10032018 NEWS

WEDNESDAY i’m lovin’ it!

HIGH 87ºF LOW 76ºF

The Tribune Established 1903

24/7 BREAKING NEWS ON TRIBUNE242.COM

Biggest And Best!

VOLUME:115 No.216, OCTOBER 3RD, 2018

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: $1

SPECIAL EDITION: INSIDE THE BAHAMAS’ BATTLE WITH BREAST CANCER

TOTAL RECALL Exuma tragedy sparks order to inspect ALL commercial vessels

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

families, Mr Wells said he’s already taken steps to clamp down on the sector with instructions to the Port THE fatal 4C’s Adven- Department to have every tures boat accident will now ship and boat be turned over owner come in to the Office of for inspection. the Attorney In the wake General, Transof the release port and Local of the BahaGovernment mas Maritime Minister RenAuthority’s ward Wells damning report said yesterday, into the inciadding a scathdent, the ing report minister, who into the tragis an engineer edy brings to by profession, light the need expressed “disfor govern- MALEKA JACKSON, who appointment” ment to “tighten died in the 4C’s boat fire. with the loose up where it is stipulations for slack”. those operators who prefer As he suggested there to build craft for commercould be a legal response cial use. from the US government SEE PAGE THREE or the victims and their

PRESS Secretary Anthony Newbold said he does not know what makes Omar Archer qualified to be the registrar of the Ministry of Works even as he insisted yesterday the controversial figure must have met the standards of the ministry.

Mr Archer has had several run-ins with law enforcement over the years.

In 2017, he was convicted of threatening to harm a senior police officer.

Two years earlier, he jumped from the

second-storey window of the Magistrate’s Court in an attempt to evade police.

He has sometimes used his popular Facebook profile to push unverified, scandalous information, such as once alleging that a Cabinet minister under the former Christie administration contracted AIDS. Given this, Mr Newbold was asked if Mr Archer was the best, most qualified person in The Bahamas for his new position.

Mr Newbold said: “I’m not saying that at all. The Ministry of Works is saying this man, we think should SEE PAGE SEVEN

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

UNAUTHORISED use of disabled parking spaces will soon result in cash fines as a measure to deter the practice, Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell said yesterday.

His ministry also plans to put in place an inspectorate regime to ensure buildings have been made easily accessible to persons with disabilities. The deadline for this was December 31, 2017, and advocates have complained many businesses seemed not to have put much effort into compliance.

He said: “We are presently in communication with the Attorney General’s Office. We want to review the regulations attached to the Disabilities Act 2014 to ensure that it is keeping pace with what is happening now.”

SEE PAGE FIVE

LABOUR DAY DRIVER LET OUT ON BAIL

ARCHER RIGHT FOR JOB? SOMEONE THOUGHT SO

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PARKING IN A DISABLED BAY - YOU’LL BE FINED

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DUNKIN’ FOR BOOBIES IN THOSE SHOES? FARRAH SAUNDERS, owner of Shell Oakes Field, taking part in the Dunkin’ For Boobies event yesterday at 100JAMZ for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. See page two for more.

THE man whose truck allegedly mowed through a crowd during the Labour Day Parade and consequently caused the deaths of four women has been granted bail by a Supreme Court judge.

Justice Bernard Turner granted 23-year-old Travis Lamar Sawyer $8,000 bail last week ahead of his next court appearance on November 13, at which time he will be served with a voluntary bill of indictment.

Sawyer must also report to the Central Police Station every Monday before 6pm until that time.

SEE PAGE THREE

SANDS: DRIVING REVENUE KEY TO SOLVING CRISIS

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE lack of available funding at the Princess Margaret Hospital has sparked an ongoing crisis in its Dialysis Unit and officials think the solution to satisfying the deficit is in creating a business centre that centralises payments and fees, according to Health Minister Dr Duane Sands.

It is hoped the centre would be up and running

DR DUANE SANDS within the first quarter of 2019.

The Tribune first reported

last month a revelation from the health minister that officials were grappling with a crisis at the Dialysis Unit while Hospital Administrator Mary Lightbourne-Walker had been placed on administrative leave.

At the time, he said there were about 600 patients needing renal management therapy but PMH could only satisfy the needs of 200.

SEE PAGE SIX

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

ALICIA WALLACE: ONE-NOTE TOURISM INDUSTRY MUST LEARN NEW TUNE

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

DWAYNE DAVIS – chief ALIV solutions architect taking the plunge.

ALEX, from Higgs and Johnson, ready for the dunk.

Dunkin’ for Boobies raises $9,000

By RIEL MAJOR THE fifth annual ‘Dunkin for Boobies’ cancer awareness event was held yesterday and raised over $9,000 from generous motorists and enthusiastic participants who enjoyed contributing to a good cause.

Corporate figures and radio personalities were present from 6am until 10am, enlisting the aid of all Bahamians in the fight against breast cancer.

With live broadcasts being provided by the crews from 100 JAMZ, Y98.7 FM and the KISS FM morning shows, led by Radio House on-air personality JJ McKenzie, director of promotions/marketing, and the Cancer Society of the Bahamas, led by cancer survivor Melissa Major, organisers collected funds from passing motorists on Shirley Street.

Ms McKenzie said: “Five years ago we decided we wanted to do a fundraising event through the radio stations. We had women affected between the ages of 27 all the way up to 60. It really opened my eyes learning that breast cancer is one of the leading deaths of women in the Bahamas is frightening.

“We wanted to take the stigma of women being sensitive about their breast away. We need to go to have exams done and be able to talk about it.”

Ms Major said the number of women who get mammogram testing has decreased this year and advised women to remember the importance of getting their breasts examined.

ALIV CEO Damian Blackburn.

“We need this noise to remind the ladies that you need to be tested. If you have a family history of breast cancer you need to be tested. If you are over the age of 40 this is something important,” she said.

“I hope after this and after October…it is so important to keep the conversation going because after October the conversation tends to die down.”

October is breast cancer awareness month.

Ms Major assured The Tribune “100 per cent of the proceeds are donated to the Cancer Society and will go to different programmes within the Cancer Society of the Bahamas.”

Yesterday, motorists donated about $3,000 and corporate sponsors donated about $6,000.

Representatives from Island Luck, Shell, Sun Oil Limited, Aliv, Evolve Fitness, Aristo Development, Higgs and Johnson, Breezes Resort, AML Foods, and One on One Preschool participated in the event yesterday.

Last year, the fundraiser raised $10,000.

KENDRICK DELANEY, senior ALIV business developer.

SUSAN ROBERTS, founder of the Bahamas Cancer Society with Ollie Ferguson and Melissa Major.

EDWIN THOMPSON, from Sun Oil.

DR WILLIAMSON CHEA, president of the Cancer Society of The Bahamas.

ONE on One Preschool students with founder Mrs Sandyford along with her daughter.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 3, 2018, PAGE 3

ONLOOKERS watch during the blaze that broke out on a 4C’s boat, killing one woman and leaving ten other people injured in July.

Exuma tragedy sparks order to inspect all commercial vessels from page one

There is also concern, he said, of implications internationally to the country’s tourism market with the report turned over to US officials and those affected.

The BMA’s report into the explosion that killed a woman and injured ten others found that the company broke the law by operating a boat that was neither registered nor ever inspected by the Port Authority.

“It is quite alarming as to the lack of manpower that we have in Exuma,” Mr Wells said in response to a question from The Tribune yesterday outside Cabinet.

“It is alarming as to how this situation developed and yesterday (Monday) I moved to issue certain instructions to the Port Department to have every ship, every boat owner in Exuma to come in and for us to inspect their vessels so that we’re able to bring the requisite regulations to this industry and not just in Exuma, throughout the country because we understand that this is not just a situation that’s just in Exuma.

“As you know, the report says it cannot say conclusively what caused the accident but we do know that the design of the boat is perhaps an issue that the fuel lines being used was not spec’d for gasoline and you know if hoses are not spec’d they dry rot and gasoline by itself is not explosive (sp).

“Gasoline from the pump goes off into the air and there’s no problem but if it is in a contained space then it becomes a problem and

THE REMNANTS of the 4C’s boat after the fire. so where he had his fuel tanks encapsulated in those pontoon (flat bottomedboat) we understand that could have been an issue as well, the overall structural design.”

He continued: “So what I’m looking to do as an engineer I will tell you I am somewhat disappointed because in engineering before you can actually live in a building, ride a vehicle, the design has to be done on paper.

“That design has to be approved on paper by either an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a structural engineer, a civil engineer (or) an aeronautical engineer for airplanes or a naval architect. In the case of boats, (there) should have been a look at those drawings and say this is a boat that we feel is safe. That is not done in The Bahamas. So we have a number of persons who have built boats.

“And so as a part of the Port Department what I

MINISTER Renward Wells. am going to be doing is that before those boats are actually built we do have a naval architect who is going to look at those designs to ensure those designs are actually safe before we let persons construct them especially for commercial purposes.”

Asked if there was a concern the overall industry could suffer now that the report was in the public domain, the minister

said: “There is concern and where we’re slack we tighten up, we’re going to tighten up.”

However, he did not say whether there would be any penalty for officials who issued 4C’s licences despite the boat never having been inspected.

“Like I said, I am still going through it. I was reading it yesterday, last night I haven’t completed it as yet and it’s going to be turned

over to the AG’s Office and so the attorney general is really going to have to weigh in.

“Obviously when the report was released it was also given to both the victims and to the United States government who has this report and so we’ll be waiting I guess to hear what comes of it and The Bahamas would then have to respond.”

He said former Transport Minister Frankie Campbell, now the minister of social services, had done a number of initiatives to try and bring the industry and the Port Department into compliance.

“I am going to be following in that vein to bring in the requisite IT technology, information technology, to know which boats are registered because they’re supposed to be registered and inspected throughout the country and so we’re going to bring in a system whereby we can say for sure that every boat out there, commercial vessel that sails and plows the seas of The Bahamas is safe for commercial traffic.”

“Under no circumstances” should 4C’s have operated the “craft on a commercial basis,” investigators wrote in their report.

