October 1999

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

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

Supplies:    Contact the National Disaster Hurricane Committee
                    Fax the office of the Prime Minister [242] 327.5807

Financial Assistance:
                    Bahamas National Disaster Relief Fund
                    Account at Royal Bank of Canada Main Branch, Nassau

Note from the Publisher:
In a remarkable turn of fate the two major political parties, the governing Free National Movement and the official Opposition Progressive Liberal Party both decided to postpone their conventions.  Conspiracy theories have begun to abound.  Our concern here is not why the PLP postponed its convention.  The reason given was that people were still suffering from the hurricane and it would be insensitive to hold a convention in those circumstances, particularly when delegates would have to come from the islands. While the FNM said the same thing, theirs has been put off to April and we report extensively on the real reason why.

THIS COLUMNIST CELEBRATES HIS 46TH BIRTHDAY ON TUESDAY 5TH OCTOBER .

The Prime Minister was still dashing about the country, promising here and promising there.  But nothing is happening fast.  The U.S. Government has ordered some 200 tents to provide temporary shelter. U.S. Ambassador Arthur Schecter says that the U.S. will do more if needed.

Safe drinking water remains a critical problem for the islands.  In Eleuthera, drinking water was in short supply, and in Grand Bahama, the taste of salt is still evident in the drinking water.  The Government has been misrepresenting the situation in the islands.  It is more serious than they are letting on.  Carl Spencer, the Government operative, who was to have retired from service this year is to be brought back to Eleuthera - get this - at the request of PLPs in Eleuthera, to try to get the island back in some shape.

We again feature from Freeport's Deli, THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S

This week we say congratulations to the Peoples Republic of China on the 50th anniversary of their state.

We have had 913 hits up to 8 a.m. this morning on this site since 1 October and for the entire month of September we had 38,446 hits.  Thank you for reading.

This week we have a new link on the site, which bills itself as the 701st island.  It is http://bahamanetcom.

HOW THE FNM CONVENTION WAS CANCELLED?
Hubert Ingraham has been looking around for an excuse for weeks to cancel his convention.  He could see the handwriting on the wall.  The FNM has gotten tired of him and his third force cronies and they want him to bring to an end the occupation of the FNM by the PLP and the third force and allow native FNMs to assume control of their party.  Mr. Ingraham is desperate for a third term.  He first tried to intimidate the party members.  But knowing FNMs, that did not work.  They told him where to get off.  Then he tried sending a private emissary to Tennyson Wells asking him to cool it, because his authority as Prime Minister was being eroded.  In August we reported from this site that Mr. Ingraham begged Mr. Wells, his Attorney General to stay on in the Cabinet until the end of the year so as not to precipitate a crisis in the Government.  But something better has now come along: Hurricane Floyd.  The Prime Minister thinks that Providence has smiled on him.  Great God Almighty!

A DELEGATION FROM ALGERNON ALLEN
Attorney General Tennyson Wells had to concede.  In these days and times, it is not often that his old friend Algernon Allen, Minister for Social Services aka Minister of Idle Poetry comes to visit.   Mr. Allen knows Tennyson by his second name 'Gabriel'. Mr. Allen came with a message and a delegation from Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, early in the week.  Mr. Ingraham  wanted the crucial support of Mr. Wells to postpone the convention until next year on the grounds that the hurricane victims could not be asked to travel in from the family islands.  Mr. Wells had earlier been approached by religious leaders who asked him to forgo any leadership fight at the convention in the name of the hurricane victims.   Mr. Wells reluctantly agreed, but not before checking with his people, mainly those in Grand Bahama.  They were furious and charged that both the PLP and the FNM were involved in a conspiracy to the defraud the Bahamian people of the dynamic between a proper governing party and a proper opposition party.  With that agreement from Mr. Wells, secured by Mr. Allen, the FNM officers meeting was set for Tuesday 28 September.

DIVISION AMONGST FNM OFFICERS
Tuesday night, it was clear that the FNM was divided.  Despite Mr. Wells' agreement to postpone the convention, there were some of his supporters who insisted the convention had to go ahead, if only in a truncated form for two days instead of the usual one week.  A row broke out, and was only settled when the Chairman decided that the officers would not agree on a recommendation but would simply leave it to the Council as a general body to decide.  The showdown at Council was looming.

SHOWDOWN AT FNM COUNCIL
The Council members began to arrive early on Thursday 30 September.  Iron Mike Edwards, the Vice Chair for the North and an Algernon Allen man, came with his boxing gloves on.  Tennyson Wells himself, Pierre Dupuch, George Capron, all believed that something was afoot, that the request for postponement was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.  The fight began. There was cussing, and who was no good, and who should "carry their ass".  The meeting got so heated that the Chairman had to call for an immediate suspension of the meeting to allow for tempers to cool.  One FNM councillor got up and said how the PLP was able to tell him exactly how the FNM was going to postpone the convention and to what time of the year, even before the FNM council had decided it.  The Council was persuaded notwithstanding that information that PLP operatives were conspiring to destabilize the FNM by spreading mischief and propaganda to postpone the convention until April 2000.  Mr. Ingraham got his wish.  It was just before one a.m. Now Frank Watson - the Deputy Prime Minister himself - called, setting the record straight about where the majority actually was.  He claimed that the majority in the room really wanted a slimmed down convention.  Tennyson Wells had had enough. He charged up to the microphone, and literally grabbed it out of Frank Watson's hand and told him he was talking foolishness. That nothing could be further from the truth.  A stunned Mr. Watson could barely react. The meeting adjourned with much grumbling and dissatisfaction.  But the point is Mr. Ingraham has his way yet again in the FNM. The occupation of the FNM by the PLP continues. Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie was briefed of events in the FNM Council as they unfolded from the floor.  He was even able to make a few suggestions to cause more trouble inside the room, and after the meeting adjourned, he received a first hand briefing.

THE DENNIS DAMES RESOLUTION
FNM political activist Dennis Dames has been circulating a resolution on the internet which is said to be supported by the Tennyson Wells side of the FNM calling for a leader pro tem to serve simultaneously with Hubert Ingraham in the last days of his prime ministership. The resolution is expected to come up for debate in the April convention of the FNM in the year 2000. CLICK HERE to read that resolution on Dennis Dames' site.

WRONG BOATS FOR THE DEFENCE FORCE
In August this year, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force took delivery of a new 198 foot, 13 million dollar vessel, the HMBS Bahamas.  There was a picture of the Commander of the Defence Force Davey Rolle greeting the ship at the Prince George Dock in Nassau.  It was curious why the greeting was done there and not at the RBDF base at Coral Harbour.  It turns out that the reason why is because the boat cannot dock at Coral Harbour.  It has a nine foot draft and the water at the dock is too shallow for the boat to be able to dock.  Have you ever heard any such stupidity?  The RBDF did not reply to a statement by this columnist that this was ludicrous.  The answer from an anonymous source quoted in The Tribune is that the Force is waiting for the Minister to release funds to dredge the waters around the base.  Sounds like a case of the cart before horse.  The story gets worse.  Our informant tells us that there are only two harbours that this boat can enter, one is Nassau Harbour at Prince George, the other is Freeport Harbour.  The ship draws so much water that it makes it useless for any duties requiring it close to shore.

DPM DEFENDS RBDF PURCHASE
In an incredible response to the statement of this columnist on the purchase of the boats, the Deputy Prime Minister said that it was not a mistake. The boat and a sister ship still on order were deliberately ordered.  They are not meant for shore work, he said.  The idea is for them to be ocean going vessels that can stay out to sea for long periods of time.  The question is what work do we need to do in the deep waters of the ocean.  RBDF's duties are to patrol for drug traffickers, for illegal immigrants and illegal fishing.  These inevitably take place on the banks.  Most of The Bahamas is a bank.  So when these illegal actors see the big ship coming, all they now have to do is head for shore and they can't be followed.  Recently, the ship was needed to ferry supplies to Cat Island to assist with hurricane relief.  The ship had to anchor five miles off the coast and ferry the goods at great expense in time and fuel to Cat island.  There is no other word for it but ludicrous.  Some of our colleagues have suggested that corruption might be involved.  Why else would one make a decision to buy two 13 million dollar ships that are not suited for Bahamian waters?  It is a large contract and it makes it possible for someone to rake money off the top.

GG VISITS FOX HILL
Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest, accompanied by Minister of State for Youth Zhivargo Laing visited the Sandilands Primary School in Fox Hill on Thursday 30 September.  The visit was to kick off the One Bahamas Festival. This columnist who is nursing the Fox Hill constituency for the PLP attended.  The Guardian - would you believe it? - actually carried a photo of this columnist on its front page, sitting next to the two gentlemen.  Remember how the Nassau Guardian Editor said that the only way for this columnist to get into the Nassau Guardian was for Fred Mitchell to commit suicide.  It must therefore follow that on the day in question this columnist died. See Guardian photo: Senator Mitchell, Minister Laing and the Governor General.

HORSE RACING COMMISSION REAPPOINTED
A curious announcement was made this week. Horse racing has not happened in this country since the 1980s.  Now the Bahama Journal reports in its 28 September edition that a racing Commission has been appointed.  For what, pray tell?  There is no horse racing in The Bahamas.  We also know that despite the lobbying of the Prime Minister's main man Alphonso Elliot, aka Bugaloo, for horse racing to be revived, the Prime Minister is implacably opposed to horse racing.  So what mischief is afoot?  The members of the Commission are: Harcourt Bastian, Chair, members are George Godet, George Ageeb, Sidney Wilson, Oswald Marshall. All good FNMs!

CRAWFISH AND CHICKEN SUPPLIES
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Fisheries have been giving mixed information about the affects of Hurricane Floyd on those industries.  Crawfishing has been affected, they say, because many of the boats in Abaco and Eleuthera have been wrecked.  We should see short supplies in New Providence and increased prices for crawfish.  Chicken, they say, will not be so badly affected even though one million chickens had to be put down in The Bahamas.  Gladstone Farms, the country's biggest chicken producer, has had to lay off 200 people.  The Ministry has given temporary permission to import frozen birds while the local stocks get back up to scratch.  As usual, the Minister of  Agriculture is silent.  Still does not know what to do.

DUPUCH AND MOSQUITO SPRAY
The Nassau Guardian carried a picture on the front page of a group of officials led by Minister of Consumer Affairs Pierre Dupuch.  They were announcing special measures supported by the Pan American Health Organization to deal with a mosquito problem in this country.  The effort is to try to curtail any possible outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever in the country. Nice effort and all that.  But isn't it interesting that this announcement comes from Mr. Dupuch.  Once again it points out how stupid the Prime Minister was to have split the Department of Environmental Health from the Ministry of Health.  Makes no sense.  But then that's Mr. Ingraham for you.

SIR LEONARD KNOWLES DIES
There is a time to be born and a time to die. The first Bahamian Chief Justice in an independent Bahamas Sir Leonard Knowles died in Macon, Georgia with his son and family at the age of 83.  He served as a Member of the Legislative Council, predecessor to the Senate and later as President of the Senate.   He retired from the position of Chief Justice after five years.  He complained bitterly years afterward of the low salary, interference in the Judiciary by  the Government and a low pension.  Sir Leonard was rewarded with a measly pension of $15,000 PER YEAR BY Act of Parliament last year.  Judges like Joaquim Gonsalves Sabola who came to The Bahamas with a carpet bag, now end up with pensions over sixty thousand dollars per year.  It was most unfair. May Sir Leonard rest in piece.  He was buried in Georgia.

COURT OF APPEAL PRESIDENT SABOLA RETIRES
Praise god from whom all blessings flow.  The president of the Court of Appeal, and resident carpetbagger Joaquim Gonsalves Sabola has retired from the bench of the Court of Appeal.  Not a moment too soon.  It is time for the others on the Court, with the exception of Burton Hall, to retire as well.   Under Sabola's tenure, human rights in The Bahamas suffered.  His decisions tended to favour the executive. He is said to be headed to Dupuch and Turnquest, law firm of the Governor General, upon his retirement.  Senate President Henry Bostwick asked this columnist at the Chinese Ambassador's reception on Thursday 30 September whether he would be attending the farewell of the President of the Court of Appeal.  The reply was, this columnist does not enjoy dancing on graves.

BURTON HALL TO BE IDB JUDGE
The Inter American Development Bank (IDB) has announced that Justice of Appeal Burton Hall had been appointed to a three year term as an administrative law judge for the Bank.  He will be responsible along with six other judges for the hearing of appeals from disgruntled staff members about bank decisions.  He can serve two terms.  He succeeds Telford Georges, former Chief Justice of The Bahamas. He is to be officially inducted in Washington on 1 November.

CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST COB
The College of The Bahamas Chairman Hugh Sands has been served with a number of criminal complaints by members of the faculty of the College. The members charge that in a letter dated 17 August the College sought to intimidate its employees by reason of the circumstance that they were members of a trade union.  The College must answer the charges on 21 October before Magistrate Vera Watkins.

CUBANS ESCAPE FROM FOX HILL
Hurricane Floyd damaged the detention centre at Carmichael Road.  The refugees housed there were taken before the storm to the Fox Hill Prison for safe keeping and kept in the area at the back of the prison formerly used as the women's prison.  It has double fences around it and razor wire on top.  Ever since the storm, despite being guarded by Immigration Officers, Defence Force and Prison officers, 53 Cubans walked out of the prison and into freedom.  Seven have been recaptured.  The rest remain at large.  It is believed that the Cubans are in safe houses in Nassau or are on their way to the U.S.  Despite a call by this Senator for a public explanation by the Minister of National Security, no public statement has been made by the Minister or by the Minister for Immigration. The breakout has gone just like that.  Immigration has become so slack of late.  Morale is low.  The Minister does not seem to know what she is doing.  Now we have a major breakout from the prison and no public outrage and no public accountability.

THE STORY BEHIND THE BREAKOUT
There is no question that corruption is suspected.  The Cubans seemed to know where to go, and were awaiting transportation, those that were caught were able to say.  Further, the Department of Immigration is suffering from a morale problem as a result of the appointment of the present Director of Immigration.  While a fine administrator in a vacuum, at the Department there is resentment that an outsider without Immigration experience was put over them.  Then, too, some of the policies of the Director have left seasoned immigration officers doing clerical work or transferred out of the department.  Further, the Director of Immigration and the Commander of the Defence Force don't get along.  Some politician needs to get involved to try and work out the differences.  The Defence Force was not guarding the Cubans at the prison.  They told the Director that they did not have the manpower because of Floyd.  It took the intervention of the DPM to get the Force to supply guards after the breakout. Then morale is low in the prison.  Prison officers believe that they are being hard done by Philip Turner the Prison Superintendent.  But Mr. Turner is said to be untouchable because of his close relationship with the Prime Minister.

BANKS NEED TO LIGHTEN UP
Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America made an interesting address to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington this week.  In it he talked about the need for alternative capital markets.  He said that one of the reasons that Japan was having such a hard time recovering from recession when the real estate market collapsed was the dependence of Japan on banks for capital sources.  Alternative capital markets were a way forward for countries when their banking systems were too restrictive.  It seems that The Bahamas faces that problem now.  Since the hurricane a number of banks have advertised specials about loans to help recover.  The banks are said to be flush with money.  But in terms of its basic marketing strategies, the banks are still selling the same old limited products which they sold twenty years ago.

BANKS LENDING POLICIES
If you want to raise capital in The Bahamas, you have to have collateral.  That for most people means land.  Lately, it means shares. Some banks because of the lack of fluctuation in the limited Bahamian stock market, will accept the shares at a one to one value even though Canadian Banks say by policy they will take the security as being worth fifty per cent of their face value.  This makes it difficult for capital to be raised.  It makes it difficult to buy a house.  It also makes it difficult to keep a house once you buy it and mortgage it.  The banks are aggressive in tossing you out and selling it to the next person.  Can The Bahamas develop alternative capital markets: a bond market; a stock exchange? The developments are coming but not fast enough.  It appears that there is a huge gap between where the young businessman is in the country and where official policy actually is.  The Minister of Finance, the Central Bank are both dinosaurs and have not managed to create or invent any new policies to deal with problem of raising capital.  They can't even help with the critical housing shortage in the country.

WHAT ARE BANKS USEFUL FOR?
It appears that all banks are useful for is to obtain short-term money.   It is simply an instrument to get cash in your hand so you can spend it.  The policies for lending are still too restrictive.  Some imagination needs to be exercised to allow this place to take advantage of the three million people that visit us every year and the economic opportunities of that market.  The women of Fox Hill who are in a three thousand dollars a month asue are more inventive when it comes to financing than the banks.  That's an alternative capital market of which Alan Greenspan would be proud. If ever, this politician gets into a position to do something about it, the people of The Bahamas can look forward to access to development funding in new and imaginative ways.

THE MORALITY OF LENDING
What does seem to have to be tackled, however, is that borrowers and lenders must know that there is a certain morality involved in the process.  The money is not given away, and must be repaid.  It is a moral obligation to do so.  Many borrowers think just because they have hard times that absolves them of the responsibility to pay. A contract is a contract.  But on the other side, there must be some leniency to allow people who fall into default to save themselves.

NO RESPECT FOR THE MINISTER OF IMMIGRATION
The story is told of the Minister of Immigration getting up to give speech at a convocation of immigration officers in July of this year.  She started off by speaking about corruption.  She told the officers that she did not support corruption.  Someone, a female officer, sucked her teeth loudly at the back and said: "Child Please!"  The Minister changed the subject.  But officers  are asking questions about how certain work permits get approved. Are the files being properly documented for example, and on what policy basis are applications being granted?

CHINESE CELEBRATE FIFTY YEARS
The Chinese hosted a 50th anniversary party in the Crystal Palace on Thursday 30 September.  Good music and a nice show of dance.  All the mucks were there.  This Senator attended as Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs.  Dame Ivy Dumont is the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.  The Governor General and Lady Turnquest were there.  In front of the mucks from The Bahamas and the resident Ambassadors and Consular Corp, the Chinese Ambassador reaffirmed that Taiwan is a part of China.  He referred to the President of Taiwan as the so-called President.  He said his country would not renounce the use of force to take Taiwan back.  This was just great stuff for a reception.  This columnist's personal view is that the PLP should not support force against Taiwan, and while the question of Taiwan is an internal problem since we support the one China policy, people have a right to self-determination.

It was announced that the Governor General is to visit China in December.  The Bahamas and China established diplomatic relations in July 1997. Also this week, in time for the Chinese golden jubilee celebration, The Bahamas appointed former Bahamian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Arthur Foulkes (pictured) as non-resident Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.
 

THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S
Who says that this website is not an instrument of public service? After last week's story about the neglect of five miles of roads in the east, tractors were on their way to solve the problem early Monday morning after our Sunday story.

    Since the start of this regular feature here on fredmitchelluncensored.com, the atmosphere at Kristi's has changed. Normally outspoken FNMs have fallen silent, or at least become circumspect. This week, however, they again began to speak out.
    Earl Godet - taxi-driver, landlord and putative contestant for the FNM's Vice Chairmanship says we can quote him about the Government's decision to buy Defence Force vessels that can't dock at most places in the country: "a** backward thinking and I won't defend the indefensible, I'll say it and they can't do me nothing".
    Earl and defending Vice Chairman, Iron Mike Edwards have closed ranks on another matter. It seems both men - nationalists of the first order - agree on opposing a liquor licence for Waterworld which is a new concern in Freeport owned by expatriate businessman Dave Willard. The apparent feeling is that because of his financial influence, Willard has been able to buy his way into areas of the Bahamian economy supposedly reserved for Bahamians exclusively.
    During the discussion on this liquor licence, in comes a local landscaper; belligerent in nature and a former general of Minister Smith, now loyally enlisted in the Ingraham forces. "The licence should be granted", he says, and begins to defend that position, insisting that if the proper local authorities turned it down "it will be granted anyway." The discussion then became so heated with talk of protecting the little which Bahamians have left that it had to be taken outside.
    Word on the street is that a third contender is about to emerge in the race for FNM Vice Chairman of the North. Cyril 'Boxer' Minnis has reportedly told close friends that he intends to run. He claims to have blessings from the highest level of the FNM. Boxer is another regular who always had something to say, but has fallen strangely silent of late.
    Lately, both Boxer and the landscaper have had a pleasant reversals of fortune in their businesses. These two were among the original Cecil Wallace Whitfield FNMs and have now seen their way clear to support Mr. Ingraham. The tactics for Ingraham to remain where he is seem to be stall, select, recruit and reward. FNMs were given a lesson in politics 101 this week when we predicted what was likely to be the outcome of events for that week. The FNM convention was cancelled and the fallout that we predicted is now taking place. Maybe this time, they'll take our advice and cover their backs. Things that make you go hmmm!
    Also this week in Kristi's the Dennis Dames resolution on Hubert Ingraham surfaced suggesting a leader pro tem should be elected to serve with Mr. Ingraham in his last days. The general feeling was that the resolution should stand.
    Hurricane Help - Community and softball great Churchill 'Tener' Knowles together with local businessmen Elon 'Sonny' Martin and Max Quant are in the forefront of an effort to help hurricane victims in Churchill's native Eleuthera and in Abaco. Sonny's vessel 'The Little Red Boat' ferried supplies into both Eleuthera and Abaco and Max took construction workers to Sandy Point to help in the recovery. Well done guys.

CADWELL ARMBRISTER IS BURIED
It appears that in the culture of Bahamian funerals these days; the more unique, the more public and the longer the funeral, the better. After turning down an offer of an official funeral from The Bahamas Government, the Armbrister family buried their loved one on Wednesday 29 September. The burial came three hours and forty five minutes after the start of the church service. There were ten tributes delivered during the service. Those who complained about the length of the funeral for Alfred Maycock were treated to an even longer marathon but, as they say, rest in peace. The Tribune photo shows Mr. Armbrister laid out for public viewing. Mr. Armbrister stood up and was counted as a founding member of the Airport, Airline and Allied Workers union which is now the principal union of Bahamasair. He served in the Senate from 1967 to 1972 and in the House of Assembly from 1972 to 1977 for the PLP.

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

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

Supplies:    Contact the National Disaster Hurricane Committee
                    Fax the office of the Prime Minister [242] 327.5807

Financial Assistance:
                    Bahamas National Disaster Relief Fund
                    Account at Royal Bank of Canada Main Branch, Nassau

Note from the Publisher:
This week, if you can believe it, the Prime Minister of The Bahamas was taking time out from his busy schedule to shop for trees.  Yes trees! It was all over the newspapers and on the television, pictures of Mr. Ingraham and Ministers of the Government in tow, trying (we said trying) to look intelligent on the subject of trees.  What's up with this?  Well, it is an attempt to make the business people happy.  Buying trees from local nurseries.  Secondly, it is part of the campaign to make it look like the Government is actually doing something about hurricane relief. Reports say that the Prime Minister and his Permanent Secretary were seen shopping in the Manuel Diaz Nursery in Miami, looking for trees.  This is the same Manuel Diaz who sold trees to The Bahamas when Perry Christie was the Minister of Agriculture.  Remember all the talk about snakes in the trees.  Now Mr. Diaz has offered to sell 20,000 trees to the Government of the Bahamas at $200 per tree. No word on whether they will take up the offer. The Press claimed that the Prime Minister was looking for hurricane resistant trees.  You learn something new every day. (Tribune photo)

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION Perry Christie went off for the day to Eleuthera to inspect for himself the damage by the hurricane on Friday 8 October.

The Governor General, doing his part to keep up the side, held a Hurricane relief Rally on Sunday 3 October.  It collected some $65,000 for the effort. Sir Orville himself donated $10,000 of that amount.

This week the country seemed to be in foment.  There was frustration and boredom at the same time about the hurricane.  Mr. Ingraham was busy trying to hog all the credit for hurricane relief. Some areas were still without potable water.  This columnist would like to thank Derek Davis and his wife Jan for their help in getting water over to good friends in Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera.

Thank you to those who sent cards and wished a happy birthday to this columnist on Tuesday 5 October.  Thank you to Peter Allen and Candia Dames.

Condolences go out to our good friend and the Honorary Consul of The Bahamas in Jamaica Basil Smith on the passing of his mother Rose at the age of 83.  She will be buried in Jamaica at Stony Hill in St. Andrew on Thursday 14 October. Condolences also Felix Seymour Sr. on the loss of his brother Clyde Seymour.
We have pictures of the devastation in Freeport - shown at right is the international entrance to Freeport Airport carpeted with seaweed. Photos by Lionel Smith. Also this week of course, the latest installment our regular feature THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S

We have had    hits on this site for the month of October up to 8 a.m. this morning.  Keep reading.
This week we have a new link on the site, which bills itself as the 701st island.  It is http://bahamanetcom.

