BahamasUncensored.Com Archive

COMMENT OF THE WEEK
YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK

The new PLPs got their wish and probably breathed a sigh of relief. With the appointment of Caleb Outten as Senator, a just thirty something political activist, and the insurgent candidate in the 2002 general election for the PLP in the Eight Mile Rock constituency, it appears that at least one of them can say their time has come. There was a nascent sense of exasperation in the air because the appointment was too long in coming. The Prime Minister in an aside to the Bahama Journal dismissed the complaint that he had taken too long. He said that he had thoroughly checked out the young man and was confirmed in his view, particularly after seeing how well received he was by the Eight Mile Rock community in the post hurricane tours.

It has been ten months since one of the men from the PLP's first age of power resigned in a huff from the Senate and the PLP, in the process openly repudiating all that he had worked for during 30 years as a PLP. Edison Key is now consigned fully to history, although no doubt if the wounds are not healed before the election, he will try to make life as miserable as possible or the next PLP candidate in Abaco. This seems even more potent a threat now that the trash press is speculating that Tommy Turnquest does not want to go to another FNM convention without being in the House of Assembly. Despite apparent denials, Hubert Ingraham, the former PM is trying to broker a deal to get Robert Sweeting the Marsh Harbour MP to step down, cause a bye election for Tommy to win the seat. If Tommy falls for that ruse, he is not as smart as we think.

Senator Outten could not be a better candidate for the job. He came within 25 votes of winning the seat from Pastor Lindy Russell, the FNM incumbent in 2002, who it is now rumoured will be moving on to the church full time after the next election. Senator Outten was a community activist, head of an organization called P.U.M.P. He fought for the reconstruction of the Fishing Hole Road in Freeport where numbers of persons perished in storms and floods. He has railed against the injustices of the Grand Bahama Port Authority on Freeport's satellite community Eight Mile Rock. He has Turks and Caicos Island ancestry and so is very much part of the heart of the Rock. He is the son of a preacher man.

The Nassau Guardian in an editorial questioned whether or not the new Senator Outten would continue to work for the things that he struggled for as an activist. The answer is yes and no.

Senator Outten was sworn in on the 29th September 2004, 275 years after the first Parliament met in Nassau. He joined the first ever joint session of the parliament that was convened without a dissolution of a prorogation having been proclaimed. His appointment was welcomed by the FNM’s Leader Tommy Turnquest and by Government Leader in the Senate Marcus Bethel.

Will he be able to continue to struggle for what he fought for as an activist? It’s a tangle frankly. First, he is no longer an activist. He is part of the establishment. He therefore takes on a different role, and the battles are now different. He will soon discover that even colleagues with whom he would have thought there is a natural affinity and alliance will have to be convinced that what he fought for and wants for his community is actually desirable. He will find that fully one half of the new PLP is often embarrassed by public demonstrations and activism, and direct and adversarial confrontation, and would rather not be publicly embarrassed by that sort of stuff. They believe that is old school. So everything that he now does has to be tempered by knowing what kind of organization he is part of and how to balance all the factors to get the desirable result. We think that he is up to the task. He should not forget how he got to where he is now, and remember that he has got to win those votes in Eight Mile Rock so that when the election is called in 2007, he will win the seat and join colleagues in the House of Assembly. If activism will do that, then be active.

The appointment should give some hope to all those young types and tykes who in their minds’ eyes keep seeing appointments made and largesse created for the senior members of the tribe, and do not feel aligned to what they saw happening politically, even though they feel that their image was used to help the PLP get elected. The young PLP businessmen feel that they need to get theirs. The young politicians feel that they need a chance to influence and win friends, and make some money from their new PLP. They are champing at the bit to get started but are miffed that their help does not seem to be wanted. Older ones are miffed that jobs for their children are not as forthcoming as they should be. The story is work, work, work. Job, Jobs, Jobs and more Jobs.

So one must cheer the appointment as a good one. Let us hope that the country sees with this appointment that the PLP means to make a proper transition from its pre 1992 incarnation to the true new PLP. This is the party that won the country by acting from the centre and the interests of the centre. This is the party that said that it believed that its supporters and its allies would have no fear for the patrimony of the country. This is the nationalist party. This is the party that said that the poor and dispossessed would find a voice. This is the party that said that the civil service would be set right, that would not be stymied by the civil service. This is the party that we support.

Caleb Outten and his contemporaries then have a hell of a job to do. Good Luck!

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 2nd October 2004 at midnight: 52,716.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Thursday 30th September 2004 at midnight: 225,557.

Number of hits for the month of October up to Saturday 2nd October 2004 at midnight: 9,121.

Number of hits for the year 2004 up to Saturday 2nd October 2004 at midnight: 1,980,152.

275 GLORIOUS YEARS OF PARLIAMENT

    The Prime Minister Perry Christie, the Leader of the Opposition in the House (Alvin Smith) and the Senate (Tommy Turnquest), the Leader of government business in the House (Vincent Peet) and in the Senate (Marcus Bethel) all spoke to the occasion.
    Perhaps it was the Prime Minister who rose to the occasion by a tour de force of the Parliamentary history of The Bahamas. Woodes Rodgers, the first of the Royal Governors, convened an Assembly pursuant to Letters Patent on 29th September 1729. The Assembly has met continuously since then. In order to mark the occasion, the House of Assembly and the Senate passed separate resolutions authorizing a joint sitting of the Parliament. This was the first time that the Parliament met in living memory in a joint session when there was not a prorogation or dissolution.
    The Parliament was elected first by white men only. Then it was all men of property. This was expanded in 1962 to include women, and finally 18 year olders were admitted to the voting roles in 1969.
    The photo of the occasion was taken by Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services. Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell joined the Parliament for the occasion, leaving his work at the United Nations to mark the historical occasion.

PRIME MINISTER IN MIAMI

    Prime Minister Perry Christie was a guest of the Miami Herald at the Americas conference. He was given the topic: the United States: Friend or Foe, Can relations between the United States and the Caribbean be repaired? The Prime Minister accepted the fact that there were differences on Haiti and Cuba. But he said that those differences did not change the fundamental relationship. You may click here for the address made by the Prime Minister.
    Later the Prime Minister hosted a meeting organized by the Miami Herald to speak with Bahamians in the South Florida area, donors and the business community with an interest in The Bahamas about the impacts of the two hurricanes on The Bahamas. The meeting raised an additional twenty thousand dollars for hurricane relief and pledges of further support.
    The photo with the Miami Herald’s Publisher is by BIS / Peter Ramsay.

FOREIGN MINISTER BACK FROM THE UN
The annual address at the United Nations was delivered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Thursday 30th September. The speech was delivered in the presence of a number of Bahamians who flew up to New York for the delivery of the statement. Joining the Minister for the occasion were Henry Dean and Ethan Adderley of the Lunch Bunch; Henry and Judy Wemyss. Mr. Wemyss is the Chief Executive of Wemco Securities. Also there were Stan and Denny Burnside and their daughter Brook. Miss Burnside won the Zonta essay competition, the prize for which is the trip to see the delivery of the address. Also in New York were the winners of the Mini United Nations programme sponsored by the Rotary Clubs. The winners of the contest held every spring were students from the two high schools in Long Island and their Chaperone. You may click here for the full address.

FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS HAITIAN INTERIM LEADER

From New York, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell flew to Miami to join the Prime Minister for his address to the Miami Conference on the Americas (See story above). The Prime Minister spoke before a full audience of public officials and businessmen and women from South Florida. Later he joined the Publisher of the Miami Herald at lunch to hear an address by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright. The interim Prime Minister of Haiti Gerard LaTortue spoke at the same conference. The Caricom nations have not yet agreed to allow the recognition of the interim administration. The two Prime Ministers did not meet. Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, however, met with the interim Prime Minister to express concern over the deaths in Haiti from Hurricane Jeanne, and to get an update on the plans for the elections in Haiti to restore the country to full democracy. The two are pictured on Friday 1st October at the Biltmore Hotel. BIS / Peter Ramsay

MITCHELL SPEAKS TO BANKERS
The Institute of Financial Services, which used to be called the Institute of Bankers, held their 28th annual awards presentation on Saturday 2nd October at the Sandals Resort in Nassau. The guest speaker was Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell said that the Government was pledged to protect the sector, because it provided a good living for scores of Bahamians. He said that the Government would stand up for the interests of Bahamians. He explained in detail, his proposal to solve the problem of lack of access to Schengen visas for Bahamians to get access to Europe. You may click here for the full address.

STATE DEPARTMENT ADVISORY WRONG
Writers to this column pointed out that an advisory was seen on some U.S. television stations, which indicated that the U.S. State Department was warning persons not to travel to The Bahamas because the conditions as to power and water did not support travel to the country. It turns out that the State Department had issued no such warning. We provide the link here to the site of the public announcement by the State Department: http://travel.state.gov/travel/bahamas_announce.html

GRAND BAHAMA RESTORATION UPDATE
The Grand Bahama Island Promotion Board has issued an update on how the island's tourism infrastructure is rebounding from Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. Good progress is being made. Please click here for the update.

ANGELO MUNNINGS DIES

Another of those well known Valley Boy personalities has passed away. This time it is Angelo Michael Munnings. Mr. Munnings died after slipping into a diabetic coma. He was buried following funerals services at the Chapel of Love, Kemp’s Funeral Home on Thursday September 30th. May he rest in peace.

LESLIE MILLER’S ACCUSATIONS OF NEGLIGENCE
The Minister of Trade & Industry Leslie Miller is just back from a meeting of the African Caribbean and Pacific country ministers with the European Union. Mr. Miller in a statement to the press accused the FNM administration of being negligent in not accessing funds that have been made available in the past for The Bahamas. He said that millions of dollars would have been available to The Bahamas but The Bahamas never accessed the funds. He said that the result of this would be that The Bahamas may have lost its opportunity to get funds that might help with hurricane relief. He specifically blamed the civil servants over the past 25 years for causing The Bahamas to lose the money that it could have gotten. Before his departure to the meeting, Mr. Miller said that he was going to use the opportunity of his visit to seek additional funding from the European Union to help with the relief effort.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHINA

The Peoples Republic of China celebrated its official birthday on 30th September in The Bahamas with a reception. The reception was attended by the Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont, the Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Peet. This is quite a prize for the Chinese this year on their 55th anniversary. The Prime Minister obviously wanted to thank the Chinese for the tremendous gift that China has offered to The Bahamas of a 30 million dollar stadium. The official party toasted to the friendship between The Bahamas and China.
Meanwhile a group of Bahamians have formed themselves into a China Bahamian Friendship Association. The aim is to promote good relations between the two countries. The effort is headed up by former Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Joseph Curry. The official liaison with the group is Philip Miller, Under Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Former Ambassador to China Sir Arthur Foulkes is also a part of the association. The Association’s governing board is pictured.

DWAYNE HANNA CALLED TO THE BAR
In the run up to the General Election of 2002 and especially following the defeat of the PLP in 1997, Dwayne Hanna was one of the best promoters of the PLP. He never stopped believing and helped to keep hope alive with his incisive letters to the editor. He was trying to study law here in The Bahamas but it became too much and he finally pulled up stakes and went to the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom to try to finish it. Well, he is now finished and a full member of the Bahamas Bar. On Friday 24th September the Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall witnessed the taking of the oath and the signing of the rolls by Mr. Hanna, as he became a member of the Bar. We congratulate him on having accomplished this step.

THE FALLOUT FROM HURRICANE JEANNE

Hurricane Jeanne has left utter destruction and devastation throughout The Bahamas when it hit on 24th September. The country is still counting the full cost. We know that the Government had an estimate of 125 million dollars on the relief effort for Hurricane Frances. But Frances now seems a distant memory compared to the damage that Hurricane Jeanne left in Abaco. The second city Freeport was smashed by Frances. West End in Grand Bahama was particularly hard hit as we have reported, with every home in that settlement being damaged. Now the Prime Minister reports that the Eastern End of Grand Bahama was just as severely damaged by Hurricane Jeanne as the West was by Frances. But Jeanne went further and damaged the third largest economic centre in the country Marsh Harbour. The docks and marina infrastructure in Marsh Harbour are destroyed. It will take tens of millions to climb out from under it. Grand Cay, an island off the Abaco mainland is particularly hard hit, with reports of destruction similar to that found in West End. The newspapers throughout the week showed the scenes of the utter destruction and despair. Prime Minister Christie visited with officials from Nassau to see for himself the full extent of the damage. BIS photo / Peter Ramsay

RICK FOX RETIRES

Rick Fox, the Bahamian who is the son of Ulric Fox, owner of Holiday Ice, has announced his retirement from the National Basketball Association in the United States. Mr. Fox ended his career in Boston where it began. He had won three rings as an NBA champion team member in Los Angeles. He was seen as a team leader throughout his tenure there, keeping the peace between the two major stars on the team. He received a serious injury within the last year and was off the court. He will now never return.
Mr. Fox raised Bahamians’ spirits knowing that one of their own was an NBA player, the second one following Michael Thompson's success on the same Los Angeles Lakers team in the 1980s. No word on what he will do now. The report is that he has also filed for divorce from his wife Vanessa Williams, the movie actress. There is always the fear after retirement: what does a young man do in that position to forge another career and did he save his money? He had been trying for a career in the movies. We wish him well, and thanks for all the memories.

