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BTC warns staff: Time to get real CEO tells unions to stop confrontation and accept change

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) trade unions have been warned their tactics “could be fatal” to a business that has lost $110m in revenue in less than three years.

Garry Sinclair, BTC’s chief executive, told the worker representatives to “stop finding a dark cloud behind every silver lining” otherwise the former government monopoly will face “an existential crisis” as it tries to “win again” in

a fiercely competitive communications market.

In an impassioned call for unity, Mr Sinclair told Tribune Business that both the line staff and management union must “resist the temptation to fall back into habits and practices from the monopoly days” if the carrier is to adjust its business model and properly compete with the likes of Cable Bahamas and Aliv.

Mr Sinclair said he did not understand their continued grievances and instinct to “fight at every step”.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

CRAIG Flowers, FML Group of Companies owner, sees the Minnis administration’s proposal to only tax lottery play winnings as “problematic” for his chain of web shops where revenue is largely based on the numbers game.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Mr Flowers said 85 percent of his business comes from the lottery, adding he expected many customers to shift to

online casino games where no taxes will be imposed.

For this reason, he called on the government to impose taxes on both lottery and casino games.

Otherwise, he predicted his business could take a huge blow, as customers are likely to shift to casinobased games where there is more of an “incentive” to play.

Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar has said the winnings tax will only affect 45 percent of web shop gaming activities.

SEE PAGE FIVE

COP KILLED GUNMAN ARMED WITH DEADLY AK47

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A POLICE officer was “outgunned” when he tried to apprehend a 22-year-old man who shot at him and his partner with a highpowered AK-47 assault rifle after leading them on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle two years ago, one of his colleagues testified on Friday.

Corporal Frederick Delancy, a firearms instructor with the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), suggested Detective Constable Avard Rolle was up against a gun three times more powerful than the service pistol he ultimately used to kill Akeem Thompson in May 2017.

Though D/C Rolle ended up killing Thompson, Cpl Delancy said D/C Rolle engaging in a shootout with a gun that shoots some SEE PAGE 12

MITCHELL’S PLEA: KEEP SAME TEAM IN CHARGE

FLOWERS’ FEARS OVER ‘WINNERS TAX’ IMPACT

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

HOME

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net

RUSH OF COLOUR

JUNKANOO enjoyed its summer festival at Arawak Cay yesterday. Above the Colours group show its style. More pictures - Page 2 Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party chairman Fred Mitchell yesterday made an appeal to party delegates to re-elect the PLP’s leadership team at its upcoming convention as executives craft a 10-year plan for the organisation.

Mr Mitchell urged party members not to fix something which is not broken.

He said: “I wish to ask delegates to re-elect the team of Davis, Cooper, Mitchell and Lynes. The party has found its sea legs.

The ship is off the reef and we are on our way out to sea. I think there was SEE PAGE SIX

ATTACK SHADOW ON SHARK CONSERVATION

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE death of an American woman from a shark attack in Bahamian waters has presented significant challenges to conservation efforts.

Bahamas National Trust executive director Eric Carey pointed to “back channel” campaigns to introduce legal provisions that would justify killing a shark under certain

JORDAN LINDSEY circumstances following the death of 21-year-old Jordan Lindsey. His comments

come as researchers at the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) celebrate hard-won scientific breakthroughs that have crystallised the country’s global reputations as a leading site for shark conservation and protection.

The college student died from a shark attack off Rose Island on June 26 as researchers descended on a mission to successfully satellite tag a deep-sea

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE THREE

INSIGHT WHAT WAS SYMONETTE THINKING?

SEE PAGE SEVEN

PAGE 2, Monday, July 22, 2019

Summer Junkanoo

THE TRIBUNE

JUNKANOO Summer Festival at Arawak Cay. Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

THE TRIBUNE from page one bluntnose sixgill shark some 500m beneath the surface in Exuma Sound.

“Recently there was a fatal attack,” Mr Carey said, “and every time one of these incidents happen we realise how much education we still have to do. I am fighting a back channel effort to do any number of things, to take sharks off the protected list, to let Bahamians kill sharks, to allow the Chinese to come in and cull so the numbers can be reduced to manageable levels.

“And I say that to say we have to do a ton of education,” he continued, “it has to be constant because fishermen need to understand the value of sharks and need to understand how to coexist with them.”

“Talking to the fishermen, they understand, they are used to dealing with sharks but if there is more information that is out there that is fed by the really unfortunate demise of Jordan - we have to counter that with some really good science.

“We have to have discussions about the shark interactions, shark feeding.

Right now they drive the debate.”

The groundbreaking tagging, aided by the use of OceanX submersibles, will allow scientists to study the deep-sea predator in its natural habitat without posing a significant disruption to its life. Studies have shown the stress of capturing and pulling these sharks to the surface alters their behavioral patterns. The deep-sea tag represents cutting edge innovation in biologging technology by Microwave Telemetry, and also protocols for telemetry tagging as no animal has ever been

Monday, July 22, 2019, PAGE 3

Attack shadow on shark conservation

tagged at such depths in its natural habitat.

“This was just in our backyard,” said CEI’s lead scientist for deep sea and pelagic research, Brendan Talwar. “This idea of the Bahamas being a shark sanctuary is one that carries a lot of weight, not only for species that are highly migratory but also for animals like the bluntnose sixgill shark and a lot of other deep sea species that don’t travel long distances and spend most of their lives in the Bahamas and we know almost nothing about them.”

Mr Talwar said: “Hopefully this marks the beginning of a larger project where we actually know we can tag these animals at depth and there is the potential to do more work in their environment, and learn more about how they live on their terms.”

The second phase of the mission saw a team embark on a research and media mission following the migratory patterns of critically endangered oceanic white tip shark mothers from their sanctuary in The Bahamas to the unprotected and overfished waters of Haiti.

Researchers have tagged over 100 oceanic whitetip sharks in Cat Island, according to Lucy Howey, a wildlife tracking

technology developer and lead researcher at CEI. Near the Windward Passage, researchers caught and tagged seven juvenile sharks in hopes of harvesting data that will confirm the area as a critical habitat for the species.

The breakthrough was made after scientists were alerted to pictures taken by marine conservation nonprofit Haiti Ocean Project (HOP) of dead juvenile white tip sharks caught by local fishermen. HOP founder Jamie Aquino underscored an immense surge of hope and relief to finally see sharks caught and released alive during the expedition, and the mission’s impact on future international collaborations.

The data is critical to support conservation campaigns used to convince governments to designate protected areas and legislate and strengthen protections, according to Dr Mark Bond, who works on international shark policy and negotiations at the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species.

The uptick in fearbased campaigns seeking to reduce the number of sharks in Bahamian waters was also highlighted by The Nature Conservancy’s Shenique Smith.

BAHAMAS National Trust executive director Eric Carey “What’s been rising to the top is a lot of fear about sharks,” said Mrs Smith, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Northern Caribbean Programme.

“There has been a lot of misinformation and you also see a lot of people questioning if we should continue with the shark ban and the shark sanctuary in the Bahamas. But we’ve been trying to encourage people not to let one incident dissuade us or distract us.

ABACO MURDER VICTIM IS A 24-YEAR-OLD FATHER OF TWO

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net

THE man who was fatally shot in an Abaco shanty town has been identified as a 24-year-old father of two.

On Friday, police said officers in Abaco were investigating a shooting incident that occurred shortly after 1pm. Police were alerted to gunshots fired in the area of the Mudd. Responding officers discovered a man lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds in his body.

He was assisted to the Marsh Harbour Clinic by EMS personnel, but later died.

Although his identity has not been released by police, The Tribune understands the deceased is Rajim Bethel, the father of two.

Shortly before 10am on Saturday, police arrested an Abaco man in connection with the death. News of Bethel’s death quickly spread across social media with many family and friends expressing their grief.

One Facebook user said: “I’ve only known (you) for a short time and with (that) short time (you) have (brought) joy to my life.

There was never a sad or dull moment for you. (You) kept me hoping with your jokes, smile, knowledge and understanding.

“I don’t know who to turn to no more for advice.

I need (you) okay, please wake up. We shared laughs and jokes. When I was sad, you made me smile. I still can’t believe you left me alone on this earth. Rest in peace.”

One family member posted on Facebook: “If I only had known three days ago that it would have been the last time I spoke to you I would have told you I love you a thousand times more Rah! Rip cuz (sic).”

This incident brought the murder count for the year to 50, according to The Tribune’s records.

The shooting came a day after Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson

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told reporters that crime in the first half of the year declined by 17 percent compared to the same period last year.

The drop was bolstered by a 17 percent decline in murders as of June 30.

There were 54 murders in the first half of 2018 but 45 in the same period this year, according to police figures.

Despite a downtrend in crime figures, the commissioner noted there was still more work to be done.

“Despite the downward crime trend, there is the fear of crime, so the police are working assiduously to reduce this fear by increasing our visibility in communities and through intelligence-led operations,” he said on Thursday.

“Today’s criminals are ruthless in committing criminal acts and often endanger the lives of innocent persons in the process.

Therefore, it is vital that individuals be extremely cautious of the company they keep. I know this may sound simple, but the reality is that ‘bad company corrupts good character’ and we are judged by the company we keep. On the other spectrum, keeping company with wise people can have a positive effect.”

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to called police anonymously at 911 or 911 or the Marsh Harbour Police Station at 367-3437/367-2569.

ABACO VICTIM: Rajim Bethel. a 24-year-old father of two.

“The research is very promising,” Mrs Smith continued. “It speaks to the need for us to focus on our national conservation efforts but also to think about how can we use the bilateral, multi-country approach.

“We don’t want to jeopardise what we’re doing here because of what’s happening in other places so we do need to have the dialogue with other countries about what’s the impact on these shared populations that move between multiple countries.

“It’s a moment of pride,” Mrs Smith said, “that what has been done in the Bahamas, banning long line, the shark sanctuary - these are things that are being shown to the world as a model for other people to follow in conservation.”

