Compiled, edited and constructed by Al Dillette   Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.

Volume 1 © Al Dillette

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But on the first Monday in August of each year, the country celebrates Emancipation Day.   In 1834 on 1st August, the British Parliament mandated throughout its empire that slavery was to end.  There was to be a four year period of apprenticeship for the slaves and then they were free to go.   The social pyramid remains much the same today with the economic power structure still centred at the top with white Bahamians, a brown middle class and poor Blacks at the bottom.  There has been significant change but the social structure is still with us.

Nowhere is Emancipation Day more celebrated than in Fox Hill. Many do not accept the story that it took one week for the news to get from Nassau to Fox Hill, causing the slaves in Fox Hill to celebrate one week later on Fox Hill Day.  Fox Hill Day celebrated on the second Tuesday in the month of August is the old Baptist Party Day that seems to have been initiated as a special time for the recitations and singing of the Fox Hill children in the various churches and then there is a treat afterwards.

There is a whole week of activities for what is known now as the Fox Hill Festival, including Junkanoo this evening and into the early hours of Monday morning.  The Honourable Fred Mitchell, Member of Parliament for Fox Hill officially opened Fox Hill Festival on Friday evening with the lighting of a ceremonial flame, carried through the streets of the village by local children.  The photo is from the Fox Hill Festival Committee.

On the political front U.S. Ambassador Richard Blankenship told the Bahamian public that he didn’t give a hoot about public criticism in The Bahamas.   And the late Peter Bethell was buried in a three hour marathon funeral.  We report on it below.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 3rd August 2002 at midnight: 19,521.  Number of hits for the month of July for the month ending Wednesday 31st July 2002 at midnight: 81,120.  Number of hits for the month of August to 3rd August 2002 at midnight: 4,363.  Number of hits for the year to 3rd August, 2002: 1,605,518.

PM LAUDS PETER BETHELL

    Prime Minister Perry Christie was effusive in his praise of Peter Bethell, the former Minister of Sports.  Mr. Bethell, who died last week at the age of 51 from lung cancer, was hailed by the Prime Minister as a class act and a national hero.   A state funeral was held for Mr. Bethell at St. Barnabas Anglican Church on Wulff Road on Wednesday 31st July.  It was attended by Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont and the Cabinet of The Bahamas, the Senate, Members of Parliament and the Chief Justice.  Mr. Christie said that Peter Bethell was the first black man in 250 years to represent the people of North Eleuthera, unseating the merchant Norman Solomon in 1982.  Mr. Christie credited him with founding the Bahamas Games in 1989.  He said Mr. Bethell was honest and loyal.  Said Mr. Christie: “He sowed unity instead of discord.”  Mr. Christie said that a grateful nation salutes Mr. Bethell as a true Bahamian patriot and a nation builder.  Mr. Bethell also served as Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Transport. Photo by Peter Ramsay.
 

THE PETER BETHELL FUNERAL
    The funeral was supposed to have started on Wednesday 31st July at 11 a.m.  All of Peter Bethell’s former comrades and friends had gathered for the service that would end in his burial in the Lakeview Cemetery on John F. Kennedy Drive.  Only it did not begin at 11 a.m.  What happened was that there was a pre-service that ran on for over an hour, so the actual service did not start until a little after 12 noon.  Certain persons who shall remain nameless left the church as soon as the Prime Minister had spoken.  Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham left as soon as the sermon was over.  The sermon was long and the addresses within the service were long.  The result with a full communion was that mourners were not able to leave until 3 p.m. And then there was a march to the gravesite. This was a state funeral and so it meant Ministers had to attend.  They were away from their offices for three or more hours.  They had police drivers, also away from their regular work for three hours.  And then there was the police firing squad, all the other ancillary police required for the parade and to keep public order.
    Can a modern country continue to be run this way, with even the most public ceremonies taking hours and hours to complete? One Member of Parliament has responded that the criticisms were too harsh.  He loves the ceremonies.  The longer the better apparently, but he says the family’s wishes have to be respected.  He adds that some people mourn differently.  That is true but at a state service the accent ought to be on honouring the fallen and respecting the time and religious beliefs of those who are attending the service.
    One has only to look at the public ceremonies for the World Trade Centre in the developed countries, none of which exceeded forty minutes.  One quotes in aid the expression of a Roman Catholic priest who in viewing the response of mourners at many services falling down on the floor in grief said that the service is not about us.  It is about our Christian faith and our belief in the future.  Besides, he argues, the Bible says that man can control the spirit and not the spirit controlling man.  There were three memorial services each of them of great length.  In one respect that is a tribute to the greatness of Peter Bethell.  But one must be careful that these sorts of services do not become narcissistic exercises designed really for the promotion of the living as opposed to a ceremony to respect the dead. (cb) Mr. Bethell's body being carried from the House of Assembly by Police and Defence Force officers (top) Ministers of the Government attending the state funeral (centre) The widow Bethell and young daughter arrive at the funeral (bottom).  Photos by Peter Ramsay.
 

BOARDS NAMED
    A friend called the other day.  He was depressed.  The Prime Minister had begun announcing the Board appointments.  These are the same appointments that we have been reporting as a source of consternation among friend and foe of the PLP alike.  There has been resounding and stinging criticism of Board appointments or the lack thereof.  If you have been reading this column over the last weeks, you will remember that people expressed the view that the Prime Minister was taking too long to make the appointments and that the appointments that he was said to be making spoke to the old PLP and not the new.  The Prime Minister has now appointed the Boards and he has begun naming them one by one.
    The Hotel Corporation’s Board is headed by George Smith, the former Minister who resigned in disgrace in 1984 following the Commission of Inquiry into drug trafficking.  That brought an expose in the Bahama Journal about the former Minister and his connection to the Commission of Inquiry and the corruption and drug scandals of the 1980s.  The BaTelCo Board is headed by Reno Brown.  That brought charges that the old PLP was being favoured.  But the Prime Minister was resolute as he announced the BEC Board.   Al Jarrett, the banker is to head the BEC Board.
    The Prime Minister said that he had been prepared for 28 years to do the job he is doing and he is not going to be rushed.  He said that he believed in redemption and that if Abner Pinder could be defended who was a known drug trafficker by the FNM, then George Smith who had not been convicted of anything deserved redemption.  He said that the Bush administration in the United States has 5 appointees from the old Republican regime of the previous Bush administration.  It all sounded good.  But the young were still quite restless and saying that they did not vote for that.
    But back to the telephone call.  Our friend was sad because his friends whom he had sworn would start defecting because they had not heard of Board appointments had left him.  They had received various calls from the PM saying that they were now on Boards and they were quite happy, no more complaining.  Things that make you go: hmmm!
 

THE BOARD MEMBERS

Bahamas Electricity Corporation
Al Jarrett, RBC Banker, Chairman
Keith Major, Imperial Life Insurance Executive
Fr. James Moultrie, Anglican Priest
Don Davis, J.P. Morgan
Dwight Armbrister, Hotel Executive
Pat Bain, Hotel Union
Cleopatra Christie, Attorney-at-Law
Henry Woods, Airplane Engineer
Vincent Johnson, former BEC GM

Bradley B. Roberts is the Minister
Bradley Roberts is the General Manager

Water and Sewerage Corporation
Abraham Butler, Lloyd’s Bank, Chairman
Robert Wells
Phillipa Delancey, Attorney-at-Law
Robert Cox
Ehurd Cunningham, Secretary for the Revenue
Rosita Booth

Bradley B. Roberts is the Minister.
Richard Greene is the General Manager.

Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation
Reno Brown, retired banker, Chairman
Daniel Strachan, FINCO, Deputy Chairman
Alex Reckley, former Barclays Banker
V. Theresa Burrows, former Permanent Secretary
Gregory Bethel, Banker with Fidelity
Gerald Stuart, former staff engineer with BaTelCo
Basil Albury, formerly Ministry of Tourism
Constance McDonald, Attorney-at-Law
Errol McKinney, hotelier

Bradley B. Roberts is the Minister.
Michael Symonette is the President.
 
 

THE CITY MARKET STRIKE
    The substantive Minister had not been out of town for two days yet when all hell seemed to break loose on the labour front.  Acting Minister of Labour Fred Mitchell had to personally intervene to bring an end to a strike by the workers of City Markets who have been fighting to get a Union in City Markets for seven years.  The courts finally ruled in favour of the Union last year.  The workers are being paid slave wages by the American company Winn Dixie.  The Winn Dixie executives seem to be at a loss to understand the market in The Bahamas.  They tried to promote their scholarship programme that has been stuck on a $2,000 a year grant to students for some 30 years to show what good they were doing for the community.  Many in the community feel that the scholarship programme is worthless and they would rather that is done away with and sensible wages be paid to the workers.
    The Union said that City Markets was offering only an additional 3 cents per hour on their present wage.  The Bahamian managers are unable to make a decision in Nassau, even though Bruce Souder, the military like General Manager gives the impression that he is the chief of all.  He has no authority to make any decision, not even to move a head of lettuce.  All of it is decided in Jacksonville, Florida.  During the strike that made the decisions so tortuous that the acting Minister issued a letter to the management in Jacksonville to come to Nassau.  They refused to honour the request.  This spells trouble for the company with the Government.  Said one observer, “They may think they have gotten away with this but they don’t know Mitchell.”  The workers agreed to go back to the bargaining table when an agreed date was set for the beginning of negotiations to resume and regular reports to the Minister.  The substantive Minister returns to the country on Friday 9th August.  Vincent Peet, the substantive Minister of Labour is on holiday with his children in Orlando.
    The public breathed a sigh of relief because at one time the workers surrounded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where the meetings were taking place.  It seemed the matter was spiralling out of control.  On Friday 2nd August the Prime Minister called the day a defining day for the City Market workers.  We show the photos of some of the week’s protests.   City Markets stores are generally considered dumps, with food near their expiry dates and vegetables that often rot days after you get them from the store.  Further, they do not appear to invest in their buildings at all. Rupert Roberts their chief competition who has much better stores in layout and produce said that his business gained only marginally from the strike.  City Markets is said to have lost some one million dollars over the six days of the strike. Guardian photo of City Markets workers demonstrating outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Farreno Ferguson.
 

MAURICE GLINTON COMES OUT
    Maurice Glinton is a man that abhors politics but in slow ways he is coming to the public fore.  He was active in the campaign against the referendum earlier in the year, although not in a partisan political way.  Now he was out at Peter Bethell’s funeral giving a eulogy for a friend.  Some thought it was little too long. At the end, there were shouts of praise the lord and alleluia but the piece was considered, philosophical, and anecdotal and reaffirmed Maurice’s down home connection.
 

BRADLEY TO RETIRE?
    There was a service of thanksgiving for C.B. Moss Tuesday 30th July.  Rev. C.B. Moss is now the Vice President of the Senate.  Senator Moss stepped down from the race for Bain Town/Grants Town constituency so that Mr. Roberts could have a clear field.  He was made a Senator for that.  Mr. Roberts had made it known that he did not intend to serve a full term as an MP.  He always said that he would step down after two and a half years.  Most people had forgotten the promise.  The Prime Minister is said not to support it.  But at the service for Senator Moss, Mr. Roberts brought it up again.  He said that his days as a representative are numbered.  Mr. Roberts told the congregation: “As my days wind down as the representative of the Bain and Grants Town constituency it is my hope that the people will welcome Rev. C.B. Moss as my recommendation to replace me.”
 
 

STUART BACK BEFORE THE COURTS
    Cassius Stuart and Omar Smith, the pair who frightened the daylights out of the former Speaker of the House of Assembly in December last year were before the courts again on 30th July.  This time the case was adjourned for a second time to 22nd October.   The Government should have stopped this stupid case a long time ago.  The case makes no sense.  Italia Johnson, the Speaker of the House did not even show up to give evidence.  We hope that the Government acts to stop this prosecution that was a political error made by the Free National Movement.
 

THE CHAMBER AND FTAA

    It appears that the private sector has leaped ahead of the Government in its readiness for the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement that is to come into force on the 1st January 2005.  The Chamber, headed by Ray Winder (pictured), the accountant, has been in the news quite a lot over the last week.  There is a report that they commissioned that has been released and shows that the country is only about fifty per cent ready for the agreement.  The Government’s preparedness is severely lacking.  Then there are those who outright oppose the process like Gilbert Morris, formerly of the Nassau Institute and Rawle Maynard, the Freeport Attorney.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to reconvene its civil society consultation process in the week of 23rd of August on that and other questions.  Ray Winder told the press that there are enormous opportunities for wealth when FTAA is implemented.
 

THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

    The Bahamas has had its best success ever in the Commonwealth Games.  We have emerged number eight in the standings of the Games.  While the games do not really have all the top world talent in it because the Americans and Russians are out of it, there is fierce competition and there is world-class talent.  The Bahamas is clearly head of the class.  Debbie Ferguson captured the gold in the 200 metres, the 100 metres and the gold medal for the women’s 4x100 metres relay.  The men won the bronze in the 4x400 metre relay, when Jamaica dropped the baton.  Chris Brown ran the starting leg and Tim Munnings the anchor.  The country was ecstatic. Anchor Tim Munnings takes the baton from Dominic Demeritte during the final heat in this Tribune photo by Felipe Major.
 
 

THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS
    The Acting Minister of Labour Fred Mitchell has managed to settle some of the issues between the Bahamas Air Traffic Controllers Union and the Ministry of Transport.  You will remember that in his private life, he represented them before the Courts after the Government summarily sent them home.  Now, sources say with the leave of the Prime Minister and after consultation with the substantive Minister of Labour Vincent Peet, a conciliation hearing was convened and the parties have agreed that all the air traffic controllers are to return to work as early as Tuesday 6th August.  The Prime Minister is expected to make an announcement on Tuesday morning.
 
 

THE U.S. AMBASSADOR

    When J. Richard Blankenship will have left The Bahamas no one can say that he did not leave his mark.  He has built himself quite a reputation around here for his interventions, not many of them popular, about various public policy issues in The Bahamas.  The last time, people got miffed was something said about drugs in The Bahamas at an address to the College of The Bahamas.   Not to be deterred, and notwithstanding columnist Nicki Kelly’s views, Mr. Blankenship has been in the press again.  All week long the Nassau Guardian has been running a series of interviews with Mr. Blankenship.  He told The Guardian that he will not stop speaking.  He said, “Idle criticisms won’t silence me.” And he added: “There are those that will complain and say that I am meddling, but this is a free country and we can all speak our minds.  I am thick skinned and I have learned to ignore those comments that arise from idle chatter.” As they say: that will hold you. Ambassador Blankenship is shown beating a Junkanoo drum during recent Independence Celebrations in Exuma.
 

PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIES


    The Prime Minister has started putting together his second line team. He has appointed the Parliamentary Secretaries after much palaver and backbiting.  The new Parliamentary Secretaries are junior ministers in our system and they assist the Ministers in their work.  These are the team to look to for a future role in the Cabinet as Ministers.  The appointments have now quieted much of the noise being heard about the Prime Minister taking too long to make appointments and the threatened revolt of the backbench slaves.  The list of Parliamentary Secretaries are again: Ron Pinder MP Marathon at Health; John Carey MP Carmichael at Works; Agatha Marcelle MP for South Beach at Tourism; Veronica Owen MP for Garden Hills at Education; Michael Halkitis MP for Adelaide at Finance; Ann Percentie MP for Pineridge at Office of PM Freeport.  The new Parliamentary Secretaries have to be careful not to exceed their authority.  Ministers get quite nervous about this sort of stuff.  And also a note of warning was sent from the community to Ann Percentie who mashed some toes by acting a little too quickly with staff assignments and without the leave of the establishment.  The idea: tread softly. Top from left Pinder, Carey and Marcelle.  Bottom from left Owen, Halkitis and Percentie.  Photos by Peter Ramsay.

Back To The Top
 

HAITIAN DEBATE
    In a spirited comment last week on a Bahamian initiative to stop illegal migration from Haiti, attorney Rawle Maynard attempted to put the case for brotherhood and support.  This has provoked a response from one of our readers who adds to the debate:
    "Your comment that Mr. Maynard's twist on the Haiti visit by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Immigration is interesting is correct; interesting from the aspect of the amount of claptrap it represents.  If we are to give these people food and water in international waters then in effect we are aiding and abetting their illegal entry into someone else's country.  We will then have to go through the even more expensive exercise of chaperoning their unseaworthy ships to ensure that they do not end up in our country once we turned our backs.  Mr. Maynard seems to be unaware that under the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, there is no convention for economic refugees.  He further seems to suggest that we simply open our doors and let all eight million plus just waltz through.

    It is certainly a quantum leap to suggest that because Haiti welcomed fleeing slaves after attaining independence in the 1700's we should return the favour.  This argument breaks down at once because they are not slaves.  His further suggestion that we are siding with the US in repressing our black brothers is a non-argument.  Haitians cannot migrate freely to the Dominican Republic, a country with whom they share a land mass, but we in The Bahamas must continue being bleeding heart liberals and accept them with open arms.  Are there not other countries in the Caribbean to which they can migrate en masse?  The argument Mr. Maynard makes is so nonsensical because it fails to consider the current as well as long term ramifications of this unrestrained migration.  We all know of the social issues but has anybody really considered the impact on the Bahamas' future progress and advancement with regard to FTAA, globalization, etc.? These people are for the most part uneducated and we already have an urgent problem ourselves.  Exactly how is it they will contribute to the long term maintenance and improvement of our standard of living?  Can they contribute to science and technology, economics, etc.?  Does Mr. Maynard seriously want to transform the entire Bahamas into another Port-au-Prince?

    Bahamians need to wake up and get serious about this problem.  Twenty five years ago when Loftus Roker was doing the job for which we paid him, many persons complained.  Now we have the exact situation that he was trying to avoid.  Anybody who even intimates that as a country we have not done more than our fair share to assist Haitians is either being blatantly dishonest or has a hidden agenda."

CONDOLENCES

James Allardyce Campbell
    We mark the passing of James Campbell M.B.E. at the age of 83.  At the time of his death he resided at Montrose Avenue in New Providence.  He was originally from Arthur’s Town Cat Island and was named Allardyce after the Royal Governor who was visiting Cat Island at the time of his birth.  The island was then called San Salvador.  Mr. Campbell was one of those self-made men from a generation who had limited educational opportunities but rose through the ranks of the public service close to the top.  He was respected by all.  He is most fondly remembered as what was then called an Out Island Commissioner.  The quality of his accomplishments is reflected in the success of his children who themselves have taken their places as bankers, teachers, a lawyer and business executive, a doctor and a grandchild, Christian Campbell who is a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.  He is one of the old soldiers of the Valley from which Prime Minister Perry Christie and Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell hail.  He is the contemporary of the parents of both Mr. Christie and Mr. Mitchell.  He was very close to Mr. Mitchell’s mother.  The PM spoke at one of the memorials and the Foreign Minister attended the funeral.  Mr. Campbell is survived by his wife Doreen and his daughters, Nurse Mavis and Sharon Campbell, Janice and Christine Campbell; sons Franklyn, Christopher, Huel Jimmy, Lloyd, Bishop Anthony, Albert and Arthur and Dr. Winston.

Lillian Gloria Weir-Coakley
    The Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell often tells the story of his Saturday life as a child: household chores in the morning, then on to the Southern Public Library, often a trip to the home of dentist Dr. Cleveland Eneas Sr. in between and then to the Capitol Theatre.  In the Southern Public Library was Lillian Coakley.  She had a kind voice and a kind word, a word of encouragement even as you brought the books back late.  The Southern Public Library put there during the Parliamentary term of the late Dr. C. R. Walker is forever associated in the mind of Mr. Mitchell with Lillian Coakley.  At the age of 77, she died last week.  Her funeral was held at the Wesley Methodist Church and she was buried in the Catholic Cemetery, Infant View Road, New Providence.  She was a mother to many, many similar children who can recount the same experiences at the Southern public Library.  May she rest in peace!

Joseph George Curtis
    Mr. Curtis was a well known figure around the Supreme Court as one of its senior clerks to Judges.  He was 63 when he died.  He was a resident of Bay Lily Drive, New Providence and formerly of Mangrove Cay, Andros.  He is survived by his wife Sylvia and children: Lenny, Julie, Patrick, Nikisha, Dr. Brendon and Warren Rodgers.
 

Lovenia Patricia “Peaches” Wilson
    This is the divorced wife of the late American comedian Flip Wilson.  Ms. Wilson was a dancer at the Cat and the Fiddle of the late Freddie Munnings.  As a dancer at the Cat and the Fiddle she met Flip Wilson and they married.  They were divorced some six months later.  Mrs. Wilson was a well known personality in Nassau.   She is survived by her children Wayne ‘Butch’ Munnings and Angela Munnings-Nottage.  She was buried on Saturday 27 July.  At the time of her death Ms. Wilson was a resident of Kennedy Subdivision but she came from Taits, Long Island.
 
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S FREEPORT… PLUS
In this new format, the former News From Grand Bahama is renamed as above.  This signifies the initials of our senior correspondent from the nation’s second city, with the ‘plus’ for the many other sources from whom contributions are accepted. Ed.

Debate Over FTAA - The debate over the relative benefits (or lack thereof) of The Bahamas' 2005 entry into the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) raged on in Grand Bahama this week, fuelled by a contribution from former PLP Senator Norris Carroll.  In a letter to the Freeport News, Mr. Carroll in summary opined that the benefits of FTAA, if any, were not a fair trade off for the "sovereignty" of The Bahamas.  Grumblings also continue in the financial sector in Grand Bahama with at least one respected Bahamian accountant saying, "Make no mistake, they (the international community as represented by the Organisation of Economic Development [OECD] and the Financial Action Task Force [FATF] mean to put us out of business in the financial sector in The Bahamas.  All indications that the national debate on these issues must be broadened and exhausted before the country can agree on a forward course.

Mixed Signals? - The PLP has been accused of sending mixed signals on the matter of privatizing Government corporations.  This past week in Grand Bahama, former FNM Minister of Works Ken Russell said on the COOL 96 radio show 'On Common Ground' that the privatization of BaTelCo was nothing more than a continuation of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham's policy.  No mention, of course, of the fact that the PLP never opposed privatization, only noted that Bahamian investment must be allowed.  Referring to Minister of State for Finance James Smith's talk about foreign "strategic partners" in the sale of BaTelCo, one politico said, "We've experienced these foreign strategic partners before; the Malaysian Chinese Genting Group which managed the Lucayan Beach, the Burmah Oil company which manages an oil transhipment terminal in east Grand Bahama and in each case, the Government never sees a day of profit after management fees and everything else."  Many people are advising that the whole matter of privatizing Government corporations be approached with caution and many second looks.

Neko Brushes Up Bahamasair - Continuing his role as a critic of the national airline, the MP of Lucaya and now Opposition spokesman on Bahamasair Neko Grant has castigated the airline's decision to start flights into Cuba at a time when "Bahamasair can't even fly from Freeport to Miami".  Bahamasair has responded that it expects the Cuba route to be lucrative and that they intend to resume the Freeport Miami route in the autumn.

Summer Blackouts Hit G.B. - Welcome to The Bahamas.  Grand Bahama consumers are now saying that living in Freeport is no different than being in Nassau as far as power outages are concerned.  The heretofore much praised Grand Bahama Power Company seems to be withering under the strain of providing power to the entire island of Grand Bahama with extensive blackouts and load shedding over the past week.  First, the Company's spokesmen blamed a car accident that downed two utility poles, then they said the power grid had been affected by electrical storms.  Now the news is that Grand Bahama Power is load shedding, power company speak for selective targeted cuts in electricity to force demand to remain within the bounds of the amount of power that it can provide.  Who would have thunk it?  The mighty Grand Bahama Power Company, scion of the great Southern Electric, provider of electricity to countless millions in the States and poster child for the "ideal power company of tomorrow" forced into load shedding.  In any event, with the majority of houses in Grand Bahama dependent on electric stoves, many Sunday dinners today 4th August 2002, will come from fast food restaurants.

Demos At Club Fortuna - Angry hotel employees marched with pickets around Club Fortuna, the Italian owned all-inclusive hotel in the east of Freeport.  The amazing thing was that the target of the picketers was not the employer, but rather the workers' union representative of the last ten years, one Hurye Bodye of the Commonwealth Group of Trade Unions.  "Who Is Hurye Bodye?" screamed one placard, "And why have we no industrial agreement after ten years of negotiation?" it asked.  Mr. Bodye termed the demonstration an attack by the rival Bahamas Hotel Catering & Allied Workers Union and let on that it was much ado about nothing.  The matter of the industrial agreement, he said is before the Arbitration Tribunal.  Meanwhile employees of Club Fortuna say they are plagued with "a myriad of industrial related problems and Bahamians are being taken advantage because of a lack of union representation."  BHCAWU reps from left Lionel Morley, Lloyd Cooper and Selwyn McKenzie are shown championing the cause of the Club Fortuna workers in this Freeport News photo by Richard Rae.

