01062023 NEWS, SPORTS AND BUSINESS

HORROR AS TEEN COLLAPSES AND DIES PLAYING BASKETBALL

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

more information.

“Around quarter to 10

this morning, we understand that the victim was here playing a game of basketball when she reportedly collapsed,” CSP Skippings said at the scene.

“We are going to have an autopsy performed to find out exactly what went wrong (and) why she collapsed on the park today. We can’t say if she had any previous medical condition or known to have any,” she said.

PHARMACIST PROFITS DOWN AFTER PRICE CONTROLS

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIVATE pharmacies have seen a reduction in profits since the government’s price control regulations that were meant to bring economic relief to Bahamians were introduced late last year, according to the Bahamas Pharmaceutical Association’s (BPA) president yesterday. Despite this, Shantia McBride told The

been no

on their

that most pharmacies in the association have been complying with the policies since reaching a compromise with the government in November.

“None of our pharmacies have indicated any issues whether with the government or with price control departments,” she said.

“So, we regularly seem to be complying so we don’t have any issues. We’re just carrying on smartly.”

20 LAID OFF AT CONTAINER PORT - THEN DECISION IS REVERSED

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE decision to lay off 20 Bahamian workers at the Freeport Container Port has been reversed following the “swift intervention” of Prime Minister Philip Davis, according to an official statement by the Ministry for Grand Bahama.

After being informed of recent developments at the container port, Mr Davis personally intervened in the matter and reached out to the international and local partners of the company to get those laid off back to work.

FTX INVESTORS FINANCE LINK IN ROBINHOOD

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, and its customers/ investors, were yesterday said to have unwittingly helped finance a $546m investment by Sam Bankman-Fried that has been seized by US authorities.

The Bahamian joint provisional liquidators, in a filing with the US Chapter 11 bankruptcy court in Delaware, said their probe suggested assets belonging to FTX Digital Markets and/or its clients may have been used by the crypto exchange’s indicted founder and his fellow principal, Gary Wang, to last year acquire 56m shares in online brokerage firm Robinhood Markets.

Tribune there has

major negative impact

businesses and

DIANE PHILLIPS: ERIC CAREY TOOK ELITISM OUT OF BNT

SHANTIA McBride, president of the Bahamas Pharmaceutical Association.

AN 18-YEAR-OLD

girl collapsed and died at a basketball court at Masons Addition park yesterday.

Press liaison officer Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings said police are classifying the matter as a sudden death until they can get

PEOPLE watch on in shock after an 18-year-old girl collapsed and died while playing basketball at Masons Addition yesterday. Officials are seen left removing the body from the scene.

Photos: Austin Fernander

Horror as teen collapses and dies playing basketball

from page one

CSP Skippings added she was told some of the residents attempted to try to revive the teen, but were unsuccessful.

“After they couldn’t, they were able to contact EMS who came and recognised there were no visible signs of life.”

According to someone who identified themself as a relative of the teen, the victim is La’Bree Bonaby.

Asked if the teen complained about feeling ill

before collapsing, the press liaison officer replied: “Nothing, so that’s why we’re saying that we have to have an autopsy performed to find out what went wrong. Obviously, something went wrong and she collapsed.”

The death left bystanders and those who were playing on the court noticeably devastated. Bystanders were heard wailing and sobbing at the scene.

The incident prompted CSP Skippings to call for more people to learn CPR.

“I always encourage

persons to try to know the basic steps in CPR because you never know when something is going to go wrong and so with this particular incident as we talk about it I want to encourage Bahamians and residents to reach out.

“You have Red Cross. You have some of the medical facilities around. Reach out to them and see if you can learn at least basic steps in CPR because one day you never know when you can use it and that very time that you use it you can actually save a life.”

MOTHER OF TEN TELLS OF HER STRUGGLE SINCE SON’S MURDER

By JADE RUSSELL jrussell@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER of ten said yesterday since the murder of her son last year she has been struggling to make ends meet while also fearing for the lives of her other children.

“I try my best to make sure my children eat, and I just go to bed on a cup of tea or just go to bed without anything. And then when you try to ask these daddies to help, they look at you different and say they don’t have it. Their daddies could go to bed and sleep good.

“But one like me I can’t sleep because I got to make sure my children come first, they have to eat. God gave me them for a reason,” Natasha Ferguson told The Tribune

Ms Ferguson explained that life hasn’t been easy since her son Keithon Johnson was murdered in their home last July, adding a month later someone tried to kill her other son in the same house.

“They came back to kill my son, we had to move for safety reasons,” Ms Ferguson said.

She said since moving

out of her home she’s been in and out of a shelter sharing a one-bedroom apartment with her nine living children.

Ms Ferguson pointed out that after requesting to extend time in the shelter, her time in the there is winding down. She said she and her children have nowhere else to go.

“They (Social Services) put me in the shelter from August,” she said.

“I’ve been trying to go back every two weeks to them because they give you a letter until the two weeks. And I have to go back and

forth to let them know we haven’t gotten straight with anything as yet,” she said.

Ms Ferguson said Social Services has been helpful during her hardships, but said she wants to provide a better life for her children.

The single mother explained that she recently got a job, but is yet to be paid.

Asked what she would tell others who know single mothers who are struggling, Ms Ferguson said: “If you could help see if you can reach out to anybody to assist them. And you know in life, some people may not

have it, but they would be scared to ask.”

She added that sometimes she also finds herself still mourning the murder of her son, Keithon.

“I just think about the good times I had with him. I say, Lord, I wish he was here knowing the fact that the Christmas gone past,” she said.

“Some days I find myself crying even when they mention his name.”

According to police reports, Keithon was at his home at around 12.25am when he was approached and shot by a man wearing

a black ski mask, black jacket, blue jeans and black tennis shoes.

Police said the victim was taken to hospital by EMS where he died of his injuries.

When asked how she is holding on despite these challenges, she responded: “The only thing I can do is trust God and ask him to give me the space. To help me raise my children how I’m supposed to and protect them.”

Anyone who would like assist Ms Ferguson can send an email to jrussell@tribunemedia.net.

CHIEF Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings addressing the media.

THE SCENE in Masons Addition as onlookers watched following the collapse of an 18-year-old girl during a basketball game yesterday.

Photos: Austin Fernander

THE BODY being removed from the scene yesterday.

20 laid off at container port - then decision is reversed

from page one

At a press conference in Freeport earlier on Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, speaking in his capacity as chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party, indicated that the prime minister and the Progressive Liberal Party were very disappointed and shocked by the layoffs.

FCP, one of the largest employers on Grand Bahama, had advised the government by letter dated December 28, 2022, of its most recent termination of 20 employees from FCP effective from December 31, 2022.

Mr Mitchell said the “prime minister’s view was that the matters should be reversed and that it should not have happened, particularly since he reached out a hand to the company and thought that we were partners in Grand Bahama, and its forward development”.

He added: “This event was simply shocking in the face of it.”

In an earlier statement by the Ministry for Grand Bahama, Minister Ginger Moxey had also indicated her disappointment over the decision to terminate Bahamians “in the midst of ongoing efforts by Grand Bahama residents to recover and rebuild their lives from destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian, and the economic downturn brought on by COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The government of The Bahamas will be in communication with FCP on this and other matters as we hope to forge ahead to recover and rebuild GB for the benefit of our people,” Ms Moxey said.

Shortly after 2pm, the ministry issued another statement advising: “Following the swift intervention of the prime minister, the decision to lay off 20 workers at the Freeport Container Port has been reversed.”

Describing the decision to lay off the workers as “unconscionable,” Minister Mitchell noted that the container port has been

very profitable in Grand Bahama, and “should not be making these moves.”

“As you know I wear several roles, one of which is the chairman of the PLP and it is in that capacity I wish to speak – because, quite frankly, all of us were really shocked to hear of these developments.

“This city just seemed to be catching a break and on an upward trajectory and for these developments to happen, just seems shocking

to me.

“The fact is that this community needs to grow and develop, and it needs all its commercial entities, private and public, to pull together for the success and upward movement of this community. And it was really disappointing to hear of these developments.”

He noted that there has been a fair number of complaints about the management of FCP, and the way Bahamians are treated.

“This as you know is a serial problem for our country,” he said. “Every time there is investment –investment is good – people make generous profits in this country, but they seem to dislike Bahamians. You cannot figure out why that is.

“What has happened, we understand, is the number of work permits has actually increased, not decreased since they had Bahamian management running the company,” Mr Mitchell said.

“So, we have to find out why that is. And what you do not want to do, of course, is to be xenophobic because there may be reasons why you have to bring in expatriate labour. But expatriate labour should match the benefits which are obtained to Bahamians, not at the expense of Bahamians. But there have been many complaints which come to us about management of the company.”

He explained that while statute law can do some things, the main issue is whether Bahamians are willing to stand up for themselves.

“I say often the

government is expected to do various things and that is correct. We have been elected to do that, but the government is only as strong as the people standing behind you.”

Mr Mitchell said that the question was whether FCP had followed the law. He noted that in their letter which they wrote to the government, they are relying on an amendment to the Employment Act.

This, he explained, sets out certain rules for when employers want to make people redundant.

“One of (the rules) is that you are to notify the minister (of labour) in writing 14 days in advance of any proposed redundancy, laying out the numbers, how many people you intend to layoff, the names, and the reason for redundancy,” he stated.

He further stated that there is also provision in the Act that if an employer does not follow those rules, particularly as it relates to 20 people or more, the law calls for an additional 30 days of pay to be given to an employee.

“One of the reasons why I spent time talking to the

PM, the minister for GB and the minister of labour on the call was to find out whether or not we are certain the container

“So, in a sense, they have on the face of it would appear they followed the law in giving notice to the minister directly, but if you go forensically through the provisions of the Act, it appears to me there are some gaps which they have not followed.

“This to me is more than law, it has to do with equity and fairness. A company that has done well in this country and at this point should not be making these moves - that is the way I see it.”

Since the pandemic, he said, shipping companies have made a fortune.

“You cannot tell me that because you have had some reverses in recent times, that that makes up for all the profits made during the time of the pandemic. It just comes off as unconscionable and contrary to all the best efforts that everyone is seeking to make to try and have this community succeed,” he said.

FNM: WHAT LED TO DECISION TO TERMINATE WORKERS?

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE the Freeport Container Port reversing its decision to terminate some 20 staff, Free National Movement MP for East Grand Bahama Kwasi Thompson said he believes it is still incumbent on the government to investigate the circumstances that led to the decision in the first place.

Mr Thompson was contacted moments after the Ministry for Grand Bahama announced the port had reversed its decision to lay

off staff.

This comes after the FNM MP had earlier expressed sadness over the terminations, while calling for the government to investigate the matter.

“I think it’s concerning for a company that is that important to Grand Bahama to have made a decision to terminate 20-plus employees — which is a large percentage of their workforce — is concerning, even if they have made a reversal,” he told The Tribune yesterday.

“It is concerning that they made that decision to begin with and so I think

it’s incumbent to understand their reasoning behind making the decision to begin with and if there is a challenge or a problem which what I indicated whether there was a larger problem afoot, then if that needs intervention, then it is the government’s obligation to seek to intervene to correct whatever challenge or problem the company is facing.”

The firings were confirmed around noon yesterday by Foreign Affairs and Public Service Minister Fred Mitchell who was in Grand Bahama yesterday.

He initially told reporters

MAN SHOT AS HE CLEANED CAR

A MAN is in hospital after he was shot while cleaning his car yesterday.

It is one of three shootings police are investigating that occurred between Wednesday and yesterday.

The latest shooting took place after 2pm yesterday and left a 22-year-old man of Foxdale Subdivision in hospital.

Police were alerted to gunshots being discharged on Frank Edgecombe Street by ShotSpotter technology.

At the scene, officers were told the victim was cleaning his car when the occupants of a black Suzuki Swift opened fire on him.

The victim, who is presently being electronically monitored, received injuries to his leg and was taken to hospital where he is presently seeking medical attention.

Two separate shootings occurred on Wednesday.

The first incident reportedly occurred around 6.30pm in the area of Gibbs Corner off East Street.

According to reports, officers were alerted by ShotSpotter to gunshots being discharged in the Gibbs Corner area.

Police responded and on arrival discovered two boys, ages 16 and 15, with gunshot injuries.

The 16-year-old, of Podoleo Street, was grazed over the eye, and the 15-year-old of Taylor Street was shot in his leg.

Both victims were taken to hospital where they were treated and discharged.

The second incident reportedly occurred shortly after 7pm on Wednesday and resulted in a 27-yearold male of Pitt Road being shot in his thigh.

The victim was at a park in Rock Crusher, when he reportedly heard gunshots and realised he had

been shot.

The victim was taken to hospital, where he was treated, discharged and subsequently arrested for an armed robbery.

Police also said a 19-yearold youth was robbed of an undetermined amount of cash on Wednesday morning.

The incident reportedly occurred around 7am in the Carmichael Road area.

The victim was walking south on McKinney Drive when he was approached and attacked by two suspects, who beat and robbed him of cash and an iPhone.

Police are investigating and appealing to members of the public who may have information that can assist them with their investigations to contact 911/919, the Criminal Investigation Department at 502-9991/2 or Crime Stoppers at 328TIPS (8477).

that officials were shocked and disappointed to learn of the terminations, especially at a time when the city “seemed to be catching a break and on an upward trajectory” and pledged government intervention.

Hours later, the Ministry of Grand Bahama released a statement saying, “Following the swift intervention of the prime minister, the decision to lay off 20 workers at the Freeport Container Port has been reversed.”

Grand Bahama has been dealt with a series of economic blows over the last several years.

Since assuming office in 2021, the Davis administration promised to ensure that the island lives up to its full potential amid continuing concerns about the island’s beleaguered economy.

However, yesterday, Mr Thompson conceded that the island is tired of hearing promises and now just wants action.

“Grand Bahama does not need any additional announcements,” he added.

“They need concrete action and they need concrete results and to date, unfortunately the public has not seen the results that are required.

“There’s no more time for photo ops. There’s no more time for PR. It is time to deliver for the people of Grand Bahama. That is the only thing that will satisfy the public. That is the only thing that the public needs at the moment.

“They need the government to deliver on its commitment for the airport. They need the government to deliver the commitment for the hotel. They need the government to deliver on its commitment for the jobs - and full economic revival and so today, unfortunately we have not seen it.”

port followed the law in this matter.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell.

Pharmacist profits down after price control move

The BPA and the Davis administration traded-off higher mark-ups for the industry with an expanded list of price-controlled items that has increased by ten medications.

Pharmaceutical wholesalers and retailers now have one set mark-up across the board, at 20 percent and 40 percent respectively, for all price-controlled items in a move that will also simplify the structure.

This places the price control mark-ups for

wholesalers at a slightly higher level than the government was initially proposing, between 15-18 percent, but the association had warned the initial mark-ups were too low, and that many of the smaller pharmacies would be forced to shut down because they would be operating at a loss.

This led to weeks of negotiations with the government over a revised strategy to implement the expanded price control measures.

The regulations are supposed to come to an end

this month after the government revisits the changes.

When asked about the policy’s impact on business, the association president said while operators have seen a reduction in profits, it has not reached the point where businesses need to cut back on staff or shutter their doors.

“Our agreement was done on the basis of the timeline given and with expectations that, as we would have indicated, we do not wish for any of our stores to close so no negative impact in terms of closures of any stores,” she

told The Tribune

“There has been, of course, a reduction in profits, but not a negative impact, you know, to businesses… so no negative impact in that regard.”

With the regulations set to end soon, she was also asked if the association was anxiously waiting for the deadline to arrive.

However, she replied: “I don’t think we’re waiting patiently. I think we are just operating on our norm. So, right now, we’re not focused on it because, like I said, it didn’t negatively impact us.”

She added: “There haven’t been any conversations since the last so it is what was indicated which is this month so no communication yet in that regard. We’re just speaking on continuing with our public education, what we wish to do between the government and the association.

“But we’ve heard nothing new in terms of the dates being changed so it’s this month (the changes end).”

As for whether the association would be receptive to the government extending the deadline, Ms McBride

only said operators would be open to meeting officials on the issue.

“We’re receptive to communication and sitting down to the table with the government and understanding what the long-term effect (would be) because once it stops, we did still make a commitment with the government for (providing) economic relief generally,” she continued.

“It may not be with our margins. It may be other things so we have other discussions that we’re having with them.”

By LETRE SWEETING lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Red Cross Society is looking to double its proceeds for this year’s ball after two years without its largest fundraiser and the organisation encouraging the public to support.

The Red Cross’ president Terez Curry announced the return of the organisation’s largest fundraiser at a press conference yesterday. After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, the 49th annual Red Cross Ball will be returning with BTC as the title sponsor.

The ball will be held on January 28 at the Grand Ballroom at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. The theme for this year’s ball is “Ballin’ Lights, Camera, Action”.

“The ball has been absent for the last two years due to the pandemic. And so we are extremely excited to have the ball again come the last Saturday of this month. The ball is our largest fundraiser that is supported by our corporate community mainly. And so we wish to encourage the corporate Bahamas to support the ball once again. The funds raised from the ball will go towards all of our programmes,” Ms Curry said.

“We anticipate a successful ball as we look to corporate Bahamas and individuals alike at the length and breadth of The Bahamas to attend the ball to dress to impress this, we are ‘Ballin’ Lights, Camera Action,’” she said.

“So we are making a movie here as the young people would say, and so be ready, be dressed to impress, come and support the Bahamas Red Cross Society for the initiatives that we are undertaking here to help all of our communities through the length and breadth of this country,” Ms Curry said.

The last ball in January of 2020 saw proceeds totaling $110,000. This year, with a capacity for 600 persons for the ball and tickets at $275, Ms Curry said she hopes the ball’s proceeds can double what was made two years ago.

“For the ball, our target figure is I think we are looking at $200,000 from the ball net. The last ball netting was at $110,000. And so we’re looking to increase that,” she said.

With an overall budget of $2.5m for all of its programmes and initiatives, Ms Curry said the Red Cross can never have “enough” support.

“So that’s where we reside and $2.5m is minimal, but that’s what we try to

work with and try to raise. It’s never enough because the needs of the country are great. Whether it is in fundraising, not all of that comes from fundraising, also from our donation requests from various areas in the community, corporate sector and second-homeowners and also internationally,” she said.

