02012022 BUSINESS AND FEATURES

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022

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$3.2m acquisition to be donated for GB hospital • Philanthropist trio in First Commercial Centre purchase • Property handed to Doctors Hospital to create 90 jobs • Bahamian share offering still planned on $24m project

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net DOCTORS Hospital has teamed with three philanthropists to close the $3.2m purchase of its new Freeport facility and provide services to those who cannot normally afford private healthcare.

Dennis Deveaux, the BISXlisted healthcare provider’s chief financial officer, told Tribune Business it had partnered with Lucayan Medical Philanthropic Ltd to complete the acquisition of the First Commercial Centre in a deal that received full government approval last Friday.

That entity is backed by a trio of wealthy investors including

Pietro Steffanutti, principal of Freeport-based Pharmachem; Grand Bahama resident, Gregory Paton-Ash; and S. Kent Rockwell, who hails from a “noted” American industrial family.

The trio are donating the First Commercial Centre to Doctors Hospital so the latter can develop it into a “quality private medical facility” that creates 90 jobs, while addressing what Mr Deveaux described as a “generations long” healthcare need on Grand Bahama.

And the BISX-listed healthcare provider, for its part, will “match 50 percent of every dollar” invested by the group

SEE PAGE 2

DOCTORS HOSPITAL MAIN HOSPITAL ON COLLINS AVENUE.

External reserves to end 2022 ‘not far from’ $2bn

Governor: US rate hikes may ‘frustrate’ fiscal consolidation

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Central Bank’s governor yesterday warned that US interest rate hikes could “frustrate” the Government’s fiscal consolidation plans by increasing its foreign currency borrowing costs.

John Rolle, speaking as the Central Bank unveiled its 2021 fourth quarter and full-year economic developments assessment, warned that the US Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation could have consequences for The Bahamas’ efforts to refinance existing

THE Central Bank’s governor yesterday predicted that The Bahamas’ external reserves will end 2022 “not far off $2bn” and ensure the US dollar exchange rate peg faces “no undue pressure”.

John Rolle, speaking as the Central Bank unveiled its economic developments assessment for the 2021 fourth quarter and full year, said the monetary policy regulator saw “no basis to react in any defensive way” throughout 2022 to safeguard the foreign currency reserves.

With tourism-related inflows continuing to pick up as the Bahamian economy re-opens, Mr Rolle forecast that import and spending activity would reduce the external reserves slightly in 2022 but “not by a very drastic amount”.

“The foreign reserves reflect the reality of everything that happens in The Bahamas,” he explained.

“We are seeing the volume of inflows increase as tourism returns. That really is the source of the overwhelming majority of the expenditure we make in foreign exchange.

“On the margins, the foreign reserves take the hit if demand for foreign exchange grows slightly ahead of the large pickup in inflows and, on that basis, the Central Bank see no basis to react in any defensive way as far

SEE PAGE 6

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

CENTRAL BANK OF THE BAHAMAS

Gov’t to meet realtors on ‘misguided’ tax concerns

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government will meet with the Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) to address what a senior official described as “misguided” concerns over real property tax revaluations.

Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, told Tribune Business in a recent interview that the work performed by Tyler Technologies in the recent New Providence-wide mapping exercise did not involve the provision of “appraisal services” as BREA and many of its members had suggested.

Instead, he argued that it was a “computer-aided mass assessment” of property valuations that was little different from what was done at the federal, state and local level in countries such as the US and UK. Valuations, Mr Wilson said, were derived from “algorithms” based on field data obtained in the mapping exercise, and these were then “tested” against actual property sales figures.

Voicing concern that BREA was “attacking the integrity” of the real property tax assessment process and the persons involved, he charged: “Their concerns, I believe, are misplaced.

We’re going to meet with BREA and

SEE PAGE 5

Bank governor eases 2022 growth forecast

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Central Bank’s governor yesterday moderated his 2022 economic growth projection to “over 5 percent” with the tourism industry not returning to pre-COVID levels in the year’s first half.

John Rolle, speaking at the regulator’s 2021 fourth quarter and full-year economic developments briefing, said:

“Economic growth in 2022 is expected to exceed 5 percent, which would be significantly stronger than the recovery onset of just above 2 percent in 2021.

“For the first time in two years, the tourism product is positioned to experience uninterrupted business over the entire calendar period. In contrast, both industry segments only recorded partial year performances in 2021.

SEE PAGE 6

JOHN ROLLE foreign currency debt as well as new borrowings.

The US central bank is expected to raise interest rates on up to four separate occasions in 2022, hiking

SEE PAGE 3

PAGE 2, Tuesday, February 1, 2022

NO CHOICE BUT TO SOLICIT $40M ROAD TRAFFIC PPP

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Government’s cashstrapped fiscal position means it has little choice but to seek private financing to construct a new $40m headquarters for the Road Traffic Department and its ministry.

Jobeth Coleby-Davis, minister of transport and housing, told Tribune Business that the crisis in the public finances means it must seek a private developer, contractor or other entity to finance and construct a project - which will also house her ministry - via a public-private partnership (PPP).

Speaking after the ministry launched an “expression of interest” tender to identify potential bidders, Mrs Coleby-Davis said: “It’s going to be quite costly is what we are expecting, and so with regard to the financing for the Government right now, they’re trying to balance the books, and because the cost may be potentially really great, the

request came as a PPP first hand.”

She spoke out after newspaper advertisements, published yesterday, revealed: “The Ministry of Transport and Housing, in conjunction with the Road Traffic Department, is using a competitive expression of interest process to identify one or more construction developers (partner builders) for this development project.

“Through a PPP, it is the Ministry of Transport and Housing and the Road Traffic Department’s intention that construction be solely funded by the contractor firm with the notion that full compensation will be made over a long-term relationship once the project is completed.”

No site for the project has been selected yet. Mrs Coleby-Davis said: “We have about two to three locations. What we are trying to do is identify government land, because that also helps with the cost.

“I have gotten an e-mail that gave me two locations, and I’m speaking with the Office of the Prime Minister where the Department of Lands and Survey is, and

JOBETH COLEBY-DAVIS once we get our sign off then we’ll be able to speak more about the potential location.”

Draft designs for the ministry and Road Traffic Department’s offices are still being looked at. “We’re still looking at potential draft design. We haven’t settled on anything yet, because we need to get a final from the Office of the Prime Minister with the location,” she added.

The Road Traffic Department is currently located at Thomas A. Robinson stadium. It moved there in October 2016 to make way for the demolition of its previous home at the

Clarence A Bain building on Thompson Boulevard.

Its present site was only supposed to be a short-term home, but this is now in its sixth year with little to no idea on when Road Traffic will be relocated to a more permanent location.

Mrs Coleby-Davis said: “The Ministry of Works has to do a lot of maintenance work at the stadium.

It’s actually really a hazard right now to have persons occupying that.

“There’s a lot of structural work that needs to be done, and so we have to move with haste to have the Road Traffic Department in a new building. So it may be that we would have to actually look for a temporary spot while we deal with potential proposals that can assist us with building a new permanent home for road traffic.”

This is not the first time a PPP has been considered for the Road Traffic Department. Now-deputy prime minister Chester Cooper, before being elected as an MP and holding ministerial office, was part of the BFG group’s public-private partnership (PPP) proposal to

develop a new home for the agency.

BFG’s proposed Road Traffic Department headquarters was to have been located off Tonique Williams Highway on land near the Penn building.

And Mr Cooper’s involvement in the BFG PPP was confirmed by at the time by Desmond Bannister, thenminister of works.

He told Parliament: “The model for a commercially viable public-private partnership is the one that the honourable member for Exuma and his business partners have put together for an office complex on Tonique Williams Highway, where the Government will invest in the project and will be given preference shares in the ownership of the company that will own the building.

“The Government will then rent the building for 10 years and, at the end of that period, the building will be turned over to the Government for $100. On top of that the Government will be paid 60 per cent of the residual revenue in the ownership company. So, at the end of the day, the Government will get its initial

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investment back. That’s a win-win agreement. It’s the type of agreement that would make sense.”

PPPs typically involve private sector investors raising the necessary capital, thereby alleviating the upfront financial burden on the Government. The latter then leases or rents the properties/assets involved, ensuring the investors recover their money and make a profit, before ownership is turned over to the state - usually after a 10 to 25-year period.

BFG’s business plan, according to details presented in the media, seemingly called for the Government to finance the venture through the issuance of $24.5m in bonds.

The Government was also to advance a $2.45m interest payment to cover acquisition and other ‘soft’ costs related to the project.

Two of BFG’s three named directors, Peter T. Carey and Julian J. Rolle, were also a Board director and senior management executive, respectively, at Mr Cooper’s BAF Financial.

$3.2M ACQUISITION TO BE DONATED FOR GB HOSPITAL

FROM PAGE ONE

by setting-up “a non-cash fund” where it provides medical services to “the indigent” and those traditionally unable to access private care.

Mr Deveaux, confirming that Doctors Hospital still plans to offer equity ownership in its Freeport hospital to Bahamians via “a share offering”, the details of which are still being worked out, said the initial $5m “capital outlay” to outfit the First Commercial Centre for medical purposes will occur by endApril this year.

He said the company’s Board has approved a $20m-$24m investment in establishing the hospital, and it is “holding to that schedule” of beginning operations before year-end 2022 despite the Government’s acquisition approval process taking longer than expected.

“On Friday we successfully received the approval from the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA ) to proceed with the acquisition,” Mr Deveaux told Tribune Business. “We’re now in the process of closing on the acquisition of the building.

“That process has taken a little longer than we expected, but we appreciate the due diligence that the Government of The Bahamas has to do because we have a foreign shareholder (Fairfax Financial).

Just today [yesterday] we received instructions from our attorneys, so in the next seven to ten days we expect we will have completed the acquisition of the building and begin.

“What does begin look like? It’s the remediation of mold on the first floor, and then the demolition process which precedes any construction on the existing building. We have a design

that has already been peer reviewed. It was designed

by Donald Dean of The Architects Incorporated.

That design has been completed for a full hospital.”

