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VOLUME:115 No.163, JULY 18TH, 2018

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: $1

ALICIA WALLACE: Time catches up with us all PG8

‘No hypocrisy’ in UBP hero award

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis does not believe his criticism of the United Bahamian Party during his most recent majority rule address is incompatible with his decision to award Sir Roland Symonette a National Hero honour over the recommendations of his advisory committee, according to Press Secretary Anthony Newbold.

In January, Dr Minnis hailed the historical events that culminated in the first majority rule government in 1967, lambasting the era which preceded that

achievement. Critics say his statements then conflict with his recent decision to bestow the country’s highest honour on the man who led the UBP. During his January address, Dr Minnis said: “In the middle of the 20th century the House (of Assembly) was firmly under the control of an entrenched oligarchy, who maintained their stranglehold through unjust electoral laws and the brutal exercise of economic power. It was then that a new generation of political leaders rose up to challenge the old guard and to bring pressure on the colonial power for change.

“In the 1960s some of the

STRAIN BEHIND STRAW MARKET SMILES

SEE PAGE FIVE

MINNIS SEEKS UN CASH FOR HOUSING

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

WHEN he sits down for private discussions with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in New York, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis intends to seek funding assistance for his administration’s housing initiative for the poor.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, the prime minister explained the government would like to offer special concessions

to those in the inner city for affordable housing. This, he said, falls in line with a UN goal to assist the less fortunate.

More specifically, the assistance would aid the Minnis administration’s plan of establishing one subdivision every year for the next ten years.

With poverty measured at 12 percent in New Providence and 17.5 percent in the Family Islands, Dr Minnis said the matter was more pressing.

Dr Minnis left the SEE PAGE FIVE

4C’S BOAT SEIZED

BY PORT OFFICIALS

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE Port Department yesterday moved to seize vessels owned by Four C’s Adventures after it was reported the Exuma tour company had resumed operations in contravention of a government order.

Four C’s was ordered to cease and desist SEE PAGE THREE

WATER BOSS: WE WANT OUR MONEY

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

WATER and Sewerage Corporation Executive Chairman Adrian Gibson has confirmed officials are still pursuing all outstanding revenue associated with the “do not disconnect” list of privileged residents exposed by The Tribune last September.

Addressing the status of the corporation’s recovery efforts on Monday, Mr Gibson said officials continue to write to individuals featured on the now defunct list, reminding them of the status of their balances.

SEE PAGE SEVEN

CUSTOMS LOST HALF OF ALL DUTY REVENUES THE TRIBUNE visited the Straw Market on Bay Street yesterday to gauge vendors’ opinions on the government’s move to evict stall owners behind on their rent. See page 12.

PHOTO: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staff

CONCH POISONING CASES KEEP ON RISING

CONFIRMED cases of Margaret Hospital and Docconch poisoning continue to tors Hospital. climb, according to Health Dr Sands said the govMinister Dr Duane Sands, ernment was not pursuing who said the tally stood at 17 punitive action for seafood yesterday. vendors, but it may be ineviDr Sands said the number table if the problem escalates. was likely to increase unless “Unless the vendors adhere vendors moved away from rigidly to washing conch in longstanding cultural practices CONCH being prepared at fresh water, the number is and embraced the overwhelm- Potter’s Cay recently. going to go up and up and ing evidence linking the up,” he said. poisonings to the use of salt water to clean “The bacteria is present in the water and conch meat. as the temperature increases - you know There are 17 confirmed cases, and we’ve had a lot of days in the 90s - it is three pending cases from Princess SEE PAGE THREE

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net The government has admitted to losing around 50 percent of due Customs revenues from inefficiencies in a system it is working feverishly to reform by eliminating manual processes.

The confession is contained in the government’s own just-published review of The Bahamas’ progress in meeting the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, with the report’s release timed to coincide with Dr Hubert Minnis’s visit to the New Yorkbased body today.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

PAGE 2, Wednesday, July 18, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

SON OF LOCAL ACTIVIST IDENTIFIED AS GRAND BAHAMA HIT-AND-RUN VICTIM

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE victim of Sunday’s hitand-run accident in Grand Bahama is 21-year-old Trey Garvey, the son of local activist Troy Garvey who had reported his son missing to police on Monday evening.

A relative said police reportedly have someone in custody who they are questioning in connection with the accident.

However police did not confirm this up to press time.

Mr Garvey, the founder of the group Determined for Absolute Change, and several family members were at the Rand Memorial Hospital’s morgue on Tuesday morning to identify the body.

According to initial reports from police, officers discovered the body of a man on West Sunrise Highway, west of Yorkshire Drive, shortly before 5am on Sunday. The victim was unresponsive. Reports are the man had been struck by a vehicle that left the scene.

Trey Garvey was a member of the Grand Bahama Youth Choir and had also enrolled in the National Training Agency programme.

Charlene Garvey, Trey’s mother, is devastated over the loss of her son, who was the youngest of four.

“I do not know what to say and I am at a loss for words because that was my baby,” she told The Tribune yesterday.

She described her son as a “quiet, humble, and mannerly person who does not bother with anyone.”

Mrs Garvey found it strange that he would be in the West Sunrise Highway area at that time.

“I don’t know why he would

“Over this weekend, we saw one of our talented and gifted young men lose their lives as a result of a hitand-run, and we want to send condolences out to family members, and that our prayers are with them.”

Grand Bahama Christian Council President Rev Robert Lockhart be in that area,” she said, “but I understand that the police has someone in custody.”

Grand Bahama Christian Council President Rev Robert Lockhart, the pastor of Calvary Temple Church, said the island

has lost a talented young man, and appealed to the person responsible to turn themselves in.

“Over this weekend, we saw one of our talented and gifted young men lose their lives as a result of a hit-and-run, and we want to send condolences out to family members, and that our prayers are with them,” he said.

“We want to encourage persons that when things like this happen, we want to treat human beings as human beings; you hit somebody and just leave them there is a very cruel act,” he said.

He appealed to the community or anyone who knows about the incident to come forward.

He said it is important that the matter be concluded so the family can have some closure.

Rev Lockhart is also urging the community to drive safely and pay attention to speed limits, and for both motorists and pedestrians to be respectful of each other while crossing the street, especially at pedestrian crossings.

“I noticed people do not stop for pedestrians as they are crossing the pedestrian crossings.

“Let’s be respectful of one another because we have a responsibility to protect one another and take care of one another – that’s what community

TREY Garvey

is all about, that’s what being neighbourly is all about.”

He also stressed pedestrians must be careful when using their cellular phones.

“I was driving and noticed that

a gentleman was on his phone, and he was not aware he was no longer on the sidewalk because he was talking on his phone. So, let’s be careful and pay attention and drive carefully and adhere to the rules of the road,” he said.

FOUR MEN ELECTROCUTED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net

BETA CAMP OFFERS HANDS ON EDUCATION IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING THIS summer, Bahamas Engineering and Technology Advancement (BETA) Camp, will host its 5th annual STEM based programme, providing students in grades seven to nine the opportunity to experience hands on education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

In a press release, Cloud Carib, a technology company, said it is proud to be involved in the camp and support the initiative as a gold sponsor for the second consecutive year.

This summer, BETA Camp is scheduled to run from July 23-28 at the University of the Bahamas in Nassau.

The theme for this year’s camp is ‘The Smart City Challenge: Innovating the Future of Island Life,’ where the curriculum will be centred around the fundamentals of building a smart city by incorporating different aspects of technology that unite to create a better and more sustainable world.

“BETA Camp is educating and inspiring the future scientists, engineers and technologists of the Bahamas. Cloud Carib is proud to support an initiative that empowers the youth of our country and facilitates the betterment of our nation,” said Scott MacKenzie, CEO of Cloud Carib.

FOUR men were electrocuted in an industrial accident in Eleuthera on Monday, leaving one in hospital.

Police are investigating the incident, which occurred shortly after 11am in Governor’s Harbour.

According to a Royal Bahamas Police Force crime report, the four men “were removing palm trees from a container” at a business

on Banks Road when the incident happened.

One of the trees came in contact with a high voltage electrical line, resulting in all of the men being electrocuted.

The victims were subsequently taken to the local clinic.

Three of them were treated and discharged, while the fourth was flown to New Providence for further medical attention.

He is listed in stable condition.

Last Wednesday, a man was killed after being

EVERY MONDAY IN THE TRIBUNE

INSIGHT FOR THE STORIES THAT MATTER

struck by lightning in New Providence.

The incident occurred in the afternoon at Goodman’s Bay. According to police press liaison officer, Superintendent Shanta Knowles, the man was setting up Goodman’s Bay for an event.

“The gentleman was staging the beach for a function, or setting up chairs, during that inclement weather, and…was struck by lightning and died on scene,” Supt Knowles said last week.

A7INSIGHT

THE STORIES

BEHIND THE

NEWS

My journey to top of the wor the ld MONDAY, JULY

On May 22, Baham ian banker Richa Beek fulfilled rd his when he conqu childhood dream Now safely backered Mount Everest. time to reflect home, he has had adventure and on his incredible write down his journe following in the y men and wome steps of the brave who had gone n mountaineers before him.

16, 2018

MOUNT Everest , rising is further 29,028ft above up the Westsea level is the highest ern Cwm mounta (pronounced Earth. The summit in on “Coom”, which means of Mt valley Everest sits on in Welsh).

