BahamasUncensored.Com

Last week as we uploaded, a story was breaking in the country about the use of unmanned surveillance aircraft by the United States to overlook The Bahamas. The press called both the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and the Minister of National Security Bernard Nottage. Tommy Turnquest, the former Minister of National Security then said he authorized the surveillance but sought to frame the matter in a letter to the editor into one about faithfulness, loyalty and friendship to the United States and about the competence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Here is Fred Mitchell’s reply to Mr. Turnquest.

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THE FOLLOWING RESPONSE FROM FRED MITCHELL MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRSTO LETTER TO THE PRESS BYTOMMY TURNQUEST ON DRONE REPORTS

I promised to investigate this matter which was first brought to the attention of the public on Sunday 24th June by Bahamaspress.com . The report was later picked up by the mainstream press and a question was posed to the Minister of National Security. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was then asked to comment. As of Sunday, no public official at the highest ranks in either the Ministry of National Security or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were said to be aware of the truth or otherwise of the reports as they were then framed.Tommy Turnquest, the former Minister of National Security spoke that Sunday to the press and his statement confirming knowledge and approval of the surveillance appeared in the newspapers the next day.In response to his comment, I told the press that I could not accept at face value anything the former Minister of National Security had to say It was he who accepted responsibility then for the state of affairs. He of course has no responsibility to-day in law and so can be as loose and irresponsible as he wishes.The public officials are now said to have been briefed and the political directorate has been briefed as well. Discussions have taken place with the American public officials at the highest levels resident in The Bahamas. The Americans released a press report which appears to be consistent with what those officials said in the meetings with Bahamian officials.The security aspects of this matter are for the Ministry of National Security and the specifics as well.It does not now appear that any violations of policy, law domestic or international took place by the use of unmanned surveillance aircraft which the press has described as drones.I am advised that under existing protocols, the Americans take the view that no specific permission is required or requested for a specific act of surveillance; that the use of this equipment is confined to overlooking the movement on the high seas and is restricted to seeking out smuggling and illegal drug activities and does not involve any terrestrial or land based intrusions. The governing instrument appears to be the OPBAT agreement and its subsequent understandings and operational modalities.Contrary to Tommy Turnquest's assertions in the press, this issue is not about friendliness with the United States or gratefulness to the United States. That is typical of Tommy Turnquest and the FNM to advance nonsense and seek to pollute the issue.This is about the simple facts being made available to the Bahamian public in response to a legitimate concern that they (the public) are or may be subject to unlawful spying and intrusion. It is necessary then to dispel any such fears.The principle then is while we fight crime, it must always be subject to the rule of law. We are certain that the United States supports that position. The two countries work well together and in this matter their cooperation has been complete.When Mr. Turnquest confirmed that he and his government authorised these missions of unmanned craft, the natural logic gave rise to the suspicion by some that the FNM government may have been complicit in an unlawful spying mission. The public had to be disabused of that as well.All of this unnecessary speculation could have been avoided had the FNM government given full disclosure before the fact or come clean as soon as this matter became a public issue.As usual Mr. Turnquest and the FNM resort to blaming the PLP, then the press; everyone but themselves. The PLP government has nothing to do with this except the responsibility now to govern in the best interest of the Bahamian people.Bahamians often say: if you don't know what to say, then keep quiet. That is good advice for Mr. Turnquest.The government of the Bahamas under the Progressive Liberal Party pledges to continue the fight against drug trafficking and smuggling through our waters. Mr. Turnquest will not deflect us from that fight. Let there be no doubt about this country's commitment to work together with the United States and other international partners to defeat crime. We pledge to continue our excellent work and cooperation with our American partners in this fight and will continue to fight to eliminate the scourge of crime. The US and The Bahamas stand shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm in fighting the evils of drug trafficking and international crime generally. That is our solemn commitment to the Bahamian people.Politicians who have just lost office should not allow defeat to cause them to lose their political right mind, with the use of selective memory, pompous lecturing and sickening obfuscation.

