BahamasUncensored.Com Archive

A SAD DAY FOR COLLEGE OF THE BAHAMAS

The press has reported that at a press conference on Friday 5th August, the College of The Bahamas Council announced that Dr. Rodney Smith, the President of the College of The Bahamas has submitted his resignation and that resignation had been accepted. This brings to an end a wrenching and expanding scandal that began with the address by the outgoing COB President to a convocation at the College in May in which he quoted extensively from a speech by Dr John Sexton of New York University but without acknowledging that the speech was in fact not his own but that of Dr. Sexton. This is known as plagiarism and is the ultimate sin of any academic. In any other institution, once it was discovered and admitted, he would have left the same day.

The drama played out a little longer, because the College decided that it would take a more deliberative approach to it. A special committee was convened under the chairmanship of retired Justice Joseph Strachan. Its other members were Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez with Ambassador Paulette Bethel of the United Nations, Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies Professor Rex Nettleford, President-elect of John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio Fr. Robert Niehoof.

Dr. Smith has now crashed and burned. You may click here for previous comments. The wounds are entirely self- inflicted, and one wonders how such a brilliant man on the face of it, a Harvard Ph D no less, could walk into such a situation with his eyes wide open. Dr. Smith had been operating outside of The Bahamas for years, having left disillusioned with life and its opportunities here. Before he came, the present Council was concerned that the College lacked direction under the previous president Dr. Leon Higgs. This column opposed Dr. Higgs’ removal. In the end, the Council had its way and from all accounts Dr. Smith made a brilliant start.

But the speech was a serious error in judgment. It appears that even the offence of quoting the speech without attribution might have been acceptable but there appeared to be a series of missteps and misjudgments after that which sealed his fate. What was perfectly inexplicable, however, and some people have argued in public must give the College of The Bahamas serious cause for concern as it moves forward to University status, is how its faculty and staff could join in demonstrations to support someone who was so obviously wrong and in such a flagrant violation of academic principles. Those critics argue that it is strange world indeed this Bahamas; that it is not a question of whether you like someone; the integrity of the institution had to be protected.

This is why many people still say that a University of The Bahamas which will further capture young Bahamians in training within this country may not be such a wise move. Bahamians have an insular enough approach to life as it is, thinking that everything revolves around The Bahamas. There is a need to get our students off these rocks and into a place where they have to compete, and not have the easy life where some believe that hustling and lobbying might get you to pass exams or to get through your academics.

The question then for the College is: where exactly does it go from here? There are stories abounding about the choice of the successor pro tempore not being so obvious and clear cut. There is well known opposition to any of the existing officers of the College. Some argue it may be wise to call back Dr. Higgs or even go further recall Dr Keva Bethel if she would do so in order to get the College to settle while a permanent successor is sought.

We have no mean spiritedness in this. We think that one of the lecturers who himself has been shown mercy has been especially cruel in this matter in his public comments in the press about it. It seems most ungracious given the exercise of mercy in his matters recently. That cannot be the way. We are simply saddened that it has come to this. There is obviously a hard time in store for Dr. Smith in the future. Can he face Bahamians ever again? What will happen to his career in the academe? It is likely to be over. But life is never over, and no doubt if he learns the lessons of this tragic event, someone somewhere will help him to pick up the pieces and put his life back together again. In this respect we wish him well.

As for the College of The Bahamas, it needs some time for prayer and reflection and then should move on quickly to find a successor and hope that this time, they get it right.

Number of hits for the month of July ending Sunday 31st July at midnight: 296,008.

Number of hits for the year 2005 up to Saturday 6th July at midnight: 2,237,914.

File photo of Dr. Smith from The Bahamas Journal. Stan Burnside’s ‘Sideburns’ cartoon is from the Nassau Guardian of Friday 5th August, 2005.

THE FNM FIGHT FOR LEADERSHIP
    The FNM Leadership must be the most popular post in town. When it has so many people fighting to get it, a party that seems so much in disarray, it is hard to see how and what their immediate prospects are, you have to ask yourself, what do these people see that we do not see? Such is the situation where you have an existing Leader Senator Tommy Turnquest, a convention coming in November to choose a new leader.
    You have already announced Dion Foulkes, a former MP and Deputy Leader who is running an active campaign for leader. You then have waiting in the wings some persons who say they have not quite decided but are likely to mount a challenge. You have the great white hope Brent Symonette. You have also Carl Bethel and Loretta Butler Turner, who are former a MP and former candidate respectively, the latter being the granddaughter of the Sir Milo Butler, of whom Carl Bethel said on radio on Sunday 31st July on the Island FM programme Parliament Street that he would not rule out a run for either of them. The dream team!
    Hovering over them all the shadow of the great one who is on a listening tour of the country which will continue once he recovers from his Russian and Hungarian vacation, the former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. He was seen shepherding his candidate for the Delaporte seat Dr. Hubert Minnis in Gambier on Emancipation Day. Looks like it is lining up for an interesting time indeed!

BRAN MCCARTNEY STARTS HIS CAMPAIGN
    He has been in the newspaper on two occasions in the last two weeks. It is the makings of a launch of a campaign for a seat in the next House of Assembly. He is Bran McCartney, the son of Willie McCartney, the well know pharmacist who owns Wilmac’s. He is an attorney and is no doubt in the money; the right age (40 something) to stand for Parliament. So feeling his oats, he has announced that he is off to the races. He is trying for the St. Thomas Moore seat, now occupied by Frank Smith, nephew of former MPs George and Philip Smith, and the son in law of former MP and former Senator Franklyn Wilson.
    St. Thomas Moore is made up of PLPs in the Kemp Road and Five Pound Lot areas, White’s Addition as well. Then there are the mixed neighbourhoods of Pyfrom's Addition, the PLP stronghold Rolle Avenue and the eastern half of Prime Minister Perry Christie’s former Centreville Constituency and the white Bahamians who still live in Murphyville and in Sears Rd - a marginal seat on the present lines.
    Former Senator Pauline Cooper Nairn was defeated by Mr. Smith in 2002 and the talk is that she is still working the area so Mr. McCartney may have an internal fight for the job. That did not stop his high profile campaign of going into Rolle Avenue, the heart of the PLP beast and seeking to destabilize Mr. Smith’s foothold there. Not likely though! Election must be coming.

WESTERN AIR GETS ITS WORK PERMITS
The Tribune of Tuesday 2nd August claimed that after negotiations between the attorneys for Rex and Shandrice Rolle, owners of Western Air, four of the work permits which were revoked by the Department of Immigration have been granted. All seemed hunky dory and hush hush with Desmond Banister, the former FNM Senator, working as the lawyer for the Rolles, saying that the matter was at too sensitive a stage to comment. You may click here for previous stories (Burning the North Andros Airport) (The North Andros Airport) on the issue.
A day later The Tribune ran a speculative story wondering whether or not the debt which the Rolles said that the Minister owed the airline amounting to $95,000 had been paid. It turns out that has been settled as well. So The Tribune put two and two together and made five asking whether or not the work permits granting had to do with the settling of the debt. No telling where the evil minds of the press will go these days. We are happy that the matter is settled. Vincent Peet needs to have that seat in the win column and it is a marginal seat for the PLP, always has been.

PRE CLEARANCE AT NIA CLOSES FOR A DAY
On Saturday 30th July, the pipes in the 12 year old U.S. pre-clearance building at the Nassau International Airport burst and flooded the entire area. This shut down the entire operation for the day. No public word on what caused the pipes to burst but it does seem rather odd that you would have plumbing problems of that magnitude in a 12 year old building. The delays caused the closing of the lounge and were problematic.
People who expected to clear flights in Nassau and make one hour connections, now had to clear customs in Miami. This is a drag at the best of times. It fouled up the schedule of Bahamasair, making many people late and angry. By Sunday 31st July, the lounge was back in order again. But once again, it brought home the necessity for the airport to get out of the hands of the Government and into the hands of a management company so that the place can begin to look like an airport befitting the leading tourism country in the region.

THE EFFECT OF JUNKANOO IN FREEPORT

The Grand Bahama Port Authority can be forgiven for being a little euphoric over the success of its Junkanoo parade in Freeport on Emancipation Day. The Port spent a bundle, luring the big Junkanoo groups up to Freeport in the face of their usual trek to Fox Hill for Junkanoo. The people of Fox Hill were not amused and asked their representative Fred Mitchell at a town meeting on Wednesday 3rd August to seek to get them not to do it again next year. Mr. Mitchell said that he did not agree with that but there should be a more vigorous marketing response from Fox Hill. But the Junkanoo in Freeport turned out all of the big groups. The Saxon Superstars headed by Percy ‘Vola’ Francis were the winners.
The talk was immediately that since some 20,000 people showed up to see the Junkanoo imported from Nassau that it should be repeated next year. The question is whether or not the Grand Bahama Port Authority is in a position to support the event to the same extent. This after all was the 50th anniversary of the Port, and the Junkanoo was part of marking the occasion with some $75,000 in prize money and each group reportedly having 200 of their members brought up to Grand Bahama all expenses paid. That is quite a whack. Also part of the weekend activities was homage paid to Wallace and Georgette Groves the founders of Freeport back in August 1955 and to Edward St. George who really brought the dream to life. There were plenty of tears all around it was reported. The Freeport News reported that tears streamed down the faces of family members and associates of the late Wallace Groves and Edward St. George as memorial wreaths were placed upon their mausoleums marking the date 50 years ago that the city of Freeport was given birth through the signing of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. Rev. Keith Cartwright and Lady Henrietta St. George are shown leading family members, friends, and former business colleagues of the late Wallace Groves and Edward St. George to St. George's mausoleum at St. George Memorial Park at Taino Beach in this Freeport News photo by Jeremy Francis.

THE DEBATE OVER STAFFORD SANDS
    Errington ‘Bumpy’ Watkins, Joe Darville, Craig Butler all weighed in, together; to criticize the Government for not renewing the visage of Stafford Lofthouse Sands on the ten dollar Bahamian bill (click here for previous story). They claim that this is reverse racism. Interesting of course that it is the Queen, a white woman who has replaced him not a Black person. Further, Stafford Sands rejected his country. Picked up his georgie bundle and left The Bahamas and did not return. He died of cancer in the Dorchester Hotel in London where he was holed up.
    The Tribune as you can well imagine was in overdrive with their special series on who was a racist and who wasn't a racist, bringing up former Senator and PLP Chair Andrew ‘Dud’ Maynard and how he got into trouble for cussing out a policeman whom he reportedly told “arrest your big black stinking ma”. Then Eileen Carron brought out all the bits about Sir Milo Butler and how he threatened mayhem against the white oligarchy in racial terms and so if he can be on the note why can’t Stafford Sands.
    We think this is all a storm in a tea cup. There is no reverse racism. It is not racist to take a man off the note who did not want to be Bahamian and abandoned The Bahamas because he did not like the race of the people who ran it. It simply does not follow. And those who make the argument ought to examine their own insecurities on the subject before going any further.

NEW SUBMARINE CABLE FOR THE BAHAMAS

Minister of Works Bradley Roberts is on the move again. Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation which is under is stewardship has signalled that it is involved in a 60 million dollar upgrade of telephones services throughout the country. A sixty million dollar contract has been signed between BTC and TYCO Telecommunications. The contract was signed on Tuesday 2nd August. TYCO is to lay The Bahamas Domestic Submarine Cable (BDNSi) which will facilitate high speed internet (DSL) and digital telephone technology by cell (GSM) throughout the country.
The project will be carried out in phases. Phase I will connect New Providence with Inagua via Andros, Exuma, Long Island and Ragged Island and Crooked Island to be completed by December 2005. Phase II will connect New Providence to Inagua via Mayaguana, San Salvador, Rum Cay, Cat Island, Eleuthera, Abaco and Grand Bahama, due to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2006. Phase III of the project will facilitate International Telecommunications traffic between The Bahamas and other Caribbean nations. You may click here for the full statement of the Minister.

THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD

Following the end of the festivities in Fox Hill on Emancipation Day, a small boy was found by the police who did not know his name and who did not know his mother’s name. It took three days for someone to come and claim the child and only after the police put the child’s picture in the press. This seemed very strange indeed. It turns out that two people have now been charged with events around the lack of care of the boy. The boy was not lost but in fact deliberately taken to the police by a man. The man called The Tribune on Thursday 5th August to tell them a tale of what happened. The child was left with him by the mother some weeks ago. He thought he was being asked to keep the child for a day. Instead it turned into weeks. He could not get the mother of the child to come and collect the boy. So in order to get the mother’s attention, he claims that he took the child to the police and claimed that the child was lost. The mother tried to claim the child from the police when she saw the picture. It now appears that both the mother and the man have been charged by the police: the mother with neglect; the man with lying to the police. What a strange way to treat a small boy! The boy remains in the custody of the police.

MITCHELL IN BIMINI
Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service visited Bimini to be part of the native fishing tournament festivities and in particular to help to start the 38th annual Glenda’s Road Race which was started by the late Glen Rolle. Mr. Rolle who was a popular Bimini man died in December 2002.
The race brings out many of the little children to the Bimini streets starting from the clinic and running south to the Chalk’s ramp and then back to All My Children, the now defunct hotel property, which was started by Glen Rolle. The overall winner of this years race was John Saunders Jr.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
About our views on the London bombings…
    I continue to enjoy your weekly review of recent events and, in so many cases, agree with the opinions contained therein. However, I feel compelled to comment on the following:
    “You already know how much we look askance at the killing by the British police of the Brazilian who was an electrician whose only crime one suspects was that he had swarthy skin and a heavy coat. An investigation is being held as to why five to eight shots, depending on whose account you read were put into the man’s head at point blank range, even though he was laying on the ground. The officers should clearly be charged with a homicide. What concerns us further, is the response of official Britain on the subject. We apologize, they said. Another said, we are very very sorry. But all of them added but we must move on. It was like the man's life was absolutely worthless. And then to start putting out information that his visa to stay in Britain has expired. That‘s good! It justifies shooting him dead one supposes.”
    Whilst I agree that the killing of the Brazilian was an absolute tragedy (I use that word for good reason as, in some ways, the young man brought it upon himself) the reports did not leave me with the impression that anyone felt that the shooting was justified. The point is that they were perplexed as to why he ran away when asked to stop by the police and then hurdled the barrier into the underground station. The fact that his visa had expired lent some understanding as to why he reacted as he did. A combination of his running away, along with the fact that he had come from a building already under surveillance resulted in a terrible mistake. Of course no one is saying they were justified in shooting him and I have read nowhere any suggestion that his life was considered worthless.
    The police in London have an awesome responsibility in bringing to justice, those persons bent on destroying lives of Londoners, a term that includes people from all over the world, as can be seen from the list of victims of the 7th July explosions. If the Brazilian had, in fact, been one of the perpetrators and he had detonated a bomb, killing goodness knows how many more innocent people, because of a slow response from the officers who had been following him, then the tables would have been completely turned and those officers would have been severely criticized for not taking the necessary action to prevent such an incident. I do not envy them their task and whilst I do feel the number of shots was certainly excessive, I can understand their action, however regrettable now in the light of the truth that he was innocent. My heart goes out to the family but it also goes out to the officers who are probably anguishing over their tragic mistake. Yes, of course, carry out an inquiry but to say they should be charged with homicide is not appropriate. Remember, the real responsibility falls on those who set out to place London under an unprecedented state of alert.
    Otherwise, regarding your comments on the likely connection with the invasion of Iraq and the disastrous attempt at “liberating” Iraqis, I am totally with you.
    Thanks again for providing an interesting weekly commentary on events here and abroad.
Alison Hamilton

FOX HILL TOWN MEETING
The Fox Hill Festival continued after its great start on Monday 1st August with a town meeting on Wednesday 3rd of August. Residents of Fox Hill heard from the representative of the area reports from the representative of the area Fred Mitchell on his ideas for the development of the festival, and also an update on what is happening in terms of public services in the constituency. You may click here for a full statement of what he said.

PHOTOS FROM FOX HILL FESTIVAL
We present a range of photos and scenes from the Fox Hill Festival 2005:

GREASY POLE – This group of young men is seen working together to climb Fox Hill’s greasy pole during Emancipation Day celebrations Monday on the Fox Hill Parade. The young men stand on each other’s shoulders and, through a system of strapping themselves to the pole with cloth, slowly make it to the top. The 35 ft. pole is slathered with heavy grease just before the annual competition.

GREASY GROUP – No disrespect intended but this group is greasy after triumphing over the infamous ‘greasy pole’ of Fox Hill that is climbed twice each year as part of the historic village’s celebration of emancipation from slavery. The group of young men is greasy, but pleased to collect the $800 prize. Pictured with the winners of the greasy pole climb are Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell (left), Fox Hill Festival Committee Chairman Charles Johnson (second from left) and Community Leader Larry Wilmott who oversees the greasy pole competition at right.

JUNKANOO ARMY - Dr. Emmanuel Francis, a dentist who also happens to ‘rush’ with the ‘Redland Soldiers’ Junkanoo group greets the Chinese and Haitian Ambassadors to The Bahamas as they are hosted by Fox Hill MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs & The Public Service Fred Mitchell. From left are Chinese Ambassador Li Yuan Ming, Minister Mitchell, Dr. Francis and Haitian Ambassador Louis Harold Joseph.

96 YEAR OLD FOX HILLIAN – Eunie Davis Newton came out to the Fox Hill Parade in the balmy weather ‘foreday’ in the morning on Emancipation Day to watch the Junkanoo parade and stopped for a photo with Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell (left). Mrs. Newton (centre) never misses Junkanoo in Fox Hill. She is accompanied by her niece Emily Burnside.

ALL HANDS PITCH IN – Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell helps to clean up after a community luncheon staged by the Fox Hill Festival Committee on Emancipation Day. Virtually the entire Village pitches in to host Bahamians from other areas of New Providence and visitors to the country during Fox Hill Festival week, which spans Emancipation Day, the first Monday in August and Fox Hill Day, the second Tuesday in the month.

TROUBLEMAKER RODNEY MONCUR IS OUT
    It took a court action on the part of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union but finally this week, the attempt by Rodney Moncur, the perennial gadfly of Bahamian politics to stop the Union’s business especially the elections from advancing, was stymied. The Court ruled in favour of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Unions President Leon Griffin, husband of the Minister for Social Services Melanie Griffin. Mr. Moncur and his gadfly friend Mark Sawyer are out and the elections went go ahead as planned for Thursday 4th August.
    Mr. Griffin and his team were re-elected, and now the sorry chapter in the history of the Taxi Cab Union is over. Mr. Moncur had made himself a veritable nuisance in conjunction with a former Vice President Cheryl Ferguson. Both of them sought to seize the Union and direct it. At one point Mr. Griffin was locked out of the Union’s property and was ‘dismissed’ by Ms. Ferguson. Now Ms. Ferguson has been dismissed from the Union. That also was done as a result of a court action.
    Rodney Moncur is also now finally out of the way by order of the court. Mr. Moncur told the Nassau Guardian that it isn’t quite over since the judge only dismissed this application for judicial review, telling him that he had to start his action by writ of summons. Mr. Moncur claims that he will comply with that, and continue his allegations of impropriety. One wonders how if he is no longer a member of the union he has the standing to do that but that is for another day one supposes.

JAMAICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY
Congratulations to the people of Jamaica on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the independence of Jamaica. The Jamaican community in The Bahamas will hold a service this year to commemorate the event later today. Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell will be represented at the event by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health Ron Pinder.

POETRY FEATURE

This week, Giovanni invites us to share the verse epic finale of: ‘The Deth of Ayana’. Please click here. POET FEATURE, by Bahama recording & literary artist, Giovanni.Stuart (www.nubah.com).

MAN CHARGED FOR MURDER OF TOURISTS IN BIMINI
Several weeks ago, we reported a strange murder in Bimini. Two Austrian tourists were found with their hands gagged and shot at point blank range in their hotel. No one could quite figure out what it was all about in a normally peaceful island resort atmosphere. The police flew in and solved the crime within days. It turns out that a man who was on bail on a charge of rape has been charged with the murder. He is 22 year old Carlton Francis of Bimini. He was also charged with being in possession of an unlicensed firearm and with stealing a 12 gauge Maverick shotgun from the home of Hank Weech. The shotgun is believed to be the murder weapon.
Karen Seymour of the Ministry of Tourism’s office in the United Kingdom will present a personal letter from the Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe on behalf of the Bahamas Government to the family of Bernhard Bolzano and Barbara Frellin von Perfall, the two victims. The killing is a disgrace. However, Minister Wilchcombe pointed out that Bimini is generally doing well and is stable. He said that most people accept that the murder was an isolated incident. This report is based on reporting by Tamara McKenzie of the Nassau Guardian on Wednesday 3rd August.

CRAWFISH SEASON
If you fly over the banks in The Bahamas today, you will find the seas littered with small fishing boats, their equipment overhanging the seas. You guessed it. The seventy million dollar a year industry for crawfishing has begun its annual season. The season lasts from 1st August to 31st March, and they try to clean the crawfish out. Some have argued that the season needs to be closed yet another month. We think that is a suggestion that the Government should follow. Fat chance, however, given the resistance the fishermen in The Bahamas have to closing the grouper season. Grouper has almost been wiped out in The Bahamas but the fishermen seem to have little care for that, nor the public for that matter.

OFFICIAL INDEPENDENCE SERVICE IN MIAMI
Bahamians living across the U.S. state of Florida and neighbouring areas all gathered in Miami at the Anglican Church of St. Agnes for the official service in recognition and celebration of Bahamian Independence today, Sunday 7th August. Minister of Foreign Affairs & The Public Service, the Honourable Fred Mitchell represented The Bahamas Government. You may click here for the full text of the Minister's remarks.

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM
H.C.A. an economic, political, social landmark: Prime Minister Christie
By G.S. Christie
Bahamas Information Services

    As the curtains came down on the celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the ‘magical’ city of Freeport, patrons of the Celebration Banquet on Thursday evening reminisced on the dream that became reality and looked with anticipation to the next 50 years.
    The event really celebrated the signing, to the date August 4th 1955, of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, which, as noted in Prime Minister Christie’s programme message, “highlighted one of the most important economic, political and social landmarks in our country’s history, and most certainly one of the great achievements for our people over the last half century.”
    In attendance were the who’s who in society, headed by Governor General, Dame Ivy Dumont, K.C.M.G.; Prime Minister the Rt. Honourable Perry G. Christie; the wife of the late Edward St. George, Lady Henrietta, Co-Chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority; Sir Jack Hayward, Chairman, Grand Bahama Port Authority Ltd., Sir Albert Miller, GBPA Co-Chairman; Mrs. Willie Moss, Deputy Chairman; the son of the Late Wallace Groves, Graham Groves and members of his family, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham; former Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest and Mrs. Turnquest; present and former Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, and port authority business partners.
    Prime Minister Christie’s message viewed as “pivotal” the development of Freeport and the far reaching affects for the entire island of Grand Bahama, and indeed The Bahamas as a whole.
    In his message he contributed the growth and development of Freeport to visionary leadership, sound planning, and the collective effort of a willing and resourceful community that brought forth a modern day miracle.
    “It is fortunate that there are yet in our midst many persons who would still have living memories of what Grand Bahama was before the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, and it is a testament to the collective will of Bahamians and those who came from abroad that we have a vibrant model of a success story in our midst.”
    The evening ended with the cutting of a birthday cake by Prime Minister Christie, Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont, Sir Jack Hayward, Lady Henrietta St. George, and a member of the Groves family.
BIS PHOTO by Vandyke Hepburn.

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

MEN SMASH BAHAMAS 4X4 RECORD FOR SILVER AT WORLDS - PM SAYS 'AWESOME'!