Camp between Nepal the border 2 is at 21,000ft and is the There are two and Tibet. next largest ing routes on main climb- Base Camp. camp after This camp is approaching Everest, one set up for climbers to stay the summit from the southea longer st in Nepal dining with cooking and (known as tents the standard and has more route or South infrastructure. and the other Col route) Every step required north in Tibet. from the number of breathes beforea On May 22 this year, I summited Mt and after. After every eight Everest via the to ten steps I route from Nepal.South Col stop and rest would have to on The summit poles. I would my hiking blasted by the is usually lean forward make myself jet stream then as I for much of have to move would the my feet ating wind speedsyear, cre- to keep balance of up to move and 200mph and forward again. thus Later, of -80°F. In temperatures when we started May year, the approac of each bottled oxygen, breathing this helped soons in India hing mon- significantly stream north push the jet needed energy.with much winds to decreascausing the Following peratures to rise,e and tem- and acclima a further rest “summit window creating a Camp 2, tising day at we descended ”. During all these short window the way back THE SHADOW s, climb- Camp, of Everest from to Base ers attempt the summit and, behind where to right, the shadow summit knowing reach the few days were a welcome looking Richard Beek as he stands on towards the summit top of spent eating, the win- sleeping dows usually and looking down the world. Below, the top. and on a climber from few hours to only last a This acclima recovering. Saturda a few days at tising a time. was then repeate process to the y was a rest day due having intense effort d, where a mental debate Due to the we of the with decreased to climbed to Camp1, then previous day. differing air pressure, Camp 2; where On Sunday, May on how you felt.outcomes the summit we rested of Mt Everest before 20, Once again contains Camp ascending 2,650ft to climbed up the Lhotse we less than one the sun face 3. to Camp 3 and started to use was intense and we oxygen found third of the Camp 3 is supplem were very at sea level or in other words way up the located half tanks ental oxygen. The to relieved hold over 3,000 arrive Camp have in the Bahamawhat we which is an Lhotse Face of oxygen and each litres temperature can 4. The icing slope of s. Typi- over cally, climber change weigh 4,000ft over s summit after achieve the a constant in height and at Camp 15lbs. We departed 100 degrees over a very 70 short 2 at 4am to of acclimatisingten weeks While on the degree angle. we ensure you period of time, so were Lhotse on the there need not mountain. If are fixed lines Face, heat of the climbing in the for extremeto be prepared a day. that dropped off on person was a climber attaches to for at Camp 3 whichWe arrived extreme heat.cold and also the summit directly from safety. In Camp is located sea At Camp 3, the tent at 23,625 ft, at 11am. would die within level, they platforms are Once eat, drink 4, climbers try to cut out of the in our tents, we minutes . and relax as their To mitigate ice, tried to summit It the risks ness and due to the steep- relax, however the of extreme sun is evening attempt begins that and exposure, was high climbers baking down and the at 9pm! It is climbers undergo altitude, wear crampo tents dawn very get ous acclimatisation a rigor- clipped into ns and remain able.very hot and uncomfort- difficult to get much needed that you’re as my sleep, due to the fixed lines You are continuo rotation - climbing to climbing the heat Sherpa usly commot higher camps to move around camp and breathing oxygen ion in camp. and a storm. into I approached and on the mounta from here to also visit the From onwards and the summit and toilet! at night sleep 6pm, the Sherpas start boilback down to in and then After two hours were able to From Camp ing water and 3, we with your mask on. this increase base camp – descend to ing in the wind of climb- watch the sunrise soon after s The climb from food, while you preparing of red blood the amount the followin Camp 2 and 3 it suddenly got and snow, arriving. A fellow team-ma are Camp going to g through cells te quieter and and his Sherpa day descend Camp 4 is in the all the the final body allowing the wind disappe 2,460 ft on joined us way to Base after ared. your equipme checks was Camp. which took seven hours to still transpo the body After six days nt, packwhen we were This The 15 minutes of solitude. the ing followin rt re-coop your oxygen ing, pyramid shaped close down suit pockets to the South despite the thin we were finally erat- 4 is located g day. Camp with snacks, shadow air. On the ready at water and your the night sky Summit and of Mt Everest was an impresfinal summit attempt, most for the final summit push. the last camp 26,085ft is camera. Due prior to the climbers use lighter in the began to get sive sight and stretche to supplemental This was planned for Satur- summit. east. We had across to the cold, climbers the intense d oxygen above a short rest day, May 19, howeve horizon.

Already the 25,000 feet. at the South off their gloves do not take It r was due anticipa to surreal Summit I flew into forecasted bad or backpack. tion The rests to and swopped weather that level was very high out that my shadow was know are very short the oxygen cylinder on May 5 and Kathmandu was due on are lost in your as you and climbers apex of the pyramid at the .

Lukla two days then flew to our departu May 23, need to access The route to thoughts snacks . It was re the summit warm enough and mental and drinks is a small town later. Lukla moved forwardwas is along the checkto take my summit ridge gloves off perched on lists. You know their pockets and eat from the side of a for a few minutes with is a very Friday mountain and to exposed and take a few that the next on the go. During the gateway to morning, photos and fin of rock summit and videos. After 25 minutes 18 hours are my region. The walkthe Everest so that overhanging my Sherpa said going to be climb of eight est base camp into Ever- we we needed could snow hours, I did and to start heading down the weeks, slowly takes two summit hardand not ice. take off There leave behind est in your to base camp ascending in better my is a drop of had taken so the summit I backlife 17,500ft – this situated at weather. long to reach and pack, 4,000 is and 3,000 ft on fulfil a dream ate ft that it has above the tallest When the since one mountain side childhood. taken years one Snickin Colorado.

At its peak, time came, we and 7,000 I felt many bar for you to ers more than 1,000 departed at emotions ft on the euphoria of drank be in this posi- and be at base camppeople can to climb 4am being on the around two cups other. summit; relief tion. You As climbers, sherpas including the Khumbuthrough having made just of water. it was 4am, it; trepidat Icefall while and camp it hope everyth staff. was still frozen ing the sky began descent; ion for the tiring Two hours into and “safe”. go according to plan will in awe of the Once at base Due to the and to get lighter view and camp, matising our previous accli- that this is your only chance climb, my headlamp climbers nervousness. the surrounding and There also failed trips, we are at the summit. begin plunging my peaks their was also now acclimatising world into slowly began to Next was Camp complete darknes process by much quicker and reached emerge out calmness that a sense of ascending 4 which you experis – luck- of the blackness. is through the Camp 1 at 9am, rested ence in a spiritua for is in the death zone – this ily I had a back-up but just Khumbu Icefall an hour and A formidable the zone above an hour later obstacle Everything seemedl place.

1. The Khumb to Camp to Camp 2. then continued where that failed too along the ridge 26,000ft due to be is the The climb to u Icefall is in slow motion to the oxygen notoriously in the drainedthe intense cold that Step - a near-ver Hillary senses with my risky. Seracs, Camp 2 took a further five atmosphere is so tical 40 the batterie tuned crevasses feet rock face sparse hours. and that needed surroundings. in with the shifting were Unfortunately there human body cannot the Sherpa and I were s. My to be blocks of ice climbed. Hillary able to stay change no clouds nor for prolong make Today the batteries ed periods wind, and the so the sun being back icefall one of of howling in a Tenzing Norgay famousl here was intense and time and is slowly the wind y in The Bahamas it gerous sections most dan- reflected off scrambled up feels this sheer step like a dream the sides of the is a very barren, dying. It ried on climbingand we carof the route.

To reduce in 1953 when . the hazard, mountains pushing the tem- table and windswe inhospithey became was definite and surreal. It After climbers usually ly perature pt place reached four hours we the first climbers begin their Fahrenh above 100 degrees about 500 yards to conquer an amazing worth it and an area called ascent well experience. It long by eit.

The the mountain. Since 200 before that was also when the freezing dawn, be on the ice It is bizarre to placeyards wide. Definitely a Balcony which is a small first successf ul summit, all mentally very tiring and area where that you don’t tem- such warm and experience peratures glue exhausting. one can rest climbers summiti want to hang But ng Ever- it is amazing place. Camp ice blocks in Many climberstemperatures. bodiesaround in. The fallen and swop out your oxygen est via the souther how quickly 1 suffer from from 1996 disaster cylinder. n route you forget hardship 19,685ft and is is located at dehydration Unfortu have used nately are located on ropes and when we reached a basic camp and pain located between the eastern sunburnt. Luckilyare badly side The Bal- themselves up this to pull good and just remember the cony we of the massive this technithings. I am crevasses. did not happenfor me the camp. col, away from a 40mph were exposed to cal face. However, since slowly We did see but it wind and the gaining the weight earthqu After spendin was very tough that I and uncom- bodies and two had three stop. There was did not boulder ake in 2015, a large lost which was resting at Camp g a day fortable climbing died no 10 percent 15ft in size has in this the previous days. This in forecast and this wind and the gone of my body weight. climbed to Camp1, we then heat. was Hillary Step is wind This is very sobering 2 which now not bad and and made you seemed to increase as The question if it we a gradual snowy slope and lost significa other climbers following climbed higher. was day, ntly more.

You start is now referred it. Every day all worth thinking the And at the jet stream has Hillary Stairwa to as the you were end of the returned to y, day making a small Everest and the final ascent price to pay for quicker and that momen easier. t of “on-top-of-the- truly being world”!

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Wednesday, July 18, 2018, PAGE 3

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4C’S BOAT SEIZED BY PORT OFFICIALS 16 HOUSE VOLUME:115

No.152, JULY

2ND, 2018

THE PEOPLE’S

IN S IG H T : G O V ER N

Inferno at sea

FROM PAGE ONE

M EN T S P EA K IN G W

PAPER: $1

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HOME

IT H FO R K ED T O N G operations until an investiU ES gation into a fatal boating accident that claimed the NOWHERE life of an American TO GO FOR woman two weeks ago SHANTY TOWN and maimed two others is RESIDENTS completed.

One dead,

By RICARDO Yesterday, Transport ten hurt as WELLS Tribune Staff Repo rwe en lls@ tribunemedia rter gi Minister Renward Wells ne of .net THE lack of confirmed the tour com- boat explodes rental properties available in Abaco could

By RASHAD complicate ROLL pany had imported a Tri the government’s bune Staff Re E efforts to regulate several rrolle@ tribuneme porter shanty towns dia.net boat from New Provion that island, Labour Minister Dion Fou American wo lke man dence to conduct tours, dieAN d after a tou Speaking to Ths has said. e Tribun boat engine r company’s sho rtly after the gov e loded off ernand was operating with- Barraterre, Exexp ment’s Shanty uma, on SatTown Action urday in an acc Task Force ident that left completed ten other peo out the approval of the her ass ess ments the ple, including urday, Mr Fou re on Sat39-year-old lke one Bahamian husband, that there cou s admitted Port Authority. He said Am and nine ericans, injured challenges aheld be some . plan if suitabad for the the Bahamas Maritime boaAnrdother Bahamian on could not be ide le housing the boat wa ntifi s not inju red Referring to som ed. , Authority’s investiga- told. The Tribune was e of the preliminary made by SATF discoveries tion into the accident was woThmaen whhusband of the on Saturday , Mr Foulke o die the Intensive d is now in adequate hou s said of complete and a report wasthe Care Unit of sin Princess Ma eration would g, considhave pital. Both of rgaret Hosgiv en to options tha to be his legs are expected shortly. t could fractured. “handle the FATAL accident happened on June 30th (above) and (left) persons THE we A mother is wo uld dis pla ce”.

