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Volume: 118 No.60, FEBRUARY 19, 2021

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Established 1903

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: PRICE–$1

‘IT’S GETTING DIRTY’

Davis alleges FNM using fake social media ads to harm opposition chances

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FNM chairman Carl Culmer last night blasted Opposition leader Brave Davis over allegations the governing party was behind “fake” anti-PLP ads on social media.

Mr Culmer hit back after Mr Davis accused the FNM of “dirty tricks” aimed at harming the PLP’s chances at the next election.

Mr Davis called a “major” press conference at which he said his party had tracked down 11 social media sites which he said

‘ELECTION SHOULD BE FIXED DATE’

were created by the FNM, Last night, Mr Culmer said the PLP’s leader’s claims were nonsense.

“The FNM doesn’t engage in those types of politics,” said Mr Culmer.

“I have refrained from those types of politics because I believe Bahamians are past that type of politics. The type of commentary we have compared with the PLP and Fred Mitchell is like night and day. I think Brave really was talking to Fred and telling him he should refrain from his brand from politics.”

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net

A REPRESENTATIVE from a local non-profit organisation says a fixed election date will bring more stability to the Bahamian election process.

For weeks there has been speculation about the possibility of the election “bell” being rung before May 2022 when the election is due.

SEE PAGE THREE

SHIP DOCKS CARRYING JUST 38 NEW CARS

SEE PAGE THREE

CLUSTERS FUELLED INFECTIONS SPIKE

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY 30 percent of new positive COVID19 cases recorded in New Providence and Grand Bahama during the past two weeks were identified as clusters – some of which were connected to the workplace and large social gatherings, health officials revealed.

During a virtual Ministry of Health press conference yesterday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan did not confirm or deny that the Atlantis resort was one workplace linked to

the clusters.

This comes amid reports the top resort is experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak that contributed to the recent uptick in cases. Resort officials did not respond to requests for comment up to press time.

Last week, the country recorded 83 new infections, with Thursday and Friday accounting for the highest number of cases for that week at 21 and 27 respectively.

Yesterday, Dr McMillan said some of the recently recorded cases can be classified as clusters.

SEE PAGE FOUR

BUYER BEWARE TROUBLED Peter Nygard may be moving quickly to offload his Lyford Cay home before creditors can get their hands on the proceeds of the sale. Mr Nygard is reportedly moving to put Nygard Cay up for auction - and it was listed on a real estate website with a price tag of $59m, despite being in disrepair after no maintenance in years. See page two for the full story.

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

VEHICLE import volumes at the Nassau Container Port have dropped by up to 90 percent, its top executive revealed yesterday, as half-year profits dropped by almost 36 percent compared to pre-COVID. Dion Bethell, of Arawak Port Development Company, said just 38 vehicles were brought in by a vessel yesterday compared to 300400 cars normally brought in by a single carrier.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

COURT EVACUATED IN BOMB SCARE

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A BOMB scare in the Magistrates Court building forced hundreds to evacuate the complex yesterday morning.

Police said they received reports of the possible bomb threat shortly after 9am.

According to press liaison officer, ASP Audley Peters,

POLICE at the scene yesterday during the bomb scare.

technician squad were dispatched to the scene as soon as they received the call.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, he said: “A sweep of the building was conducted with the use of the bomb dogs and following that sweep, the building was determined to be cleared of any suspicious items or any bomb related matter.”

officers from the bomb

SEE PAGE FIVE

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

DEEPFAKES AND CATFIGHTS IN OUR POLITICS

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Friday, February 19, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

A LOOK inside the decaying Nygard’s Cay.

Buyer beware HOT on the heels of a threat to sell his Lyford Cay home troubled Peter Nygard may be moving quickly to offload the property before his creditors can get their hands on the proceeds of the sale.

Enivornmental group Save the Bays has told The Tribune they are aware Nygard - currently languishing in custody in Canada pending extradition to the US on numerous alleged serious sex offences - is moving to put Nygard Cay up for auction.

Nygard is understood to have placed the property with a Bahamian real estate company which briefly showed the estate on their website with a massive price tag of $59m. The listing, however, was very quickly taken down.

Nygard’s problem is he owes millions in The Bahamas and is desperate to avoid a court ordering the sale of Nygard Cay and then his creditors being paid from the proceeds.

Save the Bays estimates it is owed up to $7m from the numerous court orders it has already won against Nygard.

In addition the Bahamian government is owed millions for actions it too has won against the fashion designer along with a fortune in unpaid property taxes.

Nygard, it is believed, is hoping to place the property with Concierge Auctions and that bidding would be opened at $20m.

The price tag is far in excess of an estimate Save the Bays was given when it had an independent appraisal carried out which valued the property at just $14m. The relatively low price was heavily influenced by the fact Nygard Cay has had no maintenance carried out for a number of years and is in a general state of disrepair.

Fred Smith, Save the Bays legal director, told The Tribune: “This modest valuation was greatly influenced by the deplorable condition of the buildings and the extreme deterioration of utilities infrastructure. The likelihood is a purchaser would also be required to absorb the expense of reversing the illegal dredging in construction activities Nygard carried out which could be as high as $12m.”

Mr Smith said Save the Bays understand prospective purchasers have already visited Nygard Cay just weeks after the group

lodged its application in the courts to sell the property to satisfy Nygard’s legal debts.

Save the Bays suspects Nygard chose not to sell his estate locally as everyone in The Bahamas would be aware of the monies owed by him. In an international auction he would be able to play down the debts tied to the property.

Mr Smith added: “If Nygard and his agents manage to get away with this scheme, it is not at all certain that the funds raised by the auction could ever be pinned down by the local authorities to be confiscated to the relief of Nygard’s many creditors.

“The many survivors of Nygard’s alleged sex trafficking scheme are seeking damages. if the allegations are proven in a US court and it awards damages to the victims those damages would be enforceable against Nygard Cay - any buyer should be aware of that.

“In addition there are 14 employees who worked at Nygard Cay for between 20 and 25 years who were terminated in December without notice, pay, severance or other compensation.

“There are other creditors and litigants against Nygard whose cases are ongoing - by employees and lawyers - for unpaid wages and fees.

“If anyone is interested in buying this place they should do so with their eyes wide open. It really is a case of - buyer beware.”

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 3

Davis alleges FNM using fake social media ads to harm opposition chances from page one “When you have Bahama Press, the Gallery, Bahamas Against Corruption and other groups that come with distasteful things against the FNM, I can’t see how Brave or any PLP could say what he said.

From day one these guys were on every media platform with the filthiest and most vile memes you could come up with. I’m disappointed and shocked that the leader of the opposition would fix his mouth to say such nonsense.”

Asked if he wants the anti-PLP ads to stop, Mr Culmer said: “The party don’t support that kind of thing.”

Earlier in the day Mr Davis told the media the FNM was funding “toxic, deceptive” political ads that have bombarded Bahamians on social media websites like Facebook.

“Anyone with a phone or an internet connection knows what I’m talking about,” he said.

“People are complaining to me every day now about the toxic, deceptive ads that seem to be unavoidable.

Someone described it to me this way: ‘Mr Davis, the FNM is running a garbage juice campaign.’

“And that’s exactly right… I am not talking

about ordinary politics. I can handle rough and tough politics. I have no problem with that. I am talking about how this FNM’s dirty political tactics are more deceitful and more dangerous than anything we’ve seen in our country’s modern history.”

Mr Davis noted that concerns about misinformation circulating on Facebook and similar platforms muddied the recent American presidential election while the social media behemoth faced congressional scrutiny for how it is addressing fake news.

“It is long past time for a public conversation in this country about the role that Facebook is playing in our democracy,” he said.

Mr Davis said his party has identified at least 11 fake Facebook pages that are running paid, anti-PLP ads while masquerading as being tied to the opposition party.

One is called “PLP Dirty Dozen”, launched on February 16, 2021.

Another, “Nygard’s PLP”, was launched on February 8, 2021. Another page is called “PLPs for Change”.

“These groups,” Mr Davis said, “are pretending to be independent organisations, falsely identifying themselves as ‘community sites’ or ‘news and media’

or even as a ‘PLP history museum’.

“They are no such thing.

They are not real. They have no offices. They have no staff. They cannot be contacted. They do not produce or post or advertise content except for anti-PLP and occasionally some proFNM content.

“They pretend to be independent, but some are running the same exact ads and overlapping graphics and language, and many click through to the same websites.

“In some of these paid ads, sent out across the country, they have an image of duct tape across my wife’s mouth, and duct tape over the mouths of female PLP candidates. What is wrong with these people?

“They know if they put their name on that, it would hurt them, not help them.

That’s why they don’t run these ads from the FNM page. It’s not just on Facebook, either.

“Their lies are everywhere, in banner ads when you visit your bank website, or play an online game, or watch a YouTube video. I’m not talking about the homemade graphics and memes that supporters of both parties make and circulate.

“I’m talking about expensive, coordinated, paid advertising bombardments in the millions of dollars.”

DAVIS: NO TALKS WITH BIMINI MP

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis said yesterday he has had no discussions with West Grand Bahama and Bimini MP Pakesia ParkerEdgecombe about her joining the PLP. “No no, I’ve not been in any conversations with anyone,” he said during a PLP press conference. “No discussions. I don’t know

whether they talk with the chairman but…”

PLP chairman Fred Mitchell claimed on Twitter on Wednesday that Mrs ParkerEdgecombe had attempted to join the opposition party.

“In response to social media criticisms of her representation in West GB & Bimini, Pakesia ParkerEdgecombe decided to challenge my integrity in her sporadic attack on the PLP,” he wrote.

“Since she has done this, I intend to tell the entire

story of her wanting to join the PLP and her meeting with me and coming to the GB airport to see the leader and myself to request we give her two weeks and then she would join the PLP and subsequently seek our nomination.”

In an interview with Eyewitness News, Mr Mitchell claimed Mrs Parker-Edgecombe met with the PLP on three occasions through an intermediary.

Mrs Parker-Edgecombe denied the claims in a

PLP leader Philip ‘Brave’ Davis in a press conference yesterday. statement on Wednesday.

“I am not at all surprised that political pundits and sadly, the Progressive Liberal Party’s chairman are grasping for straws and now trying to muddy the waters with their venom

and far-fetched stories that I begged to join the Progressive Liberal Party some weeks ago,” she wrote.

“It is a blatant lie. The Free National Movement is the best choice to govern our beautiful country and I am more than

Photo: Racardo Thomas happy to be a part of the FNM as we aim to ensure the PLP’s defeat at the polls.”

Mrs Parker-Edgecombe was ratified earlier this week by the FNM to run on the party’s ticket in the next general election.

‘ELECTION SHOULD BE FIXED DATE’ from page one

those groups, like ours, are trying to bring some more openness, transparency and accountability The Progressive Liberal Party to the process. It gives a more believes an election will be called stable opportunity for that. this year and House Speaker “There is a lot of energy that Halson Moultrie this week said he goes into the process of election – expects an election around June. a lot of speculation and a lot of he Under the current system, the said and she said. If we could look decision on the next election date at a fixed date, if we could look rests in the hands of the Prime at more clear established rules, Minister. if we could look at more opporMatt Aubry, ORG’s executive tunities for inclusion and citizen director, said a fixed election date engagement, it creates stronger will bring about accountability to democracy. I think that’s ultithe whole election process. mately everybody’s benefit.”

“When it comes to the issue of Judging from all the political a fixed election date it also brings back and forth on social media, more stability in regards to the Mr Aubry called this “silly individual candidate’s capac- season” and said it is typical of ity to develop and mobilise their Bahamians to vote out a party as efforts,” Mr Aubry said. “So opposed to voting one in. taking some of the question marks “This is the silly season,” he out of the process does help. So continued. “You are seeing a lot

of rhetoric; party versus party and as much discussion regarding the issues and what each candidate might bring or what they might put forward. So it becomes party against party.

“Historically what we’ve seen is that Bahamians do come out very strongly around election time and seem to be very comfortable in voting out the groups they are not happy with versus voting in the candidates that they might identify could create solutions.

So my organisation has talked a lot about bringing more regularisation and standardisation to the election process.”

He said a fixed date can stabilise the process with campaign finance laws that bring more equity, drive more inclusion and educate the voters to focus more on the issues.

He continued, “When it sits in the hands of one party versus another, of course they are going to use that date to what they feel is to their best advantage whether it is to support their election or what the country may need at that time.

And, that is a very subjective presentation. That is giving difference to those that hold power.

“It doesn’t necessarily speak to the capacity of citizens having a greater voice than individual voters to establish and know what they need to do to be able to use their vote as meaningful as possible. Getting beyond the ‘my party versus your party’ there needs to be a much deeper dialogue and a lot more resources to support citizens in the process.”

Clearly calling for more involvement of this country’s citizens in the process, Mr Aubry

went on to note that Bahamians need a say in what is established as a national “priority”.

“So they can advocate, not to just have a one-way conversation to present what they feel is critically necessary,” he said.

“Ultimately if one party goes in and another party goes out you can see if it’s all in the government’s hands that there can be a loss of momentum, there can be things that fall off in terms of priority. However if the citizenry has identified their priorities those then can be the constant.

“We need to think about elections and election practices that support the greatest involvement, not just in terms of coming out and making your vote, but also in terms of being able to use that vote as meaningfully as possible. So that’s why there should be a fixed election date.”

DAMES: TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE FOR VOTE ‘DAUNTING’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Marvin Dames says that to introduce technological upgrades to the voting process one year before the general election could be a “daunting” task that confuses and complicates how ballots are cast.

The amendment to the Parliamentary Elections Act passed in December, which created a permanent register, also makes provisions to enable the issuance of biometric voters’ cards in the place of the traditional paper card and counterfoils.

Asked why this had not been done, Mr Dames said while work in this regard was ongoing, officials did not want to spark issues.

“The work is forthcoming,” Mr Dames said. “The Act is now updated and given the stage that we are at now we want this to be kind of gradual. We don’t want to cause any major upheaval or confusion a year or more out of elections.”

When his attention was drawn to the fact that there appeared to have been little upgrades to the process, meaning people were still expected to turn out to the polls to cast ballots despite

the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, Mr Dames insisted work has started to overhaul the process.

“There is (work) to a large degree,” Mr Dames continued.

“We have to get those critical amendments in Parliament to have them debated and now it’s the process of implementation.