She added: “We have a long legacy of being a leader in marine conservation in the region and I think this just solidifies it even more.”

The deep sea expedition was conducted from June 25 to 29, and the Haiti mission followed from June 30 to July 17.

The research teams briefed local media at an event staged at the school last week Thursday.

Both legs of the mission were supported by

partnerships with OceanX, The Moore Bahamas Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Vibrant Oceans Initiative with leading researchers attached to CEI, the New England Aquarium, Florida International University, and the University of North Florida.

The intersection of technology and scientific research, and its application for real world solutions is the masthead of the Cape Eleuthera Island School, according to its CEO Dr Edd Brooks.

Dr Brooks founded the school’s acclaimed Shark Research and Conservation Programme, which played a critical role in the country’s decision to ban long-lining and establish a sanctuary.

“Sharks are so important to us in our country,” Mr Carey continued, “and obviously from the ecological perspective but also now documented as a result of work [Dr Brooks] led to document the economic value.”

Sharks and rays, according to research, generate $113.8m in revenue annually. CEI was found in 2006 to manage the school’s research programme in the areas of tropical ecology, marine biology, and sustainability.

PAGE 4, Monday, July 22, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

The Tribune Limited NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”

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Trump lights fuse to expose the US racism “SEND her back, send her back.”

It was the chant that brought home how disturbing the state of American politics is at present – being driven by the racism of President Donald Trump.

The chant was directed towards Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who has become increasingly the target after Trump first directed racist comments towards four Democrat Congresswoman – Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.

In a series of tweets – his favourite way of communicating – while not naming the four directly, he claimed the Congresswomen “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all)” and went on to say “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came”.

As is the way with Trump, he’s not very good with the facts. Three of the Congresswomen he was attacking in this way were born in America. The fourth came from Somalia at the age of ten.

All of them are women of colour, and though he later protested he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body, telling American-born women of colour to go back to their own country shows he has a racist mouth.

Of course, with his facts off on the birthplace of three out of four, what did he do? Tilted his argument towards the one who wasn’t born in America. Cue the chants of “send her back” at one of Trump’s rallies on Wednesday last week.

The vision was chilling. Trump basking in the adulation of the crowd as it chanted its vile words. Looking at the crowd was frightening too. Most of the people chanting were white women, directing their exposed hate against a fellow woman of a different colour.

There was even a young girl right behind Trump joining in the chant.

Later, Trump said he tried to stop the chant by starting to speak again quickly.

That’s a lie. The clock runs a full 13 seconds as he gazes around enjoying the attention before he speaks again. As comedian Trevor Noah pointed out, Usain Bolt could win a gold medal in the time it took Trump to speak again.

Send her back. Why don’t they go

back from where they came? This is the language of racism. Anyone who has had these words directed at them knows what they mean. They know people are telling them they don’t belong, they don’t look right, they don’t sound right, they don’t know “our” ways. Even if they were born in the same place. Went to the same schools, the same churches. In this case, even if they were elected to office to serve their nation.

When Trump told these Congresswomen to go back from where they came, he started the clock ticking that led to the “send her back” chant at his rally.

World leaders have condemned the chants – from Canadian leader Justin Trudeau to Germany’s Angela Merkel, and UK leader Theresa May and both of the contenders to replace her, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.

And yet where are the voices of leaders in our region? Back in March, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis was one of five Caribbean leaders invited to meet Trump in Florida, alongside Haiti’s Jovenel Moise, Dominican Republic’s Danilo Medina, Jamaica’s Andrew Holness and St Lucia’s Allen Chastanet.

What are they saying about the racist comments towards women of colour?

Or does the need to curry favour with America win out over the need to say what is right?

In the end, some of this outrage might well suit Trump. He is an outrage politician. He uses it to stoke up his supporters and claims to be the victim even as he insults all around him.

He uses it too in the same way as UK leadership contender Boris Johnson does – who talked of “throwing a dead cat on the table” when you need a distraction. Suddenly everyone talks about the dead cat instead of what they were talking about a minute before.

That said, such behaviour should be condemned. He is telling people they don’t belong to the nation they serve.

And we should tell him that his words don’t belong to anyone who would call themselves a leader.

Trump bulldozed his way to power with the slogan “Make America Great Again”. Sadly today the racist underbelly of Middle America lies exposed. For ‘great’ read ‘hate’. We can only pray it comes to its senses.

Schools need reading programmes for all EDITOR, The Tribune

that programme because children today cannot HAVING worked sound out words. I asked in education at several a 13 year old to sound out schools for over 20 years, the word “milk” and the I can say that I am thor- child made the “s” sound. oughly frustrated. Daily This is the root problem I am presented with stu- in education today. Why dents who cannot read is the government playing or are 15 and reading at a politics and wasting money third grade level. This has buying tablets and laptops? been going on for years Technology has its place in yet The Ministry of Educa- education but it SHOULD tion is not addressing the NOT be the central focus problem. Every time I see when so many students in Minister Jeff Lloyd on the primary, junior and senior television talking about schools cannot read at buying tablets for students grade level! Once a student and laptops for teachers. I can read well, he or she can am angry and frustrated. do well in just about any This is Not what the stu- subject because all subjects dents need! Our students require reading. need to learn how to read I was recently in a well and comprehend what known bookstore and they read. Our schools saw that they had phonics need a comprehensive books from levels A to K or reading programme that higher by the Pearson book is tiered for all primary company. Why doesn’t the school students. Phonics government get these in the must be the foundation of primary schools and start a

programme for weak and non readers so that by the time they get to grade six they can read well?

As for junior and senior school students, the government should change an existing school into a school that focuses on students at this level who cannot read or are weak readers. The school can focus on Reading and Math and really focus on getting students up to standard in reading. If the reading problem is not effectively addressed we will never see the kind of improvement that we want to see in our exams.

The government needs to stop dancing around the problem and confront the problem head on.

TIRED OF FOOLISHNESS Nassau July 18, 2019

Scrambling to catch up on marijuana EDITOR, The Tribune THE good Pastor Cedric Moss is nothing if not consistent. Unfortunately, he consistently views debates in the public square through the prism of extreme puritanism.

While he seldom makes knee-jerk reactions, he often refuses to appreciate that the teachings of the Bible do not require us to live our 21st century lives in accordance with social norms of the first century.

The pastor waded into the debate on the legalisation of cannabis. Fair enough. The views of the church are important in public fora. But then his argument became discombobulated.

Who are we to question the sacraments of any religion, let alone Rastafarianism. But it’s a red herring to use as an argument for legalisation, the “blessing” it would bestow on the Rastas. It might come as a shock to the pastor to learn that not all Rastas smoke weed, just as not all Christians drink wine – recreational or sacramental.

The debate is over whether people who have reached the age of majority have the right to partake in the recreational use of cannabis, hopefully outside the public square and not in proximity to children.

Governments often follow the fashion of the day and for a while it was politically correct to make illegal any and all contact with cannabis even if it brought peace and relief to those suffering from debilitating illness. Now, the public pendulum seems to be swinging towards the centre and the government is scrambling to catch up.

The social costs of continuing with the policy of locking up everybody have long outweighed the risk that some will overindulge and that others will need crisis intervention.

Alcoholism is a very

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net real problem for some, but it doesn’t prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquor.

Cigarette smoke unleashes harmful carcinogens into the immediate environs of the smoker but still we permit its sale, albeit with modest, but often ignored warning of potential harmful effects.

Gambling can be addictive for some, yet we permit it in the open and try to intervene when some become addicted and go off the rails.

Prescription drugs are abused, and many are complicit in writing scripts for Xanax and other drugs to “help patients cope”.

I invite Pastor Moss to consider the young lives that have been ruined because they were found to be in possession of ounces of cannabis. The current law takes discretion out of the hands of the arresting police and the desk sergeant (even though it miraculously allows considerable leeway for the children of the well-connected).

We must do away with the notion that only the children of the poor smoke cannabis.

Most can hardly afford it. It is those people of means and privilege who, studies show, buy the most weed and who would benefit the most from its legalisation, although it is not polite for them to publicly endorse legislation or, God forbid, be seen at one of the public debates on the issue.

We have robbed so many of our young people of the opportunity to realise their full potential because of the criminal record they attract when convicted for possession. With a criminal record they can kiss goodbye to visas to go and study abroad or in some cases to even being considered for certain jobs.

Any equation has losers and winners (or, if you’ll pardon the shameless pun, highs and lows). The current status quo makes us all losers. A change in the law produces many winners.

The so-called “weed man” gets squeezed out while the Treasury gets to collect an excise tax and VAT on legal cannabis.

The Commissioner of Police gets more cops on the beat to deal with violence and injury crimes after he disbands the weed task force and redeploys them.

The prison population should drop when those doing time for minor cannabis offences get released and their records, and the records of those who previously were convicted, get expunged.

The task force looking at possible legalisation needs to hear from more people and Pastor Moss is correct in saying that the voices of health care workers must be heard in the debate.

Finally, the government should still prohibit the use of this country as a transshipment point for weed and other drugs and the export and import of the substance should be strictly controlled.

Why not set up special weed farms on designated areas of a Family Island (heavily protected against poachers, etc.). That will be one sure-fire way to get young people interested in farming.

The task force and the stakeholders should walk, not run towards the inevitable decision. The Rastas should rescind their illadvised legal campaign and become a fully vested member of the constructive campaign for change.

The final piece of legislation should be so well crafted as to cause even Pastor Moss to say: Amen.

THE GRADUATE Nassau July 19, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 22, 2019, PAGE 5

ATLANTIS STILL ON LOOKOUT FOR A BUYER

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar confirmed yesterday Brookfield Asset Management is again searching for a company to purchase the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, after a prospective sale fell through last year.

According to the minister, “this is nothing new,” as he told The Tribune the firm “always has the property for sale”.

“Brookfield in an insurance company that makes strategic investments with the intention of selling them,” the Freetown MP said. “They always have the property for sale and are always looking to send it onward.

“I don’t think that they have secured the price

they have been looking for. I think I am safe to say Atlantis is one of the crown jewels in their portfolio of holdings.