Late breaking story – Sunday night:
    The Bahamas men’s 4x400 metres relay team stunned the track world, smashed the national record and frightened their American competitors as they earned a silver medal at the World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland on Sunday night. The Prime Minister called the performance “awesome” and said the medal effort "filled all of us with yet another surge of national pride and jubilant celebration.
    “It reminded us once again that small though we are there is no limit to the greatness that Bahamians can attain on the world stage when their God-given talents are harnessed to the timeless virtues of discipline, dedication and hard work.” Please click here for the full statement of Prime Minister Christie.
    The team of Nathaniel McKinney, Avard Moncur, Andrae Williams and Chris Brown ran 2:57.32 to erase the old record of 2:58.19. The United States won the race in 2:56.91 and Jamaica was third in 2:58.07.
    The American team, anchored by the outstanding Jeremy Wariner was widely expected to win by a large margin, but throughout the race, The Bahamas stayed close, surprising all onlookers. Bahamas anchor Chris Brown ran his split in a personal best of 43 seconds plus and undoubtedly the race of his life in chasing the American and ending with the silver medal.
    In this AP Photo/Martin Meissner from the Bahama Journal, The Bahamas team celebrates their silver medal. From left are: Andrae Williams, Nathanial McKinney, Avard Moncur, Chris Brown and Troy McIntosh.

HIGH PRAISE FOR ARTHUR HANNA

The Hon. A.D. Hanna was the first Deputy Prime Minister under the late Sir Lynden O. Pindling. He served in that post from 1973 until his fateful resignation in 1984 in the face of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into drug trafficking in The Bahamas. He is known as a man of principle. Together with Paul Adderley, Sir Clement T. Maynard, Loftus Roker, George Mackey, he is known as one of the repositories of knowledge on the PLP's golden era between 1967 and 1992. It was no surprise then that he entered the debate on the question of whether or not Sir Stafford Sands should be on the Bahamian ten dollar bill. You will have read here that the Central Bank did not renew the image of Sir Stafford on that ten dollar bill when the note ran out. The Queen is now back on the bill.

Some people have called it reverse racism. A letter writer to one of the newspapers in The Bahamas Marvin Lightbourne said there is no such thing as black racism. Well, we do not quite agree but we think we understand the political point that he makes. With so much historical discrimination against Blacks, black racism seems a contradiction in terms.

Arthur Hanna, however, rose to the defence of the PLP and his own legacy. This is in circumstances today when the PLP seems helpless or unwilling to help itself on the question of its legacy and beliefs. It allowed a low level employee of the Central Bank to slip out almost, that the image was taken off the ten dollar note. It was as if the PLP had to be apologetic about something which they vehemently opposed when they were in Opposition.

Mr. Hanna in our view set the record straight. He said that Sir Stafford abandoned his country. He chose not to live in The Bahamas because he was afraid that he was going to be prosecuted for things disclosed about his behaviour as a public official in the Commission of Inquiry report into casino gambling which was commissioned by the PLP shortly after it came to power in 1967. Mr. Hanna said that despite the assurances given personally by Sir Lynden Pindling that Sir Stafford would not be prosecuted, the man refused to come back home. This confirms what we have said earlier in this column that Stafford Sands did not want to be a part of us, and so in no way should he be honoured with his face on any note.

The apologists like Eileen Carron and those with an Uncle Tom's mentality like a commentator on the matter on the staff of The Freeport News were quick to go to the defence of Stafford Sands. Eileen Carron claimed that after Stafford Sands lost the election that he was disrespected in the country, and that one young boy called him “Stafford”. She of course called the late Sir Randol Fawkes in one of her articles “Randol”, so we wonder if that was too a mark of disrespect. In any event, politicians should have thick skins and any petty disrespect would fade away in an entirely peaceful country like The Bahamas. As for the Freeport commentator, what can you say? His logic is incorrigible and not worthy of any time or effort except to say that he is wrong again.

Arthur Hanna made two further points which we think are worthy of consideration and praise. He debunked the idea that Stafford Sands was the father of the modern Bahamian economy establishing the financial services sector and the tourism sector. Mr. Hanna said that Stafford Sands created a segregated tourism industry and wanted to maintain it that way, and it was not until the PLP came to power that tourism actually expanded to the great heights it now has, and became a fully racially integrated sector of our economy. He argued the same thing with banking. He said it was legislation passed by the PLP, and the party’s insistence that Blacks had to participate in the banking sector that led to the kind of vibrant banking sector that we have today. He called the kudos to Stafford Sands propaganda.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 13th August 2005 at midnight: 77,710.

Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 13th August 2005 at midnight: 145,035.

Number of hits for the year 2005 up to Saturday 13th August 2005 at midnight: 2,315,624.

File photo of former Deputy Prime Minister Hanna by Omar Barr from The Bahama Journal; Hon. A.D. Hanna receives Pindling Foundation (2004) award from Lady Marguerite Pindling - BIS file photos: Peter Ramsay.

ANSWERING JACK HAYWARD AND EILEEN CARRON
By Sharon Zoe Smith (in London)
    The Tribune, Eileen Carron and friends of Jack Hayward now have gone into overdrive to respond to an article that appeared on this site on 3rd July on the ill considered outburst by Sir Jack Hayward, one of the principle owners of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. The response in an editorial by The Tribune shows how much the friends of Jack Hayward do not understand the value of taking a hint, and how to conform his peculiar behaviour accordingly. There is no need to get into a row with the Bahamas Government over the matter of the funds donated to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). You may click here for the earlier comment by this column.
    The first thing is the facts are very clear, incontrovertible and indisputable. They are as follows. There was a one million dollar gift accepted from Edward St. George and Jack Hayward by The Bahamas Government without conditions. If they found this unacceptable, then the gift should not have been given. The second thing is that substantial sums in the millions have been spent on rehabilitating infrastructure in Grand Bahama which really is the responsibility of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. This is important since Jack Hayward claims that one million dollars worth of repairs ought to have been done to Freeport schools as a condition of his gift. The Government has indicated that in any case that was done.
    One of the outstanding questions which was asked by some members of the public at the time of the storms was whether or not the Grand Bahama Port Authority fully discharged its obligations to the Bahamian people and to the people of the city of Freeport by the proper investment in back up generation capacity for electricity, in proper emergency water supplies and in a proper emergency supply situation for food and other infrastructure in the city. The city is owned and operated by the Grand Bahama Port Authority but had to be rescued by the Bahamas Government because its infrastructure collapsed, and the evidence is there that the infrastructure was not sufficiently redundant so as to avoid the kind of almost catastrophe that occurred. For example, water had to be ferried into Freeport in order for there to be drinking water there after the hurricanes. Water was the responsibility of the Grand Bahama Port Authority.
    Eileen Carron has weeks after the fact now responded in The Tribune of Friday 12th August with a vicious article in response to the comment made here previously. Our original comment really fell under ‘things that you should really take note of and leave alone’ but now it has been revived, six weeks after the fact. But no amount of braying viciousness on her part can change the facts.
    Quite insidiously and improperly, Mrs. Carron has also in her article tried to tie in the name of Fred Mitchell, a Minister of the Government, in her article, suggesting by positioning that he was the author of the original article. To take an expression from her book, this is total foolishness, and a wicked suggestion and she should be roundly condemned for it. Always looking for a bogeyman somewhere!
    What is fascinating however is that Jack Hayward did not answer for himself. Instead, weeks after the fact, the little woman at Shirley Street comes back with her mighty pen seeking to mount a defence for the indefensible. Her defence is nonsense. She did not even have the decency to attribute properly where she was quoting. At the very least journalistic ethics and honesty require that you say where you are quoting from: BahamasUncensored.com. No minister of the government had anything to do with this. Take another tack.
    There is no defence to what was certainly an ill considered outburst by Sir Jack Hayward. We think that it is clear now why Edward St. George kept him out of the operation of the company and far away Freeport, in England looking after his football team, and trying to rescue it from its losing record. It is because with a company like the Grand Bahama Port Authority, there is no need to get into a row with the Government. The Government, we are certain, does not wish a row with Jack Hayward and the public reports are that the government issued a statement fully explaining the acceptance and use of the gift.
    No doubt in time the sanguine and sophisticated Henrietta St. George will assert her control over the company in the like manner of her husband, and settle the company down to the way it is known to be. It is a company that is well managed, a good corporate citizen, and whose principles market their product well, collect the well earned dividends, and get along with everybody, not seeking to make cheap political points when one can easily pick up the phone and call the Prime Minister if there is a problem.
     In this persons have always made a distinction between the management skills, and political savvy of Edward St. George and the bumbling bluster of his partner who until now stayed in England and collected the dividends of Mr. St. George’s work.
    The piece on Arthur Hanna in today’s editorial, the piece on Raynor Arthur below and this piece all show that the spirit of colonialism and racism is not dead. Black people are to know their place. The rich man can say anything he likes and do what he likes, tramp through his company, speak to his employees anyway they like, accuse the Government of The Bahamas of being thieves, but you must not say anything in return. Not in this life!

CARICOM COMES CALLING WITH CSME IN DISGUISE

    The surprise of the week had to be the announcement by the Minister of Health Marcus Bethel that a team of Caricom would be visiting The Bahamas to discuss the harmonization of legislation on health with other Caribbean countries. The Minister was full of praise for the effort and commending it to the country. Dr. Bethel said that the idea was for Caricom countries to have the same standards in the health care sector in areas which included pharmacy. We mention pharmacy because it was the pharmacists who were amongst those who led the attack against the Caribbean Single Market and Economy which effort led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not supported by the Progressive Liberal Party, the Free National Movement and the country at large.
    We predicted after the debate was ended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs that there would be CSME by stealth, and this is a clear example of it. Later in the week, a team from Trinidad came calling on the part of their government to offer loans of up to $100,000 U.S. each to businessmen for support in their endeavours in The Bahamas. This is a fund established by Trinidad to use its windfall from the oil monies to help other Caribbean countries.
    Looking at the Bahamians on television and all the Bahamian businessmen gathered there lining up for free money, it seemed astounding that this was the same crew who was saying that they wanted nothing to do with “Broke ass West Indians” not even three months ago. Oh well! CARICOM Secretariat deputy programme manager Timothy Odle speaks to the media as the Minister of Health the Hon. Dr. Marcus Bethel, right, looks on with Anthony Laronde, CARICOM Secretariat legal advisor; and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Merceline Dahl-Regis during a press conference held to discuss draft domestic legislation for the Health Sector Monday, August 8, 2005 at the Ministry of Health's headquarters. (BIS Photo: Tim Aylen)

JAMES SMITH ON STAFFORD SANDS $10 BILL

    The Minister of State for Finance James Smith is responsible for relations with the Central Bank. The Government of The Bahamas is the sole shareholder of the Bank and sets policy for the bank. The Minister made these comments to the Nassau Guardian about the ten dollar bill and the image of Sir Stafford Sands being removed from the bill. Here is what he said in his own words as quoted in the Nassau Guardian Friday 12th August:
    “All government notes were up for renewal. This administration chose not to renew the $10 bill with Sir Stafford’s image.
    “Remember, when Sir Stafford’s image was proposed by the former government, the PLP then in opposition, was vehemently against it and made that quite clear publicly. When the time for reorder came, the Central Bank then put the question back to the government on whether to reorder the notes and the government simply decided not to renew them.
    “The Government would have been in an untenable position if it had approved the renewal of the notes, considering it was opposed to them being issued in the first place. Nobody is perfect but Sir Stafford represented, particularly to the PLP, a bastion of cruelty to Black people, segregation inter alia which was an affront to the people.” Bahamas Information Services photo of Minister James Smith by Peter Ramsay

THE THRILL OF VICTORY, THE AGONY OF DEFEAT

Our photo of the week refers to the victory of Tonique Williams Darling. Her victories at the Olympics and at the World Championships this week are really remarkable. This is a small country, and to have such a successful athlete is a testament to the perseverance of the athlete and the talent of that athlete. Quite apart from the physical side of things, there is a great psychological hurdle that one has to overcome when facing American runners who feel that they deserve the victory by entitlement, given the power of their nation. The U.S. runners are very talented physically, and they have quite a psychological machine that supports them, and a lot of money. None of it is to use that as an excuse for not making it, but just to comment on how overwhelming the odds are. Kudos then to Tonique.

