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The Tribune

Volume:116 No.166, AUGUST 23RD, 2019

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Public service unions warn tomorrow’s talks with Minnis critical

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor and RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter A SHOWDOWN meeting is to be held tomorrow between seven public sector unions and Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis - with Dr Minnis warning of the state of government finances.

The meeting comes in the wake of a day of disruption yesterday - after hundreds of civil servants marched from Market Street to Bay Street, and chanting “Minnis has to go” outside yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

Dr Minnis later said that he understood “the anger and frustration” of

THE junior doctors’ strike continued for a second day yesterday, despite their union having a “favourable” meeting with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis on Wednesday.

Bahamas Doctors Union (BDU) President Dr Melisande Bassett called for public empathy as she insisted the BDU is standing up for workers’ rights – lest they end up being treated as “simple slaves”.

During a press conference held yesterday, Dr Bassett noted a meeting was planned with Health Minister Dr Duane Sands later that day and another with the Public Hospitals

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VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE AND IT BEGINS AT HOME

HAITIANS IN DARK OVER VISA BAN

Bahamian workers but warned that the government had found the economy “at the bottom of the pit” and still had “a lot to do”.

However, National Congress of Trade Unions president Bernard Evans said the government must explain why it is “in such dire financial straits” that it cannot meet public sector worker demands.

He said it was “hard to fathom” how the Minnis administration is unable to reach agreement with the public sector unions given its increase in revenues post-VAT hike and recently-improved economic growth.

SEE PAGE THREE AND BUSINESS SECTION

Authority on Monday. She said as it stands, doctors will not return to work until these matters are resolved.

Frustrated with a lack of resolution over longstanding disputes, more than 400 junior doctors went on strike Wednesday, forcing the nation’s public healthcare system into “emergency mode”.

Dr Bassett confirmed at the time that roughly 200 physicians were on call throughout the country and were resolved to only work on emergency cases.

Major issues the doctors face include lack of compensation for years of holiday pay, junior doctors being offered one-year contracts, and housing for interns being taken away.

SEE PAGE TWO

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SEE PAGE EIGHT

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net HAITI’S Foreign Affairs Minister Bocchit Edmond said yesterday he hoped the government’s decision to suspend visa services to Haitians would be resolved quickly.

Mr Edmond lamented the impact the suspension would have on HaitianBahamian families in The Bahamas, but noted it was a sovereign matter.

“It’s unfortunate to hear that,” he told The Tribune.

DOCTORS STRIKE DAY TWO - ‘IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT PAY’

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net

Page 11

Art over anxiety

Painter sparks mental heal th

SHOWDOWN

DUNDAS IN NEED

SEE PAGE FIVE

AIRPORTS UPGRADE SHORTFALL

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

HUNDREDS of public sector workers marched to Rawson Square to protest for higher wages yesterday.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

THE government has allocated just one percent of the $200m needed to upgrade 28 Family Island airports in this year’s budget.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, said the $2m provided for the 2019-2020 fiscal year highlighted why The Bahamas must urgently “fix the model” for airport maintenance.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

CHILD ‘RAPE’ VICTIM STAYS SILENT

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE teenage girl at the heart of an unlawful sexual intercourse allegation against a police reservist quietly told a court that “nothing” happened between her and Dwayne Decosta in June 2018.

The comment came when the 14-year-old took the witness stand yesterday and was questioned by

DWAYNE DECOSTA the prosecution.

And from that point on, the eighth grader hardly answered the Crown’s

questions, and eventually told the judge she did not intend on answering any of them. Though she initially appeared to be shy and nervous, the girl eventually stopped giving verbal responses altogether. The last response she gave the Crown to one of its questions was her shaking her head while looking at the floor, prompting an adjournment.

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE SEVEN

WINNING THE GREEN FIGHT IN THE COURTROOM

SEE PAGE TEN

PAGE 2, Friday, August 23, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Doctors strike day two - ‘it’s not just about pay’ from page one “First of all, we’d like to thank the public for its patience and its tolerance while we exercise our current action to bring to a close a matter that’s been in existence since 2010,” Dr Bassett said yesterday. “I know it’s been said in the media that this is all about money, but I ask you to put yourselves in our position.”

Although she stressed the doctors’ frustration over lack of holiday pay, Dr Bassett made certain to note that the issue is not about “money” but about “principle”.

“This is a principle. This is a fundamental right that every Bahamian is afforded and the law - and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a private entity, the government, the laws are there to protect all Bahamians. They’re there to govern every Bahamian and how we behave.

“This is a breach. And the fact that now attempts are being made to attempt to rectify this breach, I think gives credence to that.

“I want you to realise that this is (us) standing on

a principle here. If we continue to allow whomever it is, whether it’s a public, private employer, whomever.

If we continue to allow them to whittle away at workers’ rights at the end of the day we will be left with nothing. We will just be simple slaves.

“The laws are there to protect the Bahamian people. And people may hate unions and may look at us as being devils, but we serve a purpose: to ensure that workers’ rights are

protected. You could hate us…You think that we’re greedy…But think critically and just put yourselves in our position and ask yourself if you would put up with the same thing.”

Dr Bassett described Wednesday’s meeting with Dr Minnis as “favourable” and “encouraging”.

“We are working feverishly to bring this issue to a close,” she said, when asked about the meeting. “He is very willing to resolve this, we both are, and our

discussion was favourable that we will meet that end very soon.”

However, the BDU’s issues with PHA still persist.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was not just PHA’s refusal to release the funds that was there, there were other issues as well.

And we met with our union members today (Thursday) and they have indicated that the other portion of our negotiations that we originally put before PHA

as well as the other issues PHA and the minister have promised that they will deal with. And we will have scheduled a meeting for Monday with them to have all of these issues signed off (on). If that happens sooner, all the better.”

Dr Bassett also addressed the issue of contention that doctors cannot prove who worked a holiday shift.

“We can’t prove that we worked the holidays now because we turned in all of those forms to PHA. And some physicians don’t have a record of that. That is the problem. We have a system in place for recording the times that you work, you turn the forms in, they collected them. And in the past, we received payment for it. That has stopped.

PHA made the position that it does not want to use those forms anymore. But quite frankly I don’t think that those issues are ours.”

She also reiterated the union has rejected PHA’s offer to pay doctors over five instalments and based on availability.

“We have other issues on the table that we need addressed. But we need to

public clinics — these are all the effects of the Bahamas Doctors Union’s strike, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands and other health professionals noted yesterday.

“This is not an ideal situation by any stretch of the imagination,” Dr Sands told

The Tribune yesterday as he stressed the importance of getting “beyond this point” as quickly as possible.

The junior doctors launched a strike on Wednesday to address longstanding issues with the Public Hospitals Authority.

These include lack of compensation for years of holiday pay, junior doctors being offered one-year contracts, and housing for interns being taken away.

In a statement released yesterday, PHA said services at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre (SRC), Rand Memorial Hospital and Grand Bahamas’ community clinics have been reduced to “emergencies only”.

“The authority deeply regrets the impact of this action on the provision of care to the Bahamian people,” the statement noted.

However, BDU president Dr Melisande Bassett yesterday stressed junior doctors are constantly “in flux” to ensure physicians are available to respond to emergencies and “make sure there is no shortfall, that lives are not in danger”.

When asked how health services are being affected by the withdrawal of services, Dr Sands told The Tribune: “There has certainly been a reduction in the level of care being provided and there have been sporadic reports of significant concern. So it’s an issue.

“For instance, there’s been a challenge even in the Rand lab with families

seeking to do identification of their loved ones,” he continued. “And that has been postponed now for two days running.

“There have been some issues on the maternity ward, of complaints.

“Bear in mind now that (PMH) cares for very seriously traumatised patients.

And sometimes minutes or seconds count. And so this is a very nail-biting scenario. Fortunately it hasn’t been tested, but it’d be better to get beyond this point as quickly as possible.”

Dr Sands clarified that he was referring to the capacity or ability of the system when pushed.

He added this has not been tested in the 24-36 hours since the strike began.

“But if it is, it could potentially be a problem,” he said.

“When you don’t have a full complement of staff in a very busy clinical arena, even with yeoman’s efforts by those persons who remain, it’s a challenge to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’.”

Yesterday, a nurse from a government clinic described to The Tribune the impact of the strike on clinics in New Providence.