ATHLETES HONOURED

Three outstanding Bahamian athletes received a signal honour during the joint session of Parliament called to celebrate its 275th anniversary. Two time 'Grand Slam' lawn tennis winner Mark Knowles, Athens Olympic Gold medallist Tonique Williams Darling and Athens Bronze medallist and 'Golden Girl' Debbie Ferguson all received House of Assembly proclamations in their honour. BIS photos / Peter Ramsay

WHATEVER WAS FRED SMITH THINKING?
    If there is ever any bad news to tell, you can count on Fred Smith to be the bearer of the bad news. According to a press release by Mr. Smith, things are going from bad to worse in Grand Bahama. He accused the Government of neglecting Grand Bahama and not delivering what the people there need to get their lives back to normal. This is potent stuff.
    There are legitimate complaints of disorganization in the hurricane relief effort, but trust Mr. Smith to go overboard with the ridiculous suggestion that the Government ought to resign as a result of that. There is where he lost us. Mr. Smith said that Grand Bahama does not need to see foreign dignitaries and government ministers coming to tour the damage.
    The Minister of Works Bradley Roberts was particularly incensed by Mr. Smith’s inane comment. He answered him and you may click here for the full response. You want to say to Mr., Smith: “You are getting too old for this”.

KING ERIC CELEBRATES A BIRTHDAY 24/09

The Prime Minister joined the veteran entertainer and sailing enthusiast King Eric Gibson for a gift of celebration to mark the 70th birthday of the King. Mr. Gibson's son Shane Gibson is the Minister of Housing. From the looks of the picture, the party must have been a humdinger. There were smiles all around. Congratulations to the king! Nassau Guardian photo / Patrick Hanna

DAWN DAVIES' ART COLLECTION OPENS

Local collector Dawn Davies has been avidly building her outstanding collection of Bahamian art for twenty years. It is acknowledged as perhaps the most vast and varied of its kind. Director General of the Archives, Dr. Gail Saunders has opened an exhibition of Ms. Davies' collection at the National Art Gallery that highlights some of its oldest pieces, along with the works of some of The Bahamas’ more contemporary artists. In an impromptu review, photographer Peter Ramsay notes “the exhibition contrasts the work of Bahamian artists today against the country’s early journeymen… it all makes for a compelling visual tableau about Bahamian culture”. From left to right: Ms. Davies, Dr. Gail Saunders and Marguerite, the Lady Pindling. BIS PHOTO PETER RAMSAY. THE EXHIBITION IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Fred Smith, Esq.
Will you be giving coverage to Fred Smith's opinion? His observation that Grand Bahama and Grand Bahamians are being completely ignored does look valid.
Name withheld

No doubt he is saying things that people are thinking and can’t voice for themselves but when Fred Smith says something one always looks for motive unfortunately. The Minister of Works has answered him and we think that is sufficient. Work needs to be done. We listen but we must move on. Ed

American Elections
It's too bad you feel that John Kerry can't win in the American presidential election in November. [See ‘PREPARING FOR THE WORST IN US ELECTIONS’ – Ed.] I felt the same way too as a Howard Dean supporter just before Kerry blew Dean out of the water in Iowa in January this year. I’m sure that William Weld’s supporters felt the same way just before Kerry beat Weld in Kerry's last US Senate race. After almost 45 years of active participation in American presidential politics, I must agree with former US Senator William Fulbright, who after his defeat ending an extremely brilliant political career said, “He who builds his future in politics, builds it of sticks and on sand.” A word to George W. Bush and a reminder to former Bahamian PMs and their parties might be in order also.
America also should take note of who [China and Caricom neighbors] is giving real rather than token financial support to the Bahamas in their hurricane distress. It might indicate who really might be going to lead the world in the future, while America joins Britain on the verandah to reminisce about their ‘Empires’.
J. Reynolds
Harbour Island

FRED MITCHELL TURNS 51

Minister of Foreign Affairs & The Public Service, the Honourable Fred Mitchell is to celebrate his fifty first birthday on Tuesday. The Minister is caught chuckling during an informal moment in this recent photo by Peter Ramsay. There are hints of celebrations being planned by supporters in the Minister's Fox Hill constituency, for he's a jolly good fellow! Happy Birthday, Minister.

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM

Prime Minister Perry Christie is shown at during a trip to Miami with a group of South Florida boaters who mounted a private flotilla to The Bahamas to provide hurricane relief. Mr. Christie used the opportunity of his trip to the Miami Herald Americas Conference to meet with the Bahamian community and friends of The Bahamas in South Florida. In an impromptu outpouring of support, the group presented donations to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) totalling $20,000.
At right, the Prime Minister is shown with publisher Wendall Jones receiving the first copy of an historic book, documenting 275 years of Parliament in The Bahamas, entitled 'The Bahamian Parliament 1729-2004. 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.

Last week was public service week. The Public Service falls within the ministerial portfolio of Fred Mitchell, who is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It does not seem to have the same cache as the Ministry of Foreign of Affairs but in our view it is certainly no less important. In fact, what Mr. Mitchell is able to accomplish in the public service may be a more enduring legacy. It is clear that much of what is behind the difficulties of the PLP at the present time is the inability of the politicians of the PLP to get control of the public service. It appears that the PLP has lost its way, is afraid of its own shadow and is afraid to become the political master of the service. The constitution says that they are so long as they are the elected heads of the government.

The Prime Minister opened a seminar on the future of the public service with the public sector unions and the heads of staff associations all gathered on Friday 8^th October. Present were the representatives from the Bahamas Public Service Union, the Bahamas Union of Teachers, the Prison Staff Association, the Doctor's Staff Association, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Royal Bahamas Police Force Staff Associations and the Nurses Union. All of them were there to discuss where to go with the public service. Representatives of the Inter American Development Bank were also there. You may click here for the full address of the Prime Minister.

The Minister in his address spoke of the need for fundamental change of the service. The Prime Minister spoke of the internal resistance to change that seems built into the system. But for all the sophistication of the remarks of the two gentlemen, what the public sees is a group of people in the public service who now seem to have drawn a line in the sand with regard to the PLP. They are determined not to carry out the instructions of the PLP and they are determined to ensure that any policy initiatives are stalled and delayed out of existence. The PLP rank and file argue that this is a consequence of a policy which has reached out a hand of friendship to FNMs on the grounds that we want to show that people should not be victimized because they served the previous administration. That does not wash with the rank and file. What they see is that those who supported the last regime in the public service believe that the reaching out the hand of friendship is a sign of weakness and impotence on the part of the PLP and are busy sabotaging the policies of the government, chopping off the hand of friendship at every turn. You may click here for the full address of the Minister.

When one looks at the experience of delays and snafus in hurricane relief, the vicious attacks that have occurred from leaked sources in ministries as diverse as the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it certainly looks like a concerted effort by persons unknown to be sure that the initiatives of the Government are sabotaged.

The Minister made the point of referring in his address to a criticism of a comment that he made when he first became a minister. The criticism came from newspaper columnist and former Ambassador Sir Arthur Foulkes. Sir Arthur thought that it was a trite point to make that the Minister did not know the staff who surrounded him, stripped as he was of the staff that he was used to in his political office. The Minister said Sir Arthur missed the point. The point is that there is clear need in all of the systems of the English speaking Caribbean to borrow from the U.S. system where elected officials bring the people that they need to execute their programme with them when they come, who then leave when they leave. That is one way to make things move quickly.

The Minister told the public servants later in the day that he wanted to forge an alliance with the public sector unions and staff associations to force changes in the system. The system just would not move, and those who manage the system are quite content with it the way that it is. He told them how the request for the human resources career path which would solve many of the human resources problems in the public service, is being blocked at a high institutional level, and that there is a need to create public pressure for the changes to be made.

In his address, he said that if we commit to change, then we must change, not choke when we are faced with the necessity to change. Change means change and agreeing to change when you have to change. The systems that we now employ in the public service are archaic, with its dependence on paper files, and scribbling on pieces of paper, with files tied together some times with purple string, other times with a simple piece of white string. Needless to say, the numbers of files that go missing are legion. Making it easier to be able to sabotage the policies of a political party for what appears to be a reasonable explanation. The file went missing.

The PLP needs to take stock of where it is. There are only 28 months left before elections are staring the PLP in the face. The party has simply waited too long to put its imprint on the Government. Its supporters are in a state of apoplexy about this, and the fact that they appear not to be able in the words of many to ‘get anything from the Government I voted for’. One has to be careful with this of course because one of the reasons the PLP won was because it played to the middle, but the other side of the story is that if your base stays at home when election comes you lose anyway. The centre is not enough to get you elected on their own.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 9^th October 2004 at midnight: 73,270.

Number of hits for the year 2004 up to Saturday 9^th October 2004 at midnight: 2,044,302.

PRIME MINISTER’S HURRICANE REPORT

Prime Minister Perry Christie reported to the House of Assembly the status of hurricane damage throughout The Bahamas as a result of Hurricane Frances that struck the country on 3^rd September. The report was delivered on Wednesday 6^thOctober 2004. He estimated the damage at close to 200 million dollars. There was a breakdown for each island. This is only the estimate for bricks and mortar and not the estimate for the economic and private losses that have been occasioned as a result of the storm. A report is to come on the damage as a result of Hurricane Jeanne.

The Government has been running ads in the newspapers about a Loan Guarantee Scheme, a voucher system for building supplies and for food and water. The reports continue to come in that the relief effort is not going as effectively as it should. Two civil servants who ran the programmes of the hurricanes earlier in the decade have been brought in to deal with the emergency: Jack Thompson has been called in from Canada to run the programme in Abaco and Melvin Seymour has been called in from the Ministry of Housing to deal with the rebuilding of Grand Bahama. The usual suspects have been voicing the public discomfort. Cay Russell, Chief Councillor in southern Abaco, was on the radio saying that no relief was getting to the people there. That is simply not true. Fred Smith was making similar comments in Grand Bahama, despite being slapped down by Bradley Roberts for his overstating the case.

We will publish the full official report of the Prime Minister to Parliament in our next edition.

In this column we have constantly expressed our grave disappointment with Zhivargo Laing, the former Minister for Economic Development in the Ingraham administration. Mr. Laing has repaired to Grand Bahama, where he is nursing the seat of Ann Percentie (PLP Pineridge), hoping to get elected from Grand Bahama in the next general election. He has a good profile but some strange quirks of logic that would seem not to recommend him to constituents in Grand Bahama.

Mr. Laing’s criticism of the hurricane effort that appeared in The Tribune of Thursday 7^th October is the latest case in point of a somewhat mixed up man or someone who is unable or unwilling to process clear information before his very eyes and interpret it properly. He wrote this: “In fact residents of Eight Mile Rock were especially peeved that the PM and his large entourage chose merely to stop in the middle of their street, holding up traffic, to conduct a press conference but never really toured that part of the island”

That is a gross distortion of the facts. The facts are that the Prime Minister toured that part of the island extensively. He was taken door to door by Senator Caleb Outten (PLP) and was finishing the tour when the motorcade of Dr. Bernard Nottage and Minister Leslie Miller passed on its way to West End.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Nottage and Mr. Miller exchanged greetings. The Press, who were up against deadline, asked for an interview which was conducted safely on the side of the road. Any delay in traffic was simply people rubber necking to see what was going on. There was no stop in the flow, and people were hailing the PM loudly on the side of the road, blowing their horns. They were happy to see him.

One of the persons who also stopped was the same Zhiavrgo Laing. He walked up to the Prime Minister and must have spoken to him for at least 15 minutes. And so if any traffic jam was caused, Mr. Laing was in part responsible for it, and those people who were peeved would also be peeved at him.

Mr. Laing also wrote: “Indeed airport personnel were appalled by the fact that the PM was insensitively rushed through to his waiting aircraft rather than taking time to greet them as people also affected by the hurricane; some contrasted this with the very personal touch shown by former Prime Minister Ingraham who visited the island after Mr. Christie.”

There is no way in hell that Hubert Ingraham could be more personable and people friendly than Perry Christie. Point number two - the facts. On the day in question, the same day that Mr. Laing helped to stop traffic in Eight Mile Rock, the Prime Minister was being whisked to his plane because there were no lights on the Freeport runway and the Bahamasair jet, not his personal plane, a scheduled flight, had to take off on time or otherwise it could not leave. This criticism by Mr. Laing is petty and below the belt.

Mr. Laing must know that as politicians it is not possible to hail everyone and to stop every time, sometimes you have got to go. It is criticisms like this by Mr. Laing that makes him look irresponsible.

Meanwhile on another page of The Tribune, you had Eileen Carron with her twisted logic flailing away at the Government and the PLP about hurricane relief. Her newspaper could not simply agree that she told a lie on the Government when she indicated that hurricane supplies were left abandoned by the Government at the ports without being collected in Freeport.

It turns out the stuff belonged to the Red Cross. So she then switches her tack and says well if you can’t control the Red Cross, how come you are telling other people what they can bring in and what they can't. This time it is a reference to another lie that she told that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had prevented a plane with Hubert Ingraham and some goods from outside the country to land and offload its cargo. But never one to be held down because of a lie, she simply makes up another one in response.

Such is the state of hurricane relief in The Bahamas. Zhivargo Laing is shown conversing with Prime Minister Christie in Grand Bahama during a tour of hurricane damaged areas. BIS photo - Peter Ramsay

Every once in a while Andrew Allen seems to get it right. Mr. Allen is the son of one of the knights of Mr. Ingraham's round table who (the knight) served as Minister of Finance. He (the son) is a good writer but often has the views of a right wing ideologue. We agreed with him last week on Monday 4th October 2004, as he wrote under the headline: 'TIME TO LEAVE THE LEAGUE OF BEGGARS'.

Mr. Allen’s central thrust is that he is embarrassed by the comments of Ministers of the Government who keep saying how we ought to be going out to get money from the European Union and others to help us with the hurricane effort. You will know from the sentiments expressed here that we believe that this country has an economy which is resilient enough to be able to pay for this damage itself, except for the provision of emergency aid.

