got killed in a traffic accident one night after coming from a party, and the car over crowded with people, took the curve too suddenly and the SUV in which she was driving overturned.  There again, overcrowding of vehicles is an offence but one bets she passed a police officer who saw it and did nothing to enforce it.  Red lights are routinely run in The Bahamas without any enforcement.  There is a virtual revolt against the enforcement of seat belt laws in The Bahamas.
    Justin Scott, a bright young man, on his way to a Hollywood film career, made the 11th traffic fatality for the year. Since that there was another one, this time a young motorcycle driver on Friday 4th April, one of many who routinely ignore the helmet laws, remove the mufflers from their bikes and prance on the back wheel.  He met his death and was shown in the press covered like a dead puppy dog in a sheet on the side of the road, waiting for the mortician to come and pick him up.  But as we said, we will continue to talk about it and the carnage will no doubt continue and we will do nothing.  We have no hope or expectation that the select committee approved during the debate will do anything to stop the carnage.  It seems we are just a society full of impotent rage on this and many other questions.
 

NEW P.S. AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS
    The Prime Minister Perry Christie announced on Monday 31st March that A. Missouri Sherman Peter is to leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Bahamas on secondment to the Government of St. Lucia to serve as the Chef d’Cabinet (Chief of Staff) of the incoming President of the General Assembly of the United Nations at its 38th Session.  St. Lucia’s Minister of External Affairs Julian Hunte is expected to be chosen as the new President.  The Prime Minister said that the request was made by the Prime Minister of St. Lucia to the Government of The Bahamas.  Mr. Christie said that The Bahamas ought to be proud of the accomplishments of Mrs. Sherman-Peter.  He said that the service at the UN was a proud honour for the people of The Bahamas.
    The Government of St. Lucia saw the position of President of the General Assembly as a Caribbean wide honour and asked for the support of the region in manning Mr. Hunte’s Cabinet for the year.  The Government of The Bahamas will pay the salary and allowances of the Permanent Secretary while she is on leave.  There was a reception by the staff as the Minister of Foreign Affairs made the announcement to the staff following the Prime Minister’s announcement.  There had been speculation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for months that the Permanent Secretary would be leaving.  There was an article in the weekly rag in The Bahamas called The Punch that there were disagreements between the Minister and the Permanent Secretary on operational matters and that the matters had been resolved in favour of the Minister.  But none of that was present at the announcement; the two could not have looked more pleased.  Guardian photo.

 

PERMANENT SECRETARIES REDEPLOYED
    The Cabinet Office this past week released the following statement:
    Consequent upon the secondment of Her Excellency Mrs. A. Missouri Sherman Peter, formerly Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Government of St. Lucia, the Cabinet office announced for public information today that the Prime Minister has redeployed three Permanent Secretaries to new Ministries with effect from Monday, 7" April, 2003.
    Dr. Patricia Rodgers, now the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism is to move to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
    Mr. Colin Higgs, now the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Financial Services and Investment is to move to the Ministry of Tourism.
    Ms. Sheila Carey, now the Acting Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Youth, Sports & Culture is to move to the Ministry of Financial Services and Investment.
    Mr. Harrison Thompson, now the Under Secretary in the Office ofthe Attorney General will be transferred to the Ministry of Youth, Sports 62 Culture and will act as Permanent Secretary until further notice.
    A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said that there would be a more comprehensive review of the deployment of senior officers in the Civil Service in the not too distant future.

PLP KICKS OFF 50 YEARS
    The Progressive Liberal Party is the oldest political party in the country, having been founded on 24th November 1953.  The Party began as an idea in the minds of three mulatto politicians in The Bahamas.  They saw themselves as the champions of black men and women who were dispossessed in the country.  The idea was crystallized by a journey to Jamaica following a visit to London by the founders to witness the coronation.  H. M. Taylor, the late Governor General and the first Leader and Chairman of the Party, said that the party was formed to help to create public opinion in The Bahamas so as to remove injustice.
    The Progressive Liberal Party was soon embraced by the Black masses and ten years later it had transformed itself into a mass party, having won in the 1962 election more votes than the United Bahamian Party, the White oligarchy that ran the country.  They lost in the seat count in 1962 because the Out islands as the Family Islands were then called had more representatives in the House than New Providence where the majority of people resided.  That was resolved in 1967 and 14 years after it was founded, the party was elected to the Government of The Bahamas.  Since that time, the country was led into independence in 1973; the party lost office after 25 consecutive years in office and regained the Government under the leader Perry Christie in 2002.
    The party began its 50 years celebration with a church service at Golden Gates Assembly on Carmichael Road.  Party Chairman Raynard Rigby traced the party’s existence to the African struggle for freedom in The Bahamas dating back to emancipation in 1834.  Party Leader Perry Christie spoke of the devotion to duty of the many stalwarts who held the PLP dear to their hearts through thick and thin.  The Hon. A. D. Hanna, former Deputy Prime Minister in the first PLP administration spoke to the times that went before as the party grew to become the Government.  Today, there are second generation PLP leaders in the party’s leadership.  They include: Glenys Hanna Martin, daughter of the Hon. A. D. Hanna and Allyson Maynard Gibson the daughter of another former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Clement Maynard.  Mr. Hanna is shown being greeted by Prime Minister Perry Christie at the Golden Gates Assemby service in this Guardian photo by Donald Knowles.

THERE IS A LEADERSHIP RACE IN THE FNM
    Zendal Forbes has had a curious career in politics.  People would have sworn that he was about to be if not outright a member of the Progressive Liberal Party, largely because of his association with Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell.  He began his political career by resigning as a lecturer at the College of The Bahamas and daring to run in 1992 against the late Sir Lynden Pindling in Andros from which he hails.  He was defeated but even though the FNM won, they did not make him feel welcome because he was disliked by Hubert Ingraham the new Prime Minister.  He may as well as have been a PLP for all he got from Hubert Ingraham’s FNM.
    As the 2002 General Election drew near, it was felt by some that Mr. Forbes should have got the PLP's nomination for the South Andros seat.  Instead it was given to Vince Symonette who lost to Whitney Bastian.  Prior to 2002 and following the 1992 General Elections, he had gone back to his job at the College of The Bahamas where he became President of the Union and led the lecturers on a confrontational path for better working conditions, paying for the successful prosecution of the College for union busting tactics.  He has been quiet since that time but now he is back in the spotlight.
    Mr. Forbes has announced that he is running for the office of Leader of the FNM against Tommy Turnquest, the now Leader.  The Tribune seemed racist, describing him as a “dark horse”.  No doubt the play on words because he is darker complexioned as opposed to Tommy Turnquest who is brown skinned and Brent Symonette, the other putative candidate who is white.   But we have to give Mr. Forbes a plaudit for his courage, and we wish him well.  It appears that Brent Symonette has shall we say been persuaded to bow out gracefully and let Tommy Turnquest have a free reign.  Now with Mr. Forbes in the race, we shall have a contest.  The only other declared candidate is former Senator Sidney Collie who intends to run for Deputy Leader of the Party.
 

THE PLP MEETS IN SPECIAL SESSION
    The Progressive Liberal Party held a special conclave at the South Ocean Beach Hotel and resort on Southwest Road in New Providence.  The conclave was attended by all Members of Parliament and the Senate and the party's officers.  The idea was to get all persons on the same page and to talk about the future for the leadership of the party.  The Prime Minister gave the principal address about how the party could move forward in organizing its public relations, the communications internally between back bench and Cabinet and between the party rank and file and the Parliamentary group.  The conclave was well attended and Raynard Rigby, the Chairman of the Party (pictured) ought to be congratulated for having taking the effort to organize it.
    In a news release, Mr. Rigby said that during the conclave the party reaffirmed its commitment to its eight core pledges to:

    Rescue the economy;
    Create a safer society;
    Tackle poverty, ill health and ignorance;
    Make freedom real;
    Celebrate our heritage;
    Embrace our youth;
    Lift standards in all aspects of our national life; and
    Put Bahamians first.
    The statement said that Party Leader and Prime Minister Perry Christie gave a "spirited address" challenging the group to remain committed to good governance.  "The hosting of this conclave within less that one year of... government", said the release, "is... a recognition of our commitment to the Bahamian people."
 

SARS ALERT
    The Ministry of Health in The Bahamas has issued an alert for all ports of entry in The Bahamas with regard to the new respiratory disease that evidences itself mainly in Asia called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).  The Ministry said that the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued an alert that said that people who planned to travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong Province in China should avoid that travel for the time being.
    The SARS crisis has already had one casualty.  Members of the House of Assembly’s Select Committee on Foreign Affairs have postponed their visit to Beijing as a result of the crisis brought on by SARS.  The Ministry said that there was no need for alarm in The Bahamas.  It listed the symptoms that one must look for in the disease – temperature over 100.4 degrees, and some respiratory distress including coughing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, hypoxia (low oxygen in the blood) and x ray findings of pneumonia and respiratory distress.
    A card is to be filled out by all passengers arriving from the suspected areas into The Bahamas for use by the Ministry of Health.  No cases of SARS have been reported in The Bahamas.
 
 

COMPLAINT FROM THE STRAW VENDORS
    Ignorance is a hell of a thing.  Paper will sit still for any foolishness to be written on it.  Such is the reaction one gets from the comment made in the press on Thursday 3rd April from a spokesman for the Straw Vendors one Celestine Innis that the straw vendors were not consulted on the design of the straw market.  This is what she was quoted as saying: “I was disappointed that we did not have an input in the drawing of the market.  When the final design was announced they said that they would come and get input from us.  All the years the straw market always knew first hand what was going on, and then it was brought to the public.”
    The fact is that a straw vendor was on the board that chose the final design architect.  The fact is that the design is not final final, and that the architect has been chosen.  It is his job now to come up with the final, final design, which will require input from all the other designs, and Ms. Innis can still have her input.  But the fact is some people prefer to complain than have solutions to complaints.

NEW OPPOSITION LEADERS
    The announcement came on Monday morning last that Brent Symonette was to be the new Leader of Opposition business in the House.  It was a most curious announcement.  Tommy Turnquest, the FNM Leader (pictured top centre) who does not sit in the House and who is a senator, said that he had advised the Leader of the Opposition who is in the House that he should make Brent Symonette, the Leader of the Opposition business in the House.  Further, he advised Alvin Smith (top right) the Leader of the Opposition to appoint Brent Symonette the whip for the Opposition, relieving former Parliamentary Secretary Lindy Russell of the job.  This all seemed to have stemmed from the disastrous decision the week before by the Opposition Leader without consultation and in the absence of Mr. Symonette from the House chamber to walk out of the debate that the Opposition had scheduled to condemn the Government on Junkanoo.  Mr. Symonette was said to be going around privately saying that he did not agree with what Mr. Smith had done.  He issued his speech that he intended to give for publication in The Tribune.
    It is no secret also that Mr. Symonette has been saying that it was 99.9 percent certain that he would run for the office of Leader.  This threatened the fragile peace between Alvin Smith and Tommy Turnquest.  It is said that Hubert Ingraham, the former Prime Minister, went to Mr. Symonette and told him that he should not run against Mr. Turnquest.  He threatened to campaign against him, which would have ruined Mr. Symonette's chances.  In exchange Mr. Ingraham offered Mr. Symonette, the posts of Leader of Opposition Business in the House and Opposition whip, which carries for multi millionaire Brent an additional 14,000 dollars per year.
    Brent Symonette (pictured at right) was smiling from ear to ear as the Leader of the Opposition claimed in his communication to Parliament that he had appointed Mr. Symonette to the new posts.  The PLP asked him, which Leader did the appointing in fact, he or Tommy Turnquest who made the original announcement.  And if there were any doubt that Hubert Ingraham was still in charge, Mr. Ingraham got up to explain even after Mr. Smith sat down, more fully what had happened complete with a history of why the Public Accounts Committee changes the Opposition requested had a precedent.
    Mr. Smith also announced that Brent Symonette would now replace Mr. Smith on the Public Accounts Committee, and that Mr. Symonette should be the Chair.  This now reverses the position of the FNM that they would not participate in the Committee since there was an Independent on the Committee with whom they did not agree.  Mr. Symonette should be careful however and know that the Public Accounts Committee has the jurisdiction only to review historical data, not current data.  If he starts wandering into the present accounts of the Government he will run into serious trouble.
    Of all the curious things of the week, the Leader of the Opposition Alvin Smith having to go to the press to explain that despite what they thought and expressed in their headlines of Monday 31st March that he had been demoted, he was not in fact demoted.  That was like the late US President Richard Nixon’s famous line: “I am not a crook”.

PLP CHAIRMAN ON THE FNM LEADERSHIP
    The Chairman of the PLP Raynard Rigby has commented on the announcement by Senator Tommy Turnquest, the FNM’s leader that Alvin Smith, Leader of the Opposition had been directed to make changes in the Leadership of the FNM in the House of Assembly.  Mr. Rigby said that the FNM’s leadership is on the verge of political collapse.  Mr. Rigby said that the FNM has devalued the constitutional role of Opposition leader Alvin Smith by appointing Brent Symonette MP to control the business of the Opposition in the House of Assembly.  Here is what Mr. Rigby said in his own words:
    “Alvin Smith is the constitutionally appointed leader of the official opposition.  Tommy Turnquest is a member of the Senate and therefore Tommy Turnquest cannot be Leader of the Opposition…
    “The provisions of the Constitution are clear and it appears that Tommy Turnquest is bent on wielding the constitutional power of Office of Leader of the Opposition without being a member of the House.  This is [runs] afoul of the constitution.  His [Senator Turnquest’s] actions are unconstitutional.  The PLP invites the FNM to show respect for the Constitution and decide once and for all who it wishes to lead them in their days in the political wilderness.”
 

BAIL FOR MURDER ACCUSEDS
    According to a report in The Tribune, the bail applications over the years 2000-2002 show that some 36 persons charged with murder were let out on bail.  This usually happens when it takes too long for a person's case to come to court.  The Supreme Court has taken the view that rather than dismiss the case, they ought to let the person out on bail because the trial has not taken place within a reasonable time and is therefore in danger of crossing over the line of the constitution that says the trial is supposed to take place within a reasonable time. The criminal law attorney Wayne Munroe had something to say to The Tribune about the matter.  Here is what he had to say in his own words:
    “What happens is that you charge someone with murder, it’s set down for hearing and witnesses or people making the complaint, don’t show up to court. So it’s adjourned and courts are slow to throw a matter out because of what people might say about it.
    “In Canada, they would dismiss the case after six months regardless of what the charge is, but here the press would scream bloody murder, they throwin' out a bunch of murder a cases and the rest of that.  There is no backlog it’s just something politicians say”
    Things that make you go hmmm!
 
