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FREE TESTS START IN INAGUA TODAY Minister warns of COVID clusters on Family Islands

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AFTER the announcement that free COVID-19 testing will be piloted on Family Islands most at risk for spread of the virus, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said the programme is anticipated to start in Great Inagua today.

The minister told reporters that there are some clusters on some Family Islands that are a great concern, noting the Berry Islands, North Eleuthera

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville accused the former administration of failing to do what was necessary to secure additional vaccines, leading to the current shortage in the country.

He also gave an update on when more vaccines are expected to arrive in the country.

He had previously said

that the country should receive some 57,000 vaccine doses in the first week of November.

“The vaccines are on track,” Dr Darville said.

“We have a supply of Pfizer that is en route. I was fortunate enough to have good news that the vaccines donated by the United States government, the Pfizer vaccine, are right behind and so the issue as it relates to vaccines is SEE PAGE FIVE

- SEE PAGE EIGHT

FAMILY ISLAND CASES ‘NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ELECTION’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis says an increase in COVID-19 deaths and cases on some Family Islands has nothing to do with the early general election held last month.

He said the outbreaks have come too far after the election to be attributed to that event and the campaign season.

“The infection occurs five to six days after exposure, so this is not related to any activities by the FNM,” he said yesterday.

and Iguana.

He said “we cannot give an exact cost” for the free testing initiative, but, he said, officials are minimising the expense.

“We anticipate that our launch will start effectively tomorrow (Wednesday) in Inagua but again there’s a few small logistical issues that we’re putting together and hopefully I would have the exact departure time for that particular team later on today,” he told reporters before heading into a Cabinet meeting yesterday.

SEE PAGE FIVE

DARVILLE: MINNIS DIDN’T DO ENOUGH TO SECURE VACCINES

ALICIA WALLACE: WE NEED TO HAVE A SAY AT CLIMATE TALKS

SEE PAGE FIVE

LUCAYAN BOARD: DITCH DEAL AND LET’S MOVE ON

‘PLEASE HELP MEGAN’S FIGHT FOR HEALTH’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE family of 15-year-old Megan Higgs is appealing for help to fund treatment for her hydrocephalus, a severe condition that causes a build-up of fluid on the brain. A campaign has been launched on GoFundMe to raise $50,000 for the Grand Bahama teen. See PAGE TWO for the full story.

ATHLETE GIFT ROW TO GO TO CABINET

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC Works Minister Alfred Sears said yesterday he will prepare a Cabinet paper to address funding for the placement of infrastructure on land granted to the country’s Olympians.

After Olympians Ramon Miller and Pauline Davis-Thompson told The Tribune they’ve been battling for years to have

PUBLIC Works Minister Alfred Sears yesterday. electricity and water infrastructure installed on land gifted to them for winning

Olympic medals, Mr Sears said it was the government’s responsibility as the developer to ensure there was remediation.

Similarly, Youth, Sports & Culture Minister Mario Bowleg said where the ball was dropped previously, the Davis administration would fix the problem.

Meanwhile, Whitney Heastie, Bahamas Power and Light’s chief executive officer, explained that the SEE PAGE THREE

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

THE Grand Lucayan’s Board has “unanimously” recommended to the Davis administration that it exit the ITM/Royal Caribbean deal and “move on” with alternative options.

Multiple Tribune Business contacts said the existing directors have all advocated breaking the hotel’s sale off from ITM/ Royal Caribbean’s plans to redevelop Freeport Harbour.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY - FACEBOOK PLANS TO BUILD A ‘METAVERSE’

- SEE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

MEGAN HIGGS, whose family is appealing for help in treating her hydrocephalius.

THE TRIBUNE

‘Please help Megan’s fight for health’

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE family of 15-yearold Megan Higgs is appealing for the public’s assistance in helping them fund treatment for her hydrocephalus, a severe condition that causes a build-up of fluid on the brain.

A campaign has been launched on GoFundMe to raise $50,000 for the Grand Bahama teen.

Megan was born with the condition and has been battling many medical and health issues, such as seizures, chronic pains, numbness and memory loss.

The family has raised more than $3,000 for her treatment so far.

Her mother, Kendith Higgs, said the family is seeking further medical treatment to improve Megan’s quality of life.

Megan is not like the average 15-year-old. She is much smaller and not as mentally mature as peers her age, her mother said.

She does not attend school and is restricted from certain outdoor activities such as swimming or playing in the sun, which trigger her seizures. She has had a shunt placed in her skull from birth to release fluid from her brain.

“Megan has come a long way... through the grace and mercy of God, and has made it thus far,” Ms Higgs said.

According to the GoFundMe page, Megan was born with a cerebral spinal complex malformation and has hydrocephalus.

She has been undergoing both surgical and medical treatment involving neurosurgical procedures.

“At birth, she was airlifted right away from the Rand Memorial Hospital to Nassau, where they placed a shunt in her skull to drain the fluid. She stayed in hospital for two months because of the severity of her condition.

“No one really knew what she would be like as a person, whether she would know her family or be a vegetable. But we were prayerful and hopeful she would be able to function

PHOTOGRAPHS, above and below, showing Megan’s treatment. as a normal child. We did not leave her in the hospital or give her away, we said we would deal with it and whatever comes our way, and we would just love her,” her mother said.

Life has not been easy for Megan growing up. Her mother said she was bullied by other children because of her condition. Despite this, Ms Higgs said Megan is a loving and caring person who compliments everyone she meets.

Ms Higgs is appreciative to the doctors in Grand Bahama and in New Providence for their assistance in treating Megan. She is trying to get further medical treatment in the US or Cuba.

On Sunday, Megan was hospitalised at the Rand after suffering a seizure.

However, before that, Ms Higgs noticed that Megan had become less energetic.

She said her daughter has been experiencing severe numbing sensations in the head, hands, and feet.

“A local doctor in Freeport did (an) exam and discovered she has autonomic dystonia syndrome.

The pain is so bad, and we have been going back and forth to the doctors, and they said she needs further medical attention,” she said.

Ms Higgs said that a small mass was also found on Megan’s brain. She explained that the shunts

had to be replaced twice, at age two and nine years, when they became infected.

“The doctor checked to see if anything was going on, but it was fine. However, they discovered a little mass over the frontal area of the brain that needs to be checked further,” she said.

“We were told she would need further medical care… and we want to take her for further evaluation abroad in the US or Cuba. We just want to get Megan a better quality of life because her life is not the way it used to be. She used to be very energetic, and now she is just lethargic because of her condition. She also needs occupational therapy.”

Ms Higgs said that a Nassau doctor had reached out to them to try to assist Megan. “We are willing to take the offer,” she said.

In the meantime, she said that a group is checking with St Jude’s Children’s Hospital in the US. “We are waiting on them to get back to us, and we are also checking on Shriners Children’s Hospital, and waiting on news from them as well,” she said.

People interested in assisting Megan can visit the family’s GoFundMe page at https://www. gofundme.com/f/meganangelique-higgs or contact Ms Higgs at (242)-822-3589, or email corey6dtpschool@ hotmail.com.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 3

Rutherford promises ‘not kept for 30 years’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net NEARLY 30 years since Frank Rutherford brought home a Bronze medal in the triple jump event from the Olympics at Barcelona, Spain he said he has not received any of the rewards he was promised.

Mr Rutherford’s third place finish in August 1992 at the time earned The Bahamas its first track and field Olympic medal.

The stellar achievement, according to Mr Rutherford yesterday, brought the assurance that he would be gifted land and $300,000.

By Mr Rutherford’s account, he was the first athlete to be promised a portion of the same property that was formerly granted to the Golden Girls and Golden Knights.

However, former Cabinet minister Algernon Allen disputed this yesterday.

Mr Allen was minister of youth, sports and culture at the time under the Free National Movement, which was newly elected on August 19, 1992. He told The Tribune that yesterday was the first time he had ever heard the claim.

According to Mr Rutherford, when he returned home from the Barcelona Olympics, former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling said he would receive a handsome reward. Soon after, the former triple jumper said there was a

general election, resulting in the Progressive Liberal Party’s defeat.

“The land that you see Ramon and them talking about, that land was found for me,” Mr Rutherford said. “It wasn’t found for the Golden Girls or the (Golden) Knights, that land was found for Frank Rutherford.

“They were gifting that land to me in 1992 to build a home for me, along with giving me $300,000 in cash for me winning the Olympic medal, giving me a lifetime tenure with the Ministry of Tourism/Sports for the rest of my life. Those were the gifts that was put also on Cabinet paper, but they could not ratify it because there was no Cabinet. The PLP would’ve had to wait until after the election and then go and move forward in ratifying that.

“Consequently, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling lost the election. The then former prime minister told me part of his responsibility of transferring the power to the new prime minister was he gave that to the new prime minister for me.”

Instead, Mr Rutherford said under the new government he was fired from his job at the Hotel Corporation/Ministry of Tourism.

In those days, he said athletes were put to work at the ministry as a means of subvention.

“Somebody who had just done something for the country that was never seen

before (was fired). It was such an embarrassing thing, there was a public outcry,” he told The Tribune.

Mr Rutherford said at some point he left The Bahamas and returned later for a meeting with then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

“I flew in from Europe and he told me basically all these gifts that the former prime minister was giving you, I am not doing this for you and then he went on to tell me he doesn’t like sports and that it wasn’t going to be a priority to him,” he alleged.

“So, that’s why you see today I still have not gotten any of my rewards for winning the country its first and only at the time track and field medal.”

Regarding the infrastructure dilemma now faced by the Golden Girls and Golden Knights for land they were gifted, Mr Rutherford said: “You can’t go now and start a policy when you had not taken care of the original, when it was made for the original.”

Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham declined comment yesterday, directing this newspaper to seek the insight of Mr Allen.

Yesterday, Mr Allen said there had been no formal policy of giving awards to athletes until 1993. He defended Mr Ingraham saying “nothing would have been said by Mr Ingraham

FRANK Rutherford competing in Barcelona in 1992, where he earned a bronze medal in the triple jump.

in relation to Frank Rutherford, because my goodness gracious, we were all so very proud of his achievement.”

“The whole policy with respect of rewards to and subventions to elite athletes was not put in place until 1993,” Mr Allen recalled.

“Before then there was no policy, no position taken in respect of rewards to and subventions to elite athletes.

