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The Tribune

Volume: 118 No.74, MARCH 11, 2021

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Four cruise lines set to make Nassau their

HOME PORT

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas is close to sealing deals that will be “a game changer to jump start the tourism economy” post-COVID and provide an annual multi-million dollar boost, it was revealed yesterday.

Michael Maura, Nassau Cruise Port’s chief executive, confirmed to Tribune Business that agreements for up to four separate cruise lines to use Prince George Wharf as a “home port” - and bring hundreds of thousands of extra passengers to New Providence every year - could be

concluded within the next 90 days.

Declining to name the companies involved, he added that negotiations have moved “past the point of conversation” and are now at the stage of finalising operational plans for cruise ships to use Nassau as the start and end-point for cruises around The Bahamas.

Mr Maura said “the financial gain for a broad section of the economy is fantastic”, as cruise passengers will have to fly in and out of New Providence to join their ships and also when they return after the voyage.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

DISNEY Cruise Line yesterday voiced hope it can start developing its Lighthouse Point project this year while reaffirming the investment and job creation commitments given pre-COVID-19.

Kim Prunty, its vice-president of public affairs, told a Zoom call with Bahamian media that despite the pandemic delaying Disney’s plans by “a year to a year-and-a-half” it will still deliver 120 construction

jobs - some 80 percent of which will be Bahamian - for a cruise destination whose build-out will be complete by the 2024 first half.

Speaking as Disney released its 550-page Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a document whose disclosure has long been demanded by local and environmental activists, Ms Prunty promised that the project’s economic impact will “significantly exceed the concessions” granted by the Bahamian government.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

I KNOW MY SON IS ALIVE TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright tribunemedia.net

THE mother of one of two men who were on board a plane that crashed off Acklins last week is holding out hope that he will be found alive.

Judy Brown has faith that officers of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force will soon find her son Steven Sawyer, even though the mission has been changed from search and rescue to SEE PAGE FIVE

FRONT PORCH

THROW OFF SHACKLES OF COLONIALISM, UNLEASH OUR POTENTIAL

PAGE EIGHT

DISNEY PRESSING ON AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

CLASSIFIEDS TRADER

‘CULTURE IN POLICE HAS TO CHANGE’

IT’S FINALLY HERE!

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis is pictured with some of the 20,000 COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines after they arrived at Lynden Pindling International Airport yesterday – See page three.

PHOTO: Yontalay Bowe

SEVEN HELD IN $330K DRUG BUST

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

DRUGS are removed from the scene yesterday.

PHOTO: Racardo Thomas

FIVE men and two women were arrested after a police search netted 13 croker sacks of suspected marijuana with an estimated street value of $336,000.

The drugs weighed 336lbs.

The suspects’ age range is between early 20s to late

40s and they are all Bahamians, the police said.

At the scene, Assistant Superintendent Audley Peters said the suspects may be related, however, he could not confirm this yesterday.

Around 7am yesterday, Drug Enforcement Unit officers assisted by the K-9 Unit, acting on information, went to a residence off Fire SEE PAGE FOUR

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A VOICE note purportedly capturing the beating of a man in police custody came as no surprise to Christina Galanos, a lawyer who has for years sounded the alarm about brutality in police custody.

SEE PAGE FOUR

STATESIDE

TWO LANDS STRUGGLING WITH THE SAME PROBLEM

SEE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Thursday, March 11, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Flags presented to the families of fallen marines DEFENCE Force Commander Commodore Raymond King presenting the military Jack to Kishanna Sands and Danielle Boyd, the daughter and niece of Petty Officer Kendrick Sands, during a presentation at Defence Headquarters, John F. Kennedy Drive. Also shown is Command Warrant Officer, Force Chief Petty Officer Remone Storr.

(RBDF Photos by Able Seaman Michael Turner II) DEFENCE Force Commodore Raymond King this week presented the Bahamas National Flag to family members of deceased marines.

Also included with the flags were ceremonial ribbons and medals, which were worn by the marines while serving as a member of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. In attendance were family members of the late Chief Petty Officers Leroy Whylly and Solomon Hall, and Petty Officers Kevin Moss and Kendrick Sands.

Among their many

accomplishments, both Chief Petty Officer Whylly and Petty Officer Sands served as members of the CARICOM contingents, which served with the Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti between 1994-1996.

Chief Petty Officer Hall played an integral part as member of the Safety Stores section of the Engineering Department, and Petty Officer Moss was instrumental in the initial formation of the RBDF Band.

While thanking the families for the services of the marines and offering

sincerest condolences, the Commodore presented each family with the Bahamas National Flag, known in the military as the Jack, which draped the coffins.

On receiving their tokens of appreciation, the family members reiterated that they were grateful that their loved ones were given the opportunity to serve their country, and the gesture of love given to them was well-received.

Just as the flag waves on lustily so does the memories of our fallen soldiers linger in on in our hearts and minds.

COMMODORE Raymond King with Fermina Moss, widow of Petty Officer Kevin Moss. Also shown from left are: Command Warrant Officer, Force Chief Petty Officer Remone Storr; Angie Lopez Josey (sister-in-Law), and Delisa Ferguson (daughter).

COMMODORE Raymond King with Natasja Whylly, daughter of Chief Petty Officer Leroy Whylly, and Warrant Officer, Force Chief Petty Officer Remone Storr.

COMMODORE Raymond King with Shaureen Hall, widow of Chief Petty Officer Solomon Hall, and Warrant Officer, Force Chief Petty Officer Remone Storr.

DEFENCE Force Commander Commodore Raymond King placing his signature on the photo of Petty Officer Kevin Moss. This, along with a flag was presented to family members as a token of appreciation of the services of the deceased Marine to his country.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 11, 2021, PAGE 3

STUDENTS AND TEACHER SENT HOME TO ISOLATE

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

SEVERAL students and a teacher at a private Catholic institution on Grand Bahama were sent home this week to isolate after it was discovered a classmate had tested positive for COVID-19, The Tribune has learned.

The school administration at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Academy was informed by the Ministry of Health’s Surveillance Unit on Tuesday that one of its students had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Parents were subsequently notified by the school by email yesterday. The Tribune understands only one classroom was affected at the school, and that deep cleaning and sanitisation is being carried out of that affected room and other possible areas.

Attempts were made to contact school officials, however, The Tribune was told that no one was available for comment.

In a letter emailed to parents, obtained by The Tribune, the school noted that it had been informed of the matter on Tuesday by the Surveillance Unit. The decision was taken to send all the students of the class home.

“On Tuesday, March 9, 2021, the Surveillance Unit informed us that we had a student who tested positive for the coronavirus,” the letter said. “Out of an abundance of caution, the students of that class were immediately sent home.

“Because of the strict protocols we have in place at the school, we have been advised that there is no need to isolate or quarantine any other students. The affected classroom and any other area that may have been impacted will be deep cleaned and sanitised by an independent company prior to the students’ and teacher’s return,” the letter continued.

“This is a very sensitive time for our school community and the family of the student. We ask for your cooperation, patience, and prayers. More importantly, we request that the established protocols are followed at all times. May God continue to guide our steps and restore everyone to good health.”

Calls made to the Catholic Board of Education yesterday were unanswered. Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Academy comprises a primary and secondary department.

The school utilises both the virtual learning platform and in-person learning at its campus in Freeport.

This is the first reported case of a student at the school testing positive for COVID-19 since the reopening of school.

According to the latest COVID19 update from the Ministry of Health, Grand Bahama had two new cases on March 9. Overall, COVID19 cases continue to remain at a low level on the island.

THE SCENE on the tarmac after the plane carrying the vaccines arrived. Photo: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff

FIRST VACCINES ARRIVE IN THE COUNTRY

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net TWENTY thousand COVID19 AstraZeneca vaccines arrived at Lynden Pindling International Airport yesterday, symbolising the start of a new era as the country looks to move beyond the COVID19 pandemic and return to normalcy.

Frontline workers can expect to get vaccinated starting next week, with trial runs scheduled for this weekend, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis told reporters.

He and other government officials were on hand to receive the vaccines, which have been donated by the Indian government.

“Today is the most delightful and joyous day of my life because now we can see truly light at the end of the tunnel where we can overcome this pandemic and get back to normal life of which I know you are all waiting for,” Dr Minnis said.

Organisations representing healthcare workers have complained about being left in the dark over how to register to take the vaccines.

Asked about this yesterday, Dr Minnis said he has other concerns.

“I think I am more concerned about rolling out the vaccines and getting the vaccines delivered in the arms of the Bahamian populace so we could get back to normalcy as quickly as possible,” he said.

“This weekend they would run trials and next week vaccines

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis speaks at the airport.

PHOTO: Donavan McIntosh should be rolled out. We’ve completed the IT programme to ensure the registration of individuals so the entire system can be transparent and following the protocol...

There can be no possibility of questions of anyone jumping the line or showing favouritism to this one or the next one.”

The US Centres for Disease Control has released guidelines detailing the freedoms fully vaccinated people can be allowed to enjoy. They include the freedom to associate with other vaccinated people without wearing a mask.

Dr Minnis said he is consulting with his advisors about what freedoms fully vaccinated Bahamian residents should enjoy.

“(With) Dr Dahl Regis who is communicating with the entire committee, we have been following the science through this entire pandemic,” he said. “We were advised and we were guided by the science and professionals and we would again continue to follow the guidelines.”

Dr Minnis expressed gratitude toward the Indian government.

“I am very grateful that India has donated to The Bahamas and the Caribbean region. India’s manufacturing is well recognised by the WHO and other institutions in terms of their science and the manufacturing capabilities and the production. We are more than happy that India has assisted us.”

He added: “The Junkanoo chaps called me just yesterday and asked me when can they start and one of my happiest moments, other than this, will be when I can say Junkanoo, friends, colleagues, get ready for Christmas, let’s rock and roll.”

Meanwhile, the vaccines the government has purchased through the WHO’s COVAX facility are expected to reach the country this month.

On Sunday, Dr Minnis said those eligible to receive the first vaccine doses will now be: healthcare workers in the public and private sectors; residents and staff of eldercare homes; and non-ambulatory residents registered in the public health system.

“This first and critical priority group includes those who are our first line of defence against the COVID-19 virus and those among the most vulnerable in our population,” Dr Minnis said earlier this week.

“It is expected that healthcare workers may begin booking their vaccination appointments online within days of the arrival of the vaccine. Details on how the appointment process will work will be published within the next few days.”

In addition to Dr Minnis, Health Minister Renward Wells, Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield, National Immunisation Manager Nurse Ruth Bastian, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillian, Bahamas High Commissioner to India Lowell Mortimer and President

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and the vaccines which arrived from India.

PHOTO: Yontalay Bowe

ELDERCARE HOME OWNER SAYS SHE IS UNWILLING TO RECEIVE COVID VACCINE

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE owner of a local eldercare home said yesterday “fright” and many “unanswered questions” have left her unwilling to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or encourage the jab among senior citizens and boarders at her facility.

Patricia Moxey, 75, of Pat’s Senior Citizens Home, told The Tribune that due to her concerns she could not seek to have the vaccine administered to anyone currently in the care of the home.

The Soldier Road facility is home to more than 70 people, including more than 50 elderly residents and about 22 boarders.

Confused Ms Moxey said she’s confused about why masks need to be worn if the shot is received and side effects of the vaccine, particularly in the elderly among other things.

According to Ms Moxey, there had yet to be a discussion to educate those at the facility about the vaccine.

Instead, health officials, when they made contact with the home, inquired about the number of staff in contrast to patients at the home.

Twenty thousand doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine—also known as Covishield—arrived at Lynden Pindling International Airport yesterday on United Airlines.

The vaccines are a gift from the government of India.

Those eligible to receive the first vaccine doses are healthcare workers in the public and private sectors; residents and staff of eldercare homes and non-ambulatory residents registered in the public health system.

“I for one, I’m not really interested in that,” Ms Moxey said when she was contacted yesterday.

“I’m just so frightened more than anything else.

“I say frightened because it bothers me because why when I take the vaccine, why do I still have to wear a mask? That’s my issue with that.

“Why do I still have to wear the mask and what are the side effects from this vaccine? I am up in age now, so what are the side effects of this vaccine? Everything has side effects.

“Yeah, I am frightened,” she continued, adding she is worried about the quick roll out of the vaccine.

Ms Moxey said she was not keen on encouraging any of her residents to receive the vaccine.

“I have to speak with them really, besides their families because they are in my care and if I am not taking anything I don’t want to push it on someone else. That I’m not capable of doing.”

