03232018 weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

art books theatre film fashion music gardening puzzles history

Weekend

‘ONE WOMAN’S CRY’ Page 11

The main course Royal Blue Tavern boasts upscale menu Food 8 & 9

upgrade your plan and we’ll upgrade your phone

upgrade your current freedom5 or freedom10 plan to any liberty plan and get 50% off any handset* terms and conditions apply. handsets under $99 not included. offer valid for existing ALIV customers, and good until March 31, 2018 or while supplies last.

02 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

music

ou am Le d ha as

A

three-year old song written by Bahamian artist Rashad Leamount edged out 10,000 other singles on its way to the finals of the International Songwriting Competition.

Rashad entered his song “Faded” that was re-recorded with vocals by local R&B singer KEEYA in the annual competition.

The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) seeks to provide an opportunity for both aspiring and established songwriters to have their songs heard in a professional, international arena.

ISC is designed to nurture the musical talent of songwriters on all levels and promote excellence in the art of songwriting. Amateur and professional songwriters and musicians are invited to participate.

The competition also boasts of the most prestigious panel of judges of all international songwriting and music contests, offering exposure and the opportunity to have participants’ songs heard by some of the most influential decision-makers in the music industry.

Judges this year include star musicians like Lorde, Ziggy Marley, Tom Waits, Bastille, Sara Evans and others.

“I wrote ‘Faded’ at the edge of a bar in downtown Nassau. It’s a real song. My real life. It was late and I was making horrible love life decisions. I guess the best writing comes from some truth and pain,” Rashad told Tribune Weekend.

While Rashad has entered ISC previously, those times his songs did not make the final cut.

“It has always been my intention to re-enter when I had something I thought was special. The ISC operates a sister contest titled Unsigned Only, which highlights emerging performers. I encouraged KEEYA to submit

‘Faded’ to it because I thought we had something worth listening to. We were thrilled to find out that she was given an honourable mention for both her sound and image,” he said.

After the song was well received by the Unsigned Only contest, Rashad said he thought it was worth submitting the lyrics and vocal production separately. “ ‘Faded’ just has this universal message to it. So many of my friends and others I’ve met have been able to personally identify with the lyrics and the sentiments. I figured it would be the same internationally, and so I decided to throw in my bid. And it worked out well so far. It beat out more than 10,000 songs to be as far as it is in the competition,” he said.

Even though Rashad didn’t need the competition to affirm the potential of the song, being finalist in the ISC means that his music has appeal and reach.

“It feels amazing to have my work recognised on this global scale. The songwriting jobs here at home are few and far between. This can really be a source of discouragement and can cause you to undervalue yourself.

Coming this far has been a confirmation of my gift and how impactful I could be, given more opportunities like this,” he said.

Making the finals is like the 100 metre dash and Rashad knows that there is still a stretch for him to go.

“Winning this competition means so much on so many different levels.

Financially, the prizes would allow me to reinvest into my craft. I’m currently working on material for both myself and a few immensely talented artists.

This kind of exposure could really give wings to some of the material we’re releasing to the public soon. In terms of business, I believe it would offer me access to an industry that is hard to break into. A portion of the prize would be the receipt of representation by globally renowned agents and access to their tools of success.

R

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net

nt

Bahamian songwriter soars in international contest

Stars like Lorde and Ziggy Marley will be judging Rashad Leamount’s song ‘Faded’.

Again, this could really bring a shift for both myself and those I work with,” he said.

“As it relates to the Bahamas, it would be the first time someone from our region, and more importantly our country, would have attained this prestigious honour. I hope this victory would inspire other Bahamian

songwriters to perfect their craft, as my victory would make a seemingly unreachable goal such as this a tangible one. I also hope this victory would join a list of globally recognised examples of Bahamian excellence, and encourage more investment in our country’s creative industry from both the government and private sector.”

The Tribune | Weekend | 03

Friday, March 23, 2018

Inside Weekend Interview 4-5 Cara Hunt talks to activist and writer Helen Klonaris about how she found her freedom and rediscovered her voice

Art 7, 14 - 15 Baha Mar’s The Current debuts in New York, plus Gio Swaby explores being different, blackness and womanhood with new exhibit

Food 8 - 10 Baha Mar’s golf clubhouse The Royal Blue Tavern offers upscale dining, plus young chefs show creativity in competition

Theatre 11 ‘One Woman’s Cry’ stage play focuses on couple’s struggle to conceive

Books 17 - 18 Helen Klonaris’ ‘If I Had Wings’ long-listed for prestigious Caribbean award, plus ex-gang member receives support for his autobiography

Gardening 19 Jack Hardy on the trick to air layering

Film 20 - 21 “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is a cheer-atthe-screen hit, plus “Black Panther” is Twitter’s most mentioned movie

Literary Lives 22 - 24 Billy Wilder, from immigrant to iconic filmmaker

Forgotten Facts 25 When the Out Islands were more populated

Puzzles 26

Animals 27 Kim Aranha says, ‘Shame on us, Bahamas’

Cover | Alesha Cadet

My perfect Bahamian weekend Odaz Lightbourne Beneby Brand coach and certified internet marketer Q: Saturday breakfast or Sunday brunch?

“Sunday brunch hands down!

Sunday is my one true day off to recuperate from the hectic week so I can’t think of a better way to spend it. Good food, good company makes for an awesome time.”

Q: Wine, rum, cocktail or Kalik?

“Neither! I just recently recommitted to fitness so I try not to indulge. The extra calories just aren’t worth it.”

Q: Beach or sofa?

“Beach! Because I go ‘grounding’/’earthing’ pretty

regularly. Studies have shown being ‘connected’ to the earth barefoot has many positive health and stress releasing benefits.”

Q: What is the one thing that you can’t live without?

“I cannot live without WiFi/data.

Most of my work is internet based so WiFi to me is like oxygen. It’s not even an option at this point.”

Q: Weekend away, where would you go?

“New York, New York! Because I MUST go to Broadway to watch ‘Dear Evan Hanson’ before it leaves the stage! I have been loving the

soundtrack so I can’t wait to see it.”

(Due to some inaccuracies caused by production problems we are reprinting last week’s ‘My perfect Bahamian weekend’ with corrections)

Things 2 Do this weekend Friday

• Retired & Elderly Lenten Reflection Day Hosted by Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau

Time: 9.30am - 3pm Venue: Emmaus Centre, Fox Hill.

Interested persons may contact their parish representative or the office of Family Life at 322-8919 or 328-4310/2 for more information.

Cost for lunch is $15 per person.

• Blue Flamingo Literary Festival

Time: 10am (continues on Saturday) Venue: University of the Bahamas The two-day festival promotes reading writing and the literary arts. Patrons are encouraged to attend book readings, workshops, panel discussions and roundtables. Visit www. ub.edu.bs for the full schedule.

• Island Rhythms’ Happy Hour

Time: 6pm Venue: John Watling’s Distillery Island Rhythms Carnival group is “getting ready for da road” and promises great rum, great music and great people.

• ‘One Woman’s Cry’ stage page

Time: 6pm Venue: University of the Bahamas Performing Arts Centre SEE PAGE 11

• Artists’ Talk: We Suffer to Remain

Time: 7pm Venue: National Art Gallery

The NAGB invites you to an artists’ talk with the featured artists in “We Suffer to Remain”, the British Council collaborative project which looks at the legacy of slavery and its effects on the Bahamas and the wider Caribbean.

• The National Youth Choir in Concert

Time: 8pm (encore on Saturday) Venue: Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts The guest artist is Naomi Taylor Crawford.

Saturday

• Fourth Annual Walk To Wendy

Time: 6.30am Start: Goodman’s Bay

In aid of the medical expenses fund of Dr Wendy Stuart, the daughter of renowned singer Wendel Stuart.

In 2009, Dr Stuart was diagnosed with ALS, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, from which the late Stephen Hawking also suffered.

Registration is $20 for adults and $10 for children up to 12 years old.

• Eddie Minnis and Family Art Exhibition

Time: 12noon - 8pm Venue: Ocean Club, Paradise Island

Recent paintings by the four artists, Eddie, daughters Nicole and Roshanne and son-in-law Ritchie Eyma, will be on display under the theme ‘Imagine the Bahamas’.

• Killarney Easter Egg Hunt 2018

Time: 4pm Location: Tropical Gardens Park Bring the kids for a fun holiday event.

• Throw Powder - Power Powder Fete

Time: 4pm - 1am Venue: Arawak Cay

There are new colours and more colourful treats.

• Miss Teen Bahamas Scholar 2018 Contestants Debut

Time: 4pm Venue: Breezes Resort

Meet newest set of young ladies vying title of Miss Teen Bahamas Scholar and the grand prize of a $90,000 scholarship to Liberty University. Tickets are $25.

• PURE Dance Concert Hosted

by Bethany Assembly

Time: 7pm Venue: Bethany Assembly AG The PURE Dance Company will be hosting their annual dance concert. For more information, contact 603-0082.

04 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

interview After leaving the Bahamas behind to find her much longed-for freedom in California, writer and LGBT activist Helen Klonaris tells Cara Hunt how she rediscovered her voice and now wants to help paint a more real and balanced picture of Bahamian society, especially as it concerns women.