CABLE BAHAMAS TO BE SOLD
A late report was circulating in Nassau on Friday 8 October that Cable Bahamas the company that has the monopoly on cable television in The Bahamas is to be bought by a group of Eastern Road Bahamians led by one Craig Symonette, son of the former Premier of the country.  The purchase price of the 34 per cent of shares owned by Phil Keeping is said to be 52 million dollars.  We have always suspected that if you probe behind the strange choice of Cable Bahamas to provide cable services in The Bahamas you will find some corrupt official made some money out of this deal.   Why would Keeping want to sell after turning down a proposal for 42.5 million made earlier by an Over-the-Hill group?  Who knows?  What we do know is that this well connected political group from the Eastern Road believes that they can persuade the government to allow the Internet and telephone services over the cable wires.  You read it here first.  Things that make you go: "hmmm!"

SAVING THE TREES
The Prime Minister has been shopping around for trees. What he has not told the country is that a team of public servants offered to help save the existing stock of old trees. The report said that all that has to be done in a number of cases is the trees have to be set upright.  The teams must act now before the trees die. The question is, what deal is being cooked up why the Prime Minister has ignored the offer of the public servants and wants to buy new trees?

THE BRIDGE AT ELEUTHERA
The Glass Window Bridge, the link between north and central Eleuthera has been blown out of kilter again by Hurricane Floyd.  The warning signs are up.  Only one lane of it can be used, and one must proceed slowly.  This is the fourth time in as many windy times that the bridge has suffered damage.  That's what happens when politicians don't leave bridge design and building to professional engineers.  The Prime Minister with his usual fast self, the last time the bridge was damaged, promised a design, overseen by himself that was to have solved the problem.  But Hurricane Floyd had other plans.  Now the Prime Minister took time out from his busy schedule of dispensing water, building houses, buying trees, to design a new bridge.  This one he says will be on the lee side of the cliffs at that part of Eleuthera.  Things that make you go: " hmmm! ".

WHAT DOES KOZENY HAVE ON THE PM?
On Tuesday 5 October, a remarkable interview appeared in the Tribune. It was Victor Kozeny, the punk billionaire who live at at Lyford Cay. Kozeny is said to have been a big contributor to the FNM. He is in The Bahamas, the newspaper said, because he made a fortune on shares that some found to be in a questionable way. Others lost millions and he became rich. From a policy point of view, we are concerned that he is the owner of Hall's Pond Cay in the Exumas. This is part of The Bahamas National Trust's domain in the National Park System. The island is supposed to be within a protectorate for nature. Mr Kozeny virtually destroyed the cay in the name of development. The Prime Minster, in a high profile visit last year, called on Mr. Kozeny to put the cay back in its original shape. Mr. Kozeny's lawyer, the former UBP Minister Peter Graham, admitted that development permission had not been obtained. Nothing has apparently happened since the Prime Minister's visit. When Mr. Kozeny was asked about it on Tuesday, in the follow up report by the Tribune as the government was planning to forcibly acquire the cay in the public interest, Mr. Kozeny let loose an insulting blast at the Prime Minister. He said the PM was only playing politics to his domestic constituency. He said he thought the Prime Minister had more valuable things to do with his time and the Government's money, particularly since the hurricane. Bahamians were shocked at the remarks. This is the tenor of the FNM's administration. It is clear that, had the PLP administration been in office, Mr. Kozeny would have been on the plane the next day. But it looks like you can do anything to this FNM administration once you have dollars. There is a word which begins with P that describes such a person. Mr. Kozeny also has the reputation as one who treats his Bahamian staff badly. The PLP needs to investigate this man and this matter. Next day, 6 October, Mr. Kozeny demanded his money back from The Bahamas National Trust that he said he gave as a donation. Hope he does not get what we in The Bahamas call a hogstye, that's a boil on the eye. In Bahamian folklore, that's what you get when you give something and take it back.

OIL SPILL IN EXUMA
The Tribune reported this week that a barge bringing diesel oil from Turks and Caicos Islands for the project at Emerald Bay in Ocean Bight, Exuma broke one of its parts and spilled scores of gallons of diesel into Elizabeth Harbour, Georgetown.  No word from the Bahamas National Trust, but someone should pay for this.  The barge owner and offender, picked up his georgie bundle and left the country before any action could be taken.  Tribune photo.

CARS TOWED AT THE AG'S OFFICE
Tameka Burrows was perhaps the most outspoken of her colleagues, and she was angry.  She had come back from a hard day's work at the Courts to find that the Postmaster General had decided that all cars parked in the customer's parking spots for the Post Office were to be towed.  This included all the staff members from the Attorney General 's office who work in the same building as the Post Office. Cost these days of an uninvited tow: $60. The Guardian photo (Donald Knowles) shows a wrecker at work and lawyers expressing their outrage.

CHINESE AMBASSADOR TWEAKS TAIWAN
Chinese Ambassador Ma Xshue spoke bluntly and forthrightly at the reception celebrating his country's fiftieth anniversary as a modern state.  He spoke of the "so called President of Taiwan".  He said that China would not renounce the use of force to keep Taiwan in the fold.  This week, this columnist issued a statement on behalf of the PLP that we could not support the use of Force against Taiwan.  The Ambassador did not take kindly to it, and called this columnist to protest the statement.

THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Janet Bostwick was missing from the Chinese affair last week.  She was busy hobnobbing with the mucks at the United Nations, delivering the country's annual address.  Nothing of note said.  In fact, we are waiting to hear from our sources at the UN.  From all accounts her visit was an absolute disaster.  We are not surprised. We do not think she even knows what a Minister of Foreign Affairs is supposed to do.

GULF UNION AND PEOPLE'S PENNY BANK
The Government announced in a brief meeting in Parliament on Wednesday 6 October that it is borrowing 7 million to pay depositors up to $50,000 for their losses in the defunct Gulf Union Bank, and 5 million for those who lost their money in People's Penny Savings Bank. The Government passed an act just before the summer recess to put in place depositor's insurance.  This is a novel idea: insurance for a risk that happened before the insurance came into place.  It is all political.  Mr. Ingraham takes another foray into the Public Treasury for political purposes.

CENTRAL BANK ON NATIONAL DEBT
The Central Bank of The Bahamas has announced that the national debt of the Bahamas is now 1.87 billion dollars.  This is an eight per cent increase since last year.  Who says the National Debt is decreasing?

IMMIGRATION OFFICERS NEED THEIR PAY
An Immigration Officer called this week to complain that the Government owes them five months overtime pay.  The shipping companies and airlines pick up the overtime for these officers and pay the Treasury.  The Treasury seems to have trouble meeting their payroll.  At week's end a Senior Officer at Immigration told us that the men would have been paid on Friday 8 October.

MORE FROM THE FNM COUNCIL
Minister of Immigration Theresa Moxey got what she was asking for.  Jit Culmer had had enough.  The cussing was so severe, people were embarrassed for Mrs. Moxey-Ingraham at last week's contentious FNM Council meeting that led to the controversial postponement of the FNM convention.  Mrs. Moxey-Ingraham was made to look like a fool; according to our informants, and almost got punched out.  Then there was Public Service Minister David Thompson who told the crowd that if Mr. Ingraham wants a third term. Let's give it to him.  He was loudly told to sit down and shut up.  Later in the week, the testy Mr. Thompson who was reminded that if he did not get on board the Tennyson Wells bandwagon, he would not be a Minister in the next Cabinet, replied: "You think you pick Ministers up off the streets? " The fellows had an answer for him by listing a few names in the Cabinet who they thought Mr. Ingraham had so called "picked up from the streets".   That will hold Mr. Thompson no doubt.

THE WORDS OF ALGERNON ALLEN
In politics, you have never met a more Machiavellian character than Algernon Allen, the Minister of Social Services, aka, Minister of Idle Poetry.  Mr. Allen was reportedly cussing like a sailor behind the scenes of the Governor General's Hurricane Rally on Sunday 2 October.  He was delighting all who could hear with his glee that the Prime Minister's relief efforts had gone astray.  People could hear coming from that direction: "He's too stupid! Good for him! Want to do everything by himself.  No decision can be made by anyone except he knows about it!"  Temper, Mr. Allen.  Draw it mild!

CONGRATULATIONS CHEF CHARLES MISSICK
Charles Missick is a good chef, excellent in fact.  But of course Sun International continues to discriminate against him by not giving him the kind of post that is deserving of his talents and abilities.  But the chefs of the country think well enough of him that they have elected him head of the local Chefs Association.  At a banquet held at Paradise Island last Saturday 2 October, Chef Chris Chea passed the leadership baton to Chef Charles Missick.  Congratulations! The Guardian photo (Bahamian Photographers) shows Mr. Chea at right and Mr. Missick.
 
 
 

RICK FOX MARRIES
Bahamian/Canadian basketball star Rick Fox of the Los Angeles Lakers married Vanessa Williams, the former Miss America, now actress and singer in a private religious ceremony in New York last weekend.  Mr. Fox for the first time, although he has a son.  Miss Williams for the second time.  She has three children.  According to Ulrick Fox, the Proprietor of Holiday Ice in Nassau and Rick Fox's father, he asked his son to wait a year before marrying, and the son honoured the request. He said his son was quite happy.  The son has just signed at 30 years old a six year contract worth 24 million dollars with the Los Angeles Lakers.  Mr. Fox caused a controversy in The Bahamas two Olympics ago by seeming to deny his Bahamian citizenship and embracing the Canadian basketball team.  But with this kind of star power, he also wants to be an actor, one imagines all is forgiven. Tribune (AP) photos.

WATER PROBLEMS IN GRAND BAHAMA
The water table has been contaminated by salt water in Freeport and the rest of Grand Bahama as a result of Hurricane Floyd.  We show pictures this week of the complete devastation that Floyd caused.  There was a six foot tidal surge over the airport and Queen's Cove, and also in the industrial, area. At left is the Immigration area and at right the Customs area of Freeport International Airport, both carpeted in seaweed immediately after the storm surge. The Grand Bahama Port Authority nor the Government has told the country the full extent of the water problem in Freeport.  There used to be such fresh water there to drink.  Now families are spending fifty and sixty dollars a week to buy water to drink.  We keep saying the Government is underestimating the crisis which the country faces as a result of the storm.  Stop the cover up!

HURRICANE DAMAGE ESTIMATES
The first dollar estimates of nationwide damage from Hurricane Floyd are beginning to emerge. Grand Bahama insurance executive Philip Franks (pictured) said this week in a talk to the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce that the country can expect insured losses of about one hundred million dollars. According to the Nassau Underwriters manager, "This one hundred million dollars is money that will be replaced by the insurance companies... (but) does not include those losses that will have to be replaced out of the victims pockets if they are replaced at all, and we can only guess at the massive dollar figure which this represents." Mr. Franks urged people to "maintain adequate sums insured" on their property so that the insurance "can do what is intended and ... replace what was there before." Photo NUA.

GRAVEYARDS IN THE FAMILY ISLANDS
The latest news is that Hubert Ingraham, the Prime Minister says  that after the storm the graveyards in the islands have to move.  Most settlement graveyards are located in the sandy areas near the shore.  It is easier to dig the graves.  When Hurricane Floyd came along, however, graves in Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera and in Knowles, Cat Island were washed away, with reports of bodies floating out to sea.  In comes the Prime Minister with a smart answer: let's move the graveyards to other areas.

CONCH POISONING AFFECTS 100
The country was greeted by headlines in both newspapers on Monday 4 October that one hundred persons had been poisoned from eating conch from Arawak Cay, Potter's Cay and Montagu.  The recent hurricane caused a bloom of the vibrio organism that causes severe stomach cramping and a runny stomach.  Some people were severely ill for at least two days. The Minister of Health was pictured (Guardian photo) with his staff repeating the same accurate but tired advice first given by the PLP Health Minister Charles Carter in 1991.  This is the fourth such outbreak in living memory.  The Public Health area is clearly doing something wrong.  What is needed is a new approach to this public health problem. The problem will not happen if the conch is cooked.  But Bahamians love raw conch, especially scorched conch and conch salad.  If the conch is washed in fresh water, thoroughly, and spiced in lime juice and salt, there will be no problem.  Utensils and the cutting boards are also offenders.  Part of the problem is that Ronnie Knowles does not have the Department of Environmental Health under his control. Pierre Dupuch is the Minister for that.  Only in a mixed up Ingraham Government.