End

The Ministry of Finance can be described as the largest Bahamian owned business in the country. It is responsible for just over a billion dollars in tax collections or revenue or income and just over one and half billion dollars in expenditure directly from the government. It oversees the country's national accounts and the work of the public corporations. The are plenty of tasks for it to do, and to manage. You would have thought that a man who was supposedly reform oriented would actually bring some changes to the Ministry of Finance, would bring it in from the dark ages into the light of the 21st century. Hubert Ingraham left the Ministry of Finance in the same shape in which he found it when he took it over from Pindling in 1992. There was no reform in the PLP's period from 2002 to 2007 and less reform from 2007 to 2012 under Hubert Ingraham. It is vitally important that something be done to reform the Ministry of Finance which by virtue of its control of the purse strings is the most powerful Ministry in the government. Ultimately one hopes that the now Minister of State Michael Halkitis who is from the next generation of PLP leaders will work himself smoothly into the job fully as Minister of Finance. But the political leadership is not the issue , the question is whether or not the Ministry has the technical capability and capacity to serve this country. Under Hubert Ingraham, the public officials were reduced to clerks. Mr. Ingraham did the budget reportedly by himself. When the public officials saw the budget he had finished the work, slashing here, cutting there and adding whatever he felt like. Ministers said nothing about how the budget was shaped. It was whatever he said. That is the one man band approach. The result then is that if something is not done soon the country will lose confidence in the Ministry of Finance that we have. We cannot afford for this to happen. We urge then the reform of the Ministry of Finance as a matter of priority and to staff it with the technical people that are necessary to work a modern Ministry of Finance. That is in the country’s best interest. The sooner, the better.

BIMINI TO GET A CASINO

The photos show Gerrardo Capo of Rav Bahamas Ltd owners of the Bimni Bay project as they announced the new casino and hotel at Bimini Bay in North Bimini on Friday 29th June at the Office of the Prime Minister. (See photo of the week.) The second photo is that of Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe and representative for Bimini explaining the project. The photos are by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services.

WORK PERMIT POLICY

Every week that the Lord sends the rain and the sunshine there is an instrument of the government that meets called the Immigration Board. That Board is actually the Minister of Immigration with the public officials and the Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration. At the meeting scores of applications are received from the public at large both private individuals, corporations and charities to get work permits which will allow people who are not nationals of The Bahamas to work in The Bahamas. It is likely to contribute some 45 million dollars to the public treasury. Nothing to sneeze at in a revenue starved country. The question is if the revenue from that area drops dramatically what will replace it. It also helps with the cash flow since work permits is a cash only business for the government. There are receivables as well. Now comes the PLP into the mix seeking to ensure that Bahamians come first. Therein lies a problem, if there is a significant impact on the work permit policy which results in dramatic reductions in work permits issued, the revenue from work permits will also fall. There are also some who argue that in allowing work permits from high net worth individuals and corporations you actually increase the job opportunities for Bahamians. The Minister for Immigration met with his officials in Grand Bahama last week. He met earlier with the officials in Nassau shortly after he took office. The dilemma of the immigration policy is upper most in his mind and he publicly stated this in his recent address to the House of Assembly on the budget debate. What is clear though is the country seems to want enforcement of the immigration laws. The country should well ask the question why can’t it produce handy men, gardeners and domestics to do the work in the country in a situation where there is 15 per cent unemployment and yet work permits are being given out for these jobs? The Minister promised that in an interview, the video of which appeared on his site last week. We think this is a good thing. There are too many people in the country who are undocumented, and feel comfortable with the fact that they have no documents. They just blithely go along. This is a security issue which needs to be corrected. We think that a public statement ought to be made to the country advising people of why it is necessary to be properly documented, your birth, your christening, your school records, your voter’s card your passport. All of these are important markers as to who you are and to who is a citizen of the Bahamas and therefore entitled to remain here amongst us. We hope then to see more enforcement of the laws and that there will be a public education campaign about this enforcement of the law. It is a necessity.