Among the findings were that the home-built boat’s “fuel-fill and vent hose did not appear to meet the required specification for its intended purpose; the craft had not been constructed to a recognised standard, or to naval architectural or technical drawings; and the craft’s construction and equipment materials were not verified for suitability of use”.

Investigators also

concluded that the Port Department of Exuma has not been “adequately resourced to control and regulate commercial water crafts operating on the island”, noting in their report that a “significant number of commercial crafts operating within the waters of Exuma are not registered with the Port Department despite having submitted valid applications.

“The mechanical, structural, and safety standards required to be met cannot be verified.”

The explosion scenario could not be reconstructed because of absent “technical drawings, electrical circuit diagram and a schematic of the permanently installed fuel system,” the report said.

Nevertheless, investigators determined with a “high degree of probability” that the explosion originated “in the proximity of the starboard fuel tank resulting in the release of a last wave on the starboard side, beneath the front three rows of seats”.

The captain of the boat, a 42-year-old man, had a valid master’s licence. The first mate on the vessel was a 12-year-old boy, the son of the 4C’s owner, and had no “qualifications or endorsements”. It is not unlawful to have a minor as a first mate.

A Georgia woman, Maleka Jackson, was killed in the June 30 accident. Among the ten other people injured were Tiran Jackson, Mrs Jackson’s husband who lost a leg, and Stefanie Schaffer, a 22-yearold woman from Vermont who had both of her legs amputated.

LABOUR DAY DRIVER LET OUT ON BAIL from page one

Last month, the Silver Gates resident was charged before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain with four counts of manslaughter by negligence stemming from the June 1 incident, which also injured 24 people.

It is alleged that on the

Friday in question, Sawyer, by means of unlawful harm, negligently caused the deaths of 41-year-old Tabitha Haye, 48-year-old Tami Patrice Gibson, 51-yearold Kathleen Fernander and 55-year-old Dianna Gray-Ferguson.

Shortly after 10am, participants in the annual Labour Day parade were walking north on East

Street in the vicinity of Shirley Street, when a green Ford F150 truck, which was a part of the parade, descended the hill towards Shirley Street.

According to initial reports, the vehicle, which at the time had no driver, ran into a number of people who were a part of the parade, resulting in them receiving injuries. The truck

came to a stop after hitting a Nissan vehicle, parked in a nearby parking lot.

Two people were pronounced dead at the scene, while 26 others were taken to hospital. Two women later died at the hospital, which was forced into mass casualty mode.

The driver of the truck was subsequently taken into custody.

ROBBERS INJURED AS VICTIMS FIGHT BACK TWO armed robbers were seriously injured and left in hospital following a foiled home invasion and attempted robbery at a residence in Freeport.

According to police reports, officers were called shortly after 1am Tuesday to a residence on Waterfall

Drive in Seahorse Village where two men reportedly entered a home brandishing a firearm and a knife and demanded cash and other personal property from occupants of the home.

ASP Terecita Pinder said the occupants resisted and a fight followed. As

a result, the culprits were stabbed multiple times. The home invaders attempted to escape in a vehicle, but were intercepted by the residents and subdued until police arrived.

The suspects were arrested and taken by ambulance to the Rand

Memorial Hospital under heavy police presence.

They were seen by a doctor who listed their conditions as serious.

ASP Pinder said police retrieved a black imitation pistol and a knife and the suspects’ vehicle. Police are investigating the matter.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

PAGE 4, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

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

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

jamaaltheartist@gmail.com

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

Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

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

Published daily Monday to Friday

Shirley & Deveaux Streets, Nassau, Bahamas N3207 TELEPHONES

News & General Information Advertising Manager Circulation Department Nassau fax Freeport, Grand Bahama Freeport fax

(242) 322-1986 (242) 502-2394 (242) 502-2386 (242) 328-2398 (242)-352-6608 (242) 352-9348

WEBSITE, TWITTER & FACEBOOK www.tribune242.com

@tribune242

tribune news network

Goodbye, Mr Nygard - 34 years is enough LAST Friday, Deputy Provost Marshal Tommy Sands accompanied by a team of police officers seized the Simms Point/Nygard Cay premises of Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, ending a nearly two-day standoff that some called unprecedented and shocking.

Those who were appalled that Nygard’s staff managed to defy the third highestranking security officer of the land for the better part of two days, refusing him entry despite an order from the highest court in The Bahamas, should not have been surprised.

Mr Nygard has been ignoring orders from officials for decades. The final attempt at defiance to thwart the property from being seized to pay the legal fees and costs of Save The Bays was simply the latest scenario in a saga so outrageous in parts that if you tried to write a movie script and say it was based on a true story, you would have a hard sell in Hollywood, trying to convince producers that such goings-on exist outside Tinseltown. This is a book that has been writing itself for years with dramatic suspense. It is a story populated with characters some of whom seem better suited to the back streets of Chicago mob territory. It is ripe with tales of drug, sex, rock ’n roll, an ongoing battle with neighbours in an otherwise quiet pocket of paradise and near fisticuffs with government officials and environmentalists over illegal reclamation of Crown Land, construction of structures, groynes and gabions that altered the coastline, destroyed sea beds, impacted marine life, and at times offended just about everyone except the creator of this “resort” at the outer extremities of Lyford Cay. It is the tale of a misplaced vision by a man who is now being displaced from the very place the story began, the unwinding of a debacle destined to end with a thud.

One day, there probably will be a movie, or a riveting documentary, about the life and times of Peter Nygard, a once-dynamic figure in the fashion world, a man who wanted to create an environment on the shores of The Bahamas as big and outsized as his ego. He achieved his dream. There was giant statuary and even larger parties. As the “resort” off the end of residential Lyford Cay grew, so did the land.

Illegal dredging doubled its size from about three acres when Mr Nygard purchased it in 1984 to more than six acres. What he did not pay in property tax may have helped grease the political wheel for the party he thought would be a better friend, less concerned with the environment and the damage being done to the sea bed, less interested in how the illegal dredging and reclamation was changing the shoreline, less particular about the impact on marine resources, bird life that depended on the fish, the nearby dive operators who

depended on the coral reefs.

He took personal and public pride in helping to return the PLP to power. He was so ecstatic about the PLP’s sweeping win in 2012 that shortly after the May election he marched through the inner city flanked by flunkies crying “Take back The Bahamas”.

The move was met with scepticism at every level. A foreigner wanting to take back whose Bahamas? What many do not realise, though, is the particular scepticism of the party’s leader, Perry Christie, who on the exterior seemed to embrace the man who helped his party, but internally wanted to keep a safe distance. Yes, he toured the property with a few other Cabinet ministers, but he also kept Nygard waiting when he showed up unannounced in the PM’s office wanting a meeting.

Before he died, Dr Arthur Porter detailed a request for a meeting by Mr Nygard who was visibly shaken by the fact that the PM wanted to meet him in the lower level of a Cable Beach hotel.

Dr Porter’s recollection of the post-election meeting is in the story of his life, The Man Behind the Bow Tie. While others partied hardy, Christie was cautious around Nygard though his term in office did provide some leniency and breathing room with less determination for enforcement while meantime, Mr Nygard was finding himself in deeper waters as a result of a non-governmental effort to live up to the rule of law.

There is a library of letters from various government departments, permanent secretaries, all with copies to Cabinet ministers, generally one-way correspondence advising Mr Nygard of the specific violations of Sections 61 and 369 of the Planning and Subdivision Act, of Section 4 of the Building Regulations Act, of Section 8 of the Coastline Protection Act. He was ordered repeatedly to restore the coastline to the shape it had when he purchased the land. He was told of the “devastated sea beds” and a University of Miami marine report said damage from the dredging and debris stretched up to 84,000 metres.

But Mr Nygard answered most of the communication with a lack of interest though at times one attorney or another would reply or argue publicly promoting the man they declared had done so much for The Bahamas, supporting sports and a political party.

They say one man can make a difference. Mr Nygard did – he made a difference to his neighbours, to the environment, perhaps even to who governed the country for a time. In the end, he could not make a difference to the rule of law that caught up with him for contempt of court among other offences.

In the end, the story ends with the final chapter it was destined to have from the moment it began.

Save The Bahamas EDITOR, The Tribune.

RECENTLY the Deputy Provost Marshall of the Supreme Court was refused entry to the property of Peter Nygard at Simms Point in order to serve a court order to seize the property. After many hours, the court official along with high-ranking police officials were turned away empty handed.

Peter Nygard has ignored and insulted the Supreme Court of The Bahamas on several previous occasions, and he continues to do so.

In addition, he has been found in contempt of court several times, and he is still strutting around instead of sitting behind bars in Fox Hill Prison like some others before him.

Had this been an ordinary citizen, especially from the lower socio-economic

community, called “OverThe-Hill” by some, the weight of the law would have descended upon him with all of its might, and justly so. What then is the difference in this case?

Does Peter Nygard control The Bahamas? Is he above the law?

Should he be viewed as untouchable?

The law must be equally applied to all, no matter the financial, political, nationality, or other standing continued the statement.

This is an ideal opportunity for the authorities to convince Bahamians and others that laws are enforced in The Bahamas.

“The coalition is demanding that the apparent double standards of the law, one for the rich and powerful and one for the poor and powerless, be stopped.

If justice is blind as it should be, then Peter Nygard belongs where others who have so disgraced the Courts of The Bahamas have been sent,” said Rev Moss, chairman of the Coalition To Save Clifton.

The Coalition To Save Clifton is calling for the immediate discontinuance of the blatant disregard of the court-ordered law, and disrespect of the people and institutions of the Bahamas especially by a foreigner. Failure to rectify this problem now will continue to leave The Bahamas open to the charge that it is a “nation for sale”.

REV DR C B MOSS Chairman, Coalition To Save Clifton Nassau, October 1, 2018.

Someone tell govt we’re broke EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE reality of our fiscal situation still seems to elude those in political office. When I read of the efforts, and expense, of The Bahamas joining the WTO, I wonder who has told the government that we have the money to spend on this fool’s errand.

The Princess Margaret Hospital is broke. Doctors haven’t gotten a raise in ten years, the equipment is not maintained. Surgeries are cancelled. Working conditions are not optimal.