To see how quickly things can fall apart, one has only to see that an experienced runner like Chandra Sturrup, the Olympic gold medalist of 2000 was bumped, it now appears accidentally by a U.S. runner, and fell to the ground, and the whole Bahamian team effort in the words of the announcer collapsed. But Chris Brown to our mind is the hero of the day. He certainly does not have the stature, some would suggest the raw power or talent of the gold medal winner, but what he has is stick-to-it-ness. We think he deserves a medal just for his pluckiness.
We raise then the issue of what resources are put behind these athletes in a society which loves to bask in their glow of victory. Are the resources sufficient? Further where is the farm team of athletes of the future? Today’s victories were assured by programmes put in place years ago by Dr. Bernard Nottage and a talented team at the Bahamas Association of Amateur Athletics (BAAA), the governing body of the sport in Nassau. Is that BAAA doing the same today, as we look not at today’s accomplishments but at what will happen in the year 2008 at the Olympic Games in China and beyond? Chris Brown, right, is shown coming in ahead of Michael Blackwood of Jamaica, centre, in the third semi-final of the Men's 400 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Wednesday Aug. 10, 2005, but just Jeremy Wariner of the US, left, who eventually won the gold medal. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) Chandra Sturrup lies, fallen on the track as a team mate gasps in this Tribune photo by Felipe Major.

RAYNOR ARTHUR’S MESSAGE TO BAY STREET
    The scene was the General Strike of 1958. The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union and the labour movement of The Bahamas had combined to bring the country to a virtual halt. The British West India Regiment was again in Nassau for the first time since the riots of 1942, patrolling Bay Street. The Bay Street Boys, led by Sir Roland Symonette and Sir Stafford Sands refused to budge. The wider social and constitutional reforms that had been called for in the 1943 Commission of Inquiry, following the Burma Road Riots of 1942 had foundered on Bay Street’s obstinacy. Raynor Arthur was the British Governor at the time. If you go to the now Nassau International Airport, in the old section, you will see his name on a plaque quietly in a corner commemorating the opening of the then new airport. His dispatch to London now made public by the Nassau Guardian on Thursday 11th August said:
    “The point I want to put to you is: how long should we back up Bay Street with British bayonets? What I should like to be able to put before them but I don’t quite know how to set about it, is some indication, which would have to come from the Secretary of State to the effect that they cannot expect the United Kingdom Government to keep troops here indefinitely to protect a constitution as morally indefensible as theirs, and that if they want a British garrison they had better at least start setting their house in order in the eyes of the world.”
    During the General Strike of 1958, Alan Lennox Boyd, then the Secretary of State for the Colonies visited The Bahamas and following his visit the changes were initiated, which saw an expanded number of seats in the House of Assembly with bye elections being held in 1960 to accomplish that fact, and later the vote for women, and a properly constituted labour office. Arthur Hanna was elected in the bye elections of 1960 for the Far East New Providence constituency, having lost his first bid for election in 1956 in Cat Island.

MRS. CHRISTIE ADDRESSES POLICEWOMEN RESERVES

In a powerful address against the psychological abuse of children, Mrs. Bernadette Christie, wife of the Prime Minister on Wednesday, 10th August addressed Reserve Policewomen at a one day seminar for female officers and civilians of the Police Reserve, marking the 40th Anniversary of the organisation. The event took place at the British Colonial Hilton hotel, Nassau. Please click here for Mrs. Christie’s remarks. BIS photo: Peter Ramsay

THE CRITICS JUMP ON COLINA INSURANCE
    This week, the Bahama Journal launched a two part series on the purchase of the Colina Insurance Company. The article asserts that the Government was duped into agreeing to the Colina purchase. Some have argued that the Government was not duped but that the Government imposed conditions on the purchase of Colina which it could not enforce either because there is not the competence to do so within the Government or the fortitude to do so. We pointed out at the time of the approval that some in the industry were saying that the company purchasing was contemptuous of any conditions since they knew or believed they could not be enforced.
    The Bahama Journal charged in its first in the series that the company has a cash flow problem in that it is seeking to settle a dispute with its 45 per cent shareholder James Campbell who was booted out as CEO of the group just a few weeks ago. Mr. Campbell is said to be owed $17 million dollars and was supposed to get $3.5 million as the first instalment. The company couldn’t pay said the Journal because it does not have the cash flow.
    You may click here for earlier articles on Colina on the question of the report of its auditors and the concern over related party dealings. Colina Under Scrutiny - 24th July, 2005. The auditors were concerned about the probity of the related party dealings, that is dealing with sister companies and with companies in which the principles of Colina also have an interest. Two such firms would be Alexiou, Knowles and Co. the law firm which has Emanuel Alexiou as Senior Partner, who is also the Chairman of the Colina Financial Services Group, this parent company of the Colina empire. This site was provided with an analysis of such related party transfers and it shows that while public shareholders received some $800,000 in dividends, the related parties got over twelve million dollars from the company. Please click here for the chart.
    The problem this presents is that there is a huge issue that either is a real problem or a public relations one. Who protects the interest of the policy holder? The company has not said anything on the matter. There are friends of this column on both sides of the divide but a word to the wise amongst them would suggest that some fancy footwork has to be done here, if there is not to be a run on the confidence in this company.

BRENT SYMONETTE DUCKS OUT

The first born son of the United Bahamian Party (UBP) Premier Sir Ronald Symonette has decided that he does not have the stomach to run for the office of leader of his party. This is the second time that Brent Symonette has wound up the Bahamian public with a Hamlet like performance of “will I or won’t I”. He announced on 10th August that no, he will not enter the race this year for the leader of his party. This effectively ends all prospects of him ever becoming leader of the FNM and Prime Minister, posts equating to those which his father once held. He did add that his race had nothing to do with it, since he believes that a man of any race can be Prime Minister. Of course it is not what he believes that counts on this matter. It is whether his party believes what he believes on the subject. He added also that he would not rule out running for some other post. You may read previous week’s comments on the subject; 'Tribune Talking Nonsense'; FNM Fight for Leadership. Bahama Journal photo of Mr. Symonette announcing his decision by Omar Barr.

JAMES MINNS STALWART COUNCILLOR DIES

PLP Stalwart Councillor James Minns was buried on Saturday 13th August after a funeral service at Transfiguration Baptist Church. His body lay in repose at the PLP’s headquarters Gambier House, Sir Lynden Pindling centre on Friday 12th August. Attending that ceremony was the Prime Minister Perry Christie, Ministers Fred Mitchell, Shane Gibson and Allyson Maynard Gibson. Fred Mitchell praised Mr. Minns as one of the heroes of the golden age of the Progressive Liberal Party from 1967 to 1992. Also giving remarks were the party’s éminence grise the Hon. Arthur D. Hanna. Mr. Minns was 81 years old at the time of his death.

A CHILD’S MOTHER IS CONVICTED
Last week, we reported on a missing boy and the strange behaviour of his mother and the adult in whose care he was left. You may click here for last week's story. This past week, a report that the man who took the child to the police claiming that the child was lost was charged with deceiving a police officer. He was brought before the courts and Kenneth Nathan was bound over to keep the peace. The mother Eldrice Gibson was remanded to jail for abandoning her child, pending a Social Services report. God only knows what sending her to prison is going to do. Meanwhile the child is in the custody of social services and will not be allowed to be visited by members of the family.

POETRY FEATURE

This week, Giovanni soulfully reflects on 'mermaiden's' charm in ‘My Love Mermaiden’. Please click here. POET FEATURE, by Bahama recording & literary artist, Giovanni.Stuart (www.nubah.com).

SINGING BISHOP’S MIRACLE WATER: HE’S NOT GAY
    Bishop Lawrence Rolle, known as the ‘Singing Prophet’, is an immensely popular man on the singing circuit in The Bahamas. Early in the week, he sent out a press release in which he claimed that he would be selling “miracle water” which would cure amongst other diseases AIDS. Clearly, this was trouble in the making. On Thursday 11th August, he was backing back. Wise man, since a claim in fraud could have been led against him by the Attorney General. On that night at the Golden Gates Ministries in Carmichael Road, he attracted some 700 people according to the Nassau Guardian well short of the 2500 he expected. The reason they came was to receive some of the healing water.
    The healing water turns out to be the water you purchase in the shop ranging from Aquapure to Chelsea’s Choice and even some foreign waters (Sorry no Perrier). He said that he did this as a result of the Lord speaking to him in a dream, and that the miracle water could not work unless you had faith. One woman obviously had faith. The Tribune reported that a woman claimed she was cured of paralysis by the miracle water.
    Meanwhile back here on earth, the Singing Prophet had to deal with a more mundane enquiry by a radio show’s telephone caller who shall remain nameless who has ideas that are quite simply similar to those of a nut case, and a loony tune who is always gad flying about in matters that do not concern her. Is the singing bishop gay, she asked, because people some people see him as soft and effeminate? Here is what he said in his own words on public radio. He should have refused to engage in such stupidity but such is the low level of public engagement in this country that first you have to answer the ideas of a nitwit, and then the press actually reports it. We are probably just as guilty:
    “Sweet girl, this was never a gay and never intends to be a gay. I love woman so much till I love woman next to Jesus.
    “I have never been gay then, and will not be a gay now. I preached so hard on sissyism until the police called me and warned me and tell me not to preach so hard. Sweet girl you need to come and visit in my service.
[He was asked why so many gays and lesbians come to his church?]
    “Gays and lesbians can be found in every God given church on the island and in The Bahamas. I love everyone because that is something that my grandmother instilled in me when I was a boy. Homosexuals often feel at ease around me, enough to share their deepest problems and concerns with me. What could we do with them; we have to love them with the love of God. We don’t condone it but we gatta love them. We don't let them come on the pulpit. If we knew somebody is a sissy, we can’t give them a position in the church. But we can't get to a place where we scorn these people and say they are no good. That’s why we need the word of God to preach that miracles take place, that God will give them a miracle in their nature.
    “I grew up in poverty in my hometown of Old Bight, Cat Island. I have been saved since I was nine, and I married my long time and only girlfriend at 22. I have been blessed with seven children.”

BISHOP ELDON’S JUBILEE

While retired Anglican Bishop Michael Hartley Eldon, aged 74, rested in a coma at home, a mass was held by two of his faithful adherents from the priesthood Delano Archer and Tyrone McKenzie. There was also a public mass of celebration for his life, witness and work at St. George's Anglican Church where he first worked as a parish priest. The date was Wednesday 10th August and it marked the 50th anniversary of Michael Eldon as a priest. The Bishop’s doctors said that he was resting comfortably in a comatose state. He is on a ventilator. The Bishop was the first Bahamian to head the Anglican diocese. File photo.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Aim High!
Just a note to say that I enjoy the website and I must say that the editor/writer is well versed in Local Government and how it is supposed to work. Unfortunately, many are still not educated about it.
Please encourage Minister Fred Mitchell to keep on keeping on. Let him know that he is doing a fantastic job and I am always moved by his speeches. He is an asset to the Bahamian people and I will continue to pray that we realize what contributions he has made and will continue to make to the Bahamas. Tell him to “Aim High!”
Marva Moxey, JP, BA, MBA
Freeport, Bahamas

FOX HILL DAY CELEBRATION IN PHOTOS

    The people of Fox Hill have from time immemorial been celebrating Fox Hill Day as a separate ceremony in honour of the emancipation of the slaves on 1st August 1834.
    On 9th August, the second Tuesday of the month, the representative for the area Fred Mitchell was present for what is also known as Party day with the Right Hon. Perry Christie, Prime Minister and his ministerial colleague Allyson Maynard Gibson.
    After the church services came to an end, Bahamians from across Nassau and the Family Islands flocked to the village centre at the Fox Hill Parade to dance the night away with the tunes of various live bands. Fox Hill Day marked the end of the Village's week long Fox Hill Festival.

Mr. Mitchell is pictured at top with entertainer 'KB' enjoying his rendition of the hit 'Civil Servants Song', much to the delight of the crowd. MP Mitchell, left, and friends Zendal Forbes, right, and Calvin 'Lady' Brown, second from right, join Fox Hill vendor Dimitri Rolle at his stand for conch fritters. Photos: Fox Hill Festival Committee

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM

ENJOYING FOX HILL DAY - Prime Minister Perry G. Christie enjoys himself on Fox Hill Day at St. Paul's Baptist Church as he gestures to signify the apparent end of a power failure when the fans began to spin during his address to the congregation. Mr. Christie has made a tradition of visiting Fox Hill Village at its traditional 'Party Day' celebrations at area Baptist Churches.

