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VOLUME:117 No.224, OCTOBER 19TH, 2020

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‘ALL SYSTEMS GO’ Shell targets building of new power plant to start early next year

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SHELL North America says “a degree of urgency” is required to close the deal for New Providence’s new multi-million dollar power plant with an agreement thought to be just “weeks out” from conclusion.

Gerard Van-Ginkel, the multi-national energy giant’s project director, told Tribune Business that negotiations with Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and the Government were “at the precipice” of reaching a conclusion following nearly two years of negotiations and the parties now needed to take that final step.

Speaking after Shell became the first Bahamasbased independent power producer (IPP) to be licenced

by Bahamian energy regulators, Mr Van-Ginkel said Shell North America aimed to begin construction on the Clifton Pier-based

regasification terminal and associated facilities that will supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the new power plant early in 2021.

The timeline, though, depends on obtaining swift BPL, government and Shell Board approvals for the agreement to proceed, and with construction likely to take a minimum of two years it is unlikely LNG will now be introduced into New Providence’s energy mix until early 2023.

Pledging that the new power plant and associated LNG infrastructure will “position The Bahamas as one of the lowest-cost power producers in the Caribbean region”, Mr Van-Ginkel said reliable, cheap and environmentally-friendly energy is “paramount for postCOVID-19 economic recovery” in this nation as the potential benefits will touch every aspect of the economy.

HEALTH officials have admitted tough decisions will have to be made concerning the patients that will be given priority care if the country’s healthcare system continues to operate beyond its current capacity.

Director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme Dr Nikkiah Forbes made the revelation during the ministry’s press conference on Friday – where Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan revealed one in 70 Bahamians have contracted COVID-19.

“The absolute reality of the situation is when healthcare systems are beyond capacity, we won’t be able to care for the number of patients that are presenting,” Dr Forbes said.

“It’s a real challenge.

You heard in the minister’s address that there are currently more patients than the capacity of Princess Margaret Hospital. There’s 73 patients but the bed capacity is in fact only 70.

The absolute reality of the situation is when healthcare systems are beyond capacity, we won’t be able to care for the number of patients that are presenting.”

SEE PAGE FOUR

SIX DEATHS ADDED TO COVID TOLL ONE hundred and eighty-six cases of COVID19 and eight more related deaths were recorded between Friday and Saturday, pushing the country’s coronavirus tally to 5,703.

Overall, 680 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed last week, according to data released by the Ministry of Health, while deaths rose to 122.

This comes as Minister of Health Renward Wells said on Friday that the country has averaged 1.5 deaths a day for the past 30 days.

Seventy-five new cases were confirmed on Saturday while 111 were confirmed on Friday. Of Saturday’s cases, there were 61 in New Providence, nine in Grand Bahama, two in Andros and Eleuthera and one in Exuma.

Six new deaths were also recorded on Saturday.

They include a 64-yearold woman from New Providence who died on September 28; a 66-yearold New Providence man SEE PAGE FOUR

‘SHIFT ROW MERITS AN APOLOGY’

FULL PAGE - SEE BUSINESS

MEDICAL STAFF ADMIT TOUGH CHOICES ON WHO GETS CARE

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HOME

ERIN’S STALKER ORDEAL RADIO personality Erin Reign, of 100 Jamz, says she has been living in fear for the past three months because a stalker has left her frightening messages on social media and hung around outside her place of work - and is angry because she says police have done nothing to prevent the situation from escalating. See page three for the full story.

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Nurses Union president Amancha Williams said the Public Hospitals Authority should apologise for attempting to implement a new eighthour night shift system, which breached the terms outlined in their industrial agreement.

Her comments came days after Lyrone Burrows, the PHA’s deputy managing director, announced the new shift system would not be implemented since it would have serious implications for the current system as agreed in the nurses’ contract.

SEE PAGE FOUR

ANOTHER VICTIM OF DRIVE-BY KILLERS INSIGHT

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE sister of a man who was shot and killed at Dumping Ground Corner on Friday night said the family is reeling over her brother’s death.

While police have not released the identity of the victim, family members say he is 21-year-old Devon Brown.

Yesterday, his sister

DEVON BROWN Derenika Sears described him as a hard worker who

was always smiling. She told The Tribune their family is in a state of shock after learning her brother was one of the victims of the drive-by shooting last Friday.

Police said they are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting which claimed Brown’s life and left another man injured.

According to police, SEE PAGE THREE

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

TESTING TIME TO LIVING WITH COVID

SEE INSIDE

‘WE’RE HERE TO HELP’

PAGE 2, Monday, October 19, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

THE TENT hospital from Samaritans Purse being erected in the grounds of Princess Margaret Hospital, where it will increase capacity for dealing with coronavirus patients by 20 beds.

A TEAM of physicians, nurses, and administrative support from Samaritan’s Purse is set to commence clinical services in a field hospital erected on the grounds of Princess Margaret Hospital today.

The 33-member team from Samaritan’s Purse includes doctors, nurses, water and sanitation specialists, an electrician and other key support staff.

The field hospital has a capacity for 20 patients and is designed to specifically care for coronavirus positive patients. It is made up of seven tents, a temporary ambulance bay, male and female patient wards, with

toilet facilities, donning/ doffing areas for staff personal protective equipment, staff work areas, staff bathroom facilities and medical supplies.

The Samaritan’s Purse team will work with PMH clinical staff to provide care to coronavirus positive patients for a period of three to six weeks, after which a transition from Samaritan’s Purse personnel to PMH clinical staff will occur.

The field hospital was erected with assistance provided by members of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force over the weekend.

The facility is housed in

parking lot “G” located at the rear of PMH’s Blood Bank.

Samaritan’s Purse, a international non-governmental organisation, has a successful track record of operations in The Bahamas, having partnered with PHA and the Ministry of Health to provide tent hospital operations at the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama following the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, in conjunction with Grand Bahama Health Services.

The country’s healthcare system is under severe strain due to a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths since July.

42 HAITIAN MIGRANTS DEPORTED THE Department of Immigration deported 42 migrants to Haiti last Friday.

A group of 11 Haitian migrants — eight men and three women — were deported from New Providence while 31 additional migrants — 13 women, three girls, two boys and 13 men — were deported from Grand Bahama.

The migrants were all repatriated to Port Au Prince, Haiti.

On Monday, October 12, a joint extensive investigative operation by immigration and police officers resulted in the

arrest of a Bahamian captain of a Bahamian registered vessel which police intercepted in the Freeport Harbour with 12 Haitian nationals and one Brazilian national on board.

He appeared in a Freeport court last week and was subsequently convicted and fined $6,000 for harbouring, officials said.

Further investigations revealed that his co-conspirator, a Bahamian of Haitian descent, is still at large with both agencies vigorously in search of him.

Last Monday’s operation led to the arrest of an additional nine Haitian

nationals, all of whom were convicted and sentenced for illegal landing and overstaying. The group was ordered deported at the earliest opportunity.

Ten migrants from this exercise were repatriated onboard Friday’s flight. The remaining 12 migrants who were unable to pay their fines in a timely manner will be repatriated in an upcoming exercise.

Two migrants were unable to pay their fines and are expected to be transferred to New Providence to commence their sentence, the department said.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 19, 2020, PAGE 3

‘I’ve been living in fear of a stalker’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net A POPULAR radio personality says she’s been living in fear for the past three months after several encounters with a stalker who has left her frightening messages on social media and hung around outside her place of work.