BTC representative Carol Barnett said as title sponsor for the ball this year, BTC’s support of the Red Cross has and will continue.

“This is not the first time that we have been the title sponsor of the Red Cross Ball. And I’m sure it’s not going to be the last. We have supported the Red Cross with so many initiatives. And this is something that’s near and dear to us,” Ms Barnett said.

This year’s Red Cross Ball will commence with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Pop Band providing music during the cocktail hour. Then, at dinner, the Royal Bahamas Police Force Pop Band will provide entertainment. Following dinner, entertainment will come from other local VIP entertainers.

Individual tickets for the ball are $275 each and can be purchased at the Red Cross Society on John F Kennedy Drive.

Varying levels of tables including many amenities are also available for purchase for the ball. Platinum tables are $7,500, gold tables are $5,000 and regular tables are $2,750.

Programmes and initiatives the Red Cross is working on this year include Meals on Wheels, a backyard farming initiative, a mental health initiative, and a climate change initiative which was started last year with a partnership with the Nature Conservancy.

Minnis: FTX statements about lack of trust are ‘very serious’

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis called statements from US lawyers and representatives of FTX about not trusting The Bahamas “very serious”.

He made the comments yesterday while taking the government to task on what he said is the Davis administration’s inability to follow laws.

“It’s very difficult for the government to talk about crime or managing crime when they themselves are considered a lawless group. The minister of transport is being investigated for allegedly assaulting an officer.

“Then the procurement law, the procurement Bill, they have not followed the procurement Bill in terms of providing information as to who receives contracts. . .Then there’s the problem with the Electricity Act, which does not allow them to subsidise fuel.

“So when the government continuously violates the law, it sends a bad message to the community. Not only that, if you follow the FTX case liquidation, liquidators and lawyers have made statements that they don’t trust The Bahamas.

That is very serious. So they don’t trust The Bahamas and they have a government that’s breaking the law and not answering to the people. So what message are they sending out?

“The nefarious characters would view that as a government who would do what they want and they’d be attracted to such a society. How can you, in good conscience, tell the people to follow the law? So you (might) have an increase in crime, etc. The government themselves don’t respect it.”

Last month, newly appointed FTX CEO John Ray III said the Chapter 11 process in Delaware is the only clear option that gives visibility to customers about what happened to the fallen crypto giant and a chance to recoup their money, as he lambasted the process in The Bahamas as not transparent.

He alleged that he has repeatedly asked for clarity from Bahamian regulators about what they have been doing, but have been “shut down”. Mr Ray made the revelation during the US House Committee on Financial Services hearing into FTX’s collapse in December.

FTX Digital Markets was headquartered in The

Bahamas before FTX and its associated companies filed for bankruptcy in the United States. FTX’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in December at his luxury Albany apartment after he was indicted in the US on multiple fraud charges. A week later he was extradited to the US and arraigned in a New York court. He is currently released on a $250m bond.

Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell had previously questioned how “attacking” The Bahamas helps resolve the FTX saga and dismissed claims of the country’s jurisdiction being non-transparent.

“The evidence will show that there is nothing in this jurisdiction that supports the idea of something intrinsically evil or worthy of mistrust in The Bahamas. Such an assertion is not only offensive, it is wrong,” Mr Mitchell said in a voice note.

“Watching the proceedings on television of the congressional hearings in The United States, I was forced to ask myself the question: Do these legislators understand that they who sit at the apex of the power in the world, have the power with their words to destroy other countries?”

BUS SCHEME TO HELP STOP AFTER-SCHOOL VIOLENCE

By JADE RUSSELL jrussell@tribunemedia.net

IN an effort to curb afterschool violence, 28 bus drivers have partnered with the Ministry of Education in the launch of its publicschool bus programme.

The pilot phase of the programme started on Tuesday with 15 schools in New Providence that allowed students to use the public bus system on campus.

Chief Superintendent Chaswell Hanna, coordinator of the school policing programme for the Royal Bahamas Police Force, said yesterday the initiative is targeted to combat after school violence.

CSP Hanna stressed there has been a trend of students getting into arguments with one another while they are either waiting at the bus stop or walking home.

Videos have circulated recently on social media

of students fighting each other in the street while still dressed in their school uniform.

“We tried to come up with a creative idea to reduce the number of these fights and incidents that occur after school. What we found when we analysed the trends was that a number of these fights involve students who were walking to the bus stop, or waiting on the bus at a bus stop,” CSP Hanna said.

He said the public-school bus programme will prevent fights from happening by allowing students to be directly picked up from their designated campus.

CSP Hanna added that each principal of the various schools identified which buses and routes the students usually take, adding it helped in the bus drivers being placed effectively.

Shavanna Darville, principal of SC McPherson Junior High School said the

programme has had a good start.

“We’ve run this for the past two days. This is day three of this initiative. And you can see the pleasure in the faces of our students as they enter the bus right here on the campus,” Ms Darville said.

She explained that before the programme, many students were forced to walk long distances just to get to a bus stop.

“Most of our students would have to walk almost a half a mile to catch the bus that will be taking them over to the Carmichael Road area. Additionally, they would have competed with buses, who would have the regular public driving along with them. So space would have been a problem and issue for our students,” Ms Darville said.

Drivers involved in the programme must have a public service licence that is up to date. Drivers are

MARIJUANA HAUL FOUND BY POLICE

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

ABACO and Grand Bahama Police made a large drug haul this week, seizing over 200 blocks of suspected marijuana and arresting a male resident of Treasury Cay.

According to police reports, officers discovered and confiscated 15 crocus sacks containing over 260 blocks of suspected marijuana during a special operation conducted on Wednesday.

Preliminary reports

indicate that shortly after 5pm, officers of the Northern Bahamas executed a search warrant on single story residence on St Andrew Drive, where the drugs were found, along with a quantity of ammunition.

A 46-year-old male resident of the Treasure Cay Sub-division was taken into custody and is assisting police with their investigation.

In other news, Grand Bahama Police are searching for a missing stolen vessel.

Police received reports

shortly before 9am on Tuesday that a 32ft blue and while center console Century vessel with two 300 HP Yamaha engines was stolen from a residence situated at Fortune Point, Fortune Village.

Investigations are actively underway and police are appealing to the public for their assistance in locating the vessel and the suspect/suspects responsible. Persons may contact the police at 911/919, the Criminal Investigations Department at 502-9991/2 or Crimestoppers at 328-TIPS.

also encouraged to be a positive role model to the students.

Students are still required to pay a bus fee but will have the benefit of the bus arriving to them on campus.

For his part, Rudolph Taylor, the Bahamas Unified Bus Drivers Union’s (BUDU) president, said

he hopes that the programme will help to show bus drivers in a more positive way.

Mr Taylor said: “We know in the media there’s always been something negative about the bus drivers and the buses on the way they conduct themselves.

“So, this is one way that we can see that we can get it done. And can show that we are positive in the way that we traverse with the children on our streets.”

The bus programme is set to continue for the rest of the school semester. Officials said adjustments will be made where needed.

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

Publisher/Editor 1903-1914

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SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH, Kt., O.B.E., K.M., K.C.S.G., (Hon.) LL.D., D.Litt .

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Published daily Monday to Friday Shirley & Deveaux Streets, Nassau, Bahamas N3207 TELEPHONES News

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Two-thirds of glaciers ‘to disappear’ by 2100

THE world’s glaciers are shrinking and disappearing faster than scientists thought, with two-thirds of them projected to melt out of existence by the end of the century at current climate change trends, according to a new study. But if the world can limit future warming to just a few more tenths of a degree and fulfill international goals — technically possible but unlikely according to many scientists — then slightly less than half the globe’s glaciers will disappear, said the same study. Mostly small but well-known glaciers are marching to extinction, study authors said.

In an also unlikely worst-case scenario of several degrees of warming, 83% of the world’s glaciers would likely disappear by the year 2100, study authors said.

The study in Thursday’s journal Science examined all of the globe’s 215,000 land-based glaciers -- not counting those on ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica -- in a more comprehensive way than past studies. Scientists then used computer simulations to calculate, using different levels of warming, how many glaciers would disappear, how many trillions of tons of ice would melt, and how much it would contribute to sea level rise.

The world is now on track for a 2.7degree Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature rise since pre-industrial times, which by the year 2100 means losing 32% of the world’s glacier mass, or 48.5 trillion metric tons of ice as well as 68% of the glaciers disappearing. That would increase sea level rise by 4.5 inches (115 millimeters) in addition to seas already getting larger from melting ice sheets and warmer water, said study lead author David Rounce.

“No matter what, we’re going to lose a lot of the glaciers,” Rounce, a glaciologist and engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said. “But we have the ability to make a difference by limiting how many glaciers we lose.”

“For many small glaciers it is too late,” said study co-author Regine Hock, a glaciologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Oslo in Norway. “However, globally our results clearly show that every degree of global temperature matters to keep as much ice as possible locked up in the glaciers.”

Projected ice loss by 2100 ranges from 38.7 trillion metric tons to 64.4 trillion tons, depending on how much the globe warms and how much coal, oil and gas is burned, according to the study.

The study calculates that all that melting ice will add anywhere from 3.5 inches (90 millimeters) in the best case to 6.5 inches (166 millimeters) in the worst case to the world’s sea level, 4% to 14% more than previous projections.

That 4.5 inches of sea level rise from glaciers would mean more than 10 million people around the world — and more than 100,000 people in the United States — would be living below the high tide line, who otherwise would be above it, said sea level rise researcher Ben Strauss, CEO of Climate Central. Twentieth-century sea level rise from climate change added about 4 inches to the surge from 2012 Superstorm Sandy costing about $8 billion in damage just in itself, he said.

Scientists say future sea level rise will be driven more by melting ice sheets than glaciers.

But the loss of glaciers is about more than rising seas. It means shrinking water supplies for a big chunk of the world’s population, more risk from flood events from melting glaciers and about losing historic ice-covered spots from Alaska to the Alps to even near Mount Everest’s base camp, several scientists told The Associated Press.

“For places like the Alps or Iceland... glaciers are part of what makes these landscapes so special,” said National Snow and Ice Data Center Director Mark Serreze, who wasn’t part of the study but praised it. “As they lose their ice in a sense they also lose their soul.”

Hock pointed to Vernagtferner glacier in the Austrian Alps, which is one of the best-studied glaciers in the world, but said “the glacier will be gone.”

The Columbia Glacier in Alaska had 216 billion tons of ice in 2015, but with just a few more tenths of a degree of warming, Rounce calculated it will be half that size. If there’s 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times, an unlikely worst-case scenario, it will lose twothirds of its mass, he said.

“It’s definitely a hard one to look at and not drop your jaw at,” Rounce said.

Glaciers are crucial to people’s lives in much of the world, said National Snow and Ice Center Deputy Lead Scientist Twila Moon, who wasn’t part of the study.

“Glaciers provide drinking water, agricultural water, hydropower, and other services that support billions (yes, billions!) of people,” Moon said in an email.

Moon said the study “represents significant advances in projecting how the world’s glaciers may change over the next 80 years due to human-created climate change.”

That’s because the study includes factors in glacier changes that previous studies didn’t and is more detailed, said Ruth Mottram and Martin Stendel, climate scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute who weren’t part of the research.

This new study better factors in how the glaciers’ ice melts not just from warmer air, but water both below and at the edges of glaciers and how debris can slow melt, Stendel and Mottram said.

Previous studies concentrated on large glaciers and made regional estimates instead of calculations for each individual glacier.

In most cases, the estimated loss figures Rounce’s team came up with are slightly more dire than earlier estimates.

If the world can somehow limit warming to the global goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times -the world is already at 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) -- Earth will likely lose 26% of total glacial mass by the end of the century, which is 38.7 trillion metric tons of ice melting. Previous best estimates had that level of warming melting translating to only 18% of total mass loss.

“I have worked on glaciers in the Alps and Norway which are really rapidly disappearing,” Mottram said in an email. “It’s kind of devastating to see.”

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

Embassy on COVID in China

EDITOR, The Tribune.

OVER the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government has put people first, prioritised saving lives, and has taken a science-based and targeted approach in its pandemic response. We have effectively responded to five global COVID waves, avoided the worst impacts of the original strain and the Delta variant of the virus, and maintained one of the lowest infection and fatality rates.

At the same time, China has sought to promote economic reopening and recovery, and readjusted response measures in light of the evolving situation. With the milder Omicron variant and China’s treatment, testing and vaccination capacity steadily expanding, China found it necessary to transition into designating COVID19 as a Class-B instead of Class-A infectious disease, shifting the focus from stemming infections to preventing severe cases.

This science-based shift is a timely and strategic move conducive to better coordinating COVID response with economic and social development and safeguarding the fundamental interests of the Chinese people. The relevant authorities in China are now going all out to beef up medical resources, increase medication supply and protect vulnerable populations from the elderly with underlying conditions, to women in pregnancy and children, and are making every effort to reduce severe cases and deaths.

While breakthrough infections are a common occurrence with different COVID-19 vaccines, China’s domestically developed and produced vaccines have bolstered the health of the Chinese people against the most dangerous effects of the pandemic, and have proven to be both safe and efficacious. The medical community in China are now working to further

upgrade the vaccines and make them even more effective.

As things stand, China’s COVID situation is predictable and under control. Beijing is among the first cities to see infections peak, and life and work are coming back to normal there. Relevant Chinese departments have been making necessary preparations for infection peaking in provinces and cities across China.

We are confident that with the concerted efforts of the Chinese people, we will prevail over the pandemic and usher in a brighter future for our people.

Based on scientific and rational assessment, the Chinese government has taken a series of measures to facilitate people-to-people exchanges with the rest of the world. From January 8th onward, any visitor going to China will only need to do a PCR test 48 hours before travel and no quarantine or testing will be required after arrival.

Air flights will be increased and visa applications facilitated. Outbound tourism for Chinese citizens will be resumed. These measures have received a warm response from many countries. We expect to see steady, significant rises in the number of students, business travellers and tourists returning to China.

We will continue to adapt our COVID response measures as necessary to facilitate the safe and orderly cross-border travel of Chinese and foreign nationals and expedite international exchanges and cooperation. Such greater ease of travel will no doubt benefit the friendly exchanges between China and the people of Caribbean countries, including The Bahamas.

China has actively participated in international

cooperation against the pandemic. The competent authorities in China have shared information in a timely, open and transparent manner in accordance with the law. We shared the genome data of the virus from the latest COVID cases in China via the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID). In a virtual meeting held several days ago, Chinese agencies held technical exchanges with the WHO on the current COVID situation, treatment and vaccination. The two sides agreed to continue technical exchanges to facilitate an early global victory over the pandemic.

In recent days, health experts from many countries have advised against the adoption of entry restrictions targeting Chinese visitors, believing that the main variant now spreading in China has been found elsewhere and that a new variant can emerge anywhere on the planet. A statement released by The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on January 4, 2023 described those measures taken by some countries as “ineffective”, and more like “science politics”.

We hope that all countries will follow a science-based approach and work together to promote safe cross-border travel to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and bolster global solidarity against COVID and world economic recovery. Some Western media commentary sought to put a negative spin on China’s COVID policy adjustment. This is nothing but double standards.

We remain committed to working with the international community in solidarity, to more effectively tackle the COVID challenge, and better protect people’s lives and health.

CUI WEI Chinese Embassy spokesman Nassau, January

4, 2023

POWERFUL waves batter the Capitola Wharf after the storm destroyed a section of the structure yesterday in Capitola, California.

Photo: Shmuel Thaler/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP

DAD JAILED FOR HAVING LOADED GUN WHEN ARRESTED IN FRONT OF HIS CHILDREN

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A FATHER was sentenced to two years in prison in court yesterday after admitting to having a loaded gun when he was arrested in front of his children in December of 2021.

Richard Bowles, 47, appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney for sentencing on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of ammunition.

Around 3.45pm on December 11, 2021, officers on mobile patrol stopped Bowles’ white vehicle as it was travelling east on Baillou Hill Road near Meeting Street. With his three young daughters in the backseat of the car, a search of the accused led to the discovery

of a silver and black coloured .40 Taurus pistol. Inserted in this gun was a loaded magazine with ten live rounds of ammunition.

During an earlier court date, Sergeant Kevin Ellis testified that when arrested Bowles said he had the gun for his own protection.

Bowles had initially pleaded not guilty to the offence, but changed his plea to guilty in his last court appearance. The magistrate had delayed sentencing so that Bowles could get his affairs in order.

Magistrate McKinney ordered Bowles to serve two years at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services on the firearm charge. He was further sentenced to a year for the ammunition charge. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

FINED FOR BAIL BREACH

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was fined in court yesterday for breaching his curfew while on bail for his alleged involvement in a 2021 airport armed robbery that almost killed a woman and a police officer.

Marvin Tilme, 30, represented by attorney Alphonso Lewis, faced Magistrate Samuel McKinney on a charge of violation of bail conditions.

This is in connection with Tilme’s Supreme Court imposed bail on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm, possession of ammunition, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, armed robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, two counts of abetment to commit attempted murder, two counts of attempted murder and three counts of abetment to commit armed

robbery.

It is alleged that on October 2, 2021, being concerned with others and armed with a handgun, Tilme robbed Karen Bain at LPIA while she was assisting a business with a deposit. It is said that $3,354 in cash, a $200 cell phone and a pair of Coach glasses were stolen from Ms Bain. During this same incident it is reported that when a police officer attempted to intervene, the suspects shot him before fleeing the scene.

On December 27, 2022, around 1.50am, Tilme, while on bail on these charges, failed to keep his court ordered residential curfew.

In court, the accused pleaded guilty. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine or risk spending three months in prison.

Tilme was also placed on 18 months’ probation. If he breaches this, he faces a year in prison.

TWO ACCUSED OF GUN THREAT

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

TWO men were given bail in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on separate charges of assaulting and threatening a man with a gun on New Year’s Eve.

Bancroft Thompson, 27, and Deangelo Morley, 20, faced Magistrate Samuel McKinney on a charge of assault and possession of a firearm with intent to put another in fear.

It is alleged that on December 31 in New Providence, Thompson assaulted Tenero Jones. During this

same incident it is alleged that Morley also threatened Jones with a handgun.

