09272019 WEEKEND

Friday, September 27, 2019

art books film fashion music food gardening history puzzles theatre

Weekend

COOKING WITH HOT SAUCE Page 7

Into the kaleidoscope Artist’s multiplicity of vision

pages 14 & 15

02 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

theatre

Shakespeare in Paradise debuts 10 new plays Festival offers discounts for hurricane evacuees

By JEFFARAH GIBSON | Tribune Features Writer | jgibson@tribunemedia.net

T

EN original never before performed plays will be showcases during this year’s Shakespeare in Paradise Festival that opens on Sunday.

In its 11th annual year, Shakespeare in Paradise will feature four plays produced by Ringplay Productions: “Short Tales”, “Old Story Time”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, and “Measure for Measure”. The festival runs until October 12.

“Short Tales”, back for a second instalment, is the unique compilation of 10 original 10-minute plays

by Bahamian playwrights directed by both veteran and emerging Bahamian directors, with overall oversight by Dr Nicolette Bethel, assisted by Leslie Ellis-Tynes and Renee Caesar.

Trevor Rhone’s “Old Story Time”, directed by Anthony “Skeebo” Roberts, is a narrated family saga based primarily on a single mother’s attempts to control the life choices of her only son.

SIP’s artistic director, Philip A Burrows, is directing the musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in the intimate space of the Blackbox Theatre at the Dundas which bears is name.

Borrowing its name from the Fats Waller song, this wellknown musical showcases the music of Harlem Renaissance artists of the 1920s and ‘30s.

Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure”, directed by Jovanna Hepburn, “is laced

with modern-day themes as it highlights the unfortunate but relevant link between authority and hypocrisy”.

According to Patrice Francis of Ringplay Productions, one of the most exciting things about this year’s event is the world premiere of the 10 Bahamian short plays that are a part of “Short Tales”.

“These original plays have never been performed anywhere before so to see them for the first time one has to attend this festival,” she said.

Another new element of the festival this year was occasioned by the catastrophic Hurricane Dorian.

“Since we understand the healing power of the arts, SIP is inviting corporate Bahamas, community organisations and the general public to purchase a ticket for someone who can use a smile and love gift right now. While regular SIP tickets are $30 tickets, for evacuees they are set at $20. So, for a gift of $50 for instance, you may purchase a ticket to one show for yourself and one show for an evacuee,” said Ms Francis.

“Patrons do not have to know evacuees personally.

Once they come to the box office and indicate that they are purchasing for evacuees our team will liaise with personnel at local shelters so that those persons directly affected by the hurricane can receive this gift of the arts,” she said.

Given the recent setbacks at the Dundas Centre, having

“Short Tales” rehearsals; the collection of short plays is the brainchild of festival director Dr Nicolette Bethel.

Novie Pierre in the musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’”

been broken into and vandalised, Ms Francis said it took a whole lot of effort to mount the festival.

“It takes a lot of dedication, creativity and volunteerism because the money that it takes to mount four quality productions is simply not there. SIP is going on because we have no needs, but in spite of those needs, because some of us have decided that theatre is not optional,” she said.

Ms Francis said they have been blessed to have directors who are passionately and actively involved in the relief efforts post-Dorian.

“For them, our theatres have been more than a rehearsal space, but somewhere they can exhale, regroup and receive emotional support as they simultaneously prepare for a production and

continue to assist evacuees in various ways.”

And even as the theatre seeks to bring relief in some way to those affected

by Dorian, its fundraising campaign will also help repairs that have been ongoing since the robbery.

“Other types of needs still exist at the Dundas, so please feel free to continue to give and to make good on the pledges already made. Understandably, many entities and individuals are focused now on relieving the pressure on our Dorian survivors and we support those efforts,” she said.

“We thank the corporate Bahamas and the general public in advance for partnering with us in our offer to provide discounted tickets to Dorian evacuees”

Dion Johnson plays Pa Ben in this year’s “Old Story Time” Shakespeare in Paradise 2019, she added, is an experience that will provide audiences a glimpse into the “wonder of our world.”

“At some point during this theatre festival one can expect to dance, to quote Shakespeare, to see things from a pig’s perspective, to laugh, to cry, to take the high note (or not) in Bahamian gospel song, and to want to get up on stage and tell one or two characters off. Expect the best – we’ve been working hard to give you just that,” she said.

For more information, contact 393-3728 or 394-7179.

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Friday, September 27, 2019

Inside Weekend

My perfect Bahamian weekend Dorelle Mackey Student

Q Q

: Saturday breakfast or Sunday lunch?

“Saturday breakfast would have been a yes, but due to schooling Sunday lunch has become the norm.”

: Wine, rum, cocktail or Kalik?

“Wine is yucky for me, rum is a no-no... just an inside joke, when I’m out with friends I usually order a cup of cranberry juice to look cool. I recently started to like Radlers, so a Kalik Radler (mango) is fine.”

Q

: Beach or sofa?

“The beach. Not only is that my favorite place, but I get a sense of peace, ironically, because you are hearing crashing waves and sometimes a strong breeze.”

Interview 4 - 5 Rashad Rolle reports on UB’s special Character Day event which asked, ‘WhatsApp with your character?”

Food 6 - 9 A marriage of Bahamian and Mexican cuisines at Baha Mar; new beer-infused glazes and sauces, plus a local entrepreneur is carrying on the guava duff tradition

Gardening 10 Jack Hardy urges you to see cabbage in a new light

Entertainment 11 The Elevation Awards expand their reach and add nine new categories

Celebrity 13, 16 Fashion faves and disasters from the Emmys’ red carpet

Art 14-15, 28 Dr Sophia Rolle explores fluidity, plus the new Emerging Creatives showcase at an innovative conference

Film 17 A yeti prompts a China travelogue in ‘Abominable’

Books 18 New releases hitting shelves this week

Calendar 19 Things to do around town this weekend

Literary Lives 20 - 24 Sir Christopher Ondaatje introduces one of Roald Dahl’s darker short stories combining black humour and sexual retribution

Puzzles 26

Animals 27

Hope for Dorian dogs, plus Pet of the Week

Cover | Shawn Hanna

Q

: What is the one thing that you can't live without?

“Music. Music creates freedom; I can be who I want when listening to any genre of music... I can go from a famous country singer in the car, to the greatest dancehall dancer ever lived while cleaning up, to the number one recording gospel artist on Sundays.”

Q

: Weekend away, where would you go?

“First choice would be a Family Island, only because if I travel to a foreign country I would want to shop and that is definitely a whole lot of expense. On a Family Island I can relax and spend less, but still enjoy myself, which is the point of a getaway.”

This weekend in history September 27 • In 1825, the first locomotive to haul a passenger train was operated by George Stephenson in England.

• In 1854, the first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean passenger vessel occurred when the steamship SS Arctic sank off Newfoundland; of the more than 400 people on board, only 86 survived.

• In 1964, the government publicly released the report of the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President John F Kennedy.

Today’s birthdays: Rock singer Meat Loaf is 72.

Actor A Martinez is 71 (”Santa Barbara”). Singer Shaun Cassidy is 61. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is 47.

Rapper Lil’ Wayne is 37.

Singer Avril Lavigne is 35.

Actress Hilary Duff is 32.

• In 1892, the first nighttime football game took place in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, as teams from Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary played under electric lights to a scoreless tie.

• In 1928, Scottish medical researcher Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first effective antibiotic.

• In 1976, Muhammad Ali kept his world heavyweight boxing championship with a close 15-round decision over Ken Norton at New York’s Yankee Stadium.

Today’s birthdays: Actress Brigitte Bardot is 85. Actresscomedian Janeane Garofalo.

Actress Mira Sorvino is 52.

Actress Naomi Watts is 51.

Rapper Young Jeezy is 42.

• In 1829, London’s reorganised police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.

• In 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.

• In 1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (To date, the case remains unsolved.)

Today’s birthdays: Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 84. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 71. Actor Zachary Levi is 39. Actress Chrissy Metz (”This Is Us”) is 39. NBA All-Star Kevin Durant is 31.

Pop singer Halsey is 25.

September 28

September 29

04 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

interview

Students ask, ‘WhatsApp with your character?’

Can character be developed through practice? Are traits like bravery and creativity hardwired into humans?

Has social media harmed the development of people’s behaviour? These and more questions were posed during Character Day 2019. Rashad Rolle reports.

S

ince 2014, thousands around the world have discussed these weighty questions on Character Day, a global phenomenon established by internet pioneer and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain.

Yesterday, the Sociology of Youth and Development class at the University of the Bahamas marked the day with their

own discussion about social media’s impact on character, selecting the theme “WhatsApp With Your Character?”

Anchoring the discussion was an eight-minute film narrated by Ms Shlain called “The Science of Character.”

“This whole idea about developing your character really took shape in 2004 when two psychologists suggested

Humanitarian Beijing Rodgers (far right) with students attending UB’s special Character Day event.

"...instead of just focusing on all the things that can go wrong for us, it's also important to celebrate all the things that can go right.”

– Tiffany Shlain, filmmaker and internet pioneer that instead of just focusing on all the things that can go wrong for us, it’s also important to celebrate all the things that can go right,” she says in the film.

“They went throughout history to identify core virtues that humans across cultures have agreed to lead a meaningful life and then they identified 24 character traits that when practiced and developed could

lead to these virtues and they organised them like scientists have done throughout history to understand things better.

These groundbreaking studies show that every person is a unique combination of these strengths.”

