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PETROL STRIKE FOR EASTER WEEKEND? Operators say they are struggling to survive as fuel costs increase

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE leadership of the Bahamas Petroleum Dealers Association is trying to ward off a planned Easter weekend strike by around 80 percent of operators who say their businesses are struggling to survive the economy compounded by the rising cost of fuel.

Vasco Bastian, the association’s vice-president, told The Tribune yesterday that while he and the BPDA’s

president were against any strike action this week, the majority of operators were agitating in favour of the move as it has become increasingly challenging to buy fuel in large quantities.

He said the incensed operators were also of the view that the government was benefitting the most in the current climate, while suggesting that they wanted a margin increase since last receiving the same several years ago.

SEE PAGE FOUR

MAN IN BULLETPROOF VEST SHOT BY POLICE

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A MAN wearing a bulletproof vest was shot by police in the early hours of Saturday.

Police said the shooting took place after officers responded to an armed robbery after 1am in the area of Delancy Street.

“Officers responded, and while patrolling Hospital Lane north, they saw a male who aroused their

suspicion. As the officers were about to confront the male, he produced a firearm,” police said.

“The officers, being aware of the threat toward their lives, produced their service weapons and discharged them in the direction of the suspect. He was struck several times about his body. The officers recovered the firearm and on checking the suspect, it was discovered that he was wearing a bulletproof vest.”

SEE PAGE THREE

ALL ABOARD FOR BAARK PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and his wife, Ann Marie, were the guests as the new BAARK mobile clinic was unveiled on Friday.

Mr Davis had a pledge for the organisation too - see PAGE FIVE for the full story.

Photo: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

HURRICANE HOLE DEVELOPER ‘ENSURE EQUINOR LIABILITIES STRIKES DEAL FOR ABACO SITE ARE MET BEFORE IT IS SOLD’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

STERLING Global, developer of the Hurricane Hole development on Paradise Island, has signed a deal to develop the Schooner Bay project in

south Abaco.

The developer will “bring that project where it needs to be” and oversee all aspects of its operations - including sales and marketing - after its progress has stagnated in recent years.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

ACTIVIST Joseph Darville, of Save The Bays, is urging the government to ensure all liabilities stemming from the oil spill at South Riding Point in

Hurricane Dorian are properly addressed in the approval for the Equinor facility’s potential sale.

Mr Darville said the government must “make sure the clean-up is done properly and we’re compensated for the damage”.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

BAHAMIAN KILLED IN US ROAD CRASH INSIGHT

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

ONE Bahamian man is dead and another is in hospital in the United States after a car crash in New Haven, Connecticut, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday.

The incident happened early on Saturday morning.

In a press statement, the ministry said the New Haven Fire Department

RAYMOND ROLLE was dispatched to the intersection of Congress Avenue and College Street where a

black Chevrolet Cruz was significantly damaged from hitting a tree.

Fire crews, the statement said, worked to put out the flames of the actively burning vehicle as well as to remove both men using the jaws of life.

Paramedics and medical teams confirmed that one of the passengers died of his injuries. He was identified as 21-year-old Raymond Rolle, Jr. SEE PAGE TWO

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

CAUTIOUS BUT BE CONFIDENT IN THIS COVID LULL

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Monday, April 11, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

CITIZENSHIP PROPOSALS TO CABINET ‘BY SUMMER’

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net A DRAFT version of the Citizenship Act should be presented to the Cabinet by the summer, Attorney General Ryan Pinder said on Friday.

Successive governments have sought to address the disparities in men and women passing on Bahamian citizenship in two failed constitutional referendums.

Mr Pinder has previously said the Davis administration intends to address the issue through legislation instead of holding another referendum.

“As the former Prime Minister (Hubert) Ingraham had mentioned a few weeks ago this can also be done by legislative action and that’s what we’re looking at.

We have an initial draft of the Citizenship Act prepared,” Mr Pinder said yesterday. “We’re going through it, well I’m refining it and we hope to be able to present it before Cabinet in rather

short order as one of our commitments on human rights matters…”

Asked for a timeline, he said: “It should definitely be presented before Cabinet (in) the summer. As you know, it all depends on when the summer recess is for Parliament whether it gets tabled during summer or not, maybe on break, but we definitely would hope to have that before Cabinet by the summer months.”

The former member of Parliament for Elizabeth also reiterated that there is a comprehensive review underway of laws pertaining to juveniles. Social Services Minister Obie Wilchcombe had previously said the Office of the Attorney General is looking at “inconsistencies” in law with the age of consent. The issue is expected to also be brought to Cabinet soon for consideration.

When asked about the age of consent matter, Mr Pinder said: “Well that specifically is a policy decision by the Cabinet. We have benchmarked that internationally. The decision will effectively come down to whether Cabinet is prepared to leave it at — to go to 16 or 18.

“Even more important than that in respect to the juveniles in the country is

that there are a lot of different age limits and confusing age aspects within our laws that pertain to juveniles and a lot of that time that creates confusion. It creates a lack of transparency and understanding, both in prosecution of juveniles who commit crimes, but in other elements of just society and culture.

“In large, we’re not looking at just the age of consent. We’re looking at all of the aspects for juveniles and the age limits throughout all of our pieces of legislation to see if we can bring more transparency, equality, reliability, and dependability with respect to age limits of juveniles and the laws that we have in the country.

“So that’s just one element, the age of consent of what we’re doing. We have a comprehensive review underway right now of all of the areas in the law that pertain to children and juveniles and we look to make a recommendation to Cabinet shortly on that. That review is pretty advanced and then once Cabinet gives us directions on that, we’ll be able to prepare the requisite amendments to be able to go before Parliament on that.”

The current age of consent for sex is 16.

BAHAMIAN KILLED IN US ROAD CRASH from page one He was a student of the University of New Haven in West Haven. The other passenger, who was said to be the driver, is Bahamian Kenu Adderley, 26, of West Haven.

He is listed in stable condition, after he was treated with life-threatening injuries. According to US reports, Adderley is a graduate of the University of New Haven.

International reports state the Fire Department was dispatched to the site of the crash around 3.30am.

Yesterday, Raymond Rolle Sr, said the loss of his son has dealt a blow to his close-knit family.

He said he was in disbelief initially to hear of his son’s death, especially as the men were headed to pick up the components they needed to complete a school project.

He said officials have told the family rain was a factor in the crash.

Mr Rolle Sr said: “He was a very quiet intelligent young man. Very mannerly and was the type of fella that excelled and came through Kingsway Academy, graduated through QC, and went off to New Haven University to study computer engineering and he was about to complete his bachelor’s degree and his master’s degree in September.

“He was a very smart young man and for me he was really gifted and he was the type of fella, he never said nothing much and as he became older, he

came to his own and like a model child that you would want other young people to follow. That was the type of person he was, but he was never aggressive. He knew what he wanted to do and no doubt he would have gone on to do great things and become a great young man.”

He also said: “My wife Linda and I and my son and daughter we would be up late in the night because we are close-knitted and going for dinner all the time and he was the life of the family and he was a bundle of joy.

“So, this is a huge blow.

We were looking forward to him graduating, especially just speaking with him the night before. I was in disbelief. When they called my wife, she was at the hotel they were having a gathering and they called her and when she called me at home I heard my daughter I couldn’t believe it. I said there has to be another side to this story, maybe my wife didn’t get it right.

“It’s going to be rough but by the grace of God we will make it.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Bahamas Consulate General in New York has been and will remain in contact with the families of both men and stands ready to assist wherever possible.

Additionally, the press statement said Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell extends condolences.

The ministry further requested prayers from the public for the deceased and the man recuperating in the hospital.

GOVERNOR GENERAL REMAINS ‘COMFORTABLE’ IN HOSPITAL GOVERNOR General Sir Cornelius A Smith is still under observation at Doctors Hospital where he is resting “comfortably,” Press Secretary Clint Watson said yesterday.

Sir Cornelius, 85, was airlifted from Eleuthera to New Providence on his 85th birthday on Thursday after suffering from what is believed to be heat exhaustion as he attended an official event on the island, Mr Watson had said earlier.

“From all indications and initial assessments it appeared the Governor General may have experienced heat exhaustion,” Mr Watson said on Thursday

afternoon.

Sir Cornelius was in Eleuthera on official business and had attended a ceremony at PA Gibson Primary School, North Eleuthera. Photos were taken of him outside after that event.

“His Excellency complained of not feeling well.

He was taken to the local clinic and seen by a doctor, who advised that he seek further medical attention.

“His Excellency was airlifted to Nassau and taken by ambulance to Doctors Hospital. During the entire ordeal he was awake and aware,” Mr Watson said last week.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, April 11, 2022, PAGE 3

‘We are looking at anti-gang legal move’

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

has asked me to look at regional gang legislation in the Caribbean,” Mr Pinder said. “Primarily in Jamaica ATTORNEY General and Trinidad (which have) Ryan Pinder said he has stand alone (laws) that been asked by Prime Min- we’re looking at. ister Philip “Brave” Davis “In 2014, there was an to look at regional gang amendment to the Penal legislation to determine if a Code that embedded certain stand alone new law should offences within the Penal be enacted or if changes Code from membership and should be made to the being a part of Penal Code. a gang, but also The revela- ‘I think you will committing tion comes as see amendments. crimes while the country being a part of a We’re making the is tackling a gang and organspate of crime, determination ised criminal particularly a whether those groups and that’s rise of homion the books. cides some of amendments “I’ve actuwhich are said should be to ally spoken to to be gang- the existing the Departrelated.

Mr ment of Public provisions of Davis recently Prosecutions said one the of the Penal Code about framthings he has or if it justifies a ing up and how been looking at we can prosis the possibility standalone piece ecute because of enacting an of legislation.’ the penalties anti-gang bill. are severe and Mr Davis pointed to actually (a person) only has countries within the region to be a member of a gang that have such an initia- and demonstrate that in the tive and added that he was court of law under our Penal looking at it to make a Code now. So we’re working recommendation to the in parallel routes. We wanna commissioner of police and see how we can bring prosthe attorney general to see ecutions under the current how it would work. law under the Penal Code On the sidelines of an while reviewing regional event on Friday, Mr Pinder legislation and benchmarksaid: “The prime minister ing it to see if we’re gonna

improve our laws and whether it makes sense to have a standalone gang law legislation or whether it makes sense to expand further within the Penal Code.”

Asked if there were going to be amendments in the current gang laws, Mr Pinder replied: “We are making that determination. I think you will see amendments. We’re making the determination whether those amendments should be to the existing provisions of the Penal Code or if it justifies a standalone piece of legislation.”

On November 11, 2015, five men who denied being members of a gang were arraigned in Magistrate’s Court and faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the criminal offence.

However, the amended 2014 act was not officially gazetted until November 12, 2015, according to an Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs document obtained by The Tribune.

Prosecutors later dropped the charges against the men after Justice Bernard Turner, on December 10, 2015, revealed that nothing had been placed before the courts as to when the law change was to come into force. He called this a “fatal flaw”. He made the revelation when he decided to free one of the men.

AMNESTY CONSIDERED IN CRACKDOWN ON GUNS CABINET has discussed reintroducing a gun amnesty policy as a way of reducing the number of illegal weapons on the street.

When asked about the possibility of a gun amnesty period on Friday, Attorney General Ryan Pinder said there have been some discussions about it.

“Well that’s still a preliminary issue but that has been discussed amongst members of the Cabinet.

It is a proposal that has come forward to address the amount of guns that are on the streets and that’s actively being looked at both from a policy level and a legal level,” he said.

Through this initiative, which previously existed in various iterations, illegal weapons could be anonymously turned into

designated pastors and churches.

The gun amnesty was in place temporarily during the last Christie administration.

In 2018, after a spate of violent crime, Bahamas Christian Council President Bishop Delton Fernander called for the return of a gun amnesty programme.

Last week, Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle said officers continue to target gun traffickers and crack down on the importation of illegal firearms into the country.

He said many of the illegal weapons are being smuggled into the country from the United States, some through courier companies.

“We have identified that the majority of those

MAN IN BULLETPROOF VEST SHOT BY POLICE from page one

“Emergency Medical Services visited the scene and following their assessment of the suspect, it was determined that there were no signs of life.”

Police said the suspect appeared to be in his 30s.

The coroner visited the scene and was informed of the facts.

An investigation into this matter is ongoing and once completed, the file will be forwarded to the coroner’s office where an inquest will be held, police said.

Last year, 21 policeinvolved shootings were recorded, 13 of which were fatal.

The Tribune previously reported that The Bahamas has one of the highest per capita rates of police involved killings in the world, with 11 recorded in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

In January, a police officer shot and killed a Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer who allegedly “charged” at him and tried to disarm him.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force and Royal Bahamas Defence Force later said in a joint statement that body worn camera footage had been viewed by both agencies and was “consistent” with the account from officers.

A backlog of Coroner’s Court inquests into police involved shootings has caused concern. The hearings were initially delayed because of COVID-19 in 2020. Later, former Coroner Jeanine WeechGomez was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, causing further delays as officials waited to replace her. Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux was named acting coroner in September 2021.

firearms, illegal firearms, have been coming from Florida,” Commissioner Rolle said. “In particular, and what we’ve found is in recent months is a number of courier services that have sprung up in the southern communities and I have asked our partners to assist us in identifying these persons and companies and we have our liaison officers in Florida who are also working in partnership. That is yielding positive results for us as we try to interdict a lot of this firearm that is destined for The Bahamas.”