“The FNM government, in fact I was the minister responsible for taking to the FNM Cabinet a paper which rewarded elite athletes for not only the achievement of them, but also gave a monthly stipend

to many elite athletes for up to $1,500 per month.

“It was groundbreaking and was the first time it was being done in the Caribbean.

“We also for the first time for persons who had achieved medals gave $40,000 for the gold medal, $25,000 or thereabout for the silver and $10,000 for the bronze — it was a very handsome sum at that time.

“So, you know it’s amazing how something which was so generous and so gracious at the time could now be placed in such a sad light.”

Asked specifically about former Prime Minister

Pindling’s reported promise to Mr Rutherford, Mr Allen said: “Oh my, well, let me say this: if that had been the case certainly before now that would have been mentioned. Never ever. I don’t know where that came from.

“If that had been the case, before now, it certainly would have been mentioned. This is the first time I will be hearing that.”

Mr Allen said he was shocked by Mr Rutherford’s revelation, saying the pledge was never communicated to Mr Ingraham or himself as the new youth, sports and culture minister at the time.

Athlete gift row to go to Cabinet from page one power provider does not provide authorisation to place poles and electricity systems in an area.

Mr Heastie said he was trying to ascertain if all of the required permissions were in place. However, at this point he said it appeared those permissions were not granted, and the matter was “tied up” in government.

“I was briefed on this matter two weeks ago,” Mr Sears said yesterday before Cabinet’s weekly meeting.

“I subsequently had a conversation with the mother of Mr Ramon Miller and also with someone else and on Friday I received a correspondence.

“Last week I sent a note to the Minister of Housing (Jobeth Coleby-Davis) and I also sent a note to the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture (Mario Bowleg) and I proposed to them that I will prepare a Cabinet paper in consultation with them so that we can ask for the funding in order to carry out the works.

“First of all, let me say that the architects, the engineers, (and) the civil section at the Ministry of Works, they have this as a project and I will be taking the proposal for funding.

That is the issue, the issue is funding.

“In consultation with my colleagues — that is youth, sports and culture (and) housing — and make an application so that this long-standing problem could be solved, but with respect to the Golden Girls as well as the case with Mr Miller.”

He also said: “First of all the infrastructure, it’s a government subdivision and any developer of a subdivision has the responsibility of putting in the

THE PROPERTY belonging to Ramon Miller but which has not had infrastructure upgrades in the area carried out.

Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff infrastructure and this is the premise upon which I am proceeding.

“I’m not interested in who didn’t do this or who didn’t do that. Today the Bahamian people have given us the responsibility and we’re going to solve it,” Mr Sears said.

For his part, Mr Bowleg said he empathised with the athletes and fully supported them.

“It’s been a long time as a county. These athletes have gone out there and supported us and made us look good on the world stage and we have been able to reward them with a property by now we should have

had the infrastructure in,” Mr Bowleg said yesterday.

“However, we are a new administration, and we have made the decision to move forward and assist these athletes and we are going to do whatever it takes to make sure the infrastructure is in in a timely manner.”

Mr Bowleg said the issue did not reflect that the country was not appreciative of the Olympians.

“I just think it’s a matter of us moving in a timely manner. I think the athletes know that infrastructure was not there for some time now and so with Ramon making the first initiative to

go and commence building and understanding that he would have pleaded to both governments before to get the infrastructure.

“I think they dropped the ball. We just have to pick up the ball and get it sorted out.”

For his part, Mr Heastie said he was unsure if the approvals outside of BPL’s control were ever granted.

“There are so many situations that warrant BPL not being cleared to provide,” the CEO told The Tribune.

“I think a lot of folks don’t understand that BPL does not provide authorisation to provide power.

“The authorisation

comes from the Ministry of Public Works. BPL is just the execution agency of the authorisation that is provided by the Ministry of Works.

“First of all, we need to have an approved document from the Ministry of Works to go ahead and provide power. The second thing is when that approval is granted, the approval must include all rights to the property.

“In other words, BPL cannot just go in and put poles and infrastructure that they don’t know who the owner is because BPL is liable to be sued for putting infrastructure on somebody

else’s property.”

He continued: “So, what I was trying to ascertain yesterday is have all of these permissions been cleared so that BPL can go ahead and move forward with providing the infrastructure and the power to the residents.

“It has never been clear whether or not those approvals, which is outside of BPL’s control, have been granted and so what we are doing is I have asked our department that is responsible for making sure all of that is in place to reach out to the homeowner and to ascertain the documents that would grant BPL the rights to move forward.

“At this point it appears to me that those approvals have not been granted and it’s tied up inside the government of The Bahamas,” Mr Heastie also said.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that Mr Miller has all ownership papers to the land, Mr Heastie said BPL was more concerned with this being an off the grid scenario. The company also has to look at who owns the right of way to get to the property.

“This is the challenge.

He may have deeds to the land. We are less concerned about the deeds to the land that he has. He is off the main grid and BPL has to now install poles and power systems to get to the residence and so the question there is the right of way to get to his property. Who owns the right of way and does BPL have authorisation to plant poles because it may be on somebody else’s property.

“I think that’s where we are, but we are trying to find out ourselves because I think it’s a lack of approvals from the government on where the infrastructure that BPL needs to put in should go,” Mr Heastie said.

PAGE 4, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

LIGHTBOURNE: UP TO 30 PERCENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Sen ior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

STATE Minister for Educational and Technical and Vocational Training Zane Lightbourne.

Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

STATE Minister for Education and Technical and Vocational Training Zane Lightbourne said up to 30 percent of public school students have not been attending classes consistently, adding the ministry hopes face-to-face learning will resume full-time by the end of the year.

He said some 15,000 out of 50,000 students have “not been consistently identified on the system” as attending

online classes.

“We’re working very closely with the Ministry of Health who would determine (when face-to-face classes will resume),” he said yesterday.

“The tour of the islands that the minister of health has been doing, we’ve accompanied him. I myself have done some of the southern islands and we are determining that very soon. Hopefully as soon as we see the health situation sorted out we’re going to resume face to face.

I’m very hopeful (that will

happen before the end of the year).”

Public schools across the country opened this school year with a virtual learning format due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.

“I know the parents of the children are very concerned because face-to-face is our go-to, that is the way that we can capture all of the students that we know have been missing in the system for the last two years, yearand-a-half, so we want to really get this going as soon as possible but we want it to be safe, safety first,” Mr

Lightbourne said.

He added that officials are examining the effectiveness of the learning platform used in schools.

Teachers have complained about the platform in the past.

Mr Lightbourne said: “I had a meeting with some of the powers that be in that area making sure the system can sustain at least for the end of the term because it would be problematic if we tried to switch the system in the middle of the semester for students.”

CLAY Sweeting hands over a token of appreciation to Chinese Ambassador Dai Qingli at the handover ceremony for 15 greenhouses donated by China to The Bahamas.

Photos: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

CHINA DONATES 15 GREENHOUSES TO THE BAHAMAS THE Embassy of the People’s Republic of China donated 15 greenhouses to the Ministry of Agriculture

recently.

The greenhouses, which vary in size, will be distributed in Grand Bahama

and throughout the Family Islands.

Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family

Island Affairs Minister Clay Sweeting, Parliamentary Secretary Leonardo Lightbourne and Permanent Secretary Joel Lewis received the items last Thursday.

Mr Sweeting expressed gratitude on behalf of the government.

“I would like to sincerely thank you for these greenhouses, which speak to our. blueprint for change,” he said. “Agriculture plays a significant role in finding ways to feed ourselves. Big things start small and real change starts with ideas.

These greenhouses will definitely play an instrumental role in finding new ways of farming techniques and ideas to feed ourselves.”

Mr Sweeting said that agriculture contributes only 0.8 percent of the country’s GDP, a rate he is looking to drastically change.

“I look forward to working with you in the future because it is very important to myself and my ministry that agriculture becomes prominent in our country and where people feel that they can be business-oriented,” Mr Sweeting said.

China’s Ambassador to The Bahamas Dai Qingli said the embassy is looking forward to continuing to work with the government and further the countries’ mutually beneficial cooperation.

“The raging pandemic has highlighted once again the importance of the agricultural sector and the imperative of reducing the cost of living for the average Bahamian,” she said.

“I very much support the minister’s objective to make agriculture more appealing to Bahamians and attracting more investment into

this vital sector.

“Agriculture has a big potential to be commercially viable as is shown with our experience with working with your Caribbean neighbours. Today’s donation of greenhouses is only a small beginning to what we hope to be a growing agricultural partnership between our countries. I’m glad that the minister has just expressed his commitment of working with us.”

The ambassador said the two countries have long been in discussions to further develop the agriculture industry.

“It is now time to put our ideas into practice by working together on the ground and in the fields. I look forward to discussions with the minister to understand his priorities and to see how we can best work with him,” Ambassador Qingli said.

MINISTER of Agriculture Marine Resources & Family Island Affairs Clay Sweeting and Chinese Ambassador Dai Qingli signing the deal for the donation of 15 greenhouses.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 5

Free tests start in Inagua today from page one “This is our plan to be in Great Inagua tomorrow and set up testing areas in two different sites and to make sure that we have the necessary social distancing and from there they will be on Inagua for Thursday and will be departing on Friday and likewise we will definitely be announcing when we’re going to do it in North Eleuthera; when we’re going to do it on the Berry Islands; when we’re going to do it in South Eleuthera.”

He said rapid antigen tests will be used initially.

“Well, initially, we will be using (the) rapid test, but rapid test is not a diagnostic test it has to be in conjunction with PCR tests and (we) will definitely be (using) PCR tests.

“But the whole purpose of determining what’s going on on these islands is to determine whether… our COVID cases are still contained in the cluster (or) are we beginning to see sub-clusters or signs of community spreads and based on what we find the necessary security measures will be implemented, but I’d like to say the days of lockdowns are pretty much behind us… Every country has to manage COVID and we need to improve the way we are managing COVID here with new techniques and new things coming out of our toolbox.”

Asked if residents who have positive rapid tests will then receive a PCR test as a follow up measure, he said: “It all depends on the medical algorithms. You see when you do a PCR test you have a test that’s in front of you that says negative or positive. You must begin to use medical algorithms to look at the integrity and the strength of what the positive is all about. As a physician, we all know that you don’t treat tests, you treat people and so it’s important to initiate medical algorithms

along with the rapid antigen test so that you can create more validity...”