When The Tribunepital’s private surin the hoshow The Tribune reported on the incident. gical ward SEE PAGE THR with injuries EE called the company onhusband was , notwhile her injured, nor was their RO BINSON: Monday, and last week, adaughter. Howe13-veryear-old The June 30 incident Lawyer Elliot Lockhart, , the mother’s 22-yea NO CONTRACTSresulted in the death of an QC, told The Tribune on r-old daughcustomer service repre-ter, who lost both of her leg s and has a fractu red arm, is FRnot OM Mconsentative confirmed the in intensi INISTRYAmerican woman, Maleka Monday he knew nothve care.

Authority,” Mr Wells said London to write the Mr Wells could

By KHRISNA RUSSEL company has resumed yesterday.

SEE PAGE TWO ing about a cease and Deputyvessels Chief Reporte L Jackson, and led two other report. firm how many r THE TOUR com krussell@ tribune pany boat on fire media.net its tours and is making as see “They were trying to n in“We this image from will be getting were seized up to press video posted to BAIN and Gr people to suffer amputa- desist order against the social media.

MP Travis Ro ants Town bookings. company, adding the circumvent the cease and the report momentarily. binson has sug ges time, telling The Tribune: ted specul tion of limbs. his new consul ation that It is understood operagovernment lacked “the desist order. tan cy business could be

By RASHAD The port controller has “Any vessel they put setout ROLLE These included Mrs power to shut him down”. lucrative contra to receive Tribune Staff“The and said to be tions resumed on July 11.rro Bahamas Repo cts from the missinMariMinistry of lle@ tribunemedia rter in the rear sea The injuries fou g.

Tou rism t of that car port .net nd on the pro instructed officers to sea in that business we andJackson’s husband Tyran Av iati bod on y duc “We understand they is Mr Lockhart represents of time Authority baseless, adding ed a firearm, the(is) womandone sho POLICE found yes the concerns the body terday are similar to tho - ing her and her compan otonly came to of a woman lighis ionto seize vessels se aroundin Exuma will take, there cease t thra Jackson and another visireportinvestigation, oug in a fieldtheir were operating withedl Clayton Patterson Smith, with h 10p y ano infl m on Saturday. nymous icted on off Cowpen Road sources on soc The ma shortly after Musgrove, Supt Kn Ms ial me 6pm yesterday owles the veh le victim escaped In an intervie dia. toldgone reporters. back out the approval of Port and have to conducting business.” and desist order.” tor, Stefanie Schaffer. the owner of Four C’s. . icle and ran w wit h The Tribun to a A worke house A

BODY FOUND AS PO LICE

r cleaning the farm alerted the body, according m to the intendent of Pol to Superice Shanta Knowles.

pathologist tion must be examinato confirm this conducted Musgrove’s fam and Ms invited to the Raily will be nd Morgue Police are now this morning to see try ing to can determine if the identify the bod if they y.

Ria Musgrove deceased is Ms Musgrove , the was sitting old woman sho 25-year- in a car on Gardens on Sat t in Pastel Pastel Garde Peach Street, ns urday night when another with a man man sitting

PAGES

HUNT FOR MISSING WOMAN

for assistance . At last report, he to be listed in was said stable conditi serious but on. He gave statements to are helping thepolice that investigation. m in their Th who police yes e suspect, remains at larg terday said e, drove off in a brown Nissan Cube along with the woman.

SEE PAGE SIX A BODY is taken from the sce ne at Cowpen Roa Photo: Terrel W d last night.

Carey/Tribune Sta ff

MILLER PL A ZA UP FO R

SALE OVER BANK DEB

e on Robinson was Friday, Mr company – Coadamant his mas Ltd – wo nsult Bahauld not even accept an agr eem the government ent with if one were offered.

SEE PAGE SIX

SANDS: GIVE OUT FREE CONDOMS

By NEIL HART

By FARRAH Tribune Busin NELL JOHNSON that his family ess Editor nhartnell@ tribune ing with the is negotiat- yesterday rev media.net Government eal ed tha t Mr to lease the Sum Miller was far HEALTH fro me m rwi the MinisA FURIOUS nds pro only ter Plaza on Toniqu Leslie e Williams rowminent deadbeat bor- he Dr Duane Sands said Miller yesterday believes a rev er featur slammed Highway to a variety the Bank of amped of newspaper ed in Friday’s approach the Bahamas public sector agencies. to adv HI ert V isem pre (BOB) bail-ou ent. vention Mr Miller hit For it exp t vehicle for osed two of and treatment inclusive trying to sell Bahamas Re out after former sex edu his Cabin solve, the lion dollar pla multi-mil- vehicle minis- contracep cation and free ters, Algernon et za to tive wh wh s ile ich for in All stu BOB’s Shane the middle of en and is “the dents talks with the ‘toxic’ loans have way to go” government. been ex-Bank Gibson, and an transferred, adv At the Mi . of The former Summerwinds ertised his managing dir the Bahamas Health’s “Te nistry of MP stin ect and Pla or, g za in the Cabinet ministe Pauline Garde for Allensale to inte ns” appeared tha r said it a newspa rested buyers via those Dean, as being among the min event on Friday, t hand does not “the right in Friday per advertisement loans whose delinquent try is ister said the counliving in a “bu we kno ’s Tri re w bun tra wh nsf e. at err the left is doi bble,” ed as wh part of the BIS However, this ng”, given X-listed insti- likeere Bahamians “pretend newspaper’s real est they don’t ate contacts tution’s rescue. and if they do, have sex,” FULL STORY - SEE the y act as if BUSINESS SEE PAGE SIX

T

Nassau & Baha ma Islands’ Lead

ing Newspaper

MINISTER of Health Dr Duane Sands.

CONCH POISONING CASES KEEP ON RISING FROM PAGE ONE

CONCH being prepared at Potter’s Cay Dock recently.

exploding in terms of the amount of vibrio in the water. This heat is the perfect incubator for the organism.

“Unfortunately, for a number of people who work with conch, this doesn’t enter into their world - they don’t think about it. This vibrio is not an ordinary part of their conceptualisation of what needs to be done. Some actively resist the idea of washing conch in fresh water, that is like an abomination.”

Conch poisoning is caused by vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacteria which requires salt water to live.

When ingested, vibrio bacteria can cause watery diarrhoea, which is usually accompanied by abdominal cramping, vomiting, fever, nausea, and chills.

Dr Sands said: “It has to fall on the consumer. If you eat raw conch, you either insist you watch them rinse it in fresh water or don’t eat it. If you don’t do that you run the risk of vibrio conch poisoning. Vibrio exists throughout the tropics, this is not unique to the Bahamas but we eat a lot of conch.

“So until we acknowledge the need to wash conch in fresh running water, this problem is going to continue.”

UNCERTAINTY OVER CAMPAIGN $18,000 WORTH OF MARIJUANA FINANCE LEGISLATION THIS TERM FOUND ON GRAND BAHAMA

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRESS Secretary Anthony Newbold is unsure if the Minnis administration will bring legislation this term to regulate election campaign finances.

With Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis out of the country, Mr Newbold said today’s House of Assembly sitting is not expected to be lengthy. Several resolutions and bills are expected to be tabled, including the Fiscal Responsibility Bill which will set principles for how the government spends and accounts for its finances.

“Instead of relying on government to exercise fiscal discipline by choice, the new legislation constrains spending by the force of law,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said about the bill in May.

Mr Newbold was asked if the Fiscal Responsibility Bill will include provisions to regulate campaign finances. To this, he said that may be addressed in a separate bill. Asked if that will take place this term, he said he was “not sure.”

Told Dr Minnis promised it this term, he said: “The prime minister says he’s going to do a lot of things. He also says he wants nine more years, we’ll see what happens. The Fiscal Responsibility Bill is designed primarily to hold the government to account.”

The Tribune understands parliamentarians intend to take their summer break following debates on the Fiscal Responsibility Bill and the Economic Empowerment Zones Bill in the next few weeks.

Dr Minnis left the country yesterday to attend a United Nations meeting in New York.

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama police made a drug arrest in Freeport and discovered nearly $20,000 worth of suspected marijuana in bushes near the Casuarina Bridge.

ASP Terecita Pinder said officers of the Rapid Response Unit arrested a 23-year-old male resident of Raleigh Drive on Monday in the Fawcett Lane area. The suspect was allegedly found in possession of a quantity of marijuana.

In a second inci- marijuana in bushes near dent, ASP Pinder said a canal while in the area of shortly after 4pm on Casuarina Bridge.

Monday, officers of the No arrest was made. The Drug Enforcement Unit drugs weighed about 18.5 acting on information pounds and have a street discovered three taped estimated street value of July 2018 packages of Wednesday, suspected18th$18,000.

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THE TRIBUNE

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Historians: Trump upends norms of presidential behaviour HELSINKI (AP) — Plenty of U.S. presidents have created commotion in their travels abroad, but none as much as President Donald Trump.

The president’s tumultuous trip across Europe, historians say, smashed the conventions of American leaders on the world stage.

Trump’s “America first” approach to foreign policy had him seeming to accept the word of a hostile power over his own intelligence agencies, insulting allies and sowing doubts about his commitment to the NATO alliance.

“We’ve never had a president go abroad and not only lecture to our NATO allies, but also to embarrass them,” said Russia expert William Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center.

