NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
ELECTION COMING
The
Prime Minister, Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham is about to nominate, if he
has not done so already, the persons from his party to serve on the Constituencies
Commission, colloquially known as the Boundaries Commission. This
is a power exercised under Article 69 of the Bahamian constitution.
The Speaker serves as chair of the Commission. Of course Italia Johnson
is the most partisan Speaker of this generation so we will expect little
but FNM partisanship from her. Then there are two nominees from the
Government; they are expected to be Ministers of the Government, the so-called
young Turks one of whom Mr. Ingraham hopes will succeed him as the Leader
of the FNM.
We for our part are lying in wait for these appointments. We expect to challenge them in the courts and to seek to set aside the appointments and their decisions on the grounds of bias. The Prime Minister has already been going around shooting off his mouth about which seats he is going to eliminate and how he is going to reduce the seats down to the constitutionally permissible minimum of 38. In law this is known as fettering one's discretion, and it should be challenged. We shall see if the Courts of The Bahamas are strong enough to meet the challenge.
The Parliament needs to act on another matter on the constitution and the boundaries. Instead of dealing with an Independent Boundaries Commission, which the Government does not have the time to constitute at this time, the Prime Minister ought to move the Parliament pursuant to Article 70 (9) to prescribe by the law the means for challenging the decisions of the Constituencies Commission. Our suggestion is that the law should allow citizens who are aggrieved about how the boundaries are drawn to challenge the process and the result.
This week, we had 13,028 hits
on the site up to midnight 2 June. That makes a total of 2,577
hits for the month of June. And that also makes a total of
72,571
hits for the month of May. Thanks for reading and please keep reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell Address to Senate: Why the PM is the
way he is
Mitchell speech to PLP Convention
2000
Pindling & Me - A personal retrospective
on the life and times of Sir Lynden by Fred Mitchell
Address to the Senate Budget
Debate / Haitian Issue
Address to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian
Issue
Address to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma
/ Haitian Issue
Address of Sean McWeeney / Pindling
funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
 |
 |
| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| www.johngfcarey.com | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/ | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| www.briland.com | Harbour Island Site |
MATTHEW
DOES NOT ATTEND THE FUNERAL
Many people asked whether out of genuine concern or simple nosiness
if my younger brother Matthew who is serving a three-year sentence in jail
was permitted to attend the funeral of my father and whether he did so
attend. The answer is no on both counts. Matthew was intimately
involved in that decision. We as a family wanted no special favours
done for us or for him. We would only accept what was within the
rules of the prison and within the Superintendent's discretion. The
Prison Superintendent has the discretion to allow a compassionate
visit to view the remains. Matthew did not request that because in
order to do so, it would have required appearing in a prison uniform and
in handcuffs. He chose therefore to sit it out in jail. With
regard to attendance at the funeral, that was not an option. As we
were made to understand it, the decision whether or not Matthew could attend
the funeral required a decision of the Minster of National Security Frank
Watson. Knowing that Mr. Watson is an FNM politician and that they
have a special and visceral hatred for me, I was not prepared to make any
application that would require an FNM Minister to make a decision for or
against me or a relative of mine. He has suffered enough in this matter
because of me. One could imagine a decision being made in our favour
after an appropriate bit of grovelling is done in a letter of request,
and then the permission and the letter being leaked to the local gossip
rag in order to embarrass our family. Worse yet, just to be difficult,
the Minister would have refused it. And so, Matthew again chose to
sit it out in jail like all other prisoners must do. Again we expect no
more or less than anyone else is entitled to get. That's the story.
THE
BUDGET OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
There is a friend of ours who has an expression as puffed up as an
FNM Cabinet Minister. And nothing shows them in their peacock finery
and puffed-upness more than when it is time to lay the Budget Communication
on the table of the House of Assembly. William Allen, the hapless, Minister
of Finance did so on Wednesday 30 May. His budget calls for 1,030
million dollars in revenues and 995 million dollars in expenditure.
He says that they are going to balance the Budget again. He said
that even though the revenue under performed over the last year by 11 million,
it will be on target for this year. Remember, they promised a one
million-dollar surplus in last year's Budget Communication. The Government
members are a set of wicked liars. Their Budget cannot be in surplus
or balanced for this year or the next, with bad news on the economy all
around. We will talk about the disaster on IBCs in another story.
But this story is about the total collapse of agriculture in this country.
The Government was boasting in its communication about how they have taken
the duty off strawberries, apples and other fruits including pineapples.
What about a bunch of jives! First, how many Bahamians eat strawberries?
Clearly, this is only a matter to please Sol Kerzner and the FNM's friends
at Paradise Island. Then imagine what removing the tariff on pineapples
is going to do in terms of gutting the pineapple industry in Cat Island
and in Eleuthera. Under the FNM, agriculture has gone into total
decline. This will now finish it off. The PLP's philosophy
is that while agriculture may not be economic in macro terms, in micro
terms and in social terms it is desirable to subsidize agriculture so that
the family island communities will be able to continue to exist. But that
is not the FNM's programme. Eleuthera is already dead as doornail. Next
year Eleutherans will have to ask themselves will they be able to hold
a pineapple fest in Gregory Town as they did last weekend.
PERRY
CHRISTIE ON BANKING FIASCO
The
Bahamas is presently suffering from the Hubert Ingraham inspired disaster
of legislation imposed by other countries on our banking system.
The effect has been ruinous. Perry Christie, the Leader of the Opposition
spoke at a meeting of the Rotary Club of West Nassau last Thursday 31 May.
He upbraided the Government for their actions that led to the blacklisting
of the country and the response to the blacklisting. West Nassau
Rotarians were reportedly impressed by the quality of the analysis and
the directness of the address. Some excerpts. Mr. Christie said:
"Not since the attainment of Independence in 1973 have we felt so vulnerable
to external pressures, so susceptible to the manipulation of other nations,
so dictated to by the great powers of the world, and so powerless to control
our own destiny as a sovereign nation… The moves made by the Free National
Movement Government were so hasty that even parliamentarians had little
time to comprehend the situation. Even if The Bahamas is removed
from the blacklist when the FATF meets later this month, the financial
and psychological damage is already done… The new laws have not put the
country on an equal footing with rivals. Instead they have left The
Bahamas at a massive disadvantage. In the short space of 5 months
The Bahamas has been transformed into the most difficult place in the world
to open a bank account or to engage in any other type of legitimate financial
services activity… We lay claim to a proud tradition of making our own
way in the world without being told by others what we should do, without
being bamboozled by others into believing that they know better than we
do what is best for us and without being threatened and cajoled or seduced
and fooled into doing things we ought to know are contrary to our own best
interest as a free and independent people. Recent events have undermined
that proud tradition… For eight years the Ingraham administration did nothing,
and then when the blacklisting became a reality last year, suddenly everything
went into overdrive and overkill." You
may click here for the full address.
MIKE
SMITH IS OUT/LORETTA BUTLER IN
The press speculated about it during the past week. But we in
this column are able to confirm that Mike Smith, the now Parliamentary
Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism has acceded to the request of the
Prime Minister and will retire from public office at the end of this term.
He will qualify for a pension at the level of Parliamentary Secretary,
a percentage of his present salary ($28,000, plus $45,000) per year when
he reaches the age of 55 and provided he chooses not to return to active
politics. Mr. Smith is the Member of Parliament for South Beach in
New Providence. The putative nominee for the FNM in the South Beach
area is Loretta Butler Turner, one of the leading lights of the Sir Milo
Butler family, in the third generation. She is attempting to become
the third generation of Butlers to sit in the Parliament. The first
was grandfather Sir Milo, the first Bahamian Governor General and a national
hero, the other was her Uncle Milo Butler Jr. Loretta Butler Turner
shocked the PLP and PLP supporters when she turned up as a principal speaker
at the FNM's convention last year in November. It seemed to indicate
a switch to the FNM by the Butler family. Many said that it was really
an attachment to Hubert Ingraham. Mrs. Butler Turner herself is a
close friend and ally of St. Margaret's MP Sylvia Scriven.
Mrs. Butler Turner will face stiff competition from the PLP's Agatha Marcel
in the South Beach constituency. Ms. Marcel's campaign was officially launched
on Tuesday 29 May in South Beach by PLP leader Perry Christie MP.
POLICE
JUSTICE BY DEATH?
Amnesty
International has been making a meal of Jamaica where it has been said
that the police force has been engaged in extra judicial killings.
Just this week, the campaign by Amnesty seemed to have paid off with a
finding by coroner's jury in Jamaica that the police ought to be held responsible
for the death of a suspect. In our own country, the complaints about extra
judicial killings by the police have not yet reached a crescendo but every
time there is the killing of a suspect, families run off to the press and
complain that excessive force was used (see Felipe Major's Tribune photo
of the Wring family demonstration). Such is the situation with the
death of Craig Wring of Augusta Street. He was 27 years old.
Mr. Wring was shot dead last Friday 25 May, after police were called to
the scene when the man started to attack his female companion with a spatula
and a knife. The police arrived on the scene, tried to calm the man
down but he refused They reported seeing blood come from the head
of the man's victim so they shot him when he refused to stop. In
those circumstances, they say they were justified in shooting him to death.
One report said that he was shot four times. Another report is that this
is this particular officer's fourth time shooting a suspect to death.
A Coroner's inquest is to follow, although only God knows when, since no
Coroner has been appointed to the office. The last one Winston Saunders
left office on 31 December 2000. Wherever you go now in New Providence,
the police are carrying firearms. At traffic stops, checking for
light bulbs, the firearms are everywhere. They say they need the firearms
because the situations that they face are increasingly dangerous.
What we know also though is that weapons are being put into the hands of
young men on the police force who in appearance and manner seem like little
boys. They come out of a trigger-happy environment where fighting is usually
the first recourse to settling disputes. It is easy in that atmosphere,
particularly, where no one has sympathy for anyone who is thought to be
criminal, to use a weapon as the line of choice to settle a conflict.
It remains to be seen whether this was really a life threatening situation.
The family of Mr. Wring says not. But perhaps the Police Force ought
to re-examine their policies. One must ask the question why is the
choice in a domestic dispute using deadly force or your bare hands?
Shouldn't a modern force have something in between to cope with persons
in these situations? All of this bears investigation by the authorities.
MOULTRIE
OF BFA COMPLAINS ON DRUG SEARCH
Halson Moultrie, the leader of the Bahamas Freedom Alliance, a political
party without Parliamentary seats, has attacked the Government of The Bahamas
following a drug search on a Bahamasair flight. Mr. Moultrie said
in a story reported in the Nassau Guardian on Saturday 2 June that The
Bahamas is drifting ominously toward a police state with trigger happy
police. He said that the police must abide by the rules. Mr. Moultrie
said that on 23 May, on a Bahamasair flight from Mayaguana and Inagua to
Nassau, police officers reportedly came on board before the flight's departure
from Inagua. They reportedly searched the plane with a dog that sniffed
the private parts of passengers, following an announcement from the police
that they had reports that drugs were abroad the plane. No drugs
were found. The passengers upon arrival in Nassau were further searched
and their baggage opened, and sniffed by dogs. The names of each person
were taken by the police. No drugs were found. There was no apology
from the police. We agree with Mr. Moultrie. Things have gone
and are going too far but the Bahamian public simply lies down supinely
and accepts these intrusions into privacy simply because the authorities
have failed to prevent drugs from flowing through The Bahamas.
MORE
ON THE MURDERED POLICE OFFICER
The
Tribune has added to the curiosity and mystery of the death of Sergeant
Kevin Williams who was buried last Friday 25 May. The Sergeant was
murdered in his home in the Fox Hill area. Last week, we reported
that the family of the officer was concerned that no one had yet been brought
to justice for the murder, even though the police said that they were continuing
to check out leads. The Tribune said in its story of Monday 28 May
that Sergeant Williams was homosexual and that a number of friends of the
dead police officer who spoke to them believed that the key to the officer's
death lies among 50 love letters that were said to have been found in his
Bernard Road home. Some of the officer's former friends have been
picked up just on the speculation of relationships, held, and embarrassed
and then released without charge. But there is another theory
doing the rounds. Some say that the police are looking in the wrong
place. That perhaps they ought to look in their own garden.
They charge that the murder has nothing to do with homosexual relationships
but rather with the work that Sergeant Williams did as a police officer.
He was involved in investigating the efficacy and work of police stations.
Could it be that he discovered something that he was not supposed to?
