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VOLUME:116 No.23, JANUARY 28TH, 2019

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INSIGHT: WHEN LAWYERS STEP OVER THE LINE PAGES

‘We want answers’ Bahamian firms asked to explain Fyre Festival cash

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN law firm and the National Sports Authority’s (NSA) former chairman are among the local persons and companies being targeted for examination by Fyre Festival investigators.

CF Butler & Associates, the law firm headed by attorney Craig Butler and LeRoy Archer, ex-NSA head and former managing director of BISX-listed Commonwealth Brewery, have been named among those that the Fyre Festival’s Chapter 7 trustee wants court permission to interrogate.

Documents filed on Friday with the southern New York federal bankruptcy court, which have been obtained by Tribune Business, reveal that

Gregory Messer is seeking a court order to serve subpoenas on both Bahamian and US entities that supplied services/goods to a festival that became a chaosstricken debacle threatening The Bahamas’ tourism reputation in April 2017.

Mr Messer wants to examine those named, including Mr Archer and CF Butler & Associates, to determine why they received payments worth more than $90,000 from the Fyre Festival and if they provided sufficient in return to justify the payments.

The subpoena requests come as Mr Messer’s efforts to trace the $26m investors handed to the festival’s main organiser, now-convicted fraudster, William McFarland, appear to be moving into high gear given the pace of recent court filings.

MARYANN Rolle says she’ll “definitely” be a blessing to others who worked hard during the failed Fyre Festival, as crowd funding yesterday reached more than $200,000 to assist the Exuma restaurateur recuperate her losses from the ordeal.

“What a blessing,” Mrs Rolle said of the money raised on GoFundMe. “I might get my credibility back now,” she commented.

SEE PAGE THREE

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

SEE PAGE FIVE

AMERICAN KILLED IN MOTORBIKE ACCIDENT

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

“The song writer says ‘back on my feet again’. You don’t tell people all the time but I had struggled in the financial area trying to just dilly-dally with my situation.

“You know I was in trouble and had to dilly-dally my way out and thank God I didn’t end up in jail or to the courts.”

The account reached $201,377 up to press time.

Speaking of her plans for the money, which has greatly surpassed an initial goal of $123,000, Mrs Rolle said: “I cannot enjoy that by

‘BLAME ALL SIDES FOR SCHOOL’S DISREPAIR’ THERE is “more than enough blame to go around” for the issues at the Black Point All-Age School, Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson has asserted.

She was addressing a recent social media post which detailed the government’s continued failure to fix major issues at the school, and a subsequent statement from Exuma and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper. Photos circulating on social media showed dilapidated faculty and student restrooms, overgrown grass and a library that appeared also to be used as a messy storage room.

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

... AS MARYANN SAYS ‘I’LL SHARE WINDFALL’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

HOME

AN AMERICAN man died after the motorcycle he was driving crashed into a utility pole on Cat Island on Saturday.

While details were limited and his identity has not been released, police said shortly before noon the man was driving the motorcycle north along Queen’s Highway in the Smith’s Bay settlement when he lost control and crashed into the pole.

SEE PAGE THREE

BELLES OF THE BALL TWO ballgoers at the 47th annual Red Cross Ball, held at the Baha Mar Convention Centre on Saturday. The event had a theme of an evening in Paris, complete with a Bahamian version of the Eiffel Tower to strike a pose in front of. See Friday’s Weekend section for a glimpse at the gowns and style on show at the event.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

STERLING PROMISES TO CREATE 1,000 JOBS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

HURRICANE Hole’s developer is aiming to launch two further resort projects before the end of 2019 that will take total investment in its Bahamian developments to around $700m.

David Kosoy, Sterling Global Financial’s chairman, said it was targeting the “creation of over 1,000 jobs” between its Paradise Island development and

STERLING Global’s David Kosoy similar upscale projects planned for Abaco’s Matt Lowe’s Cay and the Sky

Beach Club in Eleuthera.

Confirming the developer’s ambitious plans, Mr Kosoy said Sterling’s Family Island projects would likely double the 500 permanent jobs created when Hurricane Hole is fully redeveloped by 2024.

“I think that with what we have going on now, we will be somewhere around $700m, and jobs created will be over 1,000,” he said.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

MINNIS IN NATIONAL ADDRESS TONIGHT

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

WHEN he delivers his first national address for the year tonight, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis is expected to reveal the government’s plan to boost economic growth, which is hoped to create jobs and provide greater opportunity for all Bahamians.

SEE PAGETWO

PAGE 2, Monday, January 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

HUBERT Minnis at the Hurricane Hole groundbreaking ceremony last Friday.

Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

MINNIS IN NATIONAL ADDRESS TONIGHT from page one Developments in tourism, including major projects and initiatives for New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Family Islands, are also to be highlighted.

This national report will be carried on all local television stations at 8pm and is the first in a series of three expected to come within the first quarter of 2019.

The announcement was made is a press statement yesterday from the Office of the Prime Minister.

“These reports are a demonstration of your government’s commitment to regularly communicate with the people of The Bahamas on the state of the nation and important national developments that affect them,” Dr Minnis said, according to the statement.

“The prime-time address will be broadcast on television and is the first in a series of reports that will provide updates and information to the people of The Bahamas on a broad range of national issues.

“Monday’s report will focus on what the government is doing to boost economic growth, to help create jobs and to provide greater opportunity for all Bahamians.”

“The report will also provide an overview of the national economy and significant investment projects. Plans to strengthen Bahamian and foreign direct investment and developments in the financial services sector also will be highlighted,” it continued.

The second report will outline the government’s social agenda, in areas such as combatting crime,

education, health care, housing and home ownership, and other areas of social development.

As for the third report, Bahamians will learn what the government is doing in the areas of the environment, climate change, energy reform, land reform and other critical areas of development.

ZNS, REVTV, ILTV and the Jones Communications Network will carry the prime minister’s prime-time report.

• THE Office of the Prime Minister has strongly denied social media reports that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis was rushed to hospital last week.

In a statement, the Office of the Prime Minister said: “Fake reports are circulating on social media falsely claiming that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday morning after experiencing an above normal blood pressure reading.

“The Office of the Prime Minister wishes to advise the Bahamian public that these reports are completely untrue.

Prime Minister Minnis was not rushed to the hospital at any time as claimed in the false and misleading report.

“The prime minister did visit the Princess Margaret Hospital early Wednesday morning to be treated for a mild allergic reaction to something he ate the evening before. He was treated and released a short time later.”

The statement continued: “The Office of the Prime Minister wishes to assure the Bahamian public that Prime Minister Minnis is in excellent health.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, January 28, 2019, PAGE 3

‘DISAPPOINTING THAT NO-ONE STOOD UP FOR BAHAMAS’

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

CUSTOMS Comptroller Dr Geannine Moss has defended the integrity of the Department of Customs official named in a recent documentary on the failed Fyre Festival.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Dr Moss confirmed all import fees owed to the Department of Customs have been paid, adding she was disappointed by the reaction of Bahamians on social media to scandalous assertions made by event producer Andy King in the Netflix film “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened”.

Mr King claimed he was asked by festival founder Billy McFarland to perform sexual favours

from page one myself. I need some folks to celebrate with me.

“I would like to bless these folks in Exuma who has worked hard with the Fyre Festival, some of them, not all of them because if you really try to bless everybody you’ll leave with nothing yourself.

But I know there are some people who really worked hard in the community of Exuma so that’s really who I want to rejoice with me and the only way we can rejoice is to be a part of the blessing.”

She attributed the success of the GoFundMe campaign to continuously giving to those in need.

“I am a giver,” she told The Tribune. “People see this happening for me (but) I don’t just give to Bahamians, I give to the world and when you give you surely receive and I know that God has blessed me to be a blessing because when I give people a 50-dollar bill I say ‘Lord I wish I had more to give.’

“When I give that packing boy five dollars I always say I wish I could give them $10. That has always been me. People come and if they see me with a nice bag and they say they like it, I say you can have it.

“I know I am a giver and because I am a giver God has blessed me to be a blessing and that I will do.”

But as for right now, Mrs Rolle said she can only plan and hope because she does not yet know how much money she will actually receive.

“I will wait to see how much I am actually going to get because after taxes and GoFundMe taxes and bank taxes I’ll see what lands in my hand then I’ll be able to better say what I can give to people to really enjoy and celebrate with me.”

Mrs Rolle, 55, told her story in a Netflix documentary that chronicled the failed event.

She was interviewed for “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” six months ago but said she forgot until the director,

on a Department of Customs official in exchange for the release of imported water. Mr King said he was prepared to do so but the customs official was nice to him, and released the water on the condition the import fees were promptly paid by organisers.

“What was very disappointing was that Bahamians in general rather than stand up and say who is this foreign entity blackening the eye of the government official, customs official, ministers of government,” Dr Moss said, “social media decided to cannibalise the officer and also the members of Parliament current and former.

And I think we go right back to the black crab syndrome of pulling one another down.”

She continued: “I didn’t hear

CUSTOMS Comptroller Dr Geannine Moss anybody pulling down that documentary or demonising Netflix or Andy King or anybody else and I think that’s what’s wrong with

our society. The officer in question is a veteran of some 34 years and he has served through many islands in The Bahamas, all the island persons know him very well.

“There has never been any kind of scandal on his professional or personal life and I think that’s grossly unfair of how social media took a hold of that to the extent that they even put somebody’s picture there, and purported it to be him and it wasn’t.

“He’s an upstanding fine officer in this department,” she added.

Dr Moss spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a Ministry of National Security conclave at Island House.

She explained it was a longstanding practice for the Department of Customs to receive

I’ll wait to see how much I get and then share out my windfall, says Maryann

PROMOTER Billy McFarland, centre, at a court hearing.

Chris Smith, called to reveal his GoFundMe intentions earlier this month.

