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Former FNM senator says leader has not communicated position

By KHRISNA VIRGIL Tribune Staff Reporter kvirgil@tribunemedia.net  FORMER Senator Heather Hunt has suggested that Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr Hubert Minnis has not shown effective leadership because he has failed to communicate his position on the four constitutional equality bills.

She told The Tribune yesterday that Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney falls in the same category.

Mrs Hunt is one of the coexecutive directors of the YES Bahamas campaign and said it was her hope that neither of these party leaders falls into a trap of using the equality bills as a “political football�.

Instead, she said both Dr Minnis and Mr McCartney should use this opportunity to inform voters of what they plan to do differently should their parties ascend to government.

Despite the overwhelming misinformation circulating regarding the bills, Mrs Hunt said she remains confident that each of them will be successful on referendum day. The event is slated for June 7.

Mrs Hunt was contacted yesterday in response to Dr Minnis’ highly critical comments of the government in which he questioned how Bahamians were expected to vote yes on the four amendments when they have “little to no knowledge� of what the bills seek to do.

DEPUTY PM CALLS REPORTS ON BAHA MAR ‘MISCHIEF’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister Philip “Brave� Davis yesterday said he could not confirm reports that Chinese investors have requested significant concessions and benefits from the government as incentive to remobilise Baha Mar, but he called concerns about the matter “political mischief�.

SEE PAGE THREE

POLICE SEEK PUBLIC’S HELP IN FINDING KILLER AFTER MAN SHOT ON STREET

SEE PAGE FIVE

ROLLE SAYS SHE WAS SLANDERED AND UNLAWFULLY RECORDED

By KHRISNA VIRGIL Tribune Staff Reporter kvirgil@tribunemedia.net  INSISTING that her name has been “slandered�, Lanisha Rolle was adamant yesterday that she was allegedly “unlawfully� recorded during a private conversation with Free National Movement (FNM) political hopeful Lincoln Bain.

The embattled former senator sought to defend herself from criticism, saying her name has been tarnished with innuendos, propaganda and accusations based on what people think about her meeting

with Mr Bain.

Based on this “defamation� of her character, Mrs Rolle said she was fully within her right to sue the perpetrator of these actions if she chose to do so.

While maintaining that she did “not slip up�, the former senator said her resignation was sparked by personal reasons to the extent that she did not want to be a distraction to the party and its work.

As a guest on 96.9 FM radio show ‘The Conversation’ with host Shenique Miller, Mrs Rolle said this SEE PAGE SIX

THE BODY of a man murdered on Wulff Road is removed from the scene last night.

By KHRISNA VIRGIL Tribune Staff Reporter kvirgil@tribunemedia.net INVESTIGATORS are appealing to members of the public to come forward with information that can assist in solving a homicide that occurred yesterday in the area of Wulff and Pinedale Roads.

According to police, a young man was walking along Wulff Road when another man shot him after a brief exchange of words.

SEE PAGE SEVEN

POLICE at the scene in Wulff Road last night.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

COLLIE: NO HIGH-LEVEL BAHAMIANS FINED AND TALKS ON DNA COALITION JAILED FOR SMUGGLING

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

THERE has been no “executive level discussion� between the Free National Movement (FNM) and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) over the potential for a coalition, according to FNM Chairman Sidney Collie.

Mr Collie made the comment at the conclusion of a series of meetings at the party’s Mackey Street headquarters on Monday night at which four more election candidates - including former Education Minister Desmond Bannister - were ratified.

SEE PAGE FIVE

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TWO Bahamian men were each fined over $62,000 and sentenced to two years imprisonment after they pleaded guilty in the Freeport Magistrates’ Court to assisting in the illegal embarcation of 26 illegal immigrants

from Grand Bahama last week.  Cordero Bethel, 29, and Alexander Levard Williams, 35, both of Freeport, appeared before Magistrate Debbye Ferguson yesterday in connection with an attempted smuggling operation to the United States last Thursday.

SEE PAGE SIX

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PAGE 2, Wednesday, May 25, 2016

THE TRIBUNE

Police clean up to tackle crime

POLICE move in yesterday to clear an old, abandoned home in the Chippingham area on Tuesday as part of a campaign to clean up crime-ridden areas.

Photos: Tim Clarke/Tribune Staff

SIX PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL AFTER THREE SEPARATE SHOOTINGS

By SANCHESKA BROWN Tribune Staff Reporter sbrown@tribunemedia.net

SIX people, including three women, are recovering in hospital following three separate shooting incidents on Monday.

In the first incident, shortly after 4pm a man was walking through a dirt road off Peter Street when he was shot by an unknown assailant, police said. The man was taken to hospital by ambulance, where he remains in stable condition.

An hour later, police said a male and two females were sitting in a Honda on Lime Street in Pastel Gardens when a man with a handgun approached them and fired several shots before fleeing in a black, two-door

Honda vehicle.

The victims were transported to hospital where they are listed in serious condition.

In the final incident, shortly after 10pm a man and a woman were inside their home on Quakoo

Street when a man with a handgun fired several shots at them through a bedroom window before fleeing on foot, police said.

The victims were taken to hospital where they are listed in stable condition.

Anyone with information on any of these shootings is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328TIPS. Investigations continue.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, May 25, 2016, PAGE 3

‘Don’t be fooled by fake promises over Baha Mar’

By SANCHESKA BROWN Tribune Staff Reporter sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday warned Bahamians not to be fooled by Prime Minister Perry Christie’s “false hope and fake promises” in relation to the stalled Baha Mar project.

Mr Christie is expected to make an announcement on the $3.5 billion resort in the House of Assembly today.

In a statement Dr Minnis

said he expects the Prime Minister to make more “overly optimistic declarations and commitments” without a concrete plan.

“The empty rhetoric which he will offer once again will not get Baha Mar open. Nor will it bring the thousands of jobs this government has promised. But with an election sometime soon Bahamians should expect to see lots of PLP organised feel-good photo ops and boisterous declarations of false progress.

“Unfortunately, the people have seen it before; dur-

ing the last election the PLP offered up a long list of false promises,” Dr Minnis said.

“Where is the mortgage relief they promised?

Where is the NHI they promised? With annuals deficits soaring - even after they raised taxes - where is the fiscal constraint they promised? They promised to make our communities safer, but how do they explain the highest murder rate in Bahamian history for two straight years? Do the people feel safer? And in the meanwhile the crime and corruption under this

from page one

quests.

CCA has been the subject of intense criticism from Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian, who has not only sued the company for allegedly failing to meet contractual obligations but also requested that the government arrange a solution to Baha Mar’s delay that does not involve CCA. Against this backdrop, the rumours of the company’s alleged requests prompted some to question its fitness as a partner with the government over a matter like Baha Mar which has important national implications.

Mr Davis, however, said investors are entitled to ask for what they want but that does not mean the government will grant these requests.

“Any investor, not understanding our laws and not understanding the way we do business, may request whatever they think is in their interest,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we will comply with it. We will point out that you can’t get that because the law says this has to happen and we cannot break the law. I think it is just basically political mischief to raise this as a concern.”

Asked if the alleged requests were absurd, Mr Davis said he would only describe them as such if CCA knew the laws of this country.

“I wouldn’t use the word absurdity,” he said. “I would only say that if they knew. If they knew that what they are asking for was unachievable, then I would say it’s absurd to ask.”

When told the company has lawyers who should be informed of this country’s laws and the types of concessions available to investors, Mr Davis maintained his position.

“If I’m an investor, if I am going into a country to invest, I will decide what is best for my investment,” he said. “I would make requests of the authorities and say ‘This is what I would wish to have for my programme proceed.’ We could look at those that they request and then indicate to them, ‘This could happen, that could happen’ and we could point out what can’t happen.”

In his statement on Monday, Mr Christie described it as an “absolute lie” that citizenship in return for foreign investment had been agreed.

“Bahamian citizenship is not for sale at any time at any price to anybody,” the Prime Minister said. “This is a non-negotiable position of my government. Moreover, it is for me personally, a matter upon which no compromise is possible.

“I can therefore assure the Bahamian people, without any equivocation whatsoever, that no deal offering Bahamian citizenship in return for an investment in The Bahamas will ever be entered into while I head the government of The Bahamas. I find the very idea of citizenship-for-sale to be repugnant to all that I believe in and to all that I stand for as a Bahamian.

It will never happen on my watch.”

He added that the grant of Bahamian citizenship is subject to strict eligibility requirements and qualifications under The Bahamas Nationality Act. “The suggestion that just because you buy Bahamian real estate or make an investment you somehow qualify for Bahamian citizenship is complete and utter nonsense. Not only is it as a complete non-starter from the standpoint of the government’s immigration

increase in concessions currently enjoyed by the resort, and the granting of 500 citizenships to Chinese nationals attached to the project in various capacities.

Mr Christie, on Monday night, described it as an “absolute lie” that citizenship in return for foreign investment had been agreed, saying that was a “nonnegotiable position” for his government.

However, the other aspects of the reports were not addressed as Mr Christie said he would speak in Parliament during his 20162017 Budget Communication today.

Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s assurances, Ms McIntosh yesterday contended that any deal with CCA and China Export Import Bank “is a strategic move to take control of the economy of the Bahamas”.

“The Parliament of the Bahamas will meet for the start of the 2016-2017 Budget Communication,” she said. “Prime Minister Perry Christie will speak. I will stand in Rawson Square to demand that he speaks truth to all that we have

heard and that the government does not entertain these demands that involves the strategic move of China against our Bahamaland,” she said, urging other concerned citizens to join her.

