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The Tribune

Volume: 118 No.96, APRIL 14, 2021

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‘You can’t call this ethnic cleansing’

Govt lawyer hits back at attack on ‘humane’ shanty town actions

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net THE government’s plan to demolish shanty towns in the country is not driven by ethnic cleansing and will be executed in a “humane manner”, according to the attorney representing the Crown in a judicial review centred on the demolition of the unregulated communities.

Crown attorney Kayla Green-Smith’s assertions

CLAUDINE Mayfield Etienne has been missing since Hurricane Dorian.

ACTIVIST Louby Georges has said available housing in Abaco will be the biggest challenge for residents of The Farm shanty town with a government mandated eviction and demolition looming.

Mr Georges said while he does not endorse people breaking the law, the

SUSPECT HELD ON STABBING MURDER A STABBING incident after an argument involving two men on Key West Street on Monday has left one man dead.

According to the Royal Bahamas Police Force a 23-year-old male suspect was later arrested, taken into custody and is assisting police with the investigation into this incident.

“Preliminary reports are that shortly after 5pm, SEE PAGE THREE

were in response to accusations made by Fred Smith, QC, in a previous hearing, accusing the government of embarking on a “dictatorial” policy to completely eliminate ethnically Haitian-Bahamian communities in the country.

Mr Smith represents 177 residents and shanty town occupants in the case.

During the virtual hearing before Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson

VACCINE ROLL OUT TO PAUSE

SEE PAGE THREE

government should have released a comprehensive plan in response to the island’s housing crisis, which he said has remained a glaring issue since Hurricane Dorian ravaged Abaco in 2019.

A single mother-of-six living in The Farm has said her family’s future is uncertain with an eviction and inevitable demolition hanging over their heads.

SEE PAGE THREE

SEE PAGE EIGHT

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

WHERE DO THEY GO AFTER DEMOLITIONS?

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

OUR CARIBBEAN COUSINS NEED HELP

LOST IN DORIAN

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net TWO witnesses testified in the Coroner’s Court yesterday about their frantic efforts to find loved ones who went missing during Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

The inquests into Hurricane Dorian’s missing people began Monday and is

scheduled to continue for at least the next two weeks.

The inquests are happening in the absence of a jury after Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez requested this of Attorney General Carl Bethel in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Coroner’s Court’s list of missing people includes about 35 people.

SEE PAGE FIVE

NY COURT SEEKS BAHA MAR PAPERS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE British Colonial Hilton’s sale is among the multiple targets of a US court’s request for Bahamian judicial assistance relating to Sarkis Izmirlian’s $2.25bn legal battle with Baha Mar’s main contractor.

Legal documents obtained by Tribune Business reveal that the New

York State Supreme Court, which will ultimately determine the outcome of the fight between China Construction America (CCA) and Baha Mar’s original developer, is requesting help in obtaining potential evidence thought to be held by multiple Bahamas-based banks and companies.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

COVID vaccinations on New Providence will come to a halt on Friday evening to allow officials time to reassess the rollout.

Since the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine began being administered just a few weeks ago the committee overseeing the rollout has been carefully monitoring the uptake on the those stepping forward to receive the injection.

Initially the government had just 20,000 doses of the vaccines available - a gift of the Indian government - which was later supplemented by another 32,500 doses through COVAX - the global vaccine SEE PAGE FOUR

TECHNOLOGY MICROSOFT BUYING SPEECH RECOGNITION COMPANY

SEE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Wednesday, April 14, 2021

TWO DAYS ON FROM POTTER’S CAY FIRE

SCENES of Potter’s Cay Dock yesterday with the area in the process of recovering from Sunday night’s fire. The huge blaze burned down six stalls and damaged two others. Two boats were also destroyed.

Photos: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff

THE TRIBUNE

THE TRIBUNE

‘YOU CAN’T CALL THIS ETHNIC CLEANSING’ FROM PAGE ONE

yesterday, Mrs Green-Smith said they objected to any reference of the term “ethnic cleansing” during the proceedings as the matter before the court related to the government’s “comprehensive initiative aimed at removing illegal, unregulated and unsafe buildings in shanty towns.”

She also said it was “critical to note” the use of the term “shanty town’’ was not meant to be “pejorative” as the term was “accepted in common usage to refer to settlements or communes consisting of improvised housing built illegally in areas which lacked proper sanitation, safe water supply, electricity and other basic necessities.”

“The United Nations Commission of experts define ethnic cleansing in its final report as a ‘purposeful policy designed by one ethnic group to remove by violence and terror, the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas,’” she stated.

“The commission report further explains what they refer to as coercive practices. And these coercive practices used to remove the civilian population can include murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, execution, rape and sexual assault, severe physical injuries to civilians, confinement of civilian populations in ghettos, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian populations...

We say that certainly is not the case in relation to these proceedings.”

Mrs Green-Smith insisted the government’s primary goal, as highlighted in the affidavit of Labour Minister Dion Foulkes, was to eliminate irregular living conditions associated with “improperly constructed houses” in order to elevate the living standards of persons residing in such communities.

She argued “the need for this initiative was further highlighted” by the passage of Hurricane Dorian in Abaco in September 2019.

Critical “It is critical to highlight some of the areas of the CDEMA (Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency) report because it identifies shanty town communities as one of the areas of concern and noted that these communities were nearly 100 percent destroyed,” she noted.

“It is (also) important to mention that the level of damage is different in diverse settlements, cays, subdivisions and shanty towns on the island. There was nearly 100 percent damage to the houses in areas such as the Mudd, Pigeon Peas, and the Farm Road communities and this in contrast to houses in the southern part of the island with only minor damage or no damage at all.”

Mrs Green-Smith said this fact further highlighted the necessity of the work of the Shantytown Action Task Force to bring housing structures up to the standard that is required by law.

During her submissions, she also argued that the applicants had not established their right to be on the land in question, a fact she claimed was “affirmed” by their own evidence outlined in the affidavit of Stephanie St Fleur.

She also referred to ground two of the applicant’s arguments, which asserted that the government’s notice decision was unlawful as it was created to obtain possession of the land or further

THE FARM Road area - pictured from the air last year. their policy of tracking down undocumented immigrants.

Mrs Green-Smith said in the Crown’s “humble view”, the applicants referred to the disconnection of utilities as a decision to take possession of the land, because they were unable to point to any specific decision that would suggest the government was actually doing so.

She added it was important to examine the “main legislative framework’’ governing the Building Regulations Act, which was implemented to “regulate the construction, alteration and repair of buildings for reinstatement or removal of dangerous or dilapidated buildings”.

“This Act gives the Ministry of Works statutory powers to issue notices to persons who are building houses or other structures without the statutory required permits and approvals and require them to remove or pull down the works within a specific time,” she explained.

“It is humbly submitted that these laws directly impact the proper functioning of our society that the respondents are seeking to enforce...We accept that in any event, prior to any lawful demolition it would be necessary for disconnections to be made by the appropriate utility providers pursuant to their various statutory functions.”

Mrs Green-Smith noted the Water and Sewerage Act recognised water as a natural resource of the country and stipulated the “control and administration of water” was to be exercised by the corporation on behalf of the government. She also said the Electricity Act of 2015 was established to “create an electricity supply regime that promoted the diversification in generation, supply and distribution of electricity”.

“The affidavit of Stephanie St Fleur filed on August 3, 2019 exhibits a (Tribune) newspaper report from the Labour Minister Senator Dion Foulkes in a visit to Abaco (which states): ‘Mr Foulkes, the committee’s chairman, was visibly shocked by much of what he saw during his treks through the Farm Lands, Sand Banks, the Mudd and Pigeon Peas shanty towns, telling The Tribune the government is treating the matter with a sense of ‘urgency’. “...‘Referring to makeshift power generating systems scattered around the muddled communities, Mr Foulkes said: ‘Just on this visit today, I saw three major

generators that had 20 to 50 different lines connected to that generator.’ Law enforcement officers who assisted Mr Foulkes on his tour claimed similar systems could be blamed for as many as four major fires in the past.’”

The Crown’s counsel asked the court to consider the article and other reports from Craig Delancey, the building control officer, which outlined similar instances where residents of shanty towns were setting up “illegal connections in clear violation of the law” and living in unsanitary conditions.

Quoting an affidavit filed

by Mr Delancey she stated: “‘During assessment of the shanty towns I found that the majority of buildings did not have a proper sanitary disposal system, that is to say the use of septic tanks or sewer connections. Very few buildings had portable water supply while the majority had well water supply which was situated in very close proximity to their version of a septic tank which in many instances was a mere pipe from the building into a hole in the ground.”

Report She also noted a 2013 report from the Department of Environmental Health Services which highlighted water samples that were collected in such communities.

“Ninety-three percent of water failed the water analysis and 79 percent had the presence of faecal coliform in the water...Human faeces are observed in common walking areas…and around animal pens. The inadequate disposal of sewage increases the risk of transmission of faecal borne diseases and the contamination of groundwater supply. On these premises we humbly submit that the respective utility corporations have the statutory power to address electricity and water supply which clearly impacts the health, safety and proper functioning of our society.”

Mrs Green-Smith said despite the fact that the applicants accused the government of “making a blanket decision to take possession of the entire land,” Mr Foulkes’ affidavit specified the process was “intended to be very detailed” and would “carefully consider the individual circumstances of the occupiers of the land”.

“We say the work of the SATF and their reports clearly outline that attention

was made to the individual needs of these various communities by the assessment that was done,” she said.

When given an opportunity to speak, Mr Smith criticised the government for confiscating the personal property of shanty town residents in Abaco when an application to extend the current injunction to include members of that community was currently before the judge for consideration.

“We hear Mrs Kayla Green-Smith has the instructions to agree to the variation of the injunction to include shanty towns in Abaco,” he said.