BAHAMAS STOCK EXCHANGE
While Anthony Ferguson and Ken Kerr were missing, the Bahamas International Stock Exchange (BISX) got off to an interesting start.  There was Barry Malcolm, the former Senator and still very much the politician, fending off allegations of political bias and anti-nationalism, at a meeting on Tuesday 5 October at Sun International. The meeting was called by the Bahamas Financial Services Board to flog the idea of BISX Ltd.  This will be the company that has the monopoly to operate the stock exchange both international and national for the Bahamian Securities Commission.  Learn a new word: demutualized.  The exchange will be that.  The proposers are looking for 40 shareholders to contribute an initially $125,000 per share.  The company will eventually go public. That share some say will be worth easily half a million within ten years.  The company is expected to make a profit in five years.  Institutions only need apply. Reports are this is a good investment but it appears that the Bahamian mainstream is being left out.  Further, reports are coming in that notwithstanding all the propaganda about us as a financial service area, we are still behind the eight ball. Raynard Rigby, who just returned from an international conference of lawyers, says Canadian lawyers are complaining that the IBC format is not the latest model for their purposes, since Revenue Canada has basically made the form obsolete.  Cayman, BVI and Bermuda are way ahead of us.  Further, Barbados has a tax treaty with them and that has helped Barbados in terms of Canadian money.   But the wild card is the effort by OECD countries to shut down offshore centres.  In Britain, a move to shut down the centres in the dependent territories may lead to an exodus of companies to The Bahamas.  One Swiss company says that they can hire as many as one hundred new people to handle the business, which shifts from those centres in the near future.

MITCHELL TO TRAVEL TO BARBADOS
As Foreign Affairs spokesman, this columnist will travel to Barbados from Saturday 9 October to Tuesday 12 October.  While in Barbados, he will lecture to law students at the Cave Hill campus on the Sexual Offenses and Domestic Violence Act and the Constitution of The Bahamas.  He will also meet Leader of the Opposition for Barbados David Thompson.

THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S
        We took our share of ribbing and knocks in Kristi's this week over today's (Sunday) holiday PLP boat cruise aboard the 'Discovery Sun'. Leader Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie will be in Grand Bahama for the event to be patronized by the glitterati of the party. We took our knocks, however, for the attendance of the party's senior statesman Sir Lynden Pindling and Lady Pindling who remains a focus of contention in FNM quarters. Sir Lynden has retired, guys, get used to it.
        A prominent FNM general who was one of those credited in this site last week for relief aid to Abaco, complained at the table this week that there is "Wholesale intimidation and victimization going on within the ranks of the FNM". He would like it stopped. Hmmm.
        A sign of the times... Claudius Burrow, boat owning fisherman and a loyal supporter of Tennyson Wells says he's going to chuck it all in and find himself a job because fallout from his loyalty has now overwhelmed his business potential. Employer to employee, a sign of the times. He says he will wait for his change to come. "I'm a Long Island man and we don't stay down long."
        Jit Culmer was given a heads up on this site months ago that he was on the list. Now, (See story above MORE FROM THE FNM COUNCIL), he's just on that list.
       In post-mortem discussions about the ruckus in the FNM Council meeting last week, informants confirm that the entire episode was arranged, produced and directed by a senior FNM our source would name only as 'Tango'. Of FNM leader Ingraham, Tango says "show him better than you can tell him". A portly Cadillac-driving eminence grise known for his constitutional scholarship who has known Tango for most of their lives - has a theory. In any situation, the laws of nature prevail and an alpha-male will always rise. If that theory holds true, this move by Tango may mean that, as they say in FNM circles, it's just a matter of time for Mr. Ingraham.
       Mr. G., one of two brothers both loyal supporters of FNM Leader Ingraham gave us permission to quote him when he said that Ingraham was on a good wicket until he started wanting to control everything. "..and that third force..#*@ ain't gon work in the FNM." But we know better than to use his name.
        Last week we reported that Cyril 'Boxer' Minnis was unusually quiet. Perhaps he could tell us what the reason is. Does it have anything to do with a search & destroy mission for a very senior FNM cabinet minister.
    Things remain super heated on the FNM side of political Grand Bahama as the start of the mortal battle for the heart of that party continues.

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Supplies:    Contact the National Disaster Hurricane Committee
                    Fax the office of the Prime Minister [242] 327.5807

Financial Assistance:
                    Bahamas National Disaster Relief Fund
                    Account at Royal Bank of Canada Main Branch, Nassau

Note from the Publisher:
We are hunkering down for a hurricane again.  Some people were caught unawares but there is what is being described as a wide, wobbly, slow moving and wet hurricane named Irene that is passing over the northwestern Bahamas and over the south of Florida. No doubt the Prime Minister sees more opportunities for hurricane relief awaiting. The hurricane is not as serious or strong as Hurricane Floyd but it is predicted to drop some 20 inches of rainfall on Florida.  That means that we can expect similar rainfall in The Bahamas.  Cuba has already suffered a severe drenching. The photo from the Miami Herald shows the story.

We send our condolences to Glen Rolle, one of the political leaders of the PLP in Bimini.  His mother passed away and will be buried today.

We also offer our thoughts and prayers to Basil Smith, the Honorary Consul of The Bahamas in Jamaica, whose mother was buried in Kingston on Thursday 14 August.

Our condolences also to Barbara Cartwright on the loss of her special friend Kendrick Miller, who was also a client of our law firm. Mr. Miller was killed execution style by two bandits looking for money at the home of himself and his fiancé Ms. Cartwright in Westridge in New Providence.  More below.

Thanks again to the Governments around the world that gave aid to the Bahamian people.  Thank you to the U.S. government for the donations of tents, for supplies that are coming in by boat from Florida and for transport for our public officials.  The donations of the Chinese Government of $50,000 and the British government $50,000 is also appreciated.  The Government has announced that the Hurricane Relief Fund now exceeds three million dollars.

Another tack has to be taken for the private sector and hurricane relief.  In particular, one must address the paltry donation of Sun International to the cause. They gave 250,000 dollars.  This amount pales in comparison to the giveaways the Ingraham Government gave in tax concessions to Sun.  The Wall Street Journal estimates that the giveaways were pegged at two hundred and seventy million dollars.  Compare that to the 250,000 that they now give to the Bahamian people for hurricane relief. Does not add up!

MITCHELL HOUSEHOLD ON ARMSTRONG STREET - Progress continues on the reconstruction of the house of Lilla Forde Mitchell, now deceased, on Armstrong St. The Mitchell household at 99 Collins Avenue is being sold and completion on the new premises is expected on or about 15th December, 1999.

We keep getting new readers to this site. We are particularly interested in students to this site passing the word on the site to other students.  For the 17 days of October up to 8 a.m. today we have had 13, 913 hits on this site.  Keep reading.

ACP/EU MEET IN NASSAU
The Prime Minister officially welcomed on Monday, 11 October hundreds of delegates from the African Caribbean and Pacific countries together with their European Union counterparts to a working session to try to conclude the post Lomé Convention protocols and agreements. We are now on Lomé V.  The Convention is named after the capital city of Togo.  It is an agreement between the Europeans and their former colonies to allow duty free access into their markets of certain products.  These arrangements have to come to an end by the mandate of the World Trade Organization.  The U.S. has been particularly aggressive on behalf of banana producers from Latin America to get rid of the preferences.  The removal of these preferences will devastate the economy of St. Lucia, a one-crop economy based on bananas. The new arrangements must be in place by December 1999.  The new agreement must be signed by February 2000.  The ACP countries want to have the arrangements continued. That is said to be unlikely.  Our main concern in The Bahamas is what happens for the rum protocol. Bacardi rum is produced in The Bahamas as it has been since 1966 and has duty free access to EU countries under Lomé.  The PLP is concerned that the Government is not working diligently enough to maintain Bacardi's presence in The Bahamas.  The meetings move next to Brussels.

MITCHELL OFF TO LONDON
This columnist who is also the Opposition's spokesman for Foreign Affairs is to travel to London from 5 November to 15 November as guest of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government. While there, a number of calls on Government and private sector officials related to The Bahamas are expected to be made on behalf of the Opposition PLP.

WHAT IS THE CABLE BAHAMAS SALE ABOUT?
There are conflicting reports in The Bahamas about what the sale of Philip Keeping's interest in Cable Bahamas means.  It is this columnist's view that the decision to give the monopoly to Cable Bahamas was so unusual as to lay the Government open to a charge of corruption.  It is as if some high Government official has benefitted from the investment.  Now some are speculating about how interesting it is that the sale of the interest in Cable Bahamas comes as the Prime Minister is leaving the Government.  Things that make you: " hmmm!"

MURDER AND MORE MURDER IN NASSAU
While the Commissioner of Police is off studying law at the local Bar school, crime continues to increase unabated.  Just when you think that you have heard a brutal story and you have gotten used to it, along comes another horror story.  There were two murders in as many days this week in New Providence.  The latest was the killing of Kendrick Miller, a young and aggressive man, who was making an honest living and seeking to get himself on his feet.  He was about to get married to Barbara Cartwright.  Ms. Cartwright works with Dr. B.J. Nottage's Centre for Positive Change.  She is also the manager of the Lakeview Cemetery, a picture of which appears at the end of this site.   Bandits were waiting for him as he inspected his property in Westridge at about 5 p.m. on Thursday 14 October.  They wanted money.  They were in ski masks.  There was none or not enough.  In front of the daughter of Ms. Cartwright, he was gunned down as the robbers disagreed as to whether or not he should be killed.  He is dead.  The Government that promised to break the back of crime is instead seeking to make hay out of a hurricane.  The family and friends of Mr. Miller and the nation are shocked and ask when will it stop?

BARBADOS VISIT BY FRED MITCHELL
This columnist as Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs visited Barbados and the Leader of the Opposition there David Thompson from 9 October to 12 October.  PLP Leader Perry Christie is floating an idea around Caricom for an annual meeting of Leaders of Parliamentary Opposition parties in the Caribbean.  The first of these will be held in Nassau next year.  We are seeking help for international funding of the event. The purpose of the visit of this columnist was to get the support of Mr. Thompson for the idea.  Mr. Thompson and his Barbados Labour Party have agreed to assist.  Pictured in the Committee Room of the House of Assembly in Barbados is this columnist and Mr. Thompson.

VISIT WITH BAHAMIAN STUDENTS IN BARBADOS
It was good to be hosted by Ancella Saunders, President of the Bahamian Students Association, Vice President Berlice Lightbourne,  Michelle Fox, President of the Law Society at UWI Barbados.  There was a reception and chat on Sunday 10 October and a lecture by this columnist on the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act of The Bahamas and some constitutional issues.

POLICE STRIKE IN BARBADOS
The Bahamas Government should take note.  This week police officers in Barbados stayed home for five days straight in a massive sick out.  Some 400 policemen stayed away from work to protest the low pay and poor working conditions of the Force there.

US DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION VISITS
Merritt Brown, the Deputy Chief of Mission, number two at the U.S. Embassy paid a visit to this columnist on Thursday 14 October.  Mr. Brown succeeds Pamela Bridgewater to that august position.  He is number two to Ambassador Arthur Schecter.  Mr. Brown has been in The Bahamas for two months and has had to plunge right in with Hurricane Relief duty.  It was a good visit. He is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C.; born in Philadelphia. Welcome Mr. Brown.

SURPRISE RESIGNATION OF OAS AMBASSADOR
Wesley Kirton has been the Ambassador for the Organization of American States (OAS) for three years.  That is the usual tour of duty. It was no secret that he liked the country and that he had accomplished much since he has been here.  But when the three years was up, the OAS decided in its wisdom that he could stay for another term, or so we thought.  Last week, it was announced that Mr. Kirton has resigned from OAS.  There was no explanation.  He is to return to The Bahamas to pack up.  The diplomatic community was shocked.  The speculation is that the Government of the Bahamas may have been involved.  There is speculation that the higher ups in OAS may have had a sinecure in mind for an ally - the post here in The Bahamas.  But such are the ways of diplomatic posting.  Mr. Kirton was well liked in The Bahamas.  No word on what his future plans are.  He has been succeeded temporarily by Karen Blackman.

WHO TOWED THE CARS AT AG'S OFFICE?
The press blamed the Postmaster-General for towing the cars. But the staff at the AG's office, the lawyers at the AG's office have apparently identified another agent. We reported last week that when lawyers returned from duty last week they found that their cars had been towed from the Post Office parking lot, just outside where they work.  They say the person is one of the higher ups (and not the Permanent Secretary either) in the administration of the AG's office. That person is said to have a vendetta against the lawyers in the office.  The person feels that lawyers have too many privileges.  So the thinking is that the instructions were quite clear to the security people in the post office.  The cars were specially identified and towed away.  The finger pointing in the administration of the office is still going on.  The staff are asking the Attorney General to intervene to stop the contention.

