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Volume: 118 No.47, FEBRUARY 2, 2021

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Fed up nurses take action over failure to pay for overtime

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net HUNDREDS of nurses gathered outside the Ministry of Health yesterday morning, waiting up to three hours in some cases for Health Minister Renward Wells to come and address their overtime pay concerns.

The nurses could take similar action as early as today after ministry officials eventually responded to them in a “dissatisfactory way”, according to Bahamas Nurses Union President Amancha Williams.

Nurses in the Department of Health have not

received overtime pay since the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting The Bahamas in March 2020, The Tribune was told, despite the fact that many of them work 16-hour shifts three or four days a week.

Sheniqua Cox, the BNU’s general secretary, said nurses are “sick and tired”.

“They worked all during the pandemic for nine months and today overtime isn’t paid,” she said.

“We’ve been back and forth with the (former) minister of health who promised to solve the situation and here it is, a new minister of health is here, and nothing has been done.

SEE PAGE THREE

CUSTOMS UNION PROTESTS AT ‘OUTSIDE’ RECRUITMENT

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union has filed a trade dispute over the appointment of a new assistant director at the Department of Immigration.

The union is upset that the appointment came from outside the organisation and that no immigration officers have been tapped for the position. The new appointee, Stuart Curtis, is said to be a former police officer.

Sloane Smith, the union’s president, said in 2018 it was understood the sitting

minister and the current director had planned to bring in a number of people in high ranking positions in the Department of Immigration.

The union told them - as well as the Prime Minister - to instead promote from within. However, the union president said he learned about the new hiring in the media about two weeks ago and questioned the logic behind the decision.

“We’ve had about five superintendents of immigration go home,” he said during a press conference outside the Department of Immigration.

SEE PAGE THREE

SOME of the nurses gathered at the Ministry of Health yesterday seeking answers over their overtime pay concerns.

Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

NYGARD DELIVERED NEW COURT BLOW

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal yesterday refused Peter Nygard’s application for leave to appeal a contempt conviction for breaching an injunction that banned him from publishing stolen emails from environmental group Save The Bays.

In November 2019, a

judge sentenced the Canadian fashion mogul to 90 days in prison and fined him $150,000 - plus $5,000 a day if he failed to comply with the court’s judgement. That means Nygard’s attempts to avoid paying have potentially cost him an extra $2,225,000 under the terms of the judgement.

Nygard was found to be in contempt of an order SEE PAGE FIVE

BUTLER BLAMES COVID FOR DELAYING DEFENCE

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

SKY Bahamas’ former principal says he failed to meet the deadline for filing a defence to the $28m “bogus loan conspiracy” claims against him because he contracted COVID-19.

Captain Randy Butler, in a January 26 affidavit asserts his positive test and

Andros “isolation” meant he was unable to consult with his attorney on how to combat the allegations brought by Fred Kaiser, Sky Bahamas’ former financier.

The revelation came as Mr Butler and his attorney, Michael Horton, made good on their pledge that they would immediately seek to overturn Mr Kaiser’s bid to obtain a default judgment.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

WHY DID POLICE HAVE TO SHOOT?

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE sister of a man who died under a hail of bullets from police at the Bahamas Hot Rod Association track on Sunday night believes officers had no reason to shoot him.

Anthonique Mackey, 30, said her brother Rico Mackey was just one of many trying to avoid being detained by officers and

THE SCENE of the shooting. sped for the exit when police arrived at the track, but was tragically the only person killed.

“We were at the tracks,”

said Anthonique. “Police came and blocked the entrance. They didn’t want anyone getting out so everyone was driving around the barricade they set up.

Hundreds of people were out there and there was no reason to shoot his car. He tried to get out like everyone else did. A lot of people were trying to get out, a lot of them were moving quickly.”

SEE PAGE TWO

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspa-

WHEN POLICE AND COMMUNITIES WORKED TOGETHER

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

A BODY is taken from the scene of yesterday’s murder as, below right, people gather in the area to mourn.

Photos: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

Gunned down in the street

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was shot and killed on Deveaux Street yesterday morning, becoming the nation’s 11th murder victim for the year.

Police did not reveal the victim’s identity up to press time yesterday. However, he was identified by friends as 38-year-old Anwar Tucker, aka “Bats”.

Distraught family members and friends reacted furiously to his death with loud cries and wails heard at the scene.

“Oh, my brother? Why they kill my brother,” cried one grief-stricken relative.

Police press liaison officer, ASP Audley Peters told reporters that shortly before 9am officers were alerted to a shooting incident in the area of Deveaux Street east of Market Street.

Upon arrival at the scene, officers found a man’s body lying on the ground next to a vehicle with apparent

gunshot wounds.

Paramedics were called, but pronounced him dead at the scene.

According to ASP Peters, the incident unfolded when two gunmen approached the victim near a bar and fired shots in his direction, fatally wounding him.

“The facts are a vehicle approached the victim, two males exited and discharged a firearm upon the victim,” ASP Peters said at the scene.

“Preliminary information is the male would be in about his mid-30s. There is no motive at this time.

We’re in the initial stages of investigation, but in respect to him being known to police, that is not verified at the moment.”

ASP Peters said initial information does not suggest the incident was gang or retaliationrelated.

However, he said officers were following promising information on the country’s latest homicide.

“We’re in our initial stages,” he said. “Officers

are canvassing the area. The information seemed promising and in due course as we follow the protocols and the assistance of members of the public, which encourages us to do our work, we believe that we will bring this matter (to a) closure (as) swift as possible.”

Yesterday’s homicide comes less than a week after a man was found dead on a track road off Graham Drive in Yellow Elder Gardens.

Last Thursday, ASP Peters told reporters that police were alerted by a concerned citizen that a body was found unresponsive on a track road. Upon their arrival, they found a man with apparent gunshot wounds.

When questioned how long the body had been there, the police press liaison officer said it appeared that rigor mortis had already set in and estimated the deceased had been there about 12 hours.

Yesterday, ASP Peters told reporters that

increased use of illegal firearms continues to be a main cause of concern for officers.

“In any area of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, crime is an issue for us but what is more concerning is the proliferation of guns on our streets,” he said.

“And we’re encouraged by the reports we’ve been receiving from members of the public who have been assisting us or furnishing us with information from persons who they know to be in possession of firearms and lately, we’ve been having great success based on the goodwill of members of the public reporting persons whom they are aware brandishing firearms in their community. That’s the greater concern at the moment in respect to incidents such as these.”

Anyone with information about Monday’s incident or any other crime is asked to call police at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers at 328TIPS (8477).

WHY DID POLICE HAVE TO SHOOT? from page one

Police said they saw a large crowd when they arrived at the tracks, having received a call about a disturbance.

“The officers then made a check of the vehicles and patrons as they exited,” police said in a statement.

“The occupant of a small black vehicle, in an attempt to evade the officers at the checkpoint, accelerated in the direction of the officers and refused to stop when beckoned to do so.

“As the driver continued

acceleration, the officers being in fear of their lives drew their service weapons and engaged the occupant of the vehicle. The driver continued west along Corridor Seven and later crashed into a northern wall.”

Ms Mackey said her 27-year-old brother, who was driving a Toyota iQ, would never drive into police officers nor harm them.

“Rico was just a happy person, he wouldn’t try to knock them down just to get away, it wouldn’t make sense,” she said.

“But they shot so many times. I lost count of how many times they shot at him.”

Ms Mackey said she and her brother were close. The two were conversing when police showed up Sunday night. His last words to her, she said, were “I’m heading out.”

An electrician by profession, Mackey lived with his 78-year-old grandmother. He helped her financially and assisted with house chores, his sister said.

She said her brother had no criminal conviction and

was arrested just once in connection with a domestic dispute.

Police, nonetheless, said they recovered a weapon from Mackey’s car, something Ms Mackey finds difficult to believe.

“One of his friends was out there,” she said. “I asked him if my brother had a gun, he said my brother didn’t own a gun. . .It was a bunch of them (police) surrounding the car, like ten of them. They wouldn’t let us get near the car.”

Ms Mackey, who was inconsolable during yesterday’s interview, said her

family is scrambling to find a lawyer to help them with her brother’s case before the Coroner’s Court hears the matter.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Audley Peters confirmed that officers at the scene wore body cameras, adding that the Coroner’s Court will control access to recordings.

“I want to see the video, I want to know what happened,” Ms Mackey said. “I don’t feel they had a reason to open fire.”

Mackey’s death is the first police-involved killing of the year so far.

The Bahamas has had a higher rate of police involved killings than the United States in recent years. There were 11 killings last year – a rate of 2.9 per 100,000 people.

According to the Washington Post, there were 992 police-involved killings in the US in 2018, a rate of 0.3 per 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, activity at the Coroner’s Court has stalled since the start of the pandemic, with one lawyer saying yesterday that the court is at a “complete standstill”.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 2, 2021, PAGE 3

Show us the money

NURSES pictured yesterday seeking answers over payments owed to them.

Photos: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff from page one “These nurses have families, they have homes to attend. Yes, we’re grateful that we still have a 9am to 5pm or 8am to 4pm job but we are required to work extra hours to care for the health and wealth of The Bahamas.

At least show us the respect and give us what’s owed to us. Nurses in the PHA system are being paid on time so why is it that for nurses in the Department of Health, it’s a problem for them?

“The workload has become greater during the pandemic,” she added.

“The hospital is taking only minor stuff, so they direct you to the clinic to be triaged before you go into PMH, therefore nurses have to take on a greater

workload.”

Ms Williams said there are over 500 nurses in the Department of Health system, many of whom are affected by the overtime issue in some way.

She said during a meeting yesterday, ministry officials outlined a plan that would see nurses get paid about $162,000 for overtime work done from March 2020 to September 2020. The money would be paid at the end of February. Pay for overtime work done from October 2020 to January 2021 would be paid in April or May, amounting to about $90,000, she said.

She added that those who work overtime in January and February of this year may not get their overtime pay until as late as August under this arrangement.

She said this is

unacceptable.

“If you work overtime this month, you should get it next month,” she said.

“These nurses deserve the same system that other nurses have.”

She said the nurses’ action yesterday “symbolises that we’ve had enough and we’re not standing up for foolishness anymore”.

“This is not the environment that we would want to bring the youths in,” she said. “Could you imagine that this is what you’re selling to the younger generation? That when you come here you don’t know what you’re going to get paid, you don’t know when you going to get confirmed?

What are we offering these young people? If we can’t budget our budget and run a country, then where does hope lie?”

CUSTOMS UNION PROTESTS AT ‘OUTSIDE’ RECRUITMENT from page one

“Now you tell me what value could this individual truly bring to immigration?

What could he truly bring that a retiring superintendent could not bring had you given him that same contract?”

“We’ve been here some of us 30 years, 40 years. We know the building of this organisation. We see the changes and the legislation.

We see the growth of it. We see the development, but when time comes for that post to be opened not one immigration officer can sit in the director’s chair?”

The last promotional exercise was done in 2015 but was retroactive to 2013, according to Mr Smith.

“The Honourable Brensil Rolle said months ago that there was a freeze on promotions, on hiring, increments,” he said. “You telling me we can’t get one immigration officer promoted from where they are to assistant director, maybe deputy director and even director?

“Don’t tell me that bringing in persons, that there’s no immigration officer capable of leading this organisation.

“This man has to be God himself because no hiring, increments, no promotion but out of nowhere he shows up.”

The trade dispute was filed at the Ministry of Labour on January 29.

“It addresses the simple issue that you have a number of documents that we are governed by. The Industrial Relations Act, the public commission regulations, general orders, and all of them speak to if you’re gonna do something in this bargaining unit then you must give these individuals here an opportunity,” he said.

“I asked human resources, ‘here can you give me a copy of the advertisement of this promotion exercise?’ The lady said she don’t have any, so when did this happen?”

He made a plea to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis: “Can we remove these individuals forthwith because this can only be solved by putting us in a position where we would’ve been if not for the breach…. put us back in that position which means move this individual.”

Mr Smith also called for the removal of the present director, Clarence Russell.

When contacted, Immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson declined to comment.

However, Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle said while there is still a freeze on hirings and promotions, there is an “exception of cases or circumstances where Cabinet permits”.

When asked to elaborate on these circumstances, Mr Rolle said “they’re driven totally by needs and the required needs in the service”.

PAGE 4, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Tribute to swim coach Bell

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE Grand Bahama community paid final farewell to educator and swim coach Albert ‘Bert’ Bell who was laid to rest on Saturday at the Grand Bahama Memorial Park.

A motorcade tribute also travelled throughout the streets of Grand Bahama, passing by various schools on Friday.

Businesses were also asked to put up royal blue and aquamarine coloured ribbons in recognition of the beloved swim coach.

Mr Bell was a teacher at the Eight Mile Rock High School for some 25 years.

He also taught at the Freeport Anglican High School, now Bishop Michael Eldon High School.

And he also did a lot of work with special needs children in special education. He was also a part of the Swim Programme at the YMCA, and coached various top athletes.

“The motorcade went very well, and we were pleased with the involvement of the community and the schools and businesses,” said Rashema Ingraham, a committee member of the celebration of Bert Bell.

THE MOTORCADE paying tribute to Bert Bell.

Now, the push is towards the establishment of a tangible permanent tribute in honour of Mr Bell.

Ms Ingraham said the committee wants Grand Bahama residents to

support a petition to have a major thoroughfare named after Mr Bell.

She noted that persons can sign a petition on Change.org Before Mr Bell’s death

Photo: Mackey Media Ltd the committee started the petition drive. More signatures are needed. The committee has set a target of 20,000 signatures.

“We are continuing to work on that,” Ms

Ingraham said.

“And, now more than ever we need the support of the GB community to sign the petition. It is on Change.org for the renaming of a street in

Bert Bell’s name,” she said.

“We have the link posted on the FAC’s Facebook page so persons can go to that page and sign the petition for us. We need as many signatures as possible. We have maybe 40,000 people living on Grand Bahama, and so we need at least half of that, and we can do it.

“I am sure (Mr Bell) has reached in some way 20,000 lives, and we need them to sign that petition for us.”

Ms Ingraham said that they would be pleased to have the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the Office of the Prime Minister support the cause.

“We are now beckoning the GBPA and the OPM to support this because they know of the work he has done for us in GB, and so, we should name a street in Mr Bell’s honour.

Albert ‘Bert’ Bell died at his home on January 16 at the age of 75.

The passing of Mr Bell was featured in Swimming World International Swimming Hall of Fame on swimmingworldmagazine. com.

Writer Matthew De George described Mr Bell as “a titan of the Caribbean swimming community”.

ROLL OUT THE BARRELS

FROM left, Wenrick Clarke, sales director of Commonwealth Brewery, Jurgen Mulder, managing director of Commonwealth Brewery, Densil Deaveaux, senior spirits and wine brand manager of Commonwealth Brewery, and Paolo Garzaroli, president of the Graycliff Cigar Company.

COMMONWEALTH Brewery Limited has formed a partnership with local winery Bahama Barrels by Graycliff.

Commonwealth’s retail division, 700 Wines and Spirits will be the sole trade distributor for the Chillin’ Red and Chillin’ White wines.

“We are thrilled about this wonderful partnership, as CBL has long believed in supporting Bahamian entrepreneurs,” said Densil Deveaux, senior manager for wines at CBL. “Bahama

Barrels, being the only Bahamian winery is a natural fit to complement our current portfolio of Bahamian brands offered in retail chain.”

Bahama Barrels is the idea of Paolo Garzaroli.

The winery is located on West Hill Street in a refurbished convent, originally built by the Sisters of Charity. The Chillin’ wines are handcrafted by Bahamian winemaker Sylena Cartwright, who was trained in Italy and is said to be the first ever Bahamian

winemaker.

“We are excited to have forged this relationship with Commonwealth Brewery, which allows us to introduce ourselves and our products to the local market. Although The Bahamas is not a wine producer, its influence is evident in the ingredients, branding and overall concept of the Chillin’ Wines,” said Mr Garzaroli.

The Chillin Wine brand, is now available at select 700 Wines and Spirits stores across New Providence.

16 CASES OF COVID-19 CONFIRMED ON SUNDAY SIXTEEN cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Sunday.

Eight cases are in New Providence, three in Grand Bahama, two in Abaco, two in Andros and one in

Eleuthera. The country’s coronavirus case count is now at 8,223, however, only 1,210 of those are active. Thirteen COVID patients are in hospital while 176 people have died from the disease.

TOTAL CASES TOTAL DEATHS

8,223 176 NEWLY CONFIRMED CASES SUNDAY 16 CASES NEW PROVIDENCE 8 GRAND BAHAMA 3 ABACO 2 ANDROS 2 ELEUTHERA 1

TOTAL TESTS

60,666

HOSPITALISED

13

CASES IN ICU

0

RECOVERED

6,784

BAIL GRANTED IN THEFT CASE

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN who denied breaking into a woman’s car to steal over $1,000 worth of appliances was yesterday granted bail ahead of his trial.

His co-accused, who was charged with two similar offences, had his matter adjourned to Wednesday for a bail hearing.

Tavares Clarke, 35, and Frederick Taylor, 46, were arrested after they were accused of smashing the left passenger window of a woman’s BMW Mini Cooper to steal her Macbook, Samsung cellphone, Apple watch, and debit card on January 24.

Both men denied the allegations when they appeared before Senior Magistrate

Derence Rolle Davis.

Yesterday, Taylor was also accused of breaking the panel glass of another woman’s car to steal $1,385 worth of her personal belongings, including a black handbag with her passport and debit cards and $1,100 cash on February 27, 2020.

The prosecution alleged the accused also stole a Nintendo Switch, a Lenovo laptop, a pair of headphones, prescription glasses and a terabyte hard drive, which were all valued at $1,967, from a man sometime in January last year.

Taylor also pleaded not guilty to those charges and his case was adjourned to February 3 for a bail hearing.

Clarke, who had only been charged with the first two offences, was granted

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 2, 2021, PAGE 5

Final report on marijuana due ‘in first quarter of year’

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana hopes to submit its final report surrounding the use of marijuana to the government in the first quarter of this year, according BNCM co-chair Quinn McCartney.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, Mr McCartney said the body is one step closer to fulfilling its mandate from the Minnis-led administration now that a national survey to gauge Bahamians’ feelings on marijuana use has been completed.

