PASTOR KEITH RUSSELL LAYS DOWN THE GAUNTLET
(From Facebook posted 19 July 2019)
Ring the bell
By now, we have all had enough! At least those of us with sense. The litany of debacles has weighed us down. From a vile speaker of the house, who is still sitting by the way, to creating budgets that offer tax breaks to sitting cabinet ministers, to Oban, to the Prime Minister castigating his own people around the world, to the tainted two, Mr. Marvin Dames and Dr. Duane Sands, to all the other nonsense in between, and now to Mr. Brent Symonette—again!
I don’t know why we are surprised; we know Symonette! He is the soulless one, who as minister of tourism wanted to close hotels and put poor people out of work, because for him it was more important to pay attention to market forces than human need. We know Symonette! He is the morally reprehensible one, who as chairman of the Airport Authority gave a contract to himself.
When Christian Campbell, a Bahamian Rhode’s Scholar, interviewed him for the Weekender and asked him about this decision, he said that he would do it again; it was the right thing to do, because his company had the lowest bid. We know Symonette! He is the racial separatist who when asked by Campbell why he doesn’t celebrate Junkanoo and other African originated cultures in the Bahamas said that we can’t expect him to celebrate them because his ancestry didn’t arrive here by the Transatlantic Slave Route, they came from France, through Bermuda.
He has always seen the world from a privileged grid; has always had delusions of superiority and entitlement; and has never developed the capacity to, or ever been interested in, thinking beyond his elitist imprisonment. And of all Bahamians, he has the unmitigated gall to raise the race question, trying to cover or deflect from his protracted rape of this country’s purse and resources. Does he think that he has more rights to Bahamian resources than the rest of us? 53 million dollars in government contracts in two years as a sitting cabinet minister: are you kidding me?! And I would like to inform my friend Mr. Mark Humes that all the constitutionally backed resolutions in the world can’t make this acceptable or right.
What is astonishing, however, is that the sitting Prime Minister, Mr. Minnis, calls up Mr. Symonette and offers him the Post Office deal. Astoundingly, Mr. Symonette raises the matter of conflict of interest. Mr. Minnis responds by assuring him that he (Minnis) would bring a resolution to parliament to circumvent that little inconvenience. Listen, when in a two person conversation Mr. Symonette is the one on the high moral ground; and particularly when the second person in the conversation is the Prime Minister, we know that we are in trouble as a nation.
Pay attention: the Prime Minister acknowledges the moral dilemma of conflict of interest, but made his intentions known to Mr. Symonette to use his power to attempt to transform wrong into right, to twist evil into good, to make wickedness palpable and acceptable, to codify greed and graft and injustice as the norm in our beloved Bahamaland.
What is more, we have this arrogant elitist Mr. Dionisio D’Aguilar and the clueless Mr. K. Peter Turnquest attempting to defend this raping of the public purse. And when they couldn’t convince the Bahamian public with this foolishness, this administration now turns to its usual narrative, blame the PLP. They are now pointing out proposed conflicts of interest under the PLP. I have never understood this argument or appeal. What, because PLPs do something that is corrupt, when FNMs do it they are excused? Will someone please tell these buffoons that their conversation is not with the PLP; it is with the Bahamian people. It is we, the people, who are saying that your actions are corrupt. Stop talking to the PLP! Explain your behavior to us; the ones you told that you would stump out corruption. I have no idea where we dug up these egotistical, inept, uncompassionate, immoral clowns.
Meanwhile, in the wasteland of Grand Bahama, we have been told recently that the Letter of Intent (LOI) regarding the sale of the hotel has been extended. What kind of manipulation of language is this? An extended LOI?! Who comes up with this nonsense? What kind of gobbledygook is this? They are trying to sell us a Unicorn. This mythological animal doesn’t exist. What we do have is an extension of lies (EOL); an extension of obfuscation (EOO); and an extension of covering up incompetence (EOCI).
I have only two words for the man from Long Island, Mr. Bennett Minnis: damn fool! And for this government administration not seriously reprimanding him by now, I have only one word: expected. Remember, this is an administration that sanctioned the vile speech of the still sitting Speaker of the House. You will not hear a single one of them condemning this homophobic, racist speech either. Mr. Adrian Gibson can sure find his manhood when it comes to beating up on hardworking Bahamians at Water and Sewerage; let’s see if he can find his voice now.
Enough already! Will somebody find that bell and ring it—please! While there is still something left to save.
I write; you decide