She could possibly change her mind if health officials answer the questions that have made her worried, she said.

“If I can get more answers on what it’s all about, but right now that’s the last thing on my mind.

“Like, I say, I am up in age and I have heard so many stories of people this one taking it and falling out and this other one having the

jitters and swell up, everything has a side effect.

“Even when you take the flu shot sometimes you end up with the flu, so I think we just need to be more educated.”

The government has tried to dispel myths and anti-vax concerns about the COVID19 jab, urging eligible people to take it once it becomes available.

In terms of side effects, the Office of the Prime Minister has said that some people may experience pain and swelling on the arm where they received the shot. Fever, chills, tiredness and headache may also be experienced.

However some people are still apprehensive.

“I can tell you right now listening to people in the country a lot of them are not taking it,” Ms Moxey said.

“So, if they can answer all of the questions for us and educate a little more and bring some evidence then I guess there will be some change.”

Briefing Another senior home, Persis Rodgers Home for the Aged, said while health officials had not yet met with the home on the vaccines, they were patiently waiting for an educational briefing.

Francis Ledee told The Tribune officials had since the start of the pandemic ensured them that Persis Rodgers had the needed training and skills to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said: “From this pandemic broke out we have had excellent training and coordination from the health team. They have come here

and trained us up to this point so I am sure that whenever they are ready, they will reach out, but directly we are waiting for the time.”

At Unity House, the home was said to be mostly concerned with getting approval from relatives for patients to receive the vaccine.

SIXTEEN new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Tuesday. According to data from the Ministry of Health, one case is in New Providence, two are in Grand Bahama, 12 are in Abaco and one is in Cat Island.

The country now has 8,658 confirmed cases, of which 906 are considered active. As of Tuesday, 17 people were in hospital with COVID-19. One hundred and eighty-five people have died from the disease.

PAGE 4, Thursday, March 11, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

‘CULTURE IN POLICE HAS TO CHANGE’

FROM PAGE ONE Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle said a senior officer has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the alarming recording.

But Ms Galanos said the release of such a recording was inevitable.

“I’m not surprised by it,” she said. “I always felt that one day they would be recorded and that’s what happened. I’m sickened by the fact that it’s still happening. I find it frightening.”

She said the recording calls to mind the frequent allegation that suspects are sometimes beaten in custody for confessions, an allegation that, if true, flies in the face of human rights across the globe.

“When it comes to police brutality in these settings with suspects being questioned, one thing that takes place is the common allegation that confessions are being beaten out of these people,” she said.

“I shudder to think about how many people are guilty because some police officer decided to abuse their rights. This behaviour can often lead to persons confessing crimes that they didn’t commit. The unfairness of having someone rot in prison over something he did not do is the concern for me. The thing with this country is very often there are confessions on file—so you telling me everyone who comes to custody just starts spilling their guts to police? That’s not logical or sensible and this recording sheds light on a common problem.”

Courts Over the years, courts in The Bahamas have thrown out some confessions after determining they were coerced through physical oppression.

The Supreme Court this year will hold a closely watched trial involving three people from Eleuthera who allege that police brutalised them in 2018 for confessions while investigating an armed robbery incident, only to later release them from custody without charge. One of the plaintiffs claims police officers poured hot sauce into his eyes, causing long-term damage.

“I’ve been speaking about this for years,” Ms Galanos said.

“You sometimes have a confession on file, but the beating and intimidation is not on file.

“From the Aaron Rolle ruling a few years ago, the coroner recommended that cameras be placed at strategic spots in police stations, and it seems that has not been done. Even now with the body cameras, officers I’m sure have powers to turn off cameras or not wear them. I don’t think that is assisting the system in any way.”

In 2013, the Coroner’s Court ruled that Aaron Rolle’s death in police custody was unlawful.

Cameras Among the coroner’s recommendations was that cameras should be installed at every police station at the entrance to the cell block area and that all interviews with suspects be videotaped.

The coroner also recommended that the cameras be monitored by a separate department at police headquarters or elsewhere.

Today, lawyers say they are not even allowed to keep their phones when meeting clients at CDU. “If you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, if you’re walking the straight line, what’s the danger of me bringing my phone?”

Ms Galanos asked.

“The fact that they prohibit attorneys says they’re concerned about what attorneys will collect, what pictures, what audio. If it’s above board, you’d tell attorneys come on down, we have nothing to hide. All of this lends to an inescapable conclusion: there is a culture of police brutality.

“I wish Bahamians would wake up and condemn it and not wait for their sons and daughters to be in the situation.

“It’s time to outfit stations and CDU with cameras. Every square inch should be covered.

You should be able to pull the recording. Recordings should be controlled by someone off site. Right now, it’s like anytime something questionable is done, something isn’t working. One reason I will never prosecute in this country is I can’t do it knowing the culture of the police force is to beat confessions out of people.”

DRUGS are removed from the scene off Fire Trail Road. Photos: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff

SEVEN HELD IN $330K DRUG BUST

FROM PAGE ONE Trail Road and executed a search warrant.

“As a result of that search, the officers would’ve found 13 croker sacks containing a substance considered to be suspected marijuana.

As a result, five adult males and two adult females were taken into custody and they are assisting police with this investigation,” the press liaison officer said.

“Everyone is a suspect at this time because the drugs were found in the residence and through the investigation there will be a process of elimination.”

He added: “We have a window of operations, which gives us a 96-hour period. Perhaps within that

(timeframe) the persons will be before the court provided that they are persons responsible for this infraction.”

The drug bust was used as an opportunity to caution others to stop their involvement in illegal activities.

“What we want to say to the members of the public who are hell bent on criminality that our intelligence network is working and we’re going to continue to see results like these,” ASP Peters said. “So you are given a forewarning to desist and discontinue your behaviour of criminality and we’re well aware that (there) are residual effects of drug peddling in our communities.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 11, 2021, PAGE 5

FUNDING SECURED FOR FAMILY ISLAND AIRPORTS

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net THE government has secured the funding needed to complete work on four Family Island airports, Tourism and Aviation Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar announced yesterday, adding that the total cost of the projects is expected to be about $175 million.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, the Freetown MP said the airport developments will take place on the islands of Exuma, Long Island, Eleuthera and Abaco.

While he did not give a timeline as to when the projects will be completed, Mr D’Aguilar said officials have secured funding from a local financial institution while also using funds from the Inter-American Development Bank.

Investors He said: “We expect that these four projects will cost approximately $175 million with $32 million coming from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and remaining $143 million coming from a wide array of local investors via Royal Fidelity.

“Mr Speaker, the $140 million that has been secured from Royal Fidelity is a non-recourse transaction to the government of The Bahamas, ie, this debt will be financed by the projects’ cash flow and will not be an obligation of the government of The Bahamas and not reflected on the balance sheet of the government of The Bahamas.

“Mr Speaker, the local financial institution will source its funding from as many investors as it can and I have been advised that there is a high degree of interest in these Family Island airport projects. So, I remain hopeful that the necessary funding will be secured to make these airports to a reality and bring to the Family Islands the investment that they need and want to make these critically needed airports a reality.”

Outlining the government’s re-development plans for each of the aforementioned islands, the minister noted that plans are underway to construct a new airport on Exuma, Deadman’s Cay, Long Island and North Eleuthera.

As it relates to Abaco, he said critical post Hurricane

Dorian repairs will be made to Leonard M Thompson Airport in Marsh Harbour to improve the terminal building and rebuild the Air Traffic Control tower and the General Services Building.

He also noted that other construction projects are in the pipeline for several other airports including the Great Harbour Cay Airport in the Berry Islands and the Treasure Cay airport in Abaco.

Yesterday, he also gave an update on the government’s negotiations with Hutchison Port Holdings concerning Grand Bahama International Airport, which sustained damage during Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

He said the government is “on the cusp” of acquiring the Grand Bahama airport and added that upon acquisition, officials will seek to invest over $1 million in the first instance and will then look to public private partnerships (PPPs) to fund further developments.

He said: “The Grand Bahama International Airport has been the victim of a number of weather events which has motivated the current owner, Hutchison Ports, to express a desire to offload this asset. The government will purchase the property for a nominal price and establish a legal construct where they are not obligated to pay any amount to the Port Authority in fees.

“The government will then hire a consultant to advise it on how best to redevelop that airport given the high probability of another weather event impacting that airport.”

Hurricanes He also said: “Mr. Speaker, it makes no sense to me to build back the same type of airport - close to the ground - and not at least, consider quite seriously the impact of hurricanes and flooding on that facility. It has happened twice in recent memory so we must consider how to make that airport more resilient when we contemplate its redevelopment.

“Upon acquisition, the government of The Bahamas plans to invest approximately $1.5 million in capital improvements to the airport facility in the short-term, and then, after receiving a report from the consultants on the way forward, enter into a PPP to redevelop this airport.”

MINISTER of Tourism Dionisio

D’Aguilar. (File photo)

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net OVER 100,000 people have applied to the Ministry of Tourism for travel health visas to enter The Bahamas over the past four months, Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said yesterday.

While giving his mid-year budget contribution in the House of Assembly, Mr D’Aguilar said the travel numbers include both visitors and returning residents and added that officials are expecting to see an uptick in the months ahead.

“For the past four months, we have received over 125,000 travel applications from both visitors and returning residents. Since the New Year, we are averaging over 2,000 each day,” he told Parliament.

“And, each month, Mr Speaker, the number of visitors applying for health visas is slowly increasing. In November, our first month of reopening there were 14,000 visitors who applied.

In December, there were 32,000 visitors who applied.

In January, there were 21,000 who applied, a decrease caused by President Biden’s announcement that quarantining for persons returning to the United States from travel abroad was being contemplated, an idea that was later dismissed.

“In February, there were over 28,000 that applied.

And for March, I estimate that close to 45,000 visitors will apply for a health visa given that Easter falls at the end of this month and the hotels are reporting healthier bookings. So, as you can see, Mr Speaker, the visitors are slowly returning, still a far cry from the 150,000 per month we were receiving

Over 125,000 applications for travel health visas in the past four months pre COVID, but increasing every month.”

And with the reopening of several hotel properties across the country, Mr D’Aguilar said officials are feeling more optimistic that things in the tourism sector are improving.

He said: “Atlantis reopened on December 10, Baha Mar and the Hilton

“For the past four months, we have received over 125,000 travel applications from both visitors and returning residents. Since the New Year, we are averaging over 2,000 each day.”

Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar followed shortly thereafter, Sandals Exuma opened at the end of February, and just last week the Rosewood and SLS have opened.

“The gears of the tourism machine—for many months ground to a halt—are churning once again, albeit not on all cylinders. But the pistons are beginning to fire, and we are moving closer to returning to the glory days of Bahamas tourism.”

His comments came as the country received its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, a gift from the Indian government.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis told reporters that people will begin receiving the vaccines next week after a weekend of trials.

With the roll-out of vaccination campaigns both in the country and abroad, Mr D’Aguilar said he expects that more visitors will want to travel here.

Yesterday, the minister also announced his intentions to take the COVID-19 vaccine and urged his constituents in Freetown as well as other Bahamians to do the same, insisting the revival of the country’s leading industry is “dependent “on it.

He said: “I predict, Mr Speaker that visitor arrivals will progressively improve during the course of this year culminating with a good Christmas when hopefully, all of The Bahamas and all of our core source markets like the US, Canada and the UK, will have been mostly vaccinated and the pent demand for travel will have been unleashed.” “…Our country, the revival of our critical tourism industry, employment, incomes is dependent on tourism and tourism, trust me, is dependent on people getting vaccinated.

So, please, my fellow Bahamians get vaccinated.”

He suggested that only when the country has vaccinated most of the population against the virus, then will more restrictions be eased.

He said officials are confident in the current COVID-19 travel protocols in place, pointing to the low number of infections and hospitalisations recorded in the last several weeks.

“On most days, the number of positive cases is less than five percent of those tested.

“I am advised by the health professionals that if five percent or less of the persons tested are positive, we have a handle on things,”

he told Parliament. “And, on most days, I note that there are less than 20 persons in hospital for COVID – a far cry from August and September when the number of persons hospitalised for COVID was over 100 and we were building additional hospital beds.”

He also sought to address complaints made about the ministry’s travel health visa, a protocol that has not been welcomed with open arms by some visitors and locals.

He added: “Despite these numbers, despite the 125,000 air arrivals we have seen since November, and despite the fact that the number of COVID-19 cases brought about through tourism have been virtually nonexistent, there is very sadly, and regrettably, a strong vocal minority—of both Bahamians and foreigners alike—campaigning to make you feel that the health visa is hurting our tourism product.