According to Commissioner Rolle, more than 100 illegal weapons have been seized by officers so far for the year, however, this does not include those intercepted abroad.

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

Photo: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

PAGE 4, Monday, April 11, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Petrol strike for Easter weekend? from page one

It comes as the cost of fuel at the pumps at all gas stations has surpassed $6, the direct effect of the sanctions from the war on Ukraine by Russia.

“During the last several weeks we have been tracking the fact that the price of gas is rising on the world market as a result of crude oil prices and the dealers are seeing that it is more expensive to purchase the fuel,” Mr Bastian said in an interview yesterday.

“The concern that they

are having is the fact that the rising cost it’s going to become very challenging for dealers to purchase fuel and so I have been encouraging them to reduce their quantity in order to sustain the economy and sustain the various sites collectively.

“I have been encouraging them to do that to remain open so that they can operate and stay open.

“Some of them are being challenged because of the high cost of fuel and so they are agitated and they are really upset at the fact that the government makes all of the money for fuel and

they are saying if the government is making all the money from fuel, then what should we do?

“Some of them suggested that we should strike and I told them striking is not the solution. I think we should sit down with the government and have a discussion and come up with a very intelligent solution so that the government can continue to operate as they do in the policy making capacity and dealers continue in the manner in which they do and they said the rising cost in electricity, the rising cost in minimum wage from

$150 several years ago to $210 now, along with the government’s proposed livable wage increase and then NIB contributions that went up in the last less than 10 years ago.

“Then they said the margin increased several years ago, how are we supposed to survive if we cannot even buy fuel so I said striking won’t resolve that.”

He continued: “So, I have been trying to be the voice of reason for the dealers in the last several weeks and I am not a supporter of striking because

you are going to inconvenience bus drivers, boat operators, the general motoring public.

“With the rising cost of fuel if this continues to trend up, on the retail side we might have gasoline at $8 at the pumps by summer.

At that rate I don’t know if you will have any gas stations in The Bahamas open.”

As it stands Mr Bastian said operators are eying the Easter holiday weekend to take action, although he remained optimistic that this week all parties involved would begin to

hash out an amicable agreement for all sides.

He said the situation has led to a view from some that self-service gas stations may be the way some operators choose to cut costs, adding it was an option to maybe incorporate it a few days per week.

Asked whether the government had agreed to meet with the group, Mr Bastian declined comment saying he did not want to get ahead of anything that was to come.

No government official could be reached for comment yesterday.

Government plans to build 140 affordable homes in GB

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of Housing and Transport Jobeth Coleby-Davis.

THE government intends to construct over 140 affordable homes in Grand Bahama, Minister of Transport and Housing Jobeth Coleby-Davis said on Friday.

Her comments came at an open house expo held by the Department of Housing on the lawn of the National Insurance Board complex.

Mrs Coleby-Davis reported that her ministry has identified 36 lots in West Heights Subdivision, and eight in Pineforest Subdivision in West Grand Bahama for home construction.

Additionally, she said there are ongoing discussions with the Grand Bahama Port Authority for land in Heritage Subdivision.

“We are working swiftly to acquire the land… and I think we are looking at 100 lots (there),” she said.

She said the Davis administration in its Blueprint for Change made a

commitment to deepen the path to homeownership for Bahamians.

“The Davis administration is committed to using unique and creative approaches to addressing the housing needs of the Bahamian people,” she said.

Mrs Coleby-Davis noted that the development of its public-private partnership programme has allowed the government to meet its mandate in providing affordable homes.

In New Providence, she reported that the first phase of the Pinecrest project in New Providence is sold out.

Mrs Coleby-Davis, who recently toured the subdivision, reported that the Pinecrest project is progressing on time and within cost, despite bottlenecks in the global supply chain and the fluctuating cost of materials.

The Pinecrest project is a PPP initiative between the government and Arawak Homes Limited.

The minister said this partnership is an example of the initiative that her

ministry wants to duplicate in many housing developments that the government intends to bring to Bahamians.

She invited other private housing and construction firms to join the government in its mission of providing affordable homes.

Friday’s open house expo was held to assess the appetite for the homes that the government intends to build on the island.

She stressed that while the department is committed to providing affordable housing, it is not free housing.

The minister encouraged Bahamians seeking housing to begin saving towards the down payment for their mortgage.

Mrs Coleby-Davis said all applications must go through the Department of Housing. She said the team at DOH will assist and guide applicants through the process.

“The Ministry of Transport and Housing is on a mission to expand the path to homeownership,” she said.

Grand Bahama Minister Ginger Moxey said the housing expo marked an exciting day where the dream of homeownership will be a realisation for many Grand Bahamians.

“This Davis-Cooper led administration is fulfilling the promise made to the Bahamian people in our Blueprint for Change. We stated that we are committed to housing as a basic right, and pledge to increase access to affordable housing by creating new incentives,” she said.

She said the island has been through so much in the past three years and many are relying on the government for assistance.

“There are so many people who are homeless; there are people living in dilapidated structures and so we are trying to find ways to assist through the Ministry for Grand Bahama and in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Social Services, and we will get it done,” she said.

CHURCHES ALLOWED BACK TO FULL CAPACITY IN TIME FOR EASTER CHURCHES and places of religious

worship across the country are now allowed to

have services at maximum capacity, the Ministry of

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Health and Wellness said on Friday.

However, churches and places of worship are still required to strictly adhere to COVID-19 protocols, such as enforcing mask wearing, sanitisation, physical distancing and encouraging those attending to become vaccinated, the ministry said.

This comes days before the Easter holidays and

associated church services.

Recently, Bahamas Christian Council President Bishop Delton Fernander told reporters that church leaders had hoped to have services at 100 percent capacity during Easter once COVID-19 cases remain low.

“The government has been consistent in what they have promised us,” he said recently. “We went to 75 percent because if

everything held safe we would shift to that and Easter is the period when we are to go to 100 percent if the number remains safe.

I see there was a fluctuation. This might have been the first week or second week we were over ten – the rate of infection is still low and so I believe wearing the mask in the environment with the sanitation protocols, we can (guarantee) safe worship.”

28 NEW CASES OVER THREE DAYS THE Ministry of Health recorded just 28 new cases of COVID-19 over a three-day period last week.

On April 9, officials recorded 12 new

cases, with six on April 8 and 10 on April 7.

According to the latest data, eight people are in hospital and 789 people have died from the disease.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, April 11, 2022, PAGE 5

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and his wife, Ann Marie, touring the BAARK mobile clinic, right, on Friday.

Photos: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

BAARK given support by government THE government has pledged to support the Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness (BAARK) through grant funding.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis made the announcement while speaking at the commissioning ceremony for the organisation’s mobile clinic van on Friday on the grounds of Collins House.

“I would like to extend heartfelt congratulations to BAARK for celebrating a major achievement in your commitment to assist the community,” Mr Davis said.

“For the past 13 years, your

management of critical care has positively impacted dogs and cats throughout the country. This mobile clinic is a critical step in making an important difference in our animal population. Your community outreach has also impacted some 2,300 children who have participated in your programmes.”

He said it is proven that children’s exposure to animals at a young age teaches them empathy, which is the foundation for a caring and compassionate society. He thanked senior advisor at BAARK Ronald Ulrick for donating the van and said that it was the government’s

intention to provide grant funding to support the organisation’s efforts.

On Saturday, BAARK held an open house for its mobile clinic at Ty’s Place on Village Road.

BAARK was formed in 2009 by a small group of animal advocates after it was revealed that up to 50 animals were euthanised on a weekly basis after being surrendered by their owners or were stray animals roaming the streets.

The mission of BAARK is to spay/neuter animals and to conduct educational projects to reduce the number of homeless animals.

BAARK team members at Ty’s Place on Saturday and, below, BAARK veterinarian Dr Jenn Camilli inside the mobile clinic van.

Photos: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff

PAGE 6, Monday, April 11, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

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War and economy could weaken Putin’s place WITH the Russian military in retreat from around Kyiv and facing condemnation for brutal tactics, harsh political repression at home and the economy buffeted by Western sanctions, adversaries and allies alike are raising the same question about President Vladimir Putin: Can he hold onto power? The answer: For now, but maybe not forever.

After 22 years in power, Putin has built a powerful phalanx of loyalists who surround him, both in the Russian military and the secret services. He also has significant support among the Russian people, who are steeped in pro-Putin propaganda through the Russian leader’s almost total control of television and other mass communication. Even today, many Russians view his leadership as having delivered greater prestige, prosperity and stability for the country over two decades.

This edifice of protection, the vast wealth Putin controls and the lack of any significant history of palace coups in Russia make either of the obvious means of removing Putin — a military mutiny or a mass popular “color” revolution — almost inconceivable right now.

Yet all strongman states are inherently vulnerable to the unforeseen — especially when they become deaf to the society around them. Just ask Hosni Mubarak. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” declared President Joe Biden of Putin last month in Poland. It was an unscripted but heartfelt comment as the bloodletting in Ukraine has mounted.

The 69-year-old Putin is up for reelection in 2024, and changes in the Russian constitution conceivably would allow him to remain president until 2036. But the imprisonment of Russia’s best-known opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, is just one sign that Putin is not confident enough of his popularity to submit to an actual democratic test.

While there can be no credible polling in a country now effectively under martial law, the number of Russians informed and courageous enough to protest against the war in Ukraine so far has numbered in the thousands, not the hundreds of thousands.

Tens of thousands of affluent citizens, intellectuals and political critics have abandoned Russia rather than remain under the tight controls Putin has imposed, finding escape in Istanbul, Tbilisi or cities in the West. This brain drain no doubt will hurt Russia in the future. But at the moment, their departure removes a possible nexus of opposition from the society.

Of course, history is unpredictable.

Few anticipated the rapid dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. If Russian casualties in Ukraine are as high as has been reported — 15,000 or more dead and three times that wounded in the space of six weeks — those results eventually will begin filtering through the society in spite of official censorship.

Arguably, the USSR’s fate was sealed in 1986 after its then-leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, loosened the Communist Party’s iron grip on information and set sights on the restructuring of the Soviet Union’s stagnating economy in order to better compete with the West. That was the year of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when the Politburo — after initially trying to cover up the disaster — was forced to disclose it to the Soviet public. The Soviet war in Afghanistan,

meanwhile, had turned into a quagmire, leading to withdrawal in 1988-89.

In 1988, when Polish workers loyal to the independent Solidarity union movement launched a series of strikes in coal mines and shipyards, Gorbachev signaled that he would not intervene in one of the Soviet Union’s key satellite states. Then-Polish leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, whose 1981 imposition of martial law had led that country nowhere, opted instead to open up talks with the strikers’ leader, Lech Walesa.

The result: partly democratic elections.

That in turn set in motion a series of dominoes within the Eastern European countries, with Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania all seeking to escape Soviet dominance and Communist rule. Before long, the fever had spread to the Baltic countries that were part of the Soviet Union itself, and nationalist emotions flared across the union.

Hardliners in Moscow who had seen enough attempted a coup against Gorbachev, but they were too late. That quickly was overturned by the popular outpouring of support led by Boris Yeltsin. On Dec. 31, 1991, both Gorbachev and the Soviet Union had been swept aside when the Soviet Union ended.

Putin, at the time an intelligence agent in East Germany, lived through the events and has drawn appropriate conclusions to maintain control now. Even before the war in Ukraine, he worked to shape public opinion by portraying the Ukrainians as Nazis who threatened Russia. Then, he clamped down on independent media organizations and the few remaining civil society groups.

More recently, he has imposed draconian anti-media laws that ban telling the Russia public anything about the war that conflicts with the Kremlin’s chosen narrative about the “special military operation.” Dissenters and doubters have been branded as scum and gnats, worthy only to be spat out.

Aside from Gorbachev, the sole Soviet leader to be removed was Nikita Khrushchev, whose 11 years in power ended in 1964. He was forced out by his closest associates in the Communist Party.

Could something like that happen to Putin as conditions worsen?

Unlike the Soviet Union, there is little in the way of an institutional party structure that could intervene to topple him. Putin has cronies, yes men, and a coterie of “siloviki” — none of whom so far dare to show the least independence from Putin’s Ukraine war “project”.

Yet losses on the battlefield have already led to an apparent paring-down of military goals, disappointing some anti-Ukraine pundits on Russian TV. While Putin’s coterie has every incentive to stay close for the time being or risk losing privileges and wealth, if the war in Ukraine drags on for months or years, and Putin’s adventure becomes the mammoth disaster that it appears to be so far, it is almost certain that cracks will emerge.

Absent Russia’s total victory over Ukraine, it already is difficult to imagine the world going back to business as usual with Vladimir Putin.

Ageing leaders rarely last forever or have the luxury to leave office on their own terms. Whether it is by elections, revolt or an internal mutiny, the long days of Putin’s rule may well be numbered.

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI Associated Press

and the Star class sailboat EDITOR, The Tribune.