Nurses on strike. They haven’t collected what is due. PMH seems in shambles. And broke.

BPL is likewise a huge mess. No money for the needed personnel and equipment to keep the lights on in our capital.

Increasing, already outrageous prices, murderous prices, for electricity while service and performance is poor, and theft and corruption seems rampant. BPL leadership appears totally adrift. Their union appears to be parasitic. BPL is in shambles. And broke.

Water & Sewerage is reportedly deep in debt.

They are responsible for the lifeblood of our human condition. Reports are that W&S is broke.

Our Family Island clinics are in a state of disrepair, underfunded and neglected.

Our clinics are broke.

Local governments on our Family Islands are given a mere pittance. Not nearly enough money to do any of the things needed to bring us into the modern world. The Family Islands are broke.

Our educational system lacks the money to upgrade, maintain, and provide adequate resources necessary for preparing and training our youth to get a good job, build businesses and to take over the reigns of governing this country in a few short years. Meaning, we are undoubtedly short-changing our country’s future for lack of money. Our leaders

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net say our Ministry of Education is broke.

In fact, our country is so broke that the leaders of the Bahamian people are taking out big loans that will handcuff our children and the development potential of this country.

The ignorance, or cruelty, of the odious taxes that are actually taxes on taxes shows the callousness of our leaders. And so little outcry from our sheeple.

It seems to many of us that this administration is talking out of two sides of their mouths. On the one hand, they say that there is not enough money to run the country. They say, “We cannot provide adequate education, health care and safety for our people, all for lack of money. We cannot be a country that looks after the basic human needs of its people, for lack of money.”

On the other hand, they are borrowing money, buying hotels, flying around the world acting like we have the clout to do anything but beg. The rest of the world knows our situation. But, apparently the salaries of those Bahamians who are doing all this consulting and decision making on the people’s dime, don’t give a hoot that The Bahamas can’t even get the very basics to their own people.

The very basics necessary for even a nod to human dignity.

The regressive tax regime, so unchristian, so uncaring, that our beloveds have hitched the Bahamian people’s carts to, seem to elude the free-spending politic rats’ ethical worldview.

Perhaps someone should tell PM Minnis and DPM Turnquest that our country is broke. It doesn’t matter whether the PLP or the FNM got us into this mess.

The fact is we are broke.

When a business or a family is broke, has maxed

out their credit limit, and is in the position of making very tough choices, the one thing they must do is to stop all unnecessary spending. They must make hard choices. PMH, BPL, education, all these, must come before we spend a penny more in chasing the rich man’s dream of joining WTO, or buying derelict hotels.

The people must demand that our essential human needs are met here, prior to the superfluous spending, and borrowing, spree our government is on.

This is the time to consider self-imposed austerity.

Allowing us to choose what we will do with, and without.

Those who disagree with this perspective must have other incentives keeping them from seeing the realities of what we will soon face from outside financial powers which have our fate in their hands. They will be telling us what to do without, and what it is they want in return for our indebtedness to them. Is this not beginning to play out now?

Along with the knowledge of the realities of our fiscal situation here at home, must come the humility and honesty to do what is best for The Bahamas. With all the recent talk about joining the WTO, one would be led to believe that we have anything to bargain with. We don’t.

And, from carefully reading the daily papers here, it seems few politicians or business leaders truly understand the global game and our place in it.

The Bahamas is broke. I wish, for the sake of this nation, that we had more than a handful of people who could see where this country is headed with the current way of thinking that prevails. The Titanic is sinking. And we are arguing about rearranging the chairs on deck.

NORMAN TRABULSY Jr Nassau, September 25, 2018.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 3, 2018, PAGE 5

‘Leave people in their homes’ call as repossessions begin

By RAS H AD ROLLE Tribune Staff Repo rter rrolle@tribunemedia.net FIVE people in Millennium Gardens whose homes were repossessed by the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation last week are being represented by attorney Wayne Munroe who yesterday criticised policies that kick people out of their homes before a new buyer or tenant is found.

It is not clear how many people overall have had their homes repossessed.

The residents, who found changed locks on their doors, are said to have accumulated arrears over a number of years, some more than five.

“In some cases, it was illness that was a problem,” Mr Munroe QC said yesterday.

“In some cases, it was loss of a job. In one case a woman who came to me, her mother got ill and she works now at her mother’s stall at the Straw Market from which she now has

to take care of her mother and take care of her responsibilities.

“One of these women, and I know it to be the case, says they told her she has to bring $20,000. Her son used to live with her at that time.

Her son went to try get the $20,000; he’s in jail for armed robbery now.”

Mr Munroe added: “Do they have (a) sale presently or leases for these homes they are taking possession of? If the answer is no, do they intend to engage a security firm to make sure the homes aren’t vandalised? And are they intending to engage people to go and open the house for periods during the week to make sure they are not closed up and deteriorating? And if they intend to pay all the money out for this, what was the difficulty in leaving these people in their home and collecting any small sums they could collect from them?

“The bottom line is no one is saying if the bank comes to exercise its

security because they have a sale for the house that they shouldn’t do so, but why should they just put you out to put you out and then leave your house to run down? I don’t think any mortgage lender should be permitted to put people out unless they have a sale or lease for the property.

“I’ve been trying to get cases to advance that view that I have because I do not like mortgage lenders and big banks taking advantage of small people and it’s a classic example of taking advantage and spitefulness to put somebody our their house and you have no sale, no lease for it. The BMC is even worse when it comes to this.

“Let’s say you put me out my house because I truly can’t pay. I now have to go to Social Services. Social Services has to pay rent for me to go somewhere.

What’s the logic to it?”

With an eye toward the 2022 election, the Progressive Liberal Party has seized on the home repossessions

as it builds a narrative that the Minnis administration is uncaring. The party has reacted similarly to a widespread disconnection exercise at the Water & Sewerage Corporation this week.

“It is a marker of the difference between us and them,” said party chairman Fred Mitchell yesterday.

“Our view is work with people. It’s better to have someone in the house than the house being vacant and vandalised.”

Government officials responsible for the BMC have not discussed the recent repossession exercise. The prime minister’s press secretary, Anthony Newbold, defended the move yesterday, however.

“You got to pay your mortgage,” he said. “Five years is a long time to not pay your mortgage.

This government wants to have people in houses; didn’t want to see anybody dispossessed.”

Mr Newbold said Bahamians, faced with PLP criticism of the Minnis

administration’s “cruel” policies, should remember who’s doing the talking.

“There’s just concern that the people understand whose telling them that and that these situations didn’t all develop in the last year and a half,” he said.

“These situations developed and are now coming to a head because of the last administration. These people who the court has ordered that whatever happens with their houses, they didn’t just stop paying their mortgages six months ago or 13 months ago.

“They haven’t paid their mortgages for years. Who allowed that to happen?

We have systems we allow to govern our lives and we have to pay attention to those systems. There are any number of instances where this government has said, ‘we want to help the people’…at some point there’s nothing else you can do but let the law takes its course.”

Former BMC chairman Alex Storr defended

the decision of the previous administration to let people stay in their homes despite their accumulation of arrears, though he noted the former administration initiated court proceedings against debtors.

“We had some Saturdays where staff would go and do walkabouts in the areas and leave letters on all the doors,” Mr Storr said. “The biggest issue is that persons who are having a problem or are in arrears, they tend to shy away or they hide and that’s the worst thing you can do.”

BMC settled on a policy of not pushing out of the homes, Mr Storr said.

“Even then on gaining the judgment for vacant possession we didn’t put them out,” he said. “We still gave them the opportunity to come in and talk and see if there was anything that could be done. Some customers realised they were wrong and couldn’t do anything and walked away from the house. Some came in.”

OUTCRY FROM STUDENTS AS BIMINI TEACHER RELOCATED

By RICARDO WELLS Tribu ne Staff Reporter rwel ls@tri bunemedia.net

HIGH school students in Bimini protested yesterday over the reported reassignment of a science teacher.

Multiple students at the Louise McDonald High School (LMHS) yesterday walked out of their classrooms in protest over a decision by the Ministry of Education to redeploy the teacher.

Students and parents on the island have taken issue with the lack of adequate teachers at the school and the practice of reassigning teachers during the academic year.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Cherisse King, president of the LMHS Parents Teachers Association said she has to stand in support of the students, who, she said, were “willing to learn but being let down constantly”.

“It’s sad and it’s appalling,” she said. “These kids

have had this experience too many times and they are angry.”

She added: “A few years ago, it was the English teacher. It doesn’t stop. So these kids feel like their education isn’t being taken as serious as the students in Nassau and other places.

“We’ve been told the science teacher is being moved because we have another.

But the science teacher is known to help with other classes.

“Our English teacher is already at her quota, same with the math teacher. So how is it, in one breath you are telling us that some teachers are doing too much and in another, saying you are going to move a teacher because there is someone else.

“Leave him until you have a replacement, at least he is helping in the areas where there are shortages.

“We are at a point here where even the principal is in the classroom. As a matter of fact, there are

even some parents and other people from the community who volunteer and can’t be paid because there is no money.”

Ms King said the scenario has often left children unable to complete course hours.

“When we had the situation with the cosmetology teacher, I knew first hand of the struggle because my daughter lost out on an exam class she was pursuing because the teacher left.

“She was told that there was no one else to teach the class so she had to pick up something else. She was placed in home economics and was a year behind in the programme.”

Ms King added: “We just want our kids to have the opportunities that all other Bahamian children have.

They deserve that.”

There are approximately 87 students enrolled at the school.

Calls placed to the Ministry of Education were not answered up to press time.

PARKING IN A DISABLED BAY - YOU’LL BE FINED from page one

“We are going to put in place an inspectorate regime to ensure that there is compliance and we’re also reviewing the disabled parking spaces to ensure that they are where they’re supposed to be to ensure that only persons who have permission to use them are using them and to ensure that persons who disregard the rules regarding them will have some consequence.

“I know Bahamians get excited when there is a suggestion of levying a fine,” Mr Campbell continued.