 

WHO IS THE HEAD OF THE JUDICIARY?
    There is a strange new development in the Judiciary that needs to be investigated and a fast stop put to the trend.  Notwithstanding the fact that the nomenclature is anomalous when one considers the functions of the Court, the Chief Justice as the Chairman of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission is in fact the head of the Judiciary.  The problem is that the constitution has him sitting as a judge of the Supreme Court and only ex officio at the invitation of the President of the Court of Appeal as an appellate judge. And so the Supreme Court is not really the Supreme Court at all in the sense that Americans would understand the Supreme Court as the highest court in the country.  That has led to an unfortunate practice where the Court of Appeal’s now President has been having a separate opening of the legal year, tending to treat the Court as a separate section of the Judiciary.  In fact when the Chief Justice opens the legal year, he is opening it as head of the Judiciary and there should be no other opening at all.  Someone needs to step in and make this fact known so that we don’t have this proliferation of opening ceremonies when in fact all we need is one and get on with the business at hand.
 

DION FOULKES TRIES TO DEFEND HIMSELF
    The outgoing Deputy Leader of the FNM Dion Foulkes (pictured) was on the radio on Thursday 3rd April. He was there to urge students who are now being charged the full 8 per cent for their loans instead of the four per cent they thought they would pay to sue the Government.  He also defended the FNM against the charge that they left the country broke saying that the PLP would not have found 1.2 million dollars to rent bleachers if the country was broke.  He also accused the PLP of hiring some 20 consultants over the last ten months, claiming that one of them was being paid over $60,000. Ho! Hum!
    What Mr. Foulkes needs to explain to the Bahamian people is how he as a Minister presided over a scheme for school loans in the Ministry of Education that almost bankrupted The Bahamas, and was so disorganized that it had no control over the disbursement of Governments funds.  Mr. Foulkes also needs to explain all those political contracts that he gave out in order to get himself elected Deputy Leader of the FNM. When and only when he begins to explain those things will the people of The Bahamas have some time to listen to him and his advice on what and what not to do.

 

ALGERNON ALLEN MUST BE CAREFUL
    The former Member of Parliament for Marathon in the FNM Algernon Allen gave an interview in The Tribune last week.  In it, he defended the right of Brent Symonette to be the leader of the FNM notwithstanding the fact that he is white.  Since no one said that he could not become leader of the FNM, it is quite interesting that the subject would be brought up by Mr. Allen.  Is there some faction within the FNM that says because Mr. Symonette is white he can’t be Leader of the FNM or Leader of The Bahamas?  We did not know that racism exists in the FNM.  Mr. Allen must be careful what he says or it might appear that he is singing for his supper.
 

THE CLINTON VISIT

    The visit of former US President Bill Clinton to The Bahamas has energized the people and the Government of The Bahamas in the fight against AIDS.  It has given a boost to the activists who have been fighting the valiant battle.  It has supplied new monies from old sources who went for his celebrity appeal.  But what is clear is that we all now recognize afresh the role we have to play in making sure that the ignorance that has led to this scourge is eliminated from our country.  The fact is that it continues to affect as many people as it does; it threatens to wipe out so many of our young people in their productive years.  It is already the leading cause of death in The Bahamas for people between the ages of 15- 44.  We must continue to work to save our young people.  We present photos of the range of things that the former President did here during the short stay, and we think that he did wonders to improve the relationship between the American people and The Bahamas that has taken such a bruising over the past year.  Mr. Clinton is shown at left sharing an observation with Prime Minister Christie during his public appearance at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs gymnasium Friday 4th April; on his way to meet Cabinet members accompanied by the Prime Minister; being greeted by Minister of Financial Services Allyson Maynard Gibson and other Cabinet members and finally speaking about the International Aids Foundation at the Kendal Isaacs gym.
 

VINCENT PEET ENDS WATER WORKERS' SIT-IN

    Industrial unrest which had been fomenting at the Water & Sewerage Corporation for years was brought to a swift end by Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet this past week.  Minister Peet intervened in a long standing dispute that had developed between the union and the former FNM administration since the 1990s over contract negotiations.  The intervention, which imposed a compromise solution, left the president of the water workers' union Huedley Moss singing the Government's praises in the press and wondering why the former administration had not provided the leadership necessary to solve the matter.  Mr. Moss (left) and Minister Peet (centre) are pictured in this Tribune photo by Omar Barr.
 
 

ST. ANSELM’S NEW CHURCH IN PICTURES

    We present a picture of the dedication of the new St. Anselm’s Church in Fox Hill.  The Catholic Church in Fox Hill was consecrated Sunday 23rd March by Archbishop Lawrence Burke.  The photo is by Peter Ramsay.

FRED MITCHELL COMMENTS ON THE CHURCH
    The Minister of Foreign Affairs & the Public Service is also the Member of Parliament for Fox Hill where St. Anselm’s is located.  Mr. Mitchell is shown with Roman Catholic Archbishop Lawrence Burke at the dedication service for St. Anselm's in this Peter Ramsay photo.  He wrote this letter to the press about the new church:
    "I wish to say that one of the proudest moments of my short life as the represenative for the Fox Hill constituency came during the dedication and consecreation of the new St. Anselm’s Church in Fox Hill on Sunday, March 23.  It is a reaffirmation for a community that has taken much battering over the last year.
    "The building of the church is a tribute to the leadership of Archbishop Lawrence Burke whom I have known from my days as an activist.  It is also a tribute to the fine leadership of Monsignor Preston Moss, the rector of the parish.
    "I said to Monsignor Moss that someone ought to write volume two of the history of the Catholic Church in The Bahamas.  In my view, that era would begin with the coming of Lawrence Burke and all the new construction that has come under his leadership and of course the establishment of the Archbishopric.  The Catholic Church’s early tradition was to invest in spare buildings for worship with the greater investment in schools, education and community outreach.
    "The new construction in Long Island, St. Joseph’s in Nassau. The new Cathedral at St. Francis, St. Anselm’s and a new parish church in Andros are a testament to a new thrust where the church clearly sees itself as a growing and established institution in The Bahamas as opposed to a pioneering or mission church.
    "It is great to witness this time in their history and says something also about the state of development in the country and the confidence of our people in the future of their church and their country.  The people of Fox Hill are proud of that church building.  The parish members, many of them Fox Hillians, contributed sweat equity.  It was simply a wonderful example of community outreach and self help.
    "I was doubly proud to see Deacon Leviticus Adderley out that day.  It was another one of those Dickensian moments that I have described in another forum.  I started out as one of his students back in 1965.
    "Finally, I pay tribute to the Catholic Church itself.  Though not a member, its young clergy embraced my coming to St. Augustine’s from public school in 1965, provided a scholarship for an experience that I could never have afforded and the rest for good or ill as they say is history.
    "Congratulations to the people of St. Anselm’s."
                                                                            Fred Mitchell MP
 

BAHAMAS B2B NEWSLETTER
    In a startling display of bad and yellow journalism, the 1st April edition of the Bahamas B2B newsletter online devoted its entire issue to lying, salacious and inane attacks on various personalities within the PLP and its Government, as well as business and cultural leaders.  While unsuspecting loyal readers were left to ponder the sudden and inappropriate material from a site that usually deals with news of community interest, the site announced in its next edition that it was all “an April Fools joke…”
    The newsletter was no joke at all.  The joke, if there is one to be found in this sordid mess, is on the editors of the site for such an asinine idea.  It has discredited any respect and reliability, which the newsletter may have built up under its former editor.  People block the site form their e-mail addresses to avoid this kind of insulting material again.
 

MAILBOX
Another interesting grab-bag this week, which seems to show that our readers are getting the point, for the most part.

From: 'A Bahamian Activist' - I agree with your statement of Bahamians reflecting our slave heritage as it relates to our attitude to the war… America is a bully, and for too long they have been going in and causing more harm than help to many of these struggling countries.  I think that these countries should be allowed to handle their own affairs and if that fails, the United Nations should be the only body that steps in and make any decisions that would affect the country… The point of the matter is, which is sad, is that America has a handle on too many countries in the world (including ours).  Continue doing such a great job with the website.

From 'Bahamian student in Minnesota':  Thank you so much for finally explicit[ly] expressing some critique on the war.  I would be interested to also see a discussion on your website of the implications of the 'failure' of the United Nations for small nations like us.  Keep up the good work…  It may not be worth [it] to alienate people over party politics when it comes to discussing something of such global impact as this unjust war.

From R. Troy Albury:  It's good to see that this site is still carrying-on!  I have been a supporter of this site from day 1 and I want to encourage you guys to continue to be provocative and show the PLP point of view. There's nothing wrong with that at all and the naysayers have to truly understand this thing called Democracy and Freedom of Speech.  As if that implies you must always be neutral.
     Everyday, Rush Limbaugh's radio show puts forward, very aggressively, the Conservative Right Wing point of view and his strong support of President Bush's programs.  And if you don't like his show, then you listen to Neil Rodgers’ extreme liberalism or you watch MTV…  People have to understand your site is a PLP site and has always been one.  If they have a different point of view then go to a ‘FNM site’, it's as simple as that… aaaaaaaaahhhh, the beauty of the right to choose!

From 'Piece Out':  The Bahamas will celebrate its 30th year of independence this year.  This is a milestone and I feel it is incumbent upon every individual to show pride and patriotism during this year especially for the month of July.
    I feel one of the ways the P.L.P. can stay in touch with the common man is to have an interactive site not only promoting the party but be a place for people to express their views on any and everything that is affecting them.  In order for the P.L.P. to stay on top, they need to always keep in touch with the 'common man'.  Please let Mr. Raynard Rigby know this.
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA

Cocaine On Bahamasair
    Yesterday, Saturday 5th April, 2 kilos of cocaine was discovered in the bathroom waste disposal of a Bahamasair plane scheduled to fly from Freeport to Miami.  The flight was delayed while a new crew was flown in from Nassau to man the flight while the rostered crew was assisting police in their investigations.  Reports say that crew is still being questioned in connection with the find.  Authorities are now wondering why the sudden spate of attempts to use the national flag carrier in drug smuggling.  In the last month or two, several arrests have been made of people attempting to use Bahamasair to spirit illegal drugs into the United States.  All that we know of have been caught, but what is going on?

Brent Symonette’s FNM Leadership Bid
    He is a nice guy and should be allowed to run for the leadership of his party.  In fact anyone who wants to run for the leader’s position in the FNM ought to be able to do so in an open and democratic institution.  Ha!  That is the official line, but behind the scenes there is a ‘let’s keep Brent out’ movement at the highest levels of the party.  “A campaign is being waged”, one FNM insider told News From Grand Bahama, “we are certain that Brent could win the leadership of the FNM, but if he does we know he wouldn’t step down in two years to give way to black leadership.”  His words, not ours.  Another said, “If The Bahamas has an 85 percent black population, how are we going to tell the world that we can’t find one black man to lead us.”
    Behind the scenes, at the highest levels, we are told that Brent – if he hasn’t already been told – will be warned that he should be happy with his new appointment and under no circumstances should he allow himself to be nominated for the leadership of the FNM.  That must be racist for a party that prides itself on receiving ninety nine percent support from the white minority.  It will be interesting to see whether Brent Symonette will succumb to the pressure and not run.  We’d like to see how the FNM will get out of this end.

Hope For East Grand Bahama
    A new investment this week was announced for east Grand Bahama.  The investment was said to be worth some seventy million dollars with the potential of hundreds of jobs.  All over Grand Bahama this week, residents were making jokes and were asking the question, how many times are these politicians going to play the same old joke on the people of Grand Bahama?  In common cause with the Government however, FNM High Rock MP Ken Russell told News From Grand Bahama that he believes this is a real investment and this one should bear fruit because he had the opportunity to be in on part of the negotiations.

Bannister & BAAA Carifta
    As we went to press, News From Grand Bahama in an interview with BAAA’s president Senator Desmond Bannister predicted that about fifty athletes would be selected for this years Carifta track and field team to travel to Trinidad over the Easter weekend.  He told us that the selection process should be finished by the end of the day, Sunday 6th April, and that that team this year will be predominantly made up of under-17 athletes in an attempt to build a foundation for The Bahamas to return to its glory years in the sport.  He also said that because of Trinidad’s proximity to other Caribbean islands most of the other Caribbean countries would be fielding large teams and that The Bahamas should still see very good results.  We wish them well.
    This is apparently Senator Bannister’s last year as BAAA president and we hope that his successor, whoever it is will build on the strong foundation he leaves.   Final Carifta track and field trials were held Friday and Saturday 4th and 5th April in Nassau at the Thomas A. Robinson track in Nassau.  Noticeably absent were Ricky Moxey and his crew from Exuma who didn’t show up.  We wonder why?

Commentary on BaTelCo Cellular Service
    Five months ago it was an open secret that the cell system was at its capacity.  In fact staff members at the telephone company had anticipated the system would crash because it was overloaded.  They told us to expect that because of the system reaching its maximum capacity the level of service would be degraded significantly.  Then came the BaTelCo announcement that they could no longer accept applications for cell service and that a proposal was to be sent to Cabinet.  From that time to this there has not been any more public statement from the company, but for sure the cell service has certainly become worse.  We wonder why the company is taking so long to upgrade its system that is a sure cash cow.  It defies logic.  Why would the company allow the system first to collapse, then put new applications on permanent hold and do nothing?  We believe that the Government owes the public an explanation as to why this state of affairs is allowed to continue.  If it were any other company suffering from cash flow problems then that might have been a justifiable reason, but BaTelCo certainly does not have this problem… or is this part of a plan to try and justify the selling of BaTelCo to foreign interests which we believe based on the geopolitical realities now is not in the best interests of the Government of The Bahamas to have the telecommunications system in the hands of foreign entities for national security reasons.
BS

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - U. S. Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship was on the front page of the Nassau Guardian on Thursday 10th April, and this time it was the kind of event in which Ambassadors are supposed to be involved.  The Ambassador was visiting the AIDS camp at Carmichael Road in New Providence run by Glenroy Nottage, aka Fr. Glenroy Nottage, the brother of former MPs Kendal Nottage and Dr. Bernard Nottage.  The story showed the Ambassador with with Jacqueline Moxey, one of the inmates of the camp and seeking to find out what he could do to help.  The Rev. Nottage was upset that on Friday 4th April former President Bill Clinton visited The Bahamas to raise awareness about the fight against AIDS but was not brought to the camp (see story on US politics below), one of the only facilities to care for indigent and homeless AIDS patients.  The Ambassador said of Rev. Nottage: “God is truly working through him.”  The photo is by Donald Knowles.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

A RETURN TO MAYHEM
Now that Bill Clinton has left The Bahamas and the video game war in Iraq seems to be winding to a close, the attention of the nation seemed to turn to the usual mayhem that occurs on the streets, in the homes and most importantly in the schools.  Teachers in Grand Bahama walked out from the St. Georges High School on Thursday 10th April and others joined them in a protest in Grand Bahama when two unauthorized men came onto the campus in revenge for something that was alleged to have happened on the school campus to one of their kin.  It seems the student used his cell phone to call in the enforcers and the security guards did not stop them.  The school’s Vice Principal was assaulted.  The teachers demanded better security.  Their union President Kingsley Black said that the Government should prosecute the parents of the students involved.  Two persons have been charged.