Sunland Chairman Steps Down - The controversial reign of the Lutheran Pastor Gordon as chairman of the board of Sunland Lutheran school has ended.  Pastor Gordon is reported to have stepped down from the post.  Freeport business executive Mrs. Gwen Newbold is now the new chairman and reports are that the Ministry of Education has provided the services of psychologist Dr. Pamela Mills to mediate and bring healing.  The school has been in an uproar since Pastor Gordon fired the long-time deputy principal and charged the school's administration with responsibility for not providing sufficient funds for the operation.  There were charges of insensitivity and even racism at the former chairman.  There are now said to be ongoing talks aimed at bringing back the fired deputy principal.

Congratulations to Freeport Gospel Chapel Senior Pastor Brother Hartley Thompson and members of the church, which is celebrating its 32nd anniversary.   Congratulations also to Brother Theophilus and Sister Jean Major who started the work of the church in Grand Bahama in a little house in 1963...

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - All Living Fox Hill MPs past and present at the Fox Hill Festival Week - Ecumenical Service.  From left: Frank Edgecombe (1977-1982 PLP); Fred Mitchell (the present MP PLP); Juanianne Dorsett (1997-2002 FNM); George Mackey (1987-1997 PLP).

The Bahamas Government was once again a side show.  We are bracing to become the recipient nation of another flow of migrants to this country about which we can do little but put them on a boat and send them back if we can catch them.  Our humanity will be tested to the limits as the Government struggles to find a credible and effective policy without the resources to carry out the job.

The official report from Haiti is that all is calm in the capital.  But Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell indicated that Gonaives is where the revolution was started which eventually overthrew the Duvalier regime.  One has to take note.

The Bahamas has set the Royal Bahamas Defence Force on alert in the southern Bahamas.  It has interdicted 165 more Haitian migrants in the twenty four hour period from last Thursday morning to Friday morning 8th and 9th of August.  The framework promised by the Government of The Bahamas to set up aggressive new measures has been advanced formally to the Haitian President.  The Bahamas is awaiting a reply.  The Bahamian Prime Minister and the Haitian President are expected to sit together again in St. Lucia for the special summit on 16 August.

The radio talk shows are getting more strident as the Bahamian people call for round ups and repatriations.  It is as if our civilization is at stake from what you hear on the streets.  This does not bode well and the Government must act, but to do precisely what, most people are not sure.  The Foreign Minister has his hands full.

Our photo of the week shows the four living representatives of the Fox Hill constituency at the Emancipation Day celebrations in Fox Hill on Monday 4th August.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 10th August at midnight: 23,242.  Number of hits for the month of August ending Saturday 10th August at midnight: 27,691.  Number of this for the year ending Saturday 10th August at midnight: 1,628,760.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS BACK TO WORK
    The Acting Minister of Labour Fred Mitchell was at it again.  This time it was settling the air traffic controller’s dispute.  During the campaign of 2002, the Prime Minister promised that the PLP would reverse the decision of the Free National Movement Administration to take the air traffic controllers off the job.  From the time the new Government came in, public servants had apparently been resisting reversing the decision.  Ministers could not find a way to act.  Each week, the Prime Minister would ask when is this matter going to be dealt with.
    The scene was set when Vincent Peet, the substantive Minister of Labour, decided that he would exercise his power under the Industrial Relations Act to bring the parties to the table: the Bahamas Air Traffic Controllers Union on the one side and the Ministry of Transport/Civil Aviation Department on the other.   The Minister went on holiday but that did not prevent the Acting Minister Fred Mitchell from convening the meeting on Friday 2nd August.  The meetings were held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conference room and within two hours the agreement was hammered out.  All the controllers would go back to work immediately.  The attempted dismissals and interdictions would be reversed and then the parties would get down to the substantive negotiations.
    The news conference was held on Tuesday 5th August and Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin made the announcement.  She said it was a first step in solving the long running dispute.  Mrs. Hanna Martin said: “It was our view that the former administration mismanaged the labour relations issues at the airport and allowed the atmosphere to be poisoned by spite and personal animosity.  We hope that the atmosphere has been removed in part by this first step.”  For his part Roscoe Perpall, the President of the Union said that he was committed to industrial peace.  Cyril Saunders, Director of Civil Aviation, said that it would take three to four months to re-certify the controllers.
    This is a good decision by the Government.  And it is one that is almost providential.  Long ago the Union was advised that the solution to their problem with the FNM was a political one.  Having accepted that the controllers went all out to try to elect a PLP Government.  The Government has now lived up to its promise.  Not many Unions get second chances of this nature where a result is completely reversed.  There are lessons to be learned on all sides so that the matter never, ever, gets to this again.
    For his part Prime Minister Perry Christie said that he was certain that with his administration there would be industrial harmony and peace, that the atmosphere would be different.  He confirmed that he had waived the potential conflict of Acting Labour Minister Fred Mitchell presiding over the matter.  Mr. Mitchell had been the attorney for the air traffic controllers when he was in private practice.  The Guardian photo by Ferrano Ferguson shows the Prime Minister, the Minister of Transport and the then acting Minister of Labour at the press conference.
    No word from blubbering C.A. Smith who as Minister of Transport tried to fire these people, and caused along with his wretched PM Hubert Ingraham all sorts of social and economic dislocation, then bust out crying at the press conference after he himself was fired by the people as an MP.
 

THE GRAVITY OF THE HAITIAN CRISIS
    The talk all about Nassau is what to do about the influx of Haitian migrants into The Bahamas.  We argue that it undermines our social structure.  We say that it creates a mess in our country.  At the same time, we use the cheap labour supply.  And some would argue that restrictions on immigration cannot defeat the laws of economics.  This relatively powerful economy simply draws Haitians to The Bahamas, just as Bahamians in increasing numbers are drawn to the United States.  One takes note of the increasing number of Bahamian women who are having children in the United States of America and the increasing legal and illegal immigration from this country to the United States.  The laws of economics dictate that you can do what you like to try and stop it, people will find a way around it like water finding its own level.  The economy cannot survive without cheap Haitian labour in this country.
    And so the question is how do we regulate that labour without creating a class of people with vested rights in The Bahamas and without swamping the kind of life we now lead.  Tricky question.  Inevitably, The Bahamas is being pushed to roundups and repatriations.  This is a failed policy.  Our sources say that what the Foreign Minister proposes is something that requires a bit more discipline and commitment on the part of the Bahamian people and some dangers, including actually putting Defence Force officers in Haiti to cut off the smuggling at source.  The question is: are the Bahamian people willing to accept the costs and the risks?  It appears that once again the Haitian political situation is spiralling out of control, with a movement for the overthrow of the Government in the works.  There is no strong voice of the international community speaking up to intervene to stop it.
 

RUPERT MISSICK ON HAITIAN SMUGGLING
The Government has been making some noises recently about changes to the laws on smuggling so that Bahamians that are involved in the business can be prosecuted and put in jail for long periods of time and their vessels destroyed.  So far no draft legislation, just talk and it remains to be seen whether a PLP Government has the stomach to do what is necessary.  Rupert Missick Jr. is a writer for The Tribune and he did a story on Friday 9th August in which he reports that he spoke to someone who knows about smuggling aliens into The Bahamas.  We reprint some of the piece in his own words:

“Captains stationed in The Bahamas would collect from family members in Nassau who would in turn tell family members in Haiti when the boat would travel… Wooden sloops are the preferred craft of smugglers as they are not easily picked up on radar. Wooden sloops have a different cost from a boat with an engine.  A trip on a sloop costs anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a head.  A boat with an engine may cost up to $3,000 per head…

“On the high seas, said the source, no law and order exists to protect those on board the ship.  Families are advised not to send young daughters unless other family members accompany them as the risk of rape is high.

“ Some women, said the source, use sex as a way to pay their passage on the ship.

“You will find that there were many women who would be ravaged from man to man unless plenty family members are on the boat.  The captain will get his first and so on.

“There was a guy on one trip who started to make noise because he said that he was on the boat too long.  Two of the guys got together and threw him overboard and told the rest if anybody else made noise they would make an example out of them.”

“… According to The Tribune’s source. There are some religious leaders in the community [in The Bahamas] who would forge baptismal certificates for some Haitian parents…

“If a child is born to a Haitian couple and they want their child to have a Bahamian passport they would also pay a Bahamian man or woman to pose as the child’s parents…

“When Haitians are arrested in some areas, you would have Bahamians who would ransack the home because they know that they will find sometimes thousands of dollars under a bed, under the boards or elsewhere in the house, the source said.”

This is a good article.  It sounds like someone in their twenties gives a hoot about their writing craft and about journalism.  Keep it up! –cb
 
 

CRISIS IN SCHOLARSHIPS
    The Committee headed by Dr. Keva Bethel, former COB President, is meeting to decide how scholarships are going to be allocated even as all the money was spent by the Free National Movement.  They have one hell of a job on their hands.  Just after the PLP took office the Minister of Education announced that of the 100 million dollars that were guaranteed by law, the FNM had used up 97 million of it.  He criticized the scheme for having no checks and balances, rudimentary issues like no requirement to report that you were still school and that you had kept a certain grade point average.  He moved quickly to put those things in place.  But with just over two million left to allocate what do you do with the thousands of people wanting and applying for bursaries and given the expectation that they will get the scholarships. Nothing announced yet, but Dr Bethel is surely pulling her hair out as it looks like there will simply be no money and the supply of bursaries will be severely restricted and that people will not be very happy.
    We suggest that the Government simply expand the programme to allow for more money to be given. That’s it.  Problem is the Bank of The Bahamas that finances the scheme has run out of money to allocate to the scheme and other banks don’t want to touch the scheme with a barge pole.  The problem is Bahamians act like they have not heard the bad news.  The still ask when are they going to get the scholarships. They simply do not accept that there is no money.
 
 

FOX HILL FESTIVAL
    The Fox Hill Festival began on Thursday 1st August with a public session by the Department of Public Welfare Services on the usefulness of breast feeding.  Several women who breast fed their babies were given presentations. The Department urged women not to give children anything else but the breast for the first six months of their life, not even water. They say that only after the six month period of life is anything else needed for nutritional purposes.  They argue that after the breast should come the cup and the spoon.  Bottles should be eliminated altogether.  Bottles are responsible for obesity, for over bites and spacing of the teeth. Breast feeding also leaves more settled and satisfied children.  The official opening of the Festival then took place on Friday 2nd August in the presence of the Chinese Chargé D’affaires, Mr. Zhenguang Song.   The Chinese Government donated the sum of $5,000 to the Festival and also got the local Chinese community involved.  The local Chinese community will come up to Fox Hill on Tuesday 13th August (Fox Hill Day) and do their Lion Dance and also sell Chinese food.  All proceeds to the Festival Committee.  One of the highlights of the Festival was the official opening of the Cotton Tree Plaza, a new building on Bernard Road owned by Kevin Dean.  Mr. Dean started out as a barber and now owns the Plaza.  The real treat of the Festival was the solo sung by Mr. Song, the Chinese Chargé at the lunch for the senior citizens in Fox Hill at the St. Anselm’s school room on Emancipation Day.  Chinese Chargé singing during the Fox Hill Feast, at top by Fox Hill Festival Committee and Miss Fox Hill, Samantha Carter centre right by Peter Ramsay. A photo spread is here.
 

DELISTING R&D SHARES FROM BISX
    The Board of Directors of RND Holdings, the owners of Gold’s Gym and RND Cinemas has announced that they will no longer be selling their shares as a listing on BISX.  No explanation why, but many businessmen believe that BISX does not represent the true value of their stock.  Benchmark, another listed company, announced that while it suffered a loss that loss was less than last year’s loss, the company was still in pretty good shape.  Their stock price now is at 61 cents down from a high of $1.15. At the IPO, buyers paid $1.  Not a good track record.  Some think that stock is devalued as well.
    Julian Brown, the CEO of the company (pictured) was quoted in The Tribune Business Section on Thursday 7th August: “Fundamentally, we continue to believe that some of the underlying companies trading on BISX are worth more than their current traded values, and that over the long term those values should emerge once the market matures.”  He described what was going on as “irrational market values”.  All of this is financial speak for the fact that Benchmark owns shares in other companies listed on BISX.  The share values on BISX have fallen over the past year, even though there is no rational reason for the value to have dropped.  Mr. Brown thinks that it will come around in time and the true value will be reflected and then Benchmark’s value will increase.  Jerome Fitzgerald and his Board at RND were not about to wait on that and have apparently bailed out.  The notice in the paper says you can buy their stock across the counter.
 