Erin Reign, of 100 Jamz, told The Tribune she is disappointed that police have done nothing to ensure the situation does not escalate to some form of harm. The man has even gone to the extent of throwing a rock through the window of a car that he believed belonged to her, she told The Tribune.

The act was caught on Radio House’s security camera.

Twice the woman has gone to Central Police

Station. Once officers came to the radio station and another time, she visited Central Detective Unit, she said. She’s also tried unsuccessfully to have him bound over to keep the peace.

She remains fearful of the stalker and his menacing actions.

And now she is terrified that he could show up at her home.

“This all started happening from July of this year,” she told The Tribune.

“He started watching me on Facebook Live on ‘Eat to the Beat’. He was using a fake profile at first and he just sent comments and some of them became threatening, but I just ignored it because I didn’t know who the person was.

“But it was one day when I just finished ‘Eat to the Beat’ and I got a phone call on the Jamz line. It

was someone on the phone asking me to come outside and I said I’m not going outside because I don’t know who this could possibly be on the phone. He was also trying to pretend to be one of the other viewers on Facebook Live, but he mixed up the last name so I said I am definitely not going out there.”

She said that day she was uncomfortable and asked a colleague to accompany her to her car.

“As we were walking outside, he was watching me and watching to see which car I went to.

“A few days later this person decided to come back and actually approached me on my job.

He had lied to the guy in the parking lot saying that he came to do work on my car and asked him for my car, but said he would wait

until I came outside and he was like ‘You lookin’ for me?’

“At this point, I pulled out my phone to record him so I could remember how he looks.”

She said the man’s actions had also worried women nearby.

“Before I came out, he asked the ladies at the Adolescent Health Centre if they knew how many exits Jamz has. So, they got worried and I am told that they even called the police because they thought it was odd.”

Police did come that day, spoke to the man, and instructed her to have him bound over to keep the peace.

However, officers said they couldn’t do anything else, she said.

“They just let him go.

They didn’t do anything.

They said they couldn’t arrest him or anything because he didn’t really commit a crime, but to me trespassing is a crime.”

According to the radio personality, the assailant did not stop there, but visited Radio House several more times.

“He’s been there a good bit of times. Apparently, he just stays in the area watching the cars, I guess to see when I’m pulling up and when I’m leaving. He’s there often enough.”

She said even though police warned him, he continued to send messages on social media.

“This has been happening since July 20 and it’s still going on now. He continued after the warning from police and I decided to ignore his messages for a long time.

“So that’s when he

decided to throw the rock at my co-worker’s window.”

Asked if she feared for her life, she said: “I have gotten threats. One time he messaged saying if you don’t answer or pick me up tomorrow it’s going to be a problem.

“I have been trying to get him bound over to keep the peace but because of the COVID-19 lockdowns the courts were telling me that unless they see the matter as important then it’s a no.

It was three times I went there and they told me they aren’t looking at situations like that. They aren’t bounding anyone over to keep the peace.

“I am concerned that he will find out where I live.”

An official at the Central Detective Unit could not be reached yesterday for comment.

AFTER THE DOWNPOUR

FLOODING in areas of New Providence over the weekend after downpours of rain left drivers splashing their way through and residents and businesses cleaning up.

Photos: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

ANOTHER VICTIM OF DRIVE-BY KILLERS from page one

shortly after 7pm police received reports of a man being shot on Dumping Ground Corner. Upon their arrival at the scene, officers were informed that occupants of a dark Nissan Cube had pulled in front of a residence and discharged a firearm in the direction of a group of people. Two men were injured.

Police said the suspects escaped in a westerly direction while both victims were taken to hospital by a private vehicle. However, one of the men died. The other man is listed in stable condition.

Yesterday Ms Sears told this newspaper that her brother was an “inspiring” individual who will be missed dearly.

“If you look on his Facebook page and at my Facebook page and at the friends that shared it, everybody saying the same thing.

You will always have negative people talking whether you’re doing bad or good, but I could put my head on the chopping block for my brother.”

Ms Sears said Devon was a hard worker who had plans of joining the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

“He was waiting on the RBDF to call him,” she said. “He got in, but

what had happened was because of the pandemic, he continued working on the construction site while he was waiting on their call.

“Devon always used to work,” she continued. “But when he came from work, they had a basketball court on the park, and he loved to play ball. He was always a happy and smiling person.

No one could take that from him in spite of the situation of how he died.”

Ms Sears said she was not with Devon at the time of the incident, but received a call from their other sister who gave her the bad news.

“My sister called and told me my brother got shot.

MAN IN HOSPITAL AFTER BEING SHOT BY POLICE A MAN is in hospital after being shot by police following a chase early on Friday.

According to police, shortly after 4am, officers received reports of two occupants in a silver vehicle in Kennedy Subdivision acting in a suspicious manner.

Officers from the Mobile Division responded and moments later spotted a

vehicle fitting the description. Police signaled for the driver to stop but he failed to do so.

A chase then ensued before the vehicle came to a stop on Faith Deliverance Way. The driver exited the vehicle with a firearm and pointed it at the officers, police said. The officers then fired at the suspects, injuring one.

The second suspect escaped.

Police said that paramedics took the injured suspect to the hospital where he is listed in serious but stable condition.

The officers allegedly recovered a black and silver 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol containing ammunition from the injured man on the scene.

Investigations continue.

Right now, my mummy is taking it hard because we just leave him. My brother was an inspiring person and he was a friend. Everybody

is saying the same thing: ‘Oh wow not Devon, not the person I know’.”

Police are appealing to anyone with information

that can assist them with their investigation to contact their nearest police station or crime stoppers by calling 328-TIPS (8477).

PAGE 4, Monday, October 19, 2020

Medical staff admit tough choices on who gets care from page one This comes after former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said in a radio interview on Thursday that healthcare workers are having to choose who lives and who dies given the continued strain being placed on the healthcare system.

On Friday, Health Minister Renward Wells noted that bed capacity for COVID-19 patients continues to be stretched, with PMH already exceeding its maximum limit.

Recounting her recent experiences, Dr Forbes said there have been instances where workers have had to become resourceful and make changes where possible in order to provide care for COVID19 patients due to overcrowding issues.

She said: “On at least one of the nights I was on call we did have a patient present to the emergency room and we did not have the suitable room to manage that patient. What we had to do is to shift patients around, more stable patients so that we can offer that patient the kind of oxygen and respiratory support that patient needed.

“I can’t speak for the other facilities, but I can tell you that the reality of the situation is facilities are beyond capacity and you

PRINCESS MARGARET HOSPITAL could be in a situation where you haven’t been able to support them could not manage the patient and and pick someone else who has had you might not be able to care for to live but I will tell you the reala patient that needs respiratory ity of the situation is we continue support.” beyond capacity, those difficult She continued: “Currently, at the decisions will have to be made.”

PMH, patients are in care areas To help increase patient capacthat were not designed or allocated ity, Mr Wells said a partnership for COVID care including places between the government and in the emergency room and other Samaritan’s Purse will allow for the areas and facilities where we have establishment of a COVID-19 isohad to change them. lation and treatment unit.