We also believe that we ought to be helping other countries like Grenada and Haiti with some form of assistance. Our problem as with so many things is that we just won’t get up the political will to properly organize ourselves as a first rate country. Instead we simply accept the status quo of slackness and indifference. We don’t hold out much hope for the day to come when Mr. Allen gets his wish.

There is a dispute about what 12^th October is to be called. It is still officially listed as Columbus Day or Discovery Day. It is the day set aside throughout the hemisphere to commemorate the official landing into the new world by Christopher Columbus. There are full passions on all sides. Columbus Day really became a day of celebration once the Roman Catholics came to The Bahamas. Their lobbying helped to change the name of Watlings Island to San Salvador in 1926. In that year Cat Island lost the name San Salvador and was renamed CatIsland.

Fr. Sebastian Campbell heads the National Heroes Day Committee. That committee which started its work in 1991 under the leadership of Fred Mitchell, now Minister of Foreign Affairs, has been trying to get it changed. They got a commitment from the Ingraham administration to pass legislation to change the law and to implement a system of national honours.

That commitment has not been followed through by the PLP. Instead, a Commission was formed that has raised debate in the public that would not be present if we had simply moved ahead.

There are those who hanker for Columbus and think that to change the day will be to rewrite history. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell who spoke at the observances this year pooh poohed that saying that each generation comes along to mark its own priorities on the society. No one is trying to rewrite history. Fr. Sebastian Campbell said it was simply taking too long for the Government to act. The next day, the forces of retrogression were back in the paper under some religious banner defending Columbus Day. But we come down squarely on the side of those who say the day should be changed. We don’t want to create another holiday and expense for the business community. Columbus has no relevance for us in The Bahamas and what we need is a day to mark the creation of our own state by saluting the heroes of that state like Milo Butler, Dame Doris Johnson and Lynden Pindling. Top: National Heroes Committee Founding Member Fred Mitchell; right - dignitaries at the National Heroes Day Committee service in Rawson Square.

Bradley Ferguson has been sentenced to death for the murder of a mother and her son. Rosemary Bennett-Wright was killed while pregnant and her young son Jakeel was killed during a shoot out in Fox Hill on 6^th March 2004. The murder was believed to have been in relation to an earlier shootout between rival gang members or drug dealers in Fox Hill.

Mr. Ferguson says that he is innocent. He accused the jury of convicting an innocent man. He did not put up any defence. He only said that he did not do it. His sister provided an alibi. We will see whether the conviction holds up on appeal. Meanwhile, there is some relief in Fox Hill that justice has been done.

The telephone company that has a monopoly on voice communication in The Bahamas is to implement a price cut. Their prices are exorbitant for long distance calls. Now they say that they are going to reduce the price of calls for a period of 120 days in a special promotion. They say that this will decrease the cost of calls by as much as 70 per cent. The promotion will run until 3^rd February.

The announcement was made by BTC’s President Michael Symonette on Thursday 7^th October. The rates will apply to calls on all phones: land lines, wireless and pre paid. Calls to the US are down from 99 cents per minute to 51 cents per minute. Calls to Canada that were $1.23 per minute are now 54 cents. For a person calling a Caribbean island except Cuba, the rates are 66 cents per minute down from $2.25 per minute. Cuba’s rates have been slashed from $3.50 per minute to $1.75. All other countries have been reduced from $2.75 per minute to 89 cents per minute. The rates are still too high but it is about time.

Demonstrations took place in Jamaica by students of the University of the West Indies at Mona last week. The reason was that the Government of Jamaica slashed the subsidy to the University and this meant that Jamaican students had to make up the shortfall in their tuition by 1^st October instead of the usual December deadline.

The students shut down the campus. The police were warned not to be trigger happy but they got out of hand and shot tear gas at the students. It appears that no one was hurt. It appears that no Bahamians were involved in the melee. Just to be sure though, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs arranged for two officials to travel to Jamaica to check on the students.

Ambassador Leonard Archer, the High Commissioner to Caricom and Reginald Saunders of the Ministry of Education Scholarship Loan Fund travelled to Jamaica over the past weekend to speak with the students, the school and the Government of Jamaica to find out for themselves what the situation is.

Leslie Miller, the Minister of Trade was the object of Stan Burnside’s cartoons again this week. This time it was an angry matron threatening mayhem if he opened his mouth about causing the gas prices to fall. Earlier in the week, the Minister announced that the “greedy” oil companies were trying to price gouge by seeking an increase of some ten cents on each gallon of gas.

Gas prices per gallon in Nassau are now Esso $3.43; Shell $3.35 Texaco $3.39 Focol $3.35. The Nassau Guardian reports that Esso will ask for a 19 cent increase, Shell for a 12 cent increase and Texaco a 4 cent increase.

THE PIPELINE PRESSURE

There are two sides of the debate on the issue of whether or not there should be an LNG plant built here with a pipeline into Florida. There are the environmentalists and nationalists on the one hand. There are the free marketers and the business types on the other. Never the twain shall meet.

The three proposed projects have one going into Freeport Harbour. That is pretty much a non starter. Then there is the project for the eastern end ofGrand Bahama. That seems to be the least well advanced. Then there is the project on what is now Ocean Cay, south of Bimini. That seems to have the best chance of succeeding. It is on a flat sandy bank. It is far away from a population centre, and provided there is no damage to the reefs going into Florida, it seems good. It is well financed and has gotten approvals and a market in Florida.

The big ‘but’ on the LNG projects is apart from environmental, what about the fact that this might give a pretext for the Americans to invade our country or for terrorists to attack The Bahamas. The business types say that is all nonsense. The gas is safe, they say, safer than the gas tank in your personal car. They say it will bring 450 jobs plus a bonus payment of five million dollars to the Treasury right away on signing. They say the US can invade at any time and on any pretext so why worry about it.

The projects appear to have the support of the Minister. They also say that something needs to be done to get some projects going in the economy. They say there is no environmental danger. AES, which is one of the companies, recently held a meeting in Dania, Florida to announce that they are changing the way the pipeline is going to be routed. It will now go under the reef as opposed to over the bottom of the sand.

We are opposed to the project. We are on the environmental and nationalist side. But the pressure is enormous on the Government to approve one of the projects. The three companies have been upping the ante by donating to hurricane relief. Minister of Trade Leslie Miler assured the public in a statement to the Nassau Guardian on Saturday 9^th October that this will not sway the government one way or the other.

On Tuesday 5^th October a lying FNM writer got to be published in the Nassau Guardian attacking the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell on his recent address to the UN General Assembly. The Guardian never published the UN address. It is clear that this is a very dumb and ignorant man, some Steve Simmons, who didn’t even read the address.

The next day a letter writer responded and set the record straight on the issues raised by Mr. Simmons letter. It appears that Mr. Simmons is an FNM ideologue or a fiction of the FNM since the name regularly crops up on the FNM’s website. Please click here for the letter to the Nassau Guardian by Mr. Troy Ward.

The Central Bank is predicting doom and gloom for the fiscal accounts of the country. It says that in the next fiscal year there will be a rise in the National Debt to 2.5 billion dollars. It also says that the deficit is likely to widen as a result of spending connected with the hurricanes. This is not good news but one wonders what you can do. Let’s hope that next year as Kerzner's operations come on stream that the economy will grow and more than make up the negative impacts of the hurricane.

We all owe Tractebel a most gracious "THANK YOU" for their cash donation of $300,000 to the Red Cross for direct aid to our needy residents of Eight Mile Rock and East End. May we suggest giving this act of kindness some extra publicity in your next newsletter to let Tractebel know how much the gift is appreciated?

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM

Prime Minister Perry Christie is shown at during the week in one of the those ceremonies of which, no matter how numerous, he never tires. Mr. Christie looks on with the gratitude of the country as Minister of State for Finance and Chairman of the Hurricane Relief Fund James Smith accepts chequeson behalf of the fund. From left is Mr. Martin Chea of donor Homelands Farms, Mr. Godfrey Eneas, Mrs. Lori Roach of donor Rainbow Farms, Minister Smith and Prime Minister Christie.
At right, the Prime Minister is shown with three home schooled students and their tutor, who are all about to be introduced to Minister of Education Alfred Sears (background). The students had been hoping to view the session of the House of Assembly as Mr. Christie delivered his communication on the recent hurricanes. The session was postponed due to technical difficulties, but this meant the students got a chance to actually meet the Prime Minister. 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.

A CABINET UNDER ATTACK

Wendall Jones, the Bahama Journal’s publisher launched a new book this week marking the 275th Anniversary of the establishment of a Parliament in The Bahamas. In the book is a picture of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Perry Christie on the steps of Government House with the Governor General. It was taken on the day that the majority of ministers were sworn in at Government House on 10th May 2002. Oh what a happy day! But fast forward to the year 2004 and is the happy day story a different one? Perhaps not but if you had read The Tribune, The Nassau Guardian, The Source and The Punch, all anti PLP newspapers during the last week, you would have sworn that the world was about to come to an end for the cabinet of Prime Minister Perry Christie. If you read those rags, they all seemed to be pronouncing the corpse almost dead.

The fact is that this is very, very far from the truth. But it is a source of some consternation and also should be a source of inspiration for PLP supporters, when an entire newspaper corps can find nothing good to say about the Government that governs the country in which they make their living. This is a country that has just come through two major storms that perhaps for the first time in a century devastated the islands from north to south, traumatizing the population. The country is still standing. Its productive capacity is still going. The relief effort is underway. The international lending community again reaffirmed the A- rating (Moody’s), repeating what was said in this column that the country has the capacity to heal itself from the trauma of the hurricanes.

The Tribune you can understand. They simply hate the PLP. While it is acknowledged that they try to have a balanced reporting approach, they are relentlessly anti-PLP in story placement and editorials. It is in their nature. They tried during the week to use the name of Fred Mitchell as aid and comfort to answer Raynard Rigby, the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party when he slammed them for their anti PLP bias by saying that Mr. Mitchell could attest to the fairness of The Tribune, relying on his pronouncements from his early years as an activist. Trust Eileen Carron to twist a statement by using crooked logic.

The Tribune’s editorials during the week have been one after the other on the attack on the hurricane effort. There is nothing it seems that has gone right, according to them. Yet, the complaints that she has identified have little to do with the Government. They all have to do with the failure of individual public servants to effect policy in a quick manner. Up in one of the islands, for example it appears that an individual customs officer had his own interpretation of the customs orders signed by the Government which was simply perverse and had the effect of slowing down to a crawl the relief effort there. The fact that this individual was related to a former FNM politician did not pass unnoticed. The failures are also institutional, an FNM Government that left no institutional memory, took everything away with it about hurricane relief in Hubert Ingraham’s head.

Then there was on the front page of The Tribune on Wednesday 13th October, a lead article with Senator Tommy Turnquest, the Leader of the FNM outside of the House, calling for the Prime Minister to sack Leslie Miller for making what Senator Turnquest alleges are misstatements about the position of the European Union and its aid to The Bahamas. Mr. Miller himself dismissed the call as complete nonsense. When you examine what Mr. Turnquest was saying it amounted to the fact that they were embarrassed by the PLP Minister asserting that the FNM had dropped the ball in making timely requests for aid from the European Union. They could make no other claim. That made the matter pure politics. The other point he made was that he did not like Mr. Miller's frank style of speaking to people in public.

The Nassau Guardian made it worse, however, when on Tuesday 12th October they claimed in an editorial that Cabinet ministers in The Bahamas were above the law. They claimed that allegations of criminal behaviour were made against Cabinet Ministers and that these matters were not investigated. What in heaven's name were they talking about? It is certainly clear that no Cabinet minister is above the law. The Nassau Guardian ought to say who in the name of heaven they were talking about when it said that Cabinet Ministers were accused of criminal behaviour that was not investigated. It is this kind of muck and nonsense that passes for sensible editorial comment in a mainline newspaper.

The question always: what does the PLP do? What should it do? We have said in this column that the PLP needs to have the answers right away in the press when this kind of nonsensical attack is made. It does not. In our view, it is beyond the simple idea of a press release by the Party Chair or the Party’s Public Relations arm. One has to ask oneself: where is the PLP's voice? It seems that its supporters are simply lost and dead when it comes to providing the answers to this kind of garbage. The PLP should also have some material that is available to its supporters on the web, and in their constituency offices which deals on a regular basis with their programmes. That is a clear failure that could work to the disadvantage of the party at election time.

Suffice it to say notwithstanding all the noise; the press in this country has been notorious for not accurately reporting what is actually going on in The Bahamas. In other words no one can rely on the reports in the Bahamian press to determine whether a Government is going to win office in The Bahamas or not. The press in The Bahamas simply does not represent the truth on this issue.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 16th October 2004 at midnight: 58,656.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 16th October 2004 at midnight: 131,926.

Number of hits for the year 2004, up to Saturday 16th October 2004 at midnight: 2,102,958.

