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VOLUME:117 No.174, AUGUST 6TH, 2020

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‘FINAL NAIL IN RETAIL COFFIN’

Obituaries and your Weekend section will be in The Tribune tomorrow

Retail Federation warns lockdown may be last straw for many traders

By YOURI KEMP & NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Desk

BAHAMIAN retailers yesterday warned the latest COVID-19 lockdown will be “the nail in the coffin” for many companies and jobs in a sector that employs more than 22,000 people.

The Bahamas Federation of Retailers said it was “disappointed” the government did not consider allowing stores able to provide delivery or contactless services to remain open before imposing a blanket two-week shutdown on all employers deemed “non-essential”.

“After the hotel sector, which is currently nonoperational due to the restraints on tourism under COVID-19, the wholesale and retail sector is the largest private sector employer in our nation employing over 22,000 persons,” the Federation blasted.

“The second lockdown will unfortunately fair far worse than the first as companies have already drained any reserves they may have had during the first wave.

Tragically, this will be the nail in the coffin for many Bahamian retailers and the jobs that go with them.”

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

...PINDER DOUBTS SHUTDOWN WILL SEE JOB LOSSES INCREASE

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT ts-cartwright @tribunemedia.net WHILE optimistic about the current national lockdown, Director of Labour John Pinder said he doubts unemployment will increase during this period due to the extended NIB unemployment programme that is giving employers a necessary break.

Mr Pinder spoke to The

DOWNTOWN DESERT

Tribune yesterday, day one of a two-week minimum national lockdown meant to curb the surge of COVID19 cases.

“Unemployment will not necessarily increase because of the new lockdown,” Mr Pinder said. “I think for the most part, it all has to do with the economy opening up. Because we have that extended 13 weeks with NIB that gives SEE PAGE THREE

ALL quiet on Bay Street yesterday as the two-week lockdown takes effect.

Photo: Patrick Hanna/BIS

HEALTH CHIEFS ACCEPT SUSPECT ANOTHER CASES ARE SEVERE CHALLENGE 36 CASES

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER several doctors and nurses at Princess Margaret Hospital walked off the job due to COVID-19 safety concerns, the Public Hospitals Authority yesterday admitted the facility has remained challenged due to the influx of suspected COVID-19 patients presenting at its A&E Department.

STAFF outside PMH on Tuesday In view of this, PHA said it is urging the Bahamian public to follow all

the necessary COVID19 prevention protocols before entering the hospital to avoid maximising the potential risk of COVID-19 exposure.

This includes calling the COVID-19 hotline if you or someone you know have been exposed or are suspected to have COVID-19 symptoms.

However, in cases of a medical emergency, you are advised to call 919 and SEE PAGE THREE

IF YOU CATCH THE VIRUS - DON’T PANIC

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A GRAND Bahama resident who has COVID19 but did not experience any of the severe symptoms associated with the

disease, says people should not panic if they too test positive because it is not “a death sentence”.

“I am not telling people to go out there and try to get COVID – that would be stupid; they should do all the necessary things (to

prevent) getting it, but do not panic if you get this dreaded disease and cause yourself (more harm),” said the resident, who asked to have his identity withheld due to his profession.

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE FIVE

REPORTED

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas recorded 36 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, 30 on New Providence and six on Grand Bahama. New Providence has overtaken Grand Bahama as the island with the most cases of the virus, with 342 while Grand SEE PAGE THREE

stateside

SO WHO WILL BIDEN PICK AS HIS NO 2?

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Straw Market vendors face uncertain future

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net WITH no income coming in due to COVID-19 restrictions, straw vendors say they fear they do not have sufficient food supplies and income to last for the duration of a two-week lockdown as provisions made by the government are not enough.

A spokeswoman for the vendors told The Tribune yesterday there are some 80 workers who are in dire need of help and are still waiting to receive unemployment assistance from the National Insurance Board.

The situation, she said, has left many already struggling workers frustrated and concerned about how they will cope during the two-week period, which began Tuesday at 10pm.

“Straw vendors are not doing good,” president of the Straw Businesspeople Society, Reverend Esther Thompson told The Tribune. “They are not getting the assistance that was promised to them. Right now, I just sent in a list to National Insurance with over 70 to 80 vendors under the new (portal) system.

“Some of them have (not) gotten anything but most of them (are) in this second lap, this second new system what they put out – they’re rejecting them. Most of the vendors have been rejected from the system.

“All vendors calling me and I’m about to blow

THE CLOSURE of the Straw Market has left many workers in need of help up from the calls and complaints. It just ain’t happening. See, it’s okay for the government to lockdown.

We understand that we are in a health crisis but, my God, make some provisions for the people.”

The Straw Market was ordered closed in March along with many other non-essential businesses in a move government officials said was needed in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

To assist those impacted by the economic fallout

from the virus, the government launched its unemployment benefit programme for self-employed people directly connected to the tourism sector.

The unemployment assistance programme was expanded to July 1 and later that month, NIB later launched an online portal allowing eligible persons to register for the government-funded Unemployment Benefit Extension Programme.

Eligible persons are expected to receive $150

N E P O

per week for a maximum of 13 weeks during periods of unemployment once the claim has been approved.

However, with the newly imposed two-week lockdown, it is not clear whether the government will extend those payouts. NIB minister Brensil Rolle did not respond to calls made by The Tribune yesterday.

Reverend Thompson said while some vendors have received help from NIB during the initial onset of payouts, there are others who have not since the start

of the pandemic.

“In the first lap, they give the vendors $200 and now the vendors are down to the $150 and the $150, they can’t get that,” she said.

“The vendors all about on the food lines and t’ing and sometimes they go in the food lines, they can’t get the food (sic). It’s not good.

“Some people ain’t get nothing from way up in June and May. It’s a lot of issues with the verifications for vendors. Just like they have people designated with the hotels, they should

have people designated to deal exclusively with the straw markets because we have a lot with the people.”

The president said vendors even applied to the government’s national food distribution programme to receive assistance but have yet to receive a response.

The food initiative, which is jointly funded by the government and the private sector, aims to provide emergency food assistance for vulnerable Bahamians and residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She added: “A lot of them haven’t heard anything. I even applied to understand the programme to see how it’s going. They sent me two applications— one from Rapid Bahamas and one from Hands for Hunger—and I haven’t heard anything as far as assistance is concerned.

The programmes they put in place are not working for the people.

“They’re only making public statements and y’all entertaining them. The government needs to do more and not only for the vendors but for the Bahamian people.”

Near the end of the twoweek period, it is expected that health officials will make an assessment to determine if the lockdown needs to be extended.

“It’s going to be a while before things turn to normal and I hope the government make provisions and understand that and put things in place to help the people,” Mrs Thompson said.

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Thursday, June 4, 2020

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 3

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS from page one the employer some time to try to get their business in order. And, so we don’t expect any extra layoffs just because of the lockdown that is happening now.

“We recognise that once you are in an extended layoff period, NIB is still giving you some level of assistance and that is the view of the employer not terminating you, but keeping you in an additional layoff position so that when the economy opens again, you have your job.”

Mr Pinder said that was the whole purpose of extending the “grace period” with NIB. He also said he has not heard about impending layoffs due to the new lockdown.

In June, Labour Minister Dion Foulkes said the country’s unemployment rate could be as high as 40 percent, but stressed officials won’t know the exact figure until the Department of Statistics does its jobs survey.

Earlier this year, concerns were also raised that NIB might not pay clients whose employers deducted contributions from their salaries and did not make payments to the agency.

Mr Pinder sought to assuage those fears.

“NIB is saying once

Pinder doubts shutdown will see job losses rise the person has proof of employment and the contribution being deducted, NIB is still going to process those persons for unemployment assistance and unemployment benefit,” he said. “So they are not holding that against the employee. NIB will certainly go after the employer in cases like that. They have a policy and protocols in place that if an employer does not come in to make the necessary arrangement for the payment, then they have the right to prosecute.

“It also depends on the position the employer is in. Because of COVID, they might have some level of leniency but if these persons have not been making the contribution payments prior to that then that is a different situation.

NIB will make their judgement call on how far back the employer is on the payments.”

Mr Pinder also said he had not seen any labour dispute filed on behalf of former employees of a popular restaurant which closed its doors and laid off staff earlier in the pandemic.

Last week, an article was posted on social media claiming the workers have not been paid severance pay by a company hired by the restaurant to handle the matter.

Mr Pinder said, when asked about the claims, “If an employee is having difficulty in being properly compensated for years of service they have the right to file a dispute with the Department of Labour and we certainly will do what is necessary to ensure that they get some level of conciliation. Failing that, they can always ask for the matter to be turned over to the Industrial Tribunal.

“I do not recall seeing anything coming from that

institution as yet. There were some persons from there (the restaurant in question) who called and were inquiring as to what they were entitled to as severance. They were advised by us what they were entitled to as it relates to the severance pay. I do not recall anything being filed by them as yet.”

Meanwhile doctors are said to be back on the job after union officials met with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday.

After the meeting, head of the Bahamas Doctors Union Dr Melisandre Bassett told a local media outlet that Dr Minnis promised more communication with healthcare workers.

She also said about 80 doctors are back to work after the meeting, which was also attended by union officials, PHA representatives and Minister of Health Renward Wells.

Editorial View - Page 6

DIRECTOR of Labour John Pinder

Suspect cases are a severe challenge, say health chiefs after PMH staff walk off job

HOSPITAL staff gather outside Princess Margaret Hospital on Tuesday from page one notify the emergency medical dispatcher of COVID-19 suspicions.

In addition PHA advised, “If you are coming to the Emergency Department by private vehicle, please call the Emergency Department at 326-7014 before you arrive to allow the staff to prepare.”

This comes after dozens of doctors, nurses and staff at PMH’s A&E Department walked off the job on Tuesday, calling for more safety measures to be implemented to better protect workers against COVID-19 exposure.

Other workers had called in sick, according to union officials.

In a statement released yesterday, PHA confirmed the moves but did not say how many workers had called in sick or walked off the job on Tuesday.

However, saying the situation at PMH had reached “a boiling point”, head of the Bahamas Doctors Union Dr Melisandre Bassett told reporters on Tuesday some workers have been left compromised due to overcrowding at the A&E Department.

“We have teams out, we have doctors who are out,” she said. “I don’t have a specific number because it’s changing every day. The situation is at a boiling point, a tipping point, it has erupted actually. More needs to be done to correct it. “…We have had a whole team of three or four persons out because of one patient exposure.”

Other concerns highlighted by the union president included the need for more personal protective equipment and isolation rooms for suspected COVID-19 patients.

“As it stands, all of our isolation rooms are

occupied and as you know, with the COVID-19 case, they should be in negative pressure rooms even under investigation until that can be ruled out,” she said.

She continued: “Now with the hurricane, we would’ve lost four standalone rooms in the legacy unit. They have yet to be opened. We need those opened up and we need additional rooms and additional spaces to account for the number of patients that we are seeing on a daily basis.”

Responding to union’s concerns, PHA said while the hospital has continued to adhere to all protocols developed by A&E’s clinical management teams in managing COVID-19 patients, the facility has remained challenged due to overcrowding by suspected infected patients.

“The hospital remains severely challenged however due to the increasing number of suspected cases

that present to A&E, which was not built for the type of care required for these patients,” officials continued in a statement.

“To avoid the overwhelming in an already overflowing system, we are requiring the public to only utilise the emergency department for life-threatening conditions. “…The Princess Margaret Hospital remains committed to ensuring the safety of our staff and patients during this COVID-19 crisis. Flexibility will be required to meet the evolving public health challenges presented by the pandemic in our health institutions and communities. The public is reminded to follow the Ministry of Health’s guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

Attempts to reach Health Minister Renward Wells on the issue were unsuccessful up to press time.

ANOTHER 36 POSITIVE CASES ARE REPORTED from page one Bahama has 336 cases. The overall number of cases is 751.

The number of hospitalised cases declined by four for a total of 18. There are now 644 active COVID-19

DR Delon Brennen

cases in the country. The number of recovered cases has remained static at 91. That figure has not increased since July 13.

Healthy officials have yet to confirm how many health professionals are in isolation because of COVID-19.

At the peak of the first wave of COVID-19 more than 200 health professionals were in quarantine.

Asked about the current figure, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen said the figure is a “moving target” and that officials keep adding and subtracting from the total.

The country began a national lockdown to curb cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday night.

PAGE 4, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

GOVT RELEASES DETAILS OF NEW EMERGENCY ORDER THE government released the emergency order for the current two-week lockdown on Tuesday night.

The order, and the subsequent 24-hour curfew it imposes, is set to expire at 5am August 19.

The order states that on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays grocery stores, water depots, pharmacies offering curbside services, gas stations offering external services, bakeries and hardware stores offering curbside and delivery services, dental practices offering emergency care and private medical facilities offering emergency medical care, immunisation, neonatal and prenatal care, dialysis, chemotherapy and other cancer treatments and

telemedicine are allowed to open from 7am to 5pm.

The National Insurance Board will be allowed to operate on those days from 9am to 5pm to distribute cheques at the national stadium.

Commercial banks are allowed to open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9am and 1pm to the general public and on weekdays from 8am to 3pm for operation services, excluding client facing services.

All civil servants, unless designated as an essential worker by their respective ministry, must work remotely from home.

Ports of entry, container ports, freight forwarders, and private terminals will be allowed to conduct basic maintenance services, domestic trade, imports and

exports of containerized freight, and the import, treatment, bunkering and export of oil products.

According to the order, fishing for crawfish, lobster season preparation, and harvesting of crabs will be allowed.

Additionally, healthcare workers can conduct home visits to provide medical or therapeutic care while farmers or caretakers are permitted to maintain crops and animals.

The servicing and replenishing of ATMs and night deposits will also be permitted, the order states.

Essential workers of a pool maintenance or landscaping service provider may operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7am-5pm. News vendors may

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis

operate Monday to Friday from 7am to 1pm, provided the vendor remains stationary.

The Emergency Powers Order calls for each household to have one designated shopper.

According to the order, attorneys will be permitted to operate when discharging instructions in existing criminal or urgent civil cases that “cannot be done by audio-visual means; acting in connection with the execution of wills subject in all cases to producing identification if requested to do so.”

The order states counsel and attorneys must work remotely from home.

The order states exercise is permitted from 6am-9am in a person’s yard or immediate neighbourhood.

Photos: Donavan McIntosh and Patrick Hanna/BIS

LIFE UNDER LOCKDOWN MK2

Pintard: We will be cautious after employee tests positive

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net AGRICULTURE Minister Michael Pintard said officials will err on the side of caution after a Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources employee tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

The Tribune understands the employee was sent home last week after developing symptoms and his result came back positive. Many staff members of

the ministry and Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation have since been told to quarantine.

“Every person related to that has been sent home,” Mr Pintard said yesterday. “Contact tracing will be done.

Most staff are already home as a result of a lockdown. We are erring on the side of caution. As many who need that time off, we will support that.

Not just (at the Gladstone Road building), but headquarters too. We’ll make sure to have a deep cleaning of the facilities.”

New COVID-19 lockdown rules took effect Tuesday night. Workers, not including essential workers, are mandated to work remotely from home until August 19.

“All persons employed within the public service, unless specifically designated as essential workers in order 3 or designated by the permanent secretary of any minister as essential workers, shall work remotely from home,” the order says.

Several businesses have

also had to close for deep cleaning after COVID19 exposure. This week, Family Guardian Insurance Company announced their Carmichael Office would be closed to the public until further notice after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.

The employee from the Carmichael District Office is presently on leave and not requiring hospitalization, shared the insurance company on their Facebook page.

The company explained:

“We will conduct a full, professional sanitisation of our premises.

“All employees who may have been exposed will work remotely while selfquarantining for 14 days.

An assessment of each employee will be conducted prior to their return to work.”

Recently three other local businesses have experienced staff members testing positive for the virus, including Dairy Queen, Nassau Tile and Bliss Wax Boutique.

MINISTER Michael Pintard

STUDENTS URGED TO LOOK AT PAIR OF BUSINESSMEN LAUNCH DISTANCE LEARNING COURSES WEBSITE TO TRACK PANDEMIC THE Ministry of Education has advised students planning to study abroad this year to instead consider distance learning, local tertiary schools or enrolment deferral until 2021 amid global uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Under ordinary circumstances, this is the time of the year when many families are excitedly preparing their children to start school,” the ministry noted in a statement. “This year is different, as the start of schools and tertiary institutions has been greatly impacted by this ‘second wave’.”

The statement noted that public schools will begin the 2020/2021 school year with a 100 percent virtual

platform while University of The Bahamas intends to do the same. “It is noted also that the US Embassy has announced that while the processing of visas for students seeking to return to the US has recommenced, there is no firm date for the processing of visas for new students seeking to enter the US. “In light of these challenges, and having regard to the Ministry of Health’s advice with respect to The Bahamas’ second ‘surge,’ along with the uncertainty regarding the international travel of Bahamians, the Ministry of Education advises students studying abroad to first contact their respective universities/ schools to determine that

institution’s proposed course of action for the upcoming school year, and to be guided accordingly.

“The ministry further advises students and their parents that where possible, serious consideration should be given to commencing or continuing their education online, or availing themselves of local tertiary opportunities, rather than seeking to travel overseas at this challenging time. This affords students the benefits of a protective hedge against the possible contraction of the coronavirus, as well as the huge savings that families will realise from not having to expend precious financial resources on housing and other living expenses.

TWO local businessmen launched a new website this week to allow Bahamians to easily track the COVID-19 pandemic through customisable graphs.

Seeing a need for comprehensive and easilyunderstood data on the virus, Ash Henderson and Ben Jamieson developed the website cv19BS.com to provide an interactive look at the virus throughout the country.

Mr Jamieson, founder of local web design company Thyme Online Ltd said in a press release: “As a web application developer for the past two decades, I knew I had the ability to build a website to provide up to the minute and historic information on a daily

basis, I just didn’t have the data. Luckily Ash, a long-time friend and colleague, had been compiling meticulous spreadsheets since the start of the pandemic. I knew we were on to something.”

The two built the website which they say will be updated daily, in their own time, and Thyme Online has donated the hosting space to keep it online.

Initially fairly simple, the website includes interactive charts, allowing visitors to visualise the COVID19 spread throughout the islands in myriad ways, the creators said.

Mr Henderson, a Rotary member and marketing insider, said of the project, “As a citizen and as

a parent, I am constantly worried about the spread of this virus and how it affects our nation. I’d been compiling the raw data since day one, but had no real way to make it useful to others. “When Ben and I came up with the idea for the website, it made total sense - he had the web development expertise, and I had the analytical skills to make it work. Now we are on a par with other nations who have fully interactive COVID-19 dashboards to give their citizenry a way to visualize the threat of this pandemic.”

The website will be updated daily as soon as information is released by the Ministry of Health, the creators said.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 5

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

COVID-19 THERAPY TRIALS ‘VERY PROMISING’

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE early reports of a therapy for COVID-19 patients in a clinical trial is “very promising” as a possible therapeutic option for the virus, according Director of the National HIV/ AIDS & Infectious Diseases Programme at the Ministry of Health Reuters recently reported two companies revealed RLF-100 (or aviptadil) helped in rapid recovery of respiratory failure in critically ill patients with COVID-19 after three days of treatment with the therapy.

Dr Forbes explained more about some of RLF100’s touted benefits.

“So the company that is the producer of the drug came out early and announced that they were seeing some benefits that it could help in respiratory failure reduction in patients who are clinically ill with COVID-19 and that it blocked replication of SARS-CoV-2 in human lungs and some white cells called monocytes,” she said, “and that it could improve blood oxygen. That’s very promising as a possible therapeutic option for COVID-19.”

Although promising, Dr Forbes said the drug is still in an ongoing clinical trial, which she thinks is in the early phase. She said more data is needed.

She added: “So there is more work being done and still in the research phase.

So what we do know is that drugs that are in the research phase they’re not available for market.

“They’re not something you can go to a pharmacy. . .that most people can get in hospital. They’re only available in clinical trial settings, so because of these findings and how promising it is as you know we’re really looking for something that

will be helpful to improve people who are very very critically sick with COVID19 and there are very few options to date.”

According to Reuters, “While a Phase 2/3 clinical trial with 70 patients is ongoing, RLF-100 is being administered on an emergency basis to some patients who are too ill to be admitted to the trial.”

Hydroxychloroquine is another drug that has been discussed as a possible COVID-19 therapy, but it is controversial. US President Donald Trump is one vocal supporter of the antimalaria drug as a treatment for the virus. However

DR Nikkiah Forbes the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently cautioned against use of the drug for

COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems.

Yesterday Dr Forbes said the drug is being “politicized” and “politics and pandemics is always a very dangerous mix”.