“The issue is there is a lot of activity by the government and the allegation is that persons have breached one of the conditions of the injunction in building without permits. While that may very well be so, but the government must lead evidence of that and breach of a condition of an injunction is punishable by contempt...

But to go (ahead) with the exercises that they have just recently conducted and to serve notices of intended demolition in 28 days or even less now, puts the application for variation of the injunction very urgent for determination by your honour.”

Mr Smith said it was “really hypocritical” of the government to have their legal representation assert that they were “seeking to abide by the rule of law”, while they were threatening to demolish homes and taking away personal possessions in the “middle of the trial”.

“That is the height—that is the epitome—of disrespect for the rule of law,” he insisted. “If we’re actually in the middle of an application to vary the injunction which the court is considering and we are in the trial of the substantive matter, one would have thought that a civilised series of respondents would await the outcome of the court’s decision. That is what the rule of law is about, not taking matters in your own hands once again which is how this case arose in the first place.”

After listening to submissions from both sides, Justice Grant-Thompson said she would address the outstanding interlocutory issues to vary the injunction on April 20.

She also adjourned the substantive hearing to April 30, to give the Crown an opportunity to complete its submissions.

SUSPECT HELD ON STABBING MURDER

FROM PAGE ONE

police received information that while on Key West Street, two males were involved in an argument,” the RBPF said.

“This resulted in one of the males stabbing the other with a knife several times about the body. The victim was transported to the hospital via a private vehicle, where he later succumbed to his injuries.”

An area resident claimed the victim and suspect knew each other. The suspect allegedly lived on East Street and came around every other day, but

the victim was not from the area, the resident said.

“He just comes through with his children – pass through,” the resident told The Tribune. “He always moving.

He from area to area. He only pass through here, stop, hail us up and he keep moving.”

The resident did not see the incident happen, but recalled the suspect was getting his car washed shortly before the altercation.

“I saw a car here was getting wash.

He was standing over there. His car was getting washed . . .I left and I

(went) home and gone to sleep. When I get up, that’s when I hear all of this drama.

“Everybody hurt because (the victim) ain’t no stranger to us,” he said. “I knew (the victim) from when I was a little boy. He’s an honest man.

He stay on hustle…an all right person to us. I feel like I cried for (the victim) last night. I feel that.”

Monday’s incident marked the 33rd homicide for the year, according to The Tribune’s record. The victim’s identity was not known up to press time.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021, PAGE 3

WHERE DO THEY GO AFTER DEMOLITIONS? FROM PAGE ONE The Bahamian born woman, who asked not to be named, told The Tribune yesterday that she only earns a minimum wage, adding it will be virtually impossible to afford anywhere else to live.

While she admitted that The Farm is not where she wants to live, it has been easier to provide a life for her and her children there with minimal living expenses to pay.

She said she had no idea where they will go once the government acts on the eviction notices and warnings that were doled out last Thursday during a multiagency sting in the area.

Her plight is likely the same scenario for many in that community, Mr Georges said in an interview.

“There is a lot of uncertainty,” Mr Georges said. “Truth be told I surmise that 14 days will come and also 28 days will come up and persons will be right there not because they want to be stubborn, not because they want to be defiant, but simply because there isn’t anywhere to go because of the elephant in the room.

“The issue that is the biggest in Abaco is available housing. That is the crux of the matter.

“Yes, listen—I do not support anyone breaking any rules, living in substandard conditions—but in some instances persons may be forced because they have no other choice but to do it.”

He also said: “I don’t support that but as a government, as leaders I would think that any decision that we take regarding humans, we should temper that decision with human rights in mind and with the human element in mind.

“We do not want to do essentially what Hurricane Dorian did, which is displace people.

“Hurricane Dorian destroyed all of the homes that existed.

Subsequent to that thousands of persons ended up being displaced.

“Those displaced persons we had to house, we had to feed and/ or take care of them in shelters in Nassau and to a lesser degree some other islands across the country for an extended amount of time. Why? Because there were no homes.”

Asked who he thinks the responsibility should fall on, Mr Georges said there needed to be a national conversation, adding the issue was not whether the residents would need more time, but the lack of a proper plan.

“For me it’s not really a matter of time. What I am not seeing and what the public is not seeing is a comprehensive plan that says maybe phase one, we identify housing that is available or maybe phase one we go with the bulldozers and we tear the houses down but in phase two because we have identified housing or shelters the displaced persons as a result of their homes being demolished will be able to go this way or that or in these shelters.

“Bahamians won’t and I know I won’t be happy with us forcibly displacing people and then my tax payer dollars have to now take care of these people so it’s not just a matter of giving people

ACTIVIST Louby Georges. time to figure it. “…Where in the world these people going to go and what is the plan when these people are displaced?”

At Parliament on Monday, Public Works Minister Desmond Bannister said the sting operation took place because of continued challenges with the area.

The issues included unsanitary conditions and the theft of Bahamas Power and Light wiring to illegally connect structures to power.

There was also a proliferation of commercial grade generators and people selling electricity for a weekly charge among other things.

The generators were confiscated.

During the sting, many of the roads in The Farm were blocked off, with eviction notices handed out for structures that were built after a December 17, 2018, Supreme Court issued order prohibiting construction.

Two types of notices were given: first for incomplete and unoccupied structures, and another advising that they will be demolished after 14 days in accordance with the provisions of the Planning and Subdivisions Act. For occupied structures, the notices advise demolition after the passage of 28 days in accordance with the Building Regulations Act.

PAGE 4, Wednesday, April 14, 2021

VACCINATIONS RESUME ON GRAND BAHAMA

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net COVID-19 vaccinations on Grand Bahama will resume today at the Susan J Wallace Community Centre in Freeport for several eligible groups.

A second vaccination centre has also been designated at the Eight Mile Rock Clinic for residents in West Grand Bahama.

The administration of the vaccine on Abaco and its cays will take place Thursday to Monday among five eligible groups, including health care workers, persons 50 years of age and older, uniformed branches, teachers and staff of schools, and hospitality workers. In Grand Bahama, vaccinations will resume through Friday, April 16, in Freeport, between 8am to noon, and 1pm to 5pm for those with appointments.

Vaccine administration will also take place on Saturday, April 17, at the Eight Mile Rock Clinic between the same hours to only residents of the Eight Mile Rock and West End communities.

People may register for an appointment at vax.gov.bs.

“Vaccinations will only be given to persons registered for an appointment. Persons without internet access or needing assistance with registration may contact their local church or local government office,” a statement from health officials said.

Eligible priority groups in Grand Bahama now include healthcare workers; persons 50 years of age and older; uniformed branches; teachers and staff of schools; hospitality workers; restaurant and retail workers; students and athletes studying or competing abroad, coaches and other support personnel; members of the clergy; and accredited media. The Tribune spoke with some pastors on the island about getting the vaccine. Pastor Eddie Victor, of Living Water Assembly of God, said he has not taken the shot and believes more testing and trials should be done on the long-term effects.

“I have not taken it, and my family is not taking it because I am listening out for all the research,” he said.

Pastor Jenese Pinder, of Emmanuel Baptist Disciple Centre, said that Dr Frank Bartlett had spoken with his congregation two weeks ago.

“He educated us about it (the vaccine) at the church,” he said.

However, Pastor Pinder said he is still undecided about it.

“I am not sure yet if I am going to get it. I just want to be a little more educated about it first and get more information about it. But, some persons in our congregation have already gotten vaccinated,” he said.

Bishop Edwin Pinder, of Emmanuel Baptist Church in McLean’s Town, has also decided to wait.

“I have not gotten it yet, I am still thinking about it.”

He falls within two eligible groupings as he is over 50-years-old and is a clergyman. “I can’t say yea or nay at this moment, and I want to wait it out a little bit,” he said. “I need to do a bit more research and I will wait it out.”

THE TRIBUNE

‘No extra COVID-19 controls’

VACCINE ROLL OUT TO PAUSE

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Renward Wells says he does not “foresee” any additional COVID restrictions being implemented despite a sustained uptick in new infections over the past several weeks.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mr Wells said officials are instead seeking to get a handle on the situation by testing symptomatic cases, closely monitoring positive patients and expanding the government’s vaccination programme among other things.

“We do have a very aggressive surveillance unit that is following up on the cases, the contacts and giving the advice to persons that they should quarantine if they have been in contact with an individual,” he said before going to a Cabinet meeting.

“We’re testing folks who are symptomatic and so we’re doing all of the things that we did in the Ministry of Health to get our hands around our second wave to ensure that the country does not enter a third wave.

“And so, while we are seeing the increase of cases, the ministry has also sought to increase the amount of opportunities for vaccinations and we have the two circumstances running concurrently and so from our perspective, both with the health measures in place and the vaccine being deployed as was seen in the United Kingdom and in Israel, it was able to bring down the case and incidences of positive cases in both of those countries.”

His comments came as the country recorded 45 new infections on Monday, pushing the nation’s overall tally to 9,505.

New Providence accounted for 30 of those cases, followed by Grand Bahama at seven, Bimini and Cat Cay at five, while Abaco and Eleuthera had one case each.

Hospitalisations also rose to 42 after another positive patient was admitted on Monday.

The spike in virus numbers and hospitalisations forced Princess Margaret Hospital last week to reopen its 28-bed Special Pathogens Unit to accommodate an increase of

FROM PAGE ONE

MINISTER of Health Renward Wells. (File photo) COVID-19 related admissions.

The unit was last used when the country was in the midst of its second coronavirus wave.

Asked about the possibility of new restrictions to help curb COVID-19 spread in the community, Mr Wells suggested that officials are not considering the matter at the moment due to a fluctuation of new cases.

“Right now, I don’t foresee any more measures in regards to the health protocols than what we have in place because we see a spike one day with about 40 cases and then we see it down in the teens, then we see it in the twenties and that might be due to a particular event because you know this virus has a fourteen day incubation cycle,” Mr Wells said.