“It is definitely an impediment to travel but let me be clear and direct - since the onset of COVID-19, my ministry’s top priority has been to navigate this crisis in such a way that balances the public health and safety of all Bahamian citizens and residents first whilst also ensuring the safe re-opening of our tourism sector. “…When we made the decision to extend the existing safety measures instead of relaxing entry guidelines, we did so to prevent placing an overwhelming strain on our healthcare systems and practitioners.

“Quite simply, we were looking after our own, and protecting our Bahamian tourism product such that we would have an industry to welcome tourists back to in the future.”

I know my son is alive FROM PAGE ONE

search and recovery.

Mr Sawyer was a passenger on a yellow and white Piper PA28 aircraft piloted by Cliff Dean.

They were last seen on Friday, March 5, at 8am when the duo departed Lynden Pindling International Airport for Inagua.

The plane crashed in waters off Acklins on Friday morning.

“I know my son is alive,” Ms Brown said.

“The Defence Force will find him. I am not giving up hope at all. We are praying for his return. I think they have a lead on something to do with his cell phone and I am holding on to that. I think we are going to get good news soon. We are just waiting to hear the good news at any minute.

“I refuse to think anything else. My son is alive and that is what I am holding on to. He is alive. I know he is. All we can do is pray at this stage and that is what we are doing.

So through prayer and faith, we know he will be found.”

On Tuesday evening, the RBDF and personnel from the Air Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) spoke to Mr Sawyer’s and Mr Dean’s families advising them of the latest in the search and rescue mission.

On Wednesday, the RBDF issued a statement updating the public on the unfortunate flight.

The statement said, “Family members of

the two occupants who reportedly went missing on an overdue aircraft were given investigation updates by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and personnel from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) on Tuesday March 9.

“During a briefing at HMBS Coral Harbour, the RBDF search and

“I refuse to think anything else. My son is alive and that is what I am holding on to. He is alive. I know he is. All we can do is pray at this stage and that is what we are doing.

So through prayer and faith, we know he will be found.”

Judy Brown rescue coordinator, Commander William Sturrup, informed family members that the search efforts have now become a search and recovery operation, due to the elapsed length of time in which the aircraft was last heard from.

“He further went on to explain that the organisation will continue its ongoing search efforts, which will be centred around the southern Bahamas, where the aircraft was last seen on radar.”

Operations investigator

at AAIA, Kendall Dorsett Jr along with Delvin Major, chief investigator at AAIA, also spoke with the families telling them about the investigation process. The Sawyer and Dean families were assured that they will be updated as information becomes available. Acting Captain Shawn Adderley, RBDF Coral Harbour, was also present at the meeting.

Gina Knowles, who was part of a group that assisted in the search for downed pilot Byron Ferguson in 2018, has once again called on the boating community to assist with the search for Mr Sawyer and Mr Dean.

April Sawyer Finlayson and Tamika Strachan, relatives of the missing men, have organised a GoFundMe account to assist with the search. By yesterday afternoon, more than $5,000 of the $20,000 goal was raised.

After receiving reports of a missing aircraft in the vicinity of Acklins, the RBDF Operations Command Centre was officially notified and RBDF assets joined in the search along with a US Coast Guard cutter, a US Coast Guard fixed-wing and a US Coast Guard helicopter.

There are concerns about rough seas and high winds as the search continues. Officials at the Royal Bahamas Defence Force are continuing to work with its partnering agencies in the search for the missing aircraft.

RBDF and personnel from the Air Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) spoke to Mr Sawyer’s and Mr Dean’s families advising them of the latest in the search and rescue mission.

PAGE 6, Thursday, March 11, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

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Parties should be focussing on vaccination message IF you’ve been browsing on social media over the last few weeks I suspect, like us, you’re getting a bit fed up with the videos from the FNM and PLP popping up every few minutes telling you how great they are and you should give them your vote.

The election they seem to already be fighting is, possibly, still more than a year away but on the face of it that’s all they seem to be focussed on.

There is one issue which they should both be focussing on – vaccination.

Despite assurances from Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis during his regular Sunday sermons that the vaccine is safe the message has not gotten through.

Have a look at today’s story on two local homes which care for the elderly.

Even though the first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrived yesterday it seems incredible to us that people running facilities such as these are still confused, unsure whether to take the vaccine or not.

How has this happened?

If the vaccine is to work the vast majority of adults in The Bahamas have to take it. The science says at least 80 percent of the population must be immunised.

One care home owner in today’s story says she won’t be taking it and is nervous about recommending it for the 70 seniors in her care.

These are some of the precise people the first stage of the rollout will be targeting. Any doubts they’ve had should have been resolved weeks ago, not by watching the PM on a Sunday afternoon but by health officials going into these premises and answering every question they’ve got.

Several hundred million people around the world have already been vaccinated. Yes, there are mild side effects but none have been found to be of any real seriousness. From what we’ve read over many months you can expect swelling in the area of the injection, some people will experience a mild fever but this doesn’t normally last more than 24 hours.

That’s it.

We know some people think it’s way too early to be using a vaccine which has only been created in a matter of months, surely these things take years of development, they argue.

Well, in normal circumstances that’s true but these aren’t normal days. The whole world has pretty much stopped moving for a year. No industry, no travel, no schools, no families to visit, no friends to spend time with.

While we’ve been hunkered down in on-again, off-again lockdowns the world’s best scientists working at giant pharmaceutical companies have thrown every resource they have at the one problem – how to stop COVID-19.

This global effort has now achieved what it set out to do.

The vaccination is here and everyone eligible should be taking it.

It would be a crying shame to see people turn away because we never made our own all-out effort to explain precisely how the vaccine works.

If if means going into care homes and places of work then that should happen – and quickly.

The key to opening the door back to a normal life is in our hands – let’s not blow it.

Reflecting on Harry and Meghan’s ‘tell all’ interview EDITOR, The Tribune.

What a pity that Harry and his wife in their recent Oprah Winfrey “tell all” interview should have played the race card. I remember one of the first family photographs taken after Archie’s birth that included his grandparents – the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and Meghan’s mother— Archie’s grandmother who is as black as the ace of spades.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh genuinely looked the proudest, and happiest of grandparents.

So did Meghan’s mother.

All eyes were on the beautiful boy wrapped in a blanket that hid him from public view. It was that joy wrapped in that blanket that drew them together in the happiest of family photographs.

So, if the colour of little Archie’s skin was a secret, Meghan wasn’t talking – even in a photo.

It was sometime before we saw in photographs the little beauty that was hidden in that blanket.

To wonder what shade Archie would be in a mixed race union does not seem an unusual question to me, who am myself the same colour as Meghan’s mother.

Even I, as dark as I am, was curious to know the shade that such a union would produce.

So I don’t know why Meghan should have got so bent out of shape by such a question. According

to her it was one of the incidents that apparently pushed her on the road to contemplate suicide.

Obviously the Oprah show was a successful show, an obvious talking point and a leg up for whatever plans that the young couple are now working on to get Meghan back into show business.

Oprah’s show has certainly launched whatever her future business plans are.

Obviously Meghan needed a bit more information before her marriage.

Maybe, because she was an actress, she expected to walk in and dazzle everyone by stealing the show. Imagine her telling Oprah that Archie had been denied a royal title by the palace.

It shows her complete ignorance of the traditions to which she – an American – would have to adjust.

It is true Archie cannot be referred to as HRH now.

However, the rule is that when his grandfather, Prince Charles, becomes king of England, Archie will get the title as of right.

Meghan Markle was obviously ignorant of the tradition and took it as a slight to her son. But, unfortunately, she took it even further — according to her it was because he was of mixed race.

In my opinion, the Oprah show put on display the ignorance of an actress ill prepared for what she was getting herself into,

and obviously believed she would steal the show — which, of course, in a certain sense she has done.

Is this history repeating itself?

I remember on an early morning in 1936 when I strained to hear a broadcast from London when Edward VIII (the Duke of Windsor) took to the airwaves to announce that he was abdicating the throne of England “for the woman I love.”

His was a sad, an unhappy story. It was rumoured that the Germans had planned to kidnap him, hence the quick decision to get him out of harms way to the safety of the Bahamas as its governor.

And so this is where he was posted – his last and only posting. In Nassau he was often referred to as the “third mate on an American destroyer!”

The Duchess had been married three times, before she lured him away from the throne of England. I doubt that he ever found happiness.

On his last visit here, with her remaining in Paris, he appeared a lost soul.

I do hope that Harry and Megan try to understand their situation and make sensible decisions, because history always has a way of repeating itself.

A BAHAMIAN VIEW Nassau, March 19, 2021

Black conservative Bahamians and the death of Rush Limbaugh EDITOR, The Tribune.

I would like to give my thoughts on the passing of the incendiary American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who unfortunately died on February 17, due to complications from lung cancer. I find it providentially ironic that Limbaugh died during Black History Month. He was apparently a chronic cigar smoker.

Host of the Rush Limbaugh Show, which aired on over 600 radio stations around the world on the Excellent In Broadcasting Network, Limbaugh had announced to millions of his listeners in early 2020 that he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Subsequent to his announcement, which shocked the GOP base, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Donald Trump. The five time winner of the Marconi Award, Limbaugh was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame and the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Apparently, Limbaugh’s influence within the Republican Party was massive, as he is credited with helping that party to win both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1994 midterm election – something that hadn’t happened in decades.

But Limbaugh, notwithstanding his talent he claimed was a loan from God, was deeply polarizing – endearing millions of White conservatives while angering millions of liberals, owing to his many incendiary comments.

As a Black conservative and evangelical Christian who had

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net listened to the Rush Limbaugh Show for years, I was naively unaware of the claims that he was a racist. I did a Google search and was shocked at what I found, regarding some of the comments Limbaugh had made while on air, which have caused me to reevaluate my fandom for the so-called ‘King of Talk Radio.’ Obviously as a cardcarrying member of the GOP, Limbaugh opposed former President Barack Obama, who is a Democrat. It is on record that Limbaugh called Obama a ‘halfrican American’, alleging that the first Black president of the United States was an ‘affirmative action candidate.’

Commenting on Obama’s presidency, Limbaugh stated that “we need segregated buses.”

Concerning the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Limbaugh condescendingly stated that the oldest civil rights organisation in the United States “should have riot rehearsal.”

In another inflammatory comment, Limbaugh said that James Earl Ray, the man who confessed to fatally shooting Dr Martin Luther king, Jr in 1968, deserves the posthumous Medal of Honour.

Stating that African Americans made up only 12 percent of the American population, Limbaugh asked the racially charged question: “Who the

hell cares?” In another inflammatory comment, Limbaugh claimed that slavery in the Deep South “had its merits,” apparently either downplaying or outright ignoring the thousands of Blacks who were brutally murdered by White racist southerners. In another disturbing comment, Limbaugh told an African American female caller to take the bone out of her nose.

While I am opposed to Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality as a basis for racial reconciliation, at times I am left to wonder if individuals like Limbaugh and certain elements within the Republican Party and the Southern Baptist Convention are pretending that chattel slavery in America wasn’t a horrid system to people of African descent.

I am not going to dance on Limbaugh’s grave. His rhetoric concerning African Americans gives one the impression that he was a Jim Crow sympathizer, who wanted to claw back all the massive gains made by the civil rights movement for African Americans and other ethnic groups in the United States. While I extend condolences to his grieving family, the above troubling quotations should give Black conservative Bahamians pause to continuing to support a man who lacked empathy for our Black counterparts in the United States.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama, February 17, 2021.

Zimbabwe and women activists EDITOR, The Tribune.

South Africa can help Zimbabwe to stop persecuting women activists.

I am deeply depressed that Zimbabwe is celebrating achievements of women yet women activists are harassed because of their different opinions to the government.

Last year three opposition activists were abducted and tortured and these issues were not highlighted on International Women’s Day. The three women are Joana Mamombe Harare West MP, Cecilia Chimbiri youth chairman and Netsai Marova youth organising secretary.

Women cannot fully celebrate any achievements when other women are suffering in a horrific state in Zimbabwe just because of their opinion and demonstration. Where are the women of the world

to voice their concern to the cruel Zimbabwean government?

Even South Africa is quiet about these harassments and ill-treatments of Zimbabwean female activists. Many female activists have fled to South Africa to seek sanctuary there. It is deeply worrying that South Africa now hosts an estimated seven million Zimbabweans who fled their home country because of hardships and climate of fear. Women and men all over the world should condemn and pile pressure on the careless Zimbabwean government to stop persecuting women.