Mr Deveaux said the peer review had been conducted by the Beck Group, headed

by Bahamian Fred Perpall, which has been hired to provide design, engineering and project oversight services for Princess Margaret Hospital’s (PMH) critical care block and other expansions.

With the review having assessed “the quality of the design, life and safety”, and the Doctors Hospital financial chief said its first $5m in capital expenditure will be used to finance the purchase/ordering of pharmacy, laboratory and other medical equipment.

“Our Board has fully authorised the project. We expect the total investment to be between $20m to $24m,” Mr Deveaux

said. “We respect the fact that the Government had to do due diligence. While we would have wanted that due diligence to be shorter, we have to work out how to deliver that project in the 2022 calendar year.

“We’re still holding to that schedule notwithstanding the due diligence period.

We’re absolutely holding to that schedule notwithstanding the protracted but expected due diligence by the Government.”

The somewhat unique structure of the First Commercial Centre’s acquisition was unveiled by the Central Bank’s 2021 fourth quarter and full-year assessment, released yesterday, in which it disclosed Lucayan Medical Philanthropic’s name It said: “Land was acquired in in the central Freeport area to renovate and establish a health care facility at a cost of $3.2m.

Redevelopment and outfitting of the First Commercial Centre, as a hospital and/or urgent health care facility to be operated by Doctors Hospital (Bahamas), will employ 90 persons.”

Asked whether Lucayan Medical Philanthropic’s

principals had financed the First Commercial Centre’s purchase, and are donating the property to Doctors Hospital for use as a medical facility, Mr Deveaux replied: “That is absolutely correct. We have partnered with a group of philanthropists.

“The group is headed by noted American industrialist, S. Kent Rockwell; Pietro Steffanutti, head of Pharmachem, and Gregory Paton-Ash, a local businessman. The three of them came together and partnered with Doctors Hospital on this project.

“It’s an excellent example of what is possible when persons in the local community partner with the private sector in making things happen. We’re going to match 50 percent of every $1 of their gift with a non-cash fund where we provide care for the indigent and those that cannot afford it.”

Mr Deveaux said Doctors Hospital was still committed to giving Bahamians the opportunity to own equity in its Freeport facility, and was on the verge of hiring RF Bank & Trust as its

NOTICE BIMINI INVESTMENTS FUND LIMITED Incorporated under the International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas registered in the Register of Companies under the Registration Number 165772 B (In Voluntary Liquidation) Notice is hereby given that the liquidation and windingup of the Company is complete and the Company has been struck off the Register of Companies maintained by the Registrar General.

Dated 28th day of January, 2022 (signed) ________________________ Crowe Bahamas Liquidator

financial adviser to determine how best this should be structured.

“It’s something we continue to refine,” he added.

“We definitely intend to have a share offering that will probably fund the project in Grand Bahama.

As part of that we intend to approach the business community, physicians etc around how they can buy shares in Doctors Hospital.

That’s something we continue to explore.”

Doctors Hospital’s Grand Bahama expansion aims to plug a significant market gap in the delivery of healthcare services, Mr Deveaux said. “Notwithstanding our best efforts to invest in the Rand [Memorial Hospital], especially after Hurricane Dorian there’s been a need for a high quality private medical facility.

“There’s a large industrial base there that has a ton of employment. This is a generations’ long need, and we feel we are doing our duty to extend quality healthcare to the people of Grand Bahama and Freeport. We believe it’s a critical need.”

Mr Deveaux said there were ongoing discussions between Doctors Hospital and its partner, Cleveland Clinic, over the “strategic role” the latter could play in delivering healthcare on Grand Bahama. The discussions, which have taken place at the “very senior, head-to-head level”, have also involved the Government.

The talks have focused on Cleveland Clinic’s “unique” offerings that are “beyond the capacity of Doctors Hospital locally”, such as its ability to treat strokes, heat disease, cancer and chronic non-communicable diseases.

Mr Deveaux added that Doctors Hospital’s Eight Mile Rock clinic will open this April, offering six outpatient dialysis bays so that more than 30 persons from that community do not have to travel to Freeport three times per week for this treatment.

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Tuesday, February 1, 2022, PAGE 3

GOV’TS $15M PLAN TO RELOCATE POST OFFICE

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Government yesterday initiated plans to relocate the Post Office from the Town Centre Mall via a $15m public-private partnership (PPP) that will build a new facility.

The Davis administration signalled its intention to rapidly move on from the Post Office’s existing lease arrangement as soon as it expires in February 2024 by requesting “expressions of interest” from developers, contractors and other private sector entities willing - and able - to construct a new General Post Office and also raise the necessary financing.

Suggesting that the Government wants construction of the new building to begin this year, although no specific sites were identified in the advertisement. “The Ministry of Transport and Housing, in conjunction with the Post Office, is using a competitive expression of interest process to identify one or more construction developers (partner builders) for this development project,” it said.

“Through private and public partnership, it is

the Ministry of Transport and Housing and the General Post Office’s intention that construction be solely funded by the contractor firm with the notion that full compensation will be made over a long-term relationship once the project is completed.”

Thus to avoid imposing further strain on the already cash-strapped Public Treasury amid The Bahamas’ fiscal crisis, the Government is seeking financing from a private sector partner to fund the new Post Office’s construction.

That partner will likely earn a return on its investment via rental payments from the Post Office (taxpayers) under a lease agreement that will be fixed for a certain period, typically anywhere from 15 to 30 years, before ownership is transferred to the Government.

So-called “expressions of interest” are typically designed to vet potential bidders, and weed out those that lack the necessary expertise, experience and financial wherewithal to deliver the project that the Government is seeking, thereby ensuring only qualified candidates make it through to the ‘Request for Proposal’ round. The

deadline for Post Office ‘expressions of interest’ is February 17.

The Davis administration’s decision to seek an alternative location for the main Post Office also comes as little surprise given the heavy criticism it has directed at the Town Centre Mall lease both while in Opposition and since taking office.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has repeatedly sought to stoke controversy surrounding the lease deal because Brent Symonette, who was a sitting Cabinet minister when it was signed on July 12, 2019, is among the Town Centre Mall’s owners. He and his brother, Craig, hold a 50 percent equity stake in the property, while the other 50 percent is owned by the Darville family.

Mr Symonette was thus in a position to benefit financially from the Post Office lease, and many Bahamians - including his political opponents - blasted the deal as a ‘conflict of interest’ given his Cabinet position. This was despite such details being fully disclosed, and the matter debated in Parliament.

Mr Symonette also said he was not present in The Bahamas when the Minnis

Cabinet voted to move the Post Office to Town Centre Mall, as he was attending the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Latin American regional conference. And he added that he told thenprime minister Dr Hubert Minnis that the lease “could not be a Rolls Royce”.

It is impossible to judge, based on the lease agreement itself, whether the Government received value for money. However, the details show that the Minnis administration kept to its word in achieving a rental rate of $12 per square foot when the Government pays $30-$40 per square foot at some of its other properties.

The Post Office’s annual rental rate was set at $632,952 over the five-year period for 52,746 square feet. This equates to $12 per square foot per annum, with the monthly rental figure pegged at $52,746.

Thus the total gross rental income received by the Town Centre Mall’s owners over the five-year period will be $3.165m by the time it expires at end-February 2024.

And Christine WallaceWhitfield, the Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president, also previously defended the

lease agreement signed by the Minnis administration as the best option given the location and rental rate that was obtained. She added that if it were not for politics there would be no concerns about the Post Office moving to that site.

However, Jobeth ColebyDavis, minister of housing and transport, last year said the true annual payments by the Post Office/government actually total $820,053. She added on the $75,954 in VAT that the Government must pay on the lease, at a rate of $6,330 per month, plus $111,177 per annum to reimburse Mr Symonette and the other Town Centre Mall owners for financing a $500,000 upgrade to accommodate the Post Office.

However, given that VAT is the Government’s main revenue source, that $75,954 per annum payment will come back to the Public Treasury. Therefore, an argument can be made that the true cost is really $744,129 per year or $3.721m over the full fiveyear lifetime of the lease.

And it is relatively common for landlords to agree to finance property upgrades for tenants, as was done to make the Town Centre Mall fit to house the Post Office. It also

aided the cash-strapped Government’s cash flow by placing the upfront cost on Mr Symonette and his brother, with this to be repaid via an additional charge added to the lease.

The $3.721m figure also compares reasonably well alongside the $4m that the Minnis administration said would be required to outfit the former Phil’s Food Services building on Gladstone Road to accommodate the Post Office.

And the location left by the last Christie administration, the former Independence Shopping Centre on East-West Highway, was said to have cost $4m to purchase and another $4m-$5m to renovate.

The space taken by the Post Office at Town Centre Mall is also much less than the 75,000 square feet first envisaged when debate on the lease kicked-off in the House of Assembly in October 2018. That would have cost an annual rental payment of around $900,000, or $4.5m over the five-year lease lifetime.

GOVERNOR: US RATE HIKES MAY ‘FRUSTRATE’ FISCAL CONSOLIDATION FROM PAGE ONE borrowing costs by 25 basis points or 0.25 percent each time. The Central Bank governor yesterday described this as one of the “downside risks” facing the Bahamian economy this year given that it could also negatively impact vacation demand by Bahamian travellers.

“While pent-up demand for vacations is a still a strong component in the tourism recovery, the US central bank’s response to raise interest rates to fight off inflation could erode some of this momentum,” Mr Rolle warned.

“It could also frustrate the Bahamian fiscal consolidation efforts by increasing costs on new or refinanced foreign currency debt.

That said, the opportunity remains for other reforms to strengthen the Bahamas’ sovereign risk assessments and tackle existing interest spreads on foreign currency debt.”

The Bahamas, according to the Government’s just-released Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy, has some $309.5m worth of foreign currency debt coming due for principal repayment in 2022, and which may need to be refinanced and rolled over. A further $293.4m comes due in 2023, and this figure is set to peak at $514.4m in 2024.

This means more than $1bn in foreign currency debts will potentially have to be refinanced at higher borrowing costs over the

next three years if US interest rates are hiked. And this will only add to a taxpayer debt servicing burden that is projected to rise further over the next five years, jumping from $482.5m in 2021-2022 to $567.6m in 2025-2026.