GOODBYE TO A FALLEN STALWART - In this photo, Prime Minister Christie describes the measure of Progressive Liberal Party Stalwart Councillor James Minns as he addresses mourners while the body of Mr. Minns lies in repose at PLP Headquarters. Mr. Christie expressed the Party's condolences to the family of Mr. Minns and described him as a hero of the organisation.

AN ATHLETE'S FITNESS - The nation's Chief Executive is caught in this candid photo diligently pursuing the athletic fitness of his youth, as an aide strides to keep pace. The Prime Minister has become a regular sight in exercise along his Cable Beach neighbourhood.
BIS PHOTOS by Peter Ramsay.

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

CLEMENT MAYNARD, PAUL ADDERLEY

Councillors were in their usual way quite concerned about the remarks made by the party’s senior statesmen Paul Adderley, the former Attorney General (right) and Sir Clement Maynard, the former Deputy Prime Minister (left) about the state of the Government today. On a Jones and Co Radio programme earlier in the summer, Mr. Adderley was quoted as criticizing the Prime Minister for not making decisions quickly enough. Then came Sir Clement Maynard during the past week in which he was quoted from the same radio programme as saying that Ministers did not have a sufficient sense of direction and philosophy and that the party may well be doing good things but that its public relations was sorely lacking.

You can well imagine that the Free National Movement, happy to jump on any bandwagon that is passing was quick to jump on that latter bandwagon to say that this was confirmation of their view all along.

Dion Foulkes in his campaign to unseat the now leader Senator Tommy Turnquest claimed that it was clear that the PLP came to office without expecting to win, and therefore had no agenda to carry out. He claimed that you could see it all around.

Let us first separate out the comments of Paul Adderley and Clement Maynard. It is true that the sentiments expressed by the two men have some currency in certain circles. The comment made by many PLPs was that perhaps these comments were best made within the confines of the party to which they belonged; that is, inside a meeting of the National General Council. But that is a difficult proposition for elder statesmen who do not intervene lightly in current affairs and feel entitled to operate on different rules. It is sending a signal that some mid course correction is needed.

The PLP could decide not to heed the advice or comment of these party elders and reject it, or they could look to see if what is being said is in fact correct and what can be done to absorb the lessons. We ourselves have made the point here that often the PLP does not seem to be able or willing to rise to defend its own philosophy and beliefs. So the point on public relations is not outside the realm of reality. The comments of the two men are therefore made in a different category. It is important to note that one of the reasons that the party got into problems in1992 was precisely because it rejected some sage advice from both its parliamentary and non parliamentary members on political matters.

That having been said, Perry Christie brought a new style of leadership, and that style has much to commend it. You can see quite clearly that the style has caused the country to develop. There has been no scandal. There has been full consultation with the Bahamian people. There is no drift. The Government is on course. The economy is in better shape under his watch than when he got the Government. We want that message out loud and clear.

As for the FNM’s point that what they had been saying about the PLP is now confirmed by Sir Clement and Dion Foulkes’ point about the PLP not being ready for government, they are rejected out of hand. What we know is that the FNM should better spend its energies on trying to get its internal house in order. The internecine warfare that is unfolding before the eyes of the country over who is going to lead can only have them end up on the rocks. No amount of praying by Pastor Cedric Moss at the anniversary of the FNM’s 19th August victory can help them if they don’t get their internal house in order.

Then, there is the truth about the FNM. The FNM through its entire term squandered all the country's wealth that came during the ten years they held office. They did not invest in the country’s infrastructure.

The PLP today struggles with trying to effect changes at the Nassau International Airport, changes that the FNM could have, but did not carry out. The PLP is spending some 33 million dollars on the runway alone which the PLP was told was in need of immediate repair when they came to office in 2002.

The FNM tried to bribe the silence of the public service by money and promotions; leaving it an effectively crippled organization. Hubert Ingraham as he was going out the door went and promoted people to ranks in the public service that were designed to cripple the incoming administration. He also lined himself up with additional privileges for a former Prime Minister.

The PLP is struggling to find a solution to the water problems of New Providence that were neglected during the time of the Free National Movement. The FNM spent 100 million dollars to privatize BaTelCo, the telephone company. The expense was an extravagance and a waste of money, and there is still no privatization because the plan was so fraught with problems it had to be cancelled by the PLP.

The docks were neglected and the PLP had immediately to fix the main Prince George Dock, a price tag in the millions of dollars. Who can forget of course the outrageous fees that the FNM agreed to pay the cruise companies to continue to come here with the Government today having to pay some ten million dollars, left unpaid by the FNM under their agreement with the ship companies. This was a bad policy inherited by the PLP and one which tourism must struggle to change.

The fact is that since the PLP has come to office it has been running overtime just to keep up. It has been putting out one fire after the next, plugging one hole after the next. The public administration of the country is largely ineffective and hostile to the PLP. The PLP can make no decision with absolute certainty that it will be carried out or followed through. It is now at its most vulnerable because its supporters are complaining that they need to have jobs for themselves and their children in a situation where the economy really can’t take any more pressure or costs from the public sector. The PLP has been trying to beef up the private sector so that people can look to that sector to get jobs.

So Tommy Turnquest and Dion Foulkes ought to come again. The PLP should read and inwardly digest the comments of Paul Adderley and Clement Maynard. How can the Party learn from it? The FNM ought to heal themselves. They have nothing to recommend to the PLP on any matter.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 20th August 2005 at midnight: 78,376.

Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 20th August 2005 at midnight: 223,411.

Number of hits for the year 2005 up to Saturday 20th August 2005 at midnight: 2,394,000.

THE FNM CELEBRATES
    The 19th of August passed quietly. You remember that day in 1992, a day that will live in infamy, whereby the Free National Movement triumphed over the Nationalist Leader Lynden Pindling, undermining the hegemony of the PLP for the first time in 25 years. For some it was a glorious day though, and they have not forgotten. We mean of course the supporters, the diehards of the Free National Movement as they work together to bring their party back from the abyss.
    We think that the FNM has a long way to go, what with the leadership question looming large over the party, and with no clear philosophy or direction in the wings. But one supposes they have to take a page from the PLP's book, particularly after the infamous defeat of 1997.
    The PLP seemed down on its luck but it was men and women like Cynthia Pratt, Bradley Roberts, Perry Christie, Fred Mitchell, Philip Galanis, Melanie Griffin and Obie Wilchcombe who said never say die and the party held itself together and resurrected in a triumphant victory and a return to nationalist rule on 2nd May 2002.
    To mark their anniversary, the FNM went to Pastor Cedric Moss for inspiration. He is an inspiring speaker but even his inspiration may not be enough. Praying might help but that is clearly not going to be enough. It will take works, and from what we can see right now there are no works in the works.

LEADERS EVERYWHERE BUT NOT A ONE TO PICK

Now that Brent Symonette says he is out, the pundits in The Bahamas are trying to speculate on what the plat plan is for the Free National Movement.

One thing that they know, we know and Tommy Turnquest also knows (we are all very knowledgeable) is that this convention in November 2005 for the FNM is make or break for him. If he loses in the leadership race at that convention to Dion Foulkes, then Tommy Turnquest’s political career is over. Mr. Foulkes entering the race was a bit of a surprise since the Turnquests have always been seen as benefactors of the Foulkes family; and knowing that, clearly it would to say the least cause some grave discomfort for Sir Orville and Lady Turnquest. Nevertheless, Dion Foulkes is like a man on a mission from God and he is going at it with his usual bluster and zeal, pulling out all the stops.

Of course, the little cry baby of the bunch is Zhivargo Laing. He is reduced to the sidelines and had to content himself with sitting next to Dion Foulkes, looking mighty uncomfortable in church the other day as Myles Munroe preached. He would not want Tommy to think that he is supporting Dion. He is probably supporting himself, but can't quite figure out a way to get there. He had to satisfy himself and his real ambitions by writing a school boy’s essay in The Tribune last week called: IF I WERE PRIME MINISTER. We would re-title it ‘If only I were Prime Minister’.

Brent Symonette (click here for last week’s report on how he fell on his sword for the second time) has said that though he will not run, he may be available for another post, more correctly put, the press said that he did not rule out accepting another position.
So here’s how it all lines up now that we know the dramatis personae. Tommy Turnquest has decided that he will take no prisoners. He realizes that only the delegates vote for party elections, not the country as a whole. The point then for him is simple mathematics, not posturing on radio talk shows, but who has the delegates fifty per cent plus one.

While Dion Foulkes is posturing, Tommy Turnquest is counting votes. He has control of the Meritorious Councilors, the equivalent of the Stalwart Councilors in the PLP. He has been going around reviving branches and making sure that his people are in charge of those branches and their delegates. Danny Ferguson, the former BaTelCo executive, was recently elected as the Council Member for Fox Hill, a branch that was dead for three years. Mr. Ferguson is said to be actively campaigning for the nomination for the FNM. Bran McCartney, the attorney, had to come out quickly for the St. Thomas More seat. He had to head off former Senator Pauline Nairn who ran the last time. She is known as a Hubert supporter and may just go for Dion. Mr. McCartney is tied family wise to Senator Turnquest so that puts St. Thomas More in his column as well.

The supporters of the Turnquests and some family members have reportedly been actively seeking to stabilize the support of Dr. Hubert Minnis in Delaporte, lest Dr. Minnis also goes against the Turnquests. Dr. Minnis is a fan of and thought to be a surrogate for Hubert Ingraham. At the end of the day then, it is a question of who will end up on the delegates list. So go ahead Mr. Foulkes, get your picture in the paper; talk on the radio all you want. Our bet is that Tommy has this thing wrapped up, as the kids say: “a slam dunk”.
Now waiting in the shadows is the evil one. He shall remain nameless. This means the scenario can change, depending on how strong Senator Turnquest really is. But we have a clue, the word is the deal that will be put to Senator Turnquest is: I will give you a knighthood if we win, make you Ambassador to London. You step down at the convention in favour of me, and Brent Symonette will be my Deputy. Now who is the evil one? You whistle, we will point. We say to the FNM beware of the dark side of the Force. And may the force be with you! Hmmm!

THE MIRACLE WATER DEBATE
    Every once in a while the people of New Providence go a little bit crazy. There is some phenomenon like a ghost in a house or a face of Christ that someone has seen on a wall and the whole nation goes bonkers running to see what usually turns out to be a hoax, and some have been quite elaborate. One remembers most recently a Bahamian with no known source of wealth who said that he was going to pay everyone’s bills off and people lined up in the thousands. The catch: you had to pay $60 first to get your bills paid. Someone should have gone to jail. It took the Commissioner of Police at the time to stop it.
    Now comes a faith healer. We reported last week on the claimed ‘miracle water’ of the singing prophet; Lawrence Rolle is his name. Before this his main claim to fame was singing ‘It Is well With My Soul’ like a rock and roll artist. But he announced he had a vision, and supported by the more established Bishop Ross Davis at Golden Gates, he has been attracting crowds who have come for the healing miracle water that we spoke about last week. It is really Aquapure, a commercially bottled water, selling we are told at $5 per pop after he has prayed over it.
    The national television station showed a man with the singing Bishop in the background claiming that he had been cured of cancer, to wild cheers of the congregation. The most amusing bit though was the claim that a man had been raised from the dead. The Nassau Guardian reported on Tuesday 18th August that Bishop Rolle had instructed a family to use the miracle water to bring a dead man back to life. Bishop Rolle when questioned by the reporter said that no, he was not claiming that the man was brought back to life. In fact the man was not actually dead. He was not moving after he had been chopped in the head with a cutlass. He claimed that the family carried the water and anointed him and: “he came out of the emergency room fast”. This is really cheap entertainment, and we again caution those who are participating in this that they do not become party to a fraud.