“There’ve been a number of trials regarding hydroxychloroquine and the overwhelming position of the scientific community at this time is that there is not enough good quality evidence of a gold standard, that’s a randomized clinical controlled trial,...that shows that this drug gives a benefit of the treatment of COVID-19,” she said.

ALL AREAS HAVE HAD POWER RESTORED, SAYS BPL

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRE lockdown grocery shopping in Grand Bahama last month.

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

Residents divided over GB lockdown

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

AS more COVID-19 cases are recorded daily in Grand Bahama, residents expressed mixed feelings about whether the twoweek lockdown should be extended here on the island.

Either way, it is strongly felt that the lockdown has not been effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus here in the second city, where the number of cases has now soared to 336 as of yesterday.

A government worker - who wanted to remain anonymous – believes that a “complete lockdown” is needed to slow the spread of the virus.

“I think we should have a complete lockdown - meaning

everything closed: food stores, gas stations, places of employment, especially government offices,” said the concerned resident.

The public servant has concerns regarding the proper sanitising at the government offices. “They don’t have anyone opening the front doors, you have to touch them; they do not have a thermometre check at the front, not until you go into a separate office,” the resident said.

“I just don’t think it is properly sanitised,” complained the resident, who claims that counters are not being wiped down after every customer.

As a result, the resident is suggesting a complete lockdown. The resident believes that those persons who are unable to purchase sufficient food or in

desperate need should have food delivered to them by representatives of the Feed Grand Bahama network.

Another resident stated that a lockdown extension would be useless in the absence of consistent testing. “We have issues on three fronts as do many similar nations.

First, instead of politicians, we never established a trusted name, face, or voice in medicine or science to dispense the knowledge to everyday people. Secondly, we never centralized information so everybody and anybody can get it at the same time, which leads to confusion,” claims the resident.

The resident noted that in the absence of consistent testing, the lockdown only slows the advance of COVID-19. “However, this is a whole new thing to every

Western nation and we don’t yet know fully how to proceed,” the resident said.

Another resident did not think the lockdown should be extended. “The lockdown initially did what it was intended to do, but due to the opening of the border now there is an increase in cases,” explained the resident.

“At some point, we have to transition back in some form of normalcy, and they have to find other ways to combat the increasing problem,” the resident stated.

The resident said that Bahamians have to begin adjusting their day to day living, and implement safety precautions that will become a part of our new way of living.

The prime minister placed GB under a twoweek lockdown on July 23.

Residents are only allowed to go to food stores, the pharmacy, and gas stations. Hardware stores were allowed to open last Monday to allow residents to prepare for Hurricane Isaias.

Despite nearing the end of the two-week lockdown, Grand Bahama continues to record COVID-19 infections. For days, the island surpassed New Providence in overall case counts until the capital overtook it yesterday. New Providence now has 324 to cases, with Grand Bahama a close second at 336 cases.

Between March and May, the island had recorded only eight positive cases and had a lull in infections for two months until July 1, when travel restrictions were lifted, and many residents travelled to Florida.

if I could get rid of the feeling, but it did not help. I looked at all the COVID19 symptoms, but I didn’t have all the symptoms,” he recalled.

The next day, he did not feel well and called his employer.

“I let them know that I was not feeling up to it,” he said.

As the days went by, the resident started experiencing other symptoms: losing his sense of taste and smell, dizziness, and feeling “feverish.”

“You could imagine trying to eat and you can’t even taste. So, it was pretty rough,” he said.

After getting his results back on July 30, he said that his symptoms had gone away. His taste and smell had returned, and the dizziness and fever were gone

too. The resident was never given any medication and was advised by hospital officials to isolate and quarantine. He also indicated that officials had called to check on him, but rarely.

Compared to others who have tested positive for the disease, he said that his symptoms were not as severe. He did not have a sore throat, pain in the chest, or difficulty breathing, or body aches.

The resident—who is in his mid-50s and fairly healthy—said the only discomfort was in his head/ sinus area.

“This morning I was able to walk three miles around my yard. I feel confident, and would be surprised if I still have it,” he said. “I was able to come through this because of the blessings of

God.” He believes when he is retested on Friday, August 7, the results will be negative.

The resident is concerned about the results on the Ministry of Health’s dashboard, regarding the number of recovered cases, which remains at 91.

“If you look at the daily COVID dashboard, the recovered cases appear to lag in terms of those persons that have recovered.

Before the second wave. . .it was 91 recovered and it has never moved from that number. So, they need to look into that. When you look at other countries they highlight the recovered cases. We are at some 600 (active cases) now, and only 91 has recovered?”

The dashboard’s recovered cases tab has remained

at 91 since July 13. The country has 644 active cases and 751 cases overall, according to official data.

The resident is urging people to be very careful, to wear masks, wash their hands, and practice social distancing. He said people should not let their guard down.

“I was really careful…

I wore my masks and was preaching to others to wear their masks. I attended a dinner somewhere with a couple of persons and I suspect that’s when it could have happened,” he said.

In addition to the required protocols, the resident encouraged residents to eat healthy, exercise, and build up their immune system.

“Trust in God, that is what I think helped me,” he added.

IF YOU CATCH THE VIRUS - DON’T PANIC from page one

The resident is scheduled for retesting on Friday. All of his symptoms have gone away and he is confident that he has fully recovered from the novel coronavirus, which has resulted in some 14 deaths in the Bahamas to date.

The resident was tested on July 23 and got the results back on July 30. A week before being tested, he had some discomfort in his nostrils/sinus but did not think anything of it.

“On July 12, I had awakened with a funny feeling in my nostrils. I am plagued with sinus, so I assumed it was a sinus issue and did a saline flush. But, not like before with the flush, I still had the same feeling. I did several other things to see

BAHAMAS Power and Light reported that all areas had supply restored as of 2pm yesterday.

However, company representatives are doing verifications with customers to ensure that those supplies that were interrupted

by Hurricane Isaias have been restored.

According to BPL’s statement, as of 4pm yesterday, there were some 150 verifications remaining to be done. It was indicated that the company was able to Beta test an application, created by their technical planning teams, during the recovery effort.

The release said: “The app, which we dubbed ‘TELL BPL’ allowed BPL customers to ‘pin’ their locations on the New Providence map. This allowed BPL to more swiftly address the small pockets and individual customers who remained off at the time.

“Once the recovery effort is officially ended, the app will be taken down, and will be subject to tweaking and upgrading in order to be deployed during a similar event in the future.”

It was reported previously by The Tribune that in some cases, power was shut off for more than 30 hours despite Hurricane Isaias’ winds being barely at tropical storm levels.

BPL officials said the power shut down and delayed restoration time was to ensure safety.

Yesterday BPL confirmed that parts arrived on Abaco to allow them to complete the commissioning of the remaining Aggreko rental units sent to the island to relieve loadshedding in the Central Marsh Harbour area.

BPL added that an outage was planned for Crockett Dr from 5pm6pm yesterday to tie in a newly built overhead line on Abaco.

While BPL was claiming success on its post-hurricane restoration, last night the power supply in High Vista and Mount Verson areas of Eastern New Providence went off shortly after 8pm for the second night running, adding to families’ lockdown misery.

PAGE 6, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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

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Publisher/Editor 1903-1914 Kt., O.B.E., K.M., K.C.S.G., (Hon.) LL.D., D.Litt .

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C.M.G., M.S., B.A., LL.B. Publisher/Editor 1972-

Published daily Monday to Friday

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With the national lockdown underway, the real economic risks are being made clear THE Bahamas Federation of Retailers has warned that this could be “the nail in the coffin” that shuts the doors of a number of companies. With that would go jobs, with more than 22,000 working in the sector.

We hope that the government realises the magnitude of the economic peril many of these companies are facing. The words of Labour Director John Pinder suggest that may not be the case.

He says he doesn’t think unemployment will rise during the lockdown, saying “we don’t expect any extra layoffs just because of the lockdown”.

With all due respect to Mr Pinder, he might not realise how close to the brink some businesses are.

The problem is that Mr Pinder is looking at programmes in place such as the NIB unemployment scheme to give employers a break, but not considering that employers need to have some money still coming in to cover costs, or the doors just might not open again at all.

It has already been reported that around one in four Bahamians are receiving food assistance – and that number will only rise if businesses can’t keep workers on.

Egan Kemp, president of the company that owns the Shoe Depot warned that The Bahamas is “committing economic suicide” and said he was “trying to keep my people employed and myself employed. But if this continues I won’t be around and many others won’t”.

Andrew Wilson, of QBC and Fashion on Broadway, wished for “an alternative to a complete shutdown” that would allow curbside or delivery services.

He was more confident, saying he had “absolutely no doubt we will ride it out” but wondering if perhaps a balance could have been found.

The Tribune is continuing to produce newspapers every day, but many companies are in the position of not being able

to do anything to serve customers, even if they have no contact with the public.

Struggling to make ends meet is a real challenge for many businesses right now. Just as it is for many Bahamians.

It’s not rocket science - operating businesses means income, income pays bills, income pays wages.

Blanket rulings that affect everyone regardless of the reality of their business operations might not be the best way forward – and shrugging off the concerns of businesses won’t help either.

Early in the crisis, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis called on businesses to “have a heart” and keep staff on. Well, businesses have done that. Time for the government to have a heart and really listen to the concerns and suggestions of the business community.

Some of those suggestions might not be appropriate – we do have to stop this virus, as another 30 cases in New Providence yesterday made clear – but some might.

More than that, once the lockdown is over, and hopefully the number of cases has been squashed to a trickle, what next?

It’s time to lay out a clear plan of how we live with the risk of the virus, and pre-plan our actions to respond to any spikes in cases. It’s also time for a more thorough dialogue with the public. The Prime Minister continues to be shy of questions, and his new Health Minister is no better. But the public deserves to know what comes next. What will be the procedure to catch cases at the ports of entry? What will be the quarantine procedure for people coming into the country?

And right now, what can the government do to keep businesses going – so that businesses can keep workers on?

We do not pretend that there are easy answers – but it is important to give the public those answers.

Follow simple advice EDITOR, The Tribune IT IS interesting to reflect on the past and consider how far we have come in establishing our rights and our privileges. However, in our slow movement forward, we have left something behind. We have forgotten to emphasise our corresponding duties – the duty we owe our fellowmen when it comes to respecting their privileges.

Yes, we are free to do as we wish, but our freedom ends when it trespasses on the rights and freedoms of our neighbour.

This fatal COVID-19 pandemic has so highlighted this point that it is shocking to discover how many persons fail to understand these principles as they go along their merry way spreading this killer AFTER power was shut off for more than 30 hours in some areas at the weekend, despite winds from Hurricane Isaias barely at tropical storm levels, readers posted their reactions on tribune242.com.

ISpeakFacts said: “Because BPL aka BEC is a complete JOKE! Abaco is also still without

disease by failing to follow simple advice that, if followed, might slow, if not eliminate COVID’s continued spread.

They do it because they feel that it is their right — no one can make them wear a face mask in public should they decide that they don’t want to. They do not understand that they have abused their privilege, which ends when it threatens another person’s rights – in this case the right to life.

One might wonder what can anyone expect when the President of what has always been considered the world’s most influential nation — the United States – has failed to understand that a leader leads by example. Although the world’s medics have recommended that without a vaccine, the only recommendation that

power and we’re coming up on Dorian’s one year anniversary!”

That prompted this from Moncurcool; “I don’t know if you live in Abaco, but all

they can now give is never to go without a mask, and to keep one’s distance from another person — because it could mean death to that person who has the same God-given right to his own life.

However, President Donald Trump, who has dismally failed as a leader has about 100 more days in Washington’s Oval office.

It is my daily prayer that on that day the American people will have the good sense to usher him out.

They deserve better. If he were the leader that that great country deserved, we would not now be discussing this subject.

Praying for a better future.

HOPEFUL Nassau, July 27, 2029. the people who worked on the ground there said with the destruction to the power grid, there was no way for that to be restored in less than one year. If people had to live with what we in Freeport have had to deal with in relationship to power after a storm, they would learn not to complain about being off for 12 hours.”

Why does Nassau put so much faith in tourism?

EDITOR, The Tribune ATLANTIS Resort on Paradise Island is considering reopening around the Thanksgiving holiday in late November, according to a July 24 Tribune article. This is yet another devastating development for Nassau, as that mega resort, the largest private sector employer in The Bahamas, employs upwards of 8,000 Bahamians. Another mega resort, Baha Mar, also has plans on restructuring, announcing that it will reopen in October. The Tribune reported that the resort was aiming on making redundant between 15 - 20 percent of its approximately 5,500 employees, which would be about 1,000 job cuts.

The British Colonial Hilton laid off 30 of its staff members in June, also due to the crippling impact on tourism caused by COVID-19.

On July 21 Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced to the nation that Grand Bahama would be subjected to a two-week lockdown in order to curb the novel coronavirus.

Industrial companies such as Buckeye Bahamas, Polymers International, PharmaChem Technologies, Bahama Rock, Bradford Bahamas, Bahamas Industrial Technologies, Grand Bahama

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net Shipyard Limited, Grand Bahama Power Company, Grand Bahama Utility Company, Freeport Container Port, to name a few, are exempted from the state sanctioned quarantine. Many of the Bahamians on these jobs, especially those in management, make more money than probably over 75 percent of the lawyers and doctors in Nassau. With the virtual nonexistence of stopover tourism on Grand Bahama since the closure of the Royal Oasis Resort and Casino in 2004, Freeport’s industrial sector has cushioned the blow of any economic fallout Grand Bahama otherwise would have experienced had it not been for the foregoing multimillion-dollar industrial entities. I am not downplaying the decades old recession in Grand Bahama, mind you. Grand Bahamians are accustomed to empty hotels; Nassauvians aren’t. I believe that Grand Bahama is in a much better position to weather the COVID-19 recession than Nassau, which heavily relies on tourism. Accounting for nearly 50 percent of the Bahamian gross

domestic product, tourism’s importance to the economy cannot be overstated.

Unlike Grand Bahama, Nassau has no industrial sector to fall back on.

COVID-19 has utterly exposed Nassau’s economic vulnerability, which has placed thousands of hotel workers, taxi cab drivers, tour bus operators, jet ski operators, hair braiders, restaurant and straw vendors in dire straits economically.

Rather than diversify Nassau’s economy, successive governments simply built on the foundation Sir Stafford Sands laid in tourism. Apparently, many of our leaders lacked innovation. Making matters worse is the fact that a large portion of the tourism sector is owned by wealthy foreigners.

Wallace Groves, the founder of Freeport, envisaged a city with a strong industrial sector coupled with a vibrant tourism industry. Unlike successive governments which had dumped all of Nassau’s eggs into one basket, which is tourism, Groves had the foresight to diversify Freeport’s economy. He was a man ahead of his time.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama.

July 27, 2020.

Future ripe with opportunity EDITOR, The Tribune THE US council on foreign Relations published and article entitled: “It Is Time to Abandon Dollar Hegemony”, on July 28, 2020.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. put a spotlight on the US economic deterioration by issuing a bold warning on 28 July, 2020 that the dollar is in danger of losing its status as the world’s reserve currency.

Ratings agency Fitch on Friday downgraded the outlook for the United States to negative from stable, warning of high debt and deficits made worse by the coronavirus downturn. Gross domestic

product from April to June plunged 32.9% on an annualized basis, according to the US Commerce Department. Neither the Great Depression nor the Great Recession nor any other slump over the past two centuries have ever caused such a drastic decline in the US economy.

The Bahamas’ number one trading partner is the US and most of our tourists, most of our remittance come from the US and our dollar is pegged to the US dollar. The US debt is US $ 26.6 trillion and 136.5 % of GDP. Currently, the US is borrowing 62 cents out of every dollar its spend. This situation is

getting worse because US legislators are planning, at least, another trillion dollar stimulus which will be borrowed. The Bahamas has its own internal problems such as crime, corruption and poverty, but we must pay attention because a major geopolitical shift is occurring. I estimate that by the end of 2025, a new global monetary system will occur. The Bahamas and the Caribbean needs a contingency plan. The future is fraught with danger, but ripe with opportunity.

BRIAN E PLUMMER Nassau, August 4, 2020.

THE TRIBUNE THE Bahamas Protected Areas Fund says the country’s long history of protecting its natural resources is being threatened by illegal poaching, climate change, external shocks and unfair rules governing the way overseas development assistance (ODA) and other international funding initiatives are allocated.

According to a recent paper published by BPAF, The Bahamas continues to be excluded from these funding opportunities because of its gross national income per capita, a misleading metric that suggests the country is wealthier than it actually is and therefore not in need of foreign aid.

Typically, ODA is considered on the basis of gross national income per capita, stated in current prices, with no adjustment for inflation, BPAF noted in a press release. Consequently, the average income in The Bahamas in 2018 was assessed at $30,330 per person.

However, as “The Bahamas—A Legacy in Environmental Stewardship” points out, this statistic does not consider

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 7

Country’s natural resources are threatened, says pressure group the disparity between the higher incomes of wealthy, second-home owners or professional expatriate workers, and the much lower incomes of ordinary Bahamian workers, BPAF noted.

“Nor does it evaluate how the rising cost of living is impacting Bahamian businesses and residents, even though CEO magazine recently rated the Bahamas as the sixth most expensive place to live in the world,” the group said.

“The BPAF contends that this high cost of living has very real consequences for Bahamian environmental NGOs (non-governmental organisations). Their mission is forced to take a backseat behind health, education and law enforcement as it relates to subventions from the government or contributions from private donors.

“This is of particular concern for the BPAF

since the fund was enacted in law in 2014 to ‘ensure sustainable financing in perpetuity’ for scientific and policy research, education, conservation and management of protected areas in the Bahamas, including national parks.”

BPAF is also mandated to support areas established for biodiversity conservation generally, the protection of carbon sinks, water resources, wetlands and blue holes, degraded or threatened ecosystems as well as areas established for adapting to and

SON CLAIMS HE HAD FIREARM SO HE COULD PROTECT HIS MOTHER

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN who claimed he pleaded guilty to illegal firearm and ammunition possession to “protect his mother,” is expected to appear before the chief magistrate for sentencing today.

Craig Delevaux, 30, appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt after he was accused of being in possession of an unlicensed silver and black .380 pistol and five unfired rounds of .380 ammunition on August 3.

He was charged alongside Shane Davis Sr, 55; Shane Davis Jr, 24; Ashley Robinson, 27; and his mother Miriam Thompson, 51, who were charged with the same offences.

The court was told officers, acting on information, went to a residence on Alexander Boulevard around 11.20am on the day in question. Upon arrival, they identified themselves and informed the residents of the home they would be conducting a search in reference to dangerous drugs and

firearms. The prosecution said during the officers’ investigation, they found the illegal firearm and ammunition in a dresser drawer of the northwestern bedroom. Deleveaux was subsequently arrested and taken to a police station, where he denied having knowledge, custody or control of the illegal weapon in an interview with police. Still, the defendant acknowledged he was present when the police searched the residence and found the weapon and ammunition.

During the hearing yesterday, all of the defendants besides Deleveaux denied the allegations brought against them.

Deleveaux on the other hand, pleaded guilty to both charges and agreed to the facts read by the prosecutor. Still, when asked why he chose to do so, he told the magistrate his “mother was all he had” and he didn’t want her to have to “go through” the court proceedings.

In response, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt said she could not accept his guilty plea, because she was not satisfied that his plea was

“unequivocal” based on the explanation he provided.

She added that while she respected Deleveaux for being “noble” in trying to protect his mother, the criminal law did not operate that way.

As a result, she recorded two not guilty pleas for Delevaux. She then adjourned the hearing to give the prosecution additional time to review the facts of the case.

Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt is set to render a verdict on the matter today.

Yesterday, another man appeared before the chief magistrate for a similar offence.

Nathan Rolle, 22, was charged with being in possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition after the prosecution said a black and brown .38 revolver along with five .38 ammunition were seized from him on August 4.

During his arraignment, Rolle denied the charges and the matter was adjourned to December 1 for trial.

Bail was denied and the defendant was taken into custody until that time. He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

MAN WHO IS ACCUSED OF HOME THEFT REMANDED TO PRISON

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was yesterday remanded to prison over allegations he broke into a residence to steal a video game console and its accessories.

Demetrius Miller appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt charged with one count each of housebreaking, stealing and receiving.

The prosecution alleged the defendant broke into a residence in Moss Town, Exuma sometime between 2.30pm and 7.30pm on July 24 to steal an Xbox, two controllers, Beats headphones, and a pair of Airpods which all had a combined value of $1,000.

Miller was also accused of dishonestly receiving the stolen items three days later on July 27.

During his hearing, Miller denied all the charges and

the matter was adjourned to December 8 for trial.