“So, if you have a bunch of persons who get together in a particular locale commiserating together and

someone is positive, and they would’ve spread it to these individuals you could expect that everyone exposed over those fourteen days would end up showing a positive.

“So, you will end up with some of those persons positive so you will have a spike and so what we’re seeking to do as we did in our press conference last week is just to remind the Bahamian people to adhere to the health protocols.

“Let us continue to wash our hands, wear our masks, physical distance and who were deploying the vaccine and we know at the end of the day, we’re going to be able to control this pandemic in the country.”

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis also recently told a local daily he has no plans to increase COVID-19 restrictions.

programme.

Here in The Bahamas priority workers such as those working in the health sector were the first to be offered the vaccine and over the subsequent weeks this has been broadened to include many other sectors - including just days ago anyone over 50.

The vaccine committee believes it now needs to pause the rollout to assess the uptake of the vaccine against available supplies and how it should move forward.

Most recent public statements on the uptake of inoculations say 15,000 have taken the vaccine but this is now likely to be several thousand higher.

A key question the vaccine committee will now take - in consultation with the government - is how to manage supplies moving forward.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has told the country the second supply from COVAX ‘should’ be here around the end of May but there is no guarantee on this.

Officials here need to decide given the take up they have seen over recent weeks - whether those who have stood forward to take Dose One should now be given Dose Two from the initial 52,000 doses available.

The problem is if they continue to issue ‘first doses’ to everyone who wants the vaccine, will they have supplies available once the requirement for the second inoculation comes around?

If they give them to those who have already had the first dose, the members of the public who have chosen to “wait to see what happens” will then have to wait on the government’s ability to secure further supplies of the vaccine.

ABACO SET FOR FIRST PHASE OF VACCINATION PROGRAMME

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.ent

THE government’s COVID-19 vaccination programme will officially begin on Abaco tomorrow.

Local officials expect a good turnout for the first phase of the island’s rollout.

In a statement released yesterday, the National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee said the vaccinations will be administered to residents on mainland Abaco and its surrounding cays, beginning Thursday until Monday.

Those eligible to receive the first dose of the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine are healthcare workers, teachers and staff of schools, persons 50 years of age and older; uniformed branches and hospitality workers.

Vaccination sites identified on the island include local healthcare facilities and school institutions, such as the Marsh Harbour Clinic, Fox Town Clinic, Cooper’s Town Clinic, etc, and the Guana Cay All Age School.

However, vaccination centres there will not be open simultaneously, but

instead have been assigned specific days for vaccinations. Appointments can be made online at https://vax. gov.bs and or booked on site.

It was previously announced that vaccinations would begin on Abaco last week, but the shots were never administered on the island.

Delay Yesterday, Minister of Health Renward Wells said the delay was due to security concerns on the island.

“It is not the challenges post Dorian,” he replied when asked about the matter.

“We are always concerned about the security situation for the vaccine so that is why the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, as you would all know that they (are) the guards, the security for our vaccine site.

They also collect the vaccine when it comes to the airport.

“They take the vaccines to the various sites and so we’re just making sure that the security logistics (are)

in place for each island when we deploy the vaccine to that island.”

It is not clear how many vaccine doses will be sent to the island, with Mr Wells unable to say when asked by reporters.

However, officials have expressed confidence that there will be sufficient vaccine supply “to meet the needs and the interests” of those Abaco residents who want to take the vaccine in the first phase.

“I would’ve had many number of persons reach out to me as to how they can get the vaccines so there’s definitely interest on the island about getting the vaccine,” Central and South Abaco MP James Albury told The Tribune yesterday.

“And the Ministry of Health team is doing a farreaching campaign so they will be all over the islands and the cays doing the vaccinations so we will be able to cover a good cross section of the population.

“So, I’m very excited that we’re finally getting them on island, and I think it’s

a good step because the more people that have the vaccines nationwide, the quicker we can get out of this situation we’re in and return to some normalcy so I’m very happy they’re coming,” Mr Albury added.

This comes as COVID-19 cases continue to increase on the island, with total infections now at 327 after an additional case was recorded there on Monday.

In February, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis reinstated more restrictive measures on the island, including a new curfew and tighter travel guidelines after the island saw a spike of COVID-19 infections.

However, with vaccinations set to begin on Abaco this week, Mr Albury said he is hoping that the island will soon start to see an ease of the curfew restrictions.

“I’m a proponent of easing the curfew, at least back to 10pm,” the Abaco MP said.

“Obviously, that decision is not ultimately up to me. It’s up to the competent authority and health

administrations but I certainly feel that especially after the first round of vaccinations, I think Abaco is ready to go back to an easier curfew.”

To date, more than 15,000 vaccinations have been administered on New Providence, Grand Bahama and Eleuthera.

“We have not made it available to the entire populous and so could you imagine if it was opened to the entire populous, certainly the uptick would be even greater,” Mr Wells said of the vaccine numbers.

“We are seeing a lot of folks stepping forward and taking the vaccines.”

Vaccinations on Eleuthera have not yet resumed since the programme was placed on hold earlier this month.

However, yesterday, Mr Wells told reporters: “We would’ve vaccinated Harbour Island and North Eleuthera and we’re putting additional security measures in place so we can then move to vaccinating all of mainland Eleuthera.”

THE TRIBUNE FROM PAGE ONE Relatives yesterday testified about the missing status of Claudine Mayfield Etienne, 55, and Jeffrey Denis, 41, according to the police prosecutor, Inspector Pratt.

Deonette Henlon, Ms Etienne’s sister, said she spoke to Ms Etienne up to 8am of the morning of the storm.

She said BTC’s system was down so she could not reach her sister after the storm. She checked the National Emergency Management Agency and other organisations and still couldn’t find her sister, who was a seamstress. She took a trip to Abaco and discovered that only the foundation of her sister’s home and some personal items were there.

Officials have taken DNA samples from one of her other sisters who lives in Jamaica.

Mr Denis’ sister, Ellen Jacques, filed a missing person’s report after she could not locate her brother.

She said people told her they saw his body and it was collected by police and taken to the morgue.

However, she filed a missing person’s report after her personal efforts to find him failed.

Three witnesses are expected to testify during today’s hearing in addition to representatives from the Department of Meteorology.

The inquests will determine who the missing people were and when, why and how they died.

National Security Minister

Lost in Dorian

CLAUDINE Mayfield Etienne Marvin Dames said last year that 279 people were missing after Hurricane Dorian.

The issue of the missing people

from the storm has at times been controversial.

Former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands expressed concern last year that

Wednesday, April 14, 2021, PAGE 5

no explanation had been given regarding how hundreds of names were excluded from an early list of people who were reported missing.

He said the government had mishandled the matter.

In response, Mr Dames said he was shocked and “profoundly disappointed” by Dr Sands’ comments, calling them disingenuous and misleading.

“The police immediately went to work to compile a centralised list which totaled 1,092 people from both Grand Bahama and Abaco,” he said.

“Of the total, 34 were from Grand Bahama and 1,058 were from Abaco.

“After the police took receipt of the initial list and began their reconciliation work, they discovered that the list consisted not only of missing persons but also persons in need of housing assistance, persons reporting other crimes, persons who were displaced, and duplication of names.

“The number of persons falling within these categories totaled 813.

“The police missing person’s list currently stands at 279.”

COOPER SAYS THE GOVT’S PROPOSED HOUSING POLICY ‘UNFAIR, ELITIST AND DISCRIMINATORY’

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright tribunemedia.net

EXUMA and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper says while the Progressive Liberal Party supports homeownership for young professionals, he thinks the Minnis administration’s policy in this area is “unfair, elitist” and “discriminatory”.

He said the government is selling a dream about its proposed housing initiative. His remarks came Monday in the House of Assembly during the debate on a resolution to allow for the development of a residential community in western New Providence geared towards young professionals. The resolution was passed in the House of Assembly and will be debated in the Senate on Thursday.

The subdivision is to be built on 83 acres of land in the Prospect Ridge/John F Kennedy Drive area.

The government is promising a total of 250 lots, with 40 percent being multi-family lots at $50,000 and the remaining 60 percent are to be single-family lots offered at $40,000.

Help Mr Cooper, deputy leader of the Progressive Liberal Party, said, “Let me say at the outset, that I support the idea of making housing more affordable for young people and people in general. This is also an ideal the PLP supports. How one administration goes about it may differ from the other, but all administrations have tried to help more Bahamians get into homes.

“I do believe that the current administration’s policy of not building homes but mainly providing service lots for people to build their own homes is wrongheaded at this time. But any genuine effort to realistically support Bahamians getting into homes is one that I support. However, we think your policy is unfair, elitist and, frankly, discriminatory.”

Mr Cooper noted that propelling Bahamians towards easier homeownership is not unique to the FNM government and pointed out that every administration has its own way of doing it.

As a reminder to parliamentarians, Mr Cooper said, “The PLP founded the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation and has tried for over five decades to increase home ownership among Bahamians,

EXUMA and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper. (File photo)

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis speaks in the House of Assembly about the development of the residential community.

particularly those who struggle with the means to become homeowners.

“Housing security and housing affordability are ideas that are near universal in governance in The Bahamas. But these are your policies, so carry on smartly. We do not think it’s a rational, credible policy. It’s electioneering, so let’s just call it for what it is. I believe it is unrealistic and fraught with problems.”

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, while introducing the resolution to Parliament, said the lots will be worth some $150,000 once his government has put the infrastructure for the area in place. Pointing out that the applicants do not have to be at a certain social status, he said one does not have to be a lawyer, doctor or engineer to qualify for the land, just someone who is “accomplished” in their field.