“We’ve never had our president go on a foreign tour and categorise our allies as foes. And we’ve never had our president hold a joint news conference with a Russian leader where he assigned blame, from his perspective, to both parties, but in fact dedicated most of his time to blaming the U.S. Justice Department and intelligence services.”

While past presidents have had difficult foreign trips and been criticised for their summits with Soviet leaders, Trump’s behaviour has few parallels, in the view of presidential historians and longtime Russia watchers.

Franklin Roosevelt was accused of “selling out” to Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference in 1945; John F. Kennedy and his aides admitted that he’d been unprepared for his 1961 Vienna summit with Nikita Khrushchev; the Reykjavík summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 was seen at the time to have ended in failure; and George W. Bush was mocked for telling reporters in 2001 after meeting with Putin that he had “looked the man in the eye” and “found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy.”

Trump’s trip was different.

“Frankly, I don’t think those U.S. presidents at any point came off as not pursuing U.S. security interests, as being taken in by the Soviet leader they were meeting with,” said Alina Polyakova, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I think even President George W. Bush’s meeting, where he had that famous quote about looking into Putin’s eyes and seeing into his soul — this summit dwarfs that by a factor of a thousand.”

Indeed, even before he departed Washington, Trump had made clear that he was itching for a fight. He criticised members of NATO, the decades-old military alliance, for failing to spend enough on defence and suggested he might not be interested in “paying for Europe’s protection” any longer.

In his first appearance at a pre-summit breakfast in Brussels, he went after German Chancellor Angela Merkel, claiming Germany was “totally controlled” by Russia and later asked on Twitter, “What good is NATO.” The summit ended in a whiplash-inducing proclamation from the president that

NATO was stronger than ever as he claimed he’d secured new commitments to defence spending, which those present later disputed.

The drama continued as Trump headed to his next stop, the U.K. His first official visit was overshadowed by fallout from the rhetorical grenade he’d lobbed at British Prime Minister Theresa May before arriving. In a tabloid interview, he criticised May’s Brexit plans, said he might no longer be open to a trade deal with the U.K., and said one of May’s political rival would be an excellent prime minister, undermining her at a time when her government is in turmoil.

Then came yet another interview, this one from one of his golf courses in Scotland, in which Trump categorised the European Union as a top geopolitical “foe.”

Nothing, however, had quite prepared the world for Trump’s comments in Helsinki after hours of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose government, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded, meddled in the 2016 election, hacked Democratic Party emails and disseminated them in an effort to help Trump win.

Standing side-by-side on stage with the man accused of complicity in an attack on the very bedrock of American democracy, Trump said his intelligence people “think it’s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia.

I will say this I don’t see any reason why it would be.” He also went after his Justice Department, calling its investigation into Russia’s efforts and potential collusion with Trump’s campaign a “disaster for our country.”

It was a stunning comment from an American president — one that he partially tried to walk back 24 hours later by blaming a grammatical glitch. But he did not retreat from a number of his other comments giving credence to Putin’s denials of election interference “Trump 0 - Putin 1,” blared the front page of Finland’s Kauppalehti newspaper.

Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian and professor at Rice University, compared Trump to “a bull carrying his own china shop around with him.”

“Just standing and selling your country downriver on foreign soil in front of your adversary — there’s no precedent for such disgraceful and irrational behavior,” Brinkley said.

Pomeranz said Trump had done himself political damage by suggesting both sides were to blame for the Russia probe that has hurt U.S. relations with Moscow — just as Trump did when he blamed both sides when responding to violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Pomeranz said the damage Trump did by describing the E.U. as a foe and lecturing his NATO allies was significant.

“I think that is what’s going to be remembered from this week,” he said.

(This article is by JILL COLVIN of the Associated Press)

What artists can bring to the table

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was totally shocked by the recent appointment of the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture! Having smiled with relief when Minister Pintard was appointed, confident that his Ministry would benefit from his firsthand knowledge and appreciation for art and culture, I must now disappointedly admit that the machination of ‘politricks’ leaves me speechless!

I have no knowledge whatsoever about the newly appointed Minister’s cultural or artistic attributes and can but live in hope for a positive future in this regard, but having read comments stating that a Minister need not be proficient in any particular area in order to perform effectively at his or her job, I beg to differ. This country has been saddled with a litany of Cabinet Ministers with mostly legal backgrounds for the past several decades who have exhibited little to no knowledge of, nor appreciation for, the arts, creativity, or innovation which, I contend,

$5M COMMITMENT WILL NEVER WORK EDITOR, The Tribune.

I am young enough to recall Hon A D Hanna, then Minister of Finance proposing a massive redevelopment programme from south of the arch to Wulff Road…funded

by The World Bank…it was impressive to say the least.

Why the Pindling Government did not go through with it is unknown, but suspect it had something to do with the obvious…politically never upgrade your constituents because with money they vote differently.

Minnis’s $5 million commitment for five-years will not even pay for the cost to administer as

Government is so inefficient. It is laughable and clearly a tease, look what we are doing. Grants Town will never be cleaned up. $5 million will be used up in weeks just trying to clean Grants Town up only to be dirtied up in weeks again as we have experienced since 1973 – it will not change.

Take Beaches…we scream we have no access but look when we have unrestricted access how we litter them every summer, weekend or holiday?

Piles of garbage left usually for days before someone from Government cleans it up. Visit Goodman’s any Monday or after a holiday.

Very recently a large dumpster was dropped off at the corner of Ruby Avenue and West Bay to I presume carry away the cut casuarinas…bin left empty by the morning over flowing with household garbage!

Clear a lot and in days garbage overflows…never a prosecution…. all garbage if you look well enough has some ID…a name some where left on old letters-labels, etc…Til prosecutions occur cleaning up is a waste of time.

P MINNS Nassau, July 14, 2018.

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net

are the essential design tools of development and progress.

Let me quickly state for the benefit of those persons who are ready to refute the above statement - that yes, PSs and civil servants are supposed to provide guidance and assist the Ministers along his or her unfamiliar path, but if you, as Minister, have nothing substantial to contribute towards the journey, will you not tend to be led along a similar path leading to a similar result from year to year?

What then is a Minister’s role - to be an effective and efficient leader, or a mere follower? I think the former.

A leader should have a vision for a plan to move forward, upward, and onward with passion from point to point towards a goal or goals. A leader should be able to inspire and uplift, to invigorate and convince in order to effect positive change for the greater good.

Another burning question I have is: what percentage of creativity and innovation can be found amongst the rank and file of the civil service? I contend that it is woefully lacking and sorely needed. This is why artists should always be invited to sit around the government table, particularly for national development planning. I give kudos to the Minnis administration for doing so on the one hand, but remain perplexed on the other by the Minister change discussed above, as well as the sudden shifting of Dr Nicola Virgill-Rolle from leading the National Development

Plan and the Over-theHill Redevelopment Plan to the National Insurance Board!

What can artists bring to the table, you might ask? Art is the mirror to Life. Artists thrive on creating from within the well of their emotions, being able to express their feelings in a creative way – be it in fine art, crafts, dance, music, writing, food or whatever creative endeavour. Creating follows a process of questioning and seeking answers, research and development, trial and error, continual experimentation, imagination, and innovation towards a particular goal.

True, the creative might not start out with a particular end goal in mind, and often does end up with a totally different goal than first imagined, but the PROCESS – the road to get there - is the essential method of implementation that relies on being able to think, question, imagine and create.

The saying ‘thinking outside the box’ has significant meaning in this context, and unfortunately is sadly lacking amongst our politicians and to our detriment.

The artist’s actions instinctively respond to a quest. Being able to garner inspiration from the simplest of items to a worldwide disaster, the artist looks at the world differently and creates products that hopefully allow the public to view, to question and to ‘feel’ the world – whether its good, its bad or its ugly side - through their creative lens, and hopefully to change for the benefit of the greater good.

PAM BURNSIDE Nassau, July 15, 2018.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, July 18, 2018, PAGE 5

‘NO HYPOCRISY’ IN UBP HERO AWARD FROM PAGE ONE

worst aspects of the corrupt electoral system were changed and universal adult suffrage came to the Bahamas, with women voting for the first time in 1962.

“So it was that in 1967 the Bahamian people finally voted out the oligarchy and opened a new era of democratic government. We call that day Majority Rule Day. It is a day that should be celebrated by all Bahamians because, among other things, revolutionary but peaceful change had come to the Bahamas. A system that had to end one way or another, ended in peaceful and orderly manner, and of that all Bahamians should be proud.

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis (above) awarded Sir Roland Symonette (left) a posthumous National Hero honour over the recommendations of his advisory committee.

“But majority rule did more than just bring an end to a patently unfair electoral system that prevented the majority of Bahamians from achieving true representation in the House of Assembly. In the words of former Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes, one of those who served in the

forefront of the movement for equality and social justice, ‘majority rule removed the last psychological shackles from the minds of many. It shattered false notions of superiority and inferiority; it initiated the fulfilment of the promise of universal access to education; it created the foundation upon which

to build a society with opportunity for all.’”

Asked if Dr Minnis sees a contradiction between these words and his decision to give a posthumous award to Sir Roland, Mr Newbold did not attempt to reconcile Dr Minnis’ words and his recent actions, saying: “Obviously he does not think there is any contradiction in anything he has said up to this point.”

Decisions Dr Minnis and his Cabinet have not publicly rationalised its award decisions. The honours advisory committee, headed by Fort Charlotte MP Mark Humes, recommended that Sir Lynden Pindling alone be awarded the highest honour for the inaugural year of the awards. Ultimately, Dr Minnis chose to bestow the honour on Sir Milo Butler, Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield and Sir Roland.

Asked if Dr Minnis will ever explain his thinking about the matter, Mr Newbold said: “The prime minister and his Cabinet may decide they want to do that. At this point they haven’t decided that they want to say what those

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, centre, prepares to leave LPIA for New York. At right is OPM Permanent Secretary Jack Thompson, and, behind, Chief Operating Officer of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit Viana Gardiner. (BIS Photo/Yontalay Bowe)

MINNIS SEEKS UN CASH FOR HOUSING FROM PAGE ONE

country for New York yesterday and is expected to return tomorrow.