Helen Klonaris

A

FTER leaving the Bahamas behind to find her much longed-for freedom in California, writer and LGBT activist Helen Klonaris tells Cara Hunt how she rediscovered her voice and now wants to help paint a more real and balanced picture of Bahamian society, especially as it concerns women.

Helen Klonaris has been writing for as long as she can remember, but she never considered herself a writer until she moved from the Bahamas to California, where she said the freedom to express herself as a person led to an explosion on the page.

Helen, who grew up in a traditional Greek Bahamian family, told Tribune Weekend that writing has always been a place of power for her.

“By that I mean as soon as I was able to, I wrote to hear myself, to understand what I felt, what I thought; it was a way to know myself and the world.

I wrote essays and stories in high school, and throughout my early adulthood writing was essential.”

Helen spent most of her early adulthood finding her voice as a strong advocate for LGBT rights in the Bahamas.

She co-founded the Rainbow Alliance of the Bahamas (RAB) with Erin Green and others, organising week-long gay pride events. This was a period she describes as one of the most meaningful in her life.

“Working with other LGBT people to raise awareness, build community, see each other and celebrate who we are. It was beautiful. Before RAB, I was active

in CAFRA (Caribbean Association for Research and Action) as well as our local DAWN (Developing Awareness for Women Now). I was a participant in the anti-capital punishment movement. And throughout, I was also making space for writing, for literary events, partnering with other writers like Marion Bethel and Lynn Sweeting with whom I co-founded WomanSpeak many, many moons ago. It was a transformative time,” she said.

However, she admits as a queer Greek Bahamian it was also a difficult period in her life as well. Which is why she decided to remain in San Francisco after pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing.

“I left Nassau in 2005, flew to San Francisco, lived in a hostel for a few weeks, then started the programme which was itself quite an adventure. The school – New College of California – was well known in the Bay Area for its radical vision: ‘Education for a just, sacred and sustainable world.’

“They had majors in Activism and Social Change.

And an MFA in Writing and Consciousness. I was an activist writer. It was right up my alley. I studied for two years, got my MFA and soon

“There is a fear in our society of imagining outside of the lines...”

The Tribune | Weekend | 05

Friday, March 23, 2018

after began teaching at an arts university here in San Francisco. I stayed.

And the truth is complicated. I stayed because as a queer Greek Bahamian woman I could live here without fighting all the time. And without hiding.

I could get on with writing, which is what I had come to do,” she said.

Thirteen years later, Helen teaches mythology to art students and studies and practices energy medicine. And although she has found a new home, she returns to the Bahamas as often as possible.

It wasn’t until she finished her MFA , she said, that she fell in love with writing stories and began seeing herself as a writer.

“If I Had the Wings”, is a book of collected stories, which she said “needed to come out of her”. It taught her how to write again, something she had forgotten while living in Nassau.

“As a child I knew how to write stories. It came naturally, the ability to inhabit characters, to hear their voices, to write what they showed me to write.

As time went on, I forgot how to do that. I got politicised. I became an activist. I rowed with the Church and with politicians, about women’s rights and gay and lesbian and transgender rights, and after a while I became frustrated, because so little seemed to be changing in spite of fighting all the time. It seemed to me that there was so much time spent reacting to the latest crisis that there was no time to imagine what we actually wanted society to look like,” she said.

“If I Had the Wings,” she said, “consists of the stories closest to my unconscious.”

“They are the stories that talk about what it is to be a queer woman in love with another woman in a place where we are meant to be invisible, where we are not meant to exist at all.”

The book includes stories about the difficulties of growing up as a woman in a small conservative Greek Orthodox community within the larger Bahamian society, and the struggle between loving that community and also longing for self-determination.

“They are the stories that channelled my sadness at the ways gay and lesbian and transgender Bahamians are often treated, or ignored, or destroyed in an attempt to rid ourselves of the discomfort of difference, or what the Church has told us is ‘wrong’. They are the stories about the ways young girls are often shattered before they have had the chance to hear themselves think, speak,

“I rowed with the Church and with politicians, about women’s rights and gay and lesbian and transgender rights, and after a while I became frustrated, because so little seemed to be changing in spite of fighting all the time.”

love – and the ways they fight back, find their wings, and fly...

“They are not easy stories. Some of them are coming from painful places. They helped me to rise up out of the painful places. And, I think, they are necessary to creating a more real, more balanced picture of who we are as Bahamians.”

Helen added: “There is a fear in our society of imagining outside of the lines. To do so will get you in trouble. But I think if we do not imagine outside of the lines, we will never be able to change what needs changing. If we don’t imagine outside of the lines, we only ever know what we already know.

And God is in the unknown, in the place where objective reality leaves off and the miraculous begins.

“Bahamian writers know this.

I think of the work of Patricia Glinton Meicholas, of the way she has rescued so many African-Bahamian folk stories from cultural amnesia, and how these stories hold within them old wisdom of the

many truths that exist at once.

I think of the poetry of Lynn Sweeting and how she unapologetically calls on the ancient divine feminine of European and Arawak cultures, and through them coming back to life, she imagines new worlds of possibility. I think of Lelawatee Manoo Rahming and the ways she invokes Bahamian, Hindu and Trinidadian mythos, and the magical that is not fantasy but multidimensional realities the poet knows well – inside the female body, and the body that is the land and the people.

“By doing this, the poet, the writer remembers there are many ways of knowing.

And by showing them to us, she reminds us we are never as stuck as we think we are. Transformation is possible, in our bodies as well as in the world.”

06 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

section

The Tribune | Weekend | 07

Friday, March 23, 2018

art

Baha Mar’s The Current debuts in New York

T

he Current, Baha Mar’s original arts programme, gallery and studios, made its international debut in New York City during VOLTA NY, a celebrated contemporary art fair known for its creative discovery and social engagement.

From Wednesday, March 7 through Sunday, March 11, The Current was represented through two solo exhibitions created by the Art Director John Cox and Creative Arts Programming Manager Natascha Vazquez.

Mr Cox’s recently completed body of work, “A Long Walk Home”, debuted at VOLTA as a mixed-use sculpture and painting collection comprised of various materials such as wood, video, vinyl on canvas and cut paper silkscreen. The exhibit emphasises the parallels between early Japanese Geisha culture and the complexity of Caribbean hospitality and tourism, commenting on the similarities between the two cultures, time periods and industries.

Ms Vazquez debuted a series of highenergy abstract paintings, creating a sense of three-dimensionality through layered surfaces with both acrylic and vinyl paint. Viewers are left contemplating the construction of the work, questioning where it might have started and ended and its relationship with our surroundings. The inspiration is drawn from biology, imitating humans’ own bodies and the organic world in which we live.

In its inaugural year of participation in VOLTA NY, Baha Mar also introduced the first-ever Baha Mar Art Prize, a multifaceted award presented to an artist exhibiting at the fair. On Thursday, March 8, Los Angeles-based artist Kim Schoenstadt was awarded the Baha Mar Art Prize, which includes an acquisition by Baha Mar of one of Schoenstadt’s signature pieces to join the resort destination’s permanent collection of original art.

Schoenstadt will also join The Current as an artist-in-residence, spending six to eight weeks working in the studios at Baha Mar in Nassau. Currently

Natascha Vazquez, The Current’s creative arts programming manager, debuted abstract paintings at VOLTA NY.

“The Current at Baha Mar was designed as a platform to introduce Bahamian art to not only our resort guests but to the global stage,” said Graeme Davis, president of Baha Mar. “We’re proud to join VOLTA NY as not only an exhibitor but as a partner through the offering of the Baha Mar Art Prize, and we look forward to welcoming Kim Schoenstadt to The Current at Baha Mar, and introducing her work to our guests.”

Born out of Art Basel 11 years ago, VOLTA NY is an annual exhibition comprised of solo projects by leading and emerging international artists, led by Bahamianborn Amanda Coulson. This year, artists hailed from 85 international galleries across 32 nations and four continents. VOLTA NY culminates with a dynamic and timely review of the innovative contemporary pieces by artists, with select participants winning grand prizes, including the 2018 Baha Mar Art Prize.

The Current’s art director, John Cox, with his latest body of work, “A Long Walk Home”, at VOLTA NY. working in Venice Beach, Schoenstadt’s work is often composed of “mash-up drawings,” exploring the junctures of architecture, sculpture, colour, line, history, culture and concepts. Her site-specific installations incorporate architecture, engaging audiences and social issues.

Bottled & distributed by:

KLG Investments Ltd.

T: 394-7873

Order online for free home delivery!

www.aquapure-bahamas.com

08 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

food

A Blue Tavern on rolling greens

Baha Mar’s golf clubhouse welcomes all guests

By ALESHA CADET Tribune Features Writer acadet@tribunemedia.net

Crab and mango salad with frisée lettuce, cucumber, plantain chips and chive truffle oil

Cracked lobster tacos with black beans, avocado, chipotle mayonnaise and pickled red onions

O

ne might expect to find only golfers sitting at the bar in Baha Mar’s Golf Clubhouse after a hot round of putting, but at The Royal Blue Tavern the rolling green views are for all to enjoy, and both locals and visitors are welcome.

There is no need to have a special membership to enjoy Chef Kevyn Pratt’s Bahamian-inspired specialties like the lobster tacos for happy hour or his popular conch and waffles on the weekends.

“The Royal Blue Tavern is an upscale amenity for the golfers, but it is also open to the public, where we allow the Bahamian community to come in and try our cuisine. We have four menus that include brunch, breakfast all day and happy hour,” said Chef Pratt, the restaurant’s executive chef.