ON THE flight from Nassau to New Jersey a couple of weeks ago I read the interesting and entertaining letter from Bruce Raine about the rich history of ship building and sailing in The Bahamas. Not only did it make the flight seem shorter, but it also brought up vivid memories of some of my experiences at sea while growing up as a young boy in Nassau during the war years.

In the 1940s, the largest and most important shipyard was owned by “RT” (later Sir Roland) Symonette, also the first Prime Minister of the Bahamas.

Along with building original boat designs from the keel up, they specialised in modernising old wooden hulled sailboats such as ketches, yawls and schooners and retrofitting them with diesel engines.

Indeed so good were they at this that they landed contracts from the US and UK defense departments to supply wooden hulled (non metallic) mine sweepers to the allied navies.

One of the largest ships built at the Symonette Yards at that time, was the “Jenkins Roberts”, named after a long time associate of RT’s and manager of the Yard. She was once a two-masted schooner now converted to diesel power and fitted with the latest navigation and communications systems. The Jenkins Roberts plied routes between Nassau, Andros and even Florida carrying assorted freight and the occasional passenger.

In 1943, my close friend Martin Dyer, eldest son of the Rev RP Dyer, the headmaster of Queen’s College,

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net and I were offered summer jobs by Mr. Symonette as deck hands on the Jenkins Roberts. The trip we were to go on was to Jamaica where we would pick up a load of bagged sugar and take it to Miami and then return to Nassau.

This involved threading the Windward passage between Cuba and Haiti.

This narrow waterway was considered very dangerous during the war because German Uboats would lie at the eastern end in large “wolf packs” and attack the many freighters sailing in convoys from South America carrying vital war supplies to Britain and the allies in Europe.

Other than the Captain and Mate, we had about six other crew mates. These men were much better informed about the hazards ahead than Martin and I and they became increasingly nervous as we approached the strait.

The Captain sensing the increasingly tense atmosphere on board, assembled us on deck and addressed us more or less as follows – “I’m well aware that you’re concerned about U boat attacks in the Windward Passage and so I want to reassure you that you’ve nothing to worry about – a German submarine would never waste a torpedo on an old tub such as ours. No, although they might surface and just take pot shots at us with their deck gun. So relax!” Martin looked at me and barely hiding the sarcasm said: “Whew, good news, I was really worried there for a minute!”

As it turned out we saw

no U boats and made safe passage to Jamaica, picked up the sugar and on to Miami and back to Nassau without incident and only good memories of a great adventurous summer job chipping rust off the anchors.

Bruce also wrote about Star sailboat racing in his article and it may be of further interest to your readers to learn that the Star class boat was introduced to the Bahamas by a Freddy de Marigny in about 1940.

Unfortunately, however, this was not his main claim to fame. Freddy was from Mauritius and had a somewhat notorious reputation for his international playboy lifestyle and as a serial pursuer of rich young ladies.

His latest conquest after he came to Nassau was Nancy Oakes, eldest daughter of Sir Harry Oakes. Sir Harry was, at the time, considered to be one of the richest men in the world. He strongly disapproved of de Marigny, but failed to prevent Nancy from marrying Freddy.

Shortly afterwards he was brutally murdered at his Cable Beach home and, predictably, de Marigny was accused of the crime and tried. He was acquitted, but deported. To this day, the murder of Sir Harry Oakes remains an unsolved mystery. However, Freddy’s legacy in the Bahamas is the Star class sailboat in one of which Sir Durward Knowles with crew Cecil Cooke captured Gold at the Tokyo Olympics. The beautiful, classic Star also remains as one of the longest surviving Olympic sailboat classes.

HUBERT HAUCK Lake Mohawk Country Club, Sparta NJ 07871, USA.

Permits problem EDITOR, The Tribune.

I READ with great interest what Dr Nick Higgs and other scientists had to say on how permit delays and red tape are holding up important environmental research and conservation, and threatening the survival of our natural resources.

I wonder if your readers know about one such project, the Reef Rescue Network (RRN), which since 2017 has been working tirelessly to save our reef systems which are under threat like never before, and also to create income and jobs for local dive operations and other businesses that were hit very hard when tourism disappeared because of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Divers, fishermen, hotel operators and environmentalists know that for years, our reefs have been dying because of human activity, climate change and the spread of coral killing diseases. Today, it is happening faster than ever before. Without intervention our reefs will soon be gone forever, and with them our sea food industry, dive industry and even the tourism industry, will also soon disappear too.

Enter RRN, a collaboration by international conservation experts and local businesses to replant

and regrow corals on damaged reefs throughout the country. It has had great success and worked with full government approval for about five years, when suddenly it was denied permits last year, just like a whole range of other important conservation initiatives.

The RRN has 20 local partners and had done coral restoration at nearly 30 locations so far. The local partners were trained in monitoring and maintaining the coral nurseries from where the new growths are transplanted. They were also able to take advantage of a Diver Specialty Course in reef replanting, that has now trained more than 70 instructors, mostly Bahamian dive operators who then began offering this course.

This meant that tourists and members of the community, including students, could obtain a specialty dive certification from local operators, creating revenue for dive companies and getting more people involved in coral replanting. A winwin for all involved.

Every year since it started, RRN has attracted more than $100,000 in outside investment to the country. Just before its permits stopped being issued, it was set to expand through a

huge grant of $400,000 from the Interamerican Development Bank. This money was for direct injection into Bahamian businesses.

Up to $450,000 more has been committed by the UN Global Fund for Coral Reefs, making the project worth over $1 million in terms of direct investment into The Bahamian economy, with more investment on the horizon. According to the IDB, the project was expected to grow dive shop employment by 15% and sales revenue by 10%.

Now, sadly, everything has come to a grinding halt.

If something doesn’t change soon, all of the projected investment, all of the revenue for dive operators and other local businesses working with RRN, will disappear. The investors will take their funds to a friendlier jurisdiction.

I applaud the Attorney General for committing to review and update the misguided law, passed by the former FNM administration, that led to this mess in the first place. I just hope his team can get it done in time to save the RRN and other crucial programmes, before they are forced to shut down permanently SCUBA DIVER AND CONSERVATIONIST Nassau, April 9, 2022

Wayne Munroe’s opinions EDITOR, The Tribune.

SO OUR esteemed cabinet minister Wayne Munroe feels his 40-year-old male client got a “too severe sentence” for having sex with a 14-year-old child. He said the child consented so everything is presumably rosy in the garden.

Well, Mr Munroe, if the girl was 12, 10 or 8 and consented is that similarly fine by you? The reason why civilized societies have age of consent laws is to protect

children. Guess why, Munroe?

Yes, they are children they are not emotionally or intellectually developed so we protect them.

Your client is a paedophile and in a first world country they would throw away the key and even on his release he would be carefully monitored.

As a matter of interest, Mr Munroe - and please reply in writing to The Tribune – if the 14-year-old child were your daughter would you be so

forgiving?

Republic or not? The Bahamas has a decision to make. It should be fairly simple. Our former colonial and slave masters still have an extraordinary sphere of influence over the Bahamas. A lot of the fine old buildings in London were built off the profits of slavery. Going back to paedophiles one of their own royal family would be doing hard time now if not for power and money. Their present Prime Minister Boris

Johnson referred to all black people: as “Pic- canniness with water melon smiles.” Daily Telegraph newspaper quote in the year 2002.

Why should we kow-tow and be obsequious to such a country? These type of people to still be our masters? Surely the question is a no brainer?

Finally can someone explain to me how a former PLP cabinet minister (and former union boss) has been living - so I am told - like

a Lyford Cay millionaire on his cabinet salary of $1,850 a week for many, many years?

The reason why I ask is can anyone else see the shear hypocrisy, effrontery and irony of any PLP government criticising an FNM government of corruption?

Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?

THE REALIST Nassau, April 7, 2022.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, April 11, 2022, PAGE 7

Pintard criticises Munroe comments

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net FREE National Movement Leader Michael Pintard said controversial comments made by National Security Minister Wayne Munroe regarding a child sex case can “cultivate the wrong mindset” among some in society, including law enforcement officers.

He said Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis must state his position relative to protecting minors and answer whether he still believes Mr Munroe is suitable for the job after his remarks.

According to Mr Pintard, Mr Munroe fails to recognise the negative impact of his utterances and refuses to correct himself even after well thinking people from many stakeholder groups pointed out to him how “terribly wrong” both his initial statement and subsequent press release were.

There has been significant commentary after the conviction of 40-year-old man charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl. He was sentenced to four years in prison as part of a plea deal.

After he serves his time, he will be on probation for three years. Although many observers felt the sentence was too lenient, Mr Munroe suggested it was too severe,

arguing it was not rape and that the underaged girl consented.

Mr Munroe released a statement expressing deep regrets that his comments had caused public concern.

However, he did not take back his earlier statements.

Despite public outcry for him to resign, Mr Davis said on Thursday he doesn’t think the minister should do so. He added he believed the situation was a learning experience for the minister and has taught him that it’s best to keep his personal views to himself.

Yet, the FNM leader said the minister’s comments were “wrong on multiple levels”.

“One, the remarks uttered by him have the real potential to cultivate the wrong mindset and culture among many in our society, including some law enforcement agents. The minister should be leading the charge to encourage greater sensitivity to the real victims of abuse or violation and the sensitivity we need must be seen from the point of investigation all the way through the trial. His statements were wrong on multiple levels.”

Mr Pintard added: “Two, any serious minister with assuring law and order is the advocate, first and foremost, for the victim of crime and for creating the right national environment

where would-be criminals may be deterred from criminal acts. Therefore, it is unacceptable for him to be seen to be in defence of the perpetrator or would be perpetrators nor should he be in the business of indirectly or directly advising defence attorneys in the aftermath of their client’s crime. Are you the Minister of National Security or are you a defence lawyer?

“While there are real issues in some of our laws and concerns about the application of such laws at the time of sentencing a prudent minister would work with his colleague to put in place sensible sentencing guidelines as has been done in numerous jurisdictions. However, that debate was not what grieving families and a fed up public needed at that time nor do they need that discussion from their chief public servant responsible for law and order. He was wrong on multiple levels.

“Our children’s welfare should be our primary concern when we consider how to protect the most vulnerable. Therefore, our public statements and actions should send a clear message that there are deeply, deeply unpleasant consequences for anyone who exploits minors. We must not send the message to the most vulnerable that even after they have been

FNM leader Michael Pintard. harmed that their protectors, us policy makers, are so emotionally removed from their condition that we come across as if we are advocating for the perpetrator in the most flippant manner.”

The day after Mr Munroe’s controversial comments, Prime Minister Davis tweeted that adults needed to stay away from minors.

“Let’s be clear: grown men should stay away from children,” Mr Davis tweeted.

“The law is designed

to protect children, who cannot meaningfully offer consent, and it should be enforced to the fullest extent.”

Meanwhile, Mr Pintard pointed out that in the aftermath of the controversy there are talks of increasing the age of consent from 16 to 18. But Mr Pintard argued this discussion should not shift focus from the deeply insensitive comments by the minister and the obligation by the Prime Minister to step in and restore confidence in his administration’s

commitment to protect children.

“The fact that we are now willing to discuss the value of moving the age of consent from 16 to 18 because the view is that at 18 the female is more mature to decide on whether to engage in such an intimate act further shows how utterly tragic it is for a national leader to make the case that a 14-year-old possesses sufficient maturity and experience to consent to engage in sexual relationship with a much older man,” Mr Pintard said.

EXUMA MAN GRANTED BAIL OVER ROBBERY ACCUSATIONS

By PAVEL BAILEY

A MAN from Exuma was granted bail on Friday for a string of robberies on the island and was also ordered to pay a fine on a drug charge.

Alexio Marshall, 34,

of The Forest, Exuma, appeared before Senior Magistrate Samuel McKinney on charges of breaking and entering, stealing, receiving and possession of drugs.

Between March 18 and March 23 Marshall is accused of breaking into

two separate homes in Exuma and stealing two different luxury watches, including a red and black Rolex. In that same timeframe authorities also found Marshall in possession of two grams of Indian hemp.

In his latest court

NOT GUILTY PLEA TO FIREARM CHARGES

By PAVEL BAILEY

A MAN was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services on Friday after he was arraigned on ammunition and firearm component part charges.

Valentino Taylor, 34,

stood before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson Pratt facing two charges of possession of a component part of a firearm and ammunition without a licence.

On April 5 in New Providence Taylor was arrested for having a black .40 magazine chamber

and one unfired round .40 ammunition.

In court, he pleaded not guilty to both charges against him.

The chief magistrate adjourned Taylor’s case to April 13 for a bail application and he was remanded until that time.

MAN ACCUSED OF INDIAN HEMP POSSESSION

By PAVEL BAILEY

A MAN was arraigned on Friday accused of marijuana possession.

David Gardner, 41,

appeared before Magistrate Shaka Serville on a charge of possession of dangerous drugs after he was arrested on April 5 for allegedly having five ounces of Indian hemp.

In court, Gardner pleaded not guilty to his charge. The magistrate granted him bail at $1,500 with two sureties.

Gardner’s case was adjourned to April 27.

appearance, the accused reversed his original plea on March 25 for drug possession to guilty.

As a result, the magistrate ordered Marshall to pay a $300 fine for the offence or spend one month in prison.