The traits include creativity, courage, bravery, curiosity, perspective, humanity, love, kindness, love of learning,

honesty, perspective, enthusiasm, social intelligence, justice, social responsibility, teamwork, fairness, leadership, humidly, forgiveness, prudence, self-control, spirituality, humour, optimism and gratitude.

Panellists for UB’s discussion included student Sheldon Ramsey, humanitarian Beijing Rodgers, BTC executive in charge of consumer sales

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Friday, September 27, 2019

Darron Turnquest, and Dr Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, an assistant professor of psychology at UB. The event was attended by UB students and select high school students from Government High School and T A Thompson Junior High School.

Mr Ramsey, a music student, pondered whether character can be influenced: “A lot of people think that the type of strengths you have, whether you are easy to forgive or you’re honest or brave, come innately,” he said.

“But when you look at what happens over time you can sometimes be more forgiving, be more humble, be more optimistic, and certain people find that certain traits can take a lot of time to get under your belt, but it is possible to develop them. As for the concept of character education, when it comes to education we usually focus on the academic side, the reading or writing or arithmetic, but who teaches people to aim or strive for the best they can possibly be? Sure, you can write well.

Sure, you can analyse a lot of numbers and formulas, but how can you be educated to be an honest person, how would you learn to treat people fairly, how would you learn how to show more empathy to someone whether they deserve it or not? Those types of strengths or lessons may be overlooked, but they have importance.”

Character Day in the Bahamas is organised through the PACE Foundation. In 2016, that organisation joined the AIDS Foundation, the Lyford Cay Foundation’s FOCUS Programme, the Sandals Foundation, the FTBL Charitable Foundation and Commonwealth

“...when it comes to education we usually focus on the academic side, the reading or writing or arithmetic, but who teaches people to aim or strive for the best they can possibly be?”

Panellists for UB’s discussion: (l-r) Darron Turnquest, Beijing Rodgers, Shledon Ramsey, and Dr Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean

Bank to launch Character Day in this country.

Mr Turnquest, the former Director of Youth at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, said character education should begin early and continue forever.

“I live my life by a saying that says, ‘Measure not life by the hopes and enjoyment of this world but rather by the preparation of what you shall be rather than backward to what you have been’,” he said, adding that even as people develop their characters they must appreciate their own distinct characteristics. “One of the articles I read says that character education is essential, starting from kindergarten straight up through grade 12. Although we’re trying to teach character in grade 12 and push it, the importance is this is

UB and high school students investigate the question of character. something you learn, you try out and your figure out as you go through high school.”

When a teacher wondered openly why students rush to document negative activities like fights, Mr Turnquest challenged them to tune out such behaviour.

“I think the minute you stand there and watch, you’re a part of it. The minute you like it, you’re a part of it. The minute you share it, you’re a part of it. We don’t think we’re a part of it until we’re impacted by it. Some of us, we’ve been sharing videos of the Abaco scene, we’ve been sharing videos about the Grand Bahama scene, we’ve been sharing verbal comments

about the Haitian population in our country, we’ve been sharing and making statements,” he said.

“I have a rule of thumb, because of my character, because where I start with social justice, the minute I read it, the minute I start the line, I’m not going to entertain that in my space because that’s not who I am in my person. My question to you is, what kind of courage do you have to not be the bystander? What kind of courage do you have to walk away? What kind of social responsibility do you have to say ‘I’m not going to forward it’ or say ‘Don’t forward this to my phone?’ We depend on you, you’re not the next generation, you are the generation.”

06 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

food

Keeping the duff tradition alive

By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features writer | acadet@tribunemedia.net

I

t is the quintessential Bahamian dessert. Its recipe passed down through generations and given unique twists by pastry chefs and other culinary artists through the years. It is, of course, the famous guava duff.

Ellen Kemp is one of those culinary artists who is helping to keep this truly Bahamian tradition alive. She does this with her home-based business: Ellen’s Duff & Stuff.

She told Tribune Weekend it was almost like fate wanted her to get into the guava duff and dessert business. She was forced to come with an idea for a self-starting company after being laid off from her full-time job. This led to get seeking spiritual guidance.

“I said, ‘Lord, I love cooking but I want to do something else and I want you to bless my hands to do something else, so whatever you have me to do, I know the people will love it, but Lord, please bless my hands. And I heard a small voice say ‘guava’. Yes, guava rolls,” said Ellen.

The entrepreneur said she got all the ingredients together, just like God showed her - and at the time she knew she wasn’t an expert when it came to baking, but her guava rolls were a hit. One of the things that made her guava rolls unique, she explained, was the cream cheese topping.

“From then on I wanted to do guava duff, but not the regular way; the old-fashioned way. It is only sometimes now I make the guava rolls, but it’s the guava duff that kept me going. I have people from the United States calling and messaging my business page for duff, so I know there is a big market for it. Right now my home base is Farrington Road, off Boyd Road, but my

products reach everywhere,” she said.

Ellen’s duff options include small single orders, as well as loaves in a variety of flavours, including coconut, pina colada, pineapple and tropical (guava coconut and pineapple); made fresh every day with same day service.

“The order is made that morning, and I make the duff fresh so that you can have a loaf in four hours - even up to six loaves. Every

Saturday I do a pop-up at my place as well where I cook food and also duff. My menu includes shrimp snack, crack conch, lobster rice, veggie macaroni, sautéed shrimp and conch fritters. I also do catering for events, and because of my background I can make the food work for any occasion and tailor it to be the best experience the customer has ever had,” she said.

Ellen hopes to one day have her duffs sold in stores and restaurants all across New Providence and maybe even in the US and Canada.

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Friday, September 27, 2019

food

A not so secret ingredient with a kick

By JEFFARAH GIBSON | Tribune Features Writer | jgibson@tribunemedia.net

B

eer is not just for drinking; it has long been used to make some of the most delectable dishes – everything from bread to braised chicken, cheeses, candies, cakes, and many other desserts.

Inspired by the ingenuity of those who have used the staple alcoholic beverage in unique new ways, Cherelle Cartwright is using beer as an ingredient for her special sauces and jellies she creates for her company, Mama Sassy’s.

Cherelle uses the Kalik products like the mango and cranberry Radler to make the products. Since launching last March she has received feedback from many who enjoy using the multi-purposes sauces and jellies.

“Last year I heard that a company was planning to have a beer fest and wanted locally made products to be on display for tourists to purchase. At that time I only had my pepper sauces and thought that since it was a beer fest I should have beer-related products,” said Cherelle.

That was when the proverbial light bulb went on in her head and she decided to do something different and fun.

“At the time I didn’t know who the sponsor for the event was going to be, but I recalled that every time I saw some type of event of that nature Kalik was always the major sponsor. So since I had some time before the event, I experimented with the Kalik beer.

Then a chef asked me to make something out of the mango Radler. I have a few friends that I used as guinea pigs to taste test the product. When they gave the green light I went straight into production.

Then, a St Patrick’s Day event I was invited to led me to create my spin on a Guinness glaze,” she said.

Mama Sassy’s beer-infused pepper sauces are great for brushing chicken and other meats with.

“The Kalik beer is great brushed on grilled meats, as is the Guinness glaze, which is an awesome addition with jerk.”

Cherelle currently makes jams, jellies, marinades and pepper sauces.

Some of the flavours include Radler pepper, beer pepper, mulled wine and cranberry pepper jelly. Then there are the sauces: mango medley pepper and papaya medley pepper, as well as a Guinness

pepper glaze in mild, hot or extreme.

While Cherelle encourages customers to get as creative as they can in using the sauces and jellies, she recommends pairing with them cheese and crackers, bread, or as an addition to barbecue sauces or even as a garnish on meat.

“The Kalik beer is great brushed on grilled meats, as is the Guinness glaze, which is an awesome addition with jerk. The Kalik mango Radler is an excellent dipping sauce for egg rolls and Asian cuisine.

The pepper sauces are great as marinades for meats, baked, and can be used for an additional flavour in everything, including chicken souse,” she said.

Cherelle said she’s also been asked by customers to make jam and jelly products without pepper, or with a substitute of agave, because they are mindful of their sugar intake.

She is now working diligently on getting the word out about her company and her unique products.

Just recently she was invited to attend a conference conference in Jamaica as part of an international delegation by Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Livelihoods, and was afforded the opportunity to sell and showcase her products at Micro Small and Medium Enterprises conference. Her products were also featured in the Jamaican Gleaner magazine.

“We will be sporting a new design look on our labels shortly. Looking to scale up local production and be on store shelves very soon. We are also looking to expand our product line and eventually export to other targeted markets abroad,” said Cherelle.

Friday, September 27, 2019

The Tribune | Weekend | 09

Photos courtesy of Baha Mar

love to come here because of the ambiance and due to the fact that the food is different from what they are used to,” said Ms Chisholm.

When it comes to appetisers, the guacamole is a favourite with guests.

“It’s avocado based with cilantro onions and it comes with tortilla chips on the side.

This is always a favourite, as you can’t go wrong with a Mexican style guac,” said Ms Chisholm whose personal favourite are the deep fried fish tacos served with Panela cheese, cilantro and shredded lettuce.

“It is something that I recommend to get you started, it is not too heavy and not too light. It is just something to (awaken) your taste buds,” she said.

Like Mr Sturrup, she also pointed out the octopus ceviche’s similarity to conch salad, saying, “If you close your eyes and you are blindfolded you will actually think that you are eating a salad or a conch-based dish. The texture and taste is very similar.”