“If we do not stand up now, we may never have a chance to stand again.”

Mr McKinney revealed the contents of a purported letter addressed to Mr Christie from CCA during a recent segment of his “Hard Copy” talk show on Peace 107.5FM. Recordings of Mr McKinney’s show have since gone viral on social media, fuelling speculation that the Christie administration was attempting to kick-start the mega resort this year at any cost.

The Tribune understands that Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson and the Prime Minister’s senior policy adviser Sir Baltron Bethel travelled to China at the weekend to discuss the shuttered resort.

Meanwhile, Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis has called on the government to be transparent about Baha Mar negotiations.

DEPUTY PM CALLS REPORTS ON BAHA MAR ‘MISCHIEF’

However, Mr Davis said he is aware that Chinese investors have put forward proposals which have not been brought to Cabinet yet. He told reporters that investors can request whatever they desire, but that does not mean the government will concede to these proposals.

“I understand that they may have made some proposals which have not come to Cabinet as yet,” he said to reporters yesterday.

“I’m not aware of the requests being made. I haven’t seen any letter. It’s been reported that a letter has been written. It’s been reported that the letter found itself in the hands of (talk show host) Steve McKinney who then brought it to the fore,” he said outside Cabinet.

Rumours that China Construction American (CCA) requested the government sell or grant 500 Bahamian citizenships to the Chinese investors, grant the company 30 years of exclusivity on its casino license in which no tax would be paid and grant a ValueAdded Tax (VAT) break for up to 30 years spread like wildfire on Monday.

This came after Mr McKinney revealed the contents of a purported letter addressed to the Prime Minister from CCA during a recent segment of his “Hard Copy” talk show on Peace 107.5FM. In a statement on Monday night, Prime Minister Perry Christie dismissed the idea that his administration would ever consider making citizenship a concession to foreign investors, saying this is a “non-negotiable position of my government”.

However he did not speak about the other alleged re-

BCP CALLS FOR BAHAMIANS TO JOIN PROTEST AGAINST CHINA MOVE

By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE leader of a fringe political party has called on Bahamians to stand with her in Rawson Square today in protest against what she believes to be another country’s “strategic move” to take control of the economy of the Bahamas.

Ali McIntosh, “chief servant leader” of the Bahamas Constitution Party, released a statement yesterday on Prime Minister Perry Christie’s response to unconfirmed reports concerning alleged requests for concessions by Chinese investors to jumpstart the stalled $3.5billion Baha Mar resort on Cable Beach.

Allegations were made by radio talk show host Steve McKinney, who claimed that China Construction America (CCA), Baha Mar’s general contractor, has requested that the resort’s current developer Sarkis Izmirlian not be involved with the project, a 30-year exclusivity with regards to its casino licence, a 30-year value added tax exemption, a 25 per cent

government is impacting our tourism industry.”

Dr Minnis said the only thing he wants to hear from the Prime Minister is the current status of the Baha Mar negotiations.

“That brings us to tomorrow (Wednesday), the Prime Minister will no doubt be ‘optimistic’ that Baha Mar will open and that a deal is imminent,” Dr Minnis said.

“Thousands of unemployed Bahamians have heard this before from the Prime Minister, yet they are still without work. Taxpay-

policy, it is not even legally possible.”

Mr Christie is expected to speak at length about the Baha Mar issue when he makes his budget communication in the House of Assembly today.

ers who continue to foot the bill for the tens of millions of dollars in utility cost that Baha Mar runs up each year, have heard it before as well. Yet they still see their tax dollars vanishing to the vacant, hulking structure.

“If this government truly has a plan the only way for us to be sure is through open and transparent negotiations. The people don’t want any more false hope and fake optimism from the Prime Minister; they deserve an in-depth plan that will get them back to work.

The time for closed-door,

election-year, backroom ‘deals’ are over. The time for their empty rhetoric and broken promises are coming to an end as well.

“It’s our hope that (today) the Prime Minister does not serve up more of his empty rhetoric and election year promises at a carefully staged photo op, but having seen the dismal record of this government we cannot be optimistic.”

On Monday night in a statement, Mr Christie said he would make a communication in the House of Assembly on Baha Mar today.

Wednesday, 25th May 2016

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THE TRIBUNE

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As Zika spreads, Florida town a study in bug-borne illness RIO, Florida (AP) — A summer flu seemed to be sweeping through Rachel Heid’s riverfront neighborhood. Pale and shaky, she left work with a fever. Neighbors had the same symptoms, and a contractor at her home felt so sick he went to the hospital.

Heid thought the neighborhood children were passing a bug around their circle. She never suspected a virus carried by bugs hovering around their birdbaths and tarp-covered boats — until health officials left pamphlets at their houses asking for blood samples if they recently suffered from fevers and joint or muscle pain.

The dengue fever outbreak infected 28 people in August and September 2013.

It caught Florida’s Atlantic coast by surprise. The mosquito-borne disease associated with crowded, third-world conditions had spread among the pink plastic flamingoes of Rio (pronounced RYE-oh) and Jensen Beach.

The mosquitoes that spread dengue also carry the Zika virus, which has been linked to serious birth defects and has grown into an epidemic in Central and Latin America — though officials expect only small outbreaks in the United States.

The successful fight against dengue in these Florida suburbs may forecast what other US communities worried about Zika face as the summer mosquito season begins. Among the lessons local officials learned: the importance of home inspections by mosquito control technicians, media campaigns to “drain and cover” standing water, and changes residents made in their own yards.

Travelers occasionally come home with dengue, but Florida went 75 years without a local infection until a 2009 outbreak in Key West. The state now records a handful of cases annually, mostly in the densely populated Miami area. Health officials have alerted hospitals to the potential for dengue, but mosquito-borne diseases have rarely worried lifelong Florida residents like Heid.

“We don’t have an international airport here. We don’t have a lot of tourism. We don’t have a cruise, we don’t have a port — nothing. So we don’t have the international intake like you would in Miami or the Keys. But yet — we had dengue here,” Heid said.

The 2013 outbreak in Martin County seemed like an anomaly — 100 miles north of Miami, in communities with fewer than 15,000 people — but it had the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit dengue and a traveler who brought home the virus two years earlier.

The last time Heid had thought of mosquitoes as more than pests was in 1990, during a statewide outbreak of mosquitoborne St. Louis encephalitis. Her Martin County high school started playing afternoon football games to avoid bugs biting at dusk, and she remembers the smell of insecticides wafting over as mosquito control trucks passed by.

“When I was a kid, when they would fog, it was heavy,” she said. “It smelled like a can of Raid.”

She noticed there were fewer chemicals deployed in 2013.

Fogging trucks rumbled down the streets of affected neighborhoods nearly every night for a month, but county employees spent more time — four or five hours daily — on sweeps targeting all small containers holding water where Aedes aegypti breed. The biggest offenders: buckets, kiddie pools, recycling bins,

convenience-store soda cups, potato chip bags and boats.

“Rio is this old seaside town, you know, a fishing town,” said Stephen Noe, a county mosquito control inspector.

“Boats were a huge problem.”

Maintenance and office workers from the county engineering department joined Noe and five other mosquito control employees for the work. The response drew resources away from mosquito surveillance elsewhere in the county, but for an operation with a budget under $1m and only six employees, it was enough to handle the outbreak, said Don Donaldson, the county’s engineering director.

Eight people needed hospitalization, but none suffered more severe forms of dengue. Things could have been worse, hospital officials said.

Caught off-guard by the outbreak, blood banks suspended collections in two counties. Officials later determined that was overkill and could have jeopardized a third of Florida’s blood supply if dengue had struck a larger county, said OneBlood’s chief medical officer, Dr. Rita Reik. New protocols suspend donations only from the ZIP codes immediately affected by mosquito-borne viruses.

Today, all but a handful of hotspots in the outbreak areas remain mostly clear of the discarded containers that attract Aedes aegypti, Noe said. “You can’t, you know, eradicate totally, but to go from a dozen houses to just two, even three years later, is great,” he said.

No one has contracted dengue in Martin County since 2013, even though a neighboring county has since documented local transmission of another virus carried by the same mosquito.

Mosquito-borne disease outbreaks develop from a perfect storm of variables, and there’s little evidence supporting the effectiveness of any particular effort to control Aedes aegypti or prevent it from spreading diseases, according to researchers.

“You’ll have to have an infected person arriving into the community, you’ll have to have the vector species in some critical abundance, you’ll need people active outdoors — and you can imagine these things happening every day in Florida.

Why in particular did it take hold in that location and it doesn’t take hold in other locations when you have the same exact circumstance?” said Nathan Burkett-Cadena, who studies how mosquitoes transmit viruses at the University of Florida’s medical entomology laboratory.

Mosquito control efforts helped end the 2013 outbreak, but no one can say to what extent, or to what extent similar efforts would prevent or control Zika transmission elsewhere, Burkett-Cadena said.

But people learned something from the dengue outbreak, said Heid, a 39-yearold office manager who now keeps insect repellent by her front door and in her car and adds a capful of bleach when filling a kiddie pool for her dog to cool off.

A few summers ago, she’d be slapping away at mosquitoes while tending to her garden.

“Now it’s not as bad because people emptied their birdbaths,” she said. “They don’t leave standing water. Everyone’s conscious that their garbage can lids are flipped. Even planters that have a catch pan for the water — people are emptying those.”