Describing the survey as “the final piece of the puzzle” for the group’s work, Mr McCartney said

once the commission finishes its reviews of the survey’s findings, it will then include the information in a final report and submit it to the Office of the Prime Minister.

“The survey is completed and it would’ve been delivered to the commission earlier this year,” the BNCM co-chair said.

“And we had a meeting last week to discuss it and the commission would’ve met with the representatives from Public Domain (the company which conducted the survey) to discuss the findings so they could give us an indication based on what the results are saying.

“So, all of the commissioners would’ve gotten a copy of the survey and the intent is for us now to

review the results, look at it in depth and what the persons would’ve indicated and then compare it to what we presented in our preliminary report.”

He added: “And so, we’re now in the process of trying to construct the document to (merge) the two so that the relevant sections and their various subcommittees and they would be meeting as subcommittees to look at the survey’s results and see how that affects what they may have indicated in the preliminary report and then we’re going to (merge) those results into our final report to present to the government and prime minister of The Bahamas.”

In 2018, the commission was given its mandate by Cabinet to comprehensively

examine issues surrounding the use of marijuana to chart the way forward on the substance.

After several extensions, the commission presented its preliminary marijuana report to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis early last year, making recommendations for the legalisation of medicinal marijuana and the decriminalisation for possession of up to one ounce of the drug among other things.

It was expected that the final report would be submitted sometime late last year.

However, the BNCM’s work was placed on hold for more than three months as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.

Asked when the commission expects to present

its final report to the Cabinet now that the group has since reconvened, Mr McCartney did not want to give a definitive timeline, but said the body hopes to do so within the first quarter of this year.

He said once the report is submitted, there will still be work to do.

“But there’s a lot of work to be done after we produce our report particularly in either direction the government is minded to move in.

In any particular direction, there will be a lot more work to be done whether they’re looking at medicinal marijuana, or religious or recreational or expunging records, whatever,” he said.

“There will be a lot more work that would be done and so the commissioners may be available, or we

may be called upon but that is entirely up to the government to determine if they will use our services beyond the (mandate given).”

Dr Minnis has previously said he supports decriminalising possession of small amounts of marijuana and making the substance legal for medicinal and/or scientific purposes, becoming the first sitting prime minister to publicly support some form of marijuana decriminalisation.

It is not clear what concrete steps have been taken towards marijuana legislation.

However, Attorney General Carl Bethel told The Tribune last July that a draft bill on the issue was expected to be presented to Cabinet “in very short order”.

NYGARD DELIVERED NEW COURT BLOW from page one restricting him from interacting with the environmental advocacy group’s emails, which he was accused of obtaining through unlawful means.

Last year, Nygard appealed his contempt conviction on the grounds the fine and sentence handed down to him was too harsh.

Recently, he sought to attain an extension of time within which to appeal the contempt order.

However, yesterday Justices Jon Isaacs, Maureen Crane-Scott and Roy Jones refused the appellant’s application for leave to appeal out of time, dismissed the appeal and affirmed the conviction and sentence handed down to Nygard with costs to the respondents.

According to a judgement posted on the Crown’s website, in February 2019, Justice Keith Thompson granted an order prohibiting the use of a number of documents that were alleged to have been improperly obtained by Nygard.

However, in “apparent disobedience” to the injunction, the appellant sought to use the documents in an action in New

York. The respondents: The Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay, Fred Smith, QC, and Callenders and Co law firm, subsequently sought and were granted leave to begin committal proceedings against the appellant for contempt.

“Madam Justice Ruth Bowe-Darville heard the application and found the appellant to be in contempt on October 11, 2019,” the court documents said.

“On November 15, 2019, the judge made a number of orders, including the committal of the appellant for 90 days and a fine of $150,000. The appellant attempted unsuccessfully, inter alia, to have the contempt order set aside. He now appeals to the court for relief from its effects.”

Nygard appealed his conviction on the grounds the learned judge erred when she ruled he violated the injunction order. He further argued the judge was wrong to impose a penalty on him for failing to attend court without first calling on him to show the reason he should not be cited for contempt, or giving him a chance to defend himself against the claim.

In their ruling, the panel said they found no reason to interfere with the “discretion exercised” by the

judge when she ruled that Nygard had committed a contempt of court. They also said they believed the sentence imposed on the appellant was “commensurate with the contempt proved”.

“Where the action comprising the contempt is clear and unexplained, the court is entitled to move directly to impose such punishment on the contemnor as the contempt merits,” they noted.

“In the premises, there was no need for the judge to wait before proceeding to impose sentence on the appellant for his failure to appear. The appellant had been prohibited from using the correspondence by the Thompson injunction and he could not escape its effect, having submitted to the jurisdiction of the Bahamian courts when he entered an unconditional appearance to the proceedings, by publishing the impugned documents outside the jurisdiction.”

In their judgment they concluded: “Leave to appeal out of time is refused; the appeal is dismissed; the conviction and sentence are affirmed with costs to the respondents; such costs to be taxed if not otherwise agreed, sufficient for two counsel.”

THE NEW chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy, Usha E Pitts, is welcomed during a courtesy call on Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield.

THERE’S A NEW CHARGÉ IN CHARGE THE United States has appointed Usha E Pitts as the new chargé d’affaires to The Bahamas. She paid a courtesy call on Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield at the ministry’s offices yesterday.

Also in attendance were Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Peter Deveaux-Isaacs and Director General Sharon Brennen-Haylock.

Chargé d’Affaires Pitts was accompanied

by Garrett Wilkerson, acting deputy chief of mission and director/international narcotics and law enforcement affairs; and Daniel Villanueva, political- economic-commercial chief.

Mrs Pitts began her tour at the US

Embassy in The Bahamas on January 1.

Prior to this post, she served in Russia, Cuba, Italy, Austria, Panama and Brazil.

She has also served in Washington and New York. She began her career at US Embassies in Moscow and Panama City. She has worked in Havana, where she tracked the Cuban economy.

Mrs Pitts was born and raised in Massachusetts, the daughter of an inter-racial marriage. She and her husband are the proud parents of two teenagers.

They look forward to learning about The Bahamas and other island nations in the English-speaking Caribbean, a press release noted.

PAGE 6, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

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Money is tight - but straight answers are priceless PROMISES, promises. They don’t get you very far.

Hundreds of nurses gathered outside the Ministry of Health yesterday, waiting for the minister, Renward Wells, to come and give them answers about overtime pay.

The matter of payments for nurses has been rumbling on far too long. In this column in December, we noted the difference between the words of thanks for healthcare workers and the action taken to give them what was promised.

Health workers were promised money as a thank you for the hard work they put in to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The issue of overtime is to the fore too, with nurses saying they have not received overtime pay since the pandemic began affecting The Bahamas in March last year.

Some have been working 16-hour shifts.

Around the world, there have been tributes paid to healthcare workers.

Some countries have had regular rounds of applause on the doorstep for the efforts of those trying to keep us alive through the pandemic.

The problem now is this – is the money there? Labour Director John Pinder this week said the government had to prioritise what it spends and that the nurses would be paid “at some point”.

He added that “things are tight” with the government finances, adding: “One thing civil servants know is that the government will owe you, but the government will pay you. It’s guaranteed that you will be paid. Now sometimes it’s late, but you will be paid.”

So have we been promising money we don’t have? That’s effectively borrowing money from the workers – will they be repaid with interest?

Financially, the country is in a difficult state – anyone can see that without the economic gears turning, the bills keep going up and the money just isn’t coming in. Perhaps the nurses can’t be paid right now – but then that should have been clear up front – before they made the commitment to work and to give their time without the promise of money right away.

Meanwhile, they are justifiably pointing to contracts given out to pay for sidewalks instead of to pay nurses what they are owed. If nothing else, nurses deserve to be given straight answers – will they be paid, when will the money be coming and if it isn’t coming in a hurry, what the government will be doing to make up for it.

The flip side of it is this – if the government is up front with nurses about the situation, they might just take it on board and dig in until the financial situation improves, with the promise of a much improved salary when that time comes. Nurses are in high demand around the world right now – if we don’t treat ours the right way, they may just look for opportunities elsewhere when such a move is possible.

Nygard blow

Another day, another blow for Peter Nygard. In November 2019, Mr Nygard was sentenced to 90 days in prison here in The Bahamas for contempt of court – plus a fine. The sting was that for every day Mr Nygard failed to comply with the court’s judgement, he faced an extra $5,000 fine. That could cost him an extra $2,225,000 after his appeal of that contempt conviction was refused yesterday.

The matter at the heart of it was simple – he was ordered not to publish stolen emails from the environmental group Save the Bays then sought to use the documents in a court action in New York.

It’s probably not too surprising to see his contempt for the court upheld – if the allegations against him are upheld, then it merely adds to the contempt for his purported victims, and for the laws of The Bahamas themselves if it is true that he bribed politicians and police officers.

Yesterday’s ruling is one more black mark against the reputation of Mr Nygard, who sought to wiggle off the hook with his appeal only to find himself thoroughly caught.

Help our children EDITOR, The Tribune.

TODAY (19/1/20) I received a very disturbing video on social media of the physical and psychological abuse being committed on well over a dozen children by four or five female staff at the Children’s Emergency Hostel. This is totally unacceptable and heads should roll for this. These women should hang their heads in shame for their behaviour.

It makes you question what kind of heart beats in their bodies. How can you sit, watch and take part in the abuse of innocent kids?

How could you watch them live through a nightmare like that? Knowing that you can stop it from happening, you opt to sit back laughing and mocking. Do you have children of your own? Would you like your children to be placed in a home should circumstances allow and they be ill treated? What if it was you, would you approve and appreciate it? I can only imagine what else goes on inside that place, abuse comes in so many forms. In my opinion these women should never work with or around children ever again. How long has this been going on?

The damage they all caused on the mental and emotional states of all those kids in there is astounding if you really think about it. This trauma will take

jamaaltheartist@gmail.com

a toll on their innocent souls for the rest of their lives, especially if professional help is not sourced.

Then we wonder why our young generation is so out of control. In my opinion it’s because of people like those women who mistreat and misguide. Children learn from the lifestyle they are surrounded by. In my opinion, they don’t listen and learn as much as they watch and learn from us: The way we show love to one another, respect one another and how we resolve issues among ourselves. Many adults take it for granted that our children are watching everything that we do. Pass on the good things for we are creating our future as well through them. Teach them how to love and be loved a lot of them don’t know how.

I realize that we have many adults who are lacking the same.

Raising children is hard at times, yes, but you don’t discipline in the way these women did it. You should talk to them and show them their errors first and if it happens again you can resort to spanking or tapping with the belt. I do believe God’s word that to spare the rod is to spoil the child so at times it is called for. But not in the way those women carried it out on those little souls.

Being a mother not only brings out love for your own

children, but an appreciation and love for other children.

Try looking through their eyes and see how they view the world that you play a big role in. Give them the childhood that you would have wanted. Teach them how to realise their mistakes, sit and listen to their thoughts and feelings not just talk and demand. Give them the same respect that you demand. Don’t you know that you are creating a future for you too by the way you are raising them?

Every man and woman in our society has an impact on our nation’s children. They watch our behaviour so if we want better let’s do better.

I cry out to local pastors and leaders in government to please show up for those children in full force and protect them. Many adults overlook stress on children, but the truth is so many are afflicted with chronic stress as compared to ours.

Let us all lend a helping hand however we can to our little ones who are vulnerable at the Children’s Emergency Hostel and any other children’s home. If you know of any abuse of any child please speak up and don’t endorse this hideous crime to go on and corrode our children and society.

RACHEL CARTWRIGHT Nassau, January 20, 2021.

Jamaal Rolle is on holiday

PLP and vested interests EDITOR, The Tribune.

IN THE United States, the production and repetition of empty political slogans (“Yes we Can”, “Make America Great Again”, etc.) have come to mask not only the widening gap between lofty professed ideals and persistently depressing outcomes, but also the minuscule distinction between the parties themselves on virtually any matter of substance.

In reality, both parties promote endless wars abroad; both support a Wall Street-led economic agenda that delivers Dickensian levels of inequality; and both resist the delivery of truly universal healthcare to the American people, while spending trillions of dollars on a useless war machine that enriches defence corporations and the politicians who support them.

With such entrenched realities blocking genuine progress, it is little wonder that US politics has turned unashamedly to showbiz-style image manipulation to engage the electorate. Hence Trump, a twice divorced womanizer and casino mogul sells himself as the champion of blue collar evangelicals, while Kamala Harris, who imprisoned poor black mothers in California for the truancy of their children and used the state’s (minority-laden) penal system as a source of free labour, is hailed as a liberal ‘inspiration’ on the sole basis of her colour and gender, rather than her policies.

Thankfully, in The Bahamas, there are still real (rather than just representational) distinctions

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net between the two parties – although the better of the two (the Progressive Liberal Party) – has yet to learn that it will get nowhere by permitting those distinctions to be blurred.

The PLP must recognize that adopting policy positions of the Free National Movement is not only bad for The Bahamas (because they are atrocious policies), but is bad politics too, because they simply enrich the FNM’s support base. For example, no amount of deferring to the Chamber of Commerce or employers’ lobby groups on issues like minimum wages or the (decades overdue) introduction of income tax on the wealthy will make the membership of these groups vote PLP. Rather, it will merely confirm a perceived bipartisan endorsement of the regressive economic policies that have disfigured our country for a generation. This in turn alienates the PLP’s own support base – the poor and working classes who bear the brunt of these bad policies.

In this regard, it was truly excruciating to witness Mr. Christie’s doomed attempts to reconcile the private insurance lobby to his National Health Insurance plan. He gained no political capital whatsoever by conceding to these hardened vested interests, but allowed the process to be watered down and endlessly protracted until the vested interests’ own party got elected and scrapped it,

prolonging our sufferance of a barbaric health system dominated by greedy profiteers (who will of course continue to fund the FNM).

The only input the PLP needed on NHI was that of the wider public (who support it overwhelmingly, in its most robust form). The next step was to quickly construct a single-payer, publicly funded universal healthcare system – the only kind that works anywhere on earth. Had Christie done that a decade earlier, the vested interests in private insurance would simply not have had the money to fund a regressive backlash, as they did in 2017 – especially if they were paying income tax on their corporate profits, as they would anywhere else on earth.

If the PLP is serious about rescuing the country from this dismal crew, it must unashamedly embrace positions that meaningfully differentiate it from the failed policies of the FNM. Leave discredited trickledown economics to the FNM and its puppet-masters; stop pretending that the pursuit of ever-more foreign investment is some panacea – in fact, admit that too much foreign investment without strong, balancing policies of Bahamianisation is actually a bad thing, which leads to a fire-sale of our country and a weakened domestic economy to boot (look at BTC).

Most importantly, on important issues like wages, taxes and healthcare, consult not with narrow vested interests, but rather with the wider Bahamian public.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, January 21, 2021

Biden blow to athletes EDITOR, The Tribune.

ACCORDING to the Bahamas COVID-19 Dashboard, as of January 22, there have been 8,088 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 6,720 recoveries. The Ministry of Health has conducted a staggering 57,484 tests.

Only 13 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized.

Unfortunately, The Bahamas has recorded 175 deaths.

The number of recoveries suggests that The Bahamas is winning the COVID-19 war. Yet despite our nation’s underreported progress, The Bahamas is currently tagged with the Level 4 CDC Travel Notice – which is misleading, based on the foregoing data.

Conversely, the United States has recorded over 25 million confirmed cases, with over 400,000 deaths, which is equal to the size of the Bahamian population. This CDC Level 4 categorization of The Bahamas has been made worse by the executive order signed by President Joe Biden, which requires travellers to quarantine on arrival to the United States. With the recent reopening of Baha Mar and Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, and the highly anticipated tourism industry rebound, Biden’s executive order, to use the words of Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar, could be a devastating blow to the Bahamian economy. American vacationers will put up with having to take a rapid antigen or PCG COVID-19 test. It is unlikely, however, that they would be willing to undergo the arduous requirement of a self-imposed seven or 14-day quarantine.

Biden’s executive order was signed on the day following his inauguration.

Not even a week into his

four-year tenure as president and Biden has already drafted a policy that has the potential to cripple the Bahamian economy. Wait until he opens up Cuba.

As if that weren’t enough, Biden signed another executive order which has the potential of delivering another devastating blow to The Bahamas, but this one to Bahamian female athletes who aspire to compete collegially and professionally in the United States and in the Olympic Games. According to the New York Post, Biden, who is a Roman Catholic, signed an executive order that will let transgender women compete in women’s sports. Biden seems to be on a mad dash to claw back the conservative policies of his predecessor in the Oval Office, Donald Trump.

American colleges and professional sports leagues for women will no longer be able to discriminate against biologically born boys who now identify as women.

With men having a greater muscle mass due to the testosterone-induced muscular hypertrophy, according to Dr Neel Burton in Psychology Today, men are generally physically stronger than women, which gives transgender women an unfair advantage over cis women in athletic competition.

For example, Bahamian sporting enthusiasts would recall American transgender woman MMA wrestler Fallon Fox fracturing the orbital bone in the skull of cis female wrestler Tamika Brents in 2014, concussing her in the process. This incident sparked an outrage in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) organisation with UFC wrestler Paul Costa issuing a challenge

to fight Fox. With the 2020 Summer Olympics scheduled to begin on July 23, the eyes of Bahamians will be glued to their TV screens as Shaunae Miller attempts to duplicate her Rio 2016 performance, in which she won the gold medal in the women’s 400 meters. But with Biden’s executive order, under a hypothetical scenario, transgender women as talented as Michael Johnson, Butch Reynolds, Jeremy Wariner, Steven Gardiner, Michael Norman and Wayde Van Niekerk would easily defeat Miller or any other cis female athlete competing in the 400 meters for that matter. The fastest time in the 400 meters is held by Wayde Van Niekerk at 43.03.

The fastest female time is held by Marita Koch at 47.60 -- 4.57 seconds behind Van Niekerk’s record. Miller’s gold medal Olympic Game time was 49.44 seconds - 6.41 seconds less than the fastest male time in the same event.