However, if you are a golfer you can enjoy one very special perk: you can place an order directly from your golf

cart and it can be delivered directly to the golf course by an attendant. No need to even pause your game.

“The atmosphere here is very relaxed and chill. As you walk inside you see all of the crescents hanging up

representing each Bahamian island.

There is Rum Cay, Andros, and more.

There is a Bahamian flag hanging up as well. I am also happy to say The Royal Blue Tavern is fully ran by Bahamians,” said Chef Pratt.

Chef Pratt, who has been cooking since the age of 17, has worked in several kitchens throughout his career, including at Anthony’s Grill as a head chef and at Resorts World Bimini as a sous chef. On the Bahamas’ National Culinary Team, he represented the country at The Taste of the Caribbean.

“I am also a professor at the University of the Bahamas where I teach a first level culinary arts course. I started my career straight out of high school and it has been 11 years in the field now. For me, I fell in love with the speed of it. At The Royal Blue Tavern I am not in the kitchen as much, I am more on the managing side, but I enjoy the field. This is my first executive chef position. At previous jobs I held a sous chef title, so this is an experience. I am an ambitious 27-year-old and I love that fact that I get to execute my challenges. It is my drive to be the best,” he said.

Other team members at the tavern include restaurant manager Lavell Williams, assistant managers Leslie Gaitor and Olatunji Badmus, and sous chef Francina Smith.

For Chef Pratt, it is a joy to have people visit from all over the world in search of local cuisine at The Royal Blue Tavern. The feedback that follows, he said, is always positive, with

The Tribune | Weekend | 09

Friday, March 23, 2018

Seared snapper with sautéed rainbow carrots, mashed potatotes, pineapple and mango salsa

(PHOTOS/ALESHA CADET)

Surf and turf nachos with lobster, bacon, shredded beef, tomato salsa, corn and Cajun cheese

Mini crab cakes with jumbo lump crab, bell peppers and an orange glaze

“We have a lot of people come in looking for the conch and waffles, believe it or not. This is a favourite item on our brunch menu.”

guests expressing their enjoyment at the experience.

“When I first started here we had a very sandwich heavy menu, and since then it has expanded to much more that includes sandwiches, salads and entrées. Now we have the whole shebang on the menu. Now we have a happy hour that is still ongoing that brings a good turnout every Friday.

The drink specials are to die for. I would say they are the most affordable in a hotel environment. We have a lot of people come in looking for the conch and waffles, believe it or not.

This is a favourite item on our brunch menu. It has been one of the hottest sellers here,” said Chef Pratt.

Other selections include steak and BBQ chicken burgers, the Royal Blue club sandwich, Royal Blue jumbo wings, shrimp tempura, mini crab cakes, surf and turf nachos, cream conch soup, crab and mango salad, cracked lobster tacos, seared snapper, grilled lobster, and more. Popular cocktails are the Moscow Mule, Tequila Sunrise, coconut mojito, martinis, wines, beers, and coffees.

10 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

food

Creativity on display at 2018 National Young Chef Competition KENDEA SMITH Ministry of Tourism ore than 60 up and coming chefs from all over the islands of the Bahamas got the chance to go headto-head at the 26th annual Bahamas Young Chef Culinary Competition.

The event, which was held from March 12-15 this year, gives the young prodigies an opportunity to show off their culinary prowess using ingredients indigenous to the archipelago as well as Mahatma rice and Robin Hood flour.

Innovative dishes usually emerge from this competition and this year was no exception.

Rice dishes like seafire rice made with jalapenos and crawfish, banana and pineapple fried rice and deserts like pina colada and passion fruit pudding, and sapodilla cake were just some of the delectable dishes that came out of this year’s fierce competition.

The competition, produced by the Ministry of Education, was divided into four categories: Cupcake Challenge, Signature Pastry, Mystery Basket with hot food and the overall Junior Young Chef and Senior Young Chef.

The team winners of the Junior Cupcake competition were Camaule Coakley and Noelle Symonette of Anatol Rodgers Senior High School in New Providence, followed by McKell Saunders and Glen Rolle of Old Bight School in Cat Island, and Micquel Cartwright and Kristen Ingraham of Preston Albury in Eleuthera.

In the senior division of the Cupcake Competition, Broneka Williams and Kendonae Brown of C C Sweeting in New Providence were victorious, followed by Shaelyn Sands and Ranad Davis of Samuel Guy Pinder All Age School in Spanish Wells, and Antonesha Thompson and Atvia Collie of C R Walker in New Providence.

Avery Hall and Joshua Claridge of Preston Albury High in Eleuthera won the young chef signature pastry competition. Deltinique Greene and

M

Junior Chef of the Year Alyssa Neely BIS PHOTOS

Senior Chef of the Year Avery Hall

Kajah Pinder of Patrick J Bethell High of Abaco came in second, and Harvey Pratt and Jasmine Burrows of Old Bight High of Cat Island placed third.

Denae Clarke and Gabriel Williams of L N Coakley in Exuma took home the top prize in the mystery basket competition followed by Shealyn Sands and Ranad Davis of Samuel Guy Pinder in Spanish Wells and Andrea Greene and Shandena Dawkins in Arthur’s Town, Cat Island.

At the end of the clash, Alyssa Neely of Samuel Pinder All Age School won the Junior Chef of the Year, while Avery Hall of Preston Albury won the Senior Chef of the Year title.

Alyssa, who prepared a stuffed jalepeno with double peas and grits, said this was her second year in the competition.

“My teacher pushed me and said I could do it,” she said. “As I was preparing it, I started to give up but my mind said ‘keep going’ and so I just did it. This has been a great experience and it makes you feel free to do whatever you want to do. It inspires you to be a great person in life.”

Avery, who is a 12th grade student, prepared a wild rice with red snapper with a pumpkin spice soup topped with a mango salsa and a avocado cake with a lemon filling.

“I just thought out of the box and I knew my presentation had to be on key. Preparing for this competition took many days and nights,” he said.

Both winners took home $650 and the opportunity for visit to Johnson and Wales University this summer.

As one of the key sponsors of the event, the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation’s Culinary Department was a part of the organising committee.

The Ministry’s Culinary Manager DeAnne Gibson said the competition is vital to the tourism industry.

“We look at who is up and coming.

We have opportunities to showcase our chefs in various mediums. So our portion is to come and see what is happening here and see how we can take this to the next level and to ensure that our students are staying at the level that is currently in the nation and worldwide,” she said.

“Most of the chefs that have competed at the national level go on to be chefs in the industry and so we are delighted to be a part of this. So this is only the beginning and the building block of that is to come.”

Mahatma’s Manager of Publicity and Test Kitchen Debbie Wheeler couldn’t agree more.

She said while Mahatma is based in Houston, Texas, many of the recipes that make it to the company’s test kitchen come from the Bahamas.

“What is so impressive is that the students are so fearless. I take a copy of all the recipes from the students, and the winners of course, and I take them to the kitchen and I rework them.

We have put some of the student’s recipes online and we would like to do a cookbook,” she said.

12 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

music

Sasha Dunn wows the crowd at SXSW “And not to come off as arrogant, I know my music is mad dope.

People just need an opportunity to sample it.”

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net

I

N the midst of creating more music, Bahamian hip hop artist Sasha Dunn found the time to join other international artists on stage at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.

The performance was a hit, according to Sasha, who has worked diligently over the last few years to refine his sound to give it a Bahamian flavour.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual, extremely popular conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place every March in Austin.

In 2018, the conference lasted for 10 days with SXSW interactive lasting for

Sasha Dunn represents the Bahamas in Austin during SXSW.

(l-r) Sasha Dunn; Mr Nono, the host of the SXSW showcase at The Nook in Austin, and Ras Dibblez. five days, music for seven days and film running concurrently for nine days.

Comedy and gaming components to the festival are particularly fastgrowing. Each year, the SXSW Music Festival hosts a curated mix of artists performing in bars, clubs, parks, churches, hotels, and other venues.

Sasha said he gladly accepted his invitation to SXSW. “God made it so,” he told Tribune Weekend.

As for the entire experience, being able to represent the Bahamas and his brand of music at a festival of this magnitude it was nothing short of amazing for the artist.

“It was an amazing experience for me and my musical brother, Ras Dibblez, to be able to let people who otherwise would not know anything about the Bahamas and to now have

a chance to educate them about my homeland was a very fulfilling for me.

And not to come off as arrogant, I know my music is mad dope. People just need an opportunity to sample it,” he said.

Sasha and Ras Dibblez were among the new, developing and established showcasing artists from 63 countries who were represented amongst the 2,000 plus performers.

The pair left Nassau to head to Austin to perform at The Heartless showcase at The Nook this month. The showcase featured some of the biggest up-and-coming artists in hip hop like YFN Lucci and Ralo.

During his set, Sasha opened up with some of his classic tracks like “Bahamian Rapsody”. During that performance he pulled out his Bahamian flag to show his solidarity to his country.

This performance was followed by his hit street banger “100lbs”. He then segued into his more mellow “Bossonova” featuring Ras Dibblez.

To close out his set, Sasha’s performed the funky track “Shark In Dem Waters”.

Now back home, Sasha is turning his attention to working on an upcoming album and gaining more international exposure for his craft.