OSADEBAY AT THE GOVERNOR GENERAL

Justice of Appeal Emmanuel Osadebay has published a second edition of his book Labour Law in The Bahamas. The book revises the law since it was substantially amended in 1996 and in 2000. It reviews the old law of wrongful dismissal and the new creature of unfair dismissal, the entitlements of workers under the new law, the tribunal system which did not exist when he wrote the first book based on the 1972 Industrial Relations Act, the common law and the Fair Labour Standards Act of 1975. The first edition was quite a useful summary of Bahamian law and this book should be instructive for practitioners, particularly having been written by a sitting justice. The Justice presented a copy of his latest work to the Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont. Bahamas Information Services photo: Tim Aylen

FOREIGN MINISTER PRESENTS SCHOLARSHIPS

Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell addressed seven scholarship students or their representatives at a special ceremony held on Monday 15th August to present the scholarships awarded by the Government of Mexico. The Mexican Government offers 20 scholarships per year to Bahamian students. The Minister said that he regretted that he had not learned Spanish in high school because he found the language to be so important in the hemisphere.
Mr. Mitchell noted that the scholarships did not require Spanish since each person would have six months of Spanish language instruction before their regular classes start. Most of the students will be studying international reparations. One is studying public administration, another is studying computer science. The Minister congratulated their families and the students and wished them well. He thanked Mexico and particular Dr. Luis Derbez, the Foreign Minister whom he regarded as a friend. Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service the Hon. Fred Mitchell (seated) with recipients, family representatives and stakeholders during an award ceremony, on August 17, where seven Bahamian students received scholarships to pursue undergraduate studies at Mexican universities, beginning this month. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the Mexican government’s “Call for Scholarships to Citizens of The Bahamas,” announced the awarding of the scholarships in areas such as International Relations, Spanish and Computer Science and Technology. Ms. Sherry Johnson, Mr. Glenn McPhee, Ms. Bianca Brown, Ms. Kimiko Knowles and Ms. Channell Josey will pursue a bachelor’s degree in International Relations; while Ms. Telia Shearer will pursue a diploma progamme in Spanish and Mr. Renaldo Smith will pursue a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Technology. Also seated from left are Deputy Permanent Secretary and Head of the Technical Assistance and Corporation Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mrs. Roselyn Horton, Honorary Vice Consul to the Bahamas for Mexico Ms. Barbara Fox and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Patricia Rodgers. (BIS photo: Eric Rose)

NASSAU INSTITUTE DEFENDS GAS PRICE RISES
    You need first to go back to our editorial and read what and who the Nassau Institute is. Having done that, it should not surprise you then what comes next the idea of this group of misfits, politicos and nincompoops was to tackle Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller on the issue of gasoline pricing in The Bahamas. They said that the Minister was not right when he asserted that The Bahamas has the highest unleaded gas prices in the region. Never remember him saying it and if he did he may or may not be right.
    What always interests us is what this group decides to tackle as an issue. They went to great lengths they said to compare purchasing power, prices and mark ups throughout the region and surprise, surprise The Bahamas comes out ahead. According to the Institute, the distribution of gasoline in The Bahamas is quite efficient, and there is no need for the Minister to interfere with the distribution system by getting cheaper gas from Venezuela. Our point here is that the Nassau Institute will do anything; carry out any distortion to ensure that the businessman is always right.
    Now let’s put it this way: if Minister Miller can lower the price of gasoline down from the $4.05 it is now to near three dollars by getting gas from Venezuela, we wonder which consumer is going to give a hoot what the Nassau Institute thinks? Sorry to interrupt their Lyford Cay reverie. The report of the Nassau Institute appeared in The Tribune’s business section on Thursday 11th August.

BARF KEEPS BARFING

    It looked like the picture of some sort of line up. They were standing up all in a row asking the Government to give a sixty day amnesty for illegal migrants to The Bahamas and then round them up and throw them all out. It escapes them, the news that Immigration does its job every day of the week. Immigrants have been rousted from the straw market, and from the buses and it appears to be going quite well. Not good enough for the ‘barfers’. That is the BARF SOLUTION: throw them out. Let’s not worry about law, human rights, and rights of children, legitimate expectation, and international treaties.
    You know BARF, the ad hoc group that is campaigning for a referendum on the FTAA, who were the main obstacles with their anti intellectual message and hate Caribbean people diatribes during the CSME debate. Now they are looking more and more like a political group, having roped in the former Registrar Elizabeth Thompson, no doubt basking in that $260,000 she got from The Bahamas Government, she can afford to join the picket lines.
    The man from the older generation you can understand, but how a group of young intelligent people can be engaged in this kind of jingoistic nonsense defies reason. No one is against getting on top of illegal immigration but the whole tenor and tone of their debate is so offensive and unhelpful, stirring up hatred and division, one wonders where exactly do they think this will all lead. Perhaps they need some of the singing prophet’s miracle water. Tribune photo by Mario Duncanson

COLINA DEFENDS ITSELF
Last week in this column, we reported how the Colina purchase seems to be in some further difficulty. You may click here for that report. The Bahama Journal printed a story that indicated that the company might be having a cash flow problem. They printed further material this week that seems to suggest that the company is playing fast and loose with the money of thousands of Bahamian policyholders. We point out more forcefully to those principles that are left that whether these facts are so or not, they have rattled the public, and the company does not look like a safe bet. All around the country, people are predicting that if the regulators do not step in and stop the public bickering, give a full and frank assessment of what is going on at Colina, the company is going to collapse, and policy holders are going to lose their money.
In a story in the Nassau Guardian and printed in no other paper, the company said that reports of Colina Imperial’s insolvency are false and a misrepresentation. The company argued that Colina has an A-rating. Chairman Emanuel Alexiou spoke to the Nassau Guardian that is owned by Colina. He said that there were 53 million dollars in cash and equivalents and 75 million dollars in government registered stock. That is fine and good but someone or some persons have polluted the reputation of the company, that it is creating a cloud of uncertainty over it, and the past principle who is now out should also act to staunch the tide of bad news, since many may be thinking that he is the one who most benefits by this unsettling news and may be behind it. All of them, that is what we say, all of them have a stake in stopping this because this is really frightening people. It is in no one’s interest for this company to collapse, and collapse can come not by facts but just as quickly by rumour and innuendo. Ultimately, the regulators have to act to settle the public down and say what the facts are.

THE NATIONAL ‘D’ GRADE
    The results are out for the performance of the high school students of The Bahamas. These are the people who at ages 16, 17, 18 will be joining the work force and will become the leaders of The Bahamas in government and in business within two decades. The results were published in the press on Thursday 18th August of the national 2005 Bahamas General Certificate Secondary Examination (BGCSE). All graduating seniors are required to take this exam, and together with the Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC), in the 9th grade, it is the minimum qualification for getting a job in the public service.
    The Nassau Guardian reports that the mean (average) grade for the entire Bahamas is D+, while the national mean grade for the 2005 BJC is D. This is yet again a disastrous result for the country as a whole. Are we raising a nation of dummies, or is the system failing us in some way? We are entitled to ask as this national embarrassment continues. Of course, the argument is that it is only the top ten per cent that rule the roost anyway, so really one should be concerned about how they are doing. Even if that is true, and we certainly don’t accept that it is true, D+ does seem a little embarrassing.
    According to The Guardian, the Testing and Evaluation Section of the Ministry of Education showed that 12 of the 16 private schools in New Providence (Nassau) were operating at or above the BGCSE national mean, while only three government high schools met the national D+ grade. Translation, send your kids to private school if you want them to have a chance of succeeding? The highest average was St. Andrews and St. Augustine’s College at C+. Coming in second was Kingsway Academy, Nassau Christian Academy, Queen’s College, and St. John’s College. Aquinas College, Prince William High School, St. Anne’s High School, Temple Christian High and Faith Temple High all achieved C-. This is quite a lot to ponder on.

POETRY FEATURE

This week, Giovanni invitation is to "Submerge your self with greater depth into the ultra-aquatic phantasm". Verse II, excerpts from, ‘Mine Love Mermaiden’ Please click here. POET FEATURE, by Bahama recording & literary artist, Giovanni.Stuart (www.nubah.com).

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
RAYNOR ARTHUR’S MESSAGE TO BAY STREET - A CORRECTION
    A small point, but history is, after all, made up of small points. Alan Lennox Boyd did not visit The Bahamas during the General Strike, which ended on January 31, 1958. He came here in April 1958 for a fact finding mission that resulted from the turmoil surrounding the Strike, and, when he went back to England, he made certain recommendations, one of which was to create four new seats in New Providence to more correctly represent the large population that resided in Nassau. The election for those seats was held in 1960 and, in addition to Arthur Hanna, three other seats were won by PLP candidates: H.M Taylor, C.A. Dorsett and Spurgeon Bethell.
     Unfortunately, Mr. Lennox Boyd did not recommend votes for women and was deluged with letters from English women who objected to his shortsightedness where their Bahamian sisters were concerned.
    Thank you for your time.
Patty Roker

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM
This Week With The PM with Bahamas Iinformation Services PHOTOS by Peter Ramsay will return next week.

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

THE PASSING OF SIR LYNDEN

The country learned as they woke up to find that on 26th August 2000 that the father of the nation, the man who once bestrode The Bahamas like a colossus, Lynden Pindling was dead. He had ruled the country as its first Prime Minister in an independent country from 1973 to 1992 but had in fact been the leader of the nationalist movement from 1956, becoming the Premier and head of Government continuously from 1967 until he was voted out in 1992. He was bigger than life.

Fred Mitchell, the now Foreign Minister and then an Opposition Senator, who had spent so much of his adult life working with Sir Lynden or opposing Sir Lynden, wrote a tribute at the time summing up the experiences of his times. You may click here for that essay. Mr. Mitchell also ran a website which was the predecessor of this website FredMitchellUncensored.Com. It provided comprehensive coverage of the funeral preparations, the national response and the funeral itself on the web, which was then a relatively new tool for The Bahamas. You may click here for that coverage.

The man who succeeded Sir Lynden as the leader of the Progressive Liberal Party Perry Christie is now the Prime Minister. It appeared clear from the start of Mr. Christie’s career that this was what was intended. Mr. Christie was barely back from school in 1974 when he was plucked from his practice of law to be appointed to the Senate, then heading the Gaming Board, and then elected to office in 1977 defeating former Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest, and becoming a Cabinet minister. Sir Lynden later named him one of the commandos of the social revolution that he declared at a party convention.

The pathway to the Prime Ministership seemed assured until there was the Commission of Inquiry of 1984 looking into allegations that drug traffickers and influence pedalling infected the Government of Sir Lynden. Mr. Christie and his law partner and then Minister of Housing Hubert Ingraham had formed an alliance of sorts in the Cabinet with Arthur D. Hanna, the then Minister of Finance. Mr. Hanna was known to be a difficult obstacle for any new Cabinet minister to overcome if that minister wanted to succeed. The new ministers joined forces with Mr. Hanna which ensured their success. Out of it a genuine friendship emerged, but the result was by the time the conclave took place at Chub Cay to sort out the PLP's issues arising out of the expected report of the Commission of Inquiry, Sir Lynden thought that the two had crossed to the other side so to speak. The result was that Mr. Christie and Mr. Ingraham were both dismissed. Mr. Ingraham described the letter a as being brought by “a big black greasy policeman”.

Mr. Ingraham joined the FNM, took over its leadership in 1990 upon the death of Sir Lynden’s archrival in his generation Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield. In 1992 in a bitter campaign with Sir Lynden calling Mr. Ingraham the delivery boy and Mr. Ingraham saying the most vile things about his former mentor, Mr. Ingraham succeeded Sir Lynden to the Prime Ministership. Things looked bleak for Mr. Christie as he and Bernard Nottage were then Co-Deputy Leaders of the PLP. Sir Lynden at first said he would step down but in 1993, he reneged on that promise and Bernard Nottage who had indicated he would step forward had to back away.

Following the second defeat by Mr. Ingraham in 1997, Sir Lynden saw the handwriting on the wall and that year he stepped down after 41 years in Parliament. He received a pension equivalent to his full salary as Prime Minister but it later turned out that Mr. Ingraham had tricked him into resigning from the Parliament as a condition of receiving his pension. The now PLP Government later paid his widow some $500,000 that he was owed that the FNM did not pay to him for the years 1992 to 1997. Mr. Ingraham himself continues to enjoy both the pension and the salary in what many consider a vulgar display of greed.

Bernard Nottage, now head of the near defunct Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) led the battle against Sir Lynden’s forces and the result was that Sir Lynden turned against him at the PLP's conventions of 1997 and 1998 with a vengeance. He openly supported Perry Christie for the leadership. Things had come full circle, and of course, Perry Christie went on to defeat Hubert Ingraham in 2002 to become Prime Minister.