Implementation is more than just saying let’s get a biometric card.

“So, we are looking at coming up with a national ID card that will allow for this to happen but there are some other things that have to fall in place even before we get there and so we’re

gradually moving to that point.

“We are trying to be very strategic because a little more than a year out from the election we don’t want to just throw it in all at once and we know this step of bringing in a permanent register, we want to get that through first.

“You know any time you reach this period anything that you introduce or any changes that you make as simple as it may look could prove to be very complicated and daunting.

“We don’t want any miscommunication, so we are being especially strategic here.”

Despite this, he said the ongoing voter registration process has been going well with plans in the works to visit a number of registration centres.

Centres for voter registration opened on Monday, in a rollout of a phased plan to expand the existing register to first time voters and people needing constituency transfers before the next general election.

The existing register currently has 186,763 voters and officials say they expect about 20,000 new voters.

However, acting Parliamentary Commissioner Lavado Duncanson was unable to say how many people have

registered so far during a press conference last week.

And despite current social distancing protocols and restrictions on gatherings, it was suggested that thousands of voters will still be expected to physically visit polling divisions to cast ballots at a time when officials have advised against super spreader events.

Mr Duncanson could only say efforts were underway to ensure voters have the safest experience possible. He also could not say where officials were in establishing a biometric voter’s card. The paper voter’s card will continue to be used, Mr Duncanson said.

PAGE 4, Friday, February 19, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

‘Plans in place to save vaccines from power outages’

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net DEPUTY Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen has maintained that the Ministry of Health has a proper contingency plan in place for the protection of COVID-19 vaccines in the event there are power outages that could compromise vaccine supply.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine — which is expected to arrive in the country soon — can be stored in normal refrigerator temperatures at 36 degrees to 46 degrees Fahrenheit for at least six months.

Meanwhile, Pfizer vaccines must be stored at -70 degrees, making them a suboptimal choice for rural areas and developing countries.

Although there are no current plans to get the Pfizer vaccine, Health Minister Renward Wells already said Cabinet has approved the purchase of a number of ultra-cold coolers budgeted at $100,000.

Yesterday, Dr Brennen expressed confidence in the government’s distribution and deployment vaccination plan even if any problems were to arise.

This comes after Texas was forced on Monday to administer more than 5,000 COVID-19 vaccines after a

TOTAL CASES

TOTAL DEATHS

8,403 179 NEWLY CONFIRMED CASES WEDNESDAY 10 CASES NEW PROVIDENCE 4 ANDROS 4 ABACO 1 GRAND BAHAMA 1

TOTAL TESTS

65,392

HOSPITALISED

15

CASES IN ICU

3

deadly winter storm pummeled the American state, causing power outages in a facility storing the doses.

Asked about the ministry’s contingency plans if such challenges were to occur in The Bahamas,

Dr Brennen replied: “The Ministry of Health has an extensive plan for the distribution, deployment of the vaccine within our archipelago so not just in New Providence and Grand Bahama, but also

social gatherings.

“I know one of the largest clusters was workplace related,” she said. “The smaller clusters, I think were a mixture of workplace and gatherings.”

Asked to confirm if one workplace was Atlantis, she replied: “The Ministry of Health, we value our interactions with the public, workplaces and other settings. We generally do not provide that level of detailed information.”

Despite this, the Chief Medical Officer said The Bahamas continues to see a downward trend of new infections, but noted the situation could change if Bahamians become relaxed and let their guards down.

Dr McMillan said the nation’s average weekly number of cases is 14, with New Providence still accounting for the most infections.

She added officials have seen an improvement with the level of compliance regarding the fifth day rapid antigen testing requirement after it was revealed last month that 40 percent of travellers required to take the test did not do so.

“The second wave of the COVID-19 wave in The Bahamas has been protracted now at 231 days and

counting,” she said. “Our collective diligence and consistency in adhering to both public health measures and emergency orders have been key to our country’s incremental or phased reopening of the economy and it will aid us in getting to the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Given the low number of COVID-19 infections, Dr McMillan also suggested officials might consider making recommendations to the competent authority for a further ease in restrictions.

Grand Bahama’s curfew was recently pushed back another hour due to the low number of new cases being reported there.

Asked if the public can expect to see similar changes for other islands, she said: “We will continue to monitor what is happening on those islands. I will not suggest that the curfews will be released as of tomorrow, but we will continue to monitor them and the graphs that were shown suggest that we may be in a position to do that going forward.”

Yesterday, health officials also revealed plans to launch a “Healthy Together” campaign, an initiative that aims to better

CLUSTERS FUELLED SPIKE IN INFECTIONS from page one She said four clusters have been identified by the ministry’s contact tracing unit over the last 14 days.

One particular cluster has had as many as 26 cases, she added.

Dr McMillan also said: “The cases associated with these clusters account for nearly 30 percent of all new cases, that is 162 reported during the last two weeks.

The clusters are linked to the islands of New Providence and Grand Bahama.

“Cluster A produced 26 COVID-19 cases. Cluster B (produced) six cases – five of whom required hospitalisations and seven contacts have been confirmed to date. Cluster C produced seven cases – two of whom require hospitalisations and nine contacts so far are associated with this cluster.

Cluster D produced eight cases, one requiring hospitalisation. Sixty contacts are associated with this cluster.

“Investigations are still underway to determine if there are further linkages of any of the other clusters.”

While giving further details about the clusters, Dr McMillan said some groups could be linked to the workplace and others to

RECOVERED

7,148

throughout the smaller territories and islands as well.

“And so in that instance, we have contingency plans in place to ensure that we pay attention to not just the ability to generate power but back up power and

also identify partners on those islands who would be able to assist should there become a power outage issue.

“And so in our islands, we have partnered with some of our other agencies like Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) or we’ve done so with the telecommunications providers on the island in other instances where persons have back up generation power and they may be able to assist us with the ability to ensure that our vaccine supply is not compromised and it’s kept at the right storage temperatures so we have backups and backups to our backups situations that we are ensuring no matter where it is, we will be able to protect our supply and we don’t end up with compromised situations.”

For her part, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan noted that ensuring safe protection of the country’s vaccine supply is not a new phenomenon for the ministry.

She said: “Protecting our national immunisation supply has been a very important consideration of the minister of health for many, many years. For the national immunisation programme, we have a facility where we keep the national supply so certainly that will be utilised in New

CHIEF Medical Officer Pearl McMillan. inform the Bahamian public about the coronavirus while also promoting health and wellness in the COVID-19 climate.

Health Minister Renward Wells said the campaign will take an “evidence based” approach.

He added: “Over the next two months the Healthy Together campaign will have a multi-channel and multi-media roll out… topics covered by the campaign include general

safety such as proper hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, cleaning and disinfecting responsible.”

As of Wednesday, total COVID cases in the country stood at 8,043 after ten additional cases were recorded. Four of those are in New Providence, another four in Andros, one in Grand Bahama and one in Abaco.

Dr McMillan said there have been cases of re-infections in The Bahamas.

Providence as it relates to any immunisations that we are planning to roll out including COVID and so certainly on all of our islands, we build on what we already have in place from our national immunisation programme and we add consistently to that.”

Officials anticipate that 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive in the country sometime between now and the end of the second quarter of the year through the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility.

Health officials have formed three “priority groups” that will determine who gets the vaccine and when. Group one includes healthcare workers, uniform branch workers and elder care providers.

Group two includes people with disabilities, people living in congregate settings, critical workers in high-risk settings, other essential service workers, people with co-morbidities and underlying chronic conditions and sea, air and ground personnel.

Group three will include all other adults.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis is expected to provide additional details on the national COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan when he addresses the nation on Sunday.

Photo: Ulric Woodside/BIS However, director of the National Reference Laboratory, Dr Indira Martin said health officials will have to confirm the matter by performing gnomic sequencing on positive samples but noted the country does not currently have the capacity for the genomic sequencing that is needed.

There have been 179 COVID-19 related deaths, with 15 still under investigation.

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 5

‘We’re out of money and headed for IMF adjustment’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis said he believes the Minnis administration is heading towards an International Monetary Fund structural adjustment programme but that he would go to the IMF only as a last resort if elected.

“The situation is desperate,” he said of the country’s fiscal affairs.

“This government is out of money, crashing on the rocks. Bahamians are suffering terribly. The Prime Minister who is now also the Minister of Finance has no idea how to manage this economic crisis, has no answers and no plans for the way forward.

“I think our financial challenge to date is leading to an IMF restructuring loan with this government.

That step for a DavisCooper administration would be the last resort.

We would have the opportunity as a new government to reverse a lot of trends and to implement our own economic plan which has as its overarching principle growing the economy

and identifying natural resources that could help us address our immediate debt burden. So, we have a plan that hopefully what we meet will give us the opportunity to buy the time to do what we think is necessary.”

Asked what a Davis administration could do in the short-term to stem the country’s fiscal woes, he said: “What can be done

initially is to restructure our debt to allow us more headroom to be able to incentivise growth of the economy and I would think that would require confidence in the government to be able to negotiate a good deal to postpone some of our debt repayment to allow us some of that headroom. We think we have a cadre of people that would allow us to inspire that

confidence in the money markets to allow us to do that.”

Mr Davis predicted the next budget will be painful for Bahamians.

The Minnis administration, he said, has “just enough sense to understand that they cannot win re-election after showing through a budget that takes more from people who have nothing left to give.”

COURT EVACUATED IN BOMB SCARE

THE SCENE yesterday as police responded to the bomb scare.

Photos: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff from page one During the incident, a handful of court staff, attorneys and civilians flocked to the parking lot and the side of the street as they waited for officials to complete their investigation.

Police gave the all-clear signal shortly before noon and judicial proceedings were able to resume as usual.

ASP Peters said although nothing suspicious was

found in the court building, officers are not categorising the incident as a prank at this time.

“At the moment we won’t say that it’s a prank nor a false alarm because individuals’ intentions, we don’t know what they are.

“This matter could (have affected) not only just the building itself, but the perimeters of the building could have been compromised as well. So our officers are encouraged to continue their investigations.”

CALL FOR MORE POLICE AFTER CHIPPINGHAM ROBBERY

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

A SMALL business owner yesterday appealed for more police presence in the Chippingham area after an armed man robbed her convenience store on Wednesday night of all the day’s earnings.

Nadia Minnis, owner of I & M Drug Store, told The Tribune yesterday she’s been left discouraged by the incident after she took over the store to continue part of her father’s legacy.

He opened the store in 1976.

When the store at Churchill Avenue reopened last year, it was warmly received by area residents who were happy to have a small shop in the community conveniently located in the heart of the area.

And she was happy to help in that way.

However, Ms Minnis said she fears small businesses will be targeted to their detriment, after the store was robbed.

On Wednesday night, as the shop’s clerk was closing, a man entered the store asking to buy a drink.

Once he was let in and got the drink, he pulled out a gun and demanded cash from the register.

He also escaped with the clerk’s cell phone, chain and watch.

Ms Minnis said: “But you know it’s sad because as a young entrepreneur in the community, like my dad had that shop from 1976, I

only recently took it over last year.

“This is the first time an incident like this has happened. For a period it was closed but we opened it back up, but you know people in the community said thank you for reopening the store. We really need a convenience store around here and they were just saying it was good we came back in and I really feel like we were helping out the community in a small way.

“So, when you have these guys coming in and targeting the small business owners then the small business owners are the ones that are helping the neighbourhood and want to be there for the neighbourhood—that is a concern of mine.”

“My message to the young people is to say these small stores are here to help you.

“We try to stay within the same prices as the food store, which could be a little bit more difficult for us seeing that we have a lot more overhead (expenses).”

She said the incident has also made her concerned for her own safety as she too closes up the store from time to time.

“I have concerns about being in the store because it could have been me and he reacted by giving the money. You just don’t know.

He left, which was good, but a lot of people don’t leave. So, I am afraid. I don’t know what possibly

else we could do.”

She thinks there could be more police presence in the area.

“More police presence will help. We need that even if they just come around the time when they know most

businesses are closing.”

She said a complaint was made to police and security footage of the incident

has circulated, leading to tips pouring in with leads on who could be the perpetrator.

PAGE 6, Friday, February 19, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

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

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

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Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

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

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Next election will be a dirty fight IN case anyone was under any illusions that the next election is going to be a clean fight, the sparring in today’s Tribune between the FNM and the PLP ought to dismiss such notions.

In a press conference yesterday, PLP leader Philip ‘Brave’ Davis accused the FNM of funding “toxic, deceptive” political advertisements that have appeared on social media sites such as Facebook.

Last night, FNM chairman was firing back about the likes of Bahamas Press and sites such as the Gallery and Bahamas Against Corruption which he says “come with distasteful things against the FNM”.

Mr Davis said: “I can handle rough and tough politics. I have no problem with that. I am talking about how this FNM’s dirty political tactics are more deceitful and more dangerous than anything we’ve seen in our country’s modern history.”

That’s quite some claim, considering some of the antics in past election campaigns.

For his part, Mr Culmer said of the posts circulating against the FNM: “From day one these guys were on every media platform with the filthiest and most vile memes you could come up with.”

You’ll notice that each of them busily points to the other side without denouncing anyone on their own side taking part in such things.

Mr Davis, at least, says “it is long past time for a public conversation in this country about the role that Facebook is playing in our democracy” – which is a nice way of saying something while saying nothing. If you want to start the conversation, Mr Davis, start it. Let’s hear about who is behind these groups.

Let’s hear about who is funding some of these so-called news sites which are less news, more smears.

If you want these kinds of advertisements to end, let’s hear what each of you plans to do if someone associated with your party is revealed to be connected to them. Will you expel them from the party immediately?

It is absolutely true that social media has played an increasing part in election campaigns around the world – and one of the great hazards is that it puts claims in front of people without it being fact checked. A social media post can claim anything – and there’s no independent reporter checking the details, or right of reply from the opposition.

If The Tribune posts a story, you know right where to come to complain.

If some random account on Facebook does so, that can vanish into the night with no way to counter the claim.

The danger has been clear to see from the effects of memes being circulated during the past two US presidential elections – prompting the rise of misinformation and allowing lies to spread farther and faster than the truth.

Here’s what is being proposed right now to tackle that ahead of the next Bahamian election: Absolutely nothing.