On this Mr Cooper said, “Now about this, I do not share the Prime Minister’s view. Banks look at lower of costs and appraised value. I also worry about

how much government funds it will take to make these lots liveable. Asking some in the industry, I get anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000 per lot to make them serviceable. That could mean more than $5 million on the part of the government just on that alone.

Banks “As far as not needing a down payment for a mortgage because of the value of the property, I don’t know about that either. I work in the finance sector and I know that when determining who to lend money to, there is one thing that is paramount above all, and that’s skin in the game. Then there is the ability to finance the loan. It does not matter how much the property is worth, particularly with banks already being liquid and already being saddled with foreclosed homes and unfinished homes, customers who today cannot make existing payments.”

Mr Cooper, a businessman, dissected the

proposed housing development, questioning whether anyone really sat down and seriously thought it out, rather than forcing it because of a political agenda with time running out.

He continued: “Again, let’s call this what this is.

This is clearly an effort to appeal to the largest voting bloc in the country, without actually doing something broadly impactful for the largest voting bloc in the country.

“It is using what will clearly be millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to implement a programme that is exclusionary, discriminatory, elitist, unfair

and fantastical. I fear you are selling dreams. Like many of your other halfbaked schemes.

“It is exclusionary in that it automatically and intentionally boxes out of eligibility those who are over the age of 45 from participation, and also uses taxpayer funds drawn from the widest pool of Bahamians to make an exclusive community for a certain number of Bahamians to create income-producing properties that will only benefit a few.”

Mr Cooper said he feels the scheme is discriminatory because most will not qualify.

HOMES VIBRATE AFTER METEOR SHOWER

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A METEOR shower near Grand Bahama lit up the sky Monday night and caused some homes to vibrate throughout the island.

Meteorologist Shayvonne Moxey-Bonamy reported that the incident occurred shortly after 10pm on Monday.

Many residents heard the loud boom and felt vibrations in their homes.

Some reported this in the Lucaya, Freeport, and Eight Mile Rock areas.

Persons also captured images of the slow-moving meteor falling towards the earth. The meteor was also seen in Florida.

Ms Moxey-Bonamy reported that the event was confirmed and deemed as a meteor shower by NASA. “This is really not our area of expertise, so we look to NASA because they are a credible site,” she explained.

“It was deemed to be a meteor shower that burned up as it entered the earth’s atmosphere.”

People were able to capture images of it because it was moving relatively slower than most meteors actually move, she said.

“NASA estimated it to move at 38,000 mph when most of them tend to move 120,000 mph to 130,000 mph. So, that’s why there were so many good images from this particular one.”

Mrs Moxey-Bonamy said that the sound and boom heard in Grand Bahama and the vibrations were just the meteor breaking apart upon entering above the earth’s surface.

“It just exploded, it disintegrated in the air. It did not land on the ground,” she said.

She said reports indicated that it was a very small meteor, with a diameter estimated to be about two feet or so – less than the size of a basketball.

Mrs Bonamy said one person in Eight Mile Rock reported that he thought something had landed on his roof, and another resident in South Bahamia reported thinking the same thing.

“I heard the boom and then vibration, and it was just after 10pm,” she added.

Mrs Bonamy said that, according to reports, it might have broken off from a big asteroid.

“There was supposed to be a scheduled pass (of an) asteroid on the outer atmosphere of the Earth Monday morning.

“It is unclear if a piece of that scheduled asteroid that went by broke off, and got pulled into earth’s gravity, and came tumbling down toward the Earth’s surface.

“That is unclear, and there will be a further investigation as the days go by and when more concrete information comes out,” she said.

PAGE 6, Wednesday, April 14, 2021

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Unwanted weight gain or weight loss during the pandemic?

Blame your stress hormones IF YOU have experienced unwanted weight gain or weight loss during the pandemic, you are not alone. According to a poll by the American Psychological Association, 61 percent of US adults reported undesired weight change since the pandemic began.

The results, released in March 2021, showed that during the pandemic, 42 percent of respondents gained unwanted weight – 29 pounds on average – and nearly 10 percent of those people gained more than 50 pounds.

On the flip side, nearly 18 percent of Americans said they experienced unwanted weight loss – on average, a loss of 26 pounds.

Another study, published on March 22, 2021, assessed weight change in 269 people from February to June 2020.

The researchers found, on average, that people gained a steady 1.5 pounds per month.

I am a nutritional neuroscientist, and my research investigates the relationship between diet, lifestyle, stress and mental distress such as anxiety and depression.

Do experts have something to add to the public debate?

The common denominator to changes in body weight, especially during a pandemic, is stress. Another poll done by the American Psychological Association in January 2021 found that about 84 percent of US adults experienced at least one emotion associated with prolonged stress in the prior two weeks.

The findings about unwanted weight changes make sense in a stressful world, especially in the context of the body’s stress response, better known as the fight-or-flight response.

The fight-or-flight response is an innate reaction that evolved as a survival mechanism. It empowers humans to react swiftly to acute stress – like a predator – or adapt to chronic stress – like a food shortage. When faced with stress, the body wants to keep the brain alert. It decreases levels of some hormones and brain chemicals in order to turn down behaviours that won’t help in an urgent situation, and it increases other hormones that will.

When under stress, the body lowers levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and melatonin.

Serotonin regulates emotions, appetite and digestion. So, low levels of serotonin increase anxiety and can change a person’s eating habits. Dopamine – another feel-good neurotransmitter – regulates goal-oriented motivation.

Dwindling levels of dopamine can translate into lower motivation to

exercise, maintain a healthy lifestyle or perform daily tasks. When people are under stress, they also produce less of the sleep hormone melatonin, leading to trouble sleeping.

Epinephrine and norepinephrine mediate the physiological changes associated with stress and are elevated in stressful situations. These biochemical changes can cause mood swings, impact a persons’s eating habits, reduce goal-oriented motivation and disrupt a person’s circadian rhythm.

Overall, stress can throw your eating habits and motivation to exercise or eat healthy way out of balance, and this last year has certainly been a stressful one for everyone.

In both of the studies, people self-reported their weight, and the researchers didn’t collect any information about physical activity. But, one can cautiously assume that most of the weight changes were due to people gaining or losing body fat.

So why did people gain or lose weight this last year? And what explains the dramatic differences?

Many people find comfort in highcalorie food. That is because chocolate and other sweets can make you happy by boosting serotonin levels in the short term. However, the blood clears the extra sugar very quickly, so the mental boost is extremely short-lived, leading people to eat more. Eating for comfort can be a natural response to stress, but when combined with the lower motivation to exercise and consumption of low-nutrient, calorie-dense food, stress can result in unwanted weight gain.

What about weight loss? In a nutshell, the brain is connected to the gut through a two-way communication system called the vagus nerve. When you are stressed, your body inhibits the signals that travel through the vagus nerve and slows down the digestive process. When this happens, people experience fullness.

The pandemic left many people confined to their homes, bored and with plenty of food and little to distract them. When adding the stress factor to this scenario, you have a perfect situation for unwanted weight changes.

Stress will always be a part of life, but there are things you can do – like practising positive self-talk – that can help ward off the stress response and some of its unwanted consequences.

Lina Begdache, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Binghamton University, State University of New York theconversation.com

D.E.P.P disrespects architects EDITOR, The Tribune.

The newly constituted Department of Environment Planning & Protection is another slap in the face of architects. It is beyond me why architects have been the only profession to be singled out by successive governments for attacks.

In this case the education and training of architects is being second guessed with regards to their ability to provide design criteria and execution of buildings on sensitive sites that may be considered a sensitive environmental undertaking.

Under the current Architects Act, architects are responsible for all those matters in the built environment.

The new process under this act requires that D.E.P.P. must review all architects plans before they are submitted to the Ministry of Public Works for approval.

I am told that not only does this process add cost to the production of plans but that this adds an additional three weeks to the already lengthy process.

No other profession is treated with this kind of contempt.

Can you imagine the uproar if lawyers are required to have their brief reviewed prior to their appearance in court, or a doctor procedures having to be reviewed before every patient he treats.

This is the effect this new legislation is having on architects.

What the government should be focused on creating general zoning and land use policies for the entire Bahamas instead of trying to micro-manage the expertise of architects professional practice.

The government is yet to pay the architects board the subvention allocated under the Architects Act, 1994.

They have failed to act properly with the tenements of the act with regards to the appointment of the Architects Board.

I am not sure why such disdain is shown towards architects, but it must stop.

GORDON C Major B.Sc. F.I.B.A. Nassau, April 12, 2021.

Bahamian false prophets are running amok on Facebook EDITOR, The Tribune.

The legendary Dr Myles Munroe was a trailblazer in Christian broadcasting in The Bahamas, having learned at the feet of American Pentecostal faith healer and televangelist Oral Roberts. Munroe attended ORU in Oklahoma in the 1970s. Many of the contemporary features we often take for granted in today’s charismatic churches were first introduced by Munroe, when he founded Bahamas Faith Ministries (BFM) in the early 1980s.

Bahamian traditionalists wrongly labeled BFM a cult, due to its dance ministry and other contemporary features unknown to many Bahamian churchgoers, who were not exposed to TBN, due to them not having access to cable television. Munroe was an excellent Bible expositor, leadership coach and consultant, businessman, motivational speaker, prolific author and statesman, whom the Lord used to give biblical guidance to political and civic leaders across the globe, especially in Third World countries.

With the platform and massive influence Munroe was blessed with, he used both responsibly, unlike the plethora of Facebook prophets who are Bahamians, who never fail to utter calamity and peril over The Bahamas with self-righteous piety and glee.

With messages of gloom and doom, these selfdescribed prophets rarely have a message about a practical approach that the nation can utilise to address the myriad of social, economic and spiritual issues dogging us.

Facebook has afforded these false prophets a global audience and platform they otherwise would’ve never gotten, had it not been for social media.