“I believe the other context of Also painting a grim picture of the comments was what about non the country’s COVID-19 situation, COVID care? So we have been Dr McMillan noted that New Proviforced to open wards to provide dence continues to be the epicentre COVID care... At this time, I have of the virus spread, accounting for not seen a patient die because we 76.8 percent of all confirmed cases.

More than a week ago, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis reimposed a number of restrictions on New Providence and Abaco due to high COVID cases on these islands, including a weekend lockdown and stricter curfew hours.

The chief medical officer said while no flattening of the curve is yet being seen for New Providence, Abaco has made some progress.

Still, she said it will take some time for officials to see results due to the restrictive measures.

In the meantime, Dr McMillan said the ministry will continue to monitor COVID cases especially as officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the number of new cases being recorded in recent days on some islands, which have not recorded new infections for weeks.

“Some of our Family Islands are now demonstrating increases in new cases after a period of COVID quiet.

Particularly concerning Eleuthera and Berry Island as we alluded to. These islands have a similar trend to Abaco, which was flagged for an increase of restrictive measures last week,” she said.

Asked if those islands could see more restrictive measures in the days ahead, health officials said recommendations have already been made to the government for more restrictions to be added on Eleuthera and Berry Islands.

‘SHIFT ROW MERITS AN APOLOGY’ from page one

During the Ministry of Health’s press conference last Friday, Mr Burrows said PHA has not changed or implemented a new shift system.

He also said officials did not make an attempt to eliminate the four on/four off shift system that is currently in place.

This came despite reports from the union last week that more than 100 new nurses were put on a shift system that the union has consistently opposed.

Over the course of last week, several nurses called in sick in opposition to the changes.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, Ms Williams said while the union is grateful to PHA’s board for “rectifying” the issue, the Authority should apologise for the “inconvenience and hardships” it caused members of the union.

“You cannot change or manipulate an industrial agreement, so what they should have done was make an apology to the Bahamas

Nurses Union,” she said. “There should have been an apology, but here again you have no respect because you breached the industrial agreement.

“Legally, a lawsuit should have been made against you in the court, but we kindly came to the table and we asked you ‘Could you rectify this issue?’ And we want to say thank you to the PHA board that facilitated this and the labour consultants that saw the breach and said to us they would rectify the issue.”

Ms Williams said BNU received a letter from PHA on Friday, informing the union that officials will continue to carry out the four on/ four off shift system since the new system went against their industrial agreement.

While she could not say whether any nurses called in sick over the weekend, she said “everything will go back to normal” starting today, and “all nurses will be working as usual”.

Ms Williams said BNU opposed the new shift system so strongly

because it is globally categorised as “one of the worst shifts” that a nurse could work.

“Here again, it causes the nurse to not get enough sleeping hours.

Around the world there is a standard that when a nurse leaves her job, she’s supposed to have so many hours of rest. That (shift) does not provide that. So, what you’re doing is you’re going to put a nurse’s life in danger again. That is why it’s not recommended,” she explained.

Ms Williams argued that PHA breached the industrial agreement because subject 52 of the contract states “if either party of this agreement desires to amend the same so as alter the terms and the conditions of an employment or the employee in the union, such parties shall notify others in writing of an intention and forward with notice to propose an amendment in writing”. She said if the Authority wanted to alter the shift system, officials should have met with the union to “discuss and agree” on any possible changes.

“When we saw the breach we didn’t make any noise,” she said.

“We just pointed out the errors and that’s how a union and an employer is supposed to work together as a team.

“I’m not demanding an apology, but I think they know they did something that was not right, and they knew they should have apologised for the inconvenience and hardship that they’ve caused the members.

“They should have known that they breached the contract and went against what was stated in it.

(Apologising) would have shown sportsmanship, that alone would have shown goodwill, equity and honesty.”

She added: “Like I said, they didn’t apologise to me, but I will say thank you to the PHA board because they’ve recognised the error and they have assured us that they were going to sit together and fix it”.

The nurses and PHA have been battling the shift issue for more than two years.

THE TRIBUNE

SIX DEATHS ADDED TO COVID TOLL

from page one

who died on October 1; a 60-year-old New Providence woman who died on October 10; a 43-year-old male of New Providence who died on October 14; a 48-year-old New Providence man who died on October 15 and a 34-yearold New Providence man whose death was investigated and confirmed to be COVID-19 related.

The ministry also said deaths under investigation decreased by one to 13 on Saturday while nonCOVID-19 related deaths remain at 23.

On Friday, health officials announced two confirmed COVID-19 deaths. The deceased are both New Providence women: one is a 74-year-old who died on October 16 and a 61-yearold who died on October 12.

Data provided last week showed 132 cases were confirmed on Thursday, October 15, along with three more deaths; 194 on Wednesday, October 14; 28 on Tuesday, October 13; 85 on Monday, October 12; and 55 on Sunday, October 11.

Amid rising cases, health officials have said the country’s bed capacity for coronavirus patients continues to be stretched.

As of last Saturday, there were 2,245 active cases currently under observation while 109 COVID-19 patients were in hospital.

Last Saturday, health officials also began releasing COVID-19 data in a new format with the information given in a more detailed document but without the previous dashboard graphic which accompanied previous releases.

Sunday’s data was not released up to press time.

COVID STATISTICS

5,703

TOTAL CASES: NEW CASES ON SATURDAY: 75

- 61 IN NEW PROVIDENCE - NINE IN GRAND BAHAMA - TWO IN ANDROS - TWO IN ELEUTHERA - ONE IN EXUMA

TOTAL DEATHS:

122

WELLS: WE’RE LOOKING FOR BEST FIT IN REOPENING TO TOURISM

MINISTER OF HEALTH RENWARD WELLS

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Renward Wells has defended the government’s November 1 target for more relaxations in the tourism sector despite high COVID-19 figures and an overstretched healthcare system.

Some residents have expressed concern about the country’s readiness to reopen next month, fearful of a repeat of the July scenario where the decision to significantly relax travel

restrictions resulted in a surge of new infections and deaths.

Asked if officials feel confident that the country is ready to move into the next phase of reopening, Mr Wells said on Friday: “The government of The Bahamas in seeking to be responsive to the needs of the Bahamian people are seeing how it can best manage the survival of our economic life as well as the physical life and livelihood of the Bahamian people.

“Whereas we are receiving advice as to what

needs to take place within the health sphere, we’re also taking all of that into consideration in the decision-making process.

Obviously, as a government we’re never going to do anything that is going to overtly endanger the lives of our people but we do believe that we are on to a model/ formula that can work.”

The Bamboo Town MP said amid rising cases in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, many of those territories have reimposed restrictive measures such as curfews, weekend

lockdowns, limiting social gatherings like The Bahamas has done.

He said: “Nations are seeking the best ways that they can [to] deal with this pandemic while also seeking to keep some sense of livelihood, some sense of viability of its economy, and the life of its people.

“And so, here in The Bahamas we are seeking to do the same thing.

“This ministry, the Ministry of Health is working along with tourism to be able to see how we can get that best fit.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 19, 2020, PAGE 5

‘If police and RBDF can be promoted, why can’t we?’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

AFTER watching other law enforcement officers advance, the Correctional Officers Staff Association has insisted that now is not the time for the government to withhold promotions for deserving officers.

Corporal Hervie Culmer, president of the association, told The Tribune the situation has lowered staff morale and officers feel “second class” after having worked hard to receive what is due to them. They have had to watch colleagues at the Royal Bahamas Police and Defence Force be promoted, while they continue to wait.

