NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
DEATH OF A SUPERSTAR
Just
before this site went to press this week, the reports of the death of the
film and recording star Aaliyah in a tragic plane crash in Marsh Harbour,
Abaco were spreading around Nassau. The latest reports on the crash
are no different than the early reports. It appears that the plane
was overloaded with baggage and people. It appears that the pilot
was a hacker, without a licence to fly charter operations into The Bahamas.
It appears that he was unfamiliar with the aircraft he was flying a 402b
Cessna. The pilot was earlier convicted of a cocaine offence. The
Miami Herald reported that even after the baggage handlers at the airport
warned the party of the overweight, the party insisted that all the baggage
had to go.
The Miami Herald is also the source of the information that the star and her party were trying to catch a plane to California and so were in a great hurry. They described it as “get there itis”.
Aaliyah Haughton was 22, an exquisitely beautiful young woman and it is a great shame and pity that she lost her life in that way with such a promising career before her. She joins the names like John Kennedy Jr. who died last year flying his own plane. One remembers the story of Patsy Cline, the US Country and Western star who also died in plane crash as her career was flowering. And of course for those of my generation the 1967 death in a plane crash of the late great Otis Redding.
After John Kennedy Jr. died someone made the observation that it was only in the latter half of the 20th century that we routinely became surprised at the death of young people. Before the advances in medicine and the stretching of life expectancy, more people than not died before their 40th birthday. If that is true, we are a lucky generation indeed.
But we must always remember that in the midst of life there is death. One writer recently pointed out that we think that because we are able to stretch our lives comfortably into our 80s that we can cheat death forever. And people treat death as if it is something unusual. Unwelcome yes! Unusual No!
At the risk of repeating the obvious and the trite, we all must die. The fact is one that our younger friends who believe that they, not God, own their breath would do well to understand and accept. We have a short time together. Love comes in all forms and one must accept one’s fortunes in all its guises in life. The death of so beautiful, young and talented a woman in the twinkling of an eye should reinforce the fact that we ought to enjoy life. It is the only life we know.
This week we had 28,617 hits on the site up to midnight Saturday 1 September at midnight. For the month of August that ended on Friday 31 August at midnight we had a total of 101,001 hits on the site. Thanks for reading and please keep reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th
Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell
Address to Senate: Why the PM is the way he is
Mitchell
speech to PLP Convention 2000
Pindling
& Me - A personal retrospective on the life and times of Sir Lynden
by Fred Mitchell
Address
to the Senate Budget Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma / Haitian Issue
Address
of Sean McWeeney / Pindling funeral
Gilbert
Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred
Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral
coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
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| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| http://www.johngfcarey.com/ | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2477/index.html | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com/ | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| http://www.briland.com/ | Harbour Island Site |
THE
PRIME MINISTER STRIKES BACK
Hubert Ingraham, lame duck as he is, just can’t help himself.
He is presiding over the destruction of the Free National Movement.
No matter what he or anyone else thinks about Algernon Allen, the now former
Minister of Housing, Mr. Allen turns out be a popular Minister in the public
imagination. There is a feeling throughout the country that the Prime
Minister has wronged him. No amount of ex post facto patching up
by Tommy Turnquest or Dion Foulkes or the lame duck Prime Minister can
fix that fact. First the facts as we understand them. Algernon
Allen on Friday 24 August made the following comments at a public rally:
“The election of Leader designate and Deputy Leader designate of the Free
National Movement was improperly influenced and was corrupted in a calculated
way to achieve the desired results and will remain a sorry chapter in the
history of this country.” Mr. Allen went on to say: “[the leadership
election] was influenced by political power and might where a whole Cabinet
determined that it must achieve a result and did anything necessary along
with a powerful group of party functionaries, some of whom were paid.”
Following upon that the Prime Minister claims that a telephone call was
initiated by Mr. Allen on Sunday 26 August who asked the Prime Minister
for time to clear out his belongings from his office and according to the
Prime Minister he offered to resign from the Cabinet. According
to Mr. Allen, one hour after the conversation with the Prime Minister,
he made it known through messages to the Deputy Prime Minister that he
would not be resigning. In a public statement to the press, Mr. Allen
said that he would not resign. The Prime Minister subsequently advised
the Governor General to revoke Mr. Allen’s appointment. The Prime Minister
addressed the country on Thursday 30th August at 8 p.m.
A
CALL FOR A COMMISSION OF INQUIRY
The only issues of national concern in the Prime Minister’s party political
broadcast on Thursday 30th August were those connected with public policy.
While we are all titillated by the you say and I say of FNM politics, what
we want to know is whether or not Algernon Allen’s allegations of corruption
against the Government are true. If you read our report above it
is clear that Mr. Allen had specific allegations in mind. On the
public record, Mr. Allen is a former Minister, recently fired from the
Cabinet. The public record is that he is an honest and honourable
man. So when he resigns making allegations of corruption, one must
take those allegations as credible. Indeed his former Ministerial
colleague, now backbencher Pierre Dupuch said on Tuesday 28 August that
if Mr. Allen’s allegations are true and correct, it is the Government that
must resign. The Leader designate Tommy Turnquest and the Deputy
Leader designate Dion Foulkes all responded to the allegations. Mr.
Foulkes told Issues of the Day on Love 97 on Wednesday 29 August that the
allegations were baseless. He denied that any scholarships were given
to delegates to vote for him. He challenged anyone with evidence
to produce the evidence. He conveniently forgets the Leader of the
Opposition's uncontroverted allegation in the House of Assembly that Tennyson
Wells' council member was persuaded to vote for the Foulkes Turnquest team
by a $300,000 contract to build bus shelters in New Providence.
Tommy Turnquest for his part was reported in The Tribune of Thursday 30
August as saying the following: “No money was paid to delegates, no government
contracts were issued to entice delegates and no scholarships were given
out. These allegations are absolutely false.” Mr. Ingraham,
therefore in his address on Thursday night had one burden to discharge
and that was whether not the allegations of corruption were true or false.
Was the cabinet involved in corrupt practices? He did not discharge
that burden other than to make the bald assertion that the allegations
were not correct. The plain fact is that Mr. Ingraham cannot be judge
and jury, nor can Turnquest and Foulkes. There must be a public inquiry.
And it is the view of this Senator that the PLP should call for a Commission
of Inquiry to deal with the allegations made by the former Minister and
report to the Bahamian people. Nothing more or less.
MR.
INGRAHAM ATTACKS ALGERNON ALLEN
Hubert Ingraham is a lame duck Prime Minister. And the question
each citizen has on his or her lips these days is why, if this man is going,
is he spending so much time on matters that really don't concern him?
In the process he is wrecking the Free National Movement. In his
attempt to be clever, he ended up with the address to the nation creating
more problems for himself and his party, and raising a larger issue of
public policy. Here is what Mr. Ingraham said about Tommy Turnquest
on Thursday 30 August in his national address: “In my case, my reasons
for supporting Tommy Turnquest are simple; he is, in addition to being
experienced and capable, straightforward, focused, honest and trustworthy
and he will get the job done.” This is a classic example of the maxim
when you dig one grave you dig two. While not saying why he did not
support Mr. Allen or Mr. Wells, he has cast aspersions on the two gentlemen
by what he said of Mr. Turnquest. But for the moment let’s leave
Wells out of this. What Mr. Ingraham implies is that Mr. Allen is
dishonest. What we want to know, what the public ought to know is
what acts of dishonesty has Mr. Allen committed? Mr. Allen sat in
Mr. Ingraham’s Cabinet for nine years. When did Mr. Ingraham discover
that Mr. Allen had committed acts of dishonesty? The matter becomes
more serious and this is all the more reason why there ought to be a Commission
of Inquiry to investigate all these allegations.
HUBERT
INGRAHAM ON TENNYSON WELLS
If Hubert Ingraham in his address thought that he was sending Mr. Wells
an olive branch, he had better think again. Here is what Mr. Ingraham
had to say about Tennyson Wells in his address on Thursday 30 August: “I
wish to take this opportunity to publicly commend Mr. Tennyson Wells for
the decorum which has typified some of his public statements since the
election.” This is a comment from the same Prime Minister who said
of Mr. Wells not one month ago and following the elections for Leader and
Deputy Leader that Mr. Wells was the last person in the world from whom
he would take advice.
SPLIT
AMONGST FNMS
We
said last week that the fault lines in the Free National Movement are there
once again for all to see. The principal fault line is the Cecil
Wallace Whitfield FNMs on the one side and the UBP element that has joined
up with Mr. Ingraham and his third force allies on the other. That
is the fault line that caused their defeat in 1977 when they faced the
electorate as two parties. There is some talk that as many as ten
MPs who are FNMs are thinking about forming another party. With those
numbers they would be able to supplant the PLP as the Official Opposition
for the short time that is left between now and when a General Election
has to be called on 8 April 2002. The ten that have been identified
are: Algernon Allen, Tennyson Wells, Lester Turnquest, Floyd Watkins,
Anthony Miller, Neko Grant, Elliott Lockhart, Italia Johnson, Ronald Bosfield
and Pierre Dupuch. Such an agglomeration can only be inherently unstable.
They would not represent anyone as a party nor have a real cause except
being anti-Ingraham. The best course of such a group would be to
team up with the PLP in some kind of alliance. But the mood within
the PLP’s council is not for any kind of alliance. They believe that
the PLP must stand its ground. If the FNM MPs want an alliance they ought
to join the PLP. Perry Christie himself has told his colleagues that
he has no problem at all if these FNM MPs want to take over temporarily
the position as Leader of the Opposition. He is confident that it won't
work and that it can't last. Mr. Ingraham would ensure their destruction.
Mr. Christie is concentrating on becoming Prime Minister, not maintaining
the position of Leader of the Opposition. Increasingly PLP candidates are
reporting to him in the field that the issue of CDR/PLP hardly
arises in any campaign and the conversation door to door is principally
about a coming contest between the FNM and the PLP. His view is that anyone
in Opposition to Hubert Ingraham belongs in the PLP and all are welcome.
The PLP is the oldest political party in the country and will celebrate
its 50th anniversary in 2001. And so the stage is set for the
FNMs next move. Algernon Allen is pictured in the Guardian photo with supporters
at his headquarters.
ALLEN’S
MARCH TO PARLIAMENT
This columnist has learned that former Minister of Housing Algernon
Allen is to organize a march for democracy to the House of Assembly on
Wednesday 5 September. It will be organized by former FNM Senator
Derek Simms. This should be an interesting test of strength for Mr.
Allen.
Late
news: PEACE TALKS IN THE FNM
Reports are that Rev. Simeon Hall, former President of the Bahamas
Christian Council has convened talks between Algernon Allen, Tennyson Wells
and Tommy Turnquest (the FNM Leader Designate). Our last report was that
the talks broke off during the day on Saturday 1 September. They
resumed late in the day and continued well into the night. No word
on the outcome. It appears that Rev’d Father Etienne Bowleg was also
involved in the conclave and they want ‘Bulgie’ Allen to call off his march
set for the opening of Parliament on Wednesday. Persons who were
at the meeting are under the impression that the ‘dream team’ cannot make
any decisions. They have to check with the maximum leader. Meanwhile Prime
Minister Ingraham was not at the meeting, but drinking it up with his buddies
at the Fish Fry, boasting about whose nominations he was going to take
away. But the quid pro quo for the deal is that no one's nomination
is to be touched. However, sources say that Dion and Tommy couldn't possibly
decide that without reference to the maximum leader.
A
FIGHT IN GEORGETOWN EXUMA
On Monday 27 August, there was a big combrucktion in Georgetown in
the FNM. An FNM woman of longstanding in Georgetown who comes from
Nassau was called driftwood. Other insults were hurled and the meeting
almost descended into fisticuffs. Their reason, it now appears that
Elliott Lockhart the now MP (FNM) has been persuaded to reenter the race
for Member of Parliament for Exuma, after at first indicating that he was
getting out. On the basis of his earlier position, the Prime Minister
reportedly secured the resignation of Joshua Sears, a lifetime PLP, as
Ambassador to the U.S. and promised him the nomination to succeed Mr. Lockhart
as the Exuma MP. Now that the fault lines have appeared in the FNM,
Mr. Lockhart has been persuaded to enter the fray. The reports say
that there was an open line to Mr. Lockhart by cell phone so he could hear
what was going on in the FNM meeting. The 140 people gathered there
passed resolutions rejecting both Joshua Sears and Elliott Lockhart
as candidates. There is said to be another young man in the shadows,
the so-called candidate of God , who is waiting in the wings. But
more of that later. What we do know is that the fight in Exuma shows
that the fault lines are showing in the FNM.
ARE
THE SCHOOLS READY?
Public
Schools in The Bahamas open on Monday 3 September. If you drive around
the Island of New Providence, you will see that the schools are not nearly
ready. At the L.W. Young School the security booth is not yet completed.
At Sandilands Primary School in Fox Hill, the grounds needs to be cleaned
up and properly sprayed for mosquitoes that occupy the classrooms in great
abundance. The Minister of Education was in the press on Friday
31 August denying that he had given out contracts for repairs of school
to delegates to the FNMs special convention to get him elected Deputy Leader
of the FNM party. The Albury Sayles Primary School is still not ready for
occupation. If the past is anything to go by there will be chaos
come Monday. And further, The Bahamas Union of Teachers is concerned
about the world wide recruitment efforts for Caribbean teachers because
we in this region refuse to address the salary concerns of teachers.
Kingsley Black, President of the Union, at a press conference on Thursday
30 August said that many teachers were choosing to move to the U.S. because
the salaries were better and the Government had taken no steps to try and
deal with the issue. We think that this is a cause for great concern
as well. Guardian photo.
OVERLOAD
OF AALIYAH’S PLANE
The
Civil Aviation authorities in The Bahamas and the National Transportation
Safety Board of the United States all flew up to Marsh Harbour, Abaco during
the past week to begin in earnest the investigation into the tragic plane
crash that killed all nine people on board a Cessna 402B aircraft while
taking off from Marsh Harbour on Sunday 26 August shortly after 7 p.m.
On board was the famous singer Aaliyah Haughton 22 years of age.
The Tribune of Friday 31 August printed some preliminary information
from the investigation. It appears that the investigation centres
mainly on the weight of the plane. Here’s what the story appears
to be. All baggage except for one piece has been recovered from the
ill-fated flight. The maximum take off weight of the plane is 6300
pounds. The aircraft alone weighs 4,117 pounds. There should
only then have been an additional 2,183 pounds. Randy Butler, said
to be the lead investigator into the matter, added that the baggage weight
was 574 pounds. The estimated weight of the fuel was 804 pounds,
making
a total of 1378 pounds. In order to make the take-off weight
the nine persons on board would have had to weigh no more than 89 pounds
each. The weight of the occupants is to be released soon. But
it has been observed earlier in the press that one of the star’s bodyguards
and another man weighed about 300 pounds each. What this whole tragedy
also shows is that despite all the glamour that is portrayed in the life
of entertainers, it is really a hard slog with managers and producers,
record and film companies often pushing young, poor inexperienced people
into the stardom spotlight for which they are not adequately prepared. 
Aaliyah
is pictured in a photo with a Bahamian youngster Alvin Lightbourne of Grand
Bahama Catholic High School. The photo was taken shortly after she
arrived in Abaco. The young Mr. Lightbourne said the entertainer
complained that she’d had only had four hours sleep and was extremely tired.
The press reports that she was being rushed off to catch a plane to California
and thus the push to get the baggage onboard without sufficient checking.
It would seem that persons with the kind of money that she is alleged to
have been making, with the kind of support from her producers ought to
be able to afford proper aircraft from registered and properly maintained
companies, not from fly by night operators who hack, using inexperienced
pilots without proper background checks. And there are plenty of
regularly licensed charter operations both in The Bahamas and in South
Florida from which to choose. Someone should be made to pay for this
terrible terrible tragedy. The other footnote that is interesting
in this is that, of the population of this country over 35, most had never
even heard about the star as famous as she was amongst the teenage crowd
before this incident. The Tribune photo of Aaliyah’s body being removed
from Butler’s Funeral home in Nassau for shipment back to the United States.
THE
SPEAKER AND THE NO CONFIDENCE VOTE
We
reported last week that there was a move afoot by Hubert Ingraham to remove
the Speaker of the House of Assembly Italia Johnson from her post
because she appeared on the platform of Algernon Allen on Friday 26 August.
Carl Bethel, the Attorney General was on the radio Love 97 after the PM’s
speech on Thursday 30 August and said that as a member of the Cabinet he
knew of no move to remove the Speaker. Of course with the kind of Cabinet
Mr. Ingraham has, Mr. Bethel does not have to know. Mr. Ingraham
could just spring up on Wednesday next 5 September when the House meets
and simply move the thing and all the Cabinet and FNM backbenchers will
fall in line. The Bahama Journal published a speculative story
similar to ours in its Friday 31 August edition. But the Journal
says that many observers think that it won’t happen because Mr. Ingraham
would simply cause the entire party to collapse in revolt. Further,
at the moment as we pointed out, the constitution does not permit the Speaker
to be removed by anything other than her voluntary resignation. See Article
50(2) of the constitution. But we began to get concerned again when Eileen
Carron of The Tribune wrote an editorial on Thursday 29 August in which
she attacked the Speaker for breaking her impartiality. Ms. Carron
quoted liberally from Mays, the Parliamentary procedure handbook.
But much of what Ms. Carron quoted cannot apply in The Bahamas. In
the United Kingdom for which Mays is really written, the Speaker of the
House once chosen does not face opposition when he or she runs for Parliament.
That is not the tradition in this country. Here the Speaker must
like all other candidates face the hustings and fight a political battle
to save her seat. So it is argued that the impartiality of the Speaker
must really apply to her conduct inside the House. The PLP’s Perry
Christie called for the Speaker’s resignation as a result of the Leadership
race but it was due to her role as Chair of the Constituencies Commission
not as Speaker of the House. But when Eileen Carron writes something,
you have to see it as a precursor for the actions of Hubert Ingraham.
In Trinidad, they removed the Speaker of their House in 1994. They
had a similar provision in their constitution preventing the removal of
the Speaker. When their Speaker refused to resign following an allegation
of criminal perjury in a trial in which she testified, the Government of
former Prime Minister Patrick Manning declared a state of emergency around
her home, preventing her from going to the House of Representatives that
day. The Deputy Speaker then convened the Parliament. By a
simple majority the House passed a bill amending the constitution allowing
the Speaker to be removed by a simple majority and once that became law,
she was removed by a simple majority. How was that possible?
The provision on the Speaker’s tenure is not what is called an entrenched
provision of the constitution requiring a special majority in the Houses
of Parliament and a referendum in order for it to become law. All
that is required is a simple bill with a simple majority of members.
And guess what, the British wrote all of the constitutions in the same
way and in The Bahamas that provision - Article 50 - is also not an entrenched
provision. The end result is that Hubert Ingraham can by a simple
Act of Parliament amend the constitution and cause the Speaker to be removed
if she refuses to go.