FAREWELL TO MAGISTRATE SHARON WILSON
Sharon Wilson is the wife of former PLP Senator and House Member Franklin Wilson.  She has been a Magistrate for 15 years, most of them in the family court.  Now she has resigned at a time when Bahamians are not volunteering to serve in the Judiciary.  She was forced out by the Government because of her PLP connection.  First she was jumped over for promotion to the post of Chief Magistrate after acting in the post for months when no one else would take the job.  Then she was asked by the Chief Justice to take the job of Registrar of the Court of Appeal, only to find out after accepting the job that the Prime Minister intended to abolish the job.  She quit and has now started up in private practice.  Her staff bid her farewell in a touching ceremony led by Magistrate Roger Gomez at the Court last week.  The Guardian photo shows Magistrate Wilson being presented with a farewell gift.

PRIME MINISTER THREATENS FRED MITCHELL
Next week, we shall have a full report on what appears to be a conspiracy by the Prime Minister to interfere with the constitutional rights of this columnist in The Bahamas.  This matter is taken most seriously and will be dealt with appropriately, at an international level if necessary.

TENNYSON WELLS AND HIS BOYS GET GREEN LIGHT
When Prime Minister Ingraham rose to his feet in Parliament last week to move the bill that would guarantee loans for hurricane relief, he was moved to pay tribute to Julius Nyerere, the founding President of Tanzania who died in London on Thursday 14 October after complications from leukemia (see photo). Mr. Nyerere is a hero to a whole generation of us and this columnist saw him as the quintessential African elder statesman. May he rest in peace.  He was 77.  Mr. Ingraham started waxing eloquent in his usual bombastic and indelicate fashion about the fact that the late president knew when it was time to leave and did not have to be pushed out.  It seemed the clearest signal yet that Mr. Ingraham is aware that he can not win the fight to remain for a third term.  Good riddance to bad rubbish!  But beyond that, Ministers who are openly in revolt (See story last week about Algernon Allen ), are saying that it is clear that Mr. Ingraham has given the green light to his fellows to begin campaigning for a successor other than himself. One supposes that is all Tennyson Wells, the AG needs to make this thing a wrap.

SPEAKING OF THE FNM CABINET
An informant reported to this columnist that he observed the behavior of the Cabinet first hand. As the informant waited to report to Cabinet, the Ministers were talking to one another.  The Prime Minister was off by himself speaking to Senator Ronnie Knowles, his ever faithful Minister of Health.  They spoke to none of the others.  The meeting began and Tennyson Wells left. You could cut the tension with a knife, the informant said. And that is the Government of The Bahamas. They don't speak to one another said our informant.
 
 

GOVERNOR GENERAL IN BARBADOS
The picture on the front page of the Barbados Advocate showed Sir Orville Turnquest and his brethren and sister Governor- Generals.  They were in Bridgetown for the fifth annual heads of state meeting of Caricom.  Sir Orville is the founder of the idea. But it seemed strange that while being in Barbados for four days, he did not try to arrange a meeting or reception for the Bahamian students.  Bahamian politicians are a strange breed indeed!  The photos are from the Barbados Advocate and they show the Heads and the other photo shows the wives.  Sir Orville is first from left and Lady Turnquest is second from left.

AG MUST CHECK ON AUSTRALIAN JUDGE
Mr. Justice Lyons in Freeport has made it all but impossible for Rawle Maynard, Counsel and Attorney-at-Law at the Bahamas Bar to appear before him.  Mr. Maynard has written both the judge to lay out his complaint and the Chief Justice.  Neither has had the courtesy to reply.  This is a matter of grave constitutional importance and one which requires the Attorney General to intervene.

BAHAMAS TELEPHONE SYSTEM STILL IN A MESS
A month after the hurricane, the telephone system in New Providence is still not up and running properly.  You are still having problems getting from one exchange to the next.  The other problem is that with the new stripped down version of BaTelCo, you have no idea who to call if there is a problem.  The normal channels did not work for complaints when there was a properly staffed corporation, right now complaints go unanswered for weeks.  Neither the Board nor the management seem to have any control over it.  Someone needs to fix it and soon.

CELL PHONE SERVICE IMPROVING?
Knock on wood but BaTelCo has apparently announced that cell phone costs per minute are to be chopped in half from the present forty cents a minute to twenty cents per minute.  The deposit is to be cut from $600 to $300 for the phone.  The system is to go fully digital by the end of the year.  All analog phones will then become obsolete.

BARBADOS TELEPHONE CHARGES
BaTelCo charges a whopping $2.25 cents per minute to call Barbados. This is ridiculous. The word is that the rates may go down but come January, BaTelCo intends to announce that there are charges for local calls by the minute.

PRIVATIZATION OF BATELCO
Not heard of it lately.  The prediction is that you won't hear a word of it any more.  The FNM administration borrowed 100 million dollars to let the employees of BaTelCo into the wilderness of unemployment just to satisfy a stupid policy.  The telephone service is worse than ever before.  Now that Hurricane Floyd has come along all Hubert Ingraham can think of is giving out free stuff from the Treasury.  All the high minded policies are out of the window.

BAHAMAS STOCK EXCHANGE DISCRIMINATORY
Last week we reported on the company BISX Ltd., which is now incorporated and will have a virtual monopoly to run the stock exchange both on the domestic and international side.  A private share memorandum was circulated.  Each of forty shares being offered, to cost $125,000.  The deadline was to be 14 October to pay.  Now that has been extended to 28 October.  It is done amid criticism that the deal is discriminatory and only the Banks will be able to satisfy the requirements.  Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie is yet to be briefed on the matter.

NATIONAL DEBT FIGURES
We want to correct last week's figures.  The Central Bank's Quarterly Economic Review says that the National Debt rose by 5.7 per cent over the last quarter.  The Bank says the National debt is 1.794 billion. Government increased its deficit.  Revenue gains were outmatched by expenditure.  Bottom line is that the Government is not engaged in belt tightening, the national debt is increasing and spending is also increasing.

BRADLEY ROBERTS NEW BEC MANAGER
Bradley B. Roberts (not the MP) succeeds Freeman Duncanson at the helm of The Bahamas Electricity Corporation.  Mr. Roberts joined the Corporation in 1960 and moved up the ranks most recently to Deputy General Manager.

ANDREW BOWE CHARGED IN THE COURTS
The whole thing sent chills down the spines of every lawyer in The Bahamas. Andrew Bowe, attorney-at-law, was charged with stealing some $30,000 by reason of service on Wednesday 13 October.  We do not like to see this kind of thing happen to one of our own, particularly one who is so well known to us all.  Knowing the kind of society we have, you have to ask yourself how did it ever get to this.  Suddenly at each law firm, nervous clients were calling up wondering about settlements, checking whether their cheques were certified or not.  It sends a pall over the whole profession.  Let's hope that it goes well for all the parties concerned in this matter, but it was a sad day indeed.

COUP IN PAKISTAN
Once again, the anti-democrats have seized power in Pakistan.  The world is now more dangerous given the nuclear weapons which are under the direction of an unknown military quantity without any popular civilian restraint.  The military has been a disaster for Pakistan in the past.  There is nothing to indicate that it will be any better this time.  The General in charge obviously has no clue what he is going to do.  Might does not make it right.  But of course, the politicians in Pakistan have only themselves to blame for this.  The ousted Prime Minister has still not satisfactorily explained to the world why he was intent on jailing his main opponent Benazir Bhutto.  So what goes around comes around.   Nevertheless, the military must return to barracks and elections held to put in place a civilian Government.

THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S
    Vice Chairman Iron Mike brought laughter to the table when he actually read a statement over breakfast from FNM Chairman Dwight Sawyer claiming that the party was "united and focused". The fellows at the table - both PLP and FNM - almost fell off their chairs. Nice try Dwight. Even Iron Mike had somehow to contain himself.

    There was a big party in Freeport last week for the official opening of the Port Lucaya Police Station by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Police Frank Watson. However, the crowd stayed away en masse, particularly certain local FNM generals who didn't want to be seen supporting Mr. Watson or anything which he did. Hmmm!

    All over Freeport, the horror stories have been coming in about insured people who are not getting their due in the aftermath of hurricane Floyd. The premiums have been paid, but now that the time comes to claim, the story is different. A serious call goes out to the relevant Government authorities to police the powerful insurance industry and to investigate whether the right standards are being applied; in particular by foreign insurance functionaries brought in to help.

    More on Hurricane Floyd. Post hurricane concessions are all very well for those who are working, but has the Government forgotten about the 700 people who have been unemployed for two years now from Lucayan Beach Hotel. It's as if they never existed. More on these people later.

    This week the Prime Minister was in town at the Princess Tower Hotel to collect hurricane relief cheques from the Port Authority, Hutchison Whampoa - is their a difference? - and Southern Electric the U.S. parent of Freeport Power. Afterward, Mr. Ingraham treated the press to a gala luncheon complete with okra soup. However, MPs were made to wait until after the press had their seconds and the regular hangers on were not even allowed up to the suite. For this, blame has been heaped on our friend Kelly Burrows the food and beverage don at the hotel, who they said restricted access to the PM. The fellows have promised that they'll 'get' Kelly for this, however, we have it on good authority that he was only following instructions. Word is that Mr. Ingraham is not pleased with the quality of information coming from his regular contacts and decided to retaliate by withholding lunch!

    Certain FNM Grand Bahama Parliamentarians, one from the west, another from the east and a senator have been described by one of their own as "lost" and in need of a shepherd for their lack of political information and know how. Lending credence to this is a report from the chairman of one FNM branch, who complains about the price for moving into Government low cost housing in Grand Bahama. "It's too high, so no one is moving in, plus the houses don't even come with major appliances like fridge and stove". We agree. Someone is out of touch.

THE PARTNERS OF GWENDOLYN HOUSE
The law firm of this columnist is called Gwendolyn House. The partners posed for this photo in front of the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. From left, Mr. Raynard S. Rigby, Senator the Hon. Fred Mitchell and Mr. Dwayne A. Gibson. Photo by Kenny Love, Eyes of Love Photography.
 
 

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

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

Supplies:    Contact the National Disaster Hurricane Committee
                    Fax the office of the Prime Minister [242] 327.5807

Financial Assistance:
                    Bahamas National Disaster Relief Fund
                    Account at Royal Bank of Canada Main Branch, Nassau

Note from the Publisher:
The site is late being uploaded this week because Grand Bahama has been cut off from all national and international telecommunications since Saturday afternoon. Trouble developed with the submarine cable at Eight Mile Rock connecting the island to the mainland United States, and presumably to the rest of The Bahamas. The site is usually uploaded from Freeport. BaTelCo offered no initial public announcement. More on this failure next week.

On Thursday 21 October, there was the fiftieth murder in Nassau, with the death of a man gunned down in front of the Zoo, a local nightspot for young people.  Each night one goes to bed in this city with the fear or the expectation that there will be another example of mayhem come morning. The Government appears to have no answers for the problem of crime. This was the same group who when they were in Opposition claimed that if the PLP were removed from office, crime in The Bahamas would be solved.  Now they appeal to the national spirit.  Their spokesmen now say that crime is not a political football.  The Leader of the Opposition plans a press conference later today to express the alarm of the PLP on this issue.

The House of Assembly has passed a bill to facilitate the rebuilding of structures damaged by the hurricane.  The Bill will be debated in the Senate come next Wednesday 27 October. The Prime Minister read an 84 page communication to the House about the efforts of the Government.  This is obviously a man who likes to hear himself talk. Bradley Roberts, the PLP MP Grants Town,  derided the Prime Minister for hogging the hurricane show. He accused the Prime Minister of spending pubic money to promote Hubert Ingraham's interest instead of looking after the legitimate interest of the Bahamian people in the hurricane.

If you read the newspapers in the country, you would not know that the PLP exists.  You would think that there is only one political side.  Raynard Rigby wrote an article last week which criticized the Opposition, saying that they were silent in their duty to the Bahamian people.  Of course, the criticism assumes that one has a fair press.  But the morning after the House of Assembly met,  with two major addresses by PLPs: The Guardian reported nothing, and The Tribune buried the story way back in the newspaper.  The Punch continues its unrelenting anti-black, anti-PLP campaign.  The PLP refuses to fight back.

Nevertheless, one leading PLP woman said this week, the PLP has political victory within its grasp.  She can taste it, she said.  We agree.  The FNM, despite its seeming invincibility, is an unstable organization.  It is left to us to push them over the edge.

Farewell to Wesley Kirton, the outgoing Ambassador for OAS, who leaves The Bahamas for a new job in Orlando. Best wishes!

Again we have the feature THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S, the deli in Freeport where the politicos meet.

We have    hits for the month of October, up to 8 a.m. today. We are interested in improving the site.  A number of persons have written e mail to us with suggestions and assistance.  Please keep reading.