TAPIWA MUSKWE 1 Laker Court, Studley Road, Stockwell, SW4 6RY United Kingdom.

March 10, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

MECHANIC DENIES STEALING CAR

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE SCENE of the shooting on Sugar Apple Street. Photo: Donavan McIntosh

Shooting victim was on his way to pick up a friend

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

RENARDO Morley was on his way to pick up a friend in the Pinewood area when he was fatally shot Tuesday night, according to a close family member.

“He picked up (a friend) from work and was heading to pick up (another) a friend in the Pinewood area,” the relative, who did not want to be named, said.

Now, the family is left grieving over the loss of their young loved one.

“We are in mourning as it hurts to see him die like that as he was innocent, humble, kind, selfless and just (an) all round great person.”

The relative said the 19-year-old victim had no run-ins with the law.

The Tribune was also told the deceased did not complain about having problems with people, but “even if he did, he wasn’t a troublesome person as he

RENARDO Morley forgave and moved on,” the relative said.

“He was a loving, joyful and kind person who didn’t deserve to die the way he did. You will be missed as your family reflects on the memories we shared with you. We love you and may your soul rest in peace,” the relative said.

Police received reports sometime after 9pm of a shooting incident that occurred on Sugar Apple Street, Pinewood Gardens.

Officers arrived on the scene and found a white coloured Honda Accord in the street with extensive damage.

A man in the driver’s seat had apparent gunshot wounds.

“Inquiries also revealed that the driver was travelling east along Sugar Apple Street, when a small Japanese vehicle drove across his vehicle,” police said.

“A male exited the small vehicle and discharged a firearm in the direction of the driver, injuring him.

The driver then lost control of the vehicle and collided into a wall.”

The family member said relatives found out about the death through social media.

“Unfortunately someone showed me a post on Facebook with him saying he was gone,” the family member said.

The killing pushed the country’s homicide count to 24 for the year, according to this newspaper’s records.

HAITIAN MAN SAYS HE WAS TOLD HE WAS BEATEN BECAUSE BAHAMIANS COULD NOT FIND WORK WHILE HE WAS EMPLOYED

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A HAITIAN man whose rough arrest was captured in a viral video over a year ago, yesterday testified that an immigration officer told him he was beaten because Bahamians could not find work while he was gainfully employed at BTC. In December 2019, Evince Gaston travelled in his company’s van to a Haitian village on Joe Farrington Road where he encountered immigration officers. An altercation followed between himself and three officers of the department, which was captured on cell phone video.

Shortly after the incident, Gaston was charged with resisting arrest and three counts of assaulting a public officer. When he appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis at the time, he denied the allegations and the matter was subsequently adjourned for trial.

Yesterday when Gaston was questioned by his attorney, Roberto Reckley, he said at the time of the incident he was employed as a sales agent at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company and had been working at the corporation for three years.

Officers Speaking through a Creole interpreter, the accused said that day when he and two of his co-workers visited the Haitian village, they saw police officers. Gaston said the officers did not stop them from working, so they continued to carry out their jobs. He said shortly after, an immigration bus “pulled up” and officers from the department got out of the vehicle and started to “run after people”.

The accused said none of the immigration officers approached him until one decided to “pull up” on him and his co-worker.

“He said hello,” Gaston stated. “He passed and left and I told him ‘I know you’ and he asked from where. I said ‘I spoke with you at the airport,’ (but) he said he didn’t know me.”

Gaston said a “few minutes later”, that same officer came back and asked him for his papers in Creole. He said the way the officer approached him made him feel afraid so he showed him his BTC ID. He said the officer told him that was not what he wanted, which prompted him to ask the officer “what he was talking about”.

“I told him that my wallet was in the BTC car but when I turned around to get it he punched me in my face,” Gaston continued.

“When I was about to fall, I went to hold on to him, but he continued to hit me. There were two other immigration officers nearby who come near to stop him from hitting me but he pushed them off...They put me on the floor, tear my clothes and handcuffed me.”

Gaston said before the handcuffs were placed on his wrists, the first immigration officer told his colleagues to “break his hand”. He said the

officers then escorted him to the immigration bus where they hit his head against the vehicle three times before putting him inside.

“In the bus he told me Bahamians can’t find work but yet you working to BTC,” he stated. “...I got hit in my face and bruised in my eye. When the immigration (officers) left the (detention) centre with me, they took me to the Carmichael Road police station. The officers there say they could not take me the way I am.

I have to go to the hospital first.”

Gaston insisted he never assaulted any of the officers nor resisted arrest.

Yesterday, one of his co-workers who captured a video of the incident also testified in court.

Under oath, Tasha Dorviluse said on the day in question, she, Gaston and another colleague were doing their “regular routine” in the BTC vehicle when they headed to the Haitian village off Joe Farrington Road. She said she noticed about 15 police officers in the area who were joined by immigration officers about “10-17” minutes later.

Ms Dorviluse said she was standing outside the company car when the first immigration officer “stopped and hailed” her on “his way to the village”. She said he then walked past Gaston who greeted him and told the officer he knew him. She said when the officer told Gaston that he did not know him, the defendant said “okay, no problem”.

“He proceeded to enter the village and 10-20 seconds later he returned and questioned Evince and asked him for his ID,” she stated. “(When) Evince show him his work ID he said he didn’t mean that one and when Evince turn to go in the vehicle to get his wallet he hit him in his face.”

Ms Dorviluse said the incident unfolded about three to five feet from where she was standing and she watched as the first immigration officer “repeatedly” hit Evince while holding his shirt’s collar.

She said at one point an “apparent” immigration supervisor told her she could not record, but she told the woman she had a right to do so.

“I put the phone away but thankfully the footage was saved,” she said. “I didn’t get to record the part where he had Evince on the floor and told the (other) officers to break his arm.”

A copy of the footage Ms Dorviluse recorded was played during the proceedings. In the short clip, three officers could be seen attempting to restrain Gaston as one of the officers appeared to hit the defendant while shouting: “Don’t play with me here bey, catch yourself!”

During the prosecution’s cross-examination, Inspector Lakesia Moss suggested that the video that was submitted into evidence was edited since the clip that was played through a jump drive in court was shorter than the actual video on Ms Dorviluse’s phone which played the footage twice.

She also suggested that Gaston could be seen resisting arrest since the defendant was captured pulling away from the officers in the clip.

The matter continues on March 16.

A MECHANIC who denied stealing a man’s car was yesterday granted bail ahead of his trial.

Moise Bazile appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis accused of stealing and dishonestly receiving a man’s $4,000 silver coloured Colorado vehicle in July 2020.

He denied the allegations and the case was adjourned to May 5 for trial.

In the meantime, Bazile was granted $6,000 bail.

Meanwhile, Cedric Stockdale, 42, appeared before Magistrate Rolle Davis after he was accused of stealing two bottles of Dettol disinfectant liquid from Super Value’s Wulff Road branch on March 8.

He pleaded not guilty to one count of stealing from a shop and his case was adjourned to May 25 for trial.

Stockdale was granted $300 bail in the interim.

Thursday, March 11, 2021, PAGE 7

GRAND BAHAMA COUPLE CHARGED OVER DRUGS

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A GRAND Bahama couple was charged with possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply in the Freeport Magistrate’s Court this week.

Travelle Lightbourne, 39, and Monica Mackey, 27, both of Fortune Bay Drive, appeared in Court Two before Magistrate LaQuay Laing on two counts of possession of dangerous drugs with the intent to supply.

It is alleged that on March 7, at Freeport, the accused were found in possession of dangerous drugs, namely cocaine and Indian Hemp, with intent to supply.

According to reports, police discovered drugs and marijuana ingredients in packaging similar to legitimate snack products at a residence in the Lucaya area.

The couple pleaded not guilty to the charges. They were granted $6,000 bail with one or two sureties and ordered to sign in at Central Police Station every Monday and Wednesday between 6am and 6pm.

The matter was adjourned to June 8, 2021.

COURT OF APPEAL DISMISSES APPLICATION OF MAN WHO WAS JUVENILE WHEN CHARGED

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed the application of a man who attempted to have his burglary and armed robbery case heard summarily since he was a juvenile at the time when he was charged with the offences.

In October 2016, the appellant, who was 17-years-old, was arraigned with the indictable offences of armed robbery and burglary and the summary offences of causing harm, receiving and possession of an unlicensed firearm.

During the course of the proceedings, the prosecution proceeded by way of a voluntary bill of indictment in relation to all of the charges.

The appellant then applied to the Supreme Court to have the VBI dismissed and have his case dealt with summarily in the Juvenile Court. He relied on the Child Protection Act and Section 263 of the Criminal Procedure Code; however, his application was denied.

He recently appealed that decision on the grounds that it was “unreasonable” and could not be supported having regard to all the circumstances of his case.

Yesterday, Justices Roy Jones, Milton Evans and Carolita Bethel dismissed the appeal and remitted the matter to the Supreme Court for trial.

In their judgement, delivered by Justice Jones, the panel stated: “In exercising her discretion the trial judge was required to consider the interests of the appellant as a child, together with the interests in the administration of justice in having the offences tried together. As the offences with which the appellant was charged were all part of a single event, it was in the interests of justice that they be tried together.

“While this case involved a juvenile, it did not involve the upbringing of a child or administration of a child’s property. As such, there was no duty of the court to ascertain the feelings of the appellant. In the circumstances, the trial judge did not infringe upon the rights of the appellant under the Child Protection Act.”

PAGE 8, Thursday, March 11, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Time we threw off the last shackles of colonialism and unleash our real potential “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” ― Rabindranath Tagore (Indian philosopher and poet) ONE of the jarring realities the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed here at home is the degree to which the relationship of The Bahamas to the 21st century is tenuous.

We are mostly stuck in a previous century, a fundamentalist cul-de-sac and a neo-colonial mindset, largely unaware of and indifferent to seismic geopolitical, scientific, technological, economic and cultural shifts that are upending our narrow nationalism and provincialism.

The mental slavery paralyzing and polluting our national consciousness include an entrenched belief in and subservience to white superiority, that whatever is culturally or physically produced in a majority white country, especially America, is automatically superior.

This mental slavery also includes a myopia and limited appreciation of the extraordinary potential of The Bahamas.

It includes a slothful comfort by a mostly cosseted elite who are schooled in certain professions but largely uneducated in other areas, unaware of history and current events, basic science and sociology, and often incapable of critical thinking and happily anaesthetised by material comforts.

Our quality of success is largely measured in the luxury cars we own and the fine threads we wear and not in the books we read, or ongoing learning, or pursuits of culture and the life of the mind.

After the announcement of the generous donation of 20,000 vaccines from the Government of India, there was a burst of ignorance from some asking questions like: “Why are we getting vaccines from a poor country like India?” and “Why aren’t we

getting our vaccines from the United States?”

Many of us are still prone to trekking to the Big House to get something from Master. Our plantation mind-set is deeply rooted in our mostly closed consciousness.

Because vaccines have been hoarded mostly by wealthier states, it has proved difficult for The Bahamas and others to purchase vaccines, especially smaller states. We should thank India for its generosity, which also includes vaccines to other Caribbean neighbours and developing countries.

Entrenched Comments like these about India, often made by those with tertiary degrees, are a part of an entrenched worldview that looks mostly to white majority countries as superior. It is also a worldview ignorant of shifting geopolitical sands and the history and legacies of other countries.

With approximately 1.3 billion people, India has more people than all of Africa combined at 1.2 billion. A nuclear power, with a vibrant aerospace industry and sophisticated universities and techhubs, India is in the top five of the world’s largest economies.

There are more engineers in India than the entire population of Caricom, with about one and

VACCINES donated by India arrive in The Bahamas on Wednesday. The Serum Institute of India, whence we are getting the 20,000 WHO-approved vaccines, is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world.

PHOTO: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff

a half million engineers graduated annually in the country and approximately 3,000 engineering schools.

The Serum Institute of India, whence we are getting the 20,000 WHOapproved vaccines, is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world, having begun operations in 1966.

The Institute has produced a variety of vaccines that are used globally including in Europe and North America.

Former US President Bill Clinton has praised pharmaceutical manufacturers from India who produced generic HIV/ AIDS drugs which were considerably cheaper than similar drugs from the United States. India is the main source of our HIV/ AIDS drugs.

Pharmaceuticals from India have saved millions of lives globally.

By volume, India is the third largest producer of pharmaceuticals.