For the last weekend of the ‘Dine Baha Mar’ festival, Costa is taking its guests on a four-course culinary journey featuring fresh octopus ceviche and authentic beef short rib mole.

10 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

gardening

Seeing cabbage in a new light Jack Hardy explores the many varieties and uses of this leafy vegetable crop

M

ention cabbage in the Bahamas and most people will think slaw.

Mention cabbage in Europe and you will evoke memories of many delicious meals. Cabbage is highly respected in Europe and the meals it can contribute towards are myriad.

It is only when cabbage is cooked that you realise it has a sweet flavour.

A well-made cabbage soup on a cold day is a delight. Seasoned ground meat spooned into cabbage packages,

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topped with tomato sauce and cooked, is a standard meal throughout Europe, where sauerkraut is not merely for hot dogs.

A thousand years ago all cabbages were loose-leafed, like collards. Centuries of cross breeding in Britain and Europe – mostly accidental – led to the large and firm heads of cabbage we consider normal these days. Whatever we use cabbage for it must be raised from seed with special care to be at its best.

Cabbages are gross feeders, meaning they enjoy more in the way of fertilizer and additives than most vegetables. Interestingly, the roots of a cabbage plant are quite small for its final volume. Rather than add more fertilizer to each feeding it would be better to fertilize more often. Every two weeks would be fine.

Seeds can be planted directly into the soil or raised in small pots and transplanted. I prefer the latter as it

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means a reduction of the total time the plants are in the main garden. It would also be beneficial if the seed sowing could be staggered. This would prevent having a dozen cabbages maturing at the same time.

As with most plants, water is important when the plants are small and not needed when the plant approaches maturity. A heavy period of rain when cabbages are drum tight could cause them to split open. Not a disaster if the cabbages are for your own consumption, but a situation to be avoided. You can run a long sharp knife around the roots and cut some away, lessening the intake of water.

Once the head of a cabbage is cut the stalk roots should be removed from the ground. If left, small heads of cabbage will be produced from the cut stalk but I have never found these satisfactory. Cabbages take about 90 days from seed to head.

Other cabbage relatives need to be fed often as well. Broccoli is perhaps the favourite amongst consumers at the moment, the edible part being the incipient flower. Check your seed package for floret production that extends the productive life of broccoli by 6 – 8 weeks.

Broccoli flowers must be cut and used while the flower head is tight and deep green. The slightest hint of yellow means the broccoli is past its best and on its way to being tough and bitter. It takes a week or so after the flower cutting for the first florets to form. These appear at apices in the foliage and can be 2 – 3 inches long.

The florets must be picked within three days or they will suddenly elongate and become tough.

Cabbages and broccoli can be started now but cauliflower is best left until the end of October or beginning of November. Cauliflowers are distinguished by long leaves and once the flower head begins to form the leaves should be gathered together and tied with twine to keep light away from the developing flower. This forms a cavity within the plant that is attractive to destructive larvae so we must take care to open the cauliflower parcel every day to check for intruders, then tie it up again.

Cut your cauliflower heads as soon as they reach perfection. Left for a few days too long then gaps appear

Kohlrabi can be prepared in many different ways. as the flower stalks toughen. The edible part of the cauliflower is often called the curd, a reference to the curds of cheesemaking. This is entirely appropriate because cheese sauce goes wonderfully well with steamed cauliflower.

Brussels sprouts at their finest are crisp and nut-flavoured but to reach this stage they need frost. For this reason I suggest you do not waste your time growing a crop that will disappoint and will be far inferior to the best of store-bought.

Kohlrabi is quite different and is a plant you can fall in love with. You will not see it in stores so you must grow your own. This is easily done as kohlrabi is a cross between cabbage and turnip and does not need the gross feeding of other cabbage varieties.

Kohlrabi must be planted directly into the soil at least six inches apart and once it approaches softball size should be harvested early. It resembles a turnip with a few sprigs of small cabbage-like leaves sprouting from the centre top.

How do I cook thee? Let me count the ways. Firstly, kohlrabi tastes fine raw. It can be the centerpiece of crudities and dip, cut as french fries. Cut finer and julienned it can be added to sautés and stir-fries. It can be cubed and plopped into soups and stews. No matter how long you cook kohlrabi it tends to keep its texture. And yes, kohlrabi can be finely sliced or shaved to produce the best coleslaw ever. I would recommend sowing kohlrabi seeds in a few weeks, in mid October.

• For queries and comments e-mail jacktribune242@gmail.com

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Friday, September 27, 2019

entertainment community-building and other fields of entertainment over the past year.

For 2020, the Elevation Awards team has added nine new categories, including Soca Song of the Year, Party DJ of the Year, TV Commercial of the Year, Caribbean Artist of the Year, Caribbean Gospel Song of the Year, Caribbean Gospel Music Video of the Year, Caribbean Music Video of the Year, Sketch Comedy of the Year, and Fashion Designer of the Year.

“We’ve went from 12 categories to 32 in the last three years. We have also evolved into being an exclusive membership-based award show with regional partners and affiliates,” said Mr McDonald.

“Over the years we have done case studies on the various sectors of entertainment and we realised that there are ton of genres and sections that are being overlooked. As the demand increased we added the categories. As for the Caribbean-based categories, as we make preparations to transition to becoming a Caribbean-based award show, we are using these categories to introduce the brand to the market.”

Elevation Awards expand by nine new categories

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer | jgibson@tribunemedia.net

M

ore categories have been added to the upcoming Elevation Media Awards which seek to open doors for creatives in the Caribbean and see them be recognised for their outstanding work.

The Elevation Awards are a production of the Islacom Network which hosts the annual event established by Bahamian entertainer Vince “V-Mac” McDonald.

The aim of the awards is to celebrate individuals in music, art, sports,

Other new additions to the show include a new performance stage.

“We will also honour and pay tribute to the life of MDeez, and the entire guest experience will be amped up with everyone leaving having experienced an unforgettable time,” he said.

The Elevation Awards kick off the new season with a membership registration under the umbrella of Elev8tionNow, an entertainment membership platform for entertainers to be a part of the voting process for the awards.

People interested in becoming members must be avid creatives or entertainers.

Eleva8tionNow will host a series of events inclusive of workshops and forums, mini concerts, artist showcases, master classes, mix and mingles, networking parties and more leading up to the main event.

Those interested can sign up on the Elev8tionNow website: www.elev8tionnow.com.

For more information, contact 6761526 or e-mail theelevationawards@ gmail.com.

12 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

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Friday, September 27, 2019

celebrity

PART

I

The Weekend Fashion Report 71st Primetime Emmy Awards

HIT

SPLIT

SPLIT

FAIL

SPLIT

Zendaya (”Euphoria”)

Gwendoline Christie (”Game of Thrones”)

Amy Poehler (”Wine Country”)

Taraji P Henson ”Empire”

Karin says: “One word: Stunning. This is just high fashion and she looks like model. Now I’m sad she wasn’t cast as ‘The Little Mermaid’ (can Zendaya even sing?). Anyway, this is sexy, elegant and just perfect from head to toe.”

Alesha says: “I absolutely love everything; the dress, the colour, the corset style cut, and the spilt, oh that split.

Zendaya is bomb. It fits her body well and is doing a lot, without doing a lot, if you know what I mean.”

Karin says: “How Arthurian of her. It’s of course very costume-y and normally I would hate that. But it’s Gwendoline and she’s tall and regal. She definitely pulls it off, even though it may be a strange choice for the Emmys.

Ah, what the heck, she was having fun.”

Alesha says: “Brienne of Tarth is my girl, but when I saw her walk on stage I thought it was a scene from ‘Game of Thrones’ that didn’t make the cut. It is very ‘costumeish’, but I guess it is still a different look from what we have seen her in on the show.”

Dascha Polanco (”Orange is the New Black”)

Karin says: “Ah, the Las Vegas pimp look...at least that’s the vibe I’m getting.

I hate it. Gold lamé rarely belongs on the red, or in this case purple, carpet. The colour washes her out and blends in with her hair. The only good thing I can say about this jumpsuit is that it was probably comfy.”

Alesha says: “I don’t hate it.

But it isn’t doing much for me either. It is very disco-ish. I don’t know, maybe a high bun would have saved this look though. She just looks a bit too casual and messy.”

Karin says: “The red and pink combo was everywhere on Emmy night. At least three other celebs were sporting these exact same colours.

Pink and red usually clash, but I like it it here. I also love the cape. What I definitely don’t like is the fact that you can basically see her Spanx (even if it’s skirt, it looks like shapewear).”

Alesha says: “She looks like a beautiful African Barbie doll. I like the sheer part and the mini skirt underneath to create the feel of a ‘night or day’ look. I like the deep cut and bob also.”

Karin says: “She looks like a petit fours. There are limits to how big bows on a dress should be and she’s definitely broken those. How was anyone even able to sit next to her in the auditorium with those big pink monstrosities?”

Alesha says: “I don’t know.

Maybe lose the bows? I like the shade of pink though, so maybe we can switch the off-white mermaid dress to that very same colour. Lose the flipped ponytail and wear the hair down, side part style.

Anyway, ‘Daya’, ya still look good. Anything is better than the orange/tan jumpsuit, I guess.”

AP Photos

With Karin Herig and Alesha Cadet

• See page 16 for more hits and misses from the Emmys

16 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

celebrity

PART

With Karin Herig and Jeffarah Gibson

HIT

FAIL

HIT

FAIL

FAIL

Angela Bassett ”9-1-1”

Amy Adams ”Sharp Objects”

Lena Headey ”Game of Thrones”

Indya Moore ”Pose”

Karin says: “This is an absolutely amazing pantsuit.