MALAYSIAN CHIEF JUSTICE FOR THE BAHAMAS?
Reports reaching us indicate that the Barbadian lawyer Elliot Mottley who was offered the job of Chief Justice of The Bahamas replacing Dame Joan Sawyer has turned down the job. Now the Government has cast its eyes to Malaysia and invited a native of that country to become Chief Justice of The Bahamas when, as expected, Dame Joan goes on to become President of the Court of Appeal. The talk is that the Grand Bahama Port Authority is comfortable with an Australian on the bench, their kith and kin, so the Asians who run Hutchison Whampoa would now feel more comfortable with one of their own on the bench of The Bahamas. Anyone but a Bahamian!

C. A. SMITH MAKES A PREDICTION
Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie says that he is trying to encourage the Grand Bahama fellows not to give up on their claim to the leadership of the FNM.  It appears that C.A. Smith, the affable Minister of Tourism, is keeping that in mind.  Sitting with his fellows in the Freeport restaurant Geneva's, he predicted that you will never see Tennyson Wells become the Leader of the FNM.  But of course, Mr. Wells' supporters were there.  They told the Minister that he had better get used to the idea of a Tennyson Wells led FNM and Prime Minister to succeed Hubert Ingraham.  They told Mr. Smith that he could be number two in such an administration if he signed on early.  Mr. Smith drew himself up and said "You insult me by such a suggestion" They say that you can cut the tension in the FNM cabinet with a knife.  Now we know why.

FRED MITCHELL AND THE PRIME MINISTER
The photo (by Peter Ramsay) of this columnist and the Prime Minister taken at his office in July 1993 as we were preparing to celebrate the country's 20th year as an independent country shows you how much things have changed. It has changed from a time when we spoke every day, sometimes three times a day from early morning.  Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie remarked to one of our colleagues how despite all the propaganda about the closeness of himself and Hubert, in fact the relationship between this columnist and Hubert was closer.  Well we have no comment on that.  But what we know is that Mr. Ingraham and this columnist crisscrossed the country in the old days, spoke on the same platforms, slept in the same rooms. One trip was hunting for an elusive human target in Eleuthera one year long long ago.  All of that has changed, so utterly changed as Yeats would say to the point where the Prime Minister is now cross-examining reporters and newspaper editors as to why this columnist is still quoted by the press.  According to Mr. Ingraham, "we have managed to block Fred Mitchell completely out The Guardian and we are working now on The Tribune."  He reminded the radio station owners that the Government gave them a licence.  Well as they say: "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away".  But even the devil can rely on scripture!

MURDER RATE ALARMS US
With some fifty murders since the start of the year, we are almost on pace for one per week.  This must surely be some kind of record. The latest was the gunning down of a man in front of the ZOO, the local nightspot for young people.  Dr. Elliston Rahming ( pictured), the criminologist and former PLP Senator, spoke to the Women's Branch of the PLP last Sunday 17 October.  He gave alarming facts: an average of one murder per week in the Bahamas; homes are broken into 14 times per day; a vehicle is stolen every 24 hours, others are broken into every 96 hours; only one out of every eight vehicles is recovered by the police.  The arrest rate for murder is 54 per cent; armed robbery 33 per cent; house breaking ten per cent; crimes against the person 29 per cent.   There are 13,000 outstanding warrants in the Magistrates Court.

MURDER AND MORE MURDER IN NASSAU
While the Commissioner of Police is off studying law at the local Bar school, crime continues to increase unabated.  Just when you think that you have heard a brutal story and you have gotten used to it, along comes another horror story.  There were two murders in as many days this week in New Providence.  The latest was the killing of Kendrick Miller, a young and aggressive man, who was making an honest living and seeking to get himself on his feet.  He was about to get married to Barbara Cartwright.  Ms. Cartwright works with Dr. B.J. Nottage's Centre for Positive Change.  She is also the manager of the Lakeview Cemetery, a picture of which appears at the end of this site.   Bandits were waiting for him as he inspected his property in Westridge at about 5 p.m. on Thursday 14 October.  They wanted money.  They were in ski masks.  There was none or not enough.  In front of the daughter of Ms. Cartwright, he was gunned down as the robbers disagreed as to whether or not he should be killed.  He is dead.  The Government that promised to break the back of crime is instead seeking to make hay out of a hurricane.  The family and friends of Mr. Miller and the nation are shocked and ask when will it stop?

POLICEMEN COMMIT CRIMES
It sometimes appears that you do not know who to trust in the country.  Certainly, there is a low level of trust of politicians.  It seems that you can't trust the police.  This week a police officer was convicted for raping a young woman in custody in the Wulff Road Police station.  He is to be sentenced by Justice Malcolm Adderley. Mario Don Seymour 29 admitted that he had sexual intercourse with a female suspect.  He claimed that it was consensual.  He told that story to his police investigator and he repeated his evidence in the witness stand.  The jury had seven women out 12 members.  The vote was 11 to 1 in favour of guilt.  The words of the man convicted him. He thought he was doing something to exonerate himself by saying that the female offered sex in exchange for a favour.  First of all, that breaks the rules about contact with persons in one's custody.  Secondly, with consent being the mental element in the offense of rape, how can someone in your custody freely consent to sexual intercourse.  It shows the problem with the mentality of some persons who are in the law enforcement area.  Is this incident a frequent occurrence in custody?

POLICEMEN CHARGED WITH ROBBERY
On Thursday 21 October there was a picture on the front page of a police officer being led away in cuffs.  He had just been convicted of rape.  Then on Friday 22 October, there was a front-page story reporting that two police officers were charged with breaking and entering. Marcel Mortimer 22 and Marvin Hopkins 23 were charged in the Magistrates Court.  What you are seeing here is a reflection of what is happening in society.  Young black males are involved in and being charged for crimes.  The Police Force suffers from the same problems as the society generally.  But it creates an air of uncertainty in the country. From left are Detective Sergeant 1080 Cunningham and Corporal 1531 Bullard with Kenton Dion Knowles (dreadlocks) being escorted by uniformed Police Constable 1922 Bethel.

MEANWHILE, WHERE IS THE COMMISSIONER OF POLICE?
There was a reception for the launching of the first newsletter by the students of the Eugene Dupuch Law School last Saturday 16 October.  Present was one B. K. Bonamy, a student of the school.  Mr. Bonamy happens to be the Commissioner of Police.  He is a happy man. Free of all the problems of the Force.  We can see why.  Crime goes unabated.  The Force itself seems under enormous pressure.  The Commissioner of Police is in school. We are getting reports that the son of the Commissioner is a little worried about his fortunes on the Force now that his father is no longer there.  His friends are saying that many people believe that since the Government got rid of his father, the next on the list is the son.

WHO IS COMMISSIONER OF POLICE ANYWAY?
Errol Farqhuarson, substantively the Deputy Commissioner of Police, is thought to be the Acting Commissioner of Police, while Mr. Bonamy is on study leave.  But our sources tell us that Mr. Farqhuarson is most upset if anyone suggests that he is the Acting Commissioner.   I am the Commissioner of Police, he tells his men. " I am the Commissioner of Police Acting ".  What a difference placement of the word makes.   Then comes the news that the government proposes to play musical chairs with Acting Commissioners.  The Government, which has not yet consulted the Opposition on the changes in the Force, has changed its mind and following the three month acting stint of Mr. Farqhaurson and his subsequent retirement from the Force they will let now Deputy Wilton Strachan act for six months until he retires. It will then pass to Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Farqhuarson who is in his forties.  They apparently for sentimental reasons want to let each one to have a chance to say he was the Commissioner of Police.  This is not new.  You have the FNM playing musical chairs with the Presidency of the Court of Appeal, where an almost retiree is Acting as President for two months.  You remember how they allowed Cyril Fountain to become Chief Justice for just ten months, allowing him to get a higher pension.  The Treasury is just there for the dipping.

NEW PROMOTION SCHEME FOR THE FORCE
On 15 October, the Cabinet Office announced new procedures for promotions on the Force.  Effective from that date, all vacancies within the Force will be advertised.  Police Officers wishing to be considered for the vacancies can apply for the job.  That changes the procedure now in place where a Promotions Board considers you after having taken an exam for the next rank.   The choice is effectively today a political one.  The Government is apparently following the recommendations of the British Task force on the Police.  The response to this new procedure was laughter all around.  The political decision making will now continue in another guise.

FORMER ROYAL GOVERNOR DIES
Lord Gray of Naughton, British Governor of The Bahamas from 1964 to 1968, died in Britain last week.  He was 89. Lord Gray came to The Bahamas as Sir Ralph Francis Alanwick Gray.  He left The Bahamas to become the last Royal Governor of Northern Ireland.  For his troubles, he became a member of the House of Lords. Sir Ralph was believed to be a racist.  He is said to have called the PLPs who won in 1967 while he was Governor "a bunch of monkeys".  Nevertheless, it is his picture with the first PLP Cabinet in 1967.  He swore in the then first Black Premier of the colony the then Lynden O. Pindling.  Lord Naughton is pictured.

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THE GUARDIAN?
The continued prejudice against the PLP at the Guardian is a source of concern for us.  Some legal steps may have to be taken to bring the newspaper in line.  You have at its helm a political hack named Oswald Brown, who is so embittered by his experiences under the PLP, largely his own fault, that he cannot see the forest for the trees. The newspaper apart from being badly edited, poorly put together, and not reporting the news, is always late on the streets.  This is so despite promises to shareholders that it would change.  Every Thursday morning in particular, newspaper vendors are late getting The Tribune on the street because The Guardian is always late off the press.

APPRECIATION DAY FOR REV. ROSS DAVIS
We thought that the Pastor of Golden Gates Assembly deserved the reprint of this beautiful picture of his wife and himself that was published this week in the Nassau Guardian.  His church is having Pastors' Appreciation Sunday today. We congratulate himself and his wife for their wonderful work at the Golden Gates Assembly in Carmichael Road New Providence.  He is a former head of the Bahamas Christian Council.

GUARDIAN REPORTER DEFENDS JUSTICE SABOLA
Mark Symonette is a bright man who is wasting his talent.  He has been for years.  He is the best court reporter the country has.  He was trained at the Tribune, and following a dispute with his editor there, he left to work for the mealy-mouthed Nassau Guardian.  He seemed a stand up kind of guy.  He was one of two reporters who publicly demonstrated in support of his colleagues who were fired from the newspaper earlier this year.  But recently, some strange moves have happened.  First, he wrote a piece from Abaco after the Hurricane Floyd in which he described the Prime Minister as a superman because of his holding five meetings in one day in Abaco about the storm.  This was Mr. Symonette's response to a Prime Minister who has a problem sleeping and has so much misdirected and nervous energy he ought to see a counselor.  This Prime Minister who interferes in everyone else's life but does not have his own life in order.  Then on Thursday 21 October, Mr. Symonette wrote a letter in which he defended the retiring President of the Court of Appeal Gonsalves Sabola.  If there is any one who ought to know better, it should be Mark Symonette who covered the Courts.  One example of what he ought to know is Sabola accepting citizenship of The Bahamas while sitting on a case involving the Bahamas Government.  Mr. Symonette and other reporters did not discharge their duty to the country when they accepted uncritically the assertion by Sabola that the Judiciary of The Bahamas was independent.   The letter was a sad piece to see.  And so we ask the question, what has happened to an otherwise talented man, and why is he wasting his talent on nonsense?

OPPOSITION LEADER BRIEFED ON STOCK EXCHANGE
Barry Malcolm of the Bahamas Financial Services Board together with an advisory team including Keith Davis and Brian Taylor hosted a delegation of Opposition politicians to a luncheon at the Board's headquarters on East Bay Street on Friday 22 October.  The Board is promoting a private share offering for 40 subscribers at $125,000 per share to start The Bahamas International Stock Exchange.  Attending from the PLP were this columnist with Opposition Spokesman on Finance Philip Galanis, Senator Melanie Griffin, Bradley Roberts MP.  The delegation was headed by Opposition Leader Perry Christie. Mr. Christie thanked the Board for the briefing.  He said that the PLP must continue to initiate and maintain contacts with the private sector so that the party might remain current with the trends in the modern marketplace.