In reference to the accused’s remaining six charges of breaking and entering, stealing and receiving, Magistrate McKinney granted him bail at $8,500 with two sureties.

However, as a condition of his bail Marshall is

expected to report to the George Town Police Station every Wednesday and Saturday before 6pm until his trial.

Magistrate McKinney then informed the accused that his case would be heard on June 28 in Exuma.

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

Cautious but confident in this COVID lull

By MALCOLM STRACHAN YESTERDAY marked a moment when things seemed to get back to normal for many Bahamians.

It was Palm Sunday, and the church parades were out once more, making their way around the streets near places of worship, waving palm leaves in the air.

There was also the news that churches were allowed

to have services at maximum capacity again.

There was a caution with it, that physical distancing was still required – a challenge for some places of worship that might not have room for both physical distancing and 100% attendance.

That feels like something not quite thought through.

But as I stood at church yesterday alongside a bolstered congregation size, it certainly felt like a transition from the old to the new was taking place

– fitting that the countdown to Easter marks such an occasion.

Is this the end of the crisis? Or the calm at the eye of the storm?

Last week, the Pan American Health Organisation urged caution when it came to rolling back public health measures, pointing to other countries where there has been a surge of cases.

PAHO director Carissa Etienne pointed to cases of the new Omicron variant being reported in South

America and said “time and get on top of things before time again, we’ve seen how they get out of hand and the infection dynamics in so I can assure you that Europe are mirrored here the Ministry of Health and (in the region) just a few Wellness and the EOC, weeks later”. we’re watching this very She added: “We cannot closely and if we have to ignore the risk of further move, we will.”

COVID-19 surges.”

Elsewhere, other signs of We do not know yet if normal daily life seem to have that new resumed. variant is ‘We’re always in Children are here in The largely back preparation mode.

Bahamas in the classyet, although It’s our job to get rooms now, samples have on top of things and with that been sent goes parents to Panama before they get calling one to test for out of hand and so another to it.

How- I can assure you arrange play ever, cases dates for remain low that the Ministry of youngsters at present – Health and Wellness who have and people and the EOC, been sepahave long rated from been ready we’re watching one another for some of this very closely so long. The those meas- and if we have to excitement to ures to lift. see on young As for move, we will.’ faces as they our governget to do what ment, Health Minister Dr kids have always done, go Michael Darville said they and play with their friends, is are watching carefully to a joy to see. see what happens next.

Even if this is just a lull He said last week: “We’re between waves, it is a welwatching the cases very come one. closely. We’re watching the There are still things numbers in The Bahamas we can do, of course, to and we are concerned and we try to keep this state of have meetings to determine affairs going. Just because what our next steps will be. there might not be rules “We’re always in prepa- as stringently imposed, for ration mode. It’s our job to example, doesn’t mean you

CARISSA ETIENNE

can’t keep following the good sense measures such as wearing masks, keeping your distance and using sanitiser.

That’s not so much a restriction as it is good courtesy. As a parent, I know the number of times a bug comes home from school and spreads easily, so knowing my children are back in the classroom, I keep wearing a mask and keep my distance so if they have unwittingly brought it home and spread it to me, I don’t pass it on to those around me. It’s being safe for the sake of others.

Then of course there are vaccinations – we’re still behind the curve a little compared to other countries in getting vaccinated, and while this lull may make it seem less urgent, it really is oone of the best means of slowing things down if the virus returns.

In the meantime, let’s make the most of this return to normality. It will be especially good next week to stand with fellow churchgoers on Easter Sunday, taking our precautions but comfortable that the number of cases remains so low.

Our world has not been the same these past two years, but this is a good moment – and we should enjoy it.

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

MONDAY, MAY 29, 2017 PAGE 9 A BELGIAN Shepherd dog and, below, a cancerous cell.

What lies beneath THERE was a time growing up in Nassau, and perhaps many places, when finding out someone had cancer was so rare that it was considered shocking. The island gossip mills churned for weeks on end with callous disregard and absolute bewilderment by the mere occurrence and in some cases friends of the newly diagnosed quietly shied away out of fear that it might be contagious.

Today, cancer in one form or another has touched nearly every family. The etiology for this exponential rise in cases is yet to be determined but scientists have theorised that poor diet and obesity may be contributing deleterious factors. Nonetheless, early detection and diagnoses, both then and now, fosters a greater chance of survival and quality of life for the patient.

Early this year, one of my patients shared the story of how his father discovered that he had cancer. Always smiling, his friends have described him as an eternal ray of sunshine so, for the sake of this report, we’ll refer to his father as Ray. From an early age, Ray mastered multiple jobs and worked tirelessly at all of them to provide for his wife and two children. A devoted animal lover, one of his passions was breeding and training dogs so his heart was filled with happiness when a Belgian Shepherd dog (a breed similar to Dutch and German Shepherds) joined his family in 2013. From the moment he held him they were inseparable and their relationship was filled with unconditional love. He

By DR KENNETH D KEMP

followed Ray everywhere, fell into a depression whenever they were apart and then jumped around ecstatically whenever he returned.

Then one day, a little over a year later while sleeping, Ray felt a sudden sharp pain in his right lower abdomen. It was intense enough that he got out of bed and, not wanting to disturb his wife, he made his way to the bathroom. Walking upright stretched his abdomen and subsequently intensified his pain so he hobbled around with his back marginally slumped. Fortunately after a short while the pain subsided so he went back to sleep.

Over the course of the next few weeks, his symptoms recurred but only at night. The pain became progressively worse and at some point so unbearable he had to sleep on his back for relief. He also noted during this time that his dog’s behaviour changed.

He began poking the area with his nose, laying his head on Ray’s stomach and constantly using his paw to lift up his shirt so that he could lick the area. It felt as if he was trying to smell something beneath his skin and because the dog that had become his constant companion repeated the action so often, Ray took it as a sign and made a doctor’s appointment.

His family physician examined him and expressed that everything seemed fine. When the pain persisted and his dog continued to lick the area, Ray went back to his doctor a month later. This time a CAT scan was performed but the results were assessed as normal by the radiologist, which coincided with his previous exam.

At this point, Ray felt strongly that something had to be wrong because the pain in his side was now mind numbingly severe.

But, since it initially only occurred at night when lying down and his doctor had twice now assured him that he was okay, he decided to ignore his intuition.

He was prepared to live with the pain and opted to alleviate his symptoms by taking over the counter pain medication, adjusting his sleeping habits, his diet and his mattress.

His usually calm dog, however, wasn’t willing to let this happen. He began jumping on the area and barking until one night Ray decided that he needed to see his doctor for one final consultation.

He made an appointment and this time his doctor probed more deeply. He noted that Ray had lost some weight recently but he hadn’t altered his diet or activity level to account

for this weight loss. He also discovered that Ray was experiencing constipation on and off for several months and his abdominal pain was now frequently occurring even during the day. A colonoscopy was ordered.

Approximately three weeks later, Ray was asked to come to the doctor’s office to discuss his test results in person. He was devastated to learn that he had stage 3 colorectal cancer and required immediate surgery to save his life.

Ray was admitted into the hospital later that evening and he spent almost one month there following surgery to remove his entire colon. When he returned home, his dog started to lick him again, but this time it wasn’t on his right side, it was along the incision that lined his stomach where his surgery was performed and he continued to do so until it healed.

Dogs have 300 million scent receptors in their nose in contrast to humans who only have around 6 million and their ability to analyse those smells is about 40 times greater than ours. In a 2015 study, dogs that were trained to detect diseases were successfully able to identify prostate cancer from urine samples with 99 percent

accuracy, significantly higher than machine based odor analysis. Despite this, it’s incredibly rare for an untrained dog to detect diseases making this case all the more miraculous.

For four years following his surgery, Ray credited his dog with saving his life.

They shared an indescribable love and closeness and the bond between the two was unbreakable.

He continued to follow Ray around everywhere content with being at his side and patiently waiting for him to rub his head and stomach. Sadly, after years of remission with no symptoms, his cancer unexpectedly returned and this time it had metastasized to his liver. Ray died within days but inherently knowing that he’d exhausted all the borrowed time allowed and grateful for having been given the opportunity to do so.

The Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness (BAARK) was founded in 2009 after a young teenager wrote a letter to the editor of The Tribune newspaper. In it, he detailed how up to 50 animals a week, made up of strays and pets surrendered by their owners, were being euthanised at the canine control unit.

Donors, moved by his words, sprang

into action and now with a small but ever growing group of animal advocates and volunteers, they strive to reduce the number of stray animals roaming the streets through education projects and their spay/ neuter programme.. This week, another patient of mine donated a 26-foot custom designed mobile clinic to assist with their efforts. Controlling their population in this regard is the most humane solution to animals that haven’t been blessed with owners like Ray. My patient continues to provide care for the dog that saved his father’s life but he’s never been quite the same. Not knowing if he’d done something to make his owner abandon him, he’s never exhibited the same sparkle in his eye and jumping excitement that he often did with Ray. Once in a while, and more frequently as he ages, he’ll lay for hours next to the chair outside where Ray always sat, alone and unaware of why he hasn’t come home but perhaps hoping that someday all will be forgiven and they’ll be together once more.

This is the KDK Report.

• Nicknamed ‘The Prince of Podiatry’, Dr Kenneth D Kemp is the founder and medical director of Bahamas Foot and Ankle located in Caves Village, Western New Providence. He served as the deputy chairman for the Health Council for five years and he currently sits on the board of directors for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in his role as co-vice-chairman.

PAGE 10 MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

JUDGE Ketanji Brown Jackson, accompanied by President Joe Biden, waves as she takes the podium to speak during an event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Friday, celebrating the confirmation of Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court.

Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP

Ketanji Brown Jackson and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr

By BEV-FREDA JACKSON, American University School of Public Affairs US Senator Chuck E Grassley had a question for Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearings to be the first African American woman on the US Supreme Court.

Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wanted to know if she agreed with Martin Luther King Jr’s vision that one day America would become a nation in which people are judged “not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.

What listeners might not have known about Grassley is that, while it appeared that he was holding up King as an example, he has a mixed history with King’s legacy. Grassley is, in fact, the sole surviving US Senator to have cast a “no” vote in 1983 on making Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday a federal holiday.

Without missing a beat, Jackson delivered a poignant story about her own family and sidestepped Grassley’s apparent move to use King’s words to oppose the teaching of race – and critical race theory in particular – in public schools.

Her parents, she explained, attended racially segregated schools in Florida. One generation later, their daughter was able to attend integrated Florida pubic schools and sits before them as a US Supreme Court nominee.

“The fact that we had come that far was, to me,” Jackson testified, “a testament to the hope and the promise of this country”.

With their vote divided along partisan lines, the US Senate Judiciary Committee assured the confirmation of the first Black woman in the 233-year history of the nation’s highest court. The fact that their vote occurred on April 4, 2022, a day remembered for the assassination 54 years ago of King, was also significant. The full Senate confirmed her nomination on April 7.

As a scholar of social justice movements, I believe

PRESIDENT Joe Biden and Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson watch as the senate votes on her confirmation from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Thursday.

Photo: Susan Walsh/AP that Jackson is the very dream that King envisioned. But he died before seeing the results of his nonviolent movement for social justice.

DISTORTING MLK’S WORDS

Delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, the “I Have a Dream” speech is King’s mostrecited and best-known.

“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream,” King said. “It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream… I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Opponents of critical

race theory, the academic bans the teachings of soframework that explains called divisive concepts. the relationship among “Critical race theory race, racism goes against and the law, ‘By recasting antieverything have disMartin torted King’s racism as the new Luther King racism, conservative has ever told message.

By us, ‘Don’t GOP leaders such recasting judge us by as Grassley and US anti-racism the colour as the new Sen Ted Cruz, a of our skin,’ racism, con- Republican from and now servative they’re GOP lead- Texas, use King’s embracing ers such as words that advocated it,” House Grassley Minorfor a colourblind and US Sen ity Leader Ted Cruz, a society as a critical Kevin Republican part of their national McCarthy from Texas, messaging to advance said. use King’s Such diswords that legislation that bans tortions advocated have been the teachings of for a col- so-called divisive sharply chalourblind lenged, most society as a concepts.’ notably by critical part Bernice of their national messaging King, one of King’s four to advance legislation that children.

“Do not take excerpts from my father,” she tweeted. “Study him holistically… for people to be able to misappropriate him this way is actually beyond insulting.”

In practical terms, Jackson’s confirmation does not change the political ideologies on the nation’s highest court. Jackson is a Democratic appointee nominated to replace a Democratic appointee Stephen G Breyer.

More than likely Jackson will often be writing or signing dissents, along with the other Democratic presidential appointees: Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

MLK’S LEGACY

Jackson’s appointment holds a significant symbolic value and adds an important message about the

legacy of King’s sermons, speeches and writings.

In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King wrote about the “urgency of now” and how Black people could no longer wait for moderates to join the fight for social justice.

“I had hoped,” King wrote, “that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

“For years now, I have heard the word ‘Wait!’”

King wrote. “This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’”

For Black women, at least, I believe the wait is over. What is significant about Jackson’s confirmation is beyond the color of her skin: She would become the only current justice who has spent time not only at prestigious law schools and corporate law firms but also representing clients as a federal public defender.