Mr Rolle, though, said The Bahamas also has “the opportunity to chip away” at the decline in its sovereign creditworthiness - stemming from multiple downgrades

by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) - by reversing the post-Dorian and COVID fiscal slippage, and regaining the confidence of its lenders and creditors.

“The Bahamas and emerging market countries on the whole, which borrow in US dollars through the US credit markets, as interest rates in the US increase that is going to pass through and put pressure on the cost of borrowing in US dollars,” the Central Bank governor explained.

“It could have some impact on the cost of borrowing for The Bahamas because that increases the costs of new financing and the need to refinance any debt. The Bahamas is also in a position over the next few years where we have the opportunity to chip away at our sovereign credit rating.”

That rating is at so-called ‘junk’, or non-investment grade, status with both Moody’s and S&P, and will take some time to improve.

However, Mr Rolle said efforts in this area are

“one of the most important” components of any government debt management strategy and efforts to reduce the costs associated with The Bahamas’ US dollar borrowing.

Turning to the Government’s just-published Fiscal Strategy Report, he added: “The most important thing that the Government articulates in its fiscal strategy, aside from the forecasts of where it expects to be, are the tools and strategies it expects to use to achieve that outcome for The Bahamas.”

Besides slashing the annual fiscal deficit and debt burden, Mr Rolle said the Government must “take active measures to save more of its revenue collection and to improve its revenue collection efforts”.

He added: “These kinds of messages come across from the Fiscal Strategy Report, and these are important messages that the Government has to be sending. There will be debate and discussion on the level of effort channelled by these measures.

“First of all, we need to identify the positive intent that gives more positive outcomes for the debt and deficit burden. Those outcomes in The Bahamas depend on additional

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measures beyond growth in the economy because we have a stock of debt, the level of which we are trying to reduce over the medium and long-term, and that’s where revenue enhancement and expenditure cuts become very important.”

Mr Rolle acknowledged that domestic inflation, as much as what is occurring in the US, will also impact the Bahamian economy in 2022.

He said: “Increased inflation which, although not an outsized concern, could boost the import bill and

consume a greater share of foreign exchange earnings.

“Likewise, COVID-19 is still an uncertainly, both in terms of uneven access to vaccines at the international level and domestic factors that also weigh on the travel sector assessment of the safety of vacationing in The Bahamas.

“Where necessary, the Central Bank remains well positioned to respond to shore up the adequacy of foreign reserves and support for the Bahamian dollar fixed exchange rate... The Central Bank

also expects the environment to be less reliant on government financing in foreign currency, as private sector inflows continue to strengthen.”

Mr Rolle said the economy would in 2022 benefit from a full year of uninterrupted re-opening, adding: “In summary, the outlook is for stronger growth in 2022 as the calendar year impact of the economy’s reopening takes hold. Elements of rebuilding are also expected to maintain growth above average in 2023, though less accelerated than in 2022.”

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 1, 2022, PAGE 5

GOV’T TO MEET REALTORS ON ‘MISGUIDED’ TAX CONCERNS FROM PAGE ONE share with them the details of the exercise.

“This exercise did not involve appraisals of property but tax assessments.

The methodology used was computer-assisted mass assessments. That’s the methodology. It was not appraisals. We didn’t go into anybody’s home, look at their appliances, look at their floor tiles, look at the ceiling and see if it was grooved or sheet rock.

“What we did is a standard assessment for property tax purposes, which is done in Florida and elsewhere.

It’s the same methodology.

It is not appraisals as per the Real Estate (Brokers and Salesmen) Act 1995.

You cannot take our assessments and say this is the appraised value of a house.

Our estimates are very conservative.”

Mr Wilson thus sought to distinguish Tyler Technologies work from BREA’s, and the Act’s, definition of “appraisal services” by asserting that it conducted a tax assessment by virtue of the island-wide mapping exercise that saw all properties photographed and, in some cases, measured.

However, BREA has pointed to the May 14, 2019, press release issued

by Tyler Technologies to announce its real property tax contract with the Government’s Department of Inland Revenue (DIR). In it, a senior Tyler executive states that it is providing “appraisal services” to The Bahamas.

“We are pleased to be selected once again to provide appraisal services to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and bring fair and equitable taxation to its residents,” said Jake Wilson, Tyler’s vice-president and general manager of appraisal services. That is what has particularly exercised BREA, but the release goes on to refer to the mass tax assessments cited by Mr Wilson.

“Tyler offers the only national mass appraisal service in the US, and we’re looking forward to extending that expertise internationally,” Mr Wilson added. Tyler described its CLT Appraisal Services as the “oldest mass appraisal solution” in the US which has been used to appraise nearly 35m parcels of residential, agricultural commercial and industrial properties.

BREA has urged the Davis administration to withdraw the 2022 real property tax bills now being mailed out to home and business owners on the basis that the appraisals supporting the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) valuations are not valid or legal.

Echoing concerns first printed in this newspaper

SIMON WILSON last week, BREA said Tyler Technologies cannot legally conduct appraisals/valuations in this nation because it is not licensed to do so.

And nor could it be licensed, the Association added, because only Bahamian citizens or permanent residents with the right to work can be authorised to do appraisals under the Real Estate (Brokers and Salesmen) Act 1995 via its sections four and 13.

The Government has made the counter-argument that the powers of the Government’s chief valuation officer to assess property values for taxation purposes are “totally unrelated to the provisions of The Real Estate (Brokers and Salesmen) Act 1995”.

It pointed to the Real Property Tax Act 2010’s section seven, which states that this official has the duty to determine which properties - and owners are liable to pay taxes. “No such prohibition regarding citizenship or work permits can be found in the Act,” the Department of Inland Revenue said in a statement.

“And the chief valuation officer (CVO) has the power to obtain information from any person that is relevant to the CVO’s accurate assessment of property under the Act.” The BREA statement, though, potentially provides a road-map for attorneys and their clients to challenge the validity of the 2022 real property tax billings.

Any court challenge, particularly if it is successful, could cause major chaos and disruption to the Government’s revenues and fiscal planning at a time when it needs to collect every cent possible.

Mr Wilson, though, reiterated that Tyler Technologies’ work was no different from local government property assessments in the UK. “I’m like the minister [Senator Michael

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that KRISTINE CARRINGTON of Apt. 14 , Fox Hill Road, Nassau, Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 25th day of January, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that FRANKLYN ANESTIN of Murphy Town, Abaco, Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 1st day of January, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

Halkitis] in thinking the approach by BREA, this statement, is not only attacking the integrity of the process and the persons involved, but what you are saying is that none of the assessments are valid,” he added.

“I could go on and on, but let’s put it this way. It’s in nobody’s interests for us to get into a public fight with BREA. We plan to have discussion with them, and take it from there.” Mr Wilson said the Ministry of Finance had been seeking to overhaul and modernise the real property tax system from as far back as 2005-2006, when it realised its paper-based approach could simply not keep up.

Barbados-based tax officials, hired via the proceeds of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) grant, were “shocked we were going round from house to house. This opened our eyes that we had got to change the way we do it”.

Tyler Technologies was selected after a competitive bidding process overseen by the KPMG accounting firm, Mr Wilson added. It began work in 2016 and, although stopped “for a short period of time” under the Minnis administration, was restarted and seen through to its conclusion with Bahamians doing much of the field work.

“It ain’t like this is a oneman shop,” Mr Wilson said of Tyler Technologies.

“This ain’t someone doing this from their garage. They have algorithms, which were tested against real data and property sales.

They validated the research before they went to this stage.

“We were very, very careful, given that we were coming out of the pandemic, to make sure the impact was not as sharp as it could have been. That’s why we paid every owneroccupied household a $312.50 rebate to soften the impact. This is not about money. This is about fairness and equity across the taxpayers.”

Of 85,000 properties on the real property tax register, some 58,000 fall into the owner-occupied category.

Of the latter, Mr Wilson reiterated just 2,700 or 4.7 percent had seen their 2022 real property tax bills increase, while 2,400 saw a decrease.

He added that the way the real property tax system had been structured, it tended to capture newer properties that had just been constructed as opposed to older ones whose valued may have increased but were not recorded.

“That’s why for years we talked about doing computer-aided mass assessments because we realised we were falling further and further behind in doing assessments and treating taxpayers unfairly,” Mr Wilson said.

TO ADVERTISE TODAY IN THE TRIBUNE CALL @ 502-2394

PAGE 6, Tuesday, February 1, 2022

BANK GOVERNOR EASES 2022 GROWTH FORECAST FROM PAGE ONE

“Again, however, the industry will have to wait until 2023, at the earliest, to be fully recovered. In particular, neither the seasonal capacity for cruise lines nor hotels is being projected to reach pre-pandemic earnings levels during the first half of 2022,” he added.

“This is noteworthy because it is during the first half of each year that the industry records more than half of its revenues.....The indicative information on employment is that it will keep closer pace with the recovery and in 2022 than it did in 2021.”

Mr Rolle’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection of “exceeding 5 percent” is slightly less bullish than the “8 percent of just over” forecast he gave at the Bahamas

Business Outlook forecast last month, with the latter prediction mirroring the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) estimates.

Elsewhere, the Central Bank governor said The Bahamas’ first-ever credit bureau’s benefits will become more evident in the medium-term as it is still compiling information Bahamian borrowers to build a full, accurate picture of their loan history.

He added that the rollout of the Sand Dollar, the Central Bank-backed digital currency, was focusing on completing the links between digital wallets and bank deposit accounts amid plans to ramp-up the recruitment of businesses as consumers.

And the financial services ombudsman hired in the 2021 third quarter

is focusing on developing recommendations for legal reforms that will address “consumer financial protection issues in The Bahamas”, of which bank fee and service charges are “one element”, as well as ensuring there is more transparency and disclosure by the commercial banks.

Central Bank data confirmed that stopover tourism led The Bahamas’ rebound, with total air arrivals up by 97.8 percent year-over-year for the 11 months to end-November compared to a 74.5 percent fall-off in the COVID-ravaged year that was 2020.