In court, both accused pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Bail was granted to Thompson at $1,000 with one surety. After the prosecution revealed that Morley had a previous conviction in 2020 for shop-breaking, he was also granted bail at $7,500 with one or two sureties. Under the conditions of this bail Morley is expected to sign in at Carmichael Road Police Station every Wednesday and Saturday by 6pm.

Their respective trials are scheduled for February 6.

MAN STOLE FROM STORE WHILE DRUNK

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was ordered to reimburse a grocery store yesterday after he admitted stealing $46.62 worth of inventory while drunk.

Keith Butler, 57, appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney on charges of stealing and receiving.

On January 3 at the Quality Supermarket on West Bay Street, Butler reportedly stole four packages

of raw shrimp, a piece of macaroni and a deli dinner altogether valued at $46.62.

In court, Butler pleaded guilty to the offence explaining that he was intoxicated at the time. With his admittance of the theft, the receiving charge against him was dropped.

The magistrate ordered him to compensate the store for the stolen goods. Butler was further bound to keep the peace for six months. If he violates this, he faces a $500 fine or three months in prison.

Farmer frustration at rampant thefts

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

A LOCAL farmer has expressed disappointment over the rampant theft of produce and goods from his property, which has increased since the beginning of the pandemic.

Phil Davis Jr, president of Eden Farming Club, told The Tribune yesterday that subsistence farmers are becoming discouraged as thieves serve as a large threat to their way of life, as the goods produced make them targets.

Mr Davis said fellow farmers have vocalised similar challenges, noting that they are faced with the reality of accepting the loss of goods or increasing protection measures which will contribute to an increase in pricing.

“Most of the people that I speak with, who do their community yards and farms (said) it’s a major issue,” he told The Tribune yesterday.

“Either between wild dogs getting on properties killing livestock or

people just coming and taking their produce off the trees. Doesn’t make any sense,” he added.

Commercial and subsistence farmers have expressed these challenges on numerous occasions, having previously called on the government to provide financial assistance to help secure their properties.

While disappointed in the increase in agricultural theft, the board director of the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation said he is weighing the pros and cons to determine his way forward.

“It’s discouraging within the whole Eden Farming Club,” he said yesterday.

“I try to promote to people to grow into their yards, but if it’s going to cause you to be a target, or have your home targeted because they (thieves) see something and then they see something else, and they get that chip in their head that ‘it’s alright, I have already taken, so I could possibly take something else.’

“That’s the pros and cons, just

weighing it out right now,” he continued.

In a series of Facebook posts, Mr Davis expressed his frustration with the trespassers, noting that his most recent ordeal was with coconut vendors.

He noted that the coconut vendors are stealing the fruit to make money, however, it contributes to his loss in produce.

In explaining his dissatisfaction, he said: “Something seriously needs to happen before thieves discourage all of the farmers. It’s not worth the costs of security and loss of produce to run and operate on a farm. And the little that you grow in the comfort of your yard makes it a target and ultimately unsafe for you.”

Due to the challenges Mr Davis is faced with, yesterday he cut down his coconut tree as it is on the outskirts of his property and will likely prevent the recurrence of intruders.

Mr Davis noted that the trespassers have also stolen other produce on numerous occasions.

Food for thought about food sustainability in The Bahamas

By Tim Hauber

I recently came across a document that I wrote in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when the world was in turmoil due to lockdowns and many of the distributions systems that we took for granted for many years were shutting down.

Many were questioning our survival as a nation, not only due to this novel virus that was wreaking havoc on our health but because our traditional food importation system was showing signs of crumbling. The fact is undeniable that if we were suddenly not able to import food into The Bahamas, we would have a crisis of survival.

Currently, we import approximately 95% of our food. If this food importation was to cease, then what would happen... would only 5% of our population be able to eat? Certainly, we would face complete chaos and the eventual starvation of many unless we could figure out how to grow our own food at volumes large enough to feed our country!

This challenge has evaded us for many years and successive governments have seen the need to address this glaring vulnerability but have not managed to lead us from dependency to food security. Food security means that all persons have regular access to an adequate supply of safe, nutritious and affordable food.

Many persons would build

a case that although food security is vital, the ultimate goal is actually food sovereignty. This is a scenario where the population is not merely ‘food secure’ but they are involved and have some control over their food production and consumption practices instead of an unhealthy dependance on corporations whose main goal is profitability. This is a global challenge and one I look forward to exploring in a future article. For now, I would like to propose some simple concepts that can help us move from food dependency towards food security.

To be clear, I am a trained food scientist and have only been involved in food production in The Bahamas for the past 20 years, so I do not pretend to have extensive expertise in economics and governance, but I offer my observations as someone who is very passionate about food production and has a deep commitment to see The Bahamas thrive and flourish both health wise and economically.

I envision a multi-pronged approach to food production that involves diversity of crops and food production models. The more diversity we build into our model the stronger the model will be. One thing that we are learning as modern agriculture evolves is that large mega farms growing one single crop are vulnerable to many stresses which makes them dependent on a steady input

of fertilizers and pesticides. This can be extremely harmful and dangerous. A more diversified food production model will allow us to grow using a much more sustainable approach and minimise the need for these synthetic inputs.

I envision a sustainable farming model based on developing four main pillars: Backyard Gardening, Urban Farming, Market Garden Farming and Large-scale Family Island Production.

Backyard Gardening Backyard gardening is the ultimate model of self-sustainability and empowerment. The endeavour of growing your own food allows you total control of what you grow but also how you grow it. There will be no questions about pesticide contamination of your food if you have grown it yourself using organic techniques. It is amazing how much food can be produced from a simple 4-foot by 4-foot garden plot. I encourage you to start small and as you gain experience and confidence you can expand your garden to a size that will provide not only for your family but also for your neighbours!

Working in your garden for a few minutes every day will provide you a therapeutic experience that helps to counteract the stress of your daily routine. Getting children involved in gardening at a young age has multiple benefits with perhaps the most significant being that children are much more likely to eat healthful vegetables if they are involved in growing them!

Funeral Service for

Sandy Louise Rigby, 44

Of Washington Street, Nassau, Bahamas, will be held on Sunday, January 8th, 2023, at 11:00a.m. at Living Faith Seventh-day Adventist Church, Nassau, Bahamas. Officiant will be Elder Roland Kinlock. Interment will follow at Woodlawn Gardens, Soldier Road, Nassau, Bahamas.

Left to cherish her memories are Sister: Barbara Williams, Brother: Kingsley Taylor; Niece: Vanessa Henfield (Kenny) and Alicia Evans, Nephews: Quincy Williams and Travis Williamson; Grand Niece: Shionté Woodhouse; Grand Nephews: Kareem, Teron and Kendrick; Great-Grand Niece: Oriana; God Children: Shania Brown, Luciano Henchell and Rushon Fox (cousin); Aunts: Rose Rigby-Forbes, Angela Tucker-Arthur and Deloris Rigby-Nash; Uncles: John Samuel Rigby and Timothy Nash Family, Gomez, Basil and Smith, Alveria Rolle and Family, Rosley Moss and Family, Patrica Morley and Family, Curlean Morley and Family, Evern, Samuel and Phillip Carey and Family, Zennith Williams and Family, Wayne and Nicole Taylor and Family, Marshall Williams Jr. and Family, Clarita Williams and Family, Barbara Weech and Family, Anna Cox-Masgrove and Family, Ursula King and Family, Cheryl Kemp and Family, Barbara Pinder and Family, Karla and Beverly Pratt and Family, Strawdy Rigby-Collie and Family, Christine Rigby, Linda Jordon and Family, Paula Arthur-Rigby and Family, Stephanie and Pasty Henfield and Family, Mavis Wilson and Family, Ive Forbes and Family, Ryan and Alexandra Stuart, DeVaughn Glinton, Darrison and Tenisha Nash, Elaine, Shandra, Juliette and Vervenik Rigby and Family, Rhoda Kingdom and Family, Dorothy Delancy and Family, Phillip Rocker, Travis Adderly, Desmand Arthur, Rudean, Shonathea Rudolph, Stephen Fox, Elqueenia Morley-Bastian and Family, Annie Morley and Family, Katherine Smith and Family, The Rigby Family, The Cox Family, The Morley Family, The Delancy Family, Denise Rigby and Family, The Adderly Family, Shanell Taylor and Family, Friends: Maketa Curling and Family, Teresa Roll and Family, Sharon Armbrister, Cardwell and Bradley Patt, Sherry Deames, Lyn Bar and Family, Keishler Johnson and Family.

A special thank you to: Roads and Park, Dialysis Female Medical One, Living Faith Seventh Day Adventist Church and The Class of 1995 R.M. Bailey.

May Her Soul Rest in Peace!

Please forgive us if we inadvertently excluded your name. We thank everyone for your prayers and support during this time.

Relatives and friends may pay their last respects in the “Rudolph Pratt Memorial Suite” at Amethyst Memorial, #534 East Street South (opposite Fresh Auto Car Lot) on Saturday January 7th, 2023, from 11:00a.m to 6:00p.m.

Due to current Government regulations in respect of Covid-19, masks and social distancing are required and will be strictly enforced.

Backyard gardens might not seem like they would make a significant impact on our national food security, but they can. In the USA after World War 2 there was a shortage of farm produce, so families were encouraged to plant home gardens and for several years these ‘Victory Gardens’ produced 40% of the fresh vegetables consumed nationally.

Urban Farming Urban farming involves planting small farms/gardens within communities throughout the country. We typically think of farms being far from the city setting but by placing small urban farms inside cities and neighbourhoods we can help increase access to fresh produce and create wonderful learning opportunities.

Many urban farm models are currently being developed all over the world and there is much data that shows multiple benefits. An empty lot in any city or neighbourhood can be converted into a small farm that will not only supply fresh healthy produce to the surrounding homes but also serve as a hub for training and education.

Urban farms have been shown to be good community development sites where healthy cross

generational interactions take place. Additionally, community members are taught how to cook simple, affordable, nutritious meals based on the produce grown on site.

Market Garden Farming

A Market Garden farm is a small farm, typically under five acres, that grows a wide variety of produce that is sold directly to the consumer, restaurant or grocery store. These farms can be built without huge financial investment because there is no need for large tractors or other similar, costly equipment. These farms can be incredibly productive and provide a steady stream of fresh produce directly to the population.

This close relationship built between the farmer and consumer is beneficial to both parties. These farms can provide a variety of produce to each consumer or restaurant which minimizes the need for large-scale distribution and marketing. Ideally, we should have several of these farms located near every population centre or resort so the need for transporting produce inter island is minimised.

The farm here at CTI (Centre for Training and Innovation) in Rock Sound, Eleuthera, is a prime example of a Market Garden Farm where we are producing 30 different products for the population. We are currently experimenting with a 1.1-acre retractable roof Grow House with internal climate regulating capabilities and smart technology. It will allow us to grow vegetables year-round and through the harsh summer months,

thus increasing Eleuthera’s food security.

Large-scale Family Island production

In The Bahamas, we have numerous islands with many acres of arable land that can be used for food production. One significant challenge has been transporting fresh vegetables between islands. If we adopt the strategies mentioned above, this challenge will be minimized based on proximity and availability. To maximise the many acres of arable land on the Family Islands it is my belief that we should focus on growing tropical fruit and tropical roots and tubers as well as other traditional crops such as Breadfruit, Guinea Corn (Sorghum) and Pigeon Peas. These all grow well in our climate without a big requirement for technology, heavy equipment or chemical inputs. Instead of focusing on selling these products in their harvest form we can build appropriate facilities to process them into shelf stable, added value products. For example, in addition to sweet potatoes, we can produce sweet potato fries, chips and flour!

By making shelf stable products we can expand the market and not be limited by the short shelf life of fresh produce. The bottom line is that there’s no limit to the creativity of what we could make and sell from locally grown produce. We each stand to benefit in multiple ways from the simple act of growing food, even on a small scale, to feed ourselves, our families and our communities.

of One Eleuthera Foundation

TOP: Tim Hauber pruning field tomatoes. ABOVE: Residents of Eleuthera learning backyard farming at CTI’s free monthly community workshops.

BOTTOM OF PAGE: Checking plant root growth In CTI’s Hydroponic Deep Water Culture Pool

Sean D. Pratt L.F.D&E, C.E.O

Thanks, Eric Carey, you took the elitism out of the Bahamas National Trust and made it ours

WHEN Eric Carey said a final formal farewell to the Bahamas National Trust at the end of December, he left an organization that belonged to the people.

That’s not the way he found it when he joined 20 years ago.

Carey, then a young man with thick dark hair, a passion for the environment and a sense of fairness, walked into a quaint cottage-turned-office in the middle of an amazing palm garden off Village Road in Nassau and was spellbound by the potential.

He also heard the downside. Over and over and over again, he heard it. Environmental protection was a luxury. The Bahamas National Trust was for the elite. Ordinary working Bahamians were too busy making a living to worry about depleting the conch stock one day. There had always been grouper in the sea and why should it change now?

Carey had a tough road ahead of him. It was not surprising. The reality is that the Bahamas National Trust was founded by an elite group – mostly by scientists from the New York Zoological Society. It’s a fascinating story of people who discovered the beauty of The Bahamas and took it upon themselves to preserve it, never for a moment dreaming that it was not the responsible thing to do.

They were so sure of themselves and their righteousness that they had the nerve to compliment one Bahamian man, the late Herbert McKinney, for his knowledge, education and dedication to conservation.

No one can blame the foreign scientists for their interest. They laid the groundwork that decades later Carey would inherit following management of the BNT by members of a prominent Bahamian family that also cared deeply about conservation.

But Carey, promoted five years after he started to Executive Director of the BNT, took it to a whole new level. He grew the staff from nine or 10 to 90; he grew the managed national parks and conservation areas from a handful to a 32-park system covering 2.2 million acres.

Mostly, he grew the consciousness of the world around us, the earth under our feet, the air that envelops us, the shimmering water that gives our soul life itself.

I asked him this week what he was most proud

of and what he most regretted.

“BNT is now a household name that Bahamians identify with,” he said. It was a polite way of saying he had taken the elitism out of a national land and water park system, even if he had to badger the population into understanding that one day we would run out of conch and fish and crawfish if we did not protect the species and adopt better practices with restricted fishing or harvesting, either seasonally or geographically.

He’s equally proud of instilling in young people the fervor to protect, changing the culture. Thousands have now had hands-on experience handling a starfish or seeing life on a coral reef. They’ve explored the coppice and understand better than most of their parents do the critical role of mangroves through the Discovery Club or other initiatives.

Carey did not do this alone. An environmental awareness movement has swept The Bahamas.

From the Environmental Heroes Club at Claridge Primary where they proudly pinned their first environmental stewards in 2018 in the presence of the then Minister of Environment Romauld ‘Romi’ Ferreira to the strong voices of Save The Bays, admired by Carey for the courage to say what had to be said and resources to fight for the environment in court. From a soft-spoken Eleanor Phillips to an outspoken Sam Duncombe, from a reef education NGO like BREEF to the thousands throughout the islands who show up to clean a local beach, there is a new awareness that this land is our land, but it is ours to protect and preserve, not to trample and to disrespect. We have learned so much. What we once called swamp we now respect as mangrove marshland, key to coastal protection and nurseries for young species.

We have people to thank for that, including Eric Carey, today with gray hair and beard, a little older, a little wiser and about to

new chapter of his life as a consultant. May you maintain your principles, Eric, and never take on a client whose practices would keep you awake at night. If you would not serve on their board, don’t serve their board’s needs.

As for Carey’s regrets – that the magnificent national parks are not used more, that they are not part of our daily or weekend routines.

He wishes they were more accessible or that visitors and locals chose to access them more. He wishes that some, like the Village Road palm grove where he first walked into BNT, would serve as a popular visitor centre with up to 200 persons touring daily. It’s perfect for a gift shop, a local tea stop, he says. Hey Eric, how about hammocks between those palms?

There are those who at a moment in time make a difference. Eric Carey made a difference.

ERIC CAREY (right) and (below) saying farewell to the Bahamas National Trust, (bottom of page) working as Bahamas National Trust executive director.

Green jobs are boomingbut too few employees have sustainability skills to fill them

By CHRISTOPHER BOONE , Arizona State University and KAREN C SETO, Yale University

TO MEET today’s global sustainability challenges, the corporate world needs more than a few chief sustainability officers – it needs an army of employees, in all areas of business, thinking about sustainability in their decisions every day.

That means product designers, supply managers, economists, scientists, architects and many others with the knowledge to

both recognise unsustainable practices and find ways to improve sustainability for the overall health of their companies and the planet.

Employers are increasingly looking for those skills. We analysed job ads from a global database and found a tenfold increase in the number of jobs with “sustainability” in the title over the last decade, reaching 177,000 in 2021.

What’s troubling is that there are not enough skilled workers to meet the rapid growth in green and

sustainability jobs available.

While the number of “green jobs” grew globally at a rate of 8% per year over the last five years, the number of people listing green skills in their profiles only grew by 6% per year, according to a LinkedIn analysis of its nearly 800 million users.

As professors who train future workers in sustainability principles and techniques, we see several effective ways for people at all stages of their careers to gain those skills and increase those numbers.

WHERE SUSTAINABILITY JOBS ARE GROWING FASTEST

In the US, jobs in the renewable energy and environment sectors, grew by 237% over the last five years. Globally, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is forecast to result in a net increase in jobs for the energy sector.

But green jobs go well beyond solar panel installation and wind turbine maintenance.

Sustainable fashion is one of the fastestgrowing green jobs sectors, averaging a 90% growth rate annually between 2016 and 2020.

The rapid expansion of ESG investing – environment, social and governance –and portfolio management is opening up new jobs in sustainable finance. In 2021, the accounting firm PwC announced that it would invest US$12 billion and create 100,000 new jobs in ESG investing by 2026.

and business opportunities of sustainability, these skills are needed much more widely within organisations.

SO, WHERE CAN YOU FIND TRAINING?

Most sustainability and green jobs require creative problem-solving, synthesising and technical skills. Some of those skills can be learned on the job, but boosting the number of qualified job applicants will require more effective and accessible training opportunities that target employers’ needs. Here are a some training sources to consider.

‘What’s troubling is that there are not enough skilled workers to meet the rapid growth in green and sustainability jobs available. While the number of “green jobs” grew globally at a rate of 8% per year over the last five years, the number of people listing green skills in their profiles only grew by 6% per year.’