The Cabinet led by Prime Minister Perry Christie toured the Bahamar facility developing the new hotels at Cable Beach on Monday 25th June. The new hotel will add 2000 new rooms to the room supply in The Bahamas. It will transform tourism in The Bahamas. The company told the Cabinet that in 2014 the hotel will open 8th December. They will have a period of 90 days in 2014 in which they will be recruiting 7,000 workers for the facility. That tells you what the PLP’s job is now. That job is preparing people to work in that facility to be able to take advantage of the jobs or we will face the prospect of work permit holders having to be brought in to man the facility. The photo is by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services.

In the midst of what seemed to be a bad news week, coming on many other fronts, the American President Barrak Obama got good news. The Supreme Court of the United States actually ruled that the law which was passed at the start of Mr. Obama’s term to provide health care coverage for some 30 million Americans was in fact constitutional pursuant to the taxing powers of the Congress. The ruling was read by the Chief Justice John Roberts against whom Mr. Obama had voted during the confirmation vote when he was in the senate of the U.S. Mr. Roberts was appointed by the former President George H W Bush. Every expectation was that Mr. Roberts would have voted with the conservative naysayers on the bench. This time he did not and the law was upheld. Good job by Mr. Obama and we hope that this is a portent that he will win the election in the United States and get to have a second term of office. His opponents seem to have lost their moral compass. They are simply a party of no, no and more no. The FNM in The Bahamas is like them. They just know that they are opposed to whatever the PLP is saying. The U.S. Supreme Court has nothing to do with The Bahamas really but we follow what they do because the United States and what happens there influences what happens in this country. What you saw with that ruling was a triumph of rationality over irrationality. We can use a dose of that everywhere and that is why it was a good result for all of us even Bahamians who are not directly affected by the ruling at all.

There is a hullabaloo over the termination of workers at the Urban Renewal centres as they were left by the Free National Movement. Workers from the facilities have been on the radio and television complaining over the past week since it was announced that all contracts at the facility had come to an end as of 30th June. All workers will have to re-apply if they want to continue to work at the facility. The dismissed workers say that they have been victimized. They say it is because they are FNM supporters they have been let go. One lady who ran the Fox Hill office said on radio that she had done her work and that she deserved to stay, that she had two children and no job and how was she going to survive. This is the difficulty with our cannibalistic politics. Unfortunately, the precedent for all of this was set by the man that she campaigned to return to office in the last general election. Hubert Ingraham came to office in 2007 and within 30 days had terminated everyone working at Urban Renewal. He believed they were all PLPs and did not want them at the office. So how then does the PLP intervene to help anyone who helped to campaign for the FNM and put them back in the offices of Urban Renewal. In Freeport, Tersa Saunders held a press conference to attack the new head of Urban Renewal in Grand Bahama, PLP Assistant Secretary General Michelle Wreckly. The Tribune said that a former cook was being made head of Urban Renewal in Grand Bahama which seemed to suggest that because someone came from a humble background they could not manage the facility. They were simply angry that Mrs. Wreckly brought together all the PLPs fired from Urban Renewal in Freeport in 2007 and showed them to the press last week. Where were the calls for support then and the cries of victimization then from the FNM? The then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham used to say that you have to be able to live with what you decide in government when you get back into Opposition. Now he sees and his supporters see. The Americans say what goes around comes around. Five years ago the PLP warned the FNM that this was a dangerous road down which they were going. They rewarded Perry Christie in 2002 who kept everyone in place by mistaking that for weakness, now he has no room for maneuver and it is not possible to intervene on behalf of any FNM who was involved in those Urban Renewal offices. It simply will not happen. That is the cold hard fact of life in The Bahamas today.

The following statement was issued by the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party in answer to the Free National Movement’s leader Dr. Hubert Minnis. Dr. Minnis insists on issuing press release after press release in which he accuses the PLP of not stopping crime and contributing to unemployment. Some people’s memories are very short.