“Let me make it clear that the intention is not to collect any funds. We hope to be able to report that not a dollar was collected

because no one breached the disabled parking spots.”

However, he would not commit to a timeline because he said there is no way to tell how long those given the various tasks in this regard will take to complete their work.

The Ministry and Department of Social Services has further made a commitment to help persons with disabilities as far as possible.

“I know that in general the ministry is concerned about providing any and all opportunity for persons with disabilities to be able to live a more independent life to have access to education and to be able to find employment like anybody else and so anything that we are able to do in that specifics without being aware of

what they are.”

He also said: “I can say that on my visit to the deaf centre about three or four weeks ago, I realised that they are without a generator. I realised that for the teachers and instructors to get the attention of the students they had to flash the lights on and off. And so I thought to myself if there is no power they won’t be able to get the students’ attention. Well I just approved a generator for them.

“I also approved a generator for the School for the Physically Disabled on Dolphin Drive because when the power is off they too need that extra comfort and so the ministry is working to help where it can and I am satisfied that any specifics brought to our attention will get consideration.”

ABOVE and below left, some of the signs held by students during yesterday’s protest.

PAGE 6, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Davis: Health minister must take role seriously

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Leader Philip “Brave” Davis said yesterday the country’s healthcare sector could improve if Health Minister Dr Duane Sands took his role and responsibilities more seriously.

Mr Davis made the observation yesterday during the PLP’s monthly press conference, when he claimed the sector was suffering setbacks due in part to Dr Sands’ refusal to accept responsibility for the problems he now faces as minister.

Referring to the recent actions by the Consultant Physicians Staff Association, Bahamas Doctors Union and the Bahamas Nurses Union, Mr Davis said all Dr Sands has done is persist with his “sheer arrogance” and “blame” of the PLP. “The doctors are not being heartless and callous as some would have us to believe,” Mr Davis told reporters, “they have been forced to bring matters to a boiling point because of the sheer arrogance of the parttime minister of health, Dr Duane Sands.

“The strike is intended to draw attention to serious and critical conditions that exist in our nation’s largest hospital and at the Rand in Freeport which I heard of personally over the weekend,” he added.

Mr Davis took Dr Sands to task over what he termed, “a litany of complaints”.

Among the complaints were the lack of confirmations for nurses and doctors, owed wages, lack of proper rest facilities for on-call staff and those

working double shifts, limited beds, an ongoing medication shortage, other strained services, delayed surgeries and high risks for infections.

Mr Davis said in the face of these issues, all Dr Sands and his team at the Public Hospitals Authority has done is avoid their responsibilities.

“The Public Hospitals Authority, which was created to circumvent the bureaucratic practices of the central government, they now seem to be powerless and they now are in need of a serious overhaul.

“And here again, you have the part-time minister of health, who is probably engaging in political interference.

“You know, the part time minister of health, Dr Sands can distract, deflect and sing the FNM’s favourite but tired and worn out song blame the PLP,” Mr Davis asserted.

“That is the title of their song - blame the PLP. He can sing that all he wants.

“If the National Health Insurance that we had left in place, if they had continued that, we would have been meeting and solving most of these challenges that are now being described by Dr Sands.

“But I have a message for Dr Sands and the entire FNM government and it comes from Dr Keith Rowley, who is the prime minister now for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, ‘Anytime a government resorts to blaming the opposition for its failure to deliver on their mandate and responsibilities to the people, it is a clear sign that they have accepted the fact that they have outlived their usefulness’.”

MINISTER of Health Dr Duane Sands.

Mr Davis said Dr Sands ought to operate as a “fulltime minister, get to work in his ministry and quit with the cry baby, sour lime chatter.”

He added anything beyond that course of action should be viewed as “embarrassing and unbecoming of a minister.”

Late last month the BDU staged a walk-out at Princess Margaret Hospital.

The source of contention included the PHA’s refusal to honour maternity benefits, overtime pay,

holiday pay, work duration agreements, licensing and registration protocols and address several longstanding adverse working conditions.

The BDU was supported

by BNU President Amancha Williams. The PHA is also facing strike threats from its nurses.

The following day, the Consultant Physicians Staff Association members temporarily vacated their posts to stand in solidarity with the BDU and BNU.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff In response, the PHA has maintained that strained financial resources have limited its ability to address many of the concerns raised.

Additionally, PHA Managing Director Catherine Weech has also noted that 80 percent of PHA’s income is currently related to the salaries and benefits of physicians, nurses, and support staff; further maintaining that financial strategy leaves “very little funding” for the maintenance and renovation of the country’s

healthcare facilities.

Nonetheless, Mr Davis yesterday scoffed at the statement, insisting the government’s decision to finance the purchase of the Grand Lucayan resort property in Grand Bahama, stands as proof the Minnis administration is unable to manage the country’s affairs properly.

“This narrative of no money comes down to management,” Mr Davis said.

“We have any number of projects ongoing…. It’s how you manage your cash.”

SANDS: DRIVING REVENUE KEY TO SOLVING CRISIS from page one

The others are tended to by the private sector.

Yesterday, he repeated the situation had remained the same in response to a rehash of the issue in The Nassau Guardian which was published yesterday.

Dr Sands told reporters: “I have said it here to you before that the public dialysis system is set up to deal with about 200 patients and we currently have 600 patients on dialysis paid for publicly. That costs the Bahamian people between $50,000 and $80,000 per patient per year.

“As a result, most of the patients have to be outsourced to the private sector and even those that are managed at the Princess Margaret Hospital we don’t have enough nurses, the machines have not been maintained and so on and so forth. Solving these problems requires a tremendous infusion of money that we are trying to identify and I wish that I could wave a magic wand and it’s there.”

He continued: “Part of this relates to the fact that we spend an inordinate

amount on health and our revenue base is very, very low. As I have said to you many, many times we have to increase the revenue base if we are going to deal with these very vexing problems of crime, noncommunicable diseases, heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes and stroke then we have to have the revenue base.

“Now what does that mean? It means that the Public Hospitals Authority has now to go after revenue that it has not historically gotten that means insurance revenue, National Insurance (Board) revenue, road act revenue and the co-pay’s that are gazetted by law that people have not historically been willing or able to pay.

“I’ve said it to you before, 87 percent of people that come to the Public Hospitals Authority pay nothing.”

When it comes to implementing a new fee schedule, Dr Sands said officials were still mulling over what should be changed.

“We are going line by line with each of the fees to determine whether it is in conflict with any existing policy or law and so we fully

intend to modify the fee schedule at Princess Margaret Hospital, the Rand Memorial Hospital, Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre and Emergency Medical Services. The problem is we recognise that we don’t have the capacity to bill and to collect and so we are putting that in place now.

“So we have designed a new business centre at Princess Margaret Hospital, hiring staff in order to bill and what we anticipate is that we are going to eliminate some of the cash collection sites throughout the hospital and centralise it.

“If you centralise it you have to ensure that you don’t just create a log jam with people standing in line for hours. So it is trying to make this a 21 century facility that manages the problems that we are mandated to deal with.”

In April, Dr Sands said the schedule which was made up of 500 fees was to be implemented on July 1, the start of government’s new fiscal year.

However, this was never implemented, as there was a need to conduct additional consultation on the proposed increases.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 3, 2018, PAGE 7

PLP ANNOUNCES CONVENTION TO BE HELD NEXT MONTH THE Progressive Liberal Party will hold its next convention from November 14 to 16.

The announcement was made yesterday by the party’s leader, Philip “Brave” Davis, during the party’s monthly press briefing.

Mr Davis told reporters the party would seek to ratify its constitution at the event.

The party’s last convention was held last October and was fraught with drama, confusion and speeches which called for period of self-evaluation following the party’s defeat in the 2017 general election.

The most shocking commentary came from Monique Pindling, the daughter of former Prime Minister and PLP Leader Sir Lynden Pindling, who blasted the organisation as “weak” and “dishonest”.

Ms Pindling said the party had allowed the political ambitions of a “few men to dash the aspirations of a whole people”.

The critique led Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis to dismiss the party’s ability to form a functioning government if was to ever be re-elected to office, saying if the opposition party could not properly pull off

an internal event, it cannot lead the country.

The event eventually saw the elections of Mr Davis as leader, Exuma and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper as deputy leader and Senator Fred Mitchell as chairman.

Meanwhile, Mr Davis also took time yesterday to address the government’s much-touted ‘public-private partnership’ policy, dismissing the framework as “complicated”.

Mr Davis said the policy, which he and members of his party have recently reviewed, is inherently discriminatory against

Bahamian businesses in favour of foreign entities.

In a statement earlier this week, the Ministry of Finance said the policy was designed to better define PPPs and bring order to a previously ad hoc approach to such arrangements, enhancing their governance and ensuring better value for money for Bahamian taxpayers.

The ministry said the policy’s development, and issuance, will bring greater transparency and accountability to PPP deals, while creating a set of criteria and objectives against which proposals can be rated and

benchmarked.

However, in his response yesterday, Mr Davis said the policy, down to its letter, tone and tenor, does very little to truly aid Bahamians.

He said, echoing an earlier statement issued by Mr Mitchell, the government could have simply written a document that illustrated its interest in working alongside private sector persons.

“The simple fact is that the choice will always be in favour of the foreign business because cost of US capital is cheaper than (Bahamian) dollar lending rates,” Mr Davis insisted.

He called on the government to consider a concept he referred to as “economic patriotism,” saying a strategy where government economic policies are geared toward lowering the barrier to participation and favour Bahamians, could drastically shift economic opportunities for locals.

“We must pursue a policy of broad based economic empowerment that favour Bahamians,” he said.

“This is what I am hearing as I move around the country and talk to Bahamians, most of whom are young, about the future of this country,” he added.

Davis wants answers over Sands and Osborne posts

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis administration “must come clean” over the circumstances which led to the resignations of both Leonard Sands and Darnell Osborne, said Progressive Liberal Party Leader Philip “Brave” Davis.

Addressing the surprising resignation of Mr Sands from both his post as president of the Bahamian Contractors Association and the Free National Movement earlier this week, Mr Davis insisted the FNM address the issues that led to the move.