That's the other theory, that it may be connected with that. Whatever,
the murder mystery should be solved.
THE
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS DISPUTE
As Bahamians celebrated Labour Day in The Bahamas on Friday 1 June,
the fate of the air traffic controllers was very much a topic of discussion
in all the speeches and along the parade. The Bahamas Nurses Union
was also out in strength on the parade, having recently flexed their muscles
in a major sick out against the public health system. The Air Traffic
Controllers, headed by Roscoe Perpall, led the parade of trade union leaders.
The so-called administrative or garden leave that the Government continues
to enforce against the air traffic controllers is up at the end of this
week. At that time, they should be allowed to return to work.
But chances are that the Government, already in defiance of a ruling of
the court on the point, is going to continue to keep them off the job.
The reports are that the so-called investigation into the infractions on
the job on 22 March 2001 has led nowhere. The Civil Aviation Authority
in The Bahamas examined the audio tapes of the air traffic controllers
conversations during the time and found no evidence of any wrongdoing.
They so advised the Government. But the Government insisted and brought
in a Canadian so-called expert at $450 per day plus expenses and he investigated
the tapes and found nothing. There is one so called incident where
an air traffic controller is said to have said to a Bahamasair pilot "you
had better wear your helmet because there is going to be problems." The
pilot asked the question whether it was because of the weather or because
of something the air traffic controllers were doing. The controller
allegedly replied the latter. The only problem is that the particular
air traffic controller is already back on the job. He is not a part
of the union. Then there is someone on whom they are trying to pin
starting the whole work to rule and giving instructions to the junior staff.
The problem with that one is that the person was not in the country at
the time of the incidents. So what that appears to leave is nothing.
The Prime Minister and his Minister of Transport are left simply with this.
They hate Union President Roscoe Perpall with a passion. They believe
that the Union has defied the will of Mr. Ingraham and his Government and
for that they are to suffer the wrath of the Government, even to the extent
of coding the salaries of the air traffic controllers who have reported
to work, are ready, willing and able to return to work, but when the Government
is stopping them from returning to work. These issues are all in
court, and the Courts must begin to hear them expeditiously.
THE
LABOUR DAY PARADE
It was Labour Day on 1 June 2001. The day is the anniversary
of the first day of the so-called Burma Road Riots. That is the day
that most Bahamian historians mark as the beginning of the modern Bahamian
political era. On that day disgruntled Black workers from the construction
site at the satellite field or Windsor Field (now known as the Nassau International
Airport) marched to Bay Street to protest a two-tier wage system between
themselves and foreign workers. According to the history of the matter
written by the father of Labour Sir Randol Fawkes, a parked Coca Cola truck
provided the bottles that became missiles for the beginning of the riot.
Sir Randol, who as head of the Bahamas Federation of Labour and a PLP member
of the House of Assembly established the first Labour Day on 1 June 1956,
was saluted on this Labour Day. His widow Lady Jacqueline Fawkes
accepted a courtesy call by the leaders of the Trade Union Movement, and
she witnessed the parade on East Street, near the newly refurbished Mortimer's
Candy Kitchen. The holiday was first celebrated on the first Friday of
June 1962 as a result of a resolution in the House by Sir Randol. On this
year's parade this Senator attended as Opposition spokesman on Labour .
Also present were FNM Minister for Labour Earl Deveaux and Carl Bethel,
the Attorney General. The PLP had a huge group headed by Leader of
the Opposition Perry Christie. There was a good turn out for the
parade. The atmosphere was festive with the major junkanoo groups
participating. Labour pledged to defend itself against the assault of the
Government in the upcoming Labour Bills that have been on hold since last
year. Patrick Hanna's Guardian photo of the Labour Day Parade is shown.
INGRAHAM
TAKES A BEATING FROM THE BAPTISTS
They
say on opening night Monday 28 May of the national convention of the Bahamas
Baptist Missionary and Education Convention, its President the Rev. Dr.
William Thompson was on fire. In the presence of Hubert Ingraham
(pictured listening at the convention in this Patrick Hanna Guardian photo)
he trounced the Government on one issue after the next. He told them
in effect that they mismanaged the labour climate in the country and that
they need to engage in a non-partisan effort on fighting crime. Some
said they felt sorry for Ingraham as his government got one body slam after
the next. Excerpts from the address: ON BAHAMIANIZATION: "In an effort
to ensure the economic, social growth and development of Bahamians our
founding fathers prudently put in place a Bahamianization policy.
What has become of this policy commitment today? Not only have we removed
the vestiges of Bahamianization but indeed it appears as though the indigenous
Bahamian has found himself in the unenviable position of having to compete
with foreign nationals for basic jobs to support his family." ON
CRIME: "Our people are fearful. Families, if they can afford the ridiculous
price of burglar bars, willingly become prisoners in their own homes. To
say our land is deeply divided and troubled is to utter one basic truth
of our situation. I submit that the presence, the escalation and
the reality of crime in our land are an important part of our present troubles.
While Attorneys General are switched like a game of musical chairs there
has been a phenomenal increase in the number of magistrates, judges and
courts. However, in spite of this, we are still in the grips of an
epidemic of crime and criminal activities." ON THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR:
"I am told that a considerable number of International Business Companies
(IBCs) have withdrawn from The Bahamas and that applications for new ones
have trickled almost to a halt. It is anybody's guess as to what
will be the state of our economy when we will have swept away our bank
secrecy laws and allow foreign nationals with no obligations to local authorities
to monitor activities in our financial institutions, including the Central
Bank." ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: "Each aggrieved party is entitled to respect
and mutual understanding. It was therefore most unfortunate for the
Government to have taken the stance that it did on the air traffic controllers…
Even after the air traffic controllers sought redress and were seemingly
vindicated in the courts, the Government became entrenched and refused
to revisit the matter."
NATIONAL
ART GALLERY CLOSE TO COMPLETION
Villa Doyle is the former home of the nineteenth century Chief Justice
of The Bahamas Sir William Doyle at the corner of West Street and West
Hill Street in New Providence. It has been vacant for almost three
decades and abandoned. Now the Government has purchased it and a
Committee is supervising its refurbishment as the National Art Gallery
of The Bahamas. The work has been painfully slow but Dr Gail Saunders,
the nation's Director of the Archives, has been hard at the task.
Architect Anthony Jervis, Dr. Saunders and Restoration Committee Chair
Harold Munnings took the press on a tour of the facility. The team
says that Bahamians should be able to tour the refurbished facility by
the end of the year. The story was released by the Bahamas Information
Services and published in the Nassau Guardian on Tuesday 29 May.
INGRAHAM
CHANGES AGAIN ON FINANCIAL LAWS
Remember Hubert Ingraham, our Prime Minister with his big stupid loud
mouth, saying fresh from one of those grovelling tours in the United States
that he would agree to a tax information exchange treaty with only one
country, the United States of America? Now he has changed his mind.
Speaking at the opening of BSI (a local offshore bank) - The Tribune does
not say when the speech took place but it was reported on Monday 28 May
- Mr. Ingraham now says that he will change the law to allow for tax information
exchange treaties with other countries than the U.S. Ho hum! Here we go
again. But what is really quite a bolt out of the blue is the comment
made by Attorney Reginald Lobosky, former UBP senator (1968 to 1972). Mr.
Lobosky broadsided the Government with a criticism that it passed the laws
too quickly. According to a story in The Tribune 28 May, Mr. Lobosky
speaking at the opening of McHari Institute's anti-money laundering diploma
course, (again the Tribune did not say when the speech was delivered) said
that the Government had to accept its share of responsibility for the nation's
blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for being uncooperative
in fighting money laundering. By the way, old Hubiggity says that
we will be off the list by mid June. Praise God and pass the ammunition!
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
PLP Names Grand Bahama Candidates - Dr. Marcus Bethel, the Leader
of the Opposition in the Senate and former Party Chairman Obie Wilchcombe
topped the list of six candidates named by the Progressive Liberal Party
this week to contest the seats in Grand Bahama. Dr. Bethel will carry the
party's standard in the High Rock constituency with Senator Wilchcombe
set to run in his native West End and Bimini. Community activist Caleb
Outten has been named as the party's candidate in Eight Mile Rock with
attorney Pleasant Bridgewater tapped to run in Marco City. Ann Percentie
will carry the party's banner in Pineridge with activist Stephen Plakaris
running in Lucaya. Party Leader Perry Christie said that each candidate
possesses a vision and a passion that the can translate into action for
positive change.
Conveyor Belt? - Don't Do It - PLP candidate for Eight Mile Rock and community activist Caleb Outten reports that a move is afoot by the Grand Bahama Port Authority and Dravo Bahamas Rock to within weeks erect a belt to convey heavy mined aggregate over the main road into the community of Eight Mile Rock. Reports say that a perimeter road to divert traffic out of danger is promised by the end of the year. Sounds like a stall to us. Our advice to both the Port and Dravo is don't do it. Caleb may have been a popular community activist before, but he is now the official candidate for the national Progressive Liberal Party in Eight Mile Rock. Again, we say, don't try the stall. It won't fool anyone.
More On Oil Spill - Last week, we reported the spill of several hundred gallons of oil which was affecting the foreshore at Pinder's Point, Grand Bahama. Clean-up was underway by staff at the Bahamas Oil Refining Company (BORCO), supervised by officials of the Ministry of Health. Early this week came reports that the clean up effort was hampered because they ran out of brooms and mops. Imagine if this same community were faced by a major catastrophe, say one involving the proposed natural gas facility. The mind boggles.
Row Over Gulf Union Building - One thing that the failed Gulf Union Bank did have in Grand Bahama was prime real estate. The bank occupied what was the Chase Manhattan Bank building on a corner of the main cross-roads in downtown Freeport. Now, Government and the Grand Bahama Port Authority are apparently rowing over who will get the property. The Government, which bailed out the depositors of the bank, has earmarked the site for a new accident and emergency wing at the Rand Memorial Hospital under the Hospitals Authority. Sources say that the Port feels it should have the property in lieu of unpaid services charges and other fees. We say that under a PLP Government, this row would not even have arisen. Remember that it was this Prime Minister who once told the principals of the Port that they should stick to investing and stay out of our business? What happened to that?
PM's Moment of Truth - FNM delegates are readying for a broad vote set for Tuesday 11th June on whether Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham should be 'invited' to break his word and retain leadership of that party for a third term. Sources tell News From Grand Bahama that "All hands must be on deck... Anyone who doesn't show up or anyone who abstains will be considered the enemy." We pass on a word of caution to the 'Minister for Idle Poetry' Algernon Allen. "If any of Bulgie Allen's delegates from Marathon don't toe the line vote right, he'll be in trouble... They don't want any split votes and Bulgie must deliver one hundred percent." Hmmm!
Don't Call Him Ambassador - Last week we reported news that Minister and Grand Bahama FNM MP for Pineridge C.A. Smith was having trouble holding on to his nomination and that a potential woman candidate - a favourite of the Prime Minister's - was eyeing the seat. Now come reports that C.A.'s generals are openly saying that "Geneva Rutherford is an easier sell than C.A.... We can win Pineridge again for the FNM, but C.A. has too much baggage." At a recent Grand Bahama luncheon held to celebrate the naming of a primary school for the sidelined politician Maurice Moore (which Moore did not attend), C.A. is reported to have stayed behind and tried to intercede with the Prime Minister to save his seat, saying that he doesn't want to be an ambassador and doesn't want to go the way of Maurice Moore.
Campaign Threats - A well known FNM political operative from
West End, Grand Bahama has been uttering threats of a 'dirty tricks' campaign
against PLP candidates here. Opposition sources tell us that "This hack
says he'll come out throwing scuds... even his own fellows realize that
the '70's style of campaigning is over, especially for him. He should not
go down that road."
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
THE PERSONIFICATION OF EVIL
Every
generation or so, there comes a person who best typifies evil. Some
argued during the days of the PLP administration that Kendal Nottage was
such a person. A charming man, mind you. But who in his political
life, many argued was diabolical. In Freeport today, many still blame him
for the fall of the PLP, even as he has reformed himself as a born again
Christian. God bless him!
In this political generation there is no doubt about it. There is a contest to be sure, but more and more Hubert Ingraham is emerging as the personification of evil. The funny thing about this is that he can be quite a charming fellow. Socially, he is an exciting person to be around: the crude jokes, the liquor flowing, the sense of abandon. But behind that social genius for gathering people around him is a diabolical streak that can’t remove him from evil. He just can’t help himself.