“My current album, “$2 Joints” is available on all platforms and I have been trying to diligently push it to the people. This is the reason my goal for 2018 is to travel and push the music in further than before,” he said.

For more information, check out the artist’s social media pages Instagram: Sashadunn242, YouTube: Sashadunn and Facebook: Sasha Dunn.

The Tribune | Weekend | 13

Friday, March 23, 2018

celebrity

PART

I

The Weekend Fashion Report 35th Annual Paleyfest

PHOTO BY RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/A

With Karin Herig and Cara Hunt

SPLIT

SPLIT

FAIL

HIT

Megan Mullally ”Will & Grace”

Madeline Brewer ”The Handmaid’s Tale”

Penny Johnson ”The Orville”

Debra Messing ”Will & Grace”

Karin says: “It really bothers me that the jacket and pants don’t match 100 per cent; they’re a shade off.

Otherwise, I hate it. It just looks like a scratchy linen suit with no style...not even a belt to spice things up!”

Cara says: “I am not a white boxy shoe fan, but somehow these don’t look horrid with this outfit. The blue and white is crisp and fresh for Spring and she looks really nice.”

Karin says: “This is very cute. It almost...just almost...looks a tad too young for her. That said, I like this little balloon skirted dress. Since ‘The Little Mermaid’, I’ve always loved when red hair is paired with bright pink. I also love the contrast of the white, be-bowed sandals. So precious!”

Cara says: “This must be the week for random white shoe wearing. Could she not find a single pair of black sandals in the world to wear with this dress? The dress on its own is not that cute, but it could work. However, the shoes just ruin the look.”

Karin says: “I’ve loved Penny since she appeared on Deep Space Nine in the ‘90s, so it pains me to say that this look is a letdown. The skirt (or are they flowy pants?) and that top just do not work together. This lacks all coherency and style. And the colours are just dull together.”

Cara says: “This colour combo is nice, but again the shoe choice…I like the skirt and the top, not sure how I feel about wearing them together, but it’s all right, I guess.”

Karin says: “This is actually a really nice dress. And compared to the others so far, downright chic. It’s simple, but the colour and cut look perfect on her. And she added a great beaded necklace for an extra ‘oompf’.

The shoes are just boring.”

Cara says: “This is just a basic red dress, nothing bad, nothing great, she looks nice. I have always loved Debra’s hair, and she threw on a necklace for a little more bling, It’s all just OK.”

• See page 16 for more Paleyfest fashions.

16 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

celebrity

PART

With Karin Herig and Cara Hunt

PHOTO BY RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/A

The Weekend Fashion Report 35th Annual Paleyfest

II

HIT

SPLIT

FAIL

HIT

Samira Wiley ”The Handmaid’s Tale”

Adrianne Palicki ”The Orville”

Yvonne Strahovski ”The Handmaid’s Tale”

Amanda Brugel ”The Handmaid’s Tale”

Karin says: “Samira has become something of a style maven. I have yet to see her make a misstep. Either she has a fantastic stylist or just great taste...or both. Love this fitted, midi length black dress with the sheer sleeves!”

Cara says: “This is my favourite outfit of the week. See, it’s a basic little black dress at its core, but with just enough detail to make it spectacular; love it. It hugs her figure perfectly as well.”

Karin says: “This is so extremely simple and unoriginal, yet I think she looks really good. Nothing wrong with showing off when you’ve worked hard at the gym. And I’ve always been a fan of the turtle neck and cropped top look. It makes no sense for either cold or hot weather, but I love it.”

Cara says: “This outfit is like a plain baked potato. There is nothing wrong with a plain baked potato, but wouldn’t it look and taste better with some cheese or some broccoli, or even a little butter?”

Karin says: “Pass. This just looks like some red drooping thing. Like a couch cover that shrunk in the wash and then Yvonne decided to rescue it and wear it like a dress. The colour isn’t bad on her, and maybe if the dress was more fitted...I don’t know. The whole thing is the definition of ‘blah’.”

Cara says: “For some reason, this dress reminds me of curtains. Again it’s a simple, basic not that spectacular dress. I get this was a casual daytime event, but why is everyone so boring with their style? Disappointing really.”

Karin says: “Well, finally something different. I’m not sold on the kinda amateurish looking embroidery (are those little people holding hands?)

One or two tiers of it would have sufficed. But overall this dress is a breath of fresh and stylish air. It’s certainly unique enough.”

Cara says: “I love this dress!. It’s old-fashioned, yes, but still has a cute modern feel to it. It has everything in moderation – enough embroidery, enough sheerness and just the right amount of ruffles.”

The Tribune | Weekend | 17

Friday, March 23, 2018

book

Bahamian writer takes wing The top with deeply personal short stories 10 books

By CARA HUNT cbrennen@tribunemedia.net

B

ahamian writer Helen Klonaris’ new book, “If I had the Wings” has been long-listed for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean

Literature.

The award, which had its inauguration in 2011, is an annual literary award for books by Caribbean writers published in the previous year and is the only prize in the region that is open to works of different literary genres by writers of Caribbean birth or citizenship The prize award is US$10,000 and is sponsored by One Caribbean Media.

The short-listed nominees are awarded $3,000. Books may be entered in three categories: poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. The judges select the best book in each genre category, which three books form the shortlist for the prize, from which the overall winner is then chosen. The overall winner of the prize will be announced at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, next month.

Although a work of fiction, Helen told Tribune Weekend that “If I had Wings”, which took 10 years to write, is deeply personal as it touches on many of the issues she herself experienced.

To be long-listed is a great thrill, she said of the nomination.

“The stories are fiction. Sometimes a feeling, a struggle, a desire gets translated into a character or an event; sometimes actual events in our community were triggers, but the stories are not autobiography, they are invented characters with their own needs and wants and visions,” said.

“That said, I did want to get a few ideas across. Or maybe answer a few questions: what does it take for whiteness to see itself and to be deconstructed? See ‘Flies’ and ‘Cowboy’.

What does it look like when the straight guy discovers his best buddy is gay, and what is he willing to do to protect him? See ‘Crack in the Wall’.

What happens when a community is so afraid of their own difference, they are willing to destroy a miracle? See ‘The

“I think we are impoverished spiritually and psychologically when we think that there is only one way of seeing, one way of experiencing life, and if we go beyond that way we are wrong, bad.”

Dreamers’. These are just a few of the questions this collection is asking.”

Helen noted that many of the themes in her book tie into speculative and science fiction – a theme that will be addressed in the upcoming Blue Flamingo Literary Festival to be held at the University of the Bahamas this weekend.

Although she said the theme is new to her, she noted that she grew up reading in the magical realism genre.

“I know for some that isn’t a term that serves, but I have always loved it. It speaks to the possibility of the miraculous emerging on an ordinary sunny day, on an ordinary dusty street in your neighbourhood – it could be an angel standing next to you at the bus stop and you didn’t realise it until you left him standing there and something told you to look back as the bus was leaving and the man you had been talking to just as suddenly wasn’t there…or, a boy wakes up

one day and realises the painful nubs on his shoulders are growing wings.

The miraculous, or magical, rubbing up against the ordinary, this for me as a storyteller is powerful. It reminds us that there are many dimensions of reality, and many truths that exist at the same time. I think we are impoverished spiritually and psychologically when we think that there is only one way of seeing, one way of experiencing life, and if we go beyond that way we are wrong, bad,” she said.

“In one of my stories, ‘Ghost Children’, the daughter tells her mother she believes she is seeing ghosts in their living room. Her mother says, ‘In our church we don’t believe in ghosts’, and the daughter says, ‘But I can see them’. The mother says, ‘You telling me the church is wrong?’ And the daughter replies, ‘But I can hear them’; the mother then says, ‘Maybe you’re hearing the devil,’ to which the daughter replies, ‘Maybe I’m hearing God’.”

“If I Had the Wings” is available now in bookstores and online.

Visit peepaltreepress.com for more information.

on Apple’s iBooks-US

Charts for week ending

March 18, 2018

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

. Russian Roulette

by David Corn & Michael Isikoff . The Great Alone

by Kristin Hannah . The Wife Between Us

by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen . Little Fires Everywhere

by Celeste Ng . The Escape Artist

by Brad Meltzer . The Woman in the Window

by A J Finn . A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L’Engle . Red Sparrow

by Jason Matthews . A Brief History of Time

by Stephen Hawking .The Man from St Petersburg

by Ken Follett

By The Associated Press

18 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

books

Ex-gang member examines impact of absentee fathers Author receives support from law firm and entertainment company

B

lind author Drexel Deal, who lost his eyesight during a failed armed robbery, is receiving much welcomed support for his book, “The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father”, and his campaign to have it placed in local schools.

In the book, the former gang member talks about his life’s experiences and examines the negative impact of absentee fathers in the Bahamas.

His story captured the attention of Tecoyo Bridgewater, a partner in Bridgewater Legal Advocates and co-founder of Fusion Superplex, a $42-million entertainment venue currently being built in New Providence.

After reading Mr Deal’s powerful tale, Mr Bridgewater said he felt this book was a much needed addition to school libraries and pledged his team’s support to the endeavour.

Said Selina Archer, chief marketing officer of Fusion Superplex: “The raw honesty presented in this book truly touched me. I myself have looked at our society’s criminals as the problem.