By Jennifer Kay, Associated Press

What’s the truth?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

BTC - minority sale of shares owned by Cable & Wireless to Liberty Communications and the much talked about 2 per cent.

I think I have found the 2 per cent that with so much fanfare Wilson-Roberts and Christie so we were told victoriously acquired from C&W so somehow we mathematically have a majority. Actually totally again delusional.

You see the million dollar sponsorship in Festival Carnival, that’s where it is.

Last week, Christie made a comment on lowering cell costs with competition which shocked me – wasn’t the whole exercise of having competition was to reduce the cost of cellular?

Well blow me down Christie says... price not coming down with Cable Bahamas Cellular!

Editor - can we believe anything these fellas ever say?

Lie detectors are illegal – shame but then if used they probably would blow up with some of the answers they would have to check.

If now BTC is so valuable, Prime Minister, with the purchase by liberty let’s sell it but have retain a reasonable license fee paid direct into the treasury so it can’t be used for Junkanoo.

W THOMPSON Nassau, May 22, 2016.

Referendum to end rights as Christians EDITOR, The Tribune

THERE is always a hidden mischief with all Governments that hides the real truth from its citizens. Always a hidden agenda.

And so it is with the gender equality bill that is before Parliament. Are we under attack? Are we being pressured by other countries? Are we a sovereign nation? Our Government yields to outside pressure too quickly.

But surely the Lord God does nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. We have got to wake up: this time the people really have the power, and the government has to listen to the results of the X that the people will speak with.

The Referendum on Gender Equality is not what it seems. If so much as one of the four bills on gender equality passes (it does not matter which one) the rights we enjoy as Christians and as Bahamians will end forever.

The problem with the referendum is not with the Bills themselves but with the facts surrounding those Bills that Bahamians are not being told about.

But, in 2002, the Government signed a treaty called the Economic Partnership Agreement which allowed millions of foreign persons (corporate and individuals) to come into The Bahamas and remain. People could stay only for three months if they held shares in one of the companies here, otherwise government retained the rights to treat them as usual. Foreign companies, however, retained the right to stay here indefinitely in

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net unlimited numbers.

The effect of this, of course, is that The Bahamas will have here more foreign persons (especially companies) than Bahamians so that we become a minority in our own land. None of the seminars on Gender Equality address this problem, which will take effect once the government passes the legislation to give effect to the treaty in 2019.

The problem this raises is that Article 1 of our Constitution says that the Commonwealth of The Bahamas shall be a sovereign, democratic state. As democracy requires the majority will to prevail, the foreign companies will eventually have authority over our people with the attendant powers of passing such laws as they please, including the power to pass gay marriage laws if that so pleases them. This means that our sovereignty is now in question and that the Treaty has raised the issue as to whether or not we are fully sovereign.

This is not the first time questions like these have been raised with a Free Trade Agreement. The European Economic Community raises the same or similar issues as well for Europeans and it is understood that Europeans have given up their sovereignty to become a part of the Union. The difficulty between us and them, however, is that none of them were made to change their identities as a people during the period their sovereignty was called into question.

The Bahamas is the only nation presently doing so.

What is the effect of changing one’s identity from the 1973 Bahamian created by Sir Lynden and Sir Milo and becoming a 2016 Bahamian created by the present government?

The 1973 Bahamian came into being under a fully sovereign state. This modern Bahamian comes into existence while a possibility non-sovereign government operates in The Bahamas.

What is worse is that the question as to whether the government is fully sovereign or not cannot even be answered by our courts as the question is created by a Treaty which no court has power to look into. That means the question as to whether we can even create a new Bahamian right is not a question that a court in the Bahamas can answer and it may have to be left to foreign courts to answer that question. For these reasons, a yes vote on any of the Bills puts the existence of the Bahamas in jeopardy as it means that should a foreign court decide that the Treaty does put into doubt the sovereignty of the Bahamas at present, then it means that the existence of the new Bahamian must necessarily be put into doubt as well.

For all the above reasons we are asking everyone to vote no on all of the Bills until these questions are answered by the international community, including the United Nations and the European Union and CARIFORUM states which participated in the Treaty.

BISHOP LESLIE WOODSIDE May 23, 2016

Baha Mar bids

EDITOR, The Tribune.

BAHA Mar - who did bid?

I hear the big boys didn’t!

Who would be offended or impacted if the Baha Mar receiver would announce the list of parties who did bid ?

It is high time there was some positive news for destination Bahamas ever since this story broke all we have

heard is delusional hearsay and negative news which is sent globally because today news is global.

I agree China State Construction Americas is not a suitable party to hold control of two major hotels – some 8-9,000 jobs.

It seems the only time our Prime Minister is in a hurry is when he travels in his official car – outrider out front and

R

security vehicle behind – get out of the way I am important I am making top secret decisions I can’t be delayed.

If anyone sees or hears about a decision being made please tweet - put on Facebook or what’s-app it... it will make my day.

P J SMITH Nassau, May 13, 2016.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, May 25, 2016, PAGE 5

Roberts criticises Minnis over his stance on referendum

By KHRISNA VIRGIL Tribune Staff Reporter kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts has rebuked opposition leader Dr Hubert Minnis for his stance on the four Constitutional Amendment Bills, saying they should not be based on “supposed conspiracies and suppositions” but on the legal facts surrounding the gender equality referendum next month.

In a statement yesterday,

Mr Roberts invited the Free National Movement (FNM) leader to stand in solidarity with Prime Minister Perry Christie to publicly support the four amendments.

His remarks came the day after Dr Minnis said the Christie administration was shoving the “yes” vote down people’s throats.

The Killarney MP further claimed that the government is biased and undemocratic in its handling of the referendum.

“The four constitutional bills currently before the Bahamian people in a ref-

erendum on June 7 were passed in both chambers of the House with near unanimous approval,” Mr Roberts said yesterday.

“The Progressive Liberal Party supports the government in advancing equality for all Bahamians under the law. The voting in both chambers of the House clearly indicates bipartisan support for the proposed constitutional amendments.

“I publicly invite the leader of the Official Opposition to stand with the Prime Minister in solidar-

ity and public support for these four constitutional bills as they voted in Parliament.”

He added: “Dr Minnis should be seen educating Bahamians on the legal facts surrounding these four bills and condemning misinformation and conspiracy theories because the courts of this country hand down judgments based purely on the facts as they appear in law - not based on opinions, supposed conspiracies and not on suppositions.”

Mr Roberts applauded the work of the Constitu-

tional Commission, which he said continues to do a thorough job of educating Bahamians throughout the country for the past two years. “Their level of public consultation with civil society was comprehensive,” he said.

“At the political level, I am willing to stand in solidarity with FNM Chairman Sidney Collie in a public display of unity as we deepen our democracy by ensuring that both men and women are treated equally under the law and to prevent any future Parliament

from passing laws that discriminate against any Bahamian because of their sex - meaning male or female.”

In an interview with The Nassau Guardian on Monday, Dr Minnis said as a democratic country, the objective should be to educate the people and then allow them to make an educated decision by themselves without any kind of outside influence.

Instead, Dr Minnis said there are those who are trying to force Bahamians to make the choice by “shoving it down their throats”.

MINNIS ‘FAILING TO LEAD’ ON EQUALITY VOTE from page one

A SIGN promoting Rodney Moncur’s “Save Da Woman Dem” campaign.

MONCUR THINKS FOURTH BILL IN REFERENDUM IS WITCHCRAFT

By SANCHESKA BROWN Tribune Staff Reporter sbrown@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL activist Rodney Moncur is calling for all Bahamians to vote no in the upcoming gender equality referendum in order to “save women” from themselves and to “stop foreign men from having the same rights as Bahamian men”.

A week after the launch of his ‘Save Da Woman Dem’ campaign, Mr Moncur told The Tribune that the four proposed constitutional amendments rejected in the 2002 referendum should be rejected by Bahamians once again.

“We need to save our women from foreign men and from the four bills of this referendum. My group is completely in opposition,” Mr Moncur, who recently lost his bid to become chairman of the Free National Movement, said.

“We are not listening to any arguments from these vote yes people. We are

not going to reason with them. We are opposed to the woman having the right to pass citizenship (and) we do not want foreign men to have equal rights as a Bahamian man.

“We are opposed to the man passing his citizenship on to his children if he is not married. The man should be married having children.

The fourth one is the most sinful one of them all. To insert the word (sex) is immoral and indecent. I do not trust the government. This entire exercise is confusion and underhanded work. I believe this is Obeah, this is witchcraft.”

Mr Moncur also said he believes if the government was sincere about democracy it would fund those campaigning against the referendum. However he said ‘Save Da Woman Dem’ is raising money independently.

The group is having its second anti-referendum rally on Thursday night at 7pm at #22 ‘Woman Dem House’ headquarters on Je-

rome Avenue.

The constitutional referendum will be held on June 7.

Bill one would give Bahamian women who are married to foreign men the right to pass on their Bahamian citizenship to any child of that union no matter where that child is born.

The Constitution currently says that only Bahamian male citizens by birth have that right.

Bill two would allow a Bahamian woman married to a foreign man the right to secure for her husband the same access to Bahamian citizenship as a Bahamian male has in relation to his foreign wife.

Bill three would grant any unmarried Bahamian man the right to pass on his Bahamian citizenship to any child he fathers with a foreign woman with proof of paternity.

The final bill would make it unconstitutional to discriminate on the grounds of sex, meaning being male or female.