So when you see these posts, use your head. Ask yourself who’s saying this and why. Check it against reliable mainstream sources. If it’s a source posting it that can’t be called to account in a court of law if they’re telling malicious lies? Take it with several pinches of salt.

And don’t share these things if you’re not sure they’re true. And if any party criticises fake social media posts without warning their own members of the consequences of posting the same? Take that criticism with a pinch of salt too.

The election season isn’t quite here yet – but the gloves are already off.

Buyer beware

NYGARD Cay is up for sale, it seems.

There was a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance on a real estate website with a price tag of $59m – despite its crumbling condition having been left abandoned for so long now – and it looks like it is headed to auction if owner Peter Nygard has his way.

Mr Nygard, of course, is facing a number of legal battles right now – the most serious being a series of allegations of sex offences, for which he is in custody in Canada pending extradition to the US. He also faces a legal fight here in The Bahamas – with his opponents estimating he owes them $7m from the numerous court orders against him.

Oddly enough, the appraisal of the property – be it that $59m or the $20m it is rumoured the auction bidding will start at – is far higher than the $14m given in an independent appraisal carried out by Save The Bays.

So buy it and you might end up with a hole in your pocket to match the holes in the property.

It seems of course that Mr Nygard might well want to sell the property before it is seized to pay the debts he owes here.

The Tribune will continue to follow this matter – so watch this space.

Readers debate issues READERS have been posting their reactions to the news on tribune242.com.

After Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin said she wants the Minnis administration to scratch plans to increase Water and Sewerage Corporation rates, Moncurcool had this to say: “Now you see why we are a backward nation. The MP classes us as a developing nation. So that’s why we keep operating like a banana republic. Here is a classic political who was in Cabinet and that is her vision of The Bahamas.”

That prompted this reply from BONEFISH: “The Bahamas is a developing country. I do not care what you believe or fantasy. Why don’t you visit some of the islands in MICAL or let the people of Ragged Island tell you what life is like on that island? To paraphrase a Bahamian living aboard with a PHD, Bahamians live in their own little world. Especially the ones living on New Providence and the port area of Grand Bahama.”

Bahamianson said: “That’s the only thing the Bahamian government can do well, raise taxes. It is such a

copout. Even I can be a minister – You have a flat tyre?

Raise taxes. Your stomach hurts? Don’t worry, just increase taxes. Can ministers even think to solve problems without raising taxes?”

Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister voiced optimism that Water & Sewerage customers are “prepared” for price increases as he hinted they will no longer receive their first 3,000 gallons for free.

Dawes asked: “If the first 3,000 is free, why do I have a minimum charge of $36 for the first 3,000? If people are using less than that then they will see a price reduction (if I am reading my bill correctly) as I assume they will be getting rid of this charge.

In which case they will make less money. Or does he mean they want to charge it as well as the minimum charge?”

National Security Minister Marvin Dames suggested

that voters who have relocated after being displaced

by Hurricane Dorian will have to register to vote in their new constituency.

That prompted this prediction from Tribanon: “Minnis will be calling a snap national general election by the end of May at the very latest.”

Proudloudandfnm wasn’t so sure: “Why does everybody think Minnis will ring the bell early? He must know he doesn’t stand a chance, you’d think he’d want to wait ‘til the last possible second...”

AlexAlexander said: “This is stupid... If Bahamians overseas can cast their ballots, surely displaced voters can vote and cast their ballots for areas they lived before being displaced...

Something is very fishy...”

And in The Tribune’s current online poll, we’re asking readers if they would prefer to see an earlier general election – rather than in 2022. At the time of going to press, the majority of those voting – 82 percent – were NOT in favour of an earlier election.

• Don’t miss your chance to join the conversation on tribune242.com.

Time to break cycle EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE reasons for the upcoming snap election (the first in Bahamian history) are as clear as daylight. The unprecedented fiscal challenges posed by a year of lost economic activity have the government facing a dilemma long in the making.

Any attempt to borrow money (the favored tactic of this administration), will be met with demands from would-be creditors to either dramatically cut spending or to reform taxes (either by increasing present ones, or shifting to new sources).

The former choice will outrage a population already abused by years of irresponsible austerity, while the latter will force the FNM to face up to the stark reality of an egregiously regressive tax system that spares the rich and squeezes the poor.

While the FNM knows it will face civil disorder if it follows its instincts and slams the poor with another VAT increase, it simply cannot bring itself to follow the entire civilized world and make wealthier residents contribute their fair share of taxes. That just isn’t in its DNA. Besides, its greedy and shortsighted paymasters would never tolerate it.

So instead they choose an election that they are certain to lose.

The Bahamian electorate has tossed out every incumbent since 2002. While most

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net voters have probably never articulated the underlying reasons (fixating instead on short term media-driven narratives), they should be clear to any thoughtful observer.

Since the end of the Pindling era, the basic policy thrust of this country has been toward a neo-liberal model, favoring a trickledown economic agenda and assuming (against all of the evidence and experience of the last 30 years) that simply concentrating wealth at the top and taxes at the bottom will magically bring growth.

Hence our taxes (always regressive) have become dramatically more so with the introduction and increase of VAT, while vast tax cuts are given even to controversial investors (like Disney) and ministers promise rich Bahamians and foreign home-owners respectively that there’ll be no progressive taxes on high incomes or luxury properties.

Meanwhile, average wages have been outstripped by a cost of living that increases with each new tax, fee, charge, (Bahamasair) fare-increase and parcel of Bahamian land that a wealthy realtor sells to a wealthy foreigner.

While the FNM is the proud champion of these

insanely stupid policies, the PLP is guilty of following or at least not reversing them.

For its part, the media either tacitly approves or is itself distracted from the real issues through genuine ignorance.

And it is these increasingly bipartisan policies that have created the conditions that give the electorate a well-founded sense of diminishing living standards and individual prospects, which in turn manifests as anger at incumbents every five years.

Mr Davis and company will only have one shortlived opportunity to break this cycle by reversing the underlying causes of a rightly disaffected population. To do this they must drastically restructure the tax system by rebalancing it in favour of taxes on wealth, property and income and eliminating or reducing consumption taxes. They must also raise minimum wage, bring spending in line with international norms and introduce real universal healthcare.

If they do these things, the boost to consumption will bring about the kind of economic growth not seen in generations and will permit the middle class to grow again.

If they do not, in five years they will lose an election and the cycle will begin all over again.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, February 17, 2021.

Girls and school closures EDITOR, The Tribune.

IT IS very sad that our girl children have to endure this challenge of walking long distances while on their menstrual cycles.

Rural children, particularly the girl child will be the most affected by the closure of schools due to the COVID-19-induced period, legal consultant and educationist.

I am very disgusted that most rural children have not benefitted from the e-learning facilities provided during the COVID-19 lockdown as they did not have access to electronic gadgets. Some progressive steps had been taken by the government to improve the education of the girl child; there was still need to ensure that more

girls were admitted into university programmers.

It’s a disgrace that there are still instances whereby girls are not prioritised by their families in terms of attaining education.

For instance, there is also the need for an increase in the number of girls admitted to higher institutions of learning and universities. It is disappointing that rural girls also faced challenges of travelling very long distances to schools, as well as lack of access to sanitary wear. Students walk long distances to access schools.

It is very sad that our girl children have to endure this challenge of walking long distances while on their menstrual cycles.

There is no support for rural girls during their menstrual cycles, and so

they must not be forced to do some activities that they feel uncomfortable with at schools as it reduces their levels of concentration during studies. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou recently said that the challenges of walking long distances and hygiene complications faced by girls were the major complications affecting their learning journey, but he did not come with the solution.

The reckless and heartless ZANU-PF government did not have access to electronic gadgets for the girl child.

KUDZAI CHIKOWORE London, England February 15, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 7

Appeal court quashes harbouring conviction

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

During her trial, a magistrate found her guilty of the offence and fined her $3,000, or in default of payment of THE Court of Appeal the fine, two years in prison. yesterday ordered that The appellant appealed a woman who had been the sentence after arguing fined $3,000 for harbour- the verdict handed down to ing an illegal immigrant be her was “unreasonable” as reimbursed, after ruling the it could not be supported by magistrate could not have the evidence of the case. found the charge against Yesterday, Justices Sir the appellant proved.

Michael Barnett, Jon Isaacs In July 2019, police and and Roy Jones quashed immigration officers vis- Murat-Vesilor’s conviction, ited the home of Jacintha after concluding the magMurat-Vesilor to check for istrate’s decision to convict illegal migrants. When offic- the appellant could not be ers searched the residence, “sustained”. they discovered a female According to a judgment hiding in a bedroom closet. posted on the Crown’s webMurat-Vesilor was subse- site, when officers found the quently arrested and later woman hiding in Muratcharged with harbouring Vesilor’s closet, she was an undocumented migrant. in the front room of the

residence, some 20 to 30 feet away.

“Officer Bonaby questioned the female, not in the presence of the appellant, and the female told the officer that she was a Haitian national who had come to the country by boat in January 2019,” according to the court documents.

“The female was then taken to where the appellant was; and I/O Bonaby questioned the appellant about the female. The appellant responded that the female had come to her home two days earlier and she was helping the female because the appellant’s sister had asked her to do so.”

According to the judgment, Murat-Vesilor told

officers she knew the woman was in her home, but said she did not know her immigration status. It was also reported that no evidence of the migrant’s status was taken from any witness during the trial, other than the testimony of Officer Bonaby.

The panel’s ruling, delivered by Justice Isaacs, noted that the offence with which Murat-Vesilor was charged, comprised several factors that had to be disclosed in the prosecution’s case.

“For example, the person being harboured had to be an ‘illegal person’ and for that to be established, the prosecution had to demonstrate that the female entered The Bahamas from

a place outside The Bahamas, that such entry was without the leave of an immigration officer or elsewhere than at an authorised port, or at such other place as an immigration officer may in any particular case allow,” he stated.

“No such evidence was led. In his judgment, the senior magistrate referenced the female as ‘the illegal’, and it appears that he approached the case on the basis that the female was an ‘illegal person’ but without ascertaining whether or not she fell to be considered as such a person under the Act bearing in mind the evidence that had been adduced by the prosecution.”

Justice Isaacs said if the

magistrate had addressed that issue first, he would not have concluded that the woman was an “illegal person”.

“In the absence of such a conclusion,” he said, “he could not have proceeded to find the charge against the appellant proved so as to provide the basis on which to convict her.

“We are satisfied that for the reasons expressed earlier in our judgment, the decision of the senior magistrate to convict the appellant cannot be sustained. We quash the conviction and set aside the sentence imposed on the appellant. The fine of $3,000, having already been paid by the appellant, is to be returned to her.”

MAN ACCUSED OF RAPING 74-YEAR-OLD WOMAN

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A 36-year-old man of Eight Mile Rock was charged in the Freeport Magistrate’s Court yesterday with attempted rape.

Eric O’Neil Strachan, of Andros Town, Hanna Hill, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Debbye Ferguson. He was not represented by an attorney.

It is alleged that on February 15, at Eight Mile Rock, the accused attempted to have sex with a 74-year-old woman without her consent.

Strachan was not

ERIC O’Neil Strachan outside court yesterday.

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

MAN DEPORTED ‘AFTER LIVING IN BUSHES AND EATING COCONUTS’

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A HAITIAN man who claimed he lived in bushes and survived off coconuts after he travelled to The Bahamas on a wooden sloop was yesterday fined $300 before being deported back to his home country.

Gemsly Phanor, 36, appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis after he was found living in New Providence without the legal documents required to reside in the country.

He pleaded guilty to one count of illegal landing during the arraignment.

The court was told that a team of immigration

officers conducted a small exercise on the western side of Nassau on February 12. When they saw Phanor, they approached him and questioned him about his status in the country.

After he was unable to produce proof of his status, he was cautioned and taken to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre for further processing. Checks of the system revealed that Phanor had applied for a work permit that had been denied. When questioned, he also said he had migrated to the country illegally.

Speaking through an interpreter, Phanor told the magistrate he was in Cape Haitian when he saw some people leaving on a

boat and he asked them where they were going. He said that after the men told him they were going on a voyage, he asked to tag along and they allowed him to because he was young. Phanor said he had no family in the country, so when he arrived in New Providence he lived in the bushes and ate coconuts to stay alive. Phanor claimed he eventually found people who helped him get decent food and shelter.

After listening to his explanation, Magistrate Davis accepted his guilty plea and fined him $300 which he paid. Phanor was subsequently turned over to the Director of Immigration for deportation.

BAR ASSOCIATION EXPECTS TIGHTER SCRUTINY

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Bar Association president Kahlil Parker anticipates that procedures for admission to the prison will be “more robustly scrutinised” after a woman was sentenced for using a fake lawyer’s ID to smuggle drugs into the facility.

“In the immediate aftermath, I do anticipate that the procedure for admission to the prison will be more robustly scrutinised and as an association, we will be reaching out to the prison to make sure that they have as much support from us as possible to verify

the identity of persons presenting themselves as attorneys,” he said during a recent interview.

“Well, what we will do is make available a list of our members and when in doubt we will give them an example of our ID. The ID used in this instance is not a very good example or a very good copy of our actual official ID. So we’ll make sure that they know what an official ID looks like and that they can cross reference in the face of suspicious documentation and we will encourage our members all of them to have current IDs and proceed from there.”

Although this is not the first time someone has

pretended to be an attorney, Mr Parker said this is the first instance that he is aware of a person presenting a forged or a mockup of the ID. “We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding how she purported to have secured that ID to make sure there are not any vulnerabilities that we can plug with other IDs. This ID was not produced in the way that our actual IDs are produced...so we want to know if there’s a vendor producing fraudulent IDs so we can put a stop to that,” he explained.

The woman in question was sentenced to 15 months this week after admitting to the offence.

required to enter a plea to the charge.

Prosecutor Inspector Anthony Sawyer objected to bail and said the prosecution intends to have the matter fast-tracked to the Supreme Court by a voluntary bill of indictment.

Strachan asked the magistrate about being given bail.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Ferguson informed him she was not able to grant him bail, but told him he has the right to apply to the Supreme Court for pretrial release.

She instructed the court bailiff to present Strachan with the application.

With the application

forms in hand, the handcuffed accused said: “I am not a good reader.”

He then asked if he could pass the forms to his mother who was expected to bring him a change of clothes at 4pm. “Can I call my mother and talk to her for the first time, please?”