Throughout her career, she has written about the unfairness of the criminal justice system, and while serving on the federal Sentencing Commission she took steps to reduce mass incarceration.

King knew that the Supreme Court was integral in setting precedent, creating change and protecting freedoms.

In defending the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, for instance, King invoked the federal courts, which in 1954 struck down school segregation in the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

“If we are wrong, the Supreme Court is wrong,” he said. “If we are wrong, the Constitution is wrong.

If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong.”

Though King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, his dream of a colorblind society is becoming a reality with the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Originally published on www.theconversation.com.

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 PAGE 11

Those who damage legal international order must be held to account OVER the last few weeks since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the world has witnessed the greatest weakness in the machinery entrusted with maintaining international peace and security.

That machinery is the UN Security Council in which five permanent members each have a power of veto over all decisions. The weakness is the inability of the Council to function in the global interest when one of the five exercises a veto.

The five permanent members are: Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States of America. During the last seven decades, each of the 5 has exercised the veto with Russia casting more than any of the other four. Altogether, Russia accounted for 49 per cent of the vetoes; the US, 29 per cent; Britain 10 per cent; and China and France 6 per cent each. In every case, the country that cast the veto did so to protect its own interest and not that of the global community.

In most cases, the threat to use the veto is enough to paralyse the UN Security Council from taking any action, however grave may be the circumstances that demand such action. Recently, Russia has used that threat in relation to its invasion of Ukraine and its violation of international law and the principles set forth in the UN Charter.

This immobilisation of the Security Council caused the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to ask its

World View

By SIR RONALD SANDERS

members at a meeting on April 5, “Where is the security that the Security Council must guarantee?” In an emotional address in the aftermath of evidence of atrocities in Ukraine by the Russian military, including the slaughter of civilians who were shot in their heads while their hands were tied behind their backs; the rape and murder of women; and the cutting off of limbs and tongues, Zelenskyy told the members of the Council “to dissolve yourselves altogether” if they could not stop Russia from “blocking decisions about its own aggression”.

The Ukrainian President’s anger and frustration is understandable, especially by militarily powerless countries that could also be the victim of aggression and who depend on the Security Council to safeguard their sovereignty and territorial integrity. Without action by the Security Council, no country is safe from a determined predator nation with the military power to enforce its ambitions.

It is important to note that Russia has not only severely damaged the international legal order, it has also undermined confidence in it. Worryingly, it

has also violated the established rules of war. And, yes, even for war, there are internationally agreed rules that are set out in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the First Additional Protocol to the Conventions and customary international law.

The laws of war prohibit willful killing, rape and other sexual violence, torture, and inhumane treatment of captured combatants and civilians in custody, pillage and looting. Yet, from the evidence gathered by authoritative international agencies, including the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and revealed on global television images, all these laws have been broken by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Russia’s claim that the images from Ukraine are fake caused UN Human Rights Offices to explain that its investigators “followed painstaking forensic procedures to ensure the veracity of any video or photographing emerging from scenes of possible war crimes”.

Paralysis of the Security Council forced the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to act twice concerning the devastating situation

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to a meeting of the UN Security Council on April 5. in Ukraine. On March 1, Russia’s response to the the Assembly adopted a suspension was to announce resolution deploring Rus- that it was leaving the sia’s aggression against Human Rights Council altoUkraine and demanding gether. However, despite its the withdrawal of its mili- disdainful public reaction, tary forces. Russia ignored the Russian government the General Assembly’s can hardly be comfortable resolution and escalated the with its increasing isolation violence, and its attendant in the global community. It atrocities. Then, on April is significant that, for the 7, the UNGA, express- most part, the 23 couning “grave concern at the tries that supported Russia ongoing human rights in rejecting its suspension and humanitarian crisis are ruled by like-minded in Ukraine and reports tyrannical regimes. These of human rights and vio- include North Korea, Iran, lations of humanitarian Syria, Belarus, and the Cenlaw”, decided to suspend tral African Republic.

For the rest of the world, Russia from the Human Rights Council – a huge step particularly small developing states in the Caribbean, against a powerful nation.

The suspension of Russia the words of UN Secretaryshowed a clear determina- General, António Guterres, tion by the majority of the echo with significance. He world’s nations to rebuke says, “the full-fledged invathe Russia government sion of Ukraine is one of for its disregard of inter- the greatest challenges national humanitarian law ever to the international and the rule of international order and the global peace law. Ninety-three countries architecture”. Small states voted in favour of the deci- need global peace in which sion and 58 abstained, even to develop and grow. They though the Russian govern- also need secure global ecoment had publicly threatened nomic conditions.

In a policy document to that it would regard abstenbe discussed in a month’s tions as “unfriendly”.

time, the IMF and World Bank have identified the adverse effects of the war in Ukraine on Caribbean economies. These effects include higher prices for oil and food; significantly increased costs for transportation by sea, air and road; a negative impact on tourism; and importation of inflation from trading partners where costs have rapidly risen.

These conditions will lead to demands for fiscal strategies that could include demands for increased government revenues by more taxes and for reduced expenditure at a time when more spending is required on infrastructural investment, rebuilding crucial productive industries, and education and health. To avoid this, the developing world needs global peace and stability.

For all that to be achieved, the war on Ukraine must end, respect for the international legal order must be restored and growth of the global economy must resume – and all who disregard the international legal order must be held to account.

• Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States of America and the Organization of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto.

PAGE 12, Monday, April 11, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

BAIN GRANTS TOWN PROJECT SEEKS SUPPORT THE Feeding Bain Grants Town project is appealing for assistance in its efforts to support poeple affected by the economic effects of COVID-19.

In a statement, the project leaders said: “The COVID19 pandemic has struck The Bahamas like a tsunami, delivering a devastating blow to tourism, the number one industry, has been reduced to near zero, and the fallout is seriously threatening the national economy.

“As a result tens of thousands of jobs have been lost overnight, with residents becoming over-stressed and fearful as their jobs and other sources of income suddenly evaporated, creating a potentially explosive situation. This is especially true in lower socio-economic communities such as our Bain Grants Town.

“In addition to the deadly health threat, the financial pressure is creating a

serious crisis which could lead to social upheaval and public disorder unless properly addressed. The most urgent need of the residents in basic foodstuff.

“The National Feeding Programme has been suspended but thousands have insufficient to eat daily.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the project has distributed more than 28,000 emergency food packages, in addition to serving thousands of prepared meals.

Organisers said; “With the crisis continuing, the situation is becoming dire and we are urgently requesting a financial donation, or foodstuff or water in order for us to continue this much needed programme.”

Funds may be deposited to Commonwealth Bank, Oakes Field Branch, A/c No. 3003387, or it may be collected by calling 3288984 or 325-7909.

To Publish your Financials and

Legal Notices Call: 502-2394

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, April 11, 2022, PAGE 13

Macron challenged by far right as French vote for president PARIS Associated Press

A NUN of the Baumgarten abbey casts her vote in the first round of the French presidential election, in Bernardville, France, yesterday. Photo: Jean-Francois Badias/AP

UKRAINE DIGS IN TO FIGHT RUSSIA IN EAST KYIV, Ukraine Associated Press

UKRAINIAN forces dug in while Russia lined up more firepower yesterday and tapped a decorated general as war commander ahead of a potentially decisive showdown in eastern Ukraine that experts said could start within days with a full-scale offensive.

The outcome of that confrontation could determine the course of the war, which has flattened cities, killed untold thousands and isolated Moscow economically and politically.

Questions remain about the ability of Russia’s depleted and demoralised forces to conquer much ground after their advance on the capital, Kyiv, was repelled by determined Ukrainian defenders.

Britain’s Defence Ministry reported yesterday that the Russian armed forces were trying to compensate for mounting casualties by recalling veterans discharged in the past decade.

Meanwhile, a senior US official said Russia appointed General Alexander Dvornikov, one of its most seasoned military chiefs, to oversee the invasion that Moscow refers to as a “special military operation”.

The new battlefield leadership comes as the Russian military prepares for what is expected to be a large, focused push to expand control in the country’s east.

Russiabacked separatists have fought Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region since 2014 and declared some territory there as independent republics.

Dvornikov, 60, gained

prominence as head of the Russian forces that were deployed to Syria in 2015 to shore up President Bashar Assad’s regime amid the country’s devastating civil war. Russian authorities do not generally confirm such appointments and have said nothing about a new role for Dvornikov, who received the Hero of Russia medal, one of the country’s highest awards, from President Vladimir Putin in 2016.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” yesterday, played down the significance of the appointment.

“What we have learned in the first several weeks of this war is that Ukraine will never be subjected to Russia,” Sullivan said. “It doesn’t matter which general President Putin tries to appoint.”

Western military analysts say Russia’s assault was increasingly focusing on a sickle-shaped arc of eastern Ukraine — from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in the north to Kherson in the south.

Newly released Maxar Technologies satellite imagery showed an eightmile convoy of military vehicles headed south to the Donbas, recalling images of a convoy that got stalled on roads to Kyiv for weeks before Russia gave up on trying to take the capital.

On Sunday, Russian forces shelled governmentcontrolled Kharkiv and sent reinforcements toward Izyum to the southeast in a bid to break Ukraine’s defenses, the Ukrainian military command said. The Russians also kept up their siege of Mariupol, a key southern port.

TWO DEAD, TEN INJURED IN NIGHTCLUB SHOOTING CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Associated Press

GUNFIRE at a Cedar Rapids nightclub left two people dead and ten wounded early yesterday, authorities said.

Police said in a news release that the shooting happened shortly before 1.30am at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge, and that officers who were patrolling downtown were able to respond quickly.

The police didn’t say whether there was one or more suspected shooters, what might have led to the shooting or whether they had arrested anyone, but they did say there was no lingering threat to the public.

Police also didn’t release

the names of the victims or the condition of the wounded.

The club’s owner, Mod Williams, told the Cedar Rapids Gazette that he doesn’t know many details about the shooting.

“It’s an extremely disturbing thing that happened and currently I’m just being as cooperative as I can to help the police,” Williams said.

Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell expressed dismay about the shooting and lauded the police response.

“We as citizens need to do our part, too. We must head off incidents like this before they happen. That means respecting one and other, resolving issues peacefully and holding ourselves accountable,” O’Donnell said in a statement.

FRENCH voters streamed to polling stations yesterday for the first round of a tense contest for the presidency, with incumbent Emmanuel Macron’s hopes of reelection clouded by a strong challenge from the far right’s Marine Le Pen. Macron, a centrist, is asking France’s 48 million voters for a second five-year term. But he was up against 11 other candidates and widespread voter anger and apathy. Le Pen, in particular, has tapped into the foremost issue on many voters’ minds: living costs that have soared amid the disruptions of war in Ukraine and the economic repercussions of western sanctions on Russia.

With its potential to reshape France’s post-war identity, especially if Le Pen wins, the election has wide international significance. A Macron victory would be seen as a defeat for European populists. It might also not be cheered in the Kremlin: Macron has

strongly backed European Union sanctions on Russia, while Le Pen has worried publicly about their impact on French living standards.

Le Pen gave a little wink yesterday as she dropped the blue envelope containing her choice into a ballot box in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont.

Afterward, she said “given the situation in the country and in the world,” yesterday’s election outcome could determine “not only the next five years, but probably the next 50 years” in France.

In the 27-member EU, only France has a nuclear arsenal and a UN Security Council veto. As Russian President Vladimir Putin keeps up his military’s assault on Ukraine, French power is helping to shape the European response.

Macron is the only leading French presidential candidate who fully supports the NATO military alliance.

The top two votegetters in Sunday’s election advance to a decisive runoff on April 24 — unless one candidate

gets more than half of the nationwide vote Sunday, which has never happened before in France.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, voted together in the seaside resort of Le Touquet, making their choices in voting booths covered by curtains of blue, white and red — the colors of the French flag.

France operates a low-tech voting system, unchanged for generations, with paper ballots cast in person and hand-counted.

Most polls closed at 7pm, with an extra hour allowed in some larger cities. By mid-afternoon, just shy of two-thirds of the electorate had cast ballots, with some voters turning their civic duty into a family outing, bringing along children and dogs.

Among the big unknowns was whether hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon — one of half a dozen candidates on the left — would upset the expected scenario of a Macron against Le Pen runoff. Polls suggested Melenchon might fall short, coming in third place.

GN-2693

SPORTS SECTION E

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

A PRAYER FOR SUCCESS AHEAD OF CARIFTA CHALLENGE

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WITH less than a week to go before they head off to the 2022 Carifta Games, the Bahamas Associations of Athletic Association’s 54-member team is making last minute preparations before they head off to Kingston, Jamaica.

FOX MAKES MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

LUCIUS Fox Jr made Bahamian history with his Major League Baseball debut and his storybook ending exceeded his own lofty expectations.

Fox got the start at shortstop, flashed his defensive prowess on one side of the ball ,and got his first RBI of his MLB career with a sacrifice bunt in the Nationals’ 4-2 win over the New York Mets yesterday at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. The 24-year-old infielder also scored the game’s final run to lead the Nationals to their first win of the season (1-3) as he became the eighth Bahamian to play in the MLB. SEE PAGE 16

CHISHOLM GOES VIRAL BUT MISS FOR MARLINS

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ANTOAN Richadson’s San Francisco Giants got the better of Jazz Chisholm Jr and the Miami Marlins in a tightly contested opening week series where each of the three games was decided by a single run.