Mrs Rolle was contracted to provide catering support and lodging for the festival.

At the peak of the event, she produced 1,000 meals per day.

In the documentary, she said: “I had ten persons working for me just preparing food all day and all night, 24 hours. I literally had to pay all those people.

I went through about

$50,000 of my savings that I could’ve had for a rainy day.

They just wiped it out and never looked back. I don’t even like to talk about the Fyre Festival anymore. Just take it away and let me start a new beginning because they really, really hurt me.”

She later told The Tribune she still owes about $75,000 because of the failed event, though businesses have been accommodating to her.

While there were some people on GoFundMe who left heartfelt comments about her situation, others appealed for help on other campaigns, including one started by the Exuma Foundation to help other Exuma workers affected.

Up to press time that account had raised about $9,000 of its $400,000 goal.

“This campaign has been funded and more,” commented Jose, “if you are still feeling generous please search Jose Tejada for my campaign. If you can donate please share with your friends and family, thank you.”

Another person, Linda, wrote: “This campaign is well above what was asked.

My grandson is very sick and my campaign for him has only gotten $160. No one on this campaign has said thank you or did an update. For all you know it may not be real.”

AMERICAN KILLED IN MOTORBIKE ACCIDENT from page one

He received serious injuries, police said, and was taken to the community clinic in Smith’s Bay where he later died. Officers from the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Traffic Division are expected to travel to the island to continue investigations into this incident.

This is believed to be the first traffic fatality on Cat Island for the year.

The man’s death came three days after traffic police in Grand Bahama began investigating a suspected traffic fatality in the West End community.

Police received a report of a bush fire in West End shortly before 11pm last Wednesday.

Officers from Police Fire Services arrived and found a four-door sedan that had apparently careened off the road into bushes and was engulfed in flames.

The fire was extinguished, and officers discovered human remains in the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

Investigations continue.

a deposit for goods imported on a temporary basis.

Dr Moss underscored all import fees owed by festival organisers had been paid, adding leftover goods like mattresses were auctioned off in Exuma last summer.

“That festival happened April 2017,” she said, “deposits were collected. The officer in charge of the whole Exuma customs was very much aware of it. That festival was endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism and there were a succession of meetings prior to the actual event as is required for any event coming into the Bahamas.”

Dr Moss continued: “Any exemptions or waivers would come from the Ministry of Finance or Tourism to accommodate any event that’s coming in here.”

MARYANN and her husband Elvis.

PAGE 4, Monday, January 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

The Tribune Limited NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

jamaaltheartist@gmail.com

Publisher/Editor 1903-1914 Kt., O.B.E., K.M., K.C.S.G., (Hon.) LL.D., D.Litt .

Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

C.M.G., M.S., B.A., LL.B. Publisher/Editor 1972-

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Hitting the next generation of students IT SEEMS some people here in The Bahamas don’t understand what the word “loan” means.

The student loan system is in crisis. As reported last week, the government is struggling to get people to pay back the money they borrowed to pay for their education.

How many are paying it back? Only around one in ten of the loans are not in default. That’s right – not in default.

A full 88 percent of the loan book is in default according to the latest figures.

Well, our hats off to those who have been paying back their loans and shame on all those who haven’t.

Failing to pay back that money hits the nation two-fold. First of all, that money has to be made up for somehow, so who has to pay for it if those who took out the loans don’t? That’s right, the rest of us. We’re all left on the hook for $100m.

But worse than that, who gets hit the most? The next generation of students.

That big pot of money got emptied really fast – and the deal is that those who borrowed it fill the pot back up so the next wave of students can borrow from it.

Because no one has been paying it back, the pot is empty. No new credit has been issued for nearly ten years because the money simply isn’t being paid back.

How is that fair to the students desperate for an education and not in any way responsible for the delinquency of those who went before them? And what kind of example are we setting them?

Student loans are commonplace the world over – simple measures such as salary deduction to repay them once salary reaches a certain level allows

people to repay the debt when they are financially able, and at a sustainable rate. It’s not rocket science.

This isn’t a new problem, of course – as that ten-year figure well shows. This lack of responsibility for the debts we incur has gone on too long. Well, the gloves may finally be off.

Minister of Education Jeffrey Lloyd says the education authority may be about to hire a private collection agency.

He says the authority’s staff has been “overwhelmed” by the task – which raises questions of its own about how functional the authority has been. We can’t help but think that in the past there may have been a reluctance politically to pursue people for debts when you might soon be pursuing them for votes too.

A private collection agency will have no such qualms, and enough is enough.

The authority has tried to encourage people to pay off their debts, offering discounts of 40 percent on the amount owed. That was the carrot. It hasn’t proven enough. It’s time for the stick.

There is no such thing as getting something for nothing – and the price for treating the loan as a gift falls heaviest on those we say mean the most to us: our children, our future.

So if you have a debt with the authority, if you’ve been ignoring it for years – now’s the time to take advantage of any remaining discounts and incentives.

Before you get a knock on the door and a summons to pay up.

And don’t forget, since the FNM came to power, The Tribune revealed the “do not disconnect” lists – imagine if a student debtor list was to be revealed and who might have risen to a high position without paying their debts!

Parasites living off the poor EDITOR, The Tribune THE government is trying to attempt to balance its budget by increasing revenues. One of these measures was to increase VAT by 60%. At the time there was considerable negative comment about the proposal but on July 1, 2018 the increased rate was introduced, not even a reduction in the rate!

At the same time the government introduced a sliding tax scale on the Numbers Houses. The previous level of tax was woefully low, however, this proposal also caused a stir among those in the business. Unfortunately, there was a significant difference between the two scenarios

– the Numbers Houses are small in number and have access to vast financial resources to launch a legal appeal. The end result being that no new tax has yet been collected and it appears that the government may even scale back on its proposed rates.

I have a strong and sincere issue with this conclusion should it prove to be correct. Not only does the action deprive the government of much needed revenue, it is equally apparent that the shortfall will have to be borne by the general public who pay the higher rate of VAT. The business of Numbers Houses should in my opinion be taxed at the highest level as they are parasites

living off the poor people.

It keeps these people below the poverty line and causes significant social issues amongst them – e.g. poor housing, lack of utilities, lack of nutrition etc. Gambling is a “disease” and to feed off this disease by the accumulation of significant wealth to just a few people is ethically and morally wrong. During the dialogue it was proposed, at one time, that the “winners” should be taxed. I would agree with this position, however, I define the real “winners” as the Owners.

Government let’s get serious and enforce the law.

which emanate from the lack of a substantive CJ. As noted in the editorial in the Nassau Guardian surely there was a short list when the last CJ was appointed?

Why should the process be protracted?

On another subject why are we still involved in seeking an agreement with Oban. Not only were we as citizens uncomfortable with the officials of the company, at a time when progressive administrations are seeking alternatives to fossil fuels, why are we embracing this

oil based industry on Grand Bahama?

Bahamians are also wondering, in the light of the distressing news concerning the endangerment of the Bahama grouper and our conch, why are we not trying to preserve these national treasures with grouper and conch farms?

I can only think that without vision the people perish.

FAIR & BALANCED Nassau January 24, 2019

Without vision, the people perish EDITOR, The Tribune

WHY are we back to a situation we only recently faced, that of having an Acting Chief Justice for an unknown period of time.

The facile answer from the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary that he will appoint one “in due course “ is cold comfort to citizens of a country which seems to be spinning out of control.

Kudos to the Acting Chief Justice for pointing out at the opening of the Legal Year the problems

JEANNE THOMPSON Nassau, January 13, 2019

Why it’s time to extend the retirement age for our judges EDITOR, The Tribune WHEN a distinguished retired high court judge like Jeanne Thompson talks, political and civic leaders should stop beating up their gums and take notice. Justice Thompson again rang a bell over the delay by the Prime Minister in recommending a nominee for the post of Chief Justice.

This is the second time that the Prime Minister seems to be dragging his feet in the matter of recommending someone for the substantive post of Chief Justice.

There are in our Constitution and laws cases in which public servants are required to carry out certain functions in accordance with a specific timeline, such as arrangements for elections.

There are many other mandates that are not tied to a specific timeline but which public servants are expected to carry out in a reasonable time. Failure to do so may expose a negligent public servant to judicial intervention at the instance of a concerned citizen.

The Constitution says only that the Prime Minister must consult with the Leader of the Opposition before making a recommendation to the Governor General of who she should appoint as Chief Justice.

The founding fathers mandated in Article 95.1 of the Constitution that should the post of Chief Justice become vacant then the Governor General appoints an Acting Chief Justice on the advice of the Prime Minister.

Interestingly, while the nomenclature used at 95.1 is “appoint”, in the very next paragraph in the version of the Constitution on the Bahamas Government website -- 95.2 -- it mysteriously

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net refers to a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court being “anointed” to act as Chief Justice. That version of the Constitution needs to be taken down and the proper version posted.

While some who have served on the bench may have assumed that their judgeship was due to divine intervention, the Governor General has only secular powers in our Constitution.

But still a faux tempest in a teacup persists with whispers of how the Prime Minister may be stoking a constitutional crisis by not quickly appointing a permanent Chief Justice.

Nonsense.

The law fraternity knows better than most the challenges we face because of the shackles placed on the Prime Minister by the retirement age ring fence thrown up by the Constitution.

Since independence we have had 12 Chief Justices at the Supreme Court. Five of them have been non-Bahamians hailing from Jamaica (Vivian Blake and Harvey Lloyd da Costa), Guyana (Joaquim Sabola), Dominica (Telford Georges) and Britain (James Alfred Smith). The list of non-Bahamians on the Appeals Court is even longer still.

By way of comparison our friends in Canada have had only 18 Chief Justices in the past 144 years. And their CJ can stay on the bench until they reach the age of 75.