Through Drexel’s story I have come to realise that criminality is a symptom. We are breaking our youngsters in the most tragic ways imaginable and expecting somehow that they will recover, function and contribute to communities positively. We treat sweethearting as an acceptable occurrence in our society, when in fact it rips away at the family structure creating children who feel abandoned and unloved.

“If there is one thing that has personally resonated with me through Deal’s work, it is that we as adults must learn to put our children first.

We adults must find a life balance that provides them with nurture, support and love. Above all, we must learn to make responsible decisions about our personal lives and choices as not to negatively impact the children we have or the children we may create.”

While Mr Deal’s book speaks to his time in the once active gang The Rebellions, it covers much of his childhood and teen years spent in a broken home. He recounts the feelings of abandonment when his father left the home to take up with another woman. This led to his mother having to make the switch from caregiver to breadwinner. The stress of being the

“Through Drexel’s story I have come to realise that criminality is a symptom. We are breaking our youngsters in the most tragic ways imaginable...”

primary wage earner and the demands of motherhood often led to abusive disciplinary measures, absenteeism within the home and unwise relationship choices, all of which deepened Mr Deal’s feelings of being unwanted and unloved by his own family.

Losing interest in school, he set about a criminal course that would

Tecoyo Bridgewater (lef), of Bridgewater Legal Advocates and Fusion Superplex, pledges his support to author Drexel Deal. ultimately end with a shotgun blast to the face during a foiled armed robbery which left him blind and landed him back in prison. Coming to terms with his choices, Mr Deal wrote the account of his life in the hopes of reaching other young men who can relate and learn from his circumstances, and parents who need to understand the effects their lifestyle choices have on their children.

“I begun my legal career as criminal attorney, so I have seen my fair share of people like Drexel who have found themselves involved in crime,” said Mr Bridgewater. “We tend to only look at the result, but in reality these individuals have been robbed of their childhood through circumstances beyond their control and they are suffering from loss of self-worth and are extremely angry at the society which

failed them. We need to give these young men and women a reason to live and aspire to do better, they need guidance. Growing up in less than ideal circumstances myself, I can relate to an extent. Therefore, it was extremely important for my firm to make these books available in schools. We have to understand how our young people get to this point and prevent it.”

To add to Mr Bridgewater’s donation, Fusion Superplex has invited Mr Deal to partner with its Project Empower (IMAX Education) arm and provide a platform for his story to be told.

“As a multimedia company, we are very much looking forward to promoting this powerful story in the hopes that Drexel’s life will make an impact and inspire change,” said Mr Bridgewater.

The Tribune | Weekend | 19

Friday, March 23, 2018

gardening

Air layering Inspired by an Indian method, this modern version of growing new trees and shrubs from stems still attached to the parent plant is easier than ever before, says Jack Hardy.

O

ccasionally the home gardener wants to propagate a shrub or small tree that has slow growth and will not respond to replication by cuttings. A technique was developed years ago in India called gootee that used natural materials that were readily available and produced a viable independent offspring within a year. Today, we can employ a modified version of gootee using modern materials that make the job far easier, but still takes a year.

A little elementary biology helps understand the aim of air layering, the modern form of gootee.

Woody plants take up water with nutrients through the root system and by capillary action distribute it to the topmost leaves. From there it washes back through the branches

Applying and wrapping the soil is the trickiest part of the exercise. and leaves through the cambium, that thin green layer that lies between the hard woody centre and outer bark.

The cambium layer is actually several layers but let us not get too technical.

Woody plants have growth nodes seen as bumps or scars that eventually develop into branches and new foliage.

A growth node below the ground – as in simple cuttings – will miraculously produce roots instead of branches.

The Italian scientist Marcello Malpighi in 1675 investigated the properties of the cambium layer and girdled a branch of a tree just below a growth node, completely removing the cambium layer. He noted that the branch around and above the growth node swelled and below it grew thinner. Indian agriculturists had discovered this phenomenon centuries earlier. By bringing soil to the growth node area they encouraged roots to grow. In time the branch had a full root system and could be separated from the mother tree.

So there we have air layering in a nutshell: girdle a branch below a growth node, apply and wrap soil around the area, cut the branch below the root system once it is well developed, nurture your new plant in a container, then transplant to your chosen spot. No rush; the process takes a year.

Start with a sturdy but sharp knife and girdle a suitable branch. I have found the best size to be between ¾ inch and one inch. Prune away the last one-third of the foliage on the branch and lop off the end to a manageable length, around 2 feet.

The girdle is made ¼ inch below the selected growth node. Cut around the branch completely, then repeat one inch lower. With great care scrape

away all bark and cambium layer tissue. There should be no trace of green when you have finished. At this point you can leave the job and return a week later. Check there is still no trace of green, re-scraping if necessary.

Now comes the only tricky part of the exercise: applying and wrapping the soil. Actually, instead of soil it is better to use sphagnum moss that has been soaked in rain water for a few hours. Use a sheet of plastic film about 12” x 12” – you will find a roll of plastic wrap somewhere in the kitchen – and wind one end around the branch about 6 inches below the node. As you do this, keep ‘fluffing out’ the plastic sheeting to make a receptacle, a sort of bag, for the moss.

Tie the bottom of the plastic to the branch using twine or a wire twist tie.

Squeeze out the sphagnum moss with your hands and stuff the plastic ‘bag’ loosely, just as for turkey stuffing.

There is no virtue in compacted soil or moss. When you tie the top of the bag the twine or twist should be about 2 inches above the node. The next step is to surround the whole works with opaque material because roots develop in darkness. Some experts use heavy duty aluminium foil to make a package of the moss ball. If you use aluminium foil you must then enclose it with lightcoloured cloth because the foil will absorb heat from the sun. I prefer to leave out the foil and go straight to the cloth wrapping. An old white T-shirt, a pair of scissors, and twine or twist ties will help insulate your project.

Now leave the air layer for six months. Well, not completely: every month or so you can untie the top of the cloth and plastic sheeting and check for moisture, remembering that gravity

will make the moss at the top dryer than that lower down. Add a little rain water if you sense the moss is too dry.

After six months the roots that have developed should be sufficient to allow independence. Now comes the trickiest part of the exercise. Prepare a threegallon pot one-third filled with good potting mix, lightly moistened. Cut the branch free about six inches below the node and place it in the centre of the pot. The length of branch below the air layer will sit on the bottom of the pot and support the root system. Add potting mix until the node area is covered.

Experienced and close to full time gardeners will consider the job finished at this stage. They will water the pot frequently and transplant the new tree to its appointed spot once the root system fills the container, which will be about a year after making the initial girdle. But if you are a weekend gardener it might be better to give your new baby added protection.

Once you have potted your plant, use a short wire tomato tower and drape a clear plastic bag over the tower and pot. Attach the bag to the lower part of the pot using duct tape and place the pot in a saucer in an area where it receives light but no direct sunshine. Fill the saucer with water and replenish when necessary.

Although I have mentioned a year as the optimum time to establish a fully independent air layered plant, the process may well be shorter in time depending on the properties of the mother plant. Bear in mind too that both cuttings and air layers produce plants that lack a tap root.

• For questions and comments, e-mail gardenerjack@coralwave.com.

20 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

film

Twitter: ‘Black Panther’ is most tweeted about movie ever

T

he pop culture sensation “Black Panther” has set another record: most tweeted about movie ever.

Twitter said Tuesday that Ryan Coogler’s box-office smash has been tweeted about more than 35 million times. That pushes it ahead of the previous

record-holder, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” The most recent “Star Wars” installment, “The Last Jedi,” ranks third.

Over the weekend, “Black Panther” became the first film since 2009’s “Avatar” to top the box office in North America five straight weekends. It has grossed more than $607 million domestically and $1.2

Renee Zellweger transforms into Judy Garland for movie

billion worldwide. In the next week, it’s expected to pass “The Avengers” as the highest grossing superhero film ever, not accounting for inflation.

Twitter said “Black Panther” had the most tweets in the US, followed by the United Kingdom and Thailand.

NEW YORK Associated Press

RENEE Zellweger has transformed her looks and is working on her singing skills as she starts a new film about Judy Garland.

Principal photography for “Judy” is underway in London, and the producers have released a photo of the Academy Award winner playing the troubled star.

The movie is set in the late 1960s near the end of Garland’s career and will feature the

Chadwick Boseman as T’challa/Black Panther.

(Marvel Studios/Disney via AP)

behind-the-scenes drama before Garland died in the city at age 47 in 1969.

Zellweger is expected to sing in the film, including “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from Garland’s 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.” Zellweger sang in the 2002 film “Chicago.”

Other cast members include Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock and Michael Gambon.

LONDON Associated Press

Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland

Ava DuVernay to direct DC superhero film ‘The New Gods’ AVA DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time” may have disappointed at the box office, but she’s already booked another big-budget project.

Warner Bros said Thursday that DuVernay will direct “The New Gods,” a DC Comics property created by the famed comic book artist Jack Kirby. It’s an elaborate science fiction work, part of Kirby’s “Fourth World Saga,” about two warring alien planets.

It debuted in 1971.

DuVernay became the first African-American woman to direct a

live-action movie with a budget of $100 million or more with “A Wrinkle in Time.” The Disney release debuted last weekend with $33 million in ticket sales.