COLLIE: NO HIGH-LEVEL TALKS ON DNA COALITION from page one

“There are no negotiations, absolutely no negotiations by the leader and none by the chairman,” Mr Collie told The Tribune.

“The statement has been tossed around by a lot of political groups and personalities. But as of today, there has been no communication between the FNM and the DNA about a coalition.

“While it is a great idea, the statement has always been that the FNM was interested in a coalition of all major oppositional forces in an effort to rid this country of the Progressive Liberal Party. No FNM ever used the term coalition; that is term that the press invented or Mr (Branville) McCartney invented, but, never the FNM. Our position calls for all of these forces to come together - under the banner of the FNM - and focus

our energy on defeating the PLP.” Mr Collie reiterated comments by Long Island MP Loretta Butler Turner on Sunday, suggesting that the FNM’s brand was stronger than all of the other opposition parties throughout the country.

DNA Leader Branville McCartney told The Tribune last week he had been approached “several times” by senior members within the FNM, as well as sitting FNM MPs, to join the Official Opposition.

He said while the DNA will never “fold up” and join a “sinking FNM” he proposed that the two parties “join forces and work together” to oust the PLP from government.

Earlier this month, Mr McCartney said a coalition between the FNM and DNA would “finish” the PLP. His comments came while he was a guest on the 96.9 FM radio show, ‘The

Revolution’ with host Juan McCartney.

While the speculation of a merger has captivated the pubic, no clarity has been offered by any of the parties on how such an arrangement would work.

When asked if the FNM should slow down its ratification process in an effort to convince other opposition forces that the party was open to talks, Mr Collie said that the FNM was a strong political organisation with a rich history - insisting that it had no need to “slow its development down for anybody.”

To date the party has ratified a total of 15 candidates for next year’s general election including Mr Bannister, who will run in Carmichael, former FNM Acting Chairman Brensil Rolle in Garden Hills, Gadville McDonald in Cat Island, San Salvador and Rum Cay and former Senator Frederick McAlpine in Pineridge.

She dismissed this claim saying the Constitutional Commission has worked around the clock for the last two years ensuring the electorate has a clear understanding of the amendments.

“The yes campaign wants to highlight that all of the amendments were almost unanimously passed in the House of Assembly,” Mrs Hunt, who served in the Senate until January 2015 until Dr Minnis asked her to resign, said.

“With this exercise of constitutional reform, the Leader of the Opposition worked very closely with the Prime Minister and in fact they issued a joint statement with respect to the passage of these bills in the House of Assembly. So it is important that Dr Minnis not criticise the work of the YES Bahamas campaign because really the yes campaign is really only in keeping with the entire government of the Bahamas’ decision that these bills are a good thing and they ought to be put to the people because they were passed almost unanimously.

“Now as to the educational responsibility of the YES Bahamas committee, we need to remember that the Constitutional Commission has been educating the Bahamian public on this topic consistently now for at least two years. We also wish to remind persons that this topic of discussion has been in the public domain on and off for 15 years and so the idea that YES Bahamas is not carrying more of an educational thrust is really not a proper assumption.”

She added: “My view is this: voters look at what politicians do more than sometimes what they say.

Based on the actions of the Parliament of the Bahamas this yes vote is a good

FORMER FNM Senator Heather Hunt. thing. If it were not, then we would have been having more no votes coming out of Parliament and we would not be here.

“And further, voters and Bahamian people in general are looking at the men who aspire to be the Prime Minister of this Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

They have a responsibility to speak to issues and to let people know this is a good thing or if this is a bad thing. Let people know I would do this differently.

Let people know when you elect me to be Prime Minister of this country this is what I will do and this is how I will change it.

“If that is the type of conversation you wish to have then I can fully respect that and I will say that you are being effective as the Leader of the Opposition and Mr McCartney, who is the leader of the Democratic National Alliance who also aspires to be the Prime Minister.”

Mrs Hunt said she remains encouraged that the four amendments will be successful.

“I am still very confident and very hopeful. We are continuing to push in these last few days to make sure that we continue to dispel misinformation and try to inform Bahamian people and to minimise the anxiety that has been placed out there.”

On Monday, Dr Minnis questioned the Christie administration’s method of obtaining support for the bills, saying the yes vote was being shoved down voters’ throats. He claimed that the government was biased and undemocratic. Dr Minnis further asserted that the YES Bahamas campaign has been encouraging the electorate to vote yes to each of the bills but said he found this hard to understand saying people could not vote in the affirmative if they don’t know what they are voting on.

WORK

NOTICE

Hanna Rd, Kool Acres, Lubumba Lane and Fox Hill Rd South

The Water and Sewerage Corporation advises the public and its customers of Hanna Rd, Kool Acres, Lubumba Lane and Fox Hill Rd South that improvement works will continue on Thursday May 26th, 2016 which may affect water supply to the aforementioned area.

Works are scheduled to begin at 10:30PM and is anticipated to be completed by 3:00 AM. The Corporation apologies for any inconvenience which may be caused and appreciates your support as we work to improve our services.

Tel: (242) 302-5599 or Toll Free (242) 300-0150 Find out more on

or our website www.wsc.com.bs

PAGE 6, Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Bahamian sheds light on origins of the universe

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

ALBERT Cox Jr, the first Bahamian scholar to have his scientific research documenting the origins of the universe accepted, was recognised by the Governor General yesterday as he prepares for a worldwide promotional and educational tour next month.

Mr Cox’s philosophical theory ‘The Composition of the Universe and Credibility of Divine Existence’ has been endorsed by a number of international philosophers and scholars and comes as a result of arduous research over many years.

On the sidelines of his gift presentation to Dame Marguerite Pindling at Government House yesterday, the 32-year-old R M Bailey graduate described to The Tribune how his quest to understand the world around him propelled him to analyse the details of everything.

“I was on a quest, I wanted to understand my humanity and the origins of man,” Mr Cox said. “At the same time I had to grasp the concepts of everything and everyone - a need to understand the relation of us as people and our relation to

‘

THE TRIBUNE

I was on a quest, I wanted to understand my humanity and the origins of man. At the same time I had to grasp the concepts of everything and everyone - a need to understand the relation of us as people and our relation to the greater universe.’ the greater universe.”

He recalled that as a young child, he was always captivated and driven to find out more about the human understanding and their perception of the universe and divinity, a point endorsed by one of his exteachers, the former Senator Jacinta Higgs.

She told The Tribune that most of her interaction with Mr Cox left her “amazed” and often with more questions than answers. Mrs Higgs pleaded that the realisation of Mr Cox’s pursuit should now open the door for many other Bahamian youths to move away from the questions of ‘what if’ to commentaries of ‘what more’.

“He proves that that inkling to go further and think more can pay off,” Mrs Higgs said. “There were times he left me as a teacher wondering about if there was more to be obtained.

Standing here at this moment, celebrating his successes, I now know that we

have so much more as people we can give.”

Also in attendance at yesterday’s gift presentation was former Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt, Director of Library Documentation Dorcas Bowler, Chief Neurologist of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Dr Magnus Ekedede, and Jamaal Rolle, The Celebrity Artist and Tribune cartoonist.

The presentation and acceptance by the Governor General came in preparation for Mr Cox’s global tour to share aspects of his theories at various universities and institutions. Mr Cox leaves on June 16 and the two and a half week tour will include stops in England, Canada, Vienna, India and the United States.

Mr Cox, who was a research student at St Mary’s University in Eastern and Western Philosophy and Theoretical Science, will also make a formal presentation to the Minister of Education on Monday.

ALBERT Cox and his book, The Composition of the Universe and Credibility of Divine Existence.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

ROLLE SAYS SHE WAS SLANDERED AND UNLAWFULLY RECORDED

from page one

was “for the greater good” of the FNM. She further responded to questions about her relationship with FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis, telling a caller: “That’s the things we got to go through, but I have armed myself likewise knowing that these things will confront (me). They always try these things with women but that’s okay.”

Mrs Rolle suggested that she was under constant political scrutiny saying she was unsure of where all the “arrows” were coming from.

She resigned from the Senate on May 13 after The Tribune exclusively published a series of sto-

ries highlighting what was purportedly said during a meeting between her and Mr Bain.

The Tribune has heard the purported audio in which both hopefuls spoke at length of their political futures. In it, Mrs Rolle was also heard making disparaging comments about certain FNM members of Parliament including Long Island MP Loretta ButlerTurner.

However, Mrs Rolle denied railroading her colleagues and further declined comment when she was questioned about whether she initiated the meeting with Mr Bain.

She said: “I was also a member of the Royal Bahamas Police Force for many years and in the secret ser-

vice of the force and so I have no need to fear anything. I don’t know how any communication was doctored.

“Another thing; any disparaging remark about any of my fellow FNM MPs … when I had something to say I said it and if I intended for it to be public I said it publicly and so I don’t have any need to fear.

“People will believe what they want to believe. People will carry information the way they want to carry it and people will construe the way they want to construe and construct it.

“That is all what I believe perhaps had taken place and so if you don’t want to believe me and you think that I’m not telling the truth and you believe Mr Lin-

coln Bain, who has certain character and history, well you go right ahead. Always check the validity and the character of your source.”

Despite suggesting that Mr Bain was a man of questionable character, Mrs Rolle admitted that she several times met with him on different occasions.

“Lincoln Bain is one of the many persons that I speak with and I have not just had one or two or three meetings with him or any other. I have had several conversations with Mr Bain so I wouldn’t even go there and venture into that.