However, sea arrivals for the 11 months to end-November 2021 were down year-over-year by 40.1 percent due to the fact the cruise industry did not resume sailings until June

and the fact that 2020 saw almost three months’ worth of business in the first quarter prior to the end-March shut down.

“Consequently, total visitor arrivals still declined by 9.7 percent, which was tapered from a 73.1 percent reduction in the same period of 2020,” the Central Bank said. “The most recent data provided by the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) revealed that total departures - net of domestic passengers - rose to 98,305 in December from 21,040 in the corresponding month of 2020.

“In particular, US departures increased to 83,115 from 16,009 in the prior year, while non-US departures advanced to 15,190 from 5,031 a year earlier.

On a year-to-date basis,

total outward bound traffic moved higher by 80 percent following a decline of 74.2 percent in 2020.

“Underlying this outcome, US departures grew by 99.2 percent after a 75.2 percent fall-off in the previous year. Further, the decline in non-US departures slowed to 13.7 percent from 64.4 percent in the previous year.”

As for vacation rentals, the Central Bank added: “Positive trends were also mirrored in the vacation rental market, as the demand for short-term rentals accelerated. The latest data from AirDNA revealed that, in December, total room nights sold rose more than two-fold to 124,096, from 50,692 in the comparative 2020 period.

“Reflective of this outcome, both entire place and

EXTERNAL RESERVES TO END 2022 ‘NOT FAR FROM’ $2BN FROM PAGE ONE as the foreign reserves are concerned.

“If the reserves are impacted in this way, we anticipate the reserves at the end of 2022 will not be far off the $2bn mark even if they are reduced compared to 2021, comparing December to December.”

Mr Rolle said the Central Bank’s overriding goal at the start of the COVID19 pandemic had been to “ensure a stable outcome for the reserves” and protect the one:one currency peg with the US dollar.

While there was expected to be a drawdown on the external reserves as persons in the Dorian-hit islands used reinsurance monies to finance reconstruction, the Central Bank governor said any impact would be marginal when set against $5bn of foreign currency inflows - and a similar amount of outflows - in any given year.

And, while increased travel and economic activity will also lead to greater foreign currency spending, Mr Rolle said: “We pointed

out on several occasions that any accumulation in the reserves that resulted from the Government’s borrowing strategy, those are not permanent components of the reserves.”

Foreign exchange market activity continues to reflect the Bahamian economy’s re-opening following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Conditions in the Bahamian foreign exchange markets have recovered to a significantly more sustainable state,” the Central Bank governor added.

“On a net basis, the private sector’s reliance on foreign currency supplies from the Central Bank shrunk by two-thirds in 2021, even though by the third quarter of the year the bank had relaxed all of the conservation measures that were put in place early in the pandemic to protect the external reserves.

“As evidence of the turnaround, in 2021 there was a 40 percent or $1.5bn recovery in foreign currency sales through the private sector to commercial banks, a dominant majority due to

the resumption of tourism activity,” he added.

“Likewise, with the economy reopened, domestic demand for foreign exchange that was purchased from commercial banks also recovered sharply by 27 percent, or $1.1bn.” However, without the boost from the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights (SDRs) allocation, The Bahamas’ foreign currency reserves would have contracted in 2021.

“In the absence of the IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) allocation, The Bahamas would have experienced a net reduction in the external reserves of $167m in 2021,” Mr Rolle conceded.

“With the SDRs boost, the reserves rose instead by approximately $80m.

The reduction, in the portion of reserves that were not denominated in SDRs, was in line with the Central Bank’s accommodating stance for increased domestic spending. Under similar accommodation, the external reserves could also

tolerate some reductions in 2022, without cause for concern.

“In its monetary policy posture, the Central Bank will continue to accommodate strengthening domestic demand for foreign exchange, and therefore concede some reduction in the external reserves in the near term.

This includes expanding capital market transactions through the investment currency market.”

As for the banking sector, Mr Rolle forecast that the industry’s non-performing loans - currently pegged at 9.6 percent of its total outstanding credit portfolio - will decline by year-end 2022.

“In respect of domestic credit, in the near-term the pandemic could result in additional losses for lending institutions, though very moderated from the upfront charges for which banks made provisions in 2020,” he added.

“A key measure of risk, and the potential for losses, the private sector delinquency or non-performing

MARKET REPORT www.bisxbahamas.com CLOSE

CHANGE

%CHANGE

YTD

YTD%

2197.96

-0.24

-0.01

-30.28

-1.36

(242) 323‐2330 (242) 323‐2320

BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 6.70 40.05 2.05 2.90 2.60 6.00 10.05 3.60 9.02 3.50 7.01 12.00 2.71 10.10 11.06 10.75 15.00 4.00 9.91 16.50

52WK LOW 4.15 32.12 1.46 2.10 1.30 5.50 6.00 2.82 4.25 2.27 5.00 9.75 2.10 6.50 9.50 8.40 13.10 3.42 8.00 15.50

SECURITY AML Foods Limited APD Limited Benchmark Bahamas First Holdings Limited Bank of Bahamas Bahamas Property Fund Bahamas Waste Cable Bahamas Commonwealth Brewery Commonwealth Bank Colina Holdings CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank Consolidated Water BDRs Doctor's Hospital Emera Incorporated Famguard Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) Limited Focol Finco J. S. Johnson

PREFERENCE SHARES 1.00

1.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1.00 10.00 1.00

1.00 10.00 1.00

Bahamas First Holdings Preference Cable Bahamas Series 6 Cable Bahamas Series 8 Cable Bahamas Series 9 Cable Bahamas Series 10 Colina Holdings Class A Fidelity Bank Bahamas Class A Focol Class B

CORPORATE DEBT - (percentage pricing) 52WK HI 100.00 100.00

52WK LOW 100.00 100.00

SECURITY Fidelity Bank (Note 22 Series B+) Bahamas First Holdings Limited

SYMBOL AML APD BBL BFH BOB BPF BWL CAB CBB CBL CHL CIB CWCB DHS EMAB FAM FBB FCL FIN JSJ BFHP CAB6 CAB8 CAB9 CAB10 CHLA FBBA FCLB SYMBOL FBB22 BFHB

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT STOCK - (percentage pricing) 115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 102.00 100.71 91.88 100.00 100.11 100.70 100.43 100.58 100.06 100.36

104.79 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.01 84.59 89.00 100.11 100.00 99.98 100.58 100.00 100.36

Bahamas Note 6.95 (2029) BGS: 2014-12-7Y BGS: 2015-1-7Y BGS: 2014-12-30Y BGS: 2015-1-30Y BGS: 2015-6-7Y BGS: 2015-6-30Y BGS: 2015-10-7Y BGRS FL BGRS70023 BGRS FX BGRS94031 BGRS FX BGR131249 BGRS FL BGRS76025 BGRS FL BGRS84033 BGRS FL BGRS71023 BGRS FL BGRS75023 BGRS FL BGRS92028 BGRS FL BGRS98031

BAH29 BG0107 BG0207 BG0130 BG0230 BG0307 BG0330 BG0407 BSBGRS700238 BSBGRS940313 BSBGR1312499 BSBGRS760257 BSBGRS840331 BSBGRS710237 BSBGRS750233 BSBGRS920281 BSBGRS980319

LAST CLOSE 5.30 39.95 2.04 2.39 2.49 6.00 9.25 3.30 7.90 2.86 7.00 12.00 1.96 10.08 11.58 10.75 15.00 3.96 9.85 15.51 1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00 LAST SALE 100.00 100.00 107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.71 91.66 100.00 100.11 100.15 99.98 100.83 100.00 100.47

CLOSE 5.30 39.95 2.04 2.39 2.49 6.00 9.25 3.30 7.91 2.86 7.00 12.00 2.03 10.08 11.59 10.75 15.00 3.95 9.85 15.51

CHANGE 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.07 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 (0.01) 0.00 0.00

1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00

VOLUME

6,000

5,000

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

CLOSE 100.00 100.00

CHANGE 0.00 0.00

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.71 91.66 100.00 100.11 100.15 99.98 100.83 100.00 100.47

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

EPS$ 0.239 0.932 0.000 0.070 0.070 1.760 0.369 -0.438 0.140 0.184 0.449 0.722 0.102 0.467 0.646 0.728 0.816 0.203 0.939 0.631 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

VOLUME

50

DIV$ 0.170 1.260 0.020 0.110 0.000 0.000 0.260 0.000 0.000 0.120 0.220 0.720 0.434 0.060 0.328 0.240 0.540 0.120 0.200 0.610 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

INTEREST Prime + 1.75% 6.25% 6.95% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.50% 6.25% 4.25% 4.53% 4.35% 5.60% 4.53% 4.68% 4.53% 4.46% 4.34% 4.30%

P/E 22.2 42.9 N/M 34.1 N/M N/M 25.1 -7.5 56.5 15.5 15.6 16.6 19.9 21.6 17.9 14.8 18.4 19.5 10.5 24.6 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

YIELD 3.21% 3.15% 0.98% 4.60% 0.00% 0.00% 2.81% 0.00% 0.00% 4.20% 3.14% 6.00% 21.38% 0.60% 2.83% 2.23% 3.60% 3.04% 2.03% 3.93% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 7.00% 6.50%

MATURITY 19-Oct-2022 30-Sep-2025 20-Nov-2029 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2022 29-Jul-2023 10-Jul-2031 15-Jul-2049 18-Jan-2025 22-Sep-2033 22-Oct-2023 7-Sep-2023 10-Nov-2028 26-Jul-2031

MUTUAL FUNDS 52WK HI 2.48 4.59 2.19 207.86 207.68 1.72 1.82 1.80 1.05 8.92 10.81 7.44 16.64 12.76 10.57 10.00 10.43 14.89