He said their service continued to be “second to none” despite the challenges brought by the

MINISTER of National Security at the RBDF passing out parade at the weekend.

Photo: Donovan McIntosh COVID-19 pandemic.

This is why it has become disheartening, Cpl Culmer said, for officers to be overlooked for promotions that they were promised almost a year ago.

According to Cpl Culmer, National Security Minister Marvin Dames assured correctional officers last year

that they would receive promotions, but nothing has happened since.

Mr Dames did not respond to a request for comment up to press time.

“When the association speaks we speak on behalf of the staff. I do not think that now is the time to make correctional officers

feel second class,” Cpl Culmer said yesterday. “We are faced with a pandemic and again officers continue to show up to work and continue to put out.

“So I just put it like this: Now is not the time to not give us what we deserve.”

The association president said more than 150 officers were eligible for promotions.

“The exercise has been long overdue,” Cpl Culmer also said.

“November coming will make one year since the minister attended our church service and assured every officer in attendance that the promotion would shortly follow.

“It’s almost been a year now and the exercise was in place before then so definitely it’s long overdue. The officers deserve it. This is not something that we are asking or begging for. We

deserve this.”

He also said: “Not to only highlight the promotional exercise, but I am pretty sure whenever the exercise is released you would definitely see a boost in morale around the department.

“Recently, I saw the minister responsible for public service and National Insurance, Brensil Rolle made a comment that all promotions and increments will be deferred to the next budget, well the thing is our promotional exercise was in the pipeline before the pandemic.

“It was on the table so that should not be an issue as it relates to the Bahamas Department of Corrections.

“There are definitely more concerns and more pressing matters just as important as the promotions but as it stands the powers that be just need

to release our promotional exercise. Our colleagues the police force and defence force - have received theirs and again our service is second to none. We deserve and we want our promotions.”

Recently, Mr Rolle said: “Increments, promotions, confirmations, and reclassifications of all public officers will be deferred for the 2020/2021 budget year. The number of persons in each ministry will not increase. New hires will only occur in special circumstances with direct Cabinet approval.”

Mr Rolle said those increments, confirmations, and re-classifications will resume when the economic circumstances allow, with the deferment amounting to “millions of dollars” the government does not have to spend at this time.

achieve that goal and commitment. We (Rotary) want to make life a little bit easier for people, and

give them hope and a smile, and it is all about giving service above self,” said Ms Johnson.

FOOD KITS HELP TO FIGHT HUNGER IN GB

BY DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A TOTAL of 2,400 food kits were secured for a major food distribution initiative on Grand Bahama, through a $50,000 donation from the Lyford Cay Club Charitable Trust (LCCCT).

The kits - prepared by international humanitarian organisation GlobalMedic are being distributed by the five Rotary Clubs of Grand Bahama.

Distribution started on October 5 and will be ongoing to support families impacted by Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Saturday, Rotarians were out again in the outlying settlements and various housing subdivisions in Freeport delivering the kits, which contain grits, kidney beans, pigeon peas, pasta, and rice.

“Given the challenges families are facing now, we are providing ongoing financial support to organisations that are

making an impact in the community. Just in the past few months, we donated to Lend a Hand Bahamas, Every Child Counts, and now Rotary and GlobalMedic, which are distributing nutritious and culturally appropriate meals to vulnerable communities in Grand Bahama and filling an important need,” said Katherine Elza of LCCCT. The Rotary Clubs in Grand Bahama are distributing door to door, and through collaborations with other local organisations to reach those in need.

According to a press statement, GlobalMedic and Rotary have structured their operation to be as cost-efficient as possible. It noted that both organisations use a large volunteer base to help with the packing of the food, purchasing in bulk, and receive deals on the shipping components of the programme.

The LCCCT donation has helped jumpstart the food distribution initiative, which has a target

ROTARIANS in action distributing food kits in Grand Bahama. distribution of some 4,000 emergency food kits.

On Saturday, President Jackie Russell, and her members at the Rotary Club of Grand Bahama, distributed kits in Williams/Russell Town, Mather Town, Smith’s Point, and the Heritage Subdivision.

“The residents were very appreciative when we handed them the kits, in addition to towels packed with toiletries and also hand-made quilts from Life Community Church with Pastor Cedric Beckles,” she said.

“Last year we went through a hurricane, and now this pandemic, and so any distribution of food,

clothing, and blankets is helpful to communities, especially in these areas which are sometimes forgotten,” said President Russell, who extended thanks to Global Medic.

She also noted that community service is what Rotary is all about, and thanked her members for supporting the initiative.

Rotarian Rengin Johnson, Assistant District 9660 Public Image chairperson, said that to be able to help others in need is a very rewarding experience.

“It is one of my biggest commitment throughout my life to help others who are in need. And through Rotary, we are able to

HOME AGAIN - CHILDREN DISPLACED BY DORIAN RETURN

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THIRTY of the 43 children from Grand Bahama Children’s Home who were relocated to New Providence a year ago after Hurricane Dorian, returned to Freeport on Friday morning.

Minister of Social Services Frankie Campbell and Director of Social Services Lillian Quant-Forbes accompanied the children as they arrived at 7am.

Due to bad weather, the yellow ribbon procession was cancelled and the children were taken directly to the newly renovated facility in The Village at Tripp Lane.

There was a ribbon-cutting to officially open the building, which was fully renovated at a cost of some $850,000 by the Grand Bahama Port Authority.

In attendance were Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest, Sarah St George, acting chairman of the GBPA; Minister of State for Grand Bahama Senator Kwasi Thompson, and Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management, and Reconstruction Iram Lewis.

The Children’s Home sustained significant flood damage due to the storm surge during Hurricane

Dorian. At the time, 43 children who were residents at the facility had to be evacuated late at night in the middle of the storm.

They were flown to Nassau and placed at various stateowned homes for children.

Mr Campbell said that his ministry ensured the children were well taken care of while residing at three facilities in New Providence.

“We were forced to take 43 children from Grand Bahama to New Providence for continued shelter… temporarily at Ranfurly Children’s Home, which took in 21, and Children Emergency Hostel took in 15, and the remainder at a third facility. We ensure they took excellent care of our children,” he said.

“I am pleased to report that…they were brought back without a scratch. And when we planned to bring them back about two and a half weeks ago we had a moment of uncertainty, and we prefer to err on the side of caution. So that I can be able to report to you that the children you gave us to keep for you are being brought back in the same if not better condition.”

He also noted that of the 13 children that did not return on Friday with the 30 others – two had aged out and two were placed with family members in Grand Bahama in December 2019.

The other nine, he said, are still at the Children’s Emergency Hostel because of their age group.

“They are there until we can ensure the necessary housing and care,” Mr Campbell said. “I want you to know I will bring back

the other nine in the same kind of condition.”

Mr Campbell commended all the persons and partners that have contributed to the repair of home.

He stressed the partnerships are very important.

The minister was very

pleased with the level of work and commitment of the staff at the Children’s Home and Social Services workers and called for a raise in salary.

“I know staff salary, DPM, their pay is some distance from their actual

performance. They are performing above and beyond, and I am satisfied it has nothing to do with actual pay or they would not have been here. That said, please give consideration as soon as we are able to do something.”

PAGE 6, Monday, October 19, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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What are we doing to protect women?