“Someone recording or allegedly recording a private conversation is not a slip up. It is not a slip up.

It is unlawful and illegal and Lanisha Rolle’s right

to privacy if it has been was violated under the law and we must stick on foundation and principle. (That is) what the Bahamian public ought to understand because it can be me today and it can be you tomorrow and so you must understand the principle of the matter.

“It was wrong and it was unlawful, if in fact it was done.”

In the purported audio of the meeting, Mrs Rolle also alleged that FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis intentionally delayed ratifying party parliamentarians and announced to Mr Bain that the party decided not to offer him the nomination for the Pinewood constituency.

Mrs Rolle courted controversy almost immedi-

ately after she was chosen

by Dr Minnis to replace Heather Hunt in the Senate. Ms Hunt resigned in January 2015 when Dr Minnis asked her to step down from the post.

Mrs Rolle also faced a backlash in January, when she criticised Mrs ButlerTurner during an appearance on a radio talk show.

She said the country would not support the Long Island MP as leader, adding that some MPs are “jealous” of Dr Minnis.

Her statements prompted several sitting MPs to demand that she apologise, which she eventually did.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson said at the time that she had “no sense”, calling her one of Dr Minnis’ “tragic mistakes”.

DOMINICAN FISHERMEN FINED $170,000 FOR POACHING

By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

ELEVEN Dominicans were fined a collective $170,500 yesterday in Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to five poaching related charges.

Juan Santas, 60, Juan Martinez, 45, Winston Diaz, 39, Victor Vasquez, 37, Danny Martinez, 34, Rosario Vargas, 32, Jonathan Gomez, 31, Juanarede-la Tavares, 26, Luiz Diaz, 26, Jose Teyada, 24,

and a 16-year-old, all appeared before Magistrate Constance Delancy concerning the sighting of a vessel in a suspected poaching operation in the southern Bahamas last week.

They were arraigned on and pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in foreign fishing in the exclusive fishing zone of the Bahamas, possession of Nassau Grouper weighing less than three pounds each, possession of fresh Crawfish during a closed season, possession of Crawfish measuring less than three and a

18 CUBANS HELD

BY DEFENCE FORCE

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

EIGHTEEN Cuban migrants found stranded at Elbow Cay were picked up by the US Coast Guard and brought to Grand Bahama where they were turned over to immigration authorities on Tuesday.

According to reports, the 13 men and five women were stranded for seven days on the cay before they were spotted by Coast

Guard officials.

The group was transported to the Lucayan Harbour on board the USCG Cutter Richard Etheridge.

Immigration officials reported that the migrants left Cuba on a rustic vessel and were en route to the United States, but only made it as far as Elbow Cay. All of the migrants were in good condition and are expected to be flown to Nassau to be detained at the Detention Centre to await repatriation.

quarter inches and possession of a shark.

They were each fined $10,000 with respect to illegal fishing, $1,000 for the undersized Groupers, $2,500 for the closed-season Crawfish, $1,500 for the undersized Crawfish and $500 for the Lemon Shark.

They were told failure to pay the fine would result in eight months at the Department of Correctional Services.

“The court makes its decision in light of the fact that the defendants have partici-

pated in depleting the precious resources of this country and depriving Bahamian fishermen of means to provide for their families,” the magistrate said.

“This law is to safeguard the resources for generations of Bahamians,” Magistrate Delancy added before advising them of their right to appeal.

“Upon payment of the fine or expiration of time served, you shall be handed over to the Department of Immigration for immediate deportation to your home

country,” the court ruled.

According to initial reports, the HMBS Lignum Vitae intercepted a 60-foot vessel near Cay Lobos, in the Ragged Island chain on the Great Bahama Bank on May 18 after receiving information.

The Royal Bahamas Defence Force pursued and intercepted the vessel, on which 11 crew were found.

After boarding, RBDF marines found a large quantity of suspected scale fish and lobster.

The men and the ves-

sel were brought to New Providence where a detailed check uncovered 146 pounds of undersized Grouper, 6,566 pounds of Crawfish and a shark.

The Dominicans, with the aid of a Spanish interpreter, asked the court for leniency as they had “accepted responsibility for their actions and now understand their error”.

The magistrate, in addition to the fines, further ordered that the vessel ‘Emil’ and the captures be confiscated for the Crown.

BAHAMIANS FINED AND JAILED FOR SMUGGLING

from page one

The pair was apprehended by the US Coast Guard after the vessel they were on developed engine problems about 17 miles off the Florida coast. There were 24 Haitians, including a 16-year-old Haitian girl, and two Ecuadorians also onboard.

The group was brought back to Grand Bahama on Saturday and turned over to immigration officials.

During yesterday’s arraignment, the men were represented by Ernie Wallace. Senior Immigration officer Jerome Hutcheson

CORDERO Bethel and Alexander Levard Williams.

II was the prosecutor.

On the charge of assisting in illegal embarcation, the men pleaded guilty and were fined $62,500 each and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

If they fail to pay to the fine, they will serve an addi-

tional two years imprisonment, the sentences to run consecutively.

Additionally, Williams was also charged in April in connection with a previous smuggling incident and pleaded not guilty to illegal embarcation and assisting

in illegal embarcation. He was remanded in custody to the Bahamas Department of Corrections, but later granted bail and released.

While in court, Williams decided to change his not guilty plea to guilty. He was fined $3,000 for assisting in illegal embarcation and sentenced to one year in prison.

Upon failing to pay the fine, he will serve an additional year, which will run consecutively.

One the second count of illegal embarcation, he was fined $300 or one year imprisonment which will run concurrently.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, May 25, 2016, PAGE 7

SUPERINTENDENT of Police Paul Rolle speaking to the media at the scene of the shooting.

POLICE SEEK PUBLIC’S HELP IN FINDING KILLER AFTER MAN SHOT ON STREET

from page one

It happened at around 6pm, police said, and marks the 49th homicide for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

Chief Superintendent in charge of the Central Detective Unit (CDU) Paul Rolle said the incident lasted for about ten seconds, leaving investigators with little information.

He said: “This chap, he

was walking west along Wulff Road, he was accosted by another male. We initially said they were walking but now it seems like they got into a short exchange of words when the other male produced a handgun and shot him and then he took off onto Pinedale Road.

“The incident lasted about ten seconds. It was very short.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact their nearest police station.

RESIDENTS watch on at the scene of yesterday’s murder as police investigate.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

Replacement dorm at BAMSI to take ‘two years’ to complete

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE reconstruction of the fire-damaged male dormitory at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) in North Andros will likely take “two years” to complete, the establishment’s Director Dr Godfrey Eneas said yesterday.

Dr Eneas said the male dormitory, which was set on fire and completely destroyed in January 2015, will probably take a yearand-a-half to two years to complete because the government is seeking to construct a building that is larger than the original structure.

Dr Eneas also said the government is still seeking a quote for the cost of constructing the new male dor-

mitory; however, he said the design for the new building has already been drawn up.

He also said that Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) has “just about completed” the electrification of the entire campus, and that “some landscaping” has commenced on site. He said the only delay is the completion of the female dormitory, which he said is underway but “not moving as fast as we would like for it to move”.

Nonetheless, Dr Eneas said officials still expect that construction on all of the buildings, with the exception of the male dormitory, to be fully complete by September.

Last month, Agriculture Minister V Alfred Gray said he expects construction on all but one of the buildings at the North Andros site to be finished be-

fore the end of May. At the time, Mr Gray said the only exception to the May completion date would be the fire-damaged dorm.

He said repairs had not yet commenced due to the government planning the construction of “a larger building to house twice as many students” as the original structure.

When questioned for an update on the progress of construction, Dr Eneas said: “To construct the male dorm will probably take about two years because there’s been some expansion to it. It wouldn’t be the same size as the one that burned down, it’ll be a lot larger. But certainly we anticipate all of the (other) construction work to be completed for the September term. That is our goal.

“The campus has been electrified,” he added.

“(BPL) has just about completed all of the electrification of the campus. The classroom block is ready for occupancy. I think they’re just waiting for the carpet to be placed in the administration building.

“The bid has been approved for the internal works, the roads and the landscaping. Some landscaping has been started.

The only area that is slow at the moment is the completion of the female dorm. It

THE College of The Bahamas (COB) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Sciences Institute (BAMSI), which officials from both establishments hailed as a positive step towards bringing “expertise to the field of Bahamian agriculture”.

At a signing ceremony at the Harry C Moore Library yesterday afternoon, COB President Dr Rodney Smith heralded what he said is a partnership between the two institutions to advance “the knowledge and practice of marine sciences in the country”.

“We are confident that this collaboration will go a

long way in helping to address food security in the Bahamas and it will help us to develop our agricultural and marine science economies, through the students, the country’s future agricultural and marine specialists who will graduate from BAMSI,” Dr Smith said.

“We are not in competition with each other. We will have a collaborative partnership for the full benefit of the entire country.”

According to Dr Smith, effective this year, students graduating from BAMSI will have earned a certificate from the institute or a degree awarded by COB. After COB’s transition to university status, Dr Smith said BAMSI graduates will be awarded a degree from the University of the Bahamas in collaboration with BAMSI. According to BAMSI Di-

Scotiabank (Bahamas) Limited is seeking the services of a

Marketing Manager Position Summary: The Marketing Manager, Caribbean North provides complete marketing support including communications and public relations to the business in the district countries with primary focus on The Bahamas, this position also supports the marketing efforts of the Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands and British Virgin Islands and works under general supervision on the execution of regional integrated, multi-channel marketing campaigns that support growth, build portfolio balances and achieve loyalty objectives for the Bank’s business lines.