BRADLEY
ROBERTS ON REGISTRATION OF VOTERS
The PLP held a press conference on Wednesday 29 August. It may
be the start of weekly press briefings. PLP chair Bradley Roberts and Senator
Fred Mitchell, Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs were joined by PLP
candidate for Cat Island Philip ‘Brave’ Davis. Mr. Roberts said that
he was concerned about the pace of registration and called for mobile registration
units from the Parliamentary Commissioner. Mr. Roberts is the PLP’s
representative on the Constituencies Commission. Mr. Roberts said
that, contrary to what the Government’s members were reporting; the black
belt areas of New Providence were not depleted of population. He
said that when one looks at the census figures the black belt areas have
the following numbers of Bahamians over 18 years of age : Marathon 4018;
Bain Town 4,733; Centreville 4,757; St. Cecilia 4,468; Englerston 4,106
and Grants Town 5,601. The PLP argues that the Constitution intends
for the Constituencies Commission to be guided on making the constituencies
more or less equal based on the potential pool of voters not just the registered
voters. The FNM wants 4000 electors per constituency. In each
of the constituencies in the black belt, registration figures remain low
around 2000 per constituency. This is being used as an excuse by
the FNM to eliminate what are mainly PLP seats. Mr. Roberts called
for the Speaker to urgently press the Government on mobile registration
units. This senator believes that registration is too difficult in
this country. You have to set out to go and do it. The process
needs to be brought to you. There ought to be automatic registration
at 18 and automatic roll over of those on the list, weeding out automatically
those persons who have died or moved out of the area.
MIDDLE
AGED VOTERS BY GUSTAVIS SMITH
The Tribune’s Gustavis Smith did an analysis of the voter’s rolls in
a story on Tuesday 28th August that is worth reading. Some excerpts: “According
to records from the Parliamentary Registration Department more than 11,950
Generation Xers between the ages 18-25 have already registered, but that
figure is second only to those between 36 and 40 who now number more than
12,870 on the register. However, the total number of registered voters
between the ages 18 and 35 (33,659) is greater than all registered voters
between the ages 41 and 80 (33,594). The number of registered voters
between the ages 81 and 100 is only 1,245. The 36-40 age group represents
14 percent of all registered voters. If the general election were
held today this group would be a critical swing vote. The combined
percentage of the age groups 18-35 and 36-40 age group equals 51 per cent
of all registered voters. When the 36-40 age group is combined with
the voters the ages of 41 and 100 it comes to 63 per cent of all eligible
voters. The entire group 36-40 was born during the pre-independence
era, during the years 1961 to 65. This group became eligible to vote
for the first time during the 1982 general elections, and were between
the ages 27 and 31 during the 1992 general election that saw the overthrow
of the PLP, which had controlled the Government for 25 years. In
1992 all those who would have been eligible to vote in the 18-25 age group
or 13 per cent of the voters, were not eligible to vote, while in 1997
only fifty per cent of this age group were eligible to vote. Both of these
age groups, 18-25 and 36-40 are in the job market but the majority of 36-40
year olds are homeowners.” This is the kind of reporting I like.
I had wondered whether there are young journalists around who are interested
in writing about politics. Good Job!
FOLLOW
UP ON RAPE IN THE PRISON
The intrepid Tosheena Robinson of The Tribune (Wednesday 28 August)
has followed up on the issue of the alleged rape in the prison (Click here
for the previous stories first published in this column Story
One, Story Two.
She contacted the prison authorities and asked what they knew of the incident.
According to Charles Rolle, the Acting Superintendent of the Prison, there
was no rape, but an inmate who is 20 years old Jain Dorsett went to see
the prison doctor on 16 August. After being interviewed and examined,
Mr. Dorsett told the doctor that one of his cell mates in the southern
group had attempted to hold him down and kiss him. The alleged perpetrator
is in prison on remand awaiting his trial on a sexual assault charge.
He has been taken to Sandilands Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Mr. Rolle would not disclose whether the perpetrator is HIV positive.
Mr. Rolle went further and said: “I have never, never never known of anyone
who got raped.” The Nassau Guardian weighed in on the story in an
editorial on Wednesday 20 August as follows: ‘The assertion on the Internet
by Senator Fred Mitchell that an HIV infected inmate at Her Majesty’s Prison
had raped another prisoner cannot be dismissed with the simple denial from
the Acting Superintendent that it didn’t happen… Mr. Rolle could not be
reached yesterday for questioning. However, given his rank now of
Acting Superintendent, where was Mr. Rolle in December 1992 when then Attorney
General Orville Turnquest spoke in the House of Assembly about the rampant
homosexuality and the alarming number of AIDs infected inmates at the prison.”
IMF
ADVICE TO THE BAHAMAS
The International Monetary Fund’s annual review of The Bahamian economy
has told the Government it needs to have bank interest rates come more
in line with the rest of the world if there is to be continued growth in
The Bahamas. It has also warned that Government must create some
kind of saving fund in order to reduce public sector debt and prepare for
unforeseen emergencies. The report was in The Tribune’s Business Section
on Thursday 30 August and Friday 31 August. According to the IMF
the rapid expansion of credit in The Bahamas over the past year needs to
be curtailed and credit tightened during the second half of 2001.
There has been a depletion of the reserves as a result of the rapid expansion
of credit. The Fund also argued that the restriction on National
Insurance investments in overseas securities needs to be gradually relaxed.
Bahamians like Anthony Ferguson in the Financial Services sector have been
arguing this for years.
RICK
FOX COMES HOME
Ulrick
Fox is the owner of Holiday Ice. He married a Canadian woman and
had a son who is known over the hemisphere as Rick Fox, late of the North
Carolina Tar Heels of the USA and now of the Los Angles Lakers National
Basketball Association team in the USA. Rick Fox was born in Canada
and came with his parents to The Bahamas when he was six months old.
He went to school up to high school in The Bahamas and then to the US where
his basketball talents blossomed. That is a long way from where he
is today: an international basketball star married to the beautiful first
black Miss America Vanessa Williams. The problem with Rick Fox is
that he has never been embraced by Bahamians in quite the same way as say
Michael ‘Sweet Bells’ Thompson also formerly of the Lakers or Sidney Poitier
the Bahamian award winning actor. And to make matters worse Mr. Fox,
because there was no Bahamian basketball team in 1992, played for his other
country Canada. Bahamians did not like it. Well his dad (pictured
in this Tribune photo) tells us that Rick Fox will hold a basketball clinic
with the Ministry of Education on 7 September. He will be speaking
to four high schools C.V. Bethel, C. R. Walker, Government High School
and C.I. Gibson. Mr. Fox in a press release said: “ … I want to give
back to the youth in my Bahamas, something that will help put strong, young,
men and women on the path of finding and making their own luck.”
We look forward to it.
REV.
BRIAN SEYMOUR HOME FOR VISIT
Welcome home to the Rev. Brian Seymour (see Tribune file photo) who
was ordained to the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the Americas
last year. Since his ordination, he has been serving two congregations
in the British Virgin Islands. Rev. Seymour is at home for a brief
vacation and spoke to the Tribune’s religious editor. Rev. Seymour,
who is a Valley Boy, said that he is dedicated to serving the whole man.
Good Luck Rev. Seymour.
DARLING
BROTHER MOVES ON
Devard Darling one of the Darling twins who played at Florida
State up to the untimely death of his brother Devaughn in February has
transferred to the Washington State University Football team. Florida
State refused to certify him medically for play on the team after his brother
died. The brother was said to have died from over exertion, a victim
of the sickle cell anaemia trait. We hope Mr. Darling is not
pushing the envelope by getting back into this thing. Perhaps he
ought to leave it alone. Devard is pictured next to his deceased brother
in these file photos.
WILBERT
MOSS BURIED
Wilbert Moss, the former PLP MP for Acklins, Crooked Island & Long
Cay, was buried on Saturday 1 September. Mr. Moss died during the
week after a long illness. His body was viewed in the House of Assembly
on Friday 31 August. The official funeral was held at the Church
of God of Prophecy. Mr. Moss served in the House from 1972 to 1977,
in the Senate from 1977 to 1982 and then again in the House from 1982 to
1989. He left the House in disgrace after being convicted of attempting
to bribe a Magistrate in 1989 on behalf of a constituent. Nevertheless,
Mr. Moss was praised by both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition
as a man who dedicated himself to the service of his people. May
he rest in peace.
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
Open Warfare Among Driftwood Execs
Thomas 'The Knife' Rosati, the controversial executive vice president
at Driftwood's Resorts at Bahamia has apparently run afoul of the powerful
Bahamian vice president and longtime manager at the hotel Donald Archer.
According to one line staffer, "All you could hear was shouting and bad
language between them coming out of that office". Inside sources say that
Hotel Union President Pat Bain was in Freeport to meet with Resorts at
Bahamia management over numerous complaints about Rosati, who is said to
have "disappeared" before the meeting could take place. Archer has
reportedly suggested to Rosati that he soften his approach in dealing with
Bahamians in order to save the Resorts at Bahamia from problems.
Staff are now joking that Resorts at Bahamia's casino sports betting should
take bets on which of the two will survive. For weeks, News From
Grand Bahama has published reports from staff saying that Rosati is responsible
for the resignation or dismissal of a series of senior Bahamians at the
Resorts because "He don't know how to talk to people."
FNM Peace Deal?
Grand Bahama political generals of the Allen/Wells/Lester Turnquest
faction(s) are saying that a 5 point plan for peace in the FNM has been
proposed:
To The Point
The popular Radio Bahamas Northern Service talk show 'To The Point'
originated live this past Friday morning from Geneva's restaurant, that
favourite of Grand Bahama's politicos. Guests on the show, hosted by Byron
Stubbs were FNM supporters Elvis Hepburn, a businessman; Dr. Lea Percentie,
a dentist and attorney Steven Wilchcombe; all of whom sided with embattled
Algernon Allen, the fired Cabinet Minister. Upon hearing the show
on his car radio, Alex 'Fire' Pratt, the FNM's northern region vice chair
turned up at Genevas to "defend the party." Mr. Pratt was told, on
radio, that anything he might have to say would be suspect as singing for
his supper because of Government contracts which he holds. In other
coffee shops the show was a main topic of discussion, with one significant
group which is often courted by FNM leaders visiting Grand Bahama agreeing
that "We never liked Hubert anyway."
Nomination Uncertainty
With all the uncertainty currently abounding within the FNM, the question
of whether certain renominations of Members of Parliament are safe changes
daily or even hourly. Latest reports are that the nominations of David
Thompson (FNM Marco City) and Neko Grant (FNM Lucaya) which were in serious
question are now safe again for the moment. "In any event," said our source,
FNM street organisers "told Tommy and Dion that under no circumstance will
they ever vote for that lady proposed for Lucaya because she is Hubert's
choice."
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
RICK FOX COMES HOME
It
is strange what ends up moving the readers of this column to action.
Most days, even with the dramatic rise in hits on the site, there is no
communication from readers about what they read on the site. But
this week, while the result was not a deluge like the story on Bahamian
students who do not plan to return home, the story on Rick Fox seemed to
cause a little stir.
Most Bahamians remember the story of Mr. Fox who is the son of a Bahamian father and a Canadian mother. He is married to the beautiful Vanessa Williams, the actress and former Miss America. He is a successful National Basketball Association (NBA) star in the US. He is what many Bahamian youngsters want to be. In the terms of our culture he has the right colour, the good looks and the good hair (disgraceful as these expressions still are in our culture). So what more is a fellow to want. Mr. Fox wants to be accepted in his own country, or so it seems.
It was a strange spectacle. First out of the blue came the announcement from his father, the owner of Holiday Ice (click here for story) that Mr. Fox was returning home for a basketball clinic for Bahamian youngsters. Then at the airport, the younger Mr. Fox was full of mea culpas and apologies for not coming home sooner. He reaffirmed his Bahamianess. He said that he was sorry about the controversy of playing for Canada in the 1992 Olympics but he pleaded ambition to succeed in basketball. He promised that the next time in the Olympics he would play for The Bahamas. Our corespondents last week did not know all of this but they seemed sceptical. One remembers the response of Bahamians once Sidney Poitier fell out with the Pindling regime and he took up his georgie bundle and went back to the states. Bahamians felt that he had taken the chicken run and had abandoned us. Some have never forgiven him.
But the explanations and expressions of Mr. Fox seem genuine. He said that his mother (who is Canadian) had reminded him that he was a Bahamian, not a Canadian. He said that as he was preparing to come to The Bahamas his wife told him that the straw market had burned down and how they both felt moved by the destruction of the livelihood of the vendors.
I once discovered while speaking to two rich Bahamian friends of mine, who I thought were immune to criticism by the Bahamian public because I thought their wealth immunized them from it, that they were deeply upset that Bahamians thought badly of them. From a political point of view as an activist, I learned then that public criticism of even rich and powerful people does affect those people much as they pretend to be immune from it.
And so in the case of Rick Fox who certainly seems to have it all, it was interesting to see and to think that he seemed to still require more. Something that is more intangible, the acceptance of the place and the people he calls home. Is it genuine you ask? Who knows, but one thing is sure; the smile of delight from the wide eyed young teenage girls at the schools that he visited, and the awe struck response of the young teen age boys, may show that our cynicism over it may not matter. He is a hero to that crew.
Welcome home Mr. Fox!
This week, we had 25,729 hits this site up to midnight 8 September 2001 for the week. That makes a total of 26,784 hits for the month of September 2001.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th
Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell
Address to Senate: Why the PM is the way he is
Mitchell
speech to PLP Convention 2000
Pindling
& Me - A personal retrospective on the life and times of Sir Lynden
by Fred Mitchell
Address
to the Senate Budget Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma / Haitian Issue
Address
of Sean McWeeney / Pindling funeral
Gilbert
Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred
Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral
coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
|
|
| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| http://www.johngfcarey.com/ | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2477/index.html | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com/ | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| http://www.briland.com/ | Harbour Island Site |
THE
STRAW MARKET FIRE
Clearly
the story of the week in this country is the destruction of the Bahamian
straw market and several other buildings of commercial importance in the
city of Nassau on Tuesday 4 September. 
We
amended our regular Sunday posting on Tuesday to ensure that our readers
would know straight away the situation on the fire. The public officials
in this matter used a lot of hyperbole. Tommy Turnquest and Dion
Foulkes, the FNM's Leader designate and Deputy Leader Designate and the
lame duck Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham described the situation as a national
disaster. There was a lot of talk of a national catastrophe.
‘Twas neither. The fire was an act of stupidity that became a serious
commercial loss to the country because of the stupidity of the Government,
the lack of effective leadership on the ground, and the ill preparedness
in terms of equipment for the fire. They did not even have fire extinguishers
in the bloody straw market to stop a simple fire that was started by someone
who splashed some flammable liquid and started the fire. Then there were
reports that when the fire trucks arrived for 20, some say 40 minutes they
could not find water to fight the fire. They had to depend on water
from the British Colonial to the west on Bay Street. 
Others
say that the fire chiefs were concerned about ruining their machines with
salt water. And so the market burned while they figured out what
to do. They eventually got water from the sea. So it appears
that for forty minutes people just watched as the building burned to the
ground and the buildings next door caught fire. Only the heroic efforts
of the staff of the Pompey Museum, the Defence Force and the Police with
the Fire Department saved Vendue House. That building is of historic
importance in The Bahamas being the former slave market. The estimates
of loss are anywhere from 50 million to 70 million. Some of my legal
colleagues in Beaumont House including PLP candidate for Kennedy Kenyatta
Gibson, lost everything in their law offices. Most struggling through
a young practice were uninsured. Chippie’s Internet café was
also destroyed in the fire. The Ministry of Tourism's main offices
were burned flat to the ground. People stopped and stared.
It was simply an incredible inferno. We present a spread of photos by Peter
Ramsay.
SUSPECTED
ARSONIST IS CHARGED
Cordney Brian Gardiner was taken to court before Magistrate Renae McKay
on Friday 6 September and charged with starting four fires that led to
the destruction of the straw market on Tuesday 4 September. The crowd
outside attacked him verbally. Bail was denied. From the description
of what went on in the curt it appears that this man is non compos mentis
and requires a psychological evaluation. No one raised the
issue in the court, which only goes to show why by law a person ought to
have counsel appointed to defend him or her.
THE
FIRE IS A REPEAT OF HISTORY
The straw market was destroyed before in living memory. The market
when I was a young boy was truly a magical place. Not only was it
a centre for the sale of straw goods but it was a native meat market, and
we used to go there to buy fresh fish and conch. The headquarters
for the Ministry of Agriculture used to be on Woodes Rogers Walk.
That all changed dramatically while I was in University. A fire in
1974 razed the market to the ground. It was rebuilt in 1978 with
the bright idea that the Ministry of Tourism’s headquarters could be put
in the same complex as the straw market. There were several building
delays and design faults. There was a dispute with the contractor
Errington Hanna. The building was officially opened. From the
moment it began there were problems. It was too small for the purpose.
The number of stalls was inadequate. The management of the market
was ineffective. Straw vendors complained that they did not get sufficient
sales. Near the end they complained that Haitians and Jamaicans had
taken over the market. The market has now been destroyed again.
This time the Government of The Bahamas has promised it will be rebuilt
in record time. They say that the Ministry of Tourism’s headquarters
will not be put back there. It was a bad idea anyway because there
was not adequate parking for staff and the building simply was not acceptable
for visitors to access the business premises of a Bahamian Ministry.
In trying to resolve the matter with the vendors looking for help, the
PM got into a little row, which was a sideshow, that is an interesting
window into his biggety personality. He actually stood up and rowed
with the vendors in Rawson Square: what you expect me to do. I’m
not God, he said. I didn’t start the fire. (Well we heard it was
arson—oh that’s right someone else was charged). But even before
the destruction of the market in 1974 there was another fire. A man
named Glen Rogers started a fire in June of 1942. Eleven buildings
were burned at that time. He went to jail for it for seven years.
He was angry within the Bay Street Boys about something. The Duke
of Windsor, the abdicated British King, was the Governor in The Bahamas
at the time. A whole area on George Street just around the corner
from the present market was razed to the ground. The Governor himself
came down and manned the hoses to put out the fire. It is remarkable
that this has happened once again in this town. But please be assured
those of you who are living overseas, Nassau is still here and functioning
– limping along as it usually does. We had no idea how world famous
this market was because tourists are lamenting the fact that the market
is gone and they wonder where now can they buy souvenirs of The Bahamas.
Only goes to show, you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry.
THE
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
The
fire was a lifesaver for Hubert Ingraham and his political supporters.
The fire happened on the very day that they were going to test the fortunes
of the new Leader designate and Deputy Leader designate Tommy Turnquest
and Dion Foulkes at a rally scheduled for that night. The two gentlemen
and the lame duck Prime Minister were all about the place strutting their
stuff in the midst of the fire, like Shadrach, Messhack and Abednego.
The Lord delivered them from what promised to be an embarrassing rally.