The Giants concluded the series with yesterday’s 3-2 win at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California.

Chisholm drove in the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly and finished 1-3.

Defensively, he went viral with a spectacular diving catch to deny Giants outfielder Austin Slater a leadoff hit in the first inning. The exit velocity on Slater’s line drive was 105 mph but Chisholm reached full extension midair to grab the out.

In game one of the series, Chisholm homered and reached base three times in the Marlins’ 6-5 loss Friday night. He finished 2-3.

SEE PAGE 17

On Sunday, those members of the team who are in New Providence, attended the 10.30am worship service at Deliverance Tabernacle, pastored by Mark Knowles before they complete their final workout sessions this week at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium.

Head coach Luther Rolle said he’s quite pleased with the progress the management team

is making to get the athletes at their ultimate best to compete in the region’s biggest junior track and field competition from April 16-18.

“Our preparations have been going great,” Rolle said. “As of Monday, everybody will be in one place and we will begin with our relay practices and fine tune any areas that are needed to concentrate on individually with

the athletes.”

Looking at the make-up of the team, Rolle said with only seven girls to compete in the under-20 division, The Bahamas will be very weak in that area, but he anticipates that the under-17 girls and boys should be able to hpol;d their own.

“Our under-20 boys are stacked and so we are antici[sting some very great

SURGE TO A NEW RECORD

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WHILE it was another record breaking performance for decathlete Kendrick Thompson on Saturday in Miami, Florida, sprinters Steven Gardiner and Anthonique Strachan surged to victories in the men and women 200 metres in Devonshire, Bermuda.

The trio led an array of Bahamian elite and collegiate athletes in action in various meets overseas.

In another fiercely showdown with arch rival and former national record holder Ken Mullings at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational at the University of Miami in Florida, Thompson accumulated a total of 7,762 points to erase his previous national and University of The Bahamas record of 7,734 in the men’s decathlon.

Mullings, the University of the The Bahamas graduate who previously held the national record, finished second with 7,657 points.

Jason Rotger, a junior at FIU, came in third with 6,096 points.

“I feel great. I really was pushing myself for this,” Thompson said. “I want to thank my family, cousins,

friends, the UB Athletics Department and coach (Ednal) Rolle for helping me to get through this. “To open up like that, I really feel like I am going to have a great year.”

Also at the meet, Florida International University’s Rhema Otabor won the women’s javelin with a heave of 176-5 (53.79m) on her second attempt. Princeton’s sophomore Kate Joyce was second with 165-2 (50.34m).

Four Bahamians contested the men’s 400m with Alonzo Russell taking second place in 46.53, while Kinard Rolle was eighth in 48.27; Andre Colebrook was 20th in 49.90 and UB’s Donya Richards was 23rd in 50.86.

Rolle also competed in the 200m in 22.03. Great Britain’s Xavier Coakley, competing unattached, was seventh in the men’s 110m hurdles in 14.74. Mayowa Osunami, a senior at Northeastern, won with 14 In the women’s 100m hurdles, Brittany Lundy of the University of the Bahamas was 21st in 15.51 Tia Jones, representing adidas, was the winner in 12.90.

Romica Josey of the University of The Bahamas was 27th in the women’s 400m in 59.74 and her

team-mate Sierra Sears was 35th in 1:03.94. The winning time was 52.57

by Gabby Scott of Puerto Rico.

Paige Stuart of UB ran 12.69 for 33rd overall in the women’s 100m.

Mayowa Osunsami, a senior at Northeastern, won in 11.94.

GARDINER AND STRACHAN TRIUMPH IN BERMUDA

At the USATF Bermuda Games at the BDA National Sports Centre in Devonshire, Bermuda, Gardiner opened his outdoor season with a come-frim-behind victory in the men’s 200m in 20.79 seconds, well ahead of Trinidad & Tobago’s Jereem Richards, who trailed in 20.86.

Strachan, running out of lane seven, also powered from behind to win the women’s 200m in 23.24.

American Dezerea Bryant was second in 23.72, followed by Jamaica’s Briana Williams in third in 23.82.

Strachan, training in Jamaica with the MVP Track Club, noted that the meet was a very good one for her and she doesn’t any complaints right now, except for the strong head wind.

performances from them all around,” Rolle said.

This is Rolle’s first rodeo as the head head of the team, but having served as a coach on other teams in the past, he counts it a privilege to be in control of the team as the competition returns after missing the past two years because of the coronavirus pandemic.

SEE PAGE 16

KENDRICK Thompson pictured in action.

“All in all, it was good. I got in an awesome performance once again,” said Strachan, who prior to the meet ran her lifetime best of 10.99m in the 100m and close to her personal best in the 400m in 52.84 in Jamaica in two separate meets.

“It just let me know that the work I’ve been putting in is actually been shown so I’m happy with having excellent performances in all of my openers in the 100, 200 and the 400, but especially in the 200m because I love the 200m differently from the way I love the other two events.”

The 28-year-old Strachan said would have preferred not to have to do with the negative wind, but it’s an element that all of the competitors had to deal with. She would have loved to see how fast she could run under normal circumstances. but hopefully in her next meet, she can achieve the time that she has in her mind, but to share publicly.

In the men’s triple jump, Kaiwan Culmer had to settle for third place with a leap of 51-feet, 11-inches or 15.82 meters on his sixth and final attempt. American Chris Benard won with 54-4 1/2 (16.67m) on his fourth try. Jamaica’s Jordan Scott got third with 53-8 1/2 (16.37m) on his initial leap.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, April 11, 2022, PAGE 15

KEN Mullings and Kendrick Thompson in action.

Rivals - but close friends

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net ALTHOUGH there’s a lot of pressure competing against each other for the crown of the most versatile track and field athlete, Ken Mullings and Kendrick Thompson don’t allow that competitive edge to get in the way of their friendship outside of the sporting arena.

Over the few years, the 24-year-old duo have emerged as the two decathletes in the country, switching up as the national record holder in the grueling ten-event discipline that is split up over two as they competed under the University of the Bahamas Mingoes Track and Field banner.

This past weekend, the rivalry continued at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational where Thompson came through in the end with another Bahamian national record and University of the Bahamas collegiate record with a 105 point advantage over Mullings, the former double record holder.

Thompson, now in his senior year at UB, clinched the title with 7,762 points, erasing his previous mark of 7,734, while Mullings, who is still a student studying education, but no longer eligible to compete for the Mingoes, was second with 7,657.

They both were aiming to qualify for the World Athletics’ 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, July 15-24, but fell short. However, they attained the standards for the other international meets, including the Commonwealth Games to be staged in Birmingham, England, from July 28 to August 8.

“I started the first day by getting over 4,100 points for the first time of the competition, so that was a good time,” Thompson said. “I wanted to do better in the

KENDRICK Thompson pictured taking part in the high jump.

100m, but it wasn’t that competitive. The shot put and the 400m helped me to get out. But on the second day, the 1,500m took everything out of me.”

Known for his strength in the sprinting events (100m, 110m hurdles and 400m) as well as the throws (shot, javelin), Thompson said where he tends to fall down on his weaker events, Mullings normally motivates him to do better.

“We are very close. We just messed up in a few events like the discus,” he said. “But we push and motivate each other.

We talk and create goals together. We hope to become the first Bahamian decathletes to go away to compete with 8000 points each. Hopefully we will get there. But in the next

competition, we should be over that mark.”

Even though he would have liked to have competed much better, Mullings, now competing for, said he felt good about his performance, considering that it was just the first decathlon competition for the year.

“My weak events are his strong events and my strong events are his weak events, so we really push each other, even if the other competitors are not there to push us,” Mullings said.

“My strong events are the high jump, the hurdles, the 100m because of my new PR and the shot put where I just threw a big performance. But events like the long jump, javelin and 1,500m are my weakest events and that was where I

got beat this weekend.”

Thompson, who is studying physical education at UM, said it’s all about having fun.

“If I’m weak in one event, he would come over and encourage me and if he’s down in an event, I do the same for him,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, we know it’s all about the competition. But we help each other out.”

With their competitive nature, Thompson said once they can go back to the drawing board and improve on some of the areas that they fell down on, they should be in a better position to achieve some of the goals they set at the beginning of the season.

“One of my goals is to qualify for the World Championship and the

Commonwealth Games and to hopefully win the gold,” said Thompson, who thanked his parents, his cousins, his coach (Ednal) Rolle, Mingoes Athletics and God for blessing him with the talent to compete.

While there are plans for Mingoes Athletes to compete in another collegiate meet before the Bahamas Association of Athletic Association’s Nationals in June, Mullings is also hoping to compete so that he can improve on his performance with the hopes of both of attaining the World Championships standards.

“In the meantime, I have to try to find a way to manage my energy going into the pole vault,” he said. “When I competed in the pole vault, my legs

were dead, so I probably have to try to come in at a higher height so I won’t lose so many points like I did in this meet.”

He said they both had planned to qualify for World’s at the meet, but after getting off to a great start when they were right on target, they fell short on the final day.

Mullings thanked his new throwing coach Aymara Albury for helping him to improve on his techniques, while coach (Ednal) Rolle continued to work on the other aspects of the discipline.

As for his rivalry with Thompson, Mullings said as long as they are competing, they will continue to push each other.

“We bring more excitement to practice, but there’s more pressure in competition,” Mullings said. “When you know he’s beating you in practice in certain events, it takes a mental toll on you. But it makes you stronger in practice and in competition.”

Their coach Ednal Rolle said training partners Thompson and Mullings constantly push each other to the limit. He noted that they complement each other.

“They both got off to a great start on day one, but day two didn’t go as expected,” Rolle said. “We will go back to the drawing board and assess their performances and we can only build from here.

“We wanted 8,000 points, but we fell short. It would have put us in a good position to get on the international rankings going into the World Championships, but it’s still early in the season, so hopefully they will qualify.,” Looking at the performances, Rolle said Thompson was able to garner enough points in the pole vault and held off Mullings with a strong performance in the 1,500m to improve on his national record feat and the collegiate record in the process.

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PAGE 16, Monday, April 11, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

A PRAYER FOR SUCCESS AHEAD OF CARIFTA CHALLENGE from page 14

“It will be a great experience for me coaching this team,” he said.

As for the expectations in Jamaica, Rolle said he expects nothing but the best from each and every athlete.

“We’re going to go out there and give it 100 percent,” he stated. “Hopefully in doing that, I want the athletes to be able to do their best. We can’t expect anything less from them.

“In doing their best, we will try to win the team title. I know it’s a tall order, but we definitely feel that we should finish in the top three.”

With the Carifta postponed over the last two years because of COVID19, Rolle saisd the focus will be to get the athletes ready emotionally.

“We know that COVID19 has taken a toll on a lot of people and so we want to make sure that they are mentally prepared for the challenge ahead of them,”

he said. “I think they will be ready and they will do a good job in representing The Bahamas.”

The team is expected to leave town on Thursday and return home on Tuesday, April 19.

The team consist of the following: Under-17 girls - Shatayla Dorsett, Kianna Henchell, Nya Wright, Erin Barr, Koi Adderley, Jamiah Nabbie, Zoe Adderley, Terell McCoy, Annae Mackey, Cailyn Johnson, Daniel Nixon, Kamera Strachan,

Dior-Rae Scott and Lanashia Lubin.

Under-17 boys - Andrew Brown, Turmani Skinner, Ishmael Rolle, Philip Gray, Zion Miller, Berkley Munnings, Raywind Winder, Quinton Rolle, Jalani Morrison, Jonathon Rodgers, Jason Woodside, D’Angelo Collie, Robert Stuart and Nathaniel McHardy.

Under-20 girls - Paige Archer, Javonya Valcourt, Shaunece Miller, Sabriya Farquharson, Calea Jackson, Bernisha Knowles and Vanessa Sawyer.

Under-20 boys - Antoine Andrews, Zachary Evans, Carlos Brown, Zion Campbell, Shamar Smith, Lynden Johnson, Keano Ferguson, Curtis Mitchell, Stephen Farquharson, Jethro Baptiste, Mateo Smith, Brandon Hutchinson, Keyshawn Strachan, Nathaniel Zervos, Kenny Moxey Jr, Taejun Spence.

Shamir Bain, Michael Styles and Brandon Vanderpool.

Sophia Higgs will serve as the team manager, assisted by Bahamas

Association of Certified Officials president Courtney Wallace. Rolle will be assisted by coaches Dereck Wells, Andrew Tynes, Nekeno Demeritte, Patricia Rolle, Jamison Pratt and Laquell Harris.

The chaperones are Dianne Farquharson, Krista Black, Mikhilo Strachan and Garfield Morrison. Dr Kent Bazard will be the team doctor, while Kelly Kramp will be the physio and Jonathan Higgs the massage therapist.