“The only persons who we are seeing are those

JUNIOR doctors and auxiliary staff on strike.

Photos: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

make sure moving forward that this does not continue. That is something we haven’t had a guarantee on as yet and I think that’s what’s really keeping us out – that up to date, even though they have promised the money, we still are not receiving holiday pay.”

She added other issues include the fact that the BDU’s request to be the bargaining agent for public dentists needs to be addressed. She also called for greater attention to be given to the needs of doctors in Grand Bahama who don’t have a proper on-call suite.

When asked if doctors will go back to work if half their issues are resolved, Dr Bassett replied: “No, we need our issues resolved.”

However, she noted her staff is constantly working to ensure physicians are available to respond to emergencies, to make sure there is no “shortfall” and that lives are “not in danger”.

“So we’re not putting the public at risk. We’re fighting feverishly to bring this to an end so people can rest well at night and not have this overshadowing them.”

who are here to start school medical because they don’t need a physician,” she said.

“Anyone who is sick was told to see doctors at the hospital. This is a crucial matter because basically two weeks before school starts, the completion of a school medical which is needed for schools cannot be done.

“This morning, the doctors called the clinic advising that they won’t be in. So the only work that is being carried on in the clinic is what nurses are capable of doing. Everyone else gets turned away.

“The patients are angry, but they had no other choice, but to go back home. They asking when the doctors will be back,” the nurse said.

Regarding these comments, Dr Sands acknowledged the strike will indeed have a “ripple effect”.

“This has a ripple effect and consequences in many different spheres: certainly not only in New Providence, but in Grand Bahama, in Abaco and many of the Family Islands,” he said. “This is not a good situation.”

When asked if he is confident all the BDU’s concerns can be satisfied, Dr Sands replied: “We’re going to do our very best.”.

FAMILIES UNABLE TO IDENTIFY LOVED ONES DURING STRIKE

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net FAMILIES who cannot identify their loved ones, complaints in the maternity ward, and patients being turned away from

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, August 23, 2019, PAGE 3

On the march

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net

HUNDREDS of civil servants stormed Bay Street yesterday to protest for higher wages and to negotiate their outstanding industrial agreement.

Protestors, started at the old City Market on Market Street, chanting “Minnis has to go” in solidarity as they descended on Cabinet shortly after 10am.

They waved signs, which read, “Fair wages Decent work”, “The cost of living is too high,” “Justice; When justice is done it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evil doers,” and “Justice; Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, ensure justice for those being crushed. Speak up for the poor and helpless…” - all singing “Bind Us Together” in solidarity.

The Bahamas Public Services Union President Kimsley Ferguson told reporters the people of this country are “burdened”, and someone has to “shoulder the experience” they are having.

Mr Ferguson said: “We need a response to the concerns of these people.

Economically these people are paid beneath survival and we need their heads to come up above water so that they can breathe. And we need the burden of value added tax and the cost of living increases these people are very challenged and so I’m grateful that they would stand behind us as we make every effort to represent them and to address the concerns that has the immediate effect on their lives.

“We are going to be here…we are going to ask the person that represents

servants need their money... before they give the civil servants their money, they decided that they gone give it to Brent Symonette…not good in our country.”

One protestor, who referred to herself as “Diva” told The Tribune: “If Mr Turnquest has sufficient money to buy one loaf of bread, please give me half a loaf of bread so I can feed my children.”

“My thing is I don’t have young children who go to school, but I have a niece who has two young children who is not working.

Her mother is not here. If I get mines, I can help her to help her children. Come on man meet me halfway.

“I work for what I get but meet me halfway. If you get why I can’t have. One thing I could have say about Perry Christie if he had one loaf of bread, everybody had a slice.”

Another protestor, who referred to himself as Mr Russell said civil servants were hurting “from time” under both governments.

“We here in solidarity trying to get the prime minister’s attention to let him know that we need our money. It’s been too long; we are tired of it and we are not going to move until the prime minister sees that we are serious.”

One civil servant, who referred to herself as Ms Cartwright said the prime minister “didn’t learn from the PLP’s mistake”.

She said: “What the government is doing isn’t right because everybody has to live. Millions of dollars going to (BPL), the light always off, millions going to the Marco Alert, millions going to the airport so what happen to us and then (Dr Minnis) is saying

to the public he is confident he’s going back in. Where he going back in? Where?’

I want the FNM to know elections are coming so be ready for what you get. I’m a civil servant that’s me.”

Maria Miller, protestor, said the government is responsible for the people and the people shouldn’t have to “beg” for a raise.

Ms Miller said: “We haven’t had a raise for a very long time. Our salary is not enough to accommodate. How the country is running we can’t make it on this salary. It’s about time… you could get the VAT money and deal with us; you could get the number money and deal with us. We deserve it so to me you are dealing with all the other civil servants who you feel like are important. “‘What about the mediocre people?’ Then you all want to talk about crime.

‘You want decrease crime?’

Give the people good wages. Let us live.”

The prime minister did not attend the protest to address the issues of the civil servants. Mr Kimsley said he was “very disappointed that the chief executive of the nation chose not to come to speak to the people.”

He added: “I don’t know what his appointment schedule would have been like but however when the masses of the country assemble somebody should have come out. Even if a representative on his behalf should have come out and say something to the people.

“It’s really disappointing. I don’t know if persons are taking us (serious) but we will continue to agitate until such time as we get an affirmative response.”

have a number of long- $12,000 a year, with 80 perstanding issues and they will cent making under $30,000. continue the discussion with “Most of the lowest paid the Public Hospitals Author- civil servants are members ity on Monday but I want to of the BPSU,” he said. assure the Bahamian public He added that conthat in no circumstance will trary to claims, members their health be compromised received a raise as part of and we will do everything its last industrial agreement to ensure that the health of which he negotiated and the Bahamian people is not had signed in 2014. compromised and will con“When we said to the tinue to be offered the best previous government possible (healthcare ser- that the yearly increment vices) to them.” increase would make it so Members of the BPSU that the minimum salary in make an average of the public sector would be $19,000 a year, with some $12,000 per annum, they cut earning less than $1,000 it at $11,600,” he said. “The each month, Labour Direc- other $400 was never added tor John Pinder told The like it was supposed to so a Tribune yesterday. lot of them are still under Asked to contextualize $12,000 per annum. This the BPSU’s concerns, he government has decided said about ten percent of to look at it because the members make less than prime minister has said he is

concerned about the bottom line of the lowest income people because he thinks $220 per week is too low. He had asked me to make some recommendations and I had recommended $300 a week.”

BPSU members making less than $12,000 a year do mostly janitorial work with those making more than this figure typically doing clerical work.

On the high end, a few senior BPSU members make about $45,000 a year.

Mr Pinder said he believes BPSU members deserve a raise.

“What the union is looking at is that the last negotiations we had, there was no VAT involved. Since then there has been the introduction of VAT and then an increase in VAT,” he said.

HUNDREDS of public sector workers march to Rawson Square yesterday.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff our country our nation to get some of the money we are out here to show to and hope that he would be to assist our members with Mr Ferguson and the union respectful enough to come getting their children ready our full support. and say something to the for back to school. The “If they aren’t satisfied workers of this country. prime minister made a com- today, they’ll come out That would be satisfying mitment for some $1200,” here tomorrow, but this enough to let them know he said. will not end until we get the “However, I found myself resolution and the desired how he is going to move forward with addressing the in another negotiation with results that they want. I him making some offer of would hope (he comes and increase of salary.”

He added: “We are going two $600 lump sum pay- addressed the people.) If he to embrace every opportu- ments which in our view said he’s the prime minister nity to cause our voices to was not going to be suffi- of the people, he cares for be heard. As the workers cient for the membership the people. He told me perof this country we would to prepare themselves for sonally he cares about the be delighted to sit outside back to school. We weren’t people so I don’t see why and hear what the govern- able to come to an agree- he would not come out and ment is going to present. We ment hence the members of address the people.” are happy that the Cabinet the public service are here Charles Stubbs, a proministers are going to be demonstrating in the rain.” tester, said he wants Prime Bernard Evans, the Minister Dr Hubert Minnie in place it means that they would have a forum so some National Congress of Trade to go.

Unions (NCTU) president, decisions can be made.”