There is also a growing demand for urban sustainability officers who can help transition cities to be net-zero carbon and more resilient. After all, the world is adding 1 million people to cities every five days and building 20,000 American football fields’ worth of urban areas someplace on the planet every day.

In 2013, when the Rockefeller Foundation launched 100 Resilient Cities, a network to help cities become more sustainable, few cities had a resilience or sustainability officer. Today, more than 250 communities and 1,000 local government professionals are part of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network.

The number of companies with chief sustainability officers in executive positions also tripled from 9% to 28% between 2016 and 2021. But given the scale

University programs: Sustainability is increasingly being incorporated into a wide range of university programs. Fifteen years ago, sustainability training was mostly ad hoc – a product designer or economist might have taken a class in sustainability approaches from the environmental science department. Today, US universities have about 3,000 programs with a “sustainability” label, up from 13 in 2008.

A National Academies report recommends looking for a competency-based approach to sustainability learning that blends content with skills and links knowledge to action to solve problems and develop solutions.

Micro-credentials: For mid-career employees who don’t have the time to reinvest in full-fledged degrees, short courses and micro-credentials offered by universities, colleges or professional groups offer one way to develop sustainability skills.

A micro-credential might involve taking a series of courses or workshops focused on a specific skill, such as in wind energy technology or how to incorporate ESG criteria into business operations.

Short courses and micro credentials take up less time and are much less expensive than college degree programs. That may also help lower-income individuals train for sustainability jobs and diversify the field.

Specialisations: A similar option is jobs-focused online certificate programs with a sustainability specialisation.

For example, Google teamed up with universities to provide online courses for project managers, and Arizona State University is offering a sustainability specialisation to accompany it. Project management is an area where the US Department of Labor expects to see fast job growth, with 100,000 job openings in the next decade.

Corporate training: Some companies have developed their own internal sustainability training in climate science, sustainable finance, sustainability reporting and other skills.

Integrating sustainability across all functions of companies will require some level of sustainability training and understanding for most if not all employees. Companies like Starbucks, HSBC, Salesforce and Microsoft have created internal training programs to spread sustainability knowledge and practice throughout their companies, not just for employees who have sustainability in their titles.

CLOSING THE GAP

A recent survey by Microsoft and BCG of major companies found that only 43% of sustainability professionals in businesses had sustainability-related degrees, and 68% of sustainability leaders were hired internally.

It’s clear that on-the-job sustainability training and up-skilling will be necessary to fill the growing number of roles inside of companies.

To meet the sustainability skills gap, we believe more training will be required –at colleges and universities, by professional organizations and from employers. Achieving global sustainability and meeting climate change challenges will become more likely as legions of people commit their working hours to sustainability solutions.

TENS OF THOUSANDS ATTEND REQUIEM FOR POPE

VATICAN CITY Associated Press

POPE Francis joined tens of thousands of faithful in bidding farewell to Benedict XVI at a rare requiem Mass yesterday for a dead pope presided over by a living one, ending an unprecedented decade for the Catholic Church that was triggered by the German theologian’s decision to retire.

Bells tolled and the crowd applauded as pallbearers emerged from a fog-shrouded St Peter’s Basilica and placed Benedict’s simple cypress coffin before the altar in the

square outside. Wearing the crimson vestments typical of papal funerals, Francis opened the service with a prayer and closed it by solemnly blessing the casket and bowing his head.

In between, Francis made only fleeting reference to Benedict in his homily, offering a meditation on Christ instead of a eulogy of his predecessor’s legacy before the casket was sealed and entombed in the basilica grotto.

Heads of state and royalty, clergy from around the world and thousands of regular people flocked to the ceremony, despite Benedict’s request for simplicity

and official efforts to keep the first funeral for a pope emeritus in modern times low-key.

Many mourners hailed from Benedict’s native Bavaria and donned traditional dress, including boiled wool coats to guard against the morning chill.

“We came to pay homage to Benedict and wanted to be here today to say goodbye,” said Raymond Mainar, who traveled from a small village east of Munich for the funeral. “He was a very good pope.”

Ignoring exhortations for decorum at the end, some in the crowd held banners or shouted “Santo Subito!”

— “Sainthood Now!” — echoing the spontaneous chants that erupted during St John Paul II’s 2005 funeral.

The former Joseph Ratzinger, who died on December 31 at age 95, is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest theologians and spent his lifetime upholding church doctrine. But he will go down in history for a singular, revolutionary act that changed the future of the papacy: He retired, the first pope in six centuries to do so.

Francis has praised Benedict’s courage in stepping aside, saying it “opened the door” for other

popes to do the same. But few, including Benedict himself, expected his ten-year retirement to last longer than his eight-year papacy, and the prolonged cohabitation of two popes in the Vatican Gardens sparked calls for protocols to guide future resignations.

Some 50,000 people attended Thursday’s Mass, according to the Vatican, after around 200,000 paid their respects during three days of public viewing.

Only Italy and Germany were invited to send official delegations, but other leaders took the Vatican up on its offer and came

in their “private capacity”. They included several heads of state and government, delegations of royal representatives, a host of patriarchs and 125 cardinals.

Among those attending was Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was given special court permission to attend the funeral. Zen was detained in May on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces under China’s national security law after he fell afoul of authorities over his participation in a now-silenced democracy movement. His passport was revoked when he was detained.

McCarthy fails, fails and fails again in House Speaker votes

WASHINGTON Associated Press

FOR A long and frustrating third day, divided Republicans kept the speaker’s chair of the US House sitting empty yesterday, as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed again and again in an excruciating string of ballots to win enough GOP votes to seize the chamber’s gavel.

Pressure was building as McCarthy lost seventh, eighth and then historic ninth, 10th and 11th rounds of voting, surpassing the number 100 years ago, in a prolonged fight to choose a speaker in a disputed election. By nightfall, despite raucous protests from Democrats, Republicans voted to adjourn and return today to try again.

With McCarthy’s supporters and foes locked in stalemate, the House could not formally open for the new session of Congress. And feelings of boredom, desperation and annoyance seemed increasingly evident.

One McCarthy critic, Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida, cast votes for Donald Trump

— a symbolic but pointed sign of the broad divisions over the Republican Party’s future. Then he went further, moving the day from protest toward the absurd in formally nominating the former president to be House speaker on the 11th ballot. Trump got one vote, from Gaetz, drawing laughter.

As night fell before the second anniversary of the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election, Democrats said it was time to get serious.

“This sacred House of Representatives needs a leader,” said Democrat Joe Neguse of Colorado, nominating his own party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as speaker.

McCarthy could be seen talking, one on one, in whispered and animated conversations in the House chamber. His emissaries sidled up to holdouts, and grueling negotiations proceeded in the GOP whip’s office down the hall. McCarthy remained determined to persuade Republicans to end the paralysing debate that has blighted his new

GOP majority.

McCarthy’s leadership team had presented a core group of the Republican holdouts with a deal on paper for rules changes in exchange for their support, said one of the opponents, conservative Republican Ralph Norman of South Carolina, as he exited a late-day meeting. It included mandating 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes, among others, though details were scarce.

Lest hopes get ahead of reality, he added, “This is round one.”

Holdouts led by the chamber’s Freedom Caucus are seeking ways to shrink the power of the speaker’s office and give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence — with seats on key committees and the ability to draft and amend bills in a more open process.

“We’re having good discussions and I think everyone wants to find a solution,” McCarthy told reporters hours earlier.

The House, which is one-half of Congress, is essentially at a standstill, unable to launch the new

session, swear in elected members and conduct official business.

Yet, despite endless talks, signs of concessions and a public spectacle unlike any other in recent political memory, the path ahead remained highly uncertain. What started as a political novelty, the first time since 1923 a nominee had not won the gavel on the first vote, has devolved into a bitter Republican Party feud and deepening potential crisis.

Jeffries of New York won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.

McCarthy resisted under growing pressure to somehow find the votes he needed or step aside so the House could open fully and get on with the business of governing.

The incoming Republican chairmen of the House’s Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees all said national security was at risk.

“The Biden administration is going unchecked and

there is no oversight of the White House,” Republicans Michael McCaul, Mike Rogers and Mike Turner wrote in a joint statement. “We cannot let personal politics place the safety and security of the United States at risk.”

But McCarthy’s rightflank detractors led by the Freedom Caucus and aligned with Trump, appeared emboldened by the standoff — even though the former president publicly backed McCarthy.

Rep Scott Perry, R-Pa, the leader of the Freedom Caucus and a leader of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election, asserted that McCarthy cannot be trusted, and tweeted his displeasure that negotiations over rule changes and other concessions were being made public.

“When confidences are betrayed and leaks are directed, it’s even more difficult to trust,” he tweeted.

Republican Party holdouts repeatedly put forward the name of Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, assuring the stalemate that

increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics would continue. They also put forward Republican Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, splitting the protest vote.

Donalds, who is Black, is seen as an emerging party leader and a GOP counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jeffries, who is the first Black leader of a major political party in the US Congress and on track himself to become speaker some day.

Another Black Republican, newly elected John James, nominated McCarthy on the seventh ballot as nominators became a roll call of the GOP’s rising stars. For the 10th it was newly elected Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, an immigrant from Mexico whose speech drew chants of “USA! USA!”

A new generation of conservative Republicans, many aligned with Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda, want to upend business as usual in Washington and are committed to stopping McCarthy’s rise without concessions to their priorities.

AS COVID SURGES IN CHINA, US BEGINS TESTING MORE TRAVELLERS

SHUBHAM Chandra knows how dangerous the coronavirus can be: He lost his dad during the pandemic. So when he cleared customs at Newark Liberty International Airport and saw people offering anonymous COVID-19 testing, he was happy to volunteer.

“It’s a minimum amount of effort to help a lot of people,” said the 27-yearold New York City man, who had just stepped off a plane from Cancun, Mexico.

The airport testing is part of the government’s early warning system for detecting new variants, which began expanding recently in the wake of a COVID-19 surge in China.

With the addition of Los Angeles and Seattle, there

are now seven airports where arriving passengers can volunteer for COVID19 tests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program now covers about 500 flights from at least 30 countries, including more than half from China and surrounding areas.

As of Thursday, the CDC is also requiring travelers to the US from China, Hong Kong and Macao to take a COVID-19 test no more than two days before travel and provide a negative result before boarding a flight.

And down the road, some scientists are calling for wider use of an additional strategy: screening wastewater from toilet tanks on arriving airplanes.

“Without surveillance, it’s very hard to know what’s going on,” said Dr

Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. “Hopefully, with more sampling, we will get more information about what’s circulating.”

Some scientists are worried the COVID-19 surge in China could unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world, since every infection is another chance for the virus to change. There’s no sign of a new variant from China at this point. But one reason for new testing requirements, according to the CDC, is a lack of adequate and transparent information from China on viral strains infecting people there.

“We have very little control over what happens elsewhere,” said epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, a consultant to the CDC. “What we can control is

what’s happening in the United States.”

The airport program is based on an unfortunate reality: “Travellers … go across the globe quickly and they can get and spread infectious diseases really fast,” said Dr Cindy Friedman, chief of CDC’s travellers’ health branch.

Friedman said the programme is a partnership with two companies that take care of the testing and lab work — XpresCheck and Concentric by Ginkgo. A pilot programme was expanded around the time the first omicron variant emerged in the US more than a year ago. Besides Newark, Seattle and Los Angeles, the program includes New York’s Kennedy, Washington’s Dulles and airports in Atlanta and San Francisco.

The latest expansion of the traveller surveillance programme aims to capture more flights from China. But on Wednesday in Newark, some of the targeted planes arrived from Mexico, France and Belgium. After clearing customs, travellers could stop at a table, swab their noses and fill out a form.

Chandra said it took about a minute.

Like other travellers, he won’t get the results. But he tests for COVID19 when he flies to Ohio every other month to see his mom, he said, since “the last thing I want to do is bring (the virus) home to her”.

About 10% of people on targeted flights volunteer. Their samples are pooled and PCR tested. Positive ones are genetically sequenced. Volunteers get

free home COVID-19 tests. Over time, Friedman expects the programme to grow and potentially go global. It’s already shown it can spot coronavirus variants early — detecting omicron variants BA.2 and BA.3 and reporting them to a global database weeks before others did.

But Jetelina said a surveillance programme at seven airports is “just not that big” so trying to spot variants might be like “looking for a needle in the haystack”.

To aid the search, experts suggest taking more samples from airplane bathrooms.

“It’s a little gross when you start thinking about it,” Jetelina said. “But these are really long flights and we would expect the majority of people would go to the bathroom.”

NEWARK, New Jersey Associated Press

FAITHFUL attend the funeral mass for late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican yesterday. Benedict died at 95 on December 31 in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent nearly all of his decade in retirement.

Photo: Ben Curtis/AP

Baseball/softball umpires association formed

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

On the heels of the newly constructed Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium comes the newly formed Local Umpires Association-Academy.

The LUA-A, headed by Martin ‘Pork’ Burrows, and endorsed by the Bahamas Baseball Association, was introduced to members of the various baseball leagues during a meeting at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium on Wednesday night. Burrows, who along with

secretary general Ainsworth Beckford outlined their plans for the new body, said the formation of the association was long overdue.

It’s also expected to include softball, but no members of the Bahamas Softball Federation were present.

“It’s long overdue for our baseball and softball umpires to come together,” said Burrows, who will be assisted by Andrew Burrows with Anthony ‘Rakes’ Bowe as a senior consultant.

“We’re a small country and we only have a handful of umpires, so when JBLN reached out to me to take

MARTIN BURROWS

over their umpires, I was happy to do so.

“This gave me the opportunity to look at the formation of the LUA-A to bring all of our umpires under one umbrella so

that we could call all the leagues, whether it be softball or baseball.

“We will put a standard to it, and we will make sure that they are well-trained and properly uniformed, so they look professional, especially when they go out in the new stadium to officiate.”

With the new stadium opened in December to accommodate the COPABE’s 4th Caribbean Cup, Burrows said it’s important to ensure that there is a competent group of umpires ready to officiate in any future tournaments that will be staged at the stadium, rather than having to bring in the international

umpires to do so. “It’s a long overdue venture. We have to start somewhere,” Burrows said.

“I was very impressed with the turnout. We had representation from all of the baseball leagues in New Providence and we even had persons representing Grand Bahama via Zoom.

“So, I think we’re moving into the right direction and the sky is the limit.”

During the meeting, Burrows revealed that a training session for local umpires will begin at 6pm on Wednesday in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Compex and will run every week until COPABE comes to town

LeRon Rolle emerges as top bowman in Bahamas

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN less than a year, multitalented LeRon Rolle has emerged as the top Bahamian archery man in the country. And based on his rapid progress, Bahamas Archery president David Rahming said Rolle could be one of the top competitors in the region.

Rolle, a 17-year-old 2022 graduate of St John’s College where he played basketball, soccer and ran the sprints in track and field, got started in archery during the COVID-19 pandemic after he couldn’t get to participate in any other sports.

He got a chance to represent the Bahamas in competition in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Belize and on each trip, he noted that he was able to improve on his scores.

“My biggest achievement came in Chile where I got my best score,” Rolle said. “The highest score you can get is a 720. In the Dominican Republic, I scored 516, then in Chile I did 670, so that was my biggest achievement so far.”

Next week, Rolle is expected to head back to the Dominican Republic where he will spend about a week training with one of the archery competitors he met on his initial trip.

During his first trip to the Dominican Republic, Rolle was matched against the competitor from the Dominican Republic, who was ranked at number 10 in the world and was eventually declared the winner of the tournament.

He said he gained a lot of experience from competing against him.

Looking back at his performances, Rolle said every time he competes, he improves his scores, so he’s pleased with the way he’s progressing.

As the no.1 competitor in the country, Rolle is also listed at the top in the English-speaking Caribbean and is pegged at 181 in the world.

“I don’t like to pay attention to the ranking that much because it changes so quickly,” he said. “People are shooting every day and so the scores change, so you can maintain a rnaking as well as it could drop.

“I know everytime I go out to shoot, my rankings go up. So, I’m very pleased with my progress.”

Rolle said his goal this year is to be able to obtain sufficient sponsorship that will enable him to compete in more tournaments on the international scene.

He also has his sights set on representing the Bahamas at the Central American and Caribbean Games from June 23 to July 8 in San Salvador, El

Kane bouncing back from World Cup woe with two more goals

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer

WITH two classic center forward’s finishes, Harry Kane showed he is not suffering any lasting effects from his World Cup disappointment with England.

It’s now three goals in three Premier League games for Tottenham since returning from Qatar after his double in a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

Kane has had to shoulder the burden of missing a late penalty in England’s 2-1 loss to France in the quarterfinals on December 10.

Back with Tottenham, he scored in the 2-2 draw with Brentford on the first day of the league’s resumption and added two more against Palace — a header at the

back post and an emphatic low finish into the bottom corner.

It was a reminder, not that it was really needed, of Kane’s opportunism in front of goal and brought some respite for his manager, Antonio Conte, who was pessimistic about his team’s top-four chances after a 2-0 loss to Aston Villa on Sunday.

The win over Palace moved fifth-place Tottenham five points clear of sixth-place Liverpool, and two points behind both Newcastle and Manchester United, who are in third and fourth, respectively.

United has a game in hand.

Matt Doherty and Son Heung-min also scored at Selhurst Park, with all goals coming in the space of 24 minutes in the second half.

and puts on an international certification clinic.

Additionally, he noted that there will be a college recruitment clinic in March in West Palm Beach, Florida.

It’s one of the international tournaments that Burrows has been certified to officiate in, along with a few other Bahamians, including Burrows, Beckford and Oscar Smith from Grand Bahama.

BBA president Sam Rodgers, who participated in the meeting along with his secretary general Teddy Sweeting, said it’s very promising to see that the

MORANT, JACKSON LEAD THE GRIZZLIES OVER MAGIC FOR 5TH STRAIGHT

Salvador and hopefully coming out with a medal. He would then like to compete at the Pan American Games from October 20 to November 5 in Santiago, Chile and ultimately the Olympic Games in Paris, France, in 2024.

Rahming said he’s excited sbout Rolle’s progress in such a short space of time because he has put in a lot of work and he’s applied himself, while performing at a high standard whenever he gets to travel.