“While they are a motivated seller they want to ensure that they can get it sold for their asking price.”

Asked whether he saw the resort’s need for renovation as a hindrance to a sale, Mr D’Aguilar said: “A sale occurs when the purchase price is attractive to the purchasers, so a sale hasn’t occurred because the price isn’t attractive. There is a myriad of reasons why this is or isn’t the case.

“But I don’t think the renovation is a part of the issue. You factor it into the purchase price.

“Prospective purchasers they are looking for a deal and Brookfield is not prepared to let it go for just anything.”

A well-placed source yesterday said despite owning Atlantis for more than seven years, Brookfield continues to want the sprawling resort “off its hands” considering its expertise is not in the hotel business.

While the sale will inevitably raise concerns about the job security of the resorts 4,000 to 5,000 workers, the source said the government stood to gain “substantial” revenue from stamp duties attached to a transaction of this magnitude.

This comes after a Bloomberg report said last week that Brookfield was working with an advisor to solicit potential interest in the resort, that features multiple hotels, a casino and more than 10 swimming pools.

In late February, Tribune

Business reported that a potential sale of Atlantis to a New York-based real estate investor, which was backed by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, fell through and was not going to be revived.

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation and its principal, Ben Ashkenazy, were spearheading the undertaking.

Ashkenazy, which was backed by Middle Eastern money principally from Qatar, walked away after it uncovered significant “deferred maintenance” issues when it conducted due diligence on Atlantis’s financials and real estate assets, Tribune Business was told at the time.

Had it proceeded with the deal, Ashkenazy and its financiers would have been required to spend significantly more in capital

DIONISIO D’AGUILAR investments than they had initially bargained for, altering the economics and potential return on investment they were targeting.

As a result, Ashkenazy attempted to renegotiate the purchase price with Brookfield Asset Management, the Toronto-based asset manager that holds $330bn of global real estate and other properties, among which is Atlantis.

Tribune Business was told

that Brookfield, a tough negotiator, was completely inflexible on price and refused to budge on any renegotiation, resulting in the potential purchase foundering.

Another source, also speaking on condition of anonymity in February, said Brookfield and Ashkenazy had managed to sign a letter of intent, with the latter given a 30-day due diligence period on Atlantis’s books and assets.

Tribune Business was told that Ashkenazy, whose investments include New York’s Plaza Hotel and Washington DC’s Union Station, together with other resort, office and retail assets in major cities throughout the US, had conducted due diligence to the extent it even conducted a scouting mission on Atlantis’s local competition - Baha Mar.

Flowers’ fears over ‘winners tax’ impact from page one He told the House of Assembly last week the government had decided to focus this levy solely on lottery/numbers operations because it was too “complicated” to calculate the winnings from online casino games.

“Well that’s a problem because my company, FML, more than 85 percent of its revenue is from lottery,” Mr Flowers said of the winnings tax. “We have not and have never encompassed or professed to be a casinobased company.

“We are oriented with members online who play their numbers through our system from home. If the government now chooses to tax only lottery then why would I want to play lottery to win if I am going to be paying a five (or 7.5) percent tax? If I win the same amount in slots, I don’t pay anything. So I expect to see most people go towards slots where there are no taxes. “(This) could have a huge negative impact.”

The new winnings tax, due to take effect when changes to the Gaming House Operator Regulations are implemented at the House of Assembly’s

CRAIG FLOWERS, FML Group of Companies owner. next sitting on Wednesday, will see five percent paid on winnings up to $1,000 and 7.5 percent on anything greater than $1,000.

Mr D’Aguilar said this “small tax on winnings” was projected to yield between

$10m-$15m annually for the Public Treasury and help take the government closer to the $50m total web shop revenue target it had envisioned under the initial tax structure for the industry.

Mr Flowers said he’ll

‘BTC SUFFERING BECAUSE OF LACK OF LEADERSHIP’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union will continue to publicly reject the leadership of BTC CEO Garfield Sinclair until he resigns, insisting staff refuse to work with him moving forward.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, BCPOU President Dino Rolle said the CEO has not brought anything to the table to spark growth at the telecommunications provider. He contended BTC has suffered loss because of this “lack of leadership”.

The union has continued to rail against BTC’s leadership after its parent company Liberty Latin America’s CEO Balan Nair had to apologise to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Bahamian workers last week after remarks seen as disparaging about both went viral on social media.

BTC staff also held a lunch hour protest on Friday airing concerns about the company’s leadership. They have said they also want Mr Nair to step down.

Mr Rolle said: “The staff came out on their own right Friday to express for themselves how disappointed they are with the lack of leadership by Balan Nair who sought to pit the Bahamas employees against the Jamaican employees using this plantation practise and they stood up against that and for the lack of leadership in that regard and in particular the lack of leadership that we’ve experienced over the last year since we have had Garfield Sinclair as CEO. “We are firmly against continuing the relationship with Mr Sinclair because we believe that he has caused BTC to be wrongfully criticised by his boss Balan Nair. We certainly want him gone and we are going to continue our actions, our public positions until Mr Sinclair resigns.

“We are not interested in working for him anymore.”

He said the relationship between staff and Mr Sinclair has been strained for almost a year.

“Since Mr Sinclair came in August of last year just on landing he described the workers as dead, that he came to get rid of the dead wood. The engine on

his plane hadn’t even cut off good yet when he made that statement.

“That caused friction within the relationship from the beginning. The staff would have given Mr Sinclair the opportunity to see what it is that he was bringing to the table to grow this business since he spoke so negatively.

“So we have been at the table and he has yet to bring anything to the table. It’s a lack of leadership from him and a lack of a proper capital investment by Balan Nair and his Liberty Latin America team, but particularly a lack of leadership by Mr Garfield Sinclair.”

On Saturday The Nassau Guardian reported that a meeting with BTC leadership to discuss voluntary separation packages for employees did not go well.

However, the daily said Mr Sinclair insisted: “We’ve never had an involuntary exercise. All we’ve ever had in trying to reshape our operating model here is voluntary exercises. So, is there a likelihood that we would engage in one again?

Absolutely, but it will be voluntary.”

See Tribune Business.

now have to consult with his attorneys as he suggested there had been no conclusion to his issue during a Sunday meeting he attended several weeks ago at the Office of the Prime Minister.

“We’ll have consultation with our legal advisors and see what is the best way to have some sort of dialogue behind this because what is the rationale behind choosing not to impose the tax on the entire industry across the board?

“We know for sure that the calculations of the taxes if we want to go to the very cent may present a problem, but we don’t have to.

The proposal is to pay or to tax any amount over ten cents and up. If I win less than 10 cents it’s free, but anything over ten cents in the slots and the casino games should be considered the same as the lottery games and the entire industry should be taxed.

“Don’t exclude one because now we are going to get into trying to tell the customers where best to purchase or to win. The customers are here to win not to play.

“If I win by playing slots and I am not exposed to the five percent tax that is certainly more incentive for a way for me to spend my one dollar if I am going to spend it today in entertainment by way of gaming.

“You don’t have to be rocket scientists to figure that out,” Mr Flowers said.

Last week, Mr D’Aguilar said Bahamian gamblers had got off relatively lightly, as the comparable winnings tax rates in Jamaica and Barbados are 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

In the US, he added that the federal tax rate was 25 percent, with state and local taxes on top of that.

PAGE 6, Monday, July 22, 2019 from page one a good captain and able mates. I am hoping that the existing executive leadership team will be returned by the delegates to continue work. “ Despite his appeal, Mr Mitchell said there is nothing preventing other people from being nominated for top posts adding in a democratic organisation people are free to support whichever team they wish. This statement came days after The Tribune reported PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis told party members that he wants no challenges to his leadership team.

Speaking of the convention, Mr Mitchell said yesterday: “It is a ritual that we as a party began way back in 1954. Every time we meet in convention, we renew that original spark that caused Henry Milton Taylor, Cyril St John Stevenson, and William Cartwright to found the PLP back in 1953. Those who have been involved in my work I this party know that I have been a fierce advocate of annual conventions on time every year.

Sadly, that has not been the recent record but to the credit of Philip Brave Davis this is the third such convention in two years.

“In the two years since the general election, the party has found its sea legs... let’s count the successes.

Following the general election, we were down to four seats and a 37 percent share of the electorate in

THE TRIBUNE

Mitchell’s plea: Keep same team in charge 2017. Under the present team, within one year of election, the public survey showed that 70 percent give or take of those surveyed disapproved of the Free National Movement. Our polls reveal that we are now ahead of the FNM.” He added: “However, there are too many the polls reveal for whom the jury is still out. We are working on winning back those souls.

People like what they see, the new faces, the young people as witnessed I’m our dynamic Progressive Young Liberals and in the National Progressive Institute.

There is a brand-new men’s branch and the women’s branch continues its work.”

Mr Mitchell said after consultations with Mr Davis, party members will be asked to approve a 10-year plan for the PLP at the convention.

He said: “This will include the platform of the party in the next general election.

That committee has begun its preliminary work under the leadership of Deputy Leader Chester Cooper.

The plan will include a commitment that each constituency branch will have

PLP chairman Fred Mitchell is urging party delegates to re-elect the same leadership team. a fixed headquarters which is owned by the party so that they have a place to meet without depending

on public schools. Further, the national party ought to commit to the construction of a new national

headquarters building and convention centre where all of our meetings both private and public can be held.

“I have already begun work on scouting potential buildings and sites and discussing the possibility of expanding our existing building. I would like to lead this work and get it started. The next generation may have to finish it.

But I am all about succession planning and training the next generation. I look forward to a great convention and to your continued support of Brave Davis’ team.”

Mr Davis was unable to attend the press conference yesterday but, Barbara Cartwright, secretary general, gave remarks on his behalf. She urged party members to display unity, despite expected contests for various positions, and focus on the end goal of winning the next election.

She said: “. . .We have a government to win. We have voters to bring back home all of our energies and resources should therefore be spent trying to win hearts and minds of the Bahamian people. It is

therefore important for the country to see us as a unified and not divided body.