He was denied bail and remanded to prison in the interim. The defendant, who is represented by attorney Jomo Campbell, has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

Yesterday, another man appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes for similar offenses.

Omar Canter, 30, was accused of stealing seven bags of Portland Cemex cement from Michael Russell sometime between August 2 and 3. He was also charged with dishonestly receiving the stolen packages which had a combined value of $95.34 within that same timeframe. He denied both charges and the matter was adjourned to November 4 for trial.

During his hearing, Canter was also accused of violating the conditions of the bail he received from the Supreme Court after

he was charged with housebreaking. The prosecution alleged the defendant failed to sign in at the Carmichael Road Police Station on Tuesdays and Thursdays for over four months.

Miller pleaded guilty, but said when he went to the station to sign in during the month of March, he had an outdated passport and a police officer told him to “make it his last day signing in” with his current legal documents.

As a result, Magistrate Forbes said he would not accept the defendant’s guilty plea and adjourned the matter to be heard along with Miller’s other two matters in the November 4 trial.

Due to the nature of the charges, the defendant was denied bail and remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

DENIED BAIL OVER ASSAULT CHARGE

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 35-YEAR-OLD man who allegedly assaulted another man earlier this week was yesterday denied bail ahead of his trial.

Denis Rolle was accused of assaulting Brendan Comarcho on August 3.

The prosecution said the incident occurred around 9pm on Davis Street in the Fox Hill area.

During his hearing before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes yesterday, Rolle denied the allegation and the matter was adjourned to October 1 for trial.

After Rolle pleaded not

guilty, Magistrate Forbes said he could not grant him bail due to previous convictions he had received on housebreaking and armed robbery charges.

Rolle was subsequently remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Service until trial.

He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

mitigating against climate change. The financial cost of managing protected areas is significant globally, BPAF said.

“The cost in The Bahamas in 2018 for simply maintaining status quo management of the Bahamas National Protected Areas System (BPNAS) was estimated at $18.78m annually.

However, the annual cost to achieve management effectiveness, which includes strong management plans and operational capacity (surveillance, enforcement, monitoring and evaluation,

outreach and stakeholder support), was projected at $70.93m.

“This gap underscores the significant underfunding of protected area managers and the protected areas system. In fact, the projected cost to effectively manage the protected areas system is $73.01 million in 2020, a figure that is expected to more than double to $157.98m by 2027 assuming the country meets the goal of 20 percent by 2020.

“Funding identified for managing protected areas were estimated to be $10.58 million in 2018, another $10.75m in 2020, and a further $15.38m in 2027. This was before the devastation of Hurricane Dorian and economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic forced major budget cuts that will negatively impact funding of the BPAF and its environmental partners,” BPAF’s press release noted.

According to Karen Panton, the BPAF’s executive director: “COVID-19 only strengthens the need for funding, especially as it relates to coastal resilience and nature-based funding for alternate livelihoods and food security.”

Ms Panton explained that as government funds are increasingly required to meet humanitarian needs associated with the pandemic, less funding will be available for natural resource management, which will mean increased exposure to the impact of storms.

“And as the pandemic persists,” Ms Panton said, “we are seeing the need to continue looking at more nature-based options for livelihoods, including local, community-based tourism, backyard farming and apiculture so that persons can support themselves and their families.”

PAGE 8, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

I

T’S pretty clear the dreadful COVID-19 virus is helping Joe Biden in at least two critically important ways as he prepares to battle Donald Trump in November.

Most importantly, even many Trump fans have admitted the president has not handled the coronavirus pandemic very well. Significant majorities of likely voters have for months failed to endorse the president’s response to the pandemic. The many reasons for this widespread loss of confidence are well documented by now, but wishing away a huge public health crisis will not make it go away. Trump may only now, 150,000 American deaths later, be realising that.

The other way the virus is helping Biden is that it is keeping him out of sight and almost entirely out of unscripted earshot of reporters’ tape or video recorders. The former vice president has been known for decades as a genial, hard-working, loyal politician who can be and has been undone by verbal gaffes and embarrassing misstatements.

Not so much, this time around. He emerges every couple of days with a new policy pronouncement or ventures to Wilmington, Delaware or nearby Philadelphia to deliver a promise-filled address, but that’s pretty much the extent of his public exposure.

Not only does this indemnify Biden against his own mistakes. It gives Trump scant ammunition with which to attack him. This is important, because attacking opponents or people he dislikes may be Trump’s greatest strength. He is really good at it.

For several weeks earlier this spring, liberal pundits were wringing their hands in concern that Biden had effectively disappeared altogether from the news cycle. They are singing a different tune now.

DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden

Biden won’t come out to fight leaving everyone guessing who’s going to be standing beside him STATESIDE

with Charlie Harper

That’s because with the Democratic convention now only 11 days

away, Biden still hasn’t announced who his running mate will be in November.

While critics moan Biden’s delay in making his selection encourages disputes among the many women under consideration and their many more supporters, it says here that Biden’s dithering is a master stroke.

Speculation about whom he will choose is keeping Biden in the news, and not for some goof. He looks deliberative in a good way, subliminally acknowledging that at 78, he is a decent bet to be a one-term chief executive whose deputy would have the inside track to succeed him.

There is a growing feeling Biden is searching for a vice president who will act and serve as he did for Barack Obama. That means, among other things, leaving the limelight to the president. Obama and Biden probably surprised themselves with the warm friendship that obviously developed between them after their election. Biden is likely seeking the potential for similar chemistry with his running mate.

Who will Biden pick?

Who knows? That’s part of the fun. So is a bit of speculation. Here are some of the leading candidates, according to “inside sources” spilling their sacred secrets to the press and TV: Kamala Harris: A former prosecutor and California Attorney General, Harris is regarded by many as the front-runner.

Her father is a Jamaicanborn economics professor, her mother a breast cancer researcher and civil rights activist who immigrated to the US from India. Harris is obviously very bright and ambitious. She attacked Biden in an early candidates’ debate, excoriating him for some school busing positions that make him vulnerable on race issues.

No grudges, they both say now. Some think Harris would be preparing to run for president from the moment she was named to Biden’s ticket, and might let her ambitions get in the way of best serving as Biden’s deputy.

Susan Rice: She’s African-American, but she has neither ever run for office nor earned any real credibility as someone who understands or can relate to the issues of poor black Americans. Married to a white Canadian-born TV producer whom she met in college, Rice is the product of privileged background - Washington DC private schools and exclusive Stanford University.

Her parents were both distinguished in their careers.

Rice has amassed an impressive resume worthy of many white male candidates, including extended service as an assistant secretary of state, national security adviser and US ambassador to the United Nations. Some question whether black voters would give Biden much credit for choosing her.

Gretchen Whitmer: A hard-working, white former state legislator who is now governor of swingstate Michigan, she has sparred with Trump and is generally credited with doing a good job with managing both COVID-19 and the persistent infrastructure issues which seem to plague her state. She might be a very appealing candidate in a normal election year. This is an abnormal year.

Karen Bass: A ten-year congresswoman and former state legislator from California, she is the current chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She has represented two different West Los Angeles congressional districts and a Latino district east of LA in the state legislature. Earlier in her career in the California state assembly, she was elected as the second female speaker of that body. Leadership positions dot her resume.

Having trained as both a physician’s assistant and social worker, Bass projects a quiet competence that is reassuring. When Nancy Pelosi faced a challenge to her House leadership two years ago, Bass was the first choice of the dissidents to replace her. (Bass declined their offer, and supported Pelosi.) As the wouldbe deputy commander in chief, her experience and personality commend her candidacy.

Elizabeth Warren: A septuagenarian like Biden, this Massachusetts senator is best known as a fearless populist who walks the walk as a champion of those Americans who cannot buy or otherwise exert influence on their elected legislators. It is likely that as vice-president, Warren would form a strong, complementary relationship with Biden.

There is a broad suspicion that if Biden does not pick a black running mate, Warren will be the choice.

Stacey Abrams: Once a fast-rising leader in the Georgia state legislature, this prominent black woman with the big personality exudes both leadership and confidence.

She is credited with almost winning the governorship in potential swing-state Georgia two years ago, in a race she contested with the man whose position at the time of the election enabled him to set the rules for the contest. But she did not win.

Her selection as Vice President would be surprising.

Keisha Bottoms: Atlanta’s black mayor is credited with doing a significantly better job in her city with the virus than Governor Brian Kemp is doing in the state of Georgia. In fact, Kemp sued her for defying his ill-advised decision to reopen the state prematurely in April. Bottoms’ main offence was ordering everyone in Atlanta to wear masks when out in public.

Bottoms also kept Atlanta mostly calm after a near police revolt in the wake of the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, a black man, at the hands of a white Atlanta police officer.

Having fellow Georgian Abrams also active in the race probably doesn’t help Bottoms, and doubts linger about whether either one of them could deliver the state for Biden. Georgia’s November election ballot includes both incumbent, vulnerable-seeming Republican senators. There have been questions about why one of these Georgia women, especially Abrams, is not contesting at least one of those seats.

Val Demings: A long-time Orlando cop who married her patrol partner and rose to be chief of the city police force and now congresswoman from a critical district in central Florida, Demings looked strong and smart as one of the House managers of the Trump impeachment hearings. Like now ex-candidate senator Amy Klobuchar and Harris, Demings is dogged by questions about her tough stance on certain law and order issues that principally affect blacks.

Still, she might be the right woman in the right place at the right time with policing issues at the forefront of public policy debates. The strong showing by Jacksonville’s black mayor in the Florida gubernatorial race two years ago may encourage Biden to think Demings could help him win Florida. And if he won Florida, Biden would win the general election.

And if Biden wins in November as many now expect, his Vice President will both symbolise change and exert real power. It’s little wonder Biden is taking his time with this important choice.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 9

THE AFTERMATH of a massive explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut shows a shattered city covered in dust and debris. The blast sent a mushroom cloud into the sky, killed more than 100 people and injured thousands, with more bodies probably buried in the rubble. The explosion carved out a crater that filled with seawater, as if the sea had taken a bite out of the port and swallowed buildings. From high above the ground, a drone image showed a cluster of towering silos that were half destroyed. The tall, cylinder-shaped structures were blown apart, spilling grain into huge heaps.

Now the towers resemble an ancient ruin rising from a pile of sand.

by Scott Edwards, Research Associate, University of Bristol and Christian Bueger, Professor of International Relations, University of Copenhagen AT the time of writing at least 100 people have lost their lives and a further 4,000 have been wounded following an explosion in the Port of Beirut. While the actual cause remains uncertain, the tragedy calls to attention the tremendous consequences of a lack of port security.

The explosion, on August 4, at around 6pm local time, appears to have been fuelled by 2,750 tons of the highly reactive chemical ammonium nitrate.

The chemical had been the cargo on a ship, the the MV Rhosus, which entered the port at Beirut in 2013 due to a lack of seaworthiness and was prohibited from sailing. After the ship’s owner abandoned the vessel soon afterwards, the ammonium nitrate remained in a storage facility in Beirut’s port.

While the disaster itself was exceptional, the events leading up to it were not.

Hazardous material is shipped across the world’s oceans on a daily basis. It is often mishandled or illegally traded. Abandoned containers of hazardous goods are found regularly in ports.

While maritime security tends to focus on preventing high-profile events such as piracy, terrorism or cyber-attacks, all too often it is daily mishandling that makes disasters possible. Part of preventing disasters such as what has happened in Beirut will mean strengthening port management and addressing crimes such as smuggling and corruption.

Abandoned ships The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recorded 97 cases of abandoned ships and crews since 2017. Ships are abandoned by their owners if a vessel is no longer lucrative to maintain, or perhaps if the ship has been stopped by authorities and fined.

Ports all over the world could be sitting on disasters waiting to happen - just like Beirut AN ARMY helicopter drops water at the scene of Tuesday’s massive explosion

While the situation of the seafarers aboard these ships is often tragic, as they may receive little pay or even food for months, what happens to the load of the vessels is often unclear.

And the IMO number only reflects the cases of ships – we know little about how many containers stand abandoned in ports around the world.

A UN report indicates that this number may be large. Containers often lie abandoned within ports, sometimes even by design, fuelled by criminal activities such as waste smuggling and corruption. Despite some efforts to counter this, the issue remains

widespread and there are continued obstacles to tackling it.

Shipping companies often sail to Asia with empty containers, as much of the flow of trade is from Asia to Europe. As a result, they are willing to take low-value and high-volume bookings on the initial leg.

This has facilitated a burgeoning waste trade and with it a smuggling sector, where illegal forms of waste such as unrecyclable plastics are shipped from western countries to countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Thousands of these containers lie abandoned once they reach the port.

Much of the waste is less

dangerous than the ammonium nitrate that fuelled the Beirut explosion, but it can still have dreadful effects. Plastics, for example, can cause hazards if not properly disposed of. Much of it ends up in the ocean, fuelling the ocean plastic crisis.

In 2019, Sri Lankan authorities discovered more than 100 abandoned containers in the port of Colombo. They contained clinical waste, potentially including human remains, and were leaking fluids.

The risk that the containers had contaminated the ground and surface water in the two years they had lay in port unnoticed fuelled

public health concerns. Sri Lanka has been able to investigate this problem – but it is likely that, in many cases, abandonment goes undiscovered.

Prevention The abandonment of dangerous containers in ports is not a new problem. Since the 2000s there have been significant efforts to increase security levels in ports through surveillance, training and safety protocols. In light of the continuing abandonment problem, we know that these measures – and their implementation – are insufficient.

First, we have to start seeing the smuggling of waste and the abandoning of ships and containers as major offences. They should be seen as important parts of the blue crime and maritime security agenda.

Appropriate legislation is needed to criminalise them.

An international database for such crimes is required, as is transnational cooperation to address them.

Second, corruption in ports plays a key part in ensuring that abandonment goes unnoticed. It needs to be addressed with a concerted international effort.

Finally, increased efforts in building the capacity of ports to deal with hazardous waste, to detect smuggling and to deal with abandonment cases are needed. In particular, this will be necessary for ports which have limited resources and are common destinations for abandoned containers, such as ports in Asia and Africa.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Maritime Organization and the European Union already conduct port security capacity building work, in particular in Africa. More of this kind of work is needed.

Beirut has shown us the kind of impact a port disaster can have on a city and its inhabitants. Lessons must be learned to make sure a tragedy like this does not happen again.

theconversation.com

PAGE 10, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Unravelling the mysteries of Earth’s final frontier

By SUZANNE OCONNELL, Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University DESPITE all the deepsea expeditions and samples taken from the seabed over the past 100 years, humans still know very little about the ocean’s deepest reaches.

And there are good reasons to learn more.

Most tsunamis start with earthquakes under or near the ocean floor. The seafloor provides habitat for fish, corals and complex communities of microbes, crustaceans and other organisms. Its topography controls currents that distribute heat, helping to regulate Earth’s climate.

July 30 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marie Tharp, a geologist and oceanographer who created maps that changed the way people imagine two-thirds of the world.

Beginning in 1957, Tharp and her research partner, Bruce Heezen, began publishing the first comprehensive maps that showed the main features of the ocean bottom – mountains, valleys and trenches.

As a geoscientist, I believe Tharp should be as famous as Jane Goodall or Neil Armstrong. Here’s why.

Traversing the Atlantic Well into the 1950s, many scientists assumed the seabed was featureless.

Tharp showed that it contained rugged terrain, and that much of it was laid out in a systematic way.

Her images were critical to the development of plate tectonic theory – the idea that plates, or large sections of Earth’s crust, interact to generate the planet’s seismic and volcanic activity.

Earlier researchers – particularly Alfred Wegener – noticed how well the coastlines of Africa and South America fit together and proposed the continents had once been connected; Tharp identified mountains and a rift valley in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean where the two continents could have been ripped apart.

Thanks to Tharp’s handdrawn renditions of the ocean floor, I can imagine a walk across the Atlantic Ocean bottom from New York City to Lisbon. The journey would take me out along the continental shelf.

Then downward towards the Sohm Abyssal Plain.

I’d need to detour around underwater mountains, called seamounts. Then I’d start a slow climb up the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a submerged north-south mountain range.

After ascending to 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) below sea level to the ridge’s peak, I would descend several hundred feet, cross the ridge’s central rift valley and proceed up over the ridge’s eastern edge. Then back down to the ocean floor, until I began trekking up the European continental slope to Lisbon. The total walk would be about 3,800 miles (6,000 kilometers) – almost twice the length of the Appalachian Trail.

Mapping the unseen Born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Tharp studied English and music in college. But then in 1943 she enrolled in a University of Michigan master’s degree program designed to train women to be petroleum geologists during World War II. “Girls were needed to fill the jobs left open because the guys

MARIE Tharp in July 2001 were off fighting,” Tharp later recalled.

After working for an oil company in Oklahoma, Tharp sought a geology job at Columbia University in 1948. Women couldn’t go on research ships, but Tharp could draft, and was hired to assist male graduate students.

Tharp worked with Bruce Heezen, a grad student who gave her seafloor profiles to draft. These are long paper rolls that show the depth of the seafloor along a linear path, measured from a ship using sonar.

Starting with a large blank sheet of paper, Tharp marked lines of latitude and longitude. Then she’d carefully mark where the ship had traveled. Next she’d read the depth at each location off the sonar profile, mark it on the ship’s track and create her own condensed profile, showing the depth to the ocean floor versus the distance the ship had traveled.

One of her important innovations was creating sketches depicting what the seafloor would look like.

These views made it easier to visualise the ocean floor’s topography and create a physiographic map.

Tharp’s careful plotting of six east-to-west profiles across the North Atlantic revealed something no one had ever described before: a cleft in the centre of the ocean, miles wide and hundreds of feet deep. Tharp suggested that it was a rift valley – a type of long trough that was known to exist on land.

Heezen called this idea “girl talk” and told Tharp to recalculate and redraft.

When she did, the rift valley was still there.

Another research assistant was plotting locations of earthquake epicentres on a map of the same size and scale. Comparing the two maps, Heezen and Tharp realised that the earthquake epicentres fell inside the rift valley. This discovery was critical to the development of plate tectonic theory: It suggested that movement was occurring in the rift valley, and that the continents might actually be drifting apart.

This insight was revolutionary. When Heezen, as a newly-minted Ph.D., gave a talk at Princeton in 1957 and showed the rift valley and epicentres, geology department chair Harry Hess replied, “You have shaken the foundations of geology.”

Tectonic resistance In 1959 the Geological Society of America published “The Floors of the Oceans: I. The North Atlantic” by Heezen, Tharp and “Doc” Ewing, director of the Lamont Observatory, where they worked.

It contained Tharp’s ocean profiles, ideas and access

to Tharp’s physiographic maps.

Some scientists thought the work was brilliant, but most didn’t believe it.

French undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau was determined to prove Tharp wrong.

Sailing aboard his research vessel, the Calypso, he purposely crossed the mid-Atlantic Ridge and lowered an underwater movie camera.

To Cousteau’s surprise, the film showed that a rift valley existed.

“There’s truth to the old cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words and that seeing is believing,” Tharp observed in a 1999 retrospective essay.

What could have created the rift? Princeton’s Hess proposed some ideas in a 1962 paper. It postulated that hot magma rose from inside the Earth at the rift, expanded as it cooled and pushed two adjoining plates further apart. This idea was a key contribution to plate tectonic theory, but Hess failed to reference the critical work presented in “The Floors of the Oceans” – one of the few publications that included Tharp as a co-author.

Still surveying Tharp continued working with Heezen to bring the ocean floor to life. Their collaboration included an Indian Ocean map, published by National Geographic in 1967, and a 1977 World Ocean Floor map that is now held at the Library of Congress.

After Heezen died in 1977, Tharp continued her work until her death in 2006. In October 1978, Heezen (posthumously) and Tharp were awarded the Hubbard Medal, the National Geographic Society’s highest honour, joining the ranks of explorers and discoverers such as Ernest Shackleton, Louis and Mary Leakey and Jane Goodall.

Today ships use a method called swath mapping, which measures depth over a ribbon-like path rather than along a single line.

The ribbons can be stitched together to create an accurate seafloor map.

But because ships move slowly, it would take one ship 200 years to completely map the seafloor. An international effort to map the entire ocean floor in detail by 2030 is under way, using multiple ships, led by the Nippon Foundation and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans.

This information is critical to beginning to understand what the seafloor looks like on a neighbourhood scale. Marie Tharp was the first person to show the rich topography of the ocean floor and its different neighbourhoods.

theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 11

SURVIVORS MARK 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD’S 1ST ATOMIC ATTACK HIROSHIMA, Japan Associated Press

NEGLIGENCE PROBED IN DEADLY BEIRUT BLAST AMID PUBLIC ANGER BEIRUT Associated Press INVESTIGATORS probing the deadly blast that ripped across Beirut yesterdy focused on possible negligence in the storage of tons of a highly explosive fertilizer in a waterfront warehouse, while the government ordered the house arrest of several port officials.