In Nassau, a woman came to The Tribune reported on Thursday 10th April that her daughter had been involved in an attempted rape.  The mother blamed the teacher who some students said left them locked and unattended for too long and while the class looked on and cheered, a young man tried to rape the young lady.  The mother was distraught.

Jacinta Higgs who is a former teacher of R. M. Bailey tried to explain what the problem is.  The most telling point was the fact that there are too many young parents, single mothers in particular who know nothing about raising children.  Another commentator made the point about the raging hormones in adolescent boys and the kind of culture that we have that encourages sexual penetration by males.

The President of the Christian Council Bishop Sam Greene said that society was unravelling.  He said: “The moral, ethical and spiritual fibre of The Bahamas is beginning to unravel on a daily basis.  Our crime rate is forever climbing, violence seems to be the order of the day and now we have violent situations in the schools.  It is now crucial that politicians, the church, the home and all citizens of this country become aware of the fact that when discipline goes, the country goes.”

That is well said as far as it goes.  But this column has made the point before that The Bahamas is full of impotent rage.  The kind of rage that is like the Bahamas Electricity Corporation and the power blackouts.  They can always tell you why the power is off but they can’t keep it on.

Then there was the sad picture on the front page of 30-year-old Valachi Theophilus, a flight attendant at Bahamasair.  He was handcuffed and his picture spread over the front page of the paper, charged for trying to smuggle dope to Miami on a Freeport to Miami flight last Saturday 4th April.  It is again a sad, sad thing for no matter whether he is ultimately exonerated or not, his career is finished and he has a host of troubles to overcome at 30 years old from now on.  His story is not likely to be the last one of a young person gone into horrible trouble.  One wonders how all of this happens.

In a column like this, it is easy for us to build up any kind of pattern we wish.  We certainly don’t want to scare anyone.  But it seems to us a scary kind of time when there does not appear to be the national will or discipline to keep things under control.  We are increasingly a society where the young tails are wagging the dog.  The Government is busy trying to put out fires everywhere.  They too are engaged in impotent rage at a people that are becoming increasingly impatient why more is not done for one thing or the next.  Its supporters are grumbling loudly that they have not seen the fruits of their struggle ten months after the great victory even as the Government has more fundamental problems to deal with like providing food for starving children whose parents have no work at all.

But you know, we should be comforted by this fact: those of us who are alive and live in The Bahamas are better off than those poor souls in Iraq, let down by their so called liberators to a life of anarchy, and food shortages, more death and destruction.  We at least have within our grasp, the ability to use our full intellectual power to get on top of the problems, which confront us.  The Government must simply get on with the business of governing, but it must also pay attention to the disintegrating signs in our culture that threaten to overwhelm us.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 12th April 2003 at midnight: 28,333.

Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 12th April 2003 at midnight: 38,871.

Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 12th April 2003: 358,784.

US POLITICS PLAYED OUT IN THE BAHAMAS?
    The photo of the week this week shows a picture of the U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas J. Richard Blankenship visiting the AIDS camp in New Providence that is run by the younger brother of former MPs Kendal and Bernard Nottage.  The man who calls himself, the Rev. Glenroy Nottage was upset that the former U.S. President William Clinton was not brought to the camp, which is the only kind of facility of that kind in The Bahamas.  Rev. Nottage has been reviled by many in the Bahamian establishment because of his unorthodox approach but in every showdown with Bahamian governments, he has managed to survive largely through the intervention of rich folk who live in exclusive Lyford Cay and like what he does, and by the fact that if he left the facility, the people who live there would have no other place to go.
    During the visit of the former U.S. President, the U.S. Ambassador didn’t seem to feature in any of the events.  If you looked through the press, you could not find his picture anywhere with the former President.  The fact is that Mr. Clinton is a Democrat, and the Ambassador is a Bush Republican.  One supposes that despite the formal availability of the Embassy’s facilities to a former President, it was not just politically palatable for either to contemplate any connection.  That is just speculation, but the fact is there was no public picture of them together.
    It was interesting then for the Bahamian public to see the U.S. Ambassador turn up at the AIDS camp to assist Rev. Nottage.  He said that he was moved by the visit.  He thought that the Rev. was doing good work and should be supported.  He invoked God’s name.  This was music to Rev. Nottage's ear and gave the facility a high profile boost, which we hope will help with donations.  As we said above this is the kind of work that an Ambassador should be doing, spreading goodwill and cheer.
    But back to the politics.  It was interesting that both Rev. Nottage and the Ambassador having not been connected to the official Clinton visit were connected in a story. The thrust of the story seemed to be that while the former President, a Democrat snubbed you; your real friends are the ones who are in power now, represented by the man who actually represents the real President in Nassau.  Far fetched maybe!  And some suggest that Americans don’t play their politics like that.  But as they say in Nassau: you stay right there! Nassau Guardian photo of former US President Bill Clinton waving goodbye to Nassau by Patrick Hanna.
 

THE WAR IN IRAQ THAT YOU DIDN’T SEE

    The World Wide Web has hooked people into all sorts of alternative sources that you can get for news that you will not normally get.  And so someone this week was circulating pictures that they said you would not normally see on CNN about the war in Iraq.  We show these pictures.  There is a belief amongst many that the real tragedy of this war is that it was an unnecessary show of strength that has caused tens of thousands of unnecessary civilian casualties and injuries, caused civil disorder and anarchy and breakdown in what was a stable state, and has caused economic harm to the world that could have been avoided.  But it is now done and we live with the consequences.  The photos are shown without further comment.

 

THE BAHAMAS CABINET WITH BILL

    Former President of the United States Bill Clinton, the 42nd President, paid a visit to the Cabinet Room of The Bahamas on Friday 3rd April in Nassau.  He spent about half an hour speaking with the Prime Minister accompanied by the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and Health Minster Dr. Marcus Bethel.  Then he joined the Cabinet, sans Minister of Local Government Alfred Gray for a photo by Peter Ramsay.

FOREIGN MINISTER AND THE CHINESE AGREEMENT

    The Bahamas and China signed a Comprehensive Maritime Agreement on Thursday 10th April.  The agreement will be of some benefit for the ships registered on The Bahamas shipping register.  The main problem that it solves is that ships on the Bahamian register have higher port charges than other nation’s ships.  With the signing of the agreement, the  differential between Bahamian ships and other nation’s ships that have agreements will disappear.  That will mean Most Favoured Nation status for Bahamian ships.  China is the third largest ship builder in the world.  There are also three large Chinese ships on the Bahamian register with more to come.  The agreement was signed in the presence of Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin who explained the agreement to the press.  Minister Mitchell was on the front pages toasting to the agreement with the Chinese Vice Minister of Communications. BIS photo by Derek Smith.

PANIC OVER SARS VIRUS IN THE BAHAMAS
    There were reports of SARS sightings in The Bahamas this week.  The acronym means Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome.  The disease, which is causing havoc in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province in China is said to be spreading to other countries and is causing panic in The Bahamas.  The newspapers reported that some taxi drivers were wearing surgical masks in their cars and spraying to ensure that they did not catch the disease.
    There was also the report, later proven false, that there was a case at the hospital because the press said that when they went to the Princess Margaret Hospital, they saw the security people in a lockdown with surgical masks.  The Ministry of Health was busy trying to allay fears that there was such an emergency.
    SARS is frightening to many Bahamians and when the Chinese official delegation (see story above) came a calling some people asked whether or not it was safe to have contact with them.  The Ministry of Health however continues to assure Bahamians that they are being as vigilant as they can be in the circumstances and that there is no need for alarm.

A YOUNG FLIGHT ATTENDANT ARRESTED
    Last week, we  reported on this site the fact that a Bahamasair plane had been grounded while waiting for a replacement crew in Freeport on Saturday 4th April.  The original crew was taken off to be questioned by the police because some 4.4 kilograms of cocaine were found in  the garbage of the plane.  Later in the week a flight attendant Valachi Theophilus 30 years old of Bethel Avenue was charged with taking preparatory steps to export cocaine to the United States. This is one of a spate of recent drug busts on Bahamasair and it has the Government worried that one day they are going to miss and the drugs are actually found in Miami and then the airline will be in big trouble.
    Bradley Roberts, the Minister for Bahamasair, warned the airline’s employees and the Bahamian people to cease and desist.  The question one always asks oneself as you see a young man who would have had a promising career as an attendant and a fairly ordinary life, is why would someone of that age be involved in something like this?  The unfortunate thing is of course that he may not be guilty at all and we like others are condemning someone by the mere arrest.  It is tragic all the same.  The courts denied him bail, and he has been remanded in custody until a bail hearing can be held.  The Tribune showed his photo by Omar Barr as he was being taken away from the courts.
 

UNION WORKERS ASSAIL THE GOVERNMENT
    The headline in the business section of The Tribune on Tuesday 8th April was startling.  It said that the Bahamas Financial Services Union charged that the Government of The Bahamas had left them high and dry.  The Government was particularly stung and stunned by this statement since the particular group of workers making the complaint was at the point they were with their employers as a result of the Government’s intervention.  The workers are the employees of First Caribbean, the merged product of Barclays Bank and CIBC in the Caribbean.
    You may recall that this column opposed to the end this merger of those two banks as anti-competitive.  The Government was convinced, however, that it was in the best interest of good business practices and the reputation of the jurisdiction to allow the merger to go ahead.  The Bahamas was the last of the Caribbean countries to do so.  Part of the deal was that the new bank had to conclude an industrial agreement with the union that represented the workers at the two banks within 30 days of the merger.  The union claims that the bank has reneged on that promise to the Government and the Government has been disengaged from the process.
    The stuff really hit the fan this week when it emerged that First Caribbean intends to close its credit card administration centre in The Bahamas and centre it in  Barbados.  This is where CIBC had already headquartered all of its activities in the Caribbean.  The fact is that the whole First Caribbean effort is controlled by CIBC.  The strategy of Barclays and CIBC was that the Caribbean was a low to medium profit centre with no big potential growth in the foreseeable future.  So they decided to concentrate resources and  get whatever business they can but contain costs.  And so the employees of The Bahamas have become expendable in that larger strategy.
    Some workers have chosen to accept lay off packages and gone their way but the normal attrition rate is not helping the bottom line.  The bank has decided that the credit card centre must go to cut expenses.  This column has been told in the words of our informant that this is just “the tip of the iceberg”.  Some 150 additional workers are expected to go.  The Bank was fooling with just the right one, of course.  Allyson Gibson does not hold her mouth and she called up the bank asked them in so many words where they were getting off at.  She is quoted in The Tribune saying that she had told the Bank that it was reneging on its agreement to the Government.  The bank held its action.  How long this will work, no one knows.  But before learning of that information, the union’s General Secretary made the comment about being left “high and dry” by the Government.
    The PLP is a labour friendly Government with former Labour lawyers in the Cabinet and a former Union Leader.  Shane Gibson is the former President of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union and now Minister of Housing.  Alfred Sears was the bank union’s lawyer and is now Attorney General.  Fred Mitchell, a labour law attorney is now the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service.  Perhaps the union may think again about who its real friends are and rethink the comment that the Government left them high and dry.  The Nassau Guardian published this file photo from November, 2001 by Donald Knowles of now Minister Shane Gibson marching with the union in celebration of their recognition.

WILL BRENT OR WON’T HE?
    An announcement was certainly expected from Brent Symonette this week that would say that he had decided not to run for the Office of Leader of the FNM.  Running for Leader of the FNM would be the next step to succeeding his father as the Premier of The Bahamas.  Not if Senator Tommy Turnquest, the now leader of the party can help it, not if former Leader and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham can help it.  During the past week, the troops have received a lot of attention from Mr. Ingraham.  He has been trying to keep them in line for Senator Turnquest.  But most people within the FNM are satisfied that Brent Symonette is their best choice because he is in the House of Assembly, he is a rich man and he is the former Premier's son.  The only problem they think is the colour of his skin.  But Sir Arthur Foulkes, a former FNM MP and former Ambassador wrote a long column in The Tribune on Tuesday 8th April providing a justification for Brent Symonette's run, notwithstanding his colour.  He joins former MP Algernon Allen and his son former MP Dion Foulkes in the Brent Symonette category.
    The last public statement on this matter was when Brent Symonette said two weeks ago that he was 99.9 per cent sure that he was running.  But that was before he became the Opposition whip and Leader of Opposition business in the House.  That came following a disastrous performance by the now Leader of the Opposition Alvin Smith when he led his colleagues in a boycott of the Junkanoo debate.  And so this week, the question still is very much will he or won’t he?  The PLP is looking at all scenarios and keeping its powder dry until this all plays itself out at the FNM convention which begins on 7th May. Late reports from Freeport say that Brent Symonette and Senator Turnquest were seen arm in arm in Freeport over the weekend.  The bets are that Brent will not now run.  Pity!  Tribune photo.