TOMMY ATTACKS LESLIE

    The FNM Leader Tommy Turnquest was obviously a little too quiet over the past few weeks. His supporters were getting worried that Carl Bethel, the Party's Chair, was actually beginning to outshine Mr. Turnquest. Then of course there was that picture of Senator Turnquest waving at the side of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham as they were touring the hurricane damage in Abaco. It did not go well. One correspondent to this site asked the question: “How could Tommy not see that Mr. Ingraham is playing him for a fiddle? There is no way in hell he should be suckered into running in a bye-election in Abaco”. Well that’s the FNM’s business.
    What we do know is that Senator Turnquest should leave the Minister of Trade and Industry alone. On Tuesday 12th October, the FNM’s leader out of the House launched a blistering attack on the Minister. The press called the Minister to respond. The Minister rightly told them that he was at a Cabinet meeting and could not be bothered with such trivia.
    The upshot of what Mr. Turnquest had to say was that the Minister embarrassed the FNM because during their term of office, they were unable to access the funds made available for development by the European Union to the extent that they should have. Mr. Miller’s trip to Brussels last month shamefully brought that fact to the fore. Not so, said Mr. Turnquest. He described it as an unnecessary exaggeration.
    Senator Turnquest said: “He [the Minister] is wrong. He continues to ignore the records available in his own Ministry’s files. It seems that the Minister is averse to reading. Worse still it appears that he takes no advice of civil servants, the experts in his ministerial portfolio. And so, the minister is not surprisingly frequently uninformed and frequently wrong.” Hmmm! We agree with Minister Miller’s statement to The Tribune on Wednesday 13th October: “How can a man who wants to lead the country make such false statements?” Tribune photo of Senator Tommy Turnquest at FNM HQ news conference by Alan Jones

DEATH IN GRAND BAHAMA

    The headlines were startling. Bahamians woke up to see the newspapers in their country covered across the front pages with the news that three young women had died in a tragic traffic accident on the way back from Pelican Point in Grand Bahama. They can really be seen as victims of the hurricane.
    There is a particularly precarious bend in the road and trees overturned during the hurricane were apparently blocking the path. The driver 25 year old Decarlo Elvondo Rolle, a young man who survived, missed the road and reportedly ran some one hundred feet into the trees before he was stopped. Three young women, Shantario Bethel 21, Alethera Lightbourne 25 and Brenica Saunders 19 died, two instantly and another at hospital and two other passengers, 19 year olders Tikaria Wright and Latoya Perpall are still struggling for their lives.
    The Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin flew directly to Grand Bahama following the tragic news and made the position forcefully that she was appalled at the carnage on the streets. She urged drivers to drive with care in these post hurricane times. The roads are still not back up to scratch. Traffic lights are not all back in working order. People simply ought to be careful. The accident happened on Thursday 14th October. Inset to this Freeport News photo of the crash by Barbara Walkin are from left, Shantario Bethel, Brinica Saunders and Alethera Lightbourne.

UPDATE ON HURRICANE RELIEF

Edward St. George and Jack Hayward have reached into their substantial pockets and given a one million dollar donation to the Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund. Sir Sidney Poitier, the Bahamian-American actor, and his wife Joanna have donated the sum of $25,000 to the Hurricane relief effort. And so it goes. One after the next people have been giving sums of money for hurricane relief. The politics of the whole thing continues as well, with FNMs saying that the PLP is not doing anything. The PLP has responded that they are doing much better than the FNM did by this time after the last hurricane under the FNM’s watch. It seems that the most bloody minded of institutions is the Customs Department that despite clear instructions to be permissive is still holding things up at the border.

    One of the most immediate needs now is the employment need. Some 4000 jobs have been lost in Grand Bahama alone as result of the hurricane. Some 1200 of those persons come from the former Princess Hotel, now called Oasis. The talk around Freeport is that the owners of the resort who owe almost everybody in town including employees will simply take the insurance money and walk. The Government ought to take some precautions against this from happening.
    The housing needs are being met for the southern islands in particular. The situation in San Salvador has eased considerably with housing repair going apace. The people of Mayaguana got an unexpected donation from a company that is interested in investing there. It is all the supplies that are needed to effect repairs as a result of the hurricane damage.
    The US Congress passed a law to give the Bush administration the authority to advance as much as 100 million dollars for hurricane relief in the Caribbean. No word on how much is for The Bahamas but the lion's share is expected to be for Haiti and Grenada. The Minister of Housing has started his housing effort to replace the damaged housing in Grand Bahama. But the main worry is jobs. The Prime Minister wants to get small businesses up and running so that people can get back to work. Shown at the presentation of the $1 million donation to the Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund are from left: Sir Jack Hayward, Chairman, Grand Bahama Development Company; Prime Minister Christie; Minister of State for Finance James Smith and Mr. Edward St. George, Chairman, Grand Bahama Port Authority. BIS photo - Peter Ramsay File photo of Sir Sidney Poitier.

AIRPORT ON TRACK
Congratulations to Minister Glenys Hanna Martin who says that the airport project in its first phase is still on track. She announced that the airport runway project, the repair and building of the main runway should be complete by July of next year. A decision is to be made soon on the new managers for the Nassau International Airport.

FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY-- SANDALS
The Bahamas Christian Council has not yet weighed in on the announcement by Sandals that it is removing its ban on same sex couples at their resorts. They say also that they are removing all references to heterosexual in their advertising. In a press release issued world wide on Tuesday 12th October, the company said that all 13 ‘couples only’ resorts were now open to any couples without discrimination. The company said: “This decision is a direct response to emerging commercial and social laws in some jurisdictions with which we do business, that now interpret what was traditionally regarded as niche marketing, to be a modern form of discrimination.”

MEANWHILE THE ANGLICANS SET FOR A FIGHT
The Anglican Archbishop of the West Indies left Nassau for London where a special commission is set to report on what to do about gay people in their church. The church is badly divided since the US Church decided to ordain an openly homosexual bishop. The Archbishop’s tone seemed conciliatory in his statement to the press, he called on Saturday 16th October in the Nassau Guardian for a time for healing of the wounds inflicted on both sides of the argument. He said, however that certain truths could not be compromised.
The British press have already leaked the report and predicted it would say that the US Church should be disciplined for breaking with tradition. One supposes schism is on the way.

PUBLIC SERVANT OF THE YEAR

Public Service week came to an end with a Seminar on the future of the public service on Friday 8th October. There was a banquet that really capped things off on Saturday 9th October. At the banquet, the public servant of the year was announced. The winner again from the Ministry of Transport, this time in the Met Office Rodger Demeritte [pictured with Minister at top], who is a 34 year veteran of the service. Mr. Demeritte told the Minister at the presentation of the trophy and 1500 dollar first prize that he was humbled by the award.
The runners up for Public Servant of the Year were Ministry of Works employee Linda Burrows who received $1,000, Second runner up Charlamae Fernander, Department of Social Services who received $800.

Honourable mention went to Carol Johnson of the Department of Public Service, Pearline Williams of the Treasury and Nicoya Neilly from the Judiciary. They each received $200.
The competition was judged by a distinguished panel headed by Kingsley Black, the President of the Bahamas Union of Teachers. The Minister for The Public Service Fred Mitchell also took time to present a cheque to the National Emergency Management Agency for $16, 375 representing the contributions of civil servants collected on a special day on Friday 29th September to help hurricane victims. He also presented two students Apryl Johnson of L.W. Young first prize and Alexis Young of C.C. Sweeting [shown bottom left] with computers as their prizes in the essay competition on the public service. Nassau Guardian photos by Donald Knowles.

RIGBY ANSWERS BACK

    The crux of an editorial in The Tribune on Wednesday 13th October was that the Government was causing confusion in the expatriate business community by the existence of two Hurricane Relief Funds. One is a relief fund for the Progressive Liberal Party. The other is the National Disaster Relief Fund. The Tribune said that there should not be two funds. What silliness.
    The Chairman of the Party Raynard Rigby, now basking in the celebration of the first anniversary of his marriage, fired off an epistle to The Tribune, the very next day. In it he pointed out that there is a distinction between the Government and the party. The Tribune agreed, but said in its rebuttal that it thinks that expatriates would be confused about the distinction and not know to which one to give. That too is silly. An expatriate brain is no different from a Bahamian brain. They can contribute to one or the other or to both depending on their views. The Chairman pointed out that the FNM has a hurricane relief fund.
    It was too much for the intrepid Mrs. Carron. She says that the FNM is wrong too. She does not of course really mean that. She was simply caught out in this relentless propaganda campaign so that she will not see the truth. You may click here for the full response of the Chairman. The Chairman pointed out the political bias of The Tribune. The editor responded that this was questioning their integrity. A little over sensitive aren’t we? Her response: “If the PLP has any doubts about The Tribune’s objectivity or fairness in handling the news, party members should consult Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell, who will confirm that no matter what we think of him or he thinks of us, when it comes to news, The Tribune always gives him a fair hearing.” Leave the Minister out of this.

DENNIS MARTIN ATTACKS THE MOON
(By guest commentator Sharon Zoe Smith)
    We never made any reference to it before in this column because the whole thing seemed so phantasmagoric as to be unbelievable. The problem is that so many people in Grand Bahama were excited about it. They took it as something that could actually happen.
    Here is what the project is. The proposed developer feeding on what he says is a wish of many to be on the moon would create from dredging on the northern shore of Grand Bahama five man made islands. He would build facilities that would look like they were on the moon. The rooms would number about 12,000 in the first phase. It would be a 4.5 billion dollars venture and create some 25,000 jobs. That would be by far the largest project ever in The Bahamas, larger than the creation of Freeport itself.
    The developers were able to persuade the Grand Bahama Port Authority to allow them to begin their exploratory work. No word on the position of the Government, but statements from the developers in the press suggest that they are impatient with the fact that a decision has not been given. Amongst the elite, the project is thought to be laughable.
    Dennis Martin, a some time activist and now an employee of the Gaming Board, but a resident of Freeport and originally from West End took time to write on the subject in The Tribune which sums up the feeling of many. He wrote on Thursday 14th October 2004 in part: “As a West Ender, from my point of view and having regard to where this proposed project is going to be located on Grand Bahama's north shore, with ten cruise ship terminals, the world’s largest marina and considering the direction from which hurricane Frances came, this project is ludicrous at best and suicidal to the very existence of Grand Bahama.”
    Mr. Martin was especially incensed when the creator of the moon project one Mr. Henderson did not express sympathy for the victims of the hurricane but instead said that the government was not responding to his proposal. Mr. Martin concluded: “May I respectfully suggest that you keep your proposal, do not shelve it, and when it becomes feasible for mankind to travel economically to the moon, this will obviously be the perfect place for your development.”
    I agree. However, we publish today a letter writer who sent his message under a non de plume who thinks just the opposite. One argument is that at least the Government should allow for the environmental and economic impact study to be done, without any commitment to the project itself.

WELCOME BACK RICHA

    It was the surprise for the evening at the Bahamas Financial Services Boards annual awards dinner. The featured speaker was Minister for Financial Services Allyson Gibson. You may click here for the Minister's full address. Other Ministers there were Vincent Peet, the Minister for Immigration. Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell was also there. The featured singer was former Miss Bahamas Richa Sands and the ex wife of an African King.
    Ms. Sands, looking, well, ravishing, sang the National Anthem. It was breathtaking. But in a surprise twist when she came back to do an encore she started off by saying that when she took to the stage she was full of confidence about her ability until she looked in the audience and saw Minister Fred Mitchell. She said that the Minister took her breath away and that in order to finish the national anthem and so that she would not forget the words she had to sing with her eyes closed. Hmmm!
    The winners: Executive of the Year William Sands of Commonwealth Bank. Professional of the Year Carmen Dianne Davis-Bingham. Achiever of the Year Batriena M. Marshall. Congratulations.
    We watched the Minister as Ms. Sands sang, and between the two, one wonders who was more breathless. It takes our breath away. Nassau Guardian photo of BFSB awards; Professional of the Year Diane Davis Bingham (second from left) being presented by Minister of Financial Services & Investment the Hon. Allyson Maynard Gibson. Left is BFSB Executive Director Wendy Warren and at right is BFSB Chairman Bruno Roberts.

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL FESTIVAL

The tenth annual International Cultural Festival was officially opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell at the Botanic Gardens in Nassau on Saturday 16th October. The fair brings together the groups of individuals from various countries that live in The Bahamas. There is the famous parade of nations at the start. This time it is bigger than ever. The fair includes traditional friends and allies of The Bahamas like the United States, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the United Kingdom. This year for the first time Japan, Bangladesh and Grenada are there.
The Minister made several announcements about decisions for The Bahamas overseas. The Consulate General in Hong Kong was closed on Friday 15th October in preparation for moving the embassy of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to Beijing in fiscal year 2005/2006. The new Embassy in Cuba is expected to be opened within this fiscal year. You may click here for the full statement of the Minister. Minister Mitchell opening the fair; Indian dance - BIS photos

DISCOVERY DAY CONTROVERSY
    You would have thought that the issue was quite simple. Since 1991, the National Heroes Day Committee has been working and toiling first under the leadership of Fred Mitchell, the now Foreign Minister and latterly under the chairmanship of the Rev. Fr. Sebastian Campbell to have a day set aside to honour the national heroes of the country. Before the Ingraham administration lost office, it was agreed largely through the work of the Committee that what is now called Columbus Day or Discovery Day would be changed to National Heroes Day. That day would be the closest Monday to the 12th October.   There was a Bill drafted and it had its first reading in the Assembly. Unfortunately, Mr. Ingraham ran out of time to deal with the matter and it died when the House was dissolved in 2002.
    The PLP should have immediately brought the Bill back and passed it without delay. The delay now has caused a whole host of counter revolutionaries, kooks and other nefarious characters to raise their heads to argue what a saviour Columbus was. Heading the list is Eileen Carron from The Tribune. But the campaign is aided by some pretty sophisticated and important people, some of whom don’t like the fact that there is an argument at all. Some are genuinely motivated. We place in that category of sensible objectors, the Rev. Dr William Thompson, the Baptist head, a great and sensible leader, who argued in his charge at the service to commemorate the anniversary of the Baptist Convention that perhaps another month should be chosen. We do not agree.
    Extensive work has already been done on this issue. The Government and the Parliament simply need to move. Unless the country wishes to have another public holiday which we do not think is advisable, it is better and more practical to remove from the present list of Holidays this one day, the so called Columbus Day which has no relevance to us, and set aside the day as National Heroes Day.
    Those who argue that it is an attempt to rewrite history are arguing a non sequitur. Those who think that Columbus is a hero could well continue to celebrate him on that day as their national hero. But for the large majority of us, this is the time to celebrate the persons who helped to build the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. It should be done without delay.
    The most interesting of the group of counter revolutionaries, however, was one William Seymour who heads a group Bahamas In Prophecy. They claim that Columbus was divinely inspired to come to The Bahamas in 1492. They claim to have a basis in Biblical history and antiquity for this. It sounds all very hocus pocus. They have now called for the resignation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell because they claim that he is a member of the National Heroes Day Committee and therefore in a position of a conflict of interest. That is not true. In our view, they will see the second coming first. The Minister is no longer a member, since joining the Cabinet. What really stung them was when he described them as the leaders of the forces of darkness at a rally to support the National Heroes Day idea on Montague Bay on Monday 11th October. We agree that they lead the forces of darkness, and we also agree with him that they should cease and desist.