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Sands blamed “sinister and unprecedented” political pressure for forcing him to resign to protect the group’s advocacy efforts.

Mr Sands told Tribune Business that the BCA’s executive board members were last week warned that the organisation faced “dire repercussions” and exclusion from efforts to improve and regulate the industry, unless he stepped down by noon Sunday.

Mr Sands also alleged that the threats and demands for his resignation came from Omar Archer, recently appointed as registrar in the Ministry of Works.

The move comes weeks after former Bahamas Power & Light Chairwoman Darnell Osborne resigned as a member of the FNM. Her resignation followed the shock dissolution of the former BPL board.

Several sources at the time claimed the board disintegrated following a meeting with Works Minister Desmond Bannister, who was said to have demanded the resignations after months of attempting to mediate issues with Mrs Osborne and other board members.

However, in a joint statement in the days that followed, former BPL board members defended their tenure and said Mrs Osborne in particular was “continually disrespected and undermined” suggesting chauvinism was at play.

Addressing the resignations yesterday, Mr Davis said the Minnis administration’s handling of the problems has left much cause for concern, particularly with young professionals.

Referring to Mr Sands he said, “Here is a young Bahamian advocating for the protection and fair treatment of contractors coming under so much political pressure and was so offended by it that he also resigned from the

FNM, the party for which he was a candidate.

“This comes on the heels of the resignation of Darnell Osborne, former chair of BPL. The only question the government had to ask was whether or not Mrs Osborne was performing her job as chairman and carrying out the mandate of the government.

“The government could not say.

“Announcements about an investigation into the BPL board have apparently gone cold,” he added.

“Suffice it to say this is not the way to empower young Bahamians. The government is clearly sending the wrong message to the Bahamian people, especially the professional class.”

When asked if he could envision a scenario where both Mr Sands and Mrs Osborne could join the PLP, Mr Davis said: “We are a big tent. Politics is about numbers.”

He said the party would welcome any person to join its ranks as long as they come with will to embrace the party’s philosophies and ideology.

“Once they embrace the rules and ideology, they can join,” he added.

Mr Davis said the resignations of both Mr Sands

ARCHER RIGHT FOR JOB? SOMEONE THOUGHT SO from page one be in this position. Whatever those qualifications were or are, a decision was made that he was the best person to put in that role.”

His appointment, he added, is “something that would have come through the usual system. The specifics of how that happened, I presumed the position was available and he applied for it. About Omar Archer or qualifications for that registrar position, I don’t (know)

but I’m sure whatever those qualifications are he must have met them. Nobody is going to be hired and not meet the qualifications for a specific job”.

It is unclear if the registrar position was advertised to other potential applicants. In his new role, Mr Archer has already courted controversy after Leonard Sands accused him of waging a behind-the-scenes campaign to force his ouster from the Bahamas Contractors Association. Mr Sands quit as BCA president and

also as a member of the Free National Movement over the friction.

The FNM has repeatedly tried to distinguish itself from the Progressive Liberal Party over the years by accusing that party of cronyism.

Asked if hiring Mr Archer complicates its ability to continue doing this, Mr Newbold said: “I don’t know why it should.”

Mr Archer was a vocal supporter of the FNM ahead of the last general election.

TWO ACCUSED OF IMMIGRATION OFFENCES

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN man and a Jamaican woman were charged in the Freeport Magistrate’s Court for breach of the Immigration Act and other separate offences including possession of fraudulent Immigration documents.

Raphael Miller, 44, of Watergate Apartments, and Princess Diane Martin, 30, of Jamaica, appeared in court three recently before Deputy Chief Magistrate Debbye Ferguson.

Miller was charged with harbouring an undocumented immigrant, while Martin was charged with overstaying.

It is alleged that on September 24, Miller, with the deliberate intent to evade immigration officers,

harboured Ms Martin at his apartment.

He pleaded guilty to the offence and was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 or in default serve two years at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Magistrate Ferguson ordered Miller to pay $2500 to the court by 3pm last Friday and the balance in installments of $300 weekly beginning today.

If he fails, he will serve three consecutive years at BDCS. According to the particulars, Martin was granted a 14-day stay on her admittance to the country on July 13, but overstayed her time in the country. She was discovered by immigration officials on September 24.

She pleaded guilty to the charge of overstaying and was ordered to pay a fine of $3,000 or in default serve

two years in prison. Magistrate Ferguson ordered Martin be deported to Jamaica on payment of her fine or on completion of her custodial sentence.

The two were also charged with five counts of possession of fraudulent immigration documents and uttering a false document with intent to deceive the Department of Immigration.

Martin pleaded guilty to all five counts and was ordered to pay a fine of $700 on each count or in default serve six months in prison.

Miller pleaded not guilty to the five counts and was denied bail and remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services until April 2019 for trial. Miller’s attorney is expected to apply for her bail.

PLP leader Philip ‘Brave’ Davis. and Mrs Osborne reflect more on the style, competence and effectiveness of Mr Bannister.

As for Mr Archer, Mr

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff Davis said he is surprised that he holds a public post.

Mr Davis said the appointment of Mr Archer as contractors registrar

“is kind of curious,” given that industry is absent a board, and thus, Mr Archer does not have any clear direction.

PAGE 8, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

W

E watched another one bite the dust on Monday, over and over again. It instantly became a where-were-you-when moment. The videos and pictures seem endless and I imagine people return to them to experience the thrill, again, of what was once Crystal Palace crumbling before their eyes. It is not often we see demolitions in The Bahamas, so this was quite the spectacle. As the dust settles, many people are sharing memories of Crystal Palace, from teenage sleepovers to working night shifts. The demolition, as some have said, was the end of an era.

To say the Nassau Marriott Resort & Crystal Palace Casino was colourful would be putting it lightly. Some would call it gaudy. The Rainforest Theatre, perhaps designed to suit its name a bit too literally, was the site of many pageants and award shows. Seaside Buffet was a main attraction for large groups, especially after church services for Mother’s Day, christenings and the like. There were rooms and suites, a casino, event spaces, a pool and waterslide, restaurants and shops. How different is this from what has been developing before our eyes over the past few years?

While the building is gone, the old model of tourism it represented remains.

We continue to construct monstrosities on or near the waterfront and fully expect the people to just come. Why wouldn’t they?

We’ve got beaches, we’ve got sun. We’ve got hundreds of hotel rooms and staff who may or may not speak to you in a forcibly American-sounding accent. You’ll feel right at home, except your entire environment will be fabricated based on the resort offerings that probably exist in your home country, designed to keep you on the compound. Won’t you come and, quite literally, stay with us? When it is all done, you can go home and tell your friends all about the version of The Bahamas you saw — partly because it was your choice and partly because that is what we sold you.

Everyone knows what Atlantis is and what it does for the Bahamian labour market and to the tourism industry. It is nuanced, pros and cons intermingling, but it is there to attract and serve a particular market. It has also found ways to capitalise on the cruise stop-over visitors with special packages. For people staying there, from

CRYSTAL Palace Resort and Casino comes tumbling down in Monday’s demolition.

Time for a different tune than our brand of one-note tourism

By Alicia Wallace

restaurants and the casino to Marina Village and the water amenities, there’s almost no reason to leave, especially if you have not given any thought to all the other offerings an island or chain of islands may have.

Coming from a cruise, it is easy to spend every minute of port time wandering the property and

enjoying paid amenities. This is not a mystery.

It comes as no surprise.

What is truly interesting is we are prepared to create another tourist island — a place for visitors to spend most, if not all, of their time and money. We have been propagating onenote tourism through our own singular view of The

Bahamas. Someone said sun, sand and sea was the trio that deserved our focus and would pay off. There has not been enough focus on other potential draws to the islands of The Bahamas, especially outside of Nassau. It is difficult to determine whether failure to diversify the tourism industry is the reason for the excessive emphasis and dependence on hotels — and resorts in particular — we see today, or vice versa.

Crystal Palace has been taken down and the space it used to occupy will be filled by more of Baha Mar. “Family amenities” are soon to come. Baha Mar is quickly checking all of the boxes — rooms, dining, shopping, gambling, golfing, splashing. What makes us think this one is going to be different?

It is only going to be new

for so long. What will be the draw after that? How will it compete with Atlantis, or are we thoroughly convinced that Baha Mar is successfully carving out its own, mutually exclusive market?

It is certainly worth thinking about the way we do tourism can support smaller hotels, especially those owned by Bahamians. It is undeniable we need to think about the concentration of tourist dollars within large resorts, and not in theatres, Bahamian-owned restaurants and takeaways, art galleries, tour companies, or gas stations. We cannot be willing to accept the smallest piece of the tourism pie for ever.

In 1983, the people involved in the Cable Beach Hotel saw no end.

In 1988, when it was rebranded Crystal Palace, those involved had no end

in sight. They saw beach front hotel property offering everything all the other hotels offer, all under the sun and a short flight away from Florida. What could be lacking?

It is, in some ways, quite troubling that viewing the demolition of Crystal Palace was such sport. By now, we should be thinking about our brand of tourism, as a system and a practice, in the same ways we look at Crystal Palace. There was a point to it, we have memories of it, but we need to take the decades of lessons and apply them to the next iteration which is imminent, if not already here. No one should have to force us to do this. No financial crisis or unexpected competition should We watched another one bite the dust on Monday, over and over again. It instantly became a where-were-you-when moment. The videos and pictures seem endless, and I imagine people return to them to experience the thrill, again, of what was once Crystal Palace crumbling before their eyes. It is not often that we see demolitions in The Bahamas, so this was quite the spectacle. As the dust settles, many people are sharing memories of Crystal Palace, from teenage sleepovers to working night shifts. The demolition, as some have said, was the end of an era.

We have been in this business for too long. We should have the gifts of insight and foresight by now. It would be great if we, in 30 years, do not watch another hotel lose its usefulness, disappear, and be replaced, but that is a very low bar.

We can do better than that. All it takes is the willingness to critique even the systems and activities that bring benefit, knowing they may not always do that work, and will not continue without human effort. Baha Mar could be Crystal Palace tomorrow, but it does not have to be that way.