What would you do if you found yourself being stalked?

Unfortunately, that’s the terrifying situation one of the radio personalities at 100 Jamz found herself in. Sadly, it’s a situation all too many women find themselves in.

For Erin Reign, it began innocuously enough, with someone watching her Facebook Live posts – along with many other viewers – and leaving comments.

It got worse, however, when some of those comments, left using a fake profile on social media, became threatening.

Then, she got a peculiar phone call at work asking her to come outside without explanation – which she wisely refused to do. When she left work for the day, she asked a colleague to accompany her, and there was the stalker, waiting and watching. He returned a few days later, and reportedly had asked people at a nearby health centre how many exits the building had.

Erin did the right thing – she called the police, who spoke to the man, but told her that she should have him bound over to keep the peace but there was nothing else they could do.

“They just let him go. They didn’t do anything,” said Erin.

Being spoken to by the police seems to have done nothing to discourage the man – with him returning a number of times since, and even throwing a rock at a co-worker’s window.

We talk about needing to take violence against women more seriously – but what are we doing to actually stop it?

Last week, a man was in court after he threw a rock into a woman’s window after she refused to have sex with him.

His penalty? Having to compensate her for the damage he caused.

Worse, earlier this month in this column we wrote about the heartbreaking killings of Alicia Sawyer and her eight-year-old daughter, Ednique Wallace. Alicia had alerted police that she was in danger – and police went out in search of a suspect, but no one was there to protect Alicia and Ednique when they were killed.

At the start of this month, Police Commissioner Paul Rolle promised a “media blitz” on the issue of domestic violence, which has not as yet been forthcoming.

But what are the practical steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of danger to women – and reduce the fear that so many women have to live with?

If police know a woman is being stalked, especially once police have spoken to someone, what do they do next? Do they revisit the scene regularly

afterwards to move along any unwanted presence? Or does it get shrugged off in the hope it comes to nothing?

Sometimes officers can be an unwanted presence themselves, it would seem – in today’s court stories on page seven, a woman appearing at court accused of failing to carry governmentissued ID when she was on the beach said she only received the ticket from the officer after she told him she was not interested in dating him.

And can someone, anyone, tell us where a failure to carry a government ID is a criminal offence?

As a culture, and as a nation, we are not doing enough to take women seriously, or to protect them from the worst.

We must take steps to change that – rather than wonder again what could have been done to save someone’s life.

A deal long in the making A deal long in the making The long-stalled Shell North America deal to provide a new power plant for New Providence has finally started to move forward again.

In August, we wondered what had happened to this project, which seemed to have disappeared off the radar.

Back in July 2018, it was hailed as a “very imminent” deal that would bring Nassau “out of the dark ages”.

Alas, those dark ages stretched on some time longer. Last year was perhaps the worst we have ever seen the state of the power supply, and while Bahamas Power and Light have done better this year, there are still fairly regular power interruptions – as youngsters trying to learn online only to contend with classes grinding to a halt from a power blip will tell you.

By August this year, that deal was no longer quite so wonderful, it would seem, and a divorce between the two sides looked likelier than a marriage.

So it is refreshing to see that progress has seemingly been made and that construction could start as soon as the start of next year.

Hurdles remain. Approvals need to be given by BPL, the government and Shell officials, and construction is likely to take at least two years, so it’s not a magic wand to solve all our problems right away.

It does seem, though, that these projects get mired in delays far too often – why does it always have to take so long to reach the point of digging the first piece of dirt?

If a deal has finally been done, then for goodness’ sake, let’s get on with it.

Rubbing salt in the wound EDITOR, The Tribune.

SELF-EMPLOYED Bahamians, such as taxi drivers, hair braiders, food vendors, jet ski operators and small business owners have not been hung out to dry in the wake of the COVID-19 economic crisis, due to the Free National Movement administration’s kind gesture in rendering financial assistance via the NIB unemployment assistance programme.

According to National Insurance Minister Brensil Rolle, 7,235 self-employed recipients received $15.6 million.

Rolle’s revelation that $175m in NIB funding has been dumped into the domestic economy since Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19 underscores the extent of the economic fallout.

Based on my calculations, 42,214 Bahamians have received a portion of the $175m – all except one hard-working Bahamian mother who had contributed to NIB for ten years.

Despite her track record of contributing, NIB had

informed her that she was not eligible for its COVID-19 unemployment assistance. She had lost her job in late 2019, which was a few months before the COVID-19 outbreak. She had applied for assistance in 2019, but has never received a response from NIB regarding that old application. Her most recent application was rejected, on the basis of her being unemployed a full year before the advent of COVID-19.

However, what she found odd was that her co-worker, who also lost his job a few months after her, received assistance from NIB in the thousands. He is currently awaiting to be processed again.

According to the unemployed Bahamian mother, who has four small children, NIB is being inconsistent with its disbursement exercise. I agree. I feel that NIB should have been straightforward with the applicant by stating that it is not interested in helping her, rather than giving her the runaround.

While thousands of

self-employed Bahamians, many of whom weren’t contributing a dime to NIB, have received millions in assistance before COVID19, this woman, who had contributed, is rejected for no logical reason. How’s that fair? I am not saying that these non-compliant Bahamians shouldn’t be helped. What I am saying is that one would think that a solid NIB contributor would be far more eligible than persons who have not contributed. Situations such as this causes one to question the system.

By announcing that NIB has disbursed $175m in assistance, Rolle had rubbed salt in the wound of this young Bahamian mother, who also just happens to be a dyed-inthe-wool FNM. After her experience with NIB, she told me that she won’t be voting FNM in 2022. Quite frankly, I don’t blame her.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama.

October 18, 2020.

Rename Dundas EDITOR, The Tribune.

THREE cheers for the Commissioner of Police for his swift action to prevent a candle of entrepreneurship and innovation from being smothered in a sheet of “tin ferl”.

Not many people took notice in early March when three brave young pioneers launched a food truck catering business on the grounds of the now Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts.

Patrice Robinson, Branden Kemp and Kendrick Delaney, like the rest of us, could not have seen the gathering Covid-19 storm that was headed our way. And they could not have appreciated just how fortuitous their business plan would prove to be.

After sit-down restaurant dining was prohibited, establishments had to rejig their business for the sale of cooked food to take away.

Robinson, Kemp and Delaney were in the right place, with the right product, at the right time.

The pop-up market attracted an assortment of vendors on-site a few days each week. Pop-up food sales are great in this time of social distancing and they are primed to continue after the pandemic is vanquished.

The Commissioner, health officials and inland revenue were right to allow them to continue their business. Kudos to the Dundas management for recognising that theatre goers get the munchies after a night of art and entertainment.

Tin Ferl was originally

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net intended to provide al fresco dining for patrons.

Tin Ferl (aluminum foil) is the very vernacular for taking food home.

What is egregious though is that 90 years after it was set up as a training school for domestic workers, we still call our premier studio for acting and improv by the name of the Colonial Secretary whose American wife had the unmitigated gall to compare it to the prestigious Tuskegee Institute in the US, co-founded by a former slave.

The Colonial Secretary, Sir Charles Dundas, was promoted to Government House as Governor and had the dubious distinction of being edged out of his job to make way for the abdicated King of England, Edward the Eighth.

Lady Dundas was naïve to think that the former king’s American wife, Wallis Simpson, would find charity in promoting the cause of the nascent Dundas Civic Centre. She didn’t.