SIR ALBERT MILLER RETIRES
    The best and brightest of the country, the powerful and the up and coming turned out in full force at the invitation of the Grand Bahama Port Authority to say a fond farewell to Sir Albert Miller, their President and Co-Chair for almost three decades at the Our Lucaya Resort on Saturday 12th April.  It was a black tie affair and Sir Albert touched many people as he thanked God and his older sister Florie for all that was done to raise him and make him the man he became.  Sir Albert told the story of how he and his mother were caught in the 1926 hurricane when he was some three months old on his way in a sailing sloop to Nassau.  He fell overboard and a man by the name of Nathaniel Bain dove into the water to rescue him.  He said his mother never recovered and she died some three months later.  It was his older sister Florie now 92 who raised him and sacrificed everything so that he might make it.
    Earlier on another occasion Sir Albert had told the story of how his sister had received his weekly pay packet when he first joined the police force.  She saved the money and one day he came home to express an interest in buying a piece of property.  He said his sister told him that he could because she had been saving his money for him.  There is no doubt about Sir Albert Miller as a Bahamian success story.  He is a product of night school, hard work and determination that he said brought him to a remarkable life's journey that took him from Millers, Long Island to Buckingham Palace.  He was toasted by Edward St. George, the Chair of the Port Authority and his partner Sir Jack Hayward.
    Sir Albert's only regret was that he did not become the Commissioner of Police, a job that he had worked hard for and prepared himself for and a post that he had acted in on five occasions.  He said that it was politics (it was believed that he supported the United Bahamian Party during the height of the new PLP regime in 1967) that stopped him from getting the job but he learnt then that in life you have to prepare for disappointments.  He said that after 28 years and ten months on the Force he asked his wife to join him in a new life in Freeport and the rest they say is history.
    Present to speak on behalf of the Prime Minister Perry Christie was Allyson Gibson, the Minister for Financial Services.  Other Government Ministers there were Shane Gibson, Minister of Housing; Bradley Roberts, Minister of Works and Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  The Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham also paid tribute to Sir Albert.  Mr. Ingraham’s former Cabinet colleagues were there including C.A. Smith, David Thompson, Janet Bostwick and Frank Watson.  Present PLP MP Pleasant Bridgewater was there as were Ken Russell and Neko Grant of the FNM.
    We say best wishes to Sir Albert Miller for a remarkable life and wish he and his family; wife Lady Miller, sons Tony and Russell and daughter Debbie well.  The photo comes from the booklet distributed at the farewell banquet.
 

BIMINI BAY PROJECT TO BE SHELVED?
    The Ambassador for the Environment Keod Smith (pictured) is a real environmental policeman.  He doesn’t want anyone to cut a tree down, or kill an insect unless he gives permission.  So it was no surprise that one of the projects on the hit list of environmentalists would be the Bimini Bay project of Gerardo Capo, the voluble Cuban American.  The Ambassador made the announcement by way of a statement published in the Nassau Guardian on Friday 11th April.  The Bimini Bay project has been a sore point for the people of Bimini.  It appears that the project, which was announced by the Ingraham administration, is simply out of money.  But it has this low-grade killing of the environment going on for five years or more, with dredging of the mangrove swamp milking up the waters, and killing off the young fish including the shark population that flourished for study around Bimini.
    Residents are also incensed that the tree cover has been stripped from the north section of the island of North Bimini leaving a huge white limestone swath across it, exposed to the sun. Every time there was some public criticism, Mr. Capo would respond that he had not run out of money and that the project was continuing.  Not to be outdone this time, Mr. Capo was back in the newspaper on Saturday 12th April saying that the project had not stopped and that it was indeed continuing.  So who is right: the strong willed Ambassador for the Environment or the much talking Capo?

THE NATIONAL YOUTH CHOIR REPRISE
    Cleophas Adderley who is today the Director of Culture tells the story of the start of the National Youth Choir in 1983.  This year it is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a choir, along with the country that is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a country.  The choir came about  from an initiative of Winston Saunders when he was Executive Director of the Bahamas Quincentennial Commission, the body formed by the late Sir Lynden O. Pindling’s Government to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the landing of Columbus  on San Salvador in The Bahamas.  The choir almost disbanded after the 1983 initial performances but Mr. Adderley determined to keep it going and put out ads for a new group of people.  Now he has set rules and limits.  You must be 15 and not older than 27 years old.  The choir cannot be bigger than 38.  And there is pressure for slots every year.
    This year the performances for the choir's 20th year took place at the Dundas Centre for Performing Arts from Tuesday 8th April to Saturday 12th April.  The audiences were sold out each night.  The Prime Minister Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie attended the opening, as did the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell later in the week.  The choir did a reprise of many of the numbers that made it famous over the years.  The favourite of many was the rendition of George Symonette’s Eight Babies.  Congratulations to the choir and the batch of fresh and vibrant young people including the Prime Minister's daughter Alex and to their effervescent director Cleophas Adderley.  The Nassau Guardian published this Donald Knowles photo.
 

WHERE IS THE BAHAMAS ON IRAQ?
    If you paid attention to the official Bahamas you would not know that there is a war going on in Iraq.  Since Prime Minister Perry Christie made his national address to the Bahamian people in March, there has not been a peep from the Bahamas Government on the subject.  The members of CARICOM have each issued their individual statements.  They are widely divergent.  Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago have been very forthcoming on the subject.  Billie Miller, the Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados, was furious when she saw the statement of Otto Reich, the special envoy President Bush for the Caribbean that said that there are consequences for words spoken by Caribbean leaders, even as he insisted that the US was not planning sanctions against the Caribbean.  The Bahamas has chosen it seems to be officially silent although the radio talk shows have been almost 100 per cent against the war in Iraq.

BAIC LAYOFFS
    The Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation (BAIC) is in the news again.  This time it is not about the war between Sidney Stubbs, its Chair and Leslie Miller, the Minister.  The truce declared is still holding between them.  But layoffs have been going on and it has allegedly affected FNMs more than PLPs.  Peter Carey and Fred Williamson said to be prominent FNMs are amongst those said to have separated from BAIC.  Most people did not kick up a fuss, however until Ricardo Dean, the Chief Councillor for North Eleuthera and a popular man about Hatchet Bay, was dismissed.  He was declared redundant he said when a few days before he had received a letter granting him an increment and telling him what a good job he had done.  Mr. Dean too is an FNM supporter but he is popular and well liked in the district.  And so it appears mud is on someone’s face again as BAIC comes into bad news once more.  There is less sympathy for Peter Carey.  This editor received a letter of protest from Mr. Carey, which we print below.
    A number of questions have to be asked of those who were hired by BAIC during the FNM era.  Did they perform their duties?  Did they report to work?  Did they finish the schooling that they were supposed to do when given the opportunity abroad?  The argument goes from the Corporation that if the public knew the answers to those questions there would be no hue and cry but a thank you to the Corporation.  Perhaps it will all come out in the end.  The fact is that BAIC makes no money.  It has a huge overdraft and is a drain on the resources of the Government.  The Government needs to bring this issue fast to a close.
 

A PROTEST FROM PETER CAREY
    As we say above, an e-mail of protest at BAIC was received from Peter Carey, one of the affected parties.  Entitled 'Stop Political Victimisation and AXE the Offenders', here is what he had to say:
    I would be most grateful to you if you would allow me the honour of expressing my personal outrage over the recent wave of political victimization of Bahamians in our beloved Bahamaland – at BAIC.  It is almost one year since the election of The “NEW PLP” to govern this country.  We recall the reminders of many Bahamians during the campaign that the PLP has a history of political victimization and regardless of new or old the PLP would soon turn to their old tricks.
    We recall, Prime Minister Perry G. Christie, requesting his party members to be magnanimous with persons who may support other political views.  I note that the majority of them have shown respect to their leader’s exhortations, but their lies a few who are determined to return to their evils ways in an effort to reward friends and families with opportunities that they do not have the vision to create i.e. provide meaningful and creative programs in the economy to provide jobs for them.
    With great despondency, Bahamians have learned about the axe given to employees of BAIC with letters signed by Executive Chairman, Mr. Sidney Stubbs.  Mr. Stubbs has since told the nation that he did not act alone.  We are all please when the Prime Minister, (“Chief Executor” as he called himself), reversed those decisions.
Now, using his power over the Board of Directors of BAIC, that same person, who acted along with Sidney Stubbs, is causing persons to be victimized in the name of “right-sizing”.
    It is even sadder that the new manager, in my mind a bright and upcoming professional is being used to advance the actions of his political masters, who is using BAIC a public corporation in a criminal way by terminating the services of Bahamians for no other reason then political victimization.
    It is the role now of our Prime Minister to bring to end the terror caused by those in his government who are abusing their political position and role as it leads to BAIC.  I am sure that many have advised the Prime Minister, (I note the remarks of Anglican Archbishop, His Grace Drexel Gomez) to have them resign. This political interference at BAIC is simply intolerable.
Staff at the Corporation are inevitably intimidated when political appointees are flexing their strengths to frustrate them.  My fellow Bahamians, these actions should concern us all. They are wrong and should be stopped. There is enough legitimate evidence to cause our Prime Minister to get involved and put an end to this madness.
    Then the advice of Bishop Gomez should be carried out and the axe should fall where it should have fallen since September 2002.
    Watching and waiting.
    Peter T. Carey
[Peter Carey needs to explain what he did when sent to school at Government expense in Canada?  Did he finish his course successfully?  Did he in fact attend the school at all? - Editor's Note]
 
 

RAPE AND ASSAULT IN THE SCHOOLS
    The Tribune’s lurid headline was CLASSROOM SEX HORROR. This is part of The Tribune’s continuing campaign to compete with the weekly rag called The Punch.  But within the lines of the story is indeed a horror story that is all too frequently coming out of our schools.  It is the story told by a mother to the Tribune  and printed on Thursday 10th April.  Here is what the mother said in her own words:
    “I was sitting on the porch Friday afternoon and she was walking home.  As she approached, I knew something was wrong by the expression on her face.  I said ‘What’s wrong with you, why does your face look like that?’  She said to me, ‘Mummy, I was attacked.  I was nearly raped at school…’
    “The young man was sitting in a group who were talking obscenities.  He left the group and sat on top of the girl.  He walked to my child’s desk and sat on top of my child and started to make all sorts of sexual moves and gyrations.  He pinned her to her chair in front of the other students.  My child tried to fight him off and the other students just sat there in shock and watched…
    “She got away and he pursued her a second time.  He had taken his shirt off and he attacked her again.  She ran to another section of the classroom and he cornered her… Only when the teacher came did the young man stop.”
    Meanwhile in Grand Bahama some 400 teachers walked off the job after an attack on teachers at St. Georges High School.  The community is with the teachers and want an immediate stop put to the violence.  Teachers are picture demonstrating in Grand Bahama in this photo by Derek Carroll.

 

FOREIGN MINISTER’S TRAVELS
    Brent Symonette asked a parliamentary question two weeks ago about the cost of travel by the Minister of Foreign Affairs… and he got an earful for an answer.  The total spent on foreign travel by the Minister out of his vote was some $63,000.  The Minister gave a full explanation to the public of how the figures were arrived at and said that Mr. Symonette does not need to access the cost of travel through a Parliamentary question.  He can simply access it directly from the Ministry.  Mr. Symonette got upset during the Minister’s presentation and said that he wished the Minister would stop the innuendo that he Mr. Symonette was making a personal attack.  He claimed that he had asked a simple question.  Bull…! The question was asked to try to make the Bahamian people feel that the Minister was spending too much money on travel.
    And so you can expect the usual hacks to come next week in the columns about too much money on travel.  We can’t wait for the disingenuous Zhivargo Laing to come with his you know what.  But the Minister should remember that these are occupational hazards.  The Opposition forgets of course that Hubert Ingraham spent 1,000,000 dollars on one trip for a month in Europe and the US and came back with a bunch of bad legislation that ruined the financial services sector.  And what about his first trip promoting The Bahamas supposedly abroad?  He spent some $250,000 of Bahamian taxpayers money.  The Minister said that the costs of his trips are carefully thought out and are approved in the usual manner.  Please click here for the full story.
 

WALTER WELLS RESIGNS FROM CIBC
    Walter Wells, the most prominent Bahamian in the merged company of CIBC and Barclays Bank to have come from CIBC, apart from Sharon Brown who came from Barclays has reportedly resigned from the newly formed bank First Caribbean.  It is not known why but it is believed that he has accepted another offer from one of the major banks.  Mr. Wells is said to have been chafing at the bit for some time because of the pressure to move to Barbados where the new bank has been centering all its activities.  His successor was immediately named as someone from Barbados. The new bank is in trouble with its unions in The Bahamas because of its labour practices.
 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN MIAMI

    As part of the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ mandate to strengthen relations with Bahamians abroad, he made a courtesy call on 18th March to Mrs. Barbara Shula Carey, the head of the Dade County Commission.  Mrs. Carey was married to a Carey, now deceased, who was from Eleuthera.  The Minister also addressed a session of the Commission.  A conference of Bahamian leaders in South Florida is to be held in Miami on 25th sponsored by the Ministry.  From left Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, Mrs. Carey and Bahamas Consul General to Miami, Mrs. Alma Adams.
 
 

MEL ALLEN DIES

    Melvin Edwin Griffin Allen, well known retired tailor and upholsterer who worked for years with Bahamas Airways and then Bahamasair as Supervisor in their upholstery department, has died.  He was 74.  Born in Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera, Mr. Allen is survived by his wife Norma nee Dillet, sons Niven and Martin, daughter Cindy and adopted son Jason.  Mr. Allen was buried Saturday 12 April in the Eastern cemetery following a funeral service at the church of the Most Holy Trinity in Stapledon Gardens.  Mr. Allen is pictured with his wife, Norma, retired head of the Blood Bank at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

BAHAMAS B2B NEWSLETTER
    Hard on the heels of our story last week charging "a startling display of bad and yellow journalism" from the Bahamas B2B Newsletter, but ten full days following the distribution of the offending newsletter itself, comes an e-mail from Bahamas newsletter saying it was "misrepresented".  Here is what they said:
'Warning From BahamasB2B'
       We have received information that messages appearing to have come from BahamasB2B have been sent to people without our knowledge or authority.
    The messages were sent using phony mail headers that make it look like they came from lisa@bahamasb2b.com, when in fact they did not.
    ALL mail sent to our mailing list comes from webmaster@bahamasb2b.com.  The address lisa@bahamasb2b.com is used only for personal correspondence from former BahamasB2B owner Lisa Wells.
    We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and are pursuing the identity of the criminals who are sending these abusive emails.
    Thanks,
    webmaster@bahamasb2b.com
    We checked and our copy of that "startling display of bad and yellow journalism" did not in fact purport to come from anywhere but Bahamas B2B, in fact, the headers were identical.

SIR SIDNEY PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO UNESCO
    His Excellency Sir Sidney Poitier presented his Credentials as Ambassador / Permanent Delegate of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) at a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France on Friday, 28th March, 2003.  In presenting his letters of credence to His Excellency Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, Ambassador Poitier said that his first job would be to educate himself fully on the work and programmes of UNESCO so that he would be able to determine how best to contribute to the work of the Organisation.
    The Ambassador said that The Bahamas Government has placed education at the centre of its sustainable development policy.  He looked forward to working with the Director General and the Organisation in implementing its goal of universal primary education by 2015.
    The Director General warmly welcomed Sir Sidney to the Organisation, stating that he thought the accreditation of such a distinguished world citizen would bring fresh life and ideas to UNESCO.
 