52WK LOW 2.11 3.30 1.68 164.74 116.70 1.68 1.73 1.75 1.03 6.41 7.62 5.66 8.65 10.54 9.57 9.88 8.45 11.20

FUND CFAL Bond Fund CFAL Balanced Fund CFAL Money Market Fund CFAL Global Bond Fund CFAL Global Equity Fund Leno Financial Conservative Fund Leno Financial Aggressive Fund Leno Financial Balanced Fund Leno Financial Global Bond Fund RF Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Secured Balanced Fund RF Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Targeted Equity Fund RF Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Prime Income Fund RF Bahamas International Investment Fund Limited - Equities Sub Fund RF Bahamas International Investment Fund Limited - High Yield Income Fund RF Bahamas International Investment Fund Limited - Alternative Strategies Fund Colonial Bahamas Fund Class D Colonial Bahamas Fund Class E Colonial Bahamas Fund Class F

NAV 2.48 4.59 2.19 204.67 199.97 1.72 1.82 1.80 1.02 8.92 10.81 7.44 16.64 12.73 10.57 N/A 10.43 14.89

YTD% 12 MTH% 3.60% 4.38% 3.43% 3.47% 2.22% 2.69% 1.37% 3.18% 8.18% 14.94% 2.70% 2.70% 1.63% 1.63% 2.39% 2.39% -2.79% -2.79% 5.11% 6.98% 7.77% 9.88% 2.28% 3.71% 19.64% 29.95% -0.81% -0.62% 5.19% 2.28% N/A N/A 3.00% 25.60% 7.90% 48.70%

NAV Date 31-Oct-2021 31-Oct-2021 29-Oct-2021 30-Sep-2021 30-Sep-2021 31-Dec-2021 31-Dec-2021 31-Dec-2021 31-Dec-2021 31-Aug-2021 31-Aug-2021 31-Aug-2021 31-Aug-2021 31-Aug-2021 31-Aug-2021 31-Mar-2021 31-Mar-2021 31-Mar-2021

MARKET TERMS

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX - 19 Dec 02 = 1,000.00

YIELD - last 12 month dividends divided by closing price

52wk-Hi - Highest closing price in last 52 weeks

Bid $ - Buying price of Colina and Fidelity

52wk-Low - Lowest closing price in last 52 weeks

Ask $ - Selling price of Colina and fidelity

Previous Close - Previous day's weighted price for daily volume

Last Price - Last traded over-the-counter price

Today's Close - Current day's weighted price for daily volume

Weekly Vol. - Trading volume of the prior week

Change - Change in closing price from day to day

hotel comparable listings increased to 52.4 percent and 49.3 percent, respectively, from 31.9 percent and 31 percent in the corresponding period last year.

Price indicators strengthened year-over-year, as the average daily rate (ADR) for hotel comparable listings firmed by 11.6 percent to $181.14, and for entire place listings by 7.2 percent to $508.33.

“On a year-to-date basis, vacation rental room nights sold grew by 62.8 percent, occasioned by respective gains in bookings for entire place and hotel comparable listings by 64.8 percent and by 47.4 percent. Further, ADR for hotel comparable and entire place listings increased by 12.8 percent and by 16.2 percent, respectively.”

Nevertheless, there was further increase in lending for business and other purposes.

“Outstanding credit could remain flat to contracted in 2022. In particular, lending institutions are still held back by delinquency rates which have to improve to levels even below the average ratios experienced ahead of the pandemic.

“Such an outcome remains dependent upon expanding economic activity, and increasing the pool of qualified borrowers for credit as the economy improves.

Structural reforms such as the credit bureau and the anticipated collateral registry will also have positive impacts on this environment over the medium-term.”

CALL 502-2394 TO ADVERTISE TODAY! PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL

MONDAY, 31 JANUARY 2022

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX:

rate on commercial bank loans had increased to 9.6 percent at the end of 2021 from a pre-pandemic level of approximately 8 percent.

“Although this rate could rise further in the immediate months ahead, the Central Bank believes that it will stabilise and begin to decline before the end of 2022. As a sign of the improved clarity, at present, virtually all loans that were in deferred payment arrangements at the middle of 2020 have returned to some regular payment status.”

Mr Rolle continued: “In 2021, however, credit to the private sector contracted again, reflecting net repayments for mortgages and consumer loans.

THE TRIBUNE

EPS $ - A company's reported earnings per share for the last 12 mths

Daily Vol. - Number of total shares traded today

NAV - Net Asset Value

DIV $ - Dividends per share paid in the last 12 months

N/M - Not Meaningful

P/E - Closing price divided by the last 12 month earnings

TO TRADE CALL: CFAL 242-502-7010 | ROYALFIDELITY 242-356-7764 | CORALISLE 242-502-7525 | LENO 242-396-3225 | BENCHMARK 242-326-7333

The Public is hereby advised that I, KENDACE BUTCHER of Garden Hills, P.O. Box SS-6451, Nassau, The Bahamas, Parent of NATHANIEL KYRIE STEPHEN GILBERT A minor intend to change my child’s name to KYRIE STEPHEN BUTCHER If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

NOTICE

PAGE 8, Tuesday, February 1, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

BODY AND MIND

Long-time HIV survivor beats COVID-19

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net

PEOPLE living with HIV/ AIDS, whose immune systems are already compromised to a degree, are urged to take more caution despite the recent downtick in new coronavirus cases in the Bahamas.

This message is echoed by a 24-year-old client of the Bahamas AIDS Foundation who has been living with HIV since birth. She spoke with Tribune Health under condition of anonymity about her experience of contracting COVID-19 and the impact it had on her body.

As someone with a pre-existing condition and an already compromised immune system she said she

was not afraid because she always had faith she would be protected.

The dry cough, itchy throat and fever, among other symptoms, had the young woman feeling miserable and weak.

And since she was already compromised, her recovery took some time.

“The doctor said it may take about six weeks for a full recovery; it took about that amount of time. I don’t really remember, I just know that I was miserable – yes, for about four to six weeks,” the young natural hairstylist told Tribune Health.

She believes had she not been taking her HIV medication and keeping herself as healthy as possible, she could have had a different outcome.

However, taking her medication did not always come naturally

or easy to despite contracting HIV from a mother-to-child transmission.

Her guardians revealed to her at age eight that she was HIV positive, after she overheard a conversation between her stepmother and father. She was in their care as her mother had passed away when she was only one month old.

“To be honest, at first it was really hard. I was in denial and refused to take my medicine. I was sad, depressed, in shock. My family did not give up; they talked me to death. They encouraged me to take my medicine and to take care of myself. Their care and support did not sink in until I was in the seventh grade, then I started to listen. I was also enrolled into a club with others – People living with HIV (PLVHIV) – that

combination gave me the strength to turn my life around. And I have been taking care of myself ever since,” she said.

The young hairstylist encourages those in a similar situation to take their medication, drink lots of water and eat healthy.

“Be brave, stay positive, follow the protocols and take care of yourself,” she said.

A public service announcement made by the Bahamas AIDS Foundation outlines all details those living with HIV/ AIDS need to know in order to keep themselves safe. The foundation has been determined to not have its voice drowned out by the pandemic which has pushed the fight against HIV/AIDS to the back burner.

However, there is a dual war the foundation has to fight

through its awareness, education and messaging. If those living with HIV/AIDS contract COVID they face a significantly higher risk of becoming severely ill, according to US Centers for Disease Control.

The foundation’s main message is for carriers to get vaccinated, continue to take their HIV medications and observe all health protocols.

Dr Nikkiah Forbes, director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme at the Ministry of Health, told this newspaper that even with the recent decline in COVID cases following the omicron spike, it is still too early to say that the country has reached the peak of the latest coronavirus wave.

A juicy approach to health

By ALESHA CADET Tribune Features Writer acadet@tribunemedia.net

“Just Juice” is not only the name of Le’Annka Rigby’s company, but also her life’s motto.

The young Bahamian is, in particular, a strong proponent for juice cleanses.

She believes they can help build up a body’s immune system, eliminate toxins, give the digestive system a much-needed rest, and just overall improve a person’s health.

Le’Annka first became interested in juice cleanses and the benefits of cold-pressed juices during her time at college. Her roommate made a batch of fresh green juice and immediately Le’ Annka was a fan.

“I studied Economics in college…By day, I focused on data sets and numbers and at night I set up shop in my kitchen to press fresh produce and conduct research into juice blends and their effects on the body,” she said.

Everywhere Le’Annka travelled thereafter, she looked for cold-pressed juice stores, studied the recipes, and chatted with owners or store associates. Her biggest encouragement during a trip to San Francisco – city whose downtown area was seemingly flooded with health-conscious restaurants selling juices.

After that trip, a coworker of Le’Annka’s purchased a juice machine as a Secret Santa gift for her, and she began making blends at home for her family and friends to try.

“My mother at the time was battling cancer and so I switched our daily routine from smoothies to juices so that her body could more easily absorb the nutrients while being stressed by ongoing chemotherapy treatment,” she said.

Le’Annka wanted to share her beneficial juice recipes with others and started her own company, Just Juice.

“It may sound cliché, but the benefits are truly endless. Our cleanses focus on giving the body a break from digesting solid foods, so that its only priority is to absorb nutrients. As for our flavours, the celery juice aids in reducing inflammation about the body, and many customers flock to it for their high blood pressure woes.

“The Green and Green Green serve as the main detoxifiers, with blends of celery, kale, ginger and cucumbers to flush impurities from the liver and colon.

This juice I call the ‘Runner’ due to customers’ preference to consume this in a comfortable setting to prepare for their body’s rejection of everything that isn’t good.

Apple Beet promotes haemoglobin to oxygenate red blood cells that ultimately aid iron levels throughout the body, while Carrot Orange serves as a great source of

vitamins A and C that are crucial for improving immunity, as well as protecting skin and eye health,” said Le’Annka.

Just Juice currently offers fullday cleanses consisting of six juices per day, as well as half-day cleanses that include four juices a day. Individual juices are also sold separately and can be added to any custom juice pack that customers choose. The business is home-based and orders are placed via the company’s website, justjuicebahamas.com.

“Most first-time customers are surprised that the company exists and are shocked at the difference between the composition of cold-pressed juices and storebought pasteurised juices,” said Le’Annka.

Le’Annka said she was just recently able to help a customer, who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and couldn’t keep any solid food down. Her juices, she said, helped this woman to keep her strength and fight the virus.