It is past time that we rename this premiere stage for homegrown thespians after one of our greatest incubators of young talent, the late Winston Vernon Saunders.

Nobody would have applauded the Tin Ferl pioneers more loudly than Saunders. Holding court perched on the low wall around the patio outside the theatre, Saunders was known to wax eloquent

during intermission about the renaissance conservatory he dreamt the Dundas could become. In his almost 25 years as its Chairman he drove the transformation of the Dundas that we enjoy today.

Saunders was a teacher, a lawyer, a coroner, an actor himself, an accomplished playwright and a cultural director. He was the birth father of the National Youth Choir, the National Dance Company and the National Children’s Choir.

Acting companies like University Players, James Catalyn and Friends, Ringplay Productions and its spawn Shakespeare in Paradise became household names as a result.

Extraordinary talent like Robert Bain, Phillip Burrows, Shirley Hall-Bass, Ian Strachan, Claudette Allens, legendary playwright Jeanne Thompson and countless others gained fresh curtain calls as the Dundas evolved introducing theatre to generations of new patrons from primary schoolers to great-grandparents.

So, it’s high time we dim the lights on the Dundas name and put up a new marquee for the Winston Saunders Performing Arts Centre.

An astute Tin Ferl vendor could create a fufu appetiser in his honour, perhaps the Winnie Saunders Chairman’s fritter. Served spicy and conchy with a tamarind glaze, of course.

THE GRADUATE Nassau, October 18, 2020

No clear plan for Abaco EDITOR, The Tribune.

SINCE the passage of Hurricane Dorian we, the residents of Abaco have been living life in slow motion. Even in the middle of a global pandemic filled with economic uncertainty.

Even as we ride out yet another hurricane season with limited resources in place, Abaconians face another real threat. Over the past three months, work at the major hurricane dump sites in Abaco (Spring City and Treasure Cay) has come to a crawl and almost to a complete stop.

In the aftermath of the storm, the temporary sites were busy daily with dump trucks and heavyduty equipment. Hundreds of workers collected and sorted debris from across the storm ravaged island and cays as part of the recovery efforts. Now, the level of work at the sites is

considerably less and over the past two weeks, workers have been laid off. What remains is an eyesore and an environmental hazard in the making.

Clean up efforts on Abaco not only serve as a sign of hope for residents but it also provides much-needed employment. Our fear is that, as with most things in this country, what began as a temporary solution will become a permanent problem for Abaconians.

The site in Spring City is particularly concerning. It is located directly opposite a residential community and poses an immediate threat to the health of residents.

There are real concerns of the water table being impacted by hazardous materials stored for extended periods at the site.

Loose debris is also a fire hazard on an island where there are limited resources to assist residents in the

event of a fire. Highly flammable materials just steps away from a residential community could prove dangerous and deadly on an island still reeling from so much loss.

Restoration efforts must consider, first and foremost, the welfare and wellbeing of the people of Abaco. We are calling on the government and specifically Mr Iram Lewis, Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction and Mr Darren Henfield, MP for North Andros to explain the full plan to complete the cleanup and dump site work that it has started here on Abaco.

In particular, the mounds of debris in Spring City needs to be recycled and moved as a matter of urgency.

A CONCERNED ABACONIAN Spring City, Abaco.

October 18, 2020.

THE TRIBUNE

$1,300 fine for possesion of marijuana

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A 23-YEAR-OLD man who was found with over a pound of marijuana was fined $1,300 on Friday.

Kevin Johnson was charged with simple possession and marijuana possession with the intent to supply after officers found one pound and 2.8 ounces of Indian hemp worth $1,200 in his vehicle on October 15.

He pleaded guilty during a hearing before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes.

The court was told officers were on mobile patrol in the St Vincent Road area around 9.20am, when they observed a grey Nissan Note with no bumper traveling north on Owen Avenue.

The prosecution said the officers then beckoned for the car to stop and asked Johnson to exit the vehicle. It was at that time they noticed a brown paper bag on the passenger floor of the defendant’s car. When they examined it in his presence, officers discovered three black plastic wraps which each contained a quantity of suspected marijuana. The officers then searched Johnson and found $3,150 in mixed currency as well as a homemade cigarette in his pants pockets. The defendant was subsequently arrested. In an interview with police at a nearby station, he admitted to the offence.

During the hearing, Johnson was represented by attorney Ian Cargill.

He told the magistrate his client had no pending matters or previous convictions.

He also said the defendant was employed in the hotel industry and was currently in maritime school.

In response, Magistrate Forbes said he was generally disappointed when he saw people making decisions that lacked logic.

He also said being a maritime officer would require someone to be a logical thinker and told Johnson the “heartbreaking” fact was that if he had given his decision “full thought” he probably would not have committed the offences in the first place.

He urged Johnson to exercise better judgement in the future and fined him $1,200 or eight months in custody for marijuana possession with the intent to supply and another $100 for simple possession. A hearing to determine the fate of the money officers seized on the day of Johnson’s arrest is scheduled for December 4.

In another matter, two men who were caught smoking marijuana joints in their yard were ordered to attend drug counselling classes.

Police arrested Kevin Thompson, 43, and Lathor Thompson, 19, after they caught the cousins smoking two marijuana joints in their yard on October 8.

The court heard around 10.25am on the day in

question, officers on mobile patrol on Commonwealth Boulevard observed Lathor sitting on a bucket in his yard smoking what appeared to be a homemade marijuana cigarette.

When officers approached the defendant and questioned him, he told them he was smoking dope. While speaking with Lathor, officers also observed Kevin emerge from a wooden shack with a homemade cigarette in his right hand.

He was then approached and informed he would be searched in reference to dangerous drugs and firearms. Upon inspecting the cigarette, officers discovered a half a gram of suspected marijuana in it. Both defendants were subsequently arrested and transported to the Drug Enforcement Unit. In an interview with police there, Kevin told officers he was smoking the joint to get high before he went to work, while Lathor declined to comment.

During the hearing, Kevin told the magistrate that he had been smoking for 15 years, while Lathor said he had just developed the habit.

As a result, Magistrate Forbes said he would give both men an opportunity to address their drug addictions. He subsequently granted both defendants a conditional discharge on the agreement they would attend drug counselling classes at the Department of Social Services.

NO MASK ON THE BEACH? THAT’S $150 FINE

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A TEENAGER was fined $150 on Friday after police found him on a local beach without a face mask late last month.

Charles Saunders, 18, was arrested after police saw him on Montagu Beach without a face mask around 6.45pm on September 27.

He pleaded guilty during a hearing before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes. When given an

opportunity to speak during the arraignment, Saunders said there were 30-50 other people on the beach who were not complying with the regulations outlined in the emergency orders.

In response, Magistrate Forbes told him the law was the law and there was no excuse for not complying with it. As a result, he fined the teenager $150 or one month at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

In a separate matter on

Friday, Ashanique Cash, 26, also appeared before Magistrate Forbes after she was accused of failing to carry her government issued ID while she was on Montagu Beach on September 27.

During the hearing, Cash claimed that she only received the ticket from the officer after she told him she was not interested in dating him.

As a result, Magistrate Forbes recorded a not guilty plea and adjourned the matter to December 11 for trial.