Unfortunately, their purported Christian ministry

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net is not contained in their respective churches, as Facebook has given them a national platform.

Facebook has become the melting-pot of religious buffoonery, much to the embarrassment of the evangelical Christian community and the Bahamas Christian Council (BCC).

These false prophets never tire of dragging the holy name of Jesus Christ through the mud, while uttering gibberish they claim to be the authentic glossolalia gift of the Holy Spirit.

The entire church is made to look silly before the eyes of a watching world on Facebook.

Unlike Dr Munroe, who was presumably held accountable by a board of elders at BFM, many of these Facebook prophets lack accountability, not being affiliated with any established church or Christian denomination.

Consequently, their “prophetic” messages are not vetted by an experienced body of elders, nor are they subjected to church disciplinary actions, after committing acts of immorality, financial chicanery and public scandals. Conflating the Old and New Testament epochs, these Bahamian hucksters, frauds, snake oil salesmen, con artists and false teachers view themselves as walking in the footsteps of the Old Testament Major and Minor prophets, similar to the Catholic doctrine of the apostolic succession of the popes, while duping their biblically and theologically illiterate followers.

Lacking hermeneutical skills, these false teachers on Facebook, in fulfilment of Matthew 7:15-20, Jude, 2 Peter 2:1-4 and Ezekiel 13:1-10, twist the Bible like a nose of wax, while

uttering one failed prediction after another, violating the Third Commandment and Deuteronomy 18:22 in the process.

Many of us would recall these false prophets on Facebook predicting a Trump victory in the American presidential election last year without the courtesy of offering a retraction, once it became clear that Joe Biden had won.

Many of them caused a lot of confusion in 2020 with their failed “red cloth” prediction; and with their “divine” threats against those in political office whom they viewed as impeding the financial growth of their businesses, while failing to predict the COVID-19 pandemic.

These false prophets have disrupted homes, churches and businesses with their blatant abuses, while hiding behind the cloak of religiosity.

Often immune from constructive criticism, the sheeple of these false teachers are willing to place their heads on the proverbial chopping block in order to protect their spiritual leaders, demonstrating a devotion that does not pale in comparison to their worship to God. Listen to any of their rant on Facebook and it becomes all too evident where their political allegiance lies.

All in all, I am noticing a lot of religious chaos on Facebook, similar to the situation in the African country of Nigeria, which is teeming with false prophets, who have entered the ministry to enrich themselves.

It is high time that the BCC and other Christian leaders expose this ongoing religious charade on Facebook, before more damage is done to this country.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama, April 8, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, April 14, 2021, PAGE 7

Disaster Reconstruction Authority working ‘aggressively’ to help Dorian-hit homeowners

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DISASTER Reconstruction Authority officials say they are working “aggressively” to assist homeowners in Abaco and Grand Bahama who have not yet received help from the agency to continue their post-Dorian home repairs.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe said the agency has assisted more than 4,500 homeowners since its Small Homes Repair programme was launched last February.

“Well, we have more than 3,000 plus persons who have already been approved (for the programme),” she said before going to a Cabinet meeting. “Some 1,000 plus remain in the system and the funding will also go towards them to assist.

“At the end of the day, we would’ve assisted more than 4,500 people who would’ve been devastated both on Grand Bahama and Abaco.

“The specifics the DRA officials have and it’s something we’re getting to at the ministry but we’re satisfied in the fact that there’s a system in place and people are getting help as with any situation and the hurricane being what it was, there’s a lot of work to be done.”

The housing repair programme was suspended last September due to funding restraints, but resumed this February after the DRA was able to secure a good portion of the funding needed to complete the relief initiative.

In recent weeks, some approved homeowners have expressed frustration over the slow process, saying they have yet to receive word from the agency as to when they will receive the needed vouchers.

Yesterday, Mrs ParkerEdgecombe acknowledged the complaints as “legitimate concerns” and said

“The fact of the matter is the many people have to be assisted to date but there are those who feel that they haven’t been helped quick enough. We are addressing this aggressively. We have individuals on the ground right now that are going home to home and finding out what those concerns are.”

officials are working feverishly to address the issues.

She also said while the DRA would like to assist affected individuals as fast as possible, they must also do their due diligence to ensure the process is transparent.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say that there were some concerns expressed about the efficiency of our programme and whether or not we were reaching people as quickly as we should,” she said.

“The fact of the matter is the many people have to be assisted to date but there are those who feel that they haven’t been helped quick enough.

“We are addressing this aggressively. We have individuals on the ground right now that are going home to home and finding out what those concerns are.

“Our hurricane season is only weeks away.

“May would be hurricane preparedness month and NEMA officials as well as those of the DRA are working feverishly together to ensure that this hurricane season and those persons who would want to know information has it and that we are prepared going into the 2021 Atlantic hurricane

season.”

She added: “…There’s a lot of checks and balances.

While we want to assist individuals, we also want to ensure that there aren’t any persons taking advantage of the system.

“We have to be accountable with the government’s funds as well as we have to assist those who were hurt and devastated by that hurricane and so that would’ve been one of the main issues that we would’ve gotten from the ground that they were approved and they just needed the help in getting the vouchers that they were approved for.”

To date, more than 2,500 homeowners are currently being assisted in Grand Bahama and Abaco since the Small Homes Repair programme resumed earlier this year, a DRA official reported last week.

According to Wendell Grant, project director of DRA, funds amounting to some $2.7 million have been expended so far for home repairs.

He also indicated that DRA is dealing with homeowners, according to the three categories they fall under.

The first group includes those who were approved,

Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe have already benefited and were provided purchase orders for materials or labour.

“We are finishing off that group of people,” Mr Grant said last week. “We are pushing through the first set of people.”

Next up will be those registrants who received purchase orders to get materials, but did not get the materials before the programme was suspended.

Meanwhile, the third and final group are those who have been approved for assistance but did not receive purchase orders.

“We are satisfied that there is a system in place and people are getting help,” Mrs Parker-Edgecombe said.

“The hurricane being what it was, there’s a lot of work to be done.

“We’re not going to deny that but we are here to help and we are going to ensure that those persons who were devastated were given that help and at the end of the day, we want persons back in their homes.”

NEW PROVIDENCE OUTAGES CONTINUE

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net

POWER issues continued to plague New Providence yesterday with more Bahamas Power and Light customers experiencing outages across the island.

The problems initially started on Sunday when New Providence experienced severe weather conditions, with the company reporting damaged cut outs, blown transformers and low voltage in scattered areas.

BPL issued the following statement on Monday: “Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) wishes to advise that due to the severe weather event Sunday night, a number of areas have suffered outages.

“We have emergency teams at several sites at present working toward restoration and we will advise over the course of the day on those efforts.”

By Monday afternoon most areas were restored, only for some to go offline again.

The latest update received at 3pm yesterday from BPL said: “Bahamas Power and Light wishes to advise that our teams are still working to complete restoration of services which were disrupted due to the severe weather event on 11th of April.”

Customers in a wide cross section of New Providence were still experiencing outages at that time.

The BPL update said the company still had teams working on outages in the following areas: Second Street off Palm Ave (which was returned to service); Jumbey Village (Malcolm Rd), while teams were on the way to these areas: Blue Hill Road (near Family

Guardian); Blue Hill and John Road; Roker Lane (Stapledon); Cox Street (Fox Hill); Cumberbatch Ave (and Lexington Ave); Tamarind Street (Pinewood); Coral Lakes and 8th Terrace Centreville.

The power company said it will continue to monitor the restoration exercise and will advise its customers as estimates for return to service come in.

Despite the issues, the company is continuing its overhead maintenance exercises in various islands to include New Providence.

“Bahamas Power and Light wishes to advise its customers in New Providence that the company will be carrying out overhead

BODY FISHED FROM WATERS OFF BAY STREET DOCK

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

POLICE fished a partially decomposed body from waters off the former Pioneers Shipping Dock located on Bay Street yesterday.

Police say shortly before 9am yesterday, officers were called to the area. While there, the officers fished the body of a male from the water.

Although a suspected drowning, police will await an autopsy report to determine the exact cause of death. Police are also waiting for the identification of next of kin to determine the victim’s identity.

In other crime news, police in the capital arrested a man for drug possession.

Police, acting on intelligence, discovered marijuana at Lynden Pindling International Airport on Monday.

Shortly after 2pm, officers from the Airport Police Station at Lynden Pindling International Airport, acting on intelligence, arrested and took into custody a man from the United States after he was discovered with a quantity of suspected marijuana. He is expected to be formally charged in court later in the week.

An investigation into this matter is continuing.

maintenance exercises on Wednesday, April 14th, 2021 for fie hours, beginning 9am.”

Prince Charles Drive west between Believer’s Gospel Church and Popeyes Restaurant including side corners is the area cited to experience disruption in electricity supply today.

Customers are being thanked for their patience while these exercises are being carried out.

MINISTRY’S TRAVEL VISA PLATFORM NOW BEING POWERED BY KANOO

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net THE Ministry of Tourism’s Bahamas travel visa platform is now being powered by Kanoo, a payment processing company owned by young Bahamian professionals making history.

Through Kanoo, Bahamians can pay for their travel visas with the Sand Dollar, a digital form of Bahamian currency authorised by the Central Bank.

“Sand Dollar is a digital currency, not a cryptocurrency,” explained Nicolas Rees, chairman and cofounder of Kanoo. “Sand Dollar is just a Bahamian dollar. It’s Bahamian legal tender which means it is no different than a physical paper dollar. It’s just an electronic version.

“The payment is a feature that is available to any of our clients and businesses that are on the Kanoo platform. We congratulate the minister and Ministry of Tourism on being the first to officially transact using the Sand Dollar. History in the making.”

Kanoo is a licensed payment service provider and is authorised to issue and transact electronic retail payments and electronic currency.