“I am not an advocate for extreme alternatives when it comes to healthcare, but it felt really good to know that my juices were considered during a time when healthcare seems to be extremely hesitant towards holistic remedies for modern-day infections such as COVID-19,” she said.

“Our high levels of diagnosis in immunocompromising diseases most definitely stem from our lifestyle choices, including our diets, and so healthier options should be to the forefront. They say that genetics often play a role in such diseases, and while this may be true, the lifestyle choices passed down from generation to generation, I believe, play an even greater role. There’s also the harsh reality of our lacking healthcare system, as well as the difficulties of obtaining efficient healthcare insurance, and that alone should encourage more health-conscious businesses to exist and convey the message that prevention is the best cure.”

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 1, 2022, PAGE 9

Best news ever: Ejaculate more, reduce prostate cancer risk Very good news indeed. The last two years of the COVID19 pandemic have provided an onslaught of bad news, so positive medical news is a ray of sunshine.

More frequent ejaculation can potentially reduce a man’s prostate cancer risk. More specifically, a Harvard study advocates 21 or more ejaculations per month to reduce a man’s risk for prostate cancer by 20 percent. This information is not brand new, but there is continued mounting scientific based evidence to support that a man’s prostate cancer risk can be modified.

In a landmark Harvard study that commenced in 1992 and continued for 18 years that was presented at the annual American Urology Association conference, data was taken from nearly 32,000 men from the prospective Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

The study was performed by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health and Boston University School of Public Health.

Participating men were asked to report in 1992 the average number of ejaculations per month from the ages of 20 to 29 and from 40 to 49 for the previous year. The average age of the participants was 59 years old. The lifetime ejaculation average for each participant was then calculated.

During the 18 year study, 3,839 of the participants were diagnosed with prostate cancer and for 384 of these men, the prostate cancer was fatal.

The risk for prostate cancer was determined to be approximately 20 percent lower in men who ejaculated at least 21 times a month when compared to men who ejaculated 4 to 7 times a month.

This study had many strengths, as it was a prospective study whereas many similar studies have been retrospective. The study involved nearly 32,000 participants which is a large cohort group; the study lasted an impressive 18 years and finally the study included high quality data with specific information on ejaculation.

A similar Australian study found the prostate cancer risk was reduced by 36 percent when men ejaculated seven times a week.

The Australian study involved 2,338 men all younger than 70 years old. Results showed that men who had 18.4 to 28 ejaculations per month, reduced the risk for prostate cancer by 36 percent when compared with Australian men who ejaculated on average 9.2 times per month.

How ejaculation reduces prostate cancer risk The exact mechanisms by which frequent ejaculations reduce prostate cancer risk are not completely understood. It is hypothesised that frequent ejaculations flush out harmful chemicals that build up in semen A study published in the scientific journal European Urology provided evidence that more frequent ejaculations affects the expression of 409 genes and six biological processes in men.

The study supports the prostate stagnate hypothesis whereby carcinogens accumulate within the prostate between ejaculations and affects cell’s genome and metabolic processes.

Scientists are still unsure whether ejaculation via sex versus

masturbation has the same benefits of reducing prostate cancer risk. Research has shown that the makeup of semen produced during sex versus ejaculation is different. The semen ejaculated from sex with a partner has higher levels of sperm and some chemicals which could be more impactful in reducing the odds of a man developing prostate cancer.

Ejaculation potentially can change prostate tissue and thus lower prostate cancer risk.

Ejaculation may suppress the sympathetic nervous system by relieving tension and thus reduce the stimulation of prostate epithelial cell division.

Association does not necessarily mean causation It should be noted that men with more frequent ejaculations having a lower prostate cancer risk may be related to men who ejaculate more often having a healthier lifestyle and generally better health which decreases the likelihood of a prostate cancer diagnosis.

The Harvard study does not prove that ejaculation prevents prostate cancer but that frequent ejaculation potentially reduces the risk of developing prostate cancer.

Sexually transmitted diseases can lead to aggressive prostate cancer risk Always practice protected sexual intercourse or faithful

monogamy. Frequent ejaculations can reduce your prostate cancer risk but getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) can increase your risk of getting a more aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Men who have had a previous infection from the sexually transmitted germ Trichomonas vaginalis are at higher risk of developing a more dangerous and aggressive form of prostate cancer, compared to men who have never had a STD. Trichomonas is a germ, type of parasite that can infect the prostate gland and cause inflammation within it that could potentially promote the prostate cancer at a later stage in life

Bottom line A urologist prescription for men for more frequent sex to present to their wives and partners; so that they may play an active

THE UROLOGY DOCTOR IS IN...

Dr Greggory Pinto

role in reducing prostate cancer.

Good news indeed.

The risk factors for developing prostate cancer include advancing age, being of African ancestry and having the BRCA breast cancer gene mutation, which can also been found in men. Obesity and high alcohol intake can lead to a more aggressive form of prostate cancer. Unfortunately, many Bahamian men have several of the risk factors for getting prostate cancer in their lifetime.

The medication Proscar can reduce the incidence of low risk prostate cancer by 25 percent. It also combats male pattern baldness and reduces the size of a man’s prostate; lessening the urinary symptoms that men may experience as they advance in age.

Eat healthy and limit red meat intake, exercise regularly, do not smoke cigarettes or cigars, and attempt to maintain a healthy weight. Prostate cancer annual screening should start at the age of 40 years old with a prostate specific antigen blood test.

Prostate cancer has a nearly 100 percent survival rate if diagnosed early. Detection is the key to survival for prostate cancer.

• Dr Greggory Pinto is a boardcertified Bahamian urologist and laparoscopic surgeon. He can be contacted at OakTree Medical Center, #2 Fifth Terrace & Mount Royal Avenue, Nassau, Telephone (242) 322-1145-7; email: welcome@urologycarebahamas. com, or visit the website:www. urologycarebahamas.com

How sweat sensors could play a critical role in monitoring our health

By WOO SOO KIM Associate Professor, Mechatronic Systems Engineering, Simon Fraser University and Taeil Kim, Post-doctoral fellow, Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University The benefit of using wearable sweat sensors is the capability for real-time, non-invasive and continuous monitoring of sweat.

However, there are still challenges that must be overcome for practical biomedical applications such as diagnosis of health conditions.

Sweat challenges

(THE CONVERSATION) – Sweat is a biological fluid — like blood, saliva and urine — that contains metabolites, electrolytes, proteins and hormones. The levels of these vary depending on a person’s health. Wearable sweat sensors have been developed to track users’ health condition and monitor the levels of these substances (known as analytes) in sweat.

Lactate is considered an important biomarker thanks to its involvement in anaerobic metabolism. The undesired accumulation of lactate in muscles can result in fatigue, so changes in the concentration of lactate in sweat can be used to monitor fatigue.

At Simon Fraser University’s Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, we have developed a flexible sensor for sweat lactate.

One of the first hurdles in developing a reliable sweat sensor is the difficulty of collecting and routing of sweat. There are various methods for sampling sweat for sensing. One of the most representative approaches for collecting sweat is using microfluidic systems with channels that deliver sweat.

Absorbent materials like cloth can also be used for sweat sampling for sensing. However, sampling sweat takes time, and how to handle the sweat sample and supply it in the sensing region in a continuous and stable manner remains a challenge for real-time

measurement through continuous sensing of freshly generated sweat.

One of the most recent demonstrations used an integrated microfluidic system with thermoresponsive hydrogels. This system demonstrated significant potential for programmable control of sweat routing and sensing, which will improve the sweat handling for future sweat sensors.

Secondly, there is no single representative analyte in sweat.

Sweat sensors can detect analytes such as ammonia, ethanol, ions, glucose, lactate, sweat chloride, pH, urea and creatinine, but there isn’t a single analyte that can independently provide a significant picture of an individual’s health.

This means that sweat sensors must be able to measure many different substances in sweat to provide a useful report.

There are several sweat sensor products coming to market that measure analytes like the protein cytokine and glucose and lactate.

A third challenge is the reliability and accuracy of sweat sensors.

If we measure the level of a target analyte from sweat, can we determine how reliable the result is in terms of judging the level of the same analyte in subject’s blood?

We still need to determine the relationship between levels of analyte in sweat and blood, and the relationship between sweats

from different parts of body. This recent study demonstrated that sweat bio-sensing can provide blood-correlated ethanol concentration data, which gives us hope that it may be possible to find blood-correlated concentrations for other analytes as well.

Powerful solutions Users can specifically monitor targeted analytes in real-time by non-invasive sweat sensing.

This can save time, energy and resources by helping people avoid painful and inconvenient invasive tests, improving health and living standards, and receiving medical assistance in a timely manner.

Wearable sweat sensors are a powerful solution for monitoring daily health, and could support the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of diseases.

Technological applications may come earlier than we expected through close collaboration between clinical doctors, scientists and engineers.

• This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com

US gives full approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — US health regulators on Monday granted full approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, a shot that’s already been given to tens of millions of Americans since its emergency authorization over a year ago.

The action by the Food and Drug Administration means the agency has completed the same rigorous, time-consuming review of Moderna’s shot as dozens of other long-established vaccines.

The decision was bolstered by real-world evidence from the more than 200 million doses administered in the US since the FDA cleared the shot in December 2020. The FDA granted full approval of Pfizer’s vaccine last August.

Public health advocates initially hoped the regulatory distinction would boost public confidence in

the shots. But there was no discernable bump in vaccinations after the Pfizer approval, which was heavily promoted by President Joe Biden and other federal officials. Still, regulators said

Monday they hoped the extra endorsement would encourage more people to get vaccinated.

More than 211 million Americans, or 63 percent of the total population, are fully vaccinated.

About 86 million people have gotten a booster dose. Vaccinations peaked last spring at more than 3 million per day, and now average less than 750,000 per day.

The pace of vaccinations briefly spiked following news of the omicron variant in December but has since slowed again.

The FDA reviewed months of additional follow-up data submitted by Moderna to confirm the vaccine’s effectiveness against COVID-19. The FDA also analysed and kept watch for serious side effects that have proved to be very rare. The vaccine includes a warning about a rare type of heart inflammation that mostly occurs in young men following the second dose. Most cases are mild and resolve quickly.