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA

Ingraham Wins The Day
    Observers have been telling us for weeks now that there will be no change in the top position at the FNM convention in May.  We have reported in the past month that there has been continuing intervention from the highest levels in the party.  Well it has all come to pass: Tommy and Brent sat at a domino table at the FNM headquarters in Freeport yesterday, Saturday 12 April.  They were - as Cochise Hanna likes to recall the words of the famous song - "walking along, singing a song... side by side".
    Tommy and Brent were in town to show how unified the party was and to attend a farewell dinner for Sir Albert Miller who has retired from the Grand Bahama Port Authority.  We are informed that former Prime Minister Ingraham was also in town for that same function and he was smiling from ear to ear as he now knows that he was able to outmanoeuvre all parties and deliver once again the leadership to Tommy.  We wonder why?

Pitched Battle in High Rock
    A war has broken out in the High Rock branch of the FNM that threatens the very survival of that branch.  Since the Annual General Meeting and election of officers last month, we have been reliably informed that some of the old guard is refusing to turn over any of the branch records including bank records.  Observers say the MP seems helpless to do anything about this sad state of affairs.  An appeal was made to News From Grand Bahama to help sort out this matter.  Ha!

St. Georges School
    Mr. Kenneth Romer, Vice Principal of St. Georges High School suffered a broken nose in his office after being attacked by a parent.  Mr. Romer had sent two students - one young man and one young woman - to his office for reportedly fighting.  Reports are that another student called a parent by cell phone with what turned out to be misinformation about his son.  The father is reported to have gone to St. Georges School along with another man, headed straight to Mr. Romer's office where the two individuals assaulted the Vice Principal leaving him with a broken nose.  The police later arrested two men who were brought before the court and charged.  They were both denied bail by Magistrate Franklin Williams and remanded to Fox Hill prison.
    A man was said to have apologized to the District Education Officer for Grand Bahama Mr. Cecil Thompson for his actions, saying he had acted without proper information.  Teachers, however, have been in a sit-in mode up to Friday of this week, and have called for better security to be put in place at public schools.  The public at large is of the view that, if convicted, the guilty parties as part of their punishment should be made to do some kind of menial work at the school so that all students can see what happens to parents or guardians who cross the line of unacceptable behaviour and take the law into their own hands on any school premises.

Foreign Affairs
    We thought that with a new Government and Minister that conditions for Bahamians who found themselves in distress in Cuba would improve.  On Friday, ZNS 810 radio carried as its lead story a mother who claimed that she was being given little or no assistance by the Government of The Bahamas.  She was quoted as saying that she "got nowhere with Minister Janet Bostwick and it looks like the same story with this present Government and its Minister.”  We believe, after checking, that the mother should contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and her matter would receive speedy consideration if anything at all could be done,
    This, however, is a good time we believe, to highlight the subject of a consular office in Cuba.  ZNS also played an insert from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, which suggested that no movement on a consular office could come before the House of Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs issues a report.  We believe that this is no more than a stalling tactic on our Government's part in not wanting to make a difficult decision on relations with the Republic of Cuba.
    With hundreds of Bahamians in Cuba on a weekly basis, this defies logic, not having a consular office there.  We remind the Government that it's first obligation is to its citizens and not to other foreign interests and when foreign interests take precedence over its citizens' interests we believe we should hang our heads in shame and cease to call ourselves a sovereign state.
    On the subject of Haiti, we believe that what we are now doing in concert with the OAS and CARICOM is not working.  We further believe that the only thing the Aristide Government will understand is for Haiti to be quarantined and all Bahamian interests asked to leave that nation and the Defence Force assets down in Great Inagua should be increased and not allow any boat that leaves any Haitian port into Bahamian waters.
    We also believe the only aid that should be given to Haiti should be of humanitarian nature: food and medicine and once pressure builds up, the Haitian people will solve their own problem.
BS

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - There was a touching photograph of Prime Minister Perry Christie with his youngest child Adam, now 13 years old.  The portrait of the Prime Minister as a family man is slowly emerging as his children enter their adulthood.  Son Steffan was seen in an engaging photo with his mother at the PLP’s convention last year.  Daughter Alex sang at the PLP’s convention and at her grandmother’s funeral and is an active member of the National Youth Choir.  Adam, the youngest, is a special child.  He is autistic.  In public policy the Prime Minister has a concern for special children and for the disabled.  Adam attends the school for special children at the Gavin Tynes Primary School.  This was his coming out occasion when he introduced his father at an assembly at which the Prime Minister was a special guest.  The occasion was captured by Peter Ramsay, the Prime Minister’s personal photographer on Friday 11th April.

This has got to be the most glorious time of the year for Bahamians. Not only is it because of the festival of Easter with the new suits for the children and the churches brightly and excitedly decorated, but also the weather is absolutely perfect. The sun shines brightly. The skies are a blue like you have never seen before. The air has just the right blend of warmth and coolness and there is very little humidity. And so it is the perfect time to sit under the shade of a tree, free of flies and other insects and digest the fish on Good Friday and the lamb on Easter Sunday.

The busiest time of the year for the fishermen in New Providence and no doubt the rest of The Bahamas is on Maundy Thursday, the eve of Good Friday. On that day as you pass every ramp by the sea, there are crowds gathered and car jams with people rushing to get their last minute supply of fish. For most Bahamians the choice by tradition is the goggle-eyed fish, so called because of the covering on the eye that is stripped off when the fish is cleaned. For those who can’t get the fish of choice, snappers or grunts are the fish to eat. These are called frying fish in The Bahamas and the sweetest part of the fish is said to be the “grunt head.”

The weekend is a long weekend in the truest sense of the word. Good Friday is a public holiday and there is a bank holiday called Easter Monday. Bahamians use the long weekend to good effect. There are regattas in Crooked Island and in Bimini. Excursions have gone out to both islands. Many people who originally hail from other islands take the time to get back home. Nassau empties out as a town.

In the old days, it used to be said that the waters of The Bahamas were too cold for Bahamians to swim in before Easter Monday. Easter Monday was said to be the start of the swimming season for Bahamians. The traditional season ends with the last public holiday of the year before Christmas, Discovery Day on 12th October, now called National Heroes Day. The beaches will be packed by the time most people read this on Monday morning.

For four days or so then, the country appears to be on a kind of magical hold, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the centrepiece of the Christian calendar and the reason why the church has a mission on earth. The country has a good reason why it would want to be on hold. Over the past week there was another murder. A 66 year old man became the 15th murder victim of the year when he was shot at point blank range in the head. His hands were bound with duct tape. Yet another shiver of death in The Bahamas for no apparent reason. The police killed the son of former permanent secretary Colin Deane in a scuffle. The young man had been a troubled person throughout his lifetime and now causes grief for his widowered father with his death in the unfortunate circumstances of a scuffle with a female police constable.

The FNM is getting ready for its convention on 7th May. They are trying to decide who will lead them for the next two years. Brent Symonette MP for Montagu and the son of former Premier Sir Roland Symonette has still not said whether he will run or not. The local papers have been predicting that he will not run. He himself has been mum but this column predicts that his fate as a would-be leader of the FNM was sealed with the deal to accept the position of Leader of the House for the FNM two weeks ago.

The PLP is getting set to mark the first anniversary of its return to power, with people grumbling that it was not all that it was cracked up to be. Except, if they think carefully, it really is all that and more. But after one year, the pressure is on to get the jobs for the faithful and get some decisions that will help ease their lives and make their struggle in the hard years worthwhile. The second day of May this year will be an important anniversary. It means that there are four years left before an election has to be called. Perhaps a reshuffle of the Cabinet is also in the air.

That said, it is left only for us to say Happy Easter to you all and thank you for your continuing support of this column since the change over last year.

The photo of fish being sold at Potter’s Cay on Maundy Thursday is from the Bahama Journal.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 19th April 2003: 31,785.

Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 19th April 2003: 70,539.

Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 19th April 2003: 390,452.

US IMPERIALISM
CARICOM has issued a statement on behalf of Caribbean Heads of Government calling on the UN to have a lead role in the reconstruction and governance of post war Iraq. But more and more it looks as if the US made a mistake by going into that country. Arab Foreign Ministers in a meeting on Friday 18th April have called on the US and British to leave Iraq as soon as possible. There were demonstrations in the streets of Baghdad on Friday 18th April calling for the US to leave Iraq. There was a confrontation with US troops that turned ugly but was deflected by Iraqi police. At one point a demonstrator told the soldier: "What are you going to do, shoot me?" This is now an army of occupation.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is now been shunted out by the Bush administration to make us all swallow that bitter pill and reality. They have rejected the offer of the UN to provide weapons inspectors to search for the weapons of mass destruction that were the pretext of the invasion and which have yet to be found. Poor Colin Powell was again left to grimace in front of the camera and say that the weapons will be found. Without the UN inspectors, nothing the US produces by way of evidence will be internationally accepted. We bet a case of Kalik that they will never be found because there were none in the first place.
The US should get out of Iraq now. Of course the whole war business is off the American media radarscope. They are on to other more exciting things like the latest kidnapping and murder in the US, nothing about the mass destruction their country wrought on innocent Iraqis and the raid of their cultural heritage. That is not important. The whole thing is unseemly.

The CARICOM statement is a waste of time and energy. The US will listen to no one. The occupation will continue. In that light, we think the US should be encouraged to invade Syria and keep going until they have wiped every "Arab terrorist" off the face of the earth. Then when that is finished they should turn their attention to Zimbabwe and North Korea and get rid of those bad guys as well. They should not forget Myanmar (formerly Burma) while they are at it. Once all the bad guys are gone, we shall have peace in the world. Amen!
 
 

EVENTS IN ZIMBABWE
   The Governments of the Caribbean and the Commonwealth must find the fortitude to suspend Zimbabwe indefinitely from the Commonwealth. This softly softly approach that has thus far been used will not work. The problem is that geopolitical realities are stopping the countries of the world from doing what is necessary to stop the leader of Zimbabwe from the savagery against his own people. The recent report of beatings of Opposition supporters is disgraceful.
    When we in The Bahamas sent money to Robert Mugabe it was as a freedom fighter; we did not send money for this. It is time for him to go. The Bahamas must take a strong stand at the Commonwealth on this issue. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action group meets again in May in London and it is crucial that it confirms that Zimbabwe is to remain suspended. The problem is that it is only the white countries, which take that stand. The Caribbean countries are subdued because they don’t want to offend the African countries. The African countries have a head in the sand policy and South Africa who should be particularly strong on Mr. Mugabe is doing nothing but shielding him from the effects of world opinion.
 
 

CHINA'S RESPONSIBILITY AND SARS
    The Bahamas has to determine whether or not it is safe to continue to allow its Consul General to remain in Hong Kong, given the reports on SARS, the new disease that is killing Chinese. It is an acute form of pneumonia, the organism for which has now been discovered.
    What is important here though is the comment on how a society that is totalitarian and non transparent can cause itself and the world problems. Because of the nature of the Chinese society, it is now being said that the true statistics of this highly infectious and dangerous disease are being hidden. The President of China recently issued an edict that the facts should not be hidden. This is a little too late but also better late than never. The World Health Organization must get in there and get to the bottom of this.
    We cannot afford any instability in China. China already is hiding a major AIDS problem, now with this disease all of the economic growth and stability that they have been promoting as a result of their totalitarian system, looks like it can collapse. That would be bad for the world, so we have a stake in making sure that the nation of 1.2 billion people does not spin out of control. It also shows why an open democratic society is still the best model for governance and economic growth.
 
 

BAHAMASAIR'S FUTURE
   Every Bahamasair Board and General Manager gets persuaded into believing that they can solve Bahamsair's problems. The present board appears to have been persuaded of the same thing. We have to face reality. It can’t be solved. The airline needs to be sold off to the private sector. The Government needs to accept the debt and get rid of its only asset and that is the right to fly within and out of The Bahamas to other destinations. It is time for us to get out of the airline business. The reports in the press about slashing salaries and the number of employees are part of this slow bleed of the resources of the Government to prop up a failed airline. It will take courage but it must, repeat must be done. That will be the present Board's best contribution to the country. Let us wind up Bahamasair.
 
 

BAIN TOWN THREATENS THE DOG CATCHERS
   According to the Nassau Guardian Thursday 17th April, the dog catchers have been catching hell in Bain Town. There has been a big campaign by the Canine Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture to catch the stray dogs that plague this country. They have been doing a good job. But when they moved into Bain Town, the people there tried to stop them and the police had to be called.
    The last major campaign to get rid of strays foundered when people began to let the dogs go from the traps and attack the dog catchers. But the dog catchers must not be deterred. The matter of stray dogs is simply a disgrace in the country. Those that are ill should be put down. The neutering and spaying campaign should continue. The US Ambassador’s wife has been instrumental in providing the assistance to get this job done. As unpopular as it is in some quarters, the dog catchers should catch the dogs.
 
 

DEATH IN THE PLAYGROUND
    Kyiel Clarke-Munroe was seven years old when he died on the playground of his school the Carlton Francis Primary. The schoolyard is a place where he was supposed to be safe. He and another child climbed up to the top of monkey bars, the bars collapsed and he never recovered from the fall. He was pronounced dead shortly afterward on Wednesday 16th April at the Princess Margaret Hospital. This is a sad case.
    The Minister of Education Alfred Sears immediately ordered that all the playgrounds be sealed from use by children until they can be secured. The story is that this was not put on the Ministry’s premises by the Ministry of Education but by the Parent Teachers Association. Whatever the story, there is likely to be a lawsuit to follow. This accident follows hard on the heels of the drowning of students on a school outing in Sweetings Cay in Grand Bahama.
    The Ministry now needs to take more general stock of its liability insurance and responsibility for ensuring that there is a safe system at their schools and in dealing with students on the whole. As there is more pressure on the school system, and the lack of resources, there may be more of these kinds of accidents. As they say a gram of prevention is worth a kilogram of cure. Do they actually say that?
 
 

WHITNEY BASTIAN DENIAL ON BAIC
    The Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation (BAIC) continues to make the news. The truce still holds between the Chairman of the Corporation Sidney Stubbs and the Minister Leslie Miller. That’s not the story.
    This week Whitney Bastian, the MP for South Andros was forced to issue a denial that he received information which he disclosed in the House of Assembly about the battles within the Corporation from no less a person than the Minister himself. Mr. Bastian said that he was simply acting to help the employees of the Corporation from sources within the Corporation. He said the Minister did not supply him with information.
    Things that make you go Hmmm!