Their party was rent in two and the crowd was expected to be a low number
on that night. So along came the fire and saved the day for the FNM
and their leaders. But the FNM is now at its best. The lame
duck Prime Minister was busy promising largesse. He was meeting with
the leaders of the straw vendors groups and promising money and assistance
from the Social Services Department. He said that the market would be rebuilt
within a year and a half. The PLP’s Leader called for immediate
assistance for the vendors. He called for a public investigation
into the fire and the lack of preparedness by the Fire Department to deal
with the emergency. Further, he called for a National Disaster Agency
in order to cope with all emergencies of this kind without politicians
having to interfere in the process. But the FNM threatens to steal
the whole thing for political reasons. The PLP must be very concerned about
being outflanked on this issue. The pictures of Tommy with straw
vendors, most of whom are PLP. The Guardian ran a picture with two
PLPs on its front page holding the hands of Tommy and looking on earnestly
into his face. One of them is our own Chaplain of the Fox Hill Branch
of the PLP Evangelist Irene Rolle. This takes the limelight away from the
allegations of corruption by Algernon Allen, the former Minister for Housing
who himself was busy offering what he called his measly $2500 a month salary
(now that he had been fired as a Minister) to the straw vendors to assist
them during their time of need. Of course there may be a reason why
he can give up his salary. (See story below – a big retainer on his first
day in private practice).
ALLEN
BACK BACK
The story of Algernon Allen politically has been one of duck and feint.
It is his survival mechanism. And that mechanism must have been operating
at full force when he led his people up to the brink on the R.M. Bailey
Park and then pulled back from the line. He made the accusation of corruption
against his former colleagues in the Cabinet and the Prime Minister on
Friday 24 August and then he backed away. He would not follow through
with a complete break. But the threat of such a break was enough
to send his colleagues scrambling to make amends. And now it seems
clear that this is what it is all about. There was an element of
posturing to get a better position, a second shot so to speak. The
Prime Minister has been saying that he never believed for one moment that
Mr. Allen would leave himself open to losing his place in the FNM.
He said Tennyson is the one who believes in principle and (See the next
story) in fact the Prime Minister was also busy speculating that Mr. Allen's
fee in the Suisse Security case was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars
so money was the least of his problems. Tennyson had some choice words
to say about his situation. Mr. Allen was suddenly circumspect and
unwilling to talk about his future plans. A press conference scheduled
for Monday 3 September was cancelled. The rally that he planned for
Wednesday with a march to Parliament was also cancelled. The reason
he gave the press was that he had been involved with a meeting with some
clergy, all FNM supporters: Archdeacon Etienne Bowleg, Archdeacon Keith
Cartwright, Rev. Simeon Hall and Rev. Philip McPhee. They had urged him
not to break completely and give them a chance to negotiate a settlement.
Present at those talks on Saturday 1 September and Friday 31 August were
Tommy Turnquest and Dion Foulkes and Lester Turnquest, who was defeated
for the position of Deputy Leader designate, Mr. Allen and Mr. Wells.
But missing from the meeting was the lame duck Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.
He was busy drinking it up at the fish fry and threatening to take away
the nominations of the eight identified dissidents in the FNM. What
our informants tells us is that it is clear that the Foulkes/Turnquest
team cannot make a decision. They had to refer all matters
back to Hubert. That only goes to show who is in control. The
problem is the terms of surrender by the dissidents. They want an
agreement that there will be no boundary changes. That there will
be no nominations of dissidents withdrawn. But the real sticking point
Hubert Ingraham must agree not to run again. That ended the meeting.
TENNYSON
WELLS COMMENTS
As we said above, while it appears that Algernon Allen is backing off
a confrontation with the so-called dream team of Foulkes and Turnquest,
Tennyson Wells was still not going their way. Said he to The Tribune
Tuesday 4 September that he was not going to prop “a corrupt situation”.
He continued: “ I believe the reverends were trying to achieve unification,
but I don’t think it was successful. There have been allegations
of corrupt practices and you have to first build your house on a rock.
When you build it on sand, it is bound to crumble at the end of the day.
And I for one, I’m not prepared to stay and arrange things for expediency’s
sake. Unless you can prove to me that corrupt things didn’t take
place, then don’t look for me to participate because I am not going to
be a party to propping up a corrupt situation… I am not going to support
corruption for nobody. I fought it from the PLP. If they can
do it internally, in the party itself what will they do to persons who
are no party members?” Good man!
A
STRANGE TWIST IN SUISSE BANK CASE
Friends of the Prime Minister were busy spreading the story that he
was thinking of invoking the power of the Cabinet to cause an investigation
to be made into the conduct of Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen, the wife
of Algernon Allen the Minister that Mr. Ingraham just fired. The
reason, Mrs. Allen recused herself from a case involving the Suisse Security
Bank and Trust, whose licence had been revoked by the Central Bank of The
Bahamas. You will remember that Mohammed Harajchi, the owner of the
Bank has been complaining about the judges in the cases before the Court.
He said that the decisions were too slow and that the decisions were not
the right ones. He said that he could not get dates before the Court.
Enter Algernon Allen, attorney at law and back in practice. In a statement
by the PLP’s Bradley Roberts on Thursday 6 September, Bradley Roberts,
the Chairman of the PLP, indicated that the Bahamas Bar rules appear to
indicate that when Mr. Allen was approached by the Suisse Security
Bank, he was in a position of a conflict since his wife was already seised
of the case. Instead Mr. Allen accepted Mr. Harajchi’s brief and
then had a letter sent on Allen and Allen stationery to his wife, whose
name is still on the letterhead as an inactive partner, and she then recused
herself from the case. And so it appears that Mr. Harajchi has had
his result, the judge is no longer on the case. Now the friends of
Mr. Ingraham say that Mr. Ingraham is afraid to move against Mrs. Allen
for fear that it might look like he is being spiteful against his former
Minister. But Attorney Maurice Glinton of Freeport who has now been
removed from the case by Mr. Harajchi told The Tribune that the circumstances
of the recusal of Mrs. Allen were a “serious thing”, and many argue that
Mr. Ingraham may have no choice. The constitution allows the removal of
a Justice of the Supreme Court for cause under article 99 (5). Mr. Ingraham’s
advisors have told him that while he may have on the face of it a technical
case for an inquiry, the action is unlikely to succeed and all he would
end up doing is making Mr. Allen more powerful by fooling with his wife.
It is the political calculation that most people think will out in the
end. We’ll see what the week brings. In another curious twist, Mohammed
Harajchi had his lawyer Derek Ryan and his CEO Chris Lunn announce that
he was prepared to offer one million dollars to rebuild the market burned
down in the fire as a gift to the Bahamian people. This was promptly
turned down by the Government on the basis that it could not accept money
from Mr. Harajchi while he had the Government in court. Bradley Roberts,
the PLP Chair, at his weekly press conference had an interesting response
to that. He said a preacher once said as he grabbed money from an
anxious but wicked parishioner “Give me the Lord’s money, the devil has
had it too long!”
WATSON
UNDER THE GUN
The Public Accounts Committee is about to report that Frank Watson's
company Nassau Transfers Ltd. was allowed to bounce cheques so frequently
the Treasurer had to speak to the Minister of Finance about it and even
after the Treasurer had instructed Customs not to take the cheques. The
Committee is said to be anticipating that Mr. Watson given the amount of
damning information they have on him will resign. I would say don’t
hold their breaths but the other factor is will the FNMs on the Committee
sign the report. The members are Perry Christie MP (PLP), Bradley
Roberts MP (PLP), Philip Galanis MP (PLP); Elliott Lockhart MP (FNM) and
Anthony Miller MP (FNM). Knowing that the two FNMs are dissidents,
will they sign?
THE
CDR AND BFA LINK UP
The
political tongues were wagging at what appeared be the tragicomic situation
that now obtains with the PLP elected Member of Parliament Dr. Bernard
Nottage. Dr. Nottage who has announced four candidates in Freeport
and is in the process he says of naming 36 more candidates for the rest
of The Bahamas announced on Monday 3 September that the Coalition for Democratic
Reform (CDR) which he heads and the Bahamas Freedom Alliance (BFA) Halson
Moultrie have agreed to work together and to fight the General Election
jointly as the Coalition. He even suggested that he had been talking
to Algernon Allen and some speculated that Mr. Allen would be coming over
to Dr. Nottage. But cold water has clearly been poured at that situation.
In the local bistros, the politicians were doing the math, the political
calculus: nothing, plus nothing equals nothing, they argued. Interesting
theorem.
DION
FOULKES THREATENS TO SUE
The weekly rag of sensation in The Bahamas known as the Punch had blaring
headlines first thing Monday 3 September. They said that they could
prove by the list of names they published in that edition that the so-called
dream team had lied when they said that they did not give out contracts
for votes in the FNM leadership elections. And immediately Dion Foulkes
went into overdrive saying that he would sue The Punch for as much as a
million dollars in exemplary damages for sullying his reputation.
The lawsuit is likely to get exactly nowhere. There was nothing libellous
in it. This is a very strange turn of events since the FNM and its
leadership had always said that they would not sue newspapers. So
Ivan Johnson responded in his weekly rag by saying that he was moving to
get his lawyers to have the writ of Mr. Foulkes struck out on the grounds
that it was frivolous and vexatious and an abuse of the process - a so
called gag writ. What that means is that in our law once a matter
is in the courts, you can’t talk or comment about it without facing a contempt
action in the courts for fear of violating the sub judice rule. Politicians
in the U.K. often do this kind of writ and have no intention of prosecuting
the matter but its stops the paper from publishing anything further on
the matter. The interesting thing about this is that Gorman
Bannister has a newspaper called Black Belt News that circulates on the
underground political circuit in The Bahamas. It is popular amongst
those in the know. Mr. Bannister has said the most direct allegations
against the Prime Minister and his colleagues much more than the Punch
has ever done. He has dared them to sue. And not one person
has responded. So much of what Mr. Foulkes is saying seems like idle
posturing. Mr. Foulkes should well know that opening up a libel action
puts his own reputation beyond this matter in the public domain.
Cross-examination as was shown in the Oscar Wilde case can lead to devastating
and unintended consequences. The better thing for Mr. Foulkes and
his fellow Leaders to do is leave the matter alone and deal with Ivan more
directly and in another way - you get my drift. And as we say, we
have looked at the Punch story and it does not seem libellous to us.
But who knows?
RONNIE
KNOWLES’ HEALTH
The
saying is that for some people if it weren’t for bad luck they would have
no luck at all. And that must be what the Minister of Health Senator
Ronnie Knowles must be saying. According to his dad Conrad Knowles,
they had just returned from a family trip to Freeport. His son went
to see the Prime Minister and the two went off to the Fish Fry at Arawak
Cay last Sunday 2 September. Shortly after dropping the PM back home
around 7 p.m., Mr. Knowles ran into a truck and banged his head.
He was taken to hospital. They relieved the pressure on his brain
that had a contusion. There was a serious laceration to his face.
They had a look inside his abdominal cavity to be sure there was no bleeding,
then wheeled him to the intensive care unit. 
By
Wednesday 5 September he was out of ICU and convalescing. But this
is the third accident for Mr. Knowles since his appointment to the Senate
and Cabinet. He first dislocated his shoulder, then reinjured the
same arm in a road traffic accident. Now he’s banged himself up quite
properly in a road traffic accident. His friends Michael Barnett,
Campbell Cleare, the PM and his family members were at the hospital through
the anxious moments at hospital. But it all turned out to be okay
in the end. By the way, Ronnie Knowles buried his Aunt Ida Knowles, affectionately
known as Nana on Saturday 8 September from St. George’s Church in the Valley.
Tribune
photo of crash by Omar Barr.
BEC BLACKOUTS
We have been cursing the darkness several times during the past week.
BEC that promised at the start of the year that they had enough juice to
keep us running without interruption during the summer time, in the end
couldn’t deliver. We never believed them since during the wintertime,
the power goes off at this Senator’s apartment at least three times per
week. But this past week it was disgraceful. On Monday 3 September
and Tuesday 4 September, every other hour the power was off both at home
and in the city for periods of twenty minutes or longer. One day
it was off for five hours at home and three hours in the city. At
night many people in the Cable Beach strip including Leader of the Opposition
and his wife sat in the heat and darkness unable to sleep. It was ruinous.
Earlier in the week to add more to the misery of the Leader of the Opposition,
it was reported that thieves who found no money had ransacked his home.
His wife Bernadette told the press that she was devastated and felt violated
by it. BEC had an explanation for the darkness: something about breakdowns
at Clifton Pier and gas turbines not working. They promised to have
it all fixed by Friday 6 September. No power cuts took place on the
Friday as promised but we won’t hold out breath.
MUSICAL
CHAIRS IN THE JUDICIARY
The song goes: Here we Loop de Loop, Here we Go Loop de Li. Here
we go Loop de Loop on a Saturday night. And that’s the way its seemed in
the Bahamian Judiciary this week as the Governor General swore in three
new justices who of course were not new justices at all, just taking up
new positions. Burton Hall, a former Justice of Appeal has now become
Sir Burton Hall and he is now the Chief Justice and head of the Judiciary.
Dame Joan Sawyer, lately the Chief Justice has retired from that post and
is now the new President of the Court of Appeal. Emmanuel Osadebay who
was Acting Chief Justice (Hubert Ingraham swore that he would never give
Mr. Osadebay the substantive position on his watch) is now elevated to
the Court of Appeal. The reason people speculate is that there is
a tradition that the junior member of the Bar does not supersede his senior
in a judicial post. Sir Burton is junior to Mr. Osadebay. Anyway,
it's better all around. Better salaries, more perks! The real question
that remains to be answered is whether or not it is better for justice.
The swearing in took place on Wednesday 5 September.
BAHAMIANS
AT GOODWILL GAMES
Ted Turner’s Goodwill Games are being held in Brisbane, Australia.
The winners for The Bahamas: Avard Moncur, won silver in the 400-metre
race. Debbie Ferguson won gold in the 200-metre race. And the
Bahamian men's team, minus Chris Brown who had to sit it out in Norfolk
to keep up with his classes, got the bronze, beaten by Michael Johnson
in his last race and a Jamaican team. Not bad though. Congratulations
to them all again. Made us feel proud. Tribune photo of Avard
Moncur.
THE
RICK FOX VISIT
The
visit went well. As you know from our editorial, we thought
he did a good job. Notwithstanding us old guys being kind of cynical,
the young kids loved it all as the pictures from the press show.
Hope he does a return visit soon. What he seemed to stress is that
he went to school here up until he was 15 so he understands all the frustrations
of the little boy watching TV basketball games and one day wishing that
he could excel. And he did. And it shows that it really could
happen for them. Let’s hope the visit helps. But for now some
pictures of a good, clean living man who is a hero to Bahamian children.
Rick
Fox photos by (from top and left to right) Felipe Major, Patrick Hanna,
Donald Knowles, Patrick Hanna.
BACK TO
SCHOOL
School opened on Monday 3 September. The PLP’s Deputy Leader Cynthia
‘Mother’ Pratt had a back to school session on the park in her constituency.
She supervised the fixing of hair and the presentation of books and pencils.
The Nassau Guardian showed this photo of boys being shorn in time for school.
The photo of Mother Pratt as she headed to a funeral and supervising is
by The Tribune.
REX
MAJOR TO RETIRE
It has been announced by Grace Gospel Chapel's Pastor Care Board that
Rex Major is to retire as Senior Pastor of Grace Gospel Chapel after 47
years in the Ministry. A thanksgiving service will be held on 20
September to mark the occasion. Pastor Lyle Bethel will assume the
pastoral leadership of Grace as the interim Senior Pastor on 1 October.
Rex Major is to become Senior Pastor Emeritus. Pastor Bethel is the brother
of MP and Minister Carl Bethel.
A.
E. HUTCHESON DIES
The Rev. Dr. A.E. Hutcheson, a former head of the Bahamas Baptist,
Missionary and Educational Convention has died. Dr. Hutcheson was 80 years
old. Among his survivors are PLP Stalwart Councillor Alma Hutcheson. Our
condolences to the family.
CONDOLENCES
We send condolences to the families of Ida Knowles better known as
‘Nana’ on her passing at the age of 88. She is the Aunt of Minister
Ronnie Knowles and of Annie Knowles. As a former resident of the
Valley, Ms. Knowles used to help take care of my brother Ian and myself
when her niece Annie had us in her care. The home of Annie and Kirk
Knowles is now Algoma Adjusters on Collins Ave, just across from where
we grew up at 99 Collins Ave. Condolences also to Linda, Sidney and
Gladstone ‘Moon’ McPhee. Their mom died Rosalie McPhee, a big PLP
and a founder of the Centreville branch of the PLP. She was 84.
The Leader of the PLP attended the funeral, as did this Senator and former
Minister of Housing Algernon Allen. Also we mark the passing of Dorothy
Duncombe aged 84 who died suddenly at her home in Sandilands Village.
Ms. Duncombe was a Fox Hill woman. She is survived by Cora Culmer,
Carolyn Seymour, Arthur Duncombe Jr. and Patricia Roberts. Also we
attended the funeral of Amos McPhee Sr. a former BDP Candidate for the
Englerston Constituency in 1977. He is survived by ten children including
Amos McPhee Jr., Carlton McPhee (formerly of Island Outposts), Erskine
McPhee and granddaughter Bridgette McPhee. May they rest in peace.
Shown from left are Mrs. Knowles, Mrs. McPhee, Mrs. Duncombe and Mr. Amos
McPhee.
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
FNM Reconciliation Plan Public - Senior FNM dissident Maurice
Moore has gone public with a five point plan first reported on this site
(See last week) for the reconciliation of warring factions within the FNM.
Moore, known as the 'first born' of the FNM for his early role in the parliamentary
life of the party is now saying that Prime Minister Ingraham must step
down immediately for the sake of unity's in the party. All very interesting,
but what does it matter to the Bahamian people? The FNM Government must
go.
Allen Losing Support? - Fickle FNM generals in Grand Bahama are now saying that Prime Minister Ingraham "Should have fired Allen long time" The former Minister of Housing seems to have lost some popular support in Grand Bahama over his decision to accept a legal consultancy from embattled banker Mohammed Harajchi. We'll keep watching this story...
Back To School - ZNS News in Grand Bahama this past week aired a story on the readiness (or lack of) at schools in Grand Bahama. Now people are asking, what happened. Despite earlier assurances from the Minister of Education that the schools would be ready for occupancy in time for the start of classes in September and despite the fact that contracts were issued for the repair of the schools, problems persist. AT the Lewis Yard Primary school, there are major problems with bathroom facilities and at the Martin Town primary school in Eight Mile Rock there are further problems. Sources that contractors did their work, but not everything was covered in the contracts issued by the Ministry. Someone needs to account for this incompetence.
No Tourists - Straw Vendors from the major straw market in Grand Bahama at Port Lucaya called into the ZNS national talk show Immediate Response this past week to complain over the lack of business. "While the Nassau straw market burned down," said one vendor, "we have our own disaster here in Freeport. No tourists." Our own sources report that hotel occupancy at 'Our' Lucaya is so low that staff members are working only two and three days per week.