The Ministry of Health previously said it was dispatching COVID-19 surveillance and enforcement units to Inagua, North Eleuthera, and the Berry Islands with “the intention to review COVID-19 cases, tighten surveillance protocols, and better support those who need to isolate and quarantine.”

Dr Darville explained the rationale further for law enforcement on these islands.

“One of the things that our surveillance unit has reported back is that there is a possibility or the fact that our clusters may have lost its integrity with individuals who are in quarantine breaking quarantine. Tighter restrictions are absolutely necessary because we will have clusters of COVID infection from time to time throughout our country and it’s better that we have a protective measure in place and so I did send additional police officers into Iguana, into North Eleuthera, and the Berry Islands to ensure that our ability to monitor and to protect the clusters so we don’t have sub-clusters and the possibility of community spread,” he said.

“What we are also looking at is an additional digital platform in order for us to best manage and to surveillance in order to maintain our clusters.”

Asked how many people in North Eleuthera and the Berry Islands were quarantined, Dr Darville said to his knowledge he thinks about 23 to 28 individuals in quarantine and in isolation: 14 in Harbour Island, eight in Lower and Upper Bower Bogue, and about four, possibly five, in Spanish Wells.

As for the Berry Islands, he admitted he did not remember the numbers off hand as there are clusters on many islands.

“On the Berry Islands, there is a cluster we are

PRIME MINISTER HEADS TO MLK MEMORIAL EVENT

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis travelled to Washington DC yesterday, where he will join his wife, Ann-Marie Davis, to participate in the 10th anniversary commemoration of the Martin Luther King (MLK) Memorial today and tomorrow. The MLK Memorial is the fifth most visited memorial in Washington, DC. Other invited guests include US President Joseph Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, Cabinet

monitoring,” the minister added.

• The Ministry of Health reported 70 new cases of COVID-19 over a two-day period.

Sixteen new cases were

recorded on October 18.

Thirteen of those cases are in New Providence, two are in Eleuthera and one is listed as location pending.

Fifty-four cases were recorded on October 17

DARVILLE: MINNIS DIDN’T DO ENOUGH TO SECURE VACCINES from page one actually working extremely well.

“I would like to also say this. I didn’t want to, but when I came to office we realised that the reason why we experienced the delay in the Pfizer from the COVAX facility was because under the former administration, someone forgot to apply and as a result of that it pushed us in the back and so now because of negotiation it will be here in the first week of November.

“With the COVAX facility, the responsibility (laid) with someone from the Ministry of Health or from the component authority to actually document what we are supposed to be doing. It was delayed and as a result of the delay, it could’ve been the election, we found ourselves when we came to office to move swiftly to resolve the problem and I believe if that piece of document was signed or conveyed we would’ve had the COVAX facility vaccine here in advance. Likewise for the donations from the American vaccine. Something or someone dropped the ball and we were placed further behind the line.

“So these things I had to resolve when I became minister through negotiations, thank God, with the United States government and the COVAX facility and PAHO, we are back

MINISTER of Health and Wellness Dr Michael Darville. Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff on track. This is a reality I found and the delay of the vaccine should fall at their feet.”

Former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis recently criticised the Davis administration’s handling of the pandemic, saying its response has been “disastrous”.

Yesterday, Dr Darville said he disagrees with Dr Minnis’ assessment and highlighted the snap election being called in the midst of a pandemic.

“If you really look at what has happened around the world and you look at what happened in Jamaica and Trinidad and look at their cases, prior to the calling of the election and after the election, it is quite evident that election being called in

the middle of a pandemic clearly demonstrates that you would have increased COVID cases and death.

So I think his statements is a bit disingenuous because the facts are there and the epidemiological studies are clear that an election in the middle of a pandemic results in spikes in COVID as well as death,” Dr Darville said.

Dr Minnis also said the government needed to move quickly to stop the spread of COVID-19 in vulnerable Family Islands.

“Well in the Family Islands, just like I said before, we moved immediately to see exactly what’s going on in the Family Islands and to my surprise things were a lot worse than I even thought

I would find,” Dr Darville said. “So after four years I find it very disingenuous that the former minister of health and the prime minister could speak about the Family Islands and the fact that they left the healthcare infrastructure in one of the most deplorable states. My job now is to not complain.

My job is to go in there, fix the situation and begin to implement new measures that will begin to control the clusters and prevent community spread,” he said.

Meanwhile, he reaffirmed that the Davis administration has no intentions of renewing the Emergency Orders when they expire next month, but will instead bring legislation to chart the way forward.

Secretaries and Members of Congress. The Memorial Committee is co-chaired by Lionel Richie, Shellye Archambeau and Tommy Hilfiger.

Prime Minister Davis, pictured as he prepared to depart from Lynden Pindling International Airport, is scheduled to return to the capital on Friday.

Photo: Kristaan Ingraham/BIS

— 45 of them are in New Providence, four are in Grand Bahama, two are in Abaco, one is in Eleuthera, and two are in Inagua.

The country now has 22,048 confirmed virus

cases.

One hundred and thirteen people are in hospital, health officials said.

Six hundred and twentysix people have died from the disease.

FAMILY ISLAND CASES ‘NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ELECTION’

from page one

The early election was held on September 16.

Political parties did not always adhere strictly to health protocols at rallies and political events leading up to the election, prompting criticism from top health officials.

Between October 2 and October 15, the Ministry of Health recorded 133 cases on Family Islands.

Dr Minnis said: “Throughout the entire COVID we have utilised the science. We’ve followed the science and when there were changes, because COVID was very fluid, we would make the necessary changes. When individuals are saying that the flare up or the infections you are seeing in the Family Islands are a result of the election on the 16th, when you look at the science and individuals being exposed, infections do not manifest themselves for at least five to six days.

“So let’s assume all the rallies were on September 16. If every rally was on the 16th and they were exposed at the events then according

to science the infection would manifest itself by the 22nd or 23rd, not this late. What I would suggest is they need to send down a medical team, a contact tracing team and a vaccination team to these islands and vaccinate as aggressively as possible. Once they use the contact tracing team they would be able to tell exactly where the infection comes from, which bars, which homes, etc. I would hope they would release such information.

“We were able to say where clusters started at press conferences. The travel visa provided a lot of information with respect to contact tracing, but they have dismantled it and thrown away a great weapon in terms of contact tracing.”

While the average person who is infected with COVID-19 will display symptoms five to six days after exposure, the incubation period for the virus is 14 days, according to scientists. Some people can be asymptomatic carriers of the virus, helping to form clusters by infecting others without showing symptoms.

POSITION AVAILABLE CASHIERS WANTED Fast Pace Environment REQUIRED TO WORK SHIFTS

PLEASE EMAIL RESUME TO Cashierwanted2021@gmail.com

PAGE 6, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

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Where will US offshore wind turbines go?

THE Biden administration has announced ambitious plans to scale up leasing for offshore wind energy projects along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts. In an announcement released on October 13, the US Department of the Interior stated that it will “use the best available science as well as knowledge from ocean users and other stakeholders to minimise conflict with existing uses and marine life”. University of Massachusetts Boston public policy scholar David W Cash, who worked at senior levels in state government for a decade, describes how this process works.

Why does the Biden administration want to build so much wind power at sea?

President Joe Biden has set a goal for the US to achieve net-zero emissions economywide by 2050. That will require an unprecedented expansion of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels that release climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that US offshore wind resources could provide over 2,000 gigawatts of generating capacity – nearly twice as much electricity as the nation uses every year. For context, the capacity of a large fossil fuel or nuclear power plant is about 1 gigawatt.

The Biden administration aims to have 30 gigawatts of offshore wind operating by 2030. Today the US has a fraction of that – just 42 megawatts of offshore wind from five turbines off Rhode Island and two off Virginia. (A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts.)

Offshore wind has many advantages over land-based turbines. First, wind blows harder and more consistently at sea than on land. Second, coastal and Great Lakes states account for almost 80 percent of US electricity demand, so offshore wind can supply electricity close to population centres and businesses.

Finally, offshore wind development can revitalise coastal ports and manufacturing centers. A recent study from the University of Delaware estimates that over the next decade, offshore wind development can drive US$109bn in economic development. This means it can support the Biden administration’s twin energy and equity goals.

Experts say that with careful planning, offshore wind has the potential to generate jobs and economic development in historically underserved communities.

It also offers oil and gas companies and their workers an opportunity to pivot to a new clean energy sector that shares some common skills and technologies.

What makes an offshore site good for wind power?

Obviously, you need a site where winds blow consistently at sufficient speeds. And it’s best if offshore wind generation won’t conflict with other uses of the ocean, such as fishing and shipping routes.

What’s onshore is also critical. Port cities are essential to support offshore wind development. The developers also need facilities that can assemble huge towers and turbine blades and support the specialised ships that install and maintain them.

It’s important to have a local manufacturing base and enough trained or trainable workers to carry out construction, operations and maintenance. And wind power developers need customers, so they will want to know whether nearby states will require their utilities to buy offshore wind electricity with long-term contracts.

Who decides which areas should be open for offshore wind, and how do they choose?

Offshore wind farms are large, complex projects, and many state and federal agencies are involved. For any site in

federal waters – more than 3 miles out from shore – the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management oversees and coordinates permitting.

BOEM has a mandate to drive energy development in federal waters while balancing multiple uses of those waters.

Over the past decade, it has executed more than 20 leases and grants for offshore wind development along the Atlantic coast, from Maine to Florida.

When the agency considers leasing an area for development, it seeks input from groups and communities that could be affected, such as the fishing industry, marine mining companies, environmental advocates, shipping companies and coastal cities and towns.

BOEM brings these groups together to collect data, map uses of the area and discuss trade-offs. The goal is to balance different ocean uses and identify potential wind lease areas that pose the fewest trade-offs.

What potential impacts are you most concerned about?

I have questions about how these projects may affect marine ecosystems, bird populations and whale migration patterns. Scientists have studied these issues in Europe, and US researchers and environmental groups are also analysing them.

Agencies that regulate fisheries and marine mammals play roles in the permitting process. With smart siting and planning, I believe it should be possible to protect activities like fishing that are the lifeblood of coastal communities, and to minimize impacts on marine mammals and birds.