THE CAMPAIGN FOR SECRET BALLOT
    Gladstone ‘Stone’ McEwan is a furious man.  He has lost on the substantive issue of the secret ballot in the Court of Appeal.  He is right to be furious if what he reports is correct of what the Court of Appeal had to say.  The language of the judgment was intemperate.  Mr. McEwan has pledged to continue all the way to the Privy Council.  Mr. McEwan argues that Bahamians do not have a truly secret ballot because there is a number on the back of the ballot and a number on the counterfoil in the book of ballots that matches up with the number on the ballot.  He argues that you can therefore track how each voter voted by matching up the ballots, since the voter’s number is written on the counterfoil or stub in the book of ballots at the time the voter votes.   The Government argues that while this is true no one has access to those ballots unless by Court order.  Mr. McEwan is unmoved and says that this violates the right of a citizen in democracy to vote without the knowledge that his identity can be revealed.  We agree that the ballot is not secret.  No one else in The Bahamas disagrees that has good sense, except for the Court of Appeal.
    According to The Tribune of Thursday 8th August in a unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeal said: “If and when the time arrives when the population of The Bahamas is sufficiently politically mature and incorruptible to have ‘absolute secrecy’ in voting then the law and constitution may be amended to include such a provision.  Until then, this court will fearlessly uphold the constitution and will not permit it to be debased by being bandied about when there is no cause of action under its provisions.”  Mr. McEwan said to The Tribune: “I am dumbfounded because my whole argument is based on fear and corruption.  That is why we need a secret ballot.  But I think the wording of the judgment will help me when I go to the Privy Council.”  We say to him: “Carry on brother!”  Mr. McEwan was pictured in the Tribune.
 
 

TELLIS BETHEL FROM RBDF
    Lieutenant Commander Tellis Bethel of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force has graduated from the United States Naval War College after attending the U.S. Naval Staff Course from 8 January to 14th June.  The course that includes participants from 28 countries is to prepare naval officers for command and staff positions within their respective navies.  The course provides in-depth knowledge and understanding of national security and military related matters at the international level.  Mr. Bethel did a research paper on the effectiveness of Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT) in The Bahamas.  That is the country’s anti-narcotics programme with the United States government.
    Now that Mr. Bethel is finished, we ask: “Now what?”  The problem is that we have a Defence Force with no equipment and the worse morale problem in its history.  We suspect that fully fifty per cent of the senior Defence Force staff would be in another Ministry if they were allowed to leave.  The issue is the leadership or lack thereof  the present Commodore of the Force Davy Rolle.  His first five year contract has come to an end.  He is able to get one more, but the Government is being urged to give a long, hard think before committing to that.  The RBDF voted for the PLP in great numbers and are watching to see what the PLP intends to do.  It would not be a good idea to extend the term of Commodore Rolle.  There must be a place found for him elsewhere.  Lieutenant Commander Bethel is pictured.
 

BRENT SYMONETTE ON BEING WHITE AND FNM
    Brent Symonette is one of only three whites in the Parliament of The Bahamas.  He is the lone MP elected for the FNM from New Providence.  He is the son of a former Premier Sir Roland Symonette.  The FNM is looking around for Leadership.  He is independently wealthy with a net worth declared of some fifteen million dollars.  Naturally some people have asked the question whether or not he is the person to whom the FNM should look to get itself out of the political doldrums.  Mr. Symonette discussed the question on radio Tuesday 6th August.  He said that there ought to be a leadership convention soon for the FNM.  He did not say whether or not he would run.  But he did acknowledge that many people had put his name forward.  He then raised the question of race.  Said he:
    “It has to be clear, if there’s a strong feeling against me as Brent Symonette, either because of my father being a former Prime Minister or my father being a UBP, or me being white or me being independently wealthy or me living in Montagu, there’s no point in fighting that uphill battle.”
    Things that make you go: hmmm!  All we would say is don’t sleep on this fellow.  He is aggressively ambitious and wishes to succeed his father to the office, white or not.  You can bet that this salvo on the radio is part of a strategy that he is employing.  He knows that in order to conquer the stigma, he has to broach the subject head on and be able to get the discussions on race going in the Black community.  We think that the discussion will be a healthy one for the community.
 

GIBSON ON HOUSING FOR ACKLINS

    Shane Gibson, the Minister of Housing led a Government delegation to Acklins Island in the southern Bahamas to tour various settlements including Salina Point.  What he revealed throughout Acklins was a pattern of housing neglect and he promised to bring relief to those who need housing.  He suggested that maybe prefabricated housing was what would work best in Acklins.  The team that included the Member of Parliament for the area Alfred Gray brought back concern about nutrition, lack of cash in the society and skin diseases.  A follow up team of civil servants went to Acklins following the ministerial visit.  The visit did not seem to back up the political alarm although there is a need for potable water for the people of Salina Point to drink. Minister Gibson is shown in front of the National Insurance Building in Spring Point in this B.I.S. photo by Eric Rose.  The Minister promised that a new structure for the N.I.B. would be built within a few months.
 
 

CITY MARKET NEGOTIATIONS STALLED
    The ink was not even dry on the agreement that allowed the Union to get back to work at City Markets.  The six day strike cost the company up to a million dollars. The hard hearts in Jacksonville did not care and were prepared to sink the company.  The negotiations were to resume on 8th August at the Ministry of Labour but to no avail.  The company reportedly fired its attorney, although Reginald Lobosky is said to have quit.  He was told reportedly that he had exceeded his authority in signing the pact with the workers.  Now no one knows when the talks will resume The Minister of Labour Vincent Peet is back from his holiday so its now in his hands to move the process forward.
 
 

MELISSA SWEETING’S LETTER
    Melissa Sweeting is a white Bahamian who gets along well with the Black community.  She is now ensconced in Harbour Island and has surfaced again to write a letter in the Nassau Guardian on Friday 8th August re the American Ambassador, the fight against terrorism and what she calls their hypocrisy.  Just a sample in her own words:
    “Nowadays, we Bahamians are supposedly imperilled at the hands of the world’s powers because we smuggle drugs and give people a place to hide their money.  The biggest joke about all this new perception of morality from above, is that it is coming from the very people who like to brag at home about their concepts of economic freedom… It is not so much that every action or belief of the powers in the Mideast can be justified.  But it is the hypocrisy with which the United States thrusts its power on the rest of the world in the middle of things, which creates even more unrest and turmoil worldwide. The United States’ leaders should take one general tack right now and it must be prescribed by good upright citizens of the United States…  That tack should be: ‘Go Back Home, Charlie Brown!  Get home and stay home.’  At home your children are slaughtering each other to death in the schools…  I urge Mr. Blankenship to call his fellows back home and remind them that the last known address of the so-called terrorists were the flat, dull suburbs of Florida, I believe.  Ever since the World Trade Centre tragedy was given the catchy line 9/11 so close to the common dial up 911, it seems the world has lost its brains… Let me close by making one important point, I do not blame the Americans for everything going wrong in the world.  However, some of their recent actions have brought damnation upon them as a consequence of basic, simple NATURAL JUSTICE – a concept which seems alien to the American psyche (judging by the non-quality coming from its media and being sent out to the world.  It is hard to take all the media personalities seriously (Chris Matthews of Hardball, Hannity & Colmes, and O’Reilly of Fox, Paula Zahn of American Morning etc.) when they refuse to speak about the people who are running their country into the ground…”
 
 

KERZNER ON STAGE III
    Sol Kerzner and his Board at Kerzner International the owners of Atlantis were in town for the past two weeks.  They saw the Prime Minister and then gave a presentation to the Cabinet about their plans for the future.  There is to be a Phase III.  That will mean a 200 million dollar investment.  He thinks that he can get it going within seven months.  He believes that by the year 2008 some 6,000 new jobs will be related in the economy of The Bahamas by the investment at Sun.  Of course, you can do anything with projections.  Remember all the talk about budget surpluses in the U.S.?  All out of that out the window now that they are intent on fighting wars everywhere.  But Mr. Kerzner’s investment is important and the Government is hoping that he gets going soon.

Back To The Top
 

WELLS AND DUPUCH TO BE EXPELLED?
    An unnamed source caused speculation to be printed in The Tribune of Thursday 8th August that the first moves are being made to expel formally Pierre Dupuch and Tennyson Wells, the MPs who sit as independents who used to be FNMs.  When they spoke out against corruption in their party, they were denied their nominations.  They won anyway.  Mr. Dupuch could not be contacted for comment.  Tennyson Wells with his usual aplomb said that he would not lose any rest over it.
 

THE TEAM COMES HOME

    There is high praise for the team from the Commonwealth Games. But there is also high praise for the Minister of Sports Neville Wisdom and the job he is doing as Minister. The Minister met the team at the airport in Nassau on Tuesday 5th August.  He thanked them on behalf of the Government and immediately dispatched the team on an around The Bahamas tour.  Some joked that at least one of those Gold medals won at the games belongs to Mr. Wisdom.  Congratulations to the Minister and the team.  A record eight medals, four of them gold medals.  The men’s team won a bronze in the relay.  Chris Brown is seen shaking the hand of Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt in this Nassau Guardian photo.  Last week, we forgot to say that Laverne Eve won gold in the javelin throw.  Congratulations again.  The poor swim team got left out of the invite to tour the islands, just as they were entered too late and were disqualified for their final race in Manchester and also arrived too late for the opening ceremonies for the games. Minister Wisdom is pictured with gold medallist Debbie Ferguson during the welcoming ceremony in this Guardian photo by Ferrano Ferguson.
 
 

TRANSITIONS
Lady Patricia Isaacs, widow of the late Leader of the Opposition Sir Kendal Isaacs, is recovering after an operation on her stomach, following a fall at her home in Sandyport, New Providence.

Minister of Works Bradley Roberts and his family are on a Mediterranean boat cruise.  No truth to the lying story in The Punch about Mr. Roberts leaving because he was angry with a decision by the PM not to prosecute certain wrong doers. Upon becoming aware of the story, Mr. Roberts branded it "...a sick and diabolical lie" and "totally without foundation".

Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries Alfred Gray is away on holiday with his family.

Dr. Marcus Bethel, Minister of Health inspected facilities for the Ministry in Inagua and Exuma during the week.

Vincent Peet, the Minister of Labour and Immigration returns to duty on Monday 12th August, after vacationing with his children in Orlando.

Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell will meet with a team from Amnesty International on Monday 12th August.  The Foreign Minister spent the night in Bimini on Thursday 8th August where he observed and presented trophies for the 35th annual Glenda’s Road Race, sponsored by Glen Rolle of ALL MY CHILDREN HOTEL.

Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe and Attorney General Alfred Sears were in West End on  Friday 9th August for a community festival.  A day an earlier Minister Wilchcombe and Financial Services Minister Allyson Gibson flew to Montreal to promote The Bahamas abroad.

Sister Mary Benedict OSB, head of the Catholic School Board in The Bahamas, is retiring after 18 years in that post.

Sports Minister Neville Wisdom celebrated a birthday on Saturday 10th August.

Today Sunday 11th August is the birthday of the late Governor General Sir Milo Butler.  Sir Milo would have been 94 years old.
 
 

STORIES TO WATCH
    BEC's management obviously lied to the public about having enough capacity to keep the power on during the summer in Nassau without load shedding.  Every day in Nassau, there is load shedding.  This occurs despite the attack by the Minister on the Corporation specifically forbidding it.  The BEC Unions are getting restless.  They say that the Minister has been unresponsive to their requests and that the problems of BEC are mounting without decisions being taken.  The case of Andrew Gilbert is particularly galling for them.  The PLP they argue promised that it would not engage in frivolous appeals of the decisions of the Tribunals on Industrial matters.  Mr. Gilbert is a senior manager who was fired in what appears to be a personality conflict with Anthony Forbes, his supervisor.  Yet despite the fact that the Tribunal has ruled that he must be reinstated and despite the promise of the PLP and despite an appeal to the Minister, the Union argues Mr. Gilbert is still off the job.  They argue further that even if the decision is appealed, Mr. Gilbert is owed in law, beyond appeal some $50,000.  His daughter is about to go to university and he does not have two pennies to rub together. This appears to be something that the PLP must investigate.
    Back to load shedding.  The Union announced that the Corporation did not tell the full truth when they said what the capacity was to generate electricity. The Union explained that there is an installed capacity of 276 megawatts, the peak demand is 196 megawatts but the 81 megawatts that are left are unavailable because of bad management practices.  This can only mean that heads must roll at BEC.
    The other interesting point that shows that BEC's management just don’t have it is a complaint from a customer in the new Freddie Munnings subdivision in Fox Hill.  They paid their deposit but despite promises by BEC the people never showed up to connect the service.  The couple stayed at home from work waiting.  The answer from BEC's management was simply a bunch of horse dead and cow fat instead of saying 'look, we will get right on it'.
 