“This means that we have to operate under specific KYC (know your customer) guidelines, AMI (account management information) guidelines as well as implement certain security elements and protocols,” Mr Rees said.

“So, this license actually puts us pretty much on par with a banking institution.

The only thing we are not authorised to do is hold deposits and issue leverage loans. We do digital currency transactions.

“We had some major improvements and upgrades around Sand Dollar and new features are continuing to be released.

“That just really highlights what is available. That is our pay with Kanoo feature. Any business can basically drop in that API into their website and it can facilitate card payments and also now Sand Dollar.”

Apart from all of this, the Kanoo platform can actually facilitate retail payments for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well.

Mr Rees said this part of the business has not been activated as yet. That, he said, is something that with guidance and approval from Central Bank, will be made available to Kanoo users.

Besides the Ministry of Tourism, Kanoo has about 200 merchant clients, including Super Value and Quality Supermarkets, Grand Bahama Port Authority and Fresh Markets in Grand Bahama.

These clients are ready to accept the Sand Dollar.

Kanoo also has a

technology partner: Visikard out of Atlanta, Georgia owned by Nathan Horne and Kenneth Lipscomb.

“We are focusing right now on launching our marketplace features,” Mr Rees continued. “We are testing a feature where any Kanoo merchant will have their products, not only in the App Marketplace, but also on their websites.

“We are taking that one step further and putting it into a global marketplace – the Kanoo Marketplace where any user can just log on to a web page and they can search for conch salad or black watches or shoes, etc.”

He explained that the new feature will be comparable to Amazon and will be automatically synced across all platforms. He said payments are automatically built in and merchants will have the ability to engage users in providing discounts, incentives and gift cards.

“That feature is about to be released and will be fully compatible with Sand Dollar and all digital payments,” he continued. “So, we are playing with it now in our ‘sand box’; priming it for release.

“As of March 31, the Central Bank had indicated in one of their previous releases that there was a deadline for the payment institutions to have met their security requirements for interoperability.

“We know that we have surpassed that benchmark and moving on to the next stage where the users will be able to connect their bank accounts to their Sand Dollar wallets held with Kanoo. That will complete the cycle of the digital cash movements, using Kanoo’s platform.”

Kanoo is on to its biggest, planned initiative for the year which is pushing to take the Family Islands into a cashless zone. Mr Rees feels this will help to fill the void made by commercial banks who are pulling out of the Family Island market.

“We want to go into those islands and provide the businesses with the platforms so that they can accept payments, credit cards and Sand Dollar, as well as transact with other merchants digitally and cashless,” he said. “Using the Kanoo system, there is no need now for them to engage in cash handling because everything is tied already to the bank account.

“They can move money in and out of their bank accounts to their Sand Dollar accounts, transact with users and also sell their products and engage users and make more money. So, everything we do is about how do we make merchants make more money, so that is where our focus is … driving value to the merchants and value to our users.”

The Kanoo partnership is made up of financial, technical and operational professionals.

PAGE 8, Wednesday, April 14, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

OUR CARIBBEAN COUSINS NEED HELP AND WE SHOULD NOT BE SLOW TO PROVIDE IT ASH rises into the air as La Soufriere volcano erupts on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Tuesday. (AP Photo/Orvil Samuel)

BELOW: People collect water not contaminated by volcanic ash after the eruption of the volcano in Wallilabou, on the western side of St. Vincent, Monday. (AP Photo/Orvil Samuel)

O

n Friday, April 9 there was an explosive eruption of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ La Soufrière volcano for the first time since 1979. It sent plumes of ash 3.7 miles into the air.

This came one day after the country’s Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves issued a Stage 3 disaster alert which was followed by an evacuation order to communities in the red zone. Early estimates indicated that 16,000 people—15 percent of the population—would be displaced as a direct result of this disaster.

Cruise ships were made available to transport people to Barbados, Grenada and St. Lucia which had agreed to accommodate them. Other countries in the region, including Antigua & Barbuda, St. Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana also indicated willingness to accommodate people evacuated from St. Vincent. The Barbados Defence Force has already been deployed to St. Vincent.

Barbados, 124 miles east of St. Vincent, has been affected by the ash fall from the eruption of La Soufrière.

The Barbados airport is to remain closed until noon today.

Volcanic ash is a contaminant that includes very small rock, mineral and glass particles. It can be as fine as powder or grit-like and ranges in colour from light grey to black. It is irritating to skin, eyes and lungs. It can make roads slippery, cause electricity outages (which occurred in St. Vincent), contaminate water supply and cause roof collapse.

In her address to the nation, the Prime Minister of Barbados advised people to wear long sleeved shirts and long pants when cleaning the volcanic ash and to use shovels to collect the ash into garbage bags. She warned them not to wait for it to be over to start clean up because the ash accumulates, gets heavy, and it much more difficult to move when it gets wet.

Even as it experiences the effects of the volcanic ash fall, Barbados has committed to concrete support for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Emergency supplies—with specific requests for water tanks, collapsible water bladders, folding cots, buckets, caution tape, field tents, blankets, bleach and liquid soap—are being collected at the HMBS Pelican Base of Barbados Coast Guard. Cash donations are being directed to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency

Viewing Notice For

Jesse Jerome Dean Jr., 58

will be held on Wednesday, April 14th, 2021 at Butlers’ Funeral Homes & Crematorium, Ernest and York Streets from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Current Emergency regulations are in effect.

COVID-19

Social Distancing and Face Masks will be enforced.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Butlers’ Funeral Homes & Crematorium, Ernest and York Streets.

Management Agency (CDEMA).

On Monday, there was another eruption, larger than the first and St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) confirmed the presence of pyroclastic flows along La Soufriere. A pyroclastic flow is a fast-moving collection of volcanic matter and hot gases of over 1500 degrees that burns anything in its path.

The government is drilling for fresh water that will be distributed by trucks because the volcanic activity is a threat to the water supply in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The food supply, of course, is also compromised with forests and farms ruined.

Prime Minister of St. Lucia Allen Chastanet announced that arrangements will be made for children from St. Vincent to be accommodated in St. Lucian schools. In addition, the Government of St. Lucia has shared a home registration form allowing members of the public to offer accommodations to people evacuated from St. Vincent. On the form, people are required to note the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, number of people currently residing in the home, and the number of people they are willing to accommodate in various age groups. They can also state whether or not they can host people with disabilities and how long they can accommodate people.

Trinidad and Tobago Minister of National Security Hon. Stuart Young announced his country’s Defense Force stands ready assist St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

St. Kitts and Nevis pledged financial assistance for evacuation from St. Vincent in the amount of $370,000. The country also welcomes 300 people in families of two or three members and is contributing $20,000 to the Caribbean

Disaster Emergency Assistance Fund to be used for immediate assistance in support of logistical operations for St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

It was not until late on Saturday that the Prime Minister of The Bahamas made a lacklustre statement in response to the disaster. When it reached social media, it was met with con-

“There is a long road ahead for St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The country must reallocate resources in order to meet pressing needs today. It has to make decisions on which groups of people should be accommodated, safely navigating a number of processes in the midst of a global pandemic.” fusion. As many pointed out, the statement seemed to be a combination of meeting minutes and “thoughts and prayers” as there was no substance and no commitment to tangible assistance.

Instead, the statement noted the Prime Minister spoke with Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Prime Minister of Barbados Hon. The statement referenced “the support of the Caribbean Community during Hurricane Dorian,” but stopped short of offering more than mere words St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

There is a long road ahead for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The country must reallocate resources in order to meet pressing needs today. It has to make decisions on which groups

of people should be accommodated, safely navigating a number of processes in the midst of a global pandemic.

Even more than before, people, including children, need masks. Clean-up will be a long, ongoing process.

The effects of the ash fall on agriculture need to be assessed. Individuals and families are forced to abandon their homes and settle elsewhere, starting over.

When Hurricane Dorian devastated Grand Bahama and Abaco, the response from the Caribbean community with swift, strong and generous. Countries stepped up to offer every form of assistance possible, from rescue and cleanup to advocating for International organizations to fund relief efforts in The Bahamas.

Non-governmental organizations took the lead in supporting people by providing supplies and coordinating accommodations while Caribbean States deployed humanitarian aid and lobbied for more resources.

We know that Hurricane Dorian was unlike anything we had ever seen and that we are likely to experience similar events as climate change keeps us in precarious state. We have been able to rely on regional solidarity, and we must ensure that it is not a one-sided relationship.

Even if we are not in a position to commit to financial assistance, we should be willing to send the Royal Bahamas Defence Force to assist on the ground. We should be sending supplies.

Our airport is open and we receive cargo on direct flights from the US on a daily basis.

We are in a position to do more than issue empty, lazy statements.

We cannot be satisfied with this, and we need to demand more. The people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines need and deserve real support.

Prime Minister Minnis seems to have recognised his weekend statement

was not enough when he told parliament on Monday his government was looking at providing financial aidand “whatever assistance we have”. Let’s hope so- and quickly Non-governmental organizations in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are working to provide relief to community members. Among them are RedRoot SVG, led by Phylicia Alexander, which focuses on women and children who are survivors of violence and Rise Up Bequia led by a team which includes former Chief Curator of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas Holly Bynoe. Both organizations are accepting monetary donations to support the purchase of food and other necessities. They are also accepting emergency supplies and masks are at the top of list. The N95 masks are preferred and needed in all sizes and in large quantities. Donations to RedRoot and Rise Up Bequia can be made at tinyurl.com/redrootrelief and tinyurl.com/ riseuprelief respectively.