FELTON COX RESIGNS AS TAXI UNION PRESIDENT
Much was expected from Felton Cox when he succeeded Patrick Gomez as head of the once politically powerful Taxi Cab Union in 1997.  Most people thought that Mr. Cox would cause the union to find its feet and its voice.  But he failed.  The union seemed to become even more irrelevant.  It represents less than one third of the taxis in New Providence and makes it difficult for anyone to join.  But it has a powerful economic investments in the transportation industry which despite its lack of clout as a trade union, many people want to become President to get their hands on that economic power. Now Mr. Cox has resigned.  In a bitter letter to The Nassau Guardian published on Friday 22 October, Mr. Cox accused his officers of conspiring to work against him because they are all interested in becoming President themselves.  Mr. Cox said: "I want members of the Union to be aware of this final point.  We have several present officers who are money hungry.  That is why they hate me so"

BAHAMAS DEVELOPMENT BANK MAKES PROFIT
William Allen, the hapless Minister of Finance, was giving his usual quirky reasoning in the House of Assembly this week.  On the one hand, he said that The Bahamas Development Bank has turned a 2.3 million-dollar loss in 1997 to a $750,000 profit in 1998.  The bank also made a profit for the first quarter of the year.  Then he said that the Bank should not continue to make a profit because that was not part of its legislative mandate.  It should only break even.  That's a funny way to put it.  But we all know hapless Bill.  He also seemed to boast about the fact that the Development Bank's rates on loans are higher than every other bank. But what he neglected to say was that the managing director of the bank who made this remarkable turn around is Paul Major, a PLP supporter.

ALARM OVER CONSUMER SPENDING
The lawyers say: " res ipsa iquitur ".  The thing speaks for itself. Well let these facts from the Central Bank quarterly report as reported by the Tribune of Friday 22 October speak.  So far this year, Bahamians have borrowed 1.9 billion dollars.  That's twice the size of the national budget of eight hundred million. Personal loans account for 61 per cent of the bank lending and exceed all other categories of bank lending.  The Tribune adds: " In other words, people borrowed more money for furniture, private cars, travel and credit cards than they did for other sectors like agriculture, construction, manufacturing and transport combined."  The Central Bank says that 91 per cent of all local savings accounts amount to only 12.8 per cent of banks' total deposits. Ninety one per cent of all savers have less than $10,000 on deposit.  Now this is cause for concern.  But the FNM Government must ask itself why this is.  Part of it is that the Bank's lending policies are skewed toward consumer loans.  That's why Commonwealth Bank can report record profits. Lend you money for cars and furniture at the highest rates in town and if you don't pay, they take the dinner table away while you are eating in order to collect.

WELCOME TO ALLYSON MAYNARD GIBSON
The PLP Leadership Council endorsed the proposal of PLP leader Perry Christie to invite Mrs. Allyson Maynard Gibson to become the party's Assistant Secretary General.  We welcome Mrs. Gibson.  She is the daughter of former Foreign Minister Sir Clement T. Maynard and Lady Maynard.  We look forward to working with her in rewriting the PLP script.

INTERAMERICAN BANK MONEY FOR WASTE CLEANUP
The House of Assembly has been asked to approve a resolution to borrow 23 million from the Inter American Development Bank.  The money is to be used to construct a proper solid waste disposal unit in New Providence.  Dion Foulkes, the Member of Parliament for Blue Hills, predicted that this would put an end to the fires at the Harold Road dumpsite which plague his constituents.  The Minister should know that fires plague not only his constituents but the whole island of New Providence.  Every morning even near the sea where this columnist lives on the Eastern Road or at Paradise Island you smell acrid smoke in the air.  This columnist goes through the day in Nassau with a bitter taste at the back of the mouth from some invisible odour in the air, all from the dump.  When you hear all the cases of cancer, you wonder if there is a connection between this and air quality in certain parts of The Bahamas.  The number of cars is rapidly rising in New Providence.  The quality of the air is deteriorating.  Let us hope that this unit will help to improve substantially the air quality in New Providence.

DANNY FERGUSON CALLS FOR CREDIT BUREAU
As the country develops, there is a need for more specialized credit and financial services.  Therefore the call by Daniel Ferguson, the CPA, for a credit bureau and the use of its services.  Mr. Ferguson runs such a service.  We support the call. We have made the point in this column before.  In The Bahamas we do not seem to accept that there is a moral, not just legal obligation, to repay money which you borrow.

DETERIORATING ROADS
The FNM has no road repair programme.  The result is the worst roads in the history of New Providence.  These potholes are bigger than the ones in Washington DC.

THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S
    The frustrations of FNM contractors in Freeport are beginning to boil over because of what they see as being left out of the major building project by Hutchison Whampoa on the Lucaya strip. In fact this week in Kristi's several contractors were discussing draconian action. Perhaps they should lay blame where it belongs, at the feet of the Minister responsible and the Prime Minister. There is a big sign up announcing the arrival of stateside Driscoll Electrical, new electrical sub-contractors for the project that seems continually stalled. One Freeport contractor moans that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham seems to have little or no influence on foreign business in Freeport. "He made matters worse by personally flying up here to collect hurricane cheques... it should have been the Governor General's job to accept that money." These sentiments were apparently echoed by a Government Minister based in Grand Bahama during the cheque ceremony - even though it was under his breath. Word is that Mr. Ingraham is still reeling from the big FNM council meeting that ultimately forced his reported decision to stick to his word not to run again.

    The observation from Kristi's this week is that the only new businesses that seem to be popping up in Freeport are people selling lunch from the back trunks of their cars, car wash out of a bucket by the road and cash 3. According to one former FNM stalwart, the situation in Freeport  is a preview of how the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) will affect The Bahamas. "If you want to see how FTAA is going to work with free movement of people, goods and services check Freeport, the only thing these new investors don't bring is money, they rely on the local banks for that... they're bringing in everything and everybody"  Better, better.

    Elected Local Government officials complain that the only time they know what central Government is doing in Freeport is when they see it in the paper. Hmmm!

    This week, several Government schools in Freeport have roof leaks so bad and so long-standing even though schools are new that they have resulted in teacher demonstrations at one school and prompted the Government to house students from other schools at private institutions.

    A pronouncement this week by Tourism Director-General Vincent Vanderpool Wallace that Freeport has the worst transportation system in the region. Taxi cab union and bus drivers union executives say they are not fooled. Sources report that this is meant to lay the groundwork for someone to set up a mass transit company. We wonder who that someone might be. Whomever, it will be further trouble in the transportation business.

    Finally, the chairman of a local FNM branch reports that she has been threatened by a cabinet minister for supporting Tennyson Wells for the leadership of the FNM. It turns out that the threatening Minister should know that blood is always thicker than water.

    Greetings to our good friend Dennis Martin. See you soon in Freeport.

    LATE BREAKING NEWS...Algernon Allen, the Minister of Social Services, aka, Minister of Idle Poetry is in Freeport ostensibly for some ceremony, but in reality as cover for picking off Ingraham supporters one by one. Seems he's having some success in that area.  FNM Vice-Chairman Iron Mike was smiling from ear to ear Sunday morning during breakfast at the local FNM weekend spot Geneva's Restaurant. Iron Mike seemed overjoyed by the fact that his man Allen was able to meet with FNM politicos and establish a dialogue with a view to getting their support. Certain Government Ministers present however appeared to still be sitting on the fence. Our friend Kelly Burrows looked stressed when Minister Allen insisted that Kelly take him back to his hotel. Hmmm!

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

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

Supplies:    Contact the National Disaster Hurricane Committee
                    Fax the office of the Prime Minister [242] 327.5807

Financial Assistance:
                    Bahamas National Disaster Relief Fund
                    Account at Royal Bank of Canada Main Branch, Nassau

Note from the Publisher:
OUR PROFOUNDEST APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE UPLOAD OF THIS COLUMN LAST WEEK.  IT WAS DUE TO THE NEGLIGENCE OF BATELCO, THE BAHAMIAN TELEPHONE COMPANY.  THE COMPANY'S CABLE BETWEEN NASSAU AND FREEPORT WAS DISRUPTED, HAD A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE. THE COMPANY DID NOT LET THE PUBLIC KNOW UNTIL LATE SUNDAY.  BY THAT TIME, WE HAD TO SCRAMBLE TO MAKE ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENTS TO UPLOAD.  IT MEANT BRINGING THE MATERIAL PHYSICALLY TO NASSAU.  WE WERE ABLE TO UPLOAD BY TUESDAY 26 OCTOBER. WE TRUST THAT IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN.  SERVICE HAS STILL NOT BEEN RESTORED TO FREEPORT IN FULL.

    It has been almost one year since we started writing this column on the world wide web.  The column started as a political response to the discrimination by Oswald Brown of the Nassau Guardian against this columnist and the PLP.  Mr. Brown, who is the editor of the Nassau Guardian, refuses to publish material which is submitted to the Nassau Guardian by the PLP and in particular by this columnist.  The column on the web has been more successful than we could have ever imagined.

    However, there is still the need to make The Guardian honest.  Its foreign owners have fallen right in with the wishes of the Prime Minister and Mr. Brown on discrimination against the PLP and Fred Mitchell.  There are those of you who might remember the allegation that Hubert Ingraham called the owners of the Guardian together in the fall of 1997 and told them that they had to hire an editor that was going to get Fred Mitchell off the front pages.

    The month of October 1999  has been our second most successful on record.  We had  28, 476 hits up to  8am this Sunday, October 31.  This is exceeded only by the month of September 1999 with 38,443 hits. The growth has been extraordinary and explosive. When you consider that less than a year ago we started with just 12 hits.  We want to thank all the readers of this column. We want to encourage you to keep reading, and spreading the word that there is an alternative source of information.

    When the column first started, it followed the format that we used in the Nassau Guardian.  That has changed as the column has become a solid source of alternative news and information for our citizens and friends both at home and abroad.   The column has undergone several refits, and as we come upon our first anniversary, we need to do more changes which will make the column more readable, more accessible.  It is also time to look into the commercial possibilities of the service.  We still want to add voice capability.

    But for now, we wish to say thank you for your support.

COLUMN WRITTEN FROM BOSTON
This week the column is written from Boston, Massachusetts the site of the meeting of the Alumni Executive Committee of the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University. Nineteen years ago, this columnist attended this University as a candidate for the Masters in Public Administration. It was a unique and life changing experience.  It is a privilege to serve on the Board, having been elected by fellow alumns.

LONDON TRIP FOR FRED MITCHELL
At the invitation of the British Government, this columnist begins an official visit to Britain on 5 November.  One sure stop will be a meeting with the students at the University of Buckingham.  At the moment we are planning for the evening of Thursday 11 November. A proper contact will be made to confirm the exact time and arrangements.

FAILURE OF THE BATELCO CABLE
At about 4 p.m. on Saturday 23 October, it was clear that something was wrong with the communication system between Freeport and Nassau.  Each time, you dialed Freeport, there was either no response or an all circuits busy signal. But it was not until 4 p.m. on Sunday 24 October that the public was informed by BaTelCo, the telephone company, that there was a problem. You already know of the problems that this has caused for this column.  Today there is still limited overseas calling from Grand Bahama, using the old cable.  It is the brand new cable which was commissioned two years ago that is giving the problem. This is the second time that this 26 million dollar investment is giving a problem. There was no cell service, no internet service, and for two days no overseas voice service between Nassau and Freeport, and Freeport and the U.S. In Freeport, no credit card transactions could be processed.  No bank teller machines could be used.  No reservation systems for airlines and hotels could be used.   This columnist pointed out in the Senate on Wednesday 27 October how ridiculous this was in a modern country, especially one which was patting itself on the back about how well it came through the hurricane. Up to press time, many of these services had still not been restored to Freeport. BaTelCo is using the old analog cable to give limited voice service to Freeport and the satellite link to provide an alternative for New Providence traffic to the US and other places normally travelling through the cable. An AT&T ship is on the way to help determine what the problem is. Senior Grand Bahama managers for BaTelCo could not say when the problem would be solved.

SG HAMBROS TAKEN TO COURT BY FORMER EMPLOYEE
Earlier this year, we reported the dismissal of a Bahamian employee at a senior level at SG Hambros, while that executive was on a visit overseas.  Hambros made serious allegations against the employee which raised the spectre of yet another senior Bahamian official being removed from the tremendous economic opportunities of the offshore banking sector in The Bahamas. The employee has apparently taken exception to the fact there was never any report about the counter action by the employee in response to the bank's efforts.  There are several Bahamians at the bank who say that the employee is a victim of a conspiracy by his employers to discredit him.  The matter has been taken to the courts for resolution.  Nothing would be a surprise in this jurisdiction about the way Bahamians are treated by the system.  For now, we await the outcome of the case.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOROTHY PROPACK
Diane Philips, the public relations woman, wrote an interesting human interest story in the newspapers this week. It is the story of Dorothy Propack.  Mrs. Propack is a German living in The Bahamas who has a special interest in the Ranfurly Home for Children.  The home was started by the wife of the Earl of Ranfurly, then Governor of The Bahamas in the early 1950s for indigent children who had no other home.   Mrs. Propack celebrated her 70th birthday at the home last week, with the children whom she visits every day.  The Tribune photo shows Mrs. Propak surrounded by the children.