“The UN has sustainable development goals and one of the goals is to deal with poverty and community development,” the prime minister said yesterday ahead of the trip.

“The Over-the-Hill programme to assist the inner city that we instituted, we would be expanding that to more of the impoverished areas to lift them out of poverty.

“While there, I will also speak about the land reform programme and also discuss whether we could get assistance in terms for the further establishment of subdivisions.

“If that is possible, then we could make special concessions for the impoverished.

Land “Then I would be able to aim at the 12 percent poverty rate in New Providence and the 17.5 percent in the Family Islands to ensure they too can receive land and work towards housing at special prices.”

He continued: “I will speak to the Secretary General in terms of our poor and seek the UN’s help there and about the inner city programme and the roll out of other community projections, especially when it comes to pipe water. That is one of the UN mandates.”

The Over-the-Hill White Paper 2018 was tabled in the House of Assembly in April.

At the time, as he highlighted the innercity community’s high incidents of crime and poverty exacerbated by poor infrastructure and growing impoverishment of the environment by dilapidated homes and illegal garbage dumping, Dr Minnis said no government has invested the needed resources to facilitate a turnaround.

He said his administration was

determined to change these circumstances by “taking back” the streets of the community by targeting illegal gun possession and introducing the empowerment zone concept, which relates to offering special incentives to area designated as such because of economic hardship.

“We know that the physical environs of Over-the-Hill is not where it should be,” he said previously. “While there are many gems in the community, there are also many rough stones.

Cleanup “Over the past months, the people have witnessed a massive cleanup effort in the community.

“We plan to make this more consistent.

“We need to increase existing waste collection efforts in the community. We are planning to restore public spaces and recreational facilities.

“Two other key aspects of this component include: working on improving housing in the Over-the-Hill community and a ‘Water for all Strategy’ to eliminate the need for standpipes and outside toilets by 2025,” Dr Minnis said.

Better healthcare – including mental and family planning services – childcare options for working parents and support for healthy eating and living initiatives, are also proposed by the government, he said.

Regarding green technology, Dr Minnis said he instructed the Ministry of Works and the Beaches and Parks Authority to work together to ensure upgrades to parks and to ensure all parks have free Wi-Fi. This he said, is to be accessible to all Overthe-Hill residents.

Two parks in the inner city are scheduled to begin refurbishment in June this year.

Programmes that support both the youth and elderly also will be established, he said.

discussions were like. He may well decide he wishes to do so. Up to this point, no.”

The Progressive Liberal Party believes the process that resulted in the awards has been procedurally flawed, not least because the awards go against the recommendation of the advisory committee.

“The prime minister and his Cabinet, the government of the Bahamas, they’re the ones charged with running the country,” Mr Newbold countered.

“On any number of occasions they will ask for and receive recommendations, suggestions, advice, from any number of people, entities or organisations.

“They may or may not take that advice. That is totally within their purview.”

Some are concerned the awards controversy has immediately caused the National Honours system to lose value and prestige.

“The Queen’s Honours been around for decades,” Mr Newbold said in response. “People complain about that.

Whatever we do, whatever any government does, will in all likelihood find some resistance from within the community. And most certainly anything any

government does will find lots of resistance from the opposition. That’s what they do. They oppose.

National Honours, it’s for us and as the years go on we’ll do it again next year.”

Contribution According to the National Honours Act, people eligible for a National Hero honour should have made a seminal contribution to the Bahamas which has altered the history of the Bahamas in a positive way; should have given service to the Bahamas which has been exemplified by visionary and pioneering leadership, extraordinary achievement and the attainment of the highest excellence which has rebounded to the honour of the Bahamas and which service and attainment have been acknowledged as a source of inspiration by a significant portion of the nation; and have, through their “heroic exploits and sacrifice, having gone beyond their personal and historical limitations, contributed to the improvement of the economic, spiritual and social conditions of the nation as a whole.”

PAGE 6, Wednesday, July 18, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

165 REPATRIATIONS IN ‘AGGRESSIVE’ IMMIGRATION APPROACH

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Department of Immigration is continuing an “aggressive” approach to illegal migration with 165 repatriations carried out in recent days, according to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday.

Dr Hubert Minnis, who is acting immigration minister while Brent Symonette is out of the country on leave for the next two weeks, said 120 Haitians are being sent home today, while 42 of them were expected to be repatriated yesterday.

According to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the 120 migrants – 97 men and 23 women – all pleaded guilty to illegal landing before Magistrate Kara Turnquest in Inagua yesterday.

“We have an aggressive programme now. We have immigration, the defence force and the police force on the alert for sloops coming in. They are to be arrested and tried on whichever island is near to where they were captured.”

“We have an aggressive programme now,” Dr Minnis said yesterday.

“We have immigration, the defence force and the police force on the alert for sloops coming in. They are to be arrested and tried on whichever island is near to

where they were captured.

“We have a policy. We are not bringing them here to New Providence.”

On Sunday, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, in conjunction with international counterparts, apprehended two migrant

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis sloops in separate operations with more than 160 people on board.

The first sloop carrying Haitian migrants was

intercepted about 5.30am on Sunday, approximately 40 miles east of Ragged Island. The second sloop was intercepted an hour later, south of Acklins.

According to the RBDF, the first apprehension was a joint maritime effort with Operations Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT).

A RBDF patrol craft and OPBAT helicopter had been on the lookout for the Haitian sloop since Friday.

The helicopter spotted the sloop on Saturday, approximately 67 miles west of Inagua, after receiving information provided by the RBDF Intelligence Section in collaboration with the Bahamas Immigration Department.

Around 5.30am on Sunday, HMBS Durward Knowles, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Omarv

Saunders, intercepted the wooden vessel approximately 40 miles east of Ragged Island. There were 42 migrants on board.

The second operation was conducted in conjunction with the United States Coast Guard (USCG) District 7 and OPBAT. An OPBAT helicopter also spotted the second sloop on Saturday.

Around 6.30am on Sunday, USCG Cutter Northland intercepted the sloop approximately 16 nautical miles south of Acklins, with 120 migrants on board.

Forty-six Haitian migrants were apprehended

by RBDF patrol craft HMBS Madeira on July 3. The incident took place near South Eleuthera.

Those migrants have since been charged in court in Nassau.

CABINET APPROVAL FOR COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS MEDICAL CANNABIS

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

CABINET has approved the establishment of a committee responsible for public education toward possibly legalising cannabis for medical purposes, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis confirmed yesterday.

However Dr Minnis said the make-up of this committee and other operational details will be fine-tuned next week.

Last week the prime minister said the committee would hold town hall meetings and be given sufficient funding to travel to the Family Islands.

He previously said the committee would also be given three to four months to carry out its work and produce a report.

Education This came after Dr Minnis hinted at his support for legalising the drug for medical use, but said his personal views will not supersede a widespread public education campaign.

Former Prime Minister Perry Christie has also said he would back the move, adding the government needs to look at the implications of withholding the drug from people who needed it for medical reasons.

Former Minister of State for the Environment Phenton Neymour also supports it, claiming medical marijuana treatments helped saved his life when he was battling stage three colon rectal cancer.

Dr Minnis said last week: “We would want to put that (the committee) together as soon as possible. The Christian Council, NGOs, University of the Bahamas, to get a broad-spectrum involvement and give them about three to four months to report

and provide the necessary funds so that they can travel to the Family Islands and do a national overview. After the report is completed, that will be tabled in Parliament, a copy given to the press and debated and discussed and after which we would then go from there.

“But I think the entire nation needs to be involved because we are talking about the future, a change, so the nation must be involved.”

Revenue Asked if he was encouraged by the revenue projections that have come about during public discourse, Dr Minnis said: “I’m not looking at money. I’m looking at what would be the outcome of the report and make determinations from them.

“You do not want to bias the report or individuals’ questions or view based on money (or) all sorts of innuendos, no.

“You want to be based strictly on facts.

I’m first and foremost a scientist, man. We analyse, assess and determine based on facts, not fiction.”

The Killarney MP first announced the planned creation of a marijuana committee more than a week ago on his return from a CARICOM Heads of Government meeting, where a regional report calling for the end of prohibition of the plant was discussed.

The report argues that a strictly regulated framework for marijuana, akin to that for alcohol and tobacco, should be introduced.

It said there was a unanimous view that the current classification for cannabis/marijuana as a dangerous drug with no value or narcotic should be changed to a classification of legal cannabis as a “controlled” substance.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

NICARAGUAN FORCES VIOLENTLY RETAKE SYMBOLIC CITY

By LUIS MANUEL GALEANO AND CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan police and armed pro-government civilians on Tuesday laid siege to and then retook a symbolically important neighbourhood that had recently become a centre of resistance to President Daniel Ortega’s government.

Government forces began advancing on Masaya’s Monimbo neighborhood before dawn and had largely regained control of it by the afternoon for the first time since massive protests against Ortega’s government began in mid-April.

Mortars Youths fired homemade mortars from behind barriers of stacked paving stones pried from streets lined by single-story homes and artisan workshops in the town about 16 miles southeast of the capital.

But they were overwhelmingly outgunned by government loyalists who within hours had advanced to the heart of the neighbourhood and began posting videos on social media of

themselves firing semi-automatic rifles into the air in celebration.

Alvaro Leiva, director of the Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association, said Tuesday that there were preliminary reports of three people killed in the fighting and dozens of wounded.

There were also widespread reports of youth hauled away by pro-government fighters.

The same neighbourhood’s residents rose up against strongman Anastasio Somoza in the late 1970s as part of the Nicaraguan Revolution led in part by Ortega himself.

But since protests against cuts to the social security system in mid-April became a broader call for Ortega to leave office, Monimbo had again become a centre of the opposition.

Ortega’s government has dismissed opponents as delinquents attempting a coup d’etat and wanted to quell unrest in Masaya before Thursday’s threemonth anniversary of the start of protests across Nicaragua.

Thursday is also the 39th anniversary of Liberation Day, which marks the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979 by the Sandinistas.

With gunshots echoing in the background

Tuesday morning, a woman who asked only to be identified as Silvia out of safety concerns said she treated wounded victims in a makeshift field clinic.