Monday, October 19, 2020, PAGE 7

SEVEN YEARS ON, MAN ACCUSED OVER KILLING

JERMAINE Scott outside court on Friday.

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A FORMER fugitive was arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court on Friday, charged with killing a man seven years ago.

Jermaine Scott, 38, was accused of causing the unlawful and intentional death of Alejandro Bain on April 20, 2013.

Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

Police said the defendant, who fled to the United States that same year, was deported to the country last week.

Relatives of the victim gathered at the courthouse on Friday, wearing t-shirts in remembrance of Scott and holding photos of him.

During his hearing before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes, Scott was not

required to enter a plea and the matter was adjourned to December 3 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI).

Due to the nature of charge, the defendant was denied bail and remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services until that time.

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

WOMAN ADMITS FRAUD CHARGES

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A 26-YEAR-OLD woman was charged with fraud in the Freeport

Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Maleka Laing, of 12 Sunshine Apts, Sergeant Major Road, appeared before Magistrate Charlton Smith in Court Two, where she

was charged with possession of a false document, uttering a false document and deceit of a public officer.

Laing pleaded guilty to all charges and sentencing was adjourned to October 19.

TWO OF US

PAGE 8, Monday, October 19, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Inside John Lennon’s incredible songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney

By ADAM BEHR, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle University

REM, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and U2, for instance, made a point of co-crediting all band members regardless of who wrote a particular song or passage. And Queen shifted to such an arrangement and away from individual composer’s credits, partly as a way of reducing intra-band disputes about which songs to choose as singles.

JOHN Lennon was acutely aware of his place in the musical lineage, and the strengths and weaknesses of his own songwriting.

His tendency to speak in bold strokes – “Before Elvis there was nothing!”

– belied at times both the variety in his work, and its complicated legacy.

Lennon would have been 80 years old on October 9, and in a recent interview by son Sean with Paul McCartney highlights a few aspects of how their partnership shaped popular musical practice. McCartney recalls seeing Lennon around locally – on the bus, in the queue for fish and chips – before their famous first meeting at the Woolton Fête, noting with approval at the time Lennon’s nascent identification with the Teddy Boy sub-culture.

Importantly, their shared social milieu was an important foundation for the musical partnership. Sean Lennon also wonders about his father’s insecurities as a musician and a feeling that: “Somehow he wasn’t officially a true musician, and everyone else was.”

McCartney’s response is telling: “I don’t think any of us were, tell you the truth.

And I think that was a very good, strong thing about us, actually.”

Part of the significance of The Beatles as a phenomenon, and the Lennon-McCartney partnership within that, was that its overwhelming industrial and creative success helped to ingrain the “band” as a modus operandi for making popular music into common cultural currency.

The self-taught, peerdriven mode of music making that emerged from early rock and roll and skiffle was solidified as the next generation of its exponents – including Lennon and McCartney – took advantage of the relaxing social conditions as the 50s gave way to the 60s, and closed the gap between amateur and commercial activity.

MOVING APART

JOINT VENTURES Mick Jagger once referred to the Beatles as a “four-headed monster”. Indeed, The Rolling Stones’ own creation myth – a youthful Jagger and Keith Richards re-kindling a childhood friendship at Dartford train station over a chance encounter and a package of blues records – occupies a similar place in the historical narrative to Lennon and McCartney’s first encounter.

An important underlying aspect of how such partnerships worked, however, is that as well as springing from selftaught musicianship, and the rough-and-tumble of

social lives away from the formal demands of school and adult society, they combined what had hitherto often been separate functions – that of songwriter and performer. This wasn’t exclusively the case in rock.

The role of the songwriter as a marker of authenticity in rock music – singing one’s own compositions – drew from a Romantic wellspring, harking back to the 18th century, of artists as a source of inspiration and value beyond being mere

‘Ultimately, Lennon and McCartney complemented one another as personalities and as musicians.

McCartney’s melodic facility smoothed over some of Lennon’s rougher edges. Lennon’s grit added texture and leavened some of McCartney’s more saccharine tendencies.’

entertainers.

It also drew from folk traditions, as singersongwriters asserted their individuality – Bob Dylan is a case in point here.

But there was a growing sense of authenticity in bands, residing in the membership as well as the

music.

It mattered, for instance, when Ringo Starr contracted tonsillitis and was replaced for part of a tour of Australia by replacement drummer Jimmy Nicol. And songwriting partnerships such as Lennon-McCartney, and Jagger, Richards (as they

appeared in the credits) were at the heart of this.

They were also central to the power dynamic within bands. There was – and is – a financial advantage to being credited as a songwriter on top of being a performer in terms of the rights and royalties that accrue. A band is a partnership on several levels: social, creative and financial. Indeed, some acts have deliberately reoriented their arrangements to account for this.

In the case of the Beatles, Lennon and McCartney had ceased to co-write the songs several years before the band actually split, although as performers and bandmates they continued to help shape them in the production process. Tensions across one of these axes might be sustainable.

The Beatles took divergent paths as the 60s wore on, as is natural enough for school-friends as they move through adulthood and start families.

But by the end of the decade, simultaneous divergence in the creative, social and financial pathways made the partnership unmanageable.

“Musical differences” is often jokingly referred to as a proxy for personal enmity. But in truth, the various threads are often hard to fully disentangle.

Ultimately, Lennon and McCartney complemented one another as personalities and as musicians.

McCartney’s melodic facility smoothed over some of Lennon’s rougher edges.

Lennon’s grit added texture and leavened some of McCartney’s more saccharine tendencies.

Their legacy, though, was more than just musical. Their success coincided with, and helped to shape, an explosion of youth culture as both creative and commercial enterprise.

We can’t know, of course, what would have happened had Lennon lived to 80, especially given that – their business problems receding into the past - his personal relationship with McCartney had become warmer again by the onset of the 1980s. With the hurly-burly of the Beatles behind them, they found common ground over the more prosaic matters of middle age.

As McCartney put it: “We’d chat about how to make bread. Just ordinary stuff, you know. He’d had a baby by then – he’d had Sean – so we could talk babies and family and bread and stuff. So that made it a little bit easier, the fact that we were buddies.”

But the fact that their evolution as songwriters and as friends took place in tandem is still felt in the emergence of popular musical enterprises from schoolyards and youthful peer groups in rock and beyond.

• Originally published in theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 19, 2020, PAGE 9

How baseball’s first commissioner led a conspiracy of silence to keep blacks out of the sport

by CHRIS LAMB Professor of Journalism, IUPUI THE Baseball Writers’ Association of America recently announced that it would remove former Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis’ name from the plaques awarded to the American and National League MVPs. The decision came after a number of former MVPs, including black award winners Barry Larkin and Terry Pendleton, voiced their displeasure with their plaques being named for Landis, who kept the game segregated during the 24 years he served as commissioner from 1920 until his death in 1944. The Brooklyn Dodgers ended the colour line when they signed Jackie Robinson to a contract in October 1945, less than a year after Landis’ death.

Landis has had his defenders over the years.

In the past, essayist David Kaiser, baseball historian Norman Macht, Landis biographer David Pietrusza and the commissioner’s nephew, Lincoln Landis, have claimed that there is no evidence that Landis said or did anything racist.

But in my view, it’s what he didn’t say and didn’t do that made him a racist.

In my book “Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball,” I argue that baseball’s colour line existed as long as it did because the nation’s white mainstream sportswriters remained silent about it, even as black and progressive activists campaigned for integration.

