07242020 WEEKEND

Friday, July 24, 2020

Weekend

art books entertainment film music beverages history puzzles crafts SAVING SHARKS

Pages 4 + 5

Vision in black

Bahamian photographer is part of Juneteenth project

pgs 14 & 15

02 | The Tribune | Weekend

photography

A Rose-Coloured Lens

The way we were

B

eauty is all around us in the Bahamas, on land and in the sea.

But many of us are too busy with everyday life to pause and really see and enjoy the astonishing sights that surround us.

Veteran photographer ROLAND ROSE captures both the ordinary and extraordinary and puts it in frame for us so we can see our environment in a new light. Â Not so long ago Rawson Square was something to behold. The Royal Victoria Hotel is now a parking lot.

The wonderful flowering trees on East Street and Collins Avenue have been cut down. The Hog Island lighthouse is going to ruin.

Why remove those excellent iron seahorses framing Bay Street? And why was Fort Charlotte painted white? The list goes on... have you been to the Public Library recently?

We seem to be destroying the most beautiful and iconic parts of New Providence.Â

Friday, July 24, 2020

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Friday, July 24, 2020

Inside Weekend

MY PERFECT BAHAMIAN WEEKEND Fabrice Stuart Entrepreneur Q: What is the first thing you did after the lockdown restrictions were lifted?

Interview 4 - 5 With new research results showing how endangered sharks have become, it’s the perfect timing for marine biologist Candace Fields to debunk some myths

Beverages 7 How to brew the perfect beer

Books 8, 17 Eleuthera author wants to break the cycle of abuse, plus this week’s new page-turners

Entertainment 9 Three-day music festival to inspire and education

Gardening 10 From the ground up; the importance of pH levels

Crafts 12-13 Popular “mini moon” arrangements offer the finishing touch, plus new ways to brighten classrooms

Photography 14-15 Bahamian Melissa Alcena’s work is chosen for charity project in honour of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other black victims of US law enforcement

Film 18 Movie theatres implore studios: Release the blockbusters

History 20 - 21 The greatest heist of all time: When France extorted Haiti

Forgotten Facts 22 A visit to Harbour Island in 1914

Literary Lives 23 - 25 The woman behind the Chanel legend

Puzzles 26

Animal Matters 27 A duty to serve, plus Pet of Week

Cover | Melissa Alcena

“I went to work. We cleared up our business before fully opening.”

Q: What item or service could you not live without if another lockdown were to occur?

“Meat, snacks, my television and the AC. My phone/Amazon Kindle app.”

Q: What lessons did you learn doing lockdown?

“The importance of a savings account and paying your bills before they are due. Also, leaving a credit on all bills.”

Q: How has COVID-19 affected your plans for 2020?

“The best thing for my business was the fact that we were able to complete our expansion without having to shut down.”

Q: If you could travel to one place for a coronavirus-free vacation this summer, where would it be and why?

“St Lucia. I really want to experience their culture and it looks like a beautiful place.”

THIS WEEKEND IN HISTORY

July 24

• In 1847, Mormon leader

Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.

• In 1911, Yale University history professor Hiram Bingham III found the “Lost City of the Incas,” the 15thcentury citadel Machu Picchu, set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru.

• In 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts — two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon — splashed down safely in the Pacific.

Today’s birthdays: Actress Lynda Carter (”Wonder Woman”) is 69.

Movie director Gus Van Sant is 68. Basketball Hall of Famer Karl Malone is 57. Actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 52.. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 51. Basketball player-turned-actor Rick Fox is 51.

Director Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) is 49. Actress Elisabeth

Moss is 38. Actress Anna Paquin is 38. TV personality Bindi Irwin is 22.

July 25

• In 1946, the United States detonated an atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the first underwater test of the device.

• In 1985, a spokeswoman for Rock Hudson confirmed that the actor, hospitalized in Paris, was suffering from AIDS. (Hudson died in October 1985.)

• In 2000, a New York-bound Air France Concorde crashed outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four people on the ground; it was the first-ever crash of the supersonic jet. The Concorde, which flew at Mach 2.0 and could make the New York-London route in just three hours and 15 minutes, ceased its operations in 2003.

Today’s birthdays: Rock musician Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire) is 69. Model-actress Iman is 65.

Actress-singer Bobbie Eakes (Macy, “The Bold and The Beautiful”) is 59. Actress Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke, “B&B”) is 59.

July 26

• In 1775, the Continental Congress of the US established a Post Office and appointed Benjamin Franklin its Postmaster-General.

• In 1925, five days after the end of the “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Tennessee, prosecutor William Jennings Bryan died at age 65.

(Although Bryan had won a conviction against John T Scopes for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, the verdict was later overturned.)

• In 1992, singer Mary Wells died in Los Angeles at age 49 of cancer. Wells helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the 1960s with songs like “My Guy”, “Two Lovers” and “The One Who Really Loves You”.

Today’s birthdays: Rock star Mick Jagger is 77. Actress Helen Mirren is 75. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Queen) is 71. Actor Kevin Spacey is 61. Actress Sandra Bullock is 56. Actor Jeremy Piven is 55. Actor Jason Statham is 53.

Actress Kate Beckinsale is 47.

– The Associated Press

04 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

interview

Candace Fields This week, the results of a major study revealed that sharks have become functionally extinct. So it’s the perfect time for Candace to debunk the negative stereotypes surrounding this marine predator. She tells Cara Hunt about the importance of more Bahamians studying marine biology.

Thanks to Hollywood and movies like “Jaws”, and more recently, “The Meg”, people often have the impression that sharks are “the big, bad wolves of the ocean.”

But marine biologist Candace Fields hopes she can help change that negative stereotype, particularly among her fellow Bahamians.

Candace, the daughter of radio personality and Atlantis executive Ed Fields, was recently accepted into a doctorate programme at Florida International University where she will to study the population genetics and movement ecology of oceanic whitetip sharks in the Bahamas.

Oceanic whitetips are a breed of large sharks found in tropical oceans throughout the world.

They are so named because the tips of their pectoral, first dorsal, pelvic and caudal fins are often white or show white moulting.

Shark conservation is a passion Candace discovered during her time as a research intern at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, where she has been stationed for the past two years.

But her love for marine biology began much earlier than that.

“I have been interested in marine biology really for as long as I can remember,” she told Tribune Weekend. “I can remember being interested in it as a little kid.”

However, when it was time to complete her studies, she actually followed a different path, choosing instead to study neuroscience.

“I really enjoyed my psych classes and learning about people’s behaviour,” she explained of her choice of major.

After graduating, Candace worked at Doctors’ Hospital for a while before heeding the call of the sea.

“I enjoyed working at Doctors’, but the desire to pursue marine biology was really still there, and after talking to my parents I decided to go to

“I think there is so much (false) information about sharks out there in movies and in programming, and sharks do have this reputation of being the big bad wolves of the ocean.” the Cape Eleuthera Institute to be an intern in 2018.”

Previously, she had worked at Dolphin Cay and Stuart Cove as well.

The Cape Eleuthera Institute is a research facility which operates under the auspices of the Island School - an educational semester programme founded by Chris and Pam Maxey in 1999.

The institute offers four dormitories spread across campus. Two of these dorms are located at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, and each can accommodate 16 people. The other

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Friday, July 24, 2020

CANDACE helps tag a shark for research.

two dormitories are located on The Island School’s campus and can accommodate 24 people each. There are also labs, classrooms, waterfront facilities and common spaces which allow for unique research opportunities for scientists interested in the local terrestrial and marine environments, or for professors and teachers wanting to provide their students with a holistic experience that combines conventional research in tropical sciences with the message of sustainable development and design.

The newest addition to its sustainable campus is the Anderson-Cabot Hall for graduate studies.

Candace was first introduced to the facility during a class trip to Eleuthera when she was an eighth grade student at St Andrew’s International School, although at that time she never imagined that it would eventually play such an important part in her life.

As a research assistant, Candace got to be a part of many exciting projects, including research on the movement of sea turtles, crabs and sharks.

One experiment was to determine if placing a battery on a fishing line would deter a shark from biting the hook.

“The whole thing was quite exciting, especially the ability to connect with all the scientists who come to the Cape Eleuthera Institute,” Candace said of the internship.

“Cape Eleuthera attracts some of the top scientists in the world, and the ability to communicate with them and get to work with them is amazing. I really enjoyed my time there.”

Her internship cemented her desire to study her passion more in depth.

“After my internship I really wanted to complete my graduate studies in marine biology and so I started the application process,” she said.

Fortunately, this was facilitated by a contact she made with a group of researchers she met at Cape Eleuthera.

Candace will be studying sharks at grad school and admits she has a fascination with the cartilaginous fish species.

“I think there is so much (false) information about sharks out there in movies and in programming, and sharks do have this reputation

of being the big bad wolves of the ocean,” she said.

It’s a stereotype she hopes she can help to debunk. And just in time, too, as the results of a major worldwide study published this week found that sharks are vanishing from our oceans and are already “functionally extinct”.

The Baited Remote Underwater Video project, BRUV for short, observed sharks through a network of remote underwater cameras across 58 countries over a four-year period. Across four regions – the Indo-Pacific, Pacific, the western Atlantic and the western Indian Ocean – the nations with the highest numbers of sharks included Australia, the Bahamas, the Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, the Maldives and the United States. But worldwide, the researchers said, while there still may be some sharks around, there are not enough of them to perform their essential role of controlling other marine life populations.

Sharks play such a vital role to the ocean’s eco-system and Candace said that once you start studying them and learning more about their behaviour, you can see just how important they are to our planet.

Candace also loves that she can combine her passion for psychology with her passion for sharks.