Casino Delayed - Management at 'Our' Lucaya has said that because of changes that had to be made in the construction / renovation, the opening of the casino is behind schedule. Our own sources say that the delay might also be due to problems at the casino's management company, the London Club.
Driftwood Too - The situation over at the Driftwood Group's Resorts at Bahamia is only marginally better. Renovations to the hotels are still unfinished with manager Donald Archer predicting a return to normalcy by mid November.
Turncoats? The latest scuttlebutt from political sources in Grand Bahama say that in the aftermath of their defeat in the leadership battle for the FNM, Algernon Allen and Tennyson Wells compared notes and found that many of the same names appeared on both their lists of committed supporters. Things that make you go hmmm! Meanwhile, the word is that Wells is preparing for a run as an independent in the next election in Bamboo Town...
Customs Showdown - Customs Officers at Grand Bahama Harbour are complaining about working conditions. Reports are that the officers are housed in a prefab building with leaking plastic on the roof, non-functional air conditioning and rat-holes in abundance. Public Service union leaders have given the Government time to correct the situation but charge that the circumstances are intolerable. Stay turned.
Sandbagged - Grand Bahama politicos are accusing Prime Minister
Hubert Ingraham of sandbagging his new leader-designate Tommy Turnquest
in allowing him to be the one to turn down the offer of a gift of $1 million
from banker Mohammed Harajchi. The money was offered to help in the reconstruction
of the straw market. "I don't care what it was," said one political observer
"It should have been the lame duck to get up and take the bad feelings
of those vendors, but Hubert just can't help himself... he's a sandbagger
through and through."
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
THE FIRES AND THE CRASHES
The
loss of life in New York City and in Washington D.C. has left us all stunned.
Like the poet Yeats wrote, it is a feeling that the centre cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The fatalists were having
their day at court. They brought out those imprecise passages of
Nostradamus and made them fit into the bombing of the Twin Towers in New
York. We repeat the passage below. Then there are the Apocalypse
theorists: Jesus is coming. Surely these are the last days. Let us
pray. Of course, we pray anyway - as the Bible says unceasing.
What
happened in New York and Washington on Tuesday 11 September affects us
first on a human level - all those dead people, those maimed people.
Those people seemed to have died so needlessly. Then there are the
shattered lives. There are the shattered lives of the individual
families but also the shattered commerce across the Western Hemisphere.
In The Bahamas we know that our economy is in the short term doomed.
First the straw market fire, then this.
The Government of The Bahamas issued a statement of condolence to the American people. The Leader of the Opposition was quick to add his words of condolence. He expressed a sense of outrage at what had happened. All of that is proper.
Next
up is when can we get back to normal. And somewhere about the same
time, we keep asking the question how could it have happened? Why
did it happen ? Whose is at fault for allowing it to happen?
The Americans and the Western nations will no doubt point to an agent of Satan from the Middle East and go off and declare war, raining bombs and destruction against the perpetrators and their generations. It is a modern version of the Crusades.
We
try to add some perspective to the story below. The reasons are complex.
Hatred is complex. We must examine our own behaviour. If indeed
this is connected to the Middle East, the West has to examine its polices
toward that area, lest we are all put unnecessarily at risk. We provide
an analysis of the Bahamian situation below.
One of our correspondents was so moved by these events that photos were sent, dramatic pictures. We show some of them.
We in The Bahamas were glued to our television screens. For this Senator, from morning till well after midnight, flipping from CNN to NBC to BBC to CBC. But none of them provided the alternative point of view on where we go from now. Quite frankly the biggest part of the problem is that, just like the events that unfolded were outside our control, the response is outside our control. We are for the large part mere observers on the world scene. But for what its worth, we have a point of view. The Bahamas must make that point of view known.
This week we had 39,575 hits on this site up to midnight 15th September. That makes a total of 66,364 hits on this site for the month of September. Thanks for reading and please keep reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th
Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell
Address to Senate: Why the PM is the way he is
Mitchell
speech to PLP Convention 2000
Pindling
& Me - A personal retrospective on the life and times of Sir Lynden
by Fred Mitchell
Address
to the Senate Budget Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma / Haitian Issue
Address
of Sean McWeeney / Pindling funeral
Gilbert
Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred
Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral
coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
|
|
| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| http://www.johngfcarey.com/ | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2477/index.html | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com/ | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| http://www.briland.com/ | Harbour Island Site |
MAJOR
LAYOFFS & CUTBACKS
As we go to upload, word is that the Marriott Crystal Palace Hotel
in Nassau has announced the layoff of 1500 people in the wake of the sudden
downturn in tourism caused by the tragedies in the United States. In addition,
Bahamasair is to announce a reduction in its flight schedule because the
airline has very few bookings. Bahamasair management has so far announced
no layoffs but are said to be monitoring the airline's situation very closely.
FNM
TO NAME CANDIDATES
A bit of local politics before we turn our attention last week’s events
in the US. A Grand Bahama informant reports that the FNM is set to
name its candidates for the upcoming General Election this week. Noticeably
missing from the list are reportedly Pierre Dupuch, the outspoken FNM MP
for Shirlea and Floyd Watkins, FNM MP for Delaporte. Late word is
that the failure to name these two is threatening to scotch the negotiated
‘détente’ in the FNM. (See our story following.) Our correspondent
tells us that the camps of Algernon Allen and Tennyson Wells are saying
that all their people have to be ratified and that it is not acceptable
to leave out Floyd Watkins because of any personal dislike that the Prime
Minister may have for him, nor is it acceptable to the FNM dissidents that
Pierre Dupuch should lose his nomination for his outspokenness. We
remember that Dupuch was fired from the Cabinet after meeting with an FNM
supporter in Abaco and saying that he was supporting Tennyson Wells for
leader of the FNM. Floyd Watkins is said to have earned the enduring
dislike of the Prime Minister for taking legal instructions in a civil
case against him before Ingraham and the FNM took office. Our Grand
Bahama informant says there will apparently be no peace until all in the
camps opposed to Ingraham have been ratified. The reports say that
the ratification of all the nominations had been agreed by the FNM leader
and deputy leader designate at a meeting with religious leaders aimed at
patching the rift in the FNM, but that Prime Minister Ingraham baulked.
THE
FNM LEADERS TO BE AND THEIR RALLY
The
FNM Leader designate Tommy Turnquest and Deputy Leader designate Dion Foulkes
had their first public test as the would be leaders of the FNM. Hubert
Ingraham stayed away from the rally. The rally took place on R.M.
Bailey Park, the home of FNM rallies. That is the place where Algernon
Allen on 24 August accused his party of being corrupt and set the cat amongst
the pigeons. The original FNM rally to introduce the new pair was
cancelled after the straw market fire on Tuesday 4 September. The
cancellation was a blessing in disguise because the meeting was expected
to be a flop given that Mr. Allen’s remarks were fresh in everyone’s mind.
While the newspapers showed tightly shot photos of Mr. Turnquest with Mr.
Foulkes and Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson on Thursday 13 September,
those who spied on the meeting for us said it was a complete flop. As an
interesting aside the PLP held its own rally where the leader of the Opposition
was the featured speaker on Thursday 6 September. The press carried
no photographs and placed what he had to say on the back pages. Yet full
front-page coverage for this crew. It once again shows the bias of
the press. If they had 1500 people they had plenty said one observer.
Another said they had about four to five hundred. We have to be careful
about estimates since it could be influenced by PLP wishful thinking.
But someone who was actually at the meeting said that the crowds did not
compare to the size of Algernon Allen's crowd. Further Mr. Turnquest
had problems holding his audience. Dion Foulkes came with the
novel idea that he had spoken to Messrs. Turnquest, Allen and Lester Turnquest.
Mr. Foulkes expressed the view that the election for leader was over and
let bygones be bygones. In the political silence since last week,
the rumours were coming fast and furious. One had it that Mr. Allen and
Mr. Tennyson Wells had all agreed to come back into the Tommy Turnquest
Cabinet. Everyone would be guaranteed his or her existing constituency.
Then some said that Tennyson Wells was forming his own party. But
we have it on good authority that no new party has been formed but it appears
that never the twain shall meet within the FNM. So what the Foulkes/Turnquest
team was trying to do was give a false sense of togetherness. Meanwhile
the Allen supporters are deeply disappointed that he has carried them up
to the line and then pulled back. Tribune photo of Tommy Turnquest by
Felipe Major.
CONVERSATIONS
WITH AMERICANS
Today is very much the era of Pax Americana. The world at peace
is enforced by the United States. It comes with great power, almost
limitless power. It also comes with great responsibilities.
Lawrence Eagleberger, a former Secretary of State of the United States
was speaking on NBC television on Wednesday 12 September about the mayhem
in Washington and New York. He urged military action. He said
that the United States must use its power and use it forcefully to attack
and destroy those who perpetrated the offence even at the expense of civilian
casualties. He gave that answer when Brian Williams the interviewer
told him that the enemies of the US in this matter directed their attacks
at civilians. Mr. Eagleberger's defence was that it was a bad business
war but in the U.S. response it might unfortunately mean civilian casualties.
And so we can brace for it. The only cause for temperance was Mr.
Eagleberger’s admission that even when a nation is as powerful as the United
States, it can’t act like a bully pushing its way around. He
gave that as one further reason why some persons hate the United States
in the Middle East. The other reason he gave for the possible attacks
was the United States' unqualified support of Israel. We agree on
both counts. What we disagree with is what the response would be.
The response should be directed at those who did the act, not at civilians.
But apart from the wider military response, there must be a political and
diplomatic response. Inevitability that must mean that the United
States must revise its policies toward the Palestinians and Israel. Surely
that is it, no matter that it does not justify it, that is at the root
of this issue.
STRIKE
AGAINST CIVILIZATION
The Prime Minister of The Bahamas, lame duck that he is, said in Parliament
on Wednesday 12 September that what happened in New York and Washington
on Tuesday 11 September was a strike at our civilization. Notwithstanding
the fact that there are underlying causes for what happened which require
the United States to change its policies toward the Middle East. The West
cannot afford to let the matter go unpunished. For The Bahamas it
is a simple equation, if the U.S. goes down so do we and we must not go
down. So having done what they have done, these people have struck
at our heart too. We must strike back. But we must be careful
not to be holier than though or too sanctimonious about this. On
the radio talk show of ZNS on Thursday 13 September the host Darrold Miller
and many of his subsequent callers wanted to kill one of the callers who
suggested an alternative view of matters. The caller said that the
U.S. had committed atrocities in Vietnam and argued that the matter must
be seen in scale. In another forum others recalled the slaughter of the
aboriginal populations of North America by the predecessors of the present
rulers of the continent. The callers and Mr. Miller did not want
to hear it and attacked the caller unmercifully but there is that view
in The Bahamas that things must be seen in scale. In some senses
though this is very much like the Crusades when European Christians, scandalized
by reports from Palestine, gathered armies and rode on their horses to
Jerusalem and slaughtered the Muslim inhabitants because they had occupied
the land of Christ and had burned churches. The Muslims responded
in kind that Christianity was trying to oust Islam and that the infidels
ought to be destroyed. And so in the 21st century we are at it again.
Some, a small minority of Islam, believe that the West represents the infidels
and in the result have attacked the West in our front yard.
The thing was so daring. It had the entire United States Government
discombobulated with President Bush being criticized in some of his own
quarters for turning to a secure bunker instead of returning to Washington
to be with his people. But since that’s how these guys from the other
side want to play it, we must strike back and strike back at the right
person but not to condemn a whole race or religion because of the acts
of few. In that and that only is there unqualified support.
BAHAMIAN
REACTION
Bahamians generally expressed great sympathy for the American people
following the events in New York and Washington. The radio talk shows
gave unqualified support and sympathy. The interviews in the newspapers
were unqualifiedly sympathetic. There is a recognition that as goes
America goes The Bahamas. The people are right in this regard.
THE
BLACK AMERICAN VIEW
There has not been much heard of or seen from Black American leaders
in the United States over these latest events. Perhaps by the time
this goes to press, there may be. But just talking to contemporaries
in the United States who are Black and who were affected by the blast,
they too have paused to wonder if their country is in fact by its policies
promoting these kinds of irrational acts. The problem is that in
this atmosphere there is not much one can say because in the immediate
short term, no one must be allowed to get away with the kind of disruption
that this event has caused. We must strike back and strike back hard.
Many Black Americans that this Senator talked to were concerned about the
one-sidedness of U.S. policy toward Israel. They were appalled at
the actions of the United States in withdrawing from the conference on
racism in Durban, South Africa, refusing to apologize for Slavery. There
is also a refusal to talk about reparations even though as Bahamian political
scientist Felix Bethel has pointed out the U.S. conceded reparations when
it enacted the Great Society legislation on affirmative action under their
President Lynden Johnson. They talked about the fact that a Black man as
Secretary of State was used to snub the rest of the World at the conference
on racism. They had just read in Time Magazine the week before that
Colin Powell, the former General, National Hero and Secretary of State,
Black man had been relegated to the fringes of policy in the Bush Administration.
They have little hope that Mr. Powell’s advice will now be followed that
you have to at least be on speaking terms with everyone, and not be so
bellicose and doctrinaire in one's attitudes. Some are predicting
that Condeleeza Rice as National Security Advisor will be made to take
the fall for this. She too is Black and they say that like everything
else in the United Stares when someone has to take the fall, the Black
person takes the fall. They compare it to the movies, the Black character
always gets killed before the last reel. And so as many Black Americans
feel for their country, they also wonder whether something different could
have been done from a policy point of view to stave off what has happened.
MY
SISTER IS ALIVE
Marva Mitchell is my youngest sibling. She has been practicing
dentistry in New York since 1986. She has a family there. So
we were all on pins and needles when we could not hear from her.
And finally we did. She is safe. She was in the vicinity when
the second World Trade Centre Tower collapsed. She was volunteering
as a hospital worker for emergency cases.
ANOTHER
BAHAMIAN FAMILY
The Leary family of New York and New Jersey report that they too are
well. Their son Kevin was an employee of the Marriott at the World
Trade Centre. He was in the building when the first explosion took
place and called to say he was fine. But then the building collapsed
and his family did not hear from him until 3 a.m. when he confirmed that
he was well. The Learys are related to Albert Sands of Rock Sound,
Eleuthera. Their paternal grandfather was actually born in Eleuthera.
Kevin’s sister Kathy was a classmate of mine at Antioch College in Yellow
Springs, Ohio.
THE
ECONOMIC FUTURE OF THE BAHAMAS
As
we go to upload, the newspapers are reporting that there have been 2500
cancellations at Atlantis since the Tuesday of the American bombing.
A staff member has told this site that on Friday and Saturday 14 and 15
September, there were more staff than customers at the casino at Atlantis.
One domestic worker has called to say that she has been put on one day
of work per week. The straw market fire was quite disconcerting.
It has caused much economic dislocation. The fact is that 568 straw
vendors by the Prime Minister’s reckoning and scores of other businesses
and employees are going to suffer because of the fire. The Government
has responded by dipping into The Treasury to provide a level of comfort
for the vendors and other business people. But clearly this will
knock holes in the national budget. What concerns us is how willy nilly
the Prime Minister and his colleagues seem to go dipping into the national
budget without thought for budgetary constraints. In the United States,
their Government went to Congress to get specific appropriations outside
the normal budget. Now comes the World Trade Centre bombing and the
bombing of the Pentagon. Flights have been discontinued to The Bahamas
and we don’t know when the flights will get back up and running. (The U.S.
Embassy reported that U.S. Customs and Immigration pre-clearance began
on Saturday 15 September to return to normal. Bahamian Airport Authorities
were able to satisfy the U.S. FAA that the Nassau International Airport
met the new security standards and so outward bound flights from the States
were to resume on Saturday 15 September.) 
But
for four days, no tourists could get here and it was already a bad month.
And even now that they can fly here, people are still afraid to fly.
For example, there are constant rumours in the market that the Hilton British
Colonial is having cash flow problems. Then two of the Towers of
the Crystal Place are closed because there are no guests to go in them.
That means the workers are being furloughed there. Administrative
workers have been asked to take a pay cut. At the Sheraton Grand Hotel,
workers there have told that the occupancy for the month is 20 per cent.
They have been told to take a choice: either a pay cut of one day each
week in the month or take a one-week continuous pay cut. At
Atlantis where occupancy is 50 per cent for the month, workers work three
days per week shifts. In Freeport, the story is much the same. The
Bahamia property, formerly the Princess, ordered its casino staff on Thursday
13 September not to report to work. There was no business. This Senator
and the site editor visited the Crystal Palace Casino also on Thursday
13 September at lunchtime. There was hardly a customer in site.
The Banking sector is also in serious problems with liquidity in the system
down from 100 million last year this time to 27 million dollars now, this
is the same level as the last year before the PLP lost power in 1992.
Remember it was the crash of the economy that handed power to the FNM.
And then there are those who say that war is on the horizon again.
People will be afraid to get on airplanes to travel to places like The
Bahamas. They won’t feel safe for some time. The U.S. had hoped
that the last quarter of the economy would have a boost but with the recent
events that dream has been shattered. So a picture that looked so
rosy to some one year ago now looks quite awful for The Bahamas.
Our problem is that we have this head-in-the-sand government who refuse
to do forward planning and have done nothing to diversify this economy.
Peter
Ramsay photo of the Straw Market Fire, Donald Knowles Guardian photo of
deserted Nassau International Airport.
OUR
SUPPLY OF FOOD
The borders of the United States were sealed off to all normal commercial
civilian traffic over the past week. That meant that since Tuesday 11 September,
no ships could travel out from the U.S. and no planes could travel out
from the U.S. That must affect our food supply. Under the FNM
agriculture has been totally decimated. The government farms have
virtually closed down and the primary production sector has virtually collapsed.
Agricultural subsidies have been reduced substantially so that the sector
cannot survive. Try getting an Eleuthera pineapple, for example.
According to our informants, we import annually some 300 million dollars
of food from the United States . Since the FNM came to power, they
have totally de-emphasized local agriculture. The production figures have
been steadily declining. The only mirror of any progress has been
in Abaco in limited areas like bananas and citrus, which are still heavily
controlled by offshore growers. But apart from that there has been
a gross decline in production. Mutton production is down, pork production
is down and poultry production is down. The whole idea of building this
economy on financial services and tourism was a good one but we now see
the flaws in that policy because there has been no consideration of food
security. The poultry industry relies on 25-30 containers per week to help
in egg and poultry production. This is critical. The question of
flour products is also crucial. Where do we get the flour? Our information
is that much of it comes from Canada but much of that may in fact be trucked
throughout the United States. The Government must not only address this
issue in the short term but what are its long-term plans for food security?
The Nassau Guardian quoted managers at store for Winn Dixie in Freeport
on Thursday 13 September as saying they generally have four weeks supply
of food on hand at any one time. Most merchants that we talked to said
that their supplies were still arriving as normal. Super Value and
City Markets said that there had been no interruption in supplies,
Milo Butler and Sons said that it was too early to tell. Jerome Major
at Major’s Food Store said that there had not yet been an effect.