Strachan asked.

The magistrate asked the officer to allow Strachan to make a call to his mother so she could assist him with filling out the bail application form.

She adjourned the case to May 19. Strachan was remanded at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

PAGE 8, Friday, February 19, 2021

THE TRIBUNE PLP leader Philip ‘Brave’ Davis in a press conference yesterday.

Photo: Racardo Thomas

S E K A F P E E D AND CATFIGHTS THIS week we were introduced to the idea of “deepfakes” in our politics, and watched an unnecessary catfight play out in public.

DEEPFAKE NEWS For those who don’t have enough time in one lifetime to keep up with the latest tech jargon, allow me to explain “deepfakes” to you.

It’s the latest scary technology that enables you to alter digital video whereby you can manipulate someone’s

A Comic’s View

By INIGO ‘NAUGHTY’ ZENICAZELAYA

face, body, and voice to make it appear they did or said something they (in reality) did not.

While this tech – which can be had by purchasing expensive software or even a cheap app – has been a

concern for large nations because of the damage malicious actors can do, little old us never really had to think about it that seriously.

Who would bother to deepfake any of our

Graveside Service For Leila Louise Knowles, 71 a resident of St. Alban’s Drive, will be held at Old Trail Cemetery, Abundant Life Road on Saturday, February 20, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. Officiating will be Rev. Alfred Josey, assisted by Minister Samuel Williams.

Precious memories will remain in the hearts of her sons: Edward and Leslie Knowles; daughters: Darnell Knowles and Maxine Knowles Curtis; brother: Zenith Higgs; sister: Pamela Strawter; grandchildren: Edricka, Kishlyne Knowles, Jamie Johnson, Leslie Knowles Jr., Britney Bain, Crystal Knowles, Ebony, Deangelo Jr. and Deante’ Curtis; great grandchildren: Stephanique and Trey; son-in-law: Deangelo Curtis; sisters-inlaw: Mavis Gibson, Gretas Pennington and Brendarine Green, Elizaeth Lewis and Harriett Gibson, Brenda Higgs; brother-inlaw: Tracy Knowles; cousins: Pat Belle, Gloria Ramsey; good friend: Miriam Curtis; numerous relatives & friends: Arnold Curtis & family, Mr. Phillip Johnson & family, Mr. Bennett Minnis, Tommy and Shawn Turnquest & family, Olgaline Smith & family, Edna Bonaby & family, Val Cooper, Learline Collie & family, Arimentha Stubbs & family, Shirlean Murphy, Betty, Patrice, Winifred Neely, Tina, Mr. Williams & family, Rev. Alfred Josey & family, Mr. Colin Johnson & family, Linda Knowles & family, Donna Higgs, Emily Morley & family, Mrs. Sears & family, the Principal & staff at Sandilands Primary, Department of Lands & Survey staff, Wendy’s, C. H. Reeves staff, L.R.U. staff, Greta Brown & family, Mission Through Faith family, Renaldo Russell & family, Stephon Russell & family, Goodman & family, Ministry of Education staff, Pauline Adderley & family, Collie’s Barber shop family and others too numerous to mention.

Thanks to: the Female Surgical 1 at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Friends may pay their last respects at Demeritte’s Funeral Home, Market Street, from 10-5:00 p.m. on Friday.

politicians, who often freely be haphazard. Mr Davis (and openly) damage their is making an extraordiown reputations for all to nary claim, which requires see? extraordinary evidence.

Still, now that it’s silly And voters have a right season, fake news and to hold to account anyone deepfakes are on the rise, who dares to employ deepaccording to Opposition fakes to control us.

Leader Philip “Brave” Strangely enough, Davis. though, in the same presser, At a last-minute press Brave reminded us that conference held at Pro- “Facebook profits by ampligressive Liberal Party fying lies”. Then he said Headquarters on Thurs- accused sex-abuser Peter day, Brave denounced Nygard was just “a guy who fake news, deepfakes, viral paid for some T-shirts ten memes, and fake accounts years ago”, despite video littering Bahamians’ digi- showing PLP Cabinet mintal spaces. He slammed isters bending the knee at Facebook as a veritable Nygard Cay not that long “fake news” politics drug ago. den while unironically liveGeorge Orwell warned streaming on Facebook. in his book ‘1984’: “The At one point, the phrase party told you to reject “garbage juice” was used, the evidence of your eyes and the stench of modern and ears. It was their final, politicking came full circle. most essential command.

It’s not His heart sank uncommon for ‘Deepfakes as he thought of politicians to are not only the enormous complain about power.” That was media or fair- dangerous; my cue to log ness of ads even they are out. as they employ democracy armies of online trolls themselves, destabilising. but this was Accusations of different. their existence Indeed, the When I logged amount of dirty in our system back in, my tricks and vomit- shouldn’t be WhatsApp was inducing material haphazard. a wasteland of I have seen so messages detailfar is genuinely Mr Davis is ing the Fred astounding. But making an by introduc- extraordinary Mitchell versus Pakesia Parkering “deepfakes” Edgecombe to the con- claim, which backyard brawl. versation, our requires As a personal would-be leader extraordinary rule, I usually do is pre-emptively not write about asking us to evidence.’ the West End automatically MP because we disregard as fake any distasteful video (or two) are related.

Now that I have disclosed which may come to light.

The problem is he did so that fact, I will merely walk without showing us proof you through the events that that our politics have transpired this week withindeed sunk to that new out (much) of my usual witty commentary. low.

A Facebook user asked Deepfakes are not only dangerous; they are Pakesia what she had done democracy destabilising. for her constituency. To Accusations of their exist- which she replied, “Enough ence in our system shouldn’t to ensure the PLP never

MEET YOUR MATCH

sees it again.”

PLP chairman Fred Mitchell then claimed the Facebook user as “one of our supporters” in a voice note.

Mitchell accused ParkerEdgecombe of “begging to join the PLP” two weeks ago. He then took to that “amplifier of lies”, Facebook, to proclaim he would “tell the entire story” of her meeting with him.

Fred even brought his party leader, Brave Davis, into the bust-up, saying Parker-Edgecombe went to the “GB airport to see the Leader and [himself] and to request [they] give her two weeks and then she would join the PLP”.

Feel free to take a moment. I know, it’s a lot to follow.

Let’s continue.

Once Mitchell’s statements went viral and articles questioning the integrity of the accusations were out there, Pakesia issued her own statement: “It is a blatant lie.”

Asked at his press conference on Thursday to corroborate the bizarre accusations, PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis reportedly confirmed he has NOT been in conversations with Pakesia Parker Edgecombe about joining the PLP. Say what now?

To say Fred is left flapping in the wind with this wild story is an understatement.

It’s strange that with so many other important issues happening in the country, he chose this to be his hill to die on. Juicy stories of alleged clandestine drive-by meetings may get tongues wagging, but they won’t feed bellies. Or keep the lights on.

The only thing I can take away from the whole affair is the answer to that ageold question of what would happen if a Fox Hiller “buck up on” on a West Ender.

Now we know.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 9

Why are we blind to what outsiders can see?

ISLAND HOUSE, above, and the Hurricane Hole Marina pictured from atop the bridge.

By Diane Phillips

SOMETIMES it takes someone from afar to show us what is right in front of our faces.

Take the case of Hurricane Hole Marina, an iconic landmark that few of us ever gave a second thought to unless we happened to sail by it or enjoy the mahi-mahi burgers at who could have rallied the the old Green Parrot. That same resources Kosoy and somewhat makeshift, but his team did and created eternally popular, restau- an urban oasis. But they rant is gone now, the area didn’t. Nor did they see flattened, making way for the acreage directly across part of what will become a the street from the Office nautical based downtown of the Prime Minister on Paradise Island. There’s the old Roy West/NatWest/ no doubt it will be hugely Coutts property where multi-million-dollar successful, both for the the developer, Sterling Hur- Goldwynn luxury condo ricane Hole, and for the development is rising, nor public that will patronise its did they pour their parents’ restaurants, shops, marina or their own money into rescuing the stately Royal and office space.

But this piece is not Bahamian and creating a about them nor even their Sandals, nor building The decision to take a tired and Pointe, or developing Port underutilized piece of geog- New Providence, Palm Cay raphy and transform it into or significant properties in a vibrant mini-metropolis. Exuma.

Why are Bahamians so This piece, in fact, has little to do with Sterling except reluctant to invest in the number one industry, touras it serves as an example. ism, in their This piece is ‘How many own country? about us.

The Bahamas Why didn’t we times have we Chamber of think of it? Why did it take some- driven over the Commerce and one from afar to Paradise Island Employers Confederation, like see and act upon bridge and many promiwhat Bahamians nent voices were blind to or looked down in financial turned a blind and neglected services, coneye to? Even to see what a sistently points I did not swalout the challow that concept Canadian like lenges of access until Sunday David Kosoy to capital. Those when a friend saw when he challenges and I were are real, but walking the peered at the let’s face it, if Paradise Island same sight?’ others can raise bridge and I development looked across at the construction site, monies through funds they the marina expanding over manage, why can’t Bahathe upland that was once mian groups do the same? a parking lot, the multi- There are hundreds of storey buildings appearing funds listed on the Securities Commission of The near-completion.

How many times have Bahamas. While there have we driven over the Paradise been and continue to be Island bridge and looked many Bahamians who sucdown and neglected to see ceed in related businesses, excursions, what a Canadian like David especially Kosoy saw when he peered attractions, restaurants and at the same sight? Yes, fast-food establishments, Kosoy has lived on Para- few are willing to take that dise Island for a long time, leap upward, bridging the but he still had the keen frightening chasm between eye to see that which was serving food and serving staring him in the face and hotel guests.

In New Providence and act on it. I don’t know how long negotiations to buy Grand Bahama, you can the property from Atlan- count them on one hand tis owners, Brookfield, – the George Myers and took or how intense they late Roy Bowe group who were. I can only imagine. opened Comfort Suites on But I do know this. There Paradise Island in 1999, 22 are plenty of Bahamians years ago!

In Bimini, Nassau entrepreneur Neville Stuart created the legendary Bimini Big Game Club attracting the likes of Ernest Hemingway.

The Rupert Roberts, Jr. group operated Bimini Sands.

In Cat Island, the Armbrister family ran Fernandez Bay Villas, and there are numerous other examples, including Hope Town Harbour Lodge in Abaco.

But the vast majority of known properties in The Bahamas were built by or operated by non-Bahamians. Even Small Hope Bay Lodge in Andros, now as Bahamian as anything you will find, was originally built by then-Canadian Dick Birch in 1960. The Birch family has since been major contributors to Bahamian culture and the good news about the foreign-fed, Bahamian-bred blend of touristic development is that eventually the Bahamian in the culture ascends. Yet the reality exists, it did not originate that way.

The history of others going where Bahamians, even rich Bahamians, feared to tread is packed with examples. One notable exception is the Holowesko family who built The Island House, a stunning near-Zen-like sophisticated addition to the hospitality offerings of The Bahamas.

It’s easy for others resting on the soft cushion of their resentment to criticize families of wealth even if most of that was earned by the current generation.

The publicly expressed resentment makes it easy to understand why many Bahamians are reluctant to expose themselves to public scrutiny so the Holowesko family which generally pre-

THE MINISTER HAS BARED HIS TEETH JUST like Bahamians are the last to recognise the value of what’s in our own hospitality accommodations backyard, those from abroad have been reaping the benefits – or some would say raping the resources – of our marine life for decades.

Kudos to Environment Minister Romauld Ferreira for kicking butt. Ferreira not only brought us legislation creating a body of environmental protection laws last year, he started this year off right with reigning in foreigners who have been seizing minerals and marine life from our seas in the name of research and development for decades.

We only have ourselves to blame ourselves for not monetizing the use of our

waters just as we finally are our air space.

If those who took also gave and contributed significantly to our economy, leniency would be understandable but one-way love affairs rarely work out in life or in business.

Ferreira started off slow, but he is fired up now and, in this environmental preservationist’s mind, has done more to protect the environment of The Bahamas than anyone in a similar position who came before him. Maybe the timing was right as well as Bahamians become more outraged at plundering and more sensitive to the fragile and expendable nature of our resources.

Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister

Michael Pintard has also shown strong prophylactic tentacles and it’s hard not to understand why the two ministries are not joined together because how do you talk about environment in The Bahamas without talking about marine resources? But what do I know? I steer clear of partisan politics and only venture out when the environment is concerned.

Just as a token reminder – remember when Save The Bays was blatantly falsely accused of being an insurrectionist movement?

Ferreira and Pintard were both directors as was I along with Bahamians who invested in The Bahamas like Stuart Cove. Just FYI.

fers to stay in the background deserves even more credit for taking the dive into tourism, miles out of their comfort zone.

As everyone calls for a new and smarter economy, arguing we have outgrown the Stafford Sands model of big box hotels (though the jury is still out on that) and urging that we find innovative ways to move

forward, maybe the time has come for more locals to step into up to the courageous path of those folks who came from abroad, saw a vision and dug their heels into hospitality, welcoming visitors to the most beautiful little country on earth. Remember the

lesson of one of the greatest hoteliers of all time, the recently deceased Butch Stewart. Before he created the now renowned Sandals brand, Stewart had little more going for him than a history of peddling the family’s appliance sales business and a task to fill a dilapidated building turning it into a place where people would want to stay and the family could unload some of its overstocked appliances.

PAGE 10, Friday, February 19, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

How a mass suicide by slaves sparked the legend of flying Africans

By THOMAS HALLOCK Professor of English, University of South Florida IN MAY 1803 a group of enslaved Africans from present-day Nigeria, of Ebo or Igbo descent, leaped from a singlemasted ship into Dunbar Creek off St Simons Island in Georgia. A slave agent concluded the Africans drowned and died in an apparent mass suicide. But oral traditions would go on to claim the Eboes either flew or walked over water back to Africa.

For generations, island residents, known as the Gullah-Geechee people, passed down the tale. When folklorists arrived in the 1930s, Igbo Landing and the story of the flying African assumed a mythological place in African American culture.

Though the site carries no bronze plaque and remains unmarked on tourist maps, it has become a symbol of the traumatising legacy of trans-Atlantic slavery.

Poets, artists, filmmakers, jazz musicians, griots, novelists such as Toni Morrison and pop stars like Beyoncé have all told versions of the tale.