Silvia, a member of Monimbo’s resistance movement, said youth were fighting with homemade mortars to defend the roadblocks erected at the neighbourhood’s perimeter, but government forces were heavily armed.

Democracy “We need the (Organization of American States), the international organisations to stop this massacre,” Silvia said. “We’re fighting for democracy, for freedom.”

Several hours later she said that pro-government “paramilitaries” had control of a good part of the area and that the opposition had fled into the surrounding woods.

Roman Catholic Apostolic Nuncio Stanislaw Sommertag Waldemar said in a recorded message that Nicaragua was experiencing “a tragic moment” and expressed “deep concern for the serious situation in the country.”

He urged all sides to return to dialogue to seek a peaceful resolution.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, July 18, 2018, PAGE 7

WSC executive chairman Adrian Gibson (centre) at the Water and Sewerage press conference at WSC headquarters on Monday.

Photo: Terrel W Carey/Tribune Staff

WATER BOSS: WE WANT OUR MONEY FROM PAGE ONE

He also insisted the corporation has now taken a no-nonsense approach to recovering all revenue owed, asserting that all account holders with exorbitant balances have been given “a certain time to pay”.

Before the list was published in this newspaper last year, Mr Gibson told The Tribune the “confidential list” held 221 accounts, with a combined total of $175,000 for the period ending June 2017.

On Monday, he told reporters: “We’ve written to persons…. (the list) no longer exists.”

Mr Gibson added: “There is no special treatment for no politician or anyone else, if you owe the corporation expect that you will pay.

If you don’t pay, you are disconnected, simple as that.

“But we have written to persons

“There is no special treatment for no politician or anyone else, if you owe the corporation expect that you will pay. If you don’t pay, you are disconnected, simple as that.”

Water and Sewerage Corporation Executive Chairman Adrian Gibson and we gave them a certain time to pay. If no payment is made, we disconnect the service.

“Of course, (there are) other steps that can be taken to get you to pay what is due.”

The confidential document obtained by The Tribune listed

dozens of politicians and other well-connected people, some who owed the water provider thousands. However, others on the list had zero balances, owed less than $500 or were even owed money

by WSC. According to Mr Gibson, the “confidential list” stood only as a part of wider system of management that he met following his appointment as chairman.

Referring to the schedule of payments made so far, he said the revenue recovered only represents a small part of the $45m that still exists in uncollected revenue by the corporation.

Mr Gibson said WSC will do what it needs to do to collect that revenue.

“We are serious about this and we mean, in terms of collecting the corporation’s money…. we mean that we will do what is necessary,” he said.

“That is disconnecting you, writing to you, taking you to court; all of those steps we are prepared to take.”

Mr Gibson said to aid in its collections, the corporation will in the coming weeks roll out a “roving collection scheme”.

Team He said the scheme will involve a team that will travel around the country to make outstanding balance holders aware of what they owe the corporation.

Moreover, he said there also will be a full media campaign to service the effort and a follow-up team that will carry-out disconnections where necessary.

“There will be areas identified where there will be disconnections, but we will give everybody the opportunity to pay,” he added.

This comes as Mr Gibson revealed in a Tribune Business interview on Monday, that officials at the corporation are pursuing a price hike, the first for the water provider in the last 20 years.

He said: “WSC’s operating cost recovery, which is currently around 68 percent, was expected to improve from 64 percent in 2008 to 84 percent at the end of (an ongoing Inter-American Development Bank project).”

He continued: “At the same time, annual government transfers to the WSC, which were expected to decrease from $24m to zero, remained at $24m in 2015.”

Mr Gibson contended the corporation now needed to put itself in a financial position to service its own operation costs, as the country continues to adjust and adhere to the government’s new fiscal approach.

Man found guilty of raping 17-year-old tourist

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A SUPREME Court jury has found a San Salvador native guilty of raping a 17-year-old American tourist on the island over four years ago.

The nine-member jury – eight women and one man – found Henry Gay guilty by a vote of 7-2 of the April 2014 rape of the now-21-year-old woman.

He will receive his sentence for the crime from presiding Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson on September 6.

During trial, the victim

testified how Gay forced her to give him oral sex, gave her oral sex without her consent and sexually assaulted her sometime on April 21, 2014.

The woman further claimed Gay offered her the “alternative” of giving him oral sex a second time instead of him having sex with her, but that was after she expressed her desire not to get pregnant from the forced encounter.

And during the incident, the woman claimed Gay engaged in “small conversation” and at one point got “very casual” with her.

However, during cross examination by defence

attorney Ramona Farquharson-Seymour, the woman acknowledged that a key part of her initial description of her assailant changed after being shown a picture of the accused by Crown counsel some four years later.

The woman said while she initially stated in her six-page police statement on April 21, 2014 that her assailant had a gap in the top row of his teeth, she realised that wasn’t the case after an unidentified Crown prosecutor assigned to her showed her a picture of the accused about a year ago via video chat while she

CARIBBEAN NEWS

IN this photo from May, Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel, third from left, walks away from the site where a Boeing 737 plummeted into a yuca field just after takeoff with more than 100 passengers on board, in Havana, Cuba. Cuba’s government dismissed on Tuesday, accusations from Global Air that human error is to blame for the accident, saying it is too early in the investigation.

(AP Photo/Enrique de la Osa, File)

CUBA DISPUTES MEXICAN AIRLINE FINDING ON DEADLY MAY CRASH HAVANA (AP) — A finding by a Mexican airline that pilot error was to blame for a deadly passenger jet crash in May was dismissed as premature Tuesday by the Cuban authorities charged with determining the cause of the accident.

An investigative commission said in a statement read on state TV that it has not completed its analysis of “many factors” that could have contributed

to the May 18 crash. “For that reason, any assertion about the possible causes that caused the fatal accident is premature.”

Mexican airline Global Air said in a statement Monday that the pilots of the Boeing 737 took off at too steep of an angle before the aircraft crashed near the runway of the international airport in Havana.

The May 18 accident killed 112 people and was

one of the worst aviation disasters in Cuban history.

Global Air, which also operates under the name Damojh Airlines, said that it recreated the flight using the black boxes and a simulator as it seeks to restore its operating license in Mexico.

Mexico’s civil aviation authority said it is still conducting its own analysis and has not issued a finding.

was in Spain.

However, she maintained that notwithstanding the appearance of Gay’s teeth, she is “completely able” to identify him.

She said when she identified him in the photo

line-up, she was able to pick him out because his eyes are “very distinctive” to her.

The part about Gay’s eyes was not mentioned anywhere in her initial statement either, as noted by Mrs

Farquharson-Seymour.

In response however, the woman said the description of Gay’s eyes was a “personal note” she made.

Eucal Bonaby and Jacqueline Burrows represented the Crown in the matter.

PAGE 8, Wednesday, July 18, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Facing up to the fact that time catches up with us all W

E SPEND a fair amount of time in preparation. We set goals, plan our futures and work toward becoming the versions of ourselves we imagine. We think about building homes, having children, educating those children, taking vacations and enjoying our lives.

One of the things we are least prepared for is taking care of our ageing relatives. We often ignore the changes in their mobility and memory, determined to keep negative thoughts away. Mortality can be difficult for anyone to face, but even more challenging when it relates to our parents or grandparents. hile it feels better to stay on the positive side and lean on faith to see them through, the time usually comes for us to get real. Bodies and brains do not stay the same forever and, as is often said, “once a man, twice a child”.

In recent months, I have had a number of conversations with friends about elderly relatives. At first, I was surprised by the number of people in my age group who are dealing with the reality of ageing loved ones, but I remembered how many of us were raised — at least in part — by grandparents.

Many of our parents worked shifts in hotels or had nine-to-five jobs that meant we were in the care of their parents until they got off from work. We know about spending time

W

By Alicia Wallace at grandparents’ houses and being taken care of by people who seemed to always know how and could always explain why. They were the superheroes in the way family-friendly television shows now portray fathers.

“Interestingly, in all of my conversations on this topic, most of the friends who have concerned about ageing relatives and who are actively involved in their care are women.”

One of my friends admitted that it took her a long time to realize something was a bit off about her grandmother. It was hard to notice because her grandmother continued to go about her days as she always had.

She got up early every morning to bake, have breakfast and get into the garden where she spent hours. By noon, lunch was prepared and the house was cleaned with the help of a part-time housekeeper.

She would then spend time

doing crossword puzzles, reading romance novels and listening to radio talk shows. On certain days of the week, she started making dinner a little early because she had to be at church for a service or meeting and she had to be there on time. This was her grandmother and it had been for a long time. What could be wrong?

There were no obvious signs, unless you saw her look at a handwritten recipe she had not referenced in years, or noticed it took her a bit longer to get in the house when she was outside alone. Everyone forgets sometimes, right?

How much could you really expect from a woman over 80?

Sometimes she is a bit short of patience.

Maybe she is being a bit more daring in her language, saying more that a “doggon” or a “mess” here and there. Old age comes with a licence to be a little reckless.

It all seems normal until something happens to set off the alarm bells. The lucky among us hear those bells before something terrible happens and are able to act on it.

Our grandparents have always been strong and

sharp in our eyes, and they made sure of it.

It is no easy task to reveal to them that something is wrong, or to let them know that we know the secret they have been keeping from us. It is hard to say to someone you love and respect, and whose longevity and active lifestyle is a source of pride, that they need some help. How do you tell your grandmother it is not safe for her to drive any more?

How do you tell your grandfather he needs to see a doctor and no, it is not negotiable?

Medication For those of us who have siblings and cousins, the situation is even more complicated. Everyone has a different idea about how to take care of their loved ones. We have different opinions on medication.

We do not trust the same medical care professionals.

Our budgets are not the same. Our schedules do not allow us to spend the same lengths of time with our relatives, or to be at all of the

family meetings. Does that mean we do not get to be a part of the decision-making process?

In my conversations with friends, I found the person taking on most of the financial responsibility tended to make the decisions, sometimes overturning decisions previously made by the group.

That person, more often than not, went head-tohead against the person with the most time to spare — the person who could be in the home the most and check-in with any in-home staff. That person, just by being present, holds power too.