With the ongoing COVID19 crisis and its attendant economic crisis, the upcoming Olympics with Miller provides an escape from the reality of The Bahamas’ dire situation for many secular Bahamians. Miller represents this country’s best hope of medaling in Tokyo, Japan. If, God forbid, an American transgender woman competes in the 400 meters, thanks to Biden, the likelihood of Miller winning the gold would be reduced.

For what it’s worth, Biden’s two controversial decisions only serves to confirm my fears of his presidency in the lead up to the United States presidential election.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama, January 24, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 2, 2021, PAGE 7

ZNS angers at ‘pay for it or lose it’ plan on medical insurance

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net UNIONS representing workers and managers at the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas are outraged at executive management’s reported plan to force employees to pay for their medical insurance or drop it completely.

The Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union and the Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union held a joint press conference outside the gates of the BCB yesterday, expressing disdain for what they called a “unilateral” move by the corporation’s board of directors to relinquish the medical insurance plan staff now enjoy under the insurance carrier, Atlantic Medical.

Although BCB officials would not comment officially when contacted yesterday, a source in management at ZNS denied the corporation is seeking to end the insurance or make staff members pay the full contribution.

What executive management is asking, the source

UNION members pictured yesterday. said, is that staff pay 20 Corporation of The Bahapercent of their insurance mas under Mr Gotlieb who contribution. is trying to take away the The BCB made news health insurance of our several times in late 2020, members. as BCPOU president Dino “Here we are again, at Rolle has continued to call the gates of ZNS and I out management for alleg- think we can easily dub edly not paying out money ZNS’ gate now, the wailing owed to staff for overtime gate, because we find ourand increments. Now the selves coming to this gate bad blood between the too often crying on behalf union and BCB manage- of our members, about the ment has escalated to an concerns that they are expeissue with the staff’s health riencing here in ZNS under insurance coverage. the leadership of Fred GotMr Rolle said, “We are lieb, the chairman, and in the trough of a raging Kayleaser Deveaux-Isaacs, pandemic where we have the general manager.” mutating strains being Mr Rolle told the press identified every day across that both unions have the globe, and you have attempted to communicate a government sponsored with management on the board at the Broadcasting subject, but have gotten no

response.

He continued, “We have sent communications, both to BCPOU and BCPMU, to management and we haven’t even gotten a reply.

As a result we have filed a trade dispute on behalf of our members here at the Broadcasting Corporation. We are here to tell the public that our members here at ZNS are being taken advantage of by Mr Fred Gotlieb and his board of directors and Mrs Kayleaser Deveaux-Isaacs and her management team.”

He said the unions will not stand by and allow management to impose “what they are trying to do on our members” which is to unilaterally change the terms and conditions of agreements made regarding health insurance.

Ricardo Thompson, BCPMU president, echoing Mr Rolle’s sentiments, said that as of the end of January, staff have to either pay for their own health insurance or opt out of it completely.

He said, “We are here to try to salvage something that the employees of BCB enjoyed from inception. A lot of them are now mature

MAN ACCUSED OF HAVING CHILD PORN

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A 24-YEAR-OLD Freeport man, accused of possessing a child pornography video, was arraigned in Grand Bahama yesterday.

Adrian Trevor Newman, of Bruce Avenue, appeared before Magistrate LaQuay Laing.

It is alleged that on January 28, at Freeport, the accused had a sexually explicit video of a 13-yearold girl on his mobile device.

Newman elected a summary trial and pleaded not guilty to the offence. He was granted $7,000 bail with one suretor.

Police Sergeant Calsey Arthur was the prosecutor in the case.

Magistrate Laing ordered the accused not to make contact with the complainant or any of the witnesses.

The judge also imposed conditions on Newman, who must report to the Central Police Station every Monday between 6am and 6pm.

In a separate court matter, a man arraigned on a charge of vagrancy was cautioned and told “to go and sin no more”.

Daniel Stuart appeared before Magistrate Laing.

It is alleged that at 5.10am on October 16, 2020, the accused was found in the area of the Post Office with intent to commit a criminal offence.

Stuart pleaded guilty.

According to the particulars, while police were on patrol in the downtown

area they observed a suspicious looking man on a bicycle at the Post Office.

The officers questioned Stuart about some mail he had in his possession. On admitting that the mail was not his, he was arrested.

Sergeant Arthur, who also prosecuted the matter, said Stuart did not waste the court’s time and took responsibility for his action.

The judge asked Stuart where he lived. He said he lives with his sister in Wellington Pinder Heights Subdivision. He also said that he is unemployed and does side jobs “here and there”.

Magistrate Laing cautioned Stuart and granted a discharge. He warned the man not to commit any further offence.

ADRIAN NEWMAN, 24, outside

MAN ACCUSED OF MURDER

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

SHAKEEM Munroe outside court yesterday.

Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

A 25-YEAR-OLD man was charged with murder in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Shakeem Munroe appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis after he was accused of killing Lamar Moss on January 26.

According to police reports, shortly after 7pm officers were called to a shooting incident that occurred on Mall Drive off Soldier Road. The officers were told two males were seated in a vehicle in front of a residence when the

occupant of a small vehicle approached them and discharged a firearm in their direction, injuring one of the males. The victim was taken to hospital, but died of his injuries.

Yesterday, Munroe was not required to enter a plea and the matter was adjourned to April 8 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI).

He was denied bail and remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services until that time.

Munroe, who is represented by attorney K Melvin Munroe, has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

A YEAR IN PRISON FOR CARRYING HANDGUN

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 27-YEAR-OLD man who was caught carrying a handgun he claimed he found in a field in which he was working was yesterday sentenced to one year in prison.

Police arrested Christwell Saunders after they found a 9mm pistol with five unfired rounds of ammunition in one of his trouser pockets on January 29. The prosecution said officers also found 2.38 ounces of Indian hemp in Saunders’ home that same day.

He pleaded guilty to possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition

and possession of dangerous drugs with the intent to supply during a hearing before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis.

The court was told that officers, acting on information, went to Saunders’ residence. The prosecution said the accused, who was standing outside, appeared to look in the direction of the officers before acting in a suspicious manner. As a result, they approached him and told him he would be searched for dangerous drugs and firearms.

During the officers’ investigation, they found the black and gold pistol along with five live rounds of ammunition in Saunders’ front right pocket. They also found two

clear Ziploc bags with marijuana in his left hand and another clear bag filled with the drugs in a black tool box inside his home. Saunders was arrested.

In an interview with officers at the Criminal Investigation Department, he said he did not own a firearm licence and claimed he found the weapon in a field when he was cleaning a water pump. He also admitted to having the drugs and said he bought them to smoke because he was on vacation.

Yesterday, Saunders told the magistrate he did industrial plumbing at the New Providence Water Development. He said he found the gun while he was cleaning

a pump and decided to keep it for protection, since people in the community where he lived had a habit of threatening him and his family. Saunders also admitted he had the gun for a few weeks, but insisted he had “no intent of doing anything wrong with it”.

In response, Magistrate Rolle Davis said he commended Saunders for being forthright with the court, however, he noted the accused’s confession suggested that he would have kept the gun if he had not been searched by police. As a result, he fined Saunders $1,500 for the drugs and sentenced him to a year behind bars for the firearm offence.

and are even having some challenges health wise. In the midst of this, they have been asked to, come January 31, either seek to make the contribution or opt out of it (medical insurance) by signing out and finding their own coverage.

“We actually presented some options to them and they came back with a decision to just move ahead and remove something as fundamental as health insurance,” he said. “We want you all, as Bahamian people, to not see this as just another cry of the union, but to see this as a cry to make sure this doesn’t permeate, because once an employer, and the employer is the government, decides this then everybody else is going to piggy back.”

Asked if he thought the BCB was trying to cut costs, Mr Thompson said he thought the entire ordeal was “inhumane and insensitive”, but gave BCB’s reasoning for possibly trying to lower its expenditure.

Mr Thompson said, “They said the subvention was reduced by some percentage by the government.

Our question as unions

is why did they resort to something as fundamental and critical as health insurance? I would look at some other trimmings that goes along with even the way management might be set up with benefits as well as some comparable health insurance plans that are out there and let’s talk about it.

Instead they resorted to just get rid of it.

“We know the current carrier is a very costly carrier, but we don’t want our members to be dropped.

We even mentioned a few other insurance plans that are suitable, but we got no feedback. We got no response.”

The Tribune reached out to BCB Executive Chairman Fred Gottlieb but he did not offer comment on the matter.

“At this point and time, I am not prepared to make a comment on that. It’s an ongoing matter and at an appropriate time we will make a comment,” Mr Gottlieb said.

The union executives said they will continue to fight on behalf of their members until BCB’s executive management decides to show them some respect.

PAGE 8, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

It was all so different when police and communities worked together - to everyone’s benefit

CHIEF Supt Derek Burrows at the Parliament Square Independence Celebrations in 2017.

I

called up an old friend to say happy birthday yesterday, and I realised that sometimes, we miss opportunities to show gratitude and give merit to those who work selflessly for the betterment of their country. Retired Chief Superintendent of Police Derek Burrows is no exception.

During my years as a reporter, I worked the crime and court beat for at least a decade. Because of this, I had many opportunities to work with him and watch him in action. He was an outstanding police officer and a consummate professional.

His standard of excellence was so high that I saw him have the admiration and respect of many - not only from his colleagues - but also from those who found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

OFFICER Burrows receives As he carried out his his final commendation and duties, he took the time to discharge from Commisreach out and touch hearts sioner Ferguson. and change minds for the better. It’s the type of policing that we need more of today. If people can see officers as human beings, just like them; and if more officers can operate with compassion and a higher level of discretion, there is a chance to improve the relationship for the betterment of the country.

Two officers in Florida mentioned this in a report I did during the protests against the death of George Floyd.

Relations between the people and police had broken down severely all over the United States.

But these officers were on to DEREK Burrows and his children. something. They told me the only way to truly keep crime at bay is for police officers and members of the public to work hand-in-hand. They also suggested that weeding out corruption in the police force is an important component of improving those relations.

For Derek, this was a way of life: “Back in the day when I joined the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), we used to knock on doors and get to know the people in our areas personally. We knew them and we worked together with them. It helped us to identify who the criminals were and it made it easier to eradicate crime in the community. Today, times have changed and these DEREK’S daughter, WPC officers are not able to go Burrows, graduates from door to door the way we did and as often as we did,” he the Police Training College, explained. joined by her older brother, “During my time, there Inspector Renaldo Burrows. was more respect for the senior ranks. This is impor- 1979. By 1983, he was protant. There is too much moted to Corporal and by political influence today. 1987, he rose to the rank of Back then, you followed the Sergeant. His upward path orders of your Commissioner continued and he became to a ‘T’. Politicians could an Inspector, then Chief not interfere with the busi- Inspector. He moved up to ness of policing. If politics is Assistant Superintendent, involved, discipline will leave then Superintendent, and the force. If discipline of the finally, he retired as a Chief highest order is returned, the Superintendent in 2019. In force would be a much better addition to Commissioninstitution.” ers Thompson, Bartlett and Discipline, he said, was Bonamy, he served under the order of the day: “I Acting Commissioner Errol came in as a young recruit Farquharson, then under in 1979 under Commis- Commissioners Paul sioner Salathiel Thompson, Farquharson, Reginald Ferthe first Commissioner of guson, Ellison Greenslade an Independent Bahamas. and Anthony Ferguson.

He was succeeded by ComDerek has represented missioner Gerald Bartlett, his country and the RBPF who commanded discipline throughout the world at sevof the highest order. He was eral International Chief of followed by the strict and Police Conferences. He said effective Commissioner BK he gained a vast amount of Bonamy,” said Derek. knowledge from attending “The kind of discipline these conferences, and was and the high level of train- brought up to speed on the ing we received put us on a latest technology and techpath of success for the rest niques for the police and of our lives. I advise any military worldwide. young Bahamian to join the His expertise was required Royal Bahamas Police or in many areas of policDefence Force. If you decide ing. Over four decades, he to move on to another career worked as a Detective in from there, any other field Nassau and Grand Bahama; will be a breeze because you Officer-in-Charge of the have the basic discipline you Fort Charlotte Police Staneed. I honestly believe it is tion; second-in-charge at the best start for any young Elizabeth Estates and South Bahamian.”

Beach Police Stations; Derek spent 40 years on he spent many years as a the RBPF, enjoying a life- Police Prosecutor and left long career that sent him to as second-in-charge; and he various parts of the world worked in the Northeastern, and brought him merits Southern and Western Diviand commendations that he sions. When he retired, he can be proud of. He joined left as Officer-in-Charge of and became a Constable in Police Maintenance and the

DEREK Burrows as a young officer in training in 1979.

Police Force Garage.

Along the way, Derek received numerous certificates from improvement courses and seminars, and received special commendations. He received the prestigious Meritorious Police Medal in 1987, bestowed on him by then Governor General Sir Clifford Darling.

Also among his high points, he vividly remembers one he got as a young officer.

He was riding solo in a marked police vehicle along Bay Street, back when it was a two way street. He saw a man bolt out of Prestige Jewellers and a woman ran outside after. She shouted to the officer to inform him that the man who was running had just robbed them.

Derek turned the car around and made his pursuit. He saw the man jump into a vehicle.

He followed the vehicle as it tried to make an escape up Blue Hill Road towards Government House. The traffic was thick. Just as the car attempted to weave out of the jam, he sped ahead and cornered the vehicle, eventually subduing the thief and recovering his loot. The perpetrator was found in possession of more than 300 gold chains, about $400 in cash, and a fake handgun.

Derek received commendations from the Chief Justice and Commissioner Bartlett for this feat.

Derek was also a member of the pioneering police group, the Flying Squad, a division of the Criminal Investigation Department.

CPL 3846 Derek Burrows Jr at his graduation in 2016.

It was a fugitive task force, assigned to seek out and capture fugitives. The original Flying Squad included Inspector Basil Dean who was in charge of the squad; Acting Inspector Bill Williams; Sergeant McMinns; and Officers Christopher Pickstock, Moree Evans, Courtney Stubbs, Ted Charlton and Derek Burrows.

A memory that stands out in his mind was the 2011 discovery of the body of Nellie Mae Brown-Cox. It was one that rocked the community, as she was the former President of the Bahamas Heart Association. Her accused murderer, Prince Hepburn, was her boyfriend at the time. Both were married to other people but separated.

Prince was a contractor.

He was scheduled to meet his client that morning to travel to Miami to purchase building supplies. The client said she called him, and he told her he could not make it because he had killed Nellie.

In disbelief, she called Derek, who then called Prince and he told him the same thing.

The murder happened the night before. Derek got Prince to direct him to the home and the scene of the crime off Bougainvilla Avenue, South Beach Estates. Derek opened the door and saw the body of Nellie, severely hacked by a brand new cutlass. He had taken two officers with him - WPC Sweeting and ASP

Earnest Hanna - and called other units to the scene.

Prince, he said, claimed to feel weak and did not come out of his room because he had taken so many pills in what appeared to be a suicide attempt. It’s heart wrenching scenes like this that Derek wishes to see decrease in such a small and beautiful country.

After 40 years of dedicated service, Derek retired and then launched his own construction company. He also spends his time sharing his wisdom and policing knowledge with the next generation.

He is particularly proud to have four children who are excelling in the police and military: Inspector Renaldo Burrows, Corporal Derek Burrows Jr, WPC 4210 Daphne Burrows, and US Army Staff Sergeant Derekia Burrows, Military Platoon. He is also a proud father to his other children, including medical technician Samara Burrows, Leonardo Burrows, Natasha Munroe, Nicoya Knowles, Deandrea Stuart, Destiny Burrows and Lauren, who passed away at the age of 12 from a rare form of cancer. He is married to Linda Burrows.

Police officers today face new challenges, Derek said, including facing a pandemic “like none we have ever seen before”. Officers, as well as medical professionals, he said, must be on the front line and are fighting

something they cannot see and don’t know where it has come from. Officers have to do their jobs often without proper personal protective equipment or enough sanitizing supplies. They receive instructions from the competent authority and from their bosses. They have to deal with the public at close contact daily. He encourages them to stand tall in the face of these challenges and he encourages their superiors to give them all the support they could muster.

He added that while the economy has been hit, he has also seen the rise in small businesses and applauds Bahamians’ resilience and determination to find new ways of making money and being self sufficient in the midst of a crisis. It’s something he learned from his mother, Anita Louise Burrows. She was a mother of nine boys, Derek being the second. She gave birth to a daughter first, but she did not survive. Anita also bore the loss of one of her sons in a house fire. Derek watched her work faithfully in the hotel industry as a cook, mostly at Balmoral, in order to take care of her sons.

Upon retiring, she opened her own restaurant.

Derek was born and bred in the Bain and Grants Town communities. He has spent his entire life there.

He attended Woodcock Primary, then the brown and tan school, now Albury Sayle. He then attended John F Kennedy Junior High, now HO Nash and then CC Sweeting.

He had to leave school in order to help his mother take care of his younger siblings.

He also thanks mentors like Elizabeth Goodridge, Elizabeth Clarke, HE Sir Ellison Greenslade, Rev Father Rodney Burrows, retired Assistant Commisioner Alonso Butler, and Matthew Williams. He got a job at the Nassau Yacht Club and took up a trade as an electrician at Taylor Industries before he applied and was recruited to the Police Force, which he found to be the best decision for his life, having enjoyed a successful and rewarding career path in national service.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 2, 2021, PAGE 9

IN this Feb. 4, 2020 file photo, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched the UK-hosted COP26 UN Climate Summit in London, England.

Photo: Jeremy Selwyn/AP SINCE writing last week, in the context of Britain’s special relationship with the US, about the UN Climate Change conference - known as COP 26 and to be hosted by the UK in Scotland in November - I have seen reports of another UK climate initiative that was announced on January 25. This is worth covering today because I believe The Bahamas could benefit from it. As everyone knows, an archipelagic nation with its low lying islands is particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change and the threat of rising sea levels from global warming.

In a press release, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London has called the initiative a ‘New Global Coalition launched to address impacts of Climate Change’. In partnership with various countries – Egypt, Bangladesh, Malawi, the Netherlands and Saint Lucia – and with the United Nations, the UK is setting up the Adaptation Action Coalition which will work to turn international political commitments, made through the UN’s call for action on adaptation and resilience, into on-the-ground support for vulnerable communities.