International aid flights began to arrive as Lebanon’s leaders struggled to deal with the widespread damage and shocking aftermath of Tuesday’s blast, which the Health Ministry said killed 135 people and injured about 5,000 others.

Public anger mounted against the ruling elite that is being blamed for the chronic mismanagement and carelessness that led to the disaster. The Port of Beirut and customs office is notorious for

being one of the most corrupt and lucrative institutions in Lebanon where various factions and politicians, including Hezbollah, hold sway.

The investigation is focusing on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, an explosive chemical used in fertilizers, came to be stored at the facility for six years, and why nothing was done about it.

Losses from the blast are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud told Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath, adding that nearly 300,000 people are homeless.

“Beirut as we know it is gone and people won’t be able to rebuild their lives,” said Amy, a woman who swept glass from a small alley beside by a tall building that served as a showroom for a famous Lebanese designer and

was a neighborhood landmark.

“This is hell. How are they (people) going to survive. What are they going to do?” she said, blaming officials for lack of responsibility and “stupidity.”

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the injured. One that was damaged in the blast had to evacuate all its patients to a nearby field for treatment.

It was the worst single explosion to strike Lebanon, a country whose history is filled with destruction — from a 1975-1990 civil war, conflicts with Israel and periodic terrorist attacks.

Lebanon already was on the brink of collapse amid a severe economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Many have lost their jobs and seen their savings evaporate because of a currency crisis. Food security is a worry,

Activist beats Democratic 20-year veteran Associated Press CORI Bush, a onetime homeless woman who led protests following a white police officer’s fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old, yesterday ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay in Missouri’s Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.

Bush’s victory came in a rematch of 2018, when she failed to capitalise on a national Democratic wave that favoured political newcomers such as Bush’s friend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But this time around, Bush’s supporters said protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis and outrage over racial injustice finally pushed her over the edge.

An emotional Bush, speaking to supporters while wearing a mask, said few people expected her to win. “They counted us out,” she said. “They called me — I’m just the protester, I’m just the activist with no

WINNER: Cori Bush name, no title and no real money. That’s all they said that I was. But St. Louis showed up today.”

Bush’s campaign spokeswoman, Keenan Korth, said voters in the district were “galvanized.”

“They’re ready to turn the page on decades of failed leadership,” Korth said.

Bush, 44, also had backing from political action committee Justice Democrats and Fight Corporate Monopolies this election.

She campaigned for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his presidential bid.

Bush’s primary win essentially guarantees her a seat

in Congress representing the heavily Democratic St. Louis area. Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which encompasses Ferguson, has been represented

by Clay or his father for a half-century. Bill Clay served 32 years before retiring in 2000. William Lacy Clay, 64, was elected that year.

Clay didn’t face a serious challenger until Bush. This year, he ran on his decadeslong record in Congress.

“This election is a simple choice,” Clay said. “Cori Bush’s Empty Rhetoric, or my record of real results and real reforms for the people.”

Bush became ill while pregnant with her second child in 2001 and had to quit her job at a preschool.

When she and her thenhusband were evicted from a rental home, the couple, their newborn and 14-month-old son lived out of a Ford Explorer for several months.

Eventually, the couple divorced. Bush earned a nursing degree. She also became a pastor.

US VIRUS TESTING FALLS AS DEATHS MOUNT Associated Press US testing for the coronavirus is dropping even as infections remain high and the death toll rises by more than 1,000 a day, a worrisome trend that officials attribute largely to Americans getting discouraged over having to wait hours to get a test and days or weeks to learn the results.

The number of tests per day slid 3.6% over the past two weeks to 750,000,

with the count falling in 22 states. That includes places like Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Iowa where the percentage of positive tests is high and continuing to climb, an indicator that the virus is still spreading uncontrolled.

Amid the crisis, some health experts are calling for the introduction of a different type of test that would yield results in a matter of minutes and would be cheap and simple

enough for millions of Americans to test themselves — but would also be less accurate.

“There’s a sense of desperation that we need to do something else,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute.

Widespread testing is considered essential to managing the outbreak as the US approaches a mammoth 5 million confirmed infections.

since the country imports nearly all its vital goods and its main port is now devastated. The government is strapped for cash.

A senior U.S. Defense Department official and member of the U.S. intelligence community said there were no indications the explosion was the result of an attack by either a nation state or proxy forces.

Fueling speculation that negligence was to blame for the accident, an official letter circulating online showed the head of the customs department had warned repeatedly over the years that the huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate stored in the port was a danger and had asked judicial officials for a ruling on a way to remove it.

Danger in all ports - Page 9

THE dwindling witnesses to the world’s first atomic bombing marked its 75th anniversary Thursday, with Hiroshima’s mayor and others noting as hypocritical the Japanese government’s refusal to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to more seriously commit to nuclear disarmament, pointing out Japan’s failures. “I ask the Japanese government to heed the appeal of the (bombing survivors) to sign, ratify and become a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” Matsui said in his peace declaration. “As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan must persuade the global public to unite with the spirit of Hiroshima.”

His speech highlights what survivors feel is the hypocrisy of Japan’s government, which hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the US nuclear umbrella.

Tokyo has not signed the nuclear weapons ban treaty adopted in 2017, despite its non-nuclear pledge, a failure to act that atomic bombing survivors and pacifist groups call insincere.

SPORTS SECTION E

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020

GOLF - Page 16

‘I STILL DON’T THINK WE GET RESPEC T, BUT I DON’T CARE’ — Deandre Ayton

PHOENIX Suns centre Deandre Ayton (22) dunks the ball as Washington Wizards forward Rui Hachimura looks on during the second half on Friday, July 31. (AP)

Ayton and Suns undefeated

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

D

eandre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns have been the biggest surprise of the NBA restart with an undefeated record thus far, including back-to-back wins over playoff teams.

Ayton has averaged 16.6 points and nine rebounds per game through the three-game stretch as the Suns improved to 29-39, two games behind the Portland Trail Blazers in the win column for the ninth spot in the Western Conference playoffs.

“I still don’t think we get respect, but I don’t care,” Ayton told reporters following Tuesday night’s 117-115 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. “We just go out there and play for each other. We stay together in bad times. Kept chipping, kept chipping and it went our way.”

The second year centre said that while few pundits expected the team to make an impact, the Suns have found ways to defy the odds early.

“Locking in. There’s nothing else to do here in the Bubble. Being there for each other. Us building with each other, seeing each other every day. It’s genuine, it’s real,” he said.

“That’s coach’s system: sharing the ball. When we move the ball around, everybody eats.”

The Suns look to continue their streak today against the also undefeated Indiana Pacers at 4pm.

They go on to face the Miami Heat (August 8), Oklahoma City Thunder (August 10), Philadelphia 76ers (August 11) and the Mavericks for a second time (August 13).

“Those guys just grew up tonight,” Suns head coach Monty Williams said following the win, “(The Clippers) sent everything at us. It’s an amazing feeling, and yet I’m already turning the page. That’s the mentality we have to have.

By the time I got to the timeout (after conferring with the coaches first), the players had already talked themselves through the terminology and reads. I thought the shots that (the Clippers) got tonight were

PHOENIX Suns centre Deandre Ayton (22) looks to pass against the Dallas Mavericks during the second half on Sunday, August 2 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (AP) tough shots. I’m thankful.

To be able to win in this environment is pretty cool.”

On Ayton’s development, Williams said his defensive effort continues to improve.

“He’s a guy that can be Defensive Player of the Year, I really believe that and I hope he just continues to grow in that area.”

Williams told the Arizona

Republic: “It’s early, but I think he’s becoming more disciplined and keeping his hands up on defence. He’s calling out stuff earlier. His conditioning is much better

than it was so you’re seeing him sprinting back.”

One of the major talking points of Ayton’s improvement has been his three-point shooting, which he credits to Williams’ system giving him the confidence to take those shots from long range.

After shooting 0-7 through the first 101 games of his NBA career, Ayton has shot 3-6 on three-point field goals over the three games in the Orlando clean site.

“I can say I’ve grown up in a way to where I’m just not being a robot running the play. I’m the playmaker when I got the ball, for real, and just me seeing the type of dominance and the type of effect I have on both sides of the floor affects the whole game and the whole team has bought in,” Ayton said.

“I’m a basketball player.

That’s the type of stuff you have to work on to play in the NBA. I’ve been working on this thing my whole life. I could’ve been shooting (the 3). It’s just I’m more comfortable with the system surrounding me to make me shoot the shot.”

Fox, Isaacs on Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN Baseball prospects Lucius Fox and Todd Isaacs joined Major League’s Baseball Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) programme to discuss the development of the sport in the country.

The duo joined a Zoom-call moderated by MLB’s vice president of Baseball and Softball Development, David James, an audience comprised of student athletes from the RBI programme.

Fox, currently a member of the Tampa Bay Rays’ “Taxi Squad” for the MLB regular season, encouraged the group to find

inspiration in their stories in their pursuit of their own baseball dreams.

“We didn’t have a lot of fields, a lot of batting cages [in the Bahamas]. We just used whatever we had to get better, whether that was throwing the ball against the wall or throwing the ball up and hitting it and chasing it.” Fox said.

“Just finding ways to get active around the house or whatever area you have, using whatever you have, like a tennis ball or a broomstick. Those little things helped us reach the next level and helped our skills progress.”

Fox, currently listed as the No.24 prospect in the Rays organisation, was set to make his 2020 debut in AAA baseball with the Durham Bulls of the International

League prior to the cancellation of the minor league season.

As more Bahamians enter the MLB farm system and with Antoan Richardson in the coaching ranks with the San Francisco Giants, both players noted the impact recent success has had on Bahamian baseball.

“As we continue to grow and push in professional baseball, we see every time we go back to the island more young kids that look forward to playing the game,” Fox said.

“That’s all we ever wanted - to inspire the generation behind us.

It’s changed my life, my family’s life, and allowed me to travel to places I never thought I would have been unless I was playing the game. I never thought I would be

playing baseball. I always wanted to run the 100 metres at the Olympics, but I’m so happy that I was introduced to the game, and I just want more and more kids to give it a try.”

Isaacs is currently a free agent, but was most recently a member of the Colorado Rockies organisation.

He spent the bulk of last season in Grand Junction at the rookie level but also received the highest call up of his career when he was called up to the Albuquerque Isotopes of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

“As an athlete, it’s our responsibility to use our platform to bring awareness and bring change,” Isaacs said in reference to the recent rise in social consciousness

seen from athletes at all levels, “Everything that has been going on in the past few weeks has brought everything to the forefront.

“Education is key, and with us, we have a lot of kids who look up to us as athletes, and they are the future generations who will break the cycle [of discrimination in the world].”

Fox said: “There is just one race, the human race. White, Black -- it doesn’t matter. When we step on the field, the only thing we care about is our organisation. We don’t look at race. ... It’s important that we continue to push this envelope and educate more and more people. If we keep the fight going, we will see change in the future.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 13

CP3 leads OKC Thunder’s rout of the cold-shooting LA Lakers LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Chris Paul had 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 105-86 victory over the poor-shooting Los Angeles Lakers last night.

Danilo Gallinari scored 19 points and Steven Adams had 18 for the Thunder (42-25), who never trailed in their first win over the Lakers in four meetings this season.

Oklahoma City pulled even with Houston for the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoff picture with five games left.

The 86 points were the fewest by the Lakers — and by a Thunder opponent — this season. “We just

tried to stick to the game plan,” Paul said. “We tried to keep those guys off the (free throw) line as much as possible. We tried to build a wall up on LeBron when he’s pushing it. Just trying to make it hard for them.”

LeBron James had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers (51-16), who had another possibly concerning offensive performance while dropping to 2-2 in the bubble.

Los Angeles, which has already clinched the top seed in the West and the Pacific Division title, never held a lead for the first time all season.

“I think we had some great possessions,” James said. “I think sometimes we

have some bad shot selection throughout the course of these games, but I think we got some great looks.

Our defense is pretty good.

We only allowed the Thunder to shoot 43 per cent from the field. We’ll get our rhythm and start making some.”

The Lakers went a season-worst 5 for 37 on 3-pointers and made only 35 per cent of their shots overall.

Los Angeles dropped two games behind Milwaukee for the NBA’s best overall record, which won’t provide a real home-court advantage in the NBA Finals this year.

“We’re building habits, and every time we’re out

NBA Foundation created, pledges $300 million to Black growth

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — The NBA’s Board of Governors and the National Basketball Players Association have finalised plans to create the first NBA Foundation that will work to spur economic growth in the Black community, announcing yesterday that the initial contribution will be $300 million over the next decade.

Each team will donate $1 million annually, or $30 million collectively, over those 10 years. An eightperson Board of Directors will be installed, with four of those seats going to representatives from the board of governors, three seats to NBPA players and executives, and one to the league office.

NBPA President Chris Paul had said earlier in the season restart at Walt Disney World that $300 million would be the start, and now those plans are complete.

“All NBA team governors recognise our unique

position to effect change and we are committed to supporting and empowering young Black men and women in each of our team markets as well as communities across the US and Canada,” NBA Board of Governors Chairman and Toronto Raptors Governor Larry Tanenbaum said.

The league said the charity would be public and that the foundation would work to deepen “the NBA family’s commitment to racial equality and social justice.”

Those missions have been front-and-centre at the restart at Walt Disney World, where games are played on courts with “Black Lives Matter” painted on them and about 85 per cent of players are choosing to have a social justice message on their jerseys for the remainder of the season.

“Education. Scholarship.

Economic Opportunity.

These are the three main areas of our social responsibility work at Monumental Sports & Entertainment and where we personally invest in our community,” Washington Wizards owner

Ted Leonsis said. “Which is why we fully endorse the NBA’s plan to create a charitable foundation and are pledging $1 million every year for the next 10 years to fund skills training, mentorship, coaching and pipeline development to create employment and career advancement in Black communities.”

The foundation’s mission is “to drive economic empowerment for Black communities through employment and career advancement” for high school, college-aged and career-ready Black men and women, plus aid organisations that offer training and mentoring.

Efforts will be centred on helping people get a first job, finding careers after high school or college, then career advancement.

“Given the resources and incredible platform of the NBA, we have the power to ideate, implement and support substantive policies that reflect the core principles of equality and justice we embrace,” NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts said.

TIMBERS BEAT PHILADELPHIA 2-1 IN THE MLS IS BACK SEMI-FINALS LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Jeremy Ebobisse and Sebastian Blanco each scored and the Portland Timbers earned a spot in the MLS is Back championship game with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday night.

The Timbers will face the winner of Thursday night’s game between Orlando City and Minnesota United in the title match on Tuesday.

The tournament winner earns a spot in the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League.

Down two goals, Philadelphia closed the gap on Andrew Wooten’s goal in the 85th minute.

It appeared the Union pulled even on Kacper Przybylko’s goal a minute later, but it was ruled offside.

Portland earned its spot in the semi-finals with a 3-1 victory over NYCFC.

there we have a chance to build and find rhythms,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “These games are still really important for us to do that.”

Dion Waiters scored 14 points for the Lakers, whose poor perimeter shooting in the bubble still hasn’t been fixed as they dropped to 25 per cent on 3-pointers in their last four games. They went 1 for 12 behind the arc in the first quarter against Oklahoma City, and they missed 19 of their first 22 attempts until late in the third quarter.

The Thunder were only 5 for 24 on 3-pointers, but their steady defence and 32-for-36 effort at the free throw line led to a

comfortable win. “I felt we had a good team effort in terms of getting back and letting (James) see a crowd,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “Neither team shot it too well from behind the line today.”

be afraid of. The offence is going to come around.”

UP NEXT Thunder: Face the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.

Lakers: Face the Houston Rockets today.

NINE POINTS FOR AD Anthony Davis scored just nine points on 3-for-11 shooting in 29 minutes. That matches his second-lowest point total in a Lakers uniform and his lowest-scoring performance while playing at least 29 minutes since January 2018.

“I think we’re fine,” Davis said. “I don’t think anything is eye-opening, something that we need to

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PAGE 14, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

In NBA bubble, the race for No. 8 out West is quite wild

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Devin Booker does not like the notion that the Phoenix Suns, whose playoff chances were beyond slim when the season was suspended, should simply be happy to be in the NBA’s bubble.

He sees it quite differently.

“People can say we have a nothing-to-lose mentality,” Booker said. “We don’t look at it like that.”

Hard to argue. The Suns, like a lot of other teams out West, have much to play for right now.

The best race in the bubble is the race for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference — and the right to face LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs starting in a couple weeks.

The Lakers have already clinched the No. 1 seed, and now get to sit back and

watch the mayhem that’s about to happen.

Here’s the scenario: With just over a week left in the race, there are six teams, all with four or five games remaining, fighting for one spot. It’s looking more and more likely that a play-in series, which will occur if the teams finishing eighth and ninth are within four games of one another when the regular season ends, will happen.

And Booker, who fended off both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on what became the winning jumper as time expired in Phoenix’s victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, has the Suns — who haven’t been to the playoffs since 2010 — right in the thick of things.

“This whole experience, just being here in the bubble, we wanted to come down here and make some noise,” Booker said. “And that’s what we’re doing.”

Memphis still holds the No. 8 spot, though the Grizzlies’ grip is slipping away

SUNS centre Deandre Ayton shoots against Mavericks forward Kristaps Porzingis during the first half on Sunday.

(AP Photo/Ashley Landis) fast. The Grizzlies — who lost Jaren Jackson Jr for

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the remainder of the season earlier this week with a meniscus tear in his left knee — fell to 0-4 in the bubble with a loss to Utah on Wednesday, cutting their lead over Portland in the race for eighth to just one game.

San Antonio lost to Denver on Wednesday to fall two games back of eighth with four games left on its schedule, but remains in the hunt. So are

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Sacramento, New Orleans and Phoenix, all within that four-game cutoff to force a play-in series.

“We’re fighting,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said.

The Spurs are trying to become the first team in NBA history with 23 consecutive playoff appearances. Like the Suns, they were in a precarious spot when the season was halted because of the coronavirus pandemic on March 11.

But a couple wins in the bubble, combined with the play-in opportunity, has breathed new life into the Spurs’ chances as well.

“We’re here for a reason,” Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan said earlier this week. “We’re here to compete no matter who we have, young guys, older guys, whoever. Guys have been doing a great job stepping up, taking on the challenge. We’ve been going out there trying to compete for 48 minutes.”

The Suns’ playoff drought is the second-longest in the league, topped only by Sacramento. The last time the Kings played a postseason game was 2006.

As with the other clubs in the West’s race for No. 8, the Kings are also feeling like they’ve got a shot.

“We got five games left and if we figure it out — we run these five off — who knows where we are,” Kings forward Kent Bazemore said. “We’re still right in the thick of things.

There isn’t a team who’s too out in front. ... We’re right there. The optimism is still there.”

The league was smart in setting up the schedule.

Everybody in the race for eighth, in either conference, is done with their seeding games on August 13, one day before the regular season ends.

If play-in series are needed, those games would happen on August 15 and 16. So, by giving all those

possible play-in-bound clubs August 14 off, it assures that no team would have to play three consecutive days.

The East race is much simpler: Brooklyn and Orlando are on the cusp of clinching the last two spots on that half of the bracket.

Washington — the only other club with a chance of getting an unclaimed East spot — lost again Wednesday to fall to 0-4 in the bubble, all but ending its slim postseason hopes.

So the East field is just about set.

The West, that looks like it’ll go down to the wire.

“Still have a chance to get the playoff spot,” Kings guard De’Aaron Fox said.

“Just don’t let go of the rope.”

Or maybe more aptly, don’t let the bubble burst.

WHO’S LEFT IN THE WILD WEST A look at the remaining schedule for each contender for the No. 8 seed in the West: Memphis — Oklahoma City (Friday), Toronto (Sunday), Boston (Aug. 11), Milwaukee (Aug. 13).

Portland — Denver (Thursday), L.A. Clippers (Saturday), Philadelphia (Sunday), Dallas (Aug. 11), Brooklyn (Aug. 13).

San Antonio — Utah (Friday), New Orleans (Sunday), Houston (Aug. 11), Utah (Aug. 13).

New Orleans — Sacramento (Thursday), Washington (Friday), San Antonio (Sunday), Sacramento (Aug. 11), Orlando (Aug. 13).

Phoenix — Indiana (Thursday), Miami (Saturday), Oklahoma City (Monday), Philadelphia (Aug. 11), Dallas (Aug. 13).

Sacramento — New Orleans (Thursday), Brooklyn (Friday), Houston (Sunday), New Orleans (Aug. 11), L.A. Lakers (Aug. 13).