FUEL COSTS, UNION CONCESSIONS CHALLENGE BAHAMASAIR
The Minister with responsibility for Bahamasair Bradley Roberts took to the luncheon circuit this past week, addressing 'Challenges Facing Bahamasair'. Minister Roberts made headlines with the revelation that fuel costs and the encroachment of low cost airlines were 'wreaking havoc' with the national flag carrier's business. The Minister also called for further concessions from the company's unions. Please click here for the Minister's full address.

ROMAN CATHOLIC ‘YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST’

Pope John Paul 2nd, has declared October 2004 to October 2005 the special year of the Eucharist. The year began with the Eucharistic Congress held in Guadalajara, Mexico Sunday, 10th of October. The theme of the Congress is: ‘The Eucharist, Light and Life of the New Millennium’. The Year concludes with the World Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome in October, 2005. The theme of the Synod is ‘The Eucharist - Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church’. Our photo by Peter Ramsay shows The Most Reverend Patrick Pinder Archbishop Of Nassau during evening prayer and benediction which took place at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral Sunday October 10th.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Moon Bahamas
    Please give us an update on the Moon Bahamas project. Their last news was the press release on July 30, 2004, in which M. R. Henderson, Chairman of MJH Holdings, announced The Bahamas as the site for this large project. Silence since then is deafening.
     What is holding this project up? The Bahamas, especially now following the hurricanes, is in need for more quality employment opportunities. Moon Bahamas design and construction would jump start new job creation and inflow of foreign capital. And as the project becomes reality, many, many new permanent jobs will be created that will not be as "here today, gone tomorrow" as traditional tourist related jobs apparently are. We need this kind of job diversity and stability very badly.
     It is incumbent upon our PM to make sure that all obstacles to the project have been removed so that it can proceed immediately. Many families will benefit.
     Look forward to your report.
Respectfully,
WYLTK

PS: - Be interested to read your take on Canadian tycoon Michael Henderson's charge (The Freeport News, October 5, 2004) that he's getting a cold shoulder from the government on his request to spend $12 million to conduct a feasibility study for the Moon Bahamas project. Mr. Henderson said he's not asking permission (yet) to start building, only to do the studies needed to assure that the project makes sense.
Probably there are two sides to this argument, and since we have only heard one side would be interested in hearing the other, too. In my view, Mr. Henderson should be given a go ahead right away with the clear provisos that no permission to start construction is implied and will depend on environmental and other studies. Clearly, the $12 million will create some greatly needed economic stimulation for Grand Bahama Island.
WYLTK

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM

BACK TO BUSINESS – Members of the Grand Bahama business community were fully briefed Wednesday 13th October on the various hurricane relief programmes of the government. Prime Minister Christie led a high level delegation to the nation’s second city to meet businesspeople and to hear their concerns. The Prime Minister listened empathetically to many poignant stories of the damage done by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, while reassuring the business leaders of the government’s assistance and support. “I travelled with key leaders of the government’s ‘hurricane action’ ministries”, said Mr. Christie, “so that there would be no mistaking the fact that we are working as a matter of the utmost urgency to have Freeport and Grand Bahama back on track in the shortest possible time”. From left are Minister of State for Finance the Hon. James Smith, Minister of Financial Services and Investment the Hon. Allyson Maynard Gibson, Minister of Tourism the Hon. Obie Wilchcombe, Minister of Housing & National Insurance the Hon. Shane Gibson, Mr. Christie and Minister of Works, the Hon. Bradley Roberts.

IN THE NAME OF DUTY - Members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force team assigned to assist in managing the hurricane relief effort in Grand Bahama broke into spontaneous applause throughout an emotional talk by the Prime Minister Wednesday at Police Headquarters in Grand Bahama. Mr. Christie stopped to thank the officers who were sent from Nassau for their “exemplary service to country in the line of duty in hurricane ravaged Grand Bahama”.

Mr. Christie used the occasion to introduce the concept of the Urban Renewal Programme to Grand Bahama, where teams of key officers from the Police, Defence Force and ‘social action’ Ministries identify and remedy the needs and challenges of Bahamians and their families in distressed situations wherever they exist. Urban renewal teams are now working throughout all areas of Grand Bahama. Mr. Christie pointed out to the uniformed officers that they were essential to the process of identifying and solving the problems of “those at risk of falling through the cracks”. The Prime Minister lauded the leadership of Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade in charge of Grand Bahama and encouraged the officers to so conduct themselves that they continued to earn respect for their contributions to the well being of the nation.

BOOK LAUNCH - During the week, Prime Minister Christie attended the launch of a new book, marking the 275th Anniversary of the establishment of a Parliament in The Bahamas. The book was published by Wendall Jones, publisher of the Bahama Journal. The Prime Minister is shown discussing the book at the launching with former Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest. BIS photos by Peter Ramsay

PM & SERENA! - And finally... we just couldn't resist this photograph of the Prime Minister and international tennis star Serena Williams. Enjoy. Vision photo - Tim Aylen

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NO, ARTHUR FOULKES
Although Sir Arthur Foulkes was a minister a very long time ago, and although he seems enamoured of the Colonial British Civil Servants that he met in office when he got there back in 1967, and although he should know better given their role in his political undoing, it appears that he doesn’t. The Minister for the Public Service Fred Mitchell repeated a comment in his address to the public service on Friday 8th October that there was a need for allies of a Minister to be appointed in between the public service and the minister to help him do his job. Sir Arthur Foulkes disagrees with this. He said that this was an astonishing thing for a grown man to say. No, Sir Arthur! It is not astonishing at all. It is a sensible thing, and it is important to recognize the difference between seeking propaganda advantages and a sensible political point on which all sides agree if they would only be truthful. You may click here for the Minister’s full address.

A report published by Demos and authored by Ed Straw in the United Kingdom is instructive on the issue of public service reform. It has now recommended that there be just such a layer of political people in Britain between the Permanent Secretary and the Minister to help facilitate the Minister's work. Those people will leave six months after the Minister leaves in order to help with the transition to the next Minister. The report, although about Britain, is instructive to those like Arthur Foulkes who are either unwilling or unable to see what is being said and why change has to come. It is simply untenable for the public service to remain the way it is and hope for it to continue to serve the country well. Everyone knows it. Sir Arthur should help lead the revolution instead of appearing to be urging us to remain in the dinosaur age. He knows better and the country expects better of him. Sir Arthur’s comments were made in his column of Tuesday 19th October.

Here is what the report from Britain says in part: “Imagine becoming chief executive of a large organization and being told that the entire management are ‘independent’, that you have no control over their major levers of motivation - recruitment, promotion and reward - and that they operate as a separate organization with a mind of its own. Modern organizations do not and cannot work like that. Neither can government…

“Reform would not be about ‘politicizing’ the civil service in the way the word is traded politically, for example, in getting civil servants to cross the boundary between government and party activity. There is no reason why fundamental reform in accordance with the policies of an elected government should be politicization.”

Arthur Foulkes and his colleagues in the Free National Movement would do well to read this report, inwardly digest it and accept its findings as part of the way forward in The Bahamas. (You may click here for the full report.) If they ever win again, and they do not support these initiatives they will find themselves in great difficulty in trying to manage their objectives in such a moribund system.

The British report points out that it is always the view of Opposition parties to resist reform, making the case to civil servants that they (the Opposition) are the protectors of the rights and privileges of the public service; rights that the Government wants to take away. The Opposition knows that is simply not the case but it is convenient to make that case because they think that it can help to get votes. And that is the problem: the short term advantage for continued long term damage. Men like Arthur Foulkes in their senior years are supposed to be beyond that and looking to higher levels of argument, now that the politics of election competition is no longer a necessity. And so it is we who were astonished, yea even appalled at the column, in the newspaper written attacking the reform effort on Tuesday 19th October in The Tribune.

Arthur Foulkes says that the idea of bringing in what he called “political operatives” would be a recipe for disaster. Not so. He goes further: “This Government already has too many advisers and consultants, some only to stroke the egos of deficient ministers and get in the way of officials who are trying to do a job for the country”.

This comment is simply wrong and insulting to the professional people who have been hired as consultants, and who do an excellent job for and on behalf of the Bahamian people. Further, the number of consultants is no different from the number hired by the FNM; in fact they are less in number. It simply does not follow as Arthur Foulkes suggests that because someone is not a public servant in the normal sense that we understand it that this person is incapable of making a contribution to the efficient running of the country. No one on the permanent and pensionable establishment has a monopoly on patriotism and efficiency.

Arthur Foulkes goes on to quote the Tory Party Chairman in Britain to support his arguments. But that is precisely the point the report makes. The Opposition, which the Tory party is in London, always finds it convenient to oppose civil service reform even though they know in their heart of hearts there must be a better way. No one is arguing that there ought to be a cadre of political operatives. What is being argued is that the present structure does not submit easily to the efficient running of the government service and to effecting the control over the direction of the Government that the constitution envisages.

You can argue until the cows come home that the civil service is independent. Yes it is in the partisan political sense. But no it is clearly not in another sense since the public service and its managers have clear points of view, many of them opposed to the Ministers they serve and there is no neutrality in any sense in their advice and in the execution of directions or as is sometimes the case, the failure to act. The tactic of stall, delay and defer becomes ever more clear as a party gets past the mid term years and closer to having to call another election.

Nothing that Arthur Foulkes argues in his column should cause the reform effort to falter or for the Minister of the Public Service or Prime Minister to change his mind. Please click here for the Prime Minister’s address on the matter of public service reform. It is unfortunate that Arthur Foulkes sees himself as opposing the reform effort. We agree that there ought to be a consensus on the issue but the stage cannot be set by first arguing that the status quo must remain. The status quo has to change, since that is very much the cause of the problems we face.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 23rd October 2004 at midnight: 64,754.

Number of hits for the month of September up to Saturday 23rd October at midnight: 196,680.

Number of hits for the year 2004 up to Saturday 23rd October at midnight: 2,167,712.

EILEEN CARRON AND BLANKENSHIP
    Eileen Carron, the publisher of The Tribune, has the strangest associates. She takes up the strangest causes. There is also no secret that the Bahamian people were generally unhappy about the last U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas J. Richard Blankenship. It is also interesting that where the Bahamian people saw a meddlesome diplomat who did not know how to hold his tongue or to properly speak to the Bahamian government on behalf of his government, that Eileen Carron would see a straight shooting patriot who should be praised. That is the interpretation that she placed on the tenure of the last Ambassador and that is fine if that is what she believes, even though the facts say otherwise.
    The problem is that one wonders why the issue has come up now in an editorial in her paper published on Wednesday 20th October. It seemed to come out of the blue. It is also interesting that on the day that the new U.S. Ambassador John Rood presented his credentials at Government House in September that there was a big press announcement saying that the former Ambassador was sending hurricane relief supplies to The Bahamas to help the Red Cross.
    If we weren’t so slow, we would think that there is a deliberate attempt to promote the image of one Ambassador who is gone, and to detract from the new Ambassador who has been by most accounts a smashing success in The Bahamas in the way he relates to people and in trying to get his country's message across. There is no comparison in the styles of the two men, many diplomats here say. The report is that the staff at the Embassy are relieved that they have a creditable boss who listens to their concerns. Many Bahamians think it is like night versus day.
    The Bahamian people also remember that the U.S. Embassy was forced to issue a clarification as a result of a letter allegedly written by Mr. Blankenship to The Punch, which claimed that Mr. Blankenship was still the non resident Ambassador to The Bahamas because a new Ambassador had not yet been appointed. The U.S. announcement said that Mr. Blankenship was no longer an Ambassador and did not speak for the U.S. Government in the Bahamas. Now all we have to do is to get Eileen Carron used to that fact.
    And one point of correction Mrs. Carron, the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Defence Force was laid on the table of the House of Assembly and is a public document, contrary to the erroneous assertion in your editorial. But what should we expect from you. Never let the truth interfere with a good story.

LESLIE MILLER’S IMAGE

Leslie Miller, the Minister of Trade and Industry has been getting a bum rap. He has also had a hard time what with the death of this mother and the death of his son, all since he was a Minister of the Government. Then there were the lurid headlines in the gutter press alleging a relationship gone bad. This past week, though he has come shining through for the Straw Vendors and for the constituents of Blue Hills (see Photo of the Week). Stan Burnside, the cartoonist, published two cartoons reflecting those facts one on Monday October 18th, following the delivery of the repaired roof for the straw market. The storm destroyed the first one. The other when he defended his constituents published on Wednesday 20th October.