Statement
Progressive Liberal Party
More aimless rambling by FNM leader
29th June 2012

If Dr. Hubert Minnis has nothing constructive to say that adds value to the national discourse, he should keep quiet instead of his senseless rambling and empty bantering.

Perhaps Dr. Minnis wishes to answer why he did not call for the resignation of his cabinet colleague and former National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest when under the watch of the FNM, murders doubled; almost 500 lives were lost during the FNM’s last term in office and well over 300 were out on bail. Further, violence in our schools escalated to riots and students were killed after the school based policing program was cancelled from the public schools; all of this carnage and not a peep from Dr. Minnis.

Dr. Minnis’ memory is quite short as he has clearly forgotten that it was also under the watch of the FNM when an attending nurse was gunned down at the Princess Margret Hospital during a retaliatory shooting of a prisoner in police custody. This heinous act of violence was in addition to numerous escapes by prisoners while in police custody. There was no hue, no cry, no outrage and certainly no call for accountability and resignations from Dr. Hubert Minnis. His silence was deafening.

On the issue of the Urban Renewal workers, Dr. Minnis must have been asleep at the cabinet table between 2007 and 2012 when his government sent home Senior Police Officers, Customs Officers, Immigration Officers and scores of entry level contract workers hired under the PLP’s Second Chance Program. Many of those terminated workers were assigned to Urban Renewal Centers in New Providence and Grand Bahama. Also, many of these workers were forced onto the streets with no way of paying their rent, utilities, school fees and mortgages.

Did Dr. Minnis stand up for these people and piously lecture the former Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues about how bad their decisions were and how much hurt they were causing these people? No. Dr. Minnis was too busy defending these decisions so it is impossible for him to now have credibility as he tries to lecture the PLP on its policies.

Please Mr. Opposition leader, quit with the pious lectures, the hypocritical bleeding heart and the crocodilian tears. Nobody is fooled by your poorly contrived smoke screen designed to hide your deliberate political posturing and bluster.

Eleven Haitians who drowned in waters off Abaco while attempting to get into the United States illegally were buried in Nassau on Saturday 30th June following a funeral service at the Enoch Backford Auditorium. The service was attended by Haitian Ambassador to The Bahamas, the Roman Catholic Archbishop and Alfred Gray, the Minister of Local Government. The photos are by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services.

Larry Smith is an FNM ideologue who has a pathological hatred for the PLP disguised in intellectual psycho babble. He is a columnist for The Tribune. He went on the attack last week against the PLP’s move to re-take ownership of BTC, the phone company. Interestingly enough, Cable and Wireless is a minority shareholder in the Trinidad phone company so they should be used to the position and should assume the position. The PLP issued a point by point rebuttal of the column by Mr. Smith.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Forrester Carroll writes this week from Freeport about Richard Lightbourn, the FNM MP, who he calls a relic from a past age. Mr. Carroll examines the exchange on the House of Assembly between Mr. Lightbourn and Fred Mitchell MP for the PLP on the issue of the United Bahamian Party and the cultural differences between the 37 Members of Parliament and the one, Mr. Lightbourn.

Richard Lightbourn is truly a relic from the past; a bogyman- if you will- from a period (in our history) we have long since wished to have forgotten; indeed the man emerges (unashamedly) from a period (in Bahamian history) we thought was totally behind us.