Mr Stubbs said: “I’m here Mr Ferguson said he and said he attended the protest representing this country; I the prime minister weren’t to “have our affiliate’s back”. am representing the people.

Mr Evans said: “It’s been In the Bahamas it’s been far able to come to an agreement relating to the $1200 a long time and they have too long that we’ve been been agitating for two three taken for a ride in our counlump sum payment.

“We would have had a years now. We had to come try. The Bahamas is set to discussion with the prime out and show our support take off right now and we minister on receiving some this is what unions are all are not (leaving) from here funding which is part of our about. This the plight of until…it only takes a stroke industrial agreement. The the people, the civil serv- of a pen to get this thing lump sum payment and if ants are normally those right. Even if they sign it, we the agreement was signed, just above the poverty line still want Minnis them to go. we would have received it maybe some just below.

“The Bahamas is worth in 2018. However, the dis- One thousand two hundred more than what Minnis cussions were with the view means a lot to them and so them do to us. (sic) The civil

PM CAUTIONS UNIONS OVER STATE OF THE ECONOMY

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis hopes that union representatives will come to appreciate the less-than-ideal state of the government’s finances when he meets them on Saturday, but says he understands the anger and frustration of Bahamian workers.

He spoke to ZNS about the upcoming meeting yesterday after members of the Bahamas Public Services Union marched and protested in front of the Churchill Building on Bay Street where the Cabinet Office is located.

BPSU is demanding a one time $1,200 lump sum for its 20,000 or so members

but the government has offered to give them a split payment of $600 now and $600 in December.

The union is currently negotiating a new industrial agreement.

Dr Minnis told ZNS: “I understand the anger and the frustration of the Bahamian populace, especially those in the public service.

We are doing all we can.

We must understand that when we came into power, we met the economy and the landscape at the bottom of the pit. The economy has grown and continues to grow and we are taking ourselves out of the pit, but still have a lot to do. We want to ensure that we can continue to provide opportunities for everybody. We have organised a meeting on Saturday

with unions and all relevant personnel, all my ministers, so that we can make the unions know the state of the economy so that we can forge the way forward with the involvement of everybody, inclusive of the unions and we would see the direction we need to take not just for a few, but for the entire Bahamas.”

Dr Minnis also addressed recent unrest among junior doctors who went on strike on Wednesday, plunging the healthcare system into emergency mode.

Bahamas Doctors Union representatives said they had a favourable meeting with Dr Minnis on Wednesday but will continue their strike until their concerns are satisfactorily addressed.

Dr Minnis said: “They

WORKERS OUT IN SOLIDARITY IN GRAND BAHAMA

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

SOME 80 workers from the various trade unions on Grand Bahama staged a “solidarity march” yesterday in Freeport in support of junior doctors and over unresolved outstanding issues with the government.

The group first gathered at the Harold DeGregory Government Complex, where the Office of the Prime Minister is located in Freeport, only to be met by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force who prohibited them from marching on the grounds.

Leading the group were Tasha Bullard-Hamilton, area vice president of the Bahamas Public Services Union, and Kirkland Russell, vice president of the Bahamas Hotel Managerial Association. They were also joined by union representatives from the Bahamas Customs and Immigration Union, and Bahamas Nurses Union.

Ms Hamilton explained that they were not demonstrating or staging any protest, but merely showing their support for “our brothers and sisters” in Nassau.

“We were met on the

THE SOLIDARITY march in Freeport yesterday. property by officers of the police force, they stopped us from marching, she said.

“We had no placards, it was not a demonstration; it was to show that we are unified and standing with brothers and sisters in Nassau.”

“Such a situation should never happen in The Bahamas,” said Mr Russell, who felt that the action of the police was a violation of the rights of workers’ freedom of movement.

“We were obstructed by the RBPF who refused to let us march peacefully. They diverted us on the grass and continued to follow and harass us, and not allow us to move about freely in peaceful manner,” he said.

“That is something our

union leaders and lawyers ought to look at and visit the commissioner of police to resolve that. You don’t need a licence or permit to move about in this country, and I think it was a poor display; it was an attack on workers’ constitutional

rights. Those things should not happen, and we call on the minister of national security to take a look at that, and... ensure that kind of treatment never happens to workers again.”

Ms Bullard said the march showed that unions are unified on Grand Bahama.

“We estimated some 80 persons that marched today. We stand in solidarity as our brothers and sisters are doing in Nassau to show that the unions are no longer divided, but unified in their cause,” she said.

She indicated that the industrial agreements of all unions with the government have expired since 2017.

Mrs Hamilton said that they should have already had a new agreement last

year, however the negotiations with government are at an impasse.

After being barred from the government complex, the group went over to the Rand Memorial Hospital to support the junior doctors who are on strike in Freeport and Nassau. Ms Hamilton reported that the doctors were called into active negotiations with hospital officials at the time.

“We are here to show our support for them as they fight for what they are entitled to,” she said. “We will continue to agitate until we

get results.”

Mr Russell, vice president of Commonwealth of the Bahamas Trade Union Congress, believes there is a renewed sense of solidarity among workers and unions in the Bahamas.

“It is something that we can only begin to compare with the 1958 general strike.

I want to send a stern warning that if the government does not begin to truly treat the union and workers with respect, the unions and workers are fired up, and will do what they have to do, and The Bahamas will resemble 1958.”

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A long, hot summer of trouble AT the start of the summer, this column raised a question: Is a summer of discontent heading our way?

Fast forward to yesterday, with public servants marching on the streets and junior doctors only providing emergency service and it appears the answer was very much yes.

Back in May, when we raised that question, we had urged both sides to get on with the one thing that was needed most – talk.

That remains one of the outstanding items on the to-do list. Civil servants marching yesterday were seeking higher wages – but they were also wanting to get on with negotiating their outstanding industrial agreement.

Bahamas Public Services Union president Kimsley Ferguson said as they gathered outside where Cabinet was meeting that “we would be delighted to sit outside and hear what the government is going to present”.

Meanwhile, junior doctors were on strike for a second day, bringing nonemergency services grinding to a halt.

Some of the stories emerging from that show the real pain that people are experiencing from the withdrawal of services, from complaints in the maternity ward to families being unable to identify their loved ones. Society affected from the cradle to the grave.

These are not the only disputes – and there may still be more to come, with the teachers union seeking a 20 percent pay rise and the government busily turning out its empty pockets.

There lies the heart of the problem.

The government says simply that it has no money to offer.

Already, the government had been signalling it might miss its deficit forecast and pointing the finger of blame at unions that might seek more than the government could afford.

That came before the government suddenly realised just how badly the ongoing power crisis was affecting the country and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest was told to shake out the piggy bank and see what could be done to sort that out. With more borrowing possibly to come there, it leaves the money available to negotiate deals with

unions thin on the ground.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said the country is “taking ourselves out of the pit, but still have a lot to do”. He says the government will try to make the unions know “the state of the economy” which sounds far from the confident boasts from leaders after the last unemployment figures or the projected record-breaking tourism numbers.

So why is the government in this position? That was the question too of National Congress of Trade Unions president Bernard Evans, who said it was “hard to fathom” how it was so hard to strike a deal with unions after economic growth and the hike in VAT. He wants to know why the government is “in such dire financial straits”.

The signs have been there for some time that the government’s pockets are empty – from reduced plans for National Health Insurance to delayed spending in other areas. At the same time, the word came from Minister of Health Dr Duane Sands this week that the government didn’t want to impose the sugary drinks tax he had suggested – or any tax for that matter.

So are the coffers empty? And if so was nothing budgeted to meet the demands of unions or even just the standard renegotiations of deals that were due to come up?

There are many questions regarding individual deals with unions – but perhaps the broader question is whether the government was in a position to make any deals. Has it been stalling for time?

Is this why negotiations are outstanding? And if so, then when does it expect to be able to make good on matters?

Unions can play their part if the situation is as dire as the government paints – by looking to agree multi-year deals where the benefits come in after the first year. But to do so, they need to be sure the information they are given is correct, and that promises made now will be honoured over the duration of any deal.

Remember – there are more disputes to come. The summer of discontent might be almost over – let’s hope it’s not followed by an autumn and a winter of trouble too.

Power to the people EDITOR, The Tribune.