THE ANGLICAN REPORT

    The Anglican Church can be described as being as democratic as a drawbridge. That observation was only reinforced this week with the release on Monday 18th October of the Windsor Report. The report was commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to investigate how the church could heal itself following the big row over the ordination of Eugene Robinson, the openly gay Bishop of a diocese in New Hampshire in the United States.
    The report is a great deal of historical and legalistic detail on the Anglican Communion, how it functions and how it links together. It did not enter into the theological arguments about homosexuality or the morality or lack thereof, except tangentially to refer to the doctrine of “adiaphora” literally from Greek “things that do not matter”. Lawyers refer to this in the expression 'de minimus'. The Report says that it was not de minimus and that fact seemed to lay the basis for the recommendations of the report which include strengthening the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, calling for a set of articles of faith that would more fully define Anglicanism and how the communion hangs together, a call for official regret to be made by the offending dioceses who ordained the gay bishop and have had same sex blessings, a call for official regret from those who interfered in other parishes by ordaining and confirming parishioners that were not theirs, calling for a moratorium on all further same sex blessings and ordinations.
    The expressions of regret were called for because it had caused upset in the communion and they were to express regret not for the offence itself but for causing the upset. Further, the language was interpreted by Bishop Eugene Robinson speaking to Time magazine to mean that it only affects public blessings and rites of same sex couples. The immediate reaction seemed warm to it. Indeed, our own Archbishop Drexel Gomez seemed to set the tone when before he left for London he talked about the need to heal on both sides. The African Archbishop of Nigeria was having none of it, however, he says that there should have been outright condemnation of the act itself.
    The Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire immediately expressed regret, which gives the feeling that this dance was all worked out in advance and maybe just maybe the bullet has been dodged. The Anglican Church has always been able to work out compromises. Some have questioned the jurisdiction of the Bahamian and West Indian Churches to enter into the argument over what New Hampshire had done. His Grace of course chose otherwise, and we now see why, because it continues to make the Church in the West Indies relevant in the wider body and therefore with some continued worldwide influence.
    The Windsor report is a masterful document in the language of compromise. The Anglican Communion is worth saving for those folks, old fashioned that they may be, who feel a sense of belonging to the history and traditions in which they were brought up and apparently that scripture, morals and beliefs are evolving, with all having to work together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Please click here for the text of the Windsor report. Archbishop Robert Eames of the Church of Ireland, who chaired the Lambeth Commission, at a news conference releasing the Windsor Report. Russell Boyce/Reuters

BERYL HANNA IN HOSPITAL
Beryl Hanna, the wife of the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Deputy Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party was hospitalized during the week at the Princess Margaret Hospital. No public announcement was made. Mrs. Hanna is now back home. We wish her well.
Together with Lady Marguerite Pindling, Mrs. Hanna, who hails originally from Bristol, England where she met her husband as a law student, was a pioneer in the fight for economic and political justice for Bahamians in the fight for majority rule in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980s Mrs. Hanna led the anti apartheid movement in The Bahamas as the Honorary Chair of the Bahamas Committee on Southern Africa. Beryl Hanna is also the mother of Minister of Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna Martin.

FOREIGN MINISTER AT AUTEC

The Americans are in a very privileged position in the world. They seem to be the richest, most powerful people, and wherever they go, they seem to carry with them a special look and impact, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and the Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet took time out to visit officially the Americans’ Atlantic Underwater Testing and Evaluation Centre, known as AUTEC. It is there that on 429 acres since

1963 that the British, the US and NATO have been involved in doing research on submarine warfare. The US pays about ten million dollars to The Bahamas Government per annum. The Bahamas government became successors of the treaty obligations in 1973.
    The Ministers went to see what goes on at the base and then hold a community meeting with the Bahamians who work at the base. There are some 191 employees who are Bahamian and they have a variety of complaints that came out in a raucous town meeting at the Lighthouse Club in Andros Town, Andros on Wednesday 20th October. The Ministers counselled patience, restraint and told the employees they would follow up on the matters.
    The new U.S. Ambassador John Rood has made a good impression on The Bahamas with a pleasant low key style that endears him to Bahamians. He has started off well. No doubt, there will be good progress on all sides while he is here and the AUTEC issues will have to be referred by the Ministers to him to see how they can be worked through. The Ambassador led the tour with Commander Richard Lovell.
    In the aggregate, however, Bahamians who work at AUTEC and Andros generally ought to realize the importance of the facility to the life of Andros and to the ability of those 191 employed people to feed their families. There must be a balance struck between the need for improved industrial relations and ensuring that the base remains viable, cost effective and there. Bahamas Information Services photos by Eric Rose.

COME AGAIN ZHIVARGO LAING
(By guest columnist Sharon Zoe Smith)
    Judging by the column last week on Thursday 21st October in The Tribune of Zhivargo Laing, former Minister of Economic Development, someone appears to have been egregiously wounded. For that we are simply sorry if there was personal offence taken, but c’est la vie. As they say, if you can’t stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen. They also say that the laws of physics tell you that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That said; the former Minister has done it again by a gratuitous attack on his friend Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is a particular bent of his, a good face but a vicious attack from the political platform.
    Mr. Laing described the Minister's conduct on the Radio Show of Jeff Lloyd on Wednesday 13th October as “whining” and he went further to suggest that the Minister ought to stop travelling up and down to “social events” so that he might do a better job at home. What Mr. Laing described as whining was the Minister’s view that many of the issues involved in delaying hurricane relief had to do with the lack of institutional knowledge. This means that although we have done it all before, the public service itself seems to have left the playbook behind. All that knowledge was taken with Hubert Ingraham's head when he was defeated in 2002. The former Minister's comment about Mr. Mitchell’s comment was that it wasn't institutional knowledge that was lacking but common sense. Ouch!
    That is precisely the problem many people find with Mr. Laing. Here is a professed born again Christian, openly so and for which we applaud him, trading in petty and politically dishonest potshots that he knows are simply not correct and for him should be infra dig. In his private moments, why does he not think before he writes? For example, one expects from an intelligent man the fact that it is the job of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to travel to other countries and meet with persons from other countries. It is not simply a matter of attending ‘social’ functions. Those ‘social’ functions are the interaction of nations.
    The difficulty is that Mr. Laing is so hard headed and will not learn to have his arguments pitched above the fray and then takes offence when he is rapped across the knuckles. If you stay above the fray then the question will always be the issues and the arguments, not about who stopped traffic in Eight Mile Rock and who was whisked though the airport as he wrote in a previous article. (Click here for 10th Oct. comment) Stuff that he must know is simply untrue and unfair commentary. Mr. Laing let’s hear what your ideas are about the future. The pettiness should stop. We think that you are better than that.

FOREIGN MINISTER IN THE CARIBBEAN
The Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell has begun a series of official visits to the Caribbean. First, he stopped to visit with the students in Jamaica at the University of the West Indies at Mona and at the University of the Northern Caribbean in Mandeville. That was Thursday and Friday 21st and 22nd October. He then left Jamaica to go to Barbados where a retreat of Foreign Ministers of the Caribbean begins Sunday until Wednesday. Following that the Minister will leave for a two day visit to the Dominican Republic for talks with the Foreign Minister there and a courtesy call on the President of the Dominican Republic. Minister Mitchell returns to The Bahamas on Friday 29th October for a two day visit to Freeport and then home to Nassau.

TONIQUE SIGNS ON TO BATELCO

The Olympic gold medalist in the 400 metre race Tonique Williams Darling is to become the official spokesman for BaTelCo, the Bahamas Telecommunications Company, at a fee of $25,000 per year for two years. The announcement was made during a special luncheon in her honour at the Sandals Resort on Monday 18th October in the presence of Cabinet Ministers and executives of the company.
Michael Symonette, the CEO said of Tonique's contract: “Williams Darling is a widely recognized national hero who happened to share many of the same values and beliefs that are important to BTC in its present position of re-engineering.” Mrs. Williams Darlings said: “I was extremely honoured when I received a call in Athens just moments after my race to tell about endorsing products and services of BTC to the rest of the world. The mere fact that you were the first company to approach me speaks volumes because it means that you won that race.”

AMNESTY ATTACK ON THE DETENTION CENTRE
    Amnesty International is one of the most respected organizations in the world. It does a great job in exposing the abuse of individuals the world over who cannot fend for themselves. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, the Attorney General Alfred Sears and the Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin in particular have been known for their human rights activism while in Opposition. It must then have been a particular embarrassment for Amnesty to make a report which said that the Government has not been paying attention to the Detention Centre, which is used to house migrants who await deportation.
    The charges were serious; from the abuse of those detained by severe beatings, to housing children there in contravention of the Convention on Children and depriving them of milk, to making detainees stand against a wall without food and water. The organization also alleged that the right to asylum procedures was being denied the migrants there. The news made the international press and there was a letter writing campaign flooding Bahamian offices around the world with denunciations.
    The Minister for Immigration ordered an immediate investigation. There appears to be some truth to the allegations. The Minister of Foreign Affairs told the Miami Herald that The Bahamas has no interest in a cover up of any kind and that where abuses are discovered, they will be corrected.

BAPTIST DAY

Last Sunday as we were uploading this page, the Bahamas Baptist Missionary and Education Convention was massing its members, all Baptists Bahamas wide, for its annual Baptist Day parade. It is a fantastic array of persons, costumes and music. The Baptists turned out in mass, led by the Rev. Dr. William Thompson. Each year, the parade seems to get bigger and bigger. Many of the churches now have bands. The bands are an interesting form of community outreach. The development of these bands has been helped by the Government's decision to allow support for them through the Ministry of Youth and allowing certain instruments and uniforms to come into the country duty free. Photo of Dr. Thompson on the parade from the Nassau Guardian.

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH CARL BETHEL?
Carl Bethel was doing to the talk show circuit, and in his usual fashion managed to create some confusion where there should be none. Mr. Bethel was Hubert Ingraham's last Attorney General. He therefore thinks of himself as a particular legal genius. He has this penchant for throwing in a little bit of law, mixing it up with some politics and by resort to that, seeking to throw the layman off. The Bahamian public could easily be caught off guard therefore by his pronouncements. His latest pronouncement is that the resolution by the Government to allow Sidney Stubbs, the bankrupted MP for Holy Cross, six months to prosecute his appeal, was unconstitutional. Our legal analyst’s response was, “Say what?”
The basis that Carl Bethel claims is that the Constitution says that you can only get the extension if an appeal is open to the member. Mr. Bethel claims that following the ruling of the Court of Appeal there is no appeal open to Mr. Stubbs. The only problem with that is that there is one level of appeal left; that is to the Privy Council. Mr. Stubbs to the best of our knowledge, information and belief has filed a petition for special leave to appeal. That means that a further course of appeal is open to him. He may or may not be successful but he still has that one last layer left. Duh!

SOUTH AFRICA DEFENDS ITSELF
    Haitian interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue attacked South Africa on Sunday 17th October. He said that President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa was taking a big risk in sheltering former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide because he is a symbol of the violence in Haiti. “No respectable president would allow a person in his territory to organize violence in another country. Mr. Mbeki is not respecting international law.”
    On Monday 18th October Aziz Pahad, Deputy Foreign Minister of South Africa dismissed the attack: “South Africa rejects with contempt the attack on the integrity of President Mbeki and dismisses the insinuation that its territory is being used as a springboard by president Jean Bertrand Aristide to destabilize Haiti through violent means.
    “South Africa and indeed Present Mbeki, cannot be used as a scapegoat for failure by the interim Haitian authorities to bring about peace and stability in Haiti.”
    Mr. Aristide himself joined the fray on Wednesday 20th October when he was quoted as saying that it was Mr. Latortue’s failures that led to the violence.
    We agree and found that Mr. Latortue’s statement was ill advised and irresponsible. The fact is that Mr. Aristide is a power in Haiti and the more they try to ignore that fact, the more difficult it will be to rebuild the country.

BAD ACCIDENTS BY AIR AND ON LAND

A Southern Air flight carrying 8 passengers and two crew crashed landed in waters just south of the airport in Nassau on Friday 23rd October. No one was hurt. It appears that the plane might have run out of gas. We regret to report the death of Sgt. Byron Forbes of the Interpol Unit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force who while overtaking a long line of cars along the Interfield Road (JFK Drive) lost his life in an accident with an ambulance operated by the Air Ambulance service. That too happened on Friday 23rd October. There may also have been a vehicular homicide in Pinedale in Nassau on the night of 23rd October. A man was rolled over by a car, then shot by armed men. There was another traffic fatality that same night in South Andros. This past weekend, five people were being buried in Nassau as a result of traffic accidents. Add to all that the fact that there was a double murder in Cat Island Tuesday evening 19th October. Dead are 28 year old Bahamian Victor Hoyte and 49 year old American resident Carol Meredith. The two were killed at their homes, some 15 miles apart but Police suspect the incidents to be connected. A 28 year old man had been assisting Police with their enquiries and is expected to be charged in Nassau early this week. Sergeant Byron Forbes was announced dead on the scene after the 1990 navy blue Oldsmobile Royale he was driving collided with an Air Ambulance on JFK Friday. The jaws of life had to be used to remove Sgt. Forbes' body from the car. According to eyewitnesses, he had a female passenger with him, his fiancé, who survived the crash. The ambulance passengers also survived the collision, but still went to hospital for observation. Nassau Guardian photo by Letisha Henderson

T. RICARDO WHYLLY MARRIES

Senator the Honourable T. Ricardo Whylly, Traver to his friends, got married on Friday in fine style at the Crystal Palace Hotel. Senator Whylly married the former Otalia Pinder as Senate colleagues, Cabinet Ministers, PLPs both high and from the ranks joined hundreds of other friends and well wishers of the couple. The wedding was consecrated by no less than six reverend gentlemen of various Christian denominations, prompting Prime Minister the Right Honourable Perry Christie to remark in his congratulations to the couple that he had "never seen such pomp and pageantry" at a similar occasion. The groom is a special assistant to the Prime Minister and the bride is the sister of Marathon MP Ron Pinder. Best wishes to the Whyllys. Photo by Peter Ramsay.