The shade of red, the interesting design (the strapless top with the onesided asymmetrical cape detail)...it’s all great. However, Ms Bassett really needs to cut back on the contouring... her face is looking awfully pinched.”

Jeffarah says: “Hands down the best high fashion pantsuit I have ever seen worn on any carpet. The unique shape and fabric that drapes to the floor gives this suit such a flow it’s almost as if you are looking at a gown, that is until your eyes register the perfectly tailored pants.”

Karin says: “Amy’s been on this weird frumpy kick in recent years. I don’t know if it’s because she committed the ridiculous ‘sin’ of gaining a few pounds and she wants to hide it, or she’s just lost all sense of taste. This robe is simply hideous; outdated, and it ages her.”

Jeffarah says: “I think it is a bit too early for Halloween costumes. I don’t think Amy should even wear this gown to a funeral. Hopefully, she trashes it completely so we never have to see it again. It completely ‘uglifies’ her.”

Karin says: “This landed her on a lot of the ‘worst dressed’ lists, but I actually quite like it. Sure, delicate floral prints can look out of place at highglamour, evening time events.

That may be the case, but to me she looks lovely in this whimsical gown.”

Jeffarah says: “Like Karin said, floral fabrics can look out of place at glamorous nighttime events, but I think the black ribbon does a wonderful job of delivering the necessary contrast to the sweetness of the print and tying this look together.”

Kendall Jenner ”Keeping Up With the Kardashians” Karin says: “BDSM on the top and rose mania at the bottom.

The designer probably thought it bold to combine black latex with a big, bold flower pattern on satin. And in the right hands it may have worked, but this is just plain ugly.”

Jeffarah says: “Kendal looks fabulous from the neck up.

Love the hairstyle and makeup. The mixing of fabrics, however, in this ensemble just does not translate into something edgy or beautiful.

Take away the sleeves and I may have been able to stomach this look.”

Karin says: “This, for me, is showing just a bit too much skin for an event of this calibre. It’s kinda tacky that your dress’ slits are so high that you can’t even wear underwear. The bodice also looks a bit Madonna circa 1990. However, her hair looks nice.”

Jeffarah says: “This is a truly awful dress. It almost looks like a swimsuit layered with a maxi skirt. I guess that would be cool if she were attending a late afternoon beach party.

However, this is just

AP Photos

The Weekend Fashion Report 71st Primetime Emmy Awards

II

The Tribune | Weekend | 17

Friday, September 27, 2019

film

Review: A yeti prompts a China travelogue in ‘Abominable’ ABOMINABLE | 104 minutes

“A

bominable” is just about the most cuddly piece of East-West synergy a corporation could dream up.

The first co-production between DreamWorks Animation and the Shanghai-based Pearl Studios (formerly known as Oriental DreamWorks), “Abominable” is a rare kind of creature but the sort we’re likely to see more and more of in movie theatres. The Chinese box office will soon overtake the North America as the globe’s top movie market, inevitably reorienting big-screen entertainment.

There’s nothing wrong with aiming for moviegoers on each side of the globe. For Hollywood productions of a certain budget, it’s long been considered a necessity. And, of course, the intermingling of cultures — like in Lulu Wang’s lovely and heartfelt “The Farewell,” released earlier this year — often fuels brilliant, border-straddling tales.

But “Abominable,” about a girl who discovers a yeti on the rooftop of her Shanghai apartment building, is so safe, so risk-free, so bland, that its

(l-r) Peng (Albert Tsai), Everest the Yeti, Yi (Chloe Bennet) and Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor).

“Abominable” tells the story of a bond between Yi, a teenage girl grieving the loss of her father, and a Yeti called Everest. business imperatives are never just off-screen.

Writer-director Jill Culton (a writer on “Monsters, Inc.” and director of “Open Season”), who co-directed “Abominable” with Todd Wilderman, opens her film, like the Humphry Bogart thriller “Dark Passage,” with an escape shot from a firstperson perspective. A young yeti — picture a giant, furry Maltese — gets loose from the wealthy collector of rare animals (Eddie Izzard).

Lured by a billboard for Mt. Everest, he hides himself

on nearby rooftop. He’s soon found by Yi (Chloe Bennet), a “self-proclaimed loner” teenager living below with her mother (Michelle Wong) and her diminutive but fiery grandmother (Tsai Chin).

Since losing her father, Yi has thrown herself into an assortment of unpleasant jobs, trying to save money to make the trip across China she and her dad talked about.

The familial scenes are warm but fleeting. Before long Yi, along with a couple of neighboring pals — Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor, whose

grandfather Tenzing Norgay summited Everest with Edmund Hillary) and Peng (Albert Tsai) — take off with the yeti they nickname Everest, with pursuers close behind (including a red-haired zoologist voiced by Sarah Paulson), as they try to get their furry friend back to his home in the Himalayas.

A travelogue of China follows, with the gang briskly journeying between postcard inland destinations, from the Gobi Desert to Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan. The animation is bright and lively,

with some enchanting setpieces. Everest, they learn, is just a big puppy — like a cartoon cousin to DreamWorks’ dog-like dragon, Toothless.

He also has powers. With a low hum, Everest can spur gargantuan growth around him: a dandelion turns into an enormous floating ride, blueberries grow bigger than watermelons. The journey, too, takes on healing properties for Yi, whose beautiful violin playing — a hobby gleaned from her father — only adds to the uplifting quest.

“Abominable” is sweet and simple enough, but its emotionality always feels thin and, like much of the film, paint by numbers. (Coldplay’s “Fix You” fits right in.) If I’m being hard on a mostly charming kids movie, it’s because it feels tantalisingly close to being something special. Yi, as affectionately voiced by Bennet, is a fabulously plucky heroine.

And the (unfortunate) novelty of a major animated release centered completely on Asian characters, in an Asian setting, is something to celebrate.

Unfortunately, “Abominable” still ends up feeling too familiar.

JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer

18 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

books

New releases hitting shelves this week

• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (literary fiction)

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.

So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.

•No Judgments by Meg Cabot (romance)

When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island—as well as its connection to the mainland— 25-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried . . . at first. She’s already escaped one storm—her emotionally abusive ex—so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake.

But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realises how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets. Now it’s up to her to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can...but to do so, she’s going to need help—help she has no choice but to accept from her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell, the Mermaid Café’s most notorious heartbreaker.

But when Bree starts falling for Drew, just as Little Bridge’s power is restored and her penitent ex shows up, she has to ask herself if her island fling was only a result of the stormy weather, or if it could last during clear skies too.

• You Have to Believe Me by Sunday Tomassetti (thriller)

Every day on her way home from work, Dove Damiani drives past her ex-house, where her ex-husband lives with her ex-dog and her ex-yoga instructor, next to her ex-neighbours and the ex-life she once affectionately described as “frighteningly perfect.” To outsiders, Dove is bitter and resentful.

The divorce left her alone, with nothing but a set of car keys and 50 percent of a paltry savings account...but it doesn’t mean she wants him dead.

When the lifeless body of her former husband is discovered in the birch grove outside Dove’s apartment on what would have been their fifth wedding anniversary, investigators waste no time making Dove a person of interest. She swears she didn’t do it. She’s never so much as killed a spider in her 30 years. But as evidence mounts against her, Dove finds herself questioning her memory, her sanity, and even—her innocence.

• The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring (young adult)

Simmering in Patagonian myth, The Tenth Girl is a gothic psychological thriller with a haunting twist.

At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi—a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother—it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls.

Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house—despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumours of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored. One of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi’s existence. In order to survive she must solve a cosmic mystery—and then fight for her life.

The Tribune | Weekend | 19

Friday, September 27, 2019

start at $50. All pre-sold tickets will be honoured.

Featured

Featured

FRI 9/27

• Laughfest 2019 starring Gary Owen Time: 8pm Venue: Grand Hyatt, Baha Mar The night of comedy standup features headliner Gary Owen, who appeared on BET’s stand-up showcase Comic View, in films like “Daddy Day Care” and “Little Man” and a self-titled show on BET in 2016. Now, he has a new show coming on Showtime. Additional Laughfest performances

by Say Em and Brian “Da Wildcat” Smith. The event is hosted by the Bahamas’ very own Naughty. Tickets

The Tribune Established 1903

SAT 9/28

• Backfordians Crab Fest Time: 12noon - 3pm Venue: Salem Union Baptist Church, Taylor Street Enjoy crab and dough, crab soup, and crab and rice with fried fish. Salemites are invited to join the members of Backford House, C W Saunders’ Fellowship Hall, for the annual fundraiser.

• Nassau Night Market Time: 2pm - 10pm

|100 Jamz | Y98

What's going on this Being Bound To Swear To The Dogmas Of No Master

weekend

Venue: Market Slope, Downtown The relaunch of the outdoor street festival celebrates Bahamian culture and entrepreneurship through offering entertainment, flavorful foods and precious products. It is a familyfriendly event which seeks to enliven Downtown’s dead hours.

FRIDAY

Editior’s Voice

Hope is Action Time: Friday, 7.30pm - 10pm Venue: New Providence Community Church Da Black Masque Collective is hosting a free art and music event featuring notable artists and creatives to raise money for Abaconian and Grand Bahamian families. All works sold will 100 percent aid in the rebuilding and transformation of those two islands. Proceeds will go directly to the Bahamas Hurricane Restoration Fund and in-kind donations will go to the Ranfurly Homes for Children. It’ll also be broadcast live for people to donate from home online and or volunteer. At the event, organisers will also be pushing for actionable change and raising awareness to climate change, saving our environment and mental health.