The Montagu MP (whose election to the Hon. House of Assembly could only have been possible in one of two constituencies (Montagu and St. Ann’s) in the entire country) came to the Honorable Chamber prepared, in his first speech as MP for the area, to take us back to a time before majority rule when his minority kind (speaking culturally) assumed, unto themselves, pre-eminence over and ruled the majority kind with an iron hand. The period he attempted to resurrect (and glorify I might add) was one when Negros were slaves to his kind (notwithstanding the fact that on paper slavery was abolished almost a century and a half prior); the period when he, his family and their kind (culturally speaking) were members of an elitist small group of slave masters (for them the abolition of slavery was achieved only on paper) who regarded Negros as less than human and deserving only of the crumbs which fell from their tables. The period he wanted to resurrect was that time, in our past, when equality of the races was banned and when the only standard of education afforded Negros was enough for them to be able to read and sign their own names on the envelopes containing their slave wages. The MP attempted to legitimize that black period (in our history) notwithstanding blacks were denied a decent education and were, in fact, required to leave school at fourteen (14) years; higher education was reserved, exclusively, for the “white” elites only. That is the period which this “dinosaur-minded” Member of Parliament (for Montagu) invoked during his maiden speech to our 21st century parliament. While the majority house members were celebrating the beauty of our 21st century democratic ideals, Richard Lightbourn’s mindset was to take the assembly back to those days he enjoyed so much-the days of minority rule. He ought to have felt some shame, for his antiquated racist stance, but RACISTS don’t have any shame.

Lightbourn’s first order of business (on behalf of the good people of Montagu) was to put in the Hansard the fact that the PLP government failed (he said) to implement some ghost plans given to them in 1967 by the UBP for the re-development of the Grants Town area of New Providence. He did this obviously forgetting, for a brief moment, that the party, he now represents, governed for 15 of the last twenty years and if he and they were so interested in the UBP’s plans for the re-development of Grants Town they had ample time to do so. The Montagu MP, being a member of Bay Street’s elites, could have gotten Ingraham to forge ahead with those ghost plans seeing he was part of the group that pulled Ingraham’s strings. When Bay Street ordered Ingraham to jump, remember, he never questioned them; he just did as he was told. I saw nothing useful in this UBP bringing up these old stories for the distant past; what was his point?

The Hon. Foreign Minister (and some others) took exception to Lightbourn’s condescending attitude and regarded his remarks as antiquated and culturally out of touch with these modern times. The minister suggested that Lightbourn, in terms of substance, was stuck in an irrelevant time warp somewhere back in the 1960s. Ministers agreed that Lightbourn’s problem was that he just could not get pass the shellacking the PLP (under Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling) put on his United Bahamian Party (UBP) when Pindling’s PLP yanked governance from them, in 1967, breaking a successive 300 year tradition of minority rule. In crying foul Lightbourn certainly put his foot in his mouth when he accused the Hon. Foreign Minister of (as he put it) “playing the race card.” To this, Mitchell took grave exception. After all he is the country’s foreign minister and as such could not let stand this irresponsible accusation (by an equally irresponsible and callous MP) which could have come back to haunt him when dealing with certain foreign countries in the discharge of his sacred duties in his capacity as foreign minister. The minister could not allow Richard Lightbourn to put his own interpretation on his (Mitchell’s) remarks when he (Mitchell) branded Lightbourn as being “culturally” different from the remaining 37 of the total 38 members of our parliament. Lightbourn insisted that Mitchell was being racist; Mitchell, on his several points of order, insisted that he was not and asked that the Speaker order a withdrawal. After much discussion Lightbourn, very obviously, reluctantly withdrew the accusation. An observation by me (and am sure many others) was that if Richard Lightbourn had not been so racially polarized from childhood, and thought a little more on what Mitchell had said and what he could have possibly meant by his “Cultural Difference” remark he would have realized that Mitchell could not have meant “Race or Skin Color” because included in Mitchell’s “37 of us and one of you” remark he included Mr. Edison Key, a white member, on Lightbourn’s FNM team and the Hon. Ryan Pinder, a white member on Mitchell’s PLP team. These are two white members of parliament (one on either teams) so if Mitchell meant to invoke the race card (of which Richard Lightbourn accused him) wouldn’t he have said instead that “its 35 of us and 3 of you?” I think so, but Lightbourn’s position indicates a deeper problem than what surfaced in his accusations.