“With psychology you are studying the behaviour of people, and with marine biology it’s similar, because you are studying the behaviour of animals and so I feel that the two areas are sort of connected.”

Candace plans to use her education to advance her chosen field in the Bahamas.

“I can’t say exactly what I think like my dream job would be, but I know that I want to come home and make a difference. I can see myself working at an organisation like the Bahamas National Trust, because I think that they do so much good for the country,” she said.

Marine biology is a field that Candace would love to see more Bahamians get involved in. However, she acknowledges that there are challenges to pursuing a career in this particular field.

“It can be financially challenging, especially in the beginning of your career and if you don’t have someone who can support you,” she said.

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Friday, July 24, 2020

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Friday, July 24, 2020

beverages

How to brew the perfect beer

By JEFFARAH GIBSON • Tribune Features Writer • jgibson@tribunemedia.net If you have ever wondered what goes into making the perfect beer, the answer is lots of research and a production process that requires strict adherence to a set of guidelines. And any deviation can ruin the end product.

Raynell Williams, quality manager at Commonwealth Brewery which produces the Bahamas’ famous Kalik beer, said beer brewing has to be done in a meticulous fashion and anyone who wishes to take a stab at brewing their own batch at home must learn to be patient.

Although people will not be able to make beers identical to what they do at their Clifton Pier site, Ms Williams you can still achieve brewing a quality beer at home if you’re willing to put the work in.

Without revealing too much of the secret to brewing the perfect Kalik, Ms Williams gave Tribune Weekend readers a breakdown of what goes into the actual brewing process.

“In a nutshell, the beer production process occurs in three stages: brewing, fermentation and filtration.

The Kalik brewing process takes place at our Clifton Pier Brewery and begins by grinding the malt to expose the starches within. This grinded malt is then mixed with water and other ingredients under controlled conditions to activate the necessary enzymes required to convert the starches to sugar. The

fermentation stage begins with the addition of yeast microorganisms to the sugary solution to convert the sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide,” she explained.

In the filtration phase, the beer is filtered to remove any remaining yeast or particles in the beer.

All beers go through a strict quality control procedure, including the brand’s newest flavours, the Grapefruit and Guava Radler.

“After beer clarification, the all-natural flavours required for the respective Radler products are blended into the filtered beer to create the final and finished product, a Kalik Radler, the perfect blend of your favourite Bahamian beer and all-natural fruit juices,” she said.

The history of the Radler Radlers were first added to the Kalik brand in May 2014. Prior to its introduction, brand manager Waylon McCardy said a lot of research had to be conducted – as is a must for any brewing process.

“Considering that we are uniquely positioned within the Caribbean allowing us to enjoy a tropical climate, it was only fitting that we diversify our portfolio with a product line that embodies refreshment and showcases the mouth-watering fruits that are loved by Bahamians,” she said.

“While we do take global trends into account, the Bahamas is not your typical Radler market, therefore we look at factors such as ‘local fruit power’, consumer demand and market feasibility,” he told Tribune Weekend.

And as with any beer, be it store-bought or brewed at home, a Radler or a “true” beer, Mr McHardy recommends enjoying it ice cold.

Radlers have become increasingly popular in this part of the world in recent years. Almost every American beer brand has come out their own line of this part-beer, part-juice combo. While it is a hit in warmer climates due to the beverage’s refreshing characteristics, the Radler (often compared to the British shandy) actually originates in Europe.

The word “Radler” is German for bicyclist, and due to its lower alcohol content, was thought the perfect drink for those still having to cycle home after a night out with the boys (or girls). It is said to have been officially invented in 1922, when German innkeeper Francis Xaver Kugler welcomed some 13,000 cyclists to his establishment. He started whipping up drinks that were 50 percent beer and 50 percent lemon soda as he started to run out of beer. He called it the “Radlermass” (cyclist litre), but it was later shortened to Radler.

08 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

books

Eleuthera author seeks to break cycle of abuse Domestic abuse survivor reaches out to other women JACKSONVILLE, FL – Author, influencer and advocate Latanya Maynard is urging women to recognise their worth and find the strength to walk away from situations and people who could cost them their lives.

Her latest book, “All Hope Is Not Lost”, details her own experience with domestic violence and how she found herself in the cycle she saw play out in her own childhood growing up in Eleuthera.

“I grew up witnessing my mother being physically abused, and while I knew it wasn’t right, a part of me accepted that in order to make a marriage work you just keep it moving, for better or worse, even if the worse left you bruised, bleeding and broken,” the author said.

“I took that childhood trauma into my relationships, and as a young woman found myself being abused by the men I dated and the one I married.

Too often parents forget that their children follow those generational cycles but eventually, I had to break it to save myself.”

Ms Maynard not only broke the cycle, sought therapy and began the healing process, she also reached out to the women in her family and others to listen to their problems and challenges. This eventually led her to becoming a victim’s advocate with a Jacksonville women’s outreach centre. She said she realised she had fully healed when she began writing books and short poems. Ms Maynard recently filmed a video for a poem she wrote for black men following the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmad Arbery.

Now a motivational speaker and author with a lifestyle brand, Ms Maynard gives scholarships to young women, hoping to empower them to never feel trapped when they have educational tools to help sustain themselves. In her second published book, “Pushing Toward Purpose”, she encourages women what to do when they start over.

“As women, we often settle,” she said. “We should never settle for less than we deserve because we are valuable and need others to see that. When you know better, you do better and some of us just do not know how to do better because in some instances we weren’t taught. What you have been through does not define where you are destined to be and that is my story.”

LATANYA Maynard filmed a video to accompany a poem she wrote in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmad Arbery.

AUTHOR and women’s advocate Latanya Maynard PHOTO credit: Bracy Photos

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Friday, July 24, 2020

entertainment

Threeday virtual concert experience aims to inspire and educate

By CARA HUNT Tribune Features Writer cbrennen@tribunemedia.net As the world continues to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of Bahamian artists located around the world hope to inspire people with a three-day concert event and master class workshops.

The event is being organised by the Inspire Foundation, which was established by well-known musicians Paul and Tanya Hanna. It is designed to inspire, educate and empower people and promote music within the Bahamas and internationally for the overall purpose of enhancing and advancing music through its youth and community programmes.

This is the first time the Inspire Foundation is hosting its music festival, which will include concerts, workshop sand master classes “to soothe souls” during these uncertain times of COVID-19.

This virtual event, slated for July 29 – 31, also aims to help people acquire new skills and enjoy music and entertainment of different genres from professionals around the world.

“We aim to keep people inspired and motivated here in the Bahamas and around the world. We have to inspire ourselves to inspire others. Other musicians inspire musicians. Music brings balance to the soul. This is love,” said Tanya Hanna.

The Inspire International Music Festival has a lineup boasting over 30 Bahamian entertainers and artists, including Karrington McKenzie, Vice Versa, Leo Jones, Ron Narayan, Aniska Johnson, Pamela Woods, Autumn Steel, Dr Alvira Higgs, Tyrone Thurston and Terry Rogers. Featured genres will include jazz, gospel, Bahamian calypso and classical music, and as well as limbo and fire dances.

PAUL Hanna (left) and his wife Tanya, founders of the Inspire Foundation (Photo/Donald Knowles)

RISING gospel artist Karrington McKenzie

The workshops and master classes will be held on Wednesday, July 29, and Thursday, July 30 from 10am to 1pm.

The Hannas have been teaching online for the past five years and said they pleased with the lineup of presenters. A wide range of topics will be covered.

Starting with how to learn emotional, physical and financial coping mechanisms. Ron Narayan Jyoti from Israel will make his presentation, “Heal the Heart,” to teach people how to overcome emotional stress. Autumn Steele from New York will speak on the business side music, and three-time Grammy nominee and Dove Award winner Roger Ryan from Trinidad and Nashville will present “Arranging the Secret Sauce.” Meanwhile, the Bahamas’ Adrian D’Aguilar will share his experience of being part of a successful jazz ensemble and Lee B Callender will teach vocal techniques, while Tanya Hanna will share proper breathing techniques.

The Inspire Foundation operates the “Prodigy” programme where talented children between the ages of nine to 12 are discovered and taken on a recording journey, meet Grammy Award winners and get an understanding of the music business.

Karrington McKenzie, a rising star and a former student, is also part of the upcoming festival.

Countries represented include the Bahamas, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos and the United States – Honolulu, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Tennessee. Viewers will be able to access information on the Inspire Foundation’s website and social media channels.

The free virtual concert is set for July, 31 from 6pm to 10pm, and will also be available on the website.

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Friday, July 24, 2020

gardening

From the ground up Gardening in the Bahamas is made somewhat easy in that our climate is warm the whole year round. While you and I might catch a chill in our “winter” when temperatures can “dip” to an average low in the mid 70s, with a very cold night possibly into the low 60s or high 50s, this is typically great for the garden and some plants.

Impatiens, petunias, geraniums, for example, thrive in the cooler weeks of the year as compared to the hotter (at times scorching) heat of summer.

The summer heat is one of our challenges. It speeds up weed growth and pest life cycles which many of you

A SIMPLE test kit can help you determine if your soil’s pH level is where it should be. know (weeds everywhere! Another caterpillar! More whitefly?!), but it also speeds up decomposition. Things tend to break down faster in the heat.

A combination of high heat and high humidity causes organic material such as leaves, wood, lawn clippings & kitchen scraps to break down relatively quickly. This is good for the ground.

While much of our geology is CaCO3 (calcium carbonate, limestone) there are several variations, from the red clay dust from Africa that has accumulated over millions of years, to the “salt and pepper” soils that are part humus material and part sand and rock, to the darker soils of what used to be swampland, and the valleys that are rich in material that has composted over time. Regardless of what soils you may have in your garden, each will present it’s own particular challenge, mostly in the fact that generally, the pH of our soils is relatively high with CaCO3 dominant soils reaching a pH of over 8.