They’ll often switch up the story’s details to reflect different times and places. Yet the heart of the original tale, one of longing for freedom, beats through each of these retellings. The stories continue to resonate because those yearnings – whether

IGBO Landing painting by LaRue (Dee Williams)

they’re from the cargo hold of a sloop or the confines of a prison cell – remain just as intense today.

We bring the expertise of academics to the public.

SOURCING THE STORY As an academic trained in literary history, I always look for the reasons behind a story’s origins, and how stories travel or change over time. Variations of the flying African myth have been recorded from Arkansas to Canada, Cuba and Brazil.

Yet even as the many versions cut across the Black diaspora, the legend has coalesced around a single place: St Simons. An entry in the Georgia Encyclopedia makes a direct correlation between the 1803 rebellion mass suicide and the later, literary folkloric tradition.

Why? One reason is geographic.

St Simons, part of the archipelago that stretches from Florida to North Carolina, long remained separate from the mainland United States. This isolation allowed African customs to survive, where elsewhere they were assimilated or vanished. Historian Melissa L Cooper describes the Gullah-Geechee people as cultural conservators, tasked in popular culture with the duties of preservation.

Serendipity also played a role in siting the story.

When a causeway from mainland Brunswick to St. Simons was built in 1924, folklorists literally followed a paved route into the past.

During the New Deal, the Works Project Administration funded an oral history project that involved interviewing formerly enslaved people, and the flying African story was recorded in “Drums and Shadows,” the classic volume that published interviews from the project.

One Works Project Administration interviewer recorded St Simons raconteur Floyd White asking, “Heahd about Ibo’s Landing. Das duh place weah dey bring duh Ibos obuh in a slabe ship”.

They “staht singing and de mahch right down in duh ribbuh” – Dunbar Creek – and “mahch back tuh Africa.” But they never get home, White adds: “Dey gits drown”.

Floyd White is a key source on the flying African, though as the hackneyed written transcription of his interview suggests, questions linger.

The Ebos, by his account, walk, rather than fly, across the water. White allows

that he does not personally believe the myth; he says they drowned.

STORIES CHANGE, SONG REMAINS THE SAME The flying African, despite a genealogy rooted in St Simons, has no single point of origin. A shifting present continues to rewrite the past. These differences across versions only underscore the strength of the myth’s central core.

Take how music is used.

In almost every account of Igbo Landing, the Africans sing before they fly.

They chant in a dialect of Bantu, one of Africa’s 500 languages: “Kum buba yali kum buba tambe, / Kum kunka yalki kum kunka tambe.” Those words don’t have a direct translation; the words, more often, get described as secret, magical or lost.

But since the 1960s, in many retellings, the Bantu has been updated to the hymn “Oh Freedom,” an anthem first recorded after the Civil War and later popularised during the civil rights movement.

The storyteller Auntie Zya recounts the Igbo Landing legend in a YouTube post. To make the tale more relevant to children today, she launches into the familiar refrain, “And before I’d be a slave”, using the hymn to bridge the myth and a long struggle for civil rights.

And then there’s Toni Morrison’s novel “Song of Solomon”, the very title of which links music and flight. In the story, the novel’s main character, Milkman Dead, pieces together mysterious lyrics to recover a hidden past.

Once he understands the song, he leaps from a Virginia cliff and flies away. Or is it suicide? The ending is famously ambiguous.

Toni Morrison talks about how, as a child, she was inspired by stories of enslaved African people flying home to their freedom.

HEALING THROUGH FLIGHT Like all powerful myths, Igbo Landing and the flying African transcend boundaries of time and space.

Experimental filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison perceives memories from Dunbar Creek as an

“ancestral map”. In a poetic narrative she lays over a dance montage, she muses: “Dreams are reality, time is relative, and the past, present, and future are melding together”. Allison suggests that the cross-generational continuity of the myth nurtures her, sustaining her voice through centuries of violence.

Children’s author Virginia Hamilton, likewise, offers the flying African as a script for healing. Her most famous story, “The People Could Fly,” broaches the difficult subject of the Middle Passage, the leg of the slave trade in which Africans, tightly packed in slave ships, were transported across the Atlantic Ocean.

Hamilton explains why some Africans had to leave their wings behind when forced to America. “They couldn’t take their wings across the water on the slave ships,” she writes.

“Too crowded, don’t you know.”

HOW DOES A CULTURE GET THOSE WINGS BACK? Where some storytellers linger over haunting images, such as the chains supposedly still heard in Dunbar Creek, artists such as Morrison, Allison and Hamilton look forward. Their stories lay the groundwork for recovery.

Hamilton presents “The People Could Fly” as a direct form of hope. In a preface to her collection of that title, she explains how tales “created out of sorrow” carry Black America forward. She reminds readers: “Keep close all the past that was good, and that remains full of promise.” A painful past must be summoned in order to be redeemed.

Igbo Landing starkly illustrated, in 1803, how the choice between slavery and death was not a choice at all. Slavery, sociologist Orlando Patterson wrote, was also social death.

But it’s important to remember that joy doubles as a form of decolonization.

Music threads through every version of the flying African legend. Magic words propel fieldworkers into the sky, “Kum yali kum buba tambe.”

In song, our spirits lift.

And who among us does not dream of flight?

• Originally published on theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 11

US ‘READY’ TO JOIN TALKS ON IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL WASHINGTON Associated Press

THE Biden administration says it’s ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

The State Department said yesterday the US would accept an invitation from the European Union to attend a meeting of the participants in the original

agreement. The US has not participated in a meeting of those participants since former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.

Such an invitation has not yet been issued but one is expected shortly, following discussions earlier yesterday between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British, French and German counterparts.

“The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Earlier yesterday, Blinken and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany

and France urged Iran to allow continued United Nations nuclear inspections and stop nuclear activities that have no credible civilian use. They warned that Iran’s actions could threaten delicate efforts to bring the US back into the 2015 deal and end sanctions damaging Iran’s economy.

Iran is “playing with fire”, said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who took

part in the talks yesterday in Paris with his British and French counterparts.

Blinken had joined via videoconference.

Iran has said it will stop part of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear facilities next week if the West doesn’t implement its own commitments under the 2015 deal. The accord has been

unraveling since Trump pulled the US out of the agreement.

Blinken reiterated that “if Iran comes back into strict compliance with its commitments ... the United States will do the same,” according to a joint statement after yesterday’s meeting that reflected closer transAtlantic positions on Iran since President Joe Biden took office.

THE FIRST image sent by the Perseverance rover showing the surface of Mars, just after landing in the Jezero crater, yesterday. Below, an artist’s impression of the vehicle.

Photos: NASA

Touchdown on Mars CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida Associated Press A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars.

Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped to their feet, thrust their arms in the air and cheered in both triumph and relief on receiving confirmation that the sixwheeled Perseverance had touched down on the red planet, long a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft.

It took a tension-filled 11 1/2 minutes for the signal to reach Earth.

“Touchdown confirmed!

Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking signs of past life,” flight controller Swati Mohan announced to back-slapping, fist-bumping colleagues wearing masks against the coronavirus.

The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft

from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week.

All three missions lifted off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, journeying some 300 million miles in nearly seven months.

Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars, every one of them from the U.S. The car-size, plutoniumpowered vehicle arrived at Jezero Crater, hitting NASA’s smallest and trickiest target yet: a 5-by-4-mile strip on an ancient river delta full of pits, cliffs and fields of rock. Scientists believe that if life ever flourished on Mars, it would have happened 3 billion to 4 billion years ago, when water still flowed on the planet.

Over the next two years, Percy, as it is nicknamed, will use its 7-foot (2-meter) arm to drill down and collect rock samples with possible signs of bygone microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-size samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside on Mars to be retrieved by a fetch rover

and brought homeward by another rocket ship. The goal is to get them back to Earth as early as 2031.

Scientists hope to answer one of the central questions of theology, philosophy and space exploration.

“Are we alone in this sort of vast cosmic desert, just flying through space, or is life much more common?

Does it just emerge whenever and wherever the conditions are ripe?” said deputy project scientist Ken Williford. “We’re really on the verge of being able to potentially answer these enormous questions.”

China’s spacecraft includes a smaller rover that also will be seeking evidence of life — if it makes it safely down from orbit in May or June.

Two older NASA landers are still humming along on Mars: 2012’s Curiosity rover and 2018’s InSight.

Perseverance was on its own during its descent, a maneuver often described

by NASA as “seven minutes of terror”.

Flight controllers waited helplessly as the preprogrammed spacecraft hit the thin Martian atmosphere at 12,100 mph (19,500 kph), or 16 times the speed of sound,

slowing as it plummeted.

It released its 70-foot parachute and then used a rocket-steered platform known as a sky crane to lower the rover the final 60 or so feet to the surface.

Perseverance promptly sent back two grainy, blackand-white photos of Mars’ pockmarked, pimplylooking surface, the rover’s shadow visible in the frame of one picture. The rover appeared to have touched down about 35 yards from the nearest rocks.

“Take that, Jezero!” a controller called out.

Mars has proved a treacherous place. In the span of less than three months in 1999, a US spacecraft was destroyed upon entering orbit because engineers had mixed up metric and English units, and an American lander crashed on Mars after its engines cut out prematurely.

AS TEXAS FREEZES, SENATOR CRUZ GOES TO MEXICO SUN DALLAS Associated Press

TEXAS Sen Ted Cruz said his family vacation to Mexico was “obviously a mistake” as he returned stateside yesterday following an uproar over his disappearance during a deadly winter storm.

The Republican senator said he began second-guessing the trip since the moment he first got on the plane Wednesday. “In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it,” he told reporters.

The Associated Press and other media outlets reported that he had traveled out of the country with his family as hundreds of thousands of

Texans were still grappling with the fallout of a winter storm that crippled the state’s power grid. The trip drew criticism from leaders in both parties and was seen as potentially damaging to his future political ambitions.

Cruz said in an earlier statement yesterday that he accompanied his family to Cancun a day earlier after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends, given that school was canceled for the week.

“Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” Cruz wrote.

“My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local

leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas,” he continued.

“We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm.”

Cruz told reporters yesterday that he returned to the US because he realised he needed to be in Texas. He said he had originally been scheduled to stay in Mexico through the weekend.

“I didn’t want all the screaming and yelling about this trip to distract even one moment from the real issues that I think Texans care about, which is keeping all of our families safe,” Cruz said.

“It was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said.

Death Notice For

Alexis Anthea Mortimer-Dean, 38 affectionately called

“Lecky”

a resident of Hospital Lane & Weir Corner, died at the Princess Margaret Hospital on Thursday, February 11, 2021.

She is survived by her husband: Mark Spencer Dean II; mother: Denise Mortimer; father: Terrence Mortimer; 3 sons: Mark III, Manasseh & Manoah Dean; 1 daughter: Markquella Dean; 1 grandson: Mikeal Dean; 2 sisters: Kaynelle ButlerPaul & Nicole Walker; 1 brother: Levy Skeet; 3 aunts: Dr. Lina Roys, Doreen Cox & Loran Skeet; uncles: Whitney Mortimer, Phillip Skeet; father-in-law: Mark Dean I; mother-in-law: Patsy Moxey and others to numerous to mention.

Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date.

THE TRIBUNE

Vehicle imports down up to 90% FROM PAGE 24 APD’s 2021 second quarter, which covers the three months to end-December 2020, were down by 44 percent compared to the prior year’s COVID-free numbers. The drop-off also afflicted the cargo port’s other categories, with TEU volumes down 18 percent year-over-year and bulk tonnage off by eight percent.

The impact quickly showed in APD’s half-year revenues, which at $14.2m for the six months to endDecember 2020 were down by $3.1m or 18 percent compared to the prior year COVID-free period’s $17.3m.

Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 18 percent, too, falling from $8.988m to $7.371m. Total comprehensive income was off nearly 36 percent, down at $3.477m as opposed to the prior year’s $5.424m.

However, Mr Bethell said APD was “just slightly, marginally” ahead of its internal budget forecasts as it was able to slash its expenses in proportion to the top-line fall, cutting them by $1.5m or 18 percent to lower them to $6.85m.

“Our volumes remain below the pre-COVID volumes, and we expect that this will be the case for the remainder of the 2021,” Mr Bethell told this newspaper. “We are currently trending ahead of budget and that is related to the construction projects at the Pointe, Global Port Holdings/Prince George Wharf, the American Embassy and GoldWynn.”

APD’s results and import volumes provide a good indication of the Bahamian economy’s health and level of commercial activity, and its top executive yesterday attributed much of the decline to reduced flows associated with the tourism industry due to the slower-than-expected rebound of that sector

and the major hotels.

“The hotels with low occupancy and air travel globally being down everywhere, travel confidence, while it will rebound I don’t think it will rebound prior to the end of this financial year on June 30,” Mr Bethell said of tourism activity.

Food and other imports associated with the domestic economy have not declined, the APD chief adding: “Things are moving in the private sector, lots of persons are being called into their job as opposed to working remotely, and there’s more activity on the streets compared to three to four months ago, but that has not translated into the tourism numbers we are accustomed to seeing.

“The Pointe has been able to complete their property; we’ve seen their FFE volumes coming in; furniture, fixtures and equipment, so that has been an offset. On the upside there are volumes coming in for construction projects. That is really on the bulk side, including rock, sand, cement and steel.

“I understand the rationale behind the government encouraging consumers to buy Bahamian so we can at least jump start that (domestic) part of the economy.”

Asked when APD’s cargo volumes were likely to recover to pre-pandemic levels, Mr Bethell replied: “I would say probably in 2022. I would say we would begin to move in that direction in the latter part of this year, but I don’t think we will be to pre-COVID levels any time before 2022. If it happens sooner that would be great.

“We have not taken any drastic measures to cut back on repairs and maintenance for the facility and equipment. We need to ensure they continue to meet the standards that have been set from a corporate level.”

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that ELDURA CENATUS, of Kool Acres, P.O.Box SB-50610 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 19th 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 LEROY FRANCIS ANESTOR of Garden Hills #2, New Providence, 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 19th 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 ALSHANE CHRISTOPHER WALLACE , of #138 Little Hyde Park , Seabreeze Lane, P.O. Box N 4173 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 twentyeight days from the 12th day of February 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 19

Union pension trustees: Bankruptcy fight goes on

FROM PAGE 24

against them, Mr Evans said they continued to dispute that they had ever given their former attorney, Donovan Gibson, permission to enter into the “consent order” that paved the way for the final $1.35m judgment against them.