Reportedly, representation from the Caribbean includes Grenada’s Prime Minister Keith Mitchell.

The impetus behind this is the urgent need for action on climate change which, of course, was comprehensively addressed in the Paris Agreement of 2015.

In integrating climate risk into all decision-making and increasing the availability of adaptation financing, the idea is to bring together institutions, government leaders, mayors, the private sector, civil society and youth movements in order to drive forward the critical changes needed for societies to manage the effects of the climate emergency facing a world that is heating up.

The UK government is now calling on all countries to come forward with – in the words of the COP26 UK president-designate – “ambitious adaptation plans”, and the UK’s Environment Agency and local partners will react by sharing their expertise with the world. To make this work, the UK will act as a forum for developed and developing countries to share knowledge and best practice in relation to local, regional and global solutions in dealing with climate change and global warming.

The impacts of climate change are already evident in the fiercer - and more numerous than usual - forest fires in Australia and California, cyclones

in Mozambique and more active Atlantic hurricane seasons.

The scientific experts have been saying for some time that a warming climate can cause seawater to expand and ice sheets and glaciers to melt thus increasing the volume of the world’s oceans. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like The Bahamas are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels that can lead to permanent displacement of coastal communities, and this is regarded as one of the most significant of the many dangers of climate change and global warming.

According to the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports, SIDS can expect faster rates of sea level rise and storm surges associated with hurricanes -- and it is now agreed that greenhouse gases are a major contributor to global warming and therefore rising sea levels. But what an irony it is that the developing countries least able to protect their citizens through coastal defences - or to organise mass resettlement away from coastal areas are themselves responsible for only a small fraction of global emissions.

New frightening projections indicate that, without effective action to cut greenhouse gases, by

WE’VE ENOUGH ON OUR PLATE - BUT CLIMATE CHANGE CAN’T BE PUT OFF ‘TIL TOMORROW THE PETER YOUNG COLUMN the end of the century cities like Miami, New Orleans, Djakarta in Indonesia and Lagos in Nigeria could be under water. But, even by 2050, countries like The Bahamas are likely to be seriously affected, with most of Grand Bahama, parts of New Providence, Abaco and Spanish Wells, Andros, Crooked Island and Cat Island under flood conditions.

Given the devastation

wrought by Hurricane Dorian in 2019, none of this will come as a surprise, and it seems there is a general realisation of the seriousness of this whole issue for the nation. Of course, after the terrible effects of Dorian the government has been actively addressing the problems of climate change, with renewed emphasis on issues like renewable energy, as well as having already ratified the Paris Accord in 2016, and the Prime Minister spoke forcefully about the issue not long ago at a UN meeting in New York.

Yet, to many, what now surely matters for this country is not so much its level of carbon emissions which are minimal but, rather, protection against rising sea levels and the need for measures to provide on-the-ground support for vulnerable communities in coastal areas, early warning systems for storms and investing in flood drainage and defence

systems like sea walls.

It is apparent some people see climate change as a long-term issue and therefore non-urgent, but it has become clear fresh action is required now.

So, the new Adaptation Action Coalition provides a promising opportunity for The Bahamas to seek support and funding for local initiatives to protect this country against such rising sea levels; not least because, at a practical level the UK has agreed to act as a forum and focus for co-operation.

Even though the FNM government is inevitably preoccupied with rolling out a COVID-19 vaccination programme – described

by Dr Minnis as “one of the greatest logistical challenges that the country has ever undertaken” - many will surely hope that it will simultaneously be able to find the capacity to deal proactively with the major threat of climate change and global warming.

HOPEFULLY A ‘CANTERBURY NAIL’ TO THE PLAGUE OF ‘WOKENESS’ A FEW months ago, I wrote a column about “wokeness” in Britain – for example, attacks on free speech, the boycotting of speakers because some students find their views unpalatable and attempts by the Left to rewrite history and attack the nation’s heritage.

The latter included action by such bodies as the National Trust whose role, ironically, is to be its guardian.

I concluded that it was illogical to take historical figures out of their context and to expect them to have modern views on controversial issues. The editor of The Tribune summed up perfectly what I was trying to say by providing an apt title for my article: ‘We can’t rewrite history just because

the way we look at the world has changed’ – as the saying goes, today’s heresy is yesterday’s orthodoxy.

Reflecting on this and reading comments from others, I am even more certain that, since the past cannot be erased, it makes no sense, for example, to tear down and deface statues of slave traders or other historical figures with chequered pasts. Those who do so are simply guilty of vandalism which is against the law – and, incidentally, they may be ignorant of the fact Britain was at the forefront of abolishing slavery well before the Civil War in America that ended it there.

So, I continue to think it is wrong to apply contemporary moral standards to

WHEN NEEDS BE, BRITAIN REMEMBERS ITS DUTY

A RECENT report of the decision by the Governor of the British Virgin Islands, one of the nation’s Overseas Territories, to call a Commission of Inquiry there makes interesting reading. It spurs me to study the background, not least because of a similar development nearer to home in the Turks and Caicos Islands where, in 2008, a Commission of Inquiry looked into allegations of corruption and what was termed ‘serious dishonesty’.

In TCI, following the Commission’s finding that there was systemic corruption and that the Constitution should be suspended while legislative and administrative reforms were developed, Britain imposed direct rule on the island group and took dayto-day control, saying this was essential to restore good governance and sound financial management.

Later, in 2012, a new Constitution was introduced followed by elections.

Now, as is standard practice if the circumstances demand it, the Governor of BVI, as the representative of The Queen, has said the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry is in response to serious and widespread concerns put to him from across the BVI community, including the public service, business, community leaders and the media.

Such concerns have been

about issues like poor governance and alleged corruption including political interference and intimidation in some statutory bodies and even in the criminal justice system, misuse of official funds in relation to spending on government contracts and worries about organised crime. Local BVI institutions have brought specific cases to light but do not have the capacity to cope with the level and seriousness of the issues. Hence the need for a Commission of Inquiry, led by a senior UK judge, to look impartially into matters of public concern.

I have found it interesting to probe a little into the background of all this because it is a reminder that the UK has responsibility to the Overseas Territories for their security and good governance together with a duty to help to protect their values of honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. So it seems to me admirable that, if required, Governors are prepared - with the backing of UK Ministers - to deal in this decisive manner with serious concerns expressed to them by a range of people.

It shows Britain is willing to tackle corruption and poor governance head-on in the territories for which it bears certain responsibilities – and this surely sends an important message to all concerned.

people who lived a long time ago when attitudes, standards and norms of behaviour were different – sometimes better and sometimes worse, perhaps, but different.

This issue has come to the fore again with publicity about a recent extraordinary decision by Leicester University in Britain to drop Chaucer, famed author of The Canterbury Tales and known as the father of English literature, from its curriculum.

Reportedly, the university wants to “decolonise” (whatever that means in this context) its English Literature study programme by focusing on race, ethnicity, sexuality and diversity. But,

in any discussion of wokeness, what is music to the ears of those who object to the refusal of the Left to listen to opposing views - and their efforts to close down genuine debate - is the very recent emergence of a group of students from Leeds who have started a “Free Speech Champions” project. They claim to have formed this because of widespread fears that university debate is being stifled by the growing woke culture, and they want to extend the project nationwide.

Undoubtedly, revision of historical interpretation, and the challenging of orthodoxy in order to correct genuine misconceptions, can

be justified by the discovery of new facts and evidence.

But the views of modern academics can be coloured by their own intolerance, prejudices and political beliefs, and all too often the Left seeks to rewrite history for ideological purposes by misrepresenting it to achieve political ends. As George Orwell is famously quoted as saying “the most effective way to destroy people is to deny or obliterate their own understanding of their history”.

To the extent that history is a series of facts that do not change, once written it ought to stand. Its legacy provides continuity and it forges and shapes national identity

in a changing world as we draw on notions from the past. In order to understand modern events and conditions, one has to have a solid grasp of history. Moreover, questioning or attempting to reappraise the past can take on a sinister dimension when it involves distortion of historical record; like, for example, denial of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide or of Japanese war crimes during the Second World War. The conclusion must be history should be taught and learned as it is - and respected so that an understanding of it can help to improve life both in the present and for future generations.

PAGE 10, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

MYANMARESE residents in Japan holding portraits of Myanmar’s de facto government leader Aung San Suu Kyi stage a protest rally in front of the United Nations University in Tokyo yesterday.

Photo: Chika Oshima/Kyodo News via AP

‘Army guarding our homes’ say Myanmar lawmakers YANGON, Myanmar Associated Press HUNDREDS of members of Myanmar’s Parliament remained confined inside their government housing in the country’s capital, a day after the military staged a coup and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. One of the lawmakers said he and 400-some parliament members were able to speak with one another inside the compound and communicate with their constituencies by phone, but were not allowed to leave the housing complex in Naypyitaw. He said police were inside the complex and soldiers were outside it.

The lawmaker said the politicians, comprised of members of Suu Kyi’s National League for

Democracy party and various smaller parties, spent a sleepless night worried that they might be taken away but were otherwise OK. “We had to stay awake and be alert,” said the lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety.

The takeover came the morning lawmakers from all of the country had gathered in the capital for the opening of the new parliamentary session and follows days of worry that a coup was coming. The military said the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the military’s claims of fraud in November’s elections — in which Suu Kyi’s ruling party won a majority of the parliamentary seats up for grabs — and because it allowed the election to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.

An announcement read on military-owned

Myawaddy TV on Monday said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. Late Monday, the office of the commanderin-chief announced the names of new Cabinet ministers. The 11-member Cabinet is composed of military generals, former military generals and former advisers to a previous government headed by former general Thein Sein.

The coup is a dramatic backslide for Myanmar, which was emerging from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. It now presents a test for the international community, which had ostracized Myanmar while it was under military rule and then enthusiastically embraced Suu Kyi’s government as a sign the country was finally on the path to democracy.

US President Joe Biden threatened new sanctions, which the country had previously faced.

In Yangon, the country’s biggest city, the streets were quieter than usual but taxis and buses were still running and there were no outward signs of heavy security.

The English-language Myanmar Times headlined the state of emergency, while other state-owned newspapers showed frontpage photographs of Monday’s National Defense and Security Council meeting, which the newly appointed Acting President Myint Swe and Min Aung Hlaing attended with other military officials.

The military has maintained that its actions are legally justified — citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency — though Suu Kyi’s party spokesman as

well as many international observers have said it amounts to a coup.

The takeover marks a shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy and then became its de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.

Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during her years in detention. But after her shift from democracy icon to politician, she needed to work with the generals, who despite allowing elections had never fully given up power.

While the 75-year-old has remained popular at home, Suu Kyi’s deference to the generals — going so far as to defend their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that the United States and others have labeled genocide — has left

her reputation tarnished abroad.

The coup was met with international condemnation and many countries called for the release of the detained leaders.

Biden called the military’s actions “a direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law” and said Washington would not hesitate to restore sanctions.

“The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack,” he said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the developments a “serious blow to democratic reforms”, according to his spokesman. The Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the military’s actions — probably on Tuesday, according to Britain, which currently holds the council presidency.

BIDEN MEETS REPUBLICANS ON AID WASHINGTON Associated Press

PRESIDENT Joe Biden meets with Sen Susan Collins to discuss a coronavirus relief package yesterday.

Photo: Evan Vucci/AP

PRESIDENT Joe Biden met for two hours yesterday with a group of Republican senators who have proposed a slimmed down $618bn coronavirus aid package that is only a fraction of the $1.9 trillion he is seeking. Skeptical Democrats vowed to push ahead in Congress with or without GOP support.

No compromise was reached from the lengthy

session, Biden’s first with lawmakers at the White House. But the Republicans said there was agreement to keep discussions going over their smaller, more targeted package that would do away with Democratic priorities but might win GOP support and appeal to Biden’s hopes to unify the country.

“All of us are concerned about struggling families, teetering small businesses and an overwhelmed health care system,” said Sen Susan Collins of Maine, a

leader of the effort.

She called it a “frank and very useful” conversation, noting that the president also filled in some details on his proposal.

The two sides are wide apart, with Republicans focused primarily on the health care crisis, tapping into bipartisan urgency to shore up the nation’s vaccine distribution and vastly expand virus testing with $160bn in aid.

That is similar to what Biden has proposed. But

from there, the two plans drastically diverge. With less economic aid, the GOP’s $1,000 direct payments would go to fewer households than the $1,400 Biden has proposed, and the Republicans offer only a fraction of what he wants to reopen schools.

They also would give nothing to states, money that Democrats argue is just as important, with $350bn in Biden’s plan to keep police, fire and other workers on the job.

TRUMP LAWYER: IMPEACHMENT CASE UNDEMOCRATIC WASHINGTON Associated Press

DEMOCRATS are using the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump as a political “weapon” to bar the former president from seeking office again and are pursuing a case that is “undemocratic” and unconstitutional, one of his lawyers said last night.

Trump faces trial next week on accusations that he incited a harrowing and deadly siege at the US Capitol on January 6, when a mob of loyalists in town for a rally supporting the president overran the police and stormed the building. The House passed a single article of impeachment against Trump one week before

he left office, A trial would allow Democrats to present evidence against Trump and hold him publicly accountable for the attack.

However, whether a Senate trial is constitutional is a point of contention because Trump is no longer in office and, if convicted, cannot be removed from an office he doesn’t occupy.

Democrats point to an 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who had already resigned and to opinions by many legal scholars. The Senate could vote to bar Trump from holding federal office if he were convicted, which is a goal Democrats support.

On the eve of expected legal briefs from lawyers for both sides, Trump attorney David Schoen’s appearance

on Fox News forecast some of the arguments he plans to make at the trial, calling the case needlessly divisive as well as unconstitutional and undemocratic.

“It’s also the most illadvised legislative action that I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Schoen said.

Trump is the first president in American history to be impeached twice. He was acquitted at a Senate trial last year over his contacts with his Ukrainian counterpart. Impeachment, Schoen said, “is the weapon they’ve tried to use against him.”

The new case was an effort to bar Trump from ever running for office again, Schoen said, “and that’s about as undemocratic as you can get.”

Schoen, a criminal defence and civil rights lawyer, and Bruce Castor, a former county prosecutor in Pennsylvania, were announced as Trump’s legal team on Sunday evening, one day after it was revealed that the former president had parted ways with another set of attorneys in what one person described as a mutual decision.

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Schoen said he did not plan to argue that Trump lost the election because of fraud, as Trump has repeatedly insisted, and would instead argue that the trial itself is unconstitutional since Trump has already left office and that his words were protected by the First

Amendment and did not incite a riot.

House Democrats plan to lay out what happened on January 6 in graphic detail — an effort to get through to Senate Republicans who have largely avoided talking about the attack itself and Trump’s role in it, instead focusing on the process of the impeachment trial.

They are expected to play videos and verbally recount the violence of the day in hopes of stirring the Republicans, most of whom fled the Senate that day as the rioters broke in.

The nine House impeachment managers who will argue the case also are expected to lay out how they believe Trump’s actions over the previous

several months led up to it and eventually incited the insurrectionists to act.

Their arguments will include a look at Trump’s “prolonged effort” to persuade his supporters to believe his false claims that the election was stolen — and describe how his pleas for them to come to Washington and his words immediately before the attack directly caused it.

The mob that broke into the Capitol as the House and the Senate tallied electoral votes not only ransacked the building but repeatedly called out for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and for Vice President Mike Pence, who was in the building to preside over the count.

SPORTS PAGE 15

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021

Saunders gets opportunity to play pro football in Spain

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

avin Saunders will have an opportunity to play football at the professional level with a club in Spain.

Saunders is the newest transfer for the Las Rozas Black Demons of the LNFA Serie A, the secondtier division of American football, based in Las Rozas, Spain.

“Undoubtedly, a player who will help the passing attack and will raise the level of training for the next matches. ⁣Welcome home Mavin, welcome to Black Demons.”

The 6’6”, 258-pound tight end attended 2019 rookie mini-camp tryout for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans.

Saunders’ preparation for the 2019 NFL Draft took him across

M

the United States Saunders spent to bowl games and his first four seashowcases as he sons at Florida State looked to increase before graduating his stock at the proand transferring fessional level. to Kansas. He was Saunders particiranked the third best pated in the College transfer tight end Gridiron Showcase

by College Football Symposium and the Focus.

SPIRAL Tropical Prior to his final Bowl. collegiate season, Following his sesSaunders was named sions at both events, to the preseason he interviewed with watch list for the the Buccaneers, John Mackey Award Dallas Cowboys, - doled out to the top MAVIN SAUNDERS New York Giants, tight end in all of colArizona Cardinals, legiate football.

New York Jets, New England Over the course of his career he Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Los finished with 20 receptions for 266 Angeles Chargers. yards and one touchdown.

During his lone season for the Saunders caught the first touchKansas Jayhawks, Saunders played down reception of his NCAA in nine games, and caught four career in the Jayhawks’ 38-22 loss receptions for 32 yards, including to then No.8/9 West Virginia in an 18-yard touchdown.

October, 2018.

Saunders did not record a reception in his last season and his Seminole stats for his career included 16 receptions for 234 yards.

In his sophomore season he had 10 receptions for 182 yards - both career highs. As a redshirt freshman he totalled six receptions for 52 yards.

Saunders rose to prominence in the Tallahassee community for his work off the field.

And he was one of 11 players named to the Allstate American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team.

Saunders was nominated for the honour in July based on his contributions to the surrounding community in Tallahassee, Florida, as a volunteer mentor at Riley Elementary School.

He was also named to the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honour Roll for two consecutive seasons.

Ayton books double double, Suns beat the Mavs by one DALLAS (AP) — Devin Booker hit a 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left in his first game since January 22 and the Phoenix Suns rallied past the Dallas Mavericks for the second straight game, winning 109108 last night.

The Suns trailed by 11 in the second half before winning their third straight, including a 111-105 victory at Dallas on Saturday when they trailed by 15 in the third quarter.

The Mavericks dropped their sixth straight, their ninth loss in their last 11 games and their fourth straight defeat at home.