TEACHERS STRIKE IN GRAND BAHAMA
    The teachers are back to work in Grand Bahama after being called off the job to protest the lack of security at the schools in Grand Bahama, owned by the Ministry of Education. The walkout took place over two days and the Minister of Education Alfred Sears had to fly to Grand Bahama to deal with the matter directly. The teachers went back to work. Nothing has been disclosed about how the matter was settled.
    One hopes that there is not a frightening pattern again developing like the pattern before last year’s General Election where wildcat strikes happen in order to get the Government’s attention and the Prime Minister always ends up being called in to settle it. We hope that this is not the start of all this stuff we thought we put behind us with the new PLP, being more proactive in office.
 
 

FOUR IN A ROW SAYS RICK FOX
    Bahamian standout of the three time champions of the US National Basketball Association Rick Fox has been quoted in the press as saying that Los Angeles will win four straight championships with the next one slated for this year. Some are wondering whether after this year Mr. Fox has a future with the Lakers. It appears that he is an ageing athlete that is losing his skills and some say that after this it may be time for him to hang up his boots. Others say: "No way!" What do you think?
 
 

HAITIANS BRING DRUGS
    The Americans are playing on the drug issue. They have blamed the transhipment countries for their drug problems. They have done nothing stop demand. When The Bahamas asked for assistance in trying to stop the flow of illegal migrants to The Bahamas the US promised it seemed to help but there appears to be no movement on that score.
    If the evidence was not compelling about what Bahamian authorities suspected on the movement of drugs and the connection to illegal migration, the evidence is now conclusively in. The Nassau Guardian carried a headline 'DRUG BUST OF THE YEAR'. Five Haitians were charged with smuggling cocaine with intent to supply. The cocaine was said to have a value of 4.6 million dollars. All of the men were mature persons.  Most in their 50s and while they are only charged and not yet found guilty, it seems fairly certain that the drugs were found on a migrant vessel. The youngest Haitian was 31 and the Bahamian caught with them Dwight Fitzpatrick was 34. They were not granted bail and await trial from prison.
    The Bahamian authorities have suspected that since the US puts pressure on the go fast boats, the drug guys have moved to putting the drugs into the slow boats that are used by Haitian migrants. Those are not checked by the DEU of The Bahamas and the DEA of the US. Now maybe the US will move post haste to help The Bahamas with this migrant situation because clearly it is connected to drugs.
 

THE FNM IN LEADERSHIP TURMOIL
    There is still no statement from Brent Symonette MP, the now Opposition Whip, about whether he will proceed to run for the head of the FNM. The rank and file of the FNM believes that Hubert Ingraham has bamboozled him into withdrawing. The groundwork has been set by the active discussion about whether a white man can be the leader of a Bahamian political party. The Tribune claims that the country is so ready. To us it seems an idle debate and it smacks of Brent Symonette’s lacking of a particular quality that a leader requires. That is not skin colour; that is the testicular fortitude to go ahead and run. The question of whether he is white or not is quite irrelevant to the question of ability.
    No doubt Mr. Symonette has some skeleton in the closet about race and some ghosts to excise. One is the explanation for why he went to an all white school and what is his view about that now in a modern Bahamas. But he really should, must have the stomach for it and go for it if he wants to. If he does not now, he will miss his chance. He will be beaten by the PLP but that prospect should not stop him. The whole debate about whether his whiteness is relevant or not is tiresome. Who cares?
    The rank and file say that Hubert Ingraham has no right to determine by pressure or otherwise who will lead the FNM since it was he who caused their defeat. Further, they say Senator Tommy Turnquest was defeated in his own seat and he has no right to be the leader of the FNM any more. Watching all of this from the sidelines must be a nervous Alvin Smith, the puppet Leader of the Opposition who must be wondering if Brent becomes the Leader of the Opposition what will happen to his salary.
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VOGUE COVER FOR BAHAMIAN WOMAN
    Bahamian women in athletics are not only doing well on the track but they are also excelling on the cover of the world’s popular women’s magazines. The latest comes with Bahamian Long Jumper Jackie Edwards who is to appear in the April editions of Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Allure, Flex and Cosmopolitan as the Face of the Generation. The Tribune featured her success in its sports edition on Tuesday 15th April. She lives in Texas and said that she entered the contest thinking that she would not win. She is the daughter of the Methodist Minister Rev. Nymphus Edwards.
    Ms. Edwards said: “I was pleasantly surprised. I never envisioned that I would win. When you have 5,000 entries you don’t expect to win.”
 
 

MINISTER REFUTES THE ENVIRONMENT ENVOY…
    Last week, we reported from this site, the apparent conflict between what the Ambassador for the Environment Keod Smith had to say and what the developer Gerardo Capo had to say about the Bimini Bay project in Bimini. It appeared from the press that Mr. Smith said that the Government or he had stopped the project in Bimini for environmental reasons. The developer was in the paper the next day to say that the development had not in fact stopped. Then on Monday 14th April, the Minster for Works Bradley Roberts announced that indeed the project had not been stopped by the Government.
    It turns out that the developer had been speaking all along with the Government’s ministers and had agreed to scale down his project but that the work on the project was to continue. It seemed to give the Government a black eye in that it looked like there was a conflict between two sources in the Government.
    The public of course would not know this but the Ambassador for the Environment and the BEST Commission does not have any executive authority to stop anything. The BEST Commission is an advisory body of the Government on environmental matters. It brings together the public sector expertise in a kind of quasi Ministry that is designed to give the Government the best advice on environmental matters.
    The Ministry that has the executive responsibility on environmental matters is the Minister of Health under Dr. Marcus Bethel. The Ministry that deals with permission to build is the Ministry of Works. Notwithstanding that confusion, the Government should stop the project. The project is ruinous to the environment. The developer does not apparently have the money to finish the project. What is needed is the restoration by the developer of Bimini's environment.
 

BACARDI STRIKE…
The Minister of Labour is a busy man these days. It appears that the restraint that came in anticipation of the General Election last year is off and the Union’s are now pressing their demands by strikes and other forms of industrial action.
    First, union Leader Huedley Moss gave an ultimatum to the Government’s Water and Sewerage Corporation that they sign the contract with the union or face a strike. Three days after the ultimatum the strike took place. The Minister of Labour Vincent Peet stepped in and the Government signed on the dotted line. Last week there was a teacher’s strike which caused the Minister of Education to fly to Grand Bahama when a teacher was injured in a school by a parent called in to even the score in a dispute. The parent was called by a child with a cell phone. The Unions demanded that there be more security in the school.
    It is hard to see what more the Minister could have promised as a result of a strike than if a meeting been requested but whatever it was the Union now seems to be satisfied that progress is coming. It clearly got the Government’s attention.
Huedley Moss is now back again. This time he is the principal advisor to Bacardi’s union. Bacardi’s management seemed to be holding fast and so the Union decided that they had had enough and a strike was called. The daily papers carried on their front pages photos of the Union workers on strike. As the week ended, the Minister of Labour was involved and the parties were back to the bargaining able.
    There is no word on how the Bacardi talks were going, but Bacardi is said to be in a perilous state. Having lost the market preferential treatment into the European Union, Bacardi now has to compete with other centres of production for Bacardi products around the world. Costs are therefore a key factor. Labour is said to be too expensive in The Bahamas. And so the gauntlet has been thrown down. The union is said to be willing to accept a reasonable offer. The onus is said now to be on the company to make such an offer.
 

DOES SADDAM HAVE ACCOUNTS HERE?…
Trust The Tribune to find a startling headline to try to embarrass the Government. And so this one was a doozy. The Tribune’s Business section claimed that Saddam Hussein had a bank account here in The Bahamas in a bank Banco del Gottardo. They were quoting from a story in The Sunday Times, another bastion of anti-Bahamian sentiment that appeared in London last week.
    The account is reported to have been code-named Satan. It was reportedly used to funnel millions of dollars from contracts that were given by the Iraqi government to foreign contractors. The bank was incensed. It is headquartered in Switzerland. It said it had complied with applicable UN sanctions and a request to identify Iraqi deposits in their bank. They had found two such accounts. None of them had to do with members of the Iraqi Government.
    One suspects that as it clearly emerges that the US invasion of Iraq was misconceived since there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that there will be more and more propaganda coming out of the established sources to discredit the Government of Iraq that they removed.
    No word from the Government of The Bahamas that increasingly faces these silly reports about Bahamian banks being used to launder illegal money. The problem with no response from the Government is that it creates a picture out there that The Bahamas Government has something to do with a bank being used for a particular purpose. One remembers the comment by Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur who says that there is more money laundered in the United States than in any other country in the world and the entire Caribbean combined.
 
 

IAN STRACHAN'S NEW BOOK…
    Dr. Ian Strachan, the lecturer at the College of The Bahamas and the playwright seems to have come into his maturity. It was not even two years ago that he was engaged in a row about his use of the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts and an apparently bitter struggle with personalities who run the place.
    Dr. Strachan has now written another book, his first since God’s Angry Babies in 1997. It is a mature work and well worth reading about the complex relationship between the tourism that gives us life in our countries in the Caribbean and yet is at the same time so soul destroying and a root cause of our problems. It is, again, well worth the read. The title is “Paradise and Plantation: Tourism and Culture in the Anglophone Caribbean”. It is available in Nassau at Logos bookstore. It is published by the University of Virginia Press and the ISBN number is: 0-8139-2146-5. The price is $25. Here is an excerpt from the preface:
    “It is hard to ignore the hotels. They rise like mammoths of iron and concrete above the homes, the office buildings, and the trees of New Providence, island of my birth. Seeing the latest titan appear from the mist, the Atlantis Resort, built by Sun International Hotels Ltd. on Paradise Island, I have tried to imagine how Bahamians might have felt eighty years ago as they watched the Colonial Hotel, at the time the tallest building in the colony, climb skyward in 1920. I think further, and I try to imagine what the Royal Victoria Hotel must have looked like to the inhabitants of these islands in 1961. Tourism has ruled in this place since then, and it is not any wonder, therefore, that when I sought a subject for scholarly research I hoped to better understand the myth of the Caribbean paradise. It is in The Bahamas that this myth finds a beginning, and it is this myth that has served as the primary subject of tourism’s special language in this region. The notion that we live in “paradise” has been one of the central myths of Bahamian life. If I have sought to interrogate that myth, then, I have tried to apply pressure to something intimate to all Bahamians, indeed, to all Caribbeans.”
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA

The Word Come Down:
    Former Prime Minister, Hubert Ingraham was in Grand Bahama again this week. While here he met with the party faithful to make sure the delegates to the upcoming FNM convention got the message as to what the new lineup for the FNM would be. Tommy T, leader; Zhivargo "Brother Laing", deputy leader; Carl "Smart" Bethel, chairman; Darren "Counting" Cash and Johnley "the Administrator" Ferguson, both vice chairs; and Theresa "Get Things Done" Moxey as secretary general.
    No sooner than Ingraham had boarded his Bahamas Air Flight, the news from Grand Bahama started receiving calls. The gist of these calls were that the people of the Bahamas on May 2nd of last year had sent the FNM a clear message. These stiff necks still have not gotten the message, and if we continue down the same road by not allowing people to make their own decisions next time we might be wiped out completely and not win any seats. Another said Brent must not make the same
mistake like Allen did; sometimes, leaders must take bold steps. Yet another was quoted as saying "Opportunity may only knock once for some people"; and yet another was quoted as telling Ingraham "That line up can't fly.

High Rock War
    No sooner than our story on the high rock war was posted last week did reports come in that the records of the branch would soon be delivered to the new administration loyal to Tommy. The MP for the area has since sided with the anti-Tommy faction, even after being advised by the chief not to involve himself in this type of skirmish. But, we believe the advice came a little late. Our advice to him, (MP) is to ask this faction not to nominate for any national office at this time or suffer the humiliation of defeat.

CDR
    Word is that the CDR headed by CEO, Dr. Bernard Nottage, may once again soon have a seat in Parliament after the FNM convention. We understand that negotiations are ongoing but in any event at the end of May the CDR will announce its shadow cabinet. This year for the first time, the CDR will present a budget for 2003-2004 fiscal year where it will lay out how the scarce resources of our country could be utilized to its maximum potential. Stay Tuned.

HAITI
    This week no one was surprised when a wooden sloop was boarded by Defence Force and DEU agents and the largest quantity of cocaine was seized. Most Bahamians believe that not only are these sloops used for human cargo smuggling, but they are also used for drug trafficking and arms dealing. We believe that the U.S. authorities have consistently turn a blind eye to these boats because they see it only as a Bahamian migrant problem that has little or no effect on the U.S. mainland. So for these selfish reasons, the full assets of the U.S. as they along with the Bahamian authorities patrol our waters have not been as vigilant as they ought to be. Hence, these boats have been coming in unchallenged and undetected. We believe that the Embassy in Nassau should now make the case to Washington that a policy change in this regard is in the interest of the United States to help the Bahamas with its boat people problem because ultimately, the drugs will end up on the streets of the United States.
B.S.

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - The photo of the week appeared in the Nassau Guardian on Tuesday 22nd April.  It was a picture by Patrick Hanna of two kids building a sand castle on one of the beaches of New Providence on the Easter Monday Holiday.  The past week and the week before were four day work weeks in The Bahamas because of the Good Friday and Easter Monday Holidays.  The police said that the long weekend in the country was “crime free”, with no incidents of importance reported.  The children seemed oblivious to photographer Patrick Hanna as they set about their work.  Easter Monday in the tradition of The Bahamas is the beginning of the swim season.  The water is judged to be warm enough by Bahamians to allow a swim.  The last day of the swim season is traditionally the National Heroes Day Holiday on 12th October formerly known as Discovery Day.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

THE FNM’S  AGATHERTHIN'
You always know its silly season or more correctly FNM convention season when all the freaks come out at night and during the day.  Every day now as the convention scheduled to begin on 7th May draws closer and closer, the statements come fast and furious in the FNM dominated press of The Bahamas.  The Tribune of course has been running a now stillborn (see story below 'BRENT WON'T RUN') one man or shall we say a one woman campaign to elect Brent Symonette, the Leader of the FNM.  They keep insisting the obvious that colour should not be an issue in determining who is the leader of the FNM.

The PLP has been watching all of this with some bemusement but also with studied interest.  Anyone who does not believe that Perry Christie is not watching this with a keen eye, despite the silence and jocularity on the point is seriously mistaken.  The PLP is keenly aware that whatever is being orchestrated by the FNM now is a strategy that they think can be a winning one.  Their strategy is to ridicule the PLP for being a government of indecision, fudging and commissions and corrupt or at best spendthrifts.  They will argue that nothing is being done.