Featured Featured

• United In Paradise Relief Concert Time: 6pm Venue: Philosophy Smokehouse Bar & Grill The relief concert will raise money for families who need immediate shelter in the wake of Hurricane Dorian. The event also plans to commemorate all volunteers and donors for their efforts and support over the past few weeks.

Tickets are $20 at the door. Food, wines, beer and spirits will be on sale.

Performances will kick off at 7pm with a selection of singers, bands, fire dancers and DJs. Proceeds will go to Bahamas Disaster Housing Assistance.

• Corks & Canvas - Say Hello To Fall!

Time: 6pm - 8pm Venue: Fusion Superplex Paint and sip, and create your own masterpiece. Admission is $60 and includes appetisers and wine for the entire event.

RSVP to tbain@fusionsuperplex.com

• Learn How to Slime Time: 6pm - 8pm Venue: Palm Cay Hosted by Paint Your Own Pottery and Pyop Bahamas, this is a special class for kids (over the age of eight) to learn how to make their very own slime. Cost is $25 per child and includes pizza

and a drink. Reservations are required to reserve a space.

• Sixth Annual Girls’ Night Out Time: 7.30pm - 10.30pm Venue: SuperClub Breezes Organised by Buttons Bridal & Formal Wear, this is an event for women only; no men allowed. The the theme is the 1980s. There will a dance competition and prizes for best outfit.

The grand prize is tickets to luxury resort accommodations in Las Vegas or Orlando. Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the door. Call 421-9783 for more information.

SUN 9/29

• Fusion Football Time: 1pm Venue: Fusion Superplex

Watch the game in the XS3 theatre with it’s 50 foot screen. Admission is $2 and seats can be reserved online at fusionsuperplex. com/showtimes or at the box office. Food and drinks will be on sale.

Featured

• Homecoming: Gern Back To Our Roots Time: 7pm Venue: University of the Bahamas Performing Arts Centre Rhythm and Youth are hosting concert to celebrate the sweet sounds of rake n’ scrape. Call 565-2885 or e-mail enjayadams@ hotmail.com for more information. Tickets are $30.

20 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

literary lives – roald dahl and ‘the visitor’

The dark side of a beloved children's book author Part I Sir Christopher Ondaatje introduces one of Roald Dahl’s darker short stories combining black humour and sexual retribution.

R

oald Dahl was born in 1916 in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales. In 1920, when he was three years old, his seven year old sister Astri died from appendicitis. Weeks later his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57. Later that year his younger sister Asta was born. Dahl was sent to the Cathedral School in Llandaff and when he was eight he was caned by the headmaster for putting a dead mouse in a jar of sweets in a local candy shop. He was then transferred to a boarding school in England, St Peter’s

Roald Dahl (1916 - 1990) in Weston-Super-Mare. He hated it and later wrote about his experiences in “Boy: Tales of Childhood”. In, 1929 Dahl was sent to Repton School in Derbyshire. Again Dahl was subjected to ritual cruelty and status domination involving “fagging” where younger boys were forced to act as servants for older boys, and frequently endured terrible beatings.

Dahl reflected: “All through my school life I was appalled

by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely ... I couldn’t get over it. I never got over it.”

Dahl’s unfortunate family experiences and school life caused him to have severe doubts about religion, but he developed a passion for literature and an ability to delve into the dark side of human nature which presented an

ambivalent combination of black humour and absurdity.

However, Dahl’s literary career did not materialise for another eight years. After finishing school in 1934 Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company where he was sent to Mombasa in Kenya. There, when the Second World War erupted, Dahl was commissioned in the King’s African Rifles commanding a platoon of Askari men. He later

joined the Royal Air Force where he learned to fly a De Havilland Tiger Moth. He was commissioned as a pilot officer in 1940. He flew Gladiators in Egypt, crashed, was hospitalised, recovered, and participated in the Battle of Athens before he was invalided back to England.

Dahl spent the rest of the war as assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, DC. He met the British novelist C S Forrester who had been asked by the Saturday Evening Post to write a story on Dahl’s flying experiences. Asked to write down some anecdotes Dahl wrote the story which was published exactly as he had written it, entitled “Shot Down Over Libya”. His writing career had begun.

Dahl was invalided out of the RAF in August 1946 with the rank of squadron leader. He married the actress Patricia Neal on July 2, 1953 in New York City. Their marriage lasted 30 years and they had five children.

Roald Dahl began writing children’s stories and his first book “The Gremlins” was published in 1943. He went on to create some of the best-loved children’s stories of the 20th century including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Matilda”, “James and the Giant Peach”, “The Witches”, “Fantastic Mr Fox”, “The BFG”, “The Twits”, and “George’s Marvellous Medicine”.

But parallel to these stories Dahl also wrote macabre adult short stories which blended humour with extraordinary and unexpected plot twists.

Many were published in America in magazines such as Collier’s, Ladies Home

08 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

food

Let your tastes travel

A marriage of Bahamian and Mexican cuisines

By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features writer | acadet@tribunemedia.net

T

he popularity of Mexican cuisine is on the rise here in the Bahamas. In recent years, locals have grown to love their tacos, nachos, burritos and various spicy bowls. “Taco Tuesdays” has even become a tradition observed by many restaurants or just by families in their homes.

To answer the demand for more of a taste of Mexico, Costa at Baha Mar is offering a wide variety of coastal cuisines fused with Mexican flavours for a fresh and unexpected approach to traditional seafood dishes.

From dishes like the chicken flautas with sour cream to ‘The Gobernador’ with shrimp, onion, garlic, cheese, tomato sauce, as well as small plates of Mexican street corn and shrimp Aguachile, the options are endless.

Shavoughn Sturrup, manager at Costa, said most of the Mexican dishes at the restaurant are given a Bahamian twist. He describes the octopus ceviche, for example, as a dish similar to conch salad in both texture and taste. This particular dish includes cucumber, red onion, burnt goat pepper, and shrimp Aguachile with Serrano pepper, coconut, and avocado.

“We do have options for persons that are gluten-free, and we do take any allergies that people may have very seriously. We cater to vegans as well as pescatarians. We cater to a family-style dining where everything comes with the intent to be shared,” said Mr Sturrup.

He invited Tribune Weekend to also take in the ambiance

at Costa, showing off the scenic views from the open-air cabanas which give the illusion of sitting on water, and the intimate but casual setup on the inside of the restaurant.

“We are all about making memories for each of our guests that dine here. If you want to come just you and your boo, or family and friends, you can do that. I think this was more about bringing the Mexican culture

here to the Bahamas. The inspiration for Costa was more like, ‘Let’s try to bring the two together (Mexico and the Bahamas) to see what we can make of it,” said Mr Sturrup.

For Precious Chisholm, a waitress at Costa, working at the restaurant has been a very enjoyable experience.

“I enjoy giving our guests an experience that they have never encountered before and that they can’t find anywhere else. As human beings we all know if someone is being robotic or if someone is genuinely being themselves, and that is what I try to bring to the table. Something personal so that they can remember and tell their friends and family about,” she said.

Asked for her recommendations when it comes to the menu choices, Ms Chisholm said if you’re going for a ceviche she would choose grouper or the octopus.

“People know the style of food here is different, but they are willing to try things they haven’t tried before. There is something on the menu for everyone. A lot of persons

The Tribune | Weekend | 21

Friday, September 27, 2019

Journal, Harpers, Playboy, and The New Yorker. Works such as “Kiss Kiss” and “Switch Bitch” were collected into anthologies and achieved surprising popularity. Some of his stories were supposed to be extracts from the fictional diary of his “Uncle Oswald” – a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories.

“Uncle Oswald” himself narrates one of Dahl’s darker stories from “Switch Bitch”, “The Visitor”, involving a Sinai desert experience in diary form following his escape from Cairo and a romantic rendezvous with an aristocratic Moorish woman – another man’s mistress.

The following is an abridgement of the original story (Copyright: The Roald Dahl Story Company Limited)

THE VISITOR – PART ONE:

I knew precisely where I was going. I was going to Jerusalem.

1. Cairo to Ismailia. About three hours driving. Sing an opera on the way, as usual. Arrive Ismailia 6-7am.

Take a room and have a two-hour sleep. Then shower, shave, and breakfast.

2. At 10am, cross over the Suez Canal by the Ismailia bridge and take the desert road across Sinai to the Palestine border. Make a search for scorpions en route in the Sinai Desert.

Time, about four hours, arriving Palestine border 2pm.

3. From there, continue straight on to Jerusalem via Beersheba, reaching The King David Hotel in time for cocktails and dinner.

It was several years since I had travelled that particular road, but I remembered that the Sinai Desert was an outstanding place for scorpions. I badly wanted another female opisthophthalmus, a large one. My present specimen had the fifth segment of its tail missing, and I was ashamed of it.

It didn’t take me long to find the main road to Ismailia, and as soon as I was on it, I settled the Lagonda down to a steady sixty-five miles per hour. The road was narrow, but it had a smooth surface, and there was no traffic.

A few minutes later, I had crossed the sliding bridge that went over the Suez Canal just above Lake Timsah, and ahead of me lay the flat blazing

“The Visitor” was first published in the May 1965 issue of Playboy. It was later included in the 1974 collection “Switch Bitch”.