Luka Doncic missed a 27-foot shot at the buzzer.

Booker hits winning 3 in return Booker took a pass on the winning basket from Chris Paul, who finished with a season-high 34 points to go with nine rebounds and nine assists. Deandre Ayton had 10 points and 17 rebounds.

Doncic led the Mavericks with 25 points following a slow start in which he scored only two points in the first quarter on free

SEE PAGE 17

COLEBY GRABS SEASON HIGH 19 REBOUNDS IN WIN, KNOWLES CANS 16 IN LOSS

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net THE race for the final playoff spot in Turkey’s Turkish Basketball First League with both Dwight Coleby COLEBY and Zane Knowles looking to secure spots for their respective clubs.

Coleby and Merkezefendi Belediyesi Denizl got a KNOWLES much needed win after he posted 20 points and a season high 19 rebounds in a 77-63 win over Amak. Denzl improved to 8-8 on the season.

Knowles had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists for Balikesir Buyuksehir Belediyespor in their 94-79 loss to Kigatspor.

It was Balikesir’s second consecutive loss and they fell to 9-7 on the season.

The TBL is the second

tiered league in the country. The league features 16 teams and the first place finisher is promoted to the top tier Turkish Basketball Super League.

Teams ranked 2nd place to 9th place compete in playoff format and the winner of the playoff also promotes.

The last two teams are relegated to the third tier Turkish Basketball Second League.

Just two games separate the No.1 (Akhisar) and No.9 (Konyaspor) seeds in the standings. Balikesir is currently in the No.5 spot, but in a five-team tie at 9-7.

Denizl is one game behind at No.10 in a three-team tie at 8-8.

Both players have enjoyed success this season in Turkey, leading their teams on the boards as the top rebounders and second leading scorers.

Through 15 games, Knowles has averaged 15.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game while Coleby has averaged 12.7 points and 11.5 rebounds per game in 15 games.

Just four games remain in the regular season, which concludes on February 28.

PHOENIX Suns centre Deandre Ayton (22) and Dallas Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith (10) try to get a rebound in the first half last night in Dallas.

(AP Photo/Richard W Rodriguez)

SEE PAGE 16

ROBINSON, CHISHOLM ON MLB PIPELINE’S TOP 100 PROSPECT LIST

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net KRISTIAN Robinson and Jazz Chisholm were again featured on Major League Baseball Pipeline’s Top 100 prospect list.

MLB Pipeline released its list for the upcoming 2021 season and the Bahamas is one of just four countries to have multiple prospects featured.

Robinson, the 20-yearold Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder, was listed at No. 55 while Jazz Chisholm, the Miami Marlins 23-year-old infielder, was listed at No.72 CHISHOLM overall.

Robinson was added to Arizona’s 60-man player pool toward the end of last season and the club assigned him ROBINSON to its alternative training site at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“Robinson garnered midseason All-Star honours in the Class A Short Season Northwest League in 2019 to earn a full-season promotion up to Class A Kane County, where he was more than three years younger than the Midwest League’s average player.

“And while travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic did delay Robinson’s arrival at the alternate training site in 2020, he quickly got up to speed and then gained some much-needed reps during Arizona’s fall instructional programme,” his prospect

SEE PAGE 17

PAGE 16, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

SPORTS

THE TRIBUNE

Tom Brady on playing past 45: ‘I would definitely consider that’

CHIEFS’ ROBINSON, KILGORE ON COVID-19 LIST AS CLOSE CONTACTS

By JOSH DUBOW AP Pro Football Writer

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer

TOM Brady keeps raising the bar about how long he could keep playing quarterback in the NFL. As the 43-year-old Brady prepares for his record 10th Super Bowl and first since joining Tampa Bay this past offseason, he said he’s already considering surpassing his previous goal and playing beyond age 45.

“Yes definitely. I would definitely consider that,” Brady said yesterday in his first news conference at Super Bowl week. “It’s a physical sport. Just the perspective I have on that is, you never know kind of when that moment is, just because it’s a contact sport.

There’s a lot of training that goes into it. It has to be 100 percent commitment from myself to keep doing it.”

Brady still has that commitment, working closely with longtime trainer Alex Guerrero on workouts, diets and other preparation that has allowed Brady to thrive at an age when most of his peers are long retired.

Brady said the days of being a high school or college kid living on pizza and fast food are long in the past.

“I think football for me has obviously been my sport. It’s a career, but it’s really part of my daily life,” Brady said. “Because a lot of the decisions I make, I’m always thinking about ‘How does this impact my football? How does it impact my offseason training?’ It’s pretty well documented that the approach that I’ve taken over a period of time, which certainly didn’t all start at once. I think how I work out and how I recover is very important. The work I do with my body coach Alex is critical to the success that I’ve had.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs placed a pair of backups, wide receiver Demarcus Robinson and centre Daniel Kilgore, on the COVID-19 list as close contacts yeterday as they begin final preparations for the Super Bowl against Tampa Bay. Chiefs coach Andy said he was told of the situation Sunday but could provide no other information.

Neither of the players actually tested positive for COVID-19, which means Robinson — a regular contributor — and Kilgore could still play in the Super Bowl. Both would need to return negative tests throughout the week to get off the list.

“The NFL has done a great job with it, presenting different safety things for the players to stay as safe as possible,” Reid said. “We’ve been hammering this point home forever. The problem is you’re fighting the invisible man. It just gets you when least expected, and we’re seeing that in everything. It’s an unfortunate thing.”

The Chiefs have been largely clear of COVID19 outbreaks this season, though several players have missed games after testing positive. They also are not changing the way they conduct business within their facility leading up to the game.

The big difference: Rather than heading to the site of the Super Bowl a week in advance, like they did last season, the Chiefs will fly to Tampa, Florida, the day before the game in an attempt to minimise contacts among players and the public.

TAMPA Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, left, speaks with quarterback Tom Brady before the team’s NFL divisional round playoff football game against the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans on January 17. Both Andy Reid and Arians are considered players’ coaches, though they do it in different ways. It’s a quality that’s helped them reach the Super Bowl.

(AP Photo/Brett Duke) That work has helped Brady post accomplishments unequalled in NFL history. He has 10 Super Bowl trips, six titles, three MVPs, the most TD passes in regular-season history (581) and the possibility of passing Drew Brees next season for the most yards passing ever if Brees retires as expected this offseason.

What Brady has accomplished since turning 40 years old before the 2017 season would be an impressive enough career for most players. He has 20,776 yards passing in the regular season and playoffs, 142 TDs, one MVP, and a third trip to the Super Bowl, having won it following the 2018 season in New

England and losing it the previous season.

He has more than doubled the output of any other quarterback after age 40, with Brees next on the list with 6,777 yards and 57 TDs. It’s an impressive feat for a player who entered the league as a sixth-round pick in 2000 hoping just to stick around for a few years.

“I wouldn’t say 20 years ago, I thought, ‘Man, I’ll be sitting here at 43 playing pro football.’ That would be not the truth if I told you that,” Brady said. “I started thinking I’d love to play pro football and get the opportunity to do it. I’m going to do it as best I possibly can.

Fortunately I’ve had the

right people come into my life at the right time, which has enabled me to keep doing what I love to do. It’s a lot of support of actually a lot of people.”

Brady thanked his family for making sacrifices that allowed him to focus on football, as well as his teammates and coaches for the help they provided on the field.

Brady has also delivered with his 40 TD passes in the regular season the second highest total of his career.

So how long can he keep it up?

“I think I’ll know when it’s time,” Brady said. “I don’t know when that time will come but I think I’ll know.”

“These guys were being as safe as they could be,” Reid said, “and we’ll just see how it goes. But the league has built-in rules and regulations, so we follow those, and it’ll all work out. It’ll all work out for them when it’s all said and done.”

Robinson appeared in every game this season, setting career highs with 45 receptions for 466 yards to go with three touchdown catches. He also can return kicks and punts and helps out with other special teams units.

“Obviously D-Rob is a big part of our offence and hopefully he’s out there with us,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said.

“If not, we have guys that can step up. We’ll just prepare to be the best team we can be.”

Kilgore started four games earlier this season when centre Austin Reiter missed three games to an injury, and when the Chiefs rested their starters in Week 17 with the AFC’s top seed already secured.

He also played some special teams snaps against the Buffalo Bills in the conference championship game.

“I hope that, one, it wasn’t a positive test for either one of them, and I hope that they stay COVID-free and go through the protocol,” Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said.

“I could only imagine, and I don’t even want to imagine, what it would be to have to miss the Super Bowl because of COVID. Hopefully, our guys, my brothers, can get back into the locker room and on the field and get out there because it wouldn’t feel right going into a Super Bowl without those guys.”

SPORTS

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 2, 2021, PAGE 17

LEBRON JAMES LEADS LAKERS PAST HAWKS 107-99

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP Sports Writer ATLANTA (AP) — There weren’t many fans in the stands, but enough for LeBron James to get in some jawing along the sideline.

He didn’t mind a bit — especially after the Lakers closed out a nearly two-week-long trip with another victory.

“Fans in the stands is just better,” James said with a smile.

Anthony Davis scored 25 points and James dominated down the stretch as the Lakers held off the Atlanta Hawks 107-99 last night.

During the fourth quarter, James got into a brief verbal confrontation with a female fan who pulled down her mask to make a point.

The referees halted the game and called in security officers, who appeared to eject the fan from State Farm Arena. There was a socially distanced crowd of 1,341 for the lone Atlanta visit by the reigning NBA champions.

James said it was no big deal. In fact, he didn’t think the fan should’ve been tossed.

“At the end of the day, I’m just happy fans are back in the building,” he said. “I missed that interaction. I need that interaction.”

The Lakers took control with a 16-0 run bookended around the end of the third period and the beginning of the fourth.

Atlanta rallied, closing to 98-97 on Trae Young’s 3-pointer.

But James responded with a 3 of his own from the top of the key, came up with a huge block at the other end on Clint Capela, and finished off the Hawks with a fast-break layup off a pass from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

James tacked on four straight free throws to seal

the victory. He finished with 21 points after managing only nine through the first three quarters.

Young led the Hawks with 25 points and 16 assists.

BUCKS 134, TRAIL BLAZERS 106 MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jrue Holiday scored 22 points, Bobby Portis added 21 and Milwaukee snapped a two-game skid by trouncing Portland.

Holiday shot 10 of 14 and had seven rebounds and six assists.

Portis shot 9 of 13 and had eight rebounds. Nassir Little led the Blazers with 30 points – 2 1/2 times the second-year pro’s previous career high of 12.

HORNETS 129, HEAT 121, OT MIAMI (AP) — Malik Monk came off the bench to score 36 points and make nine 3-pointers, Devonte’ Graham added 24 points and Charlotte rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final 2:47 of regulation to beat Miami in overtime.

Monk sent the Hornets to OT by making a 3-pointer with 16.6 seconds left.

Cody Zeller had 19 points and 12 rebounds, Gordon Hayward scored 19 and LaMelo Ball finished with 14 points and seven assists for Charlotte in his first start.

ROCKETS 136, THUNDER 106 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Eric Gordon scored 25 points and Houston hit an NBA record-tying 11 3-pointers in a 48-point first quarter, cruising past Oklahoma City.

John Wall scored the first eight points for the Rockets and finished with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists. Christian Wood also scored 18 and added 11 rebounds in Houston’s sixth straight victory.

‘BUDDY’ BUCKETS 16 IN WIN OVER PELICANS

NO. 25 DRAKE ROUTS ILLINOIS STATE 95-60 AFTER RETURN TO POLL

By ANDREW LOGUE Associated Press

KINGS guard Buddy Hield (24) shoots against New Orleans Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball (2) in the first half yesterday in New Orleans. Hield posted 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) GRIZZLIES 133, Holmes had 17 points, 10 lost four of their last five SPURS 102 rebounds and six blocks games, including a 109-104 SAN ANTONIO (AP) for the Kings, who won decision at Minnesota one — Gorgui Dieng scored for the fourth time in five night earlier.

19 points, Brandon Clarke games.

Allen blocked five had 18 and Memphis Fox wound up out- shots in his initial start routed San Antonio to scoring New Orleans by since being acquired from extend its winning streak himself in the fourth quar- Brooklyn on Jan. 14. to seven games. ter, 17-15, highlighting his BULLS 110, Kyle Anderson and outburst with ball fakes KNICKS 102 De’Anthony Melton on penetrating drives that CHICAGO (AP) — added 17 points each left defenders flat-footed Lauri Markkanen scored and Ja Morant had 13 before he finished fluidly 30 points, Zach LaVine points and eight assists as at the rim. added 17 of his 21 in the Memphis won its second Holmes played a role second half and Chicago straight game after a in that, blocking shots by beat New York.

12-day layoff due to the Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Markkanen delivered league’s health and safety Ball and Josh Hart during another blistering perprotocols. the pivotal final period. formance coming off a KINGS 118, CAVALIERS 100, season-high, 31-point PELICANS 109 TIMBERWOLVES 98 outing.

The 7-footer NEW ORLEANS (AP) CLEVELAND (AP) — from Finland made six — De’Aaron Fox scored Collin Sexton scored 26 3-pointers.

38 points, including 17 points and Jarrett Allen LaVine hit a 3 and two straight Sacramento points had 23 points and 18 free throws during a gameduring the final seven rebounds, leading Cleve- ending 10-2 run. minutes, and the Kings land over Minnesota for Coby White scored 13, erased a 10-point, fourth- a split of their home-and- including a tiebreaking quarter deficit to beat New home series. three pointer.

Orleans.

Darius Garland had 19 Thaddeus Young added Harrison Barnes scored points and 11 assists for 13 points, eight rebounds 24 points and Richaun the Cavaliers, who had and eight assists.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Tremell Murphy scored 30 points and No. 25 Drake rolled past Illinois State 95-60 on Monday night in the Bulldogs’ first game as a ranked team in nearly 13 years.

ShanQuan Hemphill had 18 points for the Bulldogs (17-0, 8-0 Missouri Valley Conference), who improved to 37-4 in the Knapp Center under coach Darian DeVries.

Antonio Reeves led Illinois State (5-12, 2-9) with 20 points.

The Bulldogs had little trouble with the Redbirds after struggling to a 78-76 overtime win in Sunday’s series opener.

Reeves had 27 points in the first meeting.

Murphy finished 6 of 10 from 3-point range as Drake easily exceeded its average of 82.2 points per game.

Drake gradually built a double-digit lead and went up 27-12 on consecutive 3-pointers by Murphy.

The Bulldogs hit 6 of 17 attempts from 3-point range in the first half and led 39-24 at the break.

Murphy continued his torrid shooting in the second half, hitting a jumper that extended the margin to 52-32. He followed with a 3-pointer and jumper that gave Drake a 65-38 advantage with 11:42 remaining.

Illinois State finished 6 of 27 from beyond the arc.

BIG PICTURE Drake began the week one of three undefeated teams nationally and is off to the best start in school history.

The Bulldogs are the first team from the Missouri Valley Conference to be ranked since 2017. Their last NCAA Tournament berth was in 2008, the previous season in which they were ranked.

AYTON from PAGE 15 throws. Josh Richardson scored a season-high 24 points and Kristaps Porzingis added 19, 14 in the second half.

Booker, an All-Star, returned to the lineup after missing four games with a left hamstring strain.

SERENA Williams makes a backhand return to Australia’s Daria Gavrilova during a tuneup tournament ahead of the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.

(AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

SERENA WILLIAMS THROUGH EASILY IN TUNE-UP FOR AUSTRALIAN OPEN

By JOHN PYE AP Sports Writer MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Serena Williams found a silver lining in the delayed start to the Australian Open, the season-opening Grand Slam tournament that is starting three weeks later than usual because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Time.

Time to recover from an Achilles injury that ended her run at last year’s French Open before her second-round match.

Extra time with her daughter, albeit in hotel quarantine.

The 39-year-old American, a seven-time Australian Open champion, restarted her lengthy quest for a 24th Grand Slam singles title with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Daria Gavrilova yesterday in a tuneup tournament at Melbourne Park. There are six tournaments being staged this week to give players some chance at competitive tennis before the first major of the year starts next Monday. Williams is playing in the Yarra Valley Classic, along with top-ranked Ash Barty and defending Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.

The fifth-seeded Williams said she was “pushing the limits” just being fit enough to compete at Melbourne Park.

“I needed every time — I don’t think I would have been here if it was during the regular season,” she said. “So, whew, that was an unwanted blessing, I would say, but it was much needed for me. “So I definitely took that time to recover and to just do the best that I can — and so now it’s a lot better.”

Against Gavrilova on Margaret Court Arena, she wore a long-sleeve shirt throughout the match during a relatively cool summer day in Melbourne and later said she achieved what she had aimed to achieve for a second-round encounter — mainly the 1 1/2 hours on court.

Williams hit 28 winners and had 19 unforced errors, converted three of her six breakpoints and fended off all four she faced. The extra few weeks off before the season meant there was just enough time for the bare minimum preparation.

“Honestly, not as much as I would have liked, because I needed to take — Achilles ... oh my goodness, I didn’t realise it

would be this long,” she said. “So I definitely was pushing the limits, but I’m here.”

Williams has been stalled on 23 major singles titles since the 2017 Australian Open, when she was two months pregnant with now-3-year-old daughter Olympia.

HALEP ADVANCES Second-ranked Simona Halep, the top-seeded player in the Gippsland Trophy, had a 6-4, 6-4 second-round win over Anastasia Potapova to advance along with thirdseeded Elina Svitolina, No. 8 Karolina Muchova and No. 9 Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Earlier, Coco Gauff was up a service break in the second set and appeared to be on the verge of victory in her first-round match before having to fend off Jil Teichmann 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5).

WARMUP WEEK The first Grand Slam tournament of the year was delayed by three weeks to allow for COVID-19 protocols which required all people arriving in Australia to spend 14 days in quarantine. The biggest men’s tournament is the ATP Cup team event, which starts today.

TIP-INS Suns: Ayton scored only two points in the second half.

Phoenix has won six straight against Dallas going back to last season in the bubble.

Mavericks: The return of Maxi Kleber after missing 11 games in the health and safety protocols gave Dallas a full roster without any injury designations for the first time since December 4, 2019, a span of 425 days.