For some strange reason Richard felt (after the back and forth without any reason or prompting for doing so) that he should give examples (to the Hon. House in case house members concluded he is racist) to prove that he himself is not a racist; that he and his family love the Bahamas and love Black Bahamians dearly. He went on to explain that he and his brothers attended a school in the UK which was quite cosmopolitan in its makeup. He told the House that there were students from Africa, Indonesia, Japan and a number of other third world countries. In continuing to make his case Lightbourn went on to give first names of housekeepers and gardeners his family employed, I assumed, when he and his brothers were little and how well they got along. He also talked about the maids who helped raise his own two daughters and credited them with helping to instill in his daughters the values they live by today. Mr. Lightbourn didn’t reveal that these house keepers were dark skinned but I deduced that they were from the context of what he said and how he said it and the fact that he was attempting to qualify that he nor his family are racist and have never ever been. Of course this is like a fisherman trying to convince someone that his fish bucket isn’t stinking. The man used, as well, his mother’s love (he said) for the Bahamas; she is 94 years of age and lives in the UK but (he said) she would die for this country; at that suggestion (I must admit to you) I laughed as loudly as I could; jokes. She loves the Bahamas so very much that it causes her to reside permanently in the United Kingdom and stay away from us? Yeah right.

The Montagu MP continued, in his speech, to make an ass of himself; he wanted the Hon. Speaker to find some other punishment, suitable, for members who level uncomplimentary charges against another without available proof to substantiate the same; notwithstanding the member may have withdrawn the accusation he opined. However what he didn’t seem to know (or alternatively ignored) was the fact that there is no punishment, for members of parliament who enjoy immunity in the Hon. Chamber, other than for the speaker to order such accusations withdrawn and expunged from the House’s records. He insisted that there ought to be some more of recourse (other than what’s afforded under the rules of the Chamber) for redress by members who feel their characters have been impugned by what may have been said about them in the Chamber. As the damage to one’s character would have already occurred by the time the words would have been withdrawn and expunged. I say to Mr. Lightbourn; it is what it is and if you (Sir) don’t wish to be exposed to these possible happenings then you had better vacate your seat. I predict that the Montagu MP has a rough road ahead of him; he started out already on the wrong footing.

Mitchell and the others were quite right in setting the ground rules and demarcation lines (for the guidance of this UBP) in the Hon. House of Assembly. They certainly know now where the Montagu MP is in terms of his thinking, his attitude and his view of the Bahamian landscape. He is indeed a relic of the past; a bogyman from decades ago and a throw-over from the bad old days of the United Bahamian Party; Bay Street even (as we know them today) would refuse, I believe, to own and or associate with this 1960s-minded member for Montagu.

Thank you
Forrester J Carroll J.P
Freeport, Grand Bahama

IN PASSING

Mitchell In Grand Bahama

Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell did a formal inspection of the Passport Office and the Department of Immigration on Friday 29th June in Freeport, Grand Bahama. The photo shows Mr. Mitchell with Jack Thompson, Director of Immigration and Superintendent Clarence Russell head of the Passport Office in Freeport.

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Mitchell In Jamaica

Fred Mitchell MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs represented Prime Minister Perry Christie in Jamaica at the formal opening of the UWI regional headquarters. The new eight million dollar US building was formally opened by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on Wednesday 27th June. Chancellor of the University Sir George Alleyne and Vice Chancellor Nigel Harris presided.

Christie To Caricom Heads Meeting

Prime Minister Perry Christie makes his triumphant re-entry into the Caricom region with his return to the Caricom heads of government conference, this time being held in Castries St. Lucia from 2nd July to 5th July. The region’s financial issues are to be discussed at the conference. Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell will accompany the Prime Minister.|

The Response In Europe To The Bahamas

Reports from Europe say that Ryan Pinder MP and the Minister for Trade is having big successes in Europe. He is soon back from a trip abroad which took him to Jamaica for a conference on competiveness in the region sponsored by the World Bank, then to Geneva, Switzerland for the WTO accession discussions and then to London on a tour sponsored by the Bahamas Financial Services Board. The response to the BFSB’s targeting in London is said to be overwhelmingly positive. Bring the cheques back Minister.