The incumbent will provide support to the following tasks: the ideation, production, implementation and execution of all marketing related activities, media planning for regional advertising campaigns and campaign budgets, help drive the communication strategy, enable the on-time, on budget and effective delivery of prospects-focused communications across all channels.

rector Dr Godfrey Eneas, Dr Smith and his team have already reviewed BAMSI’s syllabus and its curriculum, and have not only determined that BAMSI is “on the right track”, but are also prepared to authenticate BAMSI’s degree programme, certificates and diplomas as well as “legitimate our standing as a tertiary academic institution”.

“With COB being the premier tertiary institution in our country, having a partnership with us at BAMSI is very important because it provides certain standards and also certain advantages,” Dr Eneas said. “We’ll be able to share students, we’ll be able to share faculty, we’ll be able to participate in joint research projects, and we’ll be able to address some issues on the environment that face The Bahamas jointly.”

Key Accountabilities for this role include: 1. Development and delivery of campaigns and activities against the Annual Country Marketing Plans to support the achievement of Business Line Marketing Strategies and communication programs.

2. Media planning and management for local and regional campaigns and marketing tactics.

3. Execution and maintenance of the Bank’s comprehensive and integrated merchandising strategy that creates a positive sales environment in keeping with guidelines for display materials to support sales objectives, campaigns and periodic themes.

4. Assisting in the development and maintenance of a comprehensive base of market intelligence required to enable effective management of advertising activities through researching and tracking competitor positioning, messaging, advertising, promotions and other related activities .

5. Development and execution of internal and external communication strategies including the effective use of digital and social media to support campaigns and sales objectives across business lines while driving user engagement.

Required Skills: • Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.

• Must simultaneously contribute to a multitude of projects and support activities across many stakeholder groups, for the district countries.

• A strong customer-focused orientation is required to interact with project stakeholders.

• Multi-tasking and time-management abilities to handle multiple concurrent initiatives with different time requirements.

• High level of creativity is required, as this role contributes to planning, development and implementation of marketing strategies.

• Strong communication and relationship building skills and ability to contribute to the campaign execution process engaging multiple internal and external partners.

CONSUMER AFFAIRS UNIT MOVES TO HILTON THE Consumer Affairs Unit has been temporarily relocated to the Ministry of Labour and National Insurance in the Fort Nassau Centre at the British Colonial Hilton.

According to a press release, the government office has been temporarily moved due to remedial works being carried out at the J L Centre on Blake Road. Persons wishing to contact the unit may do so at 322-3105 or 397-0700.

The government also announced that the Public Service Centre for Human Resources Development is now temporarily located at the Ministry of the Public

Service at Poinciana Hill on Meeting and Augusta Streets. Persons wishing to contact the centre may do so at telephone number 502-7200.

• Operations of the Department of Civil Aviation (CAD) and the Department of Meteorology (DOM), offered at the JL Centre, Blake Road, have been temporarily suspended for the remainder of the week while the building is undergoing remediation works.

The following services of the CAD are temporarily located at the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Manx Corporate Building,

West Bay Street: Flight Standards (3975501) Air Navigation Oversight (397-5501) Aerodrome Oversight (397-5501) General Administration & Accounts (397-5501) Aeronautical Information Services (376-8324) Persons wishing to contact the Department of Meteorology may call 3777461, 377-7178 or 3777074 at the Lynden Pindling International Airport.

The departments are scheduled to resume normal operations at the JL Centre on Monday.

sparked controversy when Works Minister Philip “Brave” Davis revealed that it was never insured.

Mr Davis had previously said in the House of Assembly that at the time of the fire, the contractor’s all-risk insurance policy had lapsed due to non-payment.

In July 2015, Mr Davis said the destroyed dormitory would not be repaired until all other BAMSI buildings had been completed.

Career Opportunity

COLLEGE SIGNS MEMORANDUM TO SECURE LINK WITH BAMSI

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

is moving but it is not moving as fast as we would like for it to move.”

BAMSI is a major government initiative established in an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on food imports. The school opened to students in September 2014 even though the campus was not finished.

The fire-damaged dorm, which was constructed by contractor Audley Hanna of Paradigm Construction,

Qualifications: • A Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or related discipline and 2-3 years of relevant experience.

• Experience in media planning and management, event planning and execution, merchandising material production and distribution.

• Working knowledge of brand and communication guidelines.

Qualified candidates should submit C.V. via email to: hrbahamas@scotiabank.com on or before June 2, 2016.

Please note that only those individuals short-listed for an interview will be contacted.

Trademark of The Bank of Nova Scotia, used under licence (where applicable).

®

PAGE 8, Wednesday, May 25, 2016

THE TRIBUNE

When parliamentary privilege was on the other foot

A

CCORDING to Fred ‘This is War’ Mitchell, he will not be bound by any court of law when it comes to what he considers to be his unqualified right to say and do whatever he pleases in Parliament.

I have already described the current controversy over parliamentary privilege as a storm in a teacup, deliberately manufactured to deflect attention from a public relations problem over influence peddling on a massive scale by Canadian resident Peter Nygard.

I gave a potted history of the arcane 16th century British origins of the concept of parliamentary privilege. But I also pointed out that the controversy threatens to open a constitutional Pandora’s Box - depending on how far government politicos are prepared to take matters.

Both Mitchell and his colleague - Jerome ‘Rubis’ Fitzgerald - have made an indignant pretence of claiming a right to parliamentary privilege with complete immunity from the law. “Any injunction which purports to restrict that (right) seeks to do so in vain,” as Fitzgerald declared melodramatically.

But if we take just a few steps back in time to when the Pindling government was faced with its own massive influence peddling scandal, we learn that the issue of parliamentary privilege was placed on the other foot then.

Some 30 years ago, the late Everette Bannister was a well-known cigar-chomping crony of then maximum leader Lynden Pindling. It

‘

was Bannister who cleverly earned a $300,000 “finder’s fee” for selling the Paradise Island bridge to the government. And it was Bannister who helped fugitive financier Robert Vesco channel payoffs to Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) bigwigs to avoid extradition.

Bannister was at the top of his game as a bag man in January 1982, when opposition MP Mike Lightbourn unleashed a bombshell in Parliament - producing the famous Miami Herald headline: “Scandal is Bitter in The Bahamas”. This was just before dramatic disclosures of the government’s “Nation for Sale” dealings with foreign drug lords, which led to the 1984 Commission of Inquiry.

Lightbourn tabled documents outlining Bannister’s connection to an American investor named Abraham J Lieber in a scheme that involved widespread payoffs to top government officials in return for extensive commercial “arrangements”.

Lightbourn asked for a select committee to investigate “all matters pertaining to the peddling or purported peddling of political influence for personal profit”.

Lieber was a former New York jewellery maker who had reinvented himself as

But the very next day Everette Bannister foiled this plan by calling a press conference and identifying himself on ZNS. He called Mike Lightbourn a liar, claimed the documents were forgeries and then refused to answer questions. And while ZNS obligingly ran EB’s complete denial, it failed to mention any of the stupendous charges made against him. This was typical for the time, and things are much the same today at the Broadcasting Corporation.’

an international developer and head of the EuroAmerican Amherst Group.

In 1979, as a special favour, he had given Pindling a secret $650,000 mortgage on his Skyline Drive home, for a nominal interest rate.

At the time, The Tribune reported that the file for the mortgage company was “missing” from the Registry.

The most explosive document in Lightbourn’s possession was an account of a meeting that took place in the Philippines in early 1979, between individuals identified only as “EB” and “AJL”. This memo listed 26 items discussed by the signatories.

The memo said Bannister was to act as an intermediary between the Amherst Group and the government to obtain approvals, permits and other concessions to facilitate large-scale business ventures which the Amherst Group contemplated undertaking in The Bahamas.

These concessions included work permits for expatriates who were to be employed on the projects, licences to operate a casino in Freeport and a bank in Nassau, authority to build a convention centre on Cable Beach and to open facilities for horse racing and dog racing. Bannister would also arrange for all government buildings and vehicles to be insured through one of Lieber’s companies.

One of the documents alleged that “Bannister has arranged for A J Leiber to meet privately with the Prime Minister on several occasions as well as several other cabinet ministers, particularly George Smith.

A J Leiber has made many

MINISTER of Education Jerome Fitzgerald is incorrectly identified as Jerome Gomez by the white text on the video in this image with Peter Nygard. Is the recent row about parliamentary privilege nothing more than a destraction from the influence peddling by the Canadian millionaire? payoffs (in cash and gifts) graham, Sinclair Outten vengeance because of the to officials of the Central and George Mackey from political impact the scandal Bank, Members of the cabi- the PLP, and opposition would have on the PLP. I MPs Jimmy Knowles and ran out of gas and did not net and the civil service.” run again. I was going broke As I wrote in The Trib- Mike Lightbourn.

The revelations were anyway.” une at the time, these politiBefore the 1982 election cally damaging accusations widely publicised in the presented government- press and were such as to the opposition had been dicontrolled television sta- smear the cabinet, civil vided into the Social Demtion ZNS with an appalling servants and other officials. ocratic Party (SDP), led problem of news manage- So Attorney-General Paul by Norman Solomon, and ment. “They solved it,” I Adderley began formulat- the Free National Movewrote, “by saying only that ing the government’s de- ment (FNM), led by Kendal ‘a Bahamian businessman’ fence, which amounted to Isaacs and Cecil Wallace had been charged with ‘po- an attack on parliamentary Whitfield. Solomon wound up the SDP in 1982 and ran litical peddling’. Despite privilege.