Optimal nutrient availability for most plant material is between 6 – 7. All of that to say that typically our gardens will have a high pH and many nutrients are not available to the plants we’re trying to grow and we as gardeners are tasked with amending our garden soils to an optimal level for optimal growth. Which takes us back to the grass clippings

and kitchen scraps. These organic waste materials are one of the tools available to amend your existing soils.

Many of us have a shoot from the hip, fly by the seat of our pants approach to amending the soil pH in the form of fertilizing, applying nutrients in a somewhat haphazard manner in our attempts to correct the nutrient availability to our favourite fruit tree, tomato bush or flowering shrub. I posit to say that it is of a benefit to all, for each of us to save our grass clippings, yard debris, and kitchen scraps, add it onto a compost pile or into a compost bin for use in amending our garden spaces. Composting benefits us in several ways: It reduces the amount of organic material on landfills which can contribute to methane release through anaerobic (lack of oxygen) conditions; it reduces the need for additional nutrients which have to be mined, processed, packaged and shipped; it lowers the pH of our soils by adding organic material which in turn increases the moisture holding capacity and beneficial microbial activity, and so on.

It is all about the soil. Maybe your garden is established with high levels of organic material but yet your favourite plant is not doing quite what you wish it would, maybe your garden does not exist yet and you are planning to start one on a newly levelled lot. If your plants are yellowing, if the fruits are small, if plant growth is sporadic or even if you’re planning to begin a garden, it is highly suggested to check the pH of your garden soil to find out what is really happening down there. There are simple test kits available on the market, and there are very advanced tools. There are laboratories that can analyse each element and their levels. A simple pH test kit is a great place to start as a home gardener. Another great place to start is to create a compost bin. Compost your organic waste to add and to improve your soils. There are many methods of composting and many methods to optimise the pH of your garden soils, some of which I will explain in further depth in later columns as I am now out of room for today. Get composting, get cultivating, and if you insist on raking up the leaves in your garden, add them to a compost pile to later benefit your garden. Happy gardening!

• Adam Boorman is the nursery manager at the Fox Hill Nursery. You can contact him with any questions that you may have, or suggestions for topics that you might like to see discussed, at gardening242@gmail.com

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Friday, July 24, 2020

art

NAGB gets new chief curator to help shape gallery’s future Dr Daniella Fifi is the new chief curator of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas.

Dr Fifi, a doctoral graduate in Art and Art Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University in New York, comes with a wealth of knowledge, having built her proficiency at various sites across the globe.

“I am thrilled at the opportunity to be joining the NAGB as the new chief curator. These may be uncertain times in the world, but it is now that the arts become more important than ever before,” she said about her appointment.

“Uncertainty can be an uncomfortable experience and I believe the arts can help us to confront the realities of complexity. When we engage with art, we become aware of our agency to affect the

‘Vanity Fair’ cover shot

by Black photographer for 1st time

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The new issue of Vanity Fair featuring a powerful image of Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis marks the first time the publication has featured the work of a Black photographer on its cover.

world around us. We begin to understand ourselves as being connected in more meaningful ways locally, nationally, regionally and globally.”

She added: “These qualities have always been the backbone of curatorial practice at the NAGB with recent stellar exhibitions that I admire such as ‘Refuge’ and ‘The Visual Life of Social Affliction’. I could not be more excited to be part of this community of curators, artists and creatives that make up the NAGB, the BahaDR Daniella Fifi mas and the Caribbean.”

According to the NAGB, Dr Fifi is highly qualified for the position. She has staged exhibitions, managed public programming, invested in teens in underserved communities and overseen large teams.

After completing her MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies in the UK, where her dissertation was on “The Development of National Identity in Caribbean Museums”, she went on to work at the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago (2009-2013). At the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2013-2014) she co-ordinated a programme between the Whitney, the Walker Art Centre, the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2017, at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, she served as the interim vice president of education and public programmes, where she oversaw the education, exhibits and collections departments that included oversight of 28,000 objects. Other roles have expanded her

capacity to lead the curatorial team at the NAGB, specifically in this new post-COVID-19 landscape.

As part of the NAGB’s recently signed Memo of Understanding with University of the Bahamas, the gallery said Dr Fifi will be an important asset in assisting local colleagues to build educational modules for the future BA and MA programmes at UB. Once complete, the Bahamas will be able to educate and train museum professionals at home, making careers in this area more accessible to a broader

swath of society.

“This connects with the NAGB’s vision to expand the network of museums nationally, making our visual culture more accessible to local communities, students and visitors, while providing more work opportunities in both New Providence and the Family Islands,” NAGB representatives said.

Amanda Coulson, the gallery’s executive director, said: “The NAGB’s governance committee and board of directors were in unanimous agreement that Dr Fifi was the strongest candidate and the greatest asset to the community, with an ability to expand the institution’s capacity and reach to the benefit of our local audiences and artists. I am beyond excited to welcome such a consummate professional with a long history of institutional experience to the team and to embark on a fruitful partnership.”

The historic image of Davis, shot by photographer Dario Calmese, shows the 54-year-old in profile, her back facing the camera.

Davis is wearing a blue gown with a deep plunge in the back, hand on hip.

The publication has “had a problem in the past with putting Black women on the covers,” Davis says in an interview for the magazine.

Radhika Jones, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, writes in the issue that 17 Black people have been on the cover in the 35 years between 1983 and 2017, and that she was determined to fix the lack of representation when she took over the job.

She said in publishing Calmese’s photo of Davis on the cover, “we celebrate him and honour his vision at

this heightened moment in American history.”

“Calmese describes his cover concept as a re-creation of the Louis Agassiz slave portraits taken in the 1800s — the back, the welts,” she writes. “This image (of Davis) reclaims that narrative, transmuting the white gaze on Black suffering into the Black gaze of grace, elegance and beauty.”

In her Vanity Fair interview, Davis discusses the recent racial justice protests, her upcoming role as Michelle Obama, her impoverished upbringing in Rhode Island, and the challenges of being a Black woman in Hollywood, among other topics.

The issue hits newsstands on July 21.

12 | The Tribune | Weekend

crafts

Delivering that finishing touch

By ALESHA CADET • Tribune Features Reporter • acadet@tribunemedia.net For Bahamians who were stuck at home celebrating milestone achievements during lockdown, Justina Ferguson’s new “mini moons” have been a big hit, and often delivered the finishing touch to their smaller parties.

It’s a simple, decorative idea, born out of necessity when Justine Ferguson was forced to get to creative during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The mini moon arrangements can be designed to work for everything from birthdays and graduations to anniversaries and gender reveal parties. After being used to brighten up a celebration, the mini moons can be taken home as a keepsake.

“Being a creative entrepreneur during a time like this has not only opened many doors for me, but it has inspired me beyond measure to stay imaginative and unique in everything I do. I like that now creative entrepreneurs like myself are being seen for their inventive intellect and are receiving great responses because of it,” said Justina, a junior marketing major attending the University of the Bahamas.

The popular mini moons are part of her line of products for her home-based company Perfect Finish Events, which specialises in party décor.

“The mini moon arrangements were inspired by Perfect Finish’s first ever official set-up, which was at the 10th annual Little Pink Party back in December of 2018. The larger moon backdrop consisted of vinyl plastered on it the Perfect Finish name. It also consisted of organic balloons in different colours and sizes falling along one side,” she said.

During quarantine, Justina took the idea from this first moon arrangement and began customising miniature versions of it.

“As many businesses were closed, plenty individuals found themselves home for celebratory moments in their lives. This created an opportunity to make these celebratory moments great again for my clients. Now, the mini moon arrangements are used for birthdays, weddings, graduations, retirements, and much more,” she said.

Justina said she does her best to personalise the arrangement to also fit the personality of the person who it’s being created for. To achieve this, she usually asks her clients for personal descriptive phrases about the recipient.

“When creating all mini moon arrangements my aim is focusing on three colours of adhesive vinyl and three colours in balloons. This creates the contrast I usually aim for with all arrangements,” she said. “It’s quite difficult for me to choose my favourite arrangement, but I lean towards the sunflower inspired board and a few of my graduation boards.”

Justina has now also launched easel arrangements and has come up with new ways to showcase cakes other than using a basic candy and dessert table.

Friday, July 24, 2020

Friday, July 24, 2020

The Tribune | Weekend | 13

crafts

Beautifying education

By ALESHA CADET • Tribune Features Reporter • acadet@tribunemedia.net

Because the walls of a classroom are mostly used for displaying students’ work, the actual décor of the space is often overlooked. But that is slowly changing. In the last few years classroom décor has been the “in” thing on image sharing sites like Pinterest.

It seems teachers and creatives are suddenly putting a lot more thought and effort into making classrooms as welcoming as possible, but without bombarding students with too many images or designs.

And because Bahamian teachers are already overwhelmed with their many responsibilities, Earnestine Hepburn wants to help them out in this area at least. And she’s putting a uniquely Bahamian spin on things. For example, she has come up with five characters inspired by Bahamian history and culture to feature in her line of decorations.

There is Piggly, who represents the swimming pigs of Exuma. The Brownie character is a loyal and protective potcake. Mimi is a modern-day version of the Bahamian straw doll. Featherly is a flamingo that can fly but prefers catching flights using her Bahamian passport.

“She is definitely one of my favourite characters and she never travels without letting people know that she hails from Inagua,” said Ms Hepburn.

Another one of her favourites is Tum Tum the little drummer boy, “who represents the heartbeat of our Bahamian culture, which is Junkanoo.”