Heavy equipment mecHanic TROPICAL SHIPPING USA, the Premier Logistics Company in the maritime industry is seeking senior level HEAVY EQUIPMENT MECHANICS for port maintenance in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, The Bahamas.

Performs a full range of maintenance, repair and service activities on heavy equipment including but not limited to heavy-duty trucks and semi-tractors, Reach Stackers, Jockey Trucks, high pressure pumps, cable inspections, crawler tractors and trailers, aerial towers and man lifts, and other engine components.

Ideal candidates will possess excellent written and oral communications skills, computer entry skills, along with 5+ years’ experience preferably in the shipping or transportation-related industry, possess a valid driver’s license, and ability to travel abroad.

This position will be filled immediately. To apply, interested candidates should register at the www.tropical.com website and select CAREER to view current opportunities. Please include your resume; additionally to tgibson@tropical.com . Third-party agency candidates need not apply.

Tropical Shipping USA, LLC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected Veteran status.

Funeral Service For SHARON ERNESTINE CAMPBELL, 64 of Montrose Avenue, will be held on Thursday October 4th 2018 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Georges Anglican Church, Mt Rose Avenue. Officiating will be Fr. Scott Brennen, assisted by Archdeacon Kingsley Knowles and other ministers of the Clergy. Interment will follow in Western Cemetery, Nassau Street.

She is survived by her mother: Dorrine Campbell; siblings: Franklyn (Virginia), Winston (Barbara), Samuel Sr. (Thalia), Mavis Campbell-Thompson, Christopher (Helen), Huel (Garnell), Lloyd (Winifred), Jimmy (Paige), Janice Munnings (Michael), Bishop Anthony (Lula), Christine, Albert (Delphine), Arthur (Esther); foster brother: Thomas Evans, QC (Carolyn); uncle: Henry Ferguson (Virginia); aunts: Nora McClain (Herman I) and Winifred Ferguson; families of the late Winnis Bethell, Hugh, Fritz, Lyric and Peter Campbell, and other relatives and friends.

Friends may pay their last respects at Bethel Brothers Morticians, #44 Nassau Street on Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and at the church on Thursday from 9:00 a.m. until service time.

THE TRIBUNE

TORONTO Associated Press HEATED streets will melt ice and snow on contact. Sensors will monitor traffic and protect pedestrians. Driverless shuttles will carry people to their doors.

A unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet is proposing to turn a rundown part of Toronto’s waterfront into what may be the most wired community in history — to “fundamentally refine what urban life can be”.

Sidewalk Labs has partnered with a government agency known as Waterfront Toronto with plans to erect mid-rise apartments, offices, shops and a school on a 12-acre (4.9-hectare) site — a first step toward what it hopes will eventually be a 800-acre (325-hectare) development.

High-level interest is clear: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alphabet’s thenExecutive Chairman Eric Schmidt appeared together to announce the plan last October.

But some Canadians are rethinking the privacy implications of giving one of the most data-hungry companies on the planet the means to wire up everything from street lights to pavement.

And some want the public to get a cut of the revenue from products developed using Canada’s largest city as an urban laboratory.

“The Waterfront Toronto executives and board are too dumb to realise they are getting played,” said former BlackBerry chief executive Jim Balsillie, a smartphone pioneer considered a national hero who also said the federal government is pushing the board to approve it.

“Google knew what they wanted. And the politicians wanted a PR splash and the Waterfront board didn’t know what they are doing.

And the citizens of Toronto and Canada are going to pay the price,” Balsillie said.

Complaints about the proposed development prompted Waterfront Toronto to re-do the agreement to ensure a greater role for the official agency, which represents city, provincial

Wednesday, October 3, 2018, PAGE 9

Google’s first urban development raises data concerns

THE EASTERN waterfront of Toronto, Canada. Sidewalk Labs has partnered with a government agency known as Waterfront Toronto with plans to erect mid-rise apartments, offices, shops and a school on a 12-acre (4.9-hectare) site. A first step toward what it hopes will eventually be a 800-acre (325-hectare) development. and federal governments.

So far the project is still in the embryonic stage. After consultations, the developers plan to present a formal master plan early next year.

Dan Doctoroff, the CEO of Sidewalk Labs, envisions features like pavement that lights up to warn pedestrians of approaching streetcars.

Flexible heated enclosures — described as “raincoats” for buildings — will be deployed based on weather data during Toronto’s bitter THIS illustration provided by Sidewalk Toronto shows the dewinters. Robotic waste- sign for a proposed development of a rundown part of Toronto’s sorting systems will detect waterfront. Sidewalk Labs envisions features like pavement that when a garbage bin is full and lights up to warn pedestrians of approaching streetcars, flexible remove it before raccoons heated enclosures described as “raincoats” for buildings and rodescend. botic waste-sorting systems.

“Those are great uses of data that can improve the quality of life of people,” he digital technology and data, monetise people’s personal said. “That’s what we want to without giving up the privacy information in the way that and security that everyone Google does now with search do.” information. He said the plan Sidewalk Labs promo- deserves”.

Doctoroff said the is to invent so-far-undefined tional materials promise “a place that’s enhanced by company isn’t looking to products and services that

Sidewalk Labs can market elsewhere.

“People automatically assume because of our relationship to Alphabet and Google that they will be treated one way or another.

We have never said anything” about the data issue, he said. “To be honest people should give us some time. Be patient.”

But that wasn’t good enough for Julie Di Lorenzo, a prominent Toronto developer who resigned from the Waterfront Toronto board over the project. Di Lorenzo said data and what Google wants to do with it should be front and centre in the discussions. She also believes the government agency has given the Google affiliate too much power over how the project develops.

“How can (Waterfront Toronto), a corporation established by three levels of democratically elected government, have shared values with a limited, for-profit company whose premise is embedded data collection?”

Di Lorenzo asked.

Di Lorenzo asks who will own the autonomous vehicles. “Is the municipality maintaining the fleet or forcing you to share your vehicle?” She also asks if people who don’t want their data collected will be allowed to live there.

The concerns have intensified following a series of privacy scandals at Facebook and Google. A recent Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on iPhones and Android devices store location-tracking data even if you use privacy settings that are supposed to turn them off.

“It gives all of us pause,” Waterfront board chair Helen Burstyn acknowledged.

Bianca Wylie, an advocate of open government, said it remains deeply troubling that Sidewalk Labs still hasn’t said who will own data produced by the project or how it will be monetised. Google is here to make money, she said, and Canadians should benefit from any data or products developed from it.

PHOTOS FROM JAPANESE SPACE ROVERS SHOW ASTEROID IS ... ROCKY TOKYO Associated Press NEW photos taken on the surface of an asteroid show that it is (drum roll, please) ... rocky.

It may be no surprise, but Japan space agency scientists and engineers are thrilled by the images being sent to Earth by two jumping robotic rovers that they dropped onto an asteroid about 280 million kilometres (170 million miles) away.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency posted the latest photos on its website late Thursday. They show slightly tilted closeups of the rocky surface from different locations.

“I cannot find words to express how happy I am that we were able to realise mobile exploration on the surface of an asteroid,”

IMAGES captured by Rover-1B, and provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) show the surface of asteroid Ryugu. project manager Yuichi Tsuda said on the space agency’s website.

It took more than three years for the unmanned Hayabusa2 spacecraft to reach the vicinity of asteroid Ryugu. One week ago, the craft successfully dropped a small capsule with two rovers onto its surface.

The rovers, each about the

size of circular cookie tin, don’t have wheels but jump around the asteroid.

Hayabusa2 is scheduled to drop a German-French lander with four observation devices onto the asteroid next week. It later will attempt to land on the asteroid itself to collect samples to send back to researchers on Earth.

• NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is swinging by Venus on its unprecedented journey to the sun.

Launched in August, the spacecraft gets a gravity assist tomorrow as it passes within 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) of Venus. The flyby is the first of seven that will draw Parker ever closer to the sun.

By the end of October, Parker will shatter the current record for close solar encounters, set by a NASA spacecraft in 1976 from 27 million miles (43 million kilometres) out. Parker will get within 15 million miles (25 million kilometres) of the sun’s surface in November.

Twenty-four such orbits — dipping into the sun’s upper atmosphere, or corona — are planned over the next seven years. The gap will eventually shrink to 3.8 million miles (six million kilometres).

• EUROPEAN carmakers are rolling out electric vehicles like the ones on view this week at the Paris Motor Show to burnish their reputations as technology leaders and to compete with Tesla. But also because EU regulations don’t leave them much choice.

New emission standards mean Europe will soon see an upsurge in electric offerings, outpacing the United States, where the regulatory push has eased under the Trump administration, but still likely lagging China, where the government is mandating more e-cars.

The new rules could increase sales of electrics in Europe from a minuscule 0.6 percent of the 14.5-million vehicle annual market to the high single digits over the next five or six years.

From about ten available models there would be several dozen to choose from.

Many questions remain open, not least the availability of public, fastcharging stations to match Tesla’s proprietary network.

And customers, especially those aiming to get the most for their money, may think electrics are virtuous enough in theory — but in practice don’t buy them because they cost more, and because reliable places to charge up away from home remain scarce.

At the Paris show, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz is showing off the EQC, while Volkswagen’s Audi has the e-tron, both batterypowered. They should be on the streets in the next few months, the e-tron this year and the EQC in 2019.

PSA Group’s luxury brand, DS, is showing off the DS 3 Crossback, a compact SUV that will offer an all-electric version from the second half of 2019. Volkswagen will follow in 2020 with its ID electric four-door compact. BMW already makes the i3 compact and plans an electric version of its X3 SUV in 2020.

Automakers are obviously trying to grab some of the buzz Tesla earned with its Model X SUV and Model S high-performance sedan.

PAGE 10, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Security guard: I saw man hit woman twice on head

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A PARADISE Islandbased security guard yesterday testified how he witnessed a male Atlantis employee slam a woman on her head two consecutive times over a parking dispute and said the man would have done so a third time had he not intervened.