I also think it will be a missed opportunity if the US develops a clean energy economy without addressing equity and justice. Many communities depend economically on fossil fuels, which have powered our economy for more than a century.

In my view, those states and regions should receive financial support, workforce development and training as US reliance on fossil fuels declines. So should underserved communities and communities of color, which haven’t received many benefits from past technology shifts and have shouldered disproportionate environmental impacts from the use of oil, gas and coal.

Many coastal states opposed the Trump administration’s push in 2018 to expand offshore drilling for oil and gas.

Do you expect a similar reaction to offshore wind?

Many people see offshore drilling as a threat to the environment. They worry about events like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the spill that just occurred in October 2021 off the coast of southern California.

Offshore wind development can generate conflict and require trade-offs, but there are thousands of offshore wind turbines operating safely and successfully in Europe and Asia. I also think many local officials in the US see offshore wind as part of a new era of economic development.

Naturally, there will be political pushback, as is true for many new technologies that are altering our nation’s established fossil fuel-based economy.

But as companies start building port infrastructure and hiring workers, relatively cheap electricity starts flowing and the cost of offshore wind power continues to decline, I expect both red and blue states will see more advantages than drawbacks in embracing this new industry.

• Originally published on www.theconversation.com.

By David Cash, University of Massachusetts, Boston

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Columbus and The Bahamas EDITOR, The Tribune.

SO VERY nearly the 12 plus ft high statue of Columbus was nearly knocked off its plinth… been there mind you 200 plus years and till last week no one really bothered him... possibly one of the most photographed locations other than the Nassau Water Tower.

Guys let’s get real… what if… Columbus had not persuaded the King of Spain to fund the voyage to the new world — this side of the Atlantic hoping to find a quick route to Asia — what if that did not happen?

You know probably at least for a little while after 1492 till another explorer took on the same challenge the islands known as The Bahamas would have remained quiet... serene... occupied by native Indians minding their own business.

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net Memoirs of Columbus indicate that morning when his look-out shouted ‘landahoy’ his crew were very close to mutiny so he had to have been very happy seeing Watlings or San Sal... great pity no archaeologist has proven which island he actually did land on.

So if Columbus had not discovered these fair islands some other agent of a Monarch of Europe probably would have... we might have ended up Italian — French — German or even belonging to the US native Indian tribes... Seminoles were in Andros...Taino’s in Freeport.

Would the great migration of human slaves from Africa have occurred?

Excellent point there — if not all of us who claim descendants and inheritors would never have seen this new land on the edge of the world that Columbus found. Some other inhabitants probably would be here. Slavery in the continent of Africa was started by the native tribes of Africa till the Europeans came along.

I think reading history Columbus is blamed for the enslavery of the native Indians of the Bahamas and basically migrating them to work in the gold and mineral mines.... Think you better check it was the Conquistadores, not Columbus.

Let’s read-study and blame the right people, but editor for sure you can’t change history.

S K ROLLE Nassau, October 13, 2021.

Double payment EDITOR, The Tribune.

I AM concerned that this new government is seeming to start its term by showing unfairness toward many civil servants. How can retirees who in many cases are already in good financial standing be paid new salaries up front when many civil servants are waiting to be paid monies they are owed?

I am told that many teachers finish marking national exams by the end of August, but are not paid until the end of November.

Also many teachers finish teaching summer school by the end of July, but are not paid until the end of November. In addition many teachers and nurses have not received the back pay they have been owed for years. Why is this? Why

not focus on paying persons presently employed what they are owed and wait for the economy to be better before giving retirees double pay. Teachers should not have to wait months to be paid. Since we are in a new day do what is right.

CONCERNED BAHAMIAN Nassau, October 18, 2021.

Political posturing EDITOR, The Tribune.

YOU don’t have to be Albert Einstein to work out why the COVID deaths and new cases are on an upward spiral in the Bahamas. The previous PM was a doctor so was trained to respond to a pandemic such as COVID and generally took sensible

precautions/options to protect the citizenry.

The present PM is a lawyer by training and immediately relaxed the COVID restrictions such as curfews and the likes.

Therefore naturally and as common sense dictates new cases and deaths are sharply up. Go figure! Political

posturing by disingenuous mouthpieces such as Fred Mitchell are to be expected.

Did anyone ever say politicians have to be blessed with common sense? Or for that matter to be truthful?

THE REALIST Nassau, October 19, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 7

PITTSBURGH COUPLE DONATES EQUIPMENT TO RAND HOSPITAL

RAND Memorial Hospital was the recipient of a generous donation this week in memory of a former patient.

Raymond and Lynn Dietz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, donated an oxygen concentrator to the hospital on Monday October to mark their appreciation for the care and

excellent service provided by that facility to the late Olga Forbes, who died recently.

The Dietzes, who are long time recurring residents to Grand Bahama, described Ms Forbes as a close family friend and said it was the least they could do to show their appreciation to the staff

and leadership of Grand Bahama Health Services.

Accepting the oxygen concentrator, hospital administrator Sharon Williams expressed her profound thanks, stating that the instrument will be used for continuous treatment for the betterment of patients at Rand

Memorial Hospital.

PICTURED from left are donors Ray Dietz, Lynn Dietz, Sharon Williams, Rand Memorial Hospital administrator; Dr Freeman Lockhart, medical chief of staff; Harlene Saunders, assistant director, supplies management.

Tow truck driver: I did not knock down work colleague

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A WHEELCHAIR bound tow truck driver denied knocking his colleague down with his vehicle when he was questioned in police custody, a court was told.

Edison Newry claims Clyde Woodside broke his leg when he allegedly knocked him down with his Ford F-150 truck during an argument at a local gas station in June 2020.

Woodside denied the allegations when he first appeared before Magistrate Algernon Allen, Jr, and the matter was adjourned for trial.

Last week, Mr Newry told the court he stopped to speak to Woodside after he noticed him at a Baillou Hill Road service station when he stopped to get diesel for his own tow truck. He said during their “casual conversation”, he noticed that Woodside’s truck had parts that had been stolen off his vehicle attached to it.

Mr Newry said when he confronted Woodside about the stolen parts, he told him: “If you don’t go from round this truck I will wap you with these chains,” before jumping into his vehicle and knocking him over. He said

Woodside then rolled over his ankle when he reversed and left the scene shortly after.

When Corporal 3756 Penarlio Woodside gave evidence, he said he interviewed Woodside when he was taken into custody for questioning.

Cpl Woodside said when asked, the accused, who was wheelchair bound, admitted being in the area of Texaco gas station near AF Adderley Junior High on the day in question.

The officer said Woodside also admitted getting into an argument with another man who approached him over stolen car parts. However,

MAN WHO LEFT HIS BROTHER BLEEDING GIVEN PROBATION

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 32-YEAR-OLD man who left his brother bleeding after he struck him in the head during a disagreement was yesterday placed on a year’s probation.

Dustin Bastian was charged with causing harm after he injured his older brother during a physical altercation on October 16.

He owned up to the offence during his arraignment before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain.

The court was told that around 12.40pm on the day in question, Bastian approached his older brother while he was

in his neighbour’s yard.

The prosecution said the accused then kicked the man before striking him on the side of his head with an object that caused him to bleed “heavily”. After his brother reported the matter, Bastian was arrested and taken to a nearby station.

When he was questioned in custody, he denied the offence and claimed he was just trying to take a pickaxe from his brother.

Yesterday, Bastian was represented by attorney C Alex Dorsette. He told the magistrate his client was a married father of two with no previous convictions. Mr Dorsette also said Bastian only committed the offence

because he was defending his sister after his brother allegedly assaulted her. He said the accused acted in the heat of the moment and insisted he was remorseful for his actions.

After listening to his plea in mitigation, Magistrate Swain accepted Bastian’s guilty plea and placed him on probation for one year.

If he fails to be of good behaviour during that time frame, he could risk spending six months behind bars.

Yesterday, Bastian was further ordered to compensate his brother $500 for his injuries. Magistrate Swain said if he did not, he would be sentenced to 30 days in prison.

‘STAY AWAY FROM ALLEGED VICTIM’

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A SAN Salvador woman has been ordered to stay away from a woman she allegedly assaulted until the matter is fully ventilated in court.

Police arrested Samantha Burrows, 38, after she was

accused of ripping Sandera Johnson’s shirt during an argument in Cockburn Town on October 12.

When she appeared before Magistrate Shaka Serville yesterday, Burrows denied one count each of assault and damage.

Her case was subsequently adjourned to April 2022 for trial. In the

meantime, she was granted $2,000 bail.

Burrows, who said she has been residing in San Salvador for the past seven years, was warned not to interfere with the complainant or any of the other witnesses in her case.

If she does, she could risk being imprisoned until the completion of her trial.

MAN DENIES INJURING POLICE OFFICER

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN who denied injuring a police officer was yesterday granted bail before his trial.

Prosecutors alleged

that Trey Hamilton dragged PC 4065 Morley out of his vehicle on October 16.

However, in court yesterday Hamilton claimed he was only defending himself after the officer tried to assault him.

Since his plea was not unequivocal, Magistrate Swain said she would record a not guilty plea and adjourned his case to December 9 for trial.

Hamilton was granted $3,000 bail in the meantime.

he denied causing the man harm and instead claimed that the man threatened him with a Budweisier beer bottle.

“When I asked him if he hit Mr Newry with his truck he denied doing so,” PC

Woodside said. “He said he only start up his truck and warm it up.”

PC Woodside said he also collected a hospital form in Mr Newry’s name around the time of the incident. However, he

said when officers tried to retrieve footage from the gas station, they were unable to because the cameras were not in “working order”.

The matter continues November 8.

PAGE 8, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

WE NEED TO HAVE OUR SAY AT CLIMATE TALKS

IN less than two weeks, world leaders and activists will meet at COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference will be hosted by the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy. Parties that signed the 1994 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) treaty.

As an example of the possibilities, COP President-Designate Alok Sharma shared that Britain has grown its economy by 78 percent, cut emissions by 48 percent, and reduced the amount of electricity coming from coal from 40 percent in 2012 to two percent now.

“We will completely phase out coal power by 2024 and will end the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030,” he said.