Unfortunately, there is a logistical and cost barrier to collecting items here and sending them to St. Vincent and the Grenadines as the Government of The Bahamas is not facilitating cargo transport. For those based in The Bahamas, it is best to make monetary donations or contact groups in other countries that are able to send supplies. These include Is There Not a Cause (ITNAC) and Feminitt Caribbean in Trinidad, KLC Shippers in Toronto, 1545 Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn (accepting items until April 18), and Oxygen Mas SVG (with donation drives in New York, Trinidad, Barbados, Toronto, and Antigua), and a Florida carnival team is hosting a drive-by drop-off event on Saturday at 1381 NW 129th Avenue, Soccer Town, Pembroke Pines. Other efforts are being announced every day and can found using #LaSoufriere

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, April 14, 2021, PAGE 9

MICROSOFT BUYING SPEECH RECOGNITION COMPANY NUANCE IN $16BILLION DEAL

By MATT O’BRIEN AND MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writers

MICROSOFT, on an accelerated growth push, is buying speech recognition company Nuance in a deal worth about $16 billion.

The acquisition will get Microsoft deeper into hospitals and the health care industry through Nuance’s widely used medical dictation and transcription tools.

Microsoft will pay $56 per share cash. That’s a 23% premium to Nuance’s Friday closing price. The companies value the transaction including debt at $19.7 billion.

Shares of Burlington, Massachusetts-based Nuance surged about 16% in Monday trading.

Nuance has been a pioneer in voice-based artificial intelligence technology and was instrumental in helping to power Apple’s digital assistant Siri. It has since shifted its focus to health care, including a product that listens in on exam room conversations between physicians and patients and automatically writes up the doctor’s recommendations, such as for prescriptions or lab work.

“This clinical documentation essentially writes itself, giving physicians time back to focus on patient care,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on a conference call about the deal Monday.

Microsoft and Nuance had already formed a business partnership in 2019. That relationship grew during the pandemic, enabling Nuance to bring its patient-physician

A MICROSOFT office in New York. Microsoft, on an accelerated growth push, is buying speech recognition company Nuance. (AP Photo/Swayne B. Hall, File) transcription services into telehealth appointments using Microsoft’s video conference app Teams. The Redmond, Washington, software giant said that this month’s deal will double its potential market in the health care provider industry to nearly $500 billion.

“Put Microsoft and Nuance together and it allows Microsoft to go after the exploding health care market, which is on fire right now as it’s modernising, adopting digital engagement and moving to the cloud,” said Forrester analyst Kate Leggett.

Nuance’s products include clinical speech recognition

software offerings such as Dragon Ambient eXperience, Dragon Medical One and PowerScribe, all of which are now built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. The companies said Nuance products are used by more than 55% of physicians and 75% of radiologists in the U.S., and by 77% of U.S. hospitals. Revenue from its health care cloud business grew 37% year-over-year in fiscal 2020.

“AI is technology’s most important priority, and health care is its most urgent application,” Nadella said.

Microsoft also has its own digital voice assistant, Cortana, but its use has been

limited compared to similar consumer-oriented systems from Amazon, Google and Apple. Nuance has sought to refine its voice recognition technology beyond consumer use to better understand the complexities of medical jargon.

Aside from health care, Nuance provides voicerelated AI technology in other products, including security features that can recognise and authenticate individual voices so they can unlock an online account.

Nuance also sells automated call-center and customerservice chatbot services to retailers, telecommunications firms and other sectors.

Scott Guthrie, who leads Microsoft’s cloud and AI division, said Monday that Nuance’s medical industry expertise could eventually expand to other uses, such as interpreting conversations between financial advisers and their clients.

The transaction is Microsoft’s second largest deal following its $26 billion purchase of LinkedIn in 2016.

Last September, it bought video game maker ZeniMax for $7.5 billion.

Leggett said the Nuance deal fits a push by cloud computing providers like Microsoft to supply “industry-specific AI,” or technology that’s tailored to the special needs of the health industry and other sectors.

That gives Microsoft access to a new set of customers, said Gartner analyst Greg Pessin.

“Right now the CIO is who they market to, with Office and Teams and the operating systems,” Pessin said. “This is a different market, with chief medical officers and the doctors. It opens up a new arm for Microsoft’s health care initiative.”

Mark Benjamin will continue as Nuance CEO. The transaction is expected to close this year.

It still needs approval from regulators and Nuance shareholders.

Nuance had 7,100 employees as of September, more than half of whom were outside the U.S. — including crews that help transcribe and edit recorded speech that the AI technology might not fully understand.

EU LACKING SUFFICIENT ELECTRIC CARS CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRUSSELS (AP) — In line with its ambition to make Europe a greener place, the European Union wants to drastically reduce gas emission from transport by 2050 and promote electric cars.

But according to a report from the bloc’s external auditor, it is lacking the appropriate charging stations.

“Last year, one in every ten cars sold in the EU was electrically chargeable, but charging infrastructure is unevenly accessible across the EU,” said Ladislav Balko, the member of the European Court of Auditors in charge of the report published Tuesday.

“We think that the Commission should do more to support EU-wide network coverage, and ensure that funding goes where it is most needed.”

Transport accounts for about 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. The bloc has set itself the goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90 % compared with 1990 levels as part of its effort to become climate-neutral by mid-century.

Noting that an essential part of this strategy is the switch to lower-carbon fuels and electricity, auditors said it’s now crucial to speed up the deployment of charging infrastructure “to promote breakthrough in electro-mobility.”

Auditors acknowledged that the charging network is growing across

THIS photo from 2020 shows a long line of unsold 2020 models charge outside a Tesla dealership in Littleton, Colo. The European Union is lacking sufficient charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, according to the bloc’s external auditor. In a report published Tuesday, the European Court of Auditors said users are gaining more harmonised access to charging networks but the EU is still “a long way from reaching its Green Deal target of 1 million charging points by 2025.” (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) the region, but said its deployment remains uneven.

“The EU is still a long way from reaching its Green Deal target of on million charging points by 2025, and it lacks an overall strategic roadmap,” auditors said.

According to EU figures, there are currently 224,538 charging points across the 27-country region.

Among the major obstacles to electric travel across the bloc, they listed the discrepancies in the availability of charging stations

and a lack of harmonised payment systems.

“In 2020, although there was an overall decline in new vehicle registrations due to the COVID19 pandemic, the market share of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles increased significantly.

“Charging networks, however, are not developing at the same pace,” they said.

According to the report, carmakers forecast that the production of electric vehicles in Europe will

multiply six-fold between 2019 and 2025, reaching more than 4 million cars and vans per year, the equivalent of a fifth of EU car production volumes.

Auditors praised the EU for promoting a common plug standard for charging electric vehicles but said it did not properly identify how many, and where, charging stations were the most needed.

They also said the EU funding “did not always go where it was most needed, and there were no clear and coherent targets, or any consistent minimum infrastructure requirements at EU level.”

They recommended that the European Commission proposed minimum standards and requirements, and that funding criteria should be defined.

Spain announced Tuesday that overhauling its roads to handle electric cars is a leading priority of the payout it is set to receive as part of the European Union’s pandemic recovery package. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that he wants to spend 13.2 billion euros ($15.7 billion dollars) of the 140 billion euros ($166 billion) it is to receive from Brussels on adapting its roadways for electric, hybrid and plug-in vehicles.

In its response to the audit, the bloc’s executive arm accepted the recommendations but also pointed out that it is not entitled to coordinate the deployment of infrastructure, which is the responsibility of member states.

TECHTALK • NEW YORK (AP) — Dubai said Monday that U.S. self-driving car company Cruise will become the first to operate autonomous taxis and ridehailing services in the United Arab Emirates city of more than three million people.

It is the first venture outside of the U.S. for General Motorsowned Cruise, which has been operating electric vehicles in San Francisco for years, although it just recently began testing without the safety of a backup driver in the car. Cruise plans to begin offering a fully autonomous ride-hailing service there but it has not said when that will begin.

The partnership, Dubai officials said, aims to reduce traffic accidents, cut pollution and save money while converting 25% of all trips in the city to driverless transport by 2030.

As part of the agreement, Cruise will establish a Dubaibased company that will be responsible for the fleet of roomy vehicles, which have four passenger seats and no visible driver’s seat or controls.

Dubai’s roads and transport chief, Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, said the process for selecting Cruise as the city’s self-driving car partner took several years and was based at least partly on the company’s relationship with “auto manufacturing giants.” The fleet is expected to start operating in 2023 in limited numbers, before scaling up to as many as 4,000 vehicles by 2030, Al Tayer said.

GM bought Cruise in 2016.

• CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming middle school student has won a contest to name one of the world’s fastest supercomputers.

The new machine will be named “Derecho,” after a type of weather event that can bring hurricane-force winds and heavy rains, the Boulder, Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research announced Monday.

Riverton Middle School eighth-grader Cael Arbogast, 13, submitted the winning name for the supercomputer that will be used to study phenomena including climate change, severe weather, wildfires and solar flares. It will be housed at the NCARWyoming Supercomputing Center on the outskirts of Cheyenne.

“I picked this name because a derecho is an intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorm that travels long and great distances, bringing many storms with it,” Cael wrote with his submission. “This new supercomputer has to move at fast speed for everybody to use all across the country.”

Houston-based Hewlett Packard Enterprise won a bid to provide the $35 million to $40 million replacement machine for the supercomputing center, the National Center for Atmospheric Research announced in January.

The HPE-Cray EX supercomputer will likely rank among the world’s 25 fastest when it goes into operation in 2022. It will have a theoretical maximum speed of almost 20 quadrillion calculations per second, 3.5 times faster than the centre’s current supercomputer, according to NCAR.

PAGE 10, Wednesday, April 14, 2021

US RECOMMENDS ‘PAUSE’ FOR J&J SHOTS IN BLOW TO VACCINE DRIVE

By ZEKE MILLER, LAURAN NEERGAARD AND MATTHEW PERRONE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Tuesday recommended a “pause” in use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of rare but potentially dangerous blood clots, setting off a chain reaction worldwide and dealing a setback to the global vaccination campaign.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration announced that they were looking into unusual clots in six women between the ages of 18 and 48. One person died.