There is a joke of US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping arguing about who’s in charge globally. Smiling, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi responds: “Well, this I know: the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Net. App, MasterCard, DBS, Novartis, Diageo, SanDisk, Harman, Micron, Palo Alto Networks, Reckitt Benckiser and IBM are all of Indian birth or heritage.

So, you tell me who is running the world?”

India has produced some of the most brilliant mathematicians, poets, scientists and thinkers in the world.

Yet some Bahamians are querying vaccines from India!? Some seem to have forgotten the number of Indian teachers, doctors and engineers who have contributed to our national development.

There are four great offices of state in the United Kingdom: Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary.

Rishi Sunak, whose parents were born in Africa and whose grandparents

were born in India, is the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a potential contender for leadership of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is Ugandan-Indian.

Sadiq Khan is Mayor of London. He is a Sunni Muslim, whose grandparents migrated from India to Pakistan after Partition.

Experiment A thought experiment: Given the choice between a white American with a few million proposing an investment project in the country and an Indian billionaire, who is a Sikh, proposing a project, who would most Bahami-

“India has produced some of the most brilliant mathematicians, poets, scientists and thinkers in the world. Yet some Bahamians are querying vaccines from India!? Some seem to have forgotten the number of Indian teachers, doctors and engineers who have contributed to our national development.” ans likely prefer as an investor?

The white supremacist dominated world is changing fast, though such supremacy remains virulent and powerful and will likely last for many years.

With China and India emerging as superpowers, the traditional hegemonic and colonial powers of the United States and Europe, steeped in the history of slavery and white supremacy, are under challenge, convulsing those who fear the loss of dominance and hegemony.

There is no divine right of any country to rule the world. The United States of America will remain a superpower but any arrogance and hubris that it must remain the leading superpower will be superseded militarily, technologically, economically and intellectually.

Indian and Chinese talent and expertise are critical for the flourishing of American and European universities, technology companies and other sectors.

The Oprah Winfrey interview with British Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is about much more than celebrity happenings.

The interview, which landed as a series of bombshells in the British Monarchy and House of Windsor concerns questions of race and white supremacy and a changing world order in which non-white countries are outstripping white countries which have dominated the global order for centuries.

It is not just a question of whether racist queries were made about the Queen’s great-grandchild by a member of the Royal Family.

The questions for the Monarch include: the systemic nature of racism in the UK, and the Monarchy, including its relationship to the Commonwealth and to the countries of which the Queen remains head of state.

A telling cultural fact and comparison: more than 60 percent of Commonwealth citizens are 29 years old or under compared with Prince William who is 38.

The mostly black, brown and younger people of the Commonwealth will not be pleased if either Prince Charles or Prince William, both of whom will serve as head of the Commonwealth, are revealed to have uttered racist comments. Nor will a continuously diversifying Britain be pleased.

Following the Winfrey interview, Queen Elizabeth released a statement which read in part: “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning.

Whilst some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

While this may be intended as a temporary placeholder, it is quite inadequate. The charges are more than “concerning”. What is meant by “recollections may vary”?

The notion that allegations of racism will be dealt with “privately” will be not go down well with many around the world.

The movement to replace the British Monarch as head of state in Australia, New Zealand and Barbados was previously gathering pace and will likely accelerate given the claims made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Although, in a conservative Bahamas, afraid of change, we are likely to be one of the last countries hanging on by our scratching fingertips and knuckles to a foreign head of state and the Privy Council. We certainly possess an ironic and convenient sense of genuine nationalism.

Leaders in Barbados, Jamaica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have expressed interest in removing the British monarch as head of state.

Embedded A provincial and colonial worldview and fear of change is deeply embedded in the consciousness of many Bahamians, including leaders in various areas of national life, who fail to appreciate the opportunities of a more expansive worldview.

The commentary on social, print and broadcast media, including sometimes from some academics, as well as the level of debate in the political and civic arenas, suggests how paralyzed and frightful we are intellectually and culturally.

Intellectually, we are often stunningly illinformed about basic world and other facts that many educated people, opinion leaders and journalists around the world have at their fingertips.

A friend whose child is in high school laments that his 15-year-old son understands basic human biology better than the nonsense and ignorance the former sees regularly in WhatsApp and Facebook posts by adults much older than his teenage child.

Among the reasons The Bahamas has fared generally well during the pandemic is because of the leadership of Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, who was determined to take strong measures and not to pander.

The other vital leadership that is steering us through the pandemic is Dr. Merceline Dahl Regis.

Without her experience, training, competence and no-nonsense leadership the country might have been in a considerably worse position, especially compared with some of our Caribbean neighbours to whom we are often compared.

Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham recruited her from the Bahamas Diaspora to return home to serve as Chief Medical Officer beginning in 1997.

Mr. Ingraham and Dr. Dahl Regis enjoyed a shared vision of national development that dramatically transformed public health. Without that vision and those investments we would have been significantly less prepared for the current pandemic.

The National Immunization Cold Storage Facility in New Providence, the brainchild of Dr. Dahl Regis and others, took several years of planning.

Today, it can store the several hundred thousand vaccines which will help to arrest COVID-19.

The Bahamas desperately needs more talent, with open and expansive minds and world views to move an often moribund and closed society forward.

Just as we were better prepared for COVID-19 because of Mr. Ingraham and Dr. Dahl-Regis, how are we preparing for future opportunities and threats, and the potential and opportunities for a more dynamic and open economy and society?

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 11, 2021, PAGE 9

An ocean apart but two lands struggling with the same problem

W

HAT must it be like to be a member of the House of Windsor these days? Americans, freshly acquainted with the British royal family for the past four widely praised seasons of Netflix’s triumphant series “The Crown,” could take more than usual notice of the tribulations of Britain’s highest-ranking family as real-life royal dramas unfolded on several levels

A NEWSPAPER is blown by the wind after it is placed on a railing by a television crew outside Buckingham Palace in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) in recent days and weeks.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband to Queen Elizabeth II, has been hospitalized in London and, at age 99, his return to normal health cannot be presumed.

The queen’s younger son, Prince Andrew, has been linked scandalously to the disgraced American financier Jeffrey Epstein, who apparently hanged himself in prison and whose reprehensible sexual habits

and behaviour reportedly approach or exceed those of accused local predator Peter Nygard.

And on Sunday, the Queen’s younger grandson Prince Harry and his wife, American actress Meghan Markle gave an instantly famous interview to Oprah Winfrey, who is their neighbour in the exclusive area called Montecito, north of Los Angeles and near Santa Barbara, where Harry and Meghan now live.

HONDURAN president Juan Orlando Hernandez in Washington, D.C. in 2018.

PLAYING THE GAME TO STAY WASHINGTON’S FRIEND

O

NCE in a while the curtain is drawn back and some light shines through on the actual day-to-day conduct of international relations. When that revelation involves the US, it behoves us to pay attention.

Last month the Washington Post ran a lengthy account of the efforts of current Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez to retain his position and stay in power in Tegucigalpa. Implicated in more than one current drug trafficking case in American courts, Hernandez has been trying to deftly transition from Trump administration priorities to those of the new Biden team in Washington.

Hernandez, 52, has been surrounded by some form of controversy for most of his public political life. He has been President of Honduras for seven years. His second term in office ends in 2023, though his election in 2018 for the current term was officially decided by only one half of one percent of the vote and was criticized as fraudulent by both the United Nations and the Inter-American Council on Human Rights.

Furthermore, in 2017 the American Drug Enforcement Administration charged Hernandez’ brother ‘Tony’ Hernandez with using Honduran military personnel and equipment to smuggle cocaine into the US on behalf of the notorious Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel. Tony Hernandez was convicted in October 2019 in a New York City court and remains in US custody.

One might think that would be bad news for brother Juan Hernandez and would put American support for his administration into serious jeopardy.

Not so fast.

Quickly recognizing that then-President Donald Trump’s only interest in Honduras was to enlist its support for his aggressive campaign against illegal immigration into the US from Central America, Hernandez implemented stringent measures to curb the northward immigration flow.

The 15th of 17 children, he also endeared himself to Trump’s influential evangelical and social conservative supporters by pushing through measures requiring public prayer in many government institutions.

He also succeeded in effecting constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and all abortions in Honduras.

After the disputed 2018 Honduran election, the Trump administration quickly recognized Hernandez’ questionable reelection success. The following year, Trump said “President Hernandez is working with the United States very closely. You know what’s going on at our southern border.

With his help, we’re winning there after years of losing.”

Trump also ignored persistent complaints about corruption and excessive use of military and police force in neighbouring El Salvador and Guatemala, essentially also in exchange for those nations’ cooperation in stemming the northward flow of refugees.

Fast forward to the November American elections. The Hernandez administration in Honduras seemingly cannot do enough to emphasize its support for policies advocated by the incoming Biden team.

Juan Hernandez is calling Joe Biden an “old friend”. He has warmly accepted the installation of a local UN office that investigates drug trafficking and related criminality. Climate change has suddenly become a priority for the Hernandez government.

Trump’s overall approach is now criticized by Honduran government sources as “overly aggressive”.

Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who will be 81 in a couple of weeks, is currently the longest-tenured member of America’s upper chamber. The first Democrat elected to the Senate from Vermont in 118 years, he is also the chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee and has been a Senator for 47 years.

Leahy said this about President Hernandez: “He, like many foreign leaders, has been very skilful at telling people in Washington what they want to hear. But the reality is that democracy and human rights are under assault in Honduras, and corruption permeates the government there.”

Dismissing Hernandez’ chances of political survival are premature, however.

Honduras remains home to the only US military base in Central America. There is a new Nike factory there. President Hernandez got a master’s degree from an American university and is reportedly an avid follower of US political developments.

Nonetheless, the Honduran chief executive has been indicted on drug trafficking and money laundering charges by the powerful US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. That’s the same office that just got American Supreme Court permission to examine Donald Trump’s tax records after years of trying.

If Hernandez were convicted, he would face extradition to the US to join his brother in federal prison when his current term of office ends. Naturally, according to an American official, Hernandez is “asking himself, ‘What can I do today to show the Biden people that I’m a strong partner?’”

That’s life for most regional political leaders.

The basic sensational elements of the TV conversation are by now well-known. Many would cite two of Meghan’s revelations as the most startling.

She told Winfrey that at times during her marriage she felt so pressured in her new royal life that she entertained thoughts of suicide.

Seeking professional assistance through the royal family establishment, Meghan said she was rebuffed.

She also revealed that an as yet unnamed member of the royal family had wondered aloud about what skin colour her first child would have, and apparently expressed concern lest it be too dark. Markle has a black mother and white father.

The interview aired not long after a one-year cooling off period ended with Harry and Meghan’s announcement that they would “step back” from their royal responsibilities.

While the royal family’s initial apparent embrace of Meghan as a divorced, mixed-race woman was widely hailed as evidence of their increasing tolerance of the broadening

global acceptance of racial intermarriage, Meghan’s recent revelations expose what seems to be a different reality.

The US has just lived through four years under a President whose apparent embrace of and ardent support from groups widely regarded as racist have highlighted the distance America must still travel to achieve racial balance and harmony.

Skill That President was turned out of office and Republican control of the US Senate was lost due in large measure to the organizing skill and political clout of African Americans. To attribute President Joe Biden’s November success to South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn and Democratic recapture of the Senate to former Georgia legislative leader Stacey Abrams would be no great overstatement.

That Republican-controlled legislatures in many American states are now busily engaged in active and fairly transparent efforts to restrict voting access for

black Americans and other racial minorities testifies to GOP belief that its best winning political strategy is to continue to stoke racial fears and divisions in the hope of securing the loyalty of a majority of white American voters.

And the preponderance of early data seems to show the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately afflicted African Americans and other minorities in the US. While it is far too soon to fairly assess the reality of this situation or its causes, the trends are nevertheless troubling.

It sometimes seems like the central dividing issue between Republicans and Democrats in the US is attitudes toward race. This is concealed by code words and other terms of art, but many feel the reality.

It’s all pretty discouraging.

Advocates of greater racial equality and harmony in both the US and Britain can only hope that the present ugliness on both sides of the Atlantic leads to greater understanding and acceptance of the multiracial realities that define life in both nations.

PAGE 10, Thursday, March 11, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Why ‘royal confessionals’ threaten the monarchy THE Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey is shaping up to be the most published critique of the British monarchy in years.

In it, Meghan confessed her suicidal feelings while pregnant as well as claims that someone in the royal family questioned how dark Archie – her son with Prince Harry – would be.