Candy Kelly at Super Value said that her father Rupert Roberts was stuck
physically in Miami and could not get home by air. The package courier
services like DHL Federal Express were all grounded because flights had
not yet resumed to The Bahamas from Florida. The Government needs
to address these issue of food supplies in case of a long-term problem.
INVESTIGATION
INTO STRAW MARKET FIRE
The Acting Commissioner of Police Paul Farqhuarson announced at a press
conference on Thursday 13 September that an investigation is to be held
into the conduct of the Fire Department at the Straw Market. This
follows the call for such an investigation by the Leader of the Opposition
Perry Christie at the PLP’s rally on Windsor Park on Thursday 6 September.
The Commissioner said that the investigation would look into complaints
about the response to the fire by the Fire Department. The results
will be made public. See last week’s story about the complaints about response
time. (click here).
COMMISSIONER
BONAMY AND FURTHER LEAVE
It has been announced that the Commissioner of Police Bernard Bonamy
who was granted two years study leave from the Police Force to complete
his Bar studies and become a lawyer, has been granted additional leave.
The Commissioner’s leave has been extended to 21 November. We have
asked repeatedly in this column who is actually going to lead the Force
when the study leave comes to an end. The leave was originally scheduled
to end in August. The matter has now been postponed until November
but it must be answered all the same.
POLICE
ACCOMMODATIONS IN SOUTH ANDROS
It has been reported to this site that the police are most unhappy
in South Andros. There was great fanfare within the last two weeks
now that ground has finally been broken for new accommodations for the
police in Freeport. Our correspondent asks: are their two forces
in The Bahamas? They report that in South Andros “the house
for the police can’t lock; the cabinet needs to be changed, the bathroom
wall needs repair, the towel racks are missing. A new refrigerator
was promised since August 2000, the bedroom set needs to be changed, the
faucet needs to be changed, electrical system need to be checked.”
Despite complaints to the public officials and police bosses in Andros,
nothing has been done. We think that Commissioner Farqhuarson should
investigate this matter.
THE
STRAW MARKET OUT WEST
The site editor and this senator visited the small straw market
just on the side of British American Bank in Cable Beach. The place
is a ghost town. There was not one single customer. The vendors
simply sat idling their time by sewing and chatting to one another.
Others were sleeping on their stalls. There is not adequate lighting,
no signs to indicate there is a market and the place needs to be properly
landscaped. Individual politicians such as this one can only
bring matters to the attention of the authorities and demand some action.
It disturbs us that the Ministry of Tourism knowing of the plight of those
straw vendors down town can’t at the same time help to assist those on
Cable Beach. There is much to be demanded from the Minister of Tourism
and his officials in the way of supporting the tourism industry.
Something must be done.
MOTHER
PRATT ON PUBLIC SCHOOL CHARGES
In
a story reported in the Friday 14 September edition of The Tribune, the
Deputy Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party said that she was concerned
about the mounting expenses of going to public school in The Bahamas.
Public School education is supposed to be free but each year when a child
reports to school there is a stack of extra fees that are given to the
child to take home to parents and these must be paid before the child can
participate in school. Mother Pratt said that the poor could
not afford these mounting fees. Mother Pratt told The tribune that
it costs anywhere from 350 to 400 dollars to prepare one government junior/senior
high school student for the school year. An employee of the Welfare
Department told The Tribune that more children have been coming in for
uniform and footwear assistance. Each school appears to have
its own fees that are meant to cover physical education kit, school identification
and library fees. At Primary School the fees range from $18 at Albury
Sayles Primary to $31 at Carmichael Primary. At junior high school,
students pay anywhere from $50 to $73. At L.W. Young it is $93 and
at C.R. Walker $125. The latter are senior schools. We share
Mother Pratt’s concern and the matter needs to be investigated. Tribune
photo.
CHANDRA
STURRUP’S MEDAL
Thank to Ken Perigord who brought to our attention the fact that in
giving the medal count last week for Bahamians at the Goodwill Games we
neglected to report that Chandra Sturrup, one of the Golden Girls from
the 2000 Olympics was also the winner of a bronze medal in the 100 metres.
Her time 11.13 seconds. Sorry about that! This AP photo
from the Tribune shows Chandra at left behind American Marion Jones (centre)
and Zhanna Pintusevich in Australia.
JUSTICES
TRAVELLING ABROAD
The
picture in the press showed the Principal of the Eugene Dupuch Law School
being presented with tickets to assist with students and himself from the
school going to a conference on human rights law in the Cayman Islands.
That’s all well and good but then we got a report that two Justices of
the Court Jon Isaacs and Hugh Small were also attending the conference.
The question is who is paying for them? The British confirmed that
they were not doing so. We also learned that the newly sworn President
of the Court of Appeal Dame Joan Sawyer is off to London at a conference
on Money Laundering. The question is who is paying for that?
Something does not quite sit right about all of this. Should judges
be the subject of the kind of ex parte pleading that some of the conferences
may turn out to be in the sense that the conferences give rise to a predisposition
to think of certain legal events and changes in a certain way? Just
asking. Tribune photo of Justice Austin Davis and Peter Heigl,
British High Commissioner.
BANKING
IN THE BAHAMAS
We have a funny story to tell of trying to negotiate a cheque for just
over a quarter of a million dollars to our firm this week. Our bank
refused to take the cheque because it was endorsed over to us by
the payee. The bank’s manager said that he would not accept a third party
cheque. Perfectly lawful cheque, but the manager claimed that the
money might be from money laundering and so he was unwilling to take it.
The fact that we were able to trace exactly who and from where and why
was irrelevant. So we took our endorsed cheque to the issuing bank
and said to them please issue this cheque to us since it is endorsed to
us. They said that no they could not do that . The cheque was
not negotiable. Again the Bills of Exchange Act clearly says that
a cheque duly endorsed is a negotiable instrument. A call to the
head of our bank did not resolve the issue. They refused to intervene.
And so bemused more than angry, we called the Governor of the Central Bank
to tell him our funny story of a perfectly good cheque that no Bank would
accept. He insisted we call the head of the issuing bank. We
did. After some explaining of our funny little story, a defence of the
bank’s decision, one hour later the cheque was negotiated. And there’s
more. Our bank now says that they had too much trouble with stop
payments on banker’s drafts so they are now placing a seven-day hold on
all bankers’ drafts. This up from 5 days. Also we deposited
a U.S. dollar cheque, we were told the hold on that is 42 days. And
this is a modern banking sector and we are advertising for people to come
to our country and put money in our banks. Next week the story of
the credit card. Out of deference to a friend of ours in the bank
we will not call the names. But one day we must. We are totally
fed up.
PERRY
CHRISTIE’S MOTHER
We wish to report that the mother of the Leader of the Opposition Nurse
Naomi Christie is ill in hospital. She has been suffering from a
progressive lung disease for the past two weeks. While she is comfortable,
she is not doing well. She is in private surgical of the Princess
Margaret Hospital. You are asked to remember her in your prayers.
Mr. Christie’s father Gladstone died last year. We regret to inform
our readers that Mrs. Christie passed away shortly after 2pm today.
Our condolences to the Christie family.
CONSTITUENCIES
COMMISSION TO MEET
The Constituencies Commission with a mandate under Article 70 of the
Constitution to review constituency boundaries for the next election is
to meet on Monday 17 September at 3 p.m. at the House of Assembly.
It will be chaired by Speaker Italia Johnson. The PLP’s representative
on the Commission is Bradley Roberts, Party Chair. The Judge of the
Supreme Court on the Commission is Ricardo Marques. The FNMs are
Leader designate Tommy Turnquest and Deputy Leader designate Dion Foulkes.
Candidates of the FNM have been going around telling persons where the
boundaries are going to be and saying where they have been told to campaign.
If this is so, then there has been a serious breach of the process of the
Constituencies Commission. Bradley Roberts is expected to object
vociferously to this fettering of the Commission’s discretion. The
FNM has promised to come with their boundary proposals on Monday.
We shall be watching them most closely.
NOSTRADAMUS
PREDICTS?
“In the year of the new century and nine months, from the sky will
come a great king of terror. The sky will burn at forty-five degrees.
Fire approaches the great new city. In the city of York will be a
great collapse. Two twin brothers torn apart by chaos. While
the fortress fails, the great leader will succumb. The third big war will
begin. Then war will begin when the big city burning.” Note New York
is at latitude 41 degrees. Things that make you go: hmmm!
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
Tourism Shut Down - The 'Magic City' of Freeport was noticeably
in the doldrums this past week with no airline service from the US and
no paying visitors because of it. A few people were flown from Nassau by
Bahamasair to be ferried into Florida on Discovery Cruise Lines, but otherwise,
virtually nothing was flying in or out. The International Bazaar and Port
Lucaya tourist centres were ghost towns. There was no new business for
hotels this week and 'Our' Lucaya was forced to comp night after night
for visitors stranded by the results of the tragedies in New York and Washington
DC.
'Our' Lucaya - Tourism in Grand Bahama was already in the September slump and observers are convinced that the troubles in America will deal the industry a mortal blow. In the wake of last week's debacle, 'Our' Lucaya is expected to announce major layoffs. Our sources say they will close off all but one of the hotels on the Lucaya strip. Estimates are that Hutchison Whampoa, owners of 'Our' Lucaya are prepared to ride out six months of hard times before considering more drastic action.
Resorts at Bahamia - Meanwhile, over at Driftwood Group's Resorts at Bahamia, the former Princess Properties, there are dire predictions. "They told the union that as of today (Sunday 16 September) they are closing the Country Club at Bahamia. All the games at the casino are already closed" said one source, "and even the slot machines are only open for a few hours each day." The closure of one of the two Bahamia properties comes on the heels of an announcement by senior vice president Donald Archer last week that renovations at the properties were 85 percent completed. The closure of the Country Club will put hundreds of jobs in jeopardy. We will be watching to see whether idled Bahamian workers at Bahamia will be allowed to replace some of the many seemingly unskilled foreigners currently working on the hotel's renovations.
Who Can Take The Loss? - Owners of both the major hotel groups in Grand Bahama are in that position because of a certain amount of arm twisting by Government and the Grand Bahama Port Authority. Hutchison Whampoa agreed to the Lucaya strip deal because of its designs on Freeport (now Grand Bahama) harbour. Driftwood which was already running hotels in Nassau, is said to have been convinced to take on the former Princess Properties because the price was rock bottom and they were promised the 'big swimming pool' in the middle of Sunrise Highway. However, while Hutchison is said to have a 'deep pocket' and an oriental revulsion for the kind of 'loss of face' that would go along with closing a hotel, Driftwood has long been suspected of financial difficulties because of this Freeport deal. Lately, our correspondent reports that Resorts at Bahamia executives look extremely tense and recalls that "In order to get this deal, they publicly agreed to keep both properties open." At the time, the Prime Minister in addressing the Princess, soon to be Driftwood employees said there would be no layoffs.
School Teachers Sit-In - A visit by Minister of Education and FNM deputy leader designate Dion Foulkes to the schools on Grand Bahama was overshadowed this past week by a sit-in by Government school teachers. The teachers complain that back pay is still owed to them and that new teachers brought in from overseas have yet to receive a living advance promised more than a month ago. The sit-in forced schoolchildren to be sent home. Despite protestations by Minister Foulkes, Government schools in Grand Bahama are still some forty teachers short. Minister Foulkes promised a full report upon his return to Nassau.
FNM Row at Kristi's - Stress fractures in the FNM have now become gaping cracks as evidenced by a furious row between party factions at Kristi's, the popular Freeport eatery frequented by the political crowd. The row, which ended with cursing and threats of more, broke out over the disastrous rally held in Nassau's R.M. Bailey park on Thursday for the party's leadership in waiting to share their vision. "No more than 500 people were on that park," said one FNM, "Tommy was reduced to preaching only to the 'die hards'... He should find Bulgie and make peace." The other FNM in the row retorted that "He should find Bulgie and kick him out of the party!" Meantime, former Minister Algernon Allen who has alleged corruption in the FNM was reportedly playing dominoes in the Grove during the rally. Tennyson Wells, Lester Turnquest and many other FNM MPs just didn't show.
FNM Generals as Independents? - In another indication of the sorry state of the FNM, four key FNM generals are proposing to run as independent candidates in Grand Bahama. Sources say that the party's street organisers feel they can beat the FNM's likely candidates in their area.
Election Prediction - The senior correspondent for News From Grand Bahama is predicting that within the next two weeks Parliament will be dissolved and a General Election will be called. "Never mind all this business about the Prime Minister completing his agenda, the economic picture will only get worse from here on in.... everyone is advised to get battle ready and start knocking on doors."
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
MATTHEW MITCHELL IS FREED
The
Court of Appeal of The Bahamas made a surprising decision on Tuesday 18
September. The Court of Appeal released Matthew Mitchell, my brother
who was convicted in March of this year on four counts of fraud by false
pretences. The Court in making its pronouncement said that it was
not concerned with guilt or innocence but whether or not in law the charges
had been properly laid and the Crown had proven the elements of the offence.
It did not meet either test and so the verdict was set aside and the sentence
of three years imprisonment and one year of community service was set aside.
Understandably this is a great relief for me and for my family. There were a lot of mixed emotions throughout this trial. It was a difficult minefield to walk between public stoicism, moral rectitude and embarrassment. I had never seen my father who died on 23 May 2001 so upset before. He was inconsolable. My father’s oldest sister Ruth Granger nee Mitchell was simply dumbstruck that one of our family could actually go to jail. One could only imagine what other families go through.
On Wednesday 19th September, I issued a statement on behalf of our family. (Click here for the full statement) I would only add that there must be a lesson in all of this for Matthew and for us. I hope the lessons have been learned.
The struggle is not over yet with regard to this, however. A spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General was heard by some friends of mine on the radio on Thursday 20 September saying that the Office would looking to the reasons for the Court of Appeal’s decision and then seek to appeal to the Privy Council. The Government has no right of appeal and would have to seek special leave from the Privy Council. However, given the political nature of this, we have no doubt that the Government will do it just to cause problems. In other quarters, it was indicated that the charges may be brought again.
This would clearly be an abuse. It would also confirm what many people thought in the first case: that the matter was political. No one condones any wrong doing but many believe that had Matthew Mitchell been a different race and different nationality, Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan would have quietly settled whatever differences there were between the parties and the matter would have gone away. They refused to countenance that and insisted on a full public and criminal trial. Michael Manley used to like to say: “You pays your penny and you takes your choice.”
This week we had 36,100 hits on the site for the week ending 22 September at midnight. That makes a total of 102,484 hits on this site for the month of September. Thanks for reading and please keep reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th
Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell
Address to Senate: Why the PM is the way he is
Mitchell
speech to PLP Convention 2000
Pindling
& Me - A personal retrospective on the life and times of Sir Lynden
by Fred Mitchell
Address
to the Senate Budget Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma / Haitian Issue
Address
of Sean McWeeney / Pindling funeral
Gilbert
Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred
Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral
coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
|
|
| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| http://www.johngfcarey.com/ | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2477/index.html | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com/ | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| http://www.briland.com/ | Harbour Island Site |
FNM
DOLLHOUSE BREAKING UP
We have late reports that Hubert Ingraham has been desperately trying
to get Elliott Lockhart FNM MP for Exuma and one of two minority FNM members
on the House of Assembly's Public Accounts Committee to write some kind
of minority report which would save Frank Watson from having to resign
as Deputy Prime Minister. A draft report from the Public Accounts Committee
on which the PLP has a majority, confirms damaging allegations made against
Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson in connection with bounced cheques passed
by his company to the Public Treasury. It is reported that the deal
Mr. Ingraham wants to strike is that Elliott Lockhart will get his nomination
back for Exuma and in exchange Mr. Lockhart will write a favourable minority
report. You will remember that Joshua Sears, a lifelong PLP, was
wooed by the FNM to come and carry the party's banner in Exuma. If
that deal is struck, then Joshua Sears who had been persuaded to leave
his job as US Ambassador from The Bahamas, would seem to be in a pickle.
DIPLOMATIC
POST FOR BONAMY
The
Bahama Journal in its report of Wednesday 19 September says that Police
Commissioner Bernard Bonamy who is on extended study leave from the Police
Force until 21 November will not be coming back to the Force. He
is being given his legal certificate which will qualify him to be called
to the Bahamas Bar today, Sunday 23 September, from the Eugene Dupuch Law
School. Now Mr. Bonamy is to be offered the post of Ambassador to
the United States of America, succeeding Joshua Sears. Mr. Sears
is said to have resigned from his position to run for the FNM in Exuma.
The reports could not be confirmed. Mr. Bonamy left the force two
years ago to finish his legal training and get called to the Bar.
This will be done shortly. Everyone is asking the 64,000-dollar question
about whether or not he is coming back. His successor who has been
acting in the position for two years has radically changed the Force and
continues to radically do so. Having changed so radically can the
Commissioner really come back to the Force? It is probably unrealistic
but the Government has been silent on the issue.
THE
FULL GOODS ON CORRUPTION IN THE FNM
In another late development, we have also learned that Tennyson Wells
Member of Parliament for Bamboo Town believes that he now has the full
goods on corruption against the FNM and at the first opportunity in the
House, he will reveal the information that he has. Perhaps Mr. Wells ought
to talk to Fox Hill MP Juanniane Dorsett who made the amazing contribution
on radio on Thursday night that the FNM has had no scandals during its
term in office.
FNMS
AS INDEPENDENTS IN G.B.?
Usually reliable sources in Grand Bahama are reporting that FNM founding
member Maurice Moore is to contest the Eight Mile Rock seat in the next
General Election as an independent candidate. Mr. Moore, known locally
as the 'First Born' of the party, is a former Minister in the FNM Government.
Reports also insist that Louise Ewing, Freeport City Council member for
Marco City and a known FNM is to run against her party's candidate in Marco
City as an independent.
TERRORISM
TERRORIZES THE BAHAMAS
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Janet Bostwick woke up out of her Rip
Van Wrinkle like sleep on Wednesday 19 September in the House of Assembly
to lead a debate on terrorism. The Parliament of The Bahamas moved
a resolution in support of the United States and its fight against terrorism.
The resolution passed unanimously. That said there are nuances in
the approach to this problem. President Bush cannot be given a blank
cheque to do anything he damn well pleases in this matter. There
is far too much hyperbole and exaggeration going on at the moment as if
this is the end of time, which it is not. While elites all over the
world are stunned by the events in New York, the world still has huge pressing
problems of poverty and sickness that need to be addressed even as we deal
with this problem. And so what the public policy requires is an intelligent
approach to the difficulties we now face. This week, this Senator
travelled to conduct a case in the Supreme Court in Freeport. It
was the first experience since the new measures have been implemented at
the airports. The measures are supposed to make us safe. Our
leaders have told us that we must be prepared to be patient. We must
be prepared to accept the erosion of privacy rights and other civil liberties
because we are being made safer by it. We are told to prepare for
the long haul. That means that they are asking us to give them a
blank cheque to do whatever they wish in the name of fighting terrorism.
As we took off in the plane, one wondered whether all of this flurry of
activity actually made us safer or makes us think that we are safer.