Fox makes major league debut from page 14 “I just have to thank God first off, for being with me through this whole journey, ups and downs, injuries, but it’s everything I ever imagined, plus more,” Fox told the broadcast team in his postgame availability, “[Saturday] night when I found out I was getting the start, I probably played the game over three times in my head before I got to the ballpark but this lived up to the expectations and it beat it. I’m happy to be here, I’m happy we got the win and hopefully, I’m here for many more.”

At the plate, Fax came up clutch in the bottom of the eighth inning when he laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Dee Strange-Gordon and tied the game 2-2.

“I didnt think about the safety squeeze. Before that at bat, my manager came

up to me and he said be ready to help this team win,” he said, “He told me I was going to do something special today and I’m just thankful he had the faith in me and I’m just happy I came through to help the team win.”

Nelson Cruz would go on to hit the go ahead 2-RBI single to score both Fox and Cesar Hernandez.

Fox called the strikeout in his first plate appearance a “welcome to the show” moment. “[Carlos] Carrasco, he welcomed me early, showed me what it’s like to be a big leaguer, they’re just not going to lay it in there.

You have to stick to your approach. I was thinking fastball early. Honestly I was trying to hit a homerun for the crowd, but I’m just happy we were able to get the win,” he added.

In the second inning, Fox made a diving stop

WASHINGTON Nationals’ Lucius Fox bunts the ball to score Dee Strange-Gordon during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets at Nationals Park yesterday. The Nationals won 4-2.

Photo: Alex Brandon/AP and completed the putout to first base to rob Mets power hitting All-Star Pete Alonso of what looked to be a sure base bit.

“I played Pete in the hole for a pull and I saw the ball going up the middle, but my mentality is I want to make every play, so when I saw it, I gave my best effort,” he said, “I knew I had to dive for it, had to get up quick and get him out at first.”

The Nationals will continue the season on the road when they face the Atlanta Braves tonight at 7:20pm at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

Fox was claimed off waivers by the Nationals in December and joined the fifth franchise of his MLB career.

In the final week of Spring Training, Fox was recalled from the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate (Rochester Red Wings) to the big league club and had an immediate opportunity at the opening week roster after several injuries to veterans in the Washington middle infield.

Last season, he rose as high as No 26 in the Kansas City Royals’ prospect pipeline and spent the bulk of his season at the AAA level with the Omaha Storm Chasers in the International League.

In 57 games with the Storm Chasers, Fox hit .245 with a .353 OBP, .729 OPS, 56 hits, five home-runs, 24 RBI, 44 runs scored, and 19

stolen bases.

Earlier in the season, Fox became the eighth Bahamian to join a Major League Baseball roster for the regular season. His brief call-up lasted just a single game when the Kansas City Royals announced his promotion on July 30, hours ahead of a 6-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Canada. Fox did not make his official debut on the field in the contest and the following day, he was optioned back down to the Storm Chasers.

Over the course of his minor league career, he has played 386 games at shortstop, 46 games at second base, nine games at third, and eight games at

centre field.

Fox was signed as an International free agent by the San Francisco Giants in 2015. After just over a year with the organisation he was traded along with pitcher Michael Santos to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitcher Matt Moore and third baseman Matt Duffy.

After spending just over two seasons with the Royals organisation, Fox was placed on waivers following his 2021 season with the Storm Chasers. In a busy offseason, he was claimed off waivers by the Orioles on November 19 before he was released shortly thereafter and was eventually claimed by the Nationals on November 30.

COX AND PRITCHARD CROWNED VICTORS JOHN Cox and Erin Pritchard emerged as the King and Queen of the New Providence Cycling Association’s road race held on Sunday around the Medical Arts building on Fort Charlotte.

Cox clinched the overall male title in one hour and 11 minutes in a halfmile, while Pritchard was the overall female winner in 1.37m. It was dubbed the shortest race - as the competitors climbed from the bottom of the hill to the top - a route they did twice to determine the winners.

In the peewees 5-7 years category, Phoenix Burrows won the girls title in 11mins, while Kayleon Daley took the boys title in 2.53.

The cadets 9-11 years

saw Paityn Burrows win the girls title in 3.30m. Laughlin Menzies won the boys crown in 1.55m, followed

by Sibby Potter in 1.58m; Lyall Menzies in 2.23m; Kendrick Cargil in 2.25m; Fraser Menzies in 2.33m; Anthony Knowles in 3.02m and Thaddius Knowels in 3.42m.

Taylor Knowles won the girls 12-14 title in 2.38m.

Malcolm Menzies won the boys’ title in 1.27m and trailed by Brian Burrows in 1.51m; Callum Pritchard in 2.23m; Thomas Knowles in 2.34m; Mirko Gervasini in 2.45m; Nathaniel Adderley in 3.05m and Khristian Wright in 4.00m.

While Pritchard won the girls 15-17 in 1.37m, Anjaleah Knowles got second in 1.46m and Adriel Pratt

COMPETITORS waiting to compete.

was third in 1.56m. Barron Musgrove Jr. won the boys 16-17 in 1.34m and Enea Gervasini was second in 1.41m.

Winning the overall women’s title was Sanchia Fritzmaurice in 1.55m.

Ilaria Gervasini was second in 1.59m; Carol Collier was third in 2.02m and Lynn Pritchard was fourth in 2.09m.

Adam Potter won the masters title in 1.33m.

Cox, the overall male winner, also took the open men’s category over Kevin Daley, who did 1.16m; Felix Neely, third in 1.20m; Tim Gwynne, fourth in 1.27m; Wes Albury, fifth in 1.33m; Jeff Tynes, sixth in 1.38m; Patrick Paul, seventh in 1.41m and Doran Roach, eighth in 1.42m.

WINNERS John Cox and Erin Pritchard pose with their awards with NPCA president Barron Musgrove.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, April 11, 2022, PAGE 17

BAHAMIANS LAND MINOR LEAGUE ASSIGNMENTS

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

MORE Bahamian minor league prospects received their minor league assignments to begin the 2022 season this week.

Los Angeles Angels prospect Trent Deveaux joined D’Shawn Knowles with the Inland Empire 66ers (Single-A), BJ Murray was assigned to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Single-A) while Chavez Fernander returned to the Erie Seawolves (Double-A).

Fernander, a 24-year-old, Detroit Tigers’ prospect,

returned for his first full season with the Seawolves at the Double-A level.

He made his season debut yesterday in the Seawolves’ 2-1 loss to the Akron RubberDucks at UMPC Park in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The 6’3” 205 pound righthanded pitcher recorded two strikeouts in two innings.

Fernander spent Spring Training with the Tigers’ main club after concluding 2021 with the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona Fall League.

Several Bahamians have advanced to the AFL in recent history including Champ Stuart in 2016,

CHISHOLM GOES VIRAL BUT MISS FOR MARLINS from page 14 Chisholm was not in the starting lineup for the Marlins’ 2-1 win Saturday night and took to social media to express his frustration. Marlins manager Don Mattingly fielded a lineup which featured eight rand hand hitters to face Giants left hander Carlos Rodon.

“I got it out of my system. Small things.

Something you learn from every time. That’ll be it for me,” Chisholm told the Miami Herald of his negative reaction to the lineup change, “Donnie knows that I’m a guy that wants to be out there every day and wants to win. He knows I’m the guy that wants to help the team win and I want to be the one out there. If anything, everybody knows that I’m a lover of baseball, and that’s all I love to do is play baseball. If I’m not out there trying to help my team win, I’m mad anyway — even if it is my off day.”

Richardson, now the Giants’ first base coach, was the sixth Bahamian player to be called up to

the major leagues when he made his breakthrough in 2011 with the Atlanta Braves.

Chisholm, became number seven on the list when he made his debut in 2020. That list now stands at eight after Lucius Fox made his debut Sunday afternoon.

Last April when the Marlins hosted the Giants for a three game series, it marked the first time a Bahamian player and a Bahamian coach shared the same field in a Major League Baseball game.

“I think it’s exciting for baseball in the Bahamas.

We have been tapping into this industry a little bit and I think there are bigger and better things to come,” Richardson said, “I think as we continue to invest more, I’m sure Jazz will be giving some input and I will be giving input on how to create this route to help guys get to this point quicker and faster. As we learn we will bring those lessons back to The Bahamas. We both now have experiences as players and with me, also being able to use my experience as a coach and having experience in the front office.”

Anfernee Seymour in 2017, Jazz Chisholm Jr and Lucius Fox in 2018.

Fernander, completed his 2021 regular season with the Seawolves in the AA Northeast League.

He appeared in 22 games with one start. He went 1-1 in three starts with a 3.60 ERA, three saves in three opportunities, and had 38 strikeouts in 40 innings.

Fernander began the season with the Tigers’ High A-affiliate, the West Michigan Whitecaps. In 11 appearances with two starts, he posted an 1-1 win-loss record with 18 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.86 in 18.2 innings.

In 2019, he played with the Connecticut Tigers in the New York-Penn League. In 11 appearances with eight starts, he went 2-2 with a 2.31 ERA and 33 strikeouts in 35 innings.

Fernander was selected by the Tigers in 2018 the 35th round with the 1035th overall pick. In his first professional season, Fernander spent time with the GCL Tigers in the Gulf Coast League before a brief call up to Connecticut.

He finished 4-1 with a 1.59 ERA, 41 strikeouts and five saves. His series of standout performances on the mound led the Tigers to the league championship. He recorded nine strikeouts over 5.1 innings in the deciding game.

Deveaux, 21, spent the 2021 season in the Arizona Rookie League. In 22 games he hit .300 with a .355 OBP, .728 OPS, 20 hits, eight RBI and two stolen bases.

In 2019, Deveaux spent 52 games in the Arizona before he joined Knowles in a previous stint with the Orem Owlz in the Pioneer League.

In Arizona, he hit.247 with 53 hits, 23 RBI, 15 doubles, four triples, six home runs, 14 stolen bases, a .332 OBP and a .994 OPS. He spent just eight games with the Owlz and recorded five hits, home run and two RBI. “Deveaux’s carrying tool is his speed, which gets 80 grades from evaluators, though he’s still learning how to get out of the box

quickly and to be a consistent basestealing threat...There have been glimpses of tapping into his raw power, but they’ve been inconsistent,” his prospect analysis said, “Defensively, Deveaux can run down just about anything in the outfield, but he’s still outrunning mistakes on reads, showing some of the same inconsistencies there that he does in the batter’s box. He’s still young enough to figure it out, but some mental maturity will need to be shown in order for him to turn his still-raw tools into consistent performance.”

Murray, 22, also advanced to the Single-A level within the Chicago Cubs organisation for the first time when he was assigned to the Pelicans.

After he was selected by the Cubs with the 22nd pick in the 15th round, no. 454 overall and spent his first season in the Arizona Complex League.

Through 16 ACL games, Murray hit .286, slugging .482 with a .826 OPS, 16 hits, including two home runs, three doubles, a triple, 12 runs scored an eight RBI His season was highlighted by a 4 - 4 game in his ACL Cubs’ 9-5 loss to the ACL Giants Orange. Murray hit a two-run home run, singled on a line drive to left field in the third, singled on a fly ball to right field in the sixth, and singled in the eighth to right field. He also added his first stolen base of the season.

Murray was drafted following a star studded career with Florida Atlantic University.

He had an accolade filled year in 2021 and received conferencewide recognition for his breakout sophomore season. He was named a 2021 All-Conference USA second-team selection as voted on by league coaches, SID’s and media members.

FROM top, Trent Deveaux, BJ Murray and Chavez Fernander.

STRONG TURNOUT FOR ATLANTIS TENNIS DAY

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia,net

ALTHOUGH it was just their first initiative to get the parents of their children involved, coordinator Philip Major Jr said he was thrilled by the turnout and participation for the Island Tennis Family Fun Day. The event was held on Saturday, April 2, at the Atlantis Tennis Centre where parents got to experience first hand some of the drills that their children go through and at the time get to interact in some friendly noncompetitive pick up games on the court.

“We just wanted to get all of the adults and the kids together to have a fun day,” Major Jr said. “It’s awesome when you can get everybody together and they can all have some fun.

“Normally they just drop their kids off, but just to see them stay here and have some fun, is what it’s all about. So we’re very thankful to Atlantis for allowing us to be a part of their family and help us to create the family that we developed here.”

Russell Miller, the executive vice president of operations at Atlantis, said they are delighted to be able to partner with Island Tennis for community events like this.

“We have the students come after school during the week whenever they can and organise it,” he said. “We have been supporting this for many months and we will continue to support it. ”We are just delighted to be able to partner with the youth. It’s amazing to see how well they are hitting the ball. They are3 hitting it better than when I was doing it.

So we are just happy to be able to partner with Island Tennis.”

From what he’s seen, Russell, a former tennis player, is the future of tennis on the island is in good hands.

After the older players took the time out to entertain the younger players in a kids clinic, Major Jr and his coaching staff, including Kevon Ferguson, O’neil Mortimer, Iesha Shepherd, Justin Thompson and Mateo Rivas took the parents and all the players through a series of activities.

“This is the first time we have ever hosted a Family Fun Day. The response was great,” Major Jr said.

“Just to see so many kids and parents come out and to see them on

the court is special. We hope that we can continue to build on this tennis community we have here.”

Rivas, a resident of Miami, Florida, who has been in and out of the island assisting Island Tennis, said while he has been helping out with the marketing of the program, he wants to share his expertise on the court as well.