In much of the commentary, the interview has been framed as an attack on the royal family. But royalist demands that Meghan and Harry should “just stay quiet” speak to longer histories of the politics of the “royal confessional”, and how people who speak out are maligned to protect the institution.

Royal confessionals have a long history. Marion Crawford, who wrote a book in 1950 about her time as nanny to the Queen and her sister Margaret, was allegedly ostracised for selling her story without permission. Wallis Simpson, the American socialite for whom Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936, wrote a memoir The Heart Has its Reasons. In it, she sarcastically recalled the Queen Mother’s “justly famous charm” as a thinlyveiled critique.

Princess Diana’s BBC One Panorama interview

in 1995 is perhaps the most iconic royal confessional.

Diana told interviewer Martin Bashir about royal adultery, palace plots against her, and her deteriorating mental and physical health. Her infamous quote, “well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” referring to Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, is still remembered almost 26 years later. Sir Richard Eyre, a former director of the National Theatre, claimed that the Queen called Diana’s decision to tell-all “frightful”.

UNWELCOME CONFESSIONS Common across all these examples is that it is women who use the royal confessional to reveal their experiences.

The “confessional” is often used in celebrity cultures to manufacture intimacies with audiences.

Celebrities disclose something personal and reveal their “authentic” selves.

However, as sociology and media scholars Helen Wood, Beverley Skeggs and Nancy Thumin note, elite, white, male celebrity confessions tend to be treated with gravitas. But women’s confessionals – particularly women of colour or

THIS image provided by Harpo Productions shows Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, in conversation with Oprah Winfrey. (Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions via AP) those associated with “low culture professions” (such as celebrities) – are all too often treated as inappropriate, oversharing and narcissistic.

All these confessionals are described in public and social commentary as attacks on the royal family.

They were – and are – considered as erroneously and immorally exposing the inner workings of the monarchy. Commentators such as Piers Morgan have branded the interview a disgrace, asking how they could be so heartless as to call the Queen and Prince Philip liars while Philip is currently ill in hospital?

PROTECTING POWER Stories that describe royal confessionals as immoral

are similarly attempting to protect the monarchy, rather than recognising the importance of holding a powerful institution to account. In my forthcoming book, I argue that the British monarchy relies upon a careful balance of visibility and invisibility to reproduce its power. This is an ancient institution operating at the heart of a supposed democracy - not drawing attention to these contradictions is central to its survival. The royal family can be visible in spectacular (state ceremonies, for example) or familial (royal weddings, royal babies) forms. But the inner workings of the institution must remain secret.

Like Meghan, I use the phrase “The Firm”, but I use it to describe the

monarchy as a corporation, invested in reproducing its wealth and power. But this is a corporation whose operations must remain top secret.

Any exposure of its behind-the-scenes activities – such as recent revelations in The Guardian on the misuses of the “Queen’s consent” to influence laws that affect her personal interests – risk destabilising the monarchy.

One moment when too much visibility was cast on the monarchy was the 1969 fly-on-the-wall documentary Royal Family, which followed the royals for a year.

This has been (in) famously redacted by Buckingham Palace. I argue this is because it revealed

too much about monarchy behind the scenes and threatened to rupture the precious visibility and invisibility balance. As constitutional scholar Walter Bagehot wrote in the 1800s: “We must not let in daylight upon magic”.

Like their other confessors before them, Meghan and Harry’s claims about living inside “The Firm” continue to be positioned as disrespectful, blasphemous and immoral attacks on the Queen and her family.

But perhaps what we should be asking is why do so many people, and the British media, seem to have a problem with holding one of our most powerful state institutions to account? theconversation.com

ROYAL RESPONSE FAILS TO END ANGER OVER MEGHAN RACISM CLAIMS

By DANICA KIRKA ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace’s response to Prince Harry and Meghan’s allegations of racism and mistreatment has failed to quiet the controversy, with some observers criticising the royal family for not forcefully condemning racism and suggesting the couple’s version of events may not be accurate.

“Too little, too late” was the verdict of royal commentator Peter Hunt, who also criticised the palace’s 61-word statement for saying the issue would be dealt with privately as a family matter.

“This delayed, tame statement went for predictability when unpredictability — stepping out of the Windsor comfort zone — was what was needed,” Hunt wrote on the website of the influential British magazine The Spectator.

The statement, issued on behalf os the queen, was released 36 hours after the interview of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by Oprah Winfrey was broadcast in the United States.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the palace said. “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.’’

The comments were the palace’s first word since the interview rocked the royal family — and touched off conversations around the world about racism, mental health and even the relationship between Britain and its former colonies.

Those tensions only built as the public waited to see how the royal family would respond.

The statement should lower the temperature of the debate, but media interest in the story isn’t going away and there will be pressure for the palace to publicly address Harry and Meghan’s concerns, said Ed Owens, a historian of British monarchy and author of “The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass

Media and the British Public, 1932-53.”

“There are big questions here that need to be answered, and I think the press, both in the U.K., Europe and in the USA, are going to continue to ask questions about the family relationship that exists between Harry and Meghan and the Windsors in the U.K.,” Owens said.

Meghan, who is biracial, said in the interview she was so isolated and miserable as a working member of the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts, yet when she asked for mental health assistance from the palace’s human resources staff, she was told they couldn’t help because she wasn’t a paid employee.

She also said Harry told her there were “concerns and conversations” about the colour of her baby’s skin when she was pregnant with their son, Archie.

The interview, seen by almost 50 million viewers worldwide, has divided opinions.

Many people have backed Meghan, saying the allegations demonstrate the need for change in an institution

BUCKINGHAM Palace is reflected in a rain puddle in London, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

that hasn’t kept pace with the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. Others stand behind the royal family, criticising the couple for making their damning allegations at a time when Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalised in London after a heart procedure.

Anna Whitelock, director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the palace’s brief message had “hardened the lines” between people who believe the monarchy is an outdated bastion of inherited white privilege and those who see it as cherished national institution.

Fallout from the interview is likely to fuel the debate over the future of the monarchy and its role both in Britain and the other countries for which the queen serves as head of state, Whitelock said. Besides the U.K., the queen remains the head

of state for 15 countries, most of which were once part of the British Empire, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and island nations in the Caribbean.

“That’s a debate that’s been held in check, in large part, given the length of the queen’s reign and in respect to her and the role that she’s played,” Whitelock said. “But it’s going to happen, and it’s just a question of when, not if.”

The ongoing controversy has already cost a prominent British TV personality his job. Piers Morgan left ITV’s morning news chat show amid a row over his on-air criticism of Meghan. More than 41,000 people complained to Britain’s communications regulator about Monday’s edition of the show, during which Morgan said he didn’t believe anything Meghan had said. The duchess complained to the British TV channel about the comments, focusing on their impact on people

dealing with mental health issues, ITV News reported.

The revelations by Harry and Meghan were a stark contrast to the image forged after their May 2018 wedding at Windsor Castle. At that time, the royal family seemed to welcome Meghan, a glamorous former TV star, and the couple were seen as providing a fresh young face for the monarchy of an increasingly multicultural nation.

It didn’t take long for the fairy tale to unravel. The couple stepped away from royal duties last year and eventually settled in California, saying they wanted to escape racist coverage and unwanted intrusions on their privacy by the British media.

Many Black people have said Meghan’s comments highlighted the reality of racism in Britain, where the issue is too often characterised as an American problem.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Black member of Parliament from the opposition Labour Party, said she was disappointed the royal family planned to deal with Meghan’s allegations privately.

She also criticised the Buckingham Palace statement because it didn’t directly condemn racism. The failure to do so contrasts with the palace’s reaction just last week when newspapers printed allegations that Meghan had bullied staff during her time as a working royal, Ribeiro-Addy said. In response to those charges, the palace quickly issued a statement saying it “does not and will not tolerate bullying or harassment.”

“The monarchy is a public institution that receives public money and any criticism of the institution should really be met with a forceful response from the institution about what they are going to do,’’ Ribeiro-Addy told the BBC. “We expect (that) of any institution. Why not the monarchy, why not the palace?”

THE TRIBUNE

SENATE CONFIRMS MERRICK GARLAND TO BE THE US ATTORNEY GENERAL

By MICHAEL BALSAMO AND MARY CLARE JALONICK ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Merrick Garland on Wednesday to be the next U.S. attorney general with a strong bipartisan vote, placing the widelyrespected, veteran judge in the post as President Joe Biden has vowed to restore the Justice Department’s reputation for independence.

Democrats have praised Garland, a federal appeals court judge who was snubbed by Republicans for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016, as a highly qualified and honourable jurist who is uniquely qualified to lead the department after a tumultuous four years under former President Donald Trump. Many Republicans praised him as well, saying he has the right record and temperament for the moment. He was confirmed 70-30.

Garland will now inherit a Justice Department embattled by a turbulent era under Trump, who insisted that the attorney general and the department must be loyal to him personally, battering the department’s reputation. In the last month of Trump’s presidency, Attorney General William Barr resigned after refuting Trump’s false claims that widespread electoral fraud had led to his defeat.

Trump’s pressure on officials, particularly on Barr and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the department’s probe into his campaign’s ties to Russia, prompted abundant criticism from Democrats over what they saw as the politicising of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.

“After Donald Trump spent four years — four long years — subverting the powers of the Justice Department for his own political benefit, treating the attorney general like his own personal defence lawyer, America can breathe a sigh of relief that we’re going to have someone like Merrick Garland leading the Justice Department,” said Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ahead of the vote.

“Someone with integrity, independence, respect for the rule of law and credibility on both sides of the aisle.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell — who prevented Garland from becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 2016 when he blocked his nomination — said he was voting to confirm Garland because of “his long reputation as a straight shooter and a legal expert” and that his “left-of-cente perspective” was still within the legal mainstream.

“Let’s hope our incoming attorney general applies that no-nonsense approach to the serious challenges facing the Department of Justice and our nation,” McConnell said.

Thursday, March 11, 2021, PAGE 11

Congress OKs $1.9T virus relief bill in win for Biden, Dems

By ALAN FRAM ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — A Congress riven along party lines approved the landmark $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Democrats claimed a major triumph on legislation marshaling the government’s spending might against twin pandemic and economic crises that have upended a nation.

The House gave final congressional approval to the sweeping package by a near party line 220-211 vote precisely seven weeks after Biden entered the White House and four days after the Senate passed the bill.

Republicans in both chambers opposed the legislation unanimously, characterising it as bloated, crammed with liberal policies and heedless of signs the crises are easing.

“Help is here,” Biden tweeted moments after the roll call, which ended with applause from Democratic lawmakers. Biden said he’d sign the measure Friday.

Most noticeable to many Americans are provisions providing up to $1,400 direct payments this year to most adults and extending $300 weekly emergency unemployment benefits into early September. But the legislation goes far beyond that.

The measure addresses Democrats’ campaign promises and Biden’s top initial priority of easing a one-two punch that first hit the country a year ago.

Since then, many Americans have been relegated to hermit-like lifestyles in their homes to avoid a disease that’s killed over 525,000 people — about the population of Wichita, Kansas — and plunged the economy to its deepest depths since the Great Depression.

“Today we have a decision to make of tremendous consequence,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “a decision that will make a difference for millions of Americans, saving lives and livelihoods.”

For Biden and Democrats, the bill is essentially a canvas on which they’ve painted their core beliefs — that government programmes can be a benefit, not a bane, to millions of people and that spending huge sums on such efforts can be a cure, not a curse.

The measure so closely tracks Democrats’ priorities that several rank it with the top achievements of their careers, and despite their slender congressional majorities there was never real suspense over its fate.

They were also empowered by three dynamics: their unfettered control of the White House and Congress, polls showing robust support for Biden’s approach and a moment when most voters care little that the national debt is soaring toward a stratospheric $22 trillion. Neither party seems much troubled by surging red ink, either, except when the other is using it to finance its priorities, be they Democratic

HOUSE Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., pose after signing the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill during an enrollment ceremony on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) spending or GOP tax cuts.

Republicans noted that they’ve overwhelmingly supported five previous relief bills that Congress has approved since the pandemic struck a year ago, when divided government under then-President Donald Trump forced the parties to negotiate.

They said this one solely reflected Democratic goals by setting aside money for family planning programmes and federal workers who take leave to cope with COVID-19 and failing to require that shuttered schools accepting aid reopen their doors.

HOUSE Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) “If you’re a member of the swamp, you do pretty well under this bill. But for the American people, it means serious problems immediately on the horizon,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., referring to the added federal borrowing the measure will force.