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 15

MAGIC’S GORDON HURT, RAPTORS CONTINUE TO ROLL IN 109-99 WIN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Fred VanVleet had 21 points and 10 assists, and the Toronto Raptors held on to beat the Orlando Magic 109-99 last night.

Pascal Siakam added 15 points and Kyle Lowry finished with eight points, nine rebounds and 10 assists.

Toronto (49-18) has won its last seven dating back to before the hiatus and three straight games since the restart. VanVleet said the Raptors knew early on that things were clicking for them.

“Just a rhythm and a flow, and everybody locked in and keying into the game plan,” he said. “I thought we started off strong, had

a drop off and then got back to it late. We’ve been playing with each other long enough to kind of know when we’re in sync.”

The Magic (32-37) missed an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot following Washington’s loss to Philadelphia earlier Wednesday.

But they maintained their 7 1/2game lead over the Wizards for the eighth seed with four seeding games to play.

They also may be without forward Aaron Gordon for an undetermined amount of time after he left the game in the third quarter with a left hamstring injury after taking a hard foul from Lowry.

Gordon was going up for a dunk and was hit on the arm as Lowry went to strip the ball. Gordon’s left leg extended high in the air before he crashed to the floor and immediately reached for his left hamstring.

He was able to shoot the ensuing free throws but then struggled to run down the court. He went to the locker room on the next timeout. Lowry received a Flagrant 1 foul after a review by officials.

Gordon had nine points and 11 rebounds at the time of his injury.

Magic coach Steven Clifford said he hadn’t seen the replay of the foul and didn’t known the extent of the injury. “Obviously, officials didn’t think it was the

right play because they called a flagrant,” Clifford said. “But, obviously, it would be a huge hit for us.”

Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross each had 15 points for Orlando.

Despite Gordon’s exit, the Magic cut into the Raptors’ 20-point halftime lead, trimming it to 78-71 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.

But that would be as close as they would get to rest of the way.

The Raptors spaced the floor well early, building a 24-8 lead in the opening period. They also were active on the defensive end, limiting Orlando to 5-of-20 shooting (0 for 9 from 3-point line).

Orlando finished the quarter with 11 points, a season low by a Toronto opponent.

Toronto carried its momentum into the second quarter, taking a 51-30 lead late on the second of back-to-back 3-pointers by Lowry.

The Raptors held a 55-35 advantage at halftime. Despite having a chance to clinch the second seed in the East on Friday against the Celtics, coach Nick Nurse said the Raptors aren’t thinking that far ahead. “I don’t know. Nothing seems to have a super high level of unimportance or importance,” Nurse said. “We want to play and we want to play to win that game.

We’re going to play our guys and we’re going to play to win.

Porter Jr posts second straight 30-point game, Nuggets top Spurs LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Michael Porter Jr had 30 points and 15 rebounds, and the Denver Nuggets rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the San Antonio Spurs 132126 yesterday.

Nikola Jokic added 25 points and 11 assists. Jerami Grant finished with 22 points.

Two days after posting a career-high 37 points in Denver’s win over Oklahoma City, Porter stayed hot, scoring 10 of the Nuggets’ first 16 points against San Antonio. He credited Jokic’s style of play for his success.

“If you know me, the Nuggets drafted me as a scorer,” Porter said. “They knew that was one of my

big strengths. Playing with a superstar who would rather pass the ball than shoot the ball obviously is going to work out for both of us.”

Jokic said having Porter being so active is also helping to open up the floor for everyone.

“You know he’s going to make the shot. He’s going to be there. He’s going to rebound. He’s a big target for me,” Jokic said. “Just to know you have a really good player, a talented player, they cannot help with him. It’s helping me in that kind of way.”

Denver (45-23) led by as many as 12 in the first half before falling behind by nine in the third quarter.

But the Nuggets found their footing in the final period,

BROWN LEADS CELTICS TO 149-115 ROUT OF NETS LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Jaylen Brown stayed hot with 21 points on five 3-pointers, and the Boston Celtics rolled past the Brooklyn Nets 149-115 last night without All-Star point guard Kemba Walker.

Jayson Tatum added 19 points, and Gordon Hayward and Robert Williams each had 18 for the Celtics, who posted a season high in points and improved to 2-2 at Disney World.

Boston shot 20 of 39 from 3-point range.

The Celtics bolted to a fast start, scoring 71 points in the first half on 8-of17 shooting from 3-point range. They led by as many as 21 before the break while Walker rested his sore knee.

Brown came into the game averaging 23.3 points over the last three games and finished 7 of 13 from the field.

Jeremiah Martin scored 20 points and Joe Harris had 14 for the Nets.

Caris LeVert was held to 13 points, after scoring a career-high 51 in an overtime victory over the Celtics in March just before the suspension of the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the Nets, a day after knocking off NBA-leading

Milwaukee, were never competitive in this one.

The third-place Celtics (45-23) are four games behind second-seeded Toronto and 1 1/2 games ahead of Miami. The Nets will have to wait for another day to clinch a playoff spot.

TIP-INS Nets: Shot 8 of 32 from 3-point range.

Celtics: Williams was 7 of 7 from the field and 4 of 4 from the foul line in the highest-scoring game of his career. ... All 14 Celtics that played scored.

using a 13-4 run to nudge back in front 110-101 with 5:42 to play.

San Antonio, which started the day two games behind Memphis for the final playoff spot in the West, dropped to 2-2 since the restart.

Rudy Gay scored 24 points and Derrick White added 23 points and seven assists for the Spurs (29-38).

Coach Gregg Popovich said despite the loss, his young players learned a lot having to contend with a passer and rebounder as good as Jokic.

“It should be an NBA rule: You can’t tap it to yourself,” Popovich said.

“He taps it two or three times, then he gets it and lays it back in. It’s not just

luck. He does it all the time.”

Denver played shorthanded for the third straight game with Jamal Murray (left hamstring), Will Barton (left knee soreness) and Gary Harris (strained right hip) all out.

Still, coach Michael Malone said even with a playoff spot already secure, he wanted to see his team build good habits over its final games before the start of the playoffs.

“There’s no magic wand that I have, where I can just come into a meeting and say, ‘OK, playoffs are here.

Let’s start playing at a high level,’” Malone said.

“That’s something that you have to build on every single day, creating those

habits. The last two games you’ve seen that.”

The Nuggets showed some of that urgency at the outset, sprinting out to a 16-4 lead and prompting Popovich to pull his entire starting lineup.

Denver continued to lead for most of the first half before San Antonio surged in the second quarter, connecting on four 3-pointers.

The Spurs went 7 of 16 from beyond the arc in the opening 24 minutes and took a 65-62 lead into halftime.

TIP-INS Nuggets: Torrey Craig left the game with a bloodied mouth at the 2:30 mark of the second quarter after being smacked in the face

by San Antonio’s Drew

Eubanks as he spun underneath the basket. Eubanks received a flagrant foul on the play. Craig returned to the game.

Spurs: Marco Belinelli was available after missing two straight games with a left foot sprain but did not play.

QUOTABLE “The funny thing is, I thought about this today, thinking about Michael Porter. Michael Porter was not selected to play in the Rising Stars Game this year. Are you kidding me?”

— Malone.

UP NEXT Nuggets: Play Portland today Spurs: Play Utah Friday

PAGE 16, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

TIGER WOODS MIGHT HAVE A NEW PUTTER FOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tiger Woods appears to have something new in store for this PGA Championship: his putter.

Woods has won all but one of his 15 majors with a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS, the putter he borrowed from Mark O’Meara in 1998 and never returned.

The only other time he switched at a major was at St Andrews in 2010, when he used a Nike Method.

Woods has experimented with other putters since then, such as a TaylorMade variety in 2018 before going back to his regular putter at the Tour Championship, which he won.

This week he has been working with a putter just like his Cameron Newport but with adjustable weights in the sole to adjust to green speeds.

Golf Channel reported it would be in the bag today, and Woods used it during a practice round yesterday with Steve Stricker and Davis Love III. “It’s basically the same putter with a little bit more flexibility,” Stricker said.

“He’s able to change the weights around a little bit, but the length is the difference. He’s got a little more length on there, and that’s just so he can practice a little bit more without back pain.

“That’s what excites him the most is that he was able to put in a lot of time with this putter. And watching him putt, it looked exactly the same to me. He rolled the ball great.”

Notah Begay III, a longtime friend who now works as an analyst for NBC and Golf Channel, said Woods was looking “to create some new sensations in his hands.”

TIGER Woods tosses a ball down on the 17th hold during a practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament at TPC Harding Park yesterday in San Francisco.

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) “The extra weight might give him something to at least work on and focus as he tries to find that putting stroke,” Begay said.

Will he make the switch?

And if he does, for how long?

“I promise you, old faithful is back at the place where he is staying right now,” Begay said on Golf Channel. “It is not far away.”

PAY TO PLAY This is the second straight year the PGA Championship is being held on a public golf course, from Bethpage Black on Long Island, New York, to the TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. Both have reasonable rates favourable to local residents.

The going rates for Harding Park next week: $80 for San Francisco residents, $200 for Bay Area residents and $300 for everyone else.

At Bethpage Black, weekday rates are $65 for New York residents and $130 for those out-of-state, though getting a tee time can mean sleeping in the car overnight to get in line.

“We’re always going to go to private courses because some of the private courses are some of the best in the world, and they’re courses that test the top players,” Rory McIlroy said.

“But at the same time, it’s very refreshing that we do come to places like here, Bethpage, Torrey Pines.

It is important to let the public see us on golf courses that they’ve played before, that are accessible for them, that aren’t too expensive to get on.”

That led to a question: When was the last time McIlroy paid to play?

“Valderrama, 2005,” he said, adding that he paid 250 euros. “I’ve always liked the look at Valderrama. I was in Spain.

Obviously, Ryder Cup course. The Tour Championship of The European Tour was there for a lot of years. I was there and spent a few months’ worth of pocket money to go and play.”

McIlroy returned three years later at the end of 2008 — the last year the Volvo Masters was at Valderrama before the

season-ending event moved to Dubai. That time, he was paid to play. He had rounds of 74-73-75-73, tied for 39th and was paid 29,500 euros.

THE FIELD This PGA Championship might have set a record for most players who decided not to play.

Vaughn Taylor withdrew yesterday, citing an injury.

He is the 11th player to withdraw from the PGA Championship since the field was first released six days ago.

But it actually goes deeper than that. Four other players who were either eligible or on the invitation list from being in the top 100 in the world ranking — Lee Westwood, Eddie Pepperell, Shugo Imahira and former PGA champion Y.E. Yang — informed the PGA of America they would not be playing.

Yang played two weeks ago on the Korean PGA Tour.

Westwood, Pepperell and Harrington cited international travel and the COVID-19 pandemic for

TIGER Woods walks on the putting green during practice for the PGA Championship golf tournament at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco on Tuesday.

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) not playing. Others cited injuries. Thomas Pieters of Belgium hasn’t played since the European Tour shut down in March. Neither has Francesco Molinari, and his time has been consumed moving his family from London to California.

Alex Noren replaced Taylor in the field. Next on the alternate list is Pat Perez, who was at the TPC Harding Park.

Perez said it was a short drive from Lake Tahoe at the Barracuda Championship and he had a place to stay with Jason Kokrak.

Otherwise, he said he might not be on site. At this rate, he might wind up getting a tee time, although the 155 players tested for the coronavirus all had negative results.

That leaves the PGA Championship with 91

players from the top 100 in the world.

PACKING FOR A SUMMER MAJOR IN AMERICA The PGA Championship in August for years meant heat and plenty of sweating.

Not this one in San Francisco, where temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s, much colder with the marine layer.

Justin Thomas said he packed for his major no differently from going to the British Open, with one difference.

“The thing is for the Open, you’re most likely going to be throwing a rain suit on with whatever you have, whether it’s that cold or whether it’s just raining.

That’s what I’ve done many times,” he said.

FIRST-PLACE MARLINS SWEEP ORIOLES, MOVE TO 5-1 DESPITE OUTBREAK BALTIMORE (AP) — Five pitchers combined on a four-hitter for Don Mattingly’s undermanned, gritty and first-place Miami Marlins, who beat the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 last night for a double header sweep.

Brian Anderson homered in opener, and Miami won 1-0 despite getting only two hits.

The sweep kept the Marlins atop the NL East and earned Mattingly his 281st win as Miami’s manager, tying Jack McKeon’s club record.

The Marlins won their third straight game since emerging from a coronavirus-prompted layoff that left them with a roster filled with callups, free agents and rookies. Miami has

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allowed a total of one run and 10 hits in those three games at Camden Yards.

In the nightcap. Jon Berti hit an RBI double off Asher Wojciechowski (0-2) in the first inning and scored on a fly ball by Jesús Aguilar. That proved to be enough. Josh A. Smith started, Brian Moran (1-0) struck out three over one inning and Stephen Tarpley got four outs for his first save.

PHILLIES 11, YANKEES 7, 7 innings YANKEES 3, PHILLIES 1, 7 innings PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Mike Tauchman’s tiebreaking double in the seventh inning sent New York over Philadelphia

and a split of their doubleheader.

Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto homered to back Zack Wheeler (2-0) and lead the “visiting” Phillies to a victory over the Yankees in the opener, snapping New York’s sevengame winning streak.

Phillies ace Aaron Nola tied a career high with 12 strikeouts in the nightcap, allowing one run on Luke Voit’s homer and three hits in six innings.

Giancarlo Stanton and Voit greeted reliever Tommy Hunter (0-1) with consecutive singles, and Tauchman lined a double to right-center for a 2-1 lead. Adam Ottavino (2-0) retired the only batter he faced to earn the win.

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In the opener, Aaron Judge hit his seventh homer in just the 10th game of the season for the Yankees, who made the Phillies turn to closer Hector Neris for the final out after they took an eight-run lead into the last inning. New York lefty J.A. Happ (0-1) gave up four runs on three hits and six walks over three innings.

METS 3, NATIONALS 1 WASHINGTON (AP) — Nationals starter Max Scherzer exited because of a hamstring problem after laboring through just one inning, overshadowing Juan Soto’s eventful 2020 debut for the World Series champs, and Rick Porcello collected his 150th career

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win. Porcello (1-1) went seven innings, allowing one run and five hits and retiring the last 10 batters he faced.

New York’s Dominic Smith drove in two runs and Luis Guillorme -- starting at second base with Robinson Canó on the injured list -- provided a go-ahead RBI single in the fourth off Scherzer’s replacement, Erick Fedde (0-1).

BREWERS 1, WHITE SOX 0 CHICAGO (AP) — Adrian Houser dominated over seven innings and Milwaukee snapped Chicago’s six-game winning streak.

Milwaukee held struggling star Christian Yelich out of the lineup, with the 2018 NL MVP and twotime defending NL batting champion mired in a season-opening 3-for-34 slump.

Houser (1-0) simply dazzled on a night when Dallas Keuchel (2-1) was about as good for Chicago. The 27-year-old right-hander gave up five hits and struck out five for the win.

TWINS 5, PIRATES 2 PITTSBURGH (AP) — Minnesota’s Randy Dobnak dominated in his homecoming, allowing three hits in six innings.

Dobnak, who grew up a half-hour south of PNC Park in the Pittsburgh suburb of South Park, didn’t walk a batter and struck out just one.

Marwin Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with two RBIs for the Twins. Max Kepler gave Minnesota some breathing room in the ninth with a three-run home run off Pirates’ reliever Dovydas Neverauskas.

RED SOX 5, RAYS 0 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Martín Pérez pitched out of trouble all night, and Alex Verdugo and Michael Chavis homered to help Boston stop a four-game skid.

Pérez (2-1) allowed four hits and three walks,

wiggling out of jams for five innings. He struck out four.

Colten Brewer, Austin Brice, Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman completed a four-hitter.

Verdugo added to his success against left-handed pitching with a two-run homer off Ryan Yarbrough (0-2) that opened the scoring in the fourth.

BLUE JAYS 2, BRAVES 1 ATLANTA (AP) — Hyun-Jin Ryu combined with four relievers on a three-hitter and Toronto beat shorthanded Atlanta.

Ryu (1-1) lasted only five innings but was dominant as he gave up only one hit, an infield single by Adam Duvall in the second.

Duvall homered in the seventh off Thomas Hatch.

Anthony Bass earned his second save.

The Braves were forced to recast their lineup after placing Ozzie Albies and Matt Adams on the injured list and giving Freddie Freeman a day off. Sean Newcomb (0-1) allowed five hits and two runs in 4 2/3 innings.

INDIANS 2, REDS 0 CLEVELAND (AP) — Mike Clevinger didn’t have his best stuff but did enough to pitch into the sixth inning and lead Cleveland as the Indians wait for manager Terry Francona’s return from a gastrointestinal problem.

Clevinger (1-1) worked around five walks, including three in the sixth. The right-hander’s strong start — he gave up just two hits — continued a pattern for the Indians, who have had great pitching while their offense remains in a teamwide funk.

César Hernández hit an RBI single off Reds rookie Tejay Antone (0-1) and Óscar Mercado scored with some daring baserunning to give the Indians a 2-0 lead in the fifth.

Brad Hand struck out two in the ninth for his fourth save.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 17

‘Fireman’: Countdown is ‘on for my last hurrah’

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

UNDER normal circumstances, the curtain would have been coming down on the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, this past weekend with the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay and Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown bringing an end to his long and illustrious track and field career.

But these are not normal circumstances with the games postponed until July 7 to August 8, 2021 because of the spread of the coronavirus around the globe.

Brown had indicated prior to the stoppage of all sports in March that he had intended to complete his trek around the world as an athlete at the games by making the team for the relays.

His name has been on the centrepiece of just about every team that captured a medal at the games from the bronze in 2000 in Sydney, Australia to another at the last quadrennial sports festival in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“It’s bitter-sweet for me, but first and foremost, I want to thank God for giving me the strength and energy to be able to go on this long journey,” Brown said. “It’s working out in my favour to help prepare myself both mentally and physically because I was not 100 per cent ready to go.

“I was about 75-85 per cent ready to go and I would like to give 100 per cent, so with Covid-19 postponing the games because of safety measures, it’s always another time to have the games and so I will still be able to offer my service to the team.”

With his 42nd birthday coming up on October 15, the Wemyss Bight, Eleuthera, native admitted that he will be one year stronger and better prepared to come back home for the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ National Championships to compete for his spot on the team to travel to Japan next year and to put on one last show for the Bahamian public.

“The countdown is basically on for my last hurrah,” said Brown, who made his international debut in 1997 at the CARIFTA Games in Bridgetown, Barbados. “I’m just resetting the clock.

“This time will give me a better opportunity to prepare myself mentally and

physically and I’m looking forward to the countdown.

It’s a good feeling and I’m looking forward to it, taking it one day at a time.”

It was at the 2012 games in London, England, where Brown teamed up with Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller to capture the gold medal in a world leading and national record time of two minutes and 56.72 seconds over the United States and Trinidad & Tobago.

It was the same year that Brown finished short of getting on the podium in the individual 400m, duplicating the one-lap feat from the 2008 Beijing Olympics in his two best chances to earn an elusive singular medal on the grandest stage of all in sports.

One would think that the former national record holder with a personal best of 44.40 would be disappointed, but Brown, who also got a pair of fourth place finishes at the prestigious World Championships in 2005 and 2007 and a fifth in 2009, took it all in great strides.

“God has been so good to me that even when I didn’t deserve things, he gave it to me, even things that I didn’t know that I could accomplish, he gave it to me,” stated Brown, who was the flag bearer during the opening ceremonies of those memorial 2012 Olympics.

“So I can’t be selfish. I’m blessed to have a career that went this long and I’m blessed to represent my country, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the people of the Bahamas.

I have no regrets. For me, it was an opportunity of a lifetime and I wouldn’t go back and reset the clock for anything. Every experience that happened on the track came with a price and I learn from it because it helped me to be a better person than I am today, so I am just thankful and grateful to God for a beautiful career.”

That career was molded with Brown being labelled as the most decorated Bahamian at the World Indoor Championships, having won all three colours in the 400m, including the gold in Doha, Qatar in 2010, silver in Sopot, Poland in 2014 and a pair of bronze in Istanbul, Turkey in 2012 and Valencia, Spain in 2008.

Additionally, he anchored the silver medal 4 x 400m team that consisted of Mathieu, Alonzo

TOP (l-r) - London Olympics team of Ramon Miller, Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder and Michael Mathieu. ABOVE (l-r)- Rio Olympics team of Chris Brown, Alonzo Russell, Steven Gardiner and Michael Mathieu.

Russell and Shavez Hart in Portland, Oregon in 2016, establishing the national record of 3:04.75.