“We think that he’s going to enter the top echelon of archery in the region sometime this year,” Rahming said. “He’s shown that improvement so far. He started his first competition in March, and he shot 400 points out of 720. Then in September in the Dominican Republic, he shot 500 out of 720 and in November, in his third tournament, he shot 670 points.

“Bear in mind, he’s shooting against the best archers in the region, who would have had at least 10 years experience. He just needs to shoot about 50 more points, and he would be right up there with them.”

Normally it would take a competitor at least a year to produce the numbers that Rolle has posted, but Rahming said they are extremely pleased to see

By DICK SCANLON Associated Press

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) — Ja Morant scored 32 points, Jaren Jackson Jr added 31 points and 10 rebounds and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Orlando Magic 123-115 last night for their fifth straight win.

Ziaire Williams came off the Memphis bench with 6-of-7 shooting and 16 points.

Paolo Banchero had 30 points and nine rebounds for Orlando. Franz Wagner added 22 points, 19 in a desperate fourth-quarter comeback attempt.

Jackson had 13 points and five rebounds in the Grizzlies’ 43-point second quarter that ended with Memphis leading 65-43.

Banchero scored Orlando’s first 10 points of the second half, but Morant answered with 11 straight for the Grizzlies.

Banchero made three free throws to bring the Magic back within 12 late in the third, but Morant closed the period with a short jumper, and the Grizzlies regained a 21-point lead with three 3-pointers (two by Williams) early in the fourth.

Orlando rallied behind Wagner in the fourth quarter and cut the

Djokovic, Shapovalov to meet in Adelaide quarterfinals

Taiwo Awoniyi scored in the 27th minute at St. Mary’s to earn Forest’s first away win of the season. The team climbed three places to 15th.

Southampton has lost all four of its league games since Nathan Jones was hired as manager as the replacement for the fired Ralph Hasenhuttl on November 10. There were loud jeers at the final whistle.

BAILEY’S TEARS

HARRY KANE

SOUTHAMPTON ADRIFT

At the other end of the standings, Southampton is two points adrift in last place after a 1-0 home loss against Nottingham Forest, which moved out of the relegation zone.

A tearful Leon Bailey had to be helped off the ground after the final whistle after his glaring late miss for Aston Villa in its 1-1 draw with next-to-last Wolverhampton.

Bailey rounded goalkeeper José Sá after being

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Top-seeded Novak Djokovic has reached the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International where he will face Denis Shapovalov.

Djokovic defeated Quentin Halys 7-6 (3) 7-6 (5) yesterday, and Canadian Shapovalov beat Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-3 to advance.

Djokovic and other top players are using this event as a warm-up for the Australian Open beginning January 16.

Djokovic missed the Australian Open last year because he was unvaccinated. He’s been allowed to enter this year as COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed. Djokovic lauded Halys’ play in

a very tight match. “It was a great performance from my opponent today,” Djokovic said. “I want to congratulate him for great quality tennis and a great fight today. Tough luck, but he played like a top-10 player.”

Djokovic said he was still trying to get a feel for his game. “Two tiebreaks were probably the most realistic score of today’s match and I’m just glad to overcome the tough challenge,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic is unbeaten in seven matches against Shapovalov.

However, the Canadian may have added confidence this time after Canada defeated Australia in the Davis Cup final in November.

ARCHER LeRon Rolle with his archery gear.

Katerina Coello wins top overall individual score of Mini Jumping Challenge

THE Caribbean Equestrian Association (CEA) announced the results of its 2022 Mini Jumping Challenge, with Bahamian rider Katerina Coello winning the top overall individual score.

Over 40 riders across the Caribbean competed in the 2022 CEA Mini Jumping Challenge (MJC).

Each leg of the challenge was held in a different country, allowing athletes to compete on their own horses over a pre-set jump course built to international specifications and contested at three different heights: Class A (0.50 metres), Class B (0.60 metres) and Class C (0.70 metres).

The Bahamas joined the CEA in February 2022 and held its first MJC event in October 2022. The jumping rounds were judged on the concept of “Optimum time”, designed to give riders an understanding of the correct speed at which a show jumping course should be ridden under international rules.

The order of finish in each class was dictated by how closely the rider’s time matched the “Optimum time” of the course.

Under these conditions

The Bahamas’ Katerina Coello (riding TGIF of Mariposa Stables) was

nearly perfect, finishing just 0.02 seconds off the optimum time and edging out Barbados’ Kai Cook-Johnson by three-hundredths of a second, to be named the top scorer of the MJC.

Besides posting the top individual score overall, Coello, aged 14, was also named the individual

winner of Height Class C. Bahamian teammates

Storm D’Arville and Ella Saidi were also named as finalists in that height class, finishing 4th and 6th respectively. While dominating the top-Class C, Team Bahamas fared less well in the lower height Classes A and B, with the result that

overall, in the team competition, The Bahamas placed third behind Bermuda and Barbados.

Equestrian Bahamas president Cathy RamsinghPierre praised all the riders, and Coello in particular, for their excellent performances. “Katerina was fantastic, and Storm and

Ella also had very strong rides,” she said. “They have shown that we can hold our own with the rest of the region in equestrian sport.

“We congratulate Katerina and commend all our riders for representing The Bahamas so superbly in our very first Mini Jumping Challenge.”

Pelé buried at cemetery in Brazilian city he made famous

By MAURICIO SAVARESE AP Sports Writer

SANTOS, Brazil (AP) — Brazil said a final farewell to Pelé on Tuesday, burying the legend who unified the bitterly divided country.

Newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid his respects at Vila Belmiro, the stadium where Pelé played for most of his career.

Pelé died last week at age 82 and was laid to rest in Santos, the city where he became famous after moving there at age 15 to play for Santos FC. The funeral Mass was held at the team’s Vila Belmiro stadium before his black casket was driven through the streets of the of Santos in a firetruck.

It was taken into the cemetery as bands played the team’s official song and a Roman Catholic hymn. Before the golden-wrapped casket arrived, attendees sang samba songs that Pelé liked.

Some Brazilian soccer legends weren’t there.

“Where’s Ronaldo Nazario? Where’s Kaká, where’s Neymar?” asked Claudionor Alves, 67, who works at a bakery next to the stadium. “Do they think they will be remembered like Pelé will? These guys didn’t want to stop their vacations, that’s the problem.”

Geovana Sarmento, 17, waited in a three-hour line to view Pelé’s body as it lay in repose. She came with her father, who was wearing a Brazil shirt with Pelé’s name.

“I am not a Santos fan, neither is my father. But this guy invented Brazil’s national team. He made Santos stronger, he made it big, how could you not respect him? He is one of the greatest people ever, we needed to honour him,” she said.

Caio Zalke, 35, an engineer, wore a Brazil shirt as he waited in the line.

“Pelé is the most important Brazilian of all time. He made the sport important for Brazil and he made Brazil important for the world,” Zalke said.

Pelé in the 1960s and 1970s was perhaps the world’s most famous athlete. He met presidents and queens, and a civil war in Nigeria was put on hold so people could watch him play. Many Brazilians credit Pelé with putting the country on the world stage for the first time.

Rows of shirts with Pelé’s No. 10 were placed behind one of the stadium’s goals, waving in the city’s summer winds. A section of the stands filled up with bouquets of flowers placed by mourners and sent by clubs and star players — Neymar and Ronaldo among them — from around the world

shooting, he will definitely be the man we send.”

as loudspeakers played the song “Eu sou Pelé” (“I am Pelé”) recorded by him.

The crowd was mostly local, although some came from far away, and many mourners were too young ever to have seen Pelé play. The mood was light, as people filtered out of the stadium to local bars, wearing Santos FC and Brazil shirts.

Claudio Carrança, 32, a salesman, said: “I never saw him play, but loving Pelé is a tradition that goes from father to son in Santos. I learned his history, saw his

goals, and I see how Santos FC is important because he is important. I know some Santos fans have children supporting other teams. But that’s just because they never saw Pelé in action. If they had, they would feel this gratitude I feel now.”

Among those at the stadium was Pelé’s best friend Manoel Maria, also a former Santos player.

“If I had all the wealth in the world I would never be able to repay what this man did for me and my family,” Maria said. “He was as great a man as he was as

a player — the best of all time. His legacy will outlive us all. And that can be seen in this long line with people of all ages here.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino told journalists that every country should name a stadium after Pelé.

“I am here with a lot of emotion, sadness, but also with a smile because he gave us so many smiles,” Infantino said. “As FIFA, we will pay a tribute to the ‘King’ and we ask the whole world to observe a minute of silence.”

Another fan and friend in line was Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes.

“It is a very sad moment, but we are now seeing the real meaning of this legendary player to our country,” Mendes told journalists.

“My office has shirts signed by Pelé, a picture of him as a goalkeeper, also signed by him. DVDs, photos, a big collection of him.”

Pelé had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021.

The medical centre where he had been hospitalised said he died of multiple organ failure as a result of the cancer.

Pelé led Brazil to World Cup titles in 1958, 1962 and 1970 and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals.

Neymar tied Pelé’s record during this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

FACE BACKLASH FOR SKIPPING PELÉ’S FUNERAL

By MAURICIO SAVARESE AP Sports Writer

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian soccer stars past and present are under fire from fans for skipping Pelé’s funeral and opting to pay their respects on social media.

The three-time World Cup champion was buried in his hometown Tuesday after more than 230,000 mourners passed by his casket at Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos. Pelé died last Thursday after a battle with cancer.

Fans expected former Santos players like Neymar, Rodrygo and Giovanni to attend. They also hoped retired greats like Zico, Romario, Ronaldo, Kaká and Ronaldinho Gaucho would show up at the beach city 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of São Paulo.

Their social media accounts were flooded with comments by angry fans after Pelé’s burial.

None of the players from Brazil’s 2002 World Cup winning squad attended. One of them — former star midfielder Kaká — was criticised because he had complained during an interview in December that Brazilians do not honour their sports heroes as much as foreigners.

“You didn’t even show up for the funeral of the man who paved the way for you to have the life that you have,” said Joao Vitor Custodio on Kaká’s Instagram post about Pelé that drew more than 5,000 comments, including many about his decision not to come for the tributes.

In Neymar’s Instagram post mourning Pelé’s death, one fan wrote: “It is easy to say, but you sent your father and did not come.” The Brazil striker later limited comments in that post to people he knows.

No foreign footballers came to Brazil for Pelé’s tributes, funeral and burial. Former midfielder Mauro Silva was the lone representative of the 1994 team that won the World Cup in the United States. He is currently an executive at the São Paulo state soccer federation.

Some of Pelé’s surviving Brazil teammates from the 1958, 1962 and 1970 World Cup titles were unfit to attend, like 91-year-old Mário Zagallo, and others like Roberto Rivellino were reportedly too upset.

Fans didn’t seem to believe those who said they tried but could not get to Santos in time, like Cafu. “Unfortunately and with a lot of sorrow I could not attend Pelé’s funeral, I was on the other side of the globe and at work. My flights to return to Brazil started only in the early hours of Wednesday, I can only get to Brazil tomorrow,” he said. “Does that change what I feel for Pelé, or what he represents to me and to soccer in general? Never!”

him doing it a lot faster. The plan this year, according to Rahming, is to send Rolle on a six-member national team to the Dominican Republic in April to qualify for the Pan American Games.

He said there’s also a competitor, who is in England, who they hope will also be making the trip.

“He’s already qualified for the Central American Games, and he’s not confirmed to be the archer that we send, but he’s definitely the leading archer at this point. So, if he continues shooting the way he’s

As a self-trained competitor, Rolle practices every day and he spends a lot of time on YouTube picking up pointers how to improve his game. He thanked God, his mother Rolle, who has been there every step of the way in his journey as well as Rahming for his assistance in getting him to travel to the various tournaments.

In track and field, Rolle competed in the 100 and 200m, did every position on the soccer pit and on the basketball court he was a shooting guard. But Rolle said there’s no better gratification that he gets than competing in archery.

His proud mother said her main goal is to support her son in every aspect of the way.

“LeRon started competing in archery a year ago during the pandemic,” said Rolle, who has joined her son in participating in the sport as well.

“I was familiar with the sport, having played Robin Hood as a child. So, when he said he wanted to try it, I told him let’s go for it and ever since he’s been hooked, and he’s gotten better and better.”

Since he got started and every time he travels, she said her son has been getting assistance from a lot of the other competitors from

the different countries like Trinidad & Tobago, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico and Argentina.

“They recognised his talent and they have been pushing him along during the competition,” she reflected. “He’s looking forward to going back to the Dominican Republic for some training with one of the competitors there.

“He’s also gotten a lot of encouragement from the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg and also the president of the Archery Federation, David Rahming. He’s the son who introduced him to the compound shooting. “In order to get where he

wants to be, he needs to get to travel more to compete. He’s doing very well, but he just needs to travel to get more exposure,” she noted.

Rolle is also a musician who plays the trumpet and was involved in the Bahamas Musician Academy and is now a member of the Bahamas Youth Orchestra and plays in his church band at the Church of the Most Highly Trinity Anglican Church in Stapleton Gardens.

He has also started the Trinity Flames Archery Club at his church and he’s also trying to form a club at his alma mater - St John’s College. Interested persons can contact Rolle

KATERINA Coello aboard TGIF.

at trinityflamesarchery@ gmail.com for further information. When he’s not engaged in any of the above, Rolle is on the campus at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute where he’s studying networking in cyber security with the view of one day being an astronaut.

BRAZILIAN soccer great Pele lies in state at Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos, Brazil, on Monday, January 2, 2023.

(AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Mario Ford baseball camp gets support

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

INNER city children as young as four and up to 15 years old continue to use baseball as a tool for both sport, physical fitness and character development thanks to the Mario Ford baseball programme and financial support from sponsors such as Consolidated Water (Bahamas) Ltd (CWCO).

Now in its 37th year, the programme is celebrated for the ongoing mentorship and multi-level real-world readiness learnt along with baseball skills.

Founder of the Mario Ford baseball programme, Mario Ford, underscored that “baseball teaches life”.

“A lot of the kids who came through my programme have gone on to play professionally after going off to school.

“During the Mario Ford programme, participants not only learn baseball skills but gain an understanding of the importance of education, discipline, sportsmanship, and the benefits of good character,” he added.

CWCO’s donation afforded 30 Mario Ford programme participants the opportunity to attend the recent ‘Don’t Blink Home Run Derby’ baseball clinic hosted on Paradise Island. The event highlighted current Bahamian professional baseball players along with some of baseball’s top major and minor league players from

around the world. During the clinic, participants were drilled at various skill positions, including hitting, fielding, pitching and baserunning.

“With help from Consolidated Water, we were able to outfit our kids with shirts and rent a bus to the event,” said coach Ford. He added that financial support is crucial for the

programme and goes a long way to ensure every child has equipment like proper shoes and a glove. CWCO general manager, Henderson Cash, was happy to hear about the youngsters’ excitement during the clinic and applauded coach Ford for maximising the benefits of playing baseball. “We recognise that baseball is

more than swinging a bat and hitting home runs. Through programmes like the one headed by Mario Ford, education and good character are just as important as game wins.

“CWCO is proud to support initiatives that develop youth and will continue to support the vision of the Mario Ford programme,” Mr Cash said.

D-BACKS SIGN 3-TIME ALL-STAR LONGORIA TO ONE-YEAR DEAL

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Diamondbacks have signed three-time AllStar third baseman Evan Longoria to a one-year deal.

The team announced the signing yesterday. The 37-year-old Longoria is a 15-year veteran, spending his first 10 seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays and the last five with the San Francisco Giants.

Longoria — a threetime Gold Glove winner — brings some experience to what’s expected to be a young lineup in 2023. He also adds righthanded power to a team that already has a lot of lefthanded hitting. He has 331 career homers.

Longoria has battled injuries over the last few seasons, but has been productive when healthy. He hit .244 with 14 homers and 42 RBIs last season 89 games.

To make room for Longoria on the 40-man roster, the D-backs designated right-handed pitcher Edwin Uceta for assignment.

UMPIRES

FROM PAGE 12

umpire’s association is up and running. “I think it will be better for baseball and softball in the country, but I can only speak for baseball,” Rodgers said. “This is something that we were trying to get underway for a long time. When I came into office, I wanted to get the umpires together so that whenever we have our games, we will have properly trained umpires on the field and not parents or fans calling the games.

“I can tell you that when there was a league playing, they had someone behind the plate umpiring behind the mound. I said at this stage in the game, it’s unacceptable. So, I’m very elated to see this movement started and to see all of the leagues behind this move because baseball is moving in the country, and we need to get our umpires ready to go along with the movement.”

Beckford, whose responsibility is to make sure that all of the paperwork is done, and meetings are coordinated, said he’s pleased to know that the LUA-A are finally up and running.

BOSTON Red Sox’s Rafael Devers watches his RBI-single against the Tampa Bay Rays during the third inning of a baseball game Monday, September 5, 2022, in St Petersburg, Florida. The Boston Red Sox have agreed to a one-year contract with two-time All-Star Rafael Devers that avoided salary arbitration.

AP source: Red Sox, Devers agree to 11-year, $331m deal

By KYLE HIGHTOWER AP Sports Writer

BOSTON (AP) —

Rafael Devers has agreed to an 11-year contract worth $331 million to stay with the Boston Red Sox, a person with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the deal.

Locking up Devers, a two-time All-Star third baseman, was an important move for the Red Sox and their uneasy fans after All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts, slugger J.D. Martinez and pitcher

Nathan Eovaldi departed in free agency.

The 26-year-old Devers reached the new deal a day after he and the team agreed to a one-year, $17.5 million contract to avoid arbitration in his final season under club control.

Devers’ 11-year deal is the longest commitment this offseason by the Red

Sox and Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, supplanting the fiveyear, $90 million contract signed by Japanese star Masataka Yoshida.

Devers was the AL’s starting All-Star third baseman each of the past two years.

In 141 games last season, he batted .295 with

42 doubles, 27 home runs and 88 RBIs.

The Red Sox are trying to bounce back from a 2022 season in which they finished 78-84.

They were last in the ultra-competitive AL East.

A year earlier, they won 92 games and reached the ALCS.

“We have a group or a body that will make the association to the point where umpires finally get the respect that they deserve,” he said. “We got abused verbally because some people don’t know the rules.

“But once we are all properly trained, they will have much more respect for us. So, we want to thank Martin Burrows and Andrew Burrows for the humongous job they are doing to get baseball and softball umpiring to a level where we are respected.”