The Court of Appeal, in an earlier verdict, said neither the “consent order” or judgment have ever been appealed to it, suggesting that Mr Evans and his colleagues face a high bar to overturn it. However, the ex-BCPOU president also argued that he and the other trustees were protected from personal liability for the loan by both the pension plan’s governing documents and the Industrial Relations Act. Arguing that the “consent order’s” issuance meant the allegations against them were never tested at a full trial, Mr Evans told this newspaper: “We’re not giving up... My life, my children, everything depends on getting my name cleared.

“They did not charge us with fraud or anything illegal. It’s a sad state of affairs to be involved in.

Unfortunately, in this case the investment did not work out.” He reiterated that they hired attorneys to investigate Kendal Williams Construction Company, the recipient of the $1.35m in two tranches from the BCPOU pension fund, who reported back that the contractor was “a safe investment”.

He added that pensioners’ savings were never in danger “before or after” the

funds were advanced, arguing that their principal was “always secure”. Mr Evans also questioned why the successor BCPOU pension fund trustees, who had initiated the legal action against himself and his colleagues, had failed to go after the construction company that had received the funds.

The NCTU chief alleged that the successor trustees “seem hellbent” on pursuing the quartet when Kendal Williams Construction Company and its principals had suggested they owned sufficient land in Grand Bahama to offset or clear the $1.35m debt.

However, Tribune Business’s research reveals that Kendal Williams Construction Company was among the first 13 delinquent Bank of The Bahamas borrowers to be transferred to Bahamas Resolve, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) created in October 2014, as part of the initial $100m bail-out of the BISX-listed bank.

Documents obtained by this newspaper back in 2015 revealed that Bank of The Bahamas extended at least $2.28m worth of credit to Kendal Williams Construction Company, secured on a variety of real estate assets in Freeport’s Lucaya Ridge and Bahamian Marina subdivisions, plus a 13.56-acre tract at Polaris Drive. The collateral also included multiple lots in the Britannia Estates Subdivision.

But Appeal justice Stella Crane-Scott, in a June 18 verdict that upheld the bankruptcy orders, said the four were sued on April 27, 2012, “for the recovery of the amount of two

unauthorised loans made to the Kendal Williams Construction Company totalling $1.35m”.

The new trustees alleged that Mr Evans and their other predecessors “negligently disbursed” the funds “in breach of the Trust Fund’s rules and in breach of the appellants’ fiduciary and other duties owed to the Trust Fund”.

Following a consent order by then-chief justice, Sir Michael Barnett, the final judgment for $1.35m was entered against the four on October 7, 2014. That ruling was never appealed, and Mr Evans and the other three former trustees were then ordered to appear before the Supreme Court’s acting assistant registrar for an examination of their assets on April 19, 2016.

Four days before that examination, and 19 months after the judgment was entered, the four former trustees filed a legal action to halt the examination and strike-out the judgment entered against them. In the meantime, the current BCPOU trustees initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Mr Evans and the others on April 24, 2017, in a bid to enforce the judgment.

Justice Indra Charles approved the bankruptcy orders, and efforts by Mr Evans and his colleagues to have them overturned

last year were unsuccessful. And their subsequent bid to obtain the Court of Appeal’s permission to appeal to the Privy Council on constitutional grounds was also rejected this week.

“There has been no deprivation of the appellants’ right of access to the courts.

The fact that they are presently before this court is a pellucid affirmation of the right they claim that has been denied to them.

Moreover, they have failed to demonstrate any possible prejudice they may have suffered as a result of these alleged breaches,” the Court of Appeal ruled.

“In our view, the intended appellants seek by artifice to shoehorn their appeals into that category of an appeal which would enable them to appeal as of right. Were we to allow such a stratagem to succeed, an aggrieved litigant in a civil case would only have to invoke an article of the constitution to ensure his appeal is sent on to the Privy Council, notwithstanding that his appeal does not otherwise qualify for such consideration.”

The Court of Appeal added that the appeal was “wholly devoid of merit and intended solely to delay the consequences of the adjudication orders, thereby rendering the applications an abuse of the processes of the court”.

New aragonite regime ‘almost ready’ to unveil FROM PAGE 24 we have what the rest of the world wants, so it’s up to us to build on the work our predecessors have done before us. No one group has a monopoly on love for The Bahamas. This is something of national interest

for everybody.”

Without a regulatory regime that is established in law, Mr Ferreira said The Bahamas was in danger of permitting a situation where “everybody is eating at our table and we’re providing the food” when it comes to the country’s natural resources.

MARKET REPORT www.bisxbahamas.com

THURSDAY, 18 FEBRUARY 2021

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX: BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.70 33.05 2.00 2.35 2.10 6.00 6.90 3.55 6.15 4.33 6.16 12.77 3.64 6.85 10.88 8.44 15.08 4.25 9.00 16.00

52WK LOW 3.13 22.65 0.67 1.62 1.50 5.00 6.00 2.70 4.27 3.10 5.50 10.20 2.10 4.75 9.50 7.70 13.00 3.50 8.15 14.00

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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

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0.00 -126.84

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CLOSE 4.60 32.12 1.62 2.35 1.59 6.00 6.61 2.93 4.74 3.10 5.65 10.20 2.61 6.80 9.83 8.40 13.50 3.75 8.35 15.50

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LAST CLOSE 4.60 32.12 1.62 2.35 1.59 6.00 6.61 2.93 4.74 3.10 5.65 10.20 2.61 6.80 9.84 8.40 13.50 3.75 8.35 15.50

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

%CHANGE

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

VOLUME

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

225

VOLUME

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

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 19.2 34.5 N/M N/M N/M N/M 17.9 -6.7 33.9 16.8 12.6 14.1 25.6 14.6 15.2 11.5 16.5 18.5 8.9 24.6

YIELD 3.70% 3.92% 1.23% 1.28% 0.00% 0.00% 3.93% 0.00% 0.00% 3.87% 3.89% 7.06% 16.63% 0.88% 3.34% 2.86% 4.00% 3.20% 2.40% 3.94%

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

MATURITY

6.95% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.50% 6.25% 4.25% 4.81% 5.29% 5.65%

20-Nov-2029 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2022 15-Oct-2029 15-Oct-2039 15-Oct-2049

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 10.20 13.79

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 10.20 13.79

YTD% 12 MTH% 4.55% 4.55% 1.58% 1.58% 2.60% 2.60% 3.47% 3.47% 10.86% 10.86% 0.20% 0.65% -0.37% -2.43% 0.16% 0.20% -0.66% -14.82% 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 8.60% 8.60% 11.90% 11.90%

NAV Date

31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Jan-2021 31-Jan-2021 31-Jan-2021 31-Jan-2021 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

MARKET TERMS

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

YIELD - last 12 month dividends divided by closing price

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

Bid $ - Buying price of Colina and Fidelity

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

Ask $ - Selling price of Colina and fidelity

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

Last Price - Last traded over-the-counter price

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

Weekly Vol. - Trading volume of the prior week

Change - Change in closing price from day to day

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

Daily Vol. - Number of total shares traded today

NAV - Net Asset Value

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

N/M - Not Meaningful

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

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

PAGE 20, Friday, February 19, 2021

‘Absolutely untrue’: PM blasts Davis on IMF bail-out claim FROM PAGE 24

principle growing the economy and identifying natural resources that could help us address our immediate debt burden. So, we have a plan that hopefully what we meet will give us the opportunity to buy the time to do what we think is necessary.”

Mr Davis argued that the government should negotiate to delay or defer payments on its $9bn-plus debt that are coming due, and “to restructure our debt to allow us more headroom”. The government has already being doing the former, and Mr Davis gave no specifics or details on the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) plans.

However, it is also uncertain whether Dr Minnis’ response will ease fears among the private sector and Bahamians generally about the country’s near and medium-term economic and fiscal prospects.

Of particular concern is the timing and extent of any tourism rebound, as this will be critical to generating jobs, incomes, economic activity and foreign currency inflows to maintain the US dollar peg.

Some observers have already speculated privately that unless The Bahamas achieves consistent, rapid GDP growth far in excess of its one to two percent average over the past 14 years, the country could ultimately find itself in the IMF’s embrace with a national debt forecast to hit $10.4bn by June 2022 and $900m-plus deficit for its next fiscal year.

An IMF structural adjustment programme would inflict harsh austerity measures on the Bahamian people and economy, and would likely involve slashing the size of government by deep cuts to the civil service as well as new and/or increased taxes and cuts to public services and other forms of spending.

Other PLP election candidates have also suggested this is where The Bahamas is headed.

Despite its relative praise for the Minnis administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IMF’s recent Article IV report also exposed the harsh austerity Bahamians face post-COVID - with or without a so-called structural adjustment programme - by urging the government to

NOTICE IN THE ESTATE OF ALEXANDER CORRELL KNOWLES late of #258 Coral Close, Treasure Cove in the Eastern District of the Island of New Providence one of the Islands of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, deceased.

NOTICE is hereby given that all persons having any claim or demand against the above Estate are required to send the same duly certified in writing to the Undersigned on or before the 31st day of March, A.D. 2021, after which date the Executor will proceed to distribute the assets having regard only to the claims to which he shall then have had notice.

AND NOTICE is hereby given that all persons indebted to the said Estate are requested to make full settlement on or before the date hereinbefore mentioned.

MERIDIAN LAW CHAMBERS Attorneys for the Executor Chambers, P.O. Box N-168, East Bay Shopping Center, East Bay Street, Nassau, Bahamas.

THE TRIBUNE increase its “net income” by more than $300m over four years.

The fund argued that strict fiscal measures are required to get the national finances back on track over the next decade to meet the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s targets following the debt and deficit blow-out produced by the pandemic and Hurricane Dorian.

The Washington DC-based organisation, while admitting that new and/or increased taxes and deep spending cuts were not practical in the near-term as this would only depress the Bahamian economy further, setting back its post-COVID recovery, warned that major adjustments will be required in the mid-2020s to ensure The Bahamas’ hits its 50 percent debt-to-GDP target ratio by 2030-2031.

“To achieve the debt target by fiscal year 2030-2031, staff recommended additional fiscal effort of about three percent of GDP over four years starting in fiscal year 2022-2023, and a constant primary surplus of about five percent of GDP thereafter,” the IMF urged.

“To preserve credibility, the authorities should start preparing measures and communicate a timetable to implement them once the pandemic-related uncertainty subsides.” The term “fiscal effort” is defined as “the profit a government collects”, or the positive difference between revenues and spending, estimating what the Public Treasury can collect and the government’s capacity to achieve this.

With one percent of Bahamian GDP equivalent to more than $100m, the IMF is thus recommending that the government must generate more than $300m per year in extra “net earnings” per year for a four-year period from 2022-2023 to bring its debt ratios back in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act targets.

And a five percent primary surplus would require the government’s revenues to exceed its recurrent (fixed cost) spending by more than $500m per year even with debt interest payments stripped - a level of performance that The Bahamas has never come close to achieving post-independence.

Fidelity: ‘We’ll recapture $10m COVID provisions’ FROM PAGE 24 sale of its 50 percent stake in Royal Fidelity Merchant Bank & Trust, its now-renamed former affiliate, also provides a better indication of Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) pandemic performance. Using this measurement, profits were down by 68.8 percent when measured against preCOVID 2019.

“I think it’s pretty much in line with what we had anticipated in terms of our exposure to the non-government (borrowers),” Mr Bowe told this newspaper of the bank’s loan loss provisions, which jumped by 145 percent year-over-year from $10.205m to $24.968m.

“A large part of that provision is tourism based,” he added. “A significant part of our non-government loans are to the tourism industry, mainly people in hotels.

We’ve taken the provisions consistent with what we do in normal circumstances.

“We are confident we will recover a substantial portion of the uptick in provisions over time. It’s going to take several years; we’re estimating three years. Of the $15m increase in provisions, we are conservatively estimating we will recover $10m of that as the tourism industry recovers, people return to work.”

Mr Bowe said he anticipated that many borrowers’ existing loans will have to be restructured given that the tourism industry was largely shut for a straight eight-month period, and many parts have yet to reopen, have closed again or are only partially open.

Pointing out that few will be able to pay-off their loan arrears immediately, the Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief said: “Under the new payment terms we’ll deem you current so you are not sitting on a negative credit history. We’ll restructure to make you appear as if you are current.”

Despite the increased loan loss provisioning dragging down the bottom line, Mr Bowe said the bank had “not lost a tremendous amount of interest income”, which fell by less than five percent to $63.737m yearover-year for 2020.

He reiterated that Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) had opted not to adopt the “loan deferrals” used by other Bahamian commercial banks, but had instead kept normal provisioning policies in place such that it stopped accruing interest on credit facilities once 90 days past due.

“If you record interest that you have not collected are you truly telling yourself the truth, or are you creating a mirage for yourself?” Mr Bowe asked of the “deferral” impact. “We decided to bite the desert dust as opposed to seeing the happy water.”

The notes to Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) unaudited 2020 financial statements, though, warn shareholders that the continuing uncertainty surrounding tourism’s return is still being “evaluated” and could yet result in a revision to the loan loss provisions taken for 2020.

Mr Bowe explained that the uneven nature of tourism’s re-opening, with some hotels again furloughing staff who had previously been recalled, along with the decision of some properties to close again, may impact the provisioning given that international accounting standards now require banks to account for future expectations when making these calculations.

However, he added that Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) - at least for the moment - had performed according to expectations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Persons may say I’m being too generous with myself but we were probably off $1m or less,” Mr Bowe told this newspaper

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, STEPHANIE BROWN, of #30 Westchester Drive, Freeport, Grand Bahama P.O. Box F42685 intend to change my name to STEPHANIE PATRICE BROWN. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that IAN MARK ANTHONY LEWIS, of Sisal Road East, Golden Gates #1 P.O. Box N 869 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 12th day of February 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

of 2020’s net income result.

“We had projected we would be in the range of $8.5m... The net interest income decline was in line with what we projected.

We may have been optimistic on $8.5m, but we’re not disappointed with the current result.