“Fun fact: all of the characters were given names by my niece, Kasia ‘Mimi’ Smith. The process of creating them was one that was time-consuming yet enjoyable. A lot of thought went into each and every character, as I wanted to ensure they would be classroom friendly and appealing to students of all ages and also cost friendly. I hope through my creative efforts students will learn a little about all of the Bahama Islands and develop a sense of pride of their country and culture,” she said.

Ms Hepburn offers her classroom decoration services through her company Pretty Paper and Packaging. The décor line, she said, is inspired by the various islands and cultural icons that Bahamian students can relate to.

She explained that she first started this business as a hobby, which then turned into a part-time job and now a full-time occupation. Even the current COVID-19 pandemic and school closures didn’t put a stop to her efforts to brighten up and beautify education.

“This pandemic has given me an opportunity to give back to my clients in a big way. The new normal has allowed me to share much needed learning files with teachers and parents who in turn were able to send them out electronically as practice for their students and children. These files minimised contact and printing without disrupting the flow of learning. In addition, the pandemic has also given me time to think of new products and

services I would like to add to my business,” said Ms Hepburn.

The crafter has also kept herself busy by thinking up and creating a COVID-19 classroom theme. She hopes it will be a constant reminder to students of how important good hygiene habits are when they return to school.

“I love receiving pictures from clients who are very proud to show how they displayed or incorporated the items in their lessons, classroom displays, assemblies, workshops, and expos. I am also delighted that I have met or exceeded the needs of my clients doing something that I love.

According to Mark Twain, ‘Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life’,” said Ms Hepburn.

For the remainder of 2020 she plans to create more Bahamian themed characters, along with games for the classroom. She is also looking forward to launching a learning website for students and teachers.

16 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

community

GGYA takes local lead in World Youth Skills Day

I

t is one of the few programmes driving young Bahamians to equip themselves with practical and vocational skills for life and work. As the United Nation observed World Youth Skills Day on Wednesday, the Governor General’s Youth Award (GGYA) said it’s important to recognise young people who work to enhance their knowledge and celebrate the effort they’ve put in.

Last year, 1,787 GGYA participants from across the nation gave it a go learning a new skill or improving an existing one. Conservative estimates placed their total combined effort at well over 25,000 hours, building expertise in a wide range of areas.

Each GGYA participant must commit at least an hour a week to developing a skill. The duration depends on the award level. For the 1,494 Bronze participants it was 60 minutes a week for 13 weeks.

The 214 young people who pursued Silver engaged in a skill-building activity over 26 weeks, while Gold demanded an hour a week for one year.

“This shows motivation and commitment,” said Jacquetta Maycock, GGYA’s assistant national director. “By developing skills in line with their personal interests our participants, who are between the ages of 14 and 24, increase their employability. This is particularly useful in today’s ever-changing environment.”

According to a Caribbean Development Bank report, youth unemployment in the region — those between 15 and 24 — is among the highest in the world, reaching 42.7 percent. Not surprisingly, skills development could play and important role in building a brighter future for many.

R M Bailey tenth grader Samuel Sherman used his time spent in the Technical Cadets as his skill requirement. This Dummer, he put his knowledge and natural curiosity to use when he attempted coding – using a programming language to get a computer to behave how you want it to.

“Do a skill that could benefit you in the future,” advised the 15-year-old, Bronze-level participant who ultimately hopes to create robots or computer games.

According to the UN’s World Skills Day website, prior to the current crisis, young people aged

DEVELOPING a skill helps young people get better at something they are really interested in, providing confidence and the ability for them draw on that knowledge now and later in life.

15-24 were three times more likely than adults to be unemployed and often faced a prolonged schoolto-work transition period.

“In postCOVID-19 societies, as young people are called upon to contribute to the recovery effort, they will need to be equipped with the skills to successfully manage evolving challenges and the resilience to adapt to future disruptions,” said the UN. As the local arm of the UK-based Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, the world’s leading youth achievement program, GGYA helps young people gain essential skills, experience, confidence and resilience to successfully navigate adult life.

When it comes to buildings skills, participants are only limited by their imagination. The activities run the gamut from cooking and music to fishing, junkanoo, CPR and everything in between.

“The skills component of our program brings with it a sense of achievement as participants must show growth,” said Ms Maycock. “Learning something new or building upon existing knowledge increases confidence. We also find our skill section provides an avenue for participants to further differentiate themselves in a highlycompetitive market. Our program prides itself on young people engage in non-formal activities that will equip them for life.”

Hard-pressed to keep her GGYA unit going during the COVID-19 pandemic, Anatol Rodgers High parent-leader Shari Green got creative when it came to identifying a skill her 72-strong unit could complete.

Then, she found a free AED/CPR and first aid certification offered online. She utilised Google classrooms and Zoom to facilitate the learning experience. To motivate the 46 participants who accepted her challenge, she offered to assist with costs associated with the adventurous journey for the first 10 students completing the course.

“This is more than a skill, this training is lifesaving,” said the parent who began assisting the unit last January and ultimately became unit leader after her son graduated from the school.

“Seeing how we are going through this pandemic this training is particularly useful. This is not just for GGYA. Throughout their life, in the event of an emergency, they can use this knowledge.

Designated by the General Assembly in 2014, the World Youth Skills Day is an opportunity for young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, and public and private sector stakeholders to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.

The Tribune | Weekend |17

Friday, July 24, 2020

books

New page-turners this week • Malorie by Josh Malerman (sci-fi) In the old world there were many rules.

In the new world there is only one: don’t open your eyes.

In the 17 years since the ‘creatures’ appeared, many people have broken that rule. Many have looked. Many have lost their minds, their lives, their loved ones.

In that time, Malorie has raised her two children - Olympia and Tom - on the run or in hiding. Now nearly teenagers, survival is no longer enough. They want freedom.

When a census-taker stops by their refuge, he is not welcome. But he leaves a list of names - of survivors building a future beyond the darkness - and on that list are two names Malorie knows.

Two names for whom she’ll break every rule, and take her children across the wilderness, in the hope of becoming a family again in this sequel to the bestseller “Bird Box”.

• The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson (fantasy) A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy.

Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

• The Pull of the Starts by Emma Donoghue (historical fiction) In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders—Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.

In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling

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pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.

• Dust (Heirs of Neverland #1) by Kara Swanson (young adult) The truth about Neverland is far more dangerous than a fairy tale.

Claire Kenton believes the world is too dark for magic to be real--since her twin brother was stolen

away as a child. Now Claire’s desperate search points to London... and a boy who shouldn’t exist.

Peter Pan is having a beastly time getting back to Neverland. Grounded in London and hunted by his own Lost Boys, Peter searches for the last hope of restoring his crumbling island: a lass with magic in her veins.

The girl who fears her own destiny is on a collision course with the boy who never wanted to grow up.

The truth behind this fairy tale is about to unravel everything Claire thought she knew about Peter Pan-and herself.

18 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

film

Movie theatres implore studios: Release the blockbusters

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A long time ago in a preCOVID universe far, far away, blockbusters opened around the globe simultaneously or nearly so. In 1975, “Jaws” set the blueprint. Concentrate marketing. Open wide. Pack them in.

Since then, Hollywood has turned opening weekends into an all-out assault. Staggered rollouts still happen, of course, but the biggest films are dropped like carpet bombs. Anything less risks losing the attention of moviegoers. Global debuts north of $300 million became commonplace. Last year, “Avengers: Endgame” made well north of $1 billion in a couple days.

Hollywood has now gone more than four months without a major theatrical release. While some films have found new streaming homes, the biggest upcoming ones — “Tenet,” “Mulan,” “A Quiet Place Part II” — remain idled like jumbo jets on the tarmac. The leading chains are still shuttered. Recent coronavirus spikes have forced release dates to shuffle and chains to postpone reopening to August.

Now, movie houses say that despite far from ideal circumstances, it’s time for new movies. Four months of near zero revenue has brought the $50 billion annual business to its knees. While the beleaguered restaurant industry still has takeout and airlines continue to operate with masked flyers, the vast majority of US movie theatres haven’t punched a single ticket since March. Some have turned to selling popcorn curbside.

“The problem is, we need their movies,” says John Fithian, president and chief executive of National Association of Theatre Owners. “Distributors who want to play movies theatrically, they can’t wait until 100 percent of markets are allowed open because that’s not going to happen until there’s a vaccine widely available in the world.”

“The old distribution models of big blockbusters,” adds Fithian, “need to be rethought.”

That may mean returning to a more old-fashioned release pattern, opening films overseas first and, in the US, opening at different times in different areas.

When Warner Bros. earlier this week announced it was delaying the release of Christopher Nolan’s

ELIZABETH DEBICKI, left, and John David Washington in a scene from “Tenet”, the film which had hoped to herald Hollywood’s return to big theatrical releases. (Melinda Sue Gordon/Warner Bros Entertainment via AP) “Tenet” because of the rise in cases, Warner Bros Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich said the studio is “not treating ‘Tenet’ like a traditional global day-and-date release.”

The coronavirus crisis has ushered in new chapter in the often symbiotic, occasionally quarrelsome relationship between distributors and exhibitors.

Splitting ticket sale revenue approximately in half, their fortunes have often been closely linked.

The largest studios — the Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros., Universal — now all have streaming services of their own now, along with television operations.

So they have options. The on-demand release of “Trolls” caused a rift between Universal and AMC. But the two halves of theatrical movie-going have worked largely in concert through the pandemic thus far.

It’s in their own self-interest. Studios have been loath to sacrifice billions in box office for their priciest and most popular releases. On Thursday, John Stankey, chief executive of Warner Bros. parent company AT&T said direct release to HBO Max could be option for some Warner Bros movies but not the $200 million “Tenet.”