Uncle Oswald, or Oswald Hendryks Cornelius, is a fictional character created by Roald Dahl. He is described as “the greatest fornicator of all time”.

desert and the little tarmac road stretching out before me like a black ribbon all the way to the horizon. I settled the Lagonda to the usual steady sixty-five miles an hour, and I opened the windows wide. The air that came in was like the breath of an oven. The time was almost noon, and the sun was throwing its heat directly on to the roof of the car. My thermometer inside registered 1O3º.

There was a blazing sun, a vast hot sky, and beneath it all on every side a great pale sea of yellow sand that was not quite of this world. There were mountains now in the distance on the south side of the road, bare, palebrown, tanagra-coloured mountains faintly glazed with blue and purple, that rose up suddenly out of the desert and faded away in a haze of heat against the sky. The stillness was overpowering. There was no sound at all, no voice of a bird or insect anywhere, and it gave me a queer godlike feeling to be standing there alone in the middle of such a splendid, hot, inhuman landscape as though I were on another planet altogether, on Jupiter or Mars, or in some place more distant and desolate still, where never would the grass grow or the clouds turn red.

The more contented I am, the slower I drive. I drove quite slowly now, and it must have taken me nearly an hour more to reach B’ir Rawd Salim, the halfway station. It was a most unenticing place. On the left, there was a single gasoline pump and a wooden shack. On the right, there were three more shacks, each about the size of a potting-shed. The rest was desert.

There was not a soul in sight. The time was twenty minutes before two in the afternoon, and the temperature inside the car was 106º.

What with the nonsense of getting the water boiled before leaving Ismailia, I had forgotten completely to fill up with gasoline before leaving, and my gauge was now registering slightly less than two gallons. I’d cut it rather fine--but no matter. I pulled in alongside the pump, and waited. Nobody appeared. I pressed the horn button, and the four tuned horns on the Lagonda shouted their wonderful ‘Son gia mille e tre!’ across the desert. Nobody appeared. I pressed again.

At last, after I had played the horns no less than six times, the door of the hut behind the gasoline pump opened and a tallish man emerged and stood on the threshold, doing up his buttons with both hands. He took his time over this, and not until he had finished did

he glance up at the Lagonda. I looked back at him through my open window.

I saw him take the first step in my direction...he took it very, very slowly...

Then he took a second step.

My God! I thought at once. The spirochetes have got him!

He had the slow, wobbly walk, the loose-limbed, high-stepping gait of a man with locomotor ataxia. With each step he took, the front foot was raised high in the air before him and brought down violently to the ground, as though he were stamping on a dangerous insect.

I thought: I had better get out of here. I had better start the motor and get the hell out of here before he reaches me. But I knew I couldn’t. I had to have the gasoline. I sat in the car staring at the awful creature as he came stamping laboriously over the sand. He must have had the revolting disease for years and years, otherwise it wouldn’t have developed into ataxis.

The man – the Arab, I shall call him – came right up to the door of my side of the car.

‘Salaam,’ he mumbled.

‘Fill up the tank,’ I told him.

He didn’t move. He was inspecting the interior of the Lagonda with great interest. A terrible feculent odour came wafting in from his direction.

‘Come along!’ I said sharply. ‘I want some gasoline!’

He looked at me and grinned. It was more of a leer than a grin, an insolent mocking leer that seemed to be saying, ‘I am the king of the gasoline pump at B’ir Rawd Salim! Touch me if you dare!’ A fly had settled on the corner of one of his eyes. He made no attempt to brush it away.

‘You want gasoline?’ he said, taunting me.

I was about to swear at him, but I checked myself just in time, and answered politely, ‘Yes please, I would be very grateful.

‘Gasoline is done,’ the dreadful Arab said, appearing at the window. ‘I check water now, and oil.’

When I looked up again, I saw that the Arab had raised the bonnet of the car on the right-hand side, and was bending over the engine.

22 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

The historic King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the intended destination of Oswald Cornelius in “The Visitor” Slowly, he straightened up, and as he drew his right arm out of the bowels of the engine, I saw that he was holding in his fingers something that was long and black and curly and very thin.

‘Good God!’ I thought. ‘He’s found a snake in there!’

He came round to the window, grinning at me and holding the object out for me to see; and only then, as I got a closer look, did I realize that it was not a snake at all - it was the fan-belt of my Lagonda!

Resigned to spending a night alone in the desert, Oswald noticed a small dark speck moving towards him in the far distance, coming from the Jerusalem direction.

Closer and closer it came, and when it was about a quarter of a mile away, it began to slow down. Suddenly, I noticed the shape of its radiator. It was a Rolls-Royce! I raised an arm and kept it raised, and the big green car with a man at the wheel pulled in off the road and stopped beside my Lagonda.

The driver of the Rolls climbed out and came towards me. He was a small dark man with olive skin, and he wore an immaculate white linen suit. Probably a Syrian, I thought. Just possibly

a Greek. In the heat of the day he looked as cool as could be.

‘Good afternoon,’ he said. ‘Are you having trouble?’

I greeted him, and then bit by bit, I told him everything that had happened.

‘My dear fellow,’ he said in perfect English, ‘but my dear fellow, how very distressing. What rotten luck. This is no place to get stranded in.’

‘It isn’t, is it?’

‘And you say that a new fan-belt has definitely been ordered?’

‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘if I can rely upon the proprietor of this establishment.’

The Arab, who had emerged from his shack almost before the Rolls had come to a stop, had now joined us, and the stranger proceeded to question him swiftly in Arabic about the steps he had taken on my behalf. It seemed to me that the two knew each other pretty well, and it was clear that the Arab was in great awe of the new arrival. He was practically crawling along the ground in his presence.

‘Well - that seems to be all right,’ the stranger said at last, turning to me.

‘But quite obviously you won’t be able to move on from here until tomorrow morning. Where were you headed for?’

‘Jerusalem,’ I said. ‘And I don’t relish the idea of spending the night in this infernal spot.’

I do hope you won’t consider it presumptuous, coming from a complete stranger...

‘Please...

‘You can’t possibly remain here, so I suggest you come back and stay the night in my house.’

There! The Rolls-Royce was smiling at the Lagonda – smiling at it as it would never have smiled at a Ford or a Morris!

‘You mean in Ismailia?’ I said.

‘No, no,’ he answered, laughing. ‘I live just around the corner, just over there.’ He waved a hand in the direction he had come from.

‘But surely you were going to Ismailia? I wouldn’t want you to change your plans on my behalf.’

‘I wasn’t going to Ismailia at all,’ he said. ‘I was coming down here to collect the mail. My house - and this may surprise you - is quite close to where we are standing. You see that mountain. That’s Maghara. I’m immediately behind it.’

I looked at the mountain. It lay ten miles to the north, a yellow rocky lump, perhaps two thousand feet high.

‘Do you really mean that you have a

house in the middle of all this...this wasteland?’ I asked.

‘You don’t believe me?’ he said, smiling.

‘Of course I believe you,’ I answered. ‘Nothing surprises me any more. Except, perhaps,’ and here I smiled back at him, ‘except when I meet a stranger in the middle of the desert, and he treats me like a brother.

I am overwhelmed by your offer.’

‘Nonsense, my dear fellow. My motives are entirely selfish. Civilized company is not easy to come by in these parts. I am quite thrilled at the thought of having a guest for dinner.

Permit me to introduce myself - Abdul Aziz.’ He made a quick little bow.

‘Oswald Cornelius,’ I said. ‘It is a great pleasure.’ We shook hands.

‘I live partly in Beirut,’ he said.

‘I live in Paris.’

‘Charming. And now - shall we go?

Are you ready?’

‘But my car,’ I said. ‘Can I leave it here safely?’

‘Have no fear about that. Omar is a friend of mine. He’s not much to look at, poor chap, but he won’t let you down if you’re with me. And the other one, Saleh, is a good mechanic. He’ll fit your new fanbelt when it arrives tomorrow. I’ll tell him now.’

The Tribune | Weekend | 23

Friday, September 27, 2019

Saleh, the man from across the road, had walked over while we were talking.

Mr Aziz gave him his instructions. He then spoke to both men about guarding the Lagonda. He was brief and incisive. Omar and Saleh stood bowing and scraping. I went across to the Lagonda to get a suitcase. I needed a change of clothes badly.

‘Oh, by the way,’ Mr Aziz called over to me, ‘I usually put on a black tie for dinner.’

‘Of course,’ I murmured, quickly pushing back my first choice of suitcase and taking another.

‘I do it for the ladies mostly. They seem to like dressing themselves up for dinner.’

I turned sharply and looked at him, but he was already getting into his car.

‘Ready?’ he said.

I took the briefcase and placed it in the back of the Rolls. Then I climbed into the front seat beside him, and we drove off.

During the drive Oswald and Mr Aziz talked casually about various matters. Aziz said that his business was in carpets. He had offices in Beirut and Damascus. His forefathers, he said, had been in the trade for hundreds of years.

They soon turned left off the tarred road and on to a hard stony track and drove over the barren desert towards the high mountain. Mr. Aziz explained that this was his private driveway, and that it was five miles long. Telephone wires branched off the main road to follow the private drive.

A sinister thought then struck Oswald. Could it be possible that the telephone wires facilitated a clever communication by Aziz and the filling station to kidnap travellers to the Aziz home for a so-called civilised rendezvous? But Aziz quickly explained his position.