Friday 26th August 2005 marked five years since Sir Lynden’s death. This morning his widow and friends gathered at St. Agnes Church to commemorate his loss, and later Lady Marguerite Pindling laid a wreath at his tomb in St. Agnes Cemetery. [Look for additional photo below] He had a hell of a life. That death and the public response to it revived the memories of the glory days of the PLP. Neil Ellis, now Bishop, spoke to the gathered mourners one evening and said that the FNM’s response to the death and the response of the nation showed that “A fresh wind was blowing” in The Bahamas. That became the PLP’s mantra that took them to victory in 2002.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 27th August 2005 at midnight: 72,208.

Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 27th August 2005 at midnight: 295,619.

Number of hits for the year 2005 up to Saturday 27th August 2005 at midnight: 2,466,208.

The Bahamas Information Services photo by Peter Ramsay shows Minister Mitchell escorting Lady Pindling from a service of commemoration of the death of Sir Lynden.

ZHIVARGO LAING DROPS OUT

The Nassau Guardian carried a Freeport News report on Friday 26th August that Zhivargo Laing, the former Minister of Economic Development under the Free National Movement announced during a sermon at Calvary Temple Church on Sunday 21st August that he will not stand in the next general election. The newspaper did not say whether or not they confirmed this with Mr. Laing. If this is true then, the proposed match up that most in Freeport were expecting between himself and the PLP’s Ann Percentie, the MP for Pineridge, will not materialize.
Why such a decision at this time? Again assuming that it is true, one can only speculate that having looked at the situation Mr. Laing calculates that the 2007 campaign for the FNM is fairly hopeless, what with all the leadership fights and all. Further, the contention of the November FNM convention this year holds no promise for him. He is younger than both Tommy Turnquest and Dion Foulkes, the persons expected to slug it out for the leadership this November. They would have no truck for him.
Zhivargo Laing's future would be assured if Hubert Ingraham took over again, and he would not have to work to get the gift of leadership. Hubert will take care of him. So he might figure let the two currently battling for leadership destroy one another, and he is young enough to wait for another five years to come around. He will be barely 40 odd, and still young enough to make a bid for the leadership. By that time, the country would have forgotten his lousy performance as MP and upstart Minister from 1997 to 2002. In any event, having made himself a perfect and illogical nuisance during the debate on the Caribbean Single Market and Economy perhaps he simply needs to turn to the Lord and stick to the Lord.

OBIE WILCHCOMBE ON LEADERSHIP

    The newspapers from The Punch to The Tribune would appear to be running a campaign for the PLP to replace its leader Perry Christie with Obie Wilchcombe. The Hon. A. D. Hanna warned PLPs to beware of the enemies of the PLP trying to choose a leader for you. It is a trap. Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe who has been the subject of much of the speculation over the past few weeks responded to The Tribune in his own words as reported on Friday 26th August:
    “There is no chance anyone else will lead the PLP into the next election… The Prime Minister is presently in good shape, more focused and is preparing for the future.
    “Perry Christie is my leader and I am extremely comfortable. I have the tremendous opportunity of serving in his Cabinet and the truth of the matter is, I am only 46. I am a first time MP so I must prove worthy of further consideration in government before such things as being leader. Right now my interest is not in the leadership of the PLP or the country.
    “There is no chance that Perry Christie would not be leading this party in 2007. If he isn’t, I would be rather surprised and shocked…
    “If I decided to enter a leadership race, it would only be done with Perry Christie’s blessings…
    “I am still learning a lot about leadership from my experiences with Mr. Christie and the leadership of Sir Lynden Pindling…
    “I still enjoy wonderful relations with my colleagues. I sense no change, none whatsoever. We are a strong team and have mutual respect for each other.
    “While I am humbled by what people have been saying about me being leader and becoming Prime Minister, right now I am more interested in making contributions to my country. If asked to pick up garbage I will do it to the best of my abilities. Being Prime Minister depends on the organization behind and my constituents. I will do nothing without Perry Christie, now or in the future.
    “My being Prime Minister is God’s call. It must be part of God’s plan.”

GAS PRICE HIKES BITE
Sometime this week, the price of gasoline in The Bahamas is expected to rise to the highest point ever of $4.30 per gallon. The people have started to scream although there is no evidence so far that it is adversely affecting the economy. The surcharge on electricity is .078112 cents per kilowatt-hour. This may have wiped out any savings that the Minister for Utilities thought might come as a result of the economies effected by the Electricity Corporation last year. Some airlines bringing passengers to The Bahamas have announced that there will be fuel surcharges in the fees. It is believed that those higher prices might cause some people to think twice about making a trip overseas. Within the country the cries are starting from taxi drivers who demanded and got a meeting with the Minister of Transport about raising the fees they can charge so that they can recover the increased costs of fuel. No doubt, the bus drivers will be next.
The Government can really do nothing about higher gasoline prices. There is no oil in The Bahamas and no refining capability here. The country does not qualify for the Trinidad and Tobago oil support programme through Caricom. The Petrocaribe initiative out of Venezuela is stymied because the private sector in the country is resolutely against it, and the ignorance that was witnessed nationwide over the Caribbean Single Market and Economy is now being shown toward the Minister of Trade and Industry who has been on a relentless campaign to lower prices by this initiative. At midweek, the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell said that though the framework agreement had been signed, the bi-lateral agreement between the two countries had not yet been signed. He said that the matter was being studied, the government was aware of all of the sensitivities and would not act until there had been consultation with the Bahamian people.

A STORM SPRINGS UP

Katrina is the name of the latest hurricane to hit this part of the world. It was the strangest thing. Bahamians woke up at the start of the week to hear that a tropical depression had formed in the middle of their own country and was headed north, northwest toward the Florida coastline. Grand Bahama and Abaco were to be the hardest hit by what promised to be a deluge of water and wind even though the winds promised to be less than the two devastating hurricanes of last ear. By the time the system reached the central Bahamas on Wednesday 23rd August, New Providence was covered in clouds, and was drenched with rain.
Grand Bahama and Abaco experienced winds and rain but it was Florida that bore the brunt of the storm’s destruction. There were cancelled flights at airports throughout the country. By Saturday 27th August, the flight patterns seemed to be returning to normal. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was said to have been on alert. But what seems clear is that the country is still not as prepared for a hurricane as it should be. Some repairs that were due to be carried out since the hurricane have not been carried out. The water system and power in Freeport failed twice during the week, leaving the question that haunts everyone in Freeport. If a storm like the two that hit last year comes around, will Grand Bahama be any better prepared?
FLOODED STREETS - in Grand Bahama, making it near impossible for passage, as tropical storm Katrina dumping major rainfall throughout the island. Freeport News photo by BARBARA WALKIN

A JUDGE IS SICK
The Tribune published a speculative story about a Justice of Appeal who is lying ill it appears in a Florida hospital. The Judge is said to be running out of his insurance cover provided by the Bahamas Government for judges of the court. The Tribune said that he was still officially an employee of The Bahamas. The Judge’s name is Maurice Churaman. He is a Guyanese who came to The Bahamas under Hubert Ingraham. He was one of the Judges that upheld the sentence of then Coroner Winston Saunders to jail journalist Obie Wilchcombe, now Minister of Tourism for refusing to turn over information to the coroner on a note sent to him anonymously on the death of John Higgs, a man convicted of murdering his wife.
It is not clear what the Judge’s health status is but there appears to be a request to fly the Judge by air ambulance to Britain where he has legal status and will be able to benefit from the British health system. The government is being called upon to provide the monies for the Judge to be flown to Britain. There was no word from any government spokesman in the story. The story was published on Friday 26th August.

HAITIAN FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS

    The relationship between the interim administration in Haiti and the Caricom countries seems to be undergoing somewhat of a thaw as the prospects of elections in Haiti advance. General elections are scheduled for that troubled country in October and November of this year. Some 2 million people have been registered for the elections. The interim administration will not stand for election and is expected to leave the scene in February of next year. The Foreign Minister of the interim administration has travelled to Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. He was welcomed to Nassau by the Foreign Minister of The Bahamas this week on an informal working visit. Talks took place privately at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday 25th August.
    The Haitian Minister left the country on Saturday 27th August, following a meeting with a local Haitian community on Friday 26th August. The subject of the talks between the two Ministers was not disclosed.
    The Bahamas government however must always be a bit nervous about how it treats Haiti. The traditional view has been that whoever is in power in Haiti, The Bahamas must deal with the regime. The repatriations of illegal migrants must continue. This is more so the case now that there is tremendous pressure on the Government to stop the flow of migrants illegally into Bahamian communities. The Department of Immigration has been engaged in high profile raids in the straw market and on bus stops and job sites to enforce the immigration laws. The photo shows from left, the Haitian Ambassador to The Bahamas Louis Joseph, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Haiti Herard Abraham, Foreign Minister Mitchell, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Dr. Patricia Rodgers and Bahamas Ambassador to Haiti Dr. Eugene Newry. Bahamas Information Services photo: Tim Aylen

THE INDIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning a progress to India early next year. If the trip comes off this will be the final major trip of the Foreign Ministry to establish ties with major countries overseas. India and China are expected to be the major rivals to the economy of the United States in the year 2020. China is growing at 9 per cent per annum. India is growing at 6 per cent per annum. The Bahamas needs an outreach to India. The Indian government in order to facilitate a closer relationship has placed its representative in Kingston, Jamaica. From there, the High Commissioner will visit more often than the previous diplomat who was accredited from Washington D.C. This week on Tuesday 23rd August the High Commissioner presented copies of his credentials to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and then the next day he presented his credentials to the Governor General signifying the official start of his work in The Bahamas. The photos are by Tim Aylen of Bahamas Information Services.

COLINA STORY DEVELOPS
There is no word yet on how the matters with James Campbell and his separation from Colina and the money he is to get from his shares are going. However, every week there is some new rumour or story in the press. Of note this week is a report from The Tribune that three properties that came with the acquisition of Colina are being sold, trying to raise 16 million dollars. Of greater note however, is the word that the Bank of Nova Scotia's insurance company out of Jamaica may be negotiating to buy the majority shares in Colina Imperial. This would then mean that the company that the Government gave permission to consolidate and concentrate in the market of The Bahamas on the excuse that this would help it compete with the region and the world is being sold to a foreign entity, which only in the end fattens the pockets of the investors. People are saying that Colina duped the Government. Our only view is that the policyholders must be protected at all costs.

A SECOND CONVICTION FOR MURDER
There was a great deal of concern for Rose Thompson, the widow of the late Archdeacon William Thompson having to take the stand again. The Archdeacon died so needlessly and ignominiously, murdered at the hand of a then unknown assailant. Rose Thompson had to endure the retrial of her husband’s accused murderer. At the time of her husband’s death, his parishioners; the country at large could not believe it. His death came in July 2000. He had been a confidant and contemporary of Sir Lynden who was on his own death bed, and it seemed so ironic that this vitally intellectual man of peace who had made such a contribution to the social and religious life of the country should end his life in the way he did, shot down in the parish rectory. The rectory has been shuttered ever since.
The people of St. Agnes have moved on but they were yanked back into the reality of the year 2000 when the accused murderer of the late Archdeacon, a drifter-type, a dissociated man with no sense and no social connectedness, a real idiot who did not even know that the man who he shot and killed was a priest, was tried again. The Court of Appeal said that there were errors in the first trial and so he had to be tried again. Five years after the murder of the Archdeacon, the same year as we lost Sir Lynden, the Crown once again has a conviction, and the man has been sentenced to death. The man took the stand in his own defence and clamed that the police beat him. The jury rejected that defence. We hope that this time the conviction holds. The Archdeacon would have wanted the sentence commuted to life imprisonment being an implacable foe of capital punishment.

SIR BURTON ON INT'L CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL
Sir Burton Hall, Chief Justice of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas has been elected as one of the twenty-seven ad litem Judges of the International Tribunal for The Prosecution Of Persons Responsible For Serious Violations Of International Humanitarian Law Committed In The Territory Of The Former Yugoslavia Since 1991 [ICTY], at elections held at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday 24th August.
The ICTY, which is located in The Hague, Netherlands, was established by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 in the face of the serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991, and as a response to the threat to international peace and security posed by those serious violations. Its core objectives are to bring to justice persons allegedly responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law; to render justice to the victims; to deter further crimes; and to contribute to the restoration of peace by promoting reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia. The Court consists of permanent judges and ad litem judges. Ad Litem Judges serve in a pool, from which they may be appointed by the Secretary General of the UN, on the recommendation of the President of the ICTY, to sit on one or several specific trials for a period up to three years.