In February, Adderley as an independent, while the fact that Bannister had been identified in the news- declared that “Mike Light- the FNM won 11 of the 43 papers and in Parliament, bourn can say anything House seats.

Ingraham was made a ZNS referred to him only as he chooses on the floor of the House, but he need be cabinet minister after the the mysterious ‘EB’.”

But the very next day EB aware of what he says lest election. Four years later, foiled this plan by calling a there be consequences. he was expelled from the privilege PLP after taking a stand press conference and iden- Parliamentary tifying himself on ZNS. He was never meant to cloak against widespread official corruption. called Lightbourn a liar, crime.”

He then asked for a court This analogy is not perclaimed the documents were forgeries and then re- order forcing Lightbourn to fect, but as senior lawyer fused to answer questions. turn over all documents and Fred Smith has said: “PriviAnd while ZNS obligingly the names of his sources so lege does not put Members ran EB’s complete denial, it the government could in- of Parliament in a class failed to mention any of the vestigate the allegations. alone, they are still subject stupendous charges made Attorney Keith Duncombe to the laws of the land. If against him. This was typi- opposed the application on Members of Parliament can cal for the time, and things the grounds that it “con- be prosecuted for matters are much the same today at stituted a breach of parlia- that occurred in Parliament the Broadcasting Corpora- mentary privilege, in par- so too can they be chalticular the right to freedom lenged for breaches of the tion.

Meanwhile, the House of of speech in Parliament” Constitution.”

The reference to prosecuAssembly was in an uproar, and that “the Bribery Act but the government could should be construed so as tion recalled a 2009 scandal not see its way to reject the to preserve parliamentary in Britain, when several MPs were charged with subselect committee Light- privilege”.

But in his March 1982 mitting fraudulent expense bourn had asked for. Those appointed were Hubert In- judgement, Chief Justice claims. Some claimed imVivien Blake said parlia- munity from prosecution mentary privilege did not because of parliamentary enable Lightbourn to re- privilege, but this defence fuse a notice served upon was rejected by the court. him under the Bribery Act. In other words, Parliament Lightbourn said he would cannot use privilege as a appeal the order, but other method to avoid abiding events intervened. by the ordinary laws of the Ingraham, as chair of the land. select committee, had isSo presumably what we sued a report on the scan- are left with is political dal which was not the usual theatre. A cynical effort political whitewash - some- to deflect attention from thing that came as a huge Peter Nygard’s influence surprise to most observers. peddling. From charges of He also wrote a private let- sedition to claims of parter to Pindling warning him liamentary privilege and that his association with threats to haul a sitting Bannister was damaging judge before a political inthe government. quisition, it is frightening to This led the Prime Min- see just how far government ister to dissolve the House politicos will go in the interand call an early election est of propaganda. in June, which the PLP won handily, and the scandal What do you think? Send was essentially buried. As comments to lsmith@ Lightbourn recalls: “The tribunemedia.net or visit AG came after us with a www.bahamapundit.com.

THE THETRIBUNE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, May 2016, PAGE Wednesday, May 25,25, 2016, PAGE A99

TECHTALK

GOOGLE

• TWITTER is making big changes, at least in the context of its signature 140 characters or fewer.

The social media service said yesterday that photos, videos and other media will not count toward Twitter’s 140-character message limit. Now, for example, when a user posts a photo, it counts for about 24 characters.

While replies to another user, which start with the @ symbol and the user’s name, will not count against character limits, names with the @ symbol in the middle of a tweet will still count.

People will also be able to retweet and quote their own tweets.

PLAYS CATCH-UP WITH NEW PRODUCTS

GOOGLE wants to play an even bigger role in managing people’s daily lives while also nudging them into an alternate reality, as the Internet company responds to competitive threats posed

by Facebook, Amazon and Apple.

As part of an onslaught of upcoming products, Google will implant a more personable form of artificial intelligence into an Internet-connected device called Home, which echoes the Echo, Amazon.com’s trendy smarthome speaker.

Meanwhile, Google will also delve deeper into the still-nascent realm of virtual reality (VR) with a system called Daydream that is meant to challenge Facebook-owned Oculus’ early lead in fabricating artificial worlds.

In an attempt to outshine Apple, Google is also adding features to its Android operating system, including the ability to run apps without actually installing them on a device.

Instant Apps is Google’s answer to the pain of install-

GOOGLE’S Home device, which echoes the Echo, Amazon.com’s smart-home speaker. ing phone apps you know you will use just once or twice, for shopping or booking a parking spot, for example. With this approach, the app runs on Google’s servers instead of your phone. Only the parts you need are sent to your phone on an as-needed basis.

There will also be a new chat service called Allo that is designed to counter Facebook’s Messenger app and WhatsApp. Allo will draw upon a vast database that Google has built through its dominant Internet search engine to predict how you might want to respond to a text and automatically fetch links to video clips and other information that seem relevant to an ongoing conversation.

Although the new products will offer some unique features, they mostly paint a

APPLE STORES SET FOR A MAJOR OVERHAUL APPLE is overhauling its nearly 480 stores worldwide, starting with its new two-storey location in San Francisco.

The store opened to the public on Saturday and is supposed to conjure the ambiance of a town square where people can gaze through giant windows to savour views of the city as they stroll through spacious aisles.

It also features a 42-foot-tall sliding glass door that opens up to San Francisco’s busiest shopping district.

Apple opened its first stores - renowned for their elegant design and employees roaming the floor offering assistance - in Virginia and California 15 years ago.

Apple plans to convert up to 10 per cent of its existing stores to the concept annually and some will have to move from current locations in malls to accommodate all the changes.

The store changes include dispersing various accessories down a row of cubicles along a wall to simulate the experience of walking from one small store to the next. Apple is calling this area “The Avenue”.

Apple’s “Genius Bar” for fixing problems with its devices is being renamed “Genius Grove” and relocated into a bigger area of the store with more tables and chairs to create a more relaxing atmosphere for those who might be stressed about a malfunctioning iPhone or computer.

Apple is also setting up cubes and balls in an area called “The Forum” that can seat up to 100 people for educational sessions about photography, music and other topics covered by experts in the field. Bigger stores like the one in San Francisco will have a space called “The Boardroom”, where tech startups and other small businesses can hold closed-door sessions.

picture of a company scrambling to catch up with its rivals.

Google Home, for instance, will mostly do the same things already performed by the Echo, a cylinder-like speaker that Amazon released last year.

The Echo responds to voice commands to play music, read books, answer questions and manage calendars.

It also turns off the lights, hails Uber rides and keeps adding new tasks as programmers build more apps for it.

Not surprisingly, Google touts its Home speaker as a more intelligent and versatile device, mostly because it can tap into the same stockpile of information that makes Google’s Internet search place so popular. Google also has redesigned its virtual assistant to be more con-

versational and intuitive. It will be the voice and brains inside Google Home.

Although it is meant to be more personal than the automated voice that Google currently uses to respond to spoken requests on smartphones and computers, the company is simply calling it “Assistant”, unlike the human names given to other virtual assistants from Amazon (Alexa), Apple (Siri) and Microsoft (Cortana).

Google has not revealed a price for the Home device, though presumably it will be competitive with the Echo, which sells for $180.

Daydream is a new virtual reality ecosystem that will be made available to all. Google will sell a virtual-reality headset with a wireless motion controller expected to carry the Nexus brand that the company originally cre-

ated as a showcase for its Android operating system for smartphones. No details of price or availability have been announced.

Consumers will need a new smartphone to power the headset, tethered to the “N’’ version of Android that Google plans to release later this year and requires more processing power and sensors unavailable in any phone already out.

Google’s new VR headset will not be as sophisticated as the recently-released Rift from Oculus, which costs $600 and must be tethered to computers that can cost another $1,000 or so.

Oculus spent several years perfecting the Rift, which features technology that looks so revolutionary that Facebook paid $2 billion to buy the startup in 2014.

Associated Press

DOOM CURSED AND BLESSED BY NOSTALGIA

DOOM (Bethesda Softworks, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, $59.99) Rating: BEFORE there was “Halo” or “Call of Duty”, the first-person shooter video games “Wolfenstein” and “Doom” defined the trigger-happy genre in three dimensions. While the former received a thoughtful re-imagining in 2014’s “Wolfenstein: The New Order”, the same cannot be said for a new “Doom”.

“Doom” sticks closely to the wacky plot of the original 1993 game. Players again portray an unnamed space marine crudely blasting his way across Mars, where hellish demons of all shapes and sizes are pouring out of gaping interdimensional holes.

This is a game about shooting everything that moves until everything doesn’t move. There are no moral quandaries, battlefield allies, brain-teasing puzzles or interactive cut scenes. This updat-

ed “Doom” may have the highdefinition polish of a modern-day shooter, but it’s unapologetically rooted in the 1990s.

All the weapons a die-hard “Doom” devotee could desire are present - rocket launcher, super shotgun, chainsaw and of course the BFG (the series’ signature weapon: a really big gun).

Other than allowing players to upgrade their arsenal and armour, the only innovation on the point-and-shoot approach is a new melee combat system that makes this already gory franchise even more violent. Now, players can recharge themselves by initiating a “glory kill” when adjacent beasts are near death.