“Quite candidly, we thought anything close to break even would be a positive year. People are calling 2020 a ‘gap’ year, like it didn’t exist. Our start and end position was exactly the same in terms of financial strength.”

Whereas Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) has traditionally held to a policy of paying out between 60-70 percent of net income in shareholder dividends, Mr Bowe said last year this ratio increased to 100 percent.

With a risk weighted capital ratio of 22-23 percent, well in excess of the 17 percent minimum set by the Central Bank, he explained that Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) did not need to retain all its profits on the balance sheet for capital adequacy.

While it had been retaining a portion of net income to finance its growth, Mr Bowe said COVID-19’s fall-out has now put paid to that for the next two years at least by forcing the bank to focus on management of its existing portfolio.

“Why retain capital that’s not earning a respectable return?” he asked, adding that its best deployment or use was to return it to shareholders via dividends.

Looking ahead to Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) prospects for 2021, Mr Bowe added: “I wouldn’t use the cliche that we’re ‘cautiously optimistic’. I would say we are taking it one day at a time.

“We have, in our projections for 2021 that I can share with you, we are looking at a base case of $15m (profit). We believe we can do better than that, but as long as tourism remains uncertain and there is no unencumbered opening of the tourism product, that’s going to be very tenuous.”

Mr Bowe said its main borrower category, civil servants, could yet be impacted by enforced fiscal adjustments as a result of tourism’s delayed revival, but added: “We consider that the base case. It’s certainly what we believe is achievable without stretching.”

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, LAVERNE MARGARET BROWN, of Freeport, Bahamas intend to change my name to LAVERNE MARGARET SAUNDERS-PARKER. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, DAPHNE McINTOSH, of Village Crest, P.O.Box CR-54965 Nassau, Bahamas intend to change my name to DAPHNE DORSETT McINTOSH If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

LEGAL NOTICE International Business Companies Act (No. 45 of 2000) Firmus Bahamas Ltd. (the “Company”) Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with Section 138 (8) of the International Business Companies Act, No.45 of 2000, the Dissolution of Firmus Bahamas Ltd. has been completed, a Certificate of Dissolution has been issued and the Company has therefore been struck off the Register.The date of completion of the Dissolution was 24th December, 2020.

Miguel Gonzalez Liquidator

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 21

BLUE LAGOON NOTCHES TOURIST ATTRACTION FIRST BLUE Lagoon has become the first Bahamian tourist attraction to receive the Safe Travels Stamp as confirmation of its readiness to safely receive guests in COVID-19’s aftermath.

The stamp issued by the Bahamas’ Safe Travels Stamp ambassador, the Tourism Development Corporation, recognises Blue Lagoon for its enhanced health and safety protocols that meet the standards set by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

The Bahamas as a

destination has also been designated as a Safe Travels Destination, due to COVID-19 measures that match those recommended by the WTTC, and which were specifically designed to rebuild traveller confidence.

“Blue Lagoon’s safety protocols are especially stringent, putting the safety of its customers first,” said Janet Johnson, the TDC’s chief executive. “They, in fact, match the WTTC’s protocols and were hence awarded the stamp to display at their premises.

Visitors and residents alike should feel confident to go to Blue Lagoon once again for all of the experiences that it has to offer.”

Blue Lagoon joins numerous other attractions worldwide that have received the stamp which, when displayed, assures every customer that all precautions have been taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 on the premises and during all activities at the island.

The Safe Travels Protocols take World Health Organisation (WHO) and

Tourism must ‘play to win, not to lose’ THE Ministry of Tourism & Aviation has sought to strengthen its partnership with the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) as part of a strategy to ensure the industry “plays to win, instead of not to lose”.

Dr Kenneth Romer, the Ministry of Tourism’s executive director, met Commissioner Paul Rolle at the force’s headquarters in a bid to improve these ties and update him on the national and global tourism outlook.

“The new COVID environment and the accompanying realities it brings make it imperative for all of our tourism partners to take greater ownership in the fight for us to maintain our competitive advantage as a global industry leader, as we consistently explore new opportunities to innovate our product and service offerings. We must play to win, instead of simply playing not to lose,” Dr Romer said.

With visitors wanting to ensure the destinations they come to are safe, Dr Romer said the police force’s policies and personnel are critical links in supporting The Bahamas’ marketing, management mandate and tourism initiatives.

Commissioner Rolle highlighted several new police initiatives to further support the country’s largest industry. He said: “The RBPF takes seriously its vision to make The Bahamas a safer place to live, work, visit and play. Our national policing plan, the strategic assignment of officers and the disbursement of our resources are

DR KENNETH ROMER, executive director, Ministry of Tourism and Aviation; and Paul Rolle, Commissioner of Police, Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF). all reflections of our comDr Romer said: “One of mitment to work together the key organisational priwith tourism for a safer orities of the Ministry of Bahamas.”

Tourism is to inspire visitors Commissioner Rolle to return to The Bahamas added that the Tourism as lifelong brand ambassaPolicing Unit has been dors. They will not return reenergised and strength- to a bad show. Therefore, ened with a record-breaking inspiring their return is number of officers specifi- a shared priority, and we cally assigned to the main need all of our strategic tourist areas. He said one partners to view themselves of the force’s key manage- as a valuable extension ment strategies is to focus of our Tourism Family. In on the prevention of crime this new era, tourism must as opposed to responding to truly become everybody’s crime, in an effort to reduce business.” offences against visitors and Accompanying Dr residents.

Commissioner Romer from the Ministry Rolle pledged to provide of Tourism were Vincent additional Harris, director of visitor Commissioner Rolle also safety/sites and facilities, pledged more resources and Bernadette Saunders, to support the visitor rela- senior manager of visitor tions and safety unit at the relations.

Ministry of Tourism. And the police will partner with it to facilitate visitor-centric training for selected officers throughout the entire Bahamas.

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, RANDY COOPER, of # 7 Regent Row & Windsor Park, Freeport, Grand Bahama intend to change my name to RANDY ELRICO COOPER. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that KIWOIRE OCTAVIEN, of Kemp 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 12th 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 CHARMIN CHARLOT, of Golden Isles, P.O.Box 54949 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 19th day of February 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines into account, as well as the Ministry of Health’s protocols for businesses and the Ministry of Tourism’s Clean and Pristine programme.

“Preparing for the eventual return of visitors to our shores is a very crucial step that needs to be taken by all of our tourism businesses, and I applaud Blue Lagoon for setting the pace here,” said Michael Scott, the TDC’s chairman.

“Both visitors and Bahamians alike can begin to

partake in these excursions and experiences, and support our local economy, while visitor arrivals slowly return to their former levels.”

The TDC is encouraging all Bahamian businesses to apply for the Stamp as it will be a much sought-after designation by the public and boost everyone’s confidence that an activity is safe.

John McSweeney, Blue Lagoon’s island director, said that while business was down the destination was hoping to gradually

return to the popularity it previously enjoyed. “We know that it is not going to be an instantaneous return to business as usual, so in the meantime we are improving and beautifying Blue Lagoon Island as well putting all the safety protocols in place,” he said.

“As a medium-sized tourism business, we are extremely pleased that we have met the WTTC’s global standards and welcome both Bahamians and visitors to come to the Island.”

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

GN-2507

PAGE 22, Friday, February 19, 2021

Internal promotion has its benefits FROM PAGE 23 9. Providing inside hiring preferences bolsters the firm’s image of offering long-term employment security. This may also increase retention and help attract those wanting security.

10. Internal hiring reinforces the corporate culture, and sends a message that loyalty and performance will be rewarded with a promotion.

11. In periods of high employment, there may be few external candidates to consider, so internal hiring is the only available choice.

12. The performance level of an internal hire is generally better than external hires in firms that are successful and stable.

The task, then, for every company looking to make this the new culture is to ensure that relevant training, coaching, succession and mentorship programmes are in place to adequately equip willing and capable team members who are ready to take the leap.

• NB: Ian R Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having completed graduate studies with regional and international universities. He has served organisations, both locally and globally, providing relevant solutions to their business growth and development issues. He may be contacted at tcconsultants@coralwave.com.

THE TRIBUNE

CHAMBER CHIEF’S CONCERN OVER $10M MARINA PROJECT

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net EXUMA’S Chamber of Commerce president yesterday said he was “really concerned” about the potential environmental impact from a $10m resort/marina project that is now seeking government permits.

Pedro Rolle told Tribune Business of The Marina at Hooper’s Bay: “I don’t know much about the parties involved in the project.

I don’t know about their ability to do the project, but as a local resident consistently we have investors who are coming in, and I suppose they go and they get their approvals in Nassau and then they come and present it to us.”

The developers, led

by Brent Hurt, sought to reassure Exuma residents during Monday’s virtual planning meeting that they have both the expertise and financing to deliver the proposed development.

Mr Hurt, in particular, is no stranger to Exuma as he has already developed The Reserve at Hooper’s

Bay. He explained that the marina project is an extension of his commitment to Exuma, and pledged that it will not follow that pattern of previously unfinished Family Island developments that tie up valuable real estate and scar the landscape.

Pointing to his successful track record, Mr Hurt reassured meeting attendees that The Marina at Hooper’s Bay will not be another failed investment project for Exuma.

Mr Rolle, though, said it was “insulting to locals” that developers too often obtained their permits from the central government in Nassau before coming to the Family Islands with their plans.

Despite knowing of Mr Hurt, Mr Rolle argued there was a “huge difference” between his other projects and this one as all the others made “no environmental impact in Exuma”.

“I have reservations about it,” he added. “I hate listening to promises and commitments from people when I think a significant bond or something needs to

AIRLIFT CONCERNS ON LUCAYAN’S RE-OPEN

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net GRAND Bahama businesses yesterday identified the island’s lack of airlift as a major obstacle to the government’s plans to re-open the Grand Lucayan resort

on March 25.

Alfredo Bridgewater, owner/operator of Coco Nutz, said: “The Grand Lucayan reopening is great news, but how will passengers be coming? We have very little airlift. I hope there is a plan along with the government acquiring

be put in place, for Exuma in trust, in the event that this doesn’t work out as they are claiming. If we lose this investment, again, it ain’t no big deal.

“We’ve got to be worth more than $10m or $12m.

This is who Exuma is. We ought not to be risking our environment for $10m or $12m. When this project is done it is not going to transform Exuma.”

Mr Rolle said there are two separate bodies of opinion on this project.

One, which includes himself, sees the environmental dangers and is not too concerned about the $10m investment, while the other is focused on job creation for the short and long-term.

“The big picture is that there are inherent risks to this project, and the small picture is it’s going to give some people some jobs.” he added.

The Marina at Hooper’s Bay is aiming to create 50 construction, and up to 30 full-time, jobs on Exuma if it receives the go-ahead from the government’s regulatory agencies. It will feature 11 villas containing 30-35 hotel rooms when full

build-out is completed.

The project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), compiled by Caribbean Coastal Services (CCS), said: “This five-year project will employ up to 50 Bahamians during construction and up to an additional 25 to 30 residents for continuing services, which will have a positive impact on the Exuma economy.

“The project is expected to have a real estate sales value in excess of $10m.

Additional revenue will be derived from marina slip leases, as well as hotel and restaurant income. The marina will be conveniently located within an estimated 30-minute drive from the Exuma International Airport in Moss Town, and an estimated ten minute drive to George Town.

“The marina is located on land directly across the Queens Highway from the former Bank of Bahamas building, and close to the Exuma Resource Centre, as well as other locally-owned businesses including Darville Lumber, Prime Island Meats, CNK Liquors and Smithy’s Market. Visitors to The Marina at Hooper’s

Bay are expected to provide increased revenues to these businesses.”

According to the EIA, the Marina at Hooper’s Bay will be developed in two phases. “Phase one will include the acquisition of the [5.6 acre] project site. Also, the construction of the marina, restaurant, retail stores, roads, infrastructure (inclusive of underground utilities) and dry storage for boats will employ 50 Bahamian construction workers,” it said.

This phase is expected to be completed in less than 18 months.

“Anticipated phase one expenditure is an estimated $2.5m. Phase two of the project consists of the construction of the marina villas (approximately 11 villas in total) which make up the 30-35 room hotel. The anticipated sale price of each marina villa will average $600,000 to $900,000 with total gross sales anticipated to exceed $10m.”

Mr Hurt did not respond to Tribune Business phone calls or e-mails seeking comment before press time last night.

the airport. I personally feel like certain things should be held by the government, like our airports and seaports, because there may be times where it won’t be about profit.”

Voicing hope that Grand Bahama International Airport (GBIA) under government ownership will be more sensitive to Grand Bahama’s residents and economy, Mr Bridgewater said he had enjoyed higher customer volumes when the Canada-based tourism operator, Sunwing, and its Memories brand operated one of the Grand Lucayan properties prior to their late 2016 departure.

“Memories was a better resource for my guests. The Grand Lucayan was maybe

ten percent of my business, but if that is 100 percent of the pie now then it will probably be 80 percent of my business,” he added.

The government has said it is “very close” to purchasing Grand Bahama International Airport. The facility suffered significant damage after Hurricane Dorian ripped through the island, leaving it in a largely inoperable state with the current owners, the Grand Bahama Port Authority and Hutchison Port Holdings, not showing any interest in repairing it to fully functioning standards.

James Rolle, Dolly Madison Home Centre’s general manager, said of the Grand Lucayan re-opening: “Any

boost to the general economy is going to be a boost for business somehow, somewhere, because you would have more people who would have disposable funds to shop. It’s a domino effect.”

While Grand Bahama boasts of being the industrial centre of The Bahamas, and does not particularly focus on the tourism economy, Mr Rolle said any increase in economic activity will be welcome.

He added: “We don’t totally depend on the Grand Lucayan, but it adds to the mix of the economy.

Because right now, I think Freeport is surviving without any major injection from the tourism sector.”

BUSINESSES REPORT MIXED 2021 START

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN businesses yesterday reported a mixed performance to 2021 todate as they and the wider economy continue to grapple with the devastation inflicted by COVID-19.

With many companies anticipating a pick-up in demand when the tourism industry re-opens, and visitors return, Gary Wong, general manager of Wongs’ Rubber Stamp and Printing Company, told Tribune Business: “We are closing our office early these days, at about 3pm in the afternoon.

“Things seem to be picking up now, though.

Normally the end of the year is a slow time for us.”

He explained that the early part of the year was traditionally strong for his company, but does not believe business will return until all the hotels reopen and bring their workforce back.