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM

This week the Prime Minister visited the St. Thomas More constituency to officiate at the opening of a Computer Research Centre by Frank Smith, Member of Parliament for the area. The computers in the centre were donated by the groups 100 Black Men of America and 100 Black Men of New Providence, through the offices of local member, accountant Mr. Bill Wallace. The Prime Minister lauded the effort of the 100 Black Men and that of Mr. Smith and reminded the MP to pay special attention to the needs of the young men of the area, who like their counterparts across The Bahamas and the region were in danger of being left behind. Mr. Christie also used the occasion to promise the nation to a rousing ovation from the crowd that the years of pain in the economy were about to be replaced by years of plenty. You may click here for the address of St. Thomas More MP Frank Smith.
The Prime Minister also this week received a courtesy call from the new American Ambassador John Ruud. Mr. Ruud and the PM are pictured in this Bahamas Information photograph by Peter Ramsay.

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THIS TIME NEXT WEEK
Next Sunday it will all be over. Those who are predicting a close election, and how there will be electoral problems in the United States are, to use a US vernacular term, “whistling Dixie”. The election will not be close. The result will be clear, and the trend will be known quite early on in the night. There will be no confusion. We think that George W. Bush will win the election hands down, and without any quarrel over the matter this time.

This is in contradistinction to what most Bahamian people would wish for. Their wish is undoubtedly that John Kerry will win, despite the doubts being voiced in this column and by most of the pundits that the Republicans are always better for The Bahamas. There is no doubt that The Bahamas is in step with the other parts of the world that think that the George Bush Presidency has brought the world to the brink with one problem after another, and that it would best if they did not have to deal with him over the next four years.

In an earlier column on this site, that was the analysis of the situation that seemed to come from Caribbean perspectives as well. Most people in the Caribbean at the official level believed that while John Kerry would bring a better quality to the conversation make the conservation easier, they did not think he would win. They go further and think that the Caribbean ought to be steeling itself for a very difficult four years ahead in the second George W. Bush presidency.

The feeling is that with the new strategy of regime change, and of pre-emptive action that there will be an immediate move to dislodge Fidel Castro from Cuba. The consequences of such a forcible move will be disastrous for the region and most unwise. There is also a feeling that Chavez in Venezuela will be next on the regime change list. The question is: given what the Caricom leaders saw with Haiti, will they be able to stand up for their principles again this time in the face of a direct military threat to the people of Cuba by the United States?

The problem of Haiti still exists. The Caricom countries are more resolute than ever that Haiti’s President Jean Bertrand Aristide was dislodged by a coup and that the coup was supported by the United States. The trouble that is happening in Haiti cannot be solved unless Jean Bertrand Aristide is made a partner in trying to solve the problem. If George W. Bush is re-elected, you can look to see an increasing confrontation on the Haitian issue. And the difficulty is that there will be no Colin Powell in the administration to smooth the way, and make relations better with the White House.

Some are arguing that with the reelection George Bush, he will be like his father a kinder gentler soul. They argue that he will feel that he no longer has to listen to the right wing on issues because they will have voted and dispensed with their votes and he having no further elections to face does not have to listen to them again. We happen to think the opposite. Right now he is being restrained by moderate opinion because he wants to get reelected. We think that his real instincts are really with the right wing, and when reelected he will have no longer to be concerned about moderate opinion. He can dispense with all restraint, and proceed with a straight out right wing agenda.

And so all over The Bahamas in these waning days before the election, people in The Bahamas are talking, some are taking bets and polls of what will or will not happen, suggesting that it will make a difference. It doesn’t matter really. The United States and its policies will basically be the same toward small countries like ours. Our lot is to try and manage the relationship so that we continue to survive with a high quality of life and don't get mashed up by the giants. It will be up to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet and in particular the Minister of Foreign Affair to whom the Bahamian people will look for their continued survival in the arena. This is a serious time and a serious thing. Never before are the skills of diplomacy and negotiation more needed. We believe we can expect four difficult years, and how we meet that challenge before some possible relief will come will take all the common skills and exceptional skills at the command of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the diplomats and officers who work for that Ministry.

Next week this time, our view is George Bush will be reelected the President of the United States. We will be learning to live with four more years. Believe it! Brace for it!

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 30th October 2004 at midnight: 64, 823.

Number of hits for the month of October up to Saturday 30th October 2004 at midnight: 261,503.

Number of hits for the year 2004 up to Saturday 30th October 2004 at midnight: 2,232,535.

HOTEL PLANT IN GRAND BAHAMA
    It is said that some 4000 jobs have been lost in Grand Bahama with the two storms that hit the island in September. Most of those jobs were lost in the hotel sector. Thirteen hundred people alone lost their jobs at the Royal Oasis Hotels that used to be known as the Princess Hotels. The hotel plant in Grand Bahama is considerably down, with one of the casinos only now coming back into action, and with the Our Lucaya Hotels both the Westin and Sheraton being out of commission. The only hotel that is operating effectively is the Pelican Bay suite hotel.
    With 4000 people out of work in Grand Bahama, that means that the revenue of the government, the revenue of store owners will all be suffering adversely. Many people are still without their homes repaired, and the insurance adjusters and many of the residents are in the thick of a fight in order to get compensation so they can begin to repair their lives. One man explained what a relief it was for the family to have the roof repaired, and some five weeks after the storm struck, to be able to get electricity back into the house again. Bahamians throughout the country are busy beating up on themselves about how the storm damage has not been repaired quickly enough. This is fed by an Opposition party that is seeking to make the whole question of hurricane repair a political matter.
    Shane Gibson, the Minister of Housing, sent a shot across the bow of Tommy Turnquest, the Free National Movement Leader of the Opposition outside of the House of Assembly. He warned him to stop making the business of hurricane repair political. It is said that throughout the hurricane damaged areas, FNM partisans are showing up ostensibly to fix roofs and repair damage, but they are showing up in FNM T shirts with the slogan “We Care” on the shirt. It will then only be a matter of time before the PLP has to strike back.
    Perhaps the FNM ought to go back and read what Eileen Carron, their defender of the faith, had to say. She believes that political parties should not have hurricane relief committees, especially the PLP. We say then: “Physician heal thyself!” In other words, the FNM should follow her medicine. The PLP of course should simply ignore her and do the work that they were elected to do.
    The Government is concerned that the hotels get back up and running in Abaco, Exuma, Grand Bahama, San Salvador and Eleuthera. The faster those programmes get going, the better for the country and the sense of normalcy returning to the country. As a result of the storm, there has been a cut back in all Government departments in spending. Some are saying that 30 million dollars will be lost in Government revenue because of the storms.
    Some cautiously good news of out Grand Bahama came from Donald Archer, the Senior Vice President of the Royal Oasis Resort in Grand Bahama who says that they will try to rehire all 1300 employees of the company who were laid off. He added that right now 330 persons are on staff, with 80 involved in construction. It is hoped that this will increase as the construction begins in earnest. Construction was delayed because of the shortage of building materials in Florida, so the original opening date in February had to be postponed to April. The remarks were made in The Tribune Friday 28th October.

BOYCOTTING SUPERVALUE
The Bahamas Commercial Stores Supermarket and Warehouse Workers Union having won the hearts and minds of the employees of City Markets, after more than a decade of trying, are now after the hearts and minds Super Value. They have a recognition agreement but they cannot get the owner of Super Value Rupert Roberts to sit down and negotiate an industrial agreement that will set out the rules and procedures for life at the workplace. Men like Mr. Roberts hate unions and resist to the bitter end the struggle for justice of workers.
Mr. Roberts is an employer who once said that the problem in the supermarket sector is that Bahamian employees stole too much. The problem with that is that he did not know that nor did not realize that once he made such a sweeping statement that he as a Bahamian was also condemning himself and his customers were likely to ask: well should we be looking more carefully at your pricing? Mr. Roberts is a good man, having built himself from poverty to a very wealthy man today, but he should sit down and treat with the union so that an agreement for the workers can be signed. The Union said that if they are unable to arrive at such an agreement they would urge a boycott of Super Value.

TEACHERS UNION IN PROBLEMS?

No one was quite sure how you spell the word “Jungalist” until it appeared in the newspapers of The Bahamas over the past week. It means a person who dresses and behaves in a sexy, racy style and is almost like a prostitute. The President of the Bahamas Union of Teachers Kingsley Black (pictured) suspended two teachers who were shop stewards in the union the troublesome Belinda Wilson who caused difficulties at the Doris Johnson High School and Ida Poitier of Albury Sayles Primary School. The teachers were suspended for what Mr. Black called their “jungalist” actions by leading a petition for the reversal of the increase by $16 of dues for the union. The Union is in dire financial straights and cannot pay its bills. Yet the members up to now refuse to agree to change the dues. The dues were changed and now the two suspended teachers are leading a petition to have that reversed.
There is some interesting background going on here. Mr. Black is most likely not a candidate for re-election to the Union's presidency. Ms. Wilson wants to succeed him, and so the pressure is being put on him by Ms. Wilson so that this can set the stage for her election when the election time comes around next year. Mr. Black had to reprimand Ms. Wilson before when she led the walkout several weeks ago from the Dame Doris Johnson High School, which led to the suspension of classes at that school. Now she is getting into other trouble, and the reports are that the police had to be called to the Union's headquarters in order to stop problems when the two insurgents and their lawyers tried to barge into the meeting of the Union on Tuesday 26th October. Mr. Black is confident that he has the full support of the executive committee, and he said that the two members have no regard for the truth.

YASSER ARAFAT

Yasser Arafat (pictured), the leader of the Palestinian people, was airlifted out of his compound and capital Ramallah on the West Bank to Paris for medical treatment. Mr. Arafat is 75 years old. He is a real champion. The Israeli Government had no choice but to allow him to leave and despite their threats to kill him and to never allow him back, they have now said that he is free to go and will be allowed back. We wish him well.
The Bahamian community sees Mr. Arafat’s struggle in the same terms as that of the Black South African against apartheid, and the brutal suppression of the Palestinian struggle by the Israeli government. Many Bahamians find it very strange in the face of the known persecution of the Jewish people through the ages that this nation would engage in such a brutal occupation without any idea where this is all going to end up, and certainly it won’t be with peace if it keeps up this way. Kudos for the French government for arranging the airlift and medical treatment.

FOREIGN MINISTER IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell is back from a three country tour of the Caribbean, which began on Thursday 21st October. Mr. Mitchell was accompanied by High Commissioner to Caricom Leonard Archer. They travelled to Jamaica, Barbados and to the Dominican Republic.
    While in Jamaica, the Minister met with the student communities there at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies and the University of the Northern Caribbean in Mandeville, Jamaica. The photo shows the Minister with members of The Bahamas Students at Mona. Back row from left: Sergio D. Kerr, Vice President; Akin Minnis, Chair, Cultural and Entertainment Affairs; Don Diego Deveaux, Treasurer; Jansen Johnson, Assistant Treasurer; Aisha Miller, Assistant Secretary; Phyllis Darville, Secretary and Arlington Lightbourne, Public Relations Officer. Front row from left are Ambassador Archer, Ms. Keva Hilton, Honorary Consul designate; Minister Mitchell and Cindy Simon the President of the BSA.
    From Jamaica the Minister travelled to Barbados for the retreat of Foreign Ministers of Caricom. There was a wide-ranging discussion of issues including the impacts of the hurricanes in the Caribbean and on Haiti. But the question of where the Caribbean should be headed was discussed in an informal forum and the path is now set to make certain, far reaching recommendations to Heads of Government when they meet in Trinidad and Tobago on 8th November.
    The ground breaking visit of the Minister's Caribbean tour, however, was to the Dominican Republic. The Minister said that The Bahamas has been trying to reach out to that country since it came to office. It is the last of the independent countries in the region with which we need to have some greater human contact. Bahamasair is to start flights there on 15th November. While there Minister Mitchell met with Carlos Morales, the Foreign Minister and Lionel Fernandez, the President of the country. They discussed the issues of fisheries, Haiti, Cuba, the Organization of American States, Caricom relations and wider trade co-operation.
    On fishing, the Minister has asked the Dominican government to use its best efforts to restrain Dominican fishermen from poaching in Bahamian waters. The Minister told the Nassau Guardian that one of the problems was that quite apart from the poaching, Dominican fishermen were taking juvenile conch, fish and lobsters out of the sea and this would affect the sustainability of the resource. There are to be follow up meetings with that government to seek to settle the issue.

ARCHBISHOP ON HOMOSEXUALITY AGAIN
(By guest columnist Sharon Zoe Smith)

    It is sometimes difficult to fathom how the Anglican Church works in the West Indies. Some things should simply be left alone. But left alone they are not. The Windsor Report which was published last week, and which our friends in this column so faithfully reported on last week, came up with what last week’s column called a good compromise on the subject of ordaining gay men and women to the priesthood. The Archbishop of the West Indies and our local Bishop Drexel Gomez seemed to be part of the compromise and had called for healing. That seemed to be leaning in the right direction. But no sooner had the words of the report been issued did the African Church first attack the report asking where was the condemnation for the sin that had been committed. They called a conference in Nigeria at which a politician who has 27 children out of wedlock, namely the President of Nigeria Olegun Obasanjo, praised them for standing up to the western church and calling homosexuality an abomination and sin against God’s law.
    The Anglican Synod began on Monday 25th October at Christ Church Cathedral. The Bishop was at his most fiery on the subject. He said that homosexuality would not be tolerated, and that same sex unions the same, and they would never be blessed by the Anglican Church. It is always a difficult thing to say when something will never be done. The whole history of the church, especially one like the Anglican Church, is change. And it is clear that some theological practices that were thought to be unacceptable are today quite acceptable. One has also to be careful what rules you apply from a Biblical text written for an ancient people wandering around in a desert thousands of years ago. The fact is that one can be too literal in the interpretation, and in many cases the bible has come through so many translations no one is quite sure what it all means any way. So one must simply be careful by being too condemnatory.
    But the net result is the Anglican Church is right back where it started. There is going to be a meeting in February in London to determine what happens as a result of the report. But the guess of this columnist is that the Anglican Church will simply split with those who want to feel that God's grace belongs to everyone, and all should be welcomed and those who want to continue to be doctrinaire and destroy the very basis of the faith, which has endured thus far. No one predicts destruction of the church as a result but it will certainly be much diminished if it does not become less condemnatory and more relevant to the times. Archbishop Gomez is pictured addressing the 104th Anglican Synod in this photo by Peter Ramsay.