Even so, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, who like all Republicans voted against the bill, touted its $29 billion for the ailing restaurant industry, tweeting that it would help them “survive the pandemic.”

Democrats predicted this week that Republicans would do that, with Pelosi saying, “It’s typical that they will vote no and take the

dough.”

A dominant feature of the 628-page bill is initiatives making it one of the biggest federal efforts in years to assist lower- and middleincome families.

Included are expanded tax credits over the next year for children, child care and family leave — some of them credits that Democrats have signaled they’d like to make permanent — plus spending for renters, feeding programmes and people’s utility bills.

Besides the direct payments and jobless-benefit extension, the measure has hundreds of billions for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, schools, state and local governments and ailing industries from airlines to concert halls.

There is aid for farmers of colour, pension systems and student borrowers, and subsidies for consumers buying health insurance and states expanding Medicaid coverage for lower earners.

“Who’s going to help? Do we say this is all survival of the fittest? No,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky. “We rise to the occasion. We deliver.”

The legislation would reduce the number of people living in poverty this year by around one-third, from 44 million down to 28 million, the liberal-leaning Urban Institute estimated Wednesday.

The poverty rate for children would be reduced by over half, said the institute, which examined the impact of the measure’s stimulus checks, jobless benefits, food stamps and tax credits for children.

Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to oppose the measure.

He said in a written statement that some of the bill’s spending wasn’t urgent.

The measure was approved amid promising though mixed signs of

MYANMAR POLICE RAID HOUSING FOR STRIKING RAILWAY WORKERS MANDALAY, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar security forces on Wednesday raided a neighbourhood in the country’s largest city that houses state railway workers who have gone on strike to protest last month’s military coup.

Police sealed off the Mingalar Taung Nyunt neighbuorhood in Yangon where the Ma Hlwa Kone train station and housing for railway workers are located.

Photos and video on social media showed officers blocking streets and what was said to be people escaping.

At least three arrests were reported, but couldn’t immediately be confirmed.

There was no apparent resistance to the raid, and local media reported that the authorities forced at least some residents from their homes.

Later Wednesday, police fired warning shots, tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds in other areas of Yangon to disperse protesters. In North Okkalapa, press and social media reports said at least 200 people were arrested. About 400 young people who were detained in mass arrests a week ago are believed to still be behind bars.

The raid on rail workers comes just days after several Myanmar unions, including the Myanmar Railway Worker’s Union Federation, issued a joint call for a nationwide work stoppage.

They said the strike would be part of a broader effort for “the full, extended

BUDDHIST monks, supporters of anticoup protesters display placards during a march through the streets of Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday. CRPH stands for Committee Representing elected members of the Union Parliament from the National League for Democracy Party”.

(AP Photo) shutdown of the Myanmar economy.”

Despite the increasingly violent tactics of security forces, protests continued Wednesday in cities and towns across the country, including Yangon, Mandalay, Monywa, Dawei, Myitkyina, Myitkyina, Bago, Kalaw and Myingyan.

Some were met with police force, while others were brief and violence-free.

Riot police in Dawei fired tear gas, forcing marchers to disperse and hide.

There were also reports of the use of rubber bullets. No injuries have been confirmed.

A leading organiser of protests in the small southern city was arrested Wednesday morning, according to the local Dawei Watch news service.

Dawei has become a hotspot for anti-coup protests and has experienced heavy police crackdowns, with up to five deaths.

In Mandalay, the country’s secondlargest city, Buddhist monks joined about 1,000 demonstrators marching through the streets near their monastery.

They carried a banner that read “Demonstrating Peacefully.” The march ended before security forces could confront them.

Myanmar has been roiled by protests and other acts of civil disobedience since the Feb. 1 coup that toppled elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government just as it was to start its second term. The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian nation after five decades of military rule.

Security forces have responded with mass arrests and at times lethal force. At least 60 protesters have been killed since the military takeover, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Authorities have also moved to shut down independent reporting, both through arrests of journalists and the closure of media outlets.

recovery.

Americans are getting vaccinated at increasingly robust rates, though that is tempered by coronavirus variants and people’s growing impatience with curbing social activities. The economy created an unexpectedly strong 379,000 jobs last month, though there remain 9.5 million fewer than before the pandemic struck.

Republicans said the country will pay a price for the extra spending.

“It’s certainly good politics to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to hand you a check for $1,400,’” said Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C. “But what they don’t talk about is what this bill costs.”

An Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found last week that 70% of Americans back Biden’s response to the virus, including a hefty 44% of Republicans.

According to a CNN poll released Wednesday, the relief bill is backed by 61% of Americans, including nearly all Democrats, 58% of independents and 26% of Republicans.

Yet until November 2022, when control of the Senate and House will be at stake, it will be uncertain whether voters will reward Democrats, punish them or make

decisions on unforeseen issues.

The bill’s pathway has underscored Democrats’ challenges as they seek to build a legislative record to appeal to voters.

Democrats control the Senate, split 50-50, only because Vice President Kamala Harris gives them the winning vote in tied roll calls. They have just a 10-vote advantage in the House.

That’s almost no wiggle room for a party that ranges from West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin on the conservative side to progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

On the relief bill, progressives had to swallow big concessions to solidify moderate support.

The most painful was eliminating the House-approved federal minimum-wage increase to $15 hourly by 2025. Moderates also succeeded in trimming the emergency jobless benefits, which in an earlier version were $400 weekly, and phasing out the $1,400 stimulus checks completely for earners at lower levels than originally proposed.

At some point it seems likely that progressives will draw their own lines in the sand.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 11, 2021, PAGE 21

Bahamian who donated kidney to her brother:

‘I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat’ TAMIKA Roberts knows the meaning of true, brotherly love. She gave her baby brother the best present any sister could: a kidney that saved his life.

The transplant surgery took place at Cleveland Clinic Florida’s Weston Hospital two years ago.

Today, Tamika, 45, and Antonio, 42, both say they are not just fit – they are the healthiest, strongest, most active they have ever been in their lives and they urge others to consider becoming organ donors.

“We were just like any sister-brother when we were young,” said Antonio.

“My big sis would always look out for me,” he said.

One Saturday in May 2018, Antonio was rushed to Doctors Hospital and diagnosed with renal failure. His kidneys were literally shutting down by the hour, threatening his life. He was supposed to start dialysis immediately.

Doctors Hospital recommended a contact at Cleveland Clinic, and by Monday, Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital got him tested and approved as an organ transplant candidate and began the search. That search ended when sister, Tamika, turned out to be a perfect match. Tamika found out in May and prepared to have surgery in June.

Tamika did everything in her will to prepare for the kidney transplant which included postponing her fibroid surgery. After going through a series of tests she was ready. She met with Dr. Diego Reino, a transplant surgery specialist, and his team who were hands-on from start to finish.

Tamika and Antonio arrived at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital at 5am on June 27, 2018 to have their surgeries. She was the first to go into the operating

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

PUERTO RICO REOPENS PUBLIC SCHOOLS AMID COVID-19 FEARS

By DÁNICA COTO ASSOCIATED PRESS

TWO years after Tamika Roberts donated her kidney to her little brother Antonio, she’d ‘do it again in a heartbeat.’ Both praise Cleveland Clinic Florida for a process and procedure they called ‘awesome from start to finish.’ room because her kidney credits the teamwork and They made me feel like a was being removed. Anto- responsiveness of his doc- super hero.”

Two years later, both nio’s surgery would follow tors in Florida and at home.

“They answered e-mails sister and brother are immediately after.

“When I went into sur- instantly. They returned enjoying life more than gery, the anesthesiologist calls. They helped every ever.

Tamika is the administrawas very nice and conversa- step of the way. I’d recomtion with her gave me much mend Cleveland Clinic tion manager of one of the oldest and best established comfort,” said Tamika. “I Florida to anyone.”

Tamika also credits local banks in The Bahamas. woke up around 3pm in a lot of pain, but it all turned kidney specialist Dr. Don She is fit, exercises daily, out pretty well. The doctors Diego Deveaux at Oaktree runs six to eight miles three were very accommodating Medical for not hesitating a times a week, does strength and I was out the next day.” minute in sharing records training, avoids red meat Tamika noted that hours as requested and work- and drinks 80 ounces of after her surgery, she had ing with the doctors and water a day.

Antonio is a manager at to get up and walk a few medical staff in Florida. steps which was extremely That cooperative partner- a large, retail bank. He and difficult. During her recov- ship, the Roberts believe, his wife jog every morning ery, she transitioned from netted the best results, in the community where walking one to three miles and gave Cleveland Clinic they live. Their 19-year-old daily to eventually running Florida a baseline against son is now away at school, which to measure their own and their 15-year-old again.

The siblings had a few test results, along with a daughter is planning to go follow-up visits at the plan for long-term follow- to college. Antonio thinks six-month, one-year and through after surgery and about how close he came two-year marks post-sur- rehab in the States were to not being here for any of it and he thanks everyone gery; the latter milestone completed.

“It wasn’t just about who made it possible, espereached in June 2020 with a visit at Cleveland Clinic the process,” Tamika said. cially Tamika.

“From testing to surger “She’s awesome, she’s a Weston Hospital.

“Cleveland Clinic was ies to eventually recovery sweetheart,” he said. “I will just awesome,” Tamika and and rehab, the doctors and forever be grateful to her Antonio both said, almost medical staff stood by our and Cleveland Clinic Florsimultaneously.

Antonio side as if they were family. ida. They saved my life.”

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Parents across Puerto Rico knelt down on Wednesday to adjust their children’s face masks and backpacks as public schools reopened for the first time in nearly a year despite the pandemic, with officials reporting scarce attendance amid COVID-19 concerns.

The hugs outside schools were followed by a temperature check and a dollop of hand sanitser at some of the 95 of the U.S. territory’s 858 public schools authorised to reopen because they were located in a municipality with a low number of coronavirus cases and had met a list of requirements issued

by Puerto Rico’s Health Department. Among them was the Ramón Marín Solá primary school in Guaynabo, where parents checked their children’s face masks before hugging them goodbye.

“You can’t touch it,” a man told his young son who was tugging at his mask.

“It itches, it itches a lot,” his son replied as he walked into the school for the first time as a kindergartner.

For now, only kindergarteners, special education students and children in first, second, third and 12th grades are allowed to return to school. They will attend in-person classes only twice a week and be dismissed before noon, with school cafeterias remaining closed, although there is a “graband-go” option.

In-person attendance is not obligatory, and remote classes were still being offered.

“It was important to have in-person education once again, even if it’s little by

little,” Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said.

Of the 100 students at the Ramón Marín Solá school who were allowed to return to class, only about 30 showed up despite confirmation from the parents of 75 children, officials said.

Among them was Luzceli Rivera’s 6-year-old son.

“This is something we have to learn to live with,” she said after dropping him off, adding that she had no qualms about sending him back to school because he had a strict teacher.

Rivera and her husband were previously infected with the coronavirus, along with one of their three sons, but not the one who was returning to class: “He knows he has to keep the mask on.”

The schools that reopened Monday were located in about 50 of the U.S. territory’s 78 municipalities, with openings and closures expected to fluctuate in upcoming weeks depending on the number of coronavirus cases in a specific municipality and whether any infections are reported at a school.

Union leaders and some parents and teachers have called on Pierluisi’s administration to wait until August to reopen schools, noting the U.S. territory has not seen a significant decrease in COVID-19 cases.

Sheila Mercado, a Spanish teacher at a school that has not yet been authorised to reopen, said she feels the reopening has been rushed.

“They have had an entire year to get schools into shape,” she said. “Eventually, one has to return to the classroom because we’re not going to remain like this all our lives...but they glossed over this plan.”

PAGE 22, Thursday, March 11, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Kids spending too much time staring at screens?

By MEGHAN OWENZ Assistant Teaching Professor of Rehabilitation and Human Services, Penn State

AS VACCINES become more available and life begins returning to so-called normal, caregivers and educators may have to contend with dramatically increased screen habits that kids developed during the pandemic.

My research offers a positive – dare I say joyful – way to wean a child off of a screen habit. Instead of focusing on the excessive screen time, my approach focuses on the healthy activities that kids could be doing instead.

Two theories explain the risks of excessive recreational screen time: the content theory and the displacement theory.

The content theory – that what the children are watching or doing online is problematic – has received disproportionate attention.

Most solutions that caregivers are familiar with, including co-viewing and being a media mentor, are designed to address the content.

Do experts have something to add to public debate?

The displacement theory, on the other hand, explains that time spent online means not doing other things, and that it’s the loss of those other activities – such as outdoor play or reading – that may result in problems paying attention or gaining too much weight.