Surely there is no need for us to import a Chief Justice. Our problem is that the Constitution mandates a retirement age of 65 for Chief Justice (with the

possibility for a two-year extension). Many of our experienced lawyers, thoroughly sprightly of body and nimble of mind, have to be ruled out of consideration because they are close to retirement age and could serve only briefly if appointed.

It is appalling that the judges who adjudicate matters in our courts must retire at an earlier age than the jurists who will review their decisions if their matters are ever sent on appeal to our final court, the Privy Council in the UK. Judges there retire at 70.

It is no secret that we are living longer, healthier lives than 50 years ago. We have retired justices today who are lucid of mind and who could be hearing cases and helping clear court backlogs, if only we would find the will to amend the Constitution to allow them to retire later. To his credit, Hubert Ingraham tried but was rebuffed by antsy referendum voters.

The salary we pay the Chief Justice is a pittance when compared to those in private practice. While that must be fixed, it would also be advisable to appoint younger lawyers who could serve on the high court for longer periods.

John Roberts was 50 when he was given a lifetime appointment as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court in 2005.

We need to look more broadly at our antiquated laws which tie the hands of both Prime Minister and Governor General.

And when next the PM is in Long Island, he should seek advice on procrastination. Long Islanders know: “If you think long you think wrong.”

THE GRADUATE Nassau January 25, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, January 28, 2019, PAGE 5

TEACHERS SET TO RETURN TO CV BETHEL TODAY

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

TEACHERS at CV Bethel Senior High School will return to the classroom today, one week after classes were suspended because they were left “traumatised” after a marine biology teacher was reportedly injured in an altercation with two male students.

Belinda Wilson, president of the Bahamas Union Teachers, yesterday said plans were in place for administrators to meet with teachers, ahead of an assembly to reinforce all rules, regulations and consequences to students.

Mrs Wilson said union officials will be monitoring both the meeting and the assembly “very closely.”

She further revealed that union officials have made several recommendations to the Ministry and Department of Education concerning the well-being and redeployment of the teacher involved in the altercation.

Mrs Wilson told The Tribune: “Teachers across the country and the BUT stand strongly behind the teacher in this matter. He is still being monitored by a doctor and we are awaiting his recovery.”

Mrs Wilson added: “Last week teachers spent an enormous

amount of time devising a health, safety and discipline plan that is expected to be implemented immediately.”

She said teachers are committed to assisting the school’s principal and administration moving forward to ensure that this new plan is carried out on a daily basis, contributing directly to the safety of the teachers and students alike.

Mrs Wilson implored education officials to “keep up” their end of all agreements made in the wake of the incident.

Teachers at the school have stayed out of the classroom since the incident last Monday.

Last Wednesday, officer-incharge of the East Street South

police station, Superintendent Roberto Goodman, said the matter was under active investigation. He could not say at the time if there would be charges against anyone.

He said the investigation was somewhat slow-moving as it involved mostly minors who could only be interviewed by police in the presence of parents or guardians.

However, he said police found that the incident was not as severe as portrayed by social media reports that alleged the male instructor was left “bloodied” by a group of students.

“We are actively investigating the incident,” Supt Goodman

said last week. “We are still doing preliminaries. I was able to speak to some students today, but I can’t say yet if there will be any charges. I also interviewed the teacher and saw some of the students.

“But it’s not like how social media said. It wasn’t a bloody scene as was said.”

Supt Goodman confirmed that two male students were taken into custody after the incident, but were released pending investigation.

Acting Education Director Sharon Poitier said officials were waiting for a report from CV Bethel’s principal before it conducted its own investigations.

Both sides are to blame for school disrepair, says Wilson from page one In a statement on Saturday, Mr Cooper said it was an outrage that the Black Point All-Age School remains in a state of disrepair five months after the start of the 2018-2019 academic year.

He pinned blame for the issue on the Minnis administration’s decision to give oversight of school repairs to a new contractor who, despite giving assurances for more than four months, has not completed the work as contracted.

“I am trying to determine exactly why this has happened,” Mr Cooper said. “Also, as I did last year, I have brought the deplorable state of the school to the attention of the minister, who has promised that the repairs will take place. It is a frustrating state of affairs and in no way acceptable.”

When made aware of Mr Cooper’s claims, Mrs Wilson said it was ridiculous that a politician would attempt to misrepresent the failures of his own party.

“I am not interested in any comments that the PLP has made in reference to the Black Point All-Age School because the conditions were the same when the PLP was the government,” she pointed out.

Mrs Wilson said officials on both sides of the political divide have refused to discuss the matter.

“If there is blame to be placed, I’ll like to place blame squarely on the former minister, permanent secretary and director; and then also to place equal blame on the present minister, permanent secretary and acting director,” she told The Tribune.

She said as recently as September 27, 2018, she personally took reports of the issues now being highlighted, namely building complaints and staff shortages, to senior officials at both the Ministry and Department of Education.

Referring specifically to the physical condition of the school, Mrs Wilson said restrooms at the facility and a nearby residence used

The sorry state of Black Point School to accommodate teachers, now sit in a state of disrepair.

Mrs Wilson claimed: “I, along with the area vicepresident (Ann Strachan), we visited Black Point All-Age and I would have brought to the attention of the persons responsible for the repairs and maintenance our concerns.

“I took photos and Ms Strachan, she took a letter and photos to the Acting Director Marcellus Taylor and he did nothing.”

Mrs Wilson added: “The former principal, (Esmae Cox), and I have a paper trail of documents and photos that she would have forwarded, not only to the former director of education, but to the permanent secretary and the former minister; all of them were quite aware of the unhealthy environment at Black Point All-Age School.

“Mrs Cox, she continued writing to the new government. So the acting director, the deputy director and the person in charge of physical plans, who themselves were at the school last year, all of them are quite aware. So to make this point clear, both had opportunities to fix this and none did. So let’s not make this a political matter to pass from one side to the next.”

She added that union officials have also raised concerns with the Ministry of Education related to the “disrespect and incompetence” of District Superintendent Pamela Gorte, whom the union claimed was only interested in the “fluff” of management, and not bringing about “the strong, competent and consistent leadership” needed in the district.

“So, when we look at the conditions at the school, the

physical environment, all of them must take the blame, it lies with all of them,” Mrs Wilson said.

She went on to demand the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Works immediately carry out all needed repairs and maintenance at the Black Point All-Age School.

“We are not accepting any excuses,” she said, “everyday the Ministry of Education is sending new instructions and directives

to teachers as to what new duties they must perform, these teachers are being evaluated regularly, my question is, who is evaluating these incompetent and inept leaders?”

Mrs Wilson further implored Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis to place both the Ministry and Department of Education under a “microscopic view,” claiming that unskilled and misplaced personnel are presently stalling major

advancements in the sector.

“There needs to be an entire restructuring at the Ministry and Department of Education, from top to bottom to ensure that our students have the best chance or opportunity to get a 21st century education so they could be productive citizens,” she said.

Education Minister Jeffrey Lloyd, who is in London on official business, did not comment when contacted.

PAGE 6, Monday, January 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

D’AGUILAR EXPECTS MORE THAN 20 BIDS FOR GRAND LUCAYAN

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar estimated the government will have received over 20 bids for the Grand Lucayan by the time it closes off acceptance of bids next month.

The government expects to close off acceptance of bids for the troubled hotel by February 15, Mr D’Aguilar said.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for Sterling Global Financial’s $250m Hurricane Hole development on Paradise Island.

“We expect to close off the acceptance of bids by the 15th of February,” Mr D’Aguilar said on Friday, “then there will be an evaluation period paring down those who have submitted proposals to a small grouping and then the government will evaluate which one they feel is the best and will

select an operator obviously we have goals, but these things take time and we hopefully will have it done in the shortest period of time.

“We have to wait until the 15th when everyone comes in, but I’m sure it will be over 20.”

The government spent $65m to buy the resort. It also costs

more than $1m each month to run it.

Earlier this month, Michael Scott, chairman of Lucayan Renewal Holdings, said officials are still eyeing a second quarter 2019 sale of the Grand Lucayan resort with “April to June” pegged as a timeline for the sale.

Official ground breaking ceremony at Hurricane Hole

THE OFFICIAL ground breaking at Hurricane Hole on Friday. Left, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, centre, with Renward Wells, left, and Leader of the Opposition Philip Davis. Right, David Kosoy from Sterling Global Financial. For more on this story, see Tribune Business.

Photos: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

WE ARE CLOSE TO MAKING NEW HIRES AT SECURITY, SAYS DAMES Funeral Service For

Viola Bernetta Nixon, 89 of Kent Avenue, Nassau East South will be held on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 10:00 a.m., at Holy Cross Anglican Church, Soldier Road and Highbury Park. Officiating will be The Rev’d Canon Peter Scott assisted by Rev’d Fr. Travis Fernander. Interment will follow in Woodlawn Gardens, Soldier Road.

Predeceased by her Parents: Fat Lee and Mary Lee; Husband: Henry Nixon; brother: Vernal Lee. She is survived by her Sons: Glen, Stephen, Kirk, Barry, Henry Richard Jr. (Ricky), David and Christopher Nixon; Daughter: Karen Knowles; Son-in-law: Tracey Knowles; Daughters-in-law: Tania, Joanna, Monique and Lisa Nixon; Grandchildren: Kenneth, Robert, Jerrad, Angelique, Trevize, Sean, Matthew, Nathan, Joshua, Anna, Marc Nixon, Celeste Christie, Kasey, Lia, Jessica Knowles; Great-Grandchildren: Robin, Benjamin and Corbin Nixon; Grandchildren-in-law: Lily, Aseel, Bianca, Kristin Nixon, Alexander Christie, Dylan and Cory Knowles; Brothers: Pastor Allan, Henry and John (Donnie) Lee; Sisters: Valeria Cook, Mena Griffiths and Cheryl Lee; Brothers-in-law: Buren Willis (BW) Cook and Derek Griffiths; Sisters-in-law: Nancy, Maria and Linda Lee; Numerous Nephews and Nieces including: Gregory, Billy, Heather, Cindy, Sandy, Tim, Allan Jr., Craig, Lana, Julie, David, Krystynia, Ian, Bianca, Shane, Mark and Gin and the entire Nixon Family Clan.