ELECTIONS FOR THE BAAA
Elections for a two year term of the Bahamas Amateur Athletic Association ( BAAA) are about to take place.  Thomas Desmond Bannister is opposing Foster Dorsett who is now the President. The elections will take place at the C.C. Sweeting Secondary School on 20 November.  This has been the most successful period in the history of track and field in The Bahamas.  We have won gold medals at the World Championship, and a gold medal at the Pan American games. Mr. Bannister is an attorney-at-law. Others running on his ticket are Philip Mckenzie, attorney-at-law; Frank "Pancho" Rahming; Diana Thompson; William Johnson; Barbara Ferguson; Iram Lewis. There was no speculation in the press as to who will win.

UN DAY FLAG RAISING
Janet Bostwick, the worst Minister of Foreign Affairs this country has ever had, continues to embarrass herself and the country.  This year at the United Nations, it is alleged that she went to New York for the annual General Assembly speech with two draft speeches in her hand.  She could not decide which one to read.  The one that she read, she read badly, embarrassing many Bahamians who saw it. Now she has come back home for a few weeks before going to South Africa for the Heads of Government conference with the Prime Minister.  On Monday 25 October, she held a flag raising ceremony (see Tribune photo) to mark United Nations Day.  On Sunday 24 October, she attended a service to mark UN Day at the Anglican Cathedral. The service was put on by the Zonta Club of Nassau.  The Opposition was not invited to either programme.  Once again, we condemn this sorry Minister of Foreign Affairs.  We are surprised at the Zonta Club, and we are also concerned that the new Permanent Secretary at Foreign Affairs, Missouri Sherman Peter did not see that the Opposition was properly invited and informed of the UN Flag raising ceremony.

HURRICANE RELIEF FUNDRAISER IN NEW YORK
Dr. Doswell Coakley held a fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Floyd in New York on Friday 29 October. Dr. Coakley is the Consul General for The Bahamas in New York.

FRANK WATSON ON HANGING
The Deputy Prime Minister was interviewed by the Nassau Guardian on 28 October 1999.  In a Mark Symonette article, Mr. Watson told the Bahamian public that hanging would continue to be the method of execution in The Bahamas.  The cases of David Mitchell and John Higgs were being argued before the Privy Council in London last week. The death warrants of the men have been stayed pending the decision of the nation's highest court.  The Privy Council called for photos of the conditions at the prison.  Philip Brave Davis is arguing that the conditions at the prison where the men are kept on death row are cruel and inhumane punishment.  As such, the conditions violate the constitution.  The Government is unmoved.  The German Government has asked for David Mitchell's sentence to be commuted. Mr. Mitchell was convicted of killing two of their citizens.  He is born of Haitian parents, and is believed to be of low intelligence and education. Mr. Higgs is a beautician.  His ex wife came forward and asked that his sentence be commuted. This is particularly interesting because the rumour around The Bahamas was that she had been murdered by her former husband as well. Mr. Higgs was convicted of murdering his second wife Joan shortly before their divorce and burying her below the steps of an apartment building he owned in Fox Hill, New Providence. The second wife is the granddaughter of the late Governor General of The Bahamas Sir Milo Butler. Mr. Higgs' execution would be popular in The Bahamas. We await the Privy's decision. Both executions should be stayed and the sentences commuted, but it would be a surprise if they are.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW RC ARCHBISHOP
A representative of Pope John Paul II officially installed the new Archbishop of the Province of Bermuda, The Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands in a ceremony at the Sir Kendal Isaacs Gym on Thursday 28 October. While the Roman Catholic Church denied there was a connection, the installation of the Roman Catholic Archbishop comes within the year after the Anglicans elected Bahamian Drexel Gomez to become Archbishop of the Province of the West Indies.

ANGLICAN SYNOD HELD THIS WEEK
On Monday 25 October, the Anglican Church's annual synod was held.  It was opened by the Archbishop's annual charge at the solemn mass at the Christ Church Cathedral. The Archbishop has several pressing matters on his plate.  He needs to appoint a new rector to succeed Archdeacon William Thompson at St. Agnes.  He asked the Synod to elect a Suffragan Bishop, the now Dean of the Cathedral Patrick Adderley was his choice. In his charge, the Archbishop predicted that there will be a revision of the system of taxation to value added tax. He chastised the Government for not doing more to uplift over-the-hill in the New Providence. (Guardian photo)

ORTLAND BODIE THE BOOTLICKER
Errington Watkins, former Member of Parliament for the FNM, former UBP Chair, former Superintendent of Police and now Gentleman Farmer of Long Island, wrote a scathing letter to the newspapers attacking Ortland Bodie Jr. Mr. Bodie virtually monopolizes the 'letters to the editor' column in both daily newspapers. The letters are mainly exercises in sycophancy, and Mr. Watkins was incensed that Mr. Bodie - who was disbarred for stealing a client's money - would seek to attack his reputation. Mr. Bodie's modus operandi is to support anyone who is in power as a means of getting his position back at the bar. Mr. Watkins called him a bootlicker with the longest tongue in The Bahamas. "Mr. Bodie, the Good Lord has blessed you with the longest tongue in this nation for you are without doubt, in my opinion, the best bootlicker in this country." He concluded with some advice to Mr. Bodie that instead of trying to sully Mr. Watkins' reputation, Mr. Watkins said "I suggest that you should start trying to find out who the next prime minister is going to be so that you can start jockeying for future employment." We support what Mr. Watkins has to say one thousand percent.

INTERAMERICAN BANK MAN LEAVES THE BAHAMAS
Farewell to Hugo Souza, the representative of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) in The Bahamas for the past three years. This makes complete the turnover in international agency reps in The Bahamas. The lending of the IDB during Mr. Souza's term was more active than at any other time in the history of the bank's relations with The Bahamas.  Last week we reported that OAS Ambassador to The Bahamas had resigned. Wesley Kirton, the OAS man, left The Bahamas for a job in the private sector on 28 October. Mr. Souza is shown presenting a book on tourism in this Tribune photo with Minister of Foreign Affairs Janet Bostwick.

CONVICTED KIDNAPPER OFFERS HELP
Everyone in The Bahamas who saw it was curious as to why The Tribune would give such prominence to a man who had just come out of jail for kidnapping. But there he was Nicodemus Johnson (see Tribune photo), the one  time organizer of the workers at Paradise Island. Jail has not quieted the voluble Mr. Johnson.  He claimed in The Tribune interview that he had found God in jail and was holding a press conference to ask the four men who had escaped from Her Majesty's Prison last week to return to prison. Mr. Johnson promised that he himself was reformed and that he wanted to return to prison to help the spiritually wounded.  Yeah right!

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION CONDEMNS PRISON
Five Bahamians escaped the prison last Saturday 23 October. This is the second breakout of prisoners in as many months. Four remain at large.  Some 43 Cubans are still at large.  In any other system the Superintendent of the Prison would have had to resign or the Minister would have had to offer his head as a sacrifice.  But under the FNM no such conventions exist.  The Prime Minister announced that there would be an internal inquiry.  Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie said that would not be good enough.  He called for the investigation by an independent group of citizens.

BAHAMAS STOCK EXCHANGE OPTION DAY
Those who wished to invest in the Bahamas International Stock Exchange private offering have lost their chance.  The deadline to spend $125,000 for a share passed on 28 October 1999.  Most people think it's a good deal.  The Stock Exchange is to get started next year.  A public offering is expected.

HAS VICTOR KOZENY LEFT TOWN?
The rumour around Lyford Cay is that the so called Pirate of Prague, billionaire Victor Kozeny has sold his holdings in The Bahamas and left town.  This comes after Mr. Kozeny insulted the Prime Minister of The Bahamas in the media.  He told Mr. Ingraham that he had better spend the Government's money on saving the people damaged by Hurricane Floyd than acquiring the island which Mr. Kozeny's development has devastated.  Mr. Kozeny is said to have made billions off a sleight of hand stock deal in the Czech Republic.

BOSTON BLACKIE IS RECOVERING
He does not look quite the old champion that he was, but the report last week in the press was that Leonard 'Boston Blackie' Miller was recovering.  Mr. Miller has been ill for sometime.  First he had a badly twisted ankle that refused to heal, then he developed kidney trouble.  Mr. Miller told The Nassau Guardian that he is on the mend.

ALARMING BGCSE RESULTS
Clyde Phillip, a some time letter writer to the Bahamian press, and an official of Success Training College, in a letter published last Saturday 24 October predicted disaster in the making for The Bahamas, if the academic standards of the country do not improve.  Mr. Phillips showed that the results of the BGCSE, the final high school exam, were disastrous for last year.  He predicted that we face a serious problem down the road.  Our students are failing math and basic English.

BRITISH COLONIAL OPENS
Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie, Bradley Roberts MP for Grants Town and this columnist had lunch at the newly refurbished Hilton British Colonial.  The former Sheraton and Best Western, becomes the first Hilton property in The Bahamas.  It is run by General Manager Michael Hooper.  Mr. Hooper is the son of entertainer King Eric Gibson.  Mr. Hooper has worked extensively for brand owner Hilton International most recently in London and in Chicago.  The project has so far cost Canadian owner Ron Kelly $86 million and there is more to be spent.  The results are impressive.  The official opening will take place in December. It was a great lunch.  The hotel is promoting itself as good for businessmen although tourists can stay as well.  It is close to downtown.  There will be 291 rooms when the project is finished.  The room rate will be $160 per night.  That is an excellent deal, given what you have to pay for hotels in major cities these days. The Guardian photo shows Mr. Hooper at the newly refurbished BC. Congratulations to him and Mr. Kelly.

THIS WEEK AT KRISTI'S
Trouble on the Lucayan Strip - As we reported last week, there is trouble brewing on the Lucayan Strip. Now we learn that a group of Bahamian contractors met with Ministers C.A. smith and David Thompson to try and head off a confrontation which is about to get ugly with Centex Rooney, main contractors for the Hutchison Group. At the meeting a powerful FNM general demanded that Minister Smith resign because he has "failed the Bahamian people miserably." Sources said the general was so angry he didn't bat an eye. He further said that under Centex Rooney's criteria, Bahamians can't even qualify to pick up garbage off the site and take it to the city dump. Ministers Smith and Thompson asked for two weeks to see if something could be worked out with the Hutchison people. That same night, Minister Smith went on the air to say he wasn't pleased with the operation at the Lucaya strip and he doesn't buy some of the excuses that have been given for the delays. During the meeting, the local contractors gave specific examples of "rank discrimination" against Bahamians working for the company. The Ministers were told of Bahamian contract workers brought in from Nassau who must live three to a room versus foreign workers who have their own rooms. There was also a big pay disparity reported with foreigners earning much more for the same work. The Ministers are said to have pleaded ignorance, but promised to "look into it".

    Earl Godet, the canal-front landlord, no-nonsense former Local Government candidate for Lucaya and taxi entrepreneur, was in fine form this week over the Government's handling of local Grand Bahama schools. Earl points out that now that the roofs on two Government schools are in such disrepair that students have had to be transferred to other areas, money not only has to be found to fix the roofs, but also to pay the additional busing and rental costs. Another example of what Godet calls "!#@-backward thinking" is that a major playing field which serves two Government schools was closed for reseeding one week before school opened after the long summer holidays. A curious turn of events is that somehow Godet blames PLPs for this... How did the PLP after years of FNM governance, get to manage the chequebook? Hmmm!

    Shopkeepers in Port Lucaya Marketplace believe there is a conspiracy afoot by the new Lucaya Strip ownership to toss them out of their shops by the time the Hutchison Lucaya Strip project begins to bring tourists back to the area. A letter has been sent to Prime Minister Ingraham trying to enlist his help to protect the shopkeepers and their leases from being 'starved out'. Savvy Bahamians in Port Lucaya predict, however, that in a year we'll be able to count the Bahamians with shops there on one had with fingers left over.

    Talmadge Pinder summed it all up... "during the PLP time we FNMs blamed the Prime Minister for everything. Now that we're in power, if something goes wrong, all of a sudden everyone else is to blame." Talmadge notes that Ministers "are too scared to do anything without Hubert, so don't blame David, C.A. or Theresa, especially since we all know that Theresa is a scary woman..." We edited the rest of this quote and his advice to the Prime Minister. This is an FNM talking.

    Vice Chairman Iron Mike was noticeably absent from the table for a few days this week. Sources say he travelled to Nassau for an FNM Council meeting. Could that meeting in Nassau be the reason we received so many phone calls on his well-being? Hmmm!