The acting FDA commissioner expected the pause to last only a matter of days. But the decision triggered swift action in Europe and elsewhere as the drugmaker, regulators and providers moved to halt the use of the J&J vaccine, at least for now. Hundreds of thousands of doses were due to arrive in European countries, where vaccinations have been plagued by supply shortages, logistical problems and concerns over blood clots in a small number of people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet cleared for use in the U.S. Any slowdown in the dissemination of the shots could have broad implications for the global vaccination effort. The J&J vaccine held immense promise because its singledose regimen and relatively simple storage requirements would make it easier to use, especially in less affluent countries.

The clots, which happened 6 to 13 days after vaccination in veins that drain blood from the brain, occurred together with low platelets, the fragments in blood that normally form clots.

Doses More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been given in the U.S., the vast majority with no or mild side effects.

“We know there are plenty of critics who say ‘Why? It’s just a couple of cases. Why don’t we just move along?’” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s vaccine centre. He noted past episodes when health problems surfaced in people who got new vaccines, such as the debut of the polio vaccine in 1955 and a vaccination campaign against a new form of flu in 1976.

When medical countermeasures injure people in the United States, “we don’t have a lot of tolerance for that, and that tends to undermine vaccine confidence. So we simply have to do whatever we can to minimize or eliminate issues that might be considered friendly fire.”

The decision immediately upended some vaccine programmes around the U.S.: In Atlanta, a mass vaccination event for public school teachers that was to have used the J&J vaccine was scrapped. St. Louis health officials said they would reach out to 1,800 people who got the shots to warn them of potential health issues. And in Montana, two colleges that had hoped to vaccinate students with J&J doses before they head home for the summer cancelled clinics.

Authorities stressed they have found no sign of clot problems with the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. — from Moderna and Pfizer.

Seth Shockley of Indianapolis received the J&J vaccine Sunday and was initially worried when he heard about the potential side effects Tuesday. His concerns faded when he learned there were only six confirmed cases of blood clots.

“I would much rather take the risk with the vaccine — a much smaller risk — than to risk it with COVID,” he said. Now he’s more worried that the reports could result in more people refusing to get vaccinated.

The FDA said the cases under investigation appear similar to the clots that are possibly linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

THE TRIBUNE

Cop, police chief resign two days after Black motorist’s death

By MOHAMED IBRAHIM AND MIKE HOUSEHOLDER Associated Press BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — A white police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb resigned Tuesday, as did the city’s police chief — moves that the mayor said he hoped would help heal the community and lead to reconciliation after two nights of protests and unrest.

The resignations from Officer Kim Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon came two days after the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center.

Potter, a 26-year veteran, had been on administrative leave following Sunday’s shooting, which happened as the Minneapolis area was already on edge over the trial of an officer charged in George Floyd’s death.

Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott said he was “appreciative” that Potter submitted her resignation but that he had not asked for it nor accepted it. It wasn’t immediately clear what that would mean.

A decision on whether prosecutors will charge Potter could come as soon as Wednesday. Meanwhile, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul imposed 10 p.m. curfews. A Brooklyn Center city spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a message on whether the city would have a curfew.

Gannon has said he believed Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun when she was going for her Taser. She can be heard on her body camera video shouting “Taser! Taser!” However, protesters and Wright’s family members say there’s no excuse for the shooting and it shows how the justice system is tilted against Blacks, noting Wright was stopped for expired car registration and ended up dead.

Elliott said at a news conference that the city had been moving toward firing Potter when she resigned.

He said he hoped her resignation would “bring some calm to the community,” but that he would keep working towards “full accountability under the law.”

“We have to make sure that justice is served, justice is done. Daunte Wright deserves that, his family deserves that,” Elliott said.

OFFICER Kim Potter pictured in 2007. (Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via AP) Activists who attended encounter with Minneapothe news conference called lis police in June. for sweeping changes to Body camera footage the Brooklyn Center Police released Monday shows Department and sharply Wright struggling with criticised the acting police police when Potter shouts, chief, Tony Gruenig, for not “I’ll Tase you! I’ll Tase you! yet having a plan.

Taser! Taser! Taser!” She Elliott said the depart- draws her weapon after ment has about 49 police the man breaks free from officers, none of whom live police outside his car and in Brooklyn Center. He said gets back behind the wheel. he didn’t have information After firing a single shot

POLICE Chief Tim Gannon talks to the media on Monday.

(Shari Gross/Star Tribune via AP) Wright’s father, Aubrey Wright, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he rejects the explanation that Potter mistook her gun for her Taser.

“I lost my son. He’s never coming back. I can’t accept that. A mistake? That doesn’t even sound right.

This officer has been on the force for 26 years. I can’t

ATTORNEY BENJAMIN CRUMP, left, speaks alongside Katie Wright, centre right, during a news conference to address the killing of her son Daunte Wright, Tuesday, in Minneapolis. Daunte Wright, 20, was shot and killed by police Sunday after a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minn.

(AP Photo/John Minchillo) on racial diversity at hand but that “we have very few people of colour in our department.”

The modest suburb just north of Minneapolis has seen its demographics shift dramatically in recent years.

In 2000, more than 70% of the city was white. Today, a majority of residents are Black, Asian or Latino.

Wright was stopped for having expired license plates. Police then tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant after failing to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an

from her handgun, the car speeds away, and Potter says, “Holy (expletive)! I shot him.”

Wright died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the medical examiner.

Protests began within hours.

In her one-paragraph letter of resignation, Potter — a 26-year veteran — said, “I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability, but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately.”

accept that,” he said.

Chyna Whitaker, mother of Daunte’s son, said at a news conference that she felt police “stole my son’s dad from him.”

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said in a statement Tuesday that “no conclusions should be made until the investigation is complete.”

Prosecutors in Hennepin County, where the shooting occurred, said they have referred the case to nearby Washington County -- a practice county attorneys in the Minneapolis area adopted last year in handling police deadly force

cases. Washington County Attorney Pete Orput told WCCO-AM that he had received information on the case from state investigators and hoped to have a charging decision on Wednesday. Orput did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press.

Elliott, the mayor, called for the governor to move the case to the attorney general to prosecute.

Asked to comment, John Stiles, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the attorney general has confidence in Orput’s review of the case.

Ben Crump, the Wright family’s attorney, spoke outside the Minneapolis courthouse where a fired police officer is on trial in Floyd’s death. Crump compared Wright’s death to Floyd’s, who was pinned down by police when they tried to arrest him for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 at a neighbourhood market last May. Daunte Wright “was not a threat to them,” Crump said. “Was it the best decision? No. But young people don’t always make the best decisions. As his mother said, he was scared.”

Potter has experience with investigations into police shootings. She was the police union president and one of the first officers to respond after Brooklyn Center police fatally shot a man who allegedly tried to stab an officer with a knife in 2019, according to a report from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

After medics arrived, she told the two officers who shot the man to get into separate squad cars, turn off their body cameras, and not to speak to each other.

She accompanied two other officers involved in the shooting while investigators interviewed them.

ST VINCENT SEEKS WATER, FUNDS AS VOLCANO KEEPS ERUPTING

By KRISTIN DEANE AND DÁNICA COTO Associated Press KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP) — Leaders of volcano-wracked St. Vincent said Tuesday that water is running short as heavy ash contaminates supplies, and they estimated that the eastern Caribbean island will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the eruption of La Soufriere.

Between 16,000 to 20,000 people have been evacuated from the island’s northern region, where the exploding volcano is located, with more than 3,000 of them staying at more than 80 government shelters.

Dozens of people stood in lines on Tuesday for water or to retrieve money sent by friends and family abroad. Among those standing in one crowd was retired police officer Paul Smart.

Dust “The volcano caught us with our pants down, and it’s very devastating,” he said. “No water, lots of dust in our home. We thank God we are alive, but we need more help at this moment.”

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a press conference on local station NBC Radio that St. Vincent will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the eruption but did not give any details.

He added that no casualties have been reported since the first big

ASH rises into the air as La Soufriere volcano erupts on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Tuesday. (AP Photo/Orvil Samuel)

blast from the volcano early Friday.

“We have to try and keep that record,” he said. Gonsalves said some people have refused to leave communities closest to the volcano and urged them to evacuate.

Falling ash and pyroclastic flows have destroyed crops and contaminated water reservoirs. Garth Saunders, minister of the island’s water and sewer authority, noting that some communities have not yet received water.

“The windward (eastern) coast is our biggest challenge today,” he said during the press conference of efforts to deploy water trucks.

“What we are providing is a finite amount. We will run out at some point.”

The prime minister said people in some shelters need food and

water, and he thanked neighbouring nations for shipments of items including cots, respiratory masks and water bottles and tanks. In addition, the World Bank has disbursed $20 million to the government of St. Vincent as part of an interest-free catastrophe financing programme.

Crops Adam Billing, a retired police officer who lived and tended to his crops on land near the volcano, said he had more than three acres of plantains, tannias, yams and a variety of fruits and estimates he lost more than $9,000 worth of crops.

“Everything that (means) livelihood is gone. Everything,” said Billing, who was evacuated. “We

have to look at the next couple of months as it’s not going to be a quick fix from the government.”

The volcano, which had seen a low-level eruption since December, experienced the first of several major explosions on Friday morning, and volcanologists say activity could continue for weeks.

Another explosion was reported Tuesday morning, sending another massive plume of ash into the air. It came on the anniversary of the 1979 eruption, the last one produced by the volcano until Friday morning.

A previous eruption in 1902 killed some 1,600 people.

“It’s still a pretty dangerous volcano,” said Richard Robertson with the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center. “It can still cause serious damage.”