The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution is designed for “building back better, supporting green jobs, and accelerating our path to net zero.” Point 5: Green Public Transport, Cycling and Walking includes zeroemission buses, bicycle lanes, electrifying rail lines, and the creation of lowtraffic neighbourhoods.

Other points in the plan include advancing offshore wind, greener buildings, and protecting our natural environment. Sharma noted that it is not enough to reduce emissions, that “less developed” countries are more vulnerable and are already disappearing. At COP26, “developed” countries need to follow through on their promises to fund efforts to address climate change.

By Alicia Wallace

Four aims have been identified for COP26 — secure global net zero by 2050 and keep 1.5 degrees in reach, protect and restore communities and natural habitats, mobilise finance by raising $100 billion per year, and finalising the Paris Rulebook to work together and implement the Paris Agreement.

The term “next zero” comes up often, and it refers to greenhouse gas emissions. Net zero emissions means we produce no more greenhouse gas that we remove from the atmosphere.

Just as frequently, 1.5 degrees comes up. This is referring to the average temperature of the Earth.

Article 2(a) of the Paris Agreement says, “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, recognising that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”

The burning of fossil fuels causes increases in the Earth’s temperature at different rates in different places. The poles, for example, are warming faster. Temperatures

will, of course, be above 1.5 degrees Celsius, but we need to keep the increase in the average temperature of the earth under 1.5. It is important to note that we are already in climate crisis; passing 1.5 degrees, however, would put us at a point of no return. It would mean another four inches of sea level rise, hundreds of millions of people experiencing poverty, and as much as a 99 percent decline in coral reefs. Because temperatures increase at different rates in different parts of the world, the impact of climate change is not evenly spread, so the effects of going beyond 1.5 cannot be predicted with much more precision, but there are projections based on average temperatures.

According to NASA’s Global Climate Change website, at 1.5, 14 percent of the population will experience heatwaves every five years. At two degrees, that increases to 37 percent. The difference between 1.5 and two degrees is 61 million people experiencing drought.

Availability of water, precipitation, extreme weather, rain forests, sea level, ocean temperatures and marine ecosystems are drastically different in at two degrees.

People will be affected by illnesses (and death) caused

APD LIMITED (“the Company”) NOTICE TO SHAREHOLDERS NOTICE is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Shareholders of the Company will be held virtually via the Zoom videoconferencing platform at 6:00pm (EDT) on Thursday 18th November 2021.

To register for the AGM we invite Shareholders to complete our online registration form by visiting www.nassaucontainerport.com and clicking the “REGISTER SHAREHOLDER” link.

Shareholders are also welcomed to join the AGM by telephone using the toll-free numbers which will be provided after online registration. Kindly note, shareholders participating by telephone phone will not be able to vote during the AGM and will only be able to listen to the proceedings. Therefore, Shareholders wishing to attend by telephone should ensure that they submit their proxy to the Bahamas Central Securities Depository prior to the AGM. The proxy must arrive by mail; email: info@bahamascsd.com or be delivered by hand to the offices of Bahamas Central Securities Depository, Suite 202 Fort Nassau Centre, British Colonial Hilton Hotel, Bay Street, P. O. Box N-9307, Nassau, The Bahamas, no later than 5:00pm on 16 November, 2021.

The Annual Report 2021, will also be made available for downloading from the Company’s website at www.nassaucontainerport.com.

Dated the 20th day of October, 2021 APD Limited Arawak Cay Nassau, The Bahamas CORPORATE SECRETARY

PRIME Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley asked last year: “Why are the major polluters not taking the required action to address [the climate emergency]?” by heat, food security issues, and economic impact. One point five is a small number that is said often because of its meaning.

“ONE POINT FIVE TO STAY ALIVE!”

We need to know who is attending COP26 to represent The Bahamas and what they intend to do there. We need to see and hear their contributions.

We need them to deliver powerful calls to action and to hold “developed” countries accountable for the impact they are having on Small Island Developing States. We need our representatives to work with those throughout the region and in the Pacific where the issues are similar.

At the High-Level Dialogue on Climate Action in the Americas in September 2021, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley asked, “Why are the major polluters not taking the required action to address [the climate emergency]?”

She added that, in the Caribbean, Grenada lost 95 percent of housing was affected by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the entire island of Barbuda was forced to

evacuate by Hurricane Irma in 2017, Dominica lost 256 percent of its Gross Domestic Product following Hurricane Maria, and the people of Abaco and Grand Bahama were devastated

by Category five Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

She, of course, mentioned the impact of Category one Hurricane Elsa on Barbados just two weeks after a “freak storm”. She made the point that some of us are experiencing the daily reality of climate emergency, and we are looking to other countries to take responsibility, work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and acknowledge the disproportionate affect of climate change on debtridden countries. As she called on others to take action, she shared some of the plans Barbados has to reduce its own emissions and contribute to keeping us under 1.5.

Mottley is not alone in drawing attention to the effects of climate change on Small Island Developing States. Hers has, perhaps, been the most consistent voice from the Caribbean in recent years, and others need to be just as vocal and frequent in their interventions.

The Caribbean needs to take up space at COP26.

Our region needs to work with the Pacific to call all parties to the Paris Agreement to action. We, citizens and residents need to demand that our representatives consult with experts here in The Bahamas, engage them in the development of plans and participation in the international space, and report to us on the discussions held and agreements made elsewhere, but affecting us all.

We also need to express our support to non-governmental organisations, activists, and experts in the field every day, pushing for the change we need through advocacy and education, recognising that our individual actions are important, but we need laws and policies that protect our environment and, by extension, our lives.

Dr Adelle Thomas, Nikita Shiel-Rolle, Kristal Ambrose, Dr Ancilleno Davis, and Casuarina McKinney-Lambert are just a few of the people I encourage you to look up, follow, encourage, and support. They are the people working, every day, to make sure The Bahamas stays on the map and we stay alive.

RECOMMENDATIONS 1. You Got Anything Stronger?

Stories by Gabrielle Union. Four years after We’re Going to Need More Wine, Union brings us another collection of stories from her own life and shares what she has learned from each one. In this book, she revisits some of the topics covered in the earlier book, but with updates and fresh takes. She shares her struggle with infertility and the difficult decision to go the route of a surrogate to have her daughter, Kaavia James — one of the most famous, memeworthy babies, also known as “Shady Baby,” for her hilariously grown-up

facial expressions. There is a story about a funny Thanksgiving dinner at her father and stepmother’s home, complete with an unexpected Single Ladies dance by her sister.

She uses her experiences to share information about critical issues facing people in situations of vulnerability, including trans people and Black people. This is a good pick for book club, packed with great themes for discussion.

2. Online banking. You probably already check your bank account online.

You may even pay turn your debit card on and off using the mobile app. If

you aren’t already doing so, pay your bills online too. Gather the information you need — account names, account numbers, bank branch, and anything else — and set up payees in the system. You should only need to set it up once, and then sending payments will be a breeze, from the comfort of your home. This isn’t limited to BPL. Pay your rent. Send your portion of the shared family expense. Reduce your cash withdrawals, card swipes, time in traffic, and time standing in lines.

Make your life easier in the long run by putting systems in place to do routine tasks with less effort.

PAGE 10, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

MANATEE DEATHS RISE IN FLORIDA AS POLLUTANTS KILL SEAGRASS TALLAHASSEE, Florida Associated Press

MANATEES have starved to death by the hundreds along Florida’s east coast because algae blooms and contaminants are killing the seagrass the beloved sea mammals eat, a wildlife official told a House committee yesterday.

Seagrass has been decimated in the 156-mile-long Indian River Lagoon and neighboring areas. The aquatic plant thrives in clear, sandy water, but murkier water because of the algae and pollutants has made it harder for seagrass to survive, said Melissa Tucker, director of

the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

“Our statewide death count from all sources has been higher than it’s ever been reported before,” Tucker told the House State Affairs Committee.

“This is a starvation issue.

There’s not enough seagrasses that are available to the manatees.”

Officials noticed a sharp rise in manatee deaths from December through May, when the sea cows congregate in warm waters.

During that period, 677 manatees died, when typically only 156 die, Tucker said.

While manatee mortality leveled out after May, when the mammals extend their range in summer and fall, the state has recorded 968 manatee deaths in 2021, with more than two months left in the year. The previous annual high was 830 deaths in 2013, Tucker said.

Big manatee die-offs in past years have been attributed to more transitory events like algae blooms and unusually cold weather, but the seagrass problem could take longer to reverse, Tucker said.

Efforts are being made to replant seagrass and restore clam and oyster beds so the mollusks can help filter the water, she said.

HOMES stand densely packed in the Jalouise neighborhood of Port-au-Prince at sunrise yesterday.

Photo: Matias Delacroix/AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Associated Press WHEN Doris Michel steps outside her home in Haiti, she packs her bulletproof vest and tries to use a bulletproof car.

Ever since her father was kidnapped last month in the capital of Port-auPrince, the 34-year-old Haitian-American woman won’t take any chances.

She already travels with one bodyguard, and when she feels extra unsafe, she takes two.

“The insecurity in Haiti has been something that has been going on for years, but now it’s taken a turn that’s just unbearable,” she said.

Her 85-year-old father, a Vietnam veteran, was abducted in late September, along with his driver and a friend who is the mother of a Haitian singer. They were traveling through Martissant, a gang-controlled territory that many try to avoid, but it was the only route that would take her father where he needed to go.

The same kind of gang activity is being blamed for the kidnapping Saturday of 16 Americans and

one Canadian — missionaries for a US religious organisation and their relatives. Their disappearance highlighted the worsening problem and prompted the US government to mobilise to solve one of the biggest abductions in recent years.

By contrast, many other kidnappings go unnoticed — something that bothers people like Michel, who said the FBI provided her family with scant assistance.

Her father and the two other people were abducted by a gang run by Ti Lipli, a member of G9 Family and Allies — a federation considered one of the largest and most powerful in Haiti. They asked for a ransom of $6m.

Michel and her mother said they didn’t have that kind of money. Two days later, the ransom increased to $10m.

“We kept saying, ‘We don’t have that kind of money,’” Michel recalled.

“Then it switched to, ‘What kind of money do you have?’”

As the negotiations dragged on, her father’s health began declining.