Let us work towards that goal in this convention. I have every expectation that we will come out of this on a high note.”

The PLP’s convention is slated for July 25-27 at the Melia Nassau Resort. The convention will commence at 8am on Thursday. Day sessions for delegates will be held on Thursday and Friday. These sessions will conduct party business including the nomination of amendments to the party’s constitution, nomination for officers for national party office and panel discussions on various topics.

The evening sessions will be open to the public and they commence on 7pm on Thursday and Friday with live television and radio coverage as well as live streaming beginning at 8pm on each night.

Nominations for party officers will be held on Thursday with voting to take place on Friday. On Saturday, the party will have installation of officers and a prayer breakfast.

... but Wilchcombe may still run for PLP chairman

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

He spoke personally to the main opponent in this and asked him, ‘in the interest of party unity, stand down from this.’ People suddenly said this is being anti-democratic, people have their rights to run which is correct, everyone is entitled to run, but you know, there is a time and a place to do things. We tested this out by empirical data, by doing surveys and what the country has decided is the PLP is on its way back but they’re watching to see whether or not we are actually a united body with a set of plans that can take the country forward. That is why he argues, ‘I have a team, the team is just in the middle of trying to get things up off the ground, we don’t need any division at this time.’”

Fighting to ward off Mr Wilchcombe’s challenge has been an expensive process, Mr Mitchell said.

“If my sister knew the amount of money that I personally spend on this she would ask me if I’m mad because it takes for me to travel with an aide, one night in any island of the Bahamas, $1,000 between transportation, airfare, hotel accommodation and food, so it is expensive to do this and I would rather be

FOR SALE

FORMER Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe said yesterday he continues to consult with the people, adding it is they who will have the final say, as he mulls over a possible run for Progressive Liberal Party chairman.

He told The Tribune he would make a decision today on the matter. This comes after PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis personally asked Mr Wilchcombe not to run for party chairman at the upcoming convention, Senator Fred Mitchell said on Thursday.

Mr Mitchell, current PLP chairman, made the disclosure of Davis’ request at a party event in North Andros.

“I have been responding to the request from the people to give consideration to run, which has taken me to various meetings, homes and islands,” Mr Wilchcombe, former West Grand Bahama and Bimini MP said yesterday.

“However, ultimately the people are responsible for this decision. If the people are determined that they want a new candidate

then we have to go with that. I have been talking to them and explaining to them what I want to do and seeing if they buy into my thinking.”

Mr Wilchcombe attended an “Obie Wilchcombe For PLP Chairman” event in Grand Bahama on Thursday evening. He met party followers in Eleuthera on Friday and others in Nassau on Saturday.

The Thursday event had the feel of a candidate launch, with frequent references to Mr Wilchcombe as “the next party chairman”.

The 60-year-old’s possible run has been closely watched by PLP insiders.

Mr Davis has told supporters he wants his leadership team of Chester Cooper as deputy and Mr Mitchell as chairman to remain in place. He has said he wants no challenges to the team at the upcoming convention.

Speaking to delegates in North Andros, Mr Mitchell revealed that Mr Davis also personally asked Mr Wilchcombe to “stand down” and avoid a challenge.

“I got to tell you quite frankly, we did not expect for this to be a contest of any sort,” Mr Mitchell said. “(Mr Davis) had asked for everyone to stand down.

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spending that money trying to defeat the Free National Movement,” he said.

“But as the former prime minister used to say, it is what it is so we’ve come to ask you tonight to heed the advice of Mr Davis to support the team he has in place.”

When he ran for chairman in 2017, Mr Wilchcombe received 419 votes to Mr Mitchell’s 627 votes, the closest of the big ticket races.

During Thursday’s event, the former tourism minister drew lots of implicit contrasts between the current state of the party and where he thinks it should be.

“The chairman of the party takes a lower profile,” he said on Thursday, “he’s not supposed to be the face.

In our organisation the face of the party is the leader, in government the face of the party is the chairman because that’s separation of chairman, party and government but when you’re trying to build your party the one person I have to sell is the leader.”

Mr Wilchcombe expressed frustration with the infrequency and quality of party conventions, which are constitutionally required to take place every year, but are held only occasionally.

OBIE WILCHCOMBE “There is a purpose that convention is held every year and usually it’s for five days,” he said. “The purpose was to bring your people together, same reason the church brings people together, same reason board meetings and organisations bring their boards together every year.

Well, the PLP did that and then we had a long break.

I think it was a mistake we made.

“We had conventions up until 2009. We were affected by hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 and then we got back on track. But then we had a convention in 2009 and didn’t get back together until 2017. Do you wonder why then you lost your base? Do you wonder why then people start to drift all over the place?

Because if you don’t come together with your forces and reunite and reconnect, then people are going to be drifting. Conventions are

fundamentally important because you, the soldiers, if I don’t arm you, what are you going to go out on the streets with?

“When you come to conventions the five days ought to deal with issues and I believe we have to return to the way we used to do it. When Sir Lynden wanted to introduce a social revolution or the defence force or any new national policy, he brought it to convention for convention to approve it first because that’s when you hear it, and then you take it to the streets and you talk to the people in your constituency about it. We stopped doing that. We make conventions all about a vote, who you voting for, an election. I think a twoday convention, I don’t think much can be done.

I think it ought to be five days…I think it ought to be back to where it used to be in October as the constitution says. And I believe that because that’s when you get your best room rates, that’s when the hotel occupancy rates are lower, that’s when business isn’t much in the tourism industry. This kind of time, everything is crazy.”

The PLP’s convention will be hosted at the Melia Nassau Beach Resort on July 25 and 26.

Mr Wilchcombe also suggested the party has not been doing a good job raising money.

“When I was chairman of the PLP we didn’t have the money problem,” he said on Thursday. “You know why? Because we constantly were raising money so we could have our conventions. You must have conventions and it is not for the leader to dig in his pocket, no. Why would you want to do that to the leader, or any of the leaders? What you have to do is have a very vibrant plan to raise the money, you have to do things to cause funds to come into your organisation. Think about it, all the stuff we have for sale and we can’t sell nothing. Could you imagine if we sold some of the things we have, some of the speeches we have by the great ones, some of the books of the great ones, wouldn’t you want to buy the history?”

The PLP originally scheduled a convention for November 14, 15 and 16 of 2018 but the event was postponed because of financial constraints.

MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

BRENT SYMONETTE

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

T

HE resignation of the former Minister of Immigration, Financial Services, Trade and Industry, Brent Symonette, has been far from the proverbial ride off into the sunset.

Instead it has been mired in the usual controversy that surrounds the questionable decision making and sloppiness under the past two years of the Minnis administration.

This is not to say previous governments were choir boys, just an honest assessment of what we’ve witnessed under this Minnis-led government.

Although transparency has been a buzzword since Dr Minnis’ campaign trail, it could not be more absent in government.

We only know what they want us to. And for the political sycophants who salivate at the opportunity to bash the prime minister, don’t be fooled. This doesn’t only apply to the Minnis administration.

Rather, it has been the state of play among both major political parties.

Minnis and company may just be worse at keeping their dirty laundry out of the media. Furthermore, one would think with all the noise that surrounds Brent Symonette, Minnis would have paid special attention to ensure all bases were covered.

On the contrary, the former minister’s exit has been somewhat of a tell-all interview tour dissecting the government’s decision to rent facilities in the Town Centre Mall – owned by Symonette and his brother.

We should recall that when the government initially considered renting space in the Town Centre Mall the public were up in arms. To quell their dissatisfaction, the prime minister in October 2018 indicated Symonette would not be present during Cabinet discussions related to the post office and affirmed he would declare his interest during the debate – a time earmarked by the prime minister for when all of the details surrounding this deal would be made known to the public. Moreover, the prime minister went so far as to calling the government’s handling of this matter “complete transparency”.

Nearly a year later, we learned this was a lie.

When Brent

Loose lips sink ships.

Just what was Brent Symonette thinking?

Symonette appeared on Shenique Miller’s show, “The Conversation”, and unpacked some of the details leading up to the government’s resolution to rent facilities in the Town Centre Mall, many people quickly began connecting the dots.

Detailing a discussion between himself and the prime minister, Symonette said: “I figured there’s no way they are going to rent from my brother and myself, so I left it alone.

The phone rang one morning in whenever I was in Mexico. It was early in the morning; PM and I get up early and PM said ‘We are going to go ahead with the lease’.”

He continued: “I said, ‘PM, I can deliver it by Christmas if it’s no Rolls Royce and we have to reduce the size of the building. It can’t be 70, 80,000 square feet. It has to be a Volkswagen not a Rolls Royce.’ We had that discussion.

“I said, ‘You have to deal with the whole question of conflict of interest.’ He said, ‘We will do a resolution in the House of Assembly.’

He said, ‘What will the rent be?’, I said, ‘$12 per square foot’ and I came back; my partners dealt with the Ministry of Works, everything else.

Since the time of this revelation, local journalists have determined that the only known time that Symonette was in Mexico was on October 4 to attend the Society of Trust and Estate Practioners Conference – two weeks before the resolution was tabled in Parliament.

Not only does the account provided by Symonette give proof that he was, in fact, engaged with the prime minister in a negotiation process, but it also questions if the prime minister purposely attempted to mislead Parliament.

This revelation has been damning to the Minnis administration, as we’re left to question how on earth the prime minister figured this would go over with the Bahamian people.

Understandably, this has caused much anger as it confirms there was a direct conflict of interest moving the post office to Town Centre Mall. A resolution in Parliament would have hardly been sufficient to remove the bad optics.

Worse, the government will no doubt pay a price, as political capital has been squandered amid this latest controversy.

It is confusing that a veteran politician like

Symonette would reveal such shocking details that would give such a black eye to the government. One may wonder if this is sabotage on his part. After all, he admittedly supported Loretta Butler-Turner, former deputy leader of the FNM, and for a short time, the Opposition Leader in the House of Assembly, after leading a coup to remove Minnis as the party leader.