However, those who ran the league possessed far more power than sportswriters. Landis, along with the owners, knew that there were black players good enough to play in the big leagues. If he wanted to integrate Major League Baseball, he could have.

Instead, he did all he could to prevent the rest of America from knowing just how talented black baseball players were.

PETITIONS GO IGNORED By the time Landis became commissioner in 1920, baseball had been segregated ever since a so-called “gentlemen’s agreement” took place among team owners in the 1880s.

However, it was common practice in the 1920s for Major League teams to earn extra money in the off-season by playing Black teams in exhibition games.

Landis put a halt to these games because he wanted to end the embarrassment of the Black teams’ winning so often.

African American sports reporter Sam Lacy grins in a black-and-white portrait from 1960.

It is worth noting that black athletes competed with white ones in other sports in the 1920s and 1930s, including boxing, college tennis, college football and, for several years, the National Football League.

Black athletes also represented the United States in the Olympics.

During the 1930s, black sportswriters like Wendell Smith and Sam Lacy, along with white sportswriters for the Communist newspaper The Daily Worker, intensely campaigned for the integration of baseball.

In their editorials and articles, Worker sportswriters chronicled the accomplishments of Negro League stars and told readers that struggling Major League teams could improve their chances by signing black players.

Meanwhile, Communist activists organised protests and circulated petition drives outside the ballparks of New York’s three Major League teams – the Yankees, Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers – demanding that teams sign black players.

The petitions, which had, according to one estimate, a million signatures, were then sent off to the commissioner’s office. They were ignored. The Daily Worker

regularly focused on Landis as the person responsible for the colour line, while the black press derisively called him “the Great White Father”.

DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL Landis’ defenders say that he could not possibly have been a bigot because he suspended Yankees outfielder Jake Powell for making a racist comment during a 1938 radio interview.

Landis suspended Powell not because the ballplayer used a slur, but because it was heard by fans, and black activists pressured the commissioner to do something. While Landis ended up punishing a racist player, he did nothing to end racial discrimination against black players.

Furthermore, Landis refused to allow players and managers to speak on the issue. When Brooklyn manager Leo Durocher was quoted in a 1942 Daily Worker article saying he would sign black players if he were allowed to, Landis ordered Durocher to deny that he made the statement.

The following year, Landis again subverted the campaign to end segregation in the sport.

Sam Lacy, who was then working for the Chicago Defender, repeatedly asked Landis for a meeting to talk about the colour line. When Landis finally agreed, Lacy asked the commissioner if he could make the case for integration at baseball’s annual meeting.

Landis, without telling Lacy, invited the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association. Also invited to speak was Paul Robeson, the onetime college football star who had become an actor, singer, writer – and avowed Communist. Lacy was incensed that Robeson would be asked to address the conservative white owners about the sensitive issue of integration.

To Lacy, the presence of Robeson meant that Landis

could plant seeds of suspicion with white owners and sportswriters that the campaign to integrate baseball was a Communist front.

Lacy wrote in a column that Landis reminded him of a cartoon he had seen of a man extending his right hand in a gesture of friendship while clenching a long knife that was hidden in his left hand.

Landis died in December 1944, and Lacy finally got a chance to address team executives in March of the following year. Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey ended up signing Jackie Robinson to a contract several months later, thus ending segregation in baseball.

Lee Lowenfish, Rickey’s biographer, was convinced that Landis would have tried to stop the Brooklyn executive from signing Robinson.

I believe it is no coincidence that baseball remained segregated during Landis’ reign as commissioner – or that it became integrated only after he died.

• Originally published on theconversation.com

KENESAW MOUNTAIN LANDIS

A Memorial Service for

Carlyle Adam Algreen, 18 of Gambier Village, Nassau, The Bahamas, who died at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Shirley Street, Nassau, on Monday, 12th October, 2020, will be held via Zoom Video Conferencing, on Thursday, 22nd October, 2020 at 4:00 p.m.

Left to mourn his passing are: His parents: Clifton and Astrid Algreen; (2) Brothers: Cliton Jr. and Ashkin; Uncles: Reno (Nadine), Corey, Jamal Williams, Kish, Antonio, Andrew (Debbie), Haldane, Sean (Opal), Dwight, Jamaal Stubbs, Sean, Travis, Keith (Hyacinth), Eugene, Ryan, Theodore, Kenny, Dave Griffin, Steven Symonette, Phillip Neilly, Hank; Aunts: Oneika, Inga, Denice, Delores, Sharon, Crystal, Deniemae, Carolyn, Yvette, Carla, Tina, Vernita, Tiffany Marilyn; Grandmothers: Betty Williams & Loretta Algreen; Grandfathers: Kemuel Algreen, Stephen McKenzie, Revis; Grand aunts: Ivy Patrick of Connecticut (Gene) and Albertha Berryman of England (John), Margaret Brown (Max), Albertha Ganiza of Florida, Bathsheba Algreen; Family/ Cousins: Zai, Alexzandria (Roddy), Kahtura (Romaine), Kyle (Michelle, Kristina, Ian, Civian, Chrissy, Korey, Reno, Rico, Deontre, Donalee, Latoya, William, Leam, Roante, Romero, Rokeno, Iking, Keithera, Princess, Jamaal Jr., Jamari, Kymorra, Nikita, Danisha, Alkisha, Natalia, Vandi, Makheba (Valentino), Valkeria, Arsenio, Dominique, Miriam, Nathaniel, Nadia, Rondo, Pamlea, Petra Denton Jevon, Vanessa, Indira, Rhonda, Rolie, Antoniette Rolisa, Ricardo, Castassja, Tahnaj, Lugana, Sabrina, Gene (Melissa, Celina, Alex Patrick), Charles (Dori, Devin, Jasmine and Janelly Rolle}, Jason (Becky Rolle), Steven & Marybeth Feaster of Connecticut, E.J., Michael, Kylie, Kdrianna. Livingston, Tyrone (Tina & Connor darling}, Melissa, Mayra, Melinda, Mark (Of England) Lenora Poitier, Sabrina, Monica, Donnel, Racquel, the Jimenez family, Eldons, Wongs, Halls, Neilly’s, McKenzie’s and Current Eleuthera, too many to mention. Friends: Miss Judy, Marquita, Alexandria, Rodrick, Dammanie, Ethan, Malika, The Entire Staff of C. C. Sweeting, West Congregation, HighLand Park Congregation, The Coopers, Dr. Patrick Whitfield, Tony and Florinda Martinello, Gambier Community.

Special Thanks to Dr. Marcus Cooper and his entire staff, Sister Valencia Fernander Rolle, Sister Jen Fernander Rolle, Nurse Coakley, Social Services Health Department, The Amoury, The Punch, Ester Deryckere, Dave Griffin, Denise Cox, Maude and Frankie Pickstock, Michael Rolle, Melvina Pratt, Mr. Walker, Mr. Gibson, Ms. Green and Mr Kajokaya. All those who made his load lighter while Battling his illness.

Relatives and friends may pay there respects at Kemp’s Funeral Home Limited, 19 Palmdale Avenue, Nassau, on Wednesday 21st October, 2020, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

THE AWARD that bore Kenesaw Mountain Landis’ name - and that is now having his name removed from it.

Arrangements by Kemp’s Funeral Home Limited.