Additionally, FDA reviewed the company’s manufacturing process and facilities.

“The public can be assured that this vaccine was approved in keeping with the FDA’s rigorous scientific standards,” said Dr

Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine regulator, in a statement.

With full approval, Moderna will now market the vaccine under the brand name, Spikevax. It is the first FDA-approved product for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company.

In the US, Moderna is used only by adults, for initial vaccination and as a half-dose booster.

The company said last fall that FDA had delayed deciding whether to clear the shots for 12to 17-year-olds as it examined the heart inflammation risk.

Johnson & Johnson has not yet applied for full approval of its COVID-19 vaccine.

Also Monday, Novavax Inc formally requested FDA authorization of a different type of COVID-19 vaccine, in hopes of becoming the fourth US option.

• AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

PAGE 10, Tuesday, February 1, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Gospel artist Latoya Culmer celebrates first single in six years

By ALESHA CADET Tribune Features Writer acadet@tribunemedia.net

Singer Latoya Culmer, a praise and worship leader at the Church of God of Prophecy Gambier, is celebrating the debut of her new single, “Not Alone”.

The release has been almost six years in the making.

Latoya said when she first wrote the single in 2016, she was in the middle of rehearsing for a concert.

She said at the time it was just a beautiful song that she believes God had given to her for encouragement.

“We sang it at the concert, but it really didn’t have a profound effect on me until after going through a difficult period in my life in 2019. The words of the song ministered to me. What was so strange was that this was like a forgotten song because the whole production of the concert was lost.

But I was reminded through my challenge that God had not forgotten me and I was not alone,” she told Tribune Religion.

“The song was awakened in my spirit, and I knew it had to be recorded and so I picked it up again and put it in the hands of my producer (Junior Scott), who tweaked it and made it what it is today. So the inspiration behind the song was adversity, because of the burden of what I was faced with. I was in a position where I was seeking encouragement and this song came to me as strength to endure the adversities of the concert and for the adversities of 2019.”

Latoya’s earliest memories are of herself, aged five, singing in the Gambier

SINGER Latoya Culmer

community Christmas production. She can still recall and hear the cheers of the audience as her tiny voice commanded the stage. Following this, Latoya sang in her church’s children and youth choirs, and was frequently called upon to sing solos. As an adult, she was asked to sing at funerals, weddings and other events by friends and family who knew she had the talent to sing.

“In 2016, I had my first live concert which featured my first single Sending Up My Praises. I must admit that it has been a journey for me. I had to grow to appreciate my sound and ministry. I have recorded four songs so far: Sending Up My Praises, He Kept on Walking, I Am Alive, and my most recent Not Alone.

I have been writing a few songs and I hope to complete a full album by the end of this year,” she said.

Latoya said she fears Bahamians audiences don’t always understand the effort that goes into producing a song.

“We often gravitate to international artists who produce beautiful music,

but we have exceptional talent in our country as well and we don’t always get to see and hear them as we should,” she said.

“On the release day of the song, I was asked by one of the gospel radio stations to introduce Not Alone on air for its first play and I was interviewed by another gospel station where my song is frequently played.

My church family have been very encouraging, giving me the opportunity to minister the song at the Church of God of Prophecy’s national convention. The feedback from my family and friends, neighbours and Facebook has been all in all good. I’m grateful.”

While there is no music video for this song as yet, Latoya said it is in the pipeline.

“I have been writing songs for years and I believe that these songs are for the world to hear. They will minister to people in such a way that they will know that God is real and He does care. I have set a few other goals for this year and among those goals an album is listed. It is my hope that this album will be played throughout the islands of the Bahamas. I believe this is the year, the appointed time in which this dream shall surely come true. I would also like for my songs to be recognised and played internationally, so I continue to work hard and believe God for it.”

For all those interested, Latoya’s songs, Not Alone and Sending Up My Praises are available on Google Play, Amazon, Spotify and iTunes. I Am Alive and He kept on Walking are available on YouTube.

Does it really empower women to expect them to make the first move?

By RIKI THOMPSON Associate Professor of Digital Rhetoric and Writing Studies, University of Washington (THE CONVERSATION) – Heterosexual dating conventions have long held that men make the first move: first to flirt, first to ask out on a date, first to propose.

What if the roles were reversed?

That’s what one dating app, Bumble, has tried to do.

Bumble brands itself as a feminist dating app that’s designed to empower women. According to Bumble’s website, the app was developed to “challenge the antiquated rules of dating” by requiring those who identify as women to initiate communication with men they match with.

With over 100 million users as of 2020, Bumble is one of the most popular dating apps on the market, and in interviews I conducted with over 100 people about online dating in my “Connecting Digitally” study, more than half reported using Bumble.

But my research shows that Bumble, despite purporting to empower women, leaves many female users feeling frustrated and vulnerable. This disconnect can be linked in part to the ways in which many men engage with online dating apps.

When a match is meaningless Bumble’s attempts at “levelling the playing field and changing the dynamics of dating” and empowering users to “connect with confidence” makes sense in theory, but not in practice.

Women in my study reported a number of counterproductive user practices based on their own swiping experiences and conversations with male Bumble users.

A 39-year-old female participant in my study described the frustration of making the first move and not getting any response: “So then all of a sudden you’re a match, but they would never say anything or respond to you … you wouldn’t hear from

them. What’s the point? Why even bother?”

Rather than evaluating profiles carefully and swiping “yes” on women they’re serious about, men are often likely to swipe right based only on the profile photo.

In addition, many men approach online dating as a numbers game and practice what some call “power swiping” or “shotgun swiping” by saying “yes” to everyone and seeing who shows interest and matches with them.

Many of them will only read a women’s profile information after matching.

Lastly, because some men are just swiping for the ego boost of “likes,” they’ll simply delete the match rather than respond to a women’s invitation to chat.

Women in my study often pointed out that a match was far from a guarantee of mutual interest. Unfortunately, due to “the gamification of dating” – the way the apps are designed to be engaging and addictive – mindless swiping is a common phenomena across all dating apps, not just Bumble.

Communication and power For decades, language scholars have been researching how people connect – or fail to connect – in conversation.

We say that the person speaking “holds the floor,” and they can wield power through choosing the topic, talking for longer periods of time and steering the conversation in certain directions.

However, not all power is maintained through holding the floor.

Not taking up a speaker’s topic in conversation, either by changing the topic or ignoring the question altogether, is another way to exercise power.

In other words, in any conversation, it takes two to tango. As the authors of a study on email communication and response times put it, “failure to respond or to take the floor creates a breakdown.” On dating apps, not responding to an opening message is akin to ignoring someone who’s asking you a question in a face-to-face conversation.

On Bumble, women may be given the control to take the floor first and direct the initial topic of conversation through, as Bumble terms it, “first move privileges.” However, when men fail to respond or unmatch after receiving that opening message, the women in my study reported feeling dismissed, rejected and, ultimately, disempowered.

In 2020, Bloomberg published an article exploring Bumble’s marketing tactics and brand messaging. Though the company maintains that requiring women to message first “reduces harassment” and “creates a kinder exchange between two people,” the author of the article noted that Bumble was never able to provide tangible proof of “how Bumble was keeping women safer or leading to more equitable relationships.”

Switching poles doesn’t solve the problem On a positive note, Bumble has become a catalyst for

conversation about gender, power and communication in online dating. And while many may not be ready for women to make the first move, most of the male and female Bumble users in my study noted that they chose the app precisely because of its philosophy of empowering women. To me, this speaks to the fact that people are ready to embrace Bumble’s goals of “shaking up outdated gender norms.”

That hasn’t stopped some men and women from decrying Bumble’s unique design as sexist. In fact, a class action lawsuit filed in 2018 accused Bumble of discriminating against heterosexual male app users because the app only allows women to send messages first. Bumble denied wrongdoing, but agreed to settle in 2021 to avoid further costly litigation.

A 37-year-old female participant in my study thought the app’s emphasis on gender was artificial and constrictive: “I don’t like it when people limit things by sex or gender. That doesn’t feel empowering to me. It just feels like

they’re trying to (enact) reverse sexism.”

By creating a situation where the right to speak and direct conversation is only given to members identifying with one gender, the work of coming up with unique and engaging opening messages falls on that group.

Men have traditionally done more of this work. Many of them don’t exactly cherish initiating conversations with countless strangers, a process that’s rife with anxiety and rejection.

For heterosexual matches on Bumble, women are now required to do the part. Yet to place the work of initiating conversation solely on one group seems to encourage passivity in the other party, which seems to only hamper healthy communication.

• This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 1, 2022, PAGE 11

Review: ‘Black Cake’ a delicious Caribbean-American novel in bite-sized chunks

By ROB MERRILL Associated Press “Black Cake” by Charmaine Wilkerson (Ballantine Books) The debut novel of former journalist and short fiction writer Charmaine Wilkerson opens with a one-paragraph prologue called “Then/1965.” A man stands at the water’s edge, “waiting for his daughter’s body to wash ashore.” The next page is

titled “Now/2018″ and we meet Byron and Benny, estranged siblings seeing each other for the first time in eight years at their mother’s funeral.

The chapters come fast and furious after that. It takes some getting used to at first, but you eventually settle into a rhythm and enjoy puzzling together what happens between each short snippet. It’s 382 pages of flash fiction to fill in those

53 years between Then and Now. It all adds up to quite a story. Every character has multiple narratives. There’s the face they present to their fellow characters in the novel, then there’s their true backstory, which often flips that public face on its head. Or as Benny wonders in her own head as she grapples with her parents’ history: “This is who they have always been, an African American family

of Caribbean origin, a clan of untold stories and halfcharted cultures.”

The novel truly puts the “omni” in its omniscient narrator, with plot driven mostly by internal dialogue and flashbacks. Like the flash fiction format, it’s sometimes confusing initially, but ultimately rewarding when the whole story coalesces by the end.