Clarence McKenzie, who is the commissioner for Freedom Farm, said it’s about time that there is a collaboration of umpires at all levels in the country.

“This is what is needed. The stadium is built and so we need to get our level of officiating up to a standard,” he said. “So, it’s happy to see the level of interaction between all of the bodies involved in baseball. We welcome it.”

Even women are involved in the movement.

According to former player/manager Hyacinth Farrington, who is a certified softball umpire, it’s something she is eager to participate in.

“I pray and hope that this association will move forward, and everything comes to fruition. This is a new year, and everything looks promising,” she said. “I hope that everyone takes it serious and let’s get on with officiating the game.”

CONSOLIDATED Water (Bahamas) Ltd.’s (CWCO) donation afforded 30 Mario Ford Programme participants the opportunity to attend the recent ‘Don’t Blink Home Run Derby’ baseball clinic hosted on Paradise Island. During the clinic, participants were drilled at various skill positions, including hitting, fielding, pitching and baserunning.

(AP Photo/Scott Audette)

WITH support from donors such as Consolidated Water (Bahamas) Ltd (CWCO), the Mario Ford Programme is celebrating 37 successful years of mentorship, skill advancement and real-world readiness. Standing from left to right are CWCO General Manager, Henderson Cash, Mario Ford Baseball Program Founder, Mario Ford, CWCO Accounts Manager Mrs. Welliya Cargill and CWCO Operations Manager Mr Jeff Burrows.

Photos: Ashley Albury/Serena Williams Media and Public Relations

action is fantastic’

WITH the return of the New Providence Basketball Association action at the AF Adderley Gymnasium, the University of the Bahamas Mingoes and the Rockets opened the new year with big victories.

In the feature game on Wednesday night, the Mingoes knocked off the Tucker Boys 91-58, while in the opener, the Discount Distributors Rockets blasted the RC Liquors Eagles 84-74.

• Here’s a summary of the two games played:

Mingoes 91, Tucker Boys 58: Dremiko McIntosh exploded for a game high 18 points to lead a balanced scoring attack for the University of the Bahamas, who improved to 2-3.

McIntosh, who shot 8-for14 from the field and 2-for-3 from the free throw line, finished with 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block shot.

Dave Lindsey added 13 points, six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals and blocks, Justin Burrows had 12 points and nine rebounds, Theodore Grant had 10 points, seven assists, three rebounds and three steals, Erquantae Edgecombe had nine points and seven rebounds, Delano Armbrister also had nine points with five rebounds and both Ricardo Taylor Jr and Ahmad Young chipped in with eight.

For the Tucker Boys, who remained scoreless at 0-5, Jaden Stubbs scored 12

University of the Bahamas Mingoes open new year with big victories

points with six rebounds, Clayton Tucker had 11 points and 10 rebounds, Leon Bain had eight points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal, Arlington Brown also had eight points with 10 rebounds, Kieron Mortimer had seven points and six rebounds and Randon Swaby added six points with eight rebounds.

Rockets 84, Eagles 74: Keith Rolle pumped in a game high 26 points with six rebounds and three assists to lead the Discount Distributors to victory as they improved to 4-1.

Davito McIntosh had 20 points, eight rebounds and two assists, Terrano Oliver Sr had 18 points, three rebounds and two steals and both Careem Gray and Torrez Basden added seven points, Basden with 14 rebounds and two steals and Gray with four rebounds, two assists and two steals.

In a losing effort for RC Liquors, who dropped to 3-1, Sherman Marshall scored in 21 points with six rebounds and three assists, Lorenzo Riley had 16 points and three assists, Alexio Frances had 14 points, 19 rebounds and three assists and Devon Seymour had

10 points, three rebounds and a pair of assists and steals and Cornelius Rigby had seven points and six rebounds.

• Here’s a look at this weekend’s schedule:

Tonight 7pm - Your Essential Store Giants vs RC Liquors Eagles (DII)

JAYSON TATUM’S RARE TRIPLE-DOUBLE LEADS CELTICS PAST MAVERICKS, 124-95

By SCHUYLER DIXON AP Sports Writer

DALLAS (AP) —

Jayson Tatum had 29 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists in his second career triple-double, and the Boston Celtics beat Dallas 124-95 last night, ending the Mavericks’ seven-game winning streak.

Jaylen Brown scored 19 points for the NBA-leading Celtics, who bounced back from a 150-117 loss in Oklahoma City when the Thunder were missing 30-point scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Luka Doncic scored 23 points after averaging 44.5 points the previous five games. The Mavericks superstar didn’t play in the fourth quarter, which started with Boston leading by 24.

Doncic hit buzzer-beating 3-pointers for the win in Boston’s previous two Dallas visits. There was never a chance for a third, or for the Mavs to extend the longest winning streak since their lone championship season in 2010-11.

Doncic missed all six shots from long range as the Mavericks finished 7 of 32. Doncic was 7 of 23

overall and Dallas finished at 38%.

Tatum wasn’t much better than Doncic, going 8 of 22 from the field, but his teammates were. Boston shot 16 of 43 from 3, with eight players hitting at least one.

Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon each scored 15 points, with Smart going 4 of 9 from deep while Brogdon was 3 of 5.

The Celtics never trailed after the middle of the first quarter, and Dallas didn’t get closer than 13 after halftime. Doncic had nine rebounds but was limited to three assists as Dallas tied its season low in assists with 15. Spencer Dinwiddie scored 18 points, and Christian Wood had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

UP NEXT Celtics: A four-game trip ends Saturday in San Antonio. The Spurs swept the two-game series last season.

Mavericks: Hosts New Orleans on Saturday. The Pelicans won the first meeting in New Orleans in October.

TIP-INS Celtics: Seldom-used C/F Noah Vonleh was traded to San Antonio for a future

conditional second-round pick.

The Celtics included cash in the deal. Vonleh averaged 1.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 7.4 minutes in 23 games.

Smart was fined $35,000 for using inappropriate

Smart

Mavericks:

NFL: BILLS-BENGALS WON’T RESUME, PLAYOFF SCENARIOS REVEALED

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer

THE NFL said yesterday it will not resume the BillsBengals game that was suspended Monday night after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin collapsed and went into cardiac arrest on the field.

The league said some of the factors in coming to its decision included that “not playing the BuffaloCincinnati game to its conclusion will have no effect on which clubs qualify for the postseason. No club would qualify for the postseason and no club will be eliminated based on the outcome of this game.”

Also, the NFL said playing the game between the Bills and Bengals would have required postponing the start of the playoffs by a week, and affecting all 14 teams that qualified for the postseason.

The NFL said its decision creates “potential competitive inequities in certain playoff scenarios.”

The league said clubs on Friday, in a special league meeting, would consider a resolution recommended by the commissioner and approved today by the competition committee.

Hamlin has shown what physicians treating him are calling “remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours,” the team announced yesterday, three days after the 24-year-old player had to be resuscitated on the field.

The Bills-Bengals game had major playoff implications for the AFC. Buffalo (12-3) entered Monday night needing a win to maintain the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The Kansas City Chiefs (13-3) now hold that spot. The Bengals (11-4) had a chance to earn that top seed with two more

wins and a loss by the Chiefs.

The scenarios approved by the competition committee include a potential neutral site for the AFC championship game.

The league is considering several sites, including indoor and outdoor stadiums.

The resolution being presented to clubs for a vote on Friday follows: The AFC Championship Game will be played at a neutral site if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the No. 1 seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season.

Those circumstances involve Buffalo or Cincinnati qualifying for the game as a road team. If Buffalo and Kansas City both win or tie this weekend, a Bills-Chiefs AFC

title game would be at a neutral site.

If Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Baltimore wins or ties, a Bills-Chiefs AFC title game would be at a neutral site.

If Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Cincinnati wins, Bills or Bengals against Kansas City in the AFC title game would be at a neutral site.

Also, if Baltimore defeats Cincinnati in Week 18, the Ravens would have two wins over the Bengals, a divisional opponent, but will not be able to host a playoff game because Cincinnati will have a higher winning percentage for a 16-game schedule than Baltimore will for a 17-game schedule.

Therefore, if Baltimore defeats Cincinnati and if those two clubs are schedule to play a wild-card game against each another,

the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss.

However, if the Bengals win this weekend or if Baltimore and Cincinnati are not scheduled to play each other in the wild-card round, the game sites would be determined by the regular scheduling procedures.

“As we considered the football schedule, our principles have been to limit disruption across the league and minimise competitive inequities,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

“I recognise that there is no perfect solution. The proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances.”

MARKKANEN HAS CAREERBEST 49 AS JAZZ DOWN ROCKETS 131-114

By KRISTIE RIEKEN AP Sports Writer

HOUSTON (AP) — Lauri Markkanen scored a career-high 49 points to lead the Utah Jazz to a 131-114 victory over the Houston Rockets last night that snapped a fivegame skid.

Markkanen got out to a quick start with 18 points in the first quarter to help the Jazz to an early lead. Houston took the lead late in the third quarter, but Utah ended that quarter on a 10-0 run to go on top for good.

An 8-2 run cut Utah’s lead to five with about 5 minutes left. Jordan Clarkson hit a 3-pointer soon after that before a tip shot by Markkanen extended the lead to 117-107.

Jalen Green added a basket for Houston before Markkanen scored the next four points to start a 14-0 run by the Jazz that made it 131-109 and sent fans streaming for the exits.

After scoring the first four points of the run, Markkanen added consecutive 3-pointers at the end of it. Players on the Utah bench stood and cheered as he hit both of them and they were disappointed when a last 3-point attempt that would have given him 50 points was off the mark.

Green had 30 points and Kevin Porter Jr. added 23 for the Rockets, who dropped their sixth in a row.

Markkanen’s highestscoring game entering Thursday was 38, which he had achieved twice, most recently on Dec. 20 against Detroit. He made six 3-pointers and all 13 of his free throws Thursday night to eclipse his previous best games.

Utah had a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

Grizzlies’ lead to six on Caleb Houstan’s 3-pointer with 1:53 remaining. But Morant drew a sixth foul on Magic centre Wendell Carter Jr, with 1:21 remaining, and scored Memphis’ final three points from the foul line. Carter finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.

TIP-INS Grizzlies: G Desmond Bane did not play in the second game of a backto-back as part of his management of a toe injury. ... F Brandon Clarke missed a third game with a sore left hip.

Magic: Banchero had a 20-point third quarter. ... G Jalen Suggs played five minutes in his first game since November 25 due to a sore right ankle. ... F Bol Bol, who missed a second game in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, is expected to rejoin the Magic during their upcoming road trip.

played through by Danny Ings, Villa’s scorer, but mishit a shot that bobbled wide of the goal. The Jamaica international slumped to the ground at fulltime and was eventually applauded off the field at Villa Park by home fans as Bailey covered his face with his jersey.

Daniel Podence scored in the 12th minute for Wolverhampton. Ings came on as a substitute and equalised in the 78th when he split two defenders and ran onto a ball over the top from Tyrone Mings before beating Sá.

Wolves stayed in nextto-last place but is now two points ahead of Southampton.

ON THE REPLAY: The UB Mingoes, in the feature game on Wednesday night, knocked off the Tucker Boys 91-58.

Photo: Austin Fernander/Tribune Staff

language with an official in the loss to the Thunder.

was assessed his second technical and ejected over the thirdquarter incident.

G Josh Green (elbow) and F Dorian Finney-Smith

(adductor strain) remain out but will travel on a fivegame road trip.

The road trip starts on Sunday in Oklahoma City.

Rookie Jaden Hardy scored all of his 15 points in the second half with the game out of reach.

CELTICS forward Jayson Tatum (0) drives between Mavericks defenders Luka Doncic (77) and Reggie Bullock (25) last night.

(AP Photo/LM Otero)

CES 2023: Ram electric pickup joins crowded field next year

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer

WHEN a futuristic-looking electric Ram pickup truck goes on sale next year, it will hardly be the first in line.

By then, at least seven EV competitors are scheduled to be on sale, all of them vying for a share of the huge full-size truck market that now includes the three top-selling gasoline and diesel powered vehicles in the United States.

Four models — Ford's F-150 Lightning, Rivian's R1T, Lordstown Motors' Endurance and the GMC

Hummer EV Pickup — already are on the road. And this year or next, three others — the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV and Tesla's Cybertruck — are scheduled to roll out.

Yet executives at Ram, which is Stellantis' truck and commercial vehicle brand, say it doesn't bother them to be following rather than leading their competitors.

"It's actually an advantage for us," Mike Koval Jr., CEO of the Ram brand, said in an interview. "Because we have full knowledge of what the other guys have announced."

On Thursday afternoon, company executives unveiled a concept version of the Ram 1500 Revolution battery-powered truck at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas. The production truck isn't likely to be as edgy as the one shown on stage, which looks like a halfway point between Tesla's angular Cybertruck and a conventional gas pickup. But the Ram EV, Koval said, will surpass competitors in the areas that customers value the most: payload, towing, range and technology.

GM has announced that the Silverado EV will be able to travel over 400

miles (640 kilometers) on a single charge. (Its rivals have ranges of between 230 to 400 miles, depending on battery size.) Koval insists that the production Ram "will push past everything that our competitors have announced."

By next year, he noted, more charging stations and other infrastructure will be in place, making the market for EVs more attractive.

Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights for Edmunds.com, said the Ram won't be overly late to the market because the electric trucks on sale now can't fully satisfy the

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that ELMIDE JOSEPH of Charles Saunders Highway, Nassau, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 30th day of December, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

NOTICE

NOTICE

FEAJCM LTD.

Incorporated under the International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas registered in the Register of Companies under the Registration Number 205441 B.

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

Notice is hereby given that the liquidation and the winding up of the Company is complete and the Company has been struck off the Register of Companies maintained by the Registrar General on the 16th day of December, 2022.

Dated this 4th day of January A.D. 2023

Felipe De Araujo Costa Ubach Monteiro LIQUIDATOR

NOTICE

MARAJO LTD.

Incorporated under the International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas registered in the Register of Companies under the Registration Number 202121 B.

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

Notice is hereby given that the liquidation and the winding up of the Company is complete and the Company has been struck off the Register of Companies maintained by the Registrar General on the 19th day of December, 2022.

Dated this 4th day of January A.D. 2023

Frederico Jose Correa Lobato LIQUIDATOR

NOTICE

STUDENT HOUSING INVESTMENTS LTD.

Incorporated under the International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas registered in the Register of Companies under the Registration Number 205569 B.

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

Notice is hereby given that the liquidation and the winding up of the Company is complete and the Company has been struck off the Register of Companies maintained by the Registrar General on the 25th day of December, 2022

GS ADMINISTRADORA

DE RECURSOS LTDA. LIQUIDATOR

NOTICE is hereby given that KADESHIA ALENDRIA CLARKE of #159 South Kemp Road, Nassau, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 30th day of December, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

sustained growth in consumer demand.

GM says more than 170,000 people have put down $100 refundable deposits on the Sierra.

Last year, Ford sold over 15,000 Lightning trucks, even though the vehicles weren't available until May.

The company closed reservations after receiving $100 deposits from nearly 200,000 potential buyers.

Last year, Americans bought more than 2.1 million full-size pickups, most of which still run on gasoline. Big pickups accounted for more than 15% of all U.S. new vehicle sales, a huge and lucrative market.

Electric vehicle sales are

growing fast: Last year, 807,000 of them were sold in the United States — up 65% from 2021.

The prices of the EV trucks, which are comparatively costly, will have to move closer to those of gasoline versions to pull buyers away, said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Cox Automotive.

Ford's electric pickup initially was to have a version starting around $40,000. But the starting price now is just under $56,000, driven up by demand and price increases for raw materials. That's far more than the base gasoline-powered F-150 which starts just below $34,000.

NOTICE

MS VV Limited

Company No. 1710938

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

NOTICE is hereby given pursuant to Section 204 (1) (b) of the BVI Business Companies Act, 2004 that MS VV Limited is in voluntary liquidation. The voluntary liquidation commenced on 30th December 2022 and Boris Mozer of Zedra Trust Company (Suisse) SA, Zw. Zurich, Stockerstrasse 43, 8002 Zurich, Switzerland been appointed as the Sole Liquidator.

Dated this 3rd day of January 2023

Sgd. Boris Mozer Voluntary Liquidator

www.bisxbahamas.com

(242)323-2330 (242) 323-2320

9.75 9.750.00 0.3690.26026.42.67% 4.502.82Cable Bahamas CAB 4.50 4.500.00 -0.4380.000-10.3 0.00% 10.657.50Commonwealth Brewery CBB 10.25 10.250.00 0.1400.00073.20.00% 3.652.54Commonwealth Bank CBL 3.58 3.580.00 0.1840.12019.53.35% 8.547.00Colina Holdings CHL 8.53 8.530.00 0.4490.22019.02.58% 17.5012.00CIBC

15.990.00 0.7220.72022.14.50% 3.251.99Consolidated

11.22 11.220.00 0.7280.24015.42.14% 18.3014.50Fidelity

MATURITY

6.95%

5.24% 4.81%

2.583.48%3.87%

17-Jan-2040

5.65% 5.35% 5.00%

5.35% 5.14% 5.60%

4.87% 4.68%

4.884.49%5.32%

2.262.74%3.02% 205.22164.74 190.45-6.40%-6.95% 212.41116.70 169.68-20.12%-15.15% 1.761.71 1.762.49%2.79% 1.941.78 1.935.71%7.96% 1.881.79 1.863.39%3.91% 1.030.93 0.93-8.94%-9.55% 9.376.41 10.107.82%9.00% 11.837.62 13.4413.58%15.81% 7.545.66 7.712.57%2.83% 16.648.65 13.25-20.10%-19.25% 12.8410.54 12.03-4.50%-4.64% 10.779.57 10.59-0.55%-1.61% 16.279.88 16.27N/AN/A 11.228.45 11.223.00%25.60% 14.8911.20

6.25% 30-Sep-2025 30-Sep-2022

23-Feb-2038 26-Jul-2037 26-Jul-2035

4.53% 5.00% 29-Jul-2023 15-Jan-2039 15-Oct-2049 17-Jan-2040 15-Jun-2030

15-Jan-2049 5.50% 15-Jul-2039 15-Jun-2040

22-Sep-2033

6.25% 4.50% 6.25% 4.25% NAV Date

15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2022 25-Nov-2022

31-Oct-2022 31-Oct-2022

31-Oct-2022 30-Nov-2022 30-Nov-2022 30-Nov-2022 30-Nov-2022 FUND CFAL Bond Fund CFAL Balanced Fund CFAL Money Market Fund CFAL Global Bond Fund

30-Nov-2022 30-Nov-2022

4.50% 6.25% 31-Dec-2021

Opposition: ‘Bad signal’ over $233m borrowing

FROM

decisions are made in the credit market that are likely not to be favourable to us.”