Lilith Bostwick, general manager of Bahamas Office and School Supplies (BOSS), said the company was faring “pretty well” due to a steady business flow over the first two months of 2021.

“We usually get business around this time, so it is not typically slow. The bulk of

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our business is coming from our general office supplies services because we service a lot of the companies, like banks and also government ministries. They support us consistently all year,” she said.

Amelio Garces, general manager of Bahamas Logistics Centre, said his company is doing “pretty good” and maintaining its customer base. He added: “I have a couple of requests for new business, but we have not closed any deals thus far. There are a few deals in the pipleline we are working on.”

Nadhae Morris, general manager for Sam’s Business Machines, said business was significantly slower than what it was last year. Sam’s Business Machines focus on office machine repairs, and services all industries from banking to insurance and hotels, but is “off by a lot”.

“While the early part of the year is slow, it is normally not this slow,” she added.

Until March 22nd, 2021

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Friday, February 19, 2021, PAGE 23

Internal promotion has its benefits

I

N our ever-changing and fast-paced corporate world, strong leadership is paramount in steering workforce teams towards sustained growth and success.

We typically define leadership as an individual’s ability to foster relationships and nurture talent in an effort to accomplish goals and objectives. This widely-accepted definition provides some challenges for many who have been given leadership roles.

Some seem deficient in building trust-centred relationships, while others have

issues with teaching and training. If these dilemmas coalesce, accomplishing key tasks in the workplace is almost unachievable.

With the difficulties we face in identifying and cultivating great leaders, businesses are forced to determine how best to source those employees who are suited for management positions. The question of whether to promote from within or hire from without is a widely debated issue that many senior executives still wrestle with today.

Dr John Sullivan, a wellknown author, has provided

some insights on this important topic, and offered many suggestions about the benefits of promoting from within a company’s existing talent pool. These are: 1. Jobs can be filled faster because internal candidates generally require less skills assessment, and less time, to make their decision.

2. The break-in period will be shorter because of their familiarity with the firm and its terminology.

3. It can be cheaper, due to the reduced need to undertake expensive advertising and costs associated with familiarising an outside hire.

4. Internal candidates generally have no other external offers, so there is less likelihood of a bidding war. They are less aware of market salaries, so they are less likely to demand a higher pay rate than what was offered.

5. There can be a more accurate assessment of internal candidates because they are “known”, due to “inside” references and performance assessment records.

6. Because internal promotions know the culture already, there will be less chance of them failing due to a poor “company fit”.

7. An internal placement could result in multiple inside promotions.

As a result of so many people moving up to fill each vacancy, this acts as a motivator for each of those that are promoted.

8. Promoting from within gives the company an opportunity to do almost all the external hiring at the “entry level”. Entry-level jobs are cheaper to fill, have a larger candidate pool, and provide more time to train and assess those that aspire to reach higher-level positions. If companies make a “bad” hire, the dollar consequences are lower

THE WEATHER REPORT

5-Day Forecast

TODAY

ORLANDO

High: 79° F/26° C Low: 49° F/9° C

TAMPA

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Clouds and sun; breezy, warm, humid

Partly cloudy with a shower late

Variably cloudy with showers

Breezy with a couple of showers

Partly sunny with showers

Sun and some clouds; passing shower

High: 82°

Low: 72°

High: 79° Low: 67°

High: 76° Low: 69°

High: 79° Low: 70°

High: 81° Low: 68°

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

87° F

72° F

80°-62° F

73°-65° F

82°-70° F

86°-66° F

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

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High: 79° F/26° C Low: 70° F/21° C

10-20 knots

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WEST PALM BEACH High: 86° F/30° C Low: 61° F/16° C

8-16 knots

FT. LAUDERDALE E

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FREEPORT

High: 85° F/29° C Low: 63° F/17° C

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High: 81° F/27° C Low: 69° F/21° C

MIAMI

High: 85° F/29° C Low: 64° F/18° C

8-16 knots

Statistics are for Nassau through 1 p.m. yesterday Temperature High ................................................... 82° F/28° C Low .................................................... 73° F/23° C Normal high ....................................... 77° F/25° C Normal low ........................................ 64° F/18° C Last year’s high ................................. 83° F/28° C Last year’s low ................................... 74° F/23° C Precipitation As of 1 p.m. yesterday ................................. 0.01” Year to date ................................................. 1.87” Normal year to date ..................................... 2.32”

ELEUTHERA

NASSAU

High: 82° F/28° C Low: 72° F/22° C

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021

High: 81° F/27° C Low: 73° F/23° C

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KEY WEST

High: 81° F/27° C Low: 66° F/19° C

uV inDex toDay

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

tiDes For nassau High

Ht.(ft.)

Low

Ht.(ft.)

Today

12:52 a.m.

1:01 p.m.

2.3 1.9

7:15 a.m.

7:15 p.m.

0.6 0.3

Saturday

1:46 a.m.

1:57 p.m.

2.2 1.8

8:15 a.m.

8:08 p.m.

0.7 0.3

Sunday

2:44 a.m.

2:57 p.m.

2.3 1.8

9:16 a.m.

9:05 p.m.

0.6 0.3

Monday

3:41 a.m.

3:56 p.m.

2.4 1.8

10:15 a.m. 0.5 10:02 p.m. 0.2

Tuesday

4:36 a.m.

4:51 p.m.

2.5 2.0

11:07 a.m. 0.4 10:56 p.m. 0.0

Wednesday 5:25 a.m.

5:41 p.m.

2.7 2.2

11:54 a.m. 0.2 11:47 p.m. -0.2

Thursday

2.9 2.4

12:38 p.m. 0.0 ---------

6:11 a.m.

6:28 p.m.

sun anD moon Sunrise Sunset

High: 81° F/27° C Low: 73° F/23° C

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ANDROS

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

SEE PAGE 22

6:41 a.m.

6:07 p.m.

Moonrise Moonset

11:28 a.m.

12:17 a.m.

First

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Feb. 19

Feb. 27

Mar. 5

Mar. 13

CAT ISLAND

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where entry-level hires are involved.

| Go to AccuWeather.com

TONIGHT

High: 73° F/23° C Low: 48° F/9° C

IAN FERGUSON BY

SAN SALVADOR

GREAT EXUMA

High: 81° F/27° C Low: 72° F/22° C

High: 81° F/27° C Low: 73° F/23° C

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High: 82° F/28° C Low: 71° F/22° C

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tracking map

High: 82° F/28° C Low: 73° F/23° C

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MAYAGUANA High: 82° F/28° C Low: 75° F/24° C

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures

CROOKED ISLAND / ACKLINS

are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

RAGGED ISLAND High: 80° F/27° C Low: 73° F/23° C

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High: 81° F/27° C Low: 74° F/23° C

GREAT INAGUA High: 83° F/28° C Low: 76° F/24° C

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

Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday: Today: Saturday:

WINDS S at 8-16 Knots NNE at 10-20 Knots SE at 7-14 Knots NNE at 8-16 Knots SE at 7-14 Knots WNW at 3-6 Knots ESE at 8-16 Knots SE at 4-8 Knots SSE at 7-14 Knots NNW at 6-12 Knots S at 10-20 Knots NNE at 10-20 Knots SE at 7-14 Knots NW at 4-8 Knots SE at 8-16 Knots ENE at 4-8 Knots ESE at 8-16 Knots NE at 4-8 Knots ESE at 8-16 Knots ESE at 6-12 Knots SSE at 7-14 Knots NNE at 6-12 Knots SE at 8-16 Knots NE at 4-8 Knots SE at 7-14 Knots ENE at 4-8 Knots

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

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

WATER TEMPS. 76° F 76° F 76° F 77° F 77° F 77° F 77° F 77° F 76° F 76° F 77° F 77° F 77° F 77° F 79° F 79° F 78° F 78° F 77° F 77° F 76° F 76° F 78° F 78° F 77° F 77° F

business@tribunemedia.net

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2021

$4.37

$4.37

Fidelity: ‘We’ll recapture $10m COVID provisions’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A

BISX-listed bank yesterday said it ultimately expects to recover two-thirds of last year’s $15m loan loss provision increase as it bids to shrug-off COVID-19 by more than doubling profits in 2021.

Gowon Bowe, pictured, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, told Tribune Business the commercial lender is “conservatively estimating” it will regain $10m of that sum within a three-year period as tourism-related borrowers return to compliance with

• BISX-listed bank confident of two-thirds claw back • Says doubling 2021 profits to $15m is ‘achievable’ • Prior year’s shrunken net income only ‘off by $1m’

their loan payments following the industry’s recovery.

Speaking after the bank unveiled a sharp 77.9 percent year-over-year

profitability drop, from $33.548m to $7.414m, due to the pandemic’s devastating impact on the ability of businesses and households to service their debt, Mr Bowe nevertheless said it is targeting a greater-than 100 percent bottom line increase this year.

He disclosed that Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) is targeting $15m in net income as “a base case” for 2021, a goal it believes is “achievable without stretching” despite ongoing uncertainty

over the strength and timing of tourism’s recovery and the pace/success of COVID19 vaccine roll-outs.

While some observers will likely view such a target as ambitious in the circumstances, Mr Bowe said the bank’s net income performance for the 12 months to end-December 2020 was only “off” by $1m from its internal forecasts.

Stripping out the $9mplus one-off gain from the

SEE PAGE 20

Vehicle imports down up to 90%

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

VEHICLE import volumes at the Nassau Container Port have dropped by up to 90 percent, its top executive revealed yesterday, as half-year profits dropped by almost 36 percent compared to pre-COVID. Dion Bethell, Arawak Port Development Company’s (APD) president and chief financial officer, told Tribune Business just 38 vehicles were brought in by a vessel that called yesterday compared to the 300-400 cars that were normally brought in by a single carrier pre-COVID-19.

Interpreting this as a sign of both reduced demand and the excess inventories that many dealers are

• Vessel arrives with 38 versus 300-400 pre-COVID • Port profits off almost 36% due to volume slump • Top executive forecasts no rebound until 2022

NASSAU CONTAINER PORT still trying to clear from 2020, Mr Bethell forecast that import volumes across all APD’s categories will remain subdued and below pre-pandemic levels for the rest of its 2021 financial year

that closes at end-June.

He also predicted that the uncertain, uneven pace of tourism’s revival means that BISX-listed APD, which is 20 percent owned by Bahamian public shareholders,

will not see twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) and other volumes recover to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2022 at the earliest.

Illustrating the heavy toll inflicted by the pandemic on multiple sectors of the Bahamian economy, Mr Bethell disclosed: “A big vessel came in today with 38 cars. Usually they’re at the 300-400 car mark. Prior to COVID-19 the average amount of cars on a vessel used to be 300-400, and the vessel today had 38.”

He revealed that vehicle import volumes for

SEE PAGE 19

$4.39

DR HUBERT MINNIS

$4.39

PHILIP ‘BRAVE’ DAVIS

‘Absolutely untrue’: PM blasts Davis on IMF bail-out claim

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE prime minister last night slammed as “absolutely untrue” assertions by the opposition’s leader that The Bahamas is headed for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) supervised restructuring.

Dr Hubert Minnis, in response to suggestions by Philip Davis that the country is heading towards an IMF structural adjustment programme (SAP), told Tribune Business in a statement that the government was not considering such a last-resort option.

“It is absolutely untrue that the government is headed for, contemplating or even in need of any such IMF facilities,” the prime minister blasted. “Despite the very real and critical challenges facing the country and its citizens, the government is executing its Resilient Bahamas plan that was passed by Parliament in the last budget.

“The government is meeting its commitments and making good on its promise to provide historically high levels of social support for those in need. In fact, if the leader if the opposition would take the time to read the IMF’s Article IV report on The Bahamas, he would note that the fund itself has

pointed out that the government has been taking the appropriate approach to address the social and economic needs of the country.”

Dr Minnis said he will “have much more to say” when the mid-year budget is tabled in the House of Assembly this coming week.

He lashed out after Mr Davis yesterday said he felt the government was headed towards an IMF bail-out, or restructuring, that would impose austerity measures the likes of which have never been seen before.

“The situation is desperate,” Mr Davis said of The Bahamas’ economic and fiscal position. “This government is out of money, crashing on the rocks. Bahamians are suffering terribly.

The prime minister who is now also the Minister of Finance has no idea how to manage this economic crisis, has no answers and no plans for the way forward.

“I think our financial challenge to-date is leading to an IMF restructuring loan with this government. That step for a Davis-Cooper administration would be the last resort. We would have the opportunity as a new government to reverse a lot of trends and to implement our own economic plan, which has as its overarching

SEE PAGE 20

New aragonite regime ‘almost ready’ to unveil

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE government is working to develop a new licensing regime for aragonite mining that is “almost ready” for unveiling, a Cabinet minister has revealed.

Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment and housing, told Tribune Business that the proposed regulatory regime will be “a big one” as it seeks to replace the existing ad-hoc permitting regime that has been in place for decades.

“What I can foreshadow is the introduction of a regulatory regime to control mining, and by that I mean aragonite,” he disclosed.

Mr Ferreira said mining

applicants, once granted a licence, would be restricted to a specific location and how much they can take.

“Once you get a licence you can sell your product and true market forces take over,” he added. “We wanted to regulate that space as well... I’m working very hard on that and am committed to getting it done. We’ve been working on this for a long time.

We’re almost ready. We’re very determined to regulate this space and have a proper national discussion where we ventilate all these issues.

“This discussion on our natural resources is actually very helpful and beneficial on a national level because

SEE PAGE 19

Union pension trustees: Bankruptcy fight goes on

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A UNION leader yesterday pledged he and his fellow three ex-pension fund trustees will continue the fight to “clear our names” after the bid to take their bankruptcy appeal to the Privy Council was halted.

Bernard Evans, the National Congress of Trade Unions of The Bahamas (NCTUB) president, told Tribune Business that himself, Colin Wright, Ray Nairn and Shawn Bowe now planned to seek the

London-based court’s direct permission to appeal after this was rejected by the Court of Appeal.

The four, all former trustees of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU) Pension Plan and Trust Fund, are said to remain determined to overturn the bankruptcy adjudications made against them in relation to an allegedly “unauthorised” $1.35m loan made on their watch.

Emphasising that no allegations of fraud and corruption had been made

SEE PAGE 19