This week the strategy was unveiled in a small form when Brent Symonette MP for Montagu and would have been leader of the FNM stood up in the House of Assembly to try to denounce Allyson Maynard Gibson for tabling a bill that was not the correct bill.  The Minister at the earliest opportunity corrected the mistake, withdrew the bill from the House in accordance with the rules in the meeting of Wednesday 23rd April and substituted the new bill.  Mr. Symonette tried to make a meal of it, talking about incompetence and rushing and misleading the House.  He couldn’t bring it off because the PLP kept asking him whether he was still running or not for leader and the whole thing descended into laughter.

But on a more serious note, the talk in the FNM is that the country will get tired and is tired of the indecision and commissions.  They argue that the PLP is unpopular because there are no jobs; that the renting of bleachers for Junkanoo is a millstone around the neck of the PLP; and that if the elections were called today, the PLP would not win one seat.  One small point, no election is going to be called today.  The FNM intends to play to these themes at their convention.

In order to do that, they will have to ensure that there is no dissension on the question of leadership.  And so former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham is pressing everyone to stay in line for Senator Tommy Turnquest to be returned and there is to be no fight over leadership at the Convention.

Some argue that a more sinister motive is in place.  Mr. Ingraham thinks that when 2005 comes, the Christie led government will have collapsed under its own weight and that at that time there will be a demand for him to come back.  He will be able to easily ask Senator Turnquest to step aside for him to return.  That would have been a whole other question if it were Brent Symonette there.

Of course there is the poem of Robert Burns about the best laid plans going where you don’t want them to go.  The fact is that 2007 is a long way away, the time for a fresh election.  Perry Christie has been counted out before by the same accusations and he wiped the floor with the FNM in 2002.  As it was said once: we routed them before and we can rout them again.

The PLP will mark the occasion of the 2nd May when they were reelected to office after ten years in opposition with church services and social celebrations.  But no one for one moment has forgotten what it took to get to office, why the PLPs were elected to office and what has to be done stay in office.  The battle against the forces of the FNM is still joined and the PLP must continue to remember why it is now the Government and not the other side.

The number of hits for the week ending Saturday 26th April 2003 at midnight: 18,397.

The number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday 26th April 2003 at midnight: 89,023.

The number of hits for the year up to Saturday 26th April 2003 at midnight: 408,936.

BRENT - $10,000 AND TWO CUFF LINKS
    The propaganda began in earnest this past week to set the scene if not now, later for a run for Leader of the FNM.  The pressure was said to be enormous on Brent Symonette, the son of former United Bahamian Party (UBP) Premier Sir Roland Symonette, to abandon any idea he had of running for Leader of the FNM.  Their publicists and promoters have been at pains over the past weeks to discuss openly in the press the idea that the time has come when The Bahamas could have a white Leader of a political party and a white Prime Minister.  The idea is really a silly one, since colour should not decide who becomes leader of a party.  Many argue though that, while that is the case, this white man is just the wrong person.  What that really means is that this man is the wrong person.
    Mr. Symonette is painfully aware of all the baggage and he appeared on a radio talk show during the week tantalizing the public about whether he would or wouldn’t run.  To this end, The Tribune ran a front page top line story: D DAY FOR SYMONETTE on Tuesday 22nd April.  The thrust of the story was to refute the story run here last week and in other media in The Bahamas that he had been pressured by Hubert Ingraham, the former Prime Minster to withdraw from the race.  On the radio show, Mr. Symonette deferred again, saying that he would make an announcement within two weeks.  Most FNMs already thought that Mr. Symonette had decided not to go ahead and had therefore lost his chance to become leader of the party forever.
    In the process of defending his position, Mr. Symonette sought to portray himself as a rags to riches story.  He said that when his father died over 20 years ago, he was left $10,000 and a pair of cuff links.  This brought howls of laughter from the other side.  The Prime Minister teased Mr. Symonette in the House about the matter when he asked him: What about the trust fund that was controlled by Mr. Symonette’s mother?  In other words, who was the beneficiary of that?  In the process of all this 'will he, or won't he' the country got a fascinating portrait of an attempt to refashion a UBP’s image into a modern day Bahamian politician with no racial hang ups and political past as baggage. Tribune photo.
 

BRENT WON'T RUN
    The announcement was made at a Friday news conference by Brent Symonette that he has decided not to run during the next FNM convention for Leader of the party.  Flanked by the Leader of Opposition business in the House Alvin Smith, one of the Gang of Three Plus One at the head of the FNM, Mr. Symonette was reported not to have ruled out running before the next election.  Noticeably absent were the other members of the Gang of Three Plus One, FNM leader outside the House Senator Tommy Turnquest and FNM former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham (the plus one, who alone amongst the group holds no 'leadership' post).  Mr. Ingraham is widely thought to have been the key factor in Mr. Symonette's decision not to contest the party's leadership.  The story came as we prepared this site for upload and seems to confirm our report that the appearance of unity was paramount in the decision.  Mr. Symonette was quoted in The Tribune as saying: "…it was in the best interest of the FNM and the unity of the party that we have a convention that is not divided in any way…"  Bahama Journal photo.

 

THE BRENT SYMONETTE STORY
    If you did not know any better it would have brought tears to your eyes.  The rags to riches story told to the Bahamian people on radio on Tuesday 22nd April by Brent Symonette, the son of the former Premier of The Bahamas Sir Roland Symonette.  Mr. Symonette had been promoting himself as would be leader of The Bahamas but he can’t make up his mind because some have argued that because he is white he can’t succeed.  Others have told him because he is his father’s son, and the UBP that his father led has so much political baggage that he cannot succeed.  All of that is poppycock.  What you need is guts but some have it and some don’t.  We thought that you would be interested to read some of what Mr. Symonette had to say to Jeffrey Lloyd on the programme ISSUES OF THE DAY on Love 97 on Tuesday 22nd April in his own words:
    “When my father died, I inherited $10,000, a pair of cuff links and a watch and that was it.  People forget that he died over 20 odd years ago, so I grew up knowing the value of hard work…
    “Details of my life, skin colour, and wealth are being spread over The Bahamas for everyone to have fun discussing, but people are unaware of the facts.  As a youth I began work at 7 a.m. working long hours selling wicks and burners for Electrolux Kerosene refrigerators.
    “With my first car, I earned the money to buy it and these were not handouts.  When my father died, my mother inherited everything.  I don’t hold a grudge against him because that was his way.  He taught us the value of money.  That was ingrained in me and I am ingraining it in my children.
    “When my father died my brother (Craig) and I dabbled in numerous business ventures.  The deposit for the first subdivision that me and my brother created was guaranteed by my brother (the late R. H. Symonette, the former Speaker of the House) and the banks were more lenient because they thought they could rely on my father to bail us out. We went ahead, we borrowed the money and through hard work, we created the firms that we did; so it is not fair nor will I sit back and have people say that I inherited money because that is not the case.  I work for it and continue to work for it.
    “I am reasonably well off (declared net worth 15,000,000 dollars) but a lot of the money I earned and I should not be penalized for it.  Mr. Tiger Finlayson is very wealthy, but we don’t penalize him.  Mr. Bradley Roberts is very wealthy but we don’t penalize him.  I did the same thing, but everyone thinks that I inherited it.  I only inherited something on the 13th March this year after my mother died…
    “There were times when I was a teenager at 3 a.m. and my father was already up.  He would shower, go downstairs, and we went to work.  That is the way I was brought up so hard work and me go hand in hand…
    “We have progressed very successfully as a country and we should also be thankful of that.  Are we going backwards?  We can’t change the history that slavery resulted in this country, but we should also look back and realize that at some point in time, black people owned more slaves than white people in The Bahamas, that is an historical fact, but we tend not to remember that…
    “If I am labelled because of my father’s past affiliation, the public must label Minister Allyson Gibson with her father, Sir Clement T. Maynard and Minister Glenys Hanna Martin with her father A.D. Hanna, both former politicians.  We don’t see this happening.  They are individuals of their own right, so what’s good for one has to be good for the other.  There is no difference between myself and Minister Allyson Maynard Gibson expect the colour of my skin… She sends her kids away to school, I sent my kids away to school.  She lives on the waterfront out west; I live overlooking the waterfront out east.  No difference except the colour of our skin.  But we are both Bahamians…
    “They have branded me a UBP, but when the UBP came into existence, I was under 10.  Does this mean that every single child of every single politician gets branded or put in a box because of who their father was?  If that is the case, one must also say that Minister Bradley Roberts is a UBP, as his father was general for the party.”
    [This was a remarkable interview.  Obviously very heartfelt and some deep deep wounds have been inflicted and need healing balm.  The defence was well thought out, but the fact is that Mr. Symonette began from a position of wealth and privilege as the son of a rich, powerful white merchant in a country dominated by that class and in that he is not like Allyson Maynard Gibson nor like Glenys Hanna Martin.   While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with Mr. Symonette's - or anyone's background - which in and of itself should be held against them, the fact is that Mr. Symonette is intellectually dishonest and unless and until this privileged scion of the UBP can acknowledge the truth of who he is and where he came from, he just cannot make it.  There is a saying by their fruits ye shall know them—Ed.]
 

NORMAN SOLOMON’S DISEASE
    Not much is known about the disease Parkinson's in The Bahamas.  What little we know about it, we know from the international figures like Pope John Paul, the actor Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali.  But now the matter has come home to all.  The Prime Minister attended a banquet on Saturday 26th April for the Kingdor National Parkinson’s Foundation to raise money for the cause in The Bahamas.  But the country was surprised to see a familiar local face amongst the victims of the disease.  The disease affects motor co-ordination and is sometime marked by tremors, slurred speech, loss of motor co-ordination and loss of memory.  That face was the owner of the Solomon Group of Companies businessman and former Leader of the Opposition Norman Solomon.  Mr. Solomon told a TV audience that the greatest nuisance for him is the inability to button his shirts and to cut meat when he eats.  But he felt that apart from that he had a healthy attitude about the disease and acted as if he did not have it.  Mavis Darling King, niece of the former Governor General Sir Clifford Darling and daughter of the late K.S. Darling is the principal spokesman for the disease in The Bahamas.

 

ALGERNON CHALLENGES MELANIE ---HMMM!
    Every once in a while, Algernon Allen, the former Minister of Idle Poetry, rises up from the political graveyard since his ignominious defeat by the new Marathon Man Ron Pinder, to defend some strange cause or other.  One time, he was there attacking the pimps, prostitutes and people of the night on Dowdeswell Street.  Another time, he rose up to say what a great thing it would be for The Bahamas to have a white Prime Minister.  Now he has come forward in the Nassau Guardian Wednesday 23rd April to defend; well, we are not quite sure, but what it appears is that he had or has some affinity for a man named Philippe Bonefoy who he claims contributed $700,000 to the building of a home for abused children.
    Melanie Griffin, the new Minister, had told the public earlier what a mess Mr. Allen had made of the whole matter of the home for abused children with no proper records of what was donated and what was not and who was to pay for the completion of the centre.  Mrs. Griffin said that Mr. Bonefoy who had been touted by Mr. Allen in his previous life as the person who would complete the centre can’t be found despite numerous requests to speak to him.  He has proven to be elusive. The result is that all efforts to contact him have ceased and the Government will have to complete the centre itself.  How Mr. Allen thought it necessary to defend that, we don’t know.
 

A STRANGE HAPPENING IN MAYAGUANA
    The two Bahamasair 1969 version 737 jets were out of commission last week.  The result was that the schedule was all botched up with delays after delays.  The airline is at a critical stage with drastic steps needing to be taken to bring its costs in line and help to save it.  The fact is that the whole industry is in trouble with American Airlines, a major carrier into The Bahamas near bankruptcy and the regional airlines Air Jamaica and BWIA in financial trouble.  After a much promoted sale to Butch Stewart the Jamaican entrepreneur in 1994 by the Jamaican Government, it was announced that the Jamaican government in a debt for equity swap would reacquire some 45 per cent of Air Jamaica.  Meanwhile, the Unions in Nassau seem not to be able to accept that there will have to be drastic steps taken at Bahamasair if it is to be saved.
    But to add to its troubles this week, the passengers of Bahamasair in Mayaguana had had enough.  The flight arrived in Mayaguana from Inagua on its way to Nassau to pick up passengers.  Too many passengers were put on at Inagua. The result was not enough seats for booked passengers at Mayaguana.  The plane was blocked on the tarmac by angry passengers so that it could not move.  The pilot begged them to allow him to do so because his legal time to fly was running out.  They did not and so another crew had to be flown in to bring the 14 passengers to Nassau.  No word on whether any one has been charged with this incident but charged they must be.
 

AIRPORT WORKERS ON STRIKE
    There was brief work stoppage at Nassau International Airport on Thursday 24th April.  The dispute was about whether or not certain airport workers transferred from the Public Service are entitled to the pay anomalies that the Government granted to public service workers, even though those airport workers now work for the Airport Authority.  The Government's lawyers say no, the Union says yes; that it was a term of the pre existing contract before they transferred.  Perhaps the matter will now end up in the court where it properly belongs.  The workers were back at work by afternoon.
 

BACARDI WORKERS STILL OUT

    The strike over the layoff of 20 Bacardi workers continues into its third week.  There does not appear to be any end in sight.  Union Leader Huedley Moss says that they will remain on strike for as long as it takes.  Meanwhile, Bacardi is said to be alarmed as the future of the company is put in jeopardy by a Union that will not see the facts.  Not so said the other side, the company is simply being bloody minded. Nassau Guardian photo by Donald Knowles.

 

MINISTERS REPORT TO THE NATION

    The Minister of Financial Services and Investment spoke to the nation on Wednesday 23rd April to say that there is some $2.18 billion of investment pending for The Bahamas.  She predicted that this should mean the creation of some 5,947 jobs.  The address was the second of a series of reports to the nation by Ministers of the Government through national radio addresses.  You may click here for the full address by the Minister.  The report was the second of a series foreshadowed by Prime Minister Christie in his national address on the eve of the second Gulf War.  The first in that series was a report by the Minister of Tourism, Obie Wilchcombe on 14th April.  You may click here for Minister Wilchcombe's report.
 

NEW ANGLICAN CHANCELLOR

    Attorney Mrs. Ruby Nottage has been installed as the first woman Chancellor of the Anglican diocese.  Mrs. Nottage was congratulated during the official service at Christ Church Cathedral by former Chancellor and former Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest and Lady Turnquest and is shown at the service Thursday 24th April with altar boy Jonathan Lockhart.  Bahamas Information Services photo by Peter Ramsay.
 

NEW SUB DEAN AT CHRIST CHURCH

    Archdeacon Etienne Bowleg has been installed as the new sub Dean at Christ Church Cathedral.  Reverend Father Bowleg is substantively Rector of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity and replaces Archdeacon William Thompson (now deceased) at the Cathedral Chapter. Bahamas Information Services photo by Peter Ramsay.
 