Porzingis and Kleber started together for the first time this season in the Mavericks’ 12th starting lineup.

MLB PIPELINE from PAGE 15 analysis said. “With Robinson’s special combination of size and athleticism, it should come as no surprise that the young outfielder also possesses multiple impact tools.

“None is louder than the massive right-handed raw power that could one day make Robinson one of the sport’s premier sluggers. He gets to it often, generating effortless pull-side power as well as opposite-field pop that was much improved in 2020 after Robinson improved his diet and added nearly 25 pounds of muscle.”

Robinson, listed No. 1 in the organisation, is a part of the reason the Diamondbacks farm system is on the rise.

“The fact that the D-backs’ four Top-100 prospects this year are all homegrown players reflects the organisation’s ongoing effort to stockpile quality talent via the Draft and

PHOENIX Suns centre Deandre Ayton (22) and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) try to grab the ball in the second half last night in Dallas.

(AP Photo/Richard W Rodriguez) UP NEXT Suns: End a three-game road trip at New Orleans Wednesday.

Three of the Suns’ past five games against the Pelicans have gone to overtime.

Mavericks: Visit Atlanta Wednesday.

It will pit Doncic against Hawks guard Trae Young after their rights were traded for each other in the 2018 draft.

They split two meetings as rookies and haven’t faced each other since.

Stay tuned.

international market, and there are several more beyond that group with Top 100 potential.

“Some of those players could start to reach the Majors in 2021, with even more expected to arrive the following year,” according to MLB Pipeline.

The United States (77), Dominican Republic (13), and Venezuela (4), were the only other counties with multiple prospects to make the list.

Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Canada each had one prospect listed.

Chisholm was one of several Marlins prospects to receive the Major League call-up in the 2020 season.

“The Marlins are tied for third with five Top 100 Prospects, another indication that their system is on the upswing. [Sixto] Sanchez and Chisholm played in the postseason for Miami in October, Bleday and Cabrera could help upgrade the big league club in 2021 and so could Meyer, the No. 3 overall pick in last year’s Draft,” MLB Pipeline said.

Chisholm was also ranked No.10 among shortstop prospects.

“Chisholm generates more power than the typical shortstop because his left-handed stroke features explosive bat speed and natural loft.

“Yet rather than letting his home runs come naturally, he utilises an aggressive, pull-happy approach that advanced pitchers have been able to exploit rather easily.

“His career-best 11 percent walk rate in 2019 offered some hope that he can develop some plate discipline, and he did a better job of using the entire field in his first brief exposure to the Majors,” his prospect analysis said.

“An efficient base-stealer with solid speed, Chisholm is a potential 20-20 player if he can polish his offensive game. His actions, range, hands and arm are all solid or better at shortstop, and he looked smooth at second base with the Marlins despite having just one inning of Minor League experience at the position.

“While he still has a long way to go to reach his lofty ceiling, his tools and start of his pro career are similar to Javier Báez’s.”

SPORTS

PAGE 18, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

FIFA pledges taking no health risks in World Cup qualifiers

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — With 3,000 soccer players due to travel internationally for World Cup qualifying games next month, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said yesterday all will conform to health rules in the coronavirus pandemic.

“We will certainly not take any risk for the health of anyone when we play football,” Infantino said in a World Health Organisation news conference.

Delays in the 2022 World Cup qualifying programme in most continents led FIFA last year to create new games dates next January.

They will help make up the backlog in an increasingly tight schedule with broadcasting rights already sold.

In Asia, 40 national teams

are due on March 25 to resume qualifying groups that last played in November 2019.

A total of 135 teams are due to play World Cup qualifiers next month, and 48 more have preliminary games for the 2022 African Cup of Nations.

“We will see where we can play, in what conditions,” the FIFA leader said, pledging to “do it by adhering to a clear health protocol.”

“We can see and we have been hearing earlier today from Dr Tedros again that the situation is evolving week by week, day by day,” Infantino said, sitting beside WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Many of the players who return home for national duty play for clubs in

MANCHESTER City’s Gabriel Jesus, centre, celebrates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the English Premier League match between against Sheffield United at the the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, on Saturday.

(Michael Regan/Pool via AP) Europe, including in England which is experiencing an aggressive new variant of COVID-19. FIFA eased its rules last year that require

clubs to release players to national teams.

Exemptions were offered if players had to travel to countries imposing

mandatory quarantine or self-isolation for at least five days upon arrival or their return. Asked if FIFA expected stadiums to be full

when the World Cup opens in Qatar in November 2022, Infantino said: “Yes. We must have this.”

“COVID will be defeated by then,” he said, at a briefing on FIFA’s latest work with WHO. FIFA will use the sixteam Club World Cup starting on Thursday in Qatar to promote messages on health safety and fair distribution of vaccines.

Infantino, who is a member of the International Olympic Committee, repeated the Olympic body’s view ahead of the Tokyo Games opening in July, reiterating that athletes should not get inoculations before key workers.

“We don’t consider football players as a priority group in this respect,” he said.

Throwers take advantage of Blue Chips meet

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net AMIDST the postponement of the CARIFTA Games and not too many meets to compete in, throwers are taking advantage of the Blue Chips Throwers Club’s series of events at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

On Saturday, the throwers got another opportunity to display their skills and the performances were right on par, although club head coach Corrington Maycock said he didn’t want them to peak too early.

As the curtains came down on the one-day meet in the javelin, Demian Brice took the under-15 title with a toss of 26.48 metres in the second of his four throws.

Rohan Culmer came through on his final attempt with 20.18m for second, while Berkley Finley was third with 18.25m on his second try.

Kaden Cartwright, already qualified for CARIFTA, won the under17 boys’ event with a distance of 51.79m on his first attempt. Robert Deal was second on his final attempt with 37.96m and Kristian Monoesir was third with his final best throw of 24.52.

“Today, I wasn’t feeling that good. Every time I was throwing, my ankle was hurting, so I just scratched the last throw,” said Strachan of his final efforts in

ATHLETES take advantage of the Blue Chips Throwers Club’s meet at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium on Saturday.

Photos: Terrel W Carey/Tribune Staff the javelin, the last event of the day. “But after getting some rest I think I will be better. I’m just a little sore.”

And having qualified for CARIFTA, the 16-year-old 10th grader at Queen’s College said he hopes to throw atleast 60m when the games take place in July.

Although he didn’t qualify in his other event, Cartwright doubled up in the discus with his mark of 33.08m on his first toss.

Robert Deal was second with 22.49m on his fourth attempt and Zion Evans came in third with 17.65m on his second.

Keyshawn Strachan, also having already qualified for CARIFTA, won the under20 boys’ crown with his heave of 59.12m on his first attempt. His nearest rival

was Nathan Zervos with 50.72m on his first attempt.

Jylen Cadet got third with 48.55m on his second toss.

“It was a good day. Every day you won’t throw as best as you could, but I was pleased with what I did today,” said Strachan, a 17-year-old 11th grader at St John’s. “I’m proud of my performances this year.

“As time goes, I hope to get better. Right now, we’re not focusing on how far we can throw, but just on our technique. Later in the season, I hope to see better results.”

The girls’ javelin saw Danielle Nixon take first place in the under-15 division with 14.61m on her third toss with Genia Smith getting second with her only legal mark of 8.43m

on her final try. Nixon also emerged as double winner, taking the shot put with 9.81m on her second attempt. Genia Smith was second with 8.00m on her second attempt, while Joi Farquharson was third with 7.00m on her second try as well.

Ciam Clarke was the lone competitor in the under-17 girls’ division, winning with 13.01m on her only throw in the first round.

And in the under-20 girls’ division, Canitra Mackey picked up the win in the javelin with 38.72m on her third attempt and Ethiopia Turnquest followed with 16.18m with her opening mark.

In the discus, Joi Farquharson had the best throw in the under-15 girls’

division of 15.19m on her first attempt to win. Genia Smith, with 12.88m on her second throw, got second and Shavel Colebrooke got third with 10.55m on her final try.

In the under-17 girls’ division, Teneil Ferguson was the winner with 24.02m on her second attempt. Isabella Rolle was second with 23.87m on her second throw and Ciann Clarke came in third on her second throw with 20.50m.

Anne Marie Oriakhi won the under-20 title with her heave of 37.31m on her final attempt. Shelby Knowles was second with 31.79m on her first attempt and Ethiopia Turnquest got third with 19.80m on her second toss.

Laquell Harris ws the lone competitor in the open division, finishing with a heave of 46.95m for her best mark in the second round.

In the boys’ under-15 discus, Rohan Culmer picked up another victory with his best toss of 26.76m on his final try. Demian Brice was second with 21.79m on his third attempt, while Barkley Finley got third with 16.0m on his second attempt.

Tarajh Hdson, another CARIFTA qualifier, won the under-20 boys’ discus with his heave on 55.89m on his second attempt.

Philip Moss got second with 41.85m, his only legal throw on his final attempt and Fabian Storr was third with 35.48m on his second try.

Abner Johnson was the lone competitor in the open men’s division, winning with 38.43m on his final attempt.

Teneil Ferguson clinched the under-17 girls’ shot put victory with 8.76m on her third try. She was followed by Isabella Rolle with 7.73m on her third go and Giannia Clarke came in third with 7.34m on her second.

And in the under-20 girls’ division, Canitra Mackey picked up the win in the shot put with 12.04m on her final toss, beating out Anne Marie Oriakhi, who had to settle for second with 10.39m on her first try.

Shelby Knowles also had her best opening throw with 10.23m for third.

In the under-15 boys’ shot put, Rohan Clarke

had the winning toss of 11.48m on his first attempt.

Demian Brice was second with 9.12m on his third and Berkley Finey was third with 8.13m on his second.

The under-17 boys’ division saw Zion Evans emerge victorious in the shot put with his winning toss of 10.48m on his opener. Kristian Monoesir was second with 9.69m on his final attempt and Sant’angelo Strachan was third with 6.39m on his third and only legal throw.

Philip Moss Jr captured the under-20 boys’ divisional shot put with 17.49m on his first attempt. Tarajh Huddson had to settle for second with 16.77m on his second and Fabian Storr got third with 13.04m on his second.

And in the open men’s division, Abner Johnson took the shot put title with his best of 13.60m on his second attempt, while Kendrick Thompson got second with 12.82m on his second as well.

Maycock, who also served as the meet director, said the performances across the board were right where he wanted them to be. “There were no great performances. The weight room won’t allow them to go beyond that, so I’m pleased with everyone’s performances,” Maycock said.

This was the second meet for the season for Blue Chips Athletics, coming off the heels of the first one held in December.

So based on what he saw, Maycock said they intend to put on a few more meets to keep the throwers competitive.

Coach Ronald Cartwright is expected to host the next throwers meet on March 13 at the same venue, right on the thrower’s field outside of the original TAR Track Stadium.

Drumeco Archer, president of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations, who was celebrating his birthday, took the time out to watch the competition along with coaches Rupert Gardiner and Peter Pratt.

The meet was officiated by the Bahamas Association of Certified Officials (BACO).

PAGE 20, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

GameStop for short sellers?

ACTIVTRADES WEEKLY

By RICARDO EVANGELISTA www.activtrades.bs

I

T was March 2010, in the aftermath of, the then, worst financial crisis since the 1930’s, when Michael Lewis, an American author and financial journalist, published his best-selling book The Big Short. Famously adapted to cinema, with a star-studded cast including Hollywood heavy weights such as Brad Pitt and Christian Bale,

The Big Short tells the story of some of the events and characters behind the financial crash of 2007/08, including the creation of the now infamous mortgage-linked credit default swaps, and how some eagleeyed traders saw through the hype of early noughties Wall Street and placed the heavy short-selling bets that set in motion the chain of events that eventually brought the global financial system to the brink of collapse.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that ALLISTAIR VEDEL FORBES, of #27 Coral Reef Estates, Freeport GB, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 2nd day of February 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

Widely used in financial markets jargon, short-selling entails placing a trade, or bet, that will deliver gains if the underlying asset loses value. Traditionally this was done mainly through stocks: An investor, predicting difficult times ahead for a company, would borrow its shares and immediately proceed to sell them, in the hope of buying them back later at a lower price, keeping the difference before returning the borrowed stock to its owner.

In the age of electronic over-the-counter trading and financial derivatives, it became commonplace for financial institutions to act as counterpart to the short selling of traditional investment vehicles such as shares and also of more sophisticated products, including credit default swaps (CDS).

CDSs are instruments that essentially promise a payment to the holder in case of a debt default on a reference asset. The story line of The Big Short revolves describes how an enormous number of missold mortgages created an avalanche of defaults. This resulted in large financial

GAMESTOP logo.

institutions being brought to their knees by holders of such derivatives, that demanded payment of their winning bets.

Last week another momentous market event took place, about which books will one day be written, too. This time, the story isn’t about highly paid professional traders playing a dangerous game that ends up destabilising the global financial system and affecting the

economic and social stability of many nations. In fact, it is the opposite! A crowd of amateur retail traders, linked trough online messaging boards, ganged up on large hedge-funds that had been short-selling shares of struggling businesses. The most striking example is that of GameStop: A games retailer that due to the pandemic was facing difficulties ended up being targeted by hedge funds looking to profit from its demise. However, a large group of retail day-traders, communicating online through Reddit and using leveraged trading vehicles, such as options,

placed a huge number of buying trades on the firm’s stock, driving the price up and costing Melvin Capital a loss of several billion dollars, as the hedge fund was forced to close it’s short-selling positions.

This new dynamic, whereby crowds of retail traders coordinate efforts online to inflate the stock price of dwindling businesses, creating a volatility generating lopping feed that destabilises markets, surely wasn’t what the industry leaders meeting at Davos had in mind, when discussing the need to democratise financial services.

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MONDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2021

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX:

CLOSE

CHANGE

%CHANGE

YTD

YTD%

2074.86

0.97

0.05

-17.60

-0.84

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

BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.50 33.05 2.00 2.10 2.10 6.00 6.75 3.55 6.49 4.40 6.16 12.77 3.64 6.85 10.88 8.44 15.08 4.25 9.26 16.00

52WK LOW 3.13 22.65 0.67 1.62 1.66 5.00 6.00 2.70 4.50 3.50 5.80 11.06 2.10 4.75 9.60 7.50 13.00 3.25 8.15 14.00

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 0.90

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

SYMBOL AML APD BBL BFH BOB BPF BWL CAB CBB CBL CHL CIB CWCB DHS EMAB FAM FBB FCL FIN JSJ

LAST CLOSE 4.25 32.12 1.62 2.10 1.67 6.00 6.61 2.98 4.74 3.50 5.80 11.24 2.53 6.85 10.23 8.40 13.50 3.80 8.50 15.20

CLOSE 4.50 32.12 1.62 2.10 1.67 6.00 6.61 2.98 4.74 3.50 5.80 11.24 2.50 6.85 10.06 8.40 13.50 3.80 8.50 15.20

1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00

1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00

SYMBOL FBB22 BFHB

LAST SALE 100.00 100.00

CLOSE 100.00 100.00

CHANGE 0.00 0.00

BAH29 BG0107 BG0207 BG0130 BG0230 BG0307 BG0330 BG0407 BSBGRS760240 BSBGR120371 BSBGRS790262

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 99.97 97.04 100.72

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 99.97 97.04 100.72

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

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

BFHP CAB6 CAB8 CAB9 CAB10 CHLA FBBA FCLB

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

52WK LOW 100.00 100.00

115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 102.00 100.50 97.72 100.70

104.79 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 99.97 94.40 100.70

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

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT STOCK - (percentage pricing) 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 BSBGRS760240 BGRS FX BSBGR120371 BGRS FL BSBGRS790262

CHANGE 0.25 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 (0.03) 0.00 (0.17) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

VOLUME 1,000

429

250

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

EPS$ 0.239 0.932 0.000 0.110 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

DIV$ 0.170 1.260 0.020 0.030 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

P/E 18.8 34.5 N/M N/M N/M N/M 17.9 -6.8 33.9 19.0 12.9 15.6 24.5 14.7 15.6 11.5 16.5 18.7 9.1 24.1

YIELD 3.78% 3.92% 1.23% 1.43% 0.00% 0.00% 3.93% 0.00% 0.00% 3.43% 3.79% 6.41% 17.36% 0.88% 3.26% 2.86% 4.00% 3.16% 2.35% 4.01%

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 7.00% 6.50%

INTEREST Prime + 1.75% 6.25%

19-Oct-2022 30-Sep-2025

6.95% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.50% 6.25% 4.25% 4.50% 5.22% 4.53%

20-Nov-2029 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2022 18-Jan-2024 15-Dec-2037 28-Mar-2026

MATURITY

MUTUAL FUNDS 52WK HI 2.39 4.43 2.14 201.90 184.85 1.69 1.85 1.78 1.24 8.49 10.26 7.28 13.91 12.84 10.81 10.00 8.98 11.79

52WK LOW 2.11 3.30 1.68 164.74 116.70 1.66 1.79 1.75 1.05 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 Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Secured Balanced Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Targeted Equity Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Prime Income Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Equities Sub Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - High Yield Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Alternative Strategies Fund Colonial Bahamas Fund Class D Colonial Bahamas Fund Class E Colonial Bahamas Fund Class F

NAV 2.39 4.43 2.14 201.90 184.85 1.68 1.79 1.76 1.05 8.49 10.03 7.28 13.91 12.84 10.05 N/A 9.28 11.86

YTD% 12 MTH% 4.55% 4.55% 1.58% 1.58% 2.60% 2.60% 3.47% 3.47% 10.86% 10.86% 1.03% 1.03% -3.14% -3.14% 0.26% 0.26% -12.29% -12.29% 1.76% 1.76% -1.97% -1.97% 4.91% 4.91% 5.28% 15.75% 0.05% 3.96% -0.35% -6.34% N/A N/A -0.50% 3.70% -3.80% 4.10%

NAV Date

31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 30-Sep-2020 30-Sep-2020

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

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

HELP NEEDED Well Established Surveying Firm Seeking to Employ A Senior Quantity Survey or.

30-Sep-2020

MARKET TERMS

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

A cement company is requesting bids for trucking services for its two locations in New Providence.