WE are an island nation that has gone from fairly consistent power generation in our capital city to having power outages every single day.

This is the present state of the energy regime here in our Bahamaland right now.

We have sun, sand, and sea, but yet we have no solar farms to harness free energy from our nearest star, no large scale biomass/biofuel generation from plants like Cannabis that we can grow sustainably in our soil, and no wave energy generation units that would be powered almost perpetually by the strong ocean currents that run between our islands.

Modern Energy reform will be one of the primary contributors to the future success of the Bahamian economy. We Bahamians cannot continue sitting idly by and letting successive administrations repeat the mistake of

relying on fossil fuels.

Yes, The Bahamas has options that easily could be implemented. There is no reason for our energy policy to be rigidly set in the stone ages, beholden to outside resources when we are more than capable of generating enough renewable energy to meet and exceed our needs.

Independence isn’t just a word. It is shown by a nation’s actions. The Bahamas at present is extremely reliant upon the energy policies of foreign oil-producing nations.

Wouldn’t an independent government seek to break free from such obvious controls?

When oil prices go up, so does the price of everything in the Bahamian economy.

Presently we import over 80% of what we and our 7+ million annual tourists consume.

Ships and planes run on fuel to get goods here to these islands. Stores pay high utility bills to keep their power going,

so that customers can shop. Customers mostly use their cars or public transportation to get to these stores.

The bottom line is that we rely on outside resources to power our society.

Dependency on others is not a good look for any nation.

Energy regimes affect everything in today’s world.

Shouldn’t energy reform be a key focus for governments globally, especially small island states that are now facing the brunt of climate change? It is time for The Bahamas to create and maintain a modern, truly independent, renewable and sustainable energy regime. One that is agile enough to adapt to our growing population and friendly enough to the environment to significantly decrease humanity’s collective affect on the planet.

Anything less would be uncivilised.

YORICK BROWN Nassau, August 11, 2019.

The greater good for our community EDITOR, The Tribune.

NAVIGATING through life can be a very simple process, but we human beings, although positioned at the top of the evolution chain, are amazingly dumb animals when you think about it, especially if we haven’t been properly prepared and sufficiently anchored to a firm foundation.

Three simple words – ie “the greater good” that can be extracted from the firm grounding established within family and community – can be the mantra for us to exist harmoniously on this planet and on these 700 rocks and cays, but unfortunately it just isn’t happening!

If we examine our recent history within the parameters of my almost seven decades of existence, it is amazing how our path has diverged so sharply. We have moved from being a community (in the “true true” sense of the word) of caring people who knew, shared, and looked out for one another, into a rabble of selfish, uncaring all-for-me, “grabilicious” specimens of humanity, in spite of how often and how loudly we claim to be a “Christian nation”!

A lack of values and morals as a result of the breakdown of the extended family structure, a deficient education system, and personal selfishness and greed, have all contributed to this negative turnaround with “gubment” and “politricks”

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net (from all sides) playing their part in perpetuating this travesty.

Cases in point include: (1) There are too many young people who are being “dragged up” in a deficient family environment, rather than being brought up by a caring extended family.

Poverty is a problem, education is not a priority and it is failing them. They are angry, frustrated, and hopeless. With no positive way to direct this negativity, they are turning inwards to alcohol or drugs, or outwards towards hurting one another. This scenario does not bode well for the future of our country, and we strongly suggest the use of creativity and the arts to counteract this imbalance.

(2) I read on social media that the driver of a car in Nassau had to screech to a sudden stop to avoid running over a baby who was CREEPING on to the road, followed by a young child who rescued the baby since the unfazed adult present wasn’t even checking!

(3) STDs are on the rise again– these disturbing statistics speak for themselves as to what kind of society we are living in!

(4) A “gubment” board appointee with a matching surname to that of the country’s leader, has been allowed to utter totally degrading, racist-tinged comments - even going so

far as to threaten barring fellow Bahamian citizens’ rights to free movement in their own country - without any resulting reprimands or consequences! The mind boggles!

(5) The ongoing and tedious ‘combruction’ over the relocation of the general Post Office to the Town Centre Mall is ridiculous!

The main reason for an immediate relocation which was better and safer premises for the workers who were constantly suffering in the hot, wet, moldy and rodent infested structure downtown - has been seemingly forgotten!

Amongst all of the continuous nauseating chatter, only one person from a union group, to my knowledge, has mentioned the fact that the workers are now housed in sanitary, spacious and comfortable premises which are conducive to their health and wellbeing... whilst everyone else is continuing to carry on with foolishness for political mileage and mischief, even to the point of threatening a “vote of no confidence”!

Seriously, with all of the social problems we are experiencing in this country, you ‘politicians’ need to get over it, and get on with the business of improving and building our country TOGETHER FOR THE GREATER GOOD! PAM BURNSIDE Nassau, August 2, 2019.

Is PLP pro-gay?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

BAHAMIANS mustn’t put too much stock into a Nassau based downmarket tabloid newspaper, which recently asserted that there is currently an ongoing intramural feud between heterosexuals and homosexuals in the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).

Bahamians must give the PLP the benefit of the doubt that the there is absolutely no merit to the said allegations, especially in light

of the party’s decades old tradition of holding prayer breakfast meetings during convention and in engaging Christian ministers.

The PLP is deeply rooted in the Baptist fundamentalist tradition. Remember, it was the late Dr Harcourt W Brown, pastor of the historic Bethel Baptist Church, who assisted the fledgling PLP during the 1960s for the achievement of Majority Rule. Still, with our penchant for engaging in deductive reasoning, the

PLP troika of Philip Brave Davis, Chester Cooper and Fred Mitchell should issue a formal statement regarding their political organisation’s position on the LGBT matter. Is the PLP pro-gay or not? Inquiring minds want to know. Is it high time that the ongoing LGBT speculations are laid to rest.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama August 21, 2019.

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, August 23, 2019, PAGE 5

Haitians in dark over visa ban from page one

“I believe that measure will bother some families of some people who have relatives in Haiti, who possibly would wish to visit them.

We hope that it’s something that’s not going to be for a long time.

“However, we need to recognise The Bahamas is a sovereign country. They are free to decide when or whom can receive their own visa.”

The government

announced the suspension in a short statement on Wednesday, citing “current technical and other challenges”.

The suspension does not include nationals who are officials, diplomats or holders of a US, UK, Canadian or Schengen visa, the government said.

It follows Haiti’s corruption probe into its Nassau embassy, which Mr Edmond previously said revealed “unacceptable situations” and “wrongdoing” at the local embassy.

Since Haiti’s commission of inquiry in July, five Haitian embassy officials have been transferred out of the country, including former Chargé d’Affaires François Michel.

According to Le Nouvelliste, a Haitian newspaper, Mr Edmond raised the issue of trafficking of residence visas in The Bahamas.

The newspaper reported, quoting the Haitian foreign minister as saying: “Some people have gone directly through diplomats who have used their

THE SCENE on Wednesday night in Martins Close where 20-year-old Ashton Smith was shot dead.

20-YEAR-OLD’S MURDER WAS 58TH OF THE YEAR

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE man who was shot dead on Wednesday night in the area of Cowpen Road has been identified as 20-year-old Ashton Smith.

He is the country’s 58th murder victim of the year, according to this newspaper’s records.

Police said Smith, who celebrated his birthday two months ago, was sitting on the stairway of

an apartment complex at Martins Close off Cowpen Road when he and others were approached by a man who opened fire in their direction, injuring him.

He was pronounced dead on the scene.

His family yesterday was still processing his death.

In recent weeks, the gap between the number of murders last year and this year has started to close.

At this point last year there were 61 murders, according to The Tribune’s records, five percent more

than now.

Smith’s death follows the double killing of two best friends, 23-year-old Dion Adderley and Demetrius Dormeus, 22, who were gunned down at their Pinewood home on Monday night. In interviews with The Tribune this week, Devaughnia Adderley, 19, and her mother Elizabeth Gordon described how a game of dominoes on the porch turned into a horrific nightmare for their family.

Investigations into these matters continue.

influence to help them get the visa.

Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield told The Tribune this week the suspension of visas is not connected to that; and this sentiment was echoed by Mr Edmond yesterday.