Backtrack to the Olympics, Brown got his first medal on anchor with the team of Avard Moncur, Troy McIntosh and Carl Oliver with the bronze in 2000 in Sydney, Australia with Tim Munnings as the alternate.

Four years later in the Athens games in 2004, Brown would again anchor the team that saw the changing of the guard as he was joined by Nathaniel McKinney, Andrae Williams, Aaron Cleare and Dennis Darling as the alternate for seventh place.

In 2008 in Beijing, China, Andretti Bain, Mathieu, Andrae Williams and Brown got the Bahamas back on the podium with a silver, aided by Moncur and Ramon Miller, who replaced Bain and Brown in the heats.

After ascending to the top of the dais in 2012, the Bahamas slipped to third in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the last Olympics in 2016 with the quartet of Russell, Mathieu, Steven Gardiner and Chris Brown. Stephen Newbold replaced Mathieu in the heats.

With such a great legacy intact in the relays, Brown said he was just honoured to be a part of it.

“I look forward to suiting up and putting on those uniforms and seeing those colours with my bib on my chest and thinking about the people at home and the fans all around the world,” he reflected.

“It was just a great feat and being able to stretch for that long and to go injury free, I can’t take credit for it. God has allowed me to see some things, go some places and do some things with the talent that he has blessed me with and it’s not over until I hang it up after the games. I’m just blessed.

It’s a joy and I take the joy to represent my country wherever I go.”

With sights of the end drawing nearer, Brown said he’s eager to see what’s over the horizon as he prepares for the next year.

He expressed his gratitude to all of his teammates, noting that each one posed a different challenge that he encountered as he mixed it up with McIntosh, Munnings, Moncur, Oliver, Darling, who opened the door for him, and those who followed him as the elder statesman like Cleare, McKinney, Bain, Williams, Mathieu, Miller, Russell and Gardiner.

“I couldn’t ask for better teammates,” insisted Brown, who declined to mention which team was the best he performed on.

“It was definitely a pleasure running and competing with all of them.

“Hopefully I can look forward to representing the country with a whole new group of guys or coming back with the same group of guys who were there before. Either way, I’m looking to earn a spot on the team and running with the best that the country has to offer.”

Brown, a six-time national 400m champion,

has also earned a Commonwealth Games silver and bronze 4 x 400m relay medal in 2014 in Glasgow and 2002 in Manchester, England, as well as a Pan Am gold in the 400m and 4 x 400m relay in Rio de Janeiro in 2007.

Despite Covid-19, Brown admitted that he has not shut down his training yet, but rather he’s trying to juggle his time with his wife, Faith, and their three children, and serving as the head coach of the Clayton State Lakers track team in Atlanta where he currently resides.

“The good thing about it is knowing the schedule.

Once I have my schedule, I know how to plan for my session,” he pointed out.

“That’s the most important thing, the schedule, so I can still serve the university and just continue to do what I love to do.”

With Covid-19 already changing the landscape of sports as they make a return to the new norm in the way we do things, Brown said he is ready to embrace the future.

“A lot of things will change and a lot of things will remain the same,” he said.

“There’s no feeling like getting into a stadium and knowing that everybody is right next to each other screaming and getting into the blocks with the stadium packed to capacity and everybody cheering. That’s one of the best feelings in the world.

“I pray and hope that will come back soon because that is what makes our sport

so great. Just being able to have the fans screaming and you get to be up and close and personal with them. Once things return, whatever the new norm will be, I think people are looking forward to coming out of their home and appreciate what we do as athletes and put our bodies through to entertain them.”

Should the new norm result in the stadium not being as packed as before because of the social distancing and wearing of masks, Brown said he still hopes that the people will still appreciate them for the role models and sporting icons they have become for the country.

“I’m kind of spoiled running in front of the crowd,” Brown said.

“But if that’s the new norm, we just have to adjust to it as people and see how best we can entertain everybody as best as we could.

“The only thing that is consistent in life is change.

So as human beings, we have to be prepared for whatever the future holds.

Life still goes on and so we have to adapt as we move on.”

As the Bahamas survived Hurricane Isaias over the weekend and continued to embrace Covid-19, Brown encouraged the Bahamian people to stay strong.

He sent out a shoutout to his Eleuthera people, Preston Albury High School family, RM Bailey family and to the nation.

“These are uncertain times and so we just need to hold the faith and trust in God and he’s going to bring us through,” he summed up.

“We know that the road might be rocky, but we went through some storms before and we rode through them and we will get through this and the pandemic too.

“I want them to know that I am praying for my country and I want them to believe that we will get through this together. God is in control and he won’t put more on us that we can’t bear. We will get through this pandemic too.”

The 2020 Olympic Games has been postponed to 2021, but Brown said he could only imagine what it would have been like, if it was staged as originally planned, right now.

BOYCOTT GAMES: COULD ANOTHER OLYMPIC RESET BE ON TAP?

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — By the time the boycott hit, Edwin Moses could envision the end of the Olympics as he knew them — or maybe the end of them altogether.

The IOC was virtually bankrupt in 1980, both financially and, in many minds, morally. Its longheld insistence on adhering to a policy of amateurism at the games played into an overall reluctance to see them for what they could be: a peaceful gathering of nations, of course, but also a billion-dollar business built on the power, grace and, yes, the personalities, of the world’s best athletes.

Then, the United States led a boycott of the Moscow Games; 64 countries followed, and thousands of those nations’ athletes saw their dreams, to say nothing of potential marketing opportunities in a post-Olympic professional career, derailed and obliterated.

Forty years later, the Olympics have billions in the bank — so much money,

in fact, that there are new questions about the longterm viability of the Games: namely, whether the entire enterprise might be getting crushed under its own weight. And many athletes, facing a year of uncertainty due to forces out of their control during the coronavirus pandemic, and still feeling underpaid and unheard, are wondering if it might be time for another generational reset of the behemoth that has become the Olympic Games.

“Because of the uncertainty, it might be time for a restructuring for athletes,” said Moses, a longtime athlete leader who went on to serve in prominent roles in the anti-doping movement.

The last major reset took place in 1984, but had its roots from years before in Moses’ sport of track and field. In the late 1970s, top athletes from the West picked up under-the-table money to appear at the biggest events, where they competed against rivals from behind the Iron Curtain, almost all of whom were 100 per cent subsidised by their governments.

Outside of track, however, other top Western

athletes didn’t get much.

In the United States, most Olympic sports were run by the AAU, which was not close to being up to the task of managing such a large operation. The Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act of 1978 set a new template and allowed different organisations to take over the individual sports.

But the event all the athletes strived for — the Olympics — was hurting every bit as badly. The 1976 Olympics in Montreal became infamous for the cost overruns and longterm crippling debt they produced for the host city.

Meanwhile, nobody was rushing to host the Olympics. Los Angeles had only one competitor in the race to host 1984: Tehran. It was the organiser of those Games, Peter Ueberroth, whose vision laid the foundation for what the Olympics have become today.

“He was very adamant that athletes, in conjunction with sponsors, were the key thing for their marketing model,” Moses said.

“He brought talent into all levels, had the whole cadre of gymnasts and boxers

and wrestlers, introduced them to sponsors and insisted they use them in advertising.”

Over the ensuing 35 years, the entities that run the Olympics — the IOC, the national Olympic committees, along with the rest of the tangled web of continental sports groups with long acronyms — have gotten largely rich off the billions of sponsorship and TV dollars that have rolled in. NBC is currently in the midst of a deal that is paying the IOC more than $12 billion to televise Games through 2032.

Maybe the most recognisable effect of the professionalisation of the Olympics came from the Dream Team.

When Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan played in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, it brought the entire enterprise to a new level.

But the NBA players were already rich. And though some other athletes in other, less-popular sports, have made good money, the vast majority have not. If fact, many struggle simply to make ends meet. A survey earlier

this year of 500 athletes spread across 48 countries found 58 per cent did not consider themselves financially stable.

Some athletes, restricted in what they can advertise during the Olympics by the IOC’s divisive Rule 40, are seeking to improve their bargaining power via collective-bargaining.

Meanwhile, Rule 50 — the bylaw that bans certain forms of protest while athletes are between the lines at the Olympics — is coming under harsh scrutiny in the wake of racial protests in the United States that has made discussion about racial inequality across the globe virtually unavoidable.

All of this is being exacerbated by the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The global outbreak forced the IOC to postpone the Tokyo Games by a year. It also marks the first time since 1980 that athletes have been so unexpectedly shaken by forces completely out of their control.

“Back then, there were a number of athletes who put their foot down and said enough is enough,

with letting politicians and people in suits determine our outcome in sports,” said Jim Scherr, the Olympic wrestler who went on to serve six years as CEO of the US Olympic Committee. “There was a feeling that ‘We need to determine our own outcomes. We don’t want anyone to take dreams away from us again.’”

Though politicians have been replaced by a rogue virus in this case, the message is the same: Many athletes see an opportunity to wrest more control over their destiny in a post-COVID world. Their unscheduled year off has been giving them time to organise.

“There’s a feeling out there that it’s time to ask, what’s the benefit of having 105 IOC members who are pretty much nothing more than ceremonial rubber stamps?” said Rob Koehler of the athlete advocacy group Global Athlete.

“If you can change the perception to, ‘This is a sporting event that’s run by everyone including the athletes,’ then athletes will have a vested interest to grow and build the brand.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 19

BTC suffers 15% revenue decline FROM PAGE 24 LiLAC said its Cable & Wireless Communications affiliate, which is BTC’s ultimate parent, suffered a $7m fall in so-called roaming revenues during the 2020 first half, with “the largest impact” in this area felt in The Bahamas.

This shows the tourism shutdown’s impact on BTC and the wider Bahamian communications industry, as roaming relates to foreign cellular users being able to use its mobile network for voice and data services.

Data provided by LiLAC also confirmed that BTC continues to lose subscribers and market share, especially on the mobile side, where customer numbers fell by almost ten percent or 19,100 over the second quarter compared to the end-March position.

Economist warns reserves issues ‘loom’ long-term FROM PAGE 24 “In my view, they’re still a claim against the foreign reserves,” Mr Pinder said of the investment and profit repatriation deferrals. “As the economy opens back up, how much can you hold the tide on the repatriation of profits? At some point someone is going to want to cash in.”

Mr Rolle on Tuesday said the external reserves “remain adequate to fully support the value of the Bahamian dollar fixed exchange rate, even with a sizeable reduction still expected over the remainder of 2020”.

The reserves, which have hovered around the $2bn mark since the first COVID19 lockdown was imposed in mid-March, are projected to be drawn down to around $1bn by year-end 2020 to finance The Bahamas’ continued demand for imports amid the absence of replenishing foreign exchange inflows from tourism.

However, Mr Pinder expressed scepticism over the foreign reserves remaining relatively stable at around $2bn. While foreign currency outflows have been trimmed by the COVID-19 lockdown and reduced economic activity, he pointed out that The Bahamas still has to finance fuel and food imports with minimal inflows coming in.

“What it says to me is that there’s still very much a level of concern over the foreign reserves,” Mr Pinder. “While it’s at a healthy level, a lot of it really has to do with the fact we have suspended a lot of the outflows, and a lot of it is what I call deferrals.

“The National Insurance Board repatriation of overseas

Total BTC mobile customers dropped from 199,400 to 180,300 at end-June, or quarter-overquarter, but the one bright spot for the communications carrier in its battle with upstart rival, Aliv, is that it actually gained an additional 1,600 subscribers in the more lucrative, higher margin post-paid category. All its subscriber losses, some 20,700, came in the pre-paid category.

BTC prepaid customers numbered 151,900 at the end of the 2020 first half, while post-paid stood at 28,400. Elsewhere, the carrier lost 1,200 fixed-line voice telephony customers during the 2020 first half, but gained some 100 TV and 300 internet clients, respectively, for a net loss of 800 subscribers.

BTC’s fibre-to-thehome (FTTH) network was said to pass some 120,900 homes by end-June

2020. Andre Foster, BTC’s senior director of technology operations, told Tribune Business in an interview earlier this week that the further roll-out of this network infrastructure was critical to the company’s plans going forward.

Disclosing that no more copper installations will be carried out, Mr Foster said: “We continue to make investments to fortify the network. We are really pleased with the performance of fibre-tothe-home. Fifty percent of the Grand Bahama network post-Dorian is fibre-to-thehome, and 30 percent of the New Providence network is fibre-to-the-home.”

He added that fibre-tothe-home technology did not rely on outside power sources to deliver communications services, and would continue working as long as the customer is supplied with energy.

investments, all of that helps to boost the reserves. But the reality is we have growing debt problems, all this deficit spending, money that has to service those debts, and even if some is denominated in local currency that is going to place some pressure on the reserves.”

Mr Rolle on Tuesday hinted that the external reserves could come under significant pressure over the medium-term, especially going into 2021, if tourism did not rebound and an alternative foreign currency earnings replacement was not found.

“Monetary and fiscal policies must stay protective of the Bahamian dollar currency peg, ensuring that the external reserves are stabilised or incrementally improved during 2021,” Mr Rolle said.

“There is therefore an ongoing urgency to expand other foreign currency earning activity, with foreign direct investments being at the top of this list.”

In response, Mr Pinder told Tribune Business: “The long and short of it all is he’s doing the best he can given the climate we’re in in terms of short-term measures, but what he’s [Mr Rolle] saying is this problem looms in the long-run in the absence of any significant foreign exchange earnings.

“Everything he’s doing right now is geared to the short and medium-term.

These are just short-term measures..... We need to find a way to earn foreign exchange.

We can talk about opening up the domestic economy, but the lifeblood of this economy is those foreign reserves. The domestic economy cannot function in any sustainable way in the absence of those foreign exchange earnings.”

Mr Rolle disclosed on Tuesday that restrictions imposed on capital outflows had boosted the external

reserves by $200m to-date, as he pledged: “Losing control of the peg is not an option.”

He said the National Insurance Board’s (NIB) liquidation of its overseas investment holdings, and their repatriation, had brought “in excess of $100m” in foreign currency back to The Bahamas. And the bar on dividend/ profit repatriation by the Canadian-owned banks, coupled with the block on foreign portfolio investments by Bahamians, was likely to conserve up to a further $180m.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that NITHA PIERRANT, West Avenue, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 30thth day of July 2020 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that MICHEL NOVELET GORDON, Lady Slipper Avenue #2, N10261, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 6th day of August 2020 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

YOUR

CHOICE FOR THE FAMILY WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/JOYFM1019

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, MCKARIS RASHAD WILLIAMSON of East Street, Nassau,Bahamas intend to change my name to MCKARIS RASHAD FERNANDER. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, ETHANIQUE CIARRA BAIN of Winton Meadows, P.O.Box 15555 Nassau,Bahamas intend to change my name to CIARRA KENDALL ALEXIS HEPBURN. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

MARKET REPORT www.bisxbahamas.com

(242) 323-2330

WEDNESDAY, 5 AUGUST 2020

(242) 323-2320

ALL SHARE INDEX: CLOSE: 2,096.63 | CHG: -0.12 | %CHG: -0.01 | YTD: -134.97 | YTD%: -6.05 BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.10 22.65 2.00 1.79 2.50 6.00 6.75 5.47 8.59 4.50 6.16 12.77 3.64 5.49 10.88 8.44 16.99 4.25 9.40 15.21

52WK LOW 3.13 20.91 0.67 1.79 1.67 5.40 5.39 2.00 5.05 3.62 5.60 11.05 2.71 2.64 9.60 7.10 13.04 3.20 8.00 13.90

PREFERENCE SHARES 1.00

1.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1.00 10.00 1.00

1.00 10.00 0.90

SECURITY AML Foods Limited APD Limited Benchmark Bahamas First Holdings Limited Bank of Bahamas Bahamas Property Fund Bahamas Waste Cable Bahamas Commonwealth Brewery Commonwealth Bank Colina Holdings CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank Consolidated Water BDRs Doctor's Hospital Emera Incorporated Famguard Fidelity Bank Focol Finco J. S. Johnson Bahamas First Holdings Preference Cable Bahamas Series 6 Cable Bahamas Series 8 Cable Bahamas Series 9 Cable Bahamas Series 10 Colina Holdings Class A Fidelity Bank Class A Focol Class B

CORPORATE DEBT - (percentage pricing) 52WK HI 100.00 100.00

52WK LOW 100.00 100.00

115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 102.00

104.79 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

SYMBOL LAST CLOSE AML 3.35 APD 17.43 BBL 1.62 BFH 1.79 BOB 1.67 BPF 6.00 BWL 6.75 CAB 2.99 CBB 5.10 CBL 3.79 CHL 6.10 CIB 11.26 CWCB 2.53 DHS 5.30 EMAB 10.19 FAM 8.44 FBB 14.30 FCL 3.99 FIN 8.97 JSJ 15.20 BFHP CAB6 CAB8 CAB9 CAB10 CHLA FBBA FCLB

CLOSE 3.35 17.43 1.62 1.79 1.67 6.00 6.75 2.99 5.10 3.79 6.10 11.26 2.51 5.30 10.06 8.44 14.30 3.99 8.97 15.20

1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 0.90

1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 0.90

CHANGE 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.02 0.00 -0.13 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

SECURITY Fidelity Bank Note 22 (Series B) + Bahamas First Holdings Limited

SYMBOL FBB22 BFHB

LAST SALE 100.00 100.00

CLOSE 100.00 100.00

CHANGE 0.00 0.00

Bahamas Note 6.95 (2029) BGS: 2015-1-3Y BGS: 2014-12-5Y BGS: 2015-1-5Y BGS: 2014-12-7Y BGS: 2015-1-7Y BGS: 2014-12-30Y BGS: 2015-1-30Y BGS: 2015-6-3Y BGS: 2015-6-7Y BGS: 2015-6-30Y BGS: 2015-10-3Y BGS: 2015-10-7Y

BAH29 BG0203 BG0105 BG0205 BG0107 BG0207 BG0130 BG0230 BG0303 BG0307 BG0330 BG0403 BG0407

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT STOCK - (percentage pricing)

VOLUME

EPS$ 0.239 0.932 0.000 0.000 0.070 1.760 0.369 -0.438 0.140 0.184 0.449 0.722 0.102 0.467 0.646 0.728 0.816 0.203 0.939 0.631 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

VOLUME

DIV$ 0.170 1.260 0.020 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.260 0.000 0.000 0.120 0.220 0.720 0.434 0.060 0.328 0.240 0.540 0.120 0.200 0.610 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

P/E 14.0 18.7 N/M N/M N/M N/M 18.3 -6.8 36.4 20.6 13.6 15.6 24.6 11.3 15.6 11.6 17.5 19.7 9.6 24.1

YIELD 5.07% 7.23% 1.23% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 3.85% 0.00% 0.00% 3.17% 3.61% 6.39% 17.29% 1.13% 3.26% 2.84% 3.78% 3.01% 2.23% 4.01%

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 7.00% 6.50%

INTEREST Prime + 1.75% 6.25%

19-Oct-2022 30-Sep-2025

6.95% 4.00% 4.25% 4.25% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.00% 4.50% 6.25% 3.50% 4.25%

20-Nov-2029 30-Jul-2018 16-Dec-2019 30-Jul-2020 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2018 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2018 15-Oct-2022

MATURITY

MUTUAL FUNDS 52WK HI 2.34 4.41 2.11 198.39 168.29 1.69 1.85 1.77 1.24 8.34 10.26 7.08 12.15 12.71 10.81 10.00 8.98 11.79

52WK LOW 2.11 3.30 1.68 164.74 116.70 1.64 1.77 1.72 1.07 6.41 7.62 5.66 8.65 10.54 9.57 9.88 8.45 11.20

FUND CFAL Bond Fund CFAL Balanced Fund CFAL Money Market Fund CFAL Global Bond Fund CFAL Global Equity Fund Leno Preferred Income Fund Leno Growth Fund Leno Diversified Fund Leno Global USD Bond Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Secured Balanced Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Targeted Equity Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Prime Income Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Equities Sub Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - High Yield Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Alternative Strategies Fund Colonial Bahamas Fund Class D Colonial Bahamas Fund Class E Colonial Bahamas Fund Class F

NAV 2.34 4.41 2.11 196.40 163.60 1.69 1.81 1.77 1.07 8.30 9.90 7.08 11.27 12.71 10.23 N/A 8.93 11.27

YTD% 12 MTH% 2.13% 4.00% 0.91% 2.59% 1.04% 2.39% 0.65% 2.50% -1.88% 3.33% 1.88% 3.90% -2.26% 2.49% 0.76% 3.56% -11.03% -8.03% -0.45% 8.36% -3.20% 11.46% 2.10% 5.15% -6.17% 3.54% 2.92% 5.55% -4.66% -3.81% N/A N/A -4.20% 0.20% -8.60% -2.90%

MARKET TERMS

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX - 19 Dec 02 = 1,000.00

YIELD - last 12 month dividends divided by closing price

52wk-Hi - Highest closing price in last 52 weeks

Bid $ - Buying price of Colina and Fidelity

52wk-Low - Lowest closing price in last 52 weeks

Ask $ - Selling price of Colina and fidelity

Previous Close - Previous day's weighted price for daily volume

Last Price - Last traded over-the-counter price

Today's Close - Current day's weighted price for daily volume

Weekly Vol. - Trading volume of the prior week

Change - Change in closing price from day to day

EPS $ - A company's reported earnings per share for the last 12 mths

Daily Vol. - Number of total shares traded today

NAV - Net Asset Value

DIV $ - Dividends per share paid in the last 12 months

N/M - Not Meaningful

P/E - Closing price divided by the last 12 month earnings

TO TRADE CALL: CFAL 242-502-7010 | ROYALFIDELITY 242-356-7764 | COLONIAL 242-502-7525 | LENO 242-396-3225 | BENCHMARK 242-326-7333

NAV Date

30-Jun-2020 30-Jun-2020 26-Jun-2020 30-Jun-2020 30-Jun-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 31-May-2020 30-Jun-2020 30-Jun-2020 30-Jun-2020

PAGE 20, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Lockdown ‘nail in Game plan to avoid coffin’ for retailers FROM PAGE 24 open, retailers will go out of business along with the jobs that they provide. We need to find creative ways to support the businesses that are here today and secure those jobs for the future.