Dear Friends; Care Giver: Linda Nixon and her husband Dalton Nixon, Garnell Thomas, Edna Cancino, Hilda Knowles, Debra Nixon, Lorene Cancino, Sherrill Pletscher, Stephanie Bowe, “Glamour Team” Joan Treco and Linda Sauer; The Holy Cross Prayer Group – Gweny, Betty, Mary S, Mary D, Sylvia, Dot, Lily, Sandy, Dorie, Vanencia and Lady Joan Foulkes. The Holy Cross Usher Group, The Ladies of Cognizance Birthday Club; Special thanks to: The Nurses at Princess Margaret Hospital - Private Medical I and Female Medical I, Dr. Ingraham, Canon Peter Scott, Canon Norman Lightbourne, Rt. Rev. Bishop Laish Z. Boyd, Dr. Vincent McWeeney and Dr. Gordon.

In Lieu of flowers Viola has requested an offering to Holy Cross Church.

There will be NO VIEWING at the church Relatives and friends may pay their last respects at Butlers Funeral Homes & Crematorium on Wednesday, January 30, 2019 from 12:30p.m. until 5:00p.m.

By RIEL MAJOR NEW hires for the Ministry of National Security are on the horizon, according to Minister Marvin Dames, who forecast a ministerial revamp to accommodate new specialist areas.

“We have a document that we have been working on now for some time,” Mr Dames said on Friday, “and that really lays out the makeup of a new Ministry of National Security and coming out of that we discovered we need more persons because we need to create new areas.”

He was speaking on the sidelines of the ministry’s first annual senior management conclave at Island House. Mr Dames continued: “We have one area, that’s research, and you would have seen that we produced the manpower audit and so we are not just hiring people for hiring.

We are hiring specialists to assist us because national security is the centre of the Ministry of National Security. We have to be efficient and well structured so we can provide the support to the police force, defence force, parliamentary

registrar, and the corrections department.”

“We are now comfortable that we are at that place,” he said. “We have made provisions for the additional resources that we will be building out national security, so it is all about improving our level of professionalism. At the end of the day providing the services that are needed to support our agencies and to bring relief to Bahamians everywhere.”

Conclave presenters represented a diverse mix of professionals to cover a wide range of topics from human resources management to financial matters.

Mr Dames said: “Persons within the services as well as persons from private industry are coming to speak to you on financial matters. We have a presentation on human resource management and throughout the afternoon we look forward to hearing from each and every one of you for your plans for 2019 and how you intend to navigate the year.

“We often talk about professionalism and raising the bar and one of the things that we recognise

certainly since coming to government as an office, and I want to speak specifically to the Ministry of National Security leading up to governance, there are often times that a political party would often speak about how things are not working and what we need to do to fix it.”

The minister encouraged the participants to be open and transparent during the two-day event. He stressed law enforcement agencies must understand how they are viewed by members of the public.

Mr Dames said: “We intend to commence a civilisation process for our law enforcement agencies because we want to get police officers on the streets. We want to get defence force officers on crafts, and we want correctional officers overseeing inmates.

“We don’t need them answering telephones or behind a desk…just uploading basic information on the computers. We need them doing the job we recruited them to do and so this is extremely important for us and so we have to understand that.”

DRONE DECISION TO BE REVEALED NEXT MONTH

By RIEL MAJOR

THE public will learn which drone company the government plans to engage at the end of February, according to National Security Minister Marvin Dames.

He said officials expect to narrow down bids within another week or two.

He revealed the ministry received more than 20 bids in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of an inaugural security conclave at Island House.

Mr Dames said on Friday: “We had representation from all over…Europe, United States, Canada and then we had a few contacts with Bahamian companies and a foreign company, and I think one was in Israel as well and so it was very diverse. We’re excited because this presents a very unique opportunity for us in The Bahamas.”

Mr Dames underscored the ministry’s

target to reduce the level of crime, noting its impact on tourism and the fear of crime.

“I find it so interesting because I was reading something the other day,” he added, “I think it was about Kentucky and in the US that many cities now are moving in this direction and so we in The Bahamas are certainly ahead of the curve. We intend to be on the cutting edge because it is extremely important for us as a government to reduce the level of crime in this country.”

Mr Dames could not say how many drones will be purchased, stating the number really depends on how far the money will stretch.

“You can pay a few hundred bucks for a drone and you can pay a few million bucks for a drone, so which one do you want? So, we have to as we move to select the right company, we have to do that with our budgetary contracts in mind,” he said.

MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

LEADING lawyers Wayne Munroe, left, and Fred Smith.

Photos: Terrel W Carey/Tribune Staff

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

D

EFENCE attorneys have disagreed with a recent admonition for judges to hold defendants liable for any misconduct exhibited in court by their attorney, with some calling the suggestion “unconstitutional” and an “undue burden” on what would most likely always be a layperson.

The attorneys, most of whom are criminal defence lawyers, told The Tribune that not only is Appellate President Sir Hartman Longley’s admonition unprecedented, it is “impractical” as no client should be expected to shoulder the blame for an attorney who decides to “go on a frolic of their own”.

Conversely, the majority of the attorneys this newspaper interviewed agreed that if faced with a contentious attorney, a judge should be minded to “control his court properly”, and either file an ethics complaint, impose sanctions on the lawyer, or simply advise the accused to get a new attorney.

Wayne Munroe, QC, said: “To say to a layman, ‘your lawyer is acting improperly, you need to rein him in’, if I’m the layman I’d say ‘well judge if you can’t control him how can I control him?

He tell me this how he should be doing my case. I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know’.

“It just seems to me like too much pressure to put on a layperson. And to me, if a lawyer acts improperly, it’s for the presiding judge to deal with the matter. If that means discharging the jury, starting afresh, making an ethics complaint against the lawyer to have him disciplined, I could see that.

“But I can’t see… and I read what the Court of Appeal said. As I said, because I work representing laypeople, I appreciate how much pressure that would put on my client.”

In a recent written ruling, Sir Hartman, the President of the Court of Appeal, admonished Supreme Court judges to warn defendants to control the attorneys who represent them, declaring a defendant can be held liable if his or her lawyer is disrespectful to the court.

More specifically, Sir Hartman declared that going forward, any judge concerned about any attorney’s conduct should tell that lawyer’s client to “rein in” their attorney or otherwise be held “responsible for the conduct and be seen as condoning his tactics”.

The lawyer who served as the impetus for Sir Hartman’s admonition is defence attorney Geoffrey Farquharson, who Sir Hartman said exhibited such “gross misconduct” during a recent murder case that it “made it impossible” for his client to have received a fair trial.

According to Sir Hartman,

Who should be held to account when a lawyer steps over the line?

Mr Farquharson was so “rude, disrespectful and antagonistic” towards the judge, jury, Crown witnesses and Crown attorneys in the matter, that the jury was “motivated” to make a complaint to the judge that he was “rude”.

Sir Hartman further asserted Mr Farquharson’s actions “created an atmosphere in the court that would have caused the jury to look adversely upon him and his client’s case”.

That forced the appellate court to order the appellant, Christopher Butler, who is accused of killing Rapeson Jules on June 4, 2013, to be retried on that basis alone, despite his new attorney Stanley Rolle filing “numerous” grounds of appeal to attack his client’s verdict.

Of the attorneys canvassed on the issue, three indicated their support for Sir Hartman’s admonition, including Fred Smith, QC, who asserted that once retained, an attorney “speaks for the client and binds the client in generally all respects”.

“And so historically, whatever the agent does for the principle - that is the client - binds the client,” Mr Smith said.

“And it is therefore incumbent on attorneys to always take and act on instructions to make sure that they are making representations to the court based on what the client told them to do. And it is unethical for an attorney to act in breach of his instructions.

“So the behavior of a lawyer in court or even outside of court, in commercial transactions, really does bind the client. And in that way, the principle—the client, can be and often is held responsible by the actions of the attorney.

This is nothing new. This is nothing new at all.”

Mr Smith continued: “At the end of the day the lawyer is essentially the client, because he’s the agent, he’s the representative and speaks for the client. So the only time a person who is a party in the case has the right of audience, is when they don’t have an attorney. So the whole idea of having an attorney is that whatever the attorney says, the client is bound by.

“And so I think the president’s decision in the Butler case, from what I read, was simply that because of the behaviour of an attorney in the conduct of a trial, it could unfairly affect the client’s rights, especially in a criminal case. And what the Court of

SIR Hartman Longley Appeal has said is really nothing new.

“Often, the behaviour of an attorney, or the representations made by the attorney or the undertakings given by the attorney, the consequences have to be borne by the client, the party to the litigation. And it’s really nothing unfair about that. You chose your mouthpiece. That’s why you have a Constitutional right to an attorney of your choice.”

B

UT Mr Munroe disagreed with Mr Smith’s argument, asserting that lawyers still retain a great degree of autonomy in the execution of their services for a client, and that clients are thus not capable of fully controlling an attorney.

“Let’s say it’s Fred, and the judge tells Fred’s client to ‘rein Mr Smith in’, what is the client going to tell Mr Smith?” Mr Munroe argued. “Because presumably, Mr Smith is, in his mind, acting correctly. (Mr Farquharson), I think in his mind, thinks he is acting correctly. So what could the client say to him? He will say ‘look, I’m the lawyer, you’re the client’. It’s like I tell clients, you can’t tell me how to be a lawyer just like I don’t tell my doctor how to be a doctor.