“It’s our decision,” Mr Edmond said regarding the embassy transfers. “The decision of government of Haiti has nothing to do with the Bahamas. We believe it was necessary to make some decisions to send a very strong signal to say we

are not going to tolerate any action contrary to our rules.”

Mr Edmond said he has not yet spoken to Mr Henfield concerning the suspension of visa services.

“To be honest my colleague (Mr Henfield) called me (Wednesday) but I was unavailable to speak to him, but I guess it was to inform me of the government of The Bahamas’ decision. We did not know what is the reason, I will have to speak to him very soon so we can discuss and I can find

out exactly what are the reasons.”

He added: “But The Bahamas has sovereignty, the only thing I would have to discuss with him is to find out the reasons and I will have to make a representation in that respect. Keep in mind this decision can affect family members of those Haitian-Bahamians who have relatives in Haiti, who probably will wish to come for a funeral, baptism, wedding, so hopefully that measures aren’t going to go on for very long.”

Photos: Terrel W Carey/Tribune Staff

PAGE 6, Friday, August 23, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Treatment of patients ‘legalised apartheid’ THE treatment of patients in the public wards at the Princess Margaret Hospital was compared with “legalised apartheid” yesterday.

Tribune publisher Robert Carron, former Deputy Chairman of the Public Hospitals Authority board, explained there was a stark contrast between the treatment of public and private patients.

Mr Carron said he was forewarned by Health Minister Dr Duane Sands before taking up the board post but did not understand until he personally witnessed the distinct difference in care.

“If you go by the PMH, it’s absolutely legalised apartheid that is practiced up there,” Mr Carron said on Guardian show The Revolution, “that’s what Dr Sands said and I thought it was a bit harsh but going up there I understand completely.

“You cannot have that. It has to end and it has to end now.”

Mr Carron continued: “When you go to a hospital anywhere else in the world, if you were injured playing a game they don’t say to you ‘Excuse me, do you have the means or you don’t?’

“You’re treated in the same room, with the same physicians, with the same staff agnostic of if you can pay or if you cannot pay. That’s a decision they have later.

“So what I say that to mean is you are a 100 percent higher more likely to die in the public wards according to that same report than you are in the private wards. But it’s the same for everybody.”

Mr Carron was referring to a report prepared for a

THE RADIOLOGY department at Princess Margaret Hospital.

PHA board committee that was formed to transform the country’s delivery of healthcare.

Among critical needs assessed were: fast-tracking the refurbishment of the PMH A&E

Department; reallocating funds - which had been diverted by the PLP – back into completing critical repairs to hurricane damaged wards and PMH roof; restoring vendor relationships and paying off years of accounts

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff receivables to ensure the supply of medicines and supplies; ordering new radiology equipment; getting ambulances repaired and back on the road; replacing washing machines and ordering sanitisation machines for the

laundry; and instilling a culture of accountability and teamwork focused on patient care.

“It was a whole team of us that were doing it and his mandate was to eradicate the toxic combination

of systemic corruption, lackadaisical leadership, nepotism, entitlement and all the other things that bring (the hospital) to what you see is unconscionable neglect, that lack of accountability,” said Mr Carron.

READERS GIVE THEIR VIEWS ON JUNIOR DOCTOR STRIKE AFTER 400 junior doctors went on strike over longstanding disputes, readers discussed the issue on tribune242.com.

Joeblow said: “This is a two way street, doctors deserve to be fairly treated and compensated, but the public deserve for them to do their jobs professionally, efficiently and competently! Sadly, too many do not do their jobs properly!”

There was this from CatIslandBoy: “The term

‘junior doctors’ does not refer to their level of expertise, but instead their time of serving at PMH. To compare them to doctors serving in the United States may be unfair, but $45k as a salary is still

low. On the other hand, while the pay of public servants in general needs to be improved, a conversation is definitely to be had regarding funding sources.”

The Bahamas Petroleum Company hailed its “rapid progress” towards drilling a first exploratory well in Bahamian waters during the 2020 first half – prompting this from DDK: “Between the mega cruise ships and oil drilling we should probably

record the beauty of our sands and seas for posterity. There is no limit to the greed and short-sightedness of politicians and corporations . . .”

Godson said: “This should be opposed by all citizens of the Bahamas and by all persons at all levels.

Our environment is our second greatest resource and should be protected unconditionally with no regard for monetary gain.

This despicable act should be stopped!!!”

But Proudloudandfnm had this to say: “Oh please, ya’ll stop freaking out. You know how many super tankers transit our waters every single day of every single year? You know how many planes approach Freeport’s runway directly over billions of tons of fuel oil every year? The risk you all scream about is here and has been here for aeons and will always be here. Get over it . . . Stop freaking out! This is good news!”

And in The Tribune’s

latest online poll, we’re asking readers if they agree with trade union leaders that the minimum wage should be increased to between $250-$300 per week.

At the time of going to press, 65 percent of those voting said they supported the call for an increase.

35 percent were against the idea.

• Don’t miss your chance to join the debate on tribune242.com.

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, August 23, 2019, PAGE 7

DWAYNE DECOSTA, former reserve police officer, accused of unlawful sex with a minor.

Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

Child ‘rape’ victim stays silent from page one The 14-year-old’s testimony came during Decosta’s trial alleging he had unlawful sexual intercourse with her on July 14, 2018 in the precincts of the South Beach Police Station.

Before she gave her evidence yesterday, Justice Grant-Thompson asked the girl a series of questions in response to defence attorney Murrio Ducille’s suggestion that because of the nature of the case and her age, a voir dire (a trial within a trial) should be held.

Some of those questions were whether the girl knew what it meant to take an

oath in court, which she said she didn’t. However, the girl did say she understood the difference between telling the truth and a lie, and said she had no reason to tell a lie in relation to the matter.

The 14-year-old ultimately revealed that on the date in question, she was at her grandmother’s house where her mother also lives.

She said she stayed there until 6am.

The girl, who was 13 at the time, said at some point, she poured water in her mother’s bedroom. Her mother subsequently took her to her father’s house, dropped her there and drove off. The girl said she was there until sometime after six.

At some point, her father’s neighbour saw her and took her to the South Beach Police Station. She said when she got there, she was instructed to sit down. Meanwhile, she said her father’s neighbour gave a report to the police then left.

Crown prosecutor Jacqueline Burrows subsequently tried to get the girl to testify about what she told police had allegedly happened to her by Decosta.

“Tell us what happened,” Ms Burrows said. There was no reply.

Justice Grant-Thompson then said: “(Young lady) can you answer Crown counsel?”

MARISA MASON-SMITH

MASON-SMITH TAKES UP OMBUDSMAN ROLE AT UB THE UNIVERSITY of The Bahamas has announced the appointment of Marisa Mason-Smith as the first ombudsman for the institution and in the Bahamas.

In this role, Ms MasonSmith will, through consulting, mediation and negotiation, provide impartial, neutral, and confidential third party assistance to students, faculty, staff and administrators seeking dispute resolution.

Reporting to the board of trustees, Ms Mason-Smith will formulate, manage and monitor the overall goals, programmes, budget and direction of the Office of

Ombudsman while overseeing informal mediation services, developing and maintaining confidential notes and statistical data on complaints and concerns, according to a UB press release.

The Office of the Ombudsman reports to the board of trustees and acts as a liaison between individuals or groups and campus administration.

“Ms Mason-Smith has more than 25 years of experience in strategic leadership roles in the public and private sectors,” UB noted. “Previously, she strategically created, developed and implemented human resource policies,

procedures and standards for clients and organisations.”

In 2018, Ms Mason-Smith served as the assistant general manager of human resources and training at Bahamas Power and Light, later transitioning to become president and CEO of People First International (PFI). Prior to joining UB, she was a consultant for the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) and worked on the Citizen and Security Justice Programme, executed through the Ministry of National Security focusing on employability training.

She is an adjunct UB faculty member.

There was still no reply from the teenager.

It was only when Ms Burrows asked the teenager “what happened” a second time that she replied, almost inaudibly: “Nothing”.

Immediately after that, Justice Grant-Thompson asked the teenager: “Are you okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl replied.

“You need a moment?” the judge prodded.

“No ma’am,” the young witness said.

Ms Burrows subsequently continued in her attempts to get the girl to say what had allegedly happened, but the teen kept staring at the floor and would not respond. Even

when the judge asked her if she intended to answer the Crown’s questions, she remained silent, staring at the floor.