TRINIDAD INDEPENDENCE SERVICE AT ST. MATTHEW'S

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and The Public Service the Hon. Fred Mitchell MP is shown bringing greetings at St. Matthew's Anglican Church during a special church service in celebration of the 43rd anniversary of Independence of Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, 28 August. Minister Mitchell paid tribute to the many Bahamians descended from the twin island state who helped to build The Bahamas and recalled Trinidad's generosity toward this country after the recent hurricanes.
The Minister also noted that Trinidad was one of the trailblazers of the independence movement in the Caribbean, citing the struggles of West Indian scholar, Trinidadian Dr. Eric Williams. Please click here for the full text of Minister Mitchell's remarks. (BIS Photo: Tim Aylen)

HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE IN CHINA

Members of The Bahamas Select Committee on Foreign Affairs (FAC) are currently in China meeting with their counterpart, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress of China and other Chinese Government Officials. The Bahamian delegation is the guest of the Chinese Government.
According to Chairman of the FAC Kenyatta Gibson, “This visit gives Committee members an opportunity to explore further opportunities for bilateral relations between The Bahamas and China.” The delegation is expected to return to The Bahamas on September 1, 2005. Members of the Committee are shown in front of the Great Hall of the People in China: from left are Ambassador Keod Smith; Parliamentary Secretary Veronica Owen, Chairman-FAC Kenyatta Gibson, Parliamentary Secretary John Carey, and David Forbes, Assistant Clerk to House of Assembly.

ANNIVERSARY OF SIR LYNDEN'S DEATH

Lady Marguerite Pindling, widow of the late Sir Lynden Pindling, the founding Prime Minister of The Bahamas, marked the anniversary of her husband's passing with family and friends and scores of PLP well wishers at St. Agnes Anglican church on Sunday 28th August. Present at the service were Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service Fred Mitchell and Minister of Housing and National Insurance Shane Gibson. The Bahamas Information Services photo by Peter Ramsay shows Lady Pindling and her daughter, Senator Michelle Pindling Sands (right) along with Sir Lynden and Lady Pindling’s grandchildren laying a wreath at Sir Lynden’s crypt. At left is Mrs. Shane Gibson, a Minister of religion and wife of the Minister of Housing who said a prayer.

SOME FOOTNOTES TO HISTORY
British Killing the Brazilian
    A few weeks ago a correspondent wrote us taking us to task for the characterization of the British police, following their killing of an innocent Brazilian, just days after the bombing in London killed 46 people. His crime; swarthy skin and being in the wrong place. Now that the lurid details of what actually happened are leaking out, one wonders what the correspondent has to say.
    You have two major countries of the world over the issue of Iraq and their so-called war on terrorism, who seem to have lost their moral compass. Both countries lied to their people about the war in which they are now in engaged. Both societies are now paying a terrible price for those lies. But like the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, we are being asked not to believe what we all see before our very eyes.
    It appears that the man was not wearing a heavy jacket. He did not jump the turnstile evading paying the fare, and he was only running to meet the train, not evade the police. There is also the story that he may have been held by a policeman as the shots were pumped seven times into this head and that the British police made up deliberate lies to cover up their obvious mistake and wrongdoing.

Jack Hayward and Eileen Carron on Fred Mitchell
    There is a final piece to the chapter of the problem of Jack Hayward and the Grand Bahama Port Authority. You may click here for the previous stories on the matter; in July and in August. Jack Hayward’s big mouth always gets him in trouble. This time it appears that some source close to him has been talking to Eileen Carron of The Tribune. She in her usual nasty and insidious way was doing Jack Hayward’s dirty work. In the two editorial pieces that she wrote she sought to connect Fred Mitchell, Foreign Minister, to a comment that was written on this site about Jack Hayward's reprehensible behaviour.
    We thought Eileen Carron went beyond the pale by talking about how Jack Hayward provided a scholarship for the Foreign Minister to go to University of Buckingham in England. That is the kind of action of a low life. It was tried once before by Jack Hayward in 1997. At that time Mr. Mitchell told Hayward to come and get his money back. He did not. The only thing is Jack Howard never provided a penny for Fred Mitchell to go to school at all. The editorial was referring to the fact that like a number of Bahamians, the Grand Bahama Port Authority provided scholarship money for education.
    So you future scholarship recipients of the Grand Bahama Port Authority look what lowness you will have to face from Jack Hayward and his low life friends in the future. Fortunately, the Foreign Minister is one who can tell them all to go to you know where. The Tribune editorial appeared on 15th August.

Lionel Levine Defending Stafford Sands
Lionel Levine was a lawyer who worked in the firm of Stafford Sands in the waning years of the United Bahamian Party, the racist minority rule party that ran The Bahamas up to 1967. He wrote a letter to the press as part of the ongoing debate in The Bahamas about Stafford Sands and his legacy to The Bahamas. Mr. Levine said that he was with Sir Stafford the night that he lost the election. He said that the man was not a racist but he did not feel comfortable remaining in The Bahamas. This is a naked attempt at revisionism amongst others going on in the country today on this matter. The letter appeared in The Tribune of Wednesday 17th August 2005.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
    I read your site every Sunday (and was also devoted to its original publisher Fred Mitchell). My familiarity with The Bahamas dates back to the late-60s when my hero, Lynden O Pindling, was liberating Bahamians from the British. So, we go back a long way.
    Your site is a real treat and I appreciate the insight it provides into what's going on there. I noticed, however, that you now have a weekly link to a poet. And, it occurred to me that your readers might appreciate a similar link to the weblog of another Bahamian whose daily commentaries on international current events are pretty amazing. A professional associate referred it to me by saying how "shocked" he was to find out that everything on it was written by "one of your Bahamians".
    But, to be honest, I too was a little surprised. This might be a little too maternal of me but I believe all Bahamians would do well and be extremely proud to read his insights on world affairs that are so well written. But you don't have to take my word. Visit the site and, as Editor of BahamasUncensored, you will no doubt find that his weblog should be featured on your site: http://ipinions.blogspot.com
Kathy Kisovec (Philadelphia, USA)

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM

Dr. Baltron Bethel who has held a myriad of senior positions in the Public Service was honoured with a gala luncheon Thursday 25th August by the Committee for Excellence in Public Service. Prime Minister Perry Christie was the featured speaker at the event, which was widely attended. Peter Ramsay took this rare photograph of a virtual who's who of the Pindling Cabinet who turned out to give kudos to Dr. Bethel. From left are former Attorney General and Minister of Finance Paul Adderley; former Minister of Agriculture George Smith; former Minister of Transport Philip Bethel; Prime Minister Christie, Dr. Bethel, former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Hanna and former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Clement Maynard.

LABOUR LAW OF THE BAHAMAS - is the title of a book by Court of Appeal Justice Emmanuel Osadebay, recently updated to take account of changes in the laws in the country. Justice Osadebay this past week presented a copy of the book to Prime Minister Perry Christie, who called the edition "indispensable to a solid understanding of labour laws in the country" and "a great boon to practicing attorneys".
Bahamas Information Services PHOTOS by Peter Ramsay

7^th August, 2005 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com* *How do you do today? It's great to have you as a reader. We have the most incisive political news about and from The Bahamas!* *Please tell all your friends about us.*
THE FNM FIGHT FOR LEADERSHIP...	BRAN MCCARTNEY STARTS HIS CAMPAIGN...
WESTERN AIR GETS ITS WORK PERMITS...	PRE CLEARANCE AT NIA CLOSES FOR A DAY...
THE EFFECT OF JUNKANOO IN FREEPORT...	THE DEBATE OVER STAFFORD SANDS...
NEW SUBMARINE CABLE FOR THE BAHAMAS...	THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD...
MITCHELL IN BIMINI...	LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...
FOX HILL TOWN MEETING...	PHOTOS FROM FOX HILL FESTIVAL...
TROUBLE MAKER RODNEY MONCUR IS OUT...	JAMAICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY...
POETRY FEATURE...	MAN CHARGED FOR MURDER OF TOURISTS IN BIMINI...
CRAWFISH SEASON...	OFFICIAL INDEPENDENCE SERVICE IN MIAMI...
	THIS WEEK WITH THE PM...



The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web...	Interesting Places...
Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town	Bahamas Government Website
Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte	Bahamians On The Web
Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw	Bahamian Cycling News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael	FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Grand Bahama PLP

14^th August, 2005 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com* *How do you do today? It's great to have you as a reader. We have the most incisive political news about and from The Bahamas!* *Please tell all your friends about us.*
MEN SMASH BAHAMAS 4X4 RECORD FOR SILVER AT WORLDS - PM SAYS 'AWESOME'!...	ANSWERING JACK HAYWARD AND EILEEN CARRON...
CARICOM COMES CALLING WITH CSME IN DISGUISE...	JAMES SMITH ON STAFFORD SANDS $10 BILL...
THE THRILL OF VICTORY, THE AGONY OF DEFEAT...	RAYNOR ARTHUR’S MESSAGE TO BAY STREET...
MRS. CHRISTIE ADDRESSES POLICEWOMEN RESERVES...	THE CRITICS JUMP ON COLINA INSURANCE...
BRENT SYMONETTE DUCKS OUT...	JAMES MINNS STALWART COUNCILLOR DIES...
A CHILD’S MOTHER IS CONVICTED...	POETRY FEATURE...
SINGING BISHOP’S MIRACLE WATER: HE’S NOT GAY...	BISHOP ELDON’S JUBILEE...
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...	FOX HILL DAY CELEBRATION IN PHOTOS...
	THIS WEEK WITH THE PM...




The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web...	Interesting Places...
Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town	Bahamas Government Website
Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte	Bahamians On The Web
Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw	Bahamian Cycling News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael	FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Grand Bahama PLP

21^st August, 2005 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com* *How do you do today? It's great to have you as a reader. We have the most incisive political news about and from The Bahamas!* *Please tell all your friends about us.*
THE FNM CELEBRATES...	LEADERS EVERYWHERE BUT NOT A ONE TO PICK...
THE MIRACLE WATER DEBATE...	OSADEBAY AT THE GOVERNOR GENERAL...
FOREIGN MINISTER PRESENTS SCHOLARSHIPS...	NASSAU INSTITUTE DEFENDS GAS PRICE RISES...
BARF KEEPS BARFING...	COLINA DEFENDS ITSELF...
THE NATIONAL ‘D’ GRADE...	POETRY FEATURE...
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...	THIS WEEK WITH THE PM...







The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web...	Interesting Places...
Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town	Bahamas Government Website
Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte	Bahamians On The Web
Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw	Bahamian Cycling News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael	FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Grand Bahama PLP

28^th August, 2005 *Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com* *How do you do today? It's great to have you as a reader. We have the most incisive political news about and from The Bahamas!* *Please tell all your friends about us.*
ZHIVARGO LAING DROPS OUT...	OBIE WILCHCOMBE ON LEADERSHIP...
GAS PRICE HIKES BITE...	A STORM SPRINGS UP...
A JUDGE IS SICK...	HAITIAN FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS...
THE INDIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER...	COLINA STORY DEVELOPS...
A SECOND CONVICTION FOR MURDER...	SIR BURTON ON INT'L CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL...
TRINIDAD INDEPENDENCE SERVICE AT ST. MATTHEW'S...	HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE IN CHINA...
ANNIVERSARY OF SIR LYNDEN'S DEATH...	SOME FOOTNOTES TO HISTORY...
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...	THIS WEEK WITH THE PM...





The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PLPs On The Web...	Interesting Places...
Bradley Roberts / PLP Grants Town	Bahamas Government Website
Neville Wisdom / PLP Delaporte	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte	Bahamians On The Web
Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw	Bahamian Cycling News
John Carey / PLP Carmichael	FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...
Grand Bahama PLP

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

Volume 3 © BahamasUncensored.Com

While material on this web site can be used freely by other sections of the press, as a courtesy, journalists are asked to attribute the source of their material from this web site.

Click here for the law on copyright as it applies to this website.

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

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

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

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