Antonio Wilmore, of Ultimate Security Services, said he saw 44-year-old Romeo Cartwright pick Karissa Evans up by her waist and “lick” her down on her head twice on September 1 in the pick-up/drop-off area at the rear of the Paradise Island Shopping Plaza.

And when Cartwright was about to do it a third time, Wilmore claimed he jumped in and told the 44-year-old “that’s enough, that’s enough”.

However, Cartwright, who took the stand in his defence, said he never hit Ms Evans, and that he only “pushed” her once, albeit forcefully.

He said it was “absolutely” necessary to have

pushed her the way he did, primarily because she punched him in the mouth, and because of the “belligerence” and “aggression” she exhibited during their altercation.

Cartwright is on trial before Magistrate Samuel McKinney after pleading not guilty to a single charge of assault in September for allegedly attacking Ms Evans during an argument near a Paradise Island parking lot.

Multiple videos and photos of the incident went viral on social media shortly after the incident.

Taking the witness stand yesterday morning, Wilmore said around 3.30pm on the date in question, he noticed a back and forth between Cartwright and Ms Evans, which led to the former grabbing the woman by the waist and slamming her on the ground.

Mr Wilmore said at the time the first body slam occurred, he was about 60 feet away; however, he said he ran towards them after he saw it happen.

Mr Wilmore said when he got a little closer, he saw Cartwright pick the woman

up a second time and slam her to the ground again. He said Cartwright tried to do it a third time, but he got in between the two and prevented it from happening.

Afterwards, he said Cartwright walked back to his truck.

Mr Wilmore said he saw blood coming from the right, rear side of the woman’s head, prompting him to call the police and an ambulance. The security guard said once the officers arrived, they took over the scene.

According to Cartwright, who opted to take the witness stand and testify subsequent to the close of the Crown’s case against him, said he was entering the drop off/pick-up area when Ms Evans pulled from where she was parked in front of his truck.

Cartwright said neither of them would give any ground. He said after a while, Ms Evans got out of her car, and because she had “a number of words to say” he rolled down his window to hear her.

Cartwright said moments later, Ms Evans threw what he discovered was coffee

at his windshield. Cartwright said he then took off his uniform shirt, which had gotten wet from the coffee thrown by Ms Evans, and got of his truck to inspect the damage.

However, he said, as he got out of his vehicle, Ms Evans got back into hers in a bid to leave the area. He said he subsequently ran after Ms Evans’ car while shouting at her, his rationale being that his windshield could have been damaged or the frame around it bent.

According to Cartwright, Ms Evans could have taken a right to leave the area, but instead took a left to come back in his direction.

He said given her “initial belligerence” – her allegedly cursing at him and hitting his truck with a cup of coffee – he wasn’t sure if she was going to ram him with her car, so he jumped on to the back of his truck for safety.

Cartwright said he subsequently found a tennis shoe from the back of his truck and threw it at her car—Ms Evans previously claimed the shoe ended up hitting her in the abdomen.

Cartwright said he threw

the shoe because he knew it would not cause any damage, and with the hope she would stop so they could have discussions on having the situation with his truck registered as an accident, and that if there was any damage they could work on having it repaired.

“She stopped her car, she came out, angrily like the first time,” he testified.

“She walked straight up to me, and punched me in my mouth with her right hand.”

When asked by his attorney Bjorn Ferguson what he did in response, Cartwright replied: “I reacted.

I stepped into her, with the shifting of my weight, I pushed her. It was wet, she was wearing slippers; she fell very hard.”

Cartwright said Ms Evans remained motionless after he pushed her to the ground. He said a security guard came running over, angry and yelling, telling him he was going to get locked up and that he would call the police. Cartwright said he admonished the security guard to do so.

Cartwright said at the time the physical altercation occurred, close to 100

people had gathered. He said he ended up having to answer various people who were shouting at him as a result of the altercation, and that he had to remind them they did not see what led to Ms Evans’ predicament. “…They only saw the lady laying on the ground,” he said. “They didn’t see her belligerence and her aggression towards me.”

Cartwright said the police arrived shortly afterwards.

He said he ended up sitting in the passenger seat of his truck because people started pulling out their cell phones and recording the scene.

Less than 10 minutes later, he said, a police officer drove his truck to the station with him inside.

Once there, he said he gave a statement in relation to the matter, and was subsequently informed that he was being placed under arrest.

When asked by the police prosecutor if he felt it was necessary to have done what he did to who he conceded is a “small woman,” Cartwright said: “Yes, absolutely.”

The trial continues.

WELCOMING THE WORLD

THE OPENING ceremony of the SOTIC 2018 State of The Tourism Industry Conference yesterday at the Grand Ballroom, Atlantis, with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis giving the keynote address.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

BUS DRIVERS WANT DELAY OF UNIFIED SYSTEM

By RIEL MAJOR

THE Bahamas Unified Bus Drivers Union yesterday requested the government delay the launch of the pilot

programme of the unified bus system.

The union noted in a statement it considers the current pilot project inadequate and old fashioned and called on the government to consult members

on the system before it is introduced. The union wants to be more involved in the revamping process of the pilot project.

The press statement was released following the comments made by

the former Transport and Local Government Minister Frankie Campbell on Sunday about the completion of the pilot’s project being near.

Mr Campbell said, as far as he is aware, the system is proving successful and has brought the government closer to its goal of a reimagined public transportation system.

“The details were worked out,” he said on Sunday.

“When I left, all the key details were in place and our plan for major change was ready to be rolled out and operated.”

Mr Campbell added:

“We have the major details such as the central bus depot, the old road traffic facility on West Bay Street, and all the minor stops along the route already hashed out.

“The budget lines, well the funds needed to manage the system, was already worked out.

“So all that was left was the small items; a couple of little things we had to discuss with some of the drivers,” he said.

When asked what he was referring to as the little things, Mr Campbell said: “The little details, we wanted to speak to the

drivers about uniforms; minor details about the public service vehicles, things along those lines.

“Some aspects of the data collection system being proposed, we wanted to speak on that and how it would be used.

“So, like I said, the small things. And I trust in the coming weeks there will be so much more shared on this by the minister with responsibility for the sector.

“But be assured until then, this government and particularly the Cabinet has committed itself to seeing this project through and we are doing just that.”

READERS VIEWS ON DRIVING SAFETY AFTER Transport Minister Renward Wells said the decision to amend the Road Traffic Act to make it illegal to drive a vehicle while using a cell phone, or with an open alcoholic beverage is related to the “increase” in traffic fatalities, readers gave their reaction on tribune242.com.

Sheeprunner12 said: “In Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden they ride bicycles in the city... ever seen an Asian city scene with bicycles??????

But we have 300,000 vehicles on the streets of Nassau with NO sensible town planning for them.”

There was this comment from Jujutreeclub: “You all worrying about the high fine as opposed to the safety of our peoples on our streets. A high amount of traffic fatalities and traffic jams are due to folks on their cell phone texting and talking. I’ve been behind folks who

have had traffic at a standstill for a while because their head was down and they texting. Some people can’t talk and drive, less text and drive. If you don’t want to pay the fine, then follow the new laws.

Before cell phones and tablets came around, what you use to do? Get with it.

If you do the crime, do the time and pay the fine. It’s as simple as that. When a family member of yours gets killed by a person texting, drinking, God forbid, then you will know how it feels then.”

That prompted this response from Geostorm: “@jujutreeclub, we are just a lawless people! But it’s

like you said, they will not get it until something happens to them or someone they love then they will be crying for the government to step in and do something.

I have to shake my head at my people! They are unbelievable!”

And in The Tribune’s latest online poll, we asked readers if they were in favour of Disney’s plans for Lighthouse Point. At the time of going to press, 69 percent were against the plans, with 31 percent in support of them.

• The poll is still open, so don’t miss your chance to vote and join the conversation on tribune242.com.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 3, 2018, PAGE 11

Back to where it all began for Commissioner

POLICE Commissioner Anthony Ferguson took a trip down memory lane last week making an official visit to his Alma Mater LN Coakley High School in his native Exuma.

On his arrival at the school, Commissioner Ferguson was welcomed by staff and then treated to songs, dance, poetry and music by students.

During his visit, he commented on the school’s dynamic and inspirational environment and remarked on the many positive changes since his time as a student.

Commissioner Ferguson told students the knowledge and discipline impacted on him during his secondary

school days contributed largely to who he is today.

He urged them to realise that high school years are a good time to start thinking about what the future will being and what they want to accomplish as individuals.

More importantly he also urged the students to study hard, put God first and they could find successful careers.

Finally, he said that LN Coakley has played a pivotal role in producing a stream of outstanding Bahamians, who have contributed immensely in their respective roles to the development of The Bahamas.

The school’s principal, Don Barr, thanked the

Commissioner for visiting the school to address the students on his life and accent to the high office and said that not every high school can count a Police Commissioner among its alumni. He assured Commissioner Ferguson that the students were able to take away tangible things from his talk.

Accompanying Commissioner Ferguson was his Personal Assistant Inspector Terrico Sweeting.

In attendance at the event were faculty members, the island’s administrator, Preston Cunningham, the island’s police commander Superintendent Rodney Williams and former classmates of the Commissioner.

BROTHER AND SISTER ACCUSED OF OVERSTAYING IN COUNTRY

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TWO Haitian nationals a brother and sister – were charged in Grand Bahama with breach of the Immigration Act after they allegedly overstayed their time in the country by almost a year.

Bydarck Edouard Mathieu, 23, and Marie Edouard Mathieu, 29, appeared before Magistrate Rengin Johnson.

They pleaded guilty to the charge.

According to the particulars, the pair entered the country from Haiti in December 2017 on shortterm work permits for a period of three weeks.

After their permits expired, they did not obtain an extension or leave the country and remained without legal status.

Magistrate Johnson ordered the pair to pay a fine of $3000 each or in

default serve nine months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in New Providence. They were also ordered to be deported on payment of the fine or on completion of prison time.

Additionally Joseph Augustine, 38, was charged with illegal landing and being engaged in gainful occupation without a work permit.

He appeared in court one before Deputy Chief

Magistrate Debbye Ferguson where he pleaded guilty to the charges.