With distancing protocols and other measures, cinemas have reopened in parts of Europe, the Middle East and South Korea, where last weekend Yeon Sang-ho’s “Train to Busan” action sequel “Peninsula” debuted with $13.2 million. Theatres in China, the world’s second largest movie market, this week reopened with theatres limited to 30 percent capacity.

North America, usually the main event of a blockbuster release, may have to learn to follow the rest of the world.

Despite the virus surge in much of the US, exhibitors believe they can operate relatively safely by

adhering to health officials, decreasing theatre capacity and cleaning in between showings. After initially flip-flopping, AMC will require patrons to wear masks. AMC, the world’s largest circuit, on Thursday delayed its reopening from the end of July to mid-tolate August, a timing that it said reflects the expected new release dates for “Tenet” and Disney’s “Mulan,” now slated for August 21.

Some movie-goers, naturally, don’t anticipate going, regardless of what comes out. Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, isn’t planning to go to the movies this year.

“It seems prudent to think that indoors is where the lion share of transmission takes place,” says Shaman. “You could think: well, it’s a movie theatre.

If you space people out, it’s a big room, tall ceilings.

If they get the ventilation cranked up, it’s actually not the most concentrated environment. It’s not liked a packed bar with a low ceiling. It’s probably not as dangerous as that scenario. But is it more dangerous than sitting home and watching Netflix? Yes, of course it is.”

But imperfect may be all cinemas and studios have for now. Fithian believes 75 percent of US theatres could be open within days if they had new movies.

(Those currently open are mainly playing older films.)

“The longer this goes, there will be bankruptcy filings and reorganisations and there will be people who go out of business,” says Fithian who’s currently lobbying for greater Congressional support for theatres. “But if there are no new movies until that’s a vaccine, that’s a dire situation for a lot of companies.”

The Tribune | Weekend | 19

Friday, July 24, 2020

entertainment CURSED

Top 10 Netflix movies The Blacklist and shows 2.(series; seven seasons) in the Bahamas

sees it as a chance to reconnect with her best friends Sasha, Lisa and Dina, and the girls set out on a trip to New Orleans. Starring Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish, and Jada Pinkett Smith.

With Bahamians still practicing social distancing, and many working from home with the kiddies stuck in the house, it’s time to turn to Netflix for some entertainment.

Here are the top 10 movies and shows Bahamians are watching this week.

Girls Trip 1.(film; 2h 2m)

When Ryan is invited to speak at the annual Essence Festival, she

After turning himself in, a brilliant fugitive offers to help the FBI bag other baddies, but only if rookie profiler Elizabeth Keen is his partner. New episodes. Starring James Spader and Megan Boone.

3

. Cursed (series; 10 episodes)

A teenage sorceress named Nimue encounters a young Arthur on her quest to find a powerful and ancient sword in this new take on the Camelot saga. Starring Katherine Langford, Devon Terrell and Gustaf Skarsgård.

4

. Fatal Affair (film; 1h 29m)

Ellie tries to mend her marriage with her husband Marcus after a brief encounter with an old friend,

David, only to find that David is more dangerous and unstable than she’d realised. Starring Nia Long and Omar Epps.

5

. Parker (film; 1h 58m)

A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead.

Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of the crew’s latest heist. Starring Jennifer Lopez and Jason Statham.

. Ashley Garcia 6 - Genius in Love (series; two seasons)

Ashley Garcia, the world’s only 15-and-a-half-year-old robotics engineer and rocket scientist, gets the chance to work for NASA. She moves across the country to live with her Uncle Victor, a pro football player turned high school coach.

(film; 7.1hAddicted 45m)

A gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into

an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life. Starring Sharon Leal and Boris Kodjoe.

Old Guard 8. The (film; 2h 5m)

A covert team of immortal mercenaries are suddenly exposed and must now fight to keep their identity a secret just as an unexpected new member is discovered. Starring Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne.

. Spider-Man: 9 Homecoming (film; 2h 13m)

Peter Parker balances his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens with his superhero alterego Spider-Man, and finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of New York City. Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton and Robert Downey Jr.

(film; 10.1hMILF 41m)

In the South of France, three best friends in their 40s navigate loss and heartbreak while embarking on steamy affairs with much younger men.

20 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

history

When France extorted Haiti

– the greatest heist in history

By Marlene Daut

Professor of African Diaspora Studies, University of Virginia

(THE CONVERSATION) – In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, there have been calls for defunding police departments and demands for the removal of statues. The issue of reparations for slavery has also resurfaced.

Much of the reparations debate has revolved around whether the United States and the United Kingdom should finally compensate some of their citizens for the economic and social costs of slavery that still linger today.

But to me, there’s never been a more clear-cut case for reparations than that of Haiti.

I’m a specialist on colonialism and slavery, and what France did to the Haitian people after the Haitian Revolution is a particularly notorious examples of colonial theft. France instituted slavery on the island in the 17th century, but, in the late 18th century, the enslaved population rebelled and eventually declared independence. Yet, somehow, in the 19th century, the thinking went that the former enslavers of the Haitian people needed to be compensated, rather than the other way around.

Just as the legacy of slavery in the United States has created a gross economic disparity between Black and white Americans, the tax on its freedom that France forced Haiti to pay – referred to as an “indemnity” at the time – severely damaged the newly independent country’s ability to prosper.

The cost of independence Haiti officially declared its independence from France in 1804. In October 1806, the country was split into two, with Alexandre Pétion ruling in the south and Henry Christophe ruling in the north.

Despite the fact that both of Haiti’s rulers were veterans of the Haitian Revolution, the French had never quite given up on reconquering their former colony.

In 1814 King Louis XVIII, who had helped overthrow Napoléon earlier that year, sent three commissioners to Haiti to assess the willingness of the country’s rulers to surrender. Christophe, having made himself a king in 1811, remained obstinate in the face of France’s exposed plan to bring back slavery. Threatening war, the most prominent member of Christophe’s cabinet, Baron de Vastey, insisted,“ Our independence will be guaranteed by the tips of our bayonets!”

In contrast, Pétion, the ruler of the south, was willing to negotiate, hoping that the country might be able to pay France for recognition of its independence.

In 1803, Napoléon had sold Louisiana to the United States for 15 million francs. Using this number as his compass, Pétion proposed paying

HAITIAN President Jean-Pierre Boyer receiving Charles X’s decree recognising Haitian independence on July 11, 1825. (Image/Bibliotheque Nationale de France) the same amount. Unwilling to compromise with those he viewed as “runaway slaves,” Louis XVIII rejected the offer.

Pétion died suddenly in 1818, but Jean-Pierre Boyer, his successor, kept up the negotiations.

Talks, however, continued to stall due to Christophe’s stubborn opposition.

“Any indemnification of the ex-colonists,” Christophe’s government stated, was “inadmissible.”

Once Christophe died in October 1820, Boyer was able to reunify the two sides of the country.

However, even with the obstacle of Christophe gone, Boyer repeatedly failed to successfully negotiate France’s recognition of independence.

Determined to gain at least suzerainty over the island – which would have made Haiti a protectorate of France – Louis XVIII’s successor, Charles X, rebuked the two commissioners Boyer sent to Paris in 1824 to try to negotiate an indemnity in exchange for recognition.

On April 17, 1825, the French king suddenly changed his mind. He issued a decree stating France would recognise Haitian independence

A PORTRAIT of Alexandre Pétion. (Alfred Nemours Archive of Haitian History, University of Puerto Rico)

The Tribune | Weekend | 21

Friday, July 24, 2020

history

LOUIS XVIII, known as the Desired (French: le Désiré), was King of France from 1814 to 1824.

A FACSIMILE of the bank note for the 30 million francs that Haiti borrowed from a French bank. but only at the price of 150 million francs – or 10 times the amount the US had paid for the Louisiana territory. The sum was meant to compensate the French colonists for their lost revenues from slavery.

Baron de Mackau, whom Charles X sent to deliver the ordinance, arrived in Haiti in July, accompanied by a squadron of 14 brigs of war carrying more than 500 cannons.

Rejection of the ordinance almost certainly meant war. This was not diplomacy. It was extortion.

With the threat of violence looming, on July 11, 1825, Boyer signed the fatal document, which stated, “The present inhabitants of the French part of St Domingue shall pay … in five equal instalments … the sum of 150,000,000 francs, destined to indemnify the former colonists.”

French prosperity built on Haitian poverty Newspaper articles from the period reveal that the French king knew the Haitian government was hardly capable of making these payments, as the total was more than 10 times Haiti’s annual

budget. The rest of the world seemed to agree that the amount was absurd. One British journalist noted that the “enormous price” constituted a “sum which few states in Europe could bear to sacrifice.”

A facsimile of the bank note for the 30 million francs that Haiti borrowed from a French bank.

Lepelletier de Saint-Remy, ‘Étude Et Solution Nouvelle de la Question Haïtienne.’

Forced to borrow 30 million francs from French banks to make the first two payments, it was hardly a surprise to anyone when Haiti defaulted soon thereafter. Still, the new French king sent another expedition in 1838 with 12 warships to force the Haitian president’s hand. The 1838 revision, inaccurately labelled “Traité d’Amitié” – or “Treaty of Friendship” – reduced the outstanding amount owed to 60 million francs, but the Haitian government was once again ordered to take out crushing loans to pay the balance.

Although the colonists claimed that the indemnity would only cover one-twelfth the value of their lost properties, including the people they claimed as their slaves, the total amount of 90 million francs was actually five times France’s annual budget.