“Unfortunately, COVID19 does not seem to be going anywhere any time soon and we need to forge ahead with a more sustainable path. We encourage all Bahamians to make a point of shopping locally and, by doing so, supporting the recovery of The Bahamas.”

The federation’s sentiments and position were yesterday echoed by individual retailers. Egan Kemp, president of Eunison Company, the Shoe Depot parent, told Tribune Business he remained wedded to his belief that The Bahamas is “committing economic suicide” through these lockdowns and thus making its economic recovery process even longer and harder.

“There’s not too many words to put to all this,” he said of the current two-week national lockdown. “It’s unbelievable, unbelievable.

Unfortunately, unlike the politicians and government workers we will no longer receive an income.

“Our businesses have ground to a screeching halt yet again, and I still continue to say that we, along with many other countries, are committing economic suicide, which is difficult if not impossible to recover from..... To have to shut down our complete economic food chain is absolute economic suicide.

“I still hold to that, and unfortunately the government, its workers and the citizens of this lovely Bahamaland will reap the

consequences of our inability to be more brave and conscious about how we conduct ourselves in such circumstances rather than retreating each time the snake in the hole rears its head.”

Mr Kemp warned that with the COVID-19 threat unlikely to be eliminated, either by a vaccine or therapeutic treatments, any time soon, the Bahamian people and economy must learn to live with the virus while simultaneously minimising the risk of infection and socalled ‘community spread’.

“I take a risk every day flying, driving and living, and I believe the risks we take every day to conduct business is worth far more than fear mongering and the awful situation the government has put us in by wiping us out,” he told Tribune Business.

Questioning whether “science” was behind the government’s rationale for effectively shutting The Bahamas down for four days per week, Mr Kemp said he had closed his Shoe Depot outlets early on Tuesday to allow staff and their families sufficient time to prepare for the new lockdown.

Criticising the government for giving too little warning of its intentions, he added: “I’m trying to keep my people employed and myself employed. But if this continues I won’t be around and many others won’t.

“What I don’t understand is where the government expects to gain tax revenues if there’s no business left; if they wipe us all out. How are we supposed to all live? I don’t get it. There’s risks, and unfortunately we just have to move boldly forward with the risks of life.

“If they wipe us out they will have no tax revenue. government workers will

wake up one day and without a pay cheque, pension and benefits because the government is flat broke and there are no more taxpayers because the government pushed us all out of business for our own safety.”

Andrew Wilson, the Quality Business Centre (QBC) and Fashion on Broadway principal, told Tribune Business that he, too, felt the government should have opted for “an alternative to a complete shutdown” given the increased economic and employment damage the latest two-week lockdown threatens to inflict.

Confirming that he faces “two weeks without income”, as none of his retail formats or outlets are able to offer curbside or delivery services, Mr Wilson said: “I have absolutely no doubt we will ride it out, whether this lasts for two weeks or a month. It is an interruption, no question about it.

“Again, I suspect the authorities have access to information that I don’t have access to, but we would have hoped there ought to have been an alternative to a complete lockdown. Perhaps weekends only, or two to three days, rather than there not to be a choice between COVID-19 or a shutdown, which it seems to have become for large numbers of people.

“I think the government needs to find that balance and they haven’t found that yet. I think they’re responding to the crisis they see in front of them, but I don’t think their response was as measured.”

Mr Wilson urged the government to focus on protecting those especially vulnerable to COVID-19, such as the elderly and those with pre-existing illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes, plus activities such as parties and large social gatherings suspected of fuelling the virus’ spread.

Still, expressing full optimism that all his businesses and staff will be back postlockdown, the entrepreneur told Tribune Business: “I don’t have a ‘plan B’ for survival. My staff will be furloughed for the two weeks, but I’m happy to say that immediately after the first lockdown I was able to bring them all back on full pay. I’m sure after this period ends I’ll be able to bring all my staff back on full pay.”

COVID-19 ‘salvage’

FROM PAGE 24 people invest here, will people rebuild, will people come in with new projects and look at investing in Abaco again, that’s not going to come until we have certainty. The sooner we get to that stage the better for Abaco and the country.

“People will not put money into a place where there’s uncertainty, where they don’t know what the rules are from week to week.

We need to get that certainty back as soon as possible, and not just for the business and investor community, but for the entire economy because those investors employ people.

Reclaiming that uncertainty is also critical to boosting The Bahamas’ foreign currency reserves and maintaining the one:one fixed exchange rate peg with the US dollar. John Rolle, the Central Bank’s governor, this week underscored the “urgency” of finding an alternative foreign currency source to tourism if the foundation of the Bahamian economy is not to come under severe pressure in 2021.

Mr Rolle pointed to foreign direct investment (FDI) as the most immediate alternative foreign currency source, but this is unlikely to materialise unless the border restrictions and uncertainty created by repeated COVID-19 lockdowns falls away, leading into Mr Hutton’s call for The Bahamas to immediately develop a strategy mitigating the health and financial challenges posed by the virus.

Citing one example, the Abaco Chamber of Commerce president told this newspaper: “Hospitality workers, if they’re waiting for their property to re-open and then it’s closed again, reopens again, and is then closed again, that’s an inordinate amount of uncertainty.

It’s a lot of economic stress and a lot of psychological stress.

“We need to come up with a strategy and we need to stick with it. That strategy must encompass as many of the circumstances and situations that come up as possible. That strategy needs to be made public so everyone knows what the game plan is.

“Right now we don’t know what’s happening

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day-to-day, and that does not provide a lot of comfort to people because there world is turned upside down already. I’m not blaming the government for this, as other countries are facing the same issues, but we need to sit down and make a real plan going forward,” Mr Hutton continued.

“This might not end in two weeks or four weeks.

We need to have a strategy going forward otherwise we will not be looking at economic recovery; we will be looking at economic salvage.

I believe this can be done.

I don’t think it’s anything outside the realm of possibilities. We’ve got some really smart people to help get this done, we need to get this done, and we need a plan.”

The infectious nature of COVID-19, and its ability to spread rapidly not just in The Bahamas but its major tourist and investment source markets, makes developing the sort of strategy called for by Mr Hutton especially challenging since the situation can alter in hours and so much of the science/health surrounding the virus has yet to be learnt.

The Abaco Chamber of Commerce chief, meanwhile, said it was “100 percent critical” to the island’s post-Dorian reconstruction that building activities have been allowed to continue amid the latest two-week lockdown.

“I don’t want to deal in hypotheticals, but it would have set us back a lot more than two weeks” had it not been permitted, Mr Hutton said. However, he questioned whether the building materials supply chain will be disrupted as hardware stores such as his own Premier Importers, and Abaco Hardware, have only been allowed to open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while being restricted to curbside services.

And, while acknowledging it was “difficult to differentiate”, Mr Hutton also pointed to inconsistencies in the government’s emergency orders.

For Maxwell’s Supermarket, which also offers hardware products, has been allowed to “open straight through” unlike his business.

Describing himself as “not surprised” by the government’s decision to impose another national lockdown, and acknowledging it was “definitely necessary” on islands such as New Providence and Grand Bahama due to the escalating infection rates, Mr Hutton joined the chorus of private sector executives questioning the need for a “one-size fits all” approach.

“I don’t necessarily agree it was needed in Abaco,” he said. “Abaco is essentially a construction site. We don’t have the population

base that is susceptible to COVID-19, as we don’t have a lot of elderly people here, and most people are outside most of the time. We are not exactly a tourist hub.

“It’s a different environment here. Rather than a one-size fits all solution to this maybe more time needs to be spent looking at it on a population by population basis. Eleuthera is not Andros, is not New Providence, is not Grand Bahama, is not Abaco. I don’t think a one-size fits all solution to the entire country is going to be the best solution.”

Abaco has just one confirmed COVID-19 case on the mainland, together with nine on Great Guana Cay and ten on Moore’s Island.

Mr Hutton’s concerns were also echoed by Pedro Rolle, the Exuma Chamber of Commerce president, who voiced fears that the current two-week lockdown will be “the death knell” for restaurants and many other businesses on the island.

“Nothing good is going to happen. Economically it’s going to be devastating,” Mr Rolle told Tribune Business of the shutdown. “We are left to wonder why we are having a system that has been designed for one being put in place for all. One national mandate should not be required for all the islands.”

Emphasising that he was not calling for Bahamians “to become careless and disregard” all the health protocols put in place to combat COVID-19, he argued that Exuma - with just three confirmed cases - should also have been spared a full lockdown unlike New Providence and Grand Bahama.

“We don’t have to go that route for the islands other than Nassau and Grand Bahama,” he said. “I’m convinced that this is going to cause certain businesses to shut down and never recover, especially businesses like restaurants. I really believe a great number of them will not recover. This is a death knell.

“It’s one thing to live with hope and this shutdown will kill that. They’re not going to have the reserves to open up again. It’s going to kill the restaurants, it’s going to kill the rentals, which have become a big deal in Exuma.

The effect of this is going to be devastating simply because people don’t have jobs.

“I don’t want to sound as if I am blaming the authorities; I understand they have to make decisions. It would be a wonderful thing if they got consultation from the Family Islands, and these things were made from a Family Island perspective as well. This is definitely a disappointment. It’s going to hurt.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 21

$8.8M ANDROS BRIDGE EYES DECEMBER FINISH THE $8.8m Staniard Creek Bridge replacement is due to be completed by Bahamas Marine Construction by December 2020, the Ministry of Works has announced.

Desmond Bannister, minister of works, said the existing concrete bridge structure was in “extremely poor condition” and needed to be urgently replaced.

“The Staniard Creek Bridge is a three-span structure located just west of the settlement of Staniard Creek on the east coast of the island of Andros, approximately ten miles north of Andros Town” Mr Bannister said. “The structure is a vital transportation link for the settlement as it is currently the only bridge crossing Staniard Creek, and therefore the only road access to the settlement.

START of construction at the Staniard Creek Bridge.

“The reinforced concrete bridge in Staniard Creek is in an extremely poor condition, with the bridge deck, abutments and piers exhibiting extensive and

very severe deterioration including erosion, voids and complete loss of concrete sections.”

Mr Bannister said the deterioration has reduced

Photo: Robert Mouzas the load-carrying capacity of the present bridge to just five tons. “Due to the critically severe condition of the structure it has been recommended that

the bridge be replaced as a matter of urgency,” he reiterated.

The existing bridge/ causeway has an open span of only 60 feet. The existing channel is more than 300 feet wide at this location, resulting in the bridge approach causeway creating the effect of a dam on the creek system.

This, in turn, has caused increased sedimentation in the creeks and negatively impacted the health of the mangroves. Fish larvae export from the lagoon has also been impacted. For this reason, the new bridge is located at a better site some 475 feet north of the existing structure.

As part of its contract, Bahamas Marine Construction must build a new 180 foot, clear span bridge across an entire water channel, representing

a 200 percent increase in the open span. Sheet piled abutments and wing wall are to be built, while utility services must be moved from the old to new bridge.

The existing road causeway next to the current bridge must be removed, while the creek channel will be dredged to reinstate the tidal flow.

A new boat ramp and timber dock structure, are also to be built, along with the installation of several culverts across the road causeway leading from the Queen’s Highway into the bridge access road.

The culverts will allow water to flow under the road from one side to the other. They will address the current blockage of this flow across the north and south sides of the lagoon.

GB marine life set to land knock-out blow

THE OPENING of National Training Agency (NTA) free online cohort training.

Photos: NTA

Training Agency aids 255 students online THE National Training Agency (NTA) says it is giving 255 students free online job training and certification to prepare them to function effectively in the workplace amid COVID-19.

The students are being trained in office procedures; information technology; Microsoft Office; graphic design; and Web design.

Gadville McDonald, the NTA’s executive director, said the objective of its Summer Cohort initiative is to provide trainees with skills and encourage them to have the mindset and attitude that will secure gainful employment..

“Our selection of soft skills units and technical skills qualifications for this cohort are intentional,” he said. “Our focus is to best prepare you to function effectively in this era of COVID-19. We are convinced that upon successful completion you will be able to utilise your web designs, graphic designs, Information technology, Microsoft office and office procedure skills to further enhance your career, life and your community.

“As a competency-based training agency, our mission

is to prepare you to do and not just to know. Industry leaders and our job providers are depending on us to prepare you in a manner that you are able to contribute to the ongoing success of their companies on day one.

“Over the last two years we have invested in building an online interactive platform that is best suited for training and assessment in our context of The Bahamas. We are excited about the Brightspace platform that allows us to offer our services throughout The Bahamas. We are now able to live up to the ‘National’ that is in the National Training Agency,” Mr McDonald added.

AID: ‘Still best time’ for $8.2m projects

FROM PAGE 24

well beyond two weeks and may endure for at least a month.

However, Mr Watson argued “this is still the best time to go ahead” with a major capital investment given that economic activity remains relatively benign.

He added that the “trickle” of customers visiting all AID locations yesterday

morning had increased as the day progressed and more persons became aware it was open for curbside commerce.

“We are selling everything that we have available,” the AID president said. “We have a hardware licence, which allows us to open, but we’re selling everything we have.

With curb side and everything we’re allowed to open

“The agency remains committed to your success. The government of The Bahamas continues to invest in you. As you are aware, your training comes at no cost to you.”

Family Island trainees are accessing the NTA’s services for the first time.

In addition to New Providence and Grand Bahama, the group comprises students from 11 islands. The students will undergo three to four weeks of soft skills training and ten weeks of technical skills training.

Some 6,000 Bahamians have been trained in programmes offered by the NTA, and 60 percent have been successfully placed in full-time employment. it’s about an 85 percent drop in sales compared to normal.

“But psychologically it’s very important. Nothing is worse than having no revenue come in. We still will have some revenue coming in. Even though it’s 15 percent of what we would normally get, psychologically it’s much better and much more encouraging than zero.”

Mr Watson said AID will be able to pay staff their regular 40-hour work week wage as a result of being allowed to restock on Tuesdays and Thursdays, even though stores will be closed to the general public.

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GRAND Bahama’s marine life will be at centre stage when boxer Mike Tyson takes on one of the ocean’s greatest predators during the launch of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week this Sunday.

The channel will feature the Tyson versus Jaws: Rumble on the Reef special, which takes place in Grand Bahama’s waters, as part of 20 hours of programming.

“The heavyweight champ is kicking off the most wonderful week of the year by throwing his hat in the underwater ring,” Discovery Channel said in a statement. “With famed ring announcer Michael Buffer calling the shots, these two heavyweights will square off underwater, where Mike Tyson will try to score a TKO over the massive shark. And

MIKE TYSON IN ACTION don’t worry, no sharks were harmed (or bitten) in the making of this episode.”

The one-hour program will showcase Tyson’s experience scuba diving with lemon sharks, reef sharks and tiger sharks in the waters of Shark Junction and Tiger Beach off Grand Bahama.

Tyson versus Jaws: Rumble on the Reef airs at 9 pm on August 9 on Discovery Channel. Shark Week 2020 will continue through August 16 with shark stories, survivor tales, scientific expeditions and celebrity appearances from Will Smith, Snoop Dogg and Shaquille O’Neal.

PAGE 22, Thursday, August 6, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

COMPANY LOSING FIGHT AGAINST STAFF LAY-OFFS

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

AN AUTO parts and hardware store yesterday warned it may lay-off some of its 25 staff members due to the restrictions imposed by the new two-week COVID-19 lockdown.

Doreen Rolle, owner/ operator of Rolle’s Auto, told Tribune Business: “The hardware side is open and

our auto side is closed now.

It is not going very well because I didn’t get rid of any of my staff and I’m still on a full staff, but I don’t know how long I can keep this up.

“I am right here now fighting and trying to do some adjustments, and it doesn’t look like I am going to be able to keep all of these staff. This is 25 staff members I have, so I don’t

know. I was fighting this from March.

“We were on lockdown from basically March 19, so I really can’t give you a figure off the top of my head on how much I am losing on a weekly basis, but I know I am losing at least 85 percent of what I usually take in because we only worked one day. The auto side was only opened for one day and the hardware doesn’t

carry a heavy load. I am basically losing 85 percent.”

She added: “Even though I am open, I am only open to accommodate the people, but the hardware doesn’t carry the weight like the auto parts. I sell all of the hardware stuff, like the plumbing and electrical stuff, but only the people in the immediate area know me for selling hardware.”

Ms Rolle was not sure

if the hardware store will remain open during the twoweek lockdown, and said, “Only unless my supplies come in. I ordered some supplies that were supposed to come in. If they get here in time then I can probably sustain it, but other than that I would have to close.

“I will see. I have an order in and I am not sure if the order will get here by Friday, because I ordered

a good bit of hardware. I sold out of the little bit of hardware that I had, so it depends on if they get here or not. That will determine if I stay open or not.”

Ms Rolle said her shipment is “somewhere in a warehouse in Florida”, and she added: “What we made before March is what took us through to July. We cannot go on like this without some staff reduction.”

Auto parts supplier Funeral director pleads website case slams restrictions

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net AN AUTO parts supplier yesterday urged the government to permit its website to facilitate delivery and pick-up purchases as The Bahamas entered it second COVID-19 national lockdown.

Dwayne Higgs, WHIM Automotive’s general manager, told Tribune Business that the company’s online presence had proven itself as minimising interaction between consumers and staff during the first lockdown.

Suggesting there was no reason why WHIM should not be allowed to do similar over the next two weeks, he said: “I went ahead and put my e-mail together the same way I did under the first one, and I’m hoping to hear back from the government.

“They may say this is just two weeks and leave it as it is. But transportation in any other country is an essential industry, so I feel it should be the same, and I made that argument to them the last time. I sent the e-mail out to everybody and hopefully I get a favourable response because we can do the same three days that the hardware stores are doing with only curbside.

“With our website we can do the same three days. We have partnered with Mutru (the Bahamian delivery service) and we have been doing deliveries, so we can do it that way. We can even do it totally cashless.

With Mutru, the customer places the order, and then Mutru comes and picks it up the following morning so it is next day delivery.”

Mr Higgs continued: “We should have been able to

take advantage of just using our website for deliveries, and just come in with a skeleton crew where we can at least process the online orders. Even if we only do delivery, at least people could still get what they need.

“This is what I wrote for, asking for the same three days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and even if we only did curbside and online payments via credit cards with no contact, or minimal contact, and the customer just comes and pick it up or we do deliveries with Mutru, then that would be fine. I just sent that letter out yesterday morning, but the last time I only got one response from all of the e-mails I sent out so I don’t know.

“I have the letter authorising me from May that we can do curbside during the first emergency period, but this new emergency order probably negates that first authorisation. But I do have it, just in case I have to pull that out as my trump card.”

Mr Higgs said operating even on a “limited level” would be better for WHIM than being totally shut down. “Some people were saying AID was going to be open because they fall under hardware,” he added.

“Some people are just going to take their chances and do it, and then wait for the police to come and shut them down, but we don’t operate like that. I have no time for fines or time in jail.”

Mr Higgs said WHIM will fully pay its staff for the two-week lockdown, with the firm able to take advantage of the previous COVID-19 re-opening to pay off all its suppliers and achieve a better financial

Digital provider: ‘We’re like domestic credit card’

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net A DIGITAL payment provider, which facilitates the National Insurance Board’s (NIB) unemployment benefit payments, yesterday likened its system to a “domestic credit card”.