Interested parties are invited to send an email to (truckbids242@gmail.com).

Bids will be received until February 9th, 2021

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

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

Mricss Qualified with at least 10 years Experience. Valuation experience A must Calls will not be accepted. Please forward CV’s to: Bahqsmailbox@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions is February 12, 2021.

Only Short Listed Candidates will be contacted

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 2, 2021, PAGE 21

Sky chief: COVID-19 sickness hit $28m ‘sham loan’ defence

FROM PAGE 24

the defendants’ attorney to enable the defendants to file and serve proper defences.”

Reiterating Mr Horton’s argument that the Supreme Court’s permission first has to be obtained to file a default judgment in an action involving allegations of fraud and conspiracy, such as Mr Kaiser’s claim, Captain Butler added: “The case is a complex one.

“The plaintiffs’ rush to judgment does not allow the allegations made against me and my codefendants to be defended properly without the further

No automatic lending rise via Central Bank ‘shackles’ ease

FROM PAGE 24

likely figure more prominently than the Central Bank relaxation.

“Banks are still going to have to make big credit decisions based on their assessment of when borrowers will recover and what timeframe,” he explained. “As far as the pandemic, I cannot see beyond the end of my nose.

It’s a bit more moving forward by touch rather than sight.

“We’re all in the dark, but what the Central Bank is saying is they’re not going to put any shackles on the banking sector in deciding which credit prospects to take more risk on. It’s a doubleedged sword. You can have an increased risk profile by the banking industry, which requires greater regulation and capital adequacy on the back end.

“It’s a zero sum game. It’s not a contributor, but it’s not a deflator. Banks have to make the decision. I hope he [Mr Rolle] did say, but I doubt he did, that the decision is that of the banks.” Mr Bowe said Bahamians sometimes believed the Central Bank can dictate lending policies and criteria to its licensees, but its role is that of regulator and such decisions are taken by Boards and management.

“The bank is allowed to make a full decision without any interference from the regulator, but it may not come to a different answer,” the Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief said. However, he added that the Central Bank’s move will force the industry to be more transparent with customers as it can no longer hide behind the regulator when refusing loan applications.

“We can no longer shirk our responsibilities, and have to say the decision was made by us,” he added.”We have to be very open and candid with our borrowers, and say we had to take into consideration a whole raft of issues,” Mr Bowe added. “Sometimes the decision may be negative, sometimes positive, depending on the credit history.”

Mr Brathwaite, who is also the Clearing Banks Association’s (CBA) chairman, told Tribune Business that extending credit beyond the 45 percent debt service ratio previously employed by the Central Bank depended heavily on an institution’s “risk appetite” and individual lending policies/guidelines.

Noting that some institutions provide loans to persons above that threshold, he added that the governor’s use of the term “case-by-case basis” was “very telling” in

and better particulars we have requested.... I say, with much humility, that justice in this case requires that the plaintiffs should define the accusations they have levelled against us and not make broad allegations of wrongdoing.”

Mr Horton, four days before the January 22 defence filing deadline, had written to Mr Scott seeking the “better particulars” and extended timeframe he now wants the court to order.

However, Mr Scott, noting that Mr Kaiser’s writ and statement of claim had been served more than two months prior on November 19, 2020, branded the request

as “a naked and disingenuous attempt to purchase additional time for your client”.

Captain Butler alleged such a description was “improper”, but Mr Scott added that it was made “at the 11th hour” just days before the voluntary extension expired. He also retorted that “at no time was there a legitimate commercial loan or series of loans between the respective parties”.

This was in response to Mr Horton’s January 18, 2021, letter that requested a variety of dates, times and further details on the alleged “bogus loans” received by Sky

terms of how he wanted the commercial banking industry to approach the situation.

Emphasising that it does not imply a blanket, or across-theboard, easing, Mr Brathwaite said: “It’s general enough to cover all situations prevailing now. Whatever institutions are doing, he’s given them some additional leeway and more flexibility with debt service ratios.”

Acknowledging that the Central Bank had been “very lenient” during the COVID19 period, he added that a “carte blanche” relaxation would have been “a dangerous road to travel” for the banking industry and its stability.

The Bank of The Bahamas chief also revealed there were still external limits to lending, such as the cap imposed by Atlantis which prevents workers committing more than 40 percent of their income to salary deductions and loan repayments.

“The tourism industry, the hotel industry are going to be struggling for a while,” he added. “Our market is the US, and they’re having COVID19 challenges. It has to spill over to us. Until they get their market regulated at an acceptable level, we’re going to be at their mercy. The old saying: ‘When the US sneezes, we catch a cold’ is ever truer now.”

‘No delusions’ on foreign reserves FROM PAGE 24

insurance claims. They are expected to be spent, and hoped to be spent. That stimulus is expected to be placed into the economy.

“Similarly, what the government has done is stimulus to replace lost income from tourism. That has not been injected into the economy to be stored up. Those values are not expected to linger in the reserves.”

Mr Rolle argued that “the reference point” for analysing the strength, and movement, of the foreign reserves was not the present $2.3bn record but the $1.5bn level attained pre-Dorian and COVID-19.

“Even at that $1.5bn, it is potentially the case that when we reset [the economy], we will potentially be below that,” he added. “Today, we anticipate some of what we carried before the pandemic will also need to be spent.

“For anyone to believe there’s an artificial boost in the reserves, they need to review the timeframe for analysis. They need to understand there’s no significant intent or permanence to the levels that are there. We know that.”

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that JOHNATHAN JOSEPH, of McKinny Drive, Carmichael Road, New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 2nd day of February 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that RICHARDSON FLORISSANT, of Mason Addition, New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 2nd day of February 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

Bahamas and AOG. Tribune Business, though, understands that Mr Kaiser and his attorney are taking the position that such information should only be disclosed in the “discovery” process - not before a defence is filed.

They are now waiting to see how the legal process plays out, and whether Captain Butler is successful in having the default judgment against himself and Sky Bahamas overturned, before determining their next move.

Claims by Mr Kaiser that he was defrauded of $28m via sham loans triggered the resignation of former deputy prime minister and minister of finance, K Peter Turnquest, even though he was not named as a defendant in the original writ.

Mr Turnquest, who like Captain Butler is vehemently denying the allegations in that document,

was described as “a director and manager” of both Mr Kaiser’s plaintiff companies, as well as “owning and/or controlling and/or managing” Sky Bahamas. The former deputy prime minister, however, was not named in the default judgment filing.

Mr Kaiser, whose main business interest, Alpha Technologies, agreed in 2004 to pay some $36m to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after pleading guilty to tax fraud, is alleging that Captain Butler and Mr Turnquest engineered a decade-long conspiracy that lasted until 2017 “to enrich themselves” by defrauding his companies while concealing their activities.

The statement of claim, which has been seen by Tribune Business, claimed that the duo “dishonestly caused” Alpha Aviation and Advanced Aviation to “pay

away” $20.68m and $5.917m, respectively, to Sky Bahamas via “some kind of bogus loans”.

No particulars were given to describe how the scheme worked, although Mr Kaiser’s companies alleged that Mr Turnquest and Captain Butler then used “some 39 fraudulent invoices and/ or book entries, and for no adequate consideration”, to drain away some $3.8m paid

by Alpha Aviation to Aviation Oversight Group via 39 separate cheque payments between February 2008 and July 2016.

A further $3.026m was also alleged to have been siphoned off by the duo “as at December 31, 2017, to AOG Maintenance Ltd, a company that owned Sky Bahamas’ maintenance hangar at Lynden Pindling International Airport.

Mr Rolle had again earlier reassured that The Bahamas’ one:one currency peg with the US dollar remains stable and secure despite projections that the external reserves will suffer some run down as 2021 progresses.

“As to external reserves, the Central Bank’s holdings were estimated at just over $2.3bn at the end of 2020 and were still just over this threshold at the start of February 2021,” he said. “Throughout 2021, the private sector’s foreign exchange needs are expected to exceed inflows.

“This, therefore, maintains the outlook for a net reduction in reserves through the end of the pandemic, but not to levels that would stir up any concerns about the protection for the fixed exchange rate.”

Mr Rolle added that the Central Bank was in constant dialogue with the government over the financing mix to cover its projected record $1.327bn deficit for 20202021, given the implications this can potentially have for the foreign reserves.

Extensive domestic borrowing tends to leak out in demand for foreign currency and imports, and the government plans to borrow $600m in the Bahamian capital markets according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent Article

IV report.

“With the government sector as the source of support running counter to the depressed state of tourism, the Central Bank’s dialogue with government continues to be around maintaining the right mix of local and foreign currency borrowing, because it is the borrowing in local currency that contributes to a reduction in the reserves when it stimulates spending on imports,” Mr Rolle added.

With tourism’s foreign currency inflows still depressed because of the sector’s slow ramp-up amid widespread COVID-19 infections in its major source markets, the governor said the private sector was likely to only resume its role as “a net contributor to growth in the foreign reserves” come 2022.

“In 2020, the estimated foreign exchange receipts sold to commercial banks decreased by slightly more than one-third to $3.8bn,” Mr Rolle added. “The lessened contribution from tourism explains this reduction, but with foreign investment activities maintaining stable to strengthened support.

“Similarly, with the spending power of domestic residents contracted, demand for foreign exchange, mainly to pay for foreign goods and services, fell by approximately 15 percent. Still, the

reason demand for foreign exchange contracted by less than inflows was partly because of the impulse from public expenditure.

“In the near-term, the Central Bank will stay focused on conserving access to foreign exchange for essential international payments, including imports. Later in the year, the bank will reevaluate the suspension of access to foreign exchange for international portfolio investments. While it is important that net flows strengthen, they need not be fully restored for any relaxation of measures to begin,” he added.

“The Central Bank has already signalled that the moratorium on commercial bank dividend repatriation will cease by the end of the first quarter of this year. Other categories of dividend payments on foreign investments in The Bahamas were never paused during the pandemic, hence banks are being restored to equal treatment.

“In addition, given the knowledge about the multiyear timeframe of bank dividend payments, the Central Bank remains in a position to manage the timing and magnitude of such outflows. In fact, the significant share of commercial banks’ profit repatriation will materialise in 2022 and later years.”

PAGE 22, Tuesday, February 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

BPC DEMANDS $200K FROM ACTIVIST OPPONENTS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) is demanding that environmental activists lodge a $200,000 bond to cover its legal costs associated with defending their Judicial Review action.

The oil explorer, which is rapidly closing in on completion of its Perseverance One exploratory well, in Supreme Court documents filed last week urged that the legal challenge to the project’s approvals and

permits be halted until its opponents met the “security for costs” demand.

John Minns, a partner with the Graham, Thompson & Company law firm, alleged in a January 25, 2021, affidavit that Waterkeepers Bahamas and the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (Save the Bays) had failed to respond to his firm’s December 2020 request that they provide evidence showing they can meet any legal costs awarded in BPC’s favour.

“Waterkeepers Bahamas was incorporated on or about October 11, 2018,”

Mr Minns alleged. “Despite the same, my firm has been unable to find any indication that Waterkeepers Bahamas carries on any commercial business operations within The Bahamas, or owns any assets within The Bahamas.

“In the circumstances, it is my belief that Waterkeepers Bahamas does not have any assets, or sufficient assets, to satisfy an order to pay BPC’s costs if so ordered.” Mr Minns made the same argument about the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay, and urged “that all further

proceedings be stayed pending such security being provided”.

The accompanying filings provide an insight into how the BPC Judicial Review action is proving extremely lucrative for the attorneys involved. BPC’s high-powered London-based QC, Clare Montgomery, is charging £1,500 per hour, or $2,055 at current exchange rates, for her work.

The two Graham, Thompson & Company attorneys assisting her, Leif Farquharson and Adrian Hunt, charge $700 per hour and $550 per

hour, respectively.

The environmental activists and their attorney, Fred Smith QC, have blasted BPC for proceeding with its “security for costs” bid even as the government withdrew its similar demands on the basis that it runs contrary to the principle that Judicial Review actions - which typically challenge decisions by government bodies - should be heard speedily.

They argue that BPC is trying to bog down the Judicial Review action with procedural delaying tactics in a bid to ensure that the Perseverance One well,

whose 45-60 day drilling timetable suggests it will be completed by mid-February, is finished before the Supreme Court can hear the merits of their argument The February 17-18 security for costs hearing may well coincide with when Perseverance One is completed, and Mr Smith and his clients have repeatedly asserted that “security for costs” is being increasingly employed in The Bahamas to thwart public interest litigation by imposing financial hurdles those bringing such actions will have difficulty meeting.

RBC OPENS NEW OFFICE AT ALBANY Tourism return to preROYAL Bank of Canada (RBC) has moved closer to its high net worth clients by opening an office at Albany to serve such customers.

The location, at the Albany Financial Centre, is also home to RBC Dominion Securities and RBC Capital Markets. RBC said in a statement that while this new office will be focused largely on its private banking business, it will also serve business banking clients and international business clients.

“We are incredibly proud to be moving into the Albany community,” said Dwight Burrows, RBC’s regional vice-president and

head of private banking for the Caribbean. “As one of the region’s most exclusive financial and commercial hubs, Albany offers worldclass services and solutions for its residents.

“RBC’s new private banking office will add to those offerings while giving our clients a convenient one-stop-shop for all their wealth management and private banking needs. We draw on the talent, expertise and best practices of more than 86,000 employees in 36 countries and territories to provide our private banking clients with world class wealth management, credit planning and banking services.”

RBC said Global Finance magazine recently named it as the Caribbean’s best private bank; best private bank for families; and best private bank for entrepreneurs. It added that Retail Banker International recognised RBC as the Latin American and the Caribbean retail bank of the year, and as North American retail bank of the year.

“RBC has a proud history in the Caribbean,” said Joe Olivier, RBC’s regional vice-president of high net worth clients for the Caribbean. “With over 112 years of service to this community, our new office is a sign of our continued investment in The Bahamas. We are confident in the strength of this market, and we are excited for what the future holds here.”

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

COVID peak in 2023 FROM PAGE 24 With COVID-19 continuing to weigh heavily on the global economy, Mr Rolle added: “For The Bahamas, this limits the degree of economic strengthening that would be observed in 2021. The most significant upside potential for tourism recovery remains getting the virus under control in North America...

“It is estimated that the economy contracted by at least 16 percent in 2020.

For tourism, cruise visitor activity was on pause since mid-March and stopover arrivals are projected to have achieved no more than one-quarter of the levels reached in 2019.

“In the stopover segment, revenue loses have been more severe for the hotel sector than for vacation rental properties because Bahamian residents have made greater use of shortterm rentals. Indications are that sales of vacation rentals achieved nearly 50 percent of the 2019 levels, compared to a much weaker result for hotels,” he continued.

“In the outlook, the economy is expected to remain most significantly challenged in the first half of 2021, and begin to show improvement in the second half of the year. The recovery should become much stronger over the course of 2022, at which time the private sector should revert to being a net contributor to growth in the foreign reserves.”

In the meantime, though, total visitor arrivals in November 2020 were down almost 98 percent despite the tourism industry’s soft re-opening at the start of the month. “The most recent data provided by the Ministry of Tourism revealed that total foreign arrivals reduced by 97.9

percent in November, relative to a 7.3 percent growth during the same period in 2019,” the Central Bank reported yesterday.

“Specifically, year-to-date air traffic decreased by 89.4 percent, extending the 12.5 percent fall-off in the prior year. Similarly, sea passengers declined by 99.6 percent, a reversal from the 12.5 percent gain a year earlier.

“A disaggregation by market revealed that total visitors to New Providence matched just 1.6 percent of the prior year’s outturn, amid declines of 99.8 percent and 94.2 percent in the sea and air components, respectively,” the Central Bank added.

“Similarly, total arrivals to Grand Bahama corresponded to 4.2 percent of the previous year’s volumes, as air traffic reached 80.7 percent of last year’s results. For Family Islands, total visitors matched a mere 2.6 percent of the 2019 levels, with air passengers corresponding to 33.1 percent of the preceding year’s levels.”

As for the first 11 months of 2020, the Central Bank added: “On a year-to-date basis, activity remained contracted, as total foreign arrivals fell by 73.1 percent, a turnaround from a 9.9 percent growth in the prior year.

“Contributing to this outturn, air arrivals reduced sharply by 74.5 percent, following an 8.2 percent gain in 2019. Similarly, sea arrivals declined by 72.6 percent, vis-à-vis a 10.4 percent rise last year. “ Turning to traffic through Lynden Pindling International Airport, the Central Bank said “total international departures fell to 21,040 passengers during the month of December, overturning the 9.9 percent increase to 140,633

passengers in 2019”.

It added: “For the year, total foreign departures decreased markedly by 74.2 percent, a reversal from a 12.8 percent growth in the prior year. By market, the US component, which is higher by volume, declined by 75.2 percent, contrasting with a 14 percent improvement last year. Likewise, the non-US international component was lower by 67.8 percent after a 5.7 percent expansion a year earlier.”

Finally, on the vacation rental front, the Central Bank said: “Shortterm rental data provided by AirDNA revealed positive activity within the market throughout December, buttressed by domestic demand.

“In particular, compared to 2019, total room nights sold rose by 27 percent although a moderation from the 50.8 percent increase in the prior year as entire place listings and hotel comparable accommodations grew by 28.3 percent and 25.4 percent, respectively.”

It continued: “However, pricing indicator outcomes were mixed, as the average daily room rate (ADR) for entire place listings firmed by 5.1 percent to $474.12, while hotel comparable listings fell by 0.8 percent to $162.30.

“For all of 2020, total room nights sold still declined by 46.9 percent given the importance of international travel, reflecting a 47.8 percent fall-off in bookings for entire place listings and a 38.6 percent reduction in private room listings.

“Pricing data varied, as the ADR for entire place listings grew by 4.6 percent to $412.07, while the ADR for hotel comparable listings decreased by one percent to $152.88.”

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 2, 2021, PAGE 23

Governor: When will the penny drop?

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Central Bank’s governor yesterday said the speed at which Bahamians are redeeming one-cent coins is presently below his expectations with less than $1m worth handed in to-date.