 

US SONAR USE UNDER FIRE
    Last year the U.S. Government lied about the effect of sonar on whales and dolphins in The Bahamas through their AUTEC facility.  The animals beached themselves and died with blood coming from their ears.  Several weeks later the US owned up and promised that it would not happen again.  Now environmentalists are alarmed that the US Government has given carte blanche to their military to widely use new sonar techniques in the water that will have the same affect.  The US says they need this to keep track of the new quieter Chinese and Russian submarines. Oh well what's a few whales and dolphins!  That unfortunately seems to mark the attitude in too many decisions by the US government.
 
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S FREEPORT… PLUS
In this new format, the former News From Grand Bahama is renamed as above.  This signifies the initials of our senior correspondent from the nation’s second city, with the ‘plus’ for the many other sources from whom contributions are accepted. Ed.

Brand Name for 'Our' Lucaya? - All the talk in the tourism industry in Grand Bahama is that Hutchison Whampoa is being officially asked to find an internationally known hotel chain to run its hotel properties at 'Our' Lucaya.  Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe and Minister of Financial Services Allyson Gibson were said to have met with the principal of Hutchison during a recent trip to Canada and made the suggestion.  The Hutchison properties are widely acknowledged to be the linchpin of a hoped-for economic turnaround on Grand Bahama...  Meanwhile, sources report that Atlantis' Sol Kerzner was seen on Grand Bahama over the weekend in the Lucaya area.  We wonder what that's all about.  Checking on the "competition" or maybe something more?  Things that make you go: hmmm.

Chesapeake Concerns - Minister of Trade & Industry Leslie Miller was in Grand Bahama this past week.  Sources report that Minister Miller met with homeowners in the Grand Bahama Port Authority's new upscale subdivision 'Chesapeake'.  The Minister heard concerns and complaints about problems with the buildings and contractors.  We'll keep an eye on this story to see what happens.

FNMs Gaining Courage - Signs are beginning to appear that some younger Grand Bahama FNMs will recover from their devastating May 2nd election loss.  Our friend Dashwell Flowers, an FNM functionary in Freeport, was on the attack at breakfast in Geneva's this past Saturday accusing certain erstwhile political colleagues of beings "turncoats'.  C'mon Dashie, people vote and move in their own best interests, remember?  In other news from Geneva's, chartered accountant Kevin Seymour - in town for a family wedding - took on the dreaded duo of Rawle Maynard and Maurice Glinton over the question of privatising BaTelCo.  The argument became heated, but was postponed before conclusion due to the wedding.  More on this as it develops... Some of these intellectual ramblings may contain valuable contributions.

Congratulations...
 To Rickelle Seymour and Jason Albury who were married Saturday 10th August at Freeport Gospel Chapel.  Jason is the son of well known Freeporters Reg (now deceased) and Denise Albury.  Rickelle is the daughter of Felix and Pamela Seymour, also of Freeport and granddaughter of Felix A. and Antoinette Seymour of Antoinette's Interiors and Kendal and Hynnh Major of Nassau.
 To Michelle Antoinette Petty who was called to the English Bar on 25th July.  Michelle is the daughter of Beverly McKinney of Freeport and Harrison Petty of Colony Club in Nassau.  She was a former student of St. Paul's College in Freeport.

All Points Bulletin For B.J. Nottage - In the Bible, when Moses went into the mountains, because they had not seen him, the people fell into mischief.  This passage was quoted by a bereft correspondent to this site, and apparently one of the remaining supporters of the hapless Coalition for Democratic Reform.  "We can't hear from B.J." he moaned, "not hide nor hair since the election... please ask him to visit, or even call."  So done.

Click on a heading to go to that story; press ctrl+home to return to the top of the page.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - This week’s photo of the week shows Fred Mitchell, Foreign Minister of The Bahamas, with his constituents and the Prime Minister during Fox Hill day celebrations in New Providence on Tuesday 13th August. Guardian photo by Ferrano Ferguson.

Here's what happened instead.  The Prime Minister departed Nassau at 10 a.m. on Bahamasair.  The rest of the party travelled on American Eagle, just in case Bahamasair did their usual mess up and he missed the connection.  Turns out a foreign crew wet leased by Bahamasair flew the Bahamian Prime Minister into Miami.  Then it was cool your heels with the U.S. Secret Service for two hours in Miami, making small talk.  On to an American Airlines jet to fly to Puerto Rico, and thence (as they say) on one of those little American Eagle flights from Puerto Rico to St. Lucia.  The travel on the little plane was one hour and fifty six minutes between Puerto Rico and St. Lucia, a dreadful journey.  The whole thing required an entire day of travel.  The party arrived just before 9 p.m. EDT.  Ridiculous!  Then everything had to be retraced and that required a whole day.

Now the full party was travelling with the PM so the dreaded Miami airport was just a little easier because the Secret Service saw the party through all the tedious security procedures at the airport.

But this was supposed to be a Caribbean summit, and it is ironic that in order to get there Bahamians had to travel through Miami.  And so it is now in order that The Bahamas Government is seeking by an initiative to raise the specific question of travel through the United States so that one does not have to actually land in the U.S. in order to transit to some destination beyond the U.S.

But if you want to get south by other means, it requires going through Kingston and that means overnighting in Jamaica.  There is no other way to get south except through Miami within one day.

The journey is difficult and hot and the service is generally fractured, even for those who are travelling at the best class available.  More on the Caribbean summit below.

This week we have a full spread of photos on the Fox Hill Day celebrations in Fox Hill, the unique village in New Providence.  And we update you on the developing situation with Haiti.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 17th August at midnight: 16,964.

Number of hits for the month of August ending Saturday 17th August at midnight: 44,569.

Number of hits for the year up to Saturday 17th August at midnight: 1,645,724.

THE CARICOM SUMMIT
    Prime Minister Perry Christie was off again to the southern Caribbean.  This is his second trip since coming to office.  The meeting was for a special summit called by the Caricom heads to deal with an emergency financial situation in Dominica and St. Lucia.  The meeting took place on Friday 16th August.  All the heads of Government were there except Haiti that sent its Foreign Minister Philippe Antonio to the meeting.  Suriname was not there.  The grand title for the event was the subject: A REGIONAL STABILIZATION FUND.  Also accompanying the Prime Minister was James Smith, Minister of State for Finance and Parliamentary Secretary in Finance Michael Halkitis MP.  The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Missouri Sherman Peter and Simon Wilson senior Economist from the Ministry of Finance were there.
    Those who participate in Caricom exercises must get used to the language of Caricom, which we will call Caricom speak.  It is overly bureaucratic, filled with subtitles, subtleties and nuances and euphemisms.  It is generally a prescription for inaction.  All of those who attended the meeting, must have known that the proposal put forward for a regional stabilization fund, a kind of Caribbean IMF, were doomed from the start.  What Dominica and St. Lucia needed was not grand schemes but money.  It was clear from Georgetown in July that the hat had to be passed like in the Baptist church and give Dominica some money to get over its immediate problems: the inability to pay civil servants, the power off in Government offices, the telephones disconnected to Government offices.
    In the end, it was Patrick Manning (Trinidad’s PM) and Owen Arthur (Barbados PM) who saved the day for Dominica by making available on an emergency basis through their Central Banks a standby facility, subject to the letter of intent being signed between the IMF and the Government of Dominica.  The Bahamas' Prime Minister promised to consider his position, subject to the modalities.  Everyone went away pronouncing themselves satisfied.  But of course that is not the end of the story because after Dominica comes St. Lucia next.  But this Caricom meeting took the cake for talk just to get to the simple point of: how much money are you going to give?
    Hubert Ingraham (former Bahamas PM) insulted Caribbean leaders in his first foray into their meetings in 1992 when he told them that they were a talking shop.  But unless there is substantial reform of the Caricom processes, its value as a political instrument is going to be blunted.  Its value as an economic force is already questionable, and so if there is political damage to it, then we have a problem. BIS photo of Prime Minister and delegation leaving for St. Lucia by Peter Ramsay.
 

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN
    While the money has been put up for Dominica to get over its immediate problems, the long term issues have not been solved.  This is a problem that relates to all economies in the Caribbean.  The Bahamas can contribute to trying to solve these problems but it is largely excluded from the discussions in the Caribbean, except when it comes to giving money.  There is this feeling in the southern Caribbean of The Bahamas being a cash cow.  The truth is that we are doing better than many of the countries in the Caribbean.  Trinidad and The Bahamas are the only countries in the region that have kept close to the forty per cent mark for public sector borrowing as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  Barbados, which is fat with reserves of 750 million US right now, has public sector borrowing that is 72 per cent of its GDP.  Jamaica is 106 per cent and Guyana is 202 per cent.   These are serious figures.
    In the Caribbean, there has been a shift from primary production to tourism in all countries.  In Dominica and St. Lucia the economic difficulties have been exacerbated by the fact that the under the pretext of the World Trade Organization (WTO) structures, the bananas from those countries have lost their preferences into European markets.  Dominica’s industry in bananas and the financial services blacklisting has caused a total economic crash.  St. Lucia is said not to be far behind.  And so you had Owen Arthur who is considered the economic leader in the region prescribing what he called a paradigm shift to a new economy.  He warned that even tourism market share as a percentage of world travel in the Caribbean is falling.  And so that would mean that The Bahamas that is reliant upon tourism is especially vulnerable.
    There is a lot of work to be done, and there is required leadership in the Caribbean to allow our people to stay in our countries instead of walking with their feet in a vote of no confidence in our societies, right into the rich and poor ghettos of Miami.
 

BROADCASTING BOARD
    The Prime Minister is slowly getting around to appointing the Boards of Corporations.  We gave the names of several on this site.  Now the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas has had its board named.  You will know from previous comments on this site that we believe that the Corporation should be sold.  There is no reason for the Government to own a radio or a television station. But that is not the PLP’s view.  The new Chairman of the Corporation is Calsey Johnson, a former General Manger of the Corporation who retired from politics in 1992 and then served as a Senator for the PLP in Opposition.  He is as happy as a lark to be back.  But as we have warned The Bahamas Air Traffic Controller’s Union, it is not often that life gives us as second chance, and when we get the second chance one hopes that we have learned our lessons for the first time not repeat the same mistakes.  That is a point to raise in this instance. The age of old PLP style politics is over and it would not be a good thing for the kind of authority that used to be exercised in the 1970s and 1980s to be exercised over the staff in the year 2002.  Other members are:  Mary Culmer, Personnel Director Oasis Freeport; Jackie Simmons, a lawyer; Rev. Randy Frasier, Pilgrim Baptist Church.  The Minister is Obie Wilchcombe.  A fundamental irony here.  Calsey Johnson used to be Obie Wilchcombe’s boss.  Now look how life has turned things around.  Only goes to show.
 
 

BAHAMASAIR BOARD

    The Board of Directors for national flag carrier Bahamasair has also been appointed, with Prime Minister Perry Christie telling the country that the airline must be privatized because the country cannot afford to keep it going.  Chartered Accountant Basil Sands, pictured being congratulated by the Prime Minister, is the new Chair.  Banker Paul Major remains as Managing Director; Deputy Chairman is businessman Mark Finlayson with members Rev. Alfred Stewart, Sidney Cambridge, Dr. Anthony P. Davis, Al Collie, Gregory K. Moss, Malvern Bain and Barbara Hanna-Cox.  Mr. Christie cautioned that the new board would have to decide whether Mr. Major is the right leader for the airline, even if he’s the Prime Minister’s Valley Boy buddy.  Guardian photo by Patrick Hanna.
 