This also gives caregivers – and those who work with caregivers – the opportunity to focus on a positive goal: increasing time spent in those activities, which may lead to less time online and better childhood health.

• AVOIDANCE VERSUS APPROACH GOALS Focusing on a positive goal may work better than avoidance goals, such as staying away

Focus on positive goals to get them moving and reading and talking

from sugary foods or cutting down on screen time.

That’s because avoidance goals are typically associated with poor mood and reduced goal persistence.

They rely on self-control, which can weaken over time.

As a result, parents and caregivers typically struggle with screen avoidance goals and report a great deal of arguments about screen limits.

In contrast, approach goals encourage a desired activity or outcome and they are associated with good mood, greater effectiveness and more goal persistence.

Research on dieting and obesity demonstrates the effectiveness of approach over avoidance goals.

For instance, in one study, families with one obese parent were assigned to either an avoidance diet plan that encouraged them to cut high-fat and high-sugar foods or an approach diet plan that encouraged

them to eat more fruits and vegetables.

After a year, families on the approach plan had lost more weight.

In the process, they also reduced their intake of high-fat, high-sugar foods – which were edged out naturally by the fruits and vegetables.

Similarly, parents and caregivers can edge out screen time by encouraging meaningful activities that have long been shown to promote child development.

• SPOIL SYSTEM SPOIL is an acronym I developed to easily explain this information to parents and caregivers.

It stands for Social activities, Play, Outdoor time, Independent work and Literacy.

The SPOIL activities can reverse the effects of recreational screen time.

For example, active time outdoors can promote sleep, while excessive recreational screen time can decrease sleep quality.

Some elements of the SPOIL framework – such as social and

literacy-based activities – encourage caregivers to spend time with children.

Others – like play and independent work, which includes chores – encourage children to entertain or occupy themselves and regulate their emotions without the aid of a screen or a parent, as paediatricians recommend.

Here is a more in-depth look at what SPOIL involves.

• SOCIAL ACTIVITIES Social activities include time spent with parents, friends or siblings.

In addition to obvious relationship-building benefits, social activities allow children to practice cooperation, competition and empathy. Since social interactions are inversely related to recreational screen time, emphasising them can decrease screen time naturally.

• PLAY Free play, especially pretend play, has been linked to planning, problem-solving and impulse-control skills as well as math achievement and physical,

social and language development in children. Free play takes time to evolve and may occur when caregivers step back or are otherwise unavailable, allowing a child to direct their own attention. It also has an inverse relationship with screen time.

• OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES Outdoor time is associated with improved sleep, attention, creative problem-solving and decreased stress. Multiple studies have found an inverse relationship between time spent outdoors and recreational screen time in children.

• INDEPENDENT WORK Independent work includes goal-directed activities, such as homework and chores, that require a child to put aside an immediate interest.

Participation in household chores has declined dramatically in recent decades, despite chores having positive links with self-esteem, responsibility, academic achievement

and self-sufficiency.

• LITERACY Literacy involves all forms of reading and writing, including a child being read to, reading independently and listening to audiobooks.

Reading is associated with understanding the perspectives of others, larger vocabulary and academic achievement. As with many of the SPOIL categories, the frequency of reading in the home is inversely related to recreational screen time.

Replacing excessive screen time with SPOIL activities may support children’s development during and after the pandemic. Because positive approach goals rely less on self-control, they may be more sustainable and successful than avoidance goals. Additionally, these activities likely counteract some negative effects of excessive recreational screen time, which makes the emphasis on screen limits less necessary in the first place. theconversation.com

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

LAWSUITS EXPECTED OVER MEXICAN LAW ON POWER GENERATION

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The International Chamber of Commerce’s Mexico chapter said Wednesday it expects a wave of lawsuits, legal appeals and international investor-dispute arbitration panels, after Mexico enacted a law favouring governmentowned power generation over cleaner private electrical plants.

Many wind, solar and gas-fired power stations were built in Mexico by foreign companies, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans to give priority to state-owned coal, oil and diesel plants.

The chamber said Wednesday the provisions of the new law violate Mexico’s constitution, which guarantees the right to competition and a healthy environment, and appears to violate investment protection and trade agreements.

Claus Von Wobeser, the president of ICC Mexico, said affected companies will start filing injunctions and appeals against the law, enacted Tuesday, by the end of the month.

“It appears there will be a wave of constitutional injunctions,” Von Wobesen said. “All of the affected companies are going to file appeals.”

The new law says electricity must first be bought from governmentowned generating plants that largely run on fossil fuels; if any demand is let off, power will be purchased from renewable and private natural gasfired plants.

The bill has already drawn complaints from private business groups and U.S. investors, and analysts warn the measure could violate the U.S.Mexico-Canada free trade pact, the USMCA, which places strict limits on how a government can favor its own firms over outsiders.

López Obrador wants to defend state-owned firms and argues that

A FEDERAL Electricity Commission or CFE electric meter is attached to a pole in San Jeronimo Xayacatlan, Mexico. The International Chamber of Commerce’s Mexico chapter said Wednesday the provisions of a new law favouring government-owned power generation over cleaner private electrical plants, violates Mexico’s Constitution, which guarantees the right to competition and a healthy environment, and appears to violate investment-protection and trade agreements. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File) Mexico should become energy selfsufficient, a conviction he says was strengthened after winter storms in Texas temporarily cut off supplies of imported natural gas early this year.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in February the law “would directly contravene Mexico’s commitments” under the trade agreement.

Neil Herrington, the chamber’s Senior Vice President of the Americas, said in a statement that the bill could re-instate a government monopoly, adding “these changes would significantly raise the cost of electricity and limit access to clean energy for Mexico’s citizens.”

“Unfortunately, this move is the

latest in a pattern of troubling decisions taken by the Government of Mexico that have undermined the confidence of foreign investors in the country,” Herrington wrote.

The private and renewable energy plants were encouraged by López Obrador’s predecessors in order to reduce carbon emissions.

With electricity use down during the pandemic, Mexico’s state-owned power company, the Federal Electricity Commission, faces declining revenue and increasing stocks of fuel oil it has to burn in power plants; the dirty fuel has lost customers worldwide. It has also come under pressure to buy coal from domestic mines.

PAGE 24, Thursday, March 11, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

GREENPEACE PROTESTS ECB’S LOANS FOR CARBON-HEAVY INDUSTRIES FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Greenpeace activists landed on the roof of a European Central Bank building Wednesday to drop a banner protesting the financial institution’s loans policy, which climate activists say favors heavily polluting industries.

Activists used a powered paraglider to reach the roof of the reception building at the ECB’s Frankfurt headquarters before unfurling their banner reading “Stop funding climate killers.”

Greenpeace said that a recent study showed the bank gives companies that produce large amounts of greenhouse gases better risk ratings, while climate-friendly

industries are burdened with a greater margin between the market value of their assets and the value ascribed to it by the ECB. The environmental group accused the bank of “systematically undermining climate protection.”

The ECB confirmed the activists had landed on its roof and said police were called.

“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges faced by mankind this century,” the bank said.

“The ECB is contributing to the response within its mandate as a central bank, acting in step with those responsible for climate

policy.”

The ECB said it was “conducting a review of its strategy which includes an in-depth analysis of how to respond to the climate crisis across all ECB policy areas.”

The bank said earlier this year that it is setting up a dedicated unit to coordinate measures against climate change across its work.

AN ACTIVIST of environmental organisation Greenpeace flies with a motorised paraglider past the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday. Two activists landed on the roof of a side building and unrolled a banner to protest against the ECB’s climate policy. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

THE WEATHER REPORT

5-Day Forecast

TODAY

ORLANDO

High: 79° F/26° C Low: 57° F/14° C

TAMPA

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Partly sunny, a shower; windy

Breezy early; mainly clear

Mostly sunny and breezy

Mostly sunny and pleasant

Mostly sunny and pleasant

Mostly sunny and pleasant

High: 78°

Low: 69°

High: 79° Low: 68°

High: 79° Low: 68°

High: 79° Low: 68°

High: 80° Low: 70°

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

77° F

66° F

80°-66° F

83°-66° F

82°-67° F

84°-68° 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.

N

almanac

E

W

ABACO

S

N

High: 74° F/23° C Low: 68° F/20° C

10-20 knots

S

High: 78° F/26° C Low: 69° F/21° C

10-20 knots

FT. LAUDERDALE

FREEPORT

High: 78° F/26° C Low: 70° F/21° C

E S

E

W

WEST PALM BEACH

W

uV inDex toDay

TONIGHT

High: 81° F/27° C Low: 63° F/17° C

N

| Go to AccuWeather.com

High: 77° F/25° C Low: 67° F/19° C

MIAMI

High: 77° F/25° C Low: 69° F/21° C

7-14 knots

Statistics are for Nassau through 1 p.m. yesterday Temperature High ................................................... 77° F/25° C Low .................................................... 66° F/19° C Normal high ....................................... 79° F/26° C Normal low ........................................ 65° F/18° C Last year’s high ................................. 80° F/27° C Last year’s low ................................... 69° F/21° C Precipitation As of 1 p.m. yesterday .................................. trace Year to date ................................................. 2.01” Normal year to date ..................................... 3.38”

ELEUTHERA

NASSAU

High: 78° F/26° C Low: 69° F/21° C

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021

High: 76° F/24° C Low: 69° F/21° C

N

KEY WEST

High: 79° F/26° C Low: 72° F/22° C

High

E

W

10-20 knots

S

12-25 knots

Low

Ht.(ft.)

6:23 a.m.

6:44 p.m.

2.9 2.5

12:05 a.m. -0.2 12:47 p.m. -0.1

Friday

7:06 a.m.

7:27 p.m.

2.9 2.6

12:53 a.m. -0.2 1:28 p.m. -0.2

Saturday

7:46 a.m.

8:07 p.m.

2.8 2.7

1:37 a.m. -0.2 2:05 p.m. -0.2

Sunday

9:24 a.m.

9:44 p.m.

2.8 2.7

3:18 a.m. -0.2 3:40 p.m. -0.2

Monday

10:00 a.m.

10:21 p.m.

2.6 2.7

3:58 a.m. -0.1 4:14 p.m. -0.2

Tuesday

10:36 a.m.

10:59 p.m.

2.5 2.6

4:37 a.m. 0.0 4:48 p.m. -0.1

Wednesday 11:12 a.m.

11:37 p.m.

2.3 2.5

5:17 a.m.

5:22 p.m.

0.1 0.0

sun anD moon Sunrise Sunset

6:23 a.m.

6:17 p.m.

Moonrise Moonset

5:32 a.m.

4:53 p.m.

New

First

Full

Last

Mar. 13

Mar. 21

Mar. 28

Apr. 4

ANDROS

SAN SALVADOR

GREAT EXUMA

High: 77° F/25° C Low: 70° F/21° C

High: 77° F/25° C Low: 72° F/22° C

N

High: 76° F/24° C Low: 70° F/21° C

E

W S

LONG ISLAND

tracking map

High: 78° F/26° C Low: 71° F/22° C

12-25 knots

MAYAGUANA High: 78° F/26° C Low: 72° F/22° C

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures

H

Ht.(ft.)

Today

High: 76° F/24° C Low: 70° F/21° C

N

S

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

tiDes For nassau

CAT ISLAND

E

W

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

CROOKED ISLAND / ACKLINS

are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

RAGGED ISLAND High: 78° F/26° C Low: 73° F/23° C

H

High: 78° F/26° C Low: 72° F/22° C

GREAT INAGUA High: 81° F/27° C Low: 72° F/22° C

N

E

W

E

W

N

S

S

12-25 knots

12-25 knots

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

Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday:

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

WAVES 6-10 Feet 6-10 Feet 2-4 Feet 2-4 Feet 6-10 Feet 6-10 Feet 6-10 Feet 5-9 Feet 6-10 Feet 6-10 Feet 3-5 Feet 3-5 Feet 2-4 Feet 2-4 Feet 6-10 Feet 5-9 Feet 3-6 Feet 3-5 Feet 10-14 Feet 8-12 Feet 3-5 Feet 2-4 Feet 4-7 Feet 3-6 Feet 4-7 Feet 3-6 Feet

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

WATER TEMPS. 77° F 76° F 74° F 73° F 77° F 77° F 80° F 80° F 73° F 73° F 70° F 70° F 77° F 77° F 78° F 78° F 78° F 78° F 77° F 77° F 76° F 76° F 78° F 78° F 77° F 76° F