While hardcore shooter fans may baulk at needing to holster their weapons to snap a succubus’ neck or rip off a devil’s horns, frequent and fast dismemberment is key to keeping the action frenetic and the health bar filled.

The game’s levels are well laid out and filled with fun secrets to discover between firefights. Alas,

there’s little variation in colour and how they look.

The soullessness extends to the soundtrack: “Doom” composer Mick Gordon’s score is a hot mess, a disjointed mix of industrial guitar riffs bordering on parody when joined with the guttural grunts from hell spawn.

Beyond the single-player campaign, a multiplayer mode feels more like a “Quake” clone than the latest from a series that pioneered the way gamers play together online. The exceptions are the promising “snapmap” level creation tool and the compelling “freeze tag”, where teams must simultaneously work together to encase opposition in ice and thaw out friends. Overall, “Doom” isn’t a bad game. This revamped installment definitely captures the frenzied, bloodthirsty spirit of what made the original “Doom” and “Doom II” hallmarks of the genre. It’s a heck of a shooter but stuck in the past.

DERRIK J LANG Associated Press

• THE Nokia mobile phone is coming back.

The Finnish telecoms company, which has focused on networks since it sold its troubled devices unit to Microsoft in 2014, is bringing out “a new generation” of cellphones and tablets with a new company called HMD. Nokia will not make the phones or tablets itself. HMD, which is led by a group of former Nokia and Microsoft executives, will produce them under the Nokia brand. HMD will invest $500m in the next three years.

Nokia was, for years, the world’s top mobile phone maker until the advent of smartphones such as the iPhone and Androidbased systems.

• EUROPEAN aeronautics giant Airbus has unveiled the ‘Light Rider, an electric motorcycle made from tiny aluminum alloy particles using a 3D printer.

Weighing 77 pounds, capable of 50 mph, with a range of 37 miles and looking like a Swiss cheese on wheels, the Light Rider uses hollow frame parts that contain the cables and pipes.

The frame weighs just 13 pounds, about 30 per cent less than conventional e-motorbikes.

The company is taking orders for a limited run of 50 motorbikes, costing $56,000 plus tax each.

• A SOLAR-powered airplane has reached the Ohio hometown of two of America’s most wellknown aviation pioneers on the latest leg of its around-the-world journey.

The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 landed late on Saturday in Dayton, where inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up. The plane took off from Tulsa International Airport before 5am for the 17-hour flight.

The plane is due to leave for LeHigh, Pennsylvania, today on the next leg and is expected to make at least one more stop in the US, in New York, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe or northern Africa.

The globe-circling voyage began in March, 2015, from Abu Dhabi and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan.

• FOUR sister Valkyrie robots built by NASA could be pioneers in the colonisation of Mars, part of an advance construction team that sets up a habitat for more fragile human explorers.

The US space agency has kept one robot at its birthplace, the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, and loaned the others to universities in Massachusetts and Scotland so professors and students can tinker with the 6ft, 300lb humanoids and make them more autonomous.

The $2m robots have 28 torque-controlled joints and nearly 200 sensors. The universities are partnering in a two-year project to improve the robot’s software and test its ability to manipulate tools, climb a ladder and perform high-level tasks.

PAGE 10, Wednesday, May 25, 2016

THE TRIBUNE

Entrepreneur is branching out across America A YOUNG Bahamianborn entrepreneur and his wife are enjoying success with a company they launched in Atlanta four years ago, so much so that last year they expanded their business to the Kansas City area and have now moved into Omaha.

Tyrone Sawyer II and his wife, Jemima, co-founded Jemima’s Playhouse LLC, a new age educational company, through which they have “introduced a fun, innovative way to reach children between the ages of two and 12 years old”.

“We have seen a tremendous growth in business since we started in Atlanta in 2012,” Mr Sawyer said.

“We are now expanding into Omaha, Nebraska, our fourth state. Our goal is to continue to grow, have fun with the children and continue to lead though implementing new, innovative teaching skills. Jemima’s Playhouse is a cultural children’s programme that teaches music, foreign languages and geography through its original songs and unique characters.”

On Saturday, Jemima’s Playhouse staged a show

entitled “Senor Burro’s Big Surprise” at the North Atlanta Church, featuring the “favourite donkey, Senor Burro, and original songs with the assistance of 200 performing students from different schools across Atlanta”.

Among those in attendance was Randy Rolle, Bahamas Consul General to Atlanta, who had high praise for the event.

The company describes Jemima’s Playhouse’s approach to teaching as: “Just imagine a four-year-old student in Atlanta, Georgia, Kansas City Metro Area or Omaha, Nebraska singing, ‘I’m a Cool Donkey!’, at the top of her lungs with a blissful smile upon her face and her pony tails wagging out of control. But it is happening. And it is happening with increasing frequency at a variety of kindergarten and elementary schools across Atlanta, Kansas City and Omaha.”

‘I’m A Cool Donkey!’ is the signature song for the flagship costumed character, Senor Burro, created by Mr Sawyer, a former standout track and field athlete, and his wife.

“The choice to teach students through innovative characters has given the Sawyers an interesting platform to introduce each topic,” the company’s media release adds. “Through Jemima’s Playhouse there is Senor Burro the walking, talking donkey from Mexico, who teaches students Spanish. There is Madame Belle, the shy cow from France who teaches the children French. BahamaMan’s calling is to teach the children social responsibility by engaging them in a fun-filled environment that makes them want to learn. Each character has its own personality and its own story to tell. This has made Jemima’s Playhouse a good-choice option for schools that seek new and exciting ways to mold their students and to keep them actively engaged.”

The release adds: “Jemima’s Playhouse has changed the way students learn in a constantly shifting global environment. This ‘cultural appreciation method’ has caught the attention of many schools as they have invited the company to become a part of their schools’

TYRONE Sawyer II and his wife, Jemima, with Randy Rolle, Bahamas Consul General to Atlanta, and Tyrone Sawyer Sr, senior director of airlift for The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. instruction. This has also begun to get the attention of School District Supervisors and many parents who have requested this programme for their children. Jemima’s Playhouse has also built close relationships in communities that it serves by offering pro bono services to underprivileged children through its Jemima’s Loving Hearts Foundation.”

The Sawyers’ teaching approach was lauded by Jay Bryan, owner of The Goddard School in Sandy Springs, Georgia. “I have seen the positive, rich learning environment Jemima’s Playhouse has created with the students,” Mr Bryan said. “The innovative characters and foreign languages bring joy to my school

and that makes it easy for me to support Jemima and Tyrone in this venture.”

Mr Sawyer is the son of Tyrone Sawyer, Senior Director of Airlift for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, and the late Caroline Sawyer. He attended Gambier Primary School and graduated as Head Boy in 1997, then went on to St John’s College High School, from where he graduated in 2003 as Head Boy. He was a member of the Bahamas’ national Track and Field team at the 2002 CARIFTA Games (under-17 silver medals in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays) and 2003 CARIFTA Games (under-20 bronze medals in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay); he won a

bronze medal in the 2002 CAC Championships for 100m); and competed at the 2003 and 2004 Junior Pan Am Championships, the 2003 World Youth Championships and the 2004 World Junior Championships. In 2009 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Haven, Connecticut, and Nova Southeastern University in 2012 with an MBA. Jemima Sawyer graduated from Barry University in Miami, Florida, in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Nova Southeastern University in 2011 with an MBA. She is currently enrolled in the Doctorate Programme for Education at Nova Southeastern University.

G N I D N E L A HAND

THE Lend A Hand Bahamas Foundation (LAHB), which is seeking to construct a muchneeded community centre in Grant’s Town, held a fundraising ‘Party with a Purpose’ on May 14 at John Watling’s Distillery.

Locals and visiting Americans enjoyed an evening of food, drink, music and guests speakers to continue the campaign,

which marked a significant milestone last month with groundbreaking at the proposed site in Lewis Street.

LAHB, a Bahamian nonprofit organisation that seeks to bring more activities and opportunities to socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the country, works with other inner-city community entities including the Greek Orthodox

church.

The land, on the corner of East Street, has been donated and cleared and the first phase of construction of the community centre is in the works. LAHB is currently sponsoring and initiating programmes, opportunities and activities for children in the area while it continues to plan and raise funds for the remaining stages of development of the centre.

SCENES from the Lend a Hand Bahamas ‘Party with a Purpose’ fundraiser for the Lewis Street community centre held at John Watling’s Distillery.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, May 25, 2016, PAGE 11

GAMING COMPANY SUPPORTS CRAB FEST

PARADISE Games has announced a newly-formed partnership with and financial support for the All Andros Crab Fest, which takes place next month.

The gaming company recently handed over a cheque for $70,000 to the Central Andros Crab Fest Committee and says the impact has been immediate, with the festival site undergoing extensive refurbishment with local tradesmen employed to ensure a best in class event.

The three-day Crab Fest

YOUR

ASTRA NOTTAGE, marketing & media relations manager of Paradise Games, and Wayne Cleare, chairman of the Central Andros Crab Fest Committee, with the sponsorship cheque.

runs from June 9 to 11.

“Paradise Games’ commitment to the All Andros Crab Fest is one we are all very excited about,” Paradise Games executives said in a statement. “This large scale commitment is further testament to Paradise Games’ promise to invest substantially in historically, culturally relevant and authentically Bahamian festivities and events.”

Paradise Games has 38 locations across eight Bahamas islands and has plans for continued expansion.

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