Warner Bros recently reshuffled its DC film division after critical duds like “Justice League” and “Suicide Squad.” A “Wonder Woman” sequel is in development and an “Aquaman” spinoff is due out in December.

NEW YORK Associated Press

Director Ava DuVernay (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

The Tribune | Weekend | 21

Friday, March 23, 2018

film

review

‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ is cheer-at-thescreen fun PACIFIC RIM UPRISING RUNNING TIME: 111 MINS

A

t the end of the monsters-versus-robots flick “Pacific Rim,” a breach at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is closed, plugging a hole that allowed hellish creatures to emerge and terrorise the globe. But after the movie earned $400 million worldwide, was that portal really going to stay closed?

No, of course not. And, with sincere apologies to the front-line cities on the Pacific Rim facing a mauling, we say thank goodness, because the new sequel “Pacific Rim Uprising” is a visually-stunning, expertly crafted dose of cheer-at-the-screen fun. It’s the definition of what a blockbuster sequel should be.

“Pacific Rim Uprising” uses a lighter palette and is geared toward a younger audience than its 2013 predecessor, but it keeps all the key elements, upping the special effects and finding honest moments and humour in the midst of world-destroying carnage. It satisfies on every front.

Success wasn’t foreordained for the sequel. Original writer Travis Beacham and director-writer Guillermo del Toro haven’t returned, nor have its original stars, Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba.

Steven S DeKnight, who created and ran the TV series “Spartacus” on Starz, was tapped to direct while del Toro focused on the smaller monster movie “Shape of Water.” DeKnight also teamed up with Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder and TS Nowlin to craft the new story, which champions outsiders and misfits as well as celebrates

New Jaegers face off against the Kaiju in “Pacific Rim Uprising.” (Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures via AP)

John Boyega, fresh off “The Last Jedi”, takes the Jaeger seat in this “Pacific Rim” sequel. makeshift families and teamwork. Plus, some stuff gets pummelled.

First, a step back for anyone not familiar with this horrific near-future: Aliens have sent giant monsters called Kaiju to soften us humans up ahead of world domination. But we’ve created 270-foot tall robots called Jaegers to fight back. They’re so big they need to be manned by pairs of operators who build a neural bridge between their minds so they can work together.

The new film opens in 2035, 10 years after the last Kaiju was defeated and the breach closed. It’s the calm before the storm. Our heroes now are Jake (John Boyega), the rebellious son of Elba’s character, and the teen orphan

Amara (Cailee Spaeny), who builds her own Jaeger out of spare parts.

They join together to help the military fight a new opponent — a rogue Jaeger that comes out of the sea and stomps around menacingly. It is soon clear there’s a conspiracy afoot.

Boyega, fresh off his “Star Wars” gig, is great here, is a dashing rogue who struggles under his father’s shadow but soon earns the respect of his peers. “We are a family now and we are Earth’s last defence,” he says. He and Spaeny have an easy rapport and some moments between them seem genuinely charming and goofy.

Charlie Day and Burn Gorman reprise their roles as squabbling

scientists, and Rinko Kikuchi is back as the adopted daughter of Elba’s character. The rest of the cast is multiethnic, competent and very sweaty. The robots now have hologram interiors and the monsters seem less homages to past movie Kaijus and more designed to permanently upset our dreams.

If the first movie’s fight sequences were often set in the rainy dark, “Pacific Rim Uprising” embraces the light. Cities are flattened during the day as monsters and robots slug it out. Skyscrapers get punched, debris cascades down and cars get swiped around. The connection between special effects and human actors is seamless and astonishing. The level of detail — from complex cityscapes like Shanghai and Tokyo to the icescapes of Siberia — is brilliant.

The filmmakers have abandoned del Toro’s political touches — pollution as a factor in the creature attacks and building a wall to stop them, for example — but wisely adopted his sly humour.

It may not be nuanced, but it taps into something mythical — ferocious monsters rising from nowhere to be battled by 21st century swordfighters.

“Pacific Rim Uprising” is so confident in itself that it basically promises a third film as the end credits roll. We can’t wait.

MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer

22 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

literary lives – billy wilder

From immigrant to iconic filmmaker Sir Christopher Ondaatje outlines the life of the brilliant scriptwriter, producer, and director remembered as being one of the most versatile filmmakers of Hollywood’s golden era.

S

amuel “Billy” Wilder was born on June 22, 1906 to a family of Polish Jews in Sucha, Poland where his parents owned a popular cake shop. The family moved to Vienna in the early 1920s where, dropping out of the University of Vienna, Wilder became a journalist. In 1926, he moved to Berlin and, before achieving moderate success as a writer, worked as a part-time gigolo.

He worked on various papers before gravitating to the booming Berlin film industry where he became

a screenwriter. He worked with several other novices, including Fred Zinnemann, on the precursor to neorealism “Menschen am Sonntag” (”People on Sunday”, 1929), directed by Edgar Ulmer and Robert Siodmak.

With Hitler’s rise to power, Wilder left Berlin for America. However, his mother, grandmother and stepfather, who had stayed in Vienna, all perished in the Holocaust. He arrived in Hollywood in 1933 with virtually no English and only a temporary visa.

He shared a room and a can of soup a day with the actor Peter Lorre. He spent some time in Mexico when his six-month US visa expired, later recounted in his film “Hold Back the Dawn” (1941). He was allowed re-entry some time later and became a naturalised citizen of the US in 1939.

In Hollywood, he reactivated his career as a scriptwriter at a time when studios began to let some screenwriters direct their own scripts. John Huston, Joseph Mankiewicz and Preston Sturges were other scriptwriters whose careers flourished at this time. Ernst Lubitsch, another German immigrant, was at the time head of production at Paramount – with whom Wilder collaborated to write his first significant success Ninotchka (1939) starring Greta Garbo.

“Everything was new to me when I arrived in America, so I looked closely ... Also, the status of my English was rather poor. I couldn’t rearrange the furniture in my mouth – the tonsils,

Billy Wilder (1906 - 2002) the curved palate. I’ve never lost my accent. Ernst Lubitsch, who came in 1922, had a much heavier accent than mine, as did Otto Preminger.

Children can get the pronunciation in a few weeks, but English is a tough language because there are so many letters in words that are totally useless. Though, and through.

And tough!” (Paris Review, 1996) Frustrated by misinterpretations of his work by directors, Wilder determined to become a director himself. For 12 years, from 1938 to 1950, Wilder co-wrote many of his films with Charles Brackett.

“Later I found that if I had a good collaborator it was very pleasant to talk to somebody and not come into an empty office. The head of the writers’ department at Paramount had

the good idea to pair me with Charles Brackett, a distinguished man from the East, who had gone to Harvard Law School and was about fifteen years older than I. I liked working with him ... He was a member of the Algonquin Round Table. He had been the movie critic or theatre critic on The New Yorker in the beginning, the twenties.” (Paris Review, 1996)

Wilder’s third film as a director was “Double Indemnity” (1944), written together with the author Raymond Chandler. Although the two men did not get along the film set conventions for the film noir genre like “Venetian blind” lighting, and “voice-over” narration. It also won a battle against Hollywood censorship as the original James M Cain novel involved two love triangles and a murder plot for insurance money. Adultery was

The Tribune | Weekend | 23

Friday, March 23, 2018

Wilder dances with Jack Lemmon dressed in drag on the set of “Some Like It Hot” (1959) a key element of the film’s plot.

Billy Wilder’s films show an extraordinary range – from film noir to comedy and farce. Wilder’s credits as a director and co-scriptwriter include: “Double Indemnity”, “Sunset Boulevard”, “Sabrina”, “Ace in the Hole”, “Stalag 17”, “The Lost Weekend”, “Some Like It Hot” and “The Apartment”. Wilder loved working with Jack Lemmon in “Some Like It Hot” and “The Apartment”, and considered him to be the hardest working Hollywood actor.

A year after “Double Indemnity” Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for “The Lost Weekend” (1945) with Ray Milland – the first film to deal with the problems of alcoholism. He then co-wrote and directed

“Sunset Boulevard” about a reclusive silent film actress (played by Gloria Swanson) who craves another opportunity to make a comeback. William Holden played the ambitious scriptwriter who becomes her kept lover.

“We had gone to Pola Negri first ... there was too much Polish accent. We went to Pickfair and visited Mary Pickford. Brackett began to tell her the story ... I stopped him ... I waved him off. Gloria Swanson had been a big star, in command of an entire studio. She worked with De Mille ... When I gave her the script, she said ‘I must do this’ and she turned out to be an absolute angel.

“I used stars whenever I could.

I used Cecil B De Mille to play the important studio director. I used Erich

Wilder with Marilyn Monroe behind the scenes of “The Seven Year Itch” (1955) von Stroheim to play the director who directed the first pictures with Swanson, which in fact he did ... I got Harry B Warner, Anna Q Nilsson and Buster Keaton ... The picture industry was only fifty or sixty years old, so some of the original people were still around.” (Paris Review, 1996) “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) marked the end of the scriptwriting team of Wilder and Charles Brackett. In the 1950s, Wilder followed “Sunset Boulevard” with “Ace in the Hole” (1951) and two adaptations of Broadway plays “Stalag 17” (1953) and “Witness for the Prosecution” (1957).

William Holden won the Best Actor Oscar for his part in “Stalag 17”, and Charles Laughton for his role in “Witness for the Prosecution”.