Certainly, Minnis may have won the battle and retained party leadership to eventually become prime minister, but we cannot blame those who may believe those who lack confidence in Minnis are poised to win the war.

There is no reasonable explanation for Symonette to be so forthcoming with information that can potentially be so damaging to the prime minister.

During the debate in Parliament over the resolution, Prime Minister Minnis attacked the PLP’s plans for the post office – calling them less cost-effective, non-transparent and filled with dubious questions.

Now, the irony is that despite the savings achieved by the government renting the Town Centre Mall, the decision faces similar questions, lacks transparency and may prove to be more costly politically.

These days, the prime minister has been silent on the matter, and the Speaker of the House has muzzled debate on the deal in Parliament. However, the conversation outside Parliament is as vibrant as ever with people drawing their own conclusions.

Just as you would assume – no one’s estimations are favourable to the Minnis administration, which refuses to take control of the narrative, leaving itself to look even more guilty.

Continuing to ignore this gigantic elephant in the room won’t make this go away. Perhaps the conversation may die down over the next few months. However, with 2022 and silly season right around the corner, this is no doubt going to be ammunition for a kill shot.

Indeed, political observers are not reaching if they are questioning if this was an act of sabotage.

Although Symonette has on more than one occasion spoken highly of his professional relationship with the prime minister, politics is a game of chess. And few have been more astute than Brent Symonette.

It is no secret Minnis wasn’t the candidate the FNM power brokers

picked. Whether he was strategic enough to reclaim party leadership going into the election, or whether the perfect storm of ButlerTurner’s coup falling apart, along with the 2017 election being a referendum on the Christie administration can be debated until we’re all blue in the face.

HUBERT MINNIS

However, it does not hurt to consider how this will play into the FNM’s leadership picture in 2022. With the Progressive Liberal Party guaranteed to be more formidable with Christie off the scene, the FNM is wise to consider if Minnis at the helm will be the

right choice for the party next election.

Surely, this may be a conspiracy theory. But alternatively, we may be naïve to believe that Symonette, a skilled politician spanning three decades, will go out this sloppy.

This is one to keep your eyes on.

PAGE 8 MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

That was the year that was THIS summer, The Tribune begins a new series of looks back in time - as we revisit pages from 50 years ago to get a glimpse of the issues of the day in 1969.

This week spotlights some familiar concerns - over tax, political parties and police recruitment - and some topics very

different from today.

The Tuesday, July 15, 1969, edition leads with a rallying cry to teachers from then Prime Minister Lynden Pindling.

But rather than some of the concerns felt today - with issues of recruitment or worries about the brain drain to other countries

- this rallying call was for teachers to travel “to snap the definite streak of insularity and parochialism that tends to overtake us all”.

He cited to teachers the recent Moon landing, saying: “Your children have already seen with their own eyes the

transformation of fantasy into reality. What they want to know is how and why. Can you explain?”

There was also a petition, with 1,000 people signing their name agains the Real Property Tax Act, while police numbers were up to 809.

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

C

LIMATE change is no longer a future event. It is here, now and real. Planet Earth, mankind’s common homeland, appears to be already locked into 1.5C of warming, once hoped to be the top limit of human-caused climate change.

The world is now set to storm its way through the 2C limit set by the much vaunted but inadequate agreement reached in Paris in 2016.

Small island states and countries with low-lying coastlands in the Caribbean and elsewhere are in jeopardy. They ought to reject promises from the industrialized nations and, instead, insist on concrete action to address the looming danger.

Accepting promises of future action does no more than give additional time for the industrialised polluting countries to do nothing while conditions deteriorate fatally for small countries.

In a recent report to the UN Human Rights Council, Professor Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, stated: “Sombre speeches by government officials at regular conferences are not leading to meaningful action as States continue to kick the can down the road. The essential elements of climate change were understood in the 1970s, and scientists and advocates have been ringing alarm bells for decades. Yet States have marched past every scientific warning and threshold, and what was once considered catastrophic warming now seems like a best-case scenario”.

The enormity of this problem is evident even in larger poor countries.

According to the World Bank, 18.8 million people were displaced in 2017 due to disasters in 135 countries—almost twice the number displaced by

INSIGHT

MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019 PAGE 9

Name and blame the polluters conflict. Since 2000, people in poor countries have died from disasters at rates seven times higher than in wealthy countries.

Researchers from Stanford University have already warned climate change is widening global inequality between nations.

A kind of “climate apartheid” is developing which will lead to rich countries insulating themselves from extremes of weather while locking-out from their borders people seeking to escape heat stress, vector diseases, lack of water supply and little capacity to grow food.

This background influenced an answer I gave to a question posed to me by “The Latin American Advisor”, a US based publication that was published on July 15.

The question was: “A normal” hurricane season, in line with the annual average of 12 tropical storms forming over the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, is expected this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. What steps are Caribbean governments taking to prepare for the

hurricane season? To what extent have hurricanes and tropical storms held back Caribbean countries’ economic growth and social development over the years? What short-term and long-term measures should countries in the region implement to better deal with the preparation for, and recovery from, natural disasters?”

My answer was: “The failure of large industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emission drastically has increased and intensified hurricanes.

Caribbean countries have learned that there is no ‘normal’ hurricane season.

The effects of more powerful and destructive hurricanes are multidimensional, including: reversing economic growth; blighting future economic development by sky-rocketing insurance premiums that discourage rebuilding; high construction costs to rebuild for greater resilience; insufficient access to concessional financing; the need for larger and more comprehensive country-risk insurance but insufficient revenues to pay the premiums; greater unemployment; enlarged

poverty; emigration, particularly of skilled labour; weakened security and increased crime; and high debt due to commercial borrowing for repeated reconstruction.

Preparing for these effects are beyond the capacity of Caribbean countries that are the least contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but are among the greatest victims. Nonetheless, at national and regional levels, Caribbean countries have implemented policies and strategies both to try to withstand hurricanes and to deal with their consequences. These include new regulatory frameworks for stronger building codes and higher building construction standards; and building national and regional humanitarian warehouses for storing basic necessities and emergency material for swift distribution.

But the measures put in place are plasters for the enlarging sore of climate change that requires a meaningful international response from the large, polluting industrialised countries. No country can prepare for the total devastation of an island such as occurred on Barbuda in 2017. UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, on July 4, made the point: “The Caribbean experience makes abundantly clear that we must urgently reduce global emissions and work collectively to ensure that global temperature

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL, António Guterres rise does not go beyond 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels”. In short, Caribbean countries have taken the steps their limited capacity allows. The global polluters, that have worsened hurricanes in the region, should be making a more worthwhile contribution”.

That was my shortened answer. But there is more that should be said. The United Nations forecasts that more than 120 million people could slip into poverty within the next decade because of climate change, forcing them to “choose between starvation and migration”.

Faced with the challenges of living in current conditions, few persons contemplate nightmare scenarios in what looks like the distant future. The problem is that a future, determined by climate change, is no longer distant. Across the world, nations are sleepwalking into the climate catastrophe that lies ahead.

Every time that representatives and negotiators for developing countries and small island states

accept that a handout here and there from industrialized nations to “build resilience” is better than nothing, they merely postpone the hour at which their countries will no longer be salvageable.

The negotiators for the industrialised developed nations at the next UN Conference on Climate Change should be told in clear language that they bear responsibility for the damage done to smaller nations by their excessive greenhouse gas emissions and they should provide reparations.

The governments of developing countries, especially small ones, can’t force the governments of industrialised countries to pay, but they should at least trumpet that grudging handouts are not reparations and declare loudly that inadequate funding cannot sustain the future. Polluters should be named and blamed.

As the UN Special Rapporteur pointed out: “Ticking boxes will not save humanity or the planet from impending disaster”.

The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organisation of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own. Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com

Opening the door to a better life

By RODNEY D SMITH President and CEO University of The Bahamas MY FATHER died when I was very young leaving my mother to raise four young children all on her own. By the age of 11, just like my older siblings, I too had to find work to make ends meet. I packed groceries at a nearby Winn Dixie after school and on weekends. This was a tough time for the family without my dad, but we did our best.

When it was time to graduate from St. Augustine’s College, I was determined to become the first person in my family to go to college.

I applied to St. John’s University and they accepted me provisionally and even gave me a partial scholarship. This was a pivotal moment for me because I knew the value of a good education and what it could mean for my family. I was blessed with another partial scholarship from Winn Dixie; these scholarships made my dream of earning a university degree possible. The two merged as a beacon of hope, charting my educational life toward unexpected yet exciting new frontiers. In my second year in college, with support from my mother, the Bahamas Government granted me a bonded scholarship.

Providing access to education for all Bahamians is a national imperative, it is the cornerstone of the University of The Bahamas mission, “to advance and expand access to higher education, promote academic freedom, drive national development and build character through teaching, learning, research scholarship and service.”

Education is undoubtedly a key marker of a progressive nation.

This summer marks the continued fulfilment of this mission by the Government of The Bahamas introducing The Bahamas Government Tertiary Education Grant Programme.

This grant increases the participation rate in higher education for all Bahamians

w22501). The researchers, after examining databases of nearly 15,000 universities in about 1,500 regions across 78 countries, found that increases in the number of universities are positively associated with future growth of GDP per capita (and this relationship is robust to controlling for a host of observables, as well as unobserved regional

PRESIDENT of the University of The Bahamas, Dr Rodney Smith. across the archipelago from Grand Bahama to Inagua.

Statistics underscore that university graduates have a better quality of life, contribute to rippling benefits for their families and communities and help to build and develop the nation in myriad ways. I state as often as I can, that the national tertiary grant programme will provide more students access to education and will produce the human capital necessary to make our nation more resilient, competitive and dynamic.

In order to receive the new grant funding under this programme, students are required to follow stringent admissions requirements to enter UB; this has not changed.