After a brief break to give the girl some time to compose herself, Ms Burrows attempted to show her a video captured from the police station’s surveillance cameras.

In that video, which captured the foyer area and the station’s glass front doors leading outside, a woman could be seen being escorted into the station by an officer, who points to a chair in which she eventually sits.

While the video was playing, however, the girl had her head lowered and

would only glance fleetingly at the screen; she looked down at the floor most of the time. However, she said she did see the video.

When asked by the prosecutor to point out where she was in the video, the girl gave no reply. When the prosecutor asked the girl what had happened in the video, she continued to stare at the floor.

From that point on, the only other question she answered was one from the prosecutor about what she was wearing on the date in question. The girl said she was wearing a grey coloured jacket and short, pink pants.

The case continues on Monday.

PAGE 8, Friday, August 23, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

O T K BAC L O O SCH

SCHOOL bells are ringing across the nation, and once again, the dreaded school run is right back upon us.

Yes, I will miss having my sons around the house, keeping me busy all day, while eating everything in sight.

However, I am a firm believer in that old saying “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

So back to school you go, my sons, study hard and learn well, as I get back to enjoying peace and quiet between the hours of 6am and 3pm.

(Working morning radio has its perks).

So, as we all prepare for back to school, and the good, bad and ugly it brings.

Here are a few funny ones to help you laugh

One girl stands up timidly.

“Please sir,” she asks, “may we have our teacher back?”

FIRST OF MANY through the ordeal that is back to school.

KNOW YOUR PUPILS A headmaster, new to the school, is making his rounds, when he hears a terrible commotion coming from one of the classrooms.

He rushes in and spots one boy, taller than the

others, who seems to be making the most noise.

He seizes the young man, drags him to the hall, and tells him to wait there until further instruction.

Returning to the classroom, the headmaster restores order and lectures the class for half an hour about the importance of good behaviour.

Afterwards he asks the class, “Are there any questions?”

A middle school boy comes home, from his first day at school.

His mother asked him, ‘What did you learn today?’

He replied…

‘Not enough. I have to go back tomorrow.’

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE Early one morning, a mother went in to wake up

her son.

MOTHER ‘Wake up, son. It’s time to go to school.’

SON - ‘But why, Mom? I don’t want to go.’

MOTHER - ‘Give me two reasons why you don’t want to go.’

SON - ‘Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me, too!’

MOTHER - ‘Oh, that’s no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready.’

SON- ‘Give me two reasons why I should go to school.’

MOTHER - ‘Well, for one, you’re 52 years old.

And for another, you’re the Principal!’

SUMMER IS OVER The summer holiday was over and young Tyrone returned to public school.

Only two days later his teacher phoned his mother to tell her that Tyrone was misbehaving and acting out.

“Wait a minute,” the mother said. “ had Tyrone with me for eight weeks and I never called you once when he misbehaved or acted out!

HOMEWORK One night a father came home, and he was astonished to see his son Toby sitting on his “hobby horse”, writing something.

“What on earth are you doing there?“ he asked his son.

“Well, the teacher told

us to write an essay on our favourite animal.”

Answered Toby, continuing with “That’s why I’m here and that’s why my sister is sitting in the goldfish bowl.”

RUNNING LATE In closing, I will leave you with a poem from Gareth Lancaster: I got up late for school today, And nearly missed the bus!

I hurried down the stairs, Wolfed my toast, and caused a fuss!

I quickly threw books in my bag, My pens, my lunch and shorts.

Grabbed my coat from out the cupboard, Took my bat and ball for sports.

I slid across the kitchen floor, And hopped around the cat!

Then expertly rolled over, Jumped back up and grabbed my hat!

I belted out of our front door, Spun round and swung it shut.

Saw the bus was waiting for me, I felt I had time to strut!

I climbed aboard and then froze still, And knew that things weren’t right!

My friends fell down in fits of fun, And pointed with delight!

My face went red, I couldn’t breathe, For in my haste I knew, I’d forgotten to wear my pants and shirt, and I only had on one shoe.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, August 23, 2019, PAGE 9

Man cleared over friend’s Independence Day shooting

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net THE Court of Appeal has overturned a man’s manslaughter conviction in connection with the shooting death of his friend on Independence Day 2017.

The appellate tribunal of Sir Hartman Longley, Stella Crane-Scott and Milton Evans unanimously set aside Dino Smith’s conviction in connection with Levardo Sherman Deveaux’s death.

Before this, Smith was serving an 18-year sentence for manslaughter in connection with Deveaux’s death.

The Windsor Lane resident was initially charged with murder, but the jury

did not return an acceptable guilty verdict on that charge. However, it returned a 9-3 guilty verdict for manslaughter.

The court subsequently withdrew the murder charge and accepted the guilty verdict for manslaughter.

Police initially reported that shortly after noon on the date in question, Deveaux was on Fowler Street, off East Street, sitting in an open yard with a group of people when a black Nissan Teana drove past, heading west.

The car then turned around, headed east, and a gunman got out of the vehicle on the rear passenger’s side and shot Deveaux before getting back into the vehicle and speeding off in

an unknown direction.

Deveaux was taken to hospital in a private vehicle, where he died of his injuries shortly after his arrival.

However, by the time the trial took place, the Crown’s evidence had changed drastically.

According to the Court of Appeal ruling, the Crown’s case was sometime after noon on July 10, 2017, Deveaux and Smith left the Fowler Street area in a vehicle driven by the deceased.

While in the vehicle, Smith shot Deveaux in the back seat, the Crown claimed. Deveaux subsequently begged Smith to take him to the hospital, a request he honoured.

Smith, according to the

OLIVIA DORSETT, of the Pet Food Institute (PFI) at the Bahamas Humane Society summer camp.

EXPERT ADVICE FOR KIDS AT HUMANE SOCIETY SUMMER CAMP EVENT A BAHAMAS Humane Society summer camp welcomed guests from the US-based Pet Food Institute recently.

Youngsters got to quiz the experts on what foods are safe for their four-legged friends to eat - with representative Olivia Dorsett quizzing campers on what of their favourite foods could be dangerous for pets.

“Name a food you love that may be bad for your pet,” asked Dorsett on behalf of PFI, an association whose members make 98 percent of all US dog and cat food products.

Hands shot up and answers bellowed. “Chocolate! Grapes! Nuts!”

“You all are correct,” said Dorsett. “It can only take a handful of grapes to harm a dog. We love our pets so much that we give them whatever they beg for. We fall for the big bright eyes or the sad look, but, while sharing food with your puppy may seem like a welldeserved treat, you could be risking your dog’s life. In fact, many of the foods in your house can trigger toxic reactions in pets.”

Dorsett continued the lesson by passing around food such as raisins, avocados, chocolate, grapes and macadamia nuts to reinforce the idea that the same foods that people enjoy daily can cause pets to experience symptoms of appetite loss and vomiting.

The visit to the Bahamas

SHELLEY HARDMAN, education coordinator of the Bahamas Humane Society, with children at the summer camp.

Humane Society is one of the many annual outreach initiatives undertaken by the Bahamas arm of PFI Caribbean.

This was the second year that Dorsett visited the Society and spoke to the children.

“Many of the children who attended last year’s camp session where I shared remembered so much of the information,” she said.

“I was equally impressed when some shared how they were able to educate the adults in their lives on the poor pet feeding practices they unknowingly participate in.”

Shelley Hardman, education coordinator of the Bahamas Humane Society,

agreed that educating the local population on the proper way to care for their animals is critical in helping lower the number of pets who find themselves in the care of the society or local vet office She said: “We have more than 400 animals that need to be cared for daily, so any interested volunteers age 14 and over are more than welcome to join. Our wonderful volunteers come out each day and we would love to see that number grow and the wider community gets involved and lends a helping hand.”

For more information about PFI and pet food products, visit www.petfoodinstitute.org.

Crown, got in the driver’s seat and proceeded to take a detour to pick up a female friend, with whom he concocted a story about the shooting.

Smith then went to the hospital and upon arrival, Deveaux got out of the vehicle. Smith subsequently left.

While Deveaux was being prepped for surgery, his sister Shantique Miller came to see him. She went to the trauma room where she saw her brother connected to four drips. She also noticed that he was sweating profusely and was wearing an oxygen mask.