According to the particulars, Augustine was found in waters near Grand Cay on board a commercial fishing vessel working without first obtaining a work permit by the director of immigration. He was also found in the country, having arrived here without leave of an immigration officer.

Magistrate Ferguson ordered Augustine pay

a $3,000 fine for illegally engaging in gainful occupation without a work permit, or in default serve nine months in prison.

He was fined $300 for illegal landing or in default serve six months in prison at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Both sentences are to run concurrently. He was also ordered to be deported on payment of the fines or completion of his custodial sentence.

MARIE EDOUARD MATHIEU

PAGE 12, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

PACKAGES WITH ‘RICIN’ SENT TO PENTAGON WASHINGTON Associated Press

AUTHORITIES at a Pentagon mail screening facility found two envelopes suspected of containing ricin, a poison made from castor beans, and turned them over to the FBI for further analysis, officials said yesterday.

One envelope was addressed to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who is traveling in Europe this week, and the other to the Navy’s top officer, Admiral John Richardson, a defence official said.

Neither envelope entered the Pentagon. The mail screening facility is on the Pentagon grounds but separate from the main building.

Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood said the envelopes had been found on Monday.

Another Pentagon spokesman, Col Rob Manning, said all US Postal Service mail received at the screening facility on Monday is under quarantine and “poses no threat to Pentagon personnel”.

TIDE TURNS ON DRUG TESTS FOR MARIJUANA HARTFORD, Conn.

Associated Press

HEALTH care worker Katelin Noffsinger told a potential employer that she took medical marijuana to deal with the effects of a car accident, but when a drug test came back positive, the nursing home rescinded her job offer anyway.

A federal judge last month ruled that the nursing home, which cited federal laws against pot use, violated an anti-discrimination provision of the Connecticut’s medical marijuana law. It was the latest in a series of clashes between US and state laws that came out in favour of medical marijuana users trying to keep or obtain jobs with drug-testing employers.

The decision was the first ruling of its kind in a federal case and followed similar recent rulings against employers by state courts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Earlier rulings had gone against medical pot users in employment cases by state supreme courts including those in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

Advocates hope new the new decisions are a signal of growing acceptance of cannabis’ medicinal value.

N KOREA HAS ‘UP TO 60 NUKES’

SEOUL, South Korea Associated Press A TOP South Korean official told lawmakers that North Korea is estimated to have up to 60 nuclear weapons, in Seoul’s first public comment about the size of the North’s secrecy-clouded weapons arsenal.

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told parliament on Monday the estimates on the size of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal range from 20 bombs to as many as 60. He was said the information came from the intelligence authorities.

The National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, couldn’t immediately comment.

Cho may have unintentionally revealed the information. His ministry said Tuesday Cho’s comments didn’t mean that South Korea would accept North Korea as a nuclear state, suggesting Seoul’s diplomatic efforts to rid the North of its nuclear programme would continue.

INDONESIAN men survey the damage in Balaroa neighbourhood in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, yesterday.

Photo: Dita Alangkara/AP

Survivors desperate for food as quake death toll reaches 1,200 PALU, Indonesia Associated Press TRUCKS carrying food for desperate survivors of the earthquake on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island rolled in with a police escort Tuesday to guard against looters, while the death toll from the disaster soared past 1,200.

Four days after the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami struck, supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine had yet to reach the hardest-hit areas outside Palu, the largest city that was heavily damaged. Many roads in the earthquake zone are blocked and communications lines are down.

“We feel like we are stepchildren here because all the help is going to Palu,” said Mohamad Taufik, 38, from the town of Donggala, where five of his relatives are still missing. “There are many young children here who are hungry and sick, but there is no milk or medicine.”

The death toll reached 1,234, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in Jakarta, the capital. Hundreds of other people were injured, and scores of uncounted bodies could still be buried in collapsed buildings in Sigi and Balaroa under quicksand-like mud caused by Friday’s quake.

The UN humanitarian office reported that “needs are vast”, with people urgently requiring shelter, clean water, food, fuel and emergency medical care.

Water is the main issue because most of the supply infrastructure has been damaged, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq

A WOMAN carries items from her damaged house near a ship swept ashore during Friday’s tsunami. P hoto: Tatan Syuflana/AP told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

More than 25 countries offered assistance after Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo appealed for international help.

Little of that, however, has reached the disaster zone, and increasingly desperate residents grabbed food and fuel from damaged stores and begged for help.

Haq said the government is coordinating emergency efforts, and UN and relief agencies are on the ground or enroute. He said the agencies are working closely with the government to provide technical support.

An aircraft carrying 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of fuel had arrived. and trucks with food were on the way with police escorts to guard against looters.

Many gas stations were inoperable either because of quake damage or from people stealing fuel, Nugroho said.

The frustration of waiting for days without help has angered some survivors.

“Pay attention to Donggala, Mr Jokowi. Pay attention to Donggala,”

yelled one resident in a video broadcast on local TV, referring to the president. “There are still a lot of unattended villages here.”

The town’s administrative head, Kasman Lassa, all but gave residents permission to take food — but nothing else — from stores.

“Everyone is hungry and they want to eat after several days of not eating,” Lassa said on local TV. “We have anticipated it by providing food, rice, but it was not enough. There are many people here. So, on this issue, we cannot pressure them to hold much longer.”

Nearly 62,000 people have been displaced from their homes, Nugroho said.

Most of the attention has been focused so far on Palu, which has 380,000 people and is easier to reach than other hard-hit areas.

More aid was being distributed, but “we still need more time to take care of all the problems,” Nugroho said.

Teams continued searching for survivors under destroyed homes and buildings, including a collapsed

eight-story hotel in Palu, but they needed more heavy equipment to clear the rubble.

Many people were believed trapped under shattered houses in the Palu neighborhood of Balaroa, where the earthquake caused the ground to heave up and down violently.

“I and about 50 other people in Balaroa were able to save ourselves by riding on a mound of soil which was getting higher and higher,” resident Siti Hajat told MetroTV, adding that her house was destroyed.

A handful of disaster personnel arrived in the neighborhood Tuesday morning. A lone backhoe cleared a path into the jumble of twisted buildings.

Sa’Adon Lawira, who lost a grandchild, was angry that rescue efforts focused so quickly on places such as the Palu hotel where tourists were staying.

“Why did the search-andrescue agency and others prioritise the search for victims in hotels?” he said, holding back tears as he spoke. “Neighborhoods like this should take precedence because the bodies of residents are buried, but there are no rescuers who have searched for them.”

Near the coast, the tsunami shattered buildings, uprooted concrete and thrust boats inland. The deadly wave reportedly reached as high as 6 meters (nearly 20 feet) in places,.

In Palu’s Petobo neighborhood, the quake caused loose, wet soil to liquefy, creating a thick, heavy quicksand-type material that resulted in massive damage. Hundreds of victims are still believed to be

buried in the mud there.

Liquefaction of soil can be compared to walking on a sandy beach.

“If you walk across some wet sand a little back from the water’s edge, it is usually firm walking, even though you might leave footprints,” said Adam Switzer, an expert at the Earth Observatory of Singapore. “However, if you stand still and wiggle your toes and feet, you will probably sink a little as the sand around your feet becomes soft and unstable. This is similar to what happens during liquefaction.”

Nugroho said 153 bodies were buried Monday in a mass grave in Palu and that the operation continued Tuesday.

He said generators, heavy equipment and tents are among the most-needed aid items. The countries that offered assistance include the United States and China, he said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government has given $360,000 to help victims and is in talks with Indonesian authorities about a second round of aid. The initial funds are to go to the Indonesian Red Cross for the most obvious emergency aid needs, such as tarpaulins.

Nugroho said only two of the 122 foreigners in the area remained unaccounted for — one from South Korea and the other from Belgium.

The UN’s Haq said the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs has asked the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, to send social workers to the affected area to support children who are alone or became separated.

AMAZON RAISES WORKERS PAY TO MINIMUM $15 AN HOUR NEW YORK Associated Press

AMAZON has announced a minimum wage of $15 an hour for its US employees that could force other big companies to raise their pay.

The online giant also said it will push Congress to increase the federal minimum wage, now at $7.25.

Given Amazon’s size and clout, the move Tuesday is a major victory for the $15-an-hour movement, which has organised protests of fast-food, gas station and other low-paid workers. Already, several states and cities have raised their minimum wages above the federal one.

Amazon, whose value topped $1 trillion in September, has been under political and economic pressure to pay its employees more.

“We listened to our

MYRTICE Harris applies tape to a package before shipment at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore.

Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. But Amazon may also be offering raises out of necessity: With the economy booming and unemployment near rock bottom, employers are having

difficulty finding help.

Amazon, with about 100 warehouses around the country, will soon need to hire more than 100,000 workers to pack and ship boxes during the holiday season.

The wage increase takes effect next month.

Amazon said the move

will benefit more than 350,000 workers, including full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal positions.

Employees at Whole Foods, the upscale grocery chain Amazon owns, will get the same raise. Hourly employees who already make $15 per hour will also see a wage increase, the Seattle company said.

(Workers in Britain will also get a raise.)

Current pay for warehouse workers at Amazon is at least $12.25 an hour in Omaha, Nebraska, $13 in Baltimore and $16.50 in New York, according to recent job postings.

The announcement was enough to soothe one of Amazon’s fiercest critics: Sen. Bernie Sanders. The senator, who frequently uses Twitter to point out the disparity between Amazon’s hourly wages and Bezos’ vast fortune, congratulated Bezos for “doing

exactly the right thing” and urged other companies to follow Amazon’s example.

Sanders described Amazon’s move as “a shot heard around the world”.

It will have repercussions beyond retailers and will put pressure on any company that operates a distribution centre, said Gerald Storch, of the retail consulting firm Storch Advisors.

“This will lead to a general increase in minimal wages in all industries,” he said.

At the same time, Storch said, the wage increase will widen the gap between the healthy retailers, such as Amazon, Walmart and Target, and the struggling ones, which won’t be able to afford to compete on salary.

“The weaker retailers have been cutting costs and squeezing every penny,” Storch said. “They are in a very tough place.”