KEN - THE MISERABLE
    Of all the Members of Parliament in the House of Assembly in the Senate, the one that will get the misery loves company prize must be the Member of Parliament for High Rock Ken Russell.  Here is a man who by all accounts is a successful politician having served as a Minister of Works in the last administration.  He won his seat handily in the last election bucking the national trend, so he must be admired by most of his constituents.  But he wears a frown all the day long.  There is not one thing it appears that can be done to please the man.  His colleagues in the FNM say that that is his personality and they too try to stay out of his way.  Only one person makes him smile and that is former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.  They say when Ingraham comes into the picture you can see that grin from a mile away.  Still, in Ken's defence, he always has a smile for a former editor of this site who is his constituent.  Perhaps he only smiles when he feels that it counts.  Hmmm!

 

BAHAMIANS MEET IN MIAMI
    Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell was the host along with Consul General Alma Adams in Miami for a one day symposium on the theme 'Strengthening Relations between The Bahamas and South Florida'.  Some 50 elected officials from the South Florida area were present to hear speakers from the Dade County Commission, the Broward County Commission and from the churches in South Florida talk about how relations can be improved between The Bahamas and South Florida.  At least three persons on the Dade County Commission have Bahamian connections.  The Anglican Church of St. Agnes is a particularly strong parish in Miami with some 3000 members of Bahamian descent.  The Minister promised that there would be follow up to ensure that the links would grow stronger between the Bahamians who live abroad and The Bahamas.  You may click here for the Minister’s address.
 

PLP 1st ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
    PLP Chairman Raynard Rigby has announced a schedule of events in celebration of the party's first anniversary in government.  Please click here for the party's detailed announcement.  On Thursday, 1st May 2003 - National Address by the Prime Minister and Party Leader, the Hon. Perry G. Christie; Friday, 2nd May 2003 - Cultural Extravaganza on Clifford Park starting at 7:00pm and featuring leading Bahamian artists; Saturday, 3rd May 2003 - Victory Fun Day at PLP Headquarters starting at 7:00 am and continuing all day with lots of fun, games and activities for the entire family; and Sunday, 4th May 2003 - PLP will attend church to fellowship and to give God thanks for the electoral victory.  Mr. Rigby himself is on Island FM radio Sunday 27th April at 3 p.m. to discuss the party's fiftieth anniversary.
 

PRIME MINISTER CHRISTIE ON RADIO

    Prime Minister Perry Christie is scheduled to be heard on radio today, Sunday 27 April.  The Prime Minister is the guest on a special edition of the 102.9 Island FM Sunday show 'Parliament Street'.  This week's show is being hosted by broadcaster Charles Carter and Island FM News Director Jerome Sawyer and is being simulcast by COOL96 Radio (96.1 FM) in Freeport.  Mr. Christie is expected to give an account of his stewardship after one year in government, with questions from leaders of important segments of the Bahamian economy and from the general public.
 

FOREIGN MINISTER TO WASHINGTON
    Fred Mitchell, the Foreign Minister will travel to Washington DC for the first official visit by a Bahamian Government official to the US capital.  An earlier visit to Washington scheduled for February had to be postponed because of the US attack on Iraq.  The Foreign Minister will be in Washington from 28th April to 3rd May.
 

MITCHELL AT PINDLING LECTURE
    Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell will be the distinguished lecturer this year for the Sir Lynden O. Pindling Memorial Lecture on Monday 5th May.  The lecture was originally to be held near the anniversary of the birth of Sir Lynden in March but due to scheduling conflicts the lecture will now be held on 5th May.  The subject: What does it mean to be a Bahamian?  The lecture is free and the venue is the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts.  It begins at 7:30 p.m.
 

SARS ALERT FOR BAHAMIANS IN CANADA
    Bahamians in Canada are concerned now that the World Health Organization has issued a travel advisory for the city of Toronto in Canada because of the SARS crisis.  Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was first spotted in China in November last year but it has become a major health outbreak throughout China and the rest of Asia.  There have been several deaths in Toronto related to persons who travelled to the Far East and returned to Canada.  The Mayor of Toronto is furious about it but the WHO warning stands.
    The Ministry of Health in The Bahamas continues to monitor the situation.  There is a questionnaire that has to be answered by everyone at the border about where they have spent the last few weeks.  Anyone who is returning from an infected area should remain in quarantine for at least ten days if they are symptomless.  Students in Canada are advised to pay attention to reports from their local health systems in Canada that are updating the universities and colleges on a daily basis.  If there are any issues, they can call the High Commissioner to Canada located in Ottawa for any additional information.
 

ZENDAL FORBES CALLS FOR MONEY FOR SCHOOLS
    Zendal Forbes, who is the only declared candidate for Leader of the FNM, beside Senator Tommy Turnquest issued a press statement this week on education.  Mr. Forbes called for the government to commit forty million dollars of additional resources to the development of education.  Mr. Forbes is a former FNM candidate against Sir Lynden Pindling in the 1992 General Election.  He is felt to believe that given the rejection of Senator Turnquest and those who now appear to be on a course for reelection to the FNM leadership, there is a need for opposition to that.  His friends say that the feeling amongst Mr. Forbes’ supporters is that Brent Symonette (click here for stories above) was really a stalking horse for Senator Turnquest.  He was meant to block anyone else from entering the race when he did not at all intend to run.
    One thing we have to say about Mr. Forbes is that he gets an 'A' for courage.  We trust that when nomination day comes in the FNM that the persons who promise to nominate him show up.  That is a favourite trick when pressure is brought to bear within a party.  The persons who said that they would give you the chance to run by nominating you suddenly disappear into the woodwork on nomination day and can’t be found.

 

THE PRISON REPORT IS TABLED
    On Wednesday 23rd April, the Deputy Prime Minister Mrs. Cynthia Pratt laid on the table of the House the much awaited report on conditions in the Prison.  It is much worse than we thought.  The most startling fact is that 70 percent of the inmates in the prison are illiterate.  There are no training programmes in the prison and the conditions in prison are unsanitary and unhealthy.  Mrs. Pratt thanked the Commission Chair Dr. Elliston Rahming for the work of the Commission.  She said that the report makes it clear that if you treat people like animals they will become animals.  Let us hope that this report is more than talk and that some real work is begun to clean up the prison.
 

CHURCH AND STATE

    We thought you might appreciate seeing this candid photograph of Prime Minister Perry Christie being greeted at Christ Church Cathedral by His Grace the Archbishop of the Anglican Church the Most Reverend Drexel Gomez.  It was, in our view, an interesting photographic juxtaposition of church and state.  The photo is by Bahamas Information Services' Peter Ramsay.
 

CONGRATULATIONS TO PICTET BANK
    This week Pictet Bank, the French Bank, that is located on the western foreshore near Caves Point in New Providence is celebrating its 25th anniversary in The Bahamas.  Perhaps a call by the Government upon the bank for their stickability in the face of some pretty difficult times and pressure from overseas would be well worth it.
 

CARIFTA GAMES RESULTS

    The Bahamas' march to the top in regional and international sports continues with recent successes by national teams at the CARICOM countries regional 'Carifta' Games, held during April.
    Track & Field - The Bahamas earned 3 gold, 6 silver and 13 bronze medals for a total of 22 prizes overall in a fifth place finish behind Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda. Twins Tavara (on the left) and Tamara Rigby wave the flag after finishing first and third respectively in the under-17 girls 200 metres during Carifta track in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in this Nassau Guardian photo by Donald Knowles.
    Swimming - The National Swim Team shocked a powerful Cayman Islands team at Carifta swimming in Kingston, Jamaica by outstripping them for third place overall.  The Bahamas secured 18 gold, 7 silver and 10 bronze medals in the effort.  Head coach Allan Murray told the press "the margin between third place and the Trinidadians in second and the Jamaicans in first is diminishing.  Alana Dillette (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) overtakes the competition in the pool at the Jamaican national swim complex in this Tribune photo.  11-12 girls standout Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace bagged 6 gold medals and a record in the 200 metre freestyle.  Full results are available at www.swimjamaica.com.
    Boxing - The Bahamas Boxing Team came out on top in the first day of Carifta competition Friday 25th April in Nassau's Kendal Isaacs gym.  The Bahamas' Brandon Johnson is shown in this Tribune photo (left) by Felipe Major on his way to defeating Anderson Emanuel of Barbados for a gold medal in the under-20 Light-Heavyweight division.  As we prepared for upload Saturday evening 26th April, the final night of boxing competition was underway.

A CREDIBLE VEHICLE FOR THE PLP
    The PLP continues to get a proper drubbing in the public relations battle.  What has been helpful during the past two weeks have been the addresses of the Ministers of the Government Allyson Gibson and Obie Wilchcombe.  They both gave good accounts of their stewardship, with Mrs. Gibson latterly indicating that over two billion dollars of investment (click here for story above) coming to The Bahamas will mean significant jobs and a boost for this economy.   But the PLP does not have a newspaper.  It does not have a well maintained website with regularly updated information.  Government Ministries do not themselves have websites or regular information dispatches to the public.  Right now such a site for the Ministry of Health would useful.  What tends to happen then is that when a crisis in information management occurs, an ad hoc vehicle is invented.  That vehicle does not have the credibility of one that if properly maintained over the years would build up credibility.  That is what we face when you have a paper like the Nassau Guardian, lousy though it is; The Tribune, prejudiced though it is.  The fact is that they have been going for a long time.  They publish every day and they have developed a reputation for reliability.  The public finds that credible.  The result is that it is useful for the propaganda of the opponents of the PLP who control both those papers.  The question is an age old one for the PLP. When will it create a reliable public relations vehicle so that its message can get out?  We hope it is soon.
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S IN FREEPORT…
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA

Revival Reach Grand Bahama
    St. John's Jubilee Cathedral was the venue of ‘Three Days Ablaze’ revival services put on by the Grand Bahama Christian community starting on Tuesday past until Thursday.  In attendance was televangelist Bishop Eddie Long of the Full Gospel church out of Atlanta, Georgia along with Bishop Neil Ellis out of Nassau.  We are informed that thousands attended the services and according to revival goers, their souls were truly uplifted.

New Subdivision Named
    On Friday past the groundbreaking for phase two of the ‘Sunrise’ subdivision was held by Island Chain developers, headed by our friend Mr. Michael Edwards, who we refer to in this column from time to time as 'Iron' Mike.  The project is a significant Bahamian success story, because Island Chain rescued ‘Sunrise’ from a foreign developer who was unable to follow through after having taken deposits of money.
    The hotel workers union is supporting 'Sunrise' with mortgages for its members.  Mr. Edwards used the opportunity to chastise the banks for their policies concerning mortgages and consumer loans.  He spoke of how much easier it is for the average citizen to get high interest money for cars and vacations, but it seemed that home ownership was discouraged.  He called for change.  Minister of Housing Shane Gibson officially opened the subdivision, with Prime Minister Perry Christie represented by Minister of Financial Services & Investment Allyson Maynard Gibson.

The Ingraham / Johnstone Factor
    On Thursday past, Brent Symonette confirmed reports in this column that he would not run for the leadership of the FNM on May 7th at their convention.  News From Grand Bahama is reliably informed that former Prime Minister Ingraham told Mr. Symonette point blank that he would not support him.
    The Johnstone faction of the FNM is said to have told Mr. Symonette "Tommy didn't get a fair chance to lead the party".  This is alongside Senator Turnquest's acceptance of the leadership deal from Mr. Ingraham that certainly could not fly.  That within itself speaks to Tommy's political acumen.
    Informers from the Johnstone faction have also let it be known that they did not believe that old family ties between the Turnquests and the roots of the party should not be disrupted for the sake of Brent's leadership.
    Mr. Symonette was told that based on public opinion victory in the leadership race would have been his, but to what avail if he could not command the support and prevent certain key elements of the FNM from possibly bolting the party.  In the face of all this, Mr. Symonette decided to stand down.

Grand Bahama Reaction
    Saturday night a banquet for the installation of officers in five FNM branch offices was held.  The banquet room - which was set for a crowd of 600 - was said to be only half full with many, many empty tables.  Reaction was swift and unkind to the putative victor ‘Tommy T’ -
    One observer said: "people ain't gonna go for this"...
    "Look what they did to Mike [Edwards who was the northern region FNM Vice Chair] they threw him out and replaced him with Alex 'Fire' Pratt whom they knew couldn't do the job, but yet they followed Ingraham's advice.  Now it looks like the same thing is happening with the leadership"…
     "I wouldn't waste my time or money to go to Nassau [to the FNM convention] to prop Tommy up”…
    “It looks as if Tommy is running from the press... How come he ain't been on Steve or Darrold's show yet... did you ever know a politician to run away from a mike?"…
     "You don't lie to your friends, you tell them the truth... I've known the boy [Tommy] all my life and he just don't have it."

Cease Fire In High Rock?
    Before leaving for Nassau Sunday morning, FNM Leader Tommy T and Chairman Dwight Sawyer were huddled at Geneva’s restaurant along with former FNM Minister Carl Bethel and High Rock MP Ken Russell.  They were holding court with several members of the High Rock FNM branch.  We wonder if they were trying to negotiate a cease fire to the ongoing battle that is raging within the High Rock FNM.  From the looks of it, MP Russell was not smiling; notwithstanding charges that he seldom smiles (see story above) we wonder what that means…
    And while we think of Mr. Carl Bethel; a word to the wise:  Perhaps his time at Geneva’s this morning would have been better spent making peace with Boxer.  More on this later.

Possessing The Land
    On May 2nd, the PLP would have completed its first year as government under the leadership of Perry Christie, or to put it in Bahamian terms, the first lap finished and three and a half more to go.
    We know that the economy is not in good shape and so the party has had its share of difficulties trying to do a balancing act, but we expected by now that some movement could have come in the form of relaxed regulations in the banking sector.  Today it is still too difficult for the average Bahamian to open a bank account in The Bahamas and we are in the business of financial services.  It is said that a Bahamian can open an account a lot easier in south Florida than they can in their own country.  Something must be wrong with that picture.
    On the subject of citizenship we believe that the problems that exist in the Turks Island and Haitian communities with children born in The Bahamas to foreign parents should have been dealt with by now through the amendment of the Nationality Act.
    BaTelCo is another area where we feel that we are no closer today than we were two years ago on the privatisation issue.  Our views on the privatisation itself have been expressed before, but we feel that the inaction of the government is unacceptable.
    These are all areas in which we believe that clear determination and leadership prepared to take unpopular decisions could have made significant progress this year.  We hope that the next year of PLP government will not allow these same problems to persist.
BS