And if the latter is the case some may argue that once we think we are
safer perhaps that is all that counts. Certainly, this Senator does
not feel any safer. In fact, there is great cognitive dissonance
between the events in New York and what happens to me in my daily life
on the ground in The Bahamas. How does going through my personal
belongs, telling me that I must not take razor blades on board the planes;
how exactly does that make me safer on an airplane? For example,
a person intent on hijacking a plane could use the knives and forks given
in food service to create havoc. And what precisely is a sky marshal
going to do but endanger the lives of all of us? Perhaps I protest
too much. But I think that there needs to be some intelligent thought
put into how we are going to combat the risks by pinpointing exactly where
the problem is. The answer to the question must be in looking at
how exactly those persons were able to breach the security at the airports.
Does fighting that breach necessarily translate into the further erosion
of privacy and civil liberties?
TOMMY
PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT
The country did not know what to do, whether to break out into laughter
or to cry. Tommy Turnquest, the man who would be Prime Minister of
the country, failed his first test of leadership. What did he do?
Mr. Turnquest in his capacity as Minister of Tourism announced on Sunday
16 September that his Ministry had cancelled all promotion programmes in
the United States. The Ministry of Tourism’s statement said: “the
general consensus suggests that at the moment few people in our primary
US markets are thinking about vacations so we should not expend our scarce
resources under these conditions.” Now this seemed so patently stupid
on the face of it. One would have thought that the thing to have
done was to increase promotions within the United States. Those promotions
ought to include visits and reassurance to the market that we are with
the US that we stand with them that The Bahamas is close and safe to visit.
But no, our bright would-be Prime Minister orders the Opposite. And
then think about this: if a man or woman is afraid to fly on a half hour
journey from Miami to Nassau, what makes you think that someone who has
to travel ten hours from London to Nassau would not be more afraid?
But you know the smart guys are this FNM crew. They are the only ones with
sense. By week’s end the Minister had done an about face and said that
they were once again going to start promotions in the U.S.
THE
BOUNDARY WARS
Bradley
Roberts, the Member of Parliament for Grants Town, Chairman of the PLP
and the PLP’s representative on the Constituencies Commission was waiting
for Dion Foulkes and Tommy Turnquest to arrive with their constituency
proposals. The meeting of the Constituencies Commission was scheduled
to begin on Monday 17 September at 3 p.m. At the last minute the majority
called and postponed the meeting until 5 p.m. All morning the PLP
was receiving through back channels the actual drafts that the FNM was
proposing. From the week before, the FNM’s candidates in the field had
been saying that they had been told where they should go to campaign, outside
of existing boundaries. And so Mr. Roberts made a statement (click
here for the full statement) in which he indicated that the PLP had
heard the stories about the boundary changes and they were concerned that
the Constituencies Commission was being directed by an outside influence.
Mr. Roberts said that if that turned out to be the case, it could be the
source of a legal challenge to the work of the Commission.
The FNM boys then presented their proposals. Mr. Roberts reviewed
them and then immediately issued another statement in which he attacked
the FNM for fettering the discretion of the Commission. He said that
the proposals matched up exactly with the information that the PLP had
been given (click
here for the full statement). Hubert Ingraham, the lame duck
Prime Minister, was furious. He tried to tell Perry Christie that
this was the first time in the history of the country that boundary proposals
were being debated in public. So what Mr. Prime Minister?!
But the FNM made a formal response to the PLP’s position. Dion Foulkes
issued a statement that said that the FNM as far as practicable wanted
to equalize the number of votes in each constituency. Nothing new
there since that is what the constitution requires. But where Mr.
Foulkes went wrong is his claim that the inner city has been depleted of
population and so there needed to be a shift of constituencies to the outer
sections of New Providence. He said in St Margaret’s constituency
2,248 voters registered, 2265 in Englerston, 2,357 registered in Shirlea,
2408 in St. Cecelia. At the other end he argued that as of Tuesday
18 September there were 4,067 in Blue Hills, 3,793 in Adelaide, 3461 in
Malcolm Creek and 3,307 in Holy Cross. But the difference with the PLP
is that we keep saying that one has to look not at the registered voter's
figures but the census figures. And in each constituency the census
clearly shows that there are not less than 4,000 eligible voters.
That means that the FNM has done a bad job in registering voters.
While they have gone out to large companies and business establishment,
they have failed to take the mobile voter vans to the people where they
live. It is not the PLP’s fault that the Government can’t get people
to register. The other point that Mr. Foulkes made is that the FNM
disagrees with the PLP’s position that all matters involving boundary changes
will be conducted in public. While the PLP will respect the confidences
of the discussions around the table, they will not keep the FNM's proposals
secret. It is the PLP's position that all matters ought to be in
the light of day; that the public ought to be allowed to comment on the
proposals and that all political parties even the extra Parliamentary parties
ought to have an opportunity to see the boundary proposals and comment
upon them.
EMPTY ROOMS
The news has not been good for the hotel sector in The Bahamas this
past week. Each hotel has been reporting layoffs, reduced workweeks,
empty rooms and cancellations. This is all a result of the jitteriness
of the U.S. traveller after the attacks on the World Trade Centre last
week. The President of the Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union
Pat Bain said that his Union is meeting with a view to seeing what strategic
help they can give to its members at a time when they have reduced income.
But many in the sector are putting a brave face on it. The first
signs of new life in a reconstructed straw market were shown in the press
this week. Further, Atlantis reports that the bookings for Thanksgiving
and Christmas remain strong. That remains to be seen, however, given
that almost surely the United States will plunge us into a war within the
next two weeks. The question is how will that all go and what affect
will it have on us? Bahama Journal photo of site clearing at the destroyed
Nassau Straw market.
THE STOCK
MARKET
The stock market of The Bahamas known as BISX is a busy place in one
respect these days. Bahamians are offloading the stocks that they bought
so recently when purchasing stocks were a hot item. Julian Brown
seemed quite sanguine as he noted that the stock of Benchmark, a perfectly
good stock has plummeted from the one dollar that it was at when it was
purchased, now down to sixty cents per share. The same can be said
for FINCO, which had its best year ever, but its stock price is down.
This senator has started to liquidate all of his stock holdings.
But may now pause, given the drop in the market. The reason for the
pause is that in trying to offload some perfectly good stock in a perfectly
good company, it took two weeks to get buyers and we could not get the
listed price for the stock. This makes me a bit nervous, so for the
moment we want to pause. Larry Gibson of Colina Financial Advisors
urged a word of caution last week when he said that we should hold on to
our stock and not dump the stock now that times seem a little rough.
A
GRAND BAHAMIAN ARRESTED IN FLORIDA
Reports are that a top general of the FNM candidate and incumbent for
the Eight-Mile Rock constituency has been arrested in Florida and charged
with possession of $200,000 in counterfeit U.S. currency. We have the name.
He is said to be a member of local government in Grand Bahama. It
is also said that David Thompson MP (FNM Marco City) and Lindy Russell
MP (FNM Eight-Mile Rock) are both raising money to help with legal expenses
for the captured general. Things that make you go: hmmm!
MRS.
CHRISTIE DIES AND IS BURIED
Nurse Naomi Christie, the mother of the Leader of the Opposition, was
buried on Friday 21 September at Ebenezer Methodist Church in Nassau.
Mrs. Christie was 80 years old and died after a short illness. She
was predeceased by her husband Gladstone in 1999. Her five children
survive her: Perry, Gary, Gay, Cheryl and Kevin. She was a grand
lady. Her children and grandchildren paid her glowing tributes.
One great grandchild Erin Cash also survives her. The Valley will miss
Nurse Christie enormously. Among those who attended the funeral were
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham (he actually stayed in his place for whole
service) Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the Anglican Church. The Rev. Charles
Sweeting head of The Bahamas Conference of Methodists conducted the service.
May she rest in peace! Photo by Peter Ramsay.
LESTER
TURNQUEST ON ATTACK DOGS
The FNM’s MP for Malcolm Creek has renewed his call for laws to ban
pit bulls and to further regulate the keeping of dogs in The Bahamas. This
comes following a report in the press that a woman was mauled by a pack
of stray dogs on 9 September. The woman subsequently died of her
injuries. Mr. Turnquest in 1994 called for Parliament to pass a bill
modelled after an act in Britain that bans pit bulls from the United Kingdom.
The reports are in The Bahamas that the dogs that were involved in the
attack may have been crossbred with pit bulls. The Bahamas Humane Society
supports further Government control of dogs in The Bahamas. It also
has a neutering programme, but resources have hampered the carrying out
of the programme. The Ministry of Agriculture did a survey in 1998
on stray dogs and discovered that there are 60,000 dogs in The Bahamas
with fully a third of them (20,000) being unclaimed dogs.
HELP
FROM SIR CLIFF FOR STRAW VENDORS
Sir
Clifford Darling the retired Governor General has opened a fire relief
fund at the Bank of Nova Scotia Account #55313 to assist straw vendors
in their distress. The account is in memory of the following persons:
Sir Milo Butler (first Bahamian Governor General), Sir Lynden Pindling
(founding Prime Minister), Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield (former Opposition
Leader), Sir Randol Fawkes (former Labour Leader), Sir George Roberts (former
Senate President), Sir Henry Taylor (founding Chair of PLP and former Governor
General), Sir Kendal Isaacs (former Opposition Leader), Sir Roland Symonette
(first Premier of The Bahamas), Sir Alvin Braynen (former Speaker), Sir
Etienne Dupuch (former publisher of The Tribune and Member of the House
and Senate), Hon Clarence Bain (former Minister in first PLP Cabinet and
National Hero), Hon. Carlton Francis (Finance Minister in the first PLP
Cabinet), Hon. Bert Cambridge (former Member of the House of Assembly),
Archdeacon William Thompson (murdered rector of St. Agnes), Rev. Talmadge
Sands (former pastor of Sir Cliff’s church Zion Baptist), Rev. Dr. Charles
C. Smith (former pastor of Sir Cliff’s Church Zion Baptist), Rev. Dr. H.W.
Brown (former Pastor Bethel Baptist Church), Dr. C.R. Walker (former Member
of the House of Assembly), Dr. Cleveland Eneas (former Senator and civic
activist), Mr. Timothy Gibson (writer of the National Anthem). The
Church of God has also opened a fund to help vendors and long time straw
market worker Elma Johnson who is a Fox Hill woman was there to receive
her cheque as shown in this picture by the Nassau Guardian Tuesday 18 September.
FACE
LIFT FOR NATIONAL MONUMENTS
Craig A. Gomez, the Chairman of the Museum and Antiquities Corporation
held a press conference at Mangoes Restaurant in Nassau on Wednesday 19
September. The reason was to make an urgent appeal to the public
for assistance in the wake of the fire at the Straw Market. The artifacts
were saved at the museum but the building was damaged. Mr. Gomez
said: “We look forward to the support of the general public in achieving
these ends [repairing the building]. ” The Nassau Guardian published
a photo by Craig Woods of TCL. From left to right: Inspector Keith
Bell of the RBPF, Dr. Kim Outten Stubbs, Museum Curator; Mr. Gomez and
Dr. Keith Tinker, Director of the Corporation.
INSURANCE
DISPUTE AFTER STRAW MARKET FIRE
The Nassau Guardian reported in its business report on Monday 17 September
2001 that there is a dispute between tenants and the landlord of Beaumont
House. The tenants thought that they had insurance to cover their
contents. It turns out that they didn’t. On 4 September the
straw market burned down and it caught fire to the adjacent buildings.
One of them was Beaumont House. Lawyers Kenyatta Gibson and Arnold
Forbes had offices in the building. They lost everything. They
were not insured for contents. W.T. Loews, the landlord for the building,
claims that the portion of the rent that was allocated for insurance was
a pro rated amount for the building not the contents of the building.
And so the issue is joined. What we do know is that the building should
come down. It is now an eye sore on Bay Street and W.T. Loews should
ensure that it is taken down straight away.
FOOD
SECURITY AGAIN
Dr. Bernard Nottage MP who is the Leader of the Coalition for Democratic
Reform spoke in the House of Assembly on Thursday 20 September. He
was concerned about the supply of food available in this country in a time
of crisis. This is an issue raised by this senator before as spokesman
on Foreign Affairs. Dr. Nottage said that a quick survey of
his revealed that at most the supply of food in The Bahamas was about six
weeks. After that we were pretty much in trouble. This raises
again the question of support for agriculture. Right now we are self
sufficient in egg production and about 60 per cent self-sufficient in poultry
production. But there are other areas that need support. The
fact is that agriculture has declined under the FNM. Dr. Nottage
underscored this in his intervention. While it is true that there
is some self-sufficiency in those products just mentioned the fact is that
even those products need the support of feed brought into the country from
the U.S. The Government must then ensure that supplies of feed and
fertilizer are available for farmers so that we can help get agriculture
back off the ground and back to some sort of viability in terms of sufficiency
in certain staple products.
THE
CREDIT CARD STORY
This is a follow up to our banking story last week. Again out
of deference to our friends in the banking sector we will not use the names.
But banking in this country is in the dark ages. There is this kid
who has a credit card with a 600-dollar limit on the card. The card
is used for his convenience when he is travelling to and from school and
to send money to him while in school and for any emergency purchases.
He left the country without noticing that the card expired on 31 August.
When he tried to use the card at school, the machine told him it had expired.
We went to collect the new card - renewed cards in this country are not
simply sent to you by mail. You have to physically go and pick it
up. When we went there, the first problem is we needed to have an
original signature, not a faxed signature to pick up the card for him.
Once we finally got that all sorted out, we then found out the card was
not there. The reason, there had been some late payments on the card and
the bank decided without notice to its customer not to renew it.
Now this is a six hundred-dollar limit. Credit cards are given out
like water in this country with $5000 limits. After lots of pleading
and discussing, the bank finally agreed to renew the card. The card’s payments
are up to date and many times in the past the credits have far exceeded
the credit limit. Just seems a little stupid to us. But then
we also know of a story of man with 3.3 million dollars in assets that
banks were refusing to give a $5,000 credit card to. Eventually,
one bank relented when they needed his permission to use a property he
had to run a telephone line that they needed to help their business.
Suddenly, all their objections about late payments disappeared. As a footnote,
because of the dramatic fall in reserves in the country, we understand
that the Central Bank has issued an advisory to all banks to clamp down
on credit. We are right back to the days before the FNM came to power
and the theme that the FNM campaigned upon was the economy. Most people
think that the banking system in this country is full of bull faeces. More
horror stories to come. Things that make you: “hmmm!”
CUBA
AND THE BAHAMAS IN DIPLOMATIC ROW?
The
Acting Commissioner of Police Paul Farqhuarson and Lt. Colonel Guillermo
Cantera, Chief of the Cuban National Anti-Drug Department were on the front
page of the Nassau Guardian on Friday 21 September. They were announcing
a two-day meeting between Cuba and The Bahamas to address ways to co-operate
on fighting criminal activity between the countries including human smuggling
and drugs. That’s all well and good. But we understand that
the Cubans have some larger concerns with our country that may soon affect
our students and other Bahamians doing business in Cuba. The Cuban
Government is exasperated that we refuse to put a resident Consul or Ambassador
in Cuba. They want a full embassy here. They want The Bahamas
to have full embassy in Havana. The fact is that we have hundreds
of students in Cuba. We have scores of business travellers and scores
of persons in prison in Cuba. There is a need for a consular presence
in Cuba. The PLP agrees that there needs to be a resident consular
presence for The Bahamas in Cuba. The Bahamas Government is afraid
of what the Americans might think if the Government agrees to that. There
is already a Cuban Consul General here in Nassau. The fact is again
that our students are in constant problems in Cuba, so are our business
people and those caught in criminal offences. The present system
where the British act on our behalf is not satisfactory. The somnambulant
Minister of Foreign Affairs needs to review the position. We understand
that the Cubans are at the point of ordering our students back home.
CORRECTION
ON JUDGES
We wish to correct an assertion made last week on the story on judges
visiting conferences overseas. We reported that Justices Small and
Isaacs were away attending a conference in the Cayman Islands on Human
Rights. Our correspondent there says that no Supreme Court Justice attended.
Judges Dame Joan Sawyer and Emmanuel Osadebay attended a conference on
money laundering in London last week.
HURTING
IN ANDROS
A concerned correspondent in Andros sent this story to us:
From Driggs Hill to Mars Bay we in South Andros are hurting economically.
We need the Government to do what they promised in 1997 to win the seat.
We need road repair as promised by the Prime Minister on numerous occasions,
picture driver's licences as are now available in Central Andros.
Cable television has not reached here. Potable water needs to be
completed into the southern area, the Prime Minister said the Ritz hotel
had a certain time to begin work or they will suffer consequences.
Nothing has happened. Local Government representatives have no vision.
Victimization is still rampant. A young lady was given a contract to drive
the schoolbus before school opened, but the contract was revoked the first
day of school without any explanation. Persons were given contracts
to do works at school just after the FNM was elected. Some of them
can't even hold a tape. BaTelCo’s system is down more than up so
that reaching the outside is often difficult and they need at least one
more cell site in the southern tip of Andros, especially to accommodate
those fisherman whose families are always worrying about their loved ones.
This website is action driven so keep up the good work and bring results
to these problems.
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
Economic Doldrums - The impact of the recent troubles in the
United States is being felt in Grand Bahama to a greater and greater degree.
Straw Vendors booths on the lawn of the now shut down Country Club at Bahamia
have been abandoned. So have all the small businesses that once flourished
in that property's lobby. Retail stores, tour and travel booths,
photography services; about one hundred and fifty people now on the streets
without work, just one example of contraction taking place all across the
economy of Grand Bahama. News From Grand Bahama has reported that
Resorts at Bahamia has long been under serious financial pressure.
Now workers at the property say they have been encouraged to "take vacation"
during this difficult time, but are being asked to report weekly for their
vacation pay. "I can't even visit my mother in Nassau, like this,"
said one worker. In the Casino at Bahamia, a few tourists mill around
in the cavernous 20,000 square foot gambling room.
Stores Consider Rostered Opening - In Port Lucaya and at the Freeport International Bazaar, storeowners have been putting staff on 3 days a week or working them on alternate weeks. Owners have been meeting to consider opening their stores on a rostered basis. According to one owner "Just to keep our doors open when there are no customers will kill you just in power bills... taxi drivers don't even want to start their cars until they see some money."
FNM Fundraiser Flops - It was billed as an opportunity to meet the new leader of the FNM. FNM functionary Terry Gape chaired the committee that held a gourmet dinner at the once plush Crown Room in the Casino at Bahamia. Influential Grand Bahamians were asked for either a hefty one-time donation or the pledge of a cheque every month until the elections. News From Grand Bahama has learned that not enough money was raised to pay for the dinner. One person who did attend admitted to us "It was a colossal failure in terms of the turnout and the lack of enthusiasm for the leader-designate Tommy Turnquest." Tommy is being called Mr. Postpone after a rally scheduled for Friday night was called off. "All these people laid off and they calling rally?" complained one FNM general "They can't be having any rally until they have something positive to tell the people."