HALLOWEEN

Today is All Hallow’s Eve. This is the eve of All Saints Day. It is called more popularly Halloween and the police in The Bahamas have issued warnings for people to be careful about the use of fireworks. They have also warned parents about how to deal with children during this period. The country is going through a season of murders again. There was a shooting in Cat Island, which led to the death of a foreign woman and a Bahamian man. There was a bullet riddled body found on Thursday 28th October. A woman was shot to death as she alighted a bus in broad daylight on Friday 29th October. It seems that there is one murder every week in The Bahamas. This is clearly a time to be concerned and very careful. Fireman Corporal Kendrick Morris demonstrates firework safety procedures as part of Fire Safety Week in this Nassau Guardian photo by Letisha Henderson.

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS
This morning, Sunday 31st October at 2 a.m. marked the end of Eastern Daylight Saving Time. This ridiculous changing of the time every autumn and every winter is an abomination that should come to an end. We should simply stick to Eastern Standard Time and leave it alone. The difficulty for The Bahamas is that since the U.S. fools around with the time and most of the tourists travelling here may be inconvenienced by having to change their watches ahead or back an hour depending in the time of year, we then are stuck with this stupidity. Now things should go back to normal in our sleeping patterns until the springtime when, once again we will have to fool around with the clock, and wake up the sleepy children for school.

FR. BARRY COMES TO ST. AGNES NASSAU
Richard Marquess Barry is a Canon of the Anglican Church or Episcopalian Church as it is called in the United States. He is the Rector of St. Agnes Church in Overtown, Florida. He is the grandson of a woman from Harbour Island in The Bahamas. St. Agnes Church in Florida was established out of St. Agnes Church in Nassau. It is said that some time around 1897, there was a Black washerwoman singing in the home of some whites in Florida the hymn: “The Church Is One Foundation”. An English priest heard her and asked her where she had learned the hymn. She told him that she was a member of St. Agnes in Nassau, and that she wanted to practice her religion in Miami but could not because there was no church for Blacks to attend. With that the church was founded and today has some 3000 members, most of whom are of Bahamian ancestry. In fact all of the rectors going back fifty years were of Bahamian ancestry. Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell spoke at the Men’s Day service of the Church in Miami earlier this year. Now, Fr. Barry has been invited by St. Agnes Church in Nassau to preach the sermon at the services of today, Sunday 31st October at 7 a.m., 10:30 a.m. 7 p.m. and at 10:30 p.m.

SOUTHERN AIR

    Last week, we reported on this site that there was the crash of a Southern Air charter plane coming back from Cat Island with eight passengers aboard. The plane reportedly lost an engine 40 miles south from the southern shore of New Providence, and then 10 miles out lost the other engine. This occurred on Friday 22nd October. The immediate comment we made from this column was that it appeared that the plane had simply run out of fuel.
    The nature of the accident was similar to one that occurred several years ago when a Royal Bahamas Define Force plane put down in the Lake Killarney, just short of the runway with a full load. It also had simply run out of gas. The difficulty with the Southern Air story is that this is one of a number of small airlines that service The Bahamas in substitution for the lack of service by Bahamasair. Bahamasair has been having these carriers substitute for them on an ad hoc basis, and then in the island of Andros it abandoned the route altogether.
    The question that must be asked generally is whether or not the commuter traffic in The Bahamas by air is safe. The Southern Air disaster while not ending in loss of life should send up a red flag to the Civil Aviation Department and it should conduct a major overhaul of all these airlines to ensure that they are in safety compliance. The talk around the town is that the gauges for the airplane that went down were not working properly.
    How a pilot could take the chance of getting into a plane when the fuel gauges were not working properly is simply mind-boggling. If that proves to be correct, then the question would arise, did he report it to the company, and if the company knew did it do anything about it? We are talking about people’s lives here, and that fuel could have run out just as easily over the ocean between Cat Island and Eleuthera, and all would have ended differently.
    We cannot allow a disaster to happen simply because of negligence. The regulatory atmosphere in this country simply seems too lax. We issue a call for strengthening of the regulatory regime and more strenuous inspections and enforcement. People’s lives are at stake. Southern Air's 19 seater Beechcraft aground in this Bahama Journal photo by Omar Barr.

IAN STRACHAN PERFORMANCE
The Bahamian playwright Ian Strachan will travel with his Track Road Theatre group on 3rd November to perform at Tulane University and Loyola University in New Orleans a revival of his play ‘Diary of Souls’. The play is a fictional account of the drowning of Haitians in the Exuma Cays, trying to reach a better life. Performances will also take place on the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies as part of their commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the independence of Haiti.

BRIGHT BAHAMIAN SPARK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Checking the box scores for College football the other day, we ran across a bright Bahamian spark who’s beginning to show promise. The last time we checked on Eldin Ferguson III, he was playing in high school along with compatriot Rashad Butler for the Dwyer Panthers in West Palm Beach, Florida. Eldin is now in college at Jacksonville University, still in number 88 and still dishing out the old ‘stiff arm’. Box scores from 16th October show Eldin, a junior Wide Receiver from Riviera Beach, Florida leading the game with four catches for 54 yards and a pair of touchdowns! Eldin is among a number of Bahamians contributing to what many believe is becoming a ‘golden age’ of Bahamian sports. He is the son of Fox Hillian Eldin Ferguson Jr. and his wife Sharon, a former Miss Grand Bahama and Miss Bahamas.

BAHAMAS GLOBAL BOOK FAIR
    The Bahamian American Cultural Society, Inc. (BACS) has launched a dynamic program called The BACS Bahamas Global Book Fair. Its goal is to provide more and better books to the libraries in The Bahamas. A BACS release notes that through this program, each Bahamian and friend of The Bahamas throughout the world can participate and contribute to the improvement of literacy in The Bahamas.
    BACS is planning a series of promotional events throughout the coming months in New York and in The Bahamas to maintain the Book Fair focus. Bumper stickers, displays and public appearances by representatives of BACS will be part of this effort. Beryl Edgecombe, the President of BACS, reports that this project is both a fulfilment of a dream and is consistent with BACS’ mission of cultural and heritage development. “It helps bring people together; it makes them feel a part of their community; it reconnects people to their heritage…”
    Bahamians living anywhere in the world can donate a book to the library in/or near the settlement of their birth born in honour of an ancestor who may be buried nearby. BACS says that all contributions are tax deductible as provided by law in the US and offers the following contacts: web site www.BahamianAmericanCulturalSociety.Org, e-mail: BACSORG@earthlink.net, telephone - 212-213-0562, or 242-364-2371, Fax: 212-725-8979 or in The Bahamas, e-mail azdean@dean63@batelnet.bs

CAREY IN CARMICHAEL

Member of Parliament for Carmichael Mr. John Carey attended the 9th Pastoral Anniversary service for Dr. and Mrs. Ranford Patterson at the Cousin McPhee Cathedral on Carmichael Road. The Theme was "Anointed to Effect Change". Special Guest speaker for the 9 am service was Rev. Carla Culmer who pastors three churches in Abaco. As part of the ongoing community program of partnering with the church to positively impact people, Mr. Carey said he was pleased to be able to celebrate in this service with the Pattersons and the wider Carmichael community. "Dr. Patterson is a remarkable leader and continues to demonstrate his commitment to building the lives of people particularly in the Carmichael community", said Carey. In Photo (L to R): Mrs. Juliette Patterson, Pastor Ranford Patterson, Rev. Carla Culmer, Mr. John Carey, MP, JP and Carmichael Executive Member Mrs. Michelle Burrows.

THIS WEEK WITH THE PM

This week the Prime Minister expressed deep appreciation to Marguerite, Lady Pindling and Mrs. Nancy Kelly for spearheading a citizens committee which raised $25,000 for hurricane relief. In a presentation at the Office of The Prime Minister on Friday 29th October, Mr. Christie challenged Lady Pindling to go even further in the service of her fellow Bahamians: "It is a gift for assisting those in need at which you are excellent as proven over many, many years," said the Prime Minister, "and the country should be grateful for your continued assistance." Members of the committee are shown at top during the cheque presentation. From left are Ms. Pat Francis, Ms. Marsha Munnings, Ms. Annishka Holmes-Moncur, Mrs. Nancy Kelly, Lady Pindling, Minister of State for Finance James Smith, the Prime Minister, Ms. Rhonda Lightbourne, Ms. Kyron Strachan, Mr. Paul Thompson and Mr. William Cash.

    In a show of fundraising prowess, Mrs Kelly and Lady Pindling raised the $25,000 in one event; a soup brunch, last weekend. At right above, Lady Pindling and Mrs. Kelly are pictured at the event itself with supporters and committee members. From left are Mr. John Morley, Mrs. Kelly, Lady Pindling, Mr. Paul Thompson of the Lyford Cay Club and Dr. Danny Johnson.
    Prime Minister Christie was also at Christ Church Cathedral this week, leading Government representatives attending the 104th Synod of the Anglican Church of The Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos Islands to hear the annual charge of Archbishop Drexel Gomez. Mr. Christie is shown greeting the Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder who also attended the opening of the Anglican Synod.
    Bahamas Information Services photographs by Peter Ramsay.

3^rd October, 2004 *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.*
275 GLORIOUS YEARS OF PARLIAMENT...	PRIME MINISTER IN MIAMI...
FOREIGN MINISTER BACK FROM THE UN...	FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS HAITIAN INTERIM LEADER...
MITCHELL SPEAKS TO BANKERS...	STATE DEPARTMENT ADVISORY WRONG...
GRAND BAHAMA RESTORATION UPDATE...	ANGELO MUNNINGS DIES...
LESLIE MILLER’S ACCUSATIONS OF NEGLIGENCE...	HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHINA...
DWAYNE HANNA CALLED TO THE BAR...	THE FALLOUT FROM HURRICANE JEANNE...
RICK FOX RETIRES...	ATHLETES HONOURED...
WHATEVER WAS FRED SMITH THINKING?...	KING ERIC CELEBRATES A BIRTHDAY 24/09...
DAWN DAVIES' ART COLLECTION OPENS...	LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...
FRED MITCHELL TURNS 51...	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

10^th October, 2004 *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.*
PRIME MINISTER’S HURRICANE REPORT...	ANSWERING ZHIVARGO LAING & OTHERS...
ANDREW ALLEN IS RIGHT...	NATIONAL HEROES DAY CELEBRATED…
ACCUSED KILLER OF MOTHER AND SON GUILTY…	BATELCO LOWERS ITS RATES…
THE STATUS OF STUDENTS IN JAMAICA…	GAS PRICES SKYROCKET…
THE PIPELINE PRESSURE…	LYING FNM LETTER WRITER…
NATIONAL DEBT NOW 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS…	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

17^th October, 2004 *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.*
TOMMY ATTACKS LESLIE...	DEATH IN GRAND BAHAMA...
UPDATE ON HURRICANE RELIEF...	AIRPORT ON TRACK...
FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY-- SANDALS...	MEANWHILE THE ANGLICANS SET FOR A FIGHT...
PUBLIC SERVANT OF THE YEAR...	RIGBY ANSWERS BACK...
DENNIS MARTIN ATTACKS THE MOON...	WELCOME BACK RICHA...
INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL FESTIVAL...	DISCOVERY DAY CONTROVERSY...
FUEL COSTS, UNION CONCESSIONS CHALLENGE BAHAMASAIR...	ROMAN CATHOLIC ‘YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST’...
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

24^th October, 2004 *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.*
EILEEN CARRON AND BLANKENSHIP...	LESLIE MILLER’S IMAGE...
THE ANGLICAN REPORT...	BERYL HANNA IN HOSPITAL...
FOREIGN MINISTER AT AUTEC...	COME AGAIN ZHIVARGO LAING...
FOREIGN MINISTER IN THE CARIBBEAN...	TONIQUE SIGNS ON TO BATELCO...
AMNESTY ATTACK ON THE DETENTION CENTRE...	BAPTIST DAY...
WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH CARL BETHEL?...	SOUTH AFRICA DEFENDS ITSELF...
BAD ACCIDENTS BY AIR AND ON LAND...	T. RICARDO WHYLLY MARRIES...
	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

31^st October, 2004 *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.*
HOTEL PLANT IN GRAND BAHAMA...	BOYCOTTING SUPERVALUE...
TEACHERS UNION IN PROBLEMS?...	YASSER ARAFAT...
FOREIGN MINISTER IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC...	ARCHBISHOP ON HOMOSEXUALITY AGAIN...
HALLOWEEN...	DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS...
FR. BARRY COMES TO ST. AGNES NASSAU...	SOUTHERN AIR...
IAN STRACHAN PERFORMANCE...	BRIGHT BAHAMIAN SPARK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL...
BAHAMAS GLOBAL BOOK FAIR...	CAREY IN CARMICHAEL...
	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 2 © BahamasUncensored.Com

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