From the mid-1950s on Wilder made mostly comedies: “The Seven Year Itch” (1955), “Some Like It Hot” (1959); and satires and romantic comedies like “The Apartment” (1960), Sabrina (1954), and “Love in The Afternoon” (1957). Wilder won three Academy Awards for “The Apartment” (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay). This was followed by “One, Two, Three” (1961) and “The Fortune Cookie” (1966).

In his career Billy Wilder directed 14 actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Barbara Stanwyck in “Double Indemnity”; Ray Milland in “The Lost Weekend”; William Holden in “Sunset Boulevard” and “Stalag 17”; Gloria Swanson, Erich Continued on page 24

24 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

Continued from page 23 von Stroheim, and Nancy Olsen in “Sunset Boulevard”; Audrey Hepburn in “Sabrina”; Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester in “Witness for the Prosecution”; Jack Lemmon in “Some Like It Hot” and “The Apartment”; Jack Kruschen in “The Apartment”; Shirley MacLaine in “The Apartment” and “Irma La Douce”, and Walter Matthau in “The Fortune Cookie”.

“I remember those days in New York when one writer would say to the other ‘I’m broke. I’m going to go to Hollywood and steal another fifty thousand’ ... they didn’t know what movie writing entailed. You have to know the rules before you break them, and they simply didn’t school themselves.

I’m not just talking about essayists or newspapermen; it was even the novelist. None of them took it seriously...

I remember Fitzgerald when he was working at Paramount and I was there working with Brackett, who was from the East, had written novels and plays, and had been at Paramount for years ... he never once asked us anything about writing screenplays ... Scott just didn’t seem particularly interested in any of these matters.” (Paris Review, 1996)

In 1986, Wilder was given the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, and in 1988 the Irving G Thal-

Wilder sits with his six Oscars after winning three more for the movie “The Apartment”.

Wilder’s tombstone bears an inscription inspired by a line from film “Some Like It Hot”.

berg Memorial Award. Wilder was first married to Judith Coppicus in 1936, but was divorced in 1946. He married Audrey Young, who he had met on the 1945 set of The Lost Weekend, in 1949.

He was well known for having one of the finest art collections in Hollywood.

He died in 2002 of pneumonia when he was 95 years old in Beverley Hills, California, and is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, near Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. He died on the same day as Milton Berle and Dudley Moore.

Billy Wilder received 21 Academy Award nominations: eight for Best Director, 12 for writing, and one as the producer of the Best Picture. Together with Martin Scorsese he is the second most nominated director in the history of Academy Awards after William Wyler, and the second most nominated screenwriter after Woody Allen.

“An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark – that is critical genius.”

Billy Wilder remains one of American cinema’s greatest writer-directors.

He is unique in the extent of his involvement in the development of the material he directed. Somehow he had the uncanny judgement of what worked and what didn’t. His singular vision and distinctive dialogue were often responsible for the success of some of Hollywood’s most entertaining films. Taste and timing may have been his most defining characteristics.

Wilder did make mistakes, but his judgement was usually infallible.

In the last scene of “Some Like It Hot” Jack Lemmon, dressed in drag as a girl, tries to convince Joe E Brown that he cannot marry him.

“Why?” Brown questions. An exasperated Lemmon rips off his wig and yells at him, “I’m a boy! Because I’m a boy!” To which Joe E Brown gave his classic response: “Nobody’s perfect” – the same words that remain on Wilder’s Hollywood gravestone.

Wilder usually had the last word.

NEXT WEEK: A jazz legend who inspired many of today’s singers.

• Sir Christopher Ondaatje is the author of “The Last Colonial”.

He acknowledges that he has quoted liberally from Wikipedia and from “Paris Review”, 1996.

The Tribune | Weekend | 25

Friday, March 23, 2018

history

Carstairs and Francis Forgotten facts Paul C Aranha

I

n a previous article, I wrote about Marion Carstairs (known to family and friends as “Joe”) who came to the Bahamas in the 1930s, bought Whale Cay and built a vast estate that would not be outshone by any 21st-century Out Island development. She was known as the Standard Oil heiress, and Kate Summerscale’s book “The Queen of Whale Cay” is her life story.

Over the years, Miss Carstairs bought and sold quite a few of the cays in the Berry Islands, including the neighbouring Bird Cay. Her brother, Francis Francis, a Spitfire pilot among other things, who spent World War II in England as a commanding officer of the Air Transport Auxiliary’s ferry base at White Waltham Airfield, promised himself that, if he survived, he would buy an island and build his own little paradise. He bought Bird Cay, built his dream and raised two children – my wife Kim and her brother Craig.

Sister and brother, meaning Carstairs and Francis, as different as chalk and cheese, lived next door to each other, on their neighbouring private islands, and each of them made far-reaching contributions to the people of the Bahamas.

Frank Francis was ‘the perfect English gentleman’, quiet and reserved.

Had a movie been made of his life, David Niven would have been the automatic choice for the starring role.

Joe Carstairs was the other side of a very different coin, flamboyant and forceful. Joe was a living adventure movie, but no actress could play my wife’s Aunt Joe. Joe entertained the Duke of Windsor. Frank’s house guests included the King and Queen of Belgium. Kim remembers Rock Hudson as a regular visitor on Whale Cay. He would arrive with a bevy of starlets, well-suited to Joe’s inclinations, and find distractions, pre-arranged by his hostess. Joe’s name appears in every biography of Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992).

“The Queen of Whale Cay” paints an intriguing picture of the former driver of race boats, who, when her engine had broken down and she and

A Grumman Goose at Bird Cay (Courtesy of Kim Aranha)

Francis Francis (left) with the Duke of Windsor during the fifth Bahamas Invitational golf tournament in 1954.

Marion “Joe” Carstairs (1900-1993) her mechanic were trying desperately to get back into the race, was distracted by a man in his dinghy who had rowed over and was trying to make polite conversation. Joe told the man to “f ___ off” and, having been well brought-up, the King of England did just that.

When she was not insulting royalty, Joe Carstairs was developing her island, providing much-needed jobs for countless Bahamians, particularly the people of North Andros, who could easily reach the Berry Islands by dinghy. It seems that everybody from north Andros knew Miss Carstairs and

Francis Francis (1906-1982) wearing the “Blues” Mr Francis, and nearly everybody had worked for each of them.

Well-known Bahamian businessman, the late Frank Hanna, never stopped singing the praises of “Sir” Francis Francis. Even though Kim unfailingly pointed out that her father was not a “Sir”, Frank Hanna went to his grave knowing that, for him, his patron was Sir Francis.

Kim has stunning old 16mm movies, taken by her mother, of Kim, Craig and a young Frank Hanna, learning to water-ski at Bird Cay in the early 60s.

This is the kind of man Mr Francis was.

He had a lasting effect on people.

Kate Summerscale’s “The Queen of Whale Cay” details the life of Joe Carstairs

Best described as a number crossword, the task in Kakuro is to fill all of the empty squares, using numbers 1 to 9, so the sum of each horizontal block equals the number to its left, and the sum of each vertical block equals the number on its top. No number may be used in the same block more than once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Kakuro increases from Monday to Sunday.

o V D l TarGeTr E THe aL

(across or down)

26 | The Tribune | Weekend

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so the each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

Mo E o V D r E l

chambers *Calls cost 75p plus your telephone company’ you have network access 21st Friday, March 23, charge.

2018 grid too! u letters an century below the Dictionary grid is ‘rot (1999 symmetri edition) words, it l you turn t HOW many words of four letters down. sol or more can you make from the

theletters target cAn you crack athe shown here? in making yesterd Alphabeater? word, each letter may be usedEach gridBlack sq uses oncein only. Eachnumber must contain the a letter 9, 12, 15, represents words centre letter and there must be atAs in31, 35, 3 – or black square. theleast main across: one nine-letter word. no Alphapuzzle, Ebb,ofFat plurals ending inevery “s”. letter body of or verb forms Jingo, C the alphabet is used. But Pressure chambers you have to complete the Today’s TarGeT J Good 13; very good 21st grid20; too!excellent use the givenRefine, Squab. d 26 (or more). solution tomorrow. letters and black squares Rabbi, O century the grid to start.Swerve, the Dictionary yesTerday’sbelow soLUTion Cutlet, R grid is ‘rotationally agin anti gain giant gnat goon Tomboy (1999 – in otherPlaza, Ya ingot into ngaiosymmetrical’ onto taint tang edition) tango tatting TaTTooinG tigon words, it looks the same if ting tint titan tong tooting toting

CRYPTIC PUZZLE Across 1 No help as an antiseptic?