 

THIS U.S. AMBASSADOR AGAIN
    It seems that each week there is some statement in the newspaper that most Bahamians feel is completely out of line.  This time it’s the Ambassador speaking at a Rotary luncheon telling Bahamian business people that we ought to consider replacing Bahamian currency with U.S. currency.  That brought howls of protest at the meeting of Thursday 16th August.  There were calls for the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, travelling in St. Lucia to ask formally for a reprimand and ultimately the U.S. Ambassador’s recall.  Not likely!  The Foreign Minister has already made it known that this is a free country and anyone can say what they wish.  He has also reminded Bahamians that they are free to say what they wish as well, and so if they want to tell the US Ambassador to shut his mouth, they ought to do that.  The Foreign Minister might get a chance this week, however, to drop another quiet word in the ear of the U.S. Ambassador that his statements are impolitic and that Bahamians would rather he kept quiet and keep his ideas through official diplomatic channels.
    Bahamians might not realize how hard it is for the Foreign Minister to manage the relationship between the US and The Bahamas in this present climate.  Most Bahamians do not understand the thinking of the United States at this time.  It is a country that appears to have gotten drunk with power and does exactly what it wants, setting any rules that it wants, and dispensing with them when they are inconvenient.  The principle appears to be might is right.  The present Ambassador is a good friend of the Bushes and so official protests are unlikely to work, because he has the clout to overrule any official protest.   But at the same time, the sovereign pride of The Bahamas must be defended.  So far the Foreign Minister has done a skilful job but this one makes it even more difficult.  The two are scheduled to meet in a high profile meeting in Grand Bahama on Wednesday 21st August.  We hope that the quiet word is passed to the Ambassador then.  Fat chance it will do any good. If you're tired of seeing this photo of Ambassador Blankenship beating the drum, well so are we, but he just keeps beating his drum.
 

THE U.S AMBASSADOR IN HIS OWN WORDS
    J. Richard Blankenship has been Ambassador to The Bahamas for the United States for just under nine months.  He has been in hot water from the Bahamian public from time to time for his public comments.  The latest was his suggestion that the U.S. dollar replace the Bahamian dollar as the currency of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.  He spoke to Rotary Club of West Nassau on 15 August.  Here is what he had to say in his own words:

“Apparently I have developed a reputation in The Bahamas for speaking my mind, perhaps even for stirring up a bit of controversy now and again.  I don’t expect that to change after my remarks today…

“That said, I need to preface my remarks with a bit of a disclaimer, and a request, to avoid misunderstandings… In my remarks today I am not advocating any particular policy or course of action.  I’m merely trying to provoke creative thinking and encourage discussion on an issue that is emerging throughout the hemisphere and throughout the world - the issue of national currencies… A national currency was a point of pride, seen as absolutely essential to the identity of the nation, like a flag or a national anthem… Now as we stand at the beginning of a new millennium, that consensus is breaking up.  The European Community is the prime example of that… the mark, the franc and the lira – all have gone into what has been colourfully termed the dust bin of history…

“In this hemisphere as well, there has been a discernible trend away from national currencies, but here the trend has been toward adoption of the US dollar, rather than towards creation of a new international currency… There is really only one international currency in the Western Hemisphere, and that is the US dollar.

“Conversion to an international currency from a national one offers important practical advantages to smaller and/or more vulnerable economies.  Foremost amongst these is stability…Adoption of an international currency also brings considerable efficiencies with it.  Central Banks do not have to maintain large reserves of foreign currency to defend the value of their own currency… Use of an international currency is also an undeniable attraction for foreign investors, as well. Currency fluctuation is one less thing they have to worry about in making their business decisions, and the need to convert national currencies to international ones, sometimes at considerable cost, is obviated…

“Giving up your currency does also imply giving up some of your economic sovereignty.  In doing so, governments do give up the ability to manipulate the money supply to attempt to stimulate a sluggish economy or cool off one in danger of overheating into inflation…

“I don’t claim to have the answer or know what The Bahamas, or any other nation, should do with its currency.  My Government neither encourages nor discourages other nations from adopting the US dollar as their official currency.  That is a sovereign decision that each nation must make for itself, and we do not presume to offer an opinion.  I merely wanted to discuss the issue and give you some “food for thought”.
 
 

U.S. CHARGES MICHAEL HEPBURN WITH MONEY LAUNDERING

    Bahamian accountant Michael Hepburn has been arrested in the United States and charged with money laundering.  Mr. Hepburn was among dozens of corporate officers, stockbrokers and stock promoters from several different countries indicted by the United States Attorney's office in Miami.  He was reportedly arrested at Miami airport on Thursday 15th August.  The media has been released information indicating that the indictments result from an undercover operation by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).  There has been no statement yet from Mr. Hepburn or his company in The Bahamas.
 

INJURY ON THE BEACH
    The Bahamian public has heard enough about jet skis and water sports in and around our beaches to push for the Government to do something to regulate even further their use.  In and around the popular swim beaches of New Providence including the beaches of Paradise Island, there are installed swim lines that prevent jet ski operators and other cowboys of the seas from violating the law on speeding within a certain distance of the shore.  And despite that fact you still see these cowboys within the swim line.  Now what appears to have been a genuine accident is causing the public again to call for some measures to stop the injuries and death associated with these water sports operations.  Up to press time a two year old British boy was on life support.  He was said to have been enjoying a holiday with his family on Paradise Island but was mowed over on a beach chair when a water sport operator that tows what is known as a banana boat accidentally it appears kicked into gear and plunged over the shoreline into the beach.  The little boy is not expected to make it.  How many times will we have to see these kinds of accidents before some measures are taken to further curb the excesses of water sports?
 
 

THE SALINA POINT TASK FORCE
    A team of government officials headed by the Under Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development went down to Acklins Island in the southern Bahamas to the even more remote settlement of Salina Point.  Salina Point is a fishing village.  An earlier ministerial team had come back to the capital with stories of alarm about malnutrition, skin diseases, lack of water, poor housing and generally a lack of cash and productive economic activity.  An 18 member team assembled including a representative from the business community and they travelled down to Salina Point at Government expense.  The report – false alarm.  While there were some skin rashes to report because there is a need for a better quality of water, no malnutrition and it turns out that the day the Ministers visited all the men were out on the sea crawfishing so the settlement just happened to be a little dead that day.  But as a public relations exercise it came off well.  No doubt Melvin Seymour whose career has been somewhat in the tank since his abrupt removal as Director of Immigration to an upstairs job was gratified to get his picture on the front page of the newspaper with the Prime Minister whispering in his ear.  Guardian photo by Donald Knowles.
 

MOTHER PRATT FOR THE HALL OF FAME

    Friday 16th August was a special night for the Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt.  She is now a member of The Bahamas Softball Federation’s Hall of fame.  Mother Pratt last played the game in 1984.   Mrs. Pratt was inducted along with six others.  They are Austin ‘King Snake’ Knowles; Neko Grant MP; Churchill Tener-Knowles; the late Leon ‘Apache’ Knowles; Michael Moss; and Arthur ‘Old Art’ Thompson.  Congratulations to all the honourees. Mother Pratt is shown during a recent visit to Fox Hill on Fox Hill Day with village girls preparing to plait the maypole.  Also shown is Mr. Pratt and the girls' trainer Ms. Charlene Curry at right.
 

BLACKOUTS CONTINUE IN NEW PROVIDENCE
    The heat and the humidity are at their most oppressive in Nassau during the month of August.  Last week, we revealed how the management of BEC lied to the Bahamian public about its ability to keep the power on during the summer.  There is a lack of capacity to take the load of all the air conditioning burning this summer, yet again.  We think heads must roll and we urge the Chairman of the Board to act.  It is ridiculous, the power going off two, three times day at intervals of twenty minutes or more.
 
 

HAITI CLOSES CAP HAITIEN
    The announcement was sudden and without warning.  A cable came from the Republic of Haiti at Cape Haitien.  The Civil Aviation Director said that effective 13 August at 1100 hours GMT, all commercial traffic between The Bahamas and Cape Haitien would be suspended.  No explanation was given for the decision.  The Foreign Ministry immediately got on the horn to ask what gives and whether this was a real order.  The situation became a little more alarming when it turned out that as a result of the decision two law enforcement officers were stuck in Cape Haitien and could not get out.  The Chargé in Haiti, Commander Scavella, is said to have reported that it was in fact a genuine order and that it was made because the Haitians claimed that a number of Bahamian operators were coming into Haiti without proper permits.
    It turns out that there is only one operator, Tropical Travel, that the Haitians said had such a permit.  From the Bahamian side, Tropical Travel has apparently applied for a charter permit but is waiting for security and safety checks to be complete.  Its principals were crying foul and claiming that the safety and security checks were a disguised act of discrimination against Haitians who are owners of the operation.
    By week’s end it was all solved.  The Foreign Ministers of Haiti and The Bahamas met in St. Lucia.  The Haitian Foreign Minister said that the decision was reversed.  The Haitian Government in fact flew the two Bahamians out of the country directly to Inagua on the day of the closure.  So all is well that ends well.  But for a moment there, it appeared that a real crisis had developed in our relations.
 
 

THE HAITI PROPOSALS
    The Government of Haiti has sent its initial proposals to the Government of The Bahamas on controlling the illegal migration flows into The Bahamas. The proposals are a response to the oral proposals presented at a meeting between Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell of The Bahamas and President Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti on 14th July.  The proposals are said to be far reaching and will allow a joint commission of the Haitian Government and The Bahamas Government to be responsible for monitoring the efforts of both countries at stopping the migration flows.
    The proposals come not a moment too soon.  Last week there were 204 migrants from Haiti picked up by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.  The prediction is that there are plenty more where they came from.  Bahamians have been getting hysterical about it, even though the migration illegally of professional people seems to pose a more immediate threat to the well being of the middle class.  Some of the commentary is irrational.  Alfred Sears, the Minister of Education, tried to bring some balance to the matter when he suggested that we do not recognize the importance of diversity in our community and the value of being able to speak a second language like Creole.  Brave man!  We thought maybe a lynch mob would be waiting for him.
 
 

BATELCO ON QUICK CELL
    Last week BaTelCo, the telephone company, had what appeared to be the strangest ad in the newspaper. They said that they would not be processing any more vendors for the quick cell programme.  Quick Cell is the brand name by which BaTelCo markets the prepaid cellular option.  This allows you for 200 dollars to get a phone with prepaid air time, and you can refresh the time by buying phone cards from various vendors who also sell the phone for BaTelCo with a commission going to them.  The explanation for the announcement was stupid.  BaTelCo said that they simply could not handle the volume of demands from vendors for the quick cell business.  They have over 300 vendors.  They therefore were stopping it.  Jiminy Cricket!

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AL JARRETT TO RETIRE

    Mr. Royal Bank of Canada Al Jarrett is to leave the Royal Bank of Canada’s group of companies.  He is presently the Managing Director of FINCO.  This is the crowning achievement of his career that has spanned a generation at Royal Bank, starting off as a banker in 1965 with Deltec Banking.  Mr. Jarrett was recently named Chairman of the Board of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation.  The retirement becomes effective 31st October.  Most people had hoped that it would have been his lot to become the first country manager for Royal Bank in The Bahamas but alas his nationality seems to have been a problem.  But no problem he has done well for the bank and the bank has done well by him.  God bless!  God speed!
 

FOX HILL DAY WAS A GREAT TIME

    The annual Fox Hill Festival came to a dramatic close on Tuesday 13th August with Fox Hill Day.  The day is celebrated the second Tuesday in August.  Decades ago, it was time when families from town would pack up their children, take the day off and repair to Fox Hill for a day of church services, eating and revelry.  It is also known as party day.  The Prime Minister continued his tradition of going to Fox Hill for the day that he started as Leader of the Opposition.  He was accompanied by the Member of Parliament the area Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell.  Congratulations to Eric Wilmott, Chair of the Committee and Larry Wilmott his nephew for a job well done.  Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell is seen in the background of this photo with a member of the Chinese embassy looking on as a troupe of girls from Fox Hill Village perform the traditional plaiting of the maypole.  For a photo spread on Fox Hill Day, please click here.
 

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S FREEPORT… PLUS
In this new format, the former News From Grand Bahama is renamed as above.  This signifies the initials of our senior correspondent from the nation’s second city, with the ‘plus’ for the many other sources from whom contributions are accepted. Ed.

Old Guard At Freeport Council Exposed – Lots of public drama this past week in the Freeport City Council ending with an expose that the former Chief Councillor diverted Council computers for political use by the FNM during the last election.  New Chief Councillor Marva Moxey has been thwarted at every turn in the execution of her duties by remnants of the old board who stepped back in the last election, but apparently have now wish to relinquish power.  Ms. Moxey began an innocent inventory, only to discover that five computers had gone missing during the last election campaign, one of which could not be returned because it had “sensitive political information”.  In a desperate attempt to prevent the matter from coming to the public eye, agents of the old Council called the Police to stop Ms. Moxey’s inventory, but hey, she’s the Chief Councillor now.  The attempt failed.  Senior FNMs should advise their lackeys in this matter to back off, before lasting damage is done to the party’s already shaken image.  Freeport News photo by Vandyke Hepburn.