He didn’t have his blood

pressure medications, nor the pills for his prostate or the blood thinners he’d been taking ever since undergoing brain surgery in January. But the gang didn’t relent.

“When they called, they would say very harsh, cruel (things): ‘You don’t want your husband anymore? We don’t mind, we can kill him and you can pick him up from a pile of trash,’” Michel recalled.

The gang member never identified himself, but it was the same voice each time, with calls lasting no longer than two minutes.

During the ordeal, she subsisted on two boiled eggs and a few crackers a day. She and her mother each lost eight pounds.

At night, she took pills to help her sleep. During the day, she prayed.

Michel found out that her father and the two other hostages were given a single bowl of white rice each day and three small bags of water. They would ration what they had in case they didn’t get anything the next day. The three were kept in a locked room with boarded-up windows, where they heard voices of

A MANATEE comes up for air is it swims in the Stranahan River, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last year.

Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP

LIVING IN FEAR OF KIDNAP

BY GANGS

other people they believed also had been abducted.

“My dad, because he fought in Vietnam and had a tough life and dealt with a lot of stuff, he had the mechanism to cope,” she said. “But some days, he did crack.”

Michel blamed the Haitian government for the spike in kidnappings and the overall rise in violence that has plunged the country into one of its most unstable periods in recent years. “They created the gangs,” she said. “Now they can’t control the monster.”

Experts say Haiti’s gang phenomenon was created when former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide began arming people in slums in the early 2000s since he had an understaffed police department and no army. The private sector and political groups also are accused of arming gangs, according to a top international official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the topic.

Today, up to 40 percent of Port-au-Prince is under gang control, experts say, including the 400 Mawozo gang that police blame for the kidnapping of the

missionaries on Saturday.

That gang was born in a community east of the capital known as Canaan, which was established when people fled Portau-Prince after a 2010 earthquake devastated the city.

Kidnapping is one way gangs make money, although abductions spike and wane depending on Haiti’s political and economic situation and, at one time, the presence of UN peacekeepers.

Many worry the situation will worsen as Haiti prepares for presidential and legislative elections next year following the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Michel called on the US government to get involved, saying, “One of these days, there’s going to be at tragedy that they will be partly responsible for, because they themselves dictate how this country operates... It’s time for them to step in.”

Haiti’s National Police force is lean in resources, and officers find themselves overwhelmed by multiple, well-armed gangs who feed on poverty. More than 11 million

people live in Haiti, and 60 percent of the population makes less than $2 a day.

Michel said the gang member who called told her mother that he was educated and worked hard to get a degree but couldn’t get a job so he got a gun. “That’s how I make my money,” he said.

Ransom demands can range from a couple of hundred dollars to several million dollars, according to authorities.

Michel said she dropped off the money at a specific location, only for the gang members to claim they didn’t receive it.

They demanded another payment.

She said the FBI did little to help and advised her to gather more money and restart negotiations.

So Michel paid them again.

Haitian police did not get involved, she said, or bother to take a statement once the gang released her father by placing him on a motorcycle that took him to his family. He had been held captive for 11 days.

“Healthwise, he’s fine, but psychologically, not so great,” she said.

COVID AND PREGNANCY: WOMEN REGRET NOT GETTING VACCINE PHENIX CITY, Alabama Associated Press

SOMETIMES when she’s feeding her infant daughter, Amanda Harrison is overcome with emotion and has to wipe away tears of gratitude. She is lucky to be here, holding her baby.

Harrison was 29 weeks pregnant and unvaccinated when she got sick with COVID-19 in August. Her symptoms were mild at first, but she suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe.

Living in Phenix City, Alabama, she was intubated and flown to a hospital in Birmingham, where doctors delivered baby Lake two months early and put Harrison on life support.

Kyndal Nipper, who hails from outside Columbus, Georgia, had only a brief

bout with COVID-19 but a more tragic outcome. She was weeks away from giving birth in July when she lost her baby, a boy she and her husband planned to name Jack.

Now Harrison and Nipper are sharing their stories in an attempt to persuade pregnant women to get COVID-19 vaccinations to protect themselves and their babies. Their warnings come amid a sharp increase in the number of severely ill pregnant women that led to 22 pregnant women dying from COVID in August, a one-month record.

“We made a commitment that we would do anything in our power to educate and advocate for our boy, because no other family should have to go through this,” Nipper said of herself and her husband.

Harrison said she will “nicely argue to the bitter end” that pregnant women get vaccinated “because it could literally save your life”.

Since the pandemic began, health officials have reported more than 125,000 cases and at least 161 deaths of pregnant women from COVID-19 in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And over the past several months, hospitals and doctors in virus hot spots have reported a sharp increase in the number of severely ill pregnant women.

With just 31 percent of pregnant women nationwide vaccinated, the CDC issued an urgent advisory on September 29 recommending that they get the shots. The agency cautioned

that COVID-19 in pregnancy can cause preterm birth and other adverse outcomes, and that stillbirths have been reported.

Dr Akila Subramaniam, an assistant professor in the maternal-fetal medicine division of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the hospital saw a marked rise in the number of critically ill pregnant women during July and August. She said a study there found the delta variant of COVID-19 is associated with increased rates of severe disease in pregnant women and increased rates of preterm birth.

“Is it because the delta variant is just more infectious or is it because delta is more severe? I don’t think we know the answer to that,” Subramaniam said.

When COVID-19 vaccines became available to pregnant women in their states this spring, both Harrison, 36, and Nipper, 29, decided to wait. The shots didn’t have final approval from the Food and Drug Administration and pregnant women weren’t included in studies that led to emergency authorization, so initial guidance stopped short of fully recommending vaccination for them. Pfizer shots received formal approval in August.

The women live on opposite sides of the Alabama-Georgia line, an area that was hit hard by the delta variant this summer.

While Harrison had to be put on life support, Nipper’s symptoms were more subtle. When she was eight months pregnant,

she lost her sense of smell and developed a fever.

The symptoms went away quickly, but Jack didn’t seem to be kicking as much as he had been. She tried drinking a caffeinated beverage: Nothing. She headed to the hospital in Columbus, Georgia, for fetal monitoring where medical staff delivered the news: Baby Jack was gone.

“He was supposed to come into the world in three weeks or less,” Nipper said.

“And for them to tell you there’s no heartbeat and there is no movement ...”

Nipper’s doctor, Timothy Villegas, said testing showed the placenta itself was infected with the virus and displayed patterns of inflammation similar to the lungs of people who died of COVID-19.

SPORTS PAGE 14

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021

ABOVE: Mark Knowles. Clockwise from top left: Andy Roddick, Jennifer Brady, Clif Drysdale and James Blake.

Mark Knowles brings back Baha Mar Cup

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

RETIRED Bahamian legendary tennis player Mark Knowles is excited to be bringing the Baha Mar Cup back to the Bahamas for the second time.

Since taking a break because of the coronavirus pandemic that struck the world in 2020, Knowles said he’s pleased that, with some of the restrictions lifted, they can once again host the one-of-a-kind tennis fundraising event.

The event, which seeks to benefit the Baha Mar Resort Foundation and the Mark Knowles Children’s Tennis Initiative, is scheduled for November 5-6 and Knowles will be joined by

Bahamian tennis legend to be joined by stars for event in November renowned tennis stars Andy Roddick, James Blake, Jennifer Brady and Cliff Drysdale.

“We have some incredible names once again and to pair the weekend with Taste of SLS and the John Legend Concert, is a winwin situation for us at Baha Mar,” Knowles said. “This is a nice opportunity to raise a lot of money and to continue to give back to the Bahamas.”

While it gives back to the Baha Mar Foundation,

Knowles said the event will be doubly important as it helps his own Mark Knowles Children’s Tennis Initiative, which emerged out of his Mark Knowles Foundation, a charitable organisation that he formed about 13 years ago to assist with the development of tennis in the Bahamas.

“It’s important because I continue to fund children’s charities in the Bahamas, continue to fund the next generation of players, giving them an opportunity

to go to tournaments and to go to colleges and universities and sports camps and to further their education and their growth and development in the sport,” Knowles said.

“So it’s a really important endeavour for me to try to make as big of an impact that I can make on my country, the Bahamas, and for the future generation of players who have and will continue to follow in my footsteps.

During an illustrious 24-year-career that spanned from 1992 to 2016 when he started and officially retired as a professional player, Knowles amassed an impressive 52 titles in doubles, including capturing three of the four grand slams – Australian Open

in 2002, US open in 2004 and French Open in 2007 – all with Canadian Daniel Nestor and the other at Wimbledon in 2002 when he paired up with Anna-Lena Gronefeld of Germany.

Knowles, 50, was also a five-time Olympian who enjoyed the second longest tenure as a member of the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Federation’s prestigious Davis Cup team, having played for 14 years producing a 41-32 win-loss record, including 23-25 in singles and 18-7 in doubles. Only Marvin Rolle, now the player/captain, has participated longer, last year reaching his 17th season.

Now turning his attention to the growth and development of the sport, Knowles will also be joined

by Cliff Drysdale Tennis founder Cliff Drysdale for a Saturday Morning Clinic (11/6) as they play host to roughly 100 junior tennis players ages 7-14 from the Bahamas.

The players will receive great tennis instruction, spectacular tennis gifts, tickets to watch the Baha Mar Cup Celebrity Tennis Challenge, and great food & beverage throughout the day.

Knowles and Drysdale will participate in the Celebrity Tennis Challenge with Brady, the 2021 Australian Open finalist and 2020 US Open semi-finalist; Blake, the 2005 ATP Comeback Player of the Year and the 2008 ATP Arthur Ashe SEE PAGE 15

NACAC PLANNING INAUGURAL TRACK AND FIELD CIRCUIT

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE they continue to negotiate the possibility of establishing their home in the Bahamas, the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association is putting the finishing touches on their inaugural NACAC Track and Field Circuit that will begin next year.

In town for a series of meetings that started with a courtesy call on the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Mario Bowleg, and ended with the Bahamas Associations of Athletic Association, secretary general Keith Joseph said NACAC is on its way to provide their alternatives in the region to the Grand Prix series held mainly through Europe.

“We have a committee that is headed by Duffy Mahoney of USA Track and Field and it involves a number of individuals who are accustomed to hosting these premier meets or Grand

NACAC secretary general Keith Joseph.