Ms Miller asked her brother what had happened to him, but because he was groaning in pain, she had to

lean over him to hear what he was saying.

He subsequently told her that “Dino from the Big Yard” shot him. When Ms Miller asked him to repeat what he said, Deveaux replied: “Dino, Dino.”

Before the doctor could rush him into surgery, Deveaux asked his sister to pray with him because he didn’t think he would make it out of surgery alive.

He died of his injuries while in surgery.

Meanwhile, Smith’s case was that he and Deveaux were friends, and that on the date in question, Deveaux asked him to accompany him to Dorsette Alley to help him sell a gun to a person by the name of “Georgie”.

Upon arriving at Dorsette Alley, Georgie got in the back passenger seat behind Deveaux who was in the driver’s seat. Deveaux subsequently gave the firearm to Georgie to examine it.

While Georgie was doing so, however, a single shot went off by accident, which ripped through the driver’s seat and struck Deveaux.

Georgie subsequently left with the firearm. Smith maintained he then drove Deveaux back to Fowler Street to get assistance from Keora Gray before taking Deveaux to the hospital where he later died.

Attorney David Cash represented Smith during both the trial and the appeal.

Photos: Cay Focus Photography/DPA

PAGE 10, Friday, August 23, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

AN AERIAL view of fuel leaks at Clifton in 2017 and, below, swimmers covered in oil in 2015.

Where was the battle to clean up Clifton won? The courtroom If you think the environmental woes of the world will be solved by tree-hugging, species-loving do-gooders, you’re so wrong.

Sure, all the volunteers who clean up beaches or protect nesting sea turtles or rid streets of abandoned vehicles and persuade regular folks that only stupid people litter are valuable.

Thank heavens for every last one of their initiatives.

Without them, the world would be a far dirtier, smellier, more dangerous place to live. And we could run out of fresh water and precious resources even faster if it weren’t for those who care on a daily basis.

But if you want to know what will really save the environment, it’s the legal system. Yes, those same lawyers who pack laptops and papers into leather

satchels and may never have camped in the woods a day in their power-suited lives will be the ones who save the planet.

Because the real fight for the environment takes place on a battlefield known as the courtroom.

I first learned that lesson from Robert F Kennedy, Jr. It was 2013, the first time I heard him speak in Nassau. Kennedy was here to announce the first Waterkeepers Alliance licence for The Bahamas and, through the Coalition to Protect Clifton, help the Bahamas National Trust launch Conchservation.

“The law,” he said between bites of cracked conch and peas ‘n rice at Arawak Cay. Basically, it works like this. An environmental protection organisation, known as the

JOSEPH DARVILLE, of the Waterkeepers Alliance, examining an oil leak.

good guys, takes the bad guys, the defendants, who are polluting a river, lake or bay to court. The good guys win, the bad guys have to clean up the mess they made and the damages awarded the good guys go right back into suing the next bad guys who are polluting or fishing illegally or killing wildlife on an endangered species list. And on it goes.

That’s the thing about the environment that makes it so interesting. It’s easy to sort out the good guys from the bad guys. With Kennedy, who was head of environmental law at New York’s PACE University, as well as chairman of Waterkeepers Alliance worldwide, it started with New York’s Hudson River.

Once a posh summer address, its shores dotted with lavish estates, the once pristine river became a poisonous cesspit. Years of polluting factories across in New Jersey turned the water brown. Dead fish floated on the surface.

Every year, more grand homes were boarded up and abandoned. Real property

taxes fell and elected officials panicked.

Kennedy and team took the case and they won.

Manufacturing plants had to clean up the river – and their act. The money Waterkeepers Alliance was awarded it plunged right into the next case and the money from that victory into the next.

When Waterkeepers Alliance - with its goal to make all waters must be fishable, swimmable and drinkable turned its attention to The Bahamas, a legal team was assembled headed by Callenders partner Fred Smith.

The first action was Clifton Bay. For decades, Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), now BPL had been wantonly polluting the southwest bays with worldfamous coral reefs packed with colourful marine life.

Divers came from as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Videography of the undersea world just off New Providence and Lyford Cay was breathtaking.

But year after year, the leakage from the heavy fuel of BEC’s power generation plant got worse, taking its

toll on the reefs and the life they support. The current Minister of Environment and Housing, Romi Ferreira, saw it happen.

Working at BEC as an engineer, witnessing the slow polluting of a stunning marine environment, inspired him to earn a degree in environmental law.

While we are all fretting and sweating and praying to anyone who might be listening to end the loadshedding and give us light, we failed to notice the problem that used to be BPL’s most visible flaw has vanished. The thick, black oil, the grimy, slimy grunge that stuck swimmers’ hair together like super glue, covered boat bottoms and draped the underwater statues off Clifton Heritage Park is gone.

Where did the problem of oil seeping into the limestone, making its way out in gooey oil slicks and smothering reefs go?

It went to court. In February 2016, the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay, better known as Save The Bays, filed suit against five

defendants, including the then-Minister of Environment, Attorney General, Deputy Prime Minister, and BEC. A little more than two years later, the court order was stamped making little known legal history – the first voluntary agreement between parties that if the defendant cleaned up its act, the plaintiff would hold off suing.

In the words of the court order signed by Justice Indra Charles, it was a cooperation exercise with parties “desirous of engaging in a cooperation exercise with the view to resolving the underlying environmental issue”.

Robert Kennedy was right. So were Fred Smith and his team of dedicated lawyers from Callenders who do more work pro bono than most law firms do for pay (though this particular action was not pro bono).

The battle to save the environment will take place not in a field or forest, nor in the ocean or a threatened pond but in the cool, airconditioned battleground of the court room.

COULD WEST HILL STREET BE A MODEL FOR MORE OF DOWNTOWN NASSAU? AS NASSAU’S historic Bay Street struggles to retain any of its original architectural integrity, West Hill Street just a few blocks south is re-creating a period feel with shuttered secondstorey windows, narrow

doors, archways and interesting vibe.

True, the colours are more South Caribbean than traditional Bahamian but from the iconic always-award-winning Graycliff Hotel &

Restaurant on the eastern end across from Government House to the beautifully refurbished Doyle Estate that is now the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, West Hill Street is a model of

what can happen with a little imagination and a lot of courage.

Congratulations to the Gazarollis for everything from Graycliff to the chocolate factory, cigar factory, museum

with its many borrowed pieces from collections around the world, and all the little businesses in between.

Congrats, too, to Historic Charles Towne.

For those who may be

quick to criticise saying the recent overhead display of colourful spheres is not Bahamian, I say merely, So? Neither are burgers. But every now and then, they are both a real treat.

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, August 23, 2019, PAGE 11

Amazon ablaze

THIS August 15 satellite image shows a fire and cleared land southwest of Porto Velho Brazil. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research said the country has seen a record number of wildfires this year.

Photo: Maxar Technologies via AP RIO DE JANEIRO Associated Press AMID global concern about raging Amazon fires, Brazil yesterday said it was the target of a smear campaign by critics who contend President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing enough to curb widespread deforestation.

The growing threat to what some call “the lungs of the planet” has ignited a bitter dispute about who is to blame during the tenure of a leader who described Brazil’s rainforest protections as an obstacle to economic development.

The president’s defiance came as Brazilian federal experts reported a record number of wildfires across the country this year, up 84 percent over the same period in 2018. Satellite images show smoke from the Amazon reaching across the Latin American continent to the Atlantic coast and Sao Paulo,

Brazil’s biggest city, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Onyx Lorenzoni, the president’s chief of staff, accused European countries of exaggerating environmental problems in Brazil in order to disrupt its commercial interests.

“There is deforestation in Brazil, yes, but not at the rate and level that they say,” said Lorenzoni, according to Brazilian news website globo.com.

The allegation came after Germany and Norway, citing Brazil’s apparent lack of commitment to fighting deforestation, decided to withhold more than $60m in funds earmarked for sustainability projects in Brazilian forests.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the Amazon fires are an international crisis and that G-7 leaders should hold an urgent meeting about them at their summit in France this weekend.

“Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire,” Macron tweeted.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted: “In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon must be protected.”

Federal prosecutors in Brazil’s Amazon region launched investigations of increasing deforestation, according to local media. Prosecutors said they plan to probe possible negligence by the national government in the enforcement of environmental codes.