Leslie Miller Tours Chesapeake – As we’ve reported on this site, Minister of Trade & Industry Leslie Miller is looking into complaints from homeowners in the new upscale Port Authority subdivision ‘Chesapeake’.  This past week, Minister Miller toured the area and pronounced many of the complaints “legitimate”.  He further insisted that despite the individual contractors arrangements in building individual homes, the Port as the developer is responsible to ensure that the consumer gets value for money.  High marks to Minister Miller for taking this on.  Many observers have called and e-mailed to note that FNM High Rock MP Ken Russell, the former Minister of Works had long had these same complaints but “would bite off his tongue before he spoke against the Port”.  Meantime, other sources say that many of the ‘problems’ stem from picky homeowners who keep changing specifications during construction, a sure-fire way to multiply costs and endanger quality.  Whatever the situation turns out to be, Minister Miller is on the case. Mr. Miller is shown at left with PLP activist Caleb Outten centre and an unnamed contractor, right, inspecting one of the homes in Chesapeake in this Freeport News photo by Vandyke Hepburn.

Student Loans – Minister of Education Alfred Sears was in Grand Bahama this past week talking about the challenges facing the Government’s Guaranteed Student Loan Programme.  The programme was left starved for cash by the former FNM administration and the Minister now says that only two hundred of the two thousand applicants this year are likely to be awarded loans.  We have previously counselled on this site that the PLP needs to be extremely careful with this one.  People who have worked hard to put a new government in place are in no mood to see their children sidelined while others continue to get a first-class ride.  This is vaguely reminiscent of the last PLP Minister of Finance who was encouraged by the then chief financial advisor (who turned out to be the FNM’s choice for Minister of State for Finance) that it was prudent and the only responsible course of action to tighten the purse strings even though it was the election year 1992.  We all know what happened next. Minister Sears is shown at centre with Ann Percentie MP & Parliamentary Secretary - Office of the Prime Minister at left and PLP activist Caleb Outten at right. Freeport News photo by Vandyke Hepburn.

Basra Ocean Swim -

The thirty second annual Basra Marathon swim took place in waters off Grand Bahama this past weekend.  Saturday, scores of swimmers braved unseasonably strong seas to complete the two mile ocean swim.  David Bell used experience and fitness coming off his try at triathlon in the Commonwealth Games to swim to victory in the overall men's category and elite up and coming swimmer Alana Dillette shocked many of the men by finishing fourth overall and first in the Open Ladies category. Photo at left shows standing from left: Race Director Coach Bert Bell, Jose Portamundo of major race sponsors Bristol Cellars, Alana Dillette, Kerel Pinder, 2nd Ladies Open; Sabrina Barry, 3rd Ladies Open and John Bradley, Race organiser.  Kneeling are Nevar Smith 3rd Men's Open; David Bell, Overall Men's Winner and Ashton Knowles, 2nd Men's Open.  Photo at right shows 50-59 year old men's category winners, from left Joe Thompson 3rd, Ms. Pleasant Bridgewater MP, presenter; Robby Butler, 1st; John Bradley organiser, Brent Stewart, 2nd and Robbie Butler, organiser.

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK - This week’s photo of the week is by Derek Smith of the Bahamas Information Services, showing the arrival at the Grand Bahama International Airport by Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell with U.S. Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship on Wednesday 22nd August.

But the evening had the stars of his generation there: Prime Minister Perry Christie, one year his junior, Rawson McDonald, a lawyer and expert in human resources, Dr. Baldwin Carey, Franklyn Wilson, the housing tycoon, Bradley Roberts, the Minister of Works.  The names were too numerous to mention.  Mr. Christie celebrated his 59th birthday on Wednesday 22nd August.

But what was most telling about this affair called the birthday party for Al Jarrett was his comment that at last the generation of the 1960s of The Bahamas had come into its own.  He said that one of his generation had the opportunity now to lead the country.  He had feared that their time had passed them by.  You know the story: Perry Christie was fired by the former Prime Minister Lynden Pindling and then rejoined the PLP.  Then there was the usurper from Abaco who interposed ten years of terror on Bahamian society.  Mr. Jarrett went on to say that the 1960s was the most exciting time in the history of The Bahamas, that all the major changes in the society had happened during the 1960s and had been led by his generation.

Allowing for a bit of hyperbole, the 1960s was an exciting time. This writer came along into his adolescence and adulthood at the end of that decade.  But that was the decade of majority rule, and the time when the children of straw vendors, taxi drivers, nurses, mechanics and civil servants, the children of the Blacks catapulted themselves through education and by the policies of the PLP into the forefront of the economy of The Bahamas.  The country is wholly different today than it was then.

And so it was interesting to watch them all celebrating the hully gully and talking about the Banana Boat nightclub and listening to the music of Sam and Dave.  This was their time.  But as Mr. Jarrett added today we have a lot of bright young people around who are well trained and who can take the country forward.  He was confident that the country had a great future.

The Prime Minister has appointed Al Jarrett to be the Chairman of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation.  We hope that he and his generation will do well there.  BEC is in a mess and does not deliver to the Bahamian people the kind of service we demand.

This week’s photo of the week is that of Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell arriving in Freeport, Grand Bahama for the start of talks with U.S. Ambassador Richard Blankenship on Wednesday 22nd August.  We report on the story below.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 25th August at midnight: 22,767.

Number of hits for the month of August to Saturday 25th August at midnight: 67,320.

Number of hits to the year ending Saturday 25th August at midnight: 1,668,491.

THE EDUCATION FIASCO
    Alfred Sears, the Minister of Education, the man of pulling up by his bootstraps, the self made man who rose up from abuse as a nine year old and a stint in the Boys Industrial School, had the hardest job of his life this week.  And he deserves some credit for sticking to his story.  This week on Thursday 23rd August, it was his job to announce that of the 1685 persons who applied for loans from The Bahamas Government under the Government guarantee loan programme, only 385 could get those scholarships.
    The names were decided by a panel of eminent persons headed by former College of The Bahamas President Dr. Keva Bethel and including Dr. Gilbert Morris formerly of The Nassau Institute, David Morley, the real estate broker and former Senator Ishmael Lightbourne.  The Minister announced that priority was given in the selection process to those who wanted to go to the University of the West Indies or to the College of The Bahamas.  The Government has also taken steps to allow for extra places in the College of The Bahamas for those persons who were unable to avail themselves of the scheme.  The Minister said that the Government had to borrow some 15 million dollars to fund this year’s allocation.
    The Free National Movement administration had passed an act that provided only for 100 million dollars in total loans.  They then proceeded to give out all but 3 million of that amount and took no steps before they left office to fund the programme with the 15 million that was required to continue the programme for this year.  They also did not put in place the statutory committee that would be responsible for the running of scheme.  The Minister said that on 2nd August they published the names of persons who are already on the scheme and told them that they were required to show evidence by an official transcript that they were still enrolled in school with the proper 2.5 grade point average.
    As of the Minister’s address to the nation on Thursday 22nd August only 601 persons had replied and 1732 had not answered.  The Minister said that he was giving one final warning for them to comply by 6th September or the students stand to lose the loan guarantee.  Clearly this is an untenable mess.  In the best of all worlds the scheme was designed so that anyone who wants to borrow to go to school can do so. The scheme was badly administered.  The result is that many talented people are now going to lose their opportunity to study.  But there is also a word of advice to those who depend on this money, there must continue to be a contribution by the individual to his own education.
    The word around town seems to be that this scheme is just a way to soak the Government for all of the tuition fees and costs of an education. In this society, education is foremost the responsibility of the individual, beyond the secondary stage.  That means that while the state must help, the individual still has to help him or herself.   These will be some tough days for the Minister of Education but he has seen tough times before.
 

OPPOSITION CLAIMS ON SCHOLARSHIPS
    Alvin Smith, who has got to be the most low key Leader of the Opposition in the history of the country, bordering on ineffectual, made a statement this week criticizing The Bahamas Government on the disbursement of scholarship monies.  These are the same people whose Government left the scheme bankrupt and with no provision for funding for the next year.  He claims that the FNM always gave the money out on time.  The Nassau Guardian found the bravery to take him to task on it in its editorial on Friday 23rd August.
    Said the Guardian: “... If the FNM party is so concerned about students who really needed funding to go to university, why then did it give so many loan scholarships to persons whose parents could afford to send them to university or gave more than one loan scholarship to one family?  The information coming to light suggests that a large component of the national debt comes from the FNM’s mismanagement of the loan programme… It would have been better if the party had remained silent… Therefore, next time before someone in the FNM makes a public statement, he or she must be sure that when pointing the finger they do not ‘finger’ themselves.”  We could not have said it better ourselves.
 

PM CELEBRATES A BIRTHDAY
    Prime Minister Perry Christie celebrated his 59th birthday quietly this week.  On Tuesday 20th August, he was treated to lunch at the expense of the Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe.  The PM’s favourite meal Chinese food was served.  Then on Thursday Henry Wemyss of Wemco Securities had a special cake with his picture on the icing presented to him.  It was a quiet time but next year is no doubt the big one when he reaches 60.  Happy birthday, PM.
 
 

WHAT KIND OF COLUMN?
    We got e-mail from an angry reader who claimed that she used to standby for this column every week.  She loved its biting commentary.  Now she says that she thinks that the column has simply descended into being PLP propaganda.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  The PLP has nothing to do with this site. But it is also clear that we are close to the Government.  No one can say that this site does not criticize when the criticism is necessary but the times have changed.  This site is a useful, though not official, means of seeing where Government policy may be headed and what the thinking around the Government is.  Perhaps you can click here for the statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Budget debate on how this site
should be approached.  With all news and other media, you have to keep the sources of information in mind as you read.  For a complete picture you should read as many sources as you can.  Roles do change and times do change!
 
 

US AMBASSADOR AND FOREIGN MINISTER
    The trip began in the wee hours of the morning.  Bahamasair’s only reliable flight left Nassau just after 6 a.m. on Wednesday 22nd August for Freeport.  On board were Fred Mitchell Foreign Minister and U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas Richard Blankenship.  The meeting between the two in Freeport was held at Our Lucaya.  Complimentary suites were provided by the hotel for both parties.  The meeting took pace in suite 846 from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.  A range of issues were discussed including machine readable passports, the detention centre and Defence Force base at Inagua, the Comprehensive Maritime Treaty with the United States and visa issues for Bahamians who are applying to travel to the US.
    The Minister took the opportunity to thank the United States for the assistance that The Bahamas is getting from the US on Haitian migrant issues. Further, he took the opportunity to admonish Bahamians about the importance of the pre-clearance lounge at the Nassau International Airport and the Freeport International Airport.  He said that special steps were taken by The Bahamas Government to ensure that the security of the lounge was not breached.  He said that Bahamians ought to realize the importance of that facility to the tourism product and to the ease of travel for Bahamians and that anyone who breached the security of the facility would in fact be imperilling the economy of The Bahamas.
    Last week eight persons were charged with offences that indicate that smuggling of people through the facility is happening.  This is not good and The Bahamas Government must take every step to stop it.  The meeting and press briefing was followed by lunch.  The Foreign Minister said that the meeting was held in Grand Bahama to bring the people of Grand Bahama into closer touch with foreign affairs so that they could understand the nature of the issues that we face.  BIS photo by Derek Smith of Minister Mitchell and party arriving at 'Our' Lucaya.  At left is Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Missouri Sherman-Peter.
 

US CONGRESSMEN VISIT

    The United States Ambassador had guests in The Bahamas this week.  A delegation of Congressmen and women from the United States Congress flew in late on Wednesday night 22nd August and left two days later.  While here they met with Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and then saw the US facilities in The Bahamas.  The delegation was led by Mark Souder, Chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources. The Sub Committee in includes the Congresswoman from Texas Sheila Jackson Lee (pictured at right meeting with Minister Mitchell) who is a member of the Black Caucus and is interested in immigration issues. There was a discussion on Haiti with the Foreign Minister that led to the revelation by the Chair of the delegation that the United States has not changed its position with regard to the release of funding to the Haitian Government that has been held up by objections at the World Bank and other international lending agencies.
    The delegation upset some Bahamian officials because it appeared that the whole matter was organized without any input from the agency responsible in the Government of The Bahamas.  Direct contact was made without regard to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Bahamian officials.  Notwithstanding all of that, it appears that the visit went well and it appears that the delegation was able to see the work of anti drug efforts in the country.
    In addition, a statement was made about the pre-clearance facility that celebrated 50 years in The Bahamas.  This allows US tourists and others travelling to the US to get into the US by clearing customs here in Nassau.  Similar facilities exist in Canada and Bermuda.  The facility was breached by an attempt to smuggle four Haitians into the United States.  Four people were charged and pleaded guilty to the offence.  Four Bahamians await trail for aiding and abetting the offence.  The Foreign Minister warned Bahamians about putting the facility at risk.  The US Ambassador also revealed that the US is offering to put in place the machine for machine readable passports for free, whatever the cost.  The matter is being considered. The U.S. Congress group is pictured meeting with Bahamian officials at the British Colonial hotel in this B.I.S. photo by Derek Smith.
 