“When you hire me, I am a creature of instructions to the extent that you tell me what it is, I give you advice; I might give you options. You and I aren’t wedded.

If you instruct me to do something that I don’t think is right, I won’t do it. If I determine that this

is the way to conduct your case on what you tell me, and you tell me you don’t agree, well you know, I might not be prepared to represent you.”

Meanwhile, another prominent defence attorney bluntly described Sir Hartman’s admonition as “hogwash” and also charged that a client cannot be held liable for an attorney’s actions.

“My view is that the president is wrong in what he said and that you cannot hold a client responsible or accountable for the action of his lawyer,” he said. “Imagine you as a layperson, you went to a lawyer for professional advice.

You cannot say, other than the fact that you’re a basic human being, what amounts to courtesy.

If a lawyer is rude and discourteous to the court and to others in the court, you certainly cannot control the lawyer in that regard.

“So how can you say that he could be accountable for the actions of his lawyer? Everything is wrong about that. Everything is wrong insofar as the whole concept of justice is concerned.

Remember, that the client is the one on trial, not the lawyer. So you put an additional burden on this man who’s already standing trial. Just to be on trial alone is an extreme burden.

“Therefore, if a lawyer goes on a frolic, it is for the judge to control his court properly, and there are certain sanctions that he can impose on the lawyer. And I think it is really a wrong utterance to say that in the circumstances should something like that happen of that nature, then the client could be held accountable. Everything is wrong with that.

“Obviously it’s totally impractical and wrong. That’s the best way I can sum it up.”

That senior lawyer also gave his take on the issue of what constitutes “rudeness” or misconduct in court, the issue at the core of Sir Hartman’s and the appellate court’s decision.

“The legal profession is a robust one,” he said. “Tempers fly in court in the process of representing clients. It does not necessarily mean that the lawyer may be rude.

Maybe it’s the manner in which he may be putting across his case.

Because being rude is a very subjective factor and you cannot say that everything can amount to rudeness.”

Mr Munroe, also addressing the issue, noted that different lawyers

have different styles of representation, but said regardless of whatever tactics attorneys employ - and whether they are deemed to be inappropriate - he has “difficulties” seeing how that issue falls on the client. “…If you talk about tactics, you have some lawyers who are aggressive, and then you have some lawyers like me who are not aggressive at all, in the sense of on the face of it aggressive,” Mr Munroe said. “I don’t know how you put that burden on a client to rein in his lawyer. There’s a saying that he who represents himself has a fool for a client. So if you have an accused person who has an independent counsel, to require him to make judgements on how his counsel should defend his case is unusual.

“I don’t see that myself. It’s difficult for me to grasp. I see what the (Court of Appeal) has said - I don’t myself see practically how it would work, especially since the Bar’s code of professional conduct says we must be fearless in defending our client. Now lawyers cross the line; it may be obvious lawyers are crossing the line. I for myself don’t see how you put that burden on a client.”

He added: “Stop and think about it. If a client wants to tell me how to do his case he has to fire me. So you’re really telling the client you have to replace your lawyer in the middle of a trial. The likelihood of that being able to be done without occasioning an undue delay in a trial is very difficult to imagine.

It would be like if I’m having medical treatment, and someone decides that my doctor isn’t treating me quite right, I don’t see how you tell me rein my doctor in. I could see you telling me you have to change your doctor, but I don’t know how the advice they give would affect a lawyer-client relationship.”

Another senior defence attorney, who wished to remain anonymous, said of Sir Hartman’s admonition: “I don’t think that is fair on the defendant, because he can’t control counsel. And if anybody, they need to hold counsel in contempt. Defendants are already in a precarious position, and for them to be held responsible for what their lawyer does, I think it’s wrong. It’s unconstitutional. I mean, they can advise them that they ought to get another counsel, and then they need to deal with that attorney.”

PAGE 8 MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

M

UCH of what happens in Parliament is an embarrassment and a disappointment. Witnessing a group of men and women who seem more awestruck with themselves - high off the opportunity to sit in Parliament rather than filled with a spirit of duty and service, hamstringing any potential of our democracy evolving.

It is like watching professional wrestling where individuals really don’t mean each other harm, pointlessly arguing to the cheering – or in this case, banging on tables – of the crowd. It is no wonder someone had enough of it and decided it doesn’t make sense.

This past week, Member of Parliament for Centreville Reece Chipman resigned from the Public Accounts Committee earning, I suspect, a standing ovation from the populace.

His resignation was symbolic of that moment when you have to stop and ask, where is the sense in what we are doing? Citing the Public Accounts Committee’s being “functionless” as the primary reason for stepping down speaks to the outright bastardisation of the Westminster system – a system we so often blame for our shortcomings as a democratic nation.

However, Chipman’s obvious frustration reaching a boiling point may indicate something else. Rather than blaming the system, perhaps we ought to wonder how we have failed the system and how it should be applied for our greater good.

If we are able to remove the political scales from our eyes, surely we will see we have failed ourselves.

In his letter, Chipman wrote: “My resignation serves as a signal to the next generation that the House of Assembly is the biggest issue in Bahamian politics and, unless we fix it as soon as possible, we lose you to an unjust, unfair oligarchy that will continue to reign over a nation, a Bahamas of imbedded have nots and that has very serious implications and that I cannot appreciate.”

As profound a statement as that was, what is most true is that the oligarchy continues to silence dissenting views, often ostracising those critical of the status quo.

Chipman, along with the other three members of the unofficially grouped “Rebel Four”, would have learned this the hard way at some point when offering views opposed to a Cabinet initiative.

And here we are again, Chipman, “the kingslayer”, while his issues are not lacking in merit, he may have been better off saying it to a brick wall, as even Speaker of the House Halson Moultrie refused to table Chipman’s resignation letter in Parliament.

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

Government would prefer to stand in an echo chamber rather than see our democracy evolve

REECE Chipman resigned from the Public Accounts Committee last week earning, I suspect, a standing ovation from the populace.

Certainly, if the majority were not hungover from being power drunk, the reading of Chipman’s letter could have been an instructive moment. However, no such luck.

Opposition Leader and Public Accounts Committee chairman Phillip “Brave” Davis defended the PAC, downplaying its impotence, instead characterising it as being “adrift”. Of course, he placed the blame on the government, claiming the PAC had been stifled and had nothing to work with.

But Davis, a former Deputy Prime Minister, would recall the former House Speaker Dr Kendal Major telling the PAC

to “stay its hand” – instructing them to refrain from pursuing an investigation into the Auditor General’s report on the Urban Renewal Programme – an act the former PAC chairman Hubert Chipman said “castrated” the committee.

Both parties can’t get past blaming one another on why the PAC doesn’t work effectively.

Instead, they find it more sensible to argue whose fault something is rather than fixing it so our democracy can be better for all. Moreover, it seems each government uses the system to serve whatever their agenda is, which goes right back to the central issue of confusion about who

the government belongs to – the people of The Bahamas.

Our motivation should be to ensure government can be continuous – in that it evolves and is better for the next individuals occupying those seats. This may perhaps be one of the greatest setbacks of having career politicians.

It impedes our progress and stifles our development as a nation.

Alarmingly, no reports were completed by any of the committees in Parliament and somehow this is okay. Meanwhile, other jurisdictions under the Westminster system are constantly learning from one another’s ways to ensure their democracies

continue to strive to improve for the next generation.

Unfortunately, it becomes more and more evident that our forebears may have taken the training wheels off too early as, with empowerment, sometimes arrogance also takes root. This much seems to be true, as one can hardly offer a critique without government becoming too sensitive, and in some cases, targeting individuals for their views.

Hopefully, some of us will live long enough so that one day we will be able to see this very important, but underestimated principle of leadership becomes embedded into the core of our national democracy.

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INSIGHT

MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019 PAGE 9

R Rape is real so we all

APE is a crime which affects all members of society, its victims and those close to them. The more informed citizens are about the crime of rape, the better prepared they will be to prevent it.

have to be on our guard

WHAT IS RAPE? Rape is an act of sexual intercourse, perpetrated against a man or woman without their consent.

Although not as common, the incidence of males sexually assaulting other males do happen. Thus, whenever discussing the crime of rape, it is important to remember that women are not the only victims.

SAFETY On the Street * Travel in well-lit, populated areas. * If possible, walk in pairs. * Walk facing traffic. * Plan your route ahead of time. * Know your neighbourhood - be aware of nearby businesses, their hours of operation and their locations. * Avoid shortcuts, bushy areas and alleyways. * Dress for ease of movement. * If possible, don’t carry a purse. * Don’t burden yourself with bulky packages or belongings. * Walk assertively and maintain a sharp awareness of your surroundings. * If you sense you are being followed, immediately cross to the opposite side of the street and head for the nearest open business or occupied dwelling. * When seeking help from the occupant of a residence, yell and use any means necessary to draw attention to the situation.

In the Home * Install quality locks on doors and windows and use them. * Install an eye-viewer in your door. * Never automatically open your door without knowing who is on the other side. Talk through the door. * Don’t rely on chain latches and screen doors for security as they are limited barrier to intruders. * Instruct your children in door and telephone safety techniques. * Do not answer questions asked over the

telephone. * Ask for identification from service people. If still not satisfied, call the business and verify the visit is a legitimate one. * Have someone present whenever someone is going to be performing a service in your home. * When arriving home ensure that your keys for your property are in your hand before exiting the vehicle.