Bolivia is also struggling to contain big fires, many believed to have been set by farmers clearing land for cultivation.

Bolsonaro said there was a “very strong” indication that some non-governmental groups could be setting blazes in

A RESCUE helicopter with the first people injured by lightning that struck in Poland’s southern Tatra Mountains yesterday.

FIVE KILLED, OVER 100 HURT BY SERIES OF LIGHTNING STRIKES WARSAW, Poland Associated Press LIGHTNING struck across the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland and neighboring Slovakia yesterday, killing five people and injuring over 100 others in an area popular with hikers and families, authorities said.

Witnesses said the thunderstorm came suddenly on a day that began with clear weather. The lightning strikes pummeled Poland’s Giewont peak, a trekking destination that is 1,894m high, as well as other locations across the Tatras.

Four people were killed on the Polish side, including two children, a spokeswoman for the Polish air ambulance service, Kinga Czerwinska, said.

The Slovak rescue service said a Czech tourist fell hundreds of metres down the side of a mountain and was killed after lightning knocked him off Banikov peak.

Rescuers with the Polish Tatra emergency service, known as TOPR, said they believe the lightning probably hit some of the metal chains installed on Giewont peak to aid tourists in their climb.

Some of the injured were brought by helicopter to a hospital in the Polish mountain resort of Zakopane and Krakow province governor Piotr Cwik told reporters that the death toll could certainly rise.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who went to Zakopane, said some among the over 100 injured

were in very serious condition with severe burns or head injuries, as they fell after the lightning strikes or were hit by falling rocks. He extended his sympathies to their relatives.

The Tatras, part of the Carpathian mountain range, are the highest mountains in Poland and in Slovakia and attract tourists with scenic lakes and peaks that soar to 2,655m, Yesterday’s lightning strikes were the worst accident in the Tatras since August 1937, when lighting killed four people on Giewont.

Footage showed rescuers racing to a helicopter to get to the peak in rainy, foggy weather and then a helicopter landing at the hospital in Zakopane with injured people.

retaliation for losing state funds under his administration. He did not provide any evidence.

Bolsonaro, who won election last year, also accused media organisations of exploiting the fires to undermine his government.

“Most of the media wants Brazil to end up like Venezuela,” he said, referring to political and economic turbulence in the neighbouring South American country.

London-based Amnesty International blamed the Brazilian government for the fires, which have escalated international concern over the vast rainforest that is a major absorber of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The rights group this year documented illegal land invasions and arson attacks near indigenous territories in the Amazon, including Rondonia state, where many fires are raging, said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s secretary general.

Photo: Bartlomiej Jurecki/AP

WEINSTEIN TO BE BACK IN COURT NEW YORK Associated Press

HARVEY Weinstein is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on a new indictment, court officials said, as prosecutors seek to bolster their case with testimony from an actress who has accused him of a 1993 rape.

The disgraced movie mogul is due in court for the arraignment the same day an appeals court judge is expected to rule on his lawyers’ request to move his trial out of New York City.

Prosecutors have said that the new indictment is meant to fix a problem with the existing indictment and won’t result in additional charges. Nor should it delay Weinstein’s trial, which is scheduled to start September 9, they said.

Weinstein’s lawyers called the prosecutor’s decision to schedule a new arraignment “desperate measures” that “indicate more of a focus on obtaining a conviction at all costs than on seeking justice”.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office sought out the new indictment after a judge ruled that the actress, Anabella Sciorra, couldn’t testify at Weinstein’s trial because she hadn’t appeared before the grand jury that handed up the existing indictment.

SANDERS REVEALS HIS GREEN DEAL PARADISE, California Associated Press

DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released a $16.3 trillion climate plan yesterday that builds on the Green New Deal and calls for the United States to move to renewable energy across the economy by 2050 and declare climate change a national emergency.

While the Vermont senator had already endorsed the sweeping Democratic proposal to combat climate change and had teamed up with Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on climate legislation, Sanders’ plan provides the most detail yet on how he envisions tackling climate if he is elected president.

Sanders describes his plan as a “ten-year, nationwide mobilisation centered on equity and humanity” that would create 20 million new jobs. The Green New Deal resolution calls on the nation to eliminate its carbon footprint by 2030 and to shift away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Sanders also is calling for an overhaul of the nation’s transportation system by investing in electric vehicles, high-speed rail and expanded public transit.

PAGE 12, Friday, August 23, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Mr Trump, you can’t buy Greenland from Denmark

By FELICITY JENSZ Research associate professor, University of Münster Donald Trump is not the first US President to make an offer of buying Greenland from Denmark – but he might be the last.

Home of some 56,000 people and around 80% covered by ice, Greenland is culturally connected to Europe – but physiographically it is a part of the continent of North America.

The USA has purchased from the icy northern territories before. In 1867, they bought Alaska for $7.2m from Russia, who established settlements there in the late 18th century.

Then (as now) no local Indigenous people were consulted in the transaction.

A long history of American colonialism The history of settler colonialism in North America includes numerous land purchases, including with Indigenous peoples, such as

THE GREENLANDIC and Danish flags flying together and, inset, Donald Trump’s tweet cancelling his trip to Denmark. the 1737 Walking Purchase which tricked the Delaware Indians out of more than double the amount of land than they expected, purchased only for “goods”.

America has successfully purchased land from other European countries,

including over two million square kilometres of North America from France in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase for $15m.

The United States has also purchased Danish colonies before. In 1917, Denmark sold the Danish

West Indies ($25m) to the United States, which the Americans promptly renamed the United States Virgin Islands. This isn’t even the first time a US president has tried to buy Greenland – President Harry Truman offered to buy it from Denmark in 1946 for $100m.

America has also gained territory by force of arms, such as when Spain ceded the Philippines to the USA after the Spanish-American War with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in December 1898. And they have opportunistically annexed territories after they suffered internal political turmoil, such as in the case of the annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893 in the years after Queen Lili‘uokalani was overthrown.

A Dano-Norwegian colony Trump believes he can simply purchase Greenland from Denmark. Put bluntly, this is impossible, although the mistake is perhaps an easy one to make for someone with a colonial era mindset and only a passing familiarity with the region.

For the last two centuries, Greenland has predominately been a Danish colony, and, as the example of Alaska demonstrates, colonies were often sold and exchanged by imperial powers. Truman’s offer in 1946 was when Greenland was a Danish colony.

Leaving aside its Viking past, the colonial period for Greenland began in 1721, when the Danish-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede established a mission and began trading near present-day Nuuk, placing Greenland under joint control of the Dano-Norwegian monarchy. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Greenland became a sole colony under Denmark.

It remained a Danish colony until 1953, after a referendum sparked by Danish discomfort with the United Nations’ oversight of the relationship between Denmark and Greenlanders. Greenland was formally incorporated

into the Danish Realm as an autonomous territory without consultation with Greenlanders.

The reality was that Greenland was still a colony in all but name.

Striving for recognition Greenlanders continued striving for political recognition and autonomy from their former colonisers. The Greenland Home Rule Act in 1979 in was a step towards this autonomy, establishing Greenland’s own parliament and further sovereignty.

In 2008, the country hosted a referendum to support or oppose the Greenland Self-Government Act. Passing with 75% of the vote, it declared Greenlanders are a distinct people within the Danish Realm.

Politically, this placed the Greenlandic parliament on an equal basis with the Danish parliament – although this relationship is not always an easy one.

Some aspects of Greenland’s politics are still under Danish control, such as foreign policy, security and international agreements.

But under the current laws, Greenlanders have the right to self-determination, and any agreement to purchase Greenland – no matter who made it – would have to be agreed upon by Greenlanders.

‘Greenland is Greenlandic’ Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has dismissed Trump’s claims that Denmark essentially owns Greenland, stating that “Greenland is Greenlandic”.

Unlike in the Alaskan purchase of the nineteenth century, the agreement of Greenlanders would be essential for any “large real estate deal” that stripped them of their land and sovereignty.

Kim Kilesen, the Prime Minister of Greenland, has empirically stated that Greenland is not for sale.

And if it was, he would be the one to ask – not Denmark.

Greenland is not Denmark’s to sell.

QUEEN LILI‘UOKALANI, the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, photographed around 1891.