The Opposition has argued that, without the promised legal reforms, the IMF SDR transaction

contravenes the Central Bank Act’s section 21. They are now demanding an accounting of how the funds will be used.

The Ministry of Finance, in a previous statement on the matter, said that when the IMF’s SDRs were first

issued in August 2021 it was made clear that they could be used for debt management and other fiscal purposes in the COVID-19 pandemic’s aftermath.

Mr Pintard, though, described this as a “red herring” because the Ministry

of Finance was speaking to what the funds could be used for rather than their actual use. “Quite frankly, this matter shouldn’t arise,” he added. “That money should really be returned, because that there is no

basis for them having that in their possession.

“In August 2021, the Central Bank released a press release that indicated the Bahamas’ SDR allocations are not being earmarked for lending to the government and do not increase

No more ‘catch up’ over financial crime standards

FROM PAGE A24

Suggesting that the FATF “recommendations”, which have been adopted as the global standard for fighting money laundering and terrorism financing, have not always been applied fairly against The Bahamas in the past, he reiterated that this nation must always guard against “the prejudicial effects” of being branded non-compliant in any area.

Mr Delaney, agreeing that The Bahamas’ ‘40 out of 40’ rating was “good news” for the jurisdiction and its financial services industry, especially given the current scrutiny surrounding FTX’s implosion, nevertheless sounded what he described as a “note of caution” moving forward.

“Whenever one discusses this subject, one has to always keep in mind this is

in certain respects this is an external rating which, from time to time, is seemingly ignored in ways we sometimes feel have been less than fair and even handed relative to other jurisdictions we are in material competition with,” he told this newspaper in a nod to suspicions that multiple blacklistings and other sanctions have been designed primarily to undermine The Bahamas’ competitiveness.

“In feeling good that we’ve been rated compliant with all 40 recommendations, one has to bear that in mind,” Mr Delaney added. “In many respects for us, we’ve not always received a fair standard in terms of its application. There’s not a lot we can do about that, but it’s important that we don’t have the see-sawing and ups and downs.

“We minimise that by acting in ways that are appropriate and responsive to the evolving requirements so that we don’t have the temporary prejudicial effect that happens where we are rated as non-compliant. We have to keep ahead of it so that we’re not having to catch up all the time.

“When we have to catch up, not only do we have to catch up with the issues identified as non-compliant but we also have to catch up in the marketplace with any impact to our reputation in the competitive sphere.”

Mr Delaney, though, acknowledged that the perfect FATF compliance had been “a great Christmas present” given that it coincided with the global focus on The Bahamas due to FTX’s collapse.

COMMERCIAL BUILDING FOR SALE

The ground floor of the building consists of a retail shop and office space with an entry porch, and a bathroom. Both upper and attic levels comprise a large open office space and two (2) bathrooms. The property has asphalt surfaced parking, and concrete block and chain link fencing boundary enclosures.

All offers must be in writing in a sealed envelope marked “Commercial Building” and addressed to the Receiver, along with a copy via email to james.gomez@ecovis.bs.

The closing date for submission is January 31, 2023.

James B. Gomez Receiver

ECOVIS bahamas

Serenity House, East Bay Street Nassau, The Bahamas

The Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) invites applications from suitably qualified persons for the post of Assistant Director Quality & Patient Safety, Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre (SRC)

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Assistant Director, Quality & Patient Safety is responsible for overseeing all functions of the Quality & Safety Department within the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre (SRC).

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES FOR THIS ROLE INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO

THE FOLLOWING:

• Implements, maintains, and monitor facility wide performance improvement and patient safety initiatives;

• Assess potential compensable events and patient complaints for investigation and review with notification to Director of Quality & Patient Safety; Participates in select committees related to assessment of patient care and environmental care;

• Coordinates the acquisition and release of records and information to the Director of Quality & Patient Safety;

• Works with clinical and facilities Heads of Department to develop policies and procedures for review and approval by the Quality Council; Provides Executive Management and Director with monthly, quarterly, and annual reports on incidents, claims and recommendations for quality and patient safety initiatives for review by the Board;

• Plans, develops, and presents educational material to administration, medical staff, nursing personnel, allied health and other health care workers on topics related to quality, patient safety and risk management;

• Conducts and evaluates concurrent and retrospective audit of patient medical records to include nursing, physician and other disciplines providing patient care aimed at ensuring compliance with approved standards of practice, policies, and procedures;

• Develops and implements educational programs to reduce or eliminate potential safety hazards throughout the facility.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration, Business Administration or Risk Management or possesses a minimum of fifteen (15) years sub-specialty in healthcare equivalent;

• Proficient knowledge of Occupational Health & Safety Administration, Centre for Disease Control, Patient and Life Safety and local health care regulations;

• Proficient use of Microsoft and database management including spreadsheets, graphics, and statistical analysis;

• Eight (8) years’ experience in infection control, risk, and safety management principles.

COMPETENCY REQUIREMENTS:

• Must possess experience with the organizational quality improvement program;

• Excellent communication skills (oral and written); analytical and conceptualized thinking skills; Excellent interpersonal skills.

The Assistant Director, Quality & Patient Safety will report to the Director, Quality & Patient Services, and the Hospital Administrator.

Letter of application and curriculum vitae should be submitted to the Director of Human Resources, Corporate Office, Public Hospitals Authority, Third and West Terraces, Centreville; or email to jobs@phabahamas.org no later than 19th January 2022.

“I think it is good by way of credibility,” he added. “When something that is sensationalist happens, and I’m not suggesting that FTX is merely sensationalist, but when that occurs it’s easy for folks on the outside looking at The Bahamas not to have a full perspective that The Bahamas has, for the past 22 years, been on the road of ensuring its anti-money laundering and counter terror financing regimes are world class. It’s an arduous journey that The Bahamas has undergone.”

The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) December 22, 2022, assessment confirmed that The Bahamas has been deemed ‘compliant’ with anti-financial crime regulation of both digital assets and non-profit groups.

“Overall, The Bahamas has made significant progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified..... and no deficiencies remain. The Bahamas has been re-rated compliant on

recommendation eight and recommendation 15,” the CFATF said. “The Bahamas has 40 recommendations rated ‘compliant’ or ‘largely compliant’.”

The Bahamas was previously rated as ‘partially compliant’ on digital assets regulation because it lacked mechanisms and procedures to identify the financial crime risks presented by the sector, and there was no risk-based approach for assessing these factors. Guidelines to help digital asset services providers detect and report suspicious transactions were also lacking.

“There was a gap regarding originator information and beneficiary information on virtual asset transfers being available on request to appropriate authorities. Deficiencies regarding international co-operation were not demonstrated as addressed,” the CFATF report added.

Analysing The Bahamas’ progress to-date, the report added: “Section 41 of the DARE Act provides the

the Central Bank’s ability to lend to the Government. The lending limits remain fixed by the law. This is the same law that the IMF has said to member countries like The Bahamas that you need to be compliant with your local laws as you treat with these SDRs.”

provisions for co-operating and providing assistance to overseas regulatory authorities and, to-date, The Bahamas has provided assistance in regard to one of its registered digital assets services providers.” It is unclear if this was FTX, although that is highly likely.

The Bahamas was also found to have completed its risk assessment of the digital assets sector, which was published on May 25, 2022, with the digital assets industry now also covered by the Financial Transactions Reporting Act and Proceeds of Crime Act regimes. The industry was assigned “a low-risk rating”, which may raise eyebrows in FTX’s wake.

“The addition of the new section 39 (3) of the DARE Act places a responsibility on the Securities Commission to implement systems to identify persons not registered under..... the Act,” the CFATF report added. “As such, the Securities Commission has developed and implemented an internal policy framework for identifying persons carrying on, or attempting to carry on, activities under the DARE without the requisite registration...

The prohibition of natural or legal persons carrying out digital asset service provider activities without the requisite licence/registration is captured legislatively in various parts of the DARE Act. The amendment to the DARE Act... provides the proportionate and dissuasive sanctions to be applied – up to $100,000 for each contravention. There is also a general penalty provision under section 44 of the DARE Act of $500,000 or imprisonment of up to five years or both.” The CFATF said it was also satisfied that the Securities Commission has “the authority to conduct inspections, compel production of information and impose a range of disciplinary and financial sanctions”. It added: “The Bahamas applies proportionate and dissuasive administrative and criminal sanctions for persons carrying on digital asset activities without the requisite licence.”

Three-storey Commercial Building located on the Northern side of Delancey Street, approximately 135 feet East of Nassau Street, on the Island of New Providence, The Bahamas. The building is situated on 8,791 square feet of land and has a gross floor space of approximately 5,208 square feet.

11 bankruptcy court in Delaware, said the results of their probe to-date suggested that assets belonging to FTX Digital Markets and/or its clients may have been used by the crypto exchange’s indicted founder and his fellow principal, Gary Wang, to last year acquire 56m shares in an online brokerage firm.

That investment in Robinhood Markets, allegedly valued at a total $650m, likely represents one of the best recovery sources for compensating FTX’s one million-plus creditors including former crypto investor clients. Seemingly taking no chances that this will be lost, it was revealed at a Wednesday court hearing in Delaware that the US Justice Department has already seized control of the 56m shares from their previous custodian.

Yesterday’s filing, on behalf of Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton senior partner, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting duo, Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, asserted: “Based on their investigation of the assets and obligations of the Chapter 15 debtor (FTX Digital Markets) to-date, which are ongoing, it appears that assets titled in the name of the Chapter 15 debtor or in which the Chapter 15 debtor has an interest, and/or assets belonging to certain customers of the Chapter 15 debtor, may have been used by Emergent, Sam Bankman-Fried and/or others to purchase and/or acquire the Robinhood shares.”

Multiple competing claims to the Robinhood shares have already been

filed with the courts in the US and Antigua & Barbuda. However, Mr BankmanFried, who is facing multiple fraud and money laundering-related charges in the southern New York federal courts, confirmed in a December 12, 2022, affidavit that much of the decisionmaking related to that investment took place in The Bahamas.

“I confirm that no steps were taken in Antigua in connection with the acquisition of the Robinhood shares save the incorporation of Emergent,” the FTX co-founder asserted. “No funds flowed through Antigua, and neither Gary nor I ever visited Antigua. No documents were prepared, executed or stored in Antigua. No individual in Antigua was involved in the acquisition. All relevant steps were taken in The Bahamas and/or the US.”

Court documents show that Emergent Technologies was incorporated during the 2022 first half as an Antiguan special purpose vehicle (SPV) to hold the Robinhood shares on behalf of Mr Bankman-Fried and Mr Wang, with the former holding a majority 90 percent ownership interest and the latter the balance. Their respective addresses were given as Albany and Unit 112, Lots 5 and 6, on West Bay Street.

The purchase of the shares, Mr Bankman-Fried admitted, was financed by a series of loans to himself and Mr Wang from Alameda Research, his trading entity, worth a collective $546m. Alameda Research is at the centre of the criminal charges levied against Mr Bankman-Fried, with Mr Wang having already

admitted his guilt via a plea bargain with US prosecutors, for it is alleged to have taken FTX client assets without their permission to fund its risky investments.

Emergent Technologies, and the Robinhood shares it owns, have been the target of multiple lawsuits launched by embittered FTX creditors since the exchange’s implosion. One creditor has successfully petitioned the Antiguan courts for the appointment of joint provisional liquidators, who have seized control of the SPV from Messrs Bankman-Fried and Wang.

And BlockFi, another crypto currency firm that went bankrupt in November 2022, is also demanding that the Robinhood shares be handed over to itself since they were pledged as collateral to secure loans it made to Alameda Research just two days before FTX was placed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US and provisional liquidation before the Bahamian Supreme Court.

However, the Bahamian provisional liquidators acknowledged in yesterday’s filing that the US Justice Department’s seizure of the Robinhood shares “potentially moots” BlockFi’s bid to gain control of these securities for its own benefit.

The latest developments in the FTX saga come as the Bahamian trio make a final, last-ditch push to reach a compromise agreement with the crypto exchange’s Chapter 11-appointed US chief, John Ray, and his team over access to FTX Digital Markets’ cloud-stored books and records and information sharing.

The Delaware Chapter 11 court had been due to hear evidence and witnesses from both sides on the cloud access issue today, but the hearing was put off until next Friday, January 13, to give the parties space for further negotiations amid hopes a deal can be worked out.

The Bahamian provisional liquidators had been

due to file legal documents with the court on Wednesday in response to previous submissions by Mr Ray and his attorneys, but they and their legal advisers elected to hold off and give talks a final chance amid concerns that the contents could scupper any prospect of an agreement.

The two sides have been engaged in an increasingly

acrimonious battle for control of FTX’s winding-up, restructuring and sale, with Mr Ray’s side sullying The Bahamas’ reputation in multiple public utterances, and unless the conflict is resolved amicably it threatens to drive a series of expensive, time-consuming court battles that work against the crypto exchange’s former clients and creditors.

INVESTMENT BANK TARGETS $150M ‘PIPELINE’ RAISES

at during that period but were put on hold. Even though COVID ended in the middle of last year, people did not get themselves ready before the end of the year. We expect people to get a lot of those transactions ready this year. They did not get enough momentum behind them to get over the finish line last year.”

It is understood that potential capital raisings by the likes of Doctors Hospital and the Grand Bahama Shipyard, which had been

BAHAMAS

adjustment. We need to keep providing the excellent service we do. It was just inevitable. I was trying to delay it as much as possible. We’ve been trying our best to control our costs. It’s been a good run, but it’s just been tough.”

The Bahamas Waste chief, affirming that the price increases were “about 10 percent more or less”, said the charges for some services - especially those where clients were more likely to switch to a rival providerhad not moved at all.

Citing residential garbage collection as one example,

expected to come to fruition in 2022, could materialise in 2023 although Mr Anderson did not identify any companies by name or who was included among the $150m.

He did, though, say that he expects to see multiple capital raisings “come to market in the first six months of this year, and even if we do not get them done then they will be completed by the third quarter”. And, if all goes to plan, further deals may follow.

“There’s some other transactions we’d like to see happen as well, but they’ve

not reached the stage where we’ve been engaged on them,” Mr Anderson disclosed. “There’s one large one that could end up being in the $50m-$60m range, which would be a nice transaction. Some of them do fall away, though, so $150m is a pretty good number.

“There are also a number of smaller projects that we’re working on in the region of $3m to $5m that we expect to also get done. There’s more projects in that range than we’ve seen for a while. Those will be the smaller local companies looking to

raise capital to restock their business or acquire more businesses.

“That’s the need for private equity or debt, but more the expansion capital we’d been expecting as people came out of COVID. There’s a certain momentum building in the economy at the moment in terms of people needing capital. For the last three years we’ve had a slow period in terms of new transactions so it would be nice to see more activity.”

Such activity will also create more opportunities for Bahamian investors to better

diversify their portfolios and earn higher returns, Mr Anderson added. “There’s not been that opportunity for the last three years,” he said, “so this creates a way for investors in 2023 to diversify their investments and generate greater returns.”

Citing RF Bank & Trust’s Prime Income Fund as an example, Mr Anderson said investor returns had dropped from their traditional 4.5 percent per annum to around 3 percent simply because the investment fund was sitting on a “excess cash pile” it had no opportunity to invest.

“We see a huge opportunity to get money invested this year in these things than we’ve had for quite a while.

As these investment opportunities get realised, we will have the chance to improve the returns for our funds,” the RF Bank & Trust chief added. “A lot of our clients are sitting on excess cash, and a lot of people who are not clients will be looking for investment opportunities.

“We see a lot of opportunity to move people out of the banks and get them into investment opportunities. It’s all about growing the economy, and if we put money to work it grows the economy and creates employment opportunities. From a country perspective, hopefully it will make a big difference in terms of growth opportunities.”

Mr de Cardenas explained: “There are some services where we just have to be very careful because you might not have too much of a loyal customer base, so you have to be very careful on what you do because people [rivals] are waiting to pounce. We bend over backwards, and try and do what we can. When they say jump, we say: ‘How high’, and do what we can to make them happy.”

He added that Bahama Waste had spoken to most, if not all, its commercial and major clients to explain the price increases and why they were necessary. “There are

some that may have slipped through the cracks, but we’ve called most of them,” Mr de Cardenas said. “They’re more than understanding, which is very nice.”

Bahamas Waste’s service price increases further highlight how no sector of the economy is immune from the inflationary pressures that are driving the skyrocketing cost of doing business as well as the cost of living crisis impacting multiple Bahamian middle and lower income families.

The BISX-listed provider’s business is capital intensive given that it is vital to keep its fleet of garbage

trucks on the road, thus necessitating ongoing investments in maintenance plus parts and other equipment and machinery. All these involve expenses that have increased markedly, while many of the product inputs it requires are oil-based or oil derivatives.

Thus, even though global oil prices have moderated somewhat to between $75$79m per barrel, Bahamas Waste has been unable to escape the consequences of last year’s market spikes and volatility. And, as a publiclytraded company, it has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, customers and employees to maintain its margins such that it delivers on profits, services and jobs.

Mr de Cardenas yesterday said the company particularly felt inflation’s impact when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“We had been all pandemic. We had supply chain issues, but when the war started the price of steel tripled, the price of paint.... it’s settled a bit, but it’s settled high,” he told Tribune Business

“Now steel has settled but it’s a little bit high. It’s somewhat back to normal, but it’s probably double what it was although maybe not that high. We don’t like playing the fuel surcharge game, as you need a whole other department to manage that. We just had to do something and cover it all.

“It was crazy. I just couldn’t even buy containers. It was ridiculous, and then you had to pay duty and shipping on top of that. During the pandemic I didn’t buy any equipment, and then we had to catch up, but in 2022 the prices were crazy. We had to do it. I’d like to think we’ve been fair and not aggressive, and will do what we can to make everybody happy.”