‘I live here,’ he said, ‘because I have a peculiar affinity with the desert. I am drawn to it the same way as a sailor is drawn to the sea. Does that seem so very strange to you?’

‘No,’ I answered, ‘it doesn’t seem strange at all.’

He paused and took a pull at his cigarette. Then he said, ‘That is one reason. But there is another. Are you a family man, Mr Cornelius?’

‘Unfortunately not,’ I answered cautiously.

‘I am,’ he said. ‘I have a wife and a daughter. Both of them, in my eyes at any rate, are very beautiful. My daughter is just eighteen. She has been to an excellent boarding-school in England,

The Al-Salaam Bridge over the Suez Canal and she is now.... ‘ he shrugged.... ‘she is now just sitting around and waiting until she is old enough to get married.

But this waiting period--what does one do with a beautiful young girl during that time? I can’t let her loose. She is far too desirable for that. When I take her to Beirut, I see the men hanging around her like wolves waiting to pounce. It drives me nearly out of my mind. I know all about men, Mr Cornelius. I know how they behave.

It is true, of course, that I am not the only father who has had this problem.

But the others seem somehow able to face it and accept it. They let their daughters go. They just turn them out of the house and look the other way. I cannot do that. I simply cannot bring myself to do it! I refuse to allow her to be mauled by every Achmed, Ali, and Hamil that comes along. And that, you see, is the other reason why I live in the desert - to protect my lovely child for a few more years from the wild beasts.

We rounded the bend...and there it was! I blinked and stared, and I tell you that for the first few seconds I literally could not believe my eyes. I saw before me a white castle - I mean it - a tall, white castle with turrets and towers and little spires all over it, standing like a fairytale in the middle of a splash of green vegetation on the lower slope of the blazing-hot, bare, yellow mountain! It was fantastic! It was straight out of Hans Christian

Andersen or Grimm. I had seen plenty of romantic-looking Rhine and Loire valley castles in my time, but never before had I seen anything with such a slender, graceful, fairytale quality as this! The greenery, as I observed when we drew closer, was a pretty garden of lawns and date-palms, and there was a high white wall going all the way round to keep out the desert.

‘Do you approve?’ my host asked, smiling.

‘It’s fabulous!’ I said. ‘It’s like all the fairytale castles in the world made into one.’

‘That’s exactly what it is!’ he cried.

‘It’s a fairy-tale castle! I built it especially for my daughter, my beautiful Princess.’

Oswald and his host drove through the main gates into a miniature paradise. Two servants in spotless gallabiyahs and scarlet tarbooshes greeted the car. Oswald worried again about the possibility of being kidnapped. But his worries disappeared as he entered the front door out of the intense heat into an air-conditioned hall.

On my right, there was a wide archway leading to a garden room, and I received a fleeting impression of cool white walls, fine pictures, and superlative Louis XV furniture. What a place to find oneself in, in the middle of the Sinai Desert!

And now a woman was coming slowly down the stairs. My host had

turned away to speak to the servants, and he didn’t see her at once, so when she reached the bottom step, the woman paused, and she laid her naked arm like a white anaconda along the rail of the banister, and there she stood, looking at me as though she were Queen Semiramis on the steps of Babylon, and I was a candidate who might or might not be to her taste. Her hair was jet-black, and she had a figure that made me wet my lips.

When Mr Aziz turned and saw her, he said, ‘Oh darling, there you are.

I’ve brought you a guest. His car broke down at the filling-station - such rotten luck - so I asked him to come back and stay the night. Mr Cornelius...my wife.’

‘How very nice,’ she said quietly, coming forward.

I took her hand and raised it to my lips. ‘I am overcome by your kindness, madame,’ I murmured. There was, upon that hand of hers, a diabolical perfume. It was almost exclusively animal. The subtle, sexy secretions of the spermwhale, the male muskdeer, and the beaver were all there, pungent and obscene beyond words;

24 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

A 1960s Aston Martin Lagonda, similar to the one which caught the attention of Abdul Aziz in “The Visitor”. they dominated the blend completely, and only faint traces of clean vegetable oils - lemon, cajuput, and zeroli - were allowed to come through. It was superb! And another thing I noticed in the flash of that first moment was this: When I took her hand, she did not, as other women do, let it lie limply across my palm like a fillet of raw fish.

Instead, she placed her thumb underneath my hand, with the fingers on top; and thus she was able to - and I swear she did - exert a gentle but suggestive pressure upon my hand as I administered the conventional kiss.

‘Where is Diana?’ asked Mr Aziz.

‘She’s out by the pool,’ the woman said. And turning to me, ‘Would you like a swim, Mr Cornelius? You must be roasted after hanging around that awful filling-station.’

She had huge velvet eyes, so dark they were almost black, and when she smiled at me, the end of her nose moved upwards, distending the nostrils.

‘Well.... ‘ I said.

‘I’m going to have one,’ Mr Aziz said.

‘Let’s all have one,’ his wife said.

‘We’ll lend you a pair of trunks.’

I asked if I might go up to my room first and get out a clean shirt and clean slacks to put on after the swim, and my hostess said, ‘Yes, of course,’ and

told one of the servants to show me the way. He took me up two flights of stairs, and we entered a large white bedroom which had in it an exceptionally large double-bed. There was a well-equipped bathroom leading off to one side, with a pale-blue bathtub and a bidet to match. Everywhere, things were scrupulously clean and very much to my liking. While the servant was unpacking my case, I went over to the window and looked out, and I saw the great blazing desert sweeping in like a yellow sea all the way from the horizon until it met the white garden wall just below me, and there, within the wall, I could see the swimming-pool, and beside the pool there was a girl lying on her back in the shade of a big pink parasol. The girl was wearing a white swimming costume, and she was reading a book. She had long slim legs and black hair. She was the Princess.

When I left the room, the servant accompanied me. We descended the first flight of stairs, and then, on the landing on the floor below my own, I paused and said casually, ‘Does the whole family sleep on this floor?’

‘Oh, yes,’ the servant said. ‘That is the master’s room there’ - indicating a door ‘and next to it is Mrs Aziz. Miss Diana is opposite.’

Three separate rooms. All very close together. Virtually impregnable.

I tucked the information away in my mind and went on down to the pool.

My host and hostess were there before me.

‘This is my daughter, Diana,’ my host said.

The girl in the white swimming-suit stood up and I kissed her hand. ‘Hello, Mr Cornelius,’ she said.

She was using the same heavy animal perfume as her mother - ambergris, musk, and castor! What a smell it had - bitchy, brazen, and marvellous!. She was, I thought, even more beautiful than the parent, if that were possible. She had the same large velvety eyes, the same black hair, and the same shape of face; but her legs were unquestionably longer, and there was something about her body that gave it a slight edge over the older woman’s: it was more sinuous, more snaky, and almost certain to be a good deal more flexible. But the older woman, who was probably thirty-seven and looked no more than twenty-five, had a spark in her eye that the daughter could not possibly match.

Later, when the sun began dropping lower in the sky, we all sat around in our wet swimming clothes while a servant brought us pale, ice-cold martinis, and it was at this point that I began, very slowly, very cautiously, to seduce the two ladies in my own particular

fashion. Normally, when I am given a free hand, this is not especially difficult for me to do. The curious little talent that I happen to possess - the ability to hypnotize a woman with words very seldom lets me down. It is not, of course, done only with words.

The words themselves, the innocuous, superficial words, are spoken only by the mouth, whereas the real message, the improper and exciting promise, comes from all the limbs and organs of the body, and is transmitted through the eyes. More than that I cannot honestly tell you about how it is done. The point is that it works. It works like cantharides. I believe that I could sit down opposite the Pope’s wife, if he had one, and within fifteen minutes, were I to try hard enough, she would be leaning towards me over the table with her lips apart and her eyes glazed with desire.

It is a minor talent, not a great one, but I am nonetheless thankful to have had it bestowed upon me, and I have done my best at all times to see that it has not been wasted.

So the four of us, the two wondrous women, the little man, and myself, sat close together in a semi-circle beside the swimming-pool, lounging in deck-chairs and sipping our drinks and feeling the warm six o’clock sunshine upon our skin. I was in good form. I made them laugh a great deal.

It was at this stage that I noticed the eyes of Mr Abdul Aziz resting upon me in a good-humoured, twinkling kind of way. Mr Aziz smiled at me, showing his pure white teeth. It was a friendly smile. I gave him a friendly smile back. What a friendly little fellow he was. He was genuinely delighted to see me paying so much attention to the ladies. So far, then, so good.

I shall skip very quickly over the next few hours, for it was not until after midnight that anything really happened.

To be continued...

NEXT WEEK: The story of “The Visitor” reaches its climax

• Sir Christopher Ondaatje is the author of The Last Colonial.

He acknowledges that he has quoted liberally from Wikipedia; Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl; Roald Dahl: A Biography by Jeremy Treglown (1995); and The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock (2010).

The Tribune | Weekend | 25

Friday, September 27, 2019

history

The early days of air traffic control

An air traffic control unit being transported

facts |Forgotten Paul C Aranha

A

ll Bahamians should thank the United States for deploying a state-of-the art mobile Air Traffic Control unit to Marsh Harbour airport in the wake of hurricane Dorian.

It was delivered by a Boeing C-17 Globemaster, a large military transport aircraft. The fact that Marsh Harbour has a runway that will accommodate a C-17 reflects the growth of Abaco’s economy and the resultant increase in the number of aircraft arriving and departing.

In 1970, I piloted the first jet to land at Marsh Harbour, a Bahamas Airways’ BAC One-Eleven, without the help of Air Traffic Control.