Big Panty Gal

We thought you would get a big laugh out of this photo which appeared on Facebook. A bit risqué but then again.

Marvin Bethel Retires

Marvin Bethel began from the bottom of the ladder at J.S. Johnson way back in 1969 and worked himself up to being a board member and Managing Director in perhaps the country’s premier insurance company, now publicly traded. The company ran an ad on Friday 29th June announcing his retirement from the job. He is a real Bahamian success story. We congratulate him and wish him well.

Renward Wells In Jamaica

Renward Wells is now the government’s representative at the Caribbean Disaster Management Agency (CDEMA). He replaces Joshua Sears, the former Director General of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Wells is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works. He attended a meeting of CDEMA in Jamaica on Friday 29th June to discuss the region’s preparedness for the hurricane season.

Public Servants Sign A Deal

Shane Gibson, the Public Service Minister, has signed an agreement with the Bahamas Public Services Union headed by John Pinder which will give the 16,000 public servants the raises negotiated by the last FNM administration. The raises will be paid at the end of July. There will be no general increase but a lump sum payment, equivalent to the annual increment that civil servants get. John Pinder, President, signed for the Union. A press conference was held to make the announcement on Thursday 28th June. Michael Halkitis, the Minister of State for Finance also attended the conference.

Ingraham Says He Has To Go

He showed up in a church in Abaco, they say. He told the people he was leaving on 19th July. He said he would not be campaigning. He said he hoped that North Abaco would remain red. Well, he said it in church but we remain skeptical. Hubert Ingraham’s seat must be returned to the PLP’s fold. Nardo Curry is the man. We are talking about what Hubert Ingraham said but we again will believe it when we see it.

Bernadette Christie’s Mum Trixie Is Ill

We report sadly that Trixie Hanna, mother of Bernadette Christie, wife of the Prime Minister is seriously ill in hospital.

Bolt Is Beaten In Jamaica Trials

Friday night Usain Bolt, the world record holder in the one hundred and two hundred metre races was beaten by fellow country man Yohan Blake at the Olympic trials in Jamaica on Friday 29th June. Mr. Powell won in 9.75 seconds with Mr. Bolt coming in at 9.86 seconds. The photo is from Reuters. The three top finishers in the race Mr. Powell, Mr. Bolt and Asaph Powell all qualified for the Olympics. Folks say that you should not read too much into it, since in 2008 at the pre Olympic qualifier Mr. Bolt was also defeated and he came back and set the world record.

Mitchell Gets Personal Autograph From Usain Bolt

By couresy of the Issa family, Fred Mitchell MP and Foreign Minister of The Bahamas was able to get a personally autographed copy of the Usain Bolt autobiography. He inscribed it: To Fred Mitchell, you have the tool for the job.” This is a reference to the line used by Mr. Mitchell in a rally at the launch of his campaign in Fox Hill.

Congratulations To The Parson

The Venerable Archdeacon James Palacious celebrated his 60th birthday and the 36th anniversary to the priesthood last week on the feast of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of the diocese. The Archbishop Drexel Gomez celebrated 40 years as a Bishop on the same day with a pontifical high mass at the Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau.

Confirmation At The Cathedral

Bishop Laish Boyd of the Anglican Church confirmed these people today at the Cathedral. Congratulations to them all. The photo is by Peter Ramsay.

Kelly Burrows Suspended

The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. This was the admonition giving to our friend Kelly Burrows by a high ranking FNM member as they sat and celebrated the 90th birthday of a mutual friend’s mother in Nassau. Then, Kelly was severely rebuked by others in attendance for conduct unbecoming of an old UBP/FNM. For this breach, he was then given a five-year suspension from this grouping. It would seem that the wheels are continuing to fall off the FNM’s wagon. Things that make you go hmmmm.