“I love it. It’s nice to see so many parents and kids playing together and having so much fun,” he said.

“This is what sports is all about.

The energy level is high and there are some great coaches here. I think this is a good program that they have here.”

Mortimer said it was a great experience for everyone, especially the younger players as they try to provide an avenue for them to grow and to have their parents participating as well made it extra special.

“We’re all about developing tennis in the country and bringing tennis back and furthering the dsport more like it used to be,” he said. “Having their parents out here participating in some nice clean fun is an experience we feel will last a lifetime.”

Although she admitted that she’s not athletically inclined, Bryinza Russell, the mother of player Zaire Russell, said when she heard about Family Day she jumped at the opportunity to participate and she certainly didn’t have any regrets.

“It was great. I got in a great cardio workout, but it was also a lot of fun exercising,” she said. “I know a lot of people don’t like to exercise but when you mix it up with having fun, you actually get in a good workout.

“So as you get older, you need to be doing things like this just to stay healthy. So I hope this is something that I would like for them to continue. I don’t know if I want to do it competitively, but as a form of exercise, I would love to continue because it was a lot of fun doing it with so many other people.”

With the cadre of young players in Island Tennis, Mortimer said their asim is to now prepare them to participate in the various tournaments coming up whether its in the Bahamas or overseas.

He noted that the only way they will continue to grow in the sport is by getting the exposure to a high level of competition and that is what Island Tennis is aiming for.

PAGE 18, Monday, April 11, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

LIVERPOOL’S SADIO MANE, right, scores his side’s second goal against Manchester yesterday.

Photos: Jon Super/AP

City keep fine margin in race for title after Liverpool draw MANCHESTER, England Associated Press SUCH intensity, such fine margins but nothing decided. The destination of the Premier League title does, though, remain in Manchester City’s hands.

Liverpool has to rely on the champions slipping up to regain the trophy.

A 2-2 draw between England’s preeminent rivals for the second time this season left City still a point ahead at the top of the standings on Sunday.

But Liverpool twice coming from behind — Sadio Mané’s equaliser 47 seconds into the second half sealed the point — does more than keep the title race very much alive.

It reassured captain Jordan Henderson that Liverpool has the character and resilience to seize every moment in the remaining seven games.

“You’ve got to be prepared to suffer at times and stay on the front foot,” Henderson said. “It worked at times and we got our goals from that, but at other times we could have defended better.”

The ferocity of the first half showed why City was 14 points ahead in January but also why the 2020 title winners are still in contention.

For all the moments of high quality there were also slip-ups and unfortunate moments that could have been more consequential.

Liverpool conceded the opener in the fifth minute after being caught when a

try to do this beautiful show.”

There’s not long to wait for the next instalment. An FA Cup final place will be on the line when they meet at Wembley on Saturday.

The Premier League and Champions League remain the bigger targets.

“I had a feeling that we left them alive, but Liverpool is a joy to watch,” Guardiola said.

MANCHESTER City’s Gabriel Jesus, centre, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side’s second goal against Liverpool. free kick was taken quickly and Bernardo Silva then set up Kevin De Bruyne, with the resulting shot shifting direction via a deflection off Liverpool defender Joel Matip.

“You can describe it a little bit like a boxing fight,” Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said. “Both arms down for a second and you get a massive knock.”

And then get up off the canvas.

In a breathless opening, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cutback was turned in

by Diogo Jota to draw

Liverpool level. Another goal was nearly gifted. City goalkeeper Ederson slipped as he tried to clear Kyle Walker’s back pass but he recovered just in time to prevent the ball rolling into the net.

“They defend really well but it’s possible to give them some struggles,” Klopp said. “Around our goals we did exactly that. I would have liked they did it more often but obviously the intensity was crazy.”

The surprise sprung in the City lineup was Gabriel Jesus starting

in the forward line. But a 15-match league goal drought ended in the 36th minute when he beat the offside trap to get on the end of João Cancelo’s cross and lift the ball over goalkeeper Alisson Becker.

Whatever Klopp told his Liverpool players at halftime worked. From the restart, Alexander-Arnold played in Mohamed Salah and the pass was slipped in for Mané to lift a shot over onrushing City goalkeeper Ederson for a goal on his 30th birthday.

Pep Guardiola slumped

into his padded seat. When the City manager leapt out of that seat 20 minutes later, the joy proved premature as a VAR offside call denied Raheem Sterling a winner.

Riyad Mahrez was onside when he broke free in stoppage time but could not find the target when he scooped the ball over the Liverpool goal.

So no celebrations for Guardiola, just an embrace with Klopp after the final whistle.

And mutual admiration.

“Jürgen is the best,” Guardiola said.

“We

RELEGATION SCRAP It’s tight at the bottom, and Norwich is keeping up the fight to avoid the drop after beating relegationrival Burnley 2-0.

Goals from Pierre LeesMelou and Teemu Pukki moved the last-place team within seven points of survival, but 17th-place Everton has a far superior goal difference. Burnley is four points behind Everton, while Watford is a further two adrift.

Brentford can be more certain of not being sucked into the relegation fight after beating West Ham 2-0. Bryan Mbeumo and Ivan Toney set each other up for goals for the win that moved Brentford 12 points clear of the relegation zone with six games remaining.

FIRST GOAL Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, a 23-year-old Leicester academy graduate, scored his first Premier League goal after assisting Ademola Lookman’s opener to clinch a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace. Leicester dislodged Palace from ninth place.

LECLERC ROARS TO AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX VICTORY

MELBOURNE, Australia Associated Press

RIDING high after a decisive victory for Ferrari in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, Charles Leclerc’s belief in the team’s prospects are growing by the race.

A grand prix billed as a showdown between Leclerc’s Ferrari and the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished with the Monaco driver as a one-sided winner.

The 24-year-old Leclerc extended his lead in the drivers’ championship to 34 points while claiming his second win of the season after victory in the seasonopening race in Bahrain.

A crowd of 128,294 in Melbourne were treated to an emphatic triumph

by Leclerc, who was able to hold off Verstappen during the opening laps and defended well mid-race under safety car conditions to pull away for a decisive 20.524-second victory.

Engine failure forced Verstappen from the race on lap 38 at the Albert Park circuit, with Perez overcoming a slow start to take second ahead of the Mercedes duo of George

FERRARI driver Charles Leclerc, centre, of Monaco celebrates with his team after winning the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.

Photo: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP Russell and Lewis Hamilton in third and fourth, respectively.

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth and sixth in an Australian GP that drew a record attendance of 419,114 over three days.

Leclerc became the first Ferrari driver since Fernando Alonso in Singapore in 2010 to complete a racing

“grand slam” comprised of winning pole position, leading wire-to-wire and also posting the fastest time.

The drivers’ championship leader, who pitted on Lap 22, posted a fastest lap of 1 minute, 20.260 seconds with a final-lap flourish and was clearly the quickest car all weekend, which he described as a pleasing surprise.

“Honestly, what a car

today. Of course, I did a good job all weekend, but it was not possible without the car,” he said.

His teammate, Carlos Sainz, finished on the podium in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia but endured several setbacks in a testing weekend.

After an issue in qualifying resulted in him starting from ninth, he dropped back further in

the field with a slow start and then lost control on the second lap, ending his race.

Nevertheless, Leclerc is bullish on Ferrari’s prospects in the manufacturers’ championship this year.

“Obviously, we are only in the third race, so it is difficult to think about the championship,” he said.

“But to be honest, we have a very strong car, a very reliable car too, and for now we have always been there. I hope it continues like this and if it does, we probably have chances for the championship.”

Verstappen, the world champion, never really challenged Leclerc and withdrew with mechanical failure while running second.

Despite winning in Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago, the Dutchman was clearly disappointed by the performance in Melbourne and said the Red Bull was “already miles behind” Ferrari.

“I don’t even want to think about the championship at the moment,” he said. “I think it is more important just to finish races, because today was, in general, just a bad day again. It is pretty frustrating and unacceptable.

“I knew there was a problem and it was always going to be a question mark for finishing the race, but these kind of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen.”

The Mercedes team has also dealt with issues to start the season and is off the pace behind both Ferrari and Red Bull.

Russell was able to claim his first podium finish of the year when Verstappen was forced from the race and can only hope the team is capable of closing the gap later in the year.

“We got a little bit lucky today … but we will take it. To be standing on the podium is special,” Russell said.

“We are never going to give up. We are going to keep on fighting. We have to keep this up while we are on the back foot, I’m sure we will get there after a few more races.”

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished seventh, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly in an AlphaTauri.

Despite disqualification from qualifying for a fuel irregularity, Williams driver Alex Albon finished 10th to secure the team’s first point of the season.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, April 11, 2022, PAGE 19

PAGE 20, Monday, April 11, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Masters win for new No 1 Scheffler AUGUSTA, Georgia Associated Press

SCOTTIE Scheffler holds the championship trophy after winning the 86th Masters golf tournament yesterday.

THAT new No 1 ranking for Scottie Scheffler looks even better in a Masters green jacket.

Two months after Scheffler finally broke through for his first PGA Tour victory, he capped off a most incredible 56-day stretch by making his fourth win the biggest of them all, the Masters by three shots over Rory McIlroy for his first major.

Even as a junior, he was wearing long pants in stifling Texas heat because he wanted to look the part of a tour pro he always wanted to be. Winning the Masters was beyond his hopes.

“I never made it this far. It was just a dream of being here and competing,” Scheffler said in Butler Cabin, moments before Hideki Matsuyama helped him into the green jacket.

“I can’t put into words what it means that I’ll be able to come back here for a lifetime.”

The only stumble came at the end when Scheffler needed four putts from 40 feet before he could claim his first major, and that only mattered in the record book.

He closed with a 1-under 71 for a three-shot victory over McIlroy, who holed out from the bunker on the final hole for a recordtying final round of 64.

McIlroy could only hope that Sunday pressure at Augusta National might get to Scheffler.

No chance. Not on Sunday. Not the last four days. Not the last two months.

“You get on those hot streaks, and you just got to ride them out because they, unfortunately, don’t last forever,” Justin Thomas said. “But he is doing it in the biggest tournaments. ...

It’s really, really impressive to see someone that young handle a moment this big so easily.”

The Sunday theatre, thrilling and tragic, belonged to everyone else.

Scheffler overcame a nervy moment early in the round by chipping in for birdie.

He delivered key putts to keep Cameron Smith at bay and never looked rattled, even as he was swatting at short putts at the end.

McIlroy was the runnerup. It was Smith who felt as though he let one get away.

The Aussie was still in the game, three shots out of the lead, when he dumped his 9-iron in Rae’s Creek on the par-3 12th hole for triple bogey and ended his hopes.

“Just a really bad swing at the wrong time,” Smith said.

Smith closed with a 73 and tied for third with Shane Lowry, who birdied the 18th for a 69.

Scheffler joined Ian Woosnam in 1991 as the only players to win a major — the Masters in both cases — in their debut at No 1 in the world.

Everyone should have seen this coming. He won the Phoenix Open in a playoff on Super Bowl Sunday.

He followed that with a

comeback win at Bay Hill to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He rose to No. 1 in the world by winning the Match Play two weeks ago in Texas.

And now this.

Scheffler, who finished at 10-under 278, won $2.7m from the $15m prize fund.

That brings his total to $8,872,200 over his last six starts.

Scheffler’s big moment came early in the round, and it was no less significant.

Starting the final round with a three-shot lead, he watched Smith open with two straight birdies to the cut the deficit to one, and then Scheffler’s approach from the pine needles left of the third fairway came up short and rolled back down the slope.

His pitch was racing toward the hole when it banged into the pin and dropped for an unlikely birdie, and a two-shot swing when Smith from the same position made bogey.

No one got closer than three the rest of the way.

Only the contenders changed.

The 12th hole remains the most riveting par 3 in golf, the scene of more collapses than comebacks.

Smith became the latest victim.

Coming off birdie at No 11, his shot was still in the air when he let his club slip through his hands and he slowly closed his eyes twice as it splashed into Rae’s Creek. The next shot wasn’t much better, but at least dry, and Smith’s hopes ended there with a triple bogey.

He was three behind standing on the 12th tee.

Three holes later, he was eight back.

From there, any hope resided with McIlroy. All he needed to complete the career Grand Slam was to match the best final round in Masters history and get some help from Scheffler.

He only got one of those and had to settle for his first silver medal from Augusta.

Not that he didn’t create some Sunday magic. McIlroy went bunker-to-bunker on the 18th hole, leaving himself right of the green and aiming some 25 feet right of the flag. It rode the slope all the way into the hole, setting off one of the loudest roars of the week.

Morikawa followed him in from the same bunker, different angle, and McIlroy could only laugh.

“This tournament never ceases to amaze,” McIlroy said. “That’s as happy as I’ve ever been on a golf course right there. Just having a chance — and then with Collin, we both played so well all day — and for both of us to finish like this, I was just so happy for him, too.

“I’ve never heard roars like on the 18th green.”

The best ones were saved for Scheffler.

Scheffler still had five holes in front of him, with no evidence he was going to be anything but the smooth, smart operator who seized control on Friday in the toughest conditions to build a five-shot lead and never lost it.