In those days pilots were still announcing their positions and intentions when operating to/ from most of the airports in the Out Islands.

Civilian air traffic control dates back to June 1, 1946 when the Royal Air Force withdrew from its bases in the Bahamas. Windsor Field was abandoned and Oakes Field resumed its identity as our international airport.

As a result, a framework for promoting civil aviation had to be created, starting with

the appointment of our first Director of Civil Aviation, Wing Commander E H Coleman, AFDC, a former airline captain with Imperial Airways,

who had commanded the RAF in the Bahamas. He took up his duties on May 24, 1946, at a salary of £1,200 a year. That was about US$5,000.

Work was begun at once to transform the military airfield into a civil airport, and one officer and two NCO controllers were retained, on secondment from the RAF, to assist in training civilian controllers. A list of personnel, considered necessary for the operation of a civil airport, was approved by Government and these posts were duly filled, mainly from local sources.

Another link in the larger picture of air traffic and air traffic control was for government to take over the RAF’s Soldier Road weather station and train local weathermen.

For the first time forecasts were made in Nassau.

From the outset, Miami played a vital rôle in the training of Bahamian air traffic controllers. In October 1949, six Bahamians – Robert H Hall, Joseph Ezra Forsyth, Roy V Smith, Ashton R Smith, Herbert F Smith and John T ‘Jack’ Carey – took an advanced-training course in air traffic control at the Miami Oceanic Air Traffic Control Centre.

Later in 1949, Lionel Thompson, Robert Sweeting and Morton Carey joined the Civil Aviation Department to be trained in air traffic control in preparation for posting to Billy Butlin’s new airfield at West End, Grand Bahama.

About this time, a new name kept popping up in the Department of Civil Aviation: Hartis Harvin Thompson. He had returned from England after a five-month course in air traffic control, plus a twoweek course in fire-fighting.

In 1952, Hartis was appointed acting deputy director of Civil Aviation, to be replaced in 1954 by Roy Broadbent, of Britain’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, while Hartis underwent a one-year course in England, after which he became the first Bahamian director of civil aviation. His brother, Leonard Thompson, was the first airline pilot in the Bahamas and the Marsh Harbour airport is named in his honour.

In 1955, I converted my UK private pilot’s licence to a Bahamian PPL (number 34 and signed by Roy Broadbent) and began my contacts with the Nassau air traffic control system.

Up to this stage in my flying career the only planes I had flown had neither battery, nor lights, nor a radio, not even an electric starter. The engine was started by ‘swinging the prop’. Air traffic controllers used a ‘signal light gun’ with a focused bright beam capable of emitting three different colours – green, red and white – to tell me what to do. I replied by rocking the wings of my plane.

Over the years, but not overnight, air traffic control became ever more sophisticated, but as late as the 1960s the last Bahamas Airways flight from Miami was the only plane in the night sky.

We would contact Nassau Approach Control on VHF radio, and Harry, when he was on duty, always replied “Bahamas 452, cleared to descend to one thousand five hundred feet, cleared for a VOR approach to Runway 14, Cleared to land, cleared to taxi., cleared to park. Good night.”

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

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26 | The Tribune | Weekend

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The Tribune | Weekend | 27

Friday, September 27, 2019

animals

Hope for Dorian dogs Animal matters | KIM ARANHA

S

ince the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian in Abaco and Grand Bahama the Bahamas Humane Society has been very visible on the ground and at the conference table.

Right now the Bahamas Humane Society is in a rescue and nurture mode.

At present we have over 60 “Dorian dogs” and five “Dorian cats”. Every day we see an animal reunited with their frantic owners. That is the moment that the shelter lives for at present. That unbelievable and touching moment when both animal and human realise that not everything has been lost; they still have each other and together with their unconditional, mutual love there is hope. This is the precise moment that gives everyone at the shelter cause to keep going under amazingly challenging circumstances.

Not all owners can take their animals out of the shelter once reunited, which is fine. We understand that there are scores of reasons why that is not possible.

Shelters and temporary housing do not accept dogs, or some family members either already have dogs or no yard or are afraid of dogs... so many valid reasons! The Bahamas Humane Society is here to assist these people and their pets.

The dogs (and cats) can stay boarding with us while the human family gets a chance to sort themselves out.

It does need to be recognised that some of these animals are confused after having gone through the horrors of the storm, and perhaps several days on their own scavenging for food and water, alone and frightened, before being picked up and transported to Nassau and finally to safety, only to find themselves in an unfamiliar setting at our shelter.

Even the animals who are spoken for and have owners who will come back for them are confused. It is not easy to explain to them what is going on. We need people to come to the shelter and walk these dogs, play with them, give them some love and attention.

I am working on putting together a “love squad” of volunteers who are animal-loving people who want to help us give some hope to these poor pets.

Of course there are still many dogs and a few cats that have yet to be matched up with owners and we may

(PHOTO/PATRICIA VAZQUEZ)

HELP AN EVACUATED PET

By THE BAHAMAS HUMANE SOCIETY

“H Dogs temporarily lost during Hurricane Dorian are reunited with their owners. never know what happened to their families; sad to think they may have even perished. Whatever has happened, we know it was hideously traumatic and these pets need our support as their future is decided.

To bring into context the importance of animals in a human world and especially a pet to humans emotionally, I refer to an article in one of the major US papers where the writer talks of being in Marsh Harbour watching evacuees waiting for passage to safety. There sat a little boy, clearly traumatised by what he had been through – the rising water, the winds, the destruction of his environment at the hands of Mother Nature. As he shook with the memories he held on to his puppy for comfort and his puppy licked his face, making the little boy smile. A picture most certainly speaks a thousand words.

There is a definite connection between fur and skin, and at the Bahamas Humane Society we see it in a hundred different ways.

Basically, we are busy providing a service for our fellow Bahamians. The Bahamas Humane Society and BAARK are dedicated to finding all wandering and abandoned, pets, and returning them to their rightful owners, or upon permission from the owners, find them suitable new homes.

Those who cannot be returned to their previous families because their families have not been identified, or they have been surrendered, will be cared for until they are moved to where new adoptive families can be found.

Our Dorian work will not be over until each pet has been reunited or re-homed.

Because of the human element in this project we feel that it must be recognised that our quest is most certainly a service to the people of the Bahamas.

Each animal carries their story in its eyes; their stoic courage as they encounter the unknown, as they are touched by a new set of hands; their eyes mirror the horrors they have seen, the unknown of tomorrow, the anticipation of hearing the voice of their loved one, which may or may not ever come. It is the duty of the Bahamas Humane Society, along with BAARK, to be custodians of these displaced pets until they can be reunited with their distraught owners, or be settled in a caring alternative family.

Our staff at the shelter has been stretched to its maximum. Along with the Dorian animals, there continues to be a steady stream of Nassau surrenders daily. Some 25 dogs were surrendered just on Tuesday. It is quite simply overwhelming. We need your help!

i, there! My name’s Ziggy. You met my buddy Bamboo last week. I’m not actually an adoption dog but I do live at the Bahamas Humane Society.

I’ve been watching all sorts of activity and bustling around the shelter ever since Hurricane Dorian passed by. I’ve been told the shelters in Abaco and Grand Bahama were badly hit by the storm and can no longer hold animals. As a result, many of the adoption animals at the BHS have been sent out to rescues Stateside, so there aren’t many to share with you right now. But the BHS does still have adoption animals! And a good way to help is to come and adopt, so we will have even more room at our shelter for the incoming evacuees. Adoption hours are 11am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am to 4pm on Saturday.”

• If you’d like to make a financial donation towards hurricane relief, please email b_humane@hotmail.com; if you’d like to donate supplies or volunteer your time, please contact doriananimalrelief@ gmail.com. Recovery for those islands is going to be a long process and we will need all the help we can get. And if you’re house cleaning, don’t forget our Thrift Shop. They take donations of all gently used items, including furniture.

28 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, September 27, 2019

art

The link between mental health and creativity New group of artists to showcase at HEALinc Future Health Summit

E

merging Creatives is a new group of artists who believe in each other’s talents.

This platform, according to its representatives, is about respect and creating a space that is not judgmental. It is a place where creatives can come together and have conversations, ask questions and give answers. Now, Emerging Creatives has partnered with the HEALinc Future Health Summit to bring awareness to the importance of creativity and the relationship between mental health and being creative.

Artist Nicole Collie had this to say about her participation in the project: “If I can improve the confidence of just one girl or woman out there, I feel blessed and have been given even more motivation to keep going.

That is the importance of the art show to me.”

Fellow creative Kimberly Luttery added: “This art show

is important because sharing creative works between artists in the United States and the Bahamas can foster understanding about our cultures and how we have so many similarities. Some of the most paramount are that we want the best for our children; a wealth of love, great health, happiness, and success.”

Founder of the HEALinc Future Health Summit Dr. Desiree Cox said: “Regeneration is like a music, playing, feeling its way to new resting place and then...exploring what comes after that.”

The work of the participating artists, which was inspired by this topic, will be on display on Tuesday, October 1, beginning at 6.30pm at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar Convention Centre, in the Andros Ball Room.

• See Tribune Health on Tuesday for the full story.

“Rhapsody” by Dr Desiree Cox

“Your Greatest Version” by Nicole Collie

“My Inner Joy” by Nicole Collie

“Da Rising Sun” by Lemero Wright

“Outside Kitchen” by Laurell Missick

“Love Birds” by Clifford Fernander