Bahamian citizens fully enrolled, taking a minimum of 12 credits per semester must maintain a minimum satisfactory academic requirement of a 2.0 GPA. However, students in Nursing must maintain a 2.75 GPA and Education majors a 3.00 GPA to continue receiving additional stipends.

Many students have expressed such gratitude for the chance to attend university now without the worry of having to pay tuition. They can now focus on what really matters, receiving a sound education while working hard and growing personally and professionally.

Looking back, without

those initial scholarships I would not have been able to fly and eventually land at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for my doctoral degree in Education. Public private partnerships remain crucial to the lifeblood of this institution. We are forever grateful to all donors and friends of UB who continue to give to our students. UB students are being prepared to live better lives in a global society, however, there are still many financial needs in the lives of our students that can still be covered through continued generosity. As an institution, we encourage all students in their third semester to study abroad, then come home and graduate from University of The Bahamas.

Let us celebrate more opportunities for access to education for future generations. Let us give them wings to soar, be a beacon of hope and provide the resources they need to not only dream but achieve.

The Bahamas will ultimately reap the dividends from their success and be all the more better as a result.

In closing, I encourage readers to take a look at a 2016 report by the National Bureau of Economic Research, entitled “The Economic Impact of Universities: Evidence from across the Globe”, (Working Paper 22501 http://www.nber.org/papers/

trends). Their estimates imply that doubling the number of universities per capita is associated with four percent higher future GDP per capita. This is similar to increasing access to higher education. It is what the Government Tertiary Grant allows for Bahamians. Their study further indicated positive spill over effects from universities

to geographically close neighbouring regions.

They showed the relationship between growth and universities is not simply driven by the direct expenditures of the university, its staff and students. Part of the effect of universities on growth is mediated through an increased supply of human capital and greater innovation.

PAGE 10 MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

As El Chapo heads to jail for life, the business he left behind is booming

by LUIS GÓMEZ ROMERO Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong THE infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera – aka “El Chapo” – has been sentenced to life plus an additional 30 years for drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and weapons charges, among other crimes committed over the past quarter-century as head of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, the Western Hemisphere’s most powerful organized crime syndicate.

Judge Brian Cogan also ordered Guzmán – who was convicted in US federal court in February after a dramatic three-month trial – to forfeit $12.6 billion in illicit narcotics proceeds.

US officials celebrated El Chapo’s demise as a triumph in the war on drugs.

President Donald Trump has taken an aggressive stance on Mexican drug cartels, vowing at his January 2017 inauguration to stop “the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives”.

“This sentencing shows the world that no matter how protected or powerful you are, DEA will ensure that you face justice,” said the acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Uttam Dhillon, at Guzmán’s sentencing.

Having studied the politics and economics of the US-Mexico drug trade, I see a different lesson in Guzmán’s life story. The US may have locked up Mexico’s worst “bad hombre,” but the business he ran is far too big to fail.

‘Insatiable demand’ Mexicans have greeted Guzmán’s demise with more scepticism.

The Mexican newspaper La Jornada noted the flow of illicit drugs into the United States has not diminished since El Chapo’s arrest.

Mexican estimates suggest each month the Sinaloa cartel trades two tons of cocaine and 10,000 tons of marijuana plus heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs.

Founded in Sinaloa state in the late 1980s, the cartel now distributes drugs in 50 countries, including Argentina, the Philippines and Russia.

But Mexican cartels were born to serve consumers in the United States, the world’s biggest consumer of illicit drugs.

It’s Americans’ “insatiable demand for illegal drugs,” as then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in 2009, that allowed Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel to become the world’s biggest supplier of illicit drugs.

Drug trafficking has a highly lucrative business model. According to data from 2016, the wholesale price for a gram of cocaine

IN this courtroom sketch, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, foreground right, reads a statement through an interpreter during his sentencing in federal court last week. is approximately $2.30 in Colombia and $12.50 in Mexico. The same gram will cost $28 in the U.S. By the time it gets to Australia, it could fetch as much as $176.50.

Retail prices per gram are even higher: $82 in the US and $400 in Australia.

The view across Arizona’s border fence, which a former DEA head has admitted was virtually

useless in stopping drugs.

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Drug prices rise significantly during transit as intermediaries demand compensation for the risk they assume in getting the product to consumers. This liability mark-up is one reason that keeping drugs illegal has made them so expensive on the streets and so profitable for the people who trade in them.

Killing, threats and bribes Illegality is also the reason the drug trade is so violent.

Running an illegal operation, kingpins like Guzmán must enforce their own agreements and protect themselves from authorities and competitors. They do so using a combination of killing, threats and bribes.

At least eight armed groups once worked under Guzman’s command in Mexico, attacking competing cartels and members deemed traitors.

Guzmán also bribed as many officers as necessary to succeed in his business.

Alex Cifuentes, a close associate of Guzmán, testified in the trial that the cartel chief once paid a $100 million bribe to thenMexican President Enrique Peña Nieto – an accusation Peña Nieto’s administration dismissed as “false, defamatory and absurd”.

Guzmán certainly bribed Mexican prison officials. In 2015, he escaped from jail by riding a motorcycle through a lit, ventilated mile-long tunnel constructed directly underneath his cell.

Walls versus profit For five decades since President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs, the United States has chosen not to focus on the economic forces driving this clandestine industry in favour of punishment, sending millions of drug traffickers, corner dealers and drug users to jail.

Even as states try to ease mass incarceration by legalizing cannabis and decriminalizing minor drug offences like possession, President Trump has called for escalating the federal government’s drug war.

In 2018, Trump delivered an incendiary speech at the United Nations decrying the “scourge” of drugs, followed with a pledge signed by 129 nations to “cut off the supply of illicit drugs by stopping their production… and flow across borders.”

Trump’s main proposals for ending the US-Mexico

drug trade are to more harshly punish drug dealers and to build a border wall, which will be monitored by 10,000 additional immigration officers.

A physical barrier is unlikely to thwart drug smugglers, particularly the wily Sinaloa cartel, history shows.

When confronted with a high-tech border fence in Arizona, constructed long before Trump’s administration, Mexican smugglers use a catapult to fling hundredpound bales of marijuana over to the American side.

“We’ve got the best fence money can buy,” former DEA chief Michael Brown told New York Times journalist Patrick Radden Keefe in 2017, “and they counter us with a 2,500-year-old technology.”

Then there’s the other ancient technology perfected by Guzmán: the tunnel. In the past quarter-century, officials have discovered about 180 cleverly disguised illicit passages under the U.S.Mexico border. Many, like the one Guzmán used to escape prison, are equipped with electricity, ventilation and elevators.

Corruption undermines the law outside Mexico, too. Between 2006 and 2016 some 200 employees and contractors of the Department of Homeland Security – the agency charged with defending the U.S. border – have accepted nearly $15 million in bribes, according to The New York Times.

“Almost no evidence about corrupt American officials” was allowed at El Chapo’s trial, the Times reports.

After El Chapo El Chapo’s downfall hasn’t reduced the availability, price, use or lethality of currently illegal drugs.

In 2017, the year of Guzmán’s extradition to the US, 70,237 people died of drug overdose in the United States.

Another 29,168 people were murdered in Mexico, where the government’s decade-long cartel war has caused violence to escalate nationwide.

Guzmán’s capture hasn’t even hurt the Sinaloa cartel, which has a new boss who promotes a more horizontal leadership structure and is expanding its operations into other criminal activities like illegal mining and human trafficking.

Drug trafficking, of course, is not just a Mexican business. In June, US authorities in Philadelphia seized a cargo vessel carrying nearly 20 tons of cocaine.

The drug-running ship didn’t belong to the Sinaloa cartel. It was owned by a fund run by banking giant JPMorgan Chase.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 22, 2019, PAGE 11

TRASH TALK ON COURT

THE Pastors and Politicians basketball team beat the Da Number Boyz by eight points in the “Peace on Da Streets” Basketball Classic celebrity game on Saturday night.

The tournament was held at the Kendal G L Isaacs Gymnasium and began shortly after 9pm. There were four six-minute quarters.

Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said his team immediately took the lead and never surrendered despite Da Number Boyz “talking trash” before the game.

He said: “We demonstrated that we were not to be underestimated

but it was all in good sport. It was fun. It’s an example of goodhearted, fun, spirited activity intended to send a message it’s all about love and peace. We had a good time.”

Participants on both teams included Island Luck CEO Sebas Bastian, Chief Executive Officer of the Bahamas Gaming House Operators Association Gershan Major, St Barnabas Member of Parliament Shanendon Cartwright and Dr Sands, among others.

The basketball classic is an annual event put on by Pastor Carlos Reid.

PLP and DNA complain about ban on Town Hall discussions

By FARRAH JOHNSON

THE Progressive Liberal Party and the Democratic National Alliance say the ruling to ban discussions related to the lease of Town Centre Mall during parliamentary proceedings is unjustified.

PLP chairman Fred Mitchell and DNA chairman Omar Smith told The Tribune on Friday that House Speaker Halson Moultrie’s decision to deny members of Parliament the opportunity to raise matters on the issue is concerning.

“It is a deliberate mistreating of this rule...and it is a political decision on his part,” Mr Mitchell said.

“He is using an excuse, a device of law - sub judice [a matter is under judicial consideration] - to prevent debate on a matter which is of public importance.”

Mr Mitchell said he believes the government should have “just allowed the matter to be aired”, because banning it will not stop the public from speaking about the issue.

“It’s almost silly in this age of technology. It’s already been raised in the public domain [and] it’s already out on social media...people will just make an end run around it and it just makes the whole Parliament look like it’s impotent,” he said.

He asserted that while Parliament should be a “forum for free speech”, it seems as if the government has no interest in using the platform for it. “There was a judge who made a bad decision in the Bahamas who made an error involved in trying to ban parliamentary discussion of a matter and unfortunately, this FNM government refuses to take the matter up to the Privy Council so [they] can set the bad decision aside. But that’s the problem...they want to limit their own speech for political purposes.”

Insisting all parliamentarians should have the right to speak freely, Mr Mitchell said he also finds it ironic that Speaker Moultrie would give “grand

speeches” about the “independence” of Parliament.

