‘Good morning, I’m Ed Bethel’

EDITOR, The Tribune, “Silence! Silence? In this house”, Mama said. Her little transistor radio pressed to her head, Ed Bethel demanded attention

To an about to be born new nation.

We were teenagers;

In love with James Brown, Little Eddie, Diana and the Supremes, Tony McKay, Priscilla, Elton and Barry White. Ed was intermission at the 7am, 12 noon, 1pm and 7pm hour; Our first current events lesson,

Our first international tongue twister, How Ed sang Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Ho Chi Min City, Washington Dee See,

Nyerere, Kaunda, Manley, Biko, Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali And Sidney with the pot in the hay.

‘Mama’s lil transistor’

Made our world smaller With Ed at the controls; Taking on us on this journey;

From colony to country

From British Subject to Citizen free From Hail Britannia to March on Bahama land

We all grew up to comprehend Our place on the planet

Our dignity and identity

Un-foretold;

Looking back at Ed’s hurdles:

The nastiness of a hate campaign

Against his staff and crew, The off years when his boldness

In an editorial on Parliamentary conduct Suspended his voice But strengthened his bounce back. He is gone now As one writer says, “He belongs to the ages” Yet we aged with him And we all the better As a people, As a nation, As a culture; Because Ed from West End Once led us from 3rd Terrace Centreville Hill; A rite of passage, ‘Only the sun covers the Bahamas better than…’ Ed poured into Mama’s ‘lil transistor’ every day He will always be on air. “Good morning. I’m Ed Bethel.”

JAMES E WILLIAMS March 14, 2023

Traffic laws and ATVs

EDITOR, The Tribune.

AS I TRAVEL across New Providence, especially West Bay Street, I notice the abundance of ATV (All Terrain Vehicles) on our streets being used as day tour adventures for our tourists.

As with everything in a small island, the me-too syndrome is in full effect now, since we now have multiple operators in this market. However, I see one dangerous habit with most of these operators, and that is the lack of awareness of how dangerous these vehicles are, and the absence of any safety precautions.

Normally, too many of these tourists ride these vehicles without a safety helmet. However, I have seen a few operators with the rider’s wearing helmets.

Another danger of these ATV is that they lack a roll bar, above the passengers, which will provide protection from series injuries, and even save the life of these occupants in case of an accident, where the ATV overturns. Or they can be thrown from the vehicle, and without a helmet they are at greater risk of serious injury.

ATV speed limits can be control by speed limit applications for safety, and speed can be limited to, e.g. 15mph? Generally, the top speed of these vehicles can be 50 to 90mph. Have our police and road traffic authorities enforced this policy in the licensing of these ATVs? Are the operators enforcing speed limits for their renters, as a safety precaution?

Unfortunately, our traffic cops, and the wider police force apparently sees nothing wrong with this picture and have allowed them to traverse freely without enforcement or penalty.

A tourist was killed at Arawak Cay on Sunday, February 19th, 2023, while riding on one of these ATVs. As we normally do, I expect a heightened sense of concern for a few weeks on these ATV, and then we relax back to old familiar habits.

We really need a proactive approach to our enforcement of our traffic laws, which means police officers on patrol, every day doing their job to keep our citizens, tourists and anyone who traverses these streets of New Providence, and our islands safe. BA

OVER-THE-HILL FOUNDATION AWARDS FOUR GRANTS

The Over-The-Hill Community Development Foundation has awarded four grants for projects designed to positively impact the Over-TheHill community and its residents.

The grant recipients are:

• ABC Maritime Training/SMART Training Institute, awarded $10,000 for its introduction to Maritime Employment Opportunities and Safe Boating Training programme. • Nassau Rowing Club, awarded $6,000 for its OARS Programme.

• Perro Grande Music Ltd, awarded $8,984.79 for its Access Industry Music