Prix meets, as we call them,” said NACAC’s secretary general Keith Joseph.

“We have put together so far a total of 21 meets for 2022. We are trying to have them in sequence so that athletes from the Caribbean,

between March 15 and June 15 every year, would have access to a circuit within the NACAC region that would allow them to be adequately prepared for the international championships.”

With Europe starting to tighten up its grip on the participation of their own competitions where athletes will have to be ranked in order to compete, Mr Joseph said NACAC is stepping up to offer meets where athletes can compete in the region in front of their own people in the rankings and to gain their ranking points.

“What you have right now, for instance at the Diamond League meets, you have to be in the top ranking in the world and those have more points,” Mr Joseph revealed. “But increasingly, if we have more events where ranking points are available, then they can make the same amount of points or more than their European counterparts.”

As they get set to roll out the inaugural series, Joseph said they hope it can sustain itself.

Presently, there are six meets on the list in the United States, three in Canada, two in Jamaica, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Costa Rica.

“We have put it on the table.

We are hoping that the BAAA would be anxious to have one such meet to be part of the programme going forward,” said Mr Joseph, who, accompanied by NACAC president Mike Sands, was scheduled to meet with the BAAA on Tuesday night.

“And so it’s something that is critically important for us and gives Caribbean people an opportunity and people within the NACAC region will see their own athletes compete more regularly in a period where they are not incumbent by what goes on in Europe because the Diamond League doesn’t start until after June.”

In response to their proposals so far, Mr Sands said the athletes are eager to compete in the series because they would not only be earning points, but they will also

be compensated by prize money offered for their participation before they move on to Europe.

Coming off the successful staging of the New Life Invitational in Miramar, Florida, which served as a guideline for the coming series, Mr Joseph said they had the luxury of providing the prize monies to the athletes immediately after the meet and, with their agents, they are convinced that they will be able to attract the top ranked athletes in the region to compete in the series.

He said having already completed their calendar, the agents are now in a better position to prepare their athletes for next year’s schedule of events and the member federations of the governing bodies in their respective countries in the region.

In addition to the NACAC Series, Mr Bowleg said the Bahamas Government, in relaunching its “Sports in Paradise” campaign, is looking at putting in a bid for SEE PAGE 15

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 15

EVERETTE Haven

FESTUS Benn

JONATHON Barry

JUNIOR Scott

GREGORY Taylor Jr. (Capt.)

MARLON Graham

SANDEEP Goud

JAGNAUTH Jagroo

RODERICK Mitchell

RENFORD Davison

MARC Taylor

BHUMESHWAR Jagroo

GREGORY Irvin

TEAM Bahamas with coach Andy Moles.

ORLANDO Stewart

14-MEMBER BAHAMAS CRICKET TEAM NAMED FOR ANTIGUA

The Bahamas Cricket Association has released the names of the 14-member team that will represent the country at the International Cricket Council’s World Cup Division Qualifier Tournament that starts on November 6th

in Antigua.

The team will be managed by BCA’s president Gregory Taylor Sr and the head coach is Andy Moles, a world-renowned coach with stints in Afghanistan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Argentina

and Canada before coming to the Bahamas.

The team is comprised of the following players: Gregory Taylor Jr. (Capt.), Jonathon Barry, Marlon Graham, Marc Taylor, Festus Benn, Sandeep

Goud, Bhumeshwar Jagroo, Jagnauth Jagroo, Roderick Mitchell, Everette Haven, Gregory Irvin, Junior Scott, Renford Davison and Orlando Stewart.

This will be the first ICC tournament since 2013 so it is vital

that the team does well to regain their rightful place in the rankings, heading into the next tournament in 2022.

The rankings from this tournament will help the team for next year.

MARK KNOWLES BRINGS BACK THE BAHA MAR CUP FROM PAGE 14 Humanitarian of the Year and Roddick, the US Open champion and fivetime Grand Slam finalist.

The event, according to Knowles, is open to the general public, but he noted that persons wishing to participate in the Celebrity Challenge will be charged a minimum fee as well as those adults wishing to view the competition. Admission for children is free.

“The most important part of the weekend is Saturday when we have the clinic for the kids,” Knowles said. “I know when we first held it a couple years ago before the pandemic, it was amazing. We had hundreds of kids out there.

“That’s where it all started. You give the kids an opportunity to see someone like Andy Roddick, James and Jennifer Brady, these incredible players and it makes an impact. I remember when I first got to see Bjorn Borg, who was my idol. It was just amazing for me.”

Although the country is still under some tight restrictions for COVID19, Knowles assured the public that all precautions will be made to ensure that everyone gets through the health and safety measures in place.

“It’s an outdoor event, which helps tremendously,” he said. “It’s always better to be outdoors in this pandemic, but it’s also good for us to start to get back to some type of normalcy. At some point, we have to figure out how to be safe and also how to live our lives.

We don’t want to compromise our health, so we will provide an event that is safe for all to attend.”

At the end of the day, Knowles said the event

will also help to assist in his Mark Knowles Tennis Bahamas programme on Paradise Island where local players such as Rolle, Kevin Major Jr, Philip Major Jr and Danielle Thompson are among the list of coaches assisting the next generation of players.

Knowles said he decided to give back to the country because there were persons like the late J Barrie Farrington, who would have planted a seed in his growth and development as a young player on the local scene.

“Mr Farrington was probably one of the greatest personalities I have met in my life,” he said.

“He’s probably one of the greatest persons my family have ever been involved with, one of the most generous human beings on the planet, always thinking about others.

“Obviously, I’m extremely close to the family, but Mr Farrington gave me lots of opportunities. He was always and usually the first one there to support me at a young age. He supported my entire family. I consider myself fortunate to be a friend.”

Through their association, Knowles said he was able to lean on the late Farrington for advice and he was always there for him. He offered his condolences publicly to the family, especially his son, John, who was a former team-mate and long-time coach on the national team.

“It’s a terrible loss, not just for myself, but my family, his family and for anyone who ever came in contact with Mr Farrington,” he said. “He was probably one of the greatest Bahamians I’ve ever met.”

PEYTON Wong and University of Tampa Equestrian Team.

PROMISING START FOR PEYTON WONG IN COLLEGIATE EQUESTRIAN SEASON THE collegiate equestrian competition season is off to a promising start for Peyton Wong.

The University of Tampa sophomore made her debut last weekend in the first show of the season for Zone 5, Region 5 of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA).

Wong made an immediate impression on the judges, competing in four different classes in the Open Division and winning a ribbon in each against stiff competition.

The show took place over two days in Ocala, Florida, and featured hundreds of riders from eleven teams across the southeast, including the University of Florida, University of Central Florida, Savannah College of Art and Design, University of South Florida, Florida State University, and of course Wong’s University of Tampa team.

Wong rose to the challenge, placing 5th and 6th in her classes on Saturday, and then improving to place 2nd in the Open Varsity Under Saddle and 5th in the Open Varsity Over Fences on Sunday.

She praised her teammates and the team coach, Karey McGee, as being “super supportive of each other”.

Despite her strong showing Wong noted room for improvement.

FROM PAGE 14 the hosting of the seventh World Relays scheduled for 2025.

Mr Bowleg said there is still sufficient time for the Bahamas to put in a bid to rehost the World Relays that got started here with the first three editions in 2014, 2015 and 2017 before it was moved to Japan in 2019 for the fourth edition.

The fifth edition was held in Chorzow, Poland this year and the sixth is going to Guangzhou, China in 2023.

“I think I have all of the

PEYTON Wong places 2nd in IHSA Open Division competition.

“Even though I didn’t place as well as I hoped I felt that I rode well and learned a lot,” she said. “The Open division is the highest division and is

NACAC CIRCUIT knowledge around me with president Mike Sands, the BAAA and Tim Munnings, so I believe that they should be able to help me to put the proposal together so that we can take it to Cabinet and get our approval to proceed forward to obtain the approval from World Athletics to host the relays,” Mr Bowleg said.

And from the local perspective, Mr Bowleg said the facilities in the

the hardest, so I have to continue to improve and get stronger as a rider.”

In IHSA competition the horses are furnished by the host colleges and are randomly assigned to riders by drawing lots. No schooling or preparation is permitted, a format designed to challenge the horsemanship of the athletes.

This posed no challenges for Wong, who was captain of the Queens College Equestrian Team back home in Nassau and rode in Bahamas Interscholastic Equestrian League (BIEL) shows which follow a similar, horse-drawn, format.

“The Bahamas Interscholastic Equestrian League was founded for this very purpose,” noted Equestrian Bahamas President Cathy Ramsingh-Pierre, “to allow non-horse owners access to quality competition, and to prepare our riders for the collegiate riding format.

“Congratulations to Peyton. Her success speaks to her dedication and talent, but also to the value of BIEL as a development path for our school-age riders.”

The opening Bahamas Interscholastic Equestrian League competition of the 2021-2022 year will take place at Mariposa Farms on October 30, 2021.

Spectators are welcome but COVID19 protocols such as required masks and social distancing will be strictly enforced.

Bahamas should be opened up for the use of the Bahamian athletes to train and compete in.

“It’s a disgrace when athletes come home and they have no access to the national stadium to work on their craft,” he said. “I think one thing I want to do is that the availability and the accessibility for them to use these facilities are there.

Mr Bowleg said the development of the sport is incumbent on the governing body of that discipline.

“So meeting with them

and having an understanding of how we want to improve the development of sports, not just in New Providence and Grand Bahama, but essentially throughout the Family Islands, we would hope that they would provide this ministry with a platform on their development plan so that we can see how best we can assist them, whether it’s just mentally or physically or financially, to make sure the improvement is made throughout the length and breath of the Bahamas,” he added.

PAGE 16, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

BAHAMIANS PERFORM WELL IN ITA CUP FORMERLY known as the Small College Nationals, the ITA Cup has a history dating back to 1986, and it is the only singles and doubles national championship event for the Division II and NAIA levels.

The Bahamas had two of its players in the Men’s Open Doubles East Division of the ITA Cup this weekend.

They performed well and were able to advance in tournament play.

Joshua Turnquest and partner Juan Rocco advanced to

the quarterfinals where they lost to the San Diego Christian team. Jacobi Bain and partner J. Ramirez advanced to the finals where they lost to Georgio Gwinett.