The Haitian people suffered the brunt of the consequences of France’s theft. Boyer levied draconian taxes in order to pay back the loans.

And while Christophe had been busy developing a national school system during his reign, under Boyer, and all subsequent presidents, such projects

had to be put on hold. Moreover, researchers have found that the independence debt and the resulting drain on the Haitian treasury were directly responsible not only for the underfunding of education in 20th-century Haiti, but also lack of health care and the country’s inability to develop public infrastructure.

Contemporary assessments, furthermore, reveal that with the interest from all the loans, which were not completely paid off until 1947, Haitians ended up paying more than twice the value of the colonists’ claims. Recognising the gravity of this scandal, French economist Thomas Piketty acknowledged that France should repay at least US $28 billion to Haiti in restitution.

A debt that’s both moral and material Former French presidents, from Jacques Chirac, to Nicolas Sarkozy, to François Hollande, have a history of punishing, skirting or downplaying Haitian demands for recompense.

In May 2015, when French President François Hollande became only France’s second head of state to visit Haiti, he admitted that his country needed to “settle the debt.” Later, realising he had unwittingly provided fuel for the legal claims already prepared by attorney Ira Kurzban on behalf of the Haitian people – former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had demanded formal recompense in 2002 – Hollande clarified that he meant France’s debt was merely “moral.”

To deny that the consequences of slavery were also material is to deny French history itself.

France belatedly abolished slavery in 1848 in its remaining colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion and French Guyana, which are still territories of France today. Afterwards, the French government demonstrated once again its understanding of slavery’s relationship to economics when it took it upon itself to financially compensate the former “owners” of enslaved people.

The resulting racial wealth gap is no metaphor.

In metropolitan France 14.1 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. In Martinique and Guadeloupe, in contrast, where more than 80 percent of the population is of African descent, the poverty rates are 38 percent and 46 percent, respectively. The poverty rate in Haiti is even more dire at 59 percent. And whereas the median annual income of a French family is $31,112, it’s only $450 for a Haitian family.

These discrepancies are the concrete consequence of stolen labour from generations of Africans and their descendants. And because the indemnity Haiti paid to France is the first and only time a formerly enslaved people were forced to compensate those who had once enslaved them, Haiti should be at the centre of the global movement for reparations.

• This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Read the original article here: theconversation.com.

22 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

history Forgotten Facts

An Anglican’s visit to Harbour Island in 1914

By PAUL C ARANHA In the summer, a very kind invitation came from Fr Horner asking us to spend part of our vacation at Harbour Island.

Availing ourselves of this grand opportunity, we rejoiced in the familiar “packing up for a holiday” and booked our passages aboard the Dart mail schooner. This was our first trip aboard a sailing boat, and everything on board seemed very strange and small.

We left the harbour in a squall, which was followed by a calm of some eight hours. How helpless we seemed! and verse after verse of the “Ancient Mariner” persistently occurred to me. By no means is it pleasant to be as idle as “a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” During those eight hours, it was easy to let one’s imagination run wild.

Hurricanes, sharks, shipwrecks, et cetera, seemed very probable, to my land lubber’s mind. “All things come to those who wait” and, with a glorious moon and a fair breeze, we were soon speeding along.

We had very pleasant companions, and we stayed on deck the whole night. By daybreak we had reached Spanish Wells, about fifty miles from New Providence. We made a very slow entry into the splendid harbour of Harbour Island and were able to view the rectory (pointed out by our companions), long before reaching it. We arrived at the wharf about 12 o’clock and were warmly welcomed by Fr and Mrs Horner.

The rectory is a delightful residence, with a cool breeze blowing through it, all the time. There seemed a very familiar air about the house, and we felt happy and “at home”, at once. S. John’s is a very pretty church and very nicely kept and, while we were there, the services were very well attended. There are three out-stations connected with S John’s Church, and we went with Fr Horner on his visit to two. It may be interesting to give a short description of our visits.

Our first visit was to the Bogue. At 6.30 the Rector and Mrs Horner, Mrs Cooke, and myself embarked for a two-mile sail across the harbour. Our boat, the property of Mr Munro, the catechist, was manned by two small boys, just big enough to handle the oars. Bother that old mariner! he must have inspired those boys to vie with each other in tales of boat wrecks. Of the six of us, only the crew could swim properly. I could, manage perhaps fifty yards. However, we landed

on the mainland of Eleuthera, and shouldered our packages. Before long we were met by three boys, who relieved us of our burdens, which they immediately placed upon their heads. (I once saw a girl carrying an orange on her head!) We walked for four miles over rocks and with no shade from the sun; we took about two hours to walk that far.

Feelings of discomfort were forgotten, however, when we reached the tiny settlement. They turned out en masse to welcome us and. at once, began to bring us presents of fruit.

We reached Mr Butler’s house (Mr Butler is a catechist), where we had a rest and some refreshing fruit. Although it was holiday time, the scholars were assembled at school for me to examine their work. Mr Butler, or “Teacher”, as everyone calls him, has really performed wonders with the children. We were told, too, that his salary is £10 (say $40) per annum, out of which he finds his own material. There were about forty children, and they all looked so very clean and happy. The parents and friends crowded round the school windows, and I could hear whispered promptings to the arithmetic problems from

outside. When the school songs were sung the people outside knew them as well as the children. The catechism was thoroughly known by the “tinies”, as well as by the big children. There is no equipment in the school at all, and if any school in England has any books stored away in the cupboards, they will be very acceptable at the Bogue Church Day School.

Mr Butler is worthy of praise, for the spelling and writing was particularly well done. The rest of the day until evensong we spent in trying to find a cool spot. Just before evensong we had a nice chat with Mr. Butler, and nearly everyone attended evensong at 4.30. The church at the Bogue looked beautifully clean, and that cleanliness is due to the older girls, who scrub it out every month I believe. We arrived at Harbour Island about sunset, laden with fruit, very tired, but feeling we had gained new experiences.

This was a Monday, and on the Thursday following we all four visited the Cove. We left Harbour Island about 8 o’clock. We had a long sail along the harbour, and then a hot two miles’ walk over hard rocks, and again we had to sail for three miles, this time beating against a breeze. We reached the Cove at last. We stayed at the Cove for the night, retiring early after evensong. At 7 next morning, we had the Holy Eucharist and, after breakfast, left to undergo more seasickness, and at last reached Harbour Island, in time for lunch.

The rest of our holiday passed quickly and pleasantly. We got some good sea battling off the north beach. We found the Harbour Island people very hospitable, and many a happy hour we spent at the Residency, thanks to Mr and Mrs P Armbrister, the Commissioner, and his wife.

It seemed very nice to get back to our friends in Nassau, and we feel we have seen some of the real missionary work of the Bahamas. Besides experience, we gained some knowledge of the hardships of our out-island clergy. Their disappointments and drawbacks, as well as their joys, must be numerous.

– C Cooke, Master of Nassau Grammar School, from the December 1914 quarterly report, sent to England by the Anglican Church in the Bahamas

• For questions and comments, e-mail islandairman@gmail.com

The Tribune | Weekend | 23

Friday, July 24, 2020

literary lives Sir Christopher Ondaatje tells us of the French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand – extending her influence from couture clothing to jewellery, handbags and perfume.

GABRIELLE Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (1883 – 1971)

Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

The life of a fashion legend Part I

“The best things in life are free. The second best are very, very expensive.” – Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel was born in 1883 to Eugénie Jeanne Devolle – a laundrywoman in a charity hospital run by the Sisters of Providence in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France.

She was the second child born to Eugénie Devolle with Albert Chanel – an itinerant street vendor.

Chanel married Jeanne Devolle in 1884. The couple had six children, and lived in a single crowded room in the town of Brive-la-Gaillarde.

When Chanel’s name was entered into the official birth registry, she was listed as Gabrielle Bonheur Chasnel. Her last name was misspelled – as it was on her birth certificate. It was never changed – because to do so Chanel would have had to acknowledge that she was born in a poor hospice – and she was not about to do that. She went to her grave as Gabrielle Chasnel.

When Chanel was 11 her mother died and her father sent his three daughters to the Convent of Aubazine – an orphanage for poor and abandoned orphan girls – who had to adapt to a cold and frugal life. However, she learned to sew at the orphanage and, when she had to leave when she was 18, found work as a seamstress in the town of Moulins. She also sang at the local pavilion, La Rotonde, entertaining crowds in between main performers, earning what money she could when a plate was passed around. One of the songs she sang “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” (Who has seen Coco) was a favourite of the regulars in the Pavilion and is probably how she acquired her nickname “Coco”. An alternate theory is that it was a shortened form of the word cocotte – the French word for “kept woman”.

Chanel was a spirited and popular performer.

In 1906, she worked in the resort town of Vichy – usually in cafés and at the Grande Grille. But her singing voice was weak and she realised that she did not have the talent for a successful stage

A YOUNG COCO career. She returned to Moulins when the Vichy season was over and resumed her part-time paid career as a poseuse in La Retonde.

Chanel was 23 when she met the rich young excavalry officer Étienne Balsan – a textile heir. She became Étienne Balsan’s mistress and lived with him for the next three years in his château, Royallieu. He pampered Chanel with expensive gifts – jewellery and clothes – and introduced her to the “good life” and the cultivation of self-indulgence.

She replaced the courtesan Émilienne d’Alençon as his new favourite. She may even have had a son with Balsan. In Justine Picardie’s biography, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life, she claims that André Palasse – her sister Julia-Berthe’s only child (who committed suicide) was actually Chanel’s child by Balsan.

Two years later Chanel began another affair with Captain Arthur Edward “Boy” Capel – one of Balsan’s good friends, and a wealthy member of the English upper class.