C.A. Scared- In all the justified hullabaloo over the FNM's proposed changes to the nation's political constituency boundaries, one fact has almost gotten lost in the shuffle. The one, single and only change proposed throughout the Family Islands is to take a heavily FNM polling division out of the Grand Bahama constituency of Lucaya and insert it into Minister C.A. Smith's Pineridge constituency. Once thought to be unassailable, C.A. Smith is now shown to be in fear of a loss to the PLP's hardworking Ann Percentie.
Allen Pulls Back? - Grand Bahama FNM politicos usually in the know are saying that fired Minister Algernon Allen has decided to go along with the dream team. “Bulgie is warming up, but Tennyson and the rest of them can go and carry their a... because no one is checking for them.” Our informant insists that there will be no nominations for FNM incumbents Floyd Watkins of Delaporte and Pierre Dupuch of Shirlea. “They're history.”
Teachers Try Not To Covet - Money paid to straw vendors in the aftermath of the Bay Street fire is raising eyebrows among the teaching community in Grand Bahama. Many teachers are owed significant sums by Government and still haven't gotten their money. News From Grand Bahama was told that in some instances teachers were owed regular salary money as opposed to overtime or other extra payments. “They worked for that money and they're being told 'the paperwork ain' straight', yet they can pay the straw vendors and give them money to shop with.”
Insult To Injury - With teachers and others already looking on
with puzzlement and concern over the disparity of the Government's treatment
between themselves and the straw vendors, Prime Minister Ingraham added
insult to injury by encouraging the straw vendors to go to Hialeah Flea
Market rather than go to the Family Islands and buy palm top and plait.
Is this the act of a man who cares about his country's economy and what
are the implications of a Prime Minister doing such a thing? Hmmm!
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
FLIGHT FROM AFGHANISTAN
The
Bahamas Minister of Foreign Affairs Janet Bostwick was awake again this
week. On Tuesday 25 September she and the Attorney General Carl Bethel
appeared before television cameras and the print media to announce some
measures to stop terrorism throughout the world. She announced
that the Governor General had signed the International Obligations (Afghanistan)
Order 2001.
The order is to do two things. First it is to forestall the
use of money connected to the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of
the World Trade Center Buildings in New York, the now infamous Osama Bin
Laden. Secondly, the order also bans the flight of airplanes from
Afghanistan in Bahamian airspace and to The Bahamas.
Now if you didn’t know any better you would actually take these people seriously. And we assume that this is part of the effort around the world for all countries around the world to stand with the United States of America. Clearly we support that. Our comment is again related to the hopeless state of Bahamian foreign affairs. Can you imagine banning flights from Afghanistan and trumpeting that as a major foreign policy initiative? What flights come to this country from Afghanistan? Pray tell, what over flights come from Afghanistan that would cause us to restrict our airspace? And then further, even if they violate our airspace what the heck can we do about it anyway?
The fact is that the Miami Control Tower controls Bahamian airspace over 6,000 feet. So it is the Americans that will have to police it on our behalf.
But most of us thought it was highly amusing to see the pair of them Bethel and Bostwick, the high wing back chairs brought in for the occasion. They were dressed in their Sunday go to meeting clothes, and announcing that they had banned flights from Afghanistan in Bahamian airspace.
This week we had 24,978 hits on this site for the week ending 29 September 2001. That makes 124,979 hits for the month of September, the highest number in the history of the site. Thanks for reading and please keep reading.
PERMANENT LINKS
11th
Review of the Judiciary
Mitchell
Address to Senate: Why the PM is the way he is
Mitchell
speech to PLP Convention 2000
Pindling
& Me - A personal retrospective on the life and times of Sir Lynden
by Fred Mitchell
Address
to the Senate Budget Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian Issue
Address
to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma / Haitian Issue
Address
of Sean McWeeney / Pindling funeral
Gilbert
Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred
Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral
coverage
For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.
|
|
| Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting | Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral |
| Site Links | |
| The PLP Position on Clifton | |
| http://www.johngfcarey.com/ | Thought provoking columns |
| http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2477/index.html | Canadian contacts Reg & Kit's Bahamas Links |
| http://members.tripod.com/~xtremesp/wolf.html | Bahamian Cycling News |
| http://www.bahamiansonline.com/ | Links to Bahamians on the web |
| http://www.bahamanet.com/JujuTree.cfm | Politics Forum |
| http://www.jameshepple.com/ | Tourism Statistics |
| http://www.briland.com/ | Harbour Island Site |
PLP FUNDRAISING
The PLP is starting a national drive this week to raise funds for the
next election. You can help by contributing. So click
here for a form that you can print and send to make your contribution
to the PLP.
ALARM
OVER BAHAMAS’ FINANCES
It has been reported to this column that the Government had to lean
on the Royal Bank of Canada last month to go to the market at high interest
charges to find money to meet the Government’s payroll expenses for the
month of August. Further, it has been learned that despite the Governor
of the Central Bank’s statement last week that the reserves now around
320 million dollars are in a cyclical downturn, the situation is quite
serious for the reserves. It is reported that the Government has
been leaning on the banks not to repatriate their profits to their home
countries because it will put too much pressure on the reserves.
Further, there is a report that the Heineken people who are shareholders
in Commonwealth Brewery have been waiting for months to be able to repatriate
their profits. Things that make you go: hmm!
TENNYSON
WELLS HITS A GRAND SLAM
Tommy
Turnquest had been sitting in his office all morning, Thursday 27 September.
But his plans quickly changed when he heard that Tennyson Wells the FNM’s
MP for Bamboo Town was on his feet and had begun a broadside against the
Government. Richard ‘Spider’ Marshal was unshaven and unshorn when
he got the news that Mr. Wells was on his feet and he should watch the
television to hear and see what he had to say. Mr. Marshall quickly
got a shower and a shave and headed down to the Parliament to see for himself.
The story was the same for Nicholas Jacques, the President of the Bus Drivers
Union. He came down after a telephone call to see for himself.
This Senator thought he would read about it in the press. Last week
we predicted that the FNM dollhouse was beginning to break up. We
said that Mr. Wells had decided to go for broke. That he was at the
end of his rope. Mr. Wells did what we said he would do. He
said that he had fought corruption for 20 years and that he could not support
the corruption that he had uncovered during the process of the election
for Leader designate of his party and Deputy Leader designate. He
then laid out a list of allegations of contracts and scholarships and land
grants that were given to delegates or those who could influence delegates
to the special convention that was called to elect the Leader and Deputy
Leader elect of the FNM. His party, he said, was in turmoil. He accused
the Minister of Education of attacking his sister Iris Pinder (Director
of Education) by swaying the President of the Bahamas Union Teachers that
Ms. Pinder was the cause of the unrest in the schools. The cat was
amongst the pigeons. One by one they were up on their feet. Dion
Foulkes denying that he was corrupt. The Prime Minister saying that
he would prove that the allegations on land were not true. The simple
minded Member of Parliament for Fox Hill Juanianne Dorsett, silent until
now, but with visions of being Minister of Housing in her head, sat sniping
from the sidelines. Mrs. Dorsett has her own set of explaining to
do. She owns a travel agency and the story is that the Ministry of
Education has been spending gobs of money with her travel agency.
Does this violate the constitution? And as much as we can, we provide
what Mr. Wells had to say in detail. It was a heck of a performance.
But what we ask Mr. Wells and those who support him is this: where do you
go from now? This must not be left here. The Opposition has
already called and will call again for a public inquiry into these matters.
There must be a full inquiry, independent of Mr. Foulkes and his contracts.
He had the day before Mr. Wells' intervention tabled the contracts given
by the Ministry during the period running up to the leadership elections.
He hoped to quiet the controversy by doing that. But Mr. Wells’ intervention
seems to have blown a hole wide open in the Foulkes/Turnquest strategy.
Now what?
WITCH
HUNT AT MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
Permanent Secretary Creswell Sturrup, a good St. Augustine’s boy, gets
to work early in the morning. And when he got there, fresh in the
face of the accusations made by Tennyson Wells about corruption in awarding
contracts to delegates at the FNM convention, Mr. Sturrup summoned Iris
Pinder, the Director of Education and the married sister of rebel MP Tennyson
Wells to his office. The reason for the summons was a demand from
Mr. Sturrup to have a full report on the allegations made by Mrs. Pinder’s
brother Tennyson in the House about corruption in the award of schools
contracts. Mrs. Pinder refused, saying that her brother was a politician
and she had nothing to do with what he said. He was his own man.
Whereupon she left the office. On the way out she passes several
of the delegates to the special convention who had been accused by her
brother of accepting contracts from the Ministry of Education for their
vote. They started to shout: Your ass gone! You finished. Whereupon
the Director had a few expletives for them herself. It is reported
that around at the time was also the President of the Union of Teachers
Kingsley Black and a huge row ensued. Our correspondent says that
the row went out on the porch of the Ministry. And says our correspondent,
the little darlings of the nation learned a lot that morning about how
to punctuate words beginning with M, F, and Sh.t and Ass. At one
point a good lady raised up her gown tail and told a public official that
they could kiss that. The Minister finally had enough and came downstairs
and told them all and we quote: “You all got to stop this f..ing sh.t.”
Well! The reports are that the Ingraham, Foulkes, Turnquest team
are convinced that the source of the information to Mr. Wells is Mrs. Pinder
and that they have decided that she has to go but they are afraid to move
now because it will look like victimization. We are all watching
with bated breath.
WHAT
NOW FOR TENNYSON WELLS?
By the act of Tennyson Wells in the House of Assembly on Thursday 27
September, the political life of Tennyson Wells was utterly changed in
the twinkling of an eye. Mr. Wells himself adverted to the fact when
he said that his life was at a political crossroads. He had fought
for the Free National Movement for twenty years he said, and now things
had come to the point where he could no longer remain silent in the face
of what he believed was obvious corruption. There is of course a
tide in the affairs of men, and clearly it is high tide for Mr. Wells.
We have said before that the thing to do is cross the floor and join the
PLP. But what is clearly emerging is that more subtle approaches
may be needed in this election. Both Mr. Wells and Algernon Allen
feel themselves totally left out of the FNM process. Their supporters
believe that the PLP should make some efforts to woo their support because
it is believed that they are powerful in their constituencies. We
know that the two men’s allies have been sending signals out and keeping
in touch with the PLP. They have been deeply offended by Mr. Ingraham's
behaviour and they blame him for breaking up the Free National Movement.
One of Mr. Wells supporters told this senator: How the f… could Ingraham
think that he could go around just f…ing everyone and then think we are
going to sit still for it? He must think we are asses.”
THE
SPECIFICS OF THE WELLS CHARGES
Tennyson Wells’ principal charge is as follows: “Free National Movement
members are entitled like everybody else to Government contracts if they
can perform, particularly if they have satisfactorily executed previous
contracts. However, to target delegates [to the special leadership convention
16 August] and ask the public to accept the award of contracts to a disproportionate
amount of delegates, in a month when their support is being solicited is
insulting and intellectually dishonest.” Mr. Wells laid out three
areas of corruption - in the dispensing of contracts for construction in
the Ministry of Education; the dispensing of scholarships in the Ministry
of Education; and the dispensing of Crown Lands by the Prime Minister.
WELLS’
CHARGES ON SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION
Tennyson Wells charged that contracts for school repairs are usually
finalized in late June, early July at the latest. This year he said
was different. Many of the contracts were signed just weeks before
and after the special convention to elect Dion Foulkes, Minister of Education
and Tommy Turnquest, Minister of Tourism to their Leadership designate
posts. Ninety contracts were given out said Mr. Wells, a substantial number
to delegates. Some contracts he said were awarded on the same day
twice to the same contractor. He continued: “The Minister’s authority on
any contract without referral to the Minister of Finance or the Cabinet
is limited to $50,000. This is a clear manoeuvre to circumvent the
rules and breach the minister’s authority. Apparently, Carlton Francis
Primary School needed $97,365 worth of work done, a contract, which the
Minister could not approve on his own – so he gave two contracts for the
same job on the same day – one in the amount of $49,545 and the other in
the amount of $47,820.” Mr. Wells said the same split contract situation
existed with Woodcock Primary. He also added that numerous contracts
were awarded in the $45,000 to $50,000 range. He asked: “Are all of these
mere co-incidences? I think not; there is a clear and unequivocal
pattern of deceit.”
RUPERT
GETS A ROLLING COIN
One of the revelations made by Tennyson Wells in the House of Assembly
was that Rupert Cox of the defunct music group ‘Rupert and the Rolling
Coins’ received a $45,000 contract for construction work in Acklins Island.
Mr. Cox is not a building contractor and the work had to be subcontracted
to a builder. But Mr. Cox was the sole delegate from that part of
the MICA constituency. The reported terms of the contract were that
the contract could not be signed until after the vote at the FNM’s special
convention on 16 August. Once Foulkes and Turnquest won, the contract
was reportedly signed. So said, so done. Mr. Cox was reportedly
even afraid to be seen talking to longtime FNM Brenville 'Bulla' Hanna
who was a supporter of Algernon Allen for the leader designate position.
This is all the more reason why there must be a public inquiry.
GRAND
BAHAMA ‘CONTRACTOR’ UNDER FIRE
Forgive the pun, but people in Grand Bahama know one Charlie Lowe as
an FNM operative whose day job is with the Grand Bahama Airport Company
as a fireman. Lowe was among those delegates to the FNM’s special
convention for leaders designate named by Tennyson Wells as a contractor
given work from the Government around the time of the convention.
According to our correspondents in Grand Bahama, Mr. Lowe, who got a 36-thousand
dollar contract for maintenance work at the Freeport Primary School “wouldn’t
know a piece of rebar from a finish nail.” The contract is said to
have been sub-contracted to someone else.
CHARGES
OF WELLS ON GARVIN TYNES PRIMARY
Tennyson Wells charged that there was a contract for general repairs
of $947,770.72 to the $5.2 million dollar Garvin Tynes Primary School.
The school is just three years old. He said: “This is a school built
by Maljack Construction and was opened less than two years ago. It
was in the news before that there were allegations of structural defects.
The Director of Works and the technical officers’ notification of such
defects were ignored by the powers that be and Maljack was paid by the
now Minister of Tourism Tommy Turnquest, the Prime Minister and the Minister
of Finance despite the defective work.” Mr. Wells said that Maljack
is expected to get a contract for other works while other contractors have
to repair the defective work at Garvin Tynes. Mr. Wells said: “Unbelievable.
You ask why? And the answer comes back - delivery of delegate votes from
Andros, I am advised.”
CHARGES
BY TENNYSON WELLS ON CROWN LAND
Tennyson Wells speaking in the House of Assembly on Thursday 27 September
charged that Crown Lands were corruptly allocated to delegates at the special
convention to elect Tommy Turnquest and Dion Foulkes to the positions of
Leaders designate of the Free National Movement. He said: “Here again,
the grants or leases were made to deserving persons who had applied several
years ago. Then all of a sudden when their votes are needed, the
Crown land grant is processed. Co-incidence? I think not.” Prime
Minister Hubert Ingraham was in the House and jumped to his feet to say
that Mr. Wells' allegations were not true and that he would be happy to
reveal the names of all persons who got Crown Land since 1992 under the
FNM. Mr. Wells shot back that what the PM did was wrong and it would
get him nowhere. The Prime Minister then slunk back into the smoking
room where he remained in hiding for the rest of Mr. Wells’ presentation.
TENNYSON
WELLS ON CORRUPT SCHOLARSHIP GRANTS
Tennyson Wells speaking in the House of Assembly on Thursday 27 September
said the following on the allocation of scholarships to help elect Tommy
Turnquest and Dion Foulkes to the leadership elect positions in his party
on 16 August. “This great FNM party finds itself in turmoil.
It didn’t have to be. It didn’t have to be. But today you will
understand why it is in turmoil and why it will likely remain in turmoil
for some time to come.” On scholarship applications he said: “Applicants
were told that they did not meet the deadline, try again next year, but
this year it was as a free for all open to all sorts of abuses. I am happy
for the students and I do not believe they were part of any plot to get
delegate support.” Mr. Wells charged that the process was reopened
to accommodate the grant of bursary support to the children of FNM delegates
at the convention on 16 August.
WELLS’
FINAL TELLING COMMENTS
Tennyson Wells in his remarks on corruption in the FNM said that he
competed to be Leader of the FNM because he wanted to take The Bahamas
to the next level. But he added: “If the next level is engaging in
cover-ups and deception when the public trust has been breached, I do not
want to be there. If the next level means cutting boundaries to assure
the defeat of colleagues who differ with you, that’s not something which
I want to be associated with. If the next level means engaging in
corrupt practices, count me out.”
A
VISIT TO LONG ISLAND
The
photograph shows this Senator with PLP stalwart Alphonso Moree on the left
and Mario Cartwright on the right. Mr. Cartwright is the owner and
developer with thanks to the Bahamas Development Bank of the Flying Fish
Marina in Clarence Town, Long Island one of the most if not the most beautiful
harbour in the country. This senator visited Long Island to represent
a client in a court case in the Magistrate’s Court in Clarence Town.
But while there took time to visit and speak with our generals and supporters.
We hasten to add that while Mr. Moree is our general, Mr. Cartwright, despite
the charges of James Knowles the MP for Long Island is a neutral businessman.
Ours was just a courtesy visit to the marina that is getting a growing
reputation as a stop over point for captains of wealthy yacht owners on
their way to and from the southern Caribbean. But Long Island is
another example where the FNM could be in serious trouble. After
almost 25 years in office Mr. Knowles is one of the most reviled figures
in Long Island. 
After
the 1997 General Election and during the campaign and up to the early part
of this year James Knowles told the people of Long Island that 1997 was
his last campaign (sounds like someone else we know). But when Larry
Cartwright identified himself as someone who is interested in being a successor
to Mr. Knowles, Mr. Knowles took the position that rather than allow Mr.
Cartwright to become the representative he would run again. Mr. Cartwright
is a popular retired teacher and civic leader in Long Island.
He is married to the popular Ann Cartwright the leader of the local government
in the island. Mr. Cartwright is determined to run whether or not
he gets the FNM’s nomination. It now appears that he will run as
an independent. The PLP is trying to decide whether or not they will
run a candidate in the island. Our generals are meeting on the subject
and the Leader is expected to lead a delegation down to Long Island to
determine what our supporters want to do. We await the outcome with
bated breath. Meanwhile, we would like to thank Administrator Jordan
Ritchie and his staff especially Ms. D. Fox for their help and courtesies
in Long Island and Sergeant 1269 Wilson the prosecutor in the case.
And of course we would like to thank Captain Mario Simms, Mr. and Mrs.
Lockhart Turnquest, especially Mrs. Turnquest pictured in the photo by
Brandino Brown outside her pleasant and well run Ellen’s Inn in Deadman’s
Cay, Long Island.
THE
COUNTRY IS BROKE
The House of Assembly met on Saturday 29 September. This was
quite unusual and a special resolution had to be passed to do so. The reason
for the special sitting was that the Government has run out of its portion
of the money for the building of the 52 million-dollar road construction
contract. When it was clear that the economy was on a down turn this
contract should have been cancelled. But the Government started.