The Lemming Award

Dr. Hubert Minnis and Loretta Butler-Turner, leader and deputy leader of the FNM are two flat-footed leaders that lack the gravitas of what is needed to lead.

They have become so accustomed of blindly following the leader and now that he is gone find themselves lost on what should be done to grow the FNM party. So first up in her quest to score political brownie points, Mrs. Butler-Turner raised the issues of home invasions and sexual assaults that have been taking place on the island of New Providence in recent weeks. Mrs. Butler-Turner did not appreciate that this was a very delicate and highly sensitive matter best left to the police because of the very nature of the crime and our insular community where everyone knows one another. The police, for their part, had to walk a very tight rope to balance the public’s right to know while at the same time protecting the privacy of the victim(s). It was a callous blunder on Butler-Turner’s part. The police, if you were paying attention, seemed to be closing in on the culprits of this most heinous crime. Mrs. Butler-Turner should know that there are no brownie points to be had on these delicate matters; these sorts of crimes should never be politicized.

Then it was Dr. Hubert Minnis time to score some political points at the expense of the Minister of National Security, Dr. B.J. Nottage and Junior Minister, Keith Bell. Minnis and the FNM were calling for both men resignations because of the escape a man who was being treated at the Princess Margaret Hospital for stab wounds; and, at the time, he was assisting the police with the investigation into a murder. For that breach of security, the FNMs were calling for both men’s resignation. At this rate, when the PLP will mark its first one hundred days in office, there will be no more ministers left to govern; and, the country will descend in to chaos and anarchy; if we take their idea to its logical conclusion.

The leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition is a constitutional position that should not be taken lightly. Since the election of the leader and deputy leader of the FNM were conducted, these two persons have not given the people of the Bahamas much reason to inspire confidence in them. They have, in fact, behaved like lemmings heading full speed ahead over the cliff.
Dr. Minnis and Mrs. Butler-Turner have so distinguished themselves that they are the first recipients of the Bahamas Uncensored LEMMING AWARD for going above and beyond the cause of thoughtlessness, and not knowing an issue if it hits them over the head.

In Grand Bahama, there are some supporters of the FNM who are having a hard time coming to grips with the magnitude of the May 7th, general election loss. So now is not the time for the FNM leaders to shrink from their responsibilities. We are reliably informed that in mid- July, former Prime Minister Ingraham would surrender his political sword and walk away from active politics for good. So the FNM and its leaders, in order for the party to survive, must step up to the plate and behave responsibly. If not, we will see the demise of the FNM.

Stalwart B

PS: See You tube’s clip of Lemmings over the cliff.

Last Week's Column

Previous Columns

1st . July , 2012 *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.*
TURNQUEST OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY	FRED MITCHELL RESPONDS TO TOMMY TURNQUEST
HOW INGRAHAM RAN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE	BIMINI TO GET A CASINO
WORK PERMIT POLICY	CABINET TOUR OF BAHAMAR
PRAISE FOR U.S. SUPREME COURT	THE URBAN RENEWAL WORKERS
PLP RESPONDS TO DR. MINNIS	STALWART COUNCILOR B WRITES ABOUT LEMMINGS
FUNERAL SERVICE FOR 11 VICTIMS OF BOAT TRAGEDY OF JUNE 10TH 2012

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...	IN PASSING...




Fred Mitchell Launches 3^rdEdition of 'Great Moments In PLP History...	Fred Mitchell's 56th Birthday Party In Support of the 'Mission Fund'...
The Official Site of the Progressive Liberal Party...	The Official Site of the Free National Movement...
PhilipBraveDavis.com...	Interesting Places...
JeromeFiztgerald.org	Bahamas Government Website
KendredDorsett.com	Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links
FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES...	Bahamians On The Web
How & Why The PLP Lost in 2007 - The Greenberg Report...	BahamasIssues.com
	BradleybRoberts.com

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

Volume 9 © BahamasUncensored.com 2012

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