In Your Vehicle * Lock the doors and roll up the windows whenever you leave your vehicle. * Keep the doors and windows locked whenever you are in your vehicle. * Prior to entering your vehicle, always check both under the car and behind the front seat. * Park in well-lit, wellpopulated areas. * Be aware of your surroundings as you walk through parking lots, suspects often hide between parked cars. * If your car breaks down, raise the hood and turn on the emergency flashers. Remain in your locked car until help arrives. If someone stops to offer assistance, ask them to send a tow truck or to contact local law enforcement. Talk through the window. * If you are being followed, do not turn into your own driveway. Head for the nearest populated area or open business.

In a Social Situation * When first meeting a new friend, exchange phone numbers, not addresses. * Keep someone apprised of your whereabouts when dating a man for the first time. * It is a good idea to refrain from going to bars and clubs alone. However, should you choose to do so, have your own transportation available - and use it.

* Don’t allow alcohol or drugs to cloud your commonsense. * If a man persists in asking for your phone number - and you feel it would cause a problem should you refuse - give him a false number. * Know what your personal social standards are and stick to them. Don’t allow your judgment to be overruled by an aggressive pursuer.

SELF-DEFENCE – PASSIVE OR ACTIVE? There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to selfdefence. Ultimately, the decision rests with the individual and should be based on considerations such as the location (isolated vs. populated), whether or not a weapon is involved, the victim’s physical capabilities, and the perceived chance of success.

PASSIVE SELF-DEFENCE * Talking your way out of a situation. * Telling the rapist you are pregnant, menstruating, or afflicted with a communicable disease can be an effective ploy. * Faking submission and waiting for an appropriate opportunity to make an escape. * Urinating, defecating, or vomiting. * NOTE: Initiating a passive defence may not work in all situations. If it fails, you can then escalate to an active defence.

ACTIVE SELF-DEFENCE * If you choose to fight, fight effectively. A half-hearted attempt at resistance could be worse than no resistance at all. * Before initiating a physical defence, you should be aware of your capabilities both physical and mental.

If you cannot imagine yourself exerting whatever force necessary to ward off an attacker, then perhaps a more passive approach is more viable for you. * Have some idea of what you intend to do should you be attacked. If you have given prior thought to the matter, you will be better prepared to avoid debilitating panic. * Self-defence classes

aimed at teaching everyday defensive manoeuvers that can help build confidence. * Do not underestimate the power of your voice as an effective defensive tool. If you feel your voice may fail you when you need it most, practice screaming.

If you or anyone you know is a victim of rape or attempted rape call 919 0r 911 and report it

immediately or call the Crisis Centre at 328-0922 or 322-4999.

Let us create safer communities Please visit the Royal Bahamas Police Force Website at www.royalbahamaspolice.org or Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ rbpforce for Latest News, Daily Crime Reports and additional Crime Prevention Tips

PAGE 10 MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

When a slave ran for freedom EASTMAN Johnson’s ‘A Ride for Liberty’ (ca.

1862) depicts a family of slaves galloping for the safety of the North in the early morning light.

Brooklyn Museum

By JOSHUA ROTHMAN Professor of History, University of Alabama

A

MONG the millions of people enslaved in the United States before 1865, hundreds of thousands attempted to flee from those who held them in bondage.

Some left temporarily to protest mistreatment.

Others sought to reunite with loved ones from whom they had been forced apart. Many simply wanted freedom.

These fugitives from American slavery often left no trace in the historical record, but we can document the flight of many of them. After all, to their white owners, enslaved people were valuable property – well worth the time, effort and resources devoted to their capture.

The method most likely to produce results was enlisting other white people in the search by publicly offering a reward.

Open practically any issue of any southern newspaper from the decades before the Civil War and you’ll see advertisements placed by slaveholders searching for runaway slaves. Perhaps as many as 200,000 of these notices appeared in the public prints of the South, and each one attaches a name and a story to a fugitive.

Historians have known about and used runaway advertisements before, of course, but they’ve never all been gathered in one easily accessible place. So in 2014, a team of scholars led by myself, Edward Baptist of Cornell University and Mary Niall Mitchell of the University of New Orleans began collaborating on a project called Freedom on the Move to collect and digitize these ads.

After every one of the names and stories in them becomes available to and searchable by scholars and the general public, we hope we will understand, in new ways, the lives and experiences of those who resisted slavery by trying to liberate themselves.

Runaway advertisements were essentially wanted posters for people whose crime was pursuing their own freedom, and slaveholders provided as much detail about those people as possible in order to maximize the chances for recapture.

An advertisement might include a fugitive’s name, age, height, build and skin coloUr. But it could also note specialised skills (“a brick-layer by trade”), languages spoken, distinctive physical markings, and signs of work injuries or torture (“the end of the forefinger

Slaveholders often placed adverts in local newspapers searching for runaway slaves

JAMES Goodson placed an ad for runaways Moses and Zilphey in June 1825. Southern Advocate and Huntsville Advertiser. of the left hand has been cut off”). Some might note the way a person carried himor herself (“when walking inclines to lean forward”).

A slaveholder could provide details about what a fugitive was wearing when he or she fled, indicate whether he or she could read and write, or speculate about an escaped person’s potential destination.

While slaveholders designed runaway advertisements to put the surveillance efforts of the state and the broader white populace at their disposal, they also unwittingly provided windows into the lives of the men, women and children who were desperately trying to free themselves from bondage and forge their own destinies.

By amassing all of these advertisements under the umbrella of one database, we’ll be able to digitally analyze thousands of them at the same time. This has the potential to open avenues for researchers to make discoveries that might have otherwise been impossible.

For example, we could map the places slaves fled from and where their owners imagined they might try to end up, allowing us to visualize a new landscape of movement. We can document changing patterns of flight over time, and across multiple geographies.

We can also create detailed demographic profiles of those who fled, and gain insight into strategies deployed by fugitives as they tried to ensure they would not be caught.

How often, for example, did enslaved people steal free papers and attempt to travel under an assumed name, as a man named Bob, who lived near Huntsville, Alabama, did in 1829? How many people were there like Harry, who fled in 1832 from a farm near Jackson, Mississippi, and whose owner was certain he would not only claim to be free but would “dress in and pass as a woman, so as not to be apprehended”?

Indeed, we imagine that for most users of Freedom on the Move, the individual stories of fugitives from slavery will linger longest.

It takes little imagination to see the horrors they’d experienced, the risks they were willing to take to escape them and the complications of family ties those risks entailed.

Consider the journey of fugitives Moses and Zilphey, who were probably a married couple and were sought by James Goodson of Montgomery, Alabama, in June 1825.

In the advertisement he placed in the paper offering $50 for their capture, Goodson explained that Moses and Zilphey had first fled from him a year earlier and had made it more

than 75 miles north before they were caught and put in the Shelby County jail.

Goodson had sent someone to take them into custody and return them, only to have the couple escape from that person. By the time Goodson put out his advertisement, the two had been at large for nearly ten months – no easy feat, considering they needed to endure the winter, and Moses walked despite having “lost some of his toes off each foot.” Zilphey, meanwhile, likely faced an even more difficult challenge: Goodson wrote “she may have had a child during her absence.”

AN AD for a fugitive slave named Bob from June 1829.

Huntsville Southern Advocate.

And take the story of Charles, a 30-year-old man who fled from Joseph Gray near Huntsville, Alabama, in March 1827. In his advertisement, Gray explained that Charles had been brought to Alabama from Virginia, and that this was the second time he’d run away. Gray reported that Charles had made it as far as Nashville on that first occasion; he’d been caught with a white man who was pretending to own him in order to provide cover. Now Gray suspected that Charles “may be playing that same game over.”

We don’t know whether or not Charles succeeded in escaping. But with Gray’s mention that Charles had a “back much marked by the whip,” we can guess that he had plenty of incentive to keep trying.

Treated as villains and criminals, in truth enslaved people such as Moses, Zilphey and Charles engaged in heroic efforts to free themselves. Freedom on the Move promises to return their stories, and those of tens of thousands of others, to the public consciousness where they belong.

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THE TRIBUNE

Monday, January 28, 2019, PAGE 11

FNM PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN THE Free National Movement held a “Women in Governance Summit” at its headquarters on the weekend. Speakers included Dame Janet Bostwick, who opened the summit on Saturday, while former Court of Appeal president Dame Joan Sawyer gave a presentation on parliamentary procedure and the Westminster system.

Dame Joan also took part in a panel discussion on how the party can support more women to enter politics with other panellists Sandra Fowler, chair of the FNM’s North Andros/Berry Island branch; Royanne Williams, Torchbearers Youth Association (TYA) president, Grand Bahama and Latice Knowles Penn, TYA second vice-president.

Day two of the summit was closed by the prime minister’s wife, Patricia Minnis.

MAYNARD BLAMES OLD EQUIPMENT AFTER FIRE

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are “actively investigating” the cause of a fire at Bahamas Power & Light’s Gladstone and Fire Trail Roads sub-station, head of Police Fire Services Chief Superintendent Walter Evans said Saturday.

Bahamas Electrical Workers Union president Paul Maynard yesterday said the blaze occurred after an 11kv board overloaded and crashed.

Mr Maynard said the fire started just before noon, and “took sometime to deal with”.

He said once the fire was out, technicians immediately went to work on transferring disconnected customers over to a segment of the board that was not affected by the fire. This resulted in several other interruptions in service.

A somewhat irritated Mr Maynard said of the ordeal: “Again, we find ourselves here. I’ve been saying, and I’m sure (the Bahamian people) are tired of hearing me say it, we are dealing with old equipment that will continue to breakdown and continue to fail.

“We are operating as best we could with what we got.

Once the fire was done, we had to do what was

BAHAMAS Electrical Workers Union president Paul Maynard necessary to get things in a position where we could work.”

After frequent power outages and issues with equipment over the years, Mr Maynard has routinely called for more modern equipment to replace aging and flawed machinery.

In a similar circumstance last September, Mr Maynard warned that equipment at BPL had already “done all it can,” insisting then that the company had to get serious about replacing its old machines.