“Parliament comes from the French word meaning to speak and it’s supposed to be in the freest forum,” he insisted.

Speaking on behalf of the DNA, Mr Smith said he was present when Speaker Moultrie banned discussions relating to Town Centre Mall in the House of Assembly last week.

“If the matter has been brought before the Supreme Court then historically in our country we do not try to prejudice cases that are in the Supreme Court on the whole,” he said. “...But in this case, it’s very difficult to accept that type of position, especially when you’re dealing with the people’s money and the people’s employees and those who are charged to dispense and to protect the people’s interest.”

Mr Smith said that Speaker Moultrie should be “very careful”, because it seems as if he is “mirroring” statements from St Anne’s MP Brent Symonette, who is part owner of Town Centre Mall. The mall is being used to house the General Post Office.

Referring to Mr Symonette, he added: “In an interview and the last time I heard him speak on the matter, he said that this is the last time that he was going to be discussing this Town Centre Mall situation.

“We took offence to that because as long as the people still have questions regarding that particular contract that he received, he should be able to answer.”

Mr Smith insisted the matter should have been handled with more transparency because it dealt with “funds and money which belonged to the Bahamian people”.

“What is happening is if the Speaker comes across as defending that, then it seems as if he is now in collusion or in support of Brent Symonette’s position.

He must be careful,” Mr Smith said.

Labelling the entire situation as “unacceptable”, he also stated that the

DNA would never consider “conducting negotiations” or “finalising deals” with members of their party. “...It’s wrong and it takes away the people’s confidence in the government,”

he said. “As a politician now who’s walking the streets, young people especially are feeling that politicians are inherently corrupt, it doesn’t matter who put you there.”

Mr Smith said he believes such actions are discouraging a “generation of Bahamians”, fostering “discontent and belief” and giving them a “jaded” perception of public service.

“I think that is one of the biggest things that’s being lost by the way in which these successive governments are governing our country and it’s very sad,” he said.

PAGE 12, Monday, July 22, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Officer killed gunman armed with deadly AK47 from page one 2,400 feet per second faster than his handgun “wasn’t a fair fight”, due to the sheer “potential for destruction” the AK-47 has.

“Only persons with criminal intent and the intent to deprive people of their lives would be in possession of

AK-47’s,” he added, as he agreed with suggestions the AK-47 is a “weapon of war” that has no place in civilised societies.

Cpl Delancy’s testimony was given during an inquest before Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez into Thompson’s death.

According to police reports, shortly after 3pm,

police were conducting a traffic stop on Shrimp Road off Carmichael Road, when they saw a dark-grey Honda Stream, licence plate number 252587, occupied by two armed male suspects.

D/C Rolle signalled to the driver to stop, but he refused and sped off, driving recklessly as he tried to

evade the officers through several short cuts. A chase followed which ended when the Honda Stream crashed into a fence in the Pride Estates community.

Thompson and another man got out of the vehicle and opened fire at police, the former with an AK-47 and the other man with a handgun. D/C Rolle returned fire. Thompson and the other man subsequently jumped a nearby fence that led to a track road. However, Thompson, who was dressed in a white t-shirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes, was shot in the process.

Thompson fell and his weapon dropped to the floor. He tried to flee again, but fell a few feet from his weapon. D/C Rolle and another officer subsequently pursued the other man, who was dressed in a green shirt and dark trousers. However, that man was able to escape.

Meanwhile, D/C Rolle’s superior, Assistant Superintendent Keith McDonald and another officer tried to communicate with Thompson, who was conscious at the time, in a bid to ascertain his name and the nature of his injury.

However, Thompson only replied “I got shoot”.

Police Control Room was subsequently contacted and paramedics were requested. When paramedics arrived, they attended to Thompson who died some time later at the scene.

According to Dr Caryn Sands, a pathologist at Princess Margaret Hospital, Thompson died from two gunshot wounds: one that entered his lower back and passed through his lung before stopping in his lower neck, and one to his left thigh.

Sergeant Laurence Smith, a crime scene investigator, said when he arrived on the scene he went to where the assault weapon and observed 16 live rounds of 7.62 calibre ammunition in the weapon’s magazine, and an additional round in the chamber.

Another officer, Detective Constable Andrew Deveaux, an investigator attached to the Central Detective Unit (CDU), said when he checked the RBPF’s system, he found the vehicle was registered to a woman, and was reported stolen some 19 days before the incident on Charles Saunders highway.

Taking the witness stand on Friday, Cpl Delancy

said the RBPF has many guns at its disposal, such as pistols, M4 carbines, Uzi submachine guns, shotguns and .308 calibre sniper rifles. However, he said, the RBPF does not utilise the AK-47 because of “how violent” the weapon is.

As an illustration, he said the 9mm Uzi that the RBPF utilises, which is somewhere between a handgun and a rifle such as an AK-47 of M4, has a 200 yard kill range. However, he said the AK-47 has a 600 yard kill range, and its bullets have a “tumbling distance” of about 1,200 yards. Thus, he said, the AK-47 is three times more powerful “than any Uzi the (RBPF) has”.

To that end, he said should officers on mobile patrol encounter a suspect with an AK-47, their only “safe haven” is the vehicle’s rear axle where the vehicle’s transmission and other “heavy, metal gears” are located. Otherwise, he said, the AK-47’s bullets will “walk” through the car.

“It will walk through the engine, it will walk through the doors,” Cpl Delancy said.

“If someone has some degree of training (in using an AK-47), it’s over for the policeman.”

The inquest continues.

POLICE HUNT AFTER TWO ARMED ROBBERIES NEW Providence police are seeking the public’s assistance in locating the suspects responsible for two armed robberies on Saturday.

In the first incident, shortly after 10pm, a male was in the area of Clifton Street off Montrose Avenue, when he was approached by an armed man who robbed

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Detailed position announcements are accessible online at: http://www.ub.edu.bs/about-us/career-opportunities/.

Interested applicants should submit the following to the Human Resources Department via hrapply@ub.edu.bs by Thursday, 25th July 2019: • A cover letter of interest highlighting work experience and accomplishments relevant to the position; • Completed UB Employment Application Form (www.ub.edu.bs/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Application-forEmployment-Staff.pdf) • Current Curriculum Vitae or Resume; • Copies of Qualifications and Certificates; • Copy of the relevant pages of a valid passport showing passport number, photo identification and expiration date; • Copy of N.I.B. Card; • At least three (3) written, professional references.

him of a cell phone, watch and cash before escaping on foot.

In the second incident, shortly after 11pm, a male was in the area of Yamacraw Beach, when he was approached by five men, one armed with a firearm who robbed him of a cell phone and stole his black Nissan Teanna, licence plate #AA6589.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 22, 2019, PAGE 13

A PRAYER service was held at Anatol Rodgers High School last Friday to remember three students who died in different incidents in recent weeks. They were, from the left, Cornell Edwards, Leo Dorcley and Dustin Ranger

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net FAMILY, friends, classmates and staff members gathered at Anatol Rodgers High School on Friday for a prayer service to mourn the deaths of Dustin Ranger, Cornell Edwards and Leo Dorcley – after all three died in different incidents in recent weeks.

School Principal Harcourt McCoy said the school was “deeply moved” by what happened and that the school shares in the burden of their deaths with the boys’ families.

On Sunday, July 14, Cornell Edwards, 16, was found hanging in a closet unconscious at his home and was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Two days later, on Tuesday, July 16, Dustin Ranger, 18, drowned in Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera.

The third student, Leo Dorcley, 15, was struck by a Ford F150 truck more than two weeks ago in a hit-andrun incident and died at the scene.

Mr McCoy said at the beginning of every year the school is blessed with a “prayer of protection”.

He said: “It is so unfortunate that the hedge of protection has been broken by these three deaths.

“We are a tight knit group of administrators, teachers and students and so when something like this happens, we share in the pain, regret and sorrow all of those emotions that the parents went through.”

He added: “It’s really significant because I think it’s an attack of the enemy on our male students. If you notice, it’s all males within three short weeks just after school has been closed, we are so much inclined to prayer here.”

The Anatol Rodgers principal said staff and people who knew the trio will share the burden of their deaths. He said the school will make a small donation to all of the families for funeral expenses.

He added: “The students that lost their

School holds special service to remember 3 students who died lives – each one of them was very important to us.

Leo Dorcely, of grade 9H1, Cornell Edwards, of 10R1, and most recently Dustin Rangers, a graduate of the 2018 class. I knew all of these students intimately and intermingled with them daily.

“First and foremost, let me be one of the representatives to offer our sincerest condolences on behalf of the students, staff, administration and everybody who we consider to be our immediate family. This morning, Anatol Rodgers would be making a small donation to each one of those families to assist with whatever (funeral) cost may be apparent. I wish that we could do more, but we have to be a part of whatever is going on in the lives of our students.”

Bishop Trevor Williamson, of Trinity Global Cathedral, gave his deepest condolences to the families and encouraged them to trust in God. He said: “We know that it is not easy for you but I’m a firm believer in the Bible and God says He won’t put more on you that you cannot bear. Sometimes God has a way of doing things and who are we to question God. “I’m a firm believer; all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and call upon his purpose. These boy’s deaths, God may have orchestrated it or allowed it to happen to shape your future into something beautiful something successful we don’t

know, but God knows everything.”

He added: “Remember the joy that these three individuals brought to you – Leo, Cornell and Dustin.

We hope that one day this may not be goodbye, but see you later. I want to encourage you and sometimes when you’re in this situation it’s difficult to say anything, but I want you know that what we can do and what I can do is pray.

We know through prayer God will make everything all right. Just trust Him, trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

Leona Dorcely, Leo’s big sister, said her younger brother was an outgoing, fun and over-protective brother. She said: “We was really close because we only a couple months apart.

I don’t have much to say because right now I can’t even think right now. I will miss him being over-protective of me.”

Tjashe Hudson, a fellow student, said she was heartbroken when she heard the news of Cornell’s death.