“Two gentlemen were outbidding for my hot little body.” – Coco Chanel

Capel set Chanel up in an apartment in Paris and financed one of her first shops. He taught her taste. But she had already acquired a yearning for the upper-crust, if not the aristocracy. She refused to acknowledge her humble origins and made up fabricated glamorous accounts of her childhood and that her mother and father had sailed for America to seek their fortunes while she was looked after by two aunts.

“Boy” Capel’s impeccable style completely seduced Chanel. She admired the square-shaped cologne bottles he carried in his leather travelling case and copied them for her famous Chanel No 5 perfume. The unique bottle is still used today. Capel took her to Deauville – probably the most fashionable of all the resorts and they were inseparable. But Capel had no intention of marrying her. Their affair lasted 10 years and continued

24 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

literary lives

VINTAGE samples of the Chanel No 5 perfurme from the 1920s THE ICONIC Chanel No 5 bottle was inspired by the square-shaped cologne bottles for men.

IN 1913, Coco Chanel introduced the striped marinière (”sailor”) top into popular fashion, liberating the female form from the era’s sartorial constraints.

even after he married the aristocratic Lady Diana Wyndham in 1918. Capel died in a motorcar accident in 1919. He was the love of Chanel’s life.

“In losing Capel, I lost everything. What followed was not a life of happiness.” – Coco Chanel

Chanel had started designing hats while still living with Étienne Balsan and sold her creations at 21 Rue Cambon in Paris. The French actress Gabrielle Dorziat, in 1912, wore more than one of her hats in the play Bel Ami by Fernand Nozière, and the French public began to take notice of her.

“The hat is not for the street. It will never be democratised. But there are certain houses that one cannot enter without a hat. And one must always wear a hat when lunching with people whom one does not know well. One appears to one’s best advantage.” – Coco Chanel

Chanel also had a gift for self promotion. Boy Capel lent her the money to open a boutique in the centre of Deauville where she promoted her casual clothing made out of jersey and tricot – something never seen before – long slim trousers for women and the striped sailor sweater. A completely new look. She recruited her sister and her aunt to parade through Deauville wearing her new casual comfortable creations. They were immediately popular.

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” – Coco Chanel

With this new-found success Chanel then opened, in 1915, another boutique in Biarritz on

the Côte Basque in a villa opposite the casino. The boutique, catering to wealthy Spanish clients, was so successful that she was able to repay Boy Capel his entire original investment after only a year of operation. Not short of attention, Chanel also found romance with an expatriate aristocrat – the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia.

In 1919, Chanel was registered as a couturier and established her headquarters at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris. Within a year she purchased the building – in the heart of the most fashionable district in Paris. She turned the building into a fashion boutique and sold hats, clothing, and other accessories including jewellery and perfumes. By 1927, Chanel owned five properties on the Rue Cambon – number 23 to 31.

In 1920, Chanel was introduced to the famous composer Igor Stravinsky by Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. Exiled from Russia, Chanel invited Stravinsky to stay with her at Bel Resprio in Garches. Stravinsky stayed for nine months and there followed the inevitable romance. Chanel generously financed the Ballets Russes production of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) and gave Diaghilev an amount said to exceed 300,000 francs. She also set about designing dance costumes for the Ballet Russes, and collaborated on productions by Diaghilev and his famous dancer and lover Vaslav Nijinsky, notably Le Train bleu and Orphée and Oedipe Roi. At the Longchamps Races in 1922, Chanel was introduced by Théophile Bader, the founder of the Paris Galeries Lafayette, to the Jewish businessman Pierre Wertheimer, who with his brother Paul had, in 1917, taken over the largest and most powerful cosmetic and fragrance business Bourjois.

Bader was anxious to sell Chanel No 5 in Galeries Lafayette and together they formed Parfums

The Tribune | Weekend | 25

Friday, July 24, 2020

literary lives

CAPTAIN Arthur Edward “Boy” Capel, who had nine-year long affair with Coco Chanel. He financed Chanel’s first shops, and his own clothing style is said to have inspired the signature Chanel look.

COCO Chanel with Winston Churchill in 1921. The future British Prime Minister was an MP for the Liberal Party at the time.

Chanel with the Wertheimers agreeing to provide full financing in return for 70 percent of the profits. Théophile Bader would receive 20 percent, and in return for licencing her name to Parfums Chanel, Coco Chanel would receive 10 percent of the profits. Unhappy with the unbalanced arrangement, Chanel would spend more than 20 years trying to regain full control of Parfums Chanel.

“Pierre Wertheimer was the bandit who screwed me.” – Coco Chanel

Two of Chanel’s favourite friends were the writer Colette (Chérie, The Last of Chérie, and Gigi), and Misia Sert, the wife of the Spanish painter José-Maria Sert. All three moved in the same social circles.

“If every human face bears a resemblance to some animal, then Mademoiselle Chanel is a small black bull. That tuft of curly black hair, the attribute of bull-calves, falls over her brow all the way to the eyelids and dances with every manoeuvre of her hands.” – Sidonie-Gabriele Colette (1873-1954)

Misia Sert and Chanel became immediate friends – and stayed friends until Sert died in 1950.

Both women were convent schooled. It is doubtful that they were lovers, but they caused scandal wherever they went. They shared interests and confidences, and also drug use. By 1935, Chanel was a habitual drug user, injecting herself with morphine on a daily basis – a habit she maintained to the end of her life.

“I was attracted by her genius, lethal wit, sarcasm and maniacal destructiveness, which intrigued and appalled everyone.” – Misia Sert (1872-1950)

In 1923, Vera Bate Lombardi (reputedly the illegitimate daughter of the Marquess of Cambridge), introduced Chanel to Winston Churchill, Edward, the Prince of Wales, and to the vastly wealthy Hugh Arthur Grosvenor – the Duke of Westminster. Chanel’s affair with the Duke lasted 10 years, and he lavished Chanel with valuable art and a house in London’s Mayfair.

“Great loves too must be endured.” – Coco Chanel

The Prince of Wales, Edward VIII, was also smitten with Chanel, and pursued her despite her attachment to the Duke of Westminster, who also bought her land on the French Riviera where she built her villa La Pausa. The Duke of Westminster would certainly have married Chanel, but she quipped: “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster, but there is only one Chanel.”

NEXT WEEK: Coco Chanel in Hollywood, during the suspicious war years, and her final triumphant return to the fashion industry.

• Sir Christopher Ondaatje is the author of The Last Colonial. He acknowledges that he has quoted liberally from Wikipedia; Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie, 2015; and Sleeping with the Enemy, Coco Chanel and the Secret War by Hal Vaughan (2011)

right (4) 27 Consequently present during forest management, not having succeeded (9)

26 | The Tribune | Weekend

budgetary (6)down: 1 Local; 2 Boater; H L I 26 23 Sound Saudi organisation 3 Bus; 4 Stress; G X Y 8 Cutlass; P S outside (5) 5 Sublime; Friday, JulyA24, 11 Quarrel; 13 Caprice; 15 Record; 16 Eraser; 17 Locum; 20 Few.

ru f H f G i l t

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so the each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

● The Target uses words in the main body of Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (1999 edition)

HOW many words of four letters or more can you make from the letters shown here? in making a word, each letter may be used once only. Each must contain the centre letter and there must be at least one nine-letter word. no plurals or verb forms ending in “s”.

TODAY’S TARGET Good 14; very good 21; excellent 28 (or more). Solution tomorrow

Yesterday’s call 0907 181 2585 Sudoku Answer for today’s target solution *Calls cost 80p per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge.

BATTLESHIPS CRYPTIC PUZZLE Down 1 Send a letter but don’t expect anything to come of it (5,3) 2 Not for heavy drinkers? (5,3) 3 Workman in stone (4) 5 Distorted opinion the rooster has of life? (8,4) 6 Port area (4) 7 It gives you a walkover in the game (6) 8 He is sent out after some hesitation (6) 11 Large sum not declared apparently (6,6) 15 Wild anger of Lear’s daughter (5) 16 Begin to show surprise (5) 18 Lies self-injured seeming dead (8) 19 Fish in turn goes bad (8) 21 The Parisian sees off the tenant (6) 22 Adopt a new attitude in sleep (6) 26 Fruit found on the ground in New Zealand (4) 27 Open to defeat (4)

Across 1 Everyone in a great hit shows delight (6) 4 Scratch game (8) 9 Dressed up and ready to go? (2,4) 10 It may turn tail and still be aggressive (8) 12 Dines in style at smart restaurants (4) 13 Finger the back of a book (5) 14 Food produced in layers (4) 17 Quite the opposite of true humility (5,7) 20 A way to get up quickly and have first nod perhaps (4,4,4) 23 Still in uniform (4) 24 Brilliant combination of the Hebrew and the Spanish (5) 25 Easy to reach but hard to touch (4) 28 Many returning lazily without betraying any emotion (8) 29 An indication of cold perhaps (6) 30 Sense agreement in the crew (8) 31 I snoop around and discover a cause of death (6)

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Yesterday’s Easy Solution Across: 1 Clout, 4 Theorem, 8 Apt, 9 Palmistry, 10 Saffron, 11 Outer, 13 Coarse, 15 De luxe, 18 Audio, 19 Blabber, 21 Hold court, 23 Art, 24 Repulse, 25 Colic.

Down: 1 Classic, 2 Out of hand, 3 Toper, 4 Talent, 5 Episode, 6 Rut, 7 Mayor, 12 Thumbnail, 14 Stoical, 16 Erratic, 17 Obtuse, 18 Abhor, 20 Attic, 22 Lip.