There’s much more to recommend here, including weighty themes about race,

AUTHOR Charmaine Wilkerson

identity and protecting the environment, as well as the power of family recipes to convey love without words, but the fun is in the reading. As Wilkerson writes near the end as Benny and Byron come to terms with their family narrative: They

THE WEATHER REPORT

5-Day Forecast

TODAY

ORLANDO

High: 73° F/23° C Low: 54° F/12° C

TAMPA

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THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Breezy with variable cloudiness

Breezy early; partly cloudy

Mostly sunny with winds subsiding

Partly sunny and windy

Pleasant with plenty of sunshine

Partly sunny, a shower in the p.m.

High: 75°

Low: 66°

High: 78° Low: 68°

High: 79° Low: 67°

High: 80° Low: 66°

High: 79° Low: 65°

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73° F

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The exclusive AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature® is an index that combines the effects of temperature, wind, humidity, sunshine intensity, cloudiness, precipitation, pressure and elevation on the human body—everything that affects how warm or cold a person feels. Temperatures reflect the high and the low for the day.

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MIAMI

High: 74° F/23° C Low: 67° F/19° C

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Statistics are for Nassau through 1 p.m. yesterday Temperature High ................................................... 70° F/21° C Low .................................................... 54° F/12° C Normal high ....................................... 77° F/25° C Normal low ........................................ 64° F/18° C Last year’s high ................................. 80° F/26° C Last year’s low ................................... 63° F/17° C Precipitation As of 1 p.m. yesterday ................................. 0.00” Year to date ................................................. 3.74” Normal year to date ..................................... 1.35”

ELEUTHERA

NASSAU

High: 75° F/24° C Low: 66° F/19° C

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022

High: 73° F/23° C Low: 69° F/21° C

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Wednesday 8:31 a.m.

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3.3 2.7

2:11 a.m. -0.8 2:57 p.m. -0.7

Thursday

9:18 a.m.

9:44 p.m.

3.2 2.7

3:03 a.m. -0.7 3:43 p.m. -0.6

Friday

10:04 a.m.

10:33 p.m.

3.0 2.7

3:54 a.m. -0.5 4:28 p.m. -0.5

Saturday

10:50 a.m.

11:23 p.m.

2.7 2.6

4:44 a.m. -0.2 5:12 p.m. -0.4

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5:36 a.m. 0.0 5:56 p.m. -0.2

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12:13 a.m.

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2.5 2.2

6:30 a.m.

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sun anD moon Sunrise Sunset

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“sit there silently for a moment, thinking of small but profound inheritances.

Of how untold stories shape people’s lives, both when they are withheld and when they are revealed.”

“Black Cake” is a satisfying literary meal, heralding the arrival of a new novelist to watch.

10-20 knots

MAYAGUANA High: 78° F/26° C Low: 71° F/22° C

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures

CROOKED ISLAND / ACKLINS

are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

RAGGED ISLAND High: 77° F/25° C Low: 73° F/23° C

High: 77° F/25° C Low: 72° F/22° C

GREAT INAGUA High: 80° F/27° C Low: 72° F/22° C

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marine Forecast ABACO ANDROS CAT ISLAND CROOKED ISLAND ELEUTHERA FREEPORT GREAT EXUMA GREAT INAGUA LONG ISLAND MAYAGUANA NASSAU RAGGED ISLAND SAN SALVADOR

Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday: Today: Wednesday:

WINDS NE at 8-16 Knots ENE at 10-20 Knots NE at 8-16 Knots ENE at 8-16 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 12-25 Knots NE at 8-16 Knots ENE at 10-20 Knots NE at 8-16 Knots ENE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 8-16 Knots E at 10-20 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 12-25 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 8-16 Knots E at 10-20 Knots ENE at 8-16 Knots ENE at 8-16 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 8-16 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots ENE at 12-25 Knots

WAVES 3-5 Feet 3-5 Feet 1-3 Feet 1-2 Feet 3-6 Feet 4-8 Feet 3-6 Feet 4-7 Feet 3-6 Feet 4-7 Feet 1-3 Feet 1-3 Feet 1-3 Feet 1-3 Feet 3-6 Feet 3-6 Feet 3-5 Feet 3-5 Feet 4-8 Feet 4-8 Feet 1-3 Feet 1-3 Feet 3-5 Feet 3-5 Feet 1-3 Feet 2-4 Feet

VISIBILITY 10 Miles 6 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 8 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 8 Miles 10 Miles 8 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 9 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles

WATER TEMPS. 76° F 76° F 72° F 71° F 78° F 78° F 79° F 79° F 77° F 77° F 77° F 76° F 78° F 79° F 80° F 80° F 80° F 79° F 78° F 78° F 77° F 76° F 79° F 79° F 78° F 78° F

SECTION B

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022

CARDI B (Photo by Jordan Strauss_Invision_AP, File)

The consequences of social media slander – Cardi B vindicated in defamation lawsuit

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net

Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B is breathing a sigh of relief now that she has been vindicated in a defamation lawsuit against a YouTuber who falsely accused the star of abusing drugs, contracting a sexually transmitted disease and engaging in prostitution.

Last week, a federal jury in the US awarded Cardi B – whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar – $1.25 million in punitive damages after finding Latasha Kebe, known online as Tasha K, and a company she owns, liable for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the rapper.

The $1 million was for pain and suffering and/or reputational injury, and the additional $250,000 was for in medical expenses.

Tasha’s company, Kebe Studios, was also ordered to pay an additional $500,000 and reimburse Cardi B’s legal fees, which added up to $1,338,753.47. Added in with the $1.25 million, the total comes to more than $4 million.

According to USA Today, the vlogger’s lawyers said in an e-mail that they disagree with the verdict and will file an appeal.

Tasha K lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area, where she produces, hosts and publishes a YouTube channel called ‘unWinewithTashaK’. She began publishing her statements about Cardi B in 2018.

After winning the lawsuit, Cardi B said in a statement: “I appreciate Judge Ray for conducting a fair and impartial trial.

I am grateful for the jury and their careful deliberation over the past two weeks. I am profoundly grateful for the hard work and support from my legal team. Most importantly, thank you to my family and close friends who held my hand and helped me get the support I needed during this experience.”

Cardi B said the allegations caused her to feel “extremely suicidal and helpless”.

Her statement went on to acknowledge the power of social media, both good and bad.

Bahamians also chimed in on the matter, sharing their thoughts on how social media is used to defame and spread lies about people, and how in the majority

VLOGGER Tasha K (Photo_YouTube) of cases people are never held accountable.

Tribune reader Tai said: “Well, in such a gossipy generation we have to realise that you cannot just say anything that you want about a person. Cardi B obviously didn’t need the money but really was trying to make an example out of Tasha K, which is great. For far too long people have said lots of slanderous things about others and especially about celebrities without having to pay for the harmful things that they say. And they do not even care how these

things impact a person. They don’t know what state of mind these people will be in.”

Bahamian Cardi B fan Portia (whose name has been changed to conceal her identity) said she was also the victim of social media slander.

“Someone posted very ridiculous claims on social media, making allegations that I had stolen from them when in fact we had a business relationship. They put my information out there as well as my passport and other personal documents. I did report it to

the police so I am now waiting to see what the outcome of that will be,” she said.

“At this point, even if there is some resolution, nothing can redeem my name in the eyes of the people who already saw what the person has shared about me.

So it is something that I have to live with.”

Portia believes in this age of social media and massive information sharing on so many different platforms, it is difficult to police what people choose to say online.

This, she said, often makes for reckless posting.

Opal said she believes people should be much more responsible for the things they share online and think about the damage it can do.

“And this damage is not only done to the person the false things are shared about, but also to the person who is doing the commenting. What if the person goes to the police, which they should do, and report it? That can cause you lots of money, as it should. People need to use social media for good instead using it to spread lies and gossip about other people,” she said.

Elementary school teacher makes math fun

By CARA HUNT Tribune Features Writer cbrennen@tribunemedia.net

Wilkeisha Bevans has found a way to pair the two in order to help kids learn a subject which many find challenging.

Wilkeisha is so passionate about her profession, she has even published a math guide to encourage her students.

“I can’t see myself doing anything else, I am literally obsessed,” the teacher of 13 years said of her job.

While she never had any doubts about her calling, she admits math was the one subject that gave her pause.

“Math is the subject that was rough for me as a student and when I was in school learning how to teach math gave me anxiety,” she said.

She first started teaching in 2009 and was posted to several Family Islands. Currently, she teaches grade six in Grand Bahama.

About ten years ago, she realised that many of her students were also struggling and that to really help them grasp the subject, she had to get away from the intricacies of each problem and help them look at ig in a simpler way.

“I started writing down little tips and formulas for math problems that I could use to help my students,” she told Tribune Woman.

Wilkeisha’s life was affected by two major events that impacted Grand Bahama – first, Hurricane Dorian which devastated the island then the COVID19 pandemic.

“To distract myself from all the external things that were happening I started to compile all these notes, formulas and tips on math

I had written over the years to help my students and compiled them in a book: “The Math Student’s Companion - For All Upper Primary School Aged Children.”

“It was something that just kind of of happened by accident, but then I was able to send to a publisher in the United States and got it printed,” she said.

The book is geared towards upper primary students to help supplement their math classes.

“My students joke that is like a cheat book because it helps them so much,” she said.

Wilkeisha said getting the math fundamentals at the primary level is very important as it sets students up for the rest of their education.

“I think a lot of children have challenges in math because teachers just focus on that ‘chalk and talk’ approach and don’t take the

WILKEISHA Bevans

time to break things down to show them the formula.

With math, you have to be creative. For example, when I am teaching my students fractions, we can play dominoes because they

show the numerator and denominator. It helps them add and subtract; you have to show them how they can apply the principles in real life,” she said.

“Also, students get frustrated when they can’t get the problem in a single way and they struggle, and so you have to help them find another way to get there.”

Her book was published last year and she is excited to use it in person as her students return to classes.

She also offers tutoring services as well ‘The Math Student’s Companion” is available from the author, Amazon or Ebay . The books are published by Lulu.

Those interested in purchasing the book or utilising her services can contact Wilkeisha at msbevans2009@gmail.com or 242-443-0455.