 

SAVE THE WHALES

    U.S. Ambassador Richard Blankenship revealed that the United States will not use the sonar technology that has caused howls of protest in the United States.  Last year whales in the tongue of the ocean beached themselves and died.  Environmental groups said it was US sonar that did it.  The US at first denied it then had to agree that it was their sonar that killed the whales.  There is now new technology that environmentalists say will be even worse.  The US Ambassador made a public pledge that that sonar will never be used in The Bahamas and further that the sonar that killed the whales will not be used again.  The Ambassador made the statement following his meeting with the Foreign Minister in Grand Bahama.  The Foreign Minister made the intervention on behalf of Re Earth, headed by Sam Duncombe.
 

MISS BAHAMAS WORLD TROUBLE

    Who the hell can figure out what is going on with this stupid Miss Bahamas Pageant?  The SO CALLED Queen and the first runner up of Miss Bahamas World have refused to comment on reports that the queen’s reign has been terminated by the pageant director.   Byron Austin-Coley, the pageant’s director sent a letter to the media announcing that T’Shura Ambrose the reigning queen has been terminated because she was increasingly difficult to work with.   But then Oswald Ellis and Glen Davis the franchise holders said that they are the only persons who can revoke the winner’s crown.  They confirmed that she has been entered in the Miss World finals in November in Lagos, Nigeria.  Anyway you go figure on these contests.  The contests themselves, once some sort of opportunity for girls, are always simply good entertainment.  Now it looks like all the palaver about the contest itself is even better entertainment.  Miss Ambrose is pictured being crowned in this Nassau Guardian photo.
 
 

AND WHAT ABOUT MISS BAHAMAS UNIVERSE?
    Nadia Rogers-Albury is Miss Bahamas Universe.  The Miss Bahamas Universe Committee has announced that they will host the Miss Universe contest in The Bahamas in the year 2004.  While the Committee was over the moon about the idea, the Minister of Tourism was more level headed.  He said that The Bahamas would have to consider carefully whether it could afford to host the contest, not the least of the issues being whether or not the facilities are here to host the darn thing – as in hotel rooms. Tribune photo by Felipe Major.
 

NATIONAL INSURANCE BOARD CHOSEN
    Prime Minister Perry Christie announced on Friday 23rd August the names of the National Insurance Board of Directors.  The Chair is Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, the former law partner of Mr. Christie and the MP for the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador constituency.   Other members: Dr. Doswell Coakley former Director of Immigration; Wendy Craigg, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank; Felix Stubbs of IBM; Claudine Thompson, President of the Central Bankers Union; Lemuel Sweeting, entrepreneur; Rev. Delton Ellis, Manager Mount Tabor Baptist Church.
    The Prime Minister pointed out the need for prudence in investing National Insurance Funds and protecting the Fund.  A particular review reveals that within 20 years, the Fund would start to be in deficit and then disappear.  This is because the birth rate in The Bahamas is falling and the population is ageing.   At present the Board has 1.043 billion dollars, most of which is invested in The Bahamas. The problem is the funds are invested in Government paper.  The Government has been using the fund to bankroll public projects.  This makes the investments in the Fund shaky.  This practice must be stopped. National Insurance Board Chairman Philip 'Brave' Davis at left is pictured with Prime Minister Christie (centre) and National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson (right) at the announcement of the Board in this Nassau Guardian photo by Farreno Ferguson.
 

UNION VISITS PUBLIC SERVICE MINISTER
    The insurgent team running for the offices in The Bahamas Public Service Union visited the Minister for the Public Service Fred Mitchell on Thursday 22nd August at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The Minister had earlier received a courtesy call from the incumbent team that runs the Bahamas Public service Union.  The Union is now headed by William McDonald.  The insurgent candidate for President is John Pinder.  The Minister said that whoever wins the election the Government was prepared to work with that team for the betterment of the service.
    Mr. Mitchell said that there is a fundamental lack of respect in the culture for working class people and the conditions and terms that they have to work in. “There seems to be a feeling that if you are at a certain level, you can just endure a particular set of conditions.  To me the mindset is just not acceptable and it simply has to change, and I think that once you begin to change that then the problems and priorities will reorient themselves.”
    The Minister toured the Government buildings in Grand Bahama at the Post Office and at the Harbour for Customs.  The conditions are atrocious.  He announced that plans are advanced for the Customs and Immigration to be provided with a new building by the Grand Bahama Port Authority.
 
 

SIMEON HALL AS BISHOP

    Rev. Dr. Simeon Hall has raised eyebrows in The Bahamas by announcing that he is to be ordained as Bishop on Tuesday 27th August.  Not since Ross Davis defied the Assemblies of God Church in The Bahamas and took on the mantle of Bishop, subsequently leaving the Assembly, has there been such a controversy.  The future Bishop has over the years been becoming more and more Anglican in his clerical garb.  Now he is to become a Bishop.  This should be interesting.  PLPs have a jaundiced view of Dr. Hall ever since his precipitous switch to the FNM just before the 1992 General Election. Tribune photo.
 
 

AND THE HAITIANS KEEP COMING

    The Prime Minister told the country that in two weeks 965 Haitians have been interdicted on the high seas trying to come illegally in The Bahamas.  And the country is in panic.  The Department of Immigration has started round ups and repatriations and inevitably people who are legally in The Bahamas are being caught up in the round up.  What is also a matter of concern is that people who were born here under the peculiar provisions of our constitution who don't have citizenship but have lived here all their lives are also being rounded up and are in danger of being repatriated to Haiti, a country that they do not know.  This has caused concern at the highest level and the matter of round ups is being reviewed.  The U.S. Ambassador has indicated the willingness of the Americans to help with the repatriation of illegal migrants. Bahama Journal photo of migrants apprehended at sea by Leading Seaman Jonathan Rolle.
 
 

CIVIL SOCIETY DISCUSSION
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and Minister of Trade and industry Leslie Miller led a Civil Society consultation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatic room of the Ministry on Friday 23rd August.  The purpose of the meeting was to look into the issues in the Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) process.  John Rolle of the Central Bank of The Bahamas led a discussion on service tax and value added tax as alternatives to customs duties.  The discussion was lively and informative.  The discussions continue in the week of September 30th.  The Government as part of the structures of the Caribbean Community is committed to consultation with civil society groups.  This is the third meeting of the consultation process.

Back To The Top
 

CIBC APPROVAL
    The shareholders of CIBC Bahamas Limited met in Nassau on Friday 23rd August and approved the merger of the bank with Barclays to become First Caribbean.  Now all that is required is government approval.  The two Unions have signed on to the changes.  That seems to remove the last obstacle to Government approval.
 

US DOLLAR FOR THE BAHAMAS?
    Just when you think that a crazy idea won’t float, come along some sensible people who support it.  Or at least that’s what the newspaper interviews with Larry Gibson, the financial executive and Tim Donaldson, the Chairman of Commonwealth Bank, seem to be saying.  This is the answer to the US Ambassador’s suggestion that the Bahamian dollar should be changed for the US dollar.  But on the nationalist side came Norman Solomon of the Solomon Group, the former Leader of the Opposition.  In a letter to the press, he said he would have none of it.  According to him the B dollar is part of the tourism package and we can’t give it up.  Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell when asked about the proposal on Tuesday 20th August at a press conference at the Ministry said that there is no possibility of such a change.

FAIR AND NON-CORRUPT GOVERNMENT

    John Carey, MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works is on a private visit to New Hampshire in the United States where he addressed a gathering in the re-election campaign of United States Senator Robert Smith, Republican of New Hampshire.  Mr. Carey spoke about fair and non-corrupt government.  Please click here for his remarks. Mr. Carey is pictured (right) with Senator Smith.
 

TRANSITIONS
New Roman Catholic Vicar General - The Roman Catholic Church announced today Sunday 25th August that at the request of Monsignor Preston Moss, he has been relieved of the post of Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese and is being replaced by Monsignor Patrick Pinder.  While no reason was given for the decision, it is believed that it is because Monsignor Moss has been in the United States for the last year receiving medical treatment.

New Taxi Cab Union President - The Bahamas Taxi-Cab union has elected a new president, Mr. Leon Griffin, to replace long time President Albert Brown.  Mr. Brown was tied with the United Bahamian Party (UBP) and there was a revolt against his leadership.  A point of interest is that political activist Rodney Moncur who was part of the team of Leon Griffin was the only one of the team not to be elected.  Mr. Griffin is married to Minister of Social Service the Honourable Melanie Griffin.

B.S. NOTES FROM GENEVA’S FREEPORT… PLUS
In this new format, the former News From Grand Bahama is renamed as above.  This signifies the initials of our senior correspondent from the nation’s second city, with the ‘plus’ for the many other sources from whom contributions are accepted. Ed.

The Minister & The Mouth - This past week's visit to Grand Bahama by Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and U.S. Ambassador J. Richard 'The Mouth' Blankenship has set political tongues wagging.  "What were they up to?" is the question on many minds.  In fairness, it should be said that those asking the question seldom take anything at face value.  Nonetheless, most people are interested and gratified that the talks produced promises of help for Bahamians with U.S. visa problems.  The Ambassador has promised a public information effort aimed at making sure that Bahamians, particularly Bahamian students in the U.S. understand what is required of them in the visa process.  It is not the intent of the U.S. said the Ambassador, to put people in the situation of running afoul of U.S. law through ignorance.  For his part, Minister Mitchell said that The Bahamas would set up a desk at the ministry to help facilitate people with U.S. visa problems.  Meantime, one wonders exactly how much money Bahamians contribute to the region of south Florida.  It must be tremendous, and so are the implications in this vexing matter of visa problems.

Hurye Bodye Dies - Hurye Balfour Bodye is dead at the age of 56.  The veteran trade unionist and chief negotiator for Commonwealth group of unions passed away Thursday night 22nd August.  There is no indication yet of who will take over Mr. Bodye's trade union group.  Mr. Bodye was a linchpin of the main hospitality umbrella union, the Bahamas, Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers in Grand Bahama until the end of the 1970's and a major falling out.  Despite all predictions at that time, he survived and even progressed as a unionist, making a career of picking up the slack in areas of unrepresented and underrepresented workers.  Mr. Bodye was said to have succumbed to heart failure with complications of diabetes.

Migrants Hot Topic - Grand Bahama's discussion groups were abuzz this week, as was much of the country, with talk of what to do about the sudden and dramatic rise in the intractable problem of illegal Haitian migration.  The regular wags are opining that the "right thing to do" is to give status to those who have been here for long time.  The Royal Bahamas Defence Force, now under expanded orders from Deputy Prime Minister 'Mother' Pratt to interdict illegals also came in for criticism.  "Stopping Haitian migrants at Long Island or Exuma is still too late,” say the wags.  "They should get no farther than Inagua."  We say amen and amen.  Also doing the political rounds this week are increasing calls for the return of former PLP Minister of National Security Loftus Roker.  "Mr. Roker would never have tolerated this,” said one.  A legend for his stern defence of Bahamian borders, Mr. Roker is now peacefully retired between Nassau and his ancestral Acklins home, but no doubt prepared to offer timely advice when needed.  How about it, Minister? Our e-mail address is listed at the top of this page.

Freeport City Council Still Fighting - Some Councillors at the Freeport City Council are said still to be in denial as to exactly who is in charge of the Government of The Bahamas.  This time, Councillor Wayne Smith, who was heard to say after the May 2nd rout of his party that he "would never believe it" is reported to have insulted PLP MP Ann Percentie.  Ms. Percentie, the Parliamentary Secretary in charge of the Office of The Prime Minister in Grand Bahama was reportedly referred to as 'that woman' in a meeting hosted by her for the Minister of Sports, Neville Wisdon.  Even Councillor Smith's colleagues were said to have blanched in shock and embarrassment.  We are surprised and disappointed at Mr. Smith who should know better.  Any public apology forthcoming can be e-mailed to this site at the address above.  Shame.

Carl Bethel To Speak - Meanwhile, the FNM leadership in Grand Bahama, which appears on the verge of collapse - still in denial at the magnitude of the defeat of May 2nd - holds its collective breath as it waits for former Attorney General Carl Bethel's speech this coming week.  Mr. Bethel is expected in Grand Bahama to speak at a local service club and we are reliably informed that he is to "put the cat among the pigeons".  We're waiting, too.