Another friend of mine is living abroad and dealing with tremendous guilt because the health of an elderly relative has been on a slow but steady decline.

She has a few common health issues like high blood pressure and arthritis which she has been doing her best to manage with prescribed medication over the years.

She lives in a house that is too big for her and, while there are family members who drop by to check on her, she is fiercely independent and wants to do as much as she can on her own.

If my friend still lived in Nassau, she would spend more time with this relative and be able to offer more assistance, but her circumstances do not allow it. Every now and then she asks herself if her own aspirations are selfish. She wonders if she should give up on the goals she has had for over a decade to take care of the woman who took care of her for most of her life. How do you answer a question like that?

Interestingly, in all of my conversations on this topic, most of the friends who have concerned about ageing relatives and who are actively involved in their care are women. I know a few men who have done and who are doing this

work. Predictably, almost all of them are men who do not have sisters or other women in their families who are capable of taking it on. Care for the elderly, like most unpaid and underpaid labour, falls to women and girls.

In fact, I know several women who take an active role in caring for their husbands’ parents. Society has tricked us into thinking women are better suited to this work.

There is obviously quite a bit to discuss regarding care for elderly relatives. We are all getting older and we will not all age in the same ways.

Most of that can be attributed to lifestyle and genetics, but we really cannot predict the way it will go. What we do know, however, is there are only two possibilities — we continue to age, or we die. Both require planning. We do not spend enough time talking about our lives, our preferences, or our expectations.

Clash This is a major cause of family drama. No one knows for sure what Mama would have wanted, and now she is either dead or incapable of making the decision for herself. Cue the clash of the cousins.

Do not wait for Grampy to show signs of Alzheimer’s, or for Gramma to trip on the front step. Start looking at the home.

Would it be helpful to put a rail and bench in the bathtub?

Is it time to address the living room clutter and make a nice, wide path for them to walk from the bedroom to the kitchen?

Can you introduce them to a gerontologist, or ask their trusted primary care physician to do the same?

Should someone else be living in the home?

Talk about this with your elderly relatives and the people who would contribute to their care. Ask your parents how they would want to be treated in various scenarios.

The biggest point of contention is the varying ideas of what people want after the fact. It is not the most comfortable conversation, but it is better to have it now than to resort to guessing and fighting later.

More than a dozen of my friends with experience caring for ageing relatives said so.

LONG SUFFERING TAXPAYERS AND THEIR INVESTMENTS

W

E have a belief in The Bahamas that the people benefit when they own, through their Government, public utilities such as the electricity company, chunks of the telephone companies and the controlling interest in a commercial bank.

All I can say is thank God these investments don’t form part of my investments.

Because if they did I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. I wonder when last the long suffering taxpayers of The Bahamas received any return on these assets?

In fact the reality has been the taxpayers of The Bahamas have had to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to keep some of these investments afloat instead of receiving a reasonable or even any return on their investment.

Currently BEC is looking for another $100,000,000 to borrow.

One of the biggest mistakes an investor can make is to hold or make an investment for the sake of pride. It usually turns out to be very expensive. What makes holding these investments more unjustifiable is the fact the people through their Government are able to regulate these companies to ensure they operate in the National Interest even while making a satisfactory profit and providing good services at a fair price. We don’t need to own them.

I am not a citizen so I can’t be involved in the politics of The Bahamas. This, however, is a matter of economics and I have been an investor and taxpayer here for many decades. I am also someone who loves The Bahamas and always have the best interest of its people at heart.

Therefore I strongly recommend the people dispose of their interests in the above mentioned businesses.

PAGE 10, Wednesday, July 18, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

PAUL Manafort. (AP Photo)

MUELLER SEEKS IMMUNITY FOR 5 WITNESSES IN MANAFORT CASE

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The special counsel in the Russia investigation is seeking immunity for five potential witnesses in the upcoming trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

The five individuals have indicated that they won’t testify or provide other information “on the basis of their privilege against self-incrimination,” Mueller’s office told a federal judge in Virginia in a court filing Tuesday.

As a result, prosecutors are asking a judge to compel their testimony, under a condition of immunity, at Manafort’s upcoming bank and tax fraud trial.

They are requesting what is known as “use immunity,” which would mean prosecutors could not use the witnesses’ statements against them unless they were to make false statements.

Judge Prosecutors did not name the potential witnesses because they have not been publicly identified as being involved in the case.

Motions providing more information about them were filed under seal, and prosecutors asked a judge to leave the information that way unless and until the witnesses are called to testify.

The Manafort trial, the first arising from Mueller’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, is expected to start next week.

Also Tuesday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis denied Manafort’s request to move the trial from Alexandria, in the Washington, D.C., region, to the more sparsely populated southwestern Virginia city of Roanoke.

Manafort’s lawyers said extensive pretrial news media coverage in the Washington region had interfered with Manafort’s right to a fair trial. They also said potential jurors in the area were much more likely to have voted for Hillary Clinton than Trump in the 2016 election.

But Ellis rejected that argument Tuesday, saying media attention in the case would be the same in Alexandria “as it would be in Roanoke or Kansas City or Dallas.”

He said there was no evidence that potential jurors in the region were politically biased, and that in any event, jurors’ political leanings by themselves aren’t evidence that they can’t fairly consider a case.

“It would be inappropriate for courts to move trials around the country in cases of this sort until a district could be found where a defendant’s political views were shared by at least as many persons in the district as those with contrary views,” Ellis wrote.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, centre, accompanied by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, left, and Rep. Diane Black, R-Tn., right, gestures as he listens to a question from a reporter as the media is escorted out of the Cabinet room of the White House, Tuesday, in Washington. Trump says he meant the opposite when he said in Helsinki that he doesn’t see why Russia would have interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

TRUMP BACKS DOWN UNDER FIRE, ‘CLARIFIES’ ON RUSSIA MEDDLING

By ZEKE MILLER AND LISA MASCARO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Blistered by bipartisan condemnation of his embrace of a longtime U.S. enemy, President Donald Trump strained Tuesday to “clarify” his public undermining of American intelligence agencies, saying he simply misspoke when he said he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

Rebuked as never before by his own party, including a stern pushback from usually reserved Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the U.S. president sought to end 27 hours of recrimination by delivering a rare admission of error.

“The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia” instead of “why it would,” Trump said of the comments he had made standing alongside Vladimir Putin on Monday’s summit stage in Helsinki.

That didn’t explain why Trump, who had tweeted a half-dozen times and sat for two television interviews since the Putin news conference, waited so long to correct his remarks.

And the scripted cleanup pertained only to the least defensible of his comments.

He didn’t reverse other statements in which he gave clear credence to Putin’s “extremely strong and powerful” denial of Russian involvement, raised doubts about his own intelligence agencies’ conclusions and advanced discredited conspiracy theories about election meddling.

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of the press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday. (AP) friends, and the Russians are not.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump was trying to “squirm away” from his comments alongside Putin.

“It’s 24 hours too late and in the wrong place,” he said.

Trump still maintained that his meetings with NATO allies went well and his summit with Putin “even better.” But this reference

In the Senate, McConnell said “there’s a possibility” his chamber would act, pointing to a bipartisan measure from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to deter future Russian interference by ordering sanctions against countries if they do.

Both parties called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other officials

leader Nancy Pelosi staged a vote Tuesday in support of the intelligence committee’s findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

But even that largely symbolic measure was blocked party-line by Republicans.

Senators had floated a similar idea earlier, and Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona said he was preparing a bipartisan bill.

But The No. 2 Republi-

Outrage

Relations He also accused past American leaders, rather than Russia’s destabilising actions in the U.S. and around the world, for the souring of relations between two countries.

And he did not address his other problematic statements during a week-long Europe tour, in which he sent the NATO alliance into emergency session and assailed British Prime Minister Theresa May as she was hosting him for an official visit.

“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump conceded Tuesday. But even then he made a point of adding, “It could be other people also. A lot of people out there. There was no collusion at all.”

Moments earlier, McConnell felt the need to reassure America’s allies in Europe with whom Trump clashed during his frenzied trip last week.

With no if’s or but’s, the GOP leader declared, “The European countries are our

accused 12 Russians of hacking into Democratic email accounts to hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

“He just said it’s not Russia.

“I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Trump said. That’s the part he corrected on Tuesday.

SENATE Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., flanked by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday.

McConnell says there is “indisputable evidence” Russia tried to affect the 2016 presidential election. He says the Senate understands the “Russia threat” and that is the “widespread view here in the United States Senate among members of both parties.” (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) to diplomatic success carried an edge, too, since the barrage of criticism and insults he delivered in Brussels and London was hardly well-received.

On Capitol Hill, top Republican leaders said they were open to slapping fresh sanctions on Russia, but they showed no sign of acting any time soon.

“Let’s be very clear, just so everybody knows: Russia did meddle with our elections,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, another steady Trump political ally. “What we intend to do is make sure they don’t get away with it again and also to help our allies.”

to appear before Congress and tell exactly what happened during Trump’s two-hour private session with Putin. Pompeo is to publicly testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 25.

Schumer also urged the Senate to take up legislation to boost security for U.S. elections and to revive a measure passed earlier by the Judiciary Committee to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.

But minority Democrats have few tools to enforce anything.

In the House, Democratic

can, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, said sanctions may be preferable to a nonbinding resolution that amounts to “just some messaging exercise.”

Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki was his first time sharing the international stage with a man he has described as an important U.S. competitor — but whom he has also praised a strong, effective leader.

Standing alongside Putin, Trump steered clear of any confrontation with the Russian, going so far as to question American intelligence and last week’s federal indictments that

White House officials did not elaborate on how Trump came to issue the clarification, but administration aides described being stunned by his initial remarks Monday.

GOP leaders, outraged by Trump’s comments in Helsinki, found out about his attempts to quell the outrage the same way everyone else did, as one aide put it, by watching and learning.

After his walkback, Trump said his administration would “move aggressively” to repel efforts to interfere in American elections.

“We are doing everything in our power to prevent Russian interference in 2018,” he said. “And we have a lot of power.”

Fellow GOP politicians have generally stuck with Trump during a year and a half of turmoil, but he was assailed as seldom before as he returned from what he had hoped would be a proud summit with Putin.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul emerged as one of the president’s few defenders.