He stated: “This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The boards being used for transmission and distribution have run their course.

“These types of issues will continue as long as we depend on this ancient equipment. We need to get serious about making the necessary changes and stop this shock and surprise when things break down.”

Those comments came after the fourth fire to affect BPL occurred over the course of a week. Three of those fires happened at BPL’s Clifton Pier Power Plant and the other at its Blue Hills location.

Those fires led to a statement from Progressive Liberal Party chairman, Senator Fred Mitchell, who urged the Minnis administration to do all that was necessary to facilitate meaningful reform in the energy sector.

WEATHER DELAYS GB JUNIOR JUNKANOO

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama’s Junior Junkanoo parade has been postponed due to bad weather.

The parade, which was scheduled for Saturday, has been tentatively scheduled for Saturday, February 9, at Pioneers Way, Freeport.

Grand Bahama Junkanoo committee president Kevin Russell made the announcement at its headquarters on Friday, along with Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture official Monique Leary and Kendal Culmer, chief councillor of the City of Freeport District.

Mr Russell said the postponement of the parade came after receiving a weather report from The Bahamas Department of Meteorology in Freeport, which said there was a 60 to 80 percent chance of rain through Saturday and into Sunday.

Ms Leary said that vendors and stakeholders who have been preparing for the parade have been notified.

“We want people to be safe and to know that a tentative date for the parade has been set for February 9,” she said.

Looking over your life and wondering what you could have done differently does not help the situation. But what you could do is charge your attitude, pointing it in a more positive direction.

~Betty Taylor ~

Original Author

For more original and inspirational quotes, please get a copy of the book “Hold On To Life and Love”at Logos Bookstore, located in the Harbour Bay Shopping Centre.

PATRICIA Minnis addresses the meeting.

Photos: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

PAGE 12, Monday, January 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

LGBTQI FACEBOOK PAGE ANGERS ACTIVISTS

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

ACTIVISTS condemned as “fake” and “dangerous” a Facebook page that aimed to teach underage children that it is acceptable to be attracted to the same sex or that “sometimes the best boys are the best girls”.

Erin Greene, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex community activist, urged people to not only report the page to Facebook, but to make their concerns known to the Central Detective Unit.

She said the page called “Bahamas LGBTQ kids ages 4-12” was created with malicious intent and expressed fears it could cause increased violence to those in the small LGBTQI community.

Bahamas Trans Intersex United’s lead spokesperson Alexus D’Marco also condemned the page insisting it was an attempt to smear the community, adding it was a passive attack with the potential to damage the progress in terms of social tolerance to those in the LGBTQI community.

The creation of the page incited anger on the social media platform. However, as both were advocating on social media that there be action against the page, it was removed from the site. Still, discussion sparked by its creation raged online.

“The law is very clear,” Ms Greene told The Tribune yesterday. “It is against the law to provide sexual health, sexual reproductive health or information about sexuality or services

to anyone under the age of 18 without the authorisation of their parent or guardian. So the group in and of itself on the service it purports to be providing is against the law.

“Second of all, in no developed society do we have conversations with children or about children about sexuality in this manner, the page itself is intolerable in a civilised society. This is not the way that the LGBT addresses the issue of sexuality or the issue of young people of youth and sexuality.

“These types of discussions are for parents and guardians and children. The internet and social media is not a space for that conversation and in a civilised society we don’t engage the subject of children youth and sexuality in this fashion.

“I think the intent is malicious with sole intent of inciting hostility towards the LGBT community and the advocacy community,” Ms Green continued, “but that being said, I don’t care what the intent was, the most important thing is to identify the creators of the page, to bring them to the attention of the authorities and to have the page removed from Facebook.”

She said people were right to be concerned, but lamented that their outrage would be directed at the wrong people.

“People are concerned about the safety of their children across the board, so it’s reasonable to see people get upset about what appears to be an attempt to introduce young people to the subject of sexuality and homosexuality

and people are rightly outraged.

“However, I am concerned that that outrage will be directed towards the LGBT community generally and its advocates and not directed towards the people who created that page.

“It’s not unreasonable for people to be concerned that gay people created the page with the intention of introducing the subject of sexuality to children at an inappropriate age, that’s clear, but we understand that we will probably see a rise in hostility toward the community because of the post and I understand why people would be upset, but it’s very important to determine who are the authors of that page and what their intent was and to have the law deal with them,” she said.

Nassau music concert hits the high notes

NASSAU Music Society Concert and Art Show for students at the University of The Bahamas Performing Arts Centre this weekend.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

GB SCARLET FEVER PATIENT IS SENT HOME AFTER TREATMENT

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A patient sent to hospital with scarlet fever on Grand Bahama has been treated and discharged from the Rand Memorial Hospital, according to medical officials.

Dr Shailesh Hegde, the registrar of the Disease Surveillance Unit of Grand Bahama Health Services, said there was no general outbreak despite reports on social media.

One person was admitted to the hospital on January 18. “He has improved and is discharged already,” Dr Hegde said Friday.

“I also would like to inform the public that scarlet fever is not a deadly disease as it used to be because we have antibodies and it can easily cure the person of scarlet fever – it is not something new.

“We had only one case, so we cannot call it an outbreak. It is just a single isolated case of scarlet fever.”

News of the scarlet fever case went viral on social media last week with some claiming a male worker at a local company in the industrial area had contracted the disease.

Dr Hegde said the symptoms usually start with fever, followed by a rash within 48 to 72 hours. The rash, which is bright red with sandpaper texture, usually begins from the groin area and spreads to the upper body, to the arms and limbs until the whole body is covered.

He noted people with scarlet fever could also appear with a bright red tongue that gives the appearance of a strawberry tongue, which is sometimes referred to as “raspberry tongue”.

Dr Hegde said the bacteria – Group A streptococcus - that causes scarlet fever is common and also causes strep throat.

He said that Group A streptococcus, commonly known as GAS, is easily treatable with penicillin.

“It is spread usually by inhaling the bacteria, and it

is there in the community; it is like strep throat – the same bacteria that causes a sore throat, pneumonia, and the same bacteria which in some persons might cause scarlet fever even though it is not very common,” Dr Hegde explained.

Dr Nicole Clarke, a senior registrar in the Department of Internal Medicine at RMH, said she and her team treated the patient with antibiotics.

Doctors said a vast majority of people with scarlet fever, about 65 percent, will actually clear the bacteria on their own; however, there are another 35 percent who may have it and need medical attention.

Officials urged persons to practice good hygiene by washing hands after coughing and sneezing and to cough or sneeze in your elbow and/or use disposal tissue, not a towel, to prevent the spread of illness.

People with the symptoms of scarlet fever should visit a community clinics for treatment, not the emergency room, officials said.

MAN ARRESTED AFTER DROWNING VICTIM HAD HE IS FOUND WITH GUN BEEN DRINKING HEAVILY A MAN was arrested on Friday after police found a pistol and ten rounds of ammunition in his possession.

According to police, shortly after 2pm, Anti-Gang and Firearms Unit officers were patroling Scott Street in Bain Town when they searched a man and recovered the weapon and ammunition from his pants.

The suspect is expected to be formally charged in Magistrate’s Court this week.

About an hour earlier, shortly after 1pm, Southern Division officers, acting on information went to a bushy area on Laird Street, where they searched and recovered a silver and black 9 millimeter pistol. No arrest was made in this incident.

Investigations are ongoing.

(AP) - An autopsy shows a man who died after falling on a cruise ship in October had been drinking and plummeted 45 feet down a stairwell. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner released its autopsy report for 29-year-old Christopher McGrory last Thursday.

McGrory was airlifted to a West Palm Beach hospital from the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line’s Grand Classica on October 21.

The Palm Beach Post reports a nurse told investigators McGrory had been “drinking heavily” when he attempted to jump up a stair but lost his balance and fell backward.

The autopsy showed his blood alcohol level was 0.256, about three times Florida’s legal limit for declaring a driver impaired.

THE TRIBUNE

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net FLORIDA prosecutors are seeking a maximum sentence for a British man who admitted to intentionally sinking his catamaran in waters near Cay Sal to murder his wife in 2017.

Relying on new photos that show damage to the ship’s hull, prosecutors have asked a judge to go above the sentencing guidelines of 41 months for Lewis Bennett, in the death of his wife, Isabella Hellman, 41.

The photos include Bennett’s sunken damaged boat and photos of the life raft on which he was rescued.

The new crucial photos show that portholes below the waterline of the vessel were opened, and that all visible damage was inflicted from the inside.

Bennett had claimed the ship struck an unknown object while he was asleep, adding that he awoke to discover his wife missing and the couple’s 37-foot catamaran taking on water.

When rescued by the United States Coast Guard on May 15, 2017, authorities noticed that Bennett loaded a suitcase and two backpacks on to his raft but had taken only one backpack with him when he was pulled from the raft by the Coast Guard swimmer.

The Coast Guard later recovered the life raft and took it to Key West.

Reports of the incident noted that Bennett was recovered with a suitcase, a backpack, unexpended parachute flares, buoys, 14 gallons of water, a second emergency position indicating radio beacon homing device, and nine plastic tubes which were found to contain some 225 of the stolen coins.

A four-day search to locate Hellman was called off on May 18, her body was never recovered.

After returning to Florida, Bennett reportedly moved the couple’s young daughter to the United Kingdom and blocked Hellman’s family from seeing her.

He then filed a motion in Florida courts seeking to have his wife declared dead so that he could take possession of their Delray Beach apartment, which a judge later rejected.

Text messages from Hellman said she noticed a change in Bennett’s behaviour after their daughter was born in 2016, noting that Bennett had become increasing angry with her.

Prosecutors claim the couple’s “marital strife” was a motive for the alleged murder.