But it is (6) 4 Nevertheless desirous of obtaining a monopoly (5,3) 9 Meeting points (6) 10 Decline to make way for a successor? (4,4) 12 Lady mad about being socially acceptable (4) 13 Pity’s stirred by those influenced by drink (5) 14 Final shape for a shoe (4) 17 Complete with food for the road (12) 20 They’re put to work by turns (12) 23 They’re very expert ones (4) 24 Rings friends about a letter (5) 25 Female wear that wasn’t long in fashion (4) 28 Incomparable lady about fifty (8) 29 Note by a doctor to one going to a foreign country (6) 30 Vinegar and oil is bound to help the wound (8) 31 Strained inspiration to produce a joke (6)

Down 1 Fellow actor? (8) 2 He has the will to settle things (8) 3 The chances of racing (4) 5 In sound condition, though possibly highly strung (3,2,1,6) 6 See the key goes to the agent (4) 7 Morning viva voce quite unethical (6) 8 The long version lacks nothing in duration (6) 11 Individual non-member of a union (6,6) 15 Grass on which one may lie (5) 16 Morally weak, perhaps, giving Father trouble (5) 18 Possibly liberal over a point, but trustworthy (8) 19 Calculate worth of odd items to eat perhaps (8) 21 Sharply rebuked, but sounding overjoyed (6) 22 Fall back and surrender for a second time (6) 26 High spots of a European tour (4) 27 Very little animation (4)

Yesterday’s Easy Solution Across: 1 Power, 4 Supreme, 8 See, 9 Blaspheme, 10 Inertia, 11 Lucky, 13 Grovel, 15 Primer, 18 Steep, 19 Pelican, 21 Bishopric, 23 Ego, 24 Element, 25 Donor.

Down: 1 Passing, 2 Woebegone, 3 Rebut, 4 Seaman, 5 Popular, 6 Eve, 7 Enemy, 12 Come clean, 14 Explore, 16 Rancour, 17 Spirit, 18 Sable, 20 Lucid, 22 Sue.

yesTerday’s soLUTion agin anti gain giant gnat goon ingot into ngaio onto taint tang tango tatting TaTTooinG tigon ting tint titan tong tooting toting totting

call 0907 181 2585 for today’s target solution *Calls cost 80p per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge.

*SP: Spoke – Helpline 0333 202 3390

EASY PUZZLE

Across 1 Artful (6) 4 Well-off (8) 9 A French porcelain (6) 10 Breed of retriever (8) 12 Move by small degrees (4) 13 A rye liquor (5) 14 Strong impulse (4) 17 Open and sincere (2,3,2,3,2) 20 Embodiment (12) 23 Principal role in play (4) 24 Opera by Gounod (5) 25 Small piece of ground (4) 28 Word for word (8) 29 Tried and tested (6) 30 Evocative (8) 31 Go the rounds (6)

Down 1 Extremely robust (4-4) 2 Recommend (8) 3 In that case (4) 5 A fragrant gum resin (12) 6 Lie in ambush (4) 7 To last (6) 8 Mediterranean country (6) 11 Reparation (12) 15 Thighbone (5) 16 Semblance (5) 18 Enjoying luxury (2,6) 19 Soldier on guard (8) 21 Mentally quick (6) 22 Holy (6) 26 Loss of greatness (4) 27 Region (4)

Swerve, Defrocks, Cutlet, Ravine, Listless, Tomboy, Taxi, Ouzo, Plaza, Yachts.

Extra letter clues

0907 181 2560 (Deduct three minutes for each extra clue letter heard)

Yesterday’s Cryptic Solution Across: 1 Grail, 4 Buffers, 8 Ant, 9 Vindicate, 10 Bequest, 11 Icons, 13 X-rayed, 15 Ignore, 18 Layer, 19 Tenders, 21 Offensive, 23 Ire, 24 Exposes, 25 Sweet.

Down: 1 Gearbox, 2 Antiquary, 3 Levee, 4 Benita, 5 Foiling, 6 Eva, 7 Steps, 12 On one side, 14 Errands, 16 Easiest, 17 Strips, 18 Loose, 20 Needs, 22 Fop.

Extra

you turn the page upside0907 HOW many words of four letters totting down. solution tomorrow. or more can you make from the (Deduct each extra letters shown here? in making a yesterday’s solution Yesterday’s Yesterday’s word, each letter may be used Black squares: 6, fu call 0907 181 2585 for 3, 4,0907 Sudoku Answer Kakuro Answer once only. Each must contain the 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 22, 26, today’s target solution *Calls co *Calls cost31, 80p 35, per minute 36, 39. centre letter and there must be at plus your t plus your telephone company’s networ across: least one nine-letter word. no network access charge.Crowd, Control, Ebb, Fathom, Buoy, plurals or verb forms ending in “s”.

Jingo, Catalytic, *SP: Spoke – Helpline 0333 202 3390 PLay Pressures, Trips, Dove, Today’s TarGeT Refine, Jag, Inverse, Good 13; very good 20; excellent Squab. down: Jumped, 26 (or more). solution tomorrow.

Rabbi, Oxen, Node,

full solution

0907 181 2558

1

*Calls cost 80p per minute 2 plus your telephone company’s network access charge.

●

PLay More Cro

The Tribune | Weekend | 27

Friday, March 23, 2018

animals

Shame on us, Bahamas

D

ISAPPOINTED is not a big enough word for how I feel about the outcome of the incident where a splendid and large protected loggerhead turtle was killed in Grand Bahama.

The man who pleaded guilty apologised and told the court he didn’t realise he was being videotaped. So, excuse me, is he saying he would not be sorry if it had not been videotaped? Also how could he possibly not know that he was being observed and filmed?

There is more than one unbelievable issue in this case, all difficult to understand: how can anybody bludgeon anything to death, hitting this magnificent turtle over and over again? If you are going to kill any creature for food then just do it as quickly as possible.

I am dreadfully disappointed that people were obviously more than willing to buy, store and cook turtle meat. It is no secret that turtle meat is outlawed in the Bahamas. What about the dozens of people who clearly will purchase and consume this forbidden food? But, of course, there are those who will happily sit down to ‘hushmouth’ (flamingo), even though the national bird has been protected for years.

Then we come to the disappointing sentencing for the three involved in this case, a self-employed handyman, a restaurant owner, and his wife, the cook.

I do not presume to be an expert in the judicial system of our country, but as a citizen I feel I have the Godgiven right to question the wisdom of 500 community hours fixing a roof.

At the very least those hours should be assisting fisheries, working for the National Trust or the Humane Society of Grand Bahama, not repairing a government roof!

To hear that the accused were advised that if they did not agree with the Fisheries Act, they should agitate against it, threw my head into a spin.

Yes, there are many turtles in Bahamian waters, and more and more,

A ‘Floppy’ friend for Easter

By The Bahamas Humane Society

W

ith Easter fast approaching, a rabbit-named dog seems appropriate!

Floppy is about two years old. She gets along with pretty much every dog she meets, and people too. She’s fairly quiet but will settle in happily with her new family once she has one.

There’s no rush, as the BHS is a nokill shelter, but Floppy would really prefer you come to meet her sooner rather than later.

And this weekend is the perfect time. There’s a big dog adopt-a-thon going on Saturday and Sunday at the Bahamas Humane Society. Saturday from 10am to 4pm and Sunday from 12noon to 4pm. So come in, meet Floppy, and maybe she can join your family in time for Easter this year.

Adoption hours are 11am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, or you can call 325-6742 for more information.

PATRICIA VAZQUEZ

Animal matters Kim Aranha

PET OF THE WEEK

• Visit the BHS at the University of the Bahamas’ Literary Festival this Friday and Saturday. There will $1 books available at their table close to the Michael Eldon Building.

Also, enjoy the ocean-inspired jewellery show, “Natural Encounter II”,

by Astengo de Lama Jewels on Tuesday, March 27, from 3pm to 7pm at Camelot, Ranger Road, Lyford Cay. Light refreshments will be served and part proceeds go to the BHS.

PHOTO/SCOTT ARANHA/MY DEEP BLUE VIEW

that is the whole idea of the protection act!

The Bahamas is a breeding ground for marine turtles. We have an abundance of a protected species. As a

country we had the wisdom to outlaw the wanton slaughter of endangered animals. Thanks to the Bahamas, the turtle population of the world has a safe haven to thrive and grow, and yes,

expand.

We were applauded when that protection bill was passed and we basked in that glory, but now we can be held up globally as a joke, as a country that hands down a light sentence and sends a dangerous message to the world.

And don’t be fooled, the world is absolutely watching. There are hundreds of environmentally-minded groups monitoring the behaviour of nations around the world daily.... something else to be “proud of”, I suppose?

Another point: Why, oh why, was the man not charged with animal cruelty? The penalty for animal cruelty is, admittedly, negligible in the Out Islands, however it still carries a stint in jail.

This blatant omission is a “thumbing of the nose” at the environmental laws of the Bahamas: A gentle slap on the wrist for someone who broke the law, big time.

Our movement to protect the endangered marine turtle was not a haphazard operation designed to cause trouble and stop people from having the apparent “euphoric” experience of consuming turtle meat; it was a very measured and scientific movement to restore the marine sea turtle numbers, not just in the Bahamas, but around the world.

Our abundance of turtles is assisting all the countries, and hopefully those misguided enough to not protect them will soon follow suit and mimic us. We should be proud to be amongst the environmentally conscious, instead we turn ourselves into, yet again, a laughing stock.

For heaven’s sake, Bahamas, look beyond your stomachs for once and uphold the law. No food is worth erasing a species off the face of the earth for ever. Once a species is gone there is no going back and undoing the harm done.

Tourists get so excited if they see a turtle when they go diving. There is a dive operation in Exuma that offers guaranteed turtle dives, and one in Eleuthera.

More money is to be made taking tourists to see the turtles. These operators depend on the existence of turtles.

Remember, you can sell the meat of a turtle once. You can eat that turtle only once, but you can dive with that same turtle hundreds of times and take photos hundreds of times, and make money every day showing that same turtle.

28 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, March 23, 2018

section