Mr de Cardenas said no further price increases are being considered, and added: “I think we’ll be good, and hopefully we will be able to manage our costs better internally and the world will calm down a little bit and we will get back to normal or somewhat normal.”

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Jarol Investments Limited is seeking to fill the following position: Assistant Security Manager (Nassau)

Gambling ‘instability’ fuels wider Bahamas inequality

If the economy grows at such a pace, you make more but gamble more with it.”

The Arawak Homes chief provided no data to support his assertions, and the web shop gaming industry will likely push back against them. However, others such as Roderick Simms, the former Chamber of Commerce Family Islands director, have also warned that gambling in the islands beyond New Providence has become an increasing problem that has left families unable to pay bills, and with no disposable income, because scarce funds are being sucked up by this habit.

Meanwhile, Sir Franklyn said increased worker productivity, combined with personal responsibility and greater savings, will be vital to offset the present pressures caused by postCOVID inflation that has sparked rising business and living costs.

“My view is that the biggest challenge for us here is that people have got to work hard and stop looking for the easy way out,” he pronounced. “Work harder and save. So much is in our control. Hard work, stable families. At the end of the day, people can’t keep doing fool and somehow think it’s going to work out.”

Acknowledging that soaring Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) bills, the threat of a US and wider global recession, inflationary pressures from still-high energy and shipping costs, and supply chain bottlenecks all remain dangers that could throw the Bahamian economy off its projected 4 percent GDP growth for 2023, Sir Franklyn added: “By acting prudently we have to find ways to offset that anyway we can.

“We don’t produce the stuff, costs are going up and it’s costing the shipping companies more to bring goods in. The only thing

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we can do is double down, work harder, be more productive and be prudent in our expenditure. What else can we do?”

Sir Franklyn backed Tribune Business’ analysis that The Bahamas presently has a two-speed economy, with the international sector - especially tourism and foreign real estate sales - driving the post-COVID revival and poised for further growth, but its domestic counterpart still struggling to cope with the increased cost and difficulty of doing business.

However, he argued that high-end property sales to wealthy expatriates is having “a greater multiplier effect” than traditional resort-based tourism due to the construction industry stimulus they provide. And the Arawak Homes chief revealed it was “mind boggling” to be told that Bahamian real estate sales during the COVID pandemic’s peak exceeded those for the rest of the Caribbean combined.

The Tribune wants to hear from people who are making news in their neighbourhoods. Perhaps you are raising funds for a good cause, campaigning for improvements in the area or have won an award. If so, call us on 322-1986 and share your story.

IN THE ESTATE OF CLARITA VICTORIA LOCKHART late of No. 17 Deal’s Heights in the Eastern District of the Island of New Providence in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, deceased.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that any persons having any claims against or any interest in the above named Estate are required on or before the 7th day of February, 2023 to deliver their names addresses and particulars of their debts, claims or interest to the undersigned and to come in and prove such debts, interest or claims, or in default thereof, they will be excluded from the benefit of any distribution AND NOTICE is hereby given that at the expiration of the date hereinbefore mentioned, the assets of the Estate of the said CLARITA VICTORIA LOCKHART deceased, will be distributed among the persons entitled thereto.

DATED the 6th day of January, 2022

Personal Representative of the ESTATE OF CLARITA VICTORIA LOCKHART c/o DELEVEAUX GODET & CO. Chambers No. 72 Nassau Street Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

“That is very much the case,” Sir Franklyn agreed of the two-speed economy assessment. “The only thing I would add to it is that the interest in highend Bahamian real estate is mind boggling.

“I was involved in a transaction that was pretty significant, one of the large international banks, and what was significant to them was when they looked at the Bahamian economy during the COVID period, there was more real estate activity and sales in The Bahamas, I was told, than the rest of the Caribbean combined.

“That was huge, and made such a difference. To say there were more real estate sales in that period in The Bahamas than the rest of the Caribbean combined, that has a lot of implications. Many of us who operate in that real estate space need to appreciate that and understand what it means. I don’t think we understand that fully.”

Sir Franklyn said the business model for real estate purchases by wealthy foreigners differs vastly from the traditional resort-based tourism that The Bahamas has relied upon, and impacts the country and wider economy in a much different way.

“When we look at the international side, we have to focus on this real estate piece and not just lump it in with this tourism piece,” he argued. “Someone comes and and buys, and spends a serious amount of money in a lot in a prestigious community.

“More often than not they build something, and are thus going to be impacting a different set of people than the hotel sector and its waitresses and maids; people in the construction field. I would think that will have a larger multiplier effect, especially for the suppliers who sell materials to the construction industry. It’s a different set of economics.”

Sir Franklyn, though, said that while FTX’s implosion has yet to play out there were signs that it will “not destroy” The Bahamas’ international reputation as some had feared. “The conversation about FTX, and situation with FTX, is still not settled,” he said of the failed crypto currency exchange.

“We have to see how it plays out but, to me, there’s some commentators who a few weeks ago weeks ago were forecasting doom and gloom but have now settled down a bit. It doesn’t appear that it’s going to destroy us as some people seemed to be implying a few weeks ago.

“One has got to be encouraged by the fact that some people who have considerable respect in the financial community have turned their forecasts away from doom and gloom. The US liquidators and our liquidators are talking, so hopefully that will not be the crisis some people had feared.”

‘ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO BACK’ BEFORE PORT LAYOFF REVERSAL

GRAND Bahama’s Chamber of Commerce president yesterday said it feels like the island constantly takes “one step forward, two steps back” prior to Freeport Container Port reversing the termination of 20 workers.

James Carey, speaking before the reversal was announced, said any job losses would further reduce spending in an alreadydepressed economy besides impacting the families of those involved. “That is a concern, and I sincerely wish this was not the case and that there was another way of getting around it and whatever has caused this. It’s like one step forward, two steps back,” he added.

“I saw an interview with Robert Farquharson

(director of labour) yesterday where he said the Government was aware, and as long as the people were paid properly in accordance with the law it is what it is.

“I don’t know if there have been technological changes or they lost business. It’s just hard to say. There have been supply chain issues in the past you know. Coming out of COVID a lot of places around the world are complaining about supply chain issues and therefore diminished work.”

The Ministry of Grand Bahama, in a statement issued yesterday, said the 20 terminated workers had abruptly been rehired following a “swift” intervention by Prime Minister Philip Davis KC and his office. The nature of that intervention was not revealed, but Freeport Container Port periodically lays

off-staff in accordance with the ebbs and flows of shipping commerce. In 2016, it laid off 20 employees, and in 2020 another 37 were dismissed due to COVID-19 related challenges.

Mr Farquharson had suggested that the latest terminations were in response to a 37 percent decline in business volumes at Freeport Container Port. The move, though, was met with immediate push back from Fred Mitchell who, stating that he was speaking in his capacity as Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) chairman, queried if the company - majority-owned by Hutchison Port Holdings - had complied with the Employment Act’s requirements over the terminations.

Changes to the Act, passed just prior to the last Christie administration being voted out of office, require employers

to provide the minister of labour with written notice of any planned staff redundancies some 14 days before they take effect. Details, such as the reasons for the terminations, have to be submitted. And, if 20 or more workers are to be fired, an extra 30 days’ pay must be given to affected employees.

“It appears to me there are some gaps which they have not followed,” Mr Mitchell asserted in relation to the Employment Act requirements. Freeport Container Port submitted the termination notice to the minister of labour on December 28, 2022, with the redundancies set to take effect from New Year’s Eve.

Mr Mitchell suggested that the Government had been blindsided by Freeport Container Port’s actions, describing the move as “simply shocking on the face of it”. He also argued that the company “should not be making

these moves” due to the profits he said it generates, adding: “Every time there is investment – investment is good – people make generous profits in this country, but they seem to dislike Bahamians. You cannot figure out why that is.”

This is not the first time that Mr Davis has intervened with Freeport Container Port. Last June, he said the Government’s drive for “economic dignity” had resulted in Freeport Container Port reducing the number of “casual” employees in its workforce to 24 percent from 43 percent as a result of his meetings with management.

Philip Davis QC, leading the 2022-2023 Budget debate in the House of Assembly, said the Grand Bahama-based industrial operator had reduced this proportion from the 43 percent threshold that existed

when the Government met with it in January 2022. He added: “At the end of January I had a meeting with the management of the Freeport Container Port. During the meeting, I shared with them that the practice of hiring Bahamians as casual workers rather than employing them as permanent staff was having a large, and negative, impact for those workers.

“The casual workers had no security, no benefits, no leave, no ability to enter into credit arrangements. I want to thank Freeport Container Port, and hold them up as a model for others in Grand Bahama and others in the private sector across our country, because they came back to see me this week to say that as a result of my advocacy and our dialogue, they have made substantial progress in converting a number of casual workers to permanent workers.”

Opposition: ‘Bad signal’ over $233m borrowing

Officers (Nassau)

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By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE Opposition’s leader yesterday warned that the Government’s “breach of law” in borrowing $233m worth of IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) from the Central Bank sends “a bad signal” to the international financial markets.

Michael Pintard, returning to the attack on the issue, reiterated that the Free National Movement (FNM) was not opposed to the Government seeking out creative means to access low-cost foreign currency borrowing and save Bahamian taxpayers millions of dollars in interest costs.

However, he again argued that such transactions must first have full legal standing under Bahamian law. This was not done in the case of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) SDRs, as both the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance have both

confirmed that the former’s governing Act will now be amended retroactively to give the borrowing lawful basis.

Mr Pintard argued that this admission sends a “bad signal to ratings agencies” and the wider international financial community, including The Bahamas’ lenders, creditors and holders of its external foreign currency debt.

“It is absolutely important that the international community be able to trust the word of policymakers, and to the extent that we act in a manner that is ultra virus of the law - that is, a breach of the law - we then create a credibility issue, and what flows out of that is

are interested in receiving a copy of the solicitation documents, please send an email to nelsonda@state.gov by 3pm on January 7, 2023 to receive the solicitation documents.

If

MICHAEL PINTARD

Jarol

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

IMPORT-RELATED

commerce came to a halt yesterday after Customs brokers complained they were shut out of the Electronic Single Window/Click2Clear goods clearance system for the entire day.

Simone Munroe, owner/ operator of Pinder’s Services, told Tribune Business she had been unable to submit any import clearance-related documents through Click2Clear since Wednesday night.

“I was trying to work with the Click2Clear all Wednesday evening and it shut me out,” she said. “I went on it again this [Thursday] morning. I understand they are trying to implement this integrated system and they didn’t provide any training.

“But now this morning if you had entries and you were trying to submit them to the Customs Department, no entries could have been submitted today and they didn’t even provide an update. The Customs Department didn’t even send out a flyer warning us of the problem. No one could get anything in through Click2Clear.”

The problems coincided with the deadline for Customs brokers, in-house brokers and major importers to begin submitting declarations and entries via software that better integrates with the Click2Clear system. However, Tribune Business was

told this had nothing to do with yesterday’s woes, as the entire system was inoperable.

David Humes, owner/ operator of Integral Logistics, confirmed: “We couldn’t do anything today. They had internal problems. Nobody could do anything about today.” With manual Customs entries now discontinued, Mr Humes said the Customs Department yesterday forwarded brokers to a senior officer who would have been able to facilitate their requests.

Neither Customs nor Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, could be reached for comment before press time last night. Customs had previously mandated that brokers be fully “integrated” with its electronic goods clearance platform, Click2Clear, by January 2, 2023.

A flyer on the initiative, published last year, warned brokers, in-house brokers, retailers and wholesalers that all major importers “must submit Customs declarations via integration to Click2Clear. Bahamas Customs will not accept manual declarations nor documents. Only integration submissions will be accepted”.

The flyer named two suitable suppliers of the necessary software “integration”, Information Systems Ltd (ISL) and its SWIM product, and GAAC. However, rather than mandate that brokers and major importers use the services of either of these two entities, the Customs flyer said firms can “seek the

services of an independent program developer”.

A subsequent January 3, 2023, notice warned that from Tuesday this week “integration is mandatory for the submission of declarations by all parties”. Previously, entries could be submitted directly to Click2Clear, but they now can only be processed through “integrated” third-party software - something that brokers have said adds to the cost of doing business.

Chris Lleida, Premier Importers’ chief executive, yesterday said his in-house brokers had difficulties submitting Click2Clear entries too. He provided screenshots of the rejected declarations.

He added: “The Ministry of Finance in an October meeting only provided two local companies as providers of this now-required SWIM software, ISL & GAACS. We are weighing our options on which company to use as there has been insufficient information or opportunity to properly research.

“The Ministry of Finance representative at the October meeting deflected most questions raised.... in a dismissive and unhelpful manner. For actual brokers there seemed to be very little belief that this additional software would be any type of upgrade to the latest upgraded Click2Clear. Rather it was seen as yet another expense that big, small, young, old felt was unjustified as well as being poorly timed, planned and executed.”

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Gambling ‘instability’ fuels wider Bahamas inequality

Investment bank targets $150m ‘pipeline’ raises

THE GAP between rich and poor Bahamians “continues to widen immeasurably”, a prominent businessman warned yesterday, while blaming gambling for causing increased family and social instability.

Sir Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, told Tribune Business that gambling’s growth was outpacing the economy’s expansion and helping to fuel rising inequalities in Bahamian society that were already deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Warning that Bahamians “can’t keep doing fool and hoping somehow things are going to work out”, he said too many “look for the easy way out” instead of working hard, being prudent with their finances and supporting stable families.

Identifying these as qualities that households and individuals require if they are to survive

the ongoing cost of living crisis, Sir Franklyn told this newspaper: “The gap between those doing reasonably well and those doing badly continues to widen immeasurably.”

The large gulf between the wealthy in Bahamian society, which includes some of the world’s richest persons among its residents, and lower income segments has been frequently cited among the root causes of social instability and crime. Many in the latter category believe opportunities are passing them by which they are ill-equipped to exploit, and

that they are being left behind, with COVID-19 worsening such divisions.

Sir Franklyn, though, argued that this was being exacerbated by rampant, unchecked gambling that was leaving too many Bahamians with insufficient income to pay their bills. “I’m telling you, Neil, gambling in this country... Man, the pace of gambling in this country is having implications that few people are talking about.

“To me, that is a big, big, big problem. It’s causing family instability and causing serious, serious problems, particularly

in the Family Islands. The pace of gambling in this country, from what I see and hear, I don’t care how fast the economy grows. If the economy grows at such a pace, you make more but gamble more with it.”

The Arawak Homes chief provided no data to support his assertions, and the web shop gaming industry will likely push back against them. However, others such as Roderick Simms, the former Chamber of Commerce Family Islands director, have also warned that

SEE PAGE

A21

Bahamas Waste in first price rise for ‘more than a decade’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BISX-listed waste services provider yesterday confirmed that “crazy” cost increases over the past year had left it with no alternative but to raise customer prices for the first time in over a decade.

Francisco de Cardenas, Bahamas Waste’s managing director, told Tribune Business the company had “eaten”

rising expenses for as long as it could but the price increases - which are “more or less” 10 percent for the services impacted, and took effect from New Year’s Day - were “inevitable” and could not be delayed further.

He explained the rationale in a December 28, 2022, letter to clients, stating: “Due to many market factors that have increased the cost of doing business, Bahamas Waste will be implementing a price

increase effective January 1, 2023.

“Our last price increase across services was more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, it is proving difficult to continue to absorb the rising costs associated with doing business. Specific pricing will vary by service category by approximately 10 percent. Customers with contracted project rates will be contacted by a Bahamas Waste service manager.”

“Fuel,

“We’ve eaten it, and we just felt it was time to make an

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SEE PAGE A20

FTX’s Bahamian customers financed SBF’s $546m deal

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, and its customers/ investors, were yesterday said to have unwittingly helped finance a $546m investment by Sam Bankman-Fried that has now been seized by US federal authorities.

The Bahamian joint provisional liquidators, in a filing with the US Chapter

No more ‘catch up’ over financial crime standards

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS must ensure it never again plays “catch up” after achieving perfect compliance with global anti-financial crime standards, a former attorney general is warning.

CORRECTION

A column headlined Potential and Challenge as Bahamas nears 50, which was published in Tribune Business on Thursday, January 5, showed Hubert Edwards as its author. This was incorrect as the actual writer was Roderick Simms. This newspaper apologises to both men for the error and any embarrassment caused, and prints Mr Simms’ picture today.

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN investment bank yesterday disclosed it has $150m worth of transactions in “the pipeline” for 2023 amid “growing momentum” within the private sector to raise much-needed capital.

Michael Anderson, RF Bank & Trust’s president, predicted to Tribune Business it will be “our busiest year for a while” following three COVID-impacted years that have seen multiple equity and debt offerings slide due to the uncertainty created by the pandemic.

Disclosing that the $150m figure involves five separate deals, he suggested this could rise even higher if other transactions - including a possible $50m-$60m raise - come to market within the next 12 months.

The RF Bank & Trust chief added that, besides these more prominent deals, there were a number of companies seeking to raise smaller sums within the $3m-$5m range as “expansion capital” to either reboot their existing business or acquire other firms.

And, should all these deals hit the market as forecast, Mr Anderson said it will give Bahamian institutional and retail investors a chance to diversify their portfolios and earn higher returns following a three-year period when they have been starved of such opportunities.

Moving investors “out of the banks”, and minimal to non-existent deposit returns, into investments that boost the productive sector will also spark the growth and job creation needed to further haul the Bahamian economy away from 2020’s COVID-induced crash, he added.

“It’s very positive in terms of potential and people looking for capital. I think we’ll get more activity than last year,” Mr Anderson told Tribune Business. “I expect it to be our busiest year for a while. We do have a pipeline of transactions currently in the range of about $150m for 2023 from about five projects.

“We had a very slow period coming through COVID. A number of transactions were looked

John Delaney, now head of the Delaney Partners law firm, told Tribune Business that meeting all 40 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards was a significant achievement but The Bahamas must continue to pay attention to how these continue to evolve and are applied.

Mr de Cardenas, speaking to Tribune Business yesterday, said “it was not all services but most” that have been impacted by customer price rises. “As you can imagine, the world is feeling it,” he added of ongoing inflationary pressures.

lubricants, parts, labour, shipping, everything has gone crazy.

SIR FRANKLYN WILSON

SAM BANKMAN-FRIED