After Bennett’s rescue at sea, prosecutors eventually charged him with seconddegree murder.

But the defence was expected to claim Hellman’s death was an accident.

Bennett recently pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of eight years.

His sentencing is scheduled for tomorrow in Miami.

Monday, January 28, 2019, PAGE 13

Sailor smashed giant holes in his yacht to drown wife on their honeymoon in The Bahamas

ESCAPE hatches at the bottom of the catamaran were found wide open.

AN AJAR escape hatch on the vessel on the left after the ship sunk.

THE SUNKEN ship in May 2017.

THE COAST Guard finding the vessel.

THE COUPLE were on their honeymoon in May 2017 when Bennett allegedly deliberately sunk the catamaran they were sailing.

PAGE 14, Monday, January 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

SEARCH FOR BRAZIL DAM SURVIVORS RENEWS AMID GROWING DESPAIR BRUMADINHO, Brazil Associated Press BRAZILIAN officials yesterday resumed the search for hundreds of missing people in the wake of a massive dam collapse, with firefighter crews returning to mud-covered areas after a several-hour suspension over fears that a second dam was at risk of breach.

Authorities evacuated several neighborhoods in the southeastern city of Brumadinho that were within range of the B6 dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by the afternoon, civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk.

Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable. “Get out searching!” a woman yelled at firefighters near a refuge set up in the center of Brumadinho. “They could be out there in the bush.”

Yesterday, authorities lowered the confirmed death toll to 37 from 40, giving no explanation, though that number was expected to increase as rescue and recovery teams got to the hardest hit areas.

Even before the half-day suspension of rescue efforts, hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from Friday’s dam collapse in the area was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds

of people missing had died.

There was also mounting anger at Vale and questions about an apparent lack of an alarm system on Friday.

Caroline Steifeld, who was evacuated, said she heard warning sirens on Sunday, but no such alert came on Friday, when the first dam collapsed. “I only heard shouting, people saying to get out.

I had to run with my family to get to higher ground, but there was no siren,” she said, adding that a cousin was still unaccounted for.

“I’m angry. There is no way I can stay calm,” said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale for 20 years. “My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if it’s bad.”

A MAN stands on the debris of his mother’s house in Brumadinho, Brazil

Da Silva said she last spoke to her son before he went to work on Friday, when around midday a dam holding back mine waste collapsed, sending waves of mud for kilometers and burying much in its path.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads.

Some residents barely escaped with their lives. “I saw all the mud coming down the hill, snapping the trees as it descended. It was a tremendous noise,” said a tearful Simone Pedrosa, from the neighborhood of Parque Cachoeira, 5 miles from where the dam collapsed.

Trump says he’s ready to impose second shutdown WASHINGTON Associated Press TWO DAYS after the recordlong shutdown ended, the White House made it clear yesterday that President Donald Trump is prepared to shut down the government again without a border wall deal from Congress.

The president’s standoff with Democrats on Capitol Hill is far from over and the clock is ticking — the spending bill Trump signed on Friday funds the government agencies that had been shut down for 35 days only until February 15.

It’s unclear if the Democrats will budge. Trump seemed girded for battle, sending out a series of online messages that foreshadowed the upcoming fight with lawmakers. “BUILD A WALL & CRIME WILL FALL!” he tweeted.

Is Trump prepared to shut down the government again in three weeks? “Yeah, I think he actually is,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said. “He doesn’t want to shut the government down, let’s make that very clear. He doesn’t want to declare a national emergency.”

But Mulvaney said that at “the end of the day, the president’s commitment is to defend the nation and he will do it with or without Congress.”

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a member of the Democratic leadership in the House, said his colleagues are looking for “evidence-based” legislation. “Shutdowns are not legitimate negotiating tactics when there’s a public policy disagreement between two branches of government,” he said.

The lynchpin in the standoff is Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for his prized wall at the US-Mexico border, a project Democrats consider an ineffective, wasteful monument to a ridiculous Trump campaign promise.

California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the leading Republican in the House, said Democrats have funded border barriers in the past and are refusing this time simply because Trump is asking for it.

“The president is the only one who has been reasonable in these negotiations,” he said.

Mulvaney wouldn’t directly answer whether Trump would take less than $5.7 billion, but indicated the president was willing to negotiate. “The president has already

A FAMILY leaves to apply for asylum in the United States, at the border, in Tijuana, Mexico. Left: President Donald Trump

gone to the Democrats and said, look, it’s not a 2,000-mile sea-toshining-sea wall.”

Trump has asserted there is a “crisis” at the southern border requiring a wall, blaming previous presidents and Congress for failing to overhaul an immigration system that has allowed millions of people to live in the US illegally.

Last month, he put that number at 35 million, while on Sunday he pegged it at 25.7 million-plus — figures offered without evidence.

“I’m not exactly sure where the president got that number this morning,” Mulvaney said. Both

are higher than government and private estimates. His homeland security chief cited “somewhere” between 11 million and 22 million last month. In November, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported 10.7 million in 2016 — the lowest in a decade.

The president also tweeted Sunday that the cost of illegal immigration so far this year was nearly $19 billion; he didn’t cite a source.

Compare that with research in 2017 from a conservative group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for less immigration: $135 billion a year

or about $11.25 billion a month — a figure that included health care and education, plus money spent on immigration enforcement.

In coming weeks, a bipartisan committee of House and Senate lawmakers will consider border spending as part of the legislative process and may seek help from outside experts.

Jeffries said that Democrats are willing to invest in additional infrastructure, especially at legal ports of entry where the majority of drugs come into the country. “We’re willing to invest in personnel. We’re willing to invest in additional technology. ... In the past, we have supported enhanced fencing and I think that’s something that’s reasonable that should be on the table,” he said.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. said that he thinks a compromise is possible. “The president went from talking about a wall along the entire southern border at one point during the campaign ... to let’s have barriers where they work and let’s have something else where barriers wouldn’t work as well,” Blunt said.

ARMED FORCES WINNING IN VENEZUELA STRUGGLE CARACAS, Venezuela Associated Press THE battle for control of Venezuela turned to the armed forces yesterday as President Nicolas Maduro, wearing tan military fatigues, attended army exercises, met with troops and watched as tanks fired into a hillside.

At the same time, supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido handed out leaflets to soldiers, urging them to reject the socialist leader and explaining how they could be eligible for amnesty if they help return Venezuela to democracy.

“We are waiting for you, the soldiers of Venezuela,” Guaido told a news conference, urging the armed forces not to shoot fellow Venezuelans. “We are waiting for you and the commitment you have to our constitution.”

Yesterday’s dueling appeals to the military followed a tense week as Venezuela took centre stage in a global debate over who had a legitimate claim to power in the South American nation.

Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, as Venezuela’s interim president, a move that Maduro denounced as a coup attempt.

Maduro gave US diplomats 72 hours to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldn’t comply, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuela’s legitimate president. That set the stage for a showdown at the hilltop US Embassy compound on Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuela’s capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduro’s government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiations to continue.

LOUISIANA MURDER SUSPECT CAUGHT 70,000 TAKE TO BELGIUM STREETS TO AT HIS GRANDMA’S VIRGINIA HOME DEMAND ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE LOUISIANA Associated Press

A 21-YEAR-OLD man suspected of killing his parents and three other people - including a girl he was dating - was arrested yesterday when he showed up at his grandmother’s house in Virginia..

On Saturday, Dakota Theriot shot and killed three people — the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father — in Louisiana’s Livingston Parish before taking her father’s truck, driving to neighboring Ascension Parish, and shooting his parents, authorities said.

At a trailer where the parents lived, drops of blood trailed out to the front steps from the bedroom where Keith and Elizabeth Theriot were shot. In the bedroom, blood soaked pillows were strewn on the bed, and patches of

DAKOTA THERIOT, wanted suspected of killing his parents and three other people. what appeared to be dried blood were on the floor.

Dozens of stuffed animals decorated the room.

Kim Mincks and Jacob Chastant also lived in the trailer and were friends with the Theriots. Mincks was in the house when the shooting happened but didn’t hear anything. Law enforcement officers came

into her room and woke her on Saturday morning.

“They said something terrible happened here. Get up, get dressed and walk outside,” she said.

They said Dakota Theriot had struggled with drugs over the years, had violent outbursts, and had recently been kicked out of the trailer. “We know he had a drug problem. He got kicked out last Monday because of the drug problem. His dad kicked him out of here. He did have a violent streak,” Mincks said.

Theriot’s grandmother, who lives in Warsaw, Virginia, had checked into a hotel Saturday night because she feared he might show up at her house, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan B. Smith said in a phone interview. The woman asked authorities to check her home Sunday morning to make sure it was safe before she returned.

BRUSSELS Associated Press

AT LEAST 70,000 people braved cold and rain in Brussels to demand the Belgian government and the European Union increase their efforts to fight climate change yesterday, the Belgian capital’s fourth climate rally in two months to attract at least 10,000 participants.

The event was described as Belgium’s biggest climate march ever, with police estimating slightly bigger crowds than a similar demonstration last month.

Some 35,000 schoolchildren and students in Belgium skipped classes on Thursday to take their demands for urgent action to prevent global warming to the streets.

“Young people have set a good example,” protester Henny Claassen

PROTESTERS hold banners as they march during a Rise for the Climate demonstration in Brussels yesterday. said amid raised banners pushed the issue of climate urging better renewable change up the agenda as energy use and improved parties prepare for national air quality. “This is for our and European Union elecchildren, for our grand- tions in May. The march ended at the children and to send a headquarters of the Euromessage to politicians.”

Even though the direct pean Union. The 28-nation impact on Belgian politics bloc has been at the vanwas likely to be small since guard of global efforts to the country currently is led counter climate change but by a caretaker government, still came in for the protestthe demonstrations have ers’ criticism.