FIND where the fleet of ships shown is hidden in the grid. The numbers to the right of and below the grid indicate how many of the squares in that row are filled in with ships or parts of ships. The ships do not touch each other, even diagonally. Some squares have been filled in to start you off.

Solution tomorrow 1

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Across: 1 Seoul, 4 Masseur, 8 Hie, 9 Deduction, 10 Michael, 11 Ernes, 13 Remote, 15 Mentor, 18 Taste, 19 Take out, 21 Mainbrace, 23 Bar, 24 Dungeon, 25 Seems.

Down: 1 Schemer, 2 Overcomes, 3 Lydia, 4 Models, 5 Secrete, 6 Eli, 7 Ranks, 12 No trouble, 14 Tremble, 16 Returns, 17 Strain, 18 Timid, 20 Knees, 22 Ian.

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EASY PUZZLE

Across 1 Having sworn to be truthful (2,4) 4 Very offensive (8) 9 Persist (6) 10 Over the entire range (4,1,2,1) 12 Determined (4) 13 Delegated authority (5) 14 Spoken (4) 17 Obstinately disobedient (12) 20 To fawn (3,3,6) 23 Violent public disorder (4) 24 Elaborate confidence trick (5) 25 Part of the eye (4) 28 Faithfulness (8) 29 Good name (6) 30 Amount of business done (8) 31 Exultant (6)

Down 1 Start shooting (4,4) 2 Hardness of heart (8) 3 Sharp in taste (4) 5 Shrewd bargaining (5-7) 6 Search systematically (4) 7 Confine during war (6) 8 Drink greedily (6) 11 Mozart opera (4,3,5) 15 Flower (5) 16 Light meal (5) 18 Become established (4,4) 19 Carefully considered (8) 21 Gain (6) 22 Over there (6) 26 In addition (4) 27 Number of votes cast (4)

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L Q E M P D

Q J N E E A

K T W L N Y S E O

H R X T H B O R N

L K S T I L E S N

2020

R D M A H T S A E

L G E N R P N N L

B F E Y X O S N L

R 27 O H H B R S L S K P K W I H N Y L

THE ALPHABEATE

TARGET Best described as a number crossword, the task in Kakuro is to fill all of the empty squares, using numbers 1 to 9, so the sum of each horizontal block equals the number to its left, and the sum of each vertical block equals the number on its top. No number may be used in the same block more than once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Kakuro increases from Monday to Sunday.

L L A C K Q

S F L K N R A T C

2

4

1 x Battleship

3 x Destroyer

2 x cruiser

4 x submarine

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The Tribune | Weekend | 27

Friday, July 24, 2020

animals

A duty to serve

By KIM ARANHA • Animal Matters It is the Bahamas Humane Society’s self-proclaimed duty to care for and assist as many animals as possible daily.

It needs to be remembered that we are not a government agency; we are not “paid for by the people”. We try, good Lord how we try, to accommodate everybody as swiftly as possible.

However, it is most demoralising to have some folks hurtling insults our way, and sometimes yelling at me down the phone because the Bahamas Humane Society has not reacted quickly enough in their opinion.

It must be remembered that your wish is not always our command. If

there is a dog in your street barking and it is making you anxious, and there is a wounded dog in the middle of the road, the injured dog will most certainly take precedence. If there is a serious cruelty complaint of a worrisome nature, that complaint will take precedence over a less urgent or pressing request.

And please, friends, note that I have used the word request, because as a non-government entity we are not obligated to provide certain services, and frequently for free no less. Rather, we choose to do so, because we wish to help the animal in question.

pet of the the week

We have a finite amount of staff and vehicles and they are in great demand.

We raise the money to pay our staff through providing services, receiving generous donations from individuals and foundations who believe in our work, we run a thrift shop thanks to donations of sellable items, and more, in order to have the funds to provide an effective and useful service to the people and animals predominately of New Providence but not restricted to this island alone.

We love helping people, we love helping animals, that is what we are here for but it is hurtful when I realise that most of the general public believe that we are there to provide any animal related service that they can come up with. It is upsetting to understand that most people believe that it is their right to have us provide said services. It is

By The Bahamas Humane Society

Stazi presents a deal for the summer Stazi is clearly looking for a good deal, and the Bahamas Humane Society has a great one to offer. all adult adoption dogs are free for the rest of July. Stazi’s sure you’ll sniff out a great find, perhaps even her. She’s just under two years old and ready to settle down in a home of her own. She gets along well with other dogs and is friendly with people. She’s still young and very trainable. Come in and meet Stazi or call 323-5138 for more

information. Stazi hopes she’ll be your ‘deal of the day’!

• Our Thrift Shop is back! Opening hours are Wednesday/Thursday/ Friday 11am to 3pm and Saturday 10am to 2pm. Bring a bag and be sure to wear your mask. Donations gratefully accepted. All money raised goes to the BHS.

STAZI (Photo/Patricia Vazquez)

completely forgotten that we are a charity that needs help from individuals in order to be able to help others.

Taking out your frustrations on our staff, or me, or whoever, because we are not sufficiently quick is understandable if your pet is suffering, but I have to tell you that most of the abusive calls involve the picking up of wandering dogs. Originally this was the duty of the pound, but as the years have gone by, we have realised that this is something we should try to do and then the dogs picked up can come to the shelter and we can work on finding them homes, and the pound doesn’t have any working vehicles at present anyway. We do respond and we do try and pick up as often as possible, but we do not have the time to take all afternoon chasing after one animal when 12 others need us and some of those are suffering.

What I am asking for is a little bit of consideration from the public, and participation. If we did not come to you yesterday there was probably something more urgent.

Phoning me up and threatening to call a radio show host and telling them that I am not a woman of my word because six months ago you heard me say on that radio show that we would try to help you if you had a stray dog problem, is not really fair. I am very public with my cell phone number because I want people to be able to call me in the event of an animal being mistreated, or needing urgent care and you can’t find any help, but alas I don’t get many simple calls where I can help.

In our lives we take so easily without stopping to think where it is coming from, and what has gone into making it possible. We are quick to anger and criticise when something goes wrong or is a little slow, but very slow indeed to thank and praise when things go well.

The Bahamas Humane Society is there to serve and help, to assist because we want to; it is our mission and the board volunteers and the staff work really hard.

The board chooses to be there because they want to make a difference, nobody makes them and they receive no remuneration, they serve in addition to their day jobs. So before you get sorely vexed with us that we didn’t respond to a non-threatening situation in the blink of an eye, try to remember why we are here and exercise a little patience and understanding towards us please.

Kindness and understanding go a very long way.

28 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, July 24, 2020

weddings

Princess Beatrice gets the ultimate ‘something borrowed’ for secret wedding

PRINCESS Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi outside the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge with Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. (Benjamin Wheeler/ PA Wire)

By CARA HUNT Tribune Features Writer cbrennen@tribunemedia.net When Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom walked down the aisle last Friday, she was wearing two very special items lent to her by her grandmother Queen Elizabeth II – the diamond tiara the Queen wore for her own wedding in 1947 and a beautiful beaded ball gown from her personal collection.

Princess Beatrice and Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi tied the knot in an intimate ceremony at the Chapel of All Saints in Windsor last Friday after their initial wedding plans had to be scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The smaller event also saved her father, the disgraced Prince Andrew, from having to make a public appearance. (Prince Andrew has been embroiled in scandal due to his acquaintance with convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein, whose death last August was ruled a suicide.)

It may not have been the large, lavish affair that we are used to seeing from the British royal family, but Beatrice looked every inch the princess as she lived her own modern yet classic fairy tale.

Knowing that her granddaughter wasn’t able to have the big wedding of her dreams may have prompted the Queen to lend her the dress and tiara to make sure the event was a special as it could be under the current circumstances.

Beatrice joins Princess Anne, the Queen’s only daughter, to be among the few royal brides who have been allowed to wear the headpiece.

Pivotal moments in history Beatrice and her grandmother both got married at incredible moments in history.

When the then Princess Elizabeth got married in 1947, World War II had just ended, which meant the austerity measures put in place during the war were still in effect. The young bride had to use ration coupons to purchase the fabric for her gown (the government allowed her 200 extra rations) and many English brides-to-be also tried to donate ration

PRINCESS Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi pose for a photo after their wedding. (Benjamin Wheeler/Royal Communications of Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi via AP)

coupons to their future queen.

However, these had to be returned for legal reasons.

The dress, designed by the court designer Sir Norman Hartnell, had a star-patterned, fan-shaped bridal train 13 feet in length. The train, symbolic of rebirth and growth after World War II, was said to be inspired by Botticelli’s painting of Primavera, particularly the elaborate embroidery motifs of scattered flowers on the rich satin dress and the tulle veil.

In the case of Princess Beatrice, she had originally planned to get married on May 29 in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, but the ceremony was postponed because of the pandemic. Plans for the new wedding date came together in just two weeks, and were made as soon

as the UK government announced the wedding ban due to lockdown measures would be lifted on July 4.

Beatrice’s gown was another Hartnell creation and one her grandmother has worn several times. It is said to have been one of her favourite evening dresses.

The dress is made of Peau de Soie taffeta and is encrusted with diamanté and boasts a geometric bodice.

Beatrice added her own flair to the classic gown by adding extra fabric to the hem, to compensate for the fact that she is taller than the Queen, and organza puffed sleeves – a nod to the Lindka Cierach gown her mother Sarah Ferguson wore at her wedding to Prince Andrew in 1986.

QUEEN Elizabeth II lent one of her favourite evening gowns, the Sir Norman Hartnell design seen here, to her granddaughter Princess Beatrice.

And of course, COVID-19 restrictions meant that Beatrice could only invite 30 socially distanced guests to her big day and had to forfeit the lavish public affair typical of royal weddings.