She said: “I knew Cornell, he was a happy person and always had a smile on his face. I talked to him a few days ago. We were around Anatol at the time and (we had) a friendly conversation. He always had a smile on his face. To hear that (he died), it was hard, it’s going to be hard. Walking around, you’re used to seeing all of their faces so to come back and not see that smile or hear that laugh is really heartbreaking.”

Vaughna Toote, another

student, said Cornell and Dustin lived in the same area as she did and they’ll be missed.

She said: “Dustin, he was a very outgoing person from what I’ve seen.”

She said he was always with his friends and added: “He was very happy. He was easy to talk to and a very nice person. Cornell was always telling a joke, or he was trying to always make you smile or laugh. l’ll miss their presence and it’s very sad to know somebody that I used to see walking through the halls just gone.”

Tabitha Saunders, another student, said hearing the news of her schoolmates passing away one after the other was heartbreaking.

“Just to know each one of them isn’t coming back kind of leaves a scar on Anatol Rodgers because you might not know each and every one of them but their presence in the school, it made Anatol who it is,” she said.

“Each and every student a part of this institution makes Anatol who it is. Just for individuals to be taken away so short notice and young ages it just makes you think and makes you appreciate life even more.”

In the case of Cornell, police said that on Sunday, July 14, shortly before 5pm: “Officers responded to a home on Faith Avenue north of Carmichael Road, where a juvenile male was found unconscious and hanging in a closet. Paramedics transported him to a hospital and a short time

Photos: Terrel W Carey Sr/ Tribune Staff

later he was pronounced dead.”

In the incident that led to Dustin Ranger’s death, police said that on Tuesday, July 16, shortly before 6pm, a group of young men were walking along the water’s edge when they decided to jump into the water. One

of the young men screamed for help once resurfacing, but was submerged by waves a second time.

Ranger was taken out of the water and transported to Hatchet Bay community clinic. However, all attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

PAGE 14, Monday, July 22, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

OCASIO-CORTEZ: TRUMP ENJOYED CROWD SAYING, ‘SEND HER BACK!’ NEW YORK Associated Press US Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez told constituents at the weekend that President Donald Trump enjoyed hearing a crowd at his rally call for a US congresswoman to return to the country where she was born.

The Democratic legislator spoke in New York for the first time since Trump again criticised her and three other minority Democratic congresswomen on Friday for saying what he called “horrible things” about the US.

He suggested they leave, though all are US citizens.

“We’re going to stay right here, that’s where we’re going to go,” Ocasio-Cortez shared her response to Trump’s suggestion that American citizens “go back” with constituents at a Queens town hall on immigration issues.

“We’re not going anywhere.”

US Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a naturalized U.S. citizen, came from civil war-torn Somalia as a child refugee. U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ocasio-Cortez

were born in the United States.

At Trump’s North Carolina rally on Wednesday, the crowd chanted “Send her back!” about Omar.

Ocasio-Cortez rejected the president’s claim he had tried to quiet them.

“He said, ‘Oh I stopped it immediately,’” she said. “Roll the tape, he didn’t; he kind of presided over the situation, he relished it, he took it in and he’s doing this intentionally.”

As seen on video footage, the president paused for about 13 seconds during the chanting before resuming his speech. On Friday,

he called members of the rally crowd “incredible patriots.”

Speaking to about 200 constituents in Queens’ Corona neighborhood, Ocasio-Cortez compared Trump’s stance toward the four members of the House of Representatives to his attitude toward immigrants. “Once you start telling American citizens to go back to your own countries, this tells you that this president’s policies are not about immigration, it’s about ethnicity and racism,” the congresswoman said.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Editorial View - Page 4

POLICE LAUNCH TEAR GAS AT VIOLENT HONG KONG PROTEST

ISN’T THAT HEMINGWAY OVER THERE? FLORIDA Associated Press

HONG KONG Associated Press

PERSISTENCE paid off for a retired Tennessee banker who won the weekend’s Hemingway Look-Alike Contest on his eighth try.

Joe Maxey, 68, of Cedar Hill, triumphed during the three-round contest that concluded at Key West’s Sloppy Joe’s Bar, a frequent hangout for Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway when he lived and wrote on the subtropical island during the 1930s.

This year’s Hemingway Days celebration marked the writer’s 120th birthday. “Just to be part of this history of Hemingway is just incredible,” Maxey said.

“I love mojitos, and I love women, too,” he added.

HONG Kong’s protest movement took a violent turn yesterday as police launched tear gas at protesters after a massive march continued late into the evening, and subway riders were attacked by masked assailants who apparently were targeting pro-democracy demonstrators.

The firing of the tear gas was the latest confrontation between police and protesters who have taken to the streets for over a month to fight a proposed extradition bill and call for electoral reforms in the Chinese territory.

The march had been peaceful when it reached its police-designated end point in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district in the late afternoon, but thousands continued onward, at various points occupying key government and business districts. They then headed for the Liaison Office, which represents China’s Communist Party-led central government within the city.

Protesters threw eggs at the building and spraypainted its surrounding surveillance cameras and China’s national emblem, which adorns the front of the Liaison Office, was splattered with black ink.

JOE MAXEY, second from left, celebrates his victory at the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Florida. Competing for the eighth time, Maxey beat 141 other contestants to claim top honours.

UK could not prevent Iran takeover of tanker LONDON Associated Press

THE release yesterday of an audio recording has shed new light on the seizure of a British-flagged tanker at the hands of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as tensions flare in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The audio released by maritime security risk firm Dryad Global shows that a British frigate was too far away from the targeted tanker to keep it from being diverted into an Iranian port despite UK efforts to keep it from being boarded.

On the recording, a stern-voiced British naval officer insists that the UK-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero must be allowed to sail through the Strait of Hormuz even as Iranian paramilitary forces demand — successfully — that the vessel change course.

The audio shows how Britain’s

BRITISH-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero which was seized by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard once mighty Royal Navy was unable to prevent the ship’s seizure, which has been condemned by Britain and its European allies as they continue to call for a reduction of tensions in the vital waterway.

The free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is of critical importance to the world’s energy supplies because one-fifth of all global crude exports pass through the narrow waterway between Iran

and Oman. In the recording, an Iranian officer can be heard telling the Stena Impero to change course, saying: “You obey, you will be safe.”

“Alter your course to 360 degrees immediately, over,” the Iranian officer says, adding that the ship is wanted for security reasons.

A British naval officer from the HMS Montrose frigate that was patrolling the area around the

Strait of Hormuz is heard telling the Stena Impero, which had a crew of 23 on board, that its passage must be allowed. “Sir, I reiterate that as you are conducting transit passage in a recognized international strait, under international law your passage must not be impaired, intruded, obstructed or hampered,” the unidentified British officer says.

The British officer then tells an Iranian patrol boat: “Please confirm that you are not intending to violate international law by unlawfully attempting to board the MV Stena.”

His words did nothing to deter the Iranians.

Iranian officials say the seizure of the British oil tanker was a justified response to Britain’s role in impounding an Iranian supertanker two weeks earlier off the coast of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located on the southern tip of Spain.

US ACCUSES VENEZUELA JET OF AGGRESSIVE ACTION OVER CARIBBEAN CARACAS, Venezuela Associated Press

US authorities yesterday said that a Venezuelan fighter jet “aggressively shadowed” an American intelligence plane flying in international airspace over the Caribbean, underscoring rising tensions between the two nations.

The US Southern Command said that Venezuela’s action demonstrates reckless behavior by

President Nicolás Maduro, whose government accused the US plane of entering Venezuelan airspace.

US authorities said their EP-3 plane was performing a multinationally approved mission on Friday and the Venezuelan SU-30 fighter jet closely trailed the plane, which the US says endangered its crew.

The response by the Venezuelan fighter jet “undermines int’l rule of law & efforts to counter

illicit trafficking,” US authorities tweeted, providing video of what they said was the Russian-made jet.

The Trump administration and more than 50 other nations back opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s attempt to oust Maduro, whom they accuse of leading the country into a historic crisis. The socialist leader maintains support from countries including Cuba, China and Russia.

“This latest action also

demonstrates Russia’s irresponsible military support to the illegitimate Maduro regime and adds to Maduro’s growing legacy of reckless and negligent behavior,” US officials said in a statement.

Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said the US plane entered Venezuelan airspace without notification, violating international rules. He said the flight also endangered commercial flights from Venezuela’s main airport.

PUERTO RICO GOV HANGS ON TO POWER SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Associated Press

PUERTO Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said last night that he will not resign in the face of public furor over an obscenity-laced leaked online chat, but he will not seek reelection or continue as head of his prostatehood political party.

Protesters said they were not satisfied by Rosselló’s concessions, and pledged to continue demonstrations that have filled the streets of Old San Juan for more than a week.

“He’s stretching things out. We had hoped he’d taken the decision to resign. He’s making the people’s pain last longer,” said Emmarie Morales. She said the governor’s decision would not end the protests. “He’s given us more strength to protest. We aren’t going to sit around watching Netflix.”

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THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 22, 2019, PAGE 15

SIR ORVILLE CELEBRATES HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY

THE Free National Movement extended birthday greetings to former Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest on Friday.

“On behalf of the party leader Dr Hubert Minnis, Deputy Leader K Peter Turnquest, Chairman Carl Culmer, MCMs, party officers and members of the Free National Movement, we wish to extend birthday wishes to Sir Orville

Turnquest,” the party said in a brief statement. “Sir Orville served as a governor general, a former deputy prime minister, attorney general and minister of foreign affairs. He has been instrumental in the development of the Bahamas and the Free National Movement, his legacy will be celebrated.

“Happy 90th birthday Sir Orville Turnquest,” the FNM said.

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PAGE 16, Monday, July 22, 2019

CABINET ministers and other parliamentarians attended the funeral of Mrs Joyce Bannister, mother of Minister of Public Works, Desmond Bannister, on Saturday at Evangelistic Temple, Collins Avenue.

Photos:Kristaan Ingraham/BIS

THE TRIBUNE