Sean Smith, SunCash’s business

development manager, told Tribune Business that the provider Mr Smith is also now processing the additional 13 week-unemployment benefit extension that is being financed by the government as well as NIB. “Our process works, because here is what happens,” he explained. “We have been building our network for a while; more

position going into the latest shutdown.

With payroll accounting for half the company’s total costs, he added: “We were able to take advantage of the tax credit the government was doing that they were applying to your VAT. We submitted a month’s worth of payroll and they did half of the credit and half is a deferral.

“The lady from the Ministry of Finance we spoke to made it seem that there would be more tax credits coming, and all of that together made me say that if there are more credits coming then those for sure are to be used for your payroll. So, I’m just operating in faith that, yes, more credits are coming and that would offset any payrolls we have with no fails.”

Mr Higgs said WHIM’s drive-through service will be in place within another six weeks, which would further benefit the company if the economy does not fully re-open after emerging from this lockdown.

He added: “We’re not panicking. Unfortunately we are numb and sort of used to this now, but I’m hoping this is only two weeks. If this goes beyond the two weeks then we would have some issues because before the month of May, we had to go on half-pay because we were only open for one day out of the week in April and limited in May as well.

“Hopefully it is just the two weeks and then not back to only being allowed to operate on limited days, because I would prefer to everybody going back to being fully reopened and not restricted because that would be tough for only having one or two days open.” than anybody else has.

People thought it was risky because they couldn’t see where we were going, but now their situation has come and we are essentially the most extensive network in term of issuing digital payments.

“Our digital payment and our digital network allows you to, if you are a cash-based person, to now go to a Super Value grocery store at any location as well as Solomon’s Fresh Market, Cost Right or Solomon’s in Freeport.

You can go to Prescription

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN funeral director yesterday said it “not fair” and in “poor taste” that persons cannot give their loved ones a full send-off during the latest COVID-19 lockdown.

Denalee Penn, Evergreen Mortuary’s chief executive, told Tribune Business of the latest restrictions placed on funeral services: “It is not fair at all, and I personally feel that it shows

the lack of respect for the dignity of a life lived and the lack of compassion for families who cannot share in those precious final memories of their loved ones.”

The prime minister, in his August 3 national address that announced the two-week lockdown, said families will still be able to lay their loved ones to rest. However, funeral services can only be held at the graveside, and with no more than five attendees excluding the officiant and mortuary staff.

Ms Penn added: “Virtual church services are allowed with ten persons in a church, but only five family members at a funeral in the cemetery. I think it’s in poor taste and needs to be revisited.”

Church services have been discontinued, and only live streaming from a religious facility will be allowed with no more than ten people participating. Ms Penn said she had cancelled all her funeral services that were planned for the upcoming two weeks as of Wednesday afternoon.

Breezes remains open with ‘handful of guests’

SUPERCLUBS BREEZES BAHAMAS

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net A MAJOR Bahamian resort yesterday confirmed it remains open despite the nationwide COVID19 lockdown because it is hosting “a handful of guests” waiting out their 14-day quarantine requirement.

Muna Issa, SuperClubs Breezes managing director, told Tribune Business: “We are still open as we

have a handful of overseas guests staying with us while they wait out their quarantine requirements.

It is very quiet here these days but we hope after this lockdown we will get a few more guests.”

Despite the two-week lockdown, which took effect yesterday, The Bahamas borders’ remain open to international guests who are prepared to present a negative COVID-19 swab test and wait out the mandatory 14-day

quarantine period.

Ms Issa added, though: “We have received cancellations, sadly, but we understand the lockdown is for the greater good of The Bahamas.”

Breezes reopened its doors on July 1 and is the only major hotel on the Cable Beach strip to have done so, with the likes of Baha Mar and Sandals Royal Bahamian delaying their return until October at the earliest and November, respectively.

Parlour Pharmacy or Quality Home Centre.

There are so many places where we are offering assistance that it is starting to resemble a domestic credit card. When you think about what a domestic credit card does, it allows you to go to all of these places that accept credit cards and you can pay.”

Mr Smith added: “When you have these challenging times, where our $13bn GDP has been cut by 30 or 40 percent, and unemployment is going on 49

percent, we need to keep the money home and especially for foreign reserves.

“So what we have put in place is so powerful now to allow all of this domestic money to stay floating around that you don’t have to have those credit cards to a number of merchants. We are bringing on more merchants every day that we are becoming the Bahamian domestic credit card.”

Mr Smith said the firm has received no complaints from persons unable to access their

benefits through SunCash.

He added: “If anyone has come to you complaining about SunCash, you can bring them to me and we can look up what their number is.

“I can tell you what the national insurance issue date is, and I can tell you when they got it. I can tell you the voucher that was given. I can tell you the time they came to cash it. I can give you the history on anyone and anything with regard to our National Insurance payment system.”

IN THE SUPREME COURT PROBATE SIDE

2020/PRO/npr/00023

IN THE ESTATE OF MARDOCHEE LIBRATI late of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo in the State of Israel, deceased.

NOTICE is hereby given that all persons having any claims and/or demands against the above Estate are required to send the same duly certified in writing to the undersigned on or before the 17th August 2020 after which date the Executors will proceed to distribute the assets having regard only to the claims of which they shall then have had notice AND NOTICE is hereby given that all persons indebted to the said Estate are requested to make full settlement on or before the date hereinbefore mentioned.

GLINTON SWEETING O’BRIEN Attorneys for the Executors 303 Shirley Street Nassau, The Bahamas

(J.21, J.29, A.6)

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2020, PAGE 23

VIRGINIA FIRST TO ROLL OUT PANDEMIC APP FROM APPLE, GOOGLE RICHMOND Associated Press

VIRGINIA has rolled out a smartphone app to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus, becoming the first US state to use new pandemic technology created by Apple and Google.

The free Covidwise app is available in Apple and Android app stores as of yesterday. State officials, who emphasised that the app doesn’t track user location or collect personal information, announced public campaigns encouraging people to download

and use it.

“We’re using every possible approach to fight this virus and keep Virginians healthy,” Virginia Gov Ralph Northam said in a prepared statement provided to The Associated Press.

The technology arrives nearly four months after Apple and Google partnered to create the software for public health agencies trying to contain the spread of the pandemic.

Canada and a number of European countries have already rolled out apps using the tech companies’ framework.

The app, developed

by SpringML, relies on Bluetooth wireless technology to detect when someone who downloaded the app has spent time near another app user who later tests positive for the virus.

Those who test positive can anonymously notify others to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

The Virginia health department will verify positive test results and issue app users who want to report them a pin number tied to their lab records in order to prevent malicious actors from sharing false positives.

“Your device will share anonymous tokens via

Bluetooth with other COVIDWISE users,” the app says. “If another user you’ve been nearby tests positive for COVID-19 within a 14-day period, your app will notify you.”

People who receive a warning of possible exposure can seek advice from the health department or their doctor.

Information on Virginia’s public health department website says the app measures close contact as within six feet of someone for at least 15 minutes, using guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If, for instance, there

are two students in adjacent dorm rooms with a wall between them, the health department says the wall would be expected to diminish the signal strength between devices but a notification might still be triggered depending on the composition of the wall.

A number of states have expressed interest in the Apple-Google technology, including Alabama — which has begun pilot testing — South Carolina, North Dakota and Pennsylvania.

“Everyone is trying so hard and there’s limited time, limited capacity,” said Sameer Halia, who

THE WEATHER REPORT

5-Day Forecast

TODAY

ORLANDO

High: 91° F/33° C Low: 74° F/23° C

TAMPA

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Partly sunny, a t‑storm in spots

Partly cloudy

Mostly sunny, stray thundershower

Partly sunny with a thunderstorm

Partly sunny

Partly sunny, a t‑storm in spots

High: 88°

Low: 77°

High: 88° Low: 76°

High: 87° Low: 76°

High: 88° Low: 77°

High: 88° Low: 76°

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

101° F

88° F

99°-84° F

99°-84° F

99°-85° F

99°-84° F

The exclusive AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature® is an index that combines the effects of temperature, wind, humidity, sunshine intensity, cloudiness, precipitation, pressure and elevation on the human body—everything that affects how warm or cold a person feels. Temperatures reflect the high and the low for the day.

N

almanac

E

W

ABACO

S

N

High: 86° F/30° C Low: 80° F/27° C

4‑8 knots

S

High: 90° F/32° C Low: 78° F/26° C

4‑8 knots

FT. LAUDERDALE

FREEPORT

High: 90° F/32° C Low: 78° F/26° C

E

W S

E

W

WEST PALM BEACH

N

uV inDex toDay

TONIGHT

High: 91° F/33° C Low: 78° F/26° C

High: 89° F/32° C Low: 79° F/26° C

MIAMI

High: 92° F/33° C Low: 80° F/27° C

4‑8 knots

KEY WEST

High: 90° F/32° C Low: 83° F/28° C

High: 88° F/31° C Low: 77° F/25° C

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020

High: 86° F/30° C Low: 80° F/27° C

N

The higher the AccuWeather UV IndexTM number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.

tiDes For nassau Low

Ht.(ft.)

Today

10:28 a.m.

10:46 p.m.

High

Ht.(ft.)

2.8 3.1

4:31 a.m.

4:34 p.m.

0.4 0.5

Friday

11:09 a.m.

11:24 p.m.

2.8 3.0

5:09 a.m.

5:16 p.m.

0.5 0.7

Saturday

11:51 a.m. ‑‑‑‑‑

2.8 ‑‑‑‑‑

5:47 a.m.

6:00 p.m.

0.6 0.9

Sunday

12:04 a.m.

12:35 p.m.

2.8 2.7

6:25 a.m.

6:47 p.m.

0.7 1.0

Monday

12:45 a.m.

1:22 p.m.

2.6 2.7

7:05 a.m.

7:38 p.m.

0.8 1.2

Tuesday

1:31 a.m.

2:12 p.m.

2.5 2.7

7:48 a.m.

8:33 p.m.

0.9 1.3

Wednesday 2:21 a.m.

3:06 p.m.

2.3 2.7

8:37 a.m.

9:33 p.m.

0.9 1.3

sun anD moon Sunrise Sunset

6:40 a.m.

7:51 p.m.

Moonrise Moonset

10:06 p.m.

9:13 a.m.

Last

New

First

Full

Aug. 11

Aug. 18

Aug. 25

Sep. 2

CAT ISLAND

E

W

High: 86° F/30° C Low: 79° F/26° C

N

S

E

W

4‑8 knots

S

6‑12 knots Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

Statistics are for Nassau through 2 p.m. yesterday Temperature High ................................................... 90° F/32° C Low .................................................... 79° F/26° C Normal high ....................................... 89° F/31° C Normal low ........................................ 76° F/24° C Last year’s high ................................. 92° F/34° C Last year’s low ................................... 80° F/27° C Precipitation As of 2 p.m. yesterday ................................. 0.57” Year to date ............................................... 35.05” Normal year to date ................................... 20.61”

ELEUTHERA

NASSAU

is working to launch an app in Arizona using the Google and Apple software. “Every state will look at what their needs are and what their population cares about and make a decision.”

Several states have introduced apps using other approaches, such as satellite-based GPS location tracking, but there’s little evidence they have been successful. Unlike the Apple-Google model, many of these apps send data to public health officials so they can use it to trace the contacts of infected patients.

ANDROS

SAN SALVADOR

GREAT EXUMA

High: 86° F/30° C Low: 79° F/26° C

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High: 87° F/31° C Low: 80° F/27° C

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MAYAGUANA High: 86° F/30° C Low: 80° F/27° C

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

CROOKED ISLAND / ACKLINS RAGGED ISLAND High: 85° F/29° C Low: 80° F/27° C

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GREAT INAGUA High: 88° F/31° C Low: 81° F/27° C

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marine Forecast ABACO ANDROS CAT ISLAND CROOKED ISLAND ELEUTHERA FREEPORT GREAT EXUMA GREAT INAGUA LONG ISLAND MAYAGUANA NASSAU RAGGED ISLAND SAN SALVADOR

Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday:

WINDS SE at 4‑8 Knots ENE at 4‑8 Knots SE at 4‑8 Knots E at 6‑12 Knots ESE at 4‑8 Knots ENE at 6‑12 Knots E at 7‑14 Knots E at 7‑14 Knots SE at 4‑8 Knots ENE at 4‑8 Knots ESE at 4‑8 Knots E at 4‑8 Knots SE at 6‑12 Knots ENE at 6‑12 Knots NE at 8‑16 Knots E at 8‑16 Knots E at 6‑12 Knots E at 7‑14 Knots E at 6‑12 Knots ESE at 7‑14 Knots ESE at 4‑8 Knots E at 4‑8 Knots E at 7‑14 Knots E at 8‑16 Knots SE at 4‑8 Knots ENE at 6‑12 Knots

WAVES 2‑4 Feet 1‑3 Feet 1‑2 Feet 1‑2 Feet 1‑3 Feet 1‑3 Feet 2‑4 Feet 2‑4 Feet 2‑4 Feet 1‑3 Feet 1‑2 Feet 1‑2 Feet 1‑2 Feet 1‑2 Feet 2‑4 Feet 2‑4 Feet 1‑3 Feet 1‑3 Feet 2‑4 Feet 2‑4 Feet 1‑2 Feet 1‑2 Feet 2‑4 Feet 2‑4 Feet 1‑2 Feet 1‑2 Feet

VISIBILITY 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 6 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles

WATER TEMPS. 84° F 86° F 88° F 89° F 85° F 86° F 84° F 84° F 85° F 86° F 82° F 83° F 86° F 87° F 84° F 84° F 85° F 85° F 84° F 85° F 86° F 86° F 84° F 84° F 85° F 86° F

business@tribunemedia.net

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020

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Game plan to avoid COVID-19 ‘salvage’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

T

HE Bahamas must urgently develop a COVID-19 “game plan” covering all potential scenarios to prevent its economic recovery from becoming a “salvage” operation, a chamber chief urged yesterday.

Ken Hutton, the Abaco Chamber of Commerce’s president, told Tribune Business the country needed to come up with a strategy that balanced both health and economic priorities and “stick to it” if it is to avoid further

• Chamber chief: Develop strategy and ‘stick to it’ • Otherwise uncertainty will undermine recovery • Exuma fears restaurant, rental ‘death knell’

KEN HUTTON

damaging lockdowns.

Emphasising that he was not casting blame on the government, as it continues to grapple with the COVID-19 challenges and dilemmas facing all other countries, Mr Hutton said such an “all-encompassing” plan that was made publicly available would also foster badly-needed investor, business and consumer confidence in The Bahamas’

recovery prospects.

“Speaking strictly from a business standpoint, the thing that impacts the most: Businesses love predictability, businesses love certainty,” he told this newspaper. “At this point, not only for Abaco but the country in general, there’s no certainty.

“I know it’s a big thing to ask, but when it comes to will

SEE PAGE 20

Lockdown ‘nail in coffin’ for retailers

By YOURI KEMP and NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Reporters

BAHAMIAN retailers yesterday warned that the latest COVID-19 lockdown will be “the nail in the coffin” for multiple companies and jobs in a sector that employs more than 22,000 persons.

The Bahamas Federation of Retailers, in a statement sent to Tribune Business, said it was “disappointed” that the government did not consider allowing stores able to provide delivery or contactless services to remain open before imposing a blanket two-week shutdown on all employers deemed “non-essential”.

“After the hotel sector, which is currently non-operational due to the restraints on tourism under COVID19, the wholesale and retail

• Fears of multiple closures, job losses • Many firms ‘reserves drained’ first time • Call for delivery, curbside permission sector is the largest private sector employer in our nation employing over 22,000 persons as of December 2019,” the Federation blasted.

“The second lockdown will unfortunately fair far worse than the first as companies have already drained any reserves they may have had during the first wave of lockdowns. Tragically, this will be the nail in the coffin for many Bahamian retailers and the jobs that go with them.”

It added: “In this unprecedented COVID-19 era we are committed, as the Bahamas Federation of Retailers (BFR), to working with

BTC suffers 15% revenue decline

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) was not spared by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was revealed yesterday, as the carrier suffered a near15 percent year-over-year first half revenue fall.

Liberty Latin America (LiLAC), the ultimate parent for BTC, disclosed in its results for the six months to end-June 2020 that the Bahamian communications provider saw its top-line

shrink by $15.8m compared to the same period in the prior year.

Revenues for the 2020 first half to just $90.3m compared to $106.1m in 2019, with reduced Bahamian economic activity - including in the tourism sector - likely to blame for the fall.

BTC’s top-line income for the second quarter, which includes the first COVID-19 lockdown, was off by 22 percent year-over-year as it fell from $52.5m in 2019 to just $41m - a decline of $11.5m.

SEE PAGE 19

Economist warns reserves issues ‘loom’ long-term

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas faces a “looming problem” over the “lifeblood” of its economy if it is unable to swiftly attract significant foreign currency inflows, an economics lecturer warned yesterday.

Rupert Pinder, who lectures at the University of The Bahamas, told Tribune Business that the Central Bank-imposed restrictions on Bahamian portfolio (real estate and securities) investments abroad and the repatriation of profits (dividends) by

the Canadian-owned banks had merely delayed - not prevented - these outflows from occurring.

Voicing concern that The Bahamas’ external reserves, which are critical to supporting the one:one fixed exchange rate peg with the US dollar, could face a sudden “tide” of pressure once the economy is reopened, Mr Pinder echoed Central Bank governor, John Rolle’s, call for “urgency” to find an alternative source of foreign exchange earnings as the tourism shutdown persists.

SEE PAGE 19

the government to educate Bahamians on how to follow the safety protocols that will enable Bahamians to shop locally in a safe environment.

“We enforce social distancing protocols, sanitising, the wearing of masks and capacity constraints as outlined by the competent authority (Prime Minister’s Office). Although curbside and delivery did not work for all of our members, many retailers have been working tirelessly and invested heavily to refine contactless delivery of goods through either curbside or delivery options as well as investments in online shopping.

“We are disappointed to see that yet again these options are not being permitted for Bahamian businesses,” the Federation continued. “We have been collaborating with the Chamber of Commerce and will be reaching out to the government directly to see how we can come up with a solution that serves both the business community and addresses the safety concerns now faced by the nation.

“The sad reality of the situation is that if this keeps up, with no business assistance or opportunity to keep doors

SEE PAGE 20

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AID: ‘Still best time’ for $8.2m projects

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A MAJOR Bahamian retailer yesterday said it believes this is “still the best time to go ahead” with its $8.2m investment in new stores despite the latest national COVID-19 lockdown.

Jason Watson, Automotive Industrial Distributors (AID) president, told Tribune Business it still retained sufficient confidence to take advantage of construction’s exemption and push ahead with building new stores at its Blue Hill Road location and in Abaco.

He added that the Blue Hill Road project was expected to benefit from tax breaks and concessions under the government’s Over-the-Hill revitalisation initiative, with AID awaiting parliamentary approval of plans to expand this zone.

Disclosing that this had further bolstered the retailer’s optimism, Mr Watson said the lockdown was nevertheless expected to cost AID 85 percent of its normal sales by restricting the retailer to curbside and pick-up services only.

He revealed, though, that the company plans “to sell everything that we have available” by using its hardware licence - and the ability this gives it to open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - to also offer its auto parts products and other goods.

“We’re going to go ahead as planned,” Mr Watson said of AID’s store investment plans. “Hopefully this [the lockdown] will not last months. Hopefully we will be able to open in a matter of weeks as opposed to months.

“Construction is in progress in Marsh Harbour and I think they should be finished with the skeleton of

the building in a couple of weeks. At Blue Hill Road they’ve finished the demolition and started evening out the property.

“At this time we’re going to continue. I think it will be a short period of time before the restrictions are relaxed and we’re allowed to open fully or pretty close to fully. Obviously in a few weeks that may change, but hopefully the number of active cases trends downwards and there are more COVID-19 recoveries, and we will be able to start opening up again.”

AID is projecting that the two projects will expand its workforce by 25 percent or 40 persons, taking it from the present 160 to 200 persons. Mr Watson said the likelihood of obtaining tax incentives for the Blue Hill Road store from the Overthe-Hill initiative had given the retailer “more confidence” to proceed, while it also stands to benefit from the 2020-2021 budget slashing all import duties on construction materials to 20 percent.

“Based on what the government has said we expect that programme will include that location,” he said, pointing to real property tax and business licence exemptions on offer, as well as duty/VAT reductions and breaks. “Hopefully they will actually pass that in Parliament. They were supposed to table it [the zone expansion] but probably got sidetracked with the COVID cases and it got pushed to the side.

“That gives us some confidence it’s a worthwhile investment even with the current circumstances we have now. Hopefully this [lockdown] is a short-term issue as opposed to longterm.” Many observers, though, believe the latest national lockdown will last

SEE PAGE 21