John Rolle, speaking as the Central Bank unveiled its assessment of the economy’s 2020 full-year performance, said he thought more coins would have been handed in by now given that the onecent ceased to be legal tender as at December 31, 2020.

“We are seeing a steady

those that were “taken outside the country in lose change” by foreign visitors and will never be returned.

Noting that Bahamians do not have to “roll” their onecent coins into bundles, as they will never be returned to circulation, Mr Rolle said the Central Bank planned to “make some adjustments with commercial banks to ensure persons can deposit coins at the bank”.

He added that the banking regulator also intends “over the next few months to do a tour of the Family Islands to collect any coins individuals have”.

A Central Bank release last week provided one explanation as to why redemption activity may not have matched the governor’s expectations. It said plans to allow Bahamians to redeem the huge quantity

stream of persons submitting coins for redemption,” he added. “Up to this point the effort has largely been based on redemptions by weight.

We see a steady stream of redemptions but the level of redemptions from my personal estimate is lower than what I would have estimated.”

“If you look at the volume of coins redeemed so far, it’s still not adding up to $1m in coins. We know there are several million dollars worth of pennies that have been issued over the years and in circulation.”

Mr Rolle acknowledged that not all one-cent coins will be redeemed, particularly

of one-cent coins they still hold via a series of kiosks set-up specifically for this task would not proceed.

The regulator blamed this on “matters beyond its control” but did not explain further, while adding that the kiosk network and its rollout had been outsourced to a third party vendor. Previous Central Bank statements said the kiosks were due to be rolled out in areas with high consumer footfall, such as the Mall at Marathon and other major retail destinations.

Mr Rolle did not address the issue yesterday at a Zoom press conference where journalists were limited to just one or two questions. “The Central Bank will continue to redeem one-cent coins by weight and honour penny deposits at commercial banks until 30 June, 2021,”

the regulator had said. “The public can expect ongoing announcements of dates and venues for New Providence redemption sites.

“Beginning March 2021, redemption exercises will commence on Grand Bahama and the Family Islands. Dates and venues will be announced in the coming weeks. The public is invited to follow The Bahamas Penny Page on Facebook, and Central Bank of The Bahamas on Instagram, for updates on the redemption exercise.”

The Central Bank previously said its plan to end the Bahamian one-cent coin’s use as legal tender by end2020 will save itself and the banking system $7m over a ten-year period.

The regulator, in its rationale for ending the coin’s 54-year history as a means

THE WEATHER REPORT

5-Day Forecast

TODAY

ORLANDO

High: 55° F/13° C Low: 37° F/3° C

TAMPA

TONIGHT

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

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Mostly cloudy, windy and cool

Partly cloudy and breezy

Breezy and cool; clouds, some sun

Times of clouds and sun

Sunny much of the time and pleasant

Mostly sunny and nice

High: 65°

Low: 57°

High: 68° Low: 58°

High: 71° Low: 62°

High: 76° Low: 65°

High: 80° Low: 67°

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

63° F

52° F

67°-58° F

75°-61° F

77°-65° F

84°-66° F

High: 54° F/12° C Low: 44° F/7° C

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.

N

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High: 61° F/16° C Low: 57° F/14° C

12-25 knots

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20-30 knots

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High: 64° F/18° C Low: 44° F/7° C

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High: 64° F/18° C Low: 46° F/8° C

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High: 65° F/18° C Low: 58° F/14° C

ELEUTHERA

NASSAU

High: 65° F/18° C Low: 57° F/14° C

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021

High: 67° F/19° C Low: 62° F/17° C

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uV inDex toDay

The higher the AccuWeather UV IndexTM number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.

tiDes For nassau High Today

Ht.(ft.)

Low

Ht.(ft.)

11:02 a.m.

11:38 p.m.

2.8 2.7

4:56 a.m. -0.2 5:24 p.m. -0.5

Wednesday 11:53 a.m.

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12:36 a.m.

12:51 p.m.

2.7 2.3

6:57 a.m. 0.0 7:10 p.m. -0.4

Friday

1:39 a.m.

1:54 p.m.

2.8 2.2

8:05 a.m. 0.1 8:10 p.m. -0.3

Saturday

2:44 a.m.

3:01 p.m.

2.8 2.1

9:15 a.m. 0.1 9:14 p.m. -0.3

Sunday

3:49 a.m.

4:08 p.m.

2.8 2.1

10:22 a.m. 0.0 10:18 p.m. -0.4

Monday

4:51 a.m.

5:10 p.m.

2.9 2.2

11:24 a.m. -0.1 11:18 p.m. -0.4

sun anD moon Sunrise Sunset

6:52 a.m.

5:55 p.m.

Moonrise Moonset

11:02 p.m.

10:21 a.m.

Last

New

First

Full

Feb. 4

Feb. 11

Feb. 19

Feb. 27

CAT ISLAND

E

W

High: 70° F/21° C Low: 64° F/18° C

N

S

E

W

12-25 knots

S

12-25 knots Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

Statistics are for Nassau through 1 p.m. yesterday Temperature High ................................................... 82° F/28° C Low .................................................... 70° F/21° C Normal high ....................................... 77° F/25° C Normal low ........................................ 64° F/18° C Last year’s high ................................. 84° F/29° C Last year’s low ................................... 61° F/16° C Precipitation As of 1 p.m. yesterday ................................. 0.63” Year to date ................................................. 1.86” Normal year to date ..................................... 1.41”

of payment, said it had lost 90 percent of its purchasing power and was “increasingly rarely used” in commercial transactions by the Bahamian public.

With a survey showing that just 52 percent of persons use the one-cent coin to pay for goods and services, and the use of electronic payment methods such as debit cards and wire transfers becoming increasingly popular, the Central Bank argued the costs of maintaining it as legal tender outweigh the benefits.

With businesses and banks incurring handling and processing costs greater than the one-cent coin’s value, the banking industry regulator is estimating that its withdrawal as legal tender will result in annual cost savings of between $800,000 to $1m.

ANDROS

SAN SALVADOR

GREAT EXUMA

High: 71° F/22° C Low: 64° F/18° C

High: 71° F/22° C Low: 65° F/18° C

N

High: 68° F/20° C Low: 58° F/14° C

E

W S

LONG ISLAND

tracking map

High: 73° F/23° C Low: 65° F/18° C

12-25 knots

MAYAGUANA High: 77° F/25° C Low: 67° F/19° C

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures

CROOKED ISLAND / ACKLINS

are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

RAGGED ISLAND High: 74° F/23° C Low: 66° F/19° C

High: 75° F/24° C Low: 66° F/19° C

GREAT INAGUA High: 78° F/26° C Low: 68° F/20° C

N

E

W

E

W

N

S

S

10-20 knots

10-20 knots

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 W at 20-30 Knots WNW at 10-20 Knots NW at 12-25 Knots NW at 8-16 Knots W at 12-25 Knots WNW at 8-16 Knots WNW at 10-20 Knots NW at 6-12 Knots W at 15-25 Knots WNW at 8-16 Knots WNW at 15-25 Knots NW at 10-20 Knots W at 12-25 Knots WNW at 7-14 Knots NW at 10-20 Knots NNW at 7-14 Knots W at 12-25 Knots NW at 7-14 Knots W at 12-25 Knots NW at 7-14 Knots W at 12-25 Knots WNW at 8-16 Knots NW at 10-20 Knots NNW at 7-14 Knots W at 12-25 Knots WNW at 8-16 Knots

WAVES 8-12 Feet 6-10 Feet 4-7 Feet 3-5 Feet 5-9 Feet 3-6 Feet 4-7 Feet 2-4 Feet 5-9 Feet 3-6 Feet 6-10 Feet 5-9 Feet 3-5 Feet 1-3 Feet 4-7 Feet 2-4 Feet 2-4 Feet 1-2 Feet 6-10 Feet 6-10 Feet 3-6 Feet 2-4 Feet 3-5 Feet 1-3 Feet 4-8 Feet 3-5 Feet

VISIBILITY 6 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 4 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles

WATER TEMPS. 74° F 74° F 77° F 74° F 75° F 75° F 78° F 78° F 75° F 74° F 76° F 75° F 76° F 73° F 79° F 78° F 77° F 76° F 77° F 77° F 75° F 75° F 77° F 77° F 75° F 75° F

business@tribunemedia.net

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021

$4.05 Tourism return to pre-COVID peak in 2023

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE start of tourism’s revival has been “pushed back” beyond the peak winter season, the Central Bank’s governor warned yesterday, with a return to top performance not expected until 2023.

John Rolle, delivering a grim but not surprising outlook as the regulator unveiled its assessment of 2020’s economic performance, said continued COVID-19 outbreaks in The Bahamas’ key tourist source markets amid the wait for a vaccine roll-out meant this nation will be “most significantly challenged” during the 2021 first half and enjoy a minimal full-year recovery from the pandemic.

“Generally speaking, the period that would mark the start of the recovery, it has been pushed back,” he explained. “I would estimate that The Bahamas needs to be patient through at least the first quarter of 2021 on the assumption that countries wrestling with outbreaks will need several weeks in each case to get the outbreaks under control and need time to bring the numbers down.”

While that had started to happen, and progress had been made in distributing COVID-19 vaccines, Mr Rolle added: “We are not yet in a material period of rebound. It’s good there’s some business moving about the sector, for all intents and purposes our analysis and forecasts tend to put us beyond the first quarter of the year, and recently beyond April.

“When you think about that, as the first four months of the year being gone, we are not in any rebound state yet.” The first four months of the calendar year traditionally represent the peak of the winter tourism season, and Mr Rolle warned this would be impossible to replace even if the industry and its key source markets recovered later in 2021.

“If we are not getting any business now, even if we have a strong second half it will not outweigh the foregone business,” he added.

The Central Bank governor described 2023 as “an outer point” when tourism’s performance will match or exceed pre-COVID highs in every month, adding that this trend would likely start to emerge in the 2022 second half.

SEE PAGE 22

$4.09

$4.02

Sky chief: COVID-19 sickness hit $28m ‘sham loan’ defence

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

S

KY Bahamas’ former principal says he failed to meet the deadline for filing a defence to the $28m “bogus loan conspiracy” claims against him because he contracted COVID-19.

Captain Randy Butler, in a January 26, 2021, affidavit obtained by Tribune Business, asserts that his positive test and subsequent Andros “isolation” meant he was unable to consult with his attorney on how to combat the allegations brought by Fred Kaiser, Sky Bahamas’ former financier.

The former airline chief’s COVID-19 revelation came as he and his attorney, Michael Horton, made good on their pledge that they would immediately seek to overturn Mr Kaiser’s bid to obtain a default judgment against him and Sky Bahamas.

Within 24 hours of the default judgment’s filing on January 25, a summons was filed with the Supreme Court on Captain Butler’s behalf urging that it “be set aside on the ground that the judgment is premature and invalid” because no judge had given permission for it

• Butler: Andros ‘isolation’ delayed filing • Bidding to overturn default judgement • QC blasts ‘naked 11th hour’ time play

CAPTAIN RANDY BUTLER

MICHAEL SCOTT QC

FRED KAISER

to be filed.

He is also demanding that Mr Kaiser and his companies, Alpha Aviation and Advanced Aviation, be ordered within ten days to provide “further and better particulars” of the allegations against them so he and Sky Bahamas can submit a defence.

Once those details are obtained, Captain Butler is asking that the Supreme Court give him 14 days to file and “that there be no further action” taken by Mr Kaiser to pursue his claim until the “particulars” he is seeking be provided.

The documents obtained

by Tribune Business show,

though, that Sky Bahamas’ financier had already voluntarily extended the time for Captain Butler to file his defence beyond the legally stipulated deadline. And his “11th hour” bid to obtain a further extension received the brush-off from Mr Kaiser’s attorney, Michael Scott QC, who subsequently sought the default judgment in response.

Captain Butler, in his affidavit, said he and Mr Horton requested an extension until end-January 2021 to file a defence on behalf of himself and the two corporate defendants, Sky Bahamas and Aviation Oversight Group (AOG),

but Mr Scott only gave them until January 22.

Explaining the reasons for the delay, Captain Butler asserted: “My instructions could not be completed in time due to a number of reasons but, significantly, I was unable to consult with my attorney due to my having tested positive for the coronavirus and, as a result, had to remain in isolation in Andros while I recovered.

“As I was advised, and verily believe, it was essential in the circumstances that a request for further and better particulars of the plaintiffs’ claim be sent to

SEE PAGE 21

No automatic lending rise via Central Bank ‘shackles’ ease

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Central Bank’s move to lift “the shackles” on lending limits does not necessarily mean borrowers will be able to obtain extra credit, commercial bank chiefs warned yesterday.

Gowon Bowe, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, and Kendrick Brathwaite, Bank of The Bahamas’ managing director, both told Tribune Business that “risk appetite” and assessments by individual institutions of a borrower’s ability to repay will still be the key factors in determining whether loans will be granted despite the regulator’s easing.

They spoke out after John Rolle, the Central Bank’s governor, signalled that it is relaxing its debt servicing requirement that borrowers - individuals, households and businesses - spend no more than 45 percent of their monthly income on

• Banks warn ‘risk appetite’ will be key • As regulator relaxes on debt service • Industry gets ‘more flexibility, leeway’

GOWON BOWE repaying loan interest and principal.

He added that commercial banks have been given the go-ahead to implement this on “a case-by-case” basis for borrowers with solid repayment histories and the ability to afford higher debt service ratios, given that it will assist recovery from the economic devastation inflicted by COVID-19.

“The Central Bank is also accommodative, on a targeted basis, for businesses and households that would need access to credit, timed with when the recovery starts to take hold,” Mr Rolle said. “Banks are being allowed to relax loan qualification standards on a case-by-case basis so that qualified borrowers can take on debt service burdens above the levels normally stipulated by the Central Bank.”

Mr Bowe said the governor had indicated this easing would be coming when he met with commercial bank heads earlier this month, but warned that it will not necessarily translate into increased lending to borrowers that are already heavily extended or close to the 45 percent debt service threshold.

“The Central Bank intends to remove those barriers or hurdles if you will, but it’s a bit like Indian giving, if you will,” he explained. “You are removing the barriers for the banks to go out and lend, but at the same time the COVID-19 environment and accounting standards would mean you have to take a higher provision on that same level of lending.”

Pointing out that COVID19 uncertainty, and the inability to forecast the economy’s performance beyond a week-to-week basis, will factor heavily into banks’ lending decisions, Mr Bowe added that their own credit and operational policies - as well as assessments of each loan applicant - will

SEE PAGE 21

$4.01 ‘True extent’ of loan delinquency soon revealed

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Central Bank’s governor yesterday warned that the “true extent” of COVID-19 loan delinquencies will soon reveal itself as the final 8.5 percent of credit balances in deferral exit these arrangements.

John Rolle, unveiling the Central Bank’s analysis of 2020’s pandemic scarred economic performance, said commercial banks only recorded a slight decrease in loan delinquencies last year as nearly $2bn worth of credit - around one-third of all that was outstanding - was placed into payment deferral initiatives.

“As these arrangements have mostly expired, a truer extent of delinquencies will become evident in 2021. Up to the end of 2020, only 8.5 percent of loan balances remained in a deferral state, compared with about twothirds of balances in June 2020. Nevertheless, commercial banks have continued to show forbearance with borrowers who are facing difficulties,” he added.

“Again, it is estimated that the financial system will emerge from the pandemic in a stable fashion.

Banks have more than sufficient capital to absorb potential losses, whilst credit unions now have the protection of deposit insurance and a clearer timeline around which their borrowing members in the hotel sector will begin to see their earnings recover.”

The Central Bank yesterday reported that commercial bank loan delinquencies enjoyed an improvement in December, with arrears dropping by $23.2m (2.9 percent) to $773.1m, although the situation deteriorated when measured on a full-year basis.

“On an annual basis, total private sector arrears grew by $86.7m (12.6 percent), elevating the ratio of arrears to total private sector loans by 1.7 percentage points.

The outcome was led by a $66.2m (28.5 percent) growth in short-term delinquencies, with the relevant ratio higher by 1.2 percentage points,” it added.

“Similarly, non-performing exposures rose by $20.6m (4.5 percent) as the accompanying ratio firmed by 48 basis points. Disaggregated by loan type, mortgage arrears increased by $63m (14.9 percent), reflecting a $63.3m (46.9 percent) expansion in the short-term category. In contrast, long-term arrears edged down by $0.3m (0.1 percent).”

‘No delusions’ on foreign reserves

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Central Bank has “no delusions” over an external reserves mix that will likely fall below prepandemic levels of $1.5bn prior to COVID-19 recovery starting, its governor said yesterday.

John Rolle, speaking as the regulator unveiled its assessment of the Bahamian economy’s 2020 performance, said it knew proceeds from the government’s $825m foreign currency borrowings and over $500m in Hurricane Dorian-related reinsurance inflows were not intended to “linger” in the foreign currency reserves and keep them at record levels.

Revealing that the external reserves, which are critical to maintaining the one:one exchange

• Govt borrowings never intended ‘to linger’ • Drawdown below pre-COVID $1.5bn likely • Reserves at record $2.3bn through February

JOHN ROLLE rate peg with the US dollar, had remained at a record $2.3bn through to the beginning of February 2021, Mr Rolle said the Central Bank had always anticipated this sum would be drawn down to meet the private sector’s needs in the absence of replenishing

tourism inflows.

Asked by Tribune Business to respond to concerns that the external reserves have been inflated by the government’s borrowing and reinsurance inflows, and that the increased foreign currency debt servicing requirements may be storing up future trouble, he said: “I think that to say that the reserves have been artificially boosted is a bit of a misplacement of how the reserves are being assessed.

“There is no target growth level for the reserves. There is every intent that the fiscal stimulus over the course of the pandemic is sustainable, meaning foreign exchange demand by the public is

identified.” The governor added that it was never intended that the government’s foreign currency borrowings, and Dorian reinsurance monies, “be permanent amounts that sit in the reserves”.

“There is no level of delusion on the part of the Central Bank or anyone who looks at the reserves data than understanding what is there is to meet temporary needs presently,” Mr Rolle said. “Some of that is created by reinsurance inflows.

“There’s half a billion dollars in the reserves before the pandemic relating to

SEE PAGE 21