He cited Trump’s experience on the receiving end of “partisan investigations.”

Back at the White House, Paul’s comments drew a presidential tweet of gratitude: “Thank you @ RandPaul, you really get it!”

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, July 18, 2018, PAGE 11

MAN’S APPEAL OF CONVICTION FOR FATALLY SHOOTING FRIEND DISMISSED

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORMER U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his speech. (AP)

OBAMA DELIVERS VEILED REBUKE TO TRUMP IN MANDELA ADDRESS

By ANDREW MELDRUM, Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — In his highest profile speech since leaving office, former U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday denounced the policies of President Donald Trump without mentioning his name, taking aim at the “politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment,” and decrying leaders who are caught lying and “just double down and lie some more.”

Obama was cheered by thousands in Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium as he marked the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth by urging respect for human rights, the free press and other values he said were under threat.

He rallied people to keep alive the ideals that the anti-apartheid activist worked for as the first black president of South Africa, including democracy, diversity, gender equality and tolerance.

Obama opened by calling today’s times “strange and uncertain,” adding that “each day’s news cycle is bringing more headspinning and disturbing headlines.”

“We see much of the world threatening to return to a more dangerous, more brutal, way of doing business,” he said.

A day after Trump met in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Obama criticised “strongman politics.”

The “politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment” are on the move “at a pace unimaginable just a few

years ago,” Obama added.

“Those in power seek to undermine every institution ... that gives democracy meaning,” he said.

The first African-American president of the United States spoke up for equality in all forms, adding: “I would have thought we had figured that out by now.”

Obama praised the diversity of the World Cup champion French team, and he said that those countries engaging in xenophobia “eventually ... find themselves consumed by civil war.”

He noted the “utter loss of shame among political leaders when they’re caught in a lie and they just double down and lie some more,” warning that the denial of facts — such as climate change — could be the undoing of democracy.

But Obama reminded the crowd that “we’ve been through darker times.

We’ve been through lower valleys.”

He closed with a call to action: “I say if people can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.”

The crowd gave him a standing ovation in the chilly South African winter.

“Just by standing on the stage honoring Nelson Mandela, Obama is delivering an eloquent rebuke to Trump,” said John Stremlau, professor of international relations at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.

He called the timing of Obama’s speech auspicious — one day after Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin — and said the commitments that defined Mandela’s life are “under assault.”

THE Court of Appeal has dismissed a man’s attempts at challenging his ten-year sentence for fatally shooting his friend in the chest with a shotgun during an argument almost a decade ago.

Appellate Justices Jon Isaacs, Stella Crane-Scott, and Sir Michael Barnett dismissed Andrew “Yellow” Knowles’ appeal of his conviction and sentence concerning the 2010 death of Delshawn Bernard.

Knowles had maintained, among other things, the sentencing judge failed to leave the issue of accident to the jury for consideration, which was grounded in his admission to police that he fired a “warning shot” at Bernard and wasn’t aware his friend had been injured.

Judges However, the appellate judges said such an admission “does not rise to the level of disclosing an accident.” Conversely, they said it in fact demonstrates a “deliberate act” by Knowles.

According to the ruling, sometime around 6pm on January 9, 2010, Knowles and Bernard got into an argument while both were on East Street near Audley Kemp and Sons Bar. Bernard left the scene and returned shortly afterwards with a machete.

Knowles in turn then ran off and returned a short time later with a shotgun in his trousers.

Bernard reportedly walked in Knowles’ direction, and as he got closer Knowles pulled out the shotgun and shot him in the chest.

Bernard was

ANDREW ‘Yellow’ Knowles pictured in 2015. subsequently taken to hospital by ambulance where he was pronounced dead.

Knowles was consequently arrested and interviewed for the offence of murder.

According to the ruling, Knowles confessed to firing a warning shot when Bernard had approached him but maintained it was not his intent to harm him.

Knowles said he fired the warning shot to prevent Bernard from either taking the shotgun from him or assaulting him, and maintained he didn’t even know Bernard had been shot.

However, upon being arrested, Knowles told the arresting officer, Police Constable Timothy Johnson: “Yes, officer I shot him because he attacked me.

“I shot him because he slapped me and spanked me with a cutlass.”

However, in his statement to police, Knowles did not mention that when Bernard went after him, he was still armed with the cutlass or a weapon of any kind, and neither did any evidence of

Bullard being armed at that time emerge from the evidence in the trial.

At the end of his trial Knowles was acquitted of the murder charge but found guilty on the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Justice Turner sentenced him to ten years in prison to run from March 11, 2015, the date of conviction.

Knowles appealed Justice Turner’s ruling, charging the judge erred in law when he left the offence of manslaughter to the jury, thereby depriving him of an acquittal in all the circumstances, namely the Crown’s failure to satisfy the elements of the offence of murder; the judge’s misdirection on self-defence and omission of a direction on accident.

The appellate judges noted there can be “no resistance” to Knowles’ contention that the Crown failed to satisfy the ingredients of the murder charge, stating the jury’s acquittal on the charge “is a testament” to the “correctness” of that proposition.

Attorney Further, the accused’s attorney Murrio Ducille had submitted that based on the Crown’s evidence of Bernard being struck in the chest from a distance, it could be reasonably inferred that Knowles did not aim at him.

However, the appellate judges said they were unable to concur with that assertion, stating Bernard being struck from a distance may be more consistent with the inference of aiming and conversely inconsistent with his claims that a warning shot was fired.

Additionally, the appellate judges said while the Crown failed to prove their case concerning the

murder charge, the jury was evidently “satisfied” that Knowles caused Bernard’s death by means of unlawful harm.

“The jury had not only the words of the appellant but the medical and firearm evidence to consider,” the appellate judges said.

“Further, it was a matter for the jury how they would regard the appellant leaving the scene, retrieving a shotgun and returning to confront Bernard.”

Concerning the issue that Knowles said was Justice Turner’s failure to leave the issue of an accident for the jury’s consideration, the appellate judges noted there was “no substance” to the complaint that the defence of accident was raised in Knowles’ account of what transpired at the material time.

The judges noted that Knowles admitted: “…I fire one warning shot. I ain’t even know he got shoot.’

“The statement, ‘I fire one warning shot’ does not rise to the level of disclosing an accident,” the judges said.

“In fact, it demonstrates a deliberate act by the appellant.

“Accordingly, on that admission by the appellant, accident could not arise. “…At the end of an anxious and prolonged consideration of the material put before us, including not only the transcript of the trial and the summing-up, but also the submissions put to the court on behalf of the appellant, we think that the verdict was safe and satisfactory.

“We have no lurking doubt as to whether an injustice has been done in this case. “…In the premises, the appeal against conviction fails.

“The conviction stands and the sentence imposed, is affirmed.”

PAGE 12, Wednesday, July 18, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

STRAW VENDORS GIVE THEIR VIEWS ON EVICTIONS THE Tribune visited the Straw Market on Bay Street to speak to vendors about the government’s eviction of stall owners behind on their rent.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staff

By FARRAH JOHNSON VENDORS working in the Nassau Straw Market said they believe the government is being too harsh by evicting stall owners who cannot meet payment deadlines.

Many stall owners admitted yesterday that “business was slow,” and suggested the government should come up with a more reasonable payment plan that struggling vendors could actually meet.

As part of an ongoing effort to collect overdue rent, vendors were reportedly given a four-day notice last week to pay off balances above $200, meet the terms of their payment plans or have their business licences revoked by the Straw Market Authority (SMA).

Some vendors have been evicted for failing to meet previous deadlines.

In view of this, one stall owner, Brenda Ferguson, described the recent evictions as an “unjust” part of the government’s “own regime”.

“I really don’t understand it because if you pay for your stall, it’s two days before your stall open up again. If you pay your light bill or anything as soon as you pay, that open,” she said.

“All kinds

rules and regulations come around this market and no one know nothing about it until it done put in place,” she continued.

James Rolle, a wood carver, admitted that while some vendors make money, others fail to get sales.

He suggested that the Straw Market Authority “should try to work out something” where vendors could give them “$10 a day.”

Rent for stalls in the market is $37.50 per week.

“I on the outside and some days we have five cruise ships out there, and some days I have to borrow $20-$30 to put in my pocket,” he explained.

“Some people ain’t make a sale for the day. What they have to do is have mercy on the people them. That’s how

I look at it,” he said.

Another vendor, Moses Armbrister, acknowledged that while people should abide by rules, the authorities should try to “work with” vendors because just sending them home is “hard.”

Mr Armbrister said he believed that it would be more helpful to just “sit vendors down” and come up with an amicable agreement.

Still, he estimated that although many vendors were “up to date” with their payments, “85 percent” of the lights in the market were off.

“If you look through some of these aisles –if we

didn’t have lights on some of these stalls –the tourist couldn’t see your work,” he said.

Another vendor who requested anonymity admitted that even though vendors were given a “standard” time to pay, they should not have been evicted considering they were “old time vendors.”

The vendor said that even though the former government also required vendors to pay their outstanding balances, they never went as far as to evict stall owners who could not pay on time.

“They (the PLP) didn’t totally close down their living, their livelihood, their

of

bread, take it off the table, and tell them if you don’t pay me for your bread, you’re not going to get it back,” the vendor said.

Many vendors expressed disappointment with the government’s decision and said they are worried that the VAT hike to 12 percent will make it even harder to meet payments.

On Sunday, Minister of Works Desmond Bannister said the Straw Market cannot continue to be run in a manner that allows vendors to be delinquent in rent payments, in some cases for years.

In April, dozens of Straw Market vendors demonstrated in Rawson Square incensed over closures of

hundreds of stalls for rent arrears which they felt were symptomatic of predatory and oppressive regulatory oversight.

Vendors of the Straw Business Person’s Society marched to the square in a bid to raise the profile of longstanding issues afflicting Straw Market businesses, chief among them said to be the lack of ownership, respect or job security despite intergenerational service at the forefront of the tourism industry in a bleak economy.

According to the vendors at the time, more than 200 stalls were shuttered for overdue rent.