Jacobi and partner won over the 2nd and 3rd seeded teams along the way in 2 exciting tiebreak matches.

The Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) congratulated Jacobi and partner on a great run to the finals and Joshua and partner on a good run to the quarterfinals.

JOSHUA Turnquest

JACOBI Bain

MESSI SCORES TWO GOALS TO RESCUE PSG IN 3-2 WIN OVER LEIPZIG

LOS Angeles Dodgers centre fielder Cody Bellinger reacts after hitting a three-run home run during the eighth inning in Game 3 of baseball’s National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves Tuesday, in Los Angeles.

(AP Photo/Jae Hong)

By JEROME PUGMIRE AP SPORTS WRITER

PARIS (AP) — Lionel Messi scored twice in quick succession, including an exquisite Panenka-style penalty, to rescue Paris Saint-Germain as it rallied to beat Leipzig 3-2 in the Champions League after being dominated for long spells on Tuesday.

Messi equalised in the 67th minute, poking home from close range after goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi tipped his first shot onto the post. He then sent Gulacsi diving to the left before dinking the ball softly down the middle for his third goal since joining PSG from Barcelona.

They have all come in the Champions League, with Kylian Mbappe setting up the first two and winning the penalty for Messi’s winner against Leipzig in the 74th minute.

Mbappe pointed straight at Messi to tell him he could take the spot kick.

“It’s normal, it’s about respect,” Mbappe said.

“He’s the best player in the world. I’ve always said it’s a privilege to play with him.”

It was the 34th time that Messi scored at least two goals in a Champions League game, bringing the Argentina captain’s total to 123 goals in the tournament. He remains second to longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo on 137.

Penalty Mbappe then took a penalty in the fourth minute of stoppage time, awarded following a video review for a foul on right back Achraf Hakimi, but he blazed it well over.

PSG is atop Group A with seven points, one more than Manchester City. Leipzig is last with no points.

Mbappe opened the scoring with a ninth-minute goal.

But after that, the visitors took control by pressing high up the field and forcing panicky PSG into numerous errors. “(Were we) lucky, no?

You make your own luck,” Mbappe said.

“But of course, it was difficult, Leipzig played well.

“We had some low spells which were perhaps a little bit too low.”

Striker Andre Silva equalised in the 28th and midfielder Nordi Mukiele volleyed in powerfully in the 57th, with left back Angelino setting up both with his deft left foot.

“Leipzig have a good team, full of confidence,” PSG winger Julian Draxler said. “They caused us some problems, but we ruthlessly exploited the room we were allowed.”

PSG was missing forwards Neymar and Mauro Icardi, which gave Draxler a rare start alongside Mbappe and Messi in attack.

Neymar has a sore adductor while Icardi was excused for family reasons.

Draxler’s instant flick from a long Marquinhos pass put Mbappe through, and he cut past a defender well before slotting the ball into the bottom left corner for the opening goal.

But with American coach Jesse Marsch barking orders from the touchline, Leipzig exposed glaring weaknesses in coach Mauricio Pochettino’s team, which despite winning nine of 10 league games has laboured and needed late goals.

BRAVES AGAIN BLOW THEIR CHANCE FOR 3-0 NLCS LEAD ON DODGERS

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the second straight season, the Atlanta Braves had a 2-0 lead on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.

Once again, the Braves missed their chance to put their big-budget opponents into the deepest of series holes.

And this 6-5 heartbreaker at a raucous Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night probably stung the Braves a whole lot more than last year’s 15-3 loss in Game 3.

A blowout is a whole lot easier to shake off than a defeat in which the Braves had a three-run lead with five outs to play but failed to close out their 106-win opponents.

“We have lost tough games before and bounced back and done really good

things,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “So this is just one of them games that it’s like, you’ve got to get 27 outs, man.”

The first 22 outs went quite well, but two relievers out of Atlanta’s fairly reliable bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

Homer Cody Bellinger hit a tying three-run homer off Luke Jackson before Mookie Betts connected for an RBI double off Jesse Chavez.

The Braves had held the Dodgers to four hits in the first seven innings of Game 3, with Charlie Morton and his bullpen largely quieting LA’s wealth of offensive talent. Los Angeles then got six more hits off Jackson and Chavez in the eighth.

Atlanta’s 4-5-6 hitters

then struck out against Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, and a series that appeared to be moving the Braves’ way in a landslide abruptly shifted course heading to Game 4 on Wednesday night.

The Braves’ inability to take a 3-0 series lead doesn’t matter in the bigger picture to Snitker, who scoffed when asked to compare his feelings to the way he felt after Game 3 last October.

“Hell, I don’t even remember how I felt last year,” Snitker said.

“I can’t remember what I had for breakfast. ... We feel good.

“We’re confident. Every year, our guys, we’re getting more battle-tested.”

The Braves led 5-2 entering the eighth inning of this Game 3 with another impressive hitting performance against Dodgers ace

Walker Buehler. Atlanta had another particularly promising sign along the way: 2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman got three hits after going 0 for 8 in the first two games and 4 for 21 in the postseason.

Hitters Atlanta’s hitters got to one of the Dodgers’ star pitchers fairly early again, too.

After chasing Max Scherzer in the fifth inning of Game 2, the Braves got Buehler off the mound in the fourth inning, tagging him for seven hits and four runs.

Chavez Ravine was quiet and discontent as Game 3 headed to the late innings and Morton gave way to his relievers.

The Braves’ bullpen had posted a 3.97 ERA during

the regular season that was good for 10th in the majors.

The relievers will have to shake off this shock quickly, since Snitker confirmed he plans to throw a bullpen game Wednesday night.

Bellinger, a former NL MVP in a nightmare year, batted just .150 against fastballs in the regular season and struggled to hit high pitches.

Yet he improbably got every bit of a high 95.6-mph fastball above the letters from Jackson, crushing a 399-foot drive into a sea of ecstatic fans in right field.

Chris Taylor then singled and eventually scored when Betts came through with the latest in his long series of clutch hits for the Dodgers, connecting on a solid pitch from the veteran Chavez, a Los Angeles-area native who has played for both the Dodgers and the Angels.

SALAH SCORES TWO AS LIVERPOOL TOP 10-MAN ATLÉTICO IN THRILLER

By TALES AZZONI AP Sports Writer

MADRID (AP) — After a frustrating end to Antoine Griezmann’s night with Atlético Madrid, Mohamed Salah came through for Liverpool in a Champions League thriller on Tuesday.

Salah scored twice as Liverpool took advantage of Griezmann’s red card to beat Atlético 3-2 and stay perfect after three matches in the European competition.

Griezmann had already scored twice to help Atlético recover from a poor start, but then he was sent off with a straight red card early in the second half for hitting Roberto Firmino’s head with his foot while trying to reach for the ball.

Liverpool capitalised on the advantage with Salah scoring the winner from a penalty kick in the 78th minute. The Egypt forward has scored in nine straight games for Liverpool in all competitions, becoming the first player to do that in the club’s 129-year history.

Atlético had a penalty a few minutes after Liverpool’s third goal but it was reversed after video review.

Naby Keita also scored for Liverpool in the first half as Liverpool took a 2-0 lead as early as the 13th minute at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.

“It was a tough game,” Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp said. “How you win it, I couldn’t care less. The tricky ones are the really important ones. On a night like this, three points is really massive.”

The result left Liverpool at the top of Group B with nine points

from three matches, five points more than Atlético. Porto, which beat AC Milan 1-0 at home in the other group match, was level with the Spanish champions. Milan stayed on zero points.

Atlético next visits Liverpool, while Milan hosts Porto.

It was the first meeting between Atlético and Liverpool since the Spanish side eliminated then defending European champion Liverpool in the round of 16 of the 2019-20 season.

Liverpool had been winless against Atlético in four Champions League matches.

The English club was in control early and quickly built its lead at the Metropolitano.

Salah opened the scoring in the eighth minute after picking up a ball on the right flank and maneuvering past three Atlético defenders before sending a low shot into the corner.

The ball hit the heel of Geoffrey Kondogbia and span into the corner.

Keita added to the lead five minutes later with a neat volley that curled in by the post. Atlético defender Felipe mis-hit his clearing shot and the ball went straight to Keita for his one-timer from just outside the area.

“We didn’t start the game the way we wanted,” Atlético coach Diego Simeone said. “Only after their second goal we could do the things that we had been trying to do.”

Griezmann pulled the hosts closer with a redirection from close range in the 20th after Koke

LIVERPOOL’S Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring a penalty shot during the Champions League Group B soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Liverpool at Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday.

(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) Resurrección sent a low shot across the area, then equalised after a good run by João Félix for his sixth double with Atlético in the Champions League, the most by any player for the club.

Griezmann’s performance was marred by his red card in the 52nd as he went for a high ball but hit the side of Firmino’s head instead.

Before leaving, Griezmann apologised to Firmino, who was making his 300th appearance with Liverpool.

Salah scored the winner from the penalty spot after Atlético defender Mario Hermoso shoved Diogo Jota following a long ball sent into the area.

Atlético loudly complained of the reversed penalty call after José María Giménez went down inside the area following an encounter with Jota in a similar play that led to Liverpool’s penalty.

“You could tell that the referee wasn’t sure, but the other way it

was all very fast (to call the penalty for Liverpool),” said Felipe, who felt a yellow card should have been shown for Griezmann instead of the red. “It was a completely different match while Griezmann was still playing. We had to run at 110% after he was sent off.”

Simeone started with Griezmann and Félix up front, leaving Luis Suárez on the bench as he returned from his duty with Uruguay’s national team nursing a knock.

The striker had never played against his former club since joining Atlético from Barcelona last season.

Simeone and Klopp did not shake hands after the final whistle.

The Atlético coach rushed into the tunnel after the match ended, and later said he never likes to shake hands with opposing coaches after games.

“He was obviously angry,” Klopp said. “With the game, with the world.”

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 17

LUCAYAN BOARD URGES ROYAL CARIBBEAN EXIT

FROM PAGE 24 been watered down since the COVID-19 pandemic struck to such an extent that the original two-year timeline for redeveloping the Grand Lucayan has been pushed back to ten to 15 years - a factor that means the agreement “makes no sense” for The Bahamas as presently structured.

Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister for tourism, investments and aviation, together with Ryan Pinder, the attorney general, and Ginger Moxey, minister for