And so this quintessentially wicked man is about to embark on a journey to foist himself upon the unsuspecting public. One of our good friends supports him. He says that he believes the Prime Minister means well. One supposes in the same way that Stalin meant well in trying to drag his feudal country into the modern era by killing 20 million people.
And so while Tennyson Wells, the Fred Mitchells and others try to lay waste the reputation of the evil one, he continues to flourish because some genuinely support him. Others are not involved in the body politic to that extent and reject what we say as truths as our contribution to cynicism.
Hopefully, those of our best will prevail. To be sure The Bahamas will be a better place if he has gone into retirement. Then we will see how he has wrecked out country. Dragged the national debt into heights never before imagined; wrecked the financial services industry; and masked the Bahamian middle class, selling Bahamian land and the birth right to Bahamian jobs right out from under us and before our very eyes. The personification of evil as he laughs his way into the sunset.
Late reporting by our statistics engine this week has left us with
figures only up until Thursday 7th June. This week, we had 13,249
hits on the site for the week ending Thursday 7 June at midnight.
That makes 15,800 hits for the month
of June. Thanks for reading and keep reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell Address to Senate: Why the PM is the
way he is
Mitchell speech to PLP Convention
2000
Pindling & Me - A personal retrospective
on the life and times of Sir Lynden by Fred Mitchell
Address to the Senate Budget
Debate / Haitian Issue
Address to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian
Issue
Address to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma
/ Haitian Issue
Address of Sean McWeeney / Pindling
funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
|
|
| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
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OSWALD
BROWN OUT AS GUARDIAN EDITOR
The Tribune reported on Saturday 9 June and we have independently confirmed
that Oswald Brown, the five time Jackass of the Week of this column, has
been stripped of his position as Managing Editor. According to one
of the reporters at the Nassau Guardian, at 4 p.m. on Thursday 6 June,
the reporting and editorial staff were called in and told by General Manager
Pat Walkes that Mr. Brown had been stripped of his position as Managing
Editor. A replacement was not named, neither were Mr. Brown’s new
duties outlined. Staff said that Mr. Brown started to cry after the
announcement although he later returned to his desk and acted as if nothing
had happened. It is expected that in the short term, Anthony Capron
will run the reporting staff. Mr. Brown hastened the creation of
this web site after he unceremoniously withdrew this columnist’s column
from the Nassau Guardian. He then imposed in 1998 a total ban on
reporting anything said or done by this columnist. We stopped inviting
the Nassau Guardian to our press conferences or sending them any material.
He would send the reporters and then routinely refuse to publish it.
Reporters would object and he would say that it was personal. It
not only applied to this columnist but recently Koed Smith, the PLP’s candidate
for Mt. Moriah was refused an opportunity to respond to Tommy Turnquest
his opponent who attacked him in the Nassau Guardian. When Mr. Smith
protested to the editor, Mr. Brown hung up the telephone twice. One
should not ordinarily be gleeful at others misfortune, but Mr. Brown deserves
exactly what he has gotten. If we were a real man, he would realize
that being stripped of his position is tantamount to being fired and he
should be a man and quit. Congratulations to the Jackass of the Week
for being fired.
FNM
SENATORS ANNOUNCED
After not having the Senate meet since December 2000, the Government
is to reconvene the Senate to pass the Budget. So the Prime Minister must
now fill two Senate appointments. Senator Calvin Johnson is out,
fixed up with a job as Consul General in New York and Dame Ivy Dumont is
out, fixed up with a job as Chair of the Public Service Commission.
In is Kay Martin, niece of Ingraham supporter Elon ‘Sonny’ Martin of West
End, Grand Bahama. Also in is Tanya McCartney, the daughter of Alphonso
Elliott aka Bugaloo, the Prime Minister’s bosom buddy. The Prime
Minister is trying to make the point that women are getting ahead with
him. But what he really wants to do is keep control by saying that
he’s for women and expecting submission in response. We and the Bahamian
public are not fooled. Both women are expected to get nominations.
Kay Martin is to replace C.A. Smith, the now MP when he is forced out at
the election. A seat will be found for Senator McCartney in Nassau.
Please see below details on Senator McCartney in a story that was written
before this announcement was made.
MIKE
SMITH RESPONDS TO WEBSITE
You will remember last week’s story in which we said that Mike Smith
the MP for South Beach had agreed to leave politics at the end of this
term. The ever intrepid Tribune called Mike Smith, the MP for South Beach
FNM, and asked him if it were true that he intends to leave politics, here
is what Mr. Smith had to say: “I have had no discussions regarding that
(giving up his post) with anybody. If I was doing that I would have discussed
it with the Prime Minister and the FNM’s officials and I have not done
that. I have no idea where that rumour is coming from.” The
Tribune went to him as a result of the story on the website. We went back
to our sources within the Free National Movement and asked whether we were
being misled. The key to this is that Mr. Smith’s denial in The Tribune
appears to be related to the question of giving up the position of Parliamentary
Secretary in the near future. It does not answer the point of whether or
not he is leaving politics and retiring. Our sources insist that
Mr. Smith is leaving. The Punch, the local gossip rag, was speculating
that we got it wrong as well with regard to Loretta Butler being the PM’s
choice to replace Mr. Smith. They say that it is a seat being given
to Senator Ronnie Knowles, the now Minister of Health. Meanwhile,
the ever ebullient Dion Foulkes, the Minister of All Knowledge, is boasting
to friends that the FNM will win every seat in the country in the next
election. And in the surprise department, the strong rumour is going around
that a major star from the track world is about to join the FNM as a candidate
in a traditionally PLP seat over the hill. And they also say that
the Chief Slave has indicated that Bain Town MP Gregory Williams is not
to
stand again for the FNM. Things that make you: hmmm!
THE
FIGHT BETWEEN THE COURTS & THE EXECUTIVE?
The details are a bit sketchy but the talk is all over the courts about
the senior politician, a member of the executive branch who insisted that
his picture had to be put up in the Court of Appeal. The Judges did
not take kindly to the attempt of the executive branch to impose pictorial
imperialism. They objected, so the story goes and had the offending
portrait taken down. No sooner than that was done than the man himself
waltzed over to the Court of Appeal and had the portrait put back up.
Whereupon in the midst of the dastardly deed came the Judge who upbraided
the representative of the executive branch for being so presumptuous and
improper. Witnesses say the man left with his tail between his legs.
We can’t get anyone to believe this actually happened but that’s the story.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Carl Bethel, the point man for the courts for
the Executive Branch ought to investigate the matter. On the march
for Labour Day on Friday 1 June, Mr. Bethel was mostly concerned that he
would not end up in the Jackass of the Week column. Well, we hope
there is not a candidate in this story. Here’s the deal Mr. AG, the
Courts are a separate branch of Government and you ought to ensure that
this made is made clear to anyone who wishes to offend that principle.
Another thing that makes you go: hmmm!
AND
YOU REMEMBER DARRON CASH
Senator Darron Cash, that upwardly mobile, up and coming accountant
and legislator. Fortune is smiling on him more and more. Not
only is he a favourite of the Chief Slave Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham
and was, we say was up to now being touted as a prospective candidate for
the Carmichael constituency for the FNM, but he is also now the head financial
guy at Doctor’s Hospital, the private hospital in New Providence.
Then there was that picture of himself and the other up and comings, Black
professionals trying to seize the commanding heights of the economy as
they announced a seminar by themselves in Florida. We reported his
blandishments spoken there on behalf of the Government about what he thought
the Prime Minister might do to amend the disastrous legislation on financial
services passed in haste last year by the grovelling mendicant of a PM.
Where is this all leading? Remember Hubert Ingraham is busy orchestrating
his return for a third term, breaking his promise to seek only two terms.
Now remember that the promise was made to the country, not to the FNM or
to the Parliament, but to the people of The Bahamas. You can’t wiggle
out of a promise by simply orchestrating a group of yes men and women to
nod their heads in unison at some stacked Stalinist-like FNM Council. All
those in favour say: aye. Can’t you hear the ayes have it? Back to
Darron Cash. The Tribune reported on Wednesday 6 June that Senator
Cash, appointed by the Chief Slave as a Senator, was tight lipped about
reports that he opposed the party’s executive council’s proposal to invite
the Prime Minister to serve for a third term. It is alleged that
Senator Cash circulated a letter to all council members saying that there
should be a special convention of the party called to decide who the new
leader should be. Of course, that won’t solve the problem either
although we agree that there should be a convention called. Senator
Cash has to go further and say that the Prime Minister ought to voluntarily
remove himself from consideration as leader. That would put paid
to the whole charade. Anyway, Senator Cash is expert at walking the
fence. His kabuki dancing is exquisite. Said Senator Cash to
The Tribune: “That is an internal party matter and I don’t wish to comment
on it.” The story was written by Darnell Dorsett, back home from
training as a lawyer. She must have smiled a knowing smile when she
heard that tightlipped reply. By the way the FNM’s National General Council
is scheduled to meet on Monday 11 June to ask Mr. Ingraham formally to
stay on for a third term.
TRAVEL
TO GERMANY
This Senator is to travel to Federal Republic of Germany at the official
invitation of the Government of the Federal Republic. The trip is
scheduled for 16 June to 22 June. While there this Senator will join
four other Caribbean politicians to review German prisons with a view to
learning what we can for our own systems back home.
ON
THE LABOUR FRONT
We are able to report that the Air Traffic Controllers may know their
fate from the Bahamas Government as we speak. The Government promised
to provide the controllers with letters telling those who may come back
to work to do so and those whose leave is to been extended. All of
this is unlawful since the courts have ruled that the air traffic controllers
must be allowed back to work. The Government is presently in defiance
of that order and is refusing to pay some eight of those controllers. Roscoe
Perpall, the President of the Union, was reported as saying that two meetings
with the Prime Minister have taken place over the last week but nothing
has developed. The Prime Minister promised that any letters of discipline
would be issued by Friday 8 June. But on Friday 8 June, the Government
continued to defy the Court. The two and a half month period of administrative
leave expired on Friday 8 June. But instead of taking the controllers
back to work, the Government issued fresh letters saying that the investigation
was ongoing and inviting each of the controllers to a meeting with a special
panel of persons to further investigate the matter. Each letter gave
the particular controller a different date and time to appear for questioning.
This action is clearly unlawful. It shows that the Prime Minister
is a liar as he promised that these matters would be resolved by Friday
8 June. Our concern is that the Courts have not heard the three applications
before them to resolve these issues. It has taken too long for the
Courts to hear these matters. The inability of the Courts to hear
the matters undermines the confidence of the people of this country in
the courts.
THE
CASE OF MICHAEL PINTARD
This Senator as PLP candidate in Fox Hill issued a flier for distribution
throughout the Step Street area of Fox Hill, even though that area is officially
in the Montagu Constituency. When the Chief Slave our Prime Minister
Hubert Ingraham heard that Fred Mitchell was going to be the candidate
for the Fox Hill constituency in 1997, he changed the boundaries at the
last minute so that the biggest PLP polling division was put into Montagu.
Michael Pintard, FNM candidate in the last election for Centreville, has
moved to Step Street and put down roots, clearing down land and planting
trees. As a politician, we put out a flier asking certain important
questions. You can click here to see
what the filer said. As we went to press, Mr. Pintard who has refused
up to the day of the issue of the flier to contact this Senator about what
he was doing as a ‘community activist’ in the Step Street area was calling
furiously to contact this Senator. Further, he told the press that
by issuing the flier we were inciting violence against him. He also
told the press that this Senator lives on the Eastern Road and was looking
down on the people of Step Street by not supporting for them the kind of
environment that this Senator enjoys on the Eastern Road. Mr. Pintard
is a poet and one assumes that the nonsense he spouts off in response is
part of his poetic imagination. It is not my interest or concern
to respond to idle poetry. We simply need to know what are his political
motivations in that area. We have an obligation to our supporters
in that area and will act to help protect our base there by standing up
for their concerns. The residents there were offended by the unilateral
actions of clearing the land down without their permission.
INGRAHAM
TO CAUSE FOX HILL TO DISAPPEAR?
There was a second flier put out in the constituency of Fox Hill to
all persons in the constituency. The flier talked about the rumours
fast and furious coming out of the FNM camp that in order to get rid of
Fred Mitchell they intend for the Fox Hill constituency to disappear at
the next boundaries revision. This is a clear and flagrant abuse
of our system. What the flier asks is for Juanianne Dorsett of the
FNM in Fox Hill to explain how she can sit by and let the Prime Minister
dismantle her home constituency. You
may click here to see the flier.
PM
SAYS HE KNOWS WHEN TO GO
You see that headline - Yeah right! Perry Christie, the Leader of the
Opposition was teasing Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham in the House of Assembly.
Mr. Ingraham was, according to The Tribune, wrapping up his representation
to the House of Assembly on the report on Parliamentary Pensions.
See the story below. But the important comment here is that The Tribune
reports that the Prime Minister has now stolen the PLP’s position that
this Parliament does not have the authority to authorize an increase in
salaries to anyone. (See
our story 15 April, 2001) That must be done by the next Parliament.
Mr. Ingraham says that the Government has turned down the advice of the
Commission on parliamentary salaries and decided that “they” in the
next Parliament will have the opportunity to vote on it. Perry Christie
shouted across the floor: “you mean we, we, we.” Mr. Ingraham replied
that he knows when its time go. So if that’s the case, what’s all
the song and dance about staying on for a third term?
REPORT
ON PARLIAMENTARY SALARIES
A Commission was established to review Parliamentary Salaries.
We first broached this story in this column on 15 April, 2001. The Commission
reported to the Government and the report has been presented to Parliament.
The members of the Commission were: Arthur Foulkes and Sir Clement T. Maynard,
Co-Chairs; Timothy Donaldson, former Governor of the Central Bank; former
Senator Ishmael Lightbourne; Felix Stubbs, head of IBM; Wendy Warren, Deputy
Governor of the Central Bank and Raymond Winder, chartered accountant.
Amongst the recommendations: a $10,000 increase for the Prime Minister,
Deputy Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition.
A $15,000 increase for the Minister of Finance and a $26,000 increase for
the Speaker of the House of Assembly. Other increases are the Deputy Speaker
to go from $32,000 to $50,000, the party whips to get $50,000 with a deputy
whip getting $42,000. MPs salaries will increase from $28,000 to
$36,000. Well Ingraham got some sense in his head and there are to be no
increases he says until the new Parliament meets.
LAST
LAUGH IS ON PETER R. JOHNSTONE
We reprint this letter from The Tribune dated 31 May 2001 and published
on Friday 8 June from Peter R. Johnstone: “I read with interest and a smile
on my face in The Tribune this morning that the PLP calls for modernization
of election rules. I wonder why Mr. Christie [PLP Leader Perry Christie]
and others in the Opposition did not call for these changes while the PLP
was in power. Now that they are in Opposition, and the shoe is on
the other foot they want a level playing field. Seems strange to me, madam!
How about you? How laughable!” We’re glad Mr. Johnstone and a good
laugh. Now laugh at this: it is better to be silent and be thought
a fool than open your mouth and it be confirmed that you are one.
The question is this Mr. Johnstone: should there be a level playing field
or not? If you are not for a level playing field then we know that
you ought to be kept out of any role in public policy in this country.
Mr. Johnstone is the brother of the last UBP Leader Geoffrey Johnstone.
The brother’s comment is a link back to the racist politics of the past
in pre-1967 Bahamas.
LAUNCHING
TANYA McCARTNEY
She
is one of the up and coming stars in the FNM firmament. The natural
daughter of Alphonso Elliott aka ‘Bugaloo’; benefactor to the Prime Minister
and godfather to the Free National Movement. The story circulating
around town is that she is to be offered a candidacy for the FNM.
And so eyebrows were raised [at least in the political community] when
her picture appeared on the front page of the Nassau Guardian as the principal
speaker at the convocation of honours scholars at the College of the Bahamas.
It is a beautiful picture. She is beautiful. The event took
place on Thursday 9 June. Now the photo also appeared in The Tribune.
But when reading the political tea leaves in The Bahamas, you should note
that Oswald Brown, the FNM political prostitute that runs the Nassau Guardian,
is a close buddy even cousin of Bugaloo. Then too, The Guardian photo showed
Ms. McCartney in the photo with Dr. Leon Higgs, the President of the College
of The Bahamas who is also a Board member of the Nassau Guardian.
Now let’s put two and two together. Bright, beautiful and articulate young
woman! Mr. Ingraham wants female candidates of stature. She
has the right credentials being the daughter of Bugaloo. She is a
lawyer in private practice. Fast forward to an invitation by Dr. Higgs
to speak at the COB exercise. No PLP would be invited. The
Nassau Guardian shows up, connected by political and family connections
through the political prostitute Oswald Brown and our two and two addition
gives us four: the launching of a candidacy. By the way the two of
us had a good time marching on the Labour Day parade on Friday 1 June 2001.
All we say to Ms. McCartney is join the PLP. The photo is from the Nassau
Guardian.
PM
DEFENDS HIS FINANCIAL ACTIONS
Quite frankly Hubert Ingraham is an embarrassment to his best friends.
Won’t listen, bull in the china shop, goat on a board floor. You
know the rest. But this week, unrepentant as ever, he was again defending
his stupidity last year by passing in a rush the new financial laws of
the country that have gutted the financial services sector. Mr. Ingraham’s
defence came at the launch of the Royal Bank of Canada Trust’s Private
Wealth Group Service at the Hilton British Colonial on Thursday 7 June.
Here’s what he said in defence of himself: “Even the most naïve and
ignorant of observers will acknowledge that for The Bahamas to survive
and prosper as an international financial centre, financial institutions
licensed to operate in and from The Bahamas must be able to conduct banking
transactions with institutions in the major financial markets of the world.”
Yes, well that’s correct. But the issue is not that. The issue
is whether the Bahamian Prime Minister had to go grovelling before the
world and gutting his country’s financial sector to please the world.
What has the PM got to say now that the U.S. has changed its position on
forcing tax changes in other countries and they have gone further, they
are also changing their view on the know your customer rules. So
the whole policy of Mr. Ingraham turns out to be a sick and expensive joke
for The Bahamas at taxpayers’ expense.
NEW ROAD
CONSTRUCTION
The Inter-American Development Bank has announced that it has approved
the complete funding of the construction of new road corridors in New Providence.
The project is to cost some 50 million dollars. Funding is a joint
effort of the Bank (46.2 million) and the balance by the Government
of The Bahamas. The House of Assembly approved the loan earlier this
year. According to the Ministry of Public Works, 23 kilometres (14+
miles) of existing roads will be improved, mainly by widening, and 15 kilometres
(9+ miles) of new roads will be built. Among the new road construction
projects will be the completion of three new road corridors, two north-south
and one east-west. The IDB said that road improvement and management measures
to be carried out will channel traffic flows to ease congestion and protect
local communities from unnecessary vehicle movement. This is all
fine and good, except that the road construction ability of The Bahamas
Government is poor. The quality of the construction is poor; the
quality of the aggregate is poor. So one wonders why this money is
to be left to the Government to utilize, given their shoddy construction
work. Further, the solution can’t only be the construction of new roads.
There must be more fundamental issue address: alternative means of transportation,
adjoin this island by sea and a proper public transportation system.
The PLP believes that the more general issues have to be addressed and
not just road construction.
MURDERS
ARE UP AGAIN
The Bahamas has reported its 22nd and 23rd murders for the year.
Both murders occurred in New Providence. One was a 22 year old man Carlos
Curtis. He was stabbed to death during an affray on Labour Day.
The other was a 67 year old woman Mary Colebrooke of West and Dunmore Streets.
Knives were used in both incidents. According to The Tribune, the
23 murders is still off pace from the record setting year for murders in
The Bahamas set last year. This time last year, there were 30 murders
reported for the year.
CONGRATULATIONS
TO BISHOP NEIL ELLIS
Bishop Neil Ellis, Pastor of Mt. Tabor Full Gospel Fellowship Church
in New Providence has been awarded the 2001 Bishop Eddie L. Long Humanitarian
Award in Lithonia, Georgia. The Tribune published a photo of Bishop Ellis
with Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker and Bishop Long. Bishop
Long presented the award at the dedication of a new state-of-the-art 10,000
seat sanctuary located in Lithonia, Georgia. Congratulations to Bishop
Ellis whose 4500 member congregation is amongst the most vibrant in the
country.
CARLA
CAMPBELL’S ART EXHIBITION
Carla
Campbell is a young female Bahamian artists. Her exhibition titled: ‘A
Comment on rape’ is now up at the College of the Bahamas’ art gallery since
Thursday 7 June. Please go see it. The works have a fresh perspective
on womanhood from a young Bahamian female perspective. The Tribune showed
photos of the exhibition. And we show a panel from Celebration of
Woman. The exhibition is on for 30 days. Says Campbell: “Rape is the most
vile, dehumanizing trauma that could possibly happen to a person, regardless
of age or sex. It is like music, it is universal. Everyone
is impacted by rape, whether you have been raped mentally, physically or
psychologically.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “If I even dreamed I would vote again for David Thompson, I’d wake up and throw salt in the fire to keep the demons away.” - Former FNM woman voter in the Marco City constituency.
To The Point - Byron Stubbs, the Grand Bahama radio personality and host of the ZNS call-in show ‘To The Point’ presided over the wholesale drubbing of Minister and FNM Grand Bahama MP C.A. Smith this week. Callers used the show to register their disapproval of Grand Bahama MPs towing the line in asking the Prime Minister to stay for a third term. One said Mr. Ingraham would be “nothing better than a liar if he doesn't keep his word”. Another caller wondered “Who gave them the authority to speak on our behalf because I haven’t seen David Thompson since last election”. The show also featured the PLP’s Leader in the Senate and candidate for the High Rock constituency Dr. Marcus Bethel who forced Minister Smith to withdraw a remark that since the FNM came to power, the health care system in The Bahamas is the best in the Caribbean. Dr. Bethel pointed out that has long been the case.
Shocking Breach - Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was in Freeport this week for the official commissioning of a new power generator at Freeport Power and the introduction of the company's new name and logo. The company is now known as Grand Bahama Power. Someone had the bad idea to cover the new logo (on a sheet of plywood) using a large national flag as a veil. Perhaps someone should give lessons on the proper respect of national symbols. A quick thinking ZNS Board member is said to have prevented the travesty from being shown on TV. After 9 years of Government at least one Minister should have known better, if not, employees of 'Grand Bahama Power'. No wonder some outside investors get away with the contempt they show for Bahamians and all that is ours when those charged with setting the example behave like this.
I’ll Remember You - During the above reported unveiling ceremony, Minister C.A. Smith had a temporary lapse and apparently forgot to recognize Cabinet and Parliamentary colleagues. The Prime Minister quipped in response that if , in an election season, you can't remember people's names, they won't remember you. Sounds like a warning shot to us.
Taxi Union Left High & Dry - The Grand Bahama Taxi Cab Union recently spent in excess of a million dollars on seven ‘first world’ type buses at the urging of the Disney Cruise company and Freeport Harbour. “A high standard” was needed for the guests, the Union was told. Now Disney has stopped coming and the busses sit idle. Unused and unusable. Disney is now looking into the feasibility of docking at Port Lucaya in the future , no buses required. We’ll watch to see which business now moves against the weakened Taxi Cab Union. Things that make you go hmmm!
COB Roof Caves In - A correspondent last week informed News From Grand Bahama that the roof at the College of The Bahamas in Grand Bahama was leaking badly. Although we did not carry the story, a word to the wise, we thought was sufficient and the authorities were advised. Well, they didn’t listen and continued to cover the furniture, ignoring the leak itself. This week, the roof caved in, luckily injuring no one. Accountants call it “deferred maintenance” and it is common to ignore these things in a household when things are tough. But, Government? And the roof of a public institution for students? A disgrace, and a dangerous disgrace.
Laker Aircraft Damaged - Tourism was down in Grand Bahama this
week as misfortune struck the Resorts at Bahamia. The Resorts maintain
Laker Airways as their in-house and principal carrier of visitors. Tuesday,
a Laker jet being towed from its hangar in Fort Lauderdale crashed into
another hangared Laker jet. Both craft were damaged and out of service.
That meant that Resorts at Bahamia had to house turnaround guests for an
extra night for free including meals and other incidentals. Eventually
two more planes were chartered to replace the damaged jets. At week’s end
one of the two Laker jets was put back into service.
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
LAUGHING AT OSWALD BROWN
We
should really have an award for Jackass of the Year. Oswald Brown was fired
by the Nassau Guardian two days after he was stripped of his position of
Managing Editor and he refused to leave his office. Mr. Brown held
a press conference on Tuesday 12 June. 'Twas remarkable. It
is a pity that we can't carry the entire thing verbatim. The Shakespearean
phrases abound in response: O my prophetic soul… The fault dear Brutus
is not in our stars but in ourselves.
Mr. Brown blamed everyone but himself for his plight. You will remember that he claimed that he had to leave The Bahamas for 20 years under the Pindling Administration because he was unable to find a job in his chosen profession. Who does he blame now for the loss of his job now that Pindling is not alive? Well, he says that it's Phil Ward, the lawyer for the Perrys who own the company. Not so says Patrick Walkes, the Company's GM. He sent Mr. Brown a letter that condemned Mr. Brown and the Nassau Guardian.
We report the matter extensively below. It is difficult not to be gleeful and really you should not. But champagne was flowing in many households because the Nassau Guardian's ogre Oswald Brown was gone. He claims that he intends to move to Freeport where his wife lives. He plans to start a newspaper there. Freeport is a virtual newspaper graveyard. We wish him no ill but we certainly don't wish him any luck at all.
We have some good news to report, you remember the story of Milton Cox, the Bahamian student who had been charged with an offence in the United Kingdom last year. He has been awaiting trial since November last year. We reported (See story 8 April,2001) that the first jury resulted in a hung jury. We are happy and pleased to report that Mr. Cox has now been found not guilty and is free to resume his life. We hope that all goes well for him and his family in the future.
Hubert Ingraham, the Chief Slave Prime Minister, is to be formally invited by the Free National Movement to run again for a third term as Prime Minister. The stage is now set for the biggest cut ass in the history of the country. The only ones that don't know it are the Free National Movement. Read below how Mr. Ingraham made fun of his sucking up friend Oswald Brown recently fired by the Nassau Guardian. Aint long now.
This week we had 14,127 hits
on the site for the week ending Saturday 17 June at midnight.
That makes a total of 32,937 hits on
this site for the month of June. Thanks for reading and please keep
reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell Address to Senate: Why the PM is the
way he is
Mitchell speech to PLP Convention
2000
Pindling & Me - A personal retrospective
on the life and times of Sir Lynden by Fred Mitchell
Address to the Senate Budget
Debate / Haitian Issue
Address to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian
Issue
Address to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma
/ Haitian Issue
Address of Sean McWeeney / Pindling
funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
|
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| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| www.johngfcarey.com | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/ | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| www.briland.com | Harbour Island Site |
BRADLEY
ROBERTS: THREE CORRUPT FNM OFFICIALS?
The Tennyson Wells forces were successfully routed by the Stalin like
group of yes men who vote on the FNM council. On Monday 11 June they
voted in lockstep to invite Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham to stay on for
a third term. Mr. Ingraham the bloody liar tried to tell us that
he knew nothing about it. The latest is that the invitation has been
delivered to the Chief Slave and he is to respond after the budget debate
is finished. The only bit of excitement in what is otherwise a snoring
debate was Bradley Roberts, the PLP's fiery MP from Grants Town.
Mr. Roberts charged that Brent Symonette, son of the UBP's Premier
Roland Symonette and Chairman of the Airport Authority; Frank Watson, Deputy
Prime Minister and James Knowles Minister for Agriculture were in involved
in corrupt activities. In Mr. Symonette's case, he owns a company
that he gave the contract to pave the road around the Nassau International
Airport of which he is the Chairman of the owning authority. Then
the fool went to the press and agreed that he did own the company and did
in fact award the contract it, but said that his brother was the majority
shareholder not him. A distinction without a difference. A clear conflict
of interest. Then Frank Watson has the most serious allegations against
him and they involve what appears to be the tacit knowledge of the Chief
Slave Prime Minister. A company Mr. Watson owns called Nassau Transfer
wrote bad cheques, signed by Mr. Watson to the Customs Department, just
before the FNM became the Government. When the FNM became the Government
and Mr. Watson became Minister of Works, he gave contracts to his company
Nassau Transfer and Nassau Transfer covered its bad cheques to the Treasury
out of those contracts. Then Jimmy Knowles who Bradley Roberts
had earlier accused of assisting his Knowles brothers in drug activities
and closing his eyes to drug activities Long Island, was accused
of stopping a contractor from getting work at the Ministry of Works because
that contractor acquiesced to a DEU and DEA request to block the
runway at Ragged Island to stop drug traffickers from using it. Mr.
Knowles was connected with the alleged trafficker and acted, so Mr. Roberts
says, in that effort to have the tractors removed. When he refused,
Mr. Knowles threatened that he would get no work at the Ministry of Works.
When Mr. Knowles became Minister of Works that's exactly what happened.
All of these men ought to resign. Mr.
Roberts speech can be found here by clicking here. Yeah Bradley! Bahama
Journal photos.
BROWN
SAYS HE WAS A SCAPEGOAT
It wasn't Patrick Walkes who fired me said Oswald Brown at this press
conference on Wednesday 15 June. Mr. Walkes is the point man for
the Perry business interest that owns 40 per cent of the Nassau Guardian.
The other 60 per cent is owned by the Bahamian employees and the Estate
of Kendal Isaacs and the ever alive Paul Adderley, former Attorney General.
But with the help of one of the employees who has 12 per cent of the shares,
the Perrys are able to maintain the ownership and control of the Nassau
Guardian. The reports says that the reason the paper has switched
editors is that Mr. Brown was not up to the task. The paper was too
politically biased and just didn't seem to have its hands on the pulse
of the Bahamian market. They say that the circulation of the paper
has been consistently falling over the last 4 years. Some say circulation
has gone down by fifty per cent to just about 10,000 per day. The
Tribune that began as a morning paper in 1997 has been growing by leaps
and bounds. Mr. Brown said that he was not at fault. He admitted
that he was biased. He said that he was an FNM and that was not going
to change. He tried to throw a scud missile by suggesting that this was
all a plot to give the job of Managing Editor to B.J. Deveaux, the wife
of the Minister of Labour Earl Deveaux. He said that he would protest
to the highest levels if the job were given to a foreigner. This
man Brown is the cousin of Alphonso Elliott, aka Bugaloo, bosom pal of
the Chief Slave Prime Minister. Isn't it something that the FNM can't even
protect its own? As we said, all we can say is that the
press conference was remarkable. Where ignorance is bliss, truly it is
folly to be wise.
FRED
MITCHELL AND OSWALD BROWN
The Tribune called up this Senator to say that I had featured in the
saga of Oswald Brown. I told him that I hoped so. The story
as we got it from one of the press who was there is that Oswald Brown claims
that when I woke up in the morning I expected to be on the front page of
the Nassau Guardian every day. It was then his job to put a stop to it.
That is just foolishness, but so what? It has not stopped him from
finding any excuse to put his friend Dion Foulkes and their father Ambassador
Foulkes on the front page on the flimsiest of pretexts. Not to mention
his brother-in-law the Governor General whose sister married Brown shortly
after his wife died in mysterious circumstances on Saunders Beach in Nassau
three years ago. And shortly after that death by drowning of his
American wife on her lonesome, fully clothed on the beach, Mr. Brown fell
madly in love with the Governor General's sister. Love at first sight one
suspects, and at 60 plus years old. Ah don't it make you feel young...
Mr. Brown claimed that this senator was the instigator of a visit to the
Nassau Guardian to see then publisher Ken Francis to complain about the
prejudicial coverage against the PLP. He is right about that, since
he was at the meeting. And the only thing this Senator regrets is
that he was not fired sooner.
WHAT
INGRAHAM HAD TO SAY ABOUT BROWN
There is a room in the House of Assembly called the smoking room.
That's where Members of the House relax and talk at will. It is the
place just off the floor of the House and when people are not interested
in the debates, that's where they go. The chief slave particularly
likes the smoking room, not only does he smoke like a chimney but it is
the forum for the kind of crude behaviour and jokes in which he specializes
that can be repeated with impunity and in freedom. Thus it was that
Hubert Ingraham came to be talking about Oswald Brown. Mr. Brown as you
know was one of the major supporters of Mr. Ingraham and used his pages
in the Nassau Guardian from which he was just fired with obsequious deftness.
So one would have thought the man would at least express regret about it.
No! No! not our Mr. Ingraham. Mr. Ingraham reportedly told the story
of how in India when a man wants to get married he has to bring a dowry
to offer to the bride's parents. He said that poor Mr. Brown when
he wanted to marry into the Turnquest family had nothing to bring.
This brought the House down in laughter. Guess who was sitting in the room
according to reports: Tommy Turnquest, nephew in law to Mr. Brown. Ha!
Ha! Ha! Very funny, NOT.
WHAT
BROWN'S DISMISSAL LETTER SAID
Oswald Brown revealed the contents of a letter sent to him upon his
dismissal by Pat Walkes, The General Manager of the Nassau Guardian: "Over
the past two years much effort and company funds were expended to correct
the lack of managerial and operational skills in the editorial department
with the hope that more and better would result but to no avail. Quite
frankly, your product is not up to scratch. As product quality and availability
drives distribution, the major cause for this downturn must be attributed
to the producers (the editorial team) of the product and most especially
the head of the team. It is for this reason that I am seeking a new
head. Please be assured that it is not my desire or intent to dismiss you
from the company. I firmly believe that there is a place for your
journalistic skills with the company and I welcome your continued involvement."
Remarkable. It sounds more like what fredmitchelluncensored.com would
say rather than the Nassau Guardian talking about itself. One wonders if
Mr. Walkes was advised by his lawyers about this before he wrote this stuff.
Could not an advertiser of the Nassau Guardian sue the Guardian for misrepresenting
their product to him or her and the number of readers that it had?
Things that make you go: Hmmm!
THE
INVITATION TO INGRAHAM
The Chief Slave would have us believe that he knew nothing about the
machinations in the Free National Movement to have him run again for a
third term and break his promise to the Bahamian people not to serve beyond
a second term. He held a press conference in Freeport on Friday 8 June
in which he said the following: "I understand that a process is under way,
and at the end of that process that some persons will approach me.
I have read the newspapers and nobody has spoken to me or asked me anything,
and anything you have read or heard that I am orchestrating a draft to
myself is an absolute, complete lie. I have had nothing to do with
it, nothing whatsoever." Now that's what you call an absolute and complete
lie. The Ingraham forces called the Chief Slave right after the vote
on that Monday night to report that the vote had gone according to script.
On Monday 11 June after a heated meeting in which Tennyson Wells and his
supporters were outvoted 122-24 at the FNM council meeting, more heated
discussions ensued and Tennyson Wells accused Frank Watson of being corrupt.
Allegations that were furthered in the House of Assembly by the PLP's Bradley
Roberts (See story below). Mr. Wells has now stepped out further than before.
He has told the country by radio and in the House of Assembly that he will
run as an independent if he were offered an FNM nomination in the next
election and the other persons Pierre Dupuch, Lester Turnquest, Floyd Watkins
were to be denied nominations. We say again: join the PLP!
BOUNDARIES
COMMISSION ANNOUNCED
The Constitution in Article 69 says that there shall be a Constituencies
Commission. But of course it can't be constituted unless it has members.
Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham has waited until now to constitute the Commission.
In his press conference on Friday 8 June in Freeport, he announced the
names of the Commission members for his party. The article gives
the Prime Minister the power to appoint 2 from his party and the Leader
of the Opposition one. The two nominated by Mr. Ingraham are Tommy
Turnquest and Dion Foulkes. Mr. Turnquest ought to be challenged
because essentially he will be reporting to his daddy the Governor General.
There is a clear conflict of interest. Mr. Foulkes should be challenged
because he has fettered his discretion by announcing in advance what he
is going to do. The Prime Minister as the person who nominates
the appointees has said in advance that the seats are to be further reduced
in the House of Assembly from 40 to 38. If that happens then the
result must be challenged in the Courts, since it will mean that no meaningful
boundaries exercise will have taken place. The Commission members would
have been acing as automatons. Knowing Speaker Italia Johnson
is the chair of the Commission and the most partisan speaker in the history
of the Parliament, we hold out no hope of a fair process. Bradley
Roberts is the PLP's nominee to the Commission. The PLP believes that there
is no need of a reduction of seats or an increase in seats. There
is no need for any significant boundary changes to take place save in the
Acklins, Crooked Island, Mayaguana and Inagua seat that appears to the
PLP to be patently unconstitutional. The Fox Hill seat needs to be restored
to its pre 1997 lines. In the last election, Mr. Ingraham juxtaposed communities
together that had little in common, like the St. Margaret's seat in Kemp
Road mixed in with Blair Estates. One poor and Black, the other rich
and white. One MP is to serve both interests. Impossible! And
so the stage is being set for the election.
INGRAHAM
ON THE EXPIRY OF THE REGISTER
The liquor must have been flowing up there in Freeport at that press
conference on Friday 8 June. Mr. Ingraham did plenty of talking and here's
more of what he had to say: "I do not propose to allow that register [the
1997 register] to expire, but I propose to cause that register to be terminated
before January next year. I will give at least two and a half months
notice of the date when the current register will die before it dies.
So people will have at least two and half months to be registered on the
new register in preparation before it dies. And I propose to give
that notice not long from now." All of this is being done to put pressure
on Bahamians to register. So far they have paid scant attention to
the fact that an election is looming. But the vitriol on the radio
stations against Mr. Ingraham's decision to run for a third term should
give him pause. But you know Algernon Allen, the Minister of Social
Development aka Minister of Idle Poetry is predicting that the FNM will
win all of the seats. We predict this. If the FNM wins all
of the seats, this will be a most unstable country, and within one year
there will be civil disobedience and disorder to the point where the Government
will not be able to control it. Just a word of warning that when democracy
is manipulated, then people will find a way to express their discontent.
Remember we told you so here on this site.
ANDREW
ALLEN, SON OF THE MINISTER OF FINANCE
One supposes you can call him a social conservative. He is an
attorney safely ensconced in the bastions of Higgs and Kelly, the law firm
of former UBP Minister of Education Godfrey Kelly. God bless him!
He writes a weekly column for The Tribune. In its edition of
Monday 11 June, Andrew Allen, son of William Allen, the hapless Minister
of Finance, wrote a column in which he took issue with this columnist and
senator over the comments on strawberries and the reduction of duty on
those goods by the Government. The article is the kind of intellectual
challenge that I enjoy. First flip back to the story on reduction in customs
duties (See 3 June, 2001
edition). Now before we get to Mr. Allen's comments, the first
thing is that Mr. Allen ought to be challenged to disclose his interest
in this matter Can he really be dispassionate and objective in his
comments? Is his last name not Allen, the same last name as the Minister
of Finance? Should he not disclose his interest by saying that I
am supporting the policies of my Daddy? Can he really give a dispassionate
judgement of the customs duty issue?
THE
GREAT STRAWBERRY CUSTOMS DEBATE
The substance of Andrew Allen's complaints on this Senator's comments
on the duty reductions by Mr. Allen's father, the Minister of Finance.
Point one: "the Senator suggests that, in addition to reducing farmers,
these duty reductions seem to have been designed for the benefit of rich
people." Not true Mr. Allen. What we said was that no doubt the decision
to reduce the duty on strawberries had to do with helping reduce the cost
of the tourist trade. It was designed to show that Sol Kerzner and
his friends at Paradise Island have more political clout than we who live
in Countabutta. Point two: "That only affluent people care about the price
of strawberries (presumably since 'ordinary' Bahamians only eat things
that grown in their backyards)". Not so Mr. Allen. Do not take
liberties with language. Stick to the text. What we do imply
is that the Government cares more about rich people than they do about
poor people. Point three: "Would Mr. Mitchell prefer us to content ourselves
with a few coco plums and sea grapes while our ever hopeful farming sector
perfects a new tropical strain of strawberry?" Get real. We knew that FNM's
don't care about agriculture, but this reveals that they don't even know
anything about agriculture. The fact is that no tropical strain of
strawberry is required to grow in The Bahamas. Andros had huge strawberry
farms and produced some of the finest strawberries. We are informed by
our consultant that if Mr. Allen visits York Street in New Providence he
can find them being grown now. Last point: "If local farmers cannot make
a living without forcing 'ordinary' Bahamians to endure expensive, lower
quality pineapples, bananas and strawberries, then maybe it's time they
considered a change of profession. And if some politicians can't see the
logic and rightness of that assertion, then maybe its time they did the
same." Q.E.D. Mr. Allen proves our point, FNMs don't care about the intangible,
social effects of a policy of subsidizing agriculture. That's the difference
between the PLP and the FNM. Agriculture is subsidized for other
reasons than just pure economic ones. Then there is a saying in Countabutta
where we live that says when you dig one grave, dig two. This is apropos
considering a change of profession.
LIFE
EXPECTANCY IN THE BAHAMAS TO FALL
The AIDs epidemic in The Bahamas is to cause the life expectancy
of Bahamians to fall by three years. So The Tribune reported on Monday
11 June 2001. The Tribune was quoting from a chart issued by the
United Nations Population Division. Minister of Health Dr. Ronald
Knowles, like a true FNM, thought that the report was inaccurate.
Here are some stats: the death rate of AIDS patients has dropped from 70
per cent to 50 per cent. The epidemic has been monitored in this
country since 1983. As of 31 December 1999, 7,850 persons have been
infected with the HIV virus. Of that number 3500 have full blown
AIDS and 4350 are HIV positive. The disease is hitting young women
under 35 harder than any group. Overall it is the leading cause of
death for Bahamians 15-44. Currently the life expectancy at birth
for Bahamian women is 76 years and for men 69. Life expectancy at birth
is defined by Terry Fountain, Director of Health Information for the Government
who defines life expectancy as the average length of life of a birth cohort,
meaning any group of persons within a common birth year.
ARTHUR
FOULKES - A KNIGHT OF THE ROUNDTABLE
We congratulate Arthur Foulkes having been named a knight by her Majesty
the Queen. Actually under our constitution the Queen really means
Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham. Sir Arthur, as he is now to be called,
joins Sir Arlington Butler (Bahamas Olympic Chief), Sir Clement Maynard
(Former Deputy Prime Minister) and Sir Durward Knowles (first Bahamian
Olympic medallist as Bahamian knights. This shows once again
the growing power of the Foulkes clan within the Government. They
are clearly on the ascendancy. And inside the FNM, people say the
real Prime Minister in waiting is Dion Foulkes. Anyway one thing
we can say for him is that he is looking out for Daddy. Politics
has been kind to Sir Arthur. Now one wonders why they couldn't protect
their good buddy Ozzie Brown. Things that make you go: hmmm!
RUTH
GRANGER AND OTHER QUEEN'S AWARDS
She
is just plain old Aunt Ruth to us. But now she becomes Aunt Ruth
MBE. Mrs. Ruth Granger, the widow of the late former Acting Commissioner
of Police Wenzel Granger has been awarded the Member of the British Empire
from the Queen. Also receiving awards: Norman Solomon and Wendal
Major, the Companion of St. Michael and St George (CMG); the Commander
of the British Empire (CBE) goes to Senator Lynn Holowesko, for her services
as an environmentalist. This is the lady who wanted Clifton Cay to
turn into a real estate development. The Rev. Charles Sweeting (Queen's
College Headmaster) and Bishop Ross Davis, Arthur 'Jack" Knowles and George
Mosko OBEs (Officers of the British Empire). It is really time to
get rid of all of this. First, the British Empire consists of the
following: Bermuda, volcano ridden Monserrat, the British Virgin Islands,
the Turks and Caicos; Gibraltar, the Falklands; Ascension Island.
Did we miss out any? If you can find 200,000 people among them if
you are lucky. But there are still a lot of people who like it.
Arthur Foulkes comes from that generation. Now their dreams are fulfilled
to be knights just like the fellows they worked as PLPs to displace. They
are the powers now. By the way, Arthur Foulkes gets the same level of knighthood
as the late Sir Lynden Pindling and William Allen. While Foulkes' is defensible,
what the hell did Bill Allen ever do? The letters behind Sir Arthur's
name: Knight Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George or KCMG. The
Governor General Sir Orville has GCMG, the highest of the knighthoods.
Sir Arlington is down on the totem pole of knights with a mere knight bachelor.
The Brits say it this way: CMG (Companion of St Michael and St. George
- the last stage before knighthood is "Call me God"; KCMG is "kindly call
me God" and GCMG is "God Calls Me God".
KEN
PERIGORD'S GOLDEN OLDIE'S IS A KNOCKOUT
Wendall Jones turned down Ken Perigord's offer to do his Golden Oldie's
Show on Love 97, so KP took his show to ZNS FM. And it has surpassed all
expectations. Mr. Perigord, the former premier Shell gas dealer, has been
an oldie's buff for years. He has a collection of 6000 oldies, reportedly
the highest number in the country. He is always searching for old records.
Love 97 then decided that they would have their own show. Their oldie's
man Brad Hanna has gone back to ZNS radio. They brought in Dr. Lutz but
good as Dr. Lutz is, KP's show must be a real stage stopper because now
John Jefferson Scavella of Lover's Tune Time fame on the old ZNS 1 radio
on Saturday nights, has been brought back to compete with Ken. But the
numbers are still in Ken's direction. KP's Golden Oldies can be heard on
104.5 FM ZNS Radio, Saturday nights from 8 to midnight.
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "Internet reports of 'Trouble In
Team Lucaya' are made by correspondents who know not of what they speak!"
Neko C. Grant I, FNM MP and leader of 'Team Lucaya'.
Neko Safe - Notwithstanding the quote above, independent reports to News From Grand Bahama this week confirm that Neko Grant's FNM nomination for the Lucaya constituency is indeed safe. Neko staged a burst of activity including carte blanche for many of his leading generals which has successfully beaten back powerful moves against his continued candidacy. Congrats to Neko, one of those few FNMs who cannot be said to have turned his back on pre 1992 promises.
Last Post for David & CA - Utterly convincing inside reports have reached News From Grant Bahama sounding the death knell for the candidacies of FNM Marco City MP and Ambassador for Trade David Thompson and FNM Pineridge MP and Minister C.A. Smith. News from Grand Bahama can now say that woman Senators Geneva Rutherford and Kay Smith are one step closer to getting a seat. Remember readers that you heard it here first. Our informant says "The campaign generals in those areas can grumble and suck their teeth all they want; like it or not you getting them."
Congratulations to Senator Kay Smith, did we call her Martin last week in a freudian genuflection to 'Uncle Sonny'? Sorry. Anyway, Senator, sincere congratulations and we hope to see you on the campaign trail.
Backlash Against Women? - Several FNM politicos are disgruntled this week with the Prime Minister's grandstanding over the appointment of women. Our senior political correspondent points to one man whose quote seemed to sum up the feelings of many who have been grumbling: "It ain't the fact of women, but who? Hubert's best friend in Grand Bahama's niece [Kay Smith niece of 'Sonny' Martin] and his best friend in Nassau's daughter [Tanya McCartney, daughter of Alphonso 'Bugaloo' Elliott]? They ain't voting for none of them."
Irate Sergeant - One of the Sergeants-at-Arms of the national FNM had the bad timing to enter a local Freeport eatery for breakfast this week just as our senior political correspondent was sharing the news about the FNMs vote the previous evening to ask their leader to stay on. The sergeant, who had come to brief the FNM faithful on the very same matter, listened in stupefaction as details which even he was not authorised to report were laid out by our correspondent for all to see. "That's dirty," he cried, "that's unfair and nasty tricks... how you know all of that?" he demanded. Little did the unfortunate Sergeant know that had the cell phone battery of our inside informant not died, we could have told him even more. As it is, the Sergeant should have spent his time and energy trying to prevent the near scuffle that took place for the microphone in that FNM Council meeting between a rambunctious Biminite and a senior general for Tennyson Wells. But that's another story.
Proms Displace Politics - For all the political news this week, politics took a back seat to the proliferation of high school proms in Grand Bahama this past week. The annual excess of these affairs prompted the Reverend Canon Harry Bain of Christ the King Anglican pro Cathedral to declare that they had "gone too far". One prom couple was driven to their affair by a fire engine escort, complete with sirens and red lights. Another young man alighted from a coffin borne in the back of a hearse. Perhaps lost in all this excess was the fact that many young men and women took a wholesome approach to the end of school rite and thoroughly enjoyed a clean good time. Part of the difficulty with the excess in high school proms is that in some cases, school administrations have adopted a hands off attitude. The reasoning seems to be that if we don't sanction or approve these activities, they will go away. Well, of course, unsupervised youth has always led to 'wild in the streets' behaviour. How can we expect our youth to know what is appropriate if we don't guide and show them? One example is that a visit to the formal wear shops on the eve of several high school proms showed scores of graduating students trying to figure out what to wear, but not one other parent. Not one. It may have been different in the girls' shops, but in these male formal wear salons, there was not one other father. How else does a seventeen year old discover that a plastic cane and a hip hop walk from the 'hood' on TV does not a gentleman make? The excess that we see is influenced by media which goes too far every single day and by the absence of proper direction.
Congratulations to the various graduating classes and good luck.
Untimely Loss - Gavin Cooper, grandson of revered Anglican
Canon Milton Cooper (now deceased) and son well known Freeport and Nassau
restauranteur Spence Cooper, died this week, an apparent suicide after
reported marital difficulties. Our condolences to his family.
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
CAN THE PLP WIN?
This
message and column is being started in Hamburg, the largest seaport in
Germany, and completed in Frankfurt, financial centre of Germany.
Hamburg is a city of 1.8 million people, the last city in the official
tour sponsored by the German Government for this Senator to have a look
at prisons and discuss the issue of prison reform with the German Government
and other Caribbean officials. There will be plenty to report
on that score. But I have made it clear to the German Government
that I am almost alone on this issue in The Bahamas. There is little
support if any for prison reform. More later.
The question that taxes the mind now is the question of whether or not the PLP can win? Then there is the question of whether or not they will win? The answer to both questions from this perspective is yes. But that does not underestimate the difficulty of the task we face.
Now what is the reason that we have raised this issue? Two e-mail messages came from persons who read this column on a regular basis. In both letters, they applauded the work done in this column. They then added that despite this work and the work that is being done for the Opposition, the Government will win again. One of the writers thought that it would take another two or three elections before the PLP could win. They thought that one job I might like to take is Managing Editor of the Guardian.
On hopes that he was not serious about that business about the Managing Editor's job, but there is a simple answer to that: been there and done that. One supposes that is a problem with younger people who don't know the history.
But the challenge I would wish to put to my correspondents who think that the PLP is going to lose is that they must be careful not to put themselves in a situation of a self fulfilling prophecy. In other words if they preach doom and gloom, doom and gloom will come. The country needs the PLP to win again. The PLP is the only political party in opposition that has a chance of doing so. The only party that can form a Government. So the advice from this quarter is that our e-mail writers ought to start addressing ways to ensure that the PLP does win. It will be better for all of us. It is a simple technical matter.
This week web had 13,941 hits
on the site. That brings us to a total of 46,890
hits on this site for the month of June. Thanks for reading and please
keep reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell Address to Senate: Why the PM is the
way he is
Mitchell speech to PLP Convention
2000
Pindling & Me - A personal retrospective
on the life and times of Sir Lynden by Fred Mitchell
Address to the Senate Budget
Debate / Haitian Issue
Address to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian
Issue
Address to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma
/ Haitian Issue
Address of Sean McWeeney / Pindling
funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
|
|
| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| www.johngfcarey.com | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/ | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| www.briland.com | Harbour Island Site |
BRENT
SYMONETTE IS GONE
Last
week, we carried the headline that highlighted three members of the Ingraham
Government that were alleged to be corrupt. Bradley Roberts Chairman of
the PLP demanded their resignations: Brent Symonette (pictured), Head of
the Airport Authority; Frank Watson, Deputy Prime Minister and James Knowles,
Minister of Agriculture. We have good news. Brent Symonette has resigned.
He went down like a fly. He must now bear the label corrupt.
He took a parting shot in his resignation directed by the Prime Minister
on Wednesday 20th June. He said that he hoped that Mr. Roberts' allegations
did not come about as a result of his efforts to collect moneys owed to
the Airport Authority by a company which has a lease at the airport in
which Mr. Roberts has shares. Stupid man! He does not get the point.
Bradley Roberts is not in the Government. No policy issue arises
with the ownership of his shares in Airport Caterers and no conflict of
interest arises. Mr. Symonette who is the son for the first Premier
of The Bahamas Sir Roland Symonette learned nothing from his father's political
experience. You see the Symonette Government of the United Bahamian
Party (UBP) was voted out by the Bahamian people in 1967 by a corruption
scandal in which all the members of the Government got payments from the
Grand Bahama Port Authority who went to the Government asking for various
permits. Sir Roland is dead and gone. His son one whole generation
later has not learned a blessed thing about being greedy. He wants
to take it all. He blocks out a poor contractor from getting work
to pave the airport but he gives a contract to a company in which he and
his brother are the majority shareholders. On Thursday 21 June, Brent
Symonette, still not realizing the magnitude of his folly, issued a statement
in which he said that after he is vindicated he would return to active
politics. This followed the story in the Bahama Journal that the
Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham has decided that Brent can no longer run for
the UBP's seat in Montagu, a basically all white constituency. Of
course, the ethics don't matter to those people who are FNM in Montagu.
The only thing that matters is the colour of his skin and the fact that
he is an FNM. But interestingly enough it confirms what we had been saying
that William Allen, the hapless Minister of Finance and present Montagu
representative is out and Brent is in. But we shall see.
THE
PRIME MINISTER ON BRENT SYMONETTE
Wouldn't you have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Lady Symonette,
the dowager Queen of the United Bahamian Party (UBP) got the call that
her Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham, the man they had bought and paid for was
going to fire Brent Symonette her well beloved son. The uppity overseer
has the temerity to fire the Mistresses' son. But the public must
really see through this scam. The key to all of this is the orchestrated
resignation of Brent Symonette. In the middle of a news conference
on Tuesday 19 June, Mr. Symonette announced that he was resigning as Chairman
of the Airport Authority. He had been invited to tender his resignation
by the Minister of Transport C. A. Smith. Now the reason why Mr.
Smith invited Mr. Symonette to resign according to Mr. Symonette: "… Was
my failure to have communicated the issue of this contract to the Board
of Directors of the Airport Authority." So what the FNM was doing by this
carefully orchestrated resignation is to limit the fault to that; not to
corruption, crookedness and greed. But they can't weasel out of things
so easily. The fact is this was just plain crookedness and greed
and corruption. Mr. Symonette who is already a rich man could not be satisfied
with what he has. He and his family want more. This is the
same man who accused the PLP of playing the race card when the PLP denounced
his awarding a contract to Americans to run a parking lot at the Bahamian
airport in Nassau. Mind you he went to school at St. Andrew's when
the school was a whites only institution. But there's more.
A day hadn't gone by when Wendall Jones' Bahama Journal published a story
indicating that Mr. Symonette would not be getting the Montagu nomination
because of the crooked deal that he had done. Now the uppity Negro
Chief Slave had gone too far. Wouldn't you have liked to have been a fly
on the wall when that call went from the Symonette household to tell the
Chief Slave he had better behave himself. Can you imagine him? "Kee!
Kee! Kee!" Grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat. Telling
the Symonettes not to worry bosses, I have it all fixed up. And so
he was able to announce not a day later that what Mr. Symonette had done
was not an impediment to his return to active politics. Of course
not, one standard for white people, another standard for Black people.
That's the chief slave for you.
FRANK
WATSON MUST BE NEXT
If
Brent Symonette had to resign because he was involved in a conflict of
interest with the allocation of a Government contract, then certainly Frank
Watson (pictured in this Tribune photo) must go as well. The allegations
made against Mr. Watson by the PLP's Bradley Roberts are far more serious.
Those allegations are that Mr. Watson signed bad cheques to the Bahamas
Government for his company prior to his winning the Government in 1992,
and then he used the allocation of contracts when he became a Minister
of the Government to pay those moneys back. At the very least that
is a conflict of interest. It is an obvious case of using the Government's
funds to pay off his personal debts. The Prime Minister was the Minister
of Finance so the allegation is that he must have been aware of it.
So far no answer from Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham who as you know called
Mr. Watson the only man he could trust. The continuation of the saga
is that Frank Watson got up to address the allegations in the House of
Assembly on Wednesday 20 June. He was interrupted by the PLP's Bradley
Roberts who told him that the FNM had hurriedly referred the matter to
the Committee on Privileges of the House and therefore the matter could
no longer be discussed in the House. That's what they get for trying
to kill the matter. The PLP has published the allegations in full
in its newspaper the New Times which is an insert in the Nassau Guardian.
PLP Leader Perry Christie has announced that the Public Accounts Committee
on which the Opposition has the majority will be convened to get to the
bottom of the story about Mr. Watson. He expects that the Treasurer
will be called to explain the facts of what happened and all the documents
blocked by the Government will be tabled there. Chief Slave Ingraham can
spare his Government the agony and simply allow Frank Watson to resign.
DUPUCH
ALLEGES SEX MISCONDUCT
The Tribune's headline of Wednesday 20 June was startling: POLITICIAN
IS ACCUSED OF RAPING GIRL. The question was who is the politician?
The remarks were made in the House of Assembly on Tuesday 19 June by Pierre
Dupuch of the FNM, the dissident Member of Parliament for Shirlea.
Mr. Dupuch did not call a name but here is the operative part of what he
said: "I am concerned because I have it on reliable resources that a Member
of Parliament not necessarily a member of this House is guilty of statutory
rape." Now that is a very serious charge. What it means is that there
is a member of parliament who had sex with an underaged person, who was
therefore unable to give consent. Mr. Dupuch did not say whether
the member was male or female, nor did he say whether the victim was female
or male. Now the interesting thing about this is that almost automatically
most Bahamians would think that it is a male who has slept with an underaged
girl. That then leaves each male in the Parliament under a shadow of suspicion.
Further, the clear suggestion is that the person is not a member of the
House. That means that he could only be talking about males in the
Senate or the Governor General (who in our strange constitutional parlance
is also one of the Houses of Parliament). Each male in the Senate and the
Governor General is therefore able to say that they are being defamed
or to ask the question asked of our Lord: is it I? Mr. Dupuch has
an obligation to say who it is and when this matter was alleged to have
occurred and under the watch of which attorney general. Remember
that Janet Bostwick was the Attorney General up until 31st December 2000.
She ought to state whether or what she knows about the issue. This
is all the more the case since the political community knows of the antipathy
that there is of Mr. Dupuch and his family against the Bostwicks since
Mrs. Bostwick's husband Senator Henry Bostwick who is President of the
Senate represented the family of a young man who was killed in a road traffic
accident involving the son of Pierre Dupuch. Then after Mrs. Bostwick
says what she knows of this, Carl Bethel, the now Attorney General should
let us know what he knows of this. You will remember that last year
Gregory Williams, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Health
resigned after it was disclosed that his wife had made a formal complaint
against him of a sexual nature. What has the government of openness
and accountability to say now that one of its own has made this accusation?
No one on the PLP side has the slightest idea what Mr. Dupuch is talking
about and certainly none of us are under suspicion. So this is an
FNM problem.
THE
HONORARY CONSUL AND THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT
He is quite something that honorary consul, resident in Hamburg.
The social highlight of the trip, emphasis on light, if you will forgive
the pun, is the trip around the red light district of Hamburg. Hamburg
is Germany's second largest city. As we reported, it has a population
of 1.8 million. It is a seaport and all the shipping lines into Germany
from the rest of the world come to the Port of Hamburg. But back
to the honorary consul. He was taking us to dinner and decided that
he'd give us a quick tour of the city. The first fifteen minutes
of which was to travel through every nook and cranny of the red light district.
He seemed to know his way around. Here is where the girls sit in
the room and you can pass down and bid for the one you want. There
are seventy gay bars in Hamburg, he said. Here is where the girls
stand on the street. Do you want to get out and ask them, you are
absolutely safe nothing will happen to you. Then here is where the
drug needle exchange programme is. And people stand around here selling
anything you want. We (the translator and I) thought it was hilarious.
How did this man know all this great detail about this but he said he had
never tasted the wares himself? Things that make you go: hmmm! A
good time was had by all.
GERMANY
AT PEACE FOR YEARS
It was a fascinating experience visiting Germany for the past week.
I should like to thank the German Government for this kind invitation.
It was an honour to have been chosen. I thank Josef Hermanns, the
Honorary Consul for Germany in The Bahamas and Ambassador Dr. Christian
Hausmann, resident in Kingston. We have from this visit a clear sense
of what Germany's goals are as far as The Bahamas and the Caribbean are
concerned in the area of human rights. They want the death penalty
abolished. They want humane standards for prisons in our countries.
We want the same thing. The question is how do we get there, given
the lack of resources and the lack of political support for prison reform
in our countries? Present at the visit was Dickey Bradley, the Minister
of Urban Development and Housing for Belize, Commissioner of Corrections
John Prescod of Jamaica, myself and Senator Professor Ramesh Deosaran of
Trinidad and Tobago who is an academic at the University of the West Indies
Centre for Criminology. We met after the visit to act on some of
what we saw: the individual cells, the treatment of prisoners as human
beings with respect and privacy, the work programmes in prisons and the
investment by their governments. But German society is interesting
for another reason. It is rebuilding after the cold war, the Berlin
wall is down and in the minds of many of the young it is like a fairy tale.
And yet the existence of the wall informed the public policy of the west
for almost fifty years. There were the Communists and the Capitalists.
Today those distinctions are no longer relevant in the vibrant democracy
that they have built. To be sure there is still some resentment by the
people from the former German Democratic Republic or East Germany that
they are treated like second class citizens. The Westerners don't
know what they are complaining about since they say the easterners are
the recipients of tax relief and aid that to this date it has amounted
to some 100,000 deutsche marks per capita. But perhaps the most telling
statement about modern Germany today is the statement by Hans-Peter Strenege,
State Secretary for Judicial Affairs of the Free and Hanseatic City of
Hamburg. In relating the history of his country, he recited one war
after the next from the nineteenth century through the twentieth century.
Then he added that today Germany has had the longest period of peace as
a country - 56 years. Before that the longest period that Germany
had not been at war was 43 years. And so that is why the country
is so meticulous when it comes to the death penalty and when it comes to
the rule of law. They do not want war again. Peace is better.
We in the Caribbean have known no war so it's easy for us to be casual
about human life.
PERRY
CHRISTIE ON BAHAMASAIR
Leader
of the Opposition Perry Christie made a scorching attack on the Government's
record on Bahamasair in the House of Assembly on Tuesday 19 June.
He said that in seven years the FNM had lost 100 million dollars at Bahamasair.
He compared this to 100 million in 17 years under the PLP. For the
year ending 20 June 2000, Bahamasair's losses have been pegged at $25,000,000.
But he added that you have to add some four million dollars more, the amount
for spending on fixed assets for a total of $29,341,000. This amount
Mr. Christie says exceeds the amount in the national budget allocated
for the Defence Force.
OFF
THE BLACKLIST-YEAH RIGHT!
There
was a news bulletin on ZNS radio at 1 a.m. on Friday 22 June to say that
the announcement was made that The Bahamas has been removed from the blacklist
of non-cooperating countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD). You might remember it was that Blacklist
that caused the Chief Slave to run off like a grovelling mendicant to the
developed countries of the world and give away the store, wrecking our
financial services sector. We told the stupid man that he did not
have to give away what he did. Other countries are laughing at us
because the business is now coming to them. The press in The Bahamas all
helped the Government including Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham (shown in
this Guardian photo) and hapless Minister of Finance Bill Allen to crow
about the fact that The Bahamas is off the Blacklist. Of course what
they don't remind the Government leaders about that this is a crisis of
their own making,. First we did not have to be on the blacklist if
they had not neglected the inquiries of the OECD in the first place.
Secondly, they ignored the fact that the U.S. administration was changing
and under George Bush the focus would not be the same as under Bill Clinton.
What observers are saying now is that the blacklist could not be maintained
by the OECD anyway because the Bush administration had decided that they
were not going to agree to the sanctions being proposed by the OECD.
These sanctions could not be maintained in the face of U.S. non-cooperation.
The OECD therefore had no choice but to take everyone off the list. The
Government has a set of amendments that it proposes to bring to Parliament
to change the laws again. There is a recognition that the laws are
too onerous. They are an invasion of privacy and they also cause
banks to be policemen for the work of the Government. What should happen
is that the Bahamian people should refuse to follow them. Like most
things in this country, they would then simply fall away by disuse.
MORE
DEAD HAITIANS
What is happening to the refugee population from Haiti in The Bahamas
is tragic. As the political and economic situation in Haiti continues
to deteriorate, the refugees keep pouring into The Bahamas. Last week on
Monday 18 June the Bahamas Defence Force discovered 25 Haitian refugees
on Man Cay 30 miles east of Harbour Island in the Eleuthera chain.
Four of the twenty-five people discovered were dead. The others were
rushed to hospital suffering from severe dehydration.
The Tribune showed a photo of some of the survivors. This situation
is a serious matter and with Caricom about to meet in The Bahamas in July
we wonder what else of importance do our leaders have to talk about except
this tragedy that continues to unfold with Haiti. No public policy
seems to be effective. Haiti is now a member of Caricom and that
alone is enough for us to see what we can do to fix this terrible problem.
CARICOM
HEADS TO MEET IN NASSAU
The
Bahamas Information Services showed a photo of Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham
grinning away with the Caricom Secretary General Edward Carrington.
Mr. Ingraham is to Chair the meeting of Caricom Heads of Government in
Nassau that begins on 3 July. Now this is the same Mr. Ingraham who
told the Caricom leaders shortly after he became Prime Minister that
he was not coming to any more Caricom meetings because they don't accomplish
anything and there were far too many meetings. After insulting
the leaders they promptly chose our Mr. Ingraham to represent them at some
meetings in the South Pacific. Just like the slave that he is, he
was happy to get the free trips and went off to the Pacific for three weeks.
We never heard any complaints about Caricom meetings again. Now he
wants this one for a different reason. Mr. Ingraham expects to call
an election in The Bahamas later this year. He is trying to boost
his sagging fortunes by spending a fortune on the Caricom meeting.
This will make him look like a statesman or so he thinks. You can
take the man out of the bush but you can't take the bush out of the man.
The Government is rapidly fixing up the old Shirley Street theatre where
it is expected that the opening for the Caricom meeting will take place.
No word on how much that is to cost.
REGISTER
TO CLOSE
Prime Minister and Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham has announced that the
current register, the one that came into force in January 1997, will be
revoked on 30 September of this year. That means that those who do
not now register for the new register that comes into effect on 1 October
will be disenfranchised if an election is called after 1 October and they
are not on the new register. This is yet another signal that
the elections are near and that the Constituencies Commission is about
to report. The Parliamentary Registrar says that now some 72,000 people
have registered, considerably up on the previous numbers. Some 150,000
are expected to be on the new register. The PLP has appointed Bradley Roberts
MP to the Constituencies Commission. The PLP has its own ideas about
what ought to happen to the Boundaries. A court challenge by this
Senator is expected to the membership of both Dion Foulkes and Tommy Turnquest
of the FNM as members of the Commission. Mr. Turnquest is son of
Governor General Orville Turnquest to whom the report must go. Mr. Foulkes
has been busy telling people what the FNM plans to do when the Commission
meets, thereby fettering his discretion. This would make any decision
by the Commission void.
AIR
TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS CASE
Roscoe
Perpall, the President of the Bahamas Air traffic Controllers Union, (shown
in this Bahama Journal photo) has called for the resignation of Minister
C.A, Smith and Director of Civil Aviation Cyril Saunders. The two
men are responsible for flouting the ruling of the Supreme Court in not
allowing the air traffic controllers back to their jobs before the three
month period that meant decertification was up. The Government sought
to flout the ruling of the court by reducing the period to two and a half
months. When the period expired they stalled, delayed and deferred
so that the period of three months went by, thereby flouting the ruling
of the Court. The 90-day period was up on Wednesday 20 June.
This is a disgrace. Further C.A. Smith has caused letters to be issued
to the air traffic controllers, six of them, threatening them with dismissal.
This is part of the Government's effort to stall delay and defer.
This Senator issued a statement last week in which it was said that
a criminal complaint could be issued against the Minister for union busting.
In a statement to The Tribune on Tuesday 19 June, the Minister of Transport
Mr. Smith said that should this Senator want to make a criminal complaint
against him "he ought to go right ahead and so do." Well we will
do just that. Count on it!
A
WORD ON THE COURTS
The case of the air traffic controllers and how the Government has
been able to manipulate the system to flout the law and the Courts bears
a serious comment about the state of the Courts. As an advocate,
I have expressed over time my feeling that the Courts in this country are
weak and that Judges refuse to stand up in the face of actions of the Government.
The actions of the Courts or the inaction as in the case of the air traffic
controllers gives support to that contention. At the appropriate
time in the Parliament, I shall vent in full what I consider to be a shocking
dereliction of duty by the Courts of this country in the face of the actions
by the Government in the matter of the air traffic controllers. Bahamians
should be chilled by this experience. It shows that we cannot count
on the Courts to do what they are mandated to do and are supposed do.
That is tragic.
PINDLING
ON THE DOLLAR BILL
The Chief Slave announced in Parliament on Wednesday 20 June that a
portrait of Sir Lynden Pindling, the founding Prime Minister of The Bahamas
who died last year on 26 August will be placed on the Bahamian one-dollar
bill, replacing the picture of the Queen. The notes are to be issued
by the Central Bank shortly. No doubt this is to make up for the disastrous
decision two years ago to put the racist former Minister of Finance Sir
Stafford Sands on the ten dollar bill. People have been boycotting
the notes and not many are in circulation. The PLP promises when it comes
to office to withdraw the Stafford Sands notes altogether from circulation.
JOE
DELANEY DIES
Condolences to the family of Joseph Delaney, Progressive Liberal Party
Stalwart Councillor. Mr. Delaney was buried in Nassau this week. Party
Leader Christie and Mrs. Christie attended the funeral.
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
Congratulations to our friends Angela Burrows (pictured) and
Denise Sherman Cartwright on graduating Friday 22 June with master's degrees
M. Ed (Curriculum & Instruction). Mrs. Cartwright is the Senior Mistress
at Freeport Anglican High School and Mrs. Burrows is the newly installed
President of the Pilot's Club of Freeport.
Cruise To Nowhere No More - Discovery Cruises has discontinued its 'Cruise To Nowhere' over problems with the smuggling of illegal immigrants. Cruise officials reportedly discovered that people were stowing away on the boat while gamblers revelled in hopes staying hidden until the gamblers were offloaded and the boat plied to Miami.
Immediate Response - ZNS' new top newsman Darolld Miller is scheduled to host his popular talk show 'Immediate Response' from Grand Bahama this coming week. We shall report on whether the Government's picture of Freeport as a boom town stands scrutiny. For all those who want to speak and hear the truth, if Freeport is doing so well, how come there are so many houses are on the auction block? We'll see what the callers have to say to the national audience.
Regatta Time - It's regatta time in Grand Bahama and the boats were out at Taino Beach. A sudden summer storm at the regatta Saturday 23 June sent spectators scurrying for cover and vendors chasing blown away tents. But the real story comes from the gaggle of politicians that follow regattas around The Bahamas. This week, they're here in Grand Bahama and they're talking to us.
More Long Knives - Strong rumblings indicate that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham will accept the orchestrated draft to run for a third term on Wednesday night. Sources say that Mr. Ingraham will call his MPs together and accept "with the condition that he have a free hand". Among those reported to fall under the knife wielded by that 'free hand' are DPM Frank 'Where's Bahamasair's money?' Watson, C.A. Smith, "damaged by the air traffic controllers fight" and David 'I keep trying to fire this guy' Thompson.
David Knows Nothing - Marco City FNM MP Ambassador David Thompson was asked by his generals about reports of his impending demise as a candidate and is said to have told them that he knew of no such thing. Well David, that's how politics goes in The Bahamas. Duh?!
Something for Wells - The beginnings of moves against the FNM Wells dissidents are surfacing. Sources say that the Boundaries Commission report will pit Wells against Dr. Bernard Nottage in what is now Kennedy. An obvious attempt at creating mischief and preventing any co-operation among the smaller opposition forces.
Boundaries Already Drawn? - "Believe me, it's gospel", said our informant. "The lines are drawn and Neko (Grant FNM MP Lucaya) is going to lose about 300 voters to High Rock. Everyone is frightened that Marcus (Dr. Bethel PLP candidate for High Rock) will beat the pants off Ken Russell (FNM High Rock MP and recently appointed Minister of Works)." We pass it on for those interested in the dark art of gerrymandering.
Neko Laughs - Notwithstanding the loss of three hundred voters from Lucaya as reported above, Neko Grant, the FNM MP for Lucaya is brimming with new found confidence over the security of his seat. Said Neko at play Sunday 24 June with other FNM MPs "Some fellows around here do look a little concerned".
Iron Mike calls from Napa Valley - We couldn't believe it. What
was so important for on again off again FNM 'Iron' Mike Edwards, a former
party vice chairman, to call the Freeport eatery from his holiday in California?
"I am 100% FNM" he now proclaims. Hmmm! Little birdies say that Mike was
read the riot act about his association with Minister of Idle Poetry Algernon
Allen. Said the source: "Mike was told not to keep company with that fellow
and he seems to be listening."