Now it has run out of money and it needs to access that portion of the
money allocated by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In
order to do so, it needed the resolution passed so that they could begin
to collect the money by 1st October when the Bank’s officials visit The
Bahamas. Is this any way to run a country? This is like you
or I struggling to patch and scrape and save to get the school fees together
because our son or daughter is going off to school next week. And
the genius of a Minister of Finance is supposed to be William Allen.
The FNM Government is a disgrace. They have run the country up on
brakes. Their explanation to the PLP as to why the matter was so
urgent, the Government admitted that there had been a dramatic fall off
in the revenue of the country in the last month. There goes that
lying promise made by Bill Allen of a balanced budget.
HOUSE
OF ASSEMBLY MEETS UNDER FALSE PRETENCES
The PLP should never have agreed to the crooked reason for calling
the House of Assembly together on Saturday put forward by this corrupted
FNM Government. The story we reported earlier said the reason why
the House was called together. The FNM lied to the PLP. The
House was adjourned on Saturday 29 September at 7 p.m. without dealing
with the resolution. It was been adjourned to Thursday 4 October.
All day long at the special Saturday sitting on 29 September, Hubert Ingraham
and Dion Foulkes were busy trying to save their names from going down in
a corruption scandal in a back and forth between Tennyson Wells and themselves.
No one believes the story of the Prime Minister or his Minister of Education.
Some thing is rotten here.
CHOGM POSTPONED
It has been reported that Her Majesty the Queen has accepted the advice
of the Commonwealth Secretary General to postpone the heads of government
conference of the Commonwealth, originally scheduled from 6 - 9 October
in Brisbane, Australia to some time early next year. The attacks
on the World Trade Center in New York are said to be responsible for the
postponement. We in The Bahamas are happy that our own Prime Minister
will be denied the opportunity to go to Australia and safely pontificate
from afar about matters here at home.
THE
STRAW VENDORS GET THEIR MARKET BACK
This
Senator on Tuesday 25 September led by leader of the Straw Vendors Prayer
Band and Chaplain for the Fox Hill PLP Irene Rolle toured the temporary
straw market erected by the Government to House the straw vendors after
the disastrous fire in the market on 4 September. We shook hands
and spoke to all the vendors who were there. There are some 600 stalls
in the building. We got to talk to Garth Wright who is in charge
of the straw market. The straw vendors seemed satisfied and happy
that they were back at work. The straw vendors each got up to 600
dollars in cash in emergency grants from the Government for loss of income.
They got a further 2500 dollars to spend as they wished free from the Government
to buy stock for their stalls. Some have a concern about the Government
dipping into the Treasury. Others say that if you do it for the vendors
what about the other business people who were damaged during the fire?
The Prime Minister speaking at a service of thanksgiving thanked Sol Kerzner
for helping to erect the temporary facility that appears to have a reinforced
steel frame with plastic tent sheeting over it. The Prime Minister
in profusely thanking Mr. Kerzner said that the Government had to rely
on him because if the Government tried to do it with its manpower they
would not have been able to get the job done so quickly. That’s a
hell of an admission for a Prime Minister to make after nine years in office.
Also pictured at right is PLP Deputy Leader Cynthia 'Mother' Pratt.
PRIME
MINISTER ATTACKS HARAJCHI OF SUISSE BANK
It
was the most remarkable explosion of pique in the career of Hubert Ingraham
and he really has said some stupid things in his day. But not only
was this stupid, it was impolitic and it was legally unsupportable.
The background as you must know by now is that Mohammed Harajchi is the
principal shareholder of the Suisse Security Bank. In March 2001
at gunpoint, the bank was forcibly closed down by the Central Bank.
Mr. Harajchi has been involved in a series of losing court hearings to
have the decisions reversed. Some three weeks ago as the case resumed,
the Judge who was on the case Anita Allen, wife of former Minister Algernon
Allen stepped down from the case because Mr. Harajchi had hired her husband
as a lawyer. Mr. Harajchi has been paying the Bahamian employees since
the bank was closed even though the law does not require him to do so.
Further, there has been a series of ads on radio and television in the
country attacking the Central Bank decision. Mr. Harajchi openly
accused the Central Bank Governor Julian Francis of asking for a personal
favour and when he refused the Suisse Security Bank was closed. Mr. Ingraham
must have had enough of this and he chose the prayer services of the straw
market vendors Tuesday 25 September to drive the point home. The hook was
the fact that Mr. Harajchi offered to donate one million dollars to the
Bahamas Government for the rebuilding of the straw market. The Minister
of Tourism Tommy Turnquest quickly rejected that offer on the part of the
Government saying that because he had the Government in court, the Government
could not accept the money. But that was not enough for Mr. Ingraham and
he launched into a tirade. Here is what he had to say: “The Government
of The Bahamas is not a conduit through which Mr. Harajchi’s money will
pass as we are not in the cleansing business… He was in the banking business
in our country and we determined that he was not a fit and proper person
to hold a bank licence in The Bahamas. We do not expect for him to
be in the banking business in our country. We have a good name. No
foreigner is going to give us a bad name.” Things that make you go
hmm! The problem with this is that there is a sub judice rule that
bans comment about matters before the courts and the matter is before the
courts. Secondly Mr. Harajchi would seem to have been libelled in
that the implication is that Mr. Harajchi has dirty money that is in need
of laundering. Mr. Harajchi issued a press statement the next day
saying that he would sue. The Prime Minister said he was not concerned
in the least about Mr. Harajchi's threat to sue. But interestingly
enough the Prime Minister also encouraged the straw vendors to take Mr.
Harajchi's money if they wanted to. Presumably it was okay for the straw
vendors to launder dirty money. He told them that Mr. Harajchi was
as just trying to con The Bahamas. This Senator was there when remarks
were made and thought how stupid and crude can you get. The end must
be near. From a legal stand point, the first thing Mr. Harajchi's
lawyers will say is that the case is prejudiced and one is unable to get
a fair hearing. They might well have grounds because remember Mr.
Harajchi's allegation always was that the Central Bank did not close the
bank for any valid reason that instead it was activated by someone else
who held some spite for him personally. Now it is clear that despite
the new law passed by the Government that came into effect in January 2001,
three months before the Bank revoked the licence, it was not the Central
Bank that closed the bank at all. It was the Government. The
new legislation was passed because the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) wanted to see that the Central Bank was autonomous
from the political directorate. So much for that. Mr. Harajchi
is show at right in this file photo with his attorney and the former managing
director of the Suisse Security bank.
ALGERNON
& TOMMY
The FNM’s renegade former Minister Algernon ‘Bulgie’ Allen held a cookout
in Nassau yesterday, which is said to have turned into something of a fair,
with crowds of curious people in attendance. Our loyalists have reported
that in a surprise move, FNM Leader designate Tommy Turnquest showed up
at the cookout and latched on to Allen, moving in lockstep with him from
pillar to post. Friends of Allen said that he told them he “literally
had to tear himself away from Tommy.” We wonder what happened to
Tommy’s strict orders from Hubert Ingraham to cut Bulgie off... Is Tommy
now prepared to go it alone and bring Allen back into the FNM fold after
Ingraham has instructed otherwise? Our sources say that Tommy’s advisors
have told him to never mind Hubert, he’s a lame duck who is gone.
Things that make you go hmmm!
DION
FOULKES' END RUN ON TOMMY?
Dion Foulkes, the bottom half of the so called ‘Dream Team’ looks to
be trying to make a political end run around Tommy Turnquest, the second
half of the team. Both are the Leaders designate of the FNM.
Mr. Foulkes, who is said to be pissed that Hubert Ingraham overlooked him
for the post of Leader is now trying to set up a post-election situation
where he will have more support than Tommy and be able to take over the
leadership once the election is over and Mr. Ingraham is no longer Prime
Minister. To do this, he is seeking to engage the support of several
potential candidates and existing MPs. For example, he is to attend
a meeting in Exuma this week with rebel MP Elliot Lockhart who is set to
run again despite Mr. Ingraham’s promising the seat to US Ambassador Joshua
Sears. Then Mr. Foulkes has his brother Michael canvassing for signatures
in the Mayagauna, Inagua, Crooked Island, Acklins, Long Cay constituency.
This goes against Mr. Ingraham’s original choice Johnlee Ferguson, the
administrator in Eleuthera who was a shoo-in for the nomination to replace
outgoing FNM MP Vernon Symonette. Mr. Ferguson’s sin: they are blaming
him for the political problems of the FNM in Eleuthera and further saying
that he did not support the Dream Team. Some 200 signatures were
obtained in Acklins and Crooked Island and another 200 in Inagua to get
the FNM to give the nomination to Michael Foulkes. Further, Mr. Dion
Foulkes is trying to arrange for his newest friend and all Gaynell Rolle,
the PLP's candidate in 1997 for Shirlea, who defected to the FNM on the
false reason that she no longer had confidence in Perry Christie, to be
the FNM’s candidate in Shirlea against Pierre Dupuch who Mr. Foulkes intends
to dump. Everyone knows that Dion is a master at intrigue and we
all are watching the master at work.
MICHAEL
JORDAN RETURNS
We
say it all the time, and it probably to whites sounds racist, but we say
it anyway. When is a Black man who has succeeded and done well going
to know when it is time to quit and simply walk away at the height of his
game? We in The Bahamas criticized the late Sir Lynden for staying
on too long and leaving the office in ignominy although at his death his
reputation was revived. Muhammad Ali, a fine athlete, boxed himself
into senselessness because he did not know when to quit. Hubert Ingraham
we thought would break the mould but he tried to wiggle out of his unequivocal
promise to go after two terms and ended up by trying to break that promise
causing the mayhem in his party today. Now comes Michael Jordan who
we thought was from a new generation and knew that his time was up.
But just when we thought we found some sensible guy, six championship National
Basketball rings in the U.S.A., an Olympic Gold medal and five Most Valuable
Player awards. He is worth nearly half a billion. What else does
this guy want? Obviously, he is a dissatisfied man bored with life.
He has decided to come back as a player in the NBA. Mychal Thompson
who is the former two time NBA championship winner with the LA Lakers and
who is from The Bahamas told the New York Times according to The Tribune
of Thursday 27 September: “Michael has to realize that its over.”
So say all of us. This decision is just plain stupid.
LATEST
ON C.B. MOSS
The Progressive Liberal Party has ratified C. B. Moss to be its candidate
in the upcoming election for the Bain Town constituency. We think
that this is long overdue and we congratulate him on his nomination.
SEWERAGE
IN THE HARBOUR
Those who eat fish and conch at Montagu, the Potters Cay Dock and Arawak
Cay would be delighted to know that the water quality in those places is
pretty bad. This is the upshot of a demand by Bradley B. Roberts the PLP
Chair as he spoke on a Bill to amend the Port Authority Act. Mr.
Roberts told how the level of faecal coliform contamination was at overbearing
levels. This is largely believed to be due to the output of the sewerage
treatment plant at Potters Cay and the dumping of sewerage by yachts and
cruise ships in the Nassau Harbour. He called for immediate steps
to rectify the problem. From time to time there are serious outbreaks of
conch poisoning in Nassau as a result of contamination in the waters of
Nassau Harbour.
BANK
LOAN RELIEF
The Banks have been saying that if persons have loan problems they
ought to contact their respective banks to see what debt relief can be
organized. This comes on the heels of the twin disasters for this
country: the Straw Market fire and the bombing of the World Trade Center
in New York. Hotel workers have been laid off in the thousands in
The Bahamas for periods up to ninety days. This has immediately put
the security of some families at risk. We do not believe that this
is a matter for individual banks to decide. This is a matter for
the Government to step up to the plate with relief for lenders, with uniform
policies as to how and what banks are to do in these times. Without
it, the greedy banks will be busy taking people’s homes while we blink
our eyes.
MORE
ON BANKING PRACTICES - CIBC
Ken Perigord, the one time Shell dealer, now property developer and
Golden Oldies expert, is on the warpath with the banks of The Bahamas.
And he has a strong cadre of support behind him. Mr. Perigord is
about to mount a national campaign against the practices of banks in The
Bahamas. He charges that their actions are discriminatory against Bahamians,
and that in the case of CIBC and Terry Hilts of that bank, racist and personally
spiteful. Mr. Perigord charges that despite an abundance of assets, CIBC
and Terry Hilts, the head of the Bank, has been particularly vengeful in
dealing with issues that arose with his accounts. Because of the
actions of CIBC, he has had to deal with other banks. He charges
that Royal Bank of Canada seemed to be motivated by the same issues that
drove Terry Hilts at CIBC. He claims that he has had some relief
at Scotiabank. But in the main, the campaign is designed to get to
the root of a problem of discrimination in the bank system against black
Bahamians and what appears to be a deliberate policy of Bahamian banks
to prevent Bahamians from accumulating wealth and capital.
DOES
THE WEST REALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO?
Three weeks and counting have passed by since the twin towers of the
World Trade Center Building were blown up. While the United States and
its allies in this matter have been busy chewing up a lot of words, no
military action has yet been taken. This does not inspire confidence
in the public's mind that George Bush and his allies know exactly what
to do. It seems that the west is undecided on what to do between those
who say all out war and those who are extremely nervous about such an eventuality.
It is clear that some strike back needs to happen and it needs to happen
fast before the minds of the public are dulled and dimmed by the passage
of time. But what is also clear is that we are far too concerned at this
point in time with the defensive measures being taken at home, without
an intelligent honing as to whether the measures make sense in a democratic
society and whether they ought to be maintained and for how long. The problem
is that liberty is being sacrificed without a commensurate gain in security.
Nothing that has been done causes this writer to respond with, ah ha! That’s
precisely right. It just seems like a lot of fumbling around in the
dark.
BALTRON
BETHEL ILL
We have learned that former Director General of Tourism Baltron Bethel
is seriously ill and may even require an operation to remove a tumor from
his lung. This follows an earlier bout with prostate cancer, which
he overcame. Franklyn Wilson, the Chairman of the PLP’s Finance Committee
is sponsoring a luncheon in honour of Mr. Bethel at the Radisson Cable
Beach hotel on Saturday 6th October. Tickets are fifty dollars.
Mr. Bethel is quoted in the Nassau Guardian of Saturday 28th September:
“I am extremely thankful that this group of friends would choose to recognise
me and the contributions I have made to this country and I trust the Lord
and I am confident in Him and in the competence of the doctors and I am
looking forward to being back to work in 6 weeks time.” Mr. Bethel
is currently president of The Bahamas Baptist College.
ACTION
FROM SOUTH ANDROS
It appears that as a result of our story last week the Police department
has agreed to send personnel to South Andros by 6th October in order to
review and repair the housing for police officers in there, but there continue
to be concerns in South Andros about when picture drivers licences are
coming, a replacement for the fire engine and improved service from the
district's local doctor. We'll be watching.
RICK
FOX AND VANESSA
We thought that this beautiful picture of two beautiful people might
inspire you this week. It is taken from the current edition of Vanity
Fair, and by Ford Motor Company. Rick Fox the Bahamian athlete is
with his wife Vanessa Williams and joining her in the fight against breast
cancer. Enjoy!
NEWS
FROM GRAND BAHAMA
Work on Giant Swimming Pool Halted - Work on the controversial
project to create a 'beach' in the middle of the main road, which used
to traverse the Resorts at Bahamia properties has come to a halt, leaving
huge holes in the middle of the road. The project is said to be about
seventy five percent finished. The community of Grand Bahama is alarmed
at the news because the project, only grudgingly supported if at all, has
the potential to negatively transform the centre of the city. The
major Freeport thoroughfare of Sunrise Highway was diverted at its centre
to accommodate the project. Sources say that the Driftwood group,
owner of Resorts at Bahamia, has simply run out of money for the project.
There has so far been no statement on the stoppage of work on the 'beach'
from Driftwood. Someone, sometime soon in Government is going to
have to say exactly who did the due diligence search on this group before
it was allowed to purchase one of the major engines of the Grand Bahama
economy.
Driftwood's Resorts at Bahamia Creating Enemies - In the midst of the downturn in tourist arrivals from the United States and the stoppage of work on its new 'beach' project, Resorts at Bahamia is reported to have continued various cuts of benefits to employees. Middle and senior managers have reported their gas allowances have been discontinued and several disgruntled former employees say they were "cheated out of severance pay" by being forced into quitting their jobs. "When they want you to go without paying you out, they make things so tough, you just have to quit," said one former Resorts at Bahamia worker, "It just isn't right."
Port Authority Upset - Reports reaching News From Grand Bahama say that the work stoppage on Resorts at Bahamia's new 'beach' has upset and embarrassed the Grand Bahama Port Authority. Senior executives at the Port were said to have overcome initial reservations about the project and played a major role in silencing negative public opinion about diverting Sunrise Highway for Resorts at Bahamia's 'beach'. A source told News From Grand Bahama "As part of the 'beach' deal Resorts at Bahamia was supposed to have beautified the roundabouts needed to divert Sunrise Highway and now they're a disgrace." If money is not found to rescue the 'beach', roundabouts will be the least of the problem.
Fallout From Straw vendors Affects G.B. Teachers - Trouble is said to be about to break loose in the Grand Bahama public school system from teachers disaffected by what they have charged is the Government's favourtism toward straw vendors. While Minister of Education Dion Foulkes has been saying that the Ministry and Grand Bahama teachers have worked out all their differences, a spokesman for the teachers - interviewed on the condition of anonymity said, "Our rental allotment cheques have not been paid and our back pay has still not been paid." The teachers complained that within one week, the Government can pay the straw vendors weekly benefits plus a twenty five hundred dollars lump sum and "we can't get money for which we have actually worked and are owed." According to one teacher "We can show them better than we can tell them."
Concerns Over Counterfeit Money in Election - We reported last week on a senior general in FNM Eight Mile Rock MP Lindy Russell's campaign being held in the United States on charges of counterfeit money possession. Now media reports say that James Vega remains in custody, to be charged with the possession of some $200,000 in fake currency. The charge is cause for political concern following revelations about the widespread use of counterfeit American money for buying influence and votes throughout the last election, particularly in the Family Islands.
Gilbert Morris at Kristi's - Professor Gilbert Morris, the son
of Grand Bahama who now lectures in the United States was in Freeport recently.
Professor Morris addressed the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce in an attempt
to persuade on the disadvantages of The Bahamas entering into the Free
Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). While in Freeport, Professor
Morris stopped off at Kristi's - an eatery popular with politicos - to
make his points. Immediately upon his arrival, several tables emptied
to the parking lot to row in disagreement and to use cell phones to report
on the matter to senior FNMs in Nassau. It was suggested that perhaps
Morris ought to be persuaded to sign on as an advisor to the Minister responsible,
Zhivargo Laing, who speaks about an 800 million-person market for Bahamian
business. One onlooker commented that “the problem with that is that
we don't produce anything to sell and Zhivargo should remember that his
foreign FTAA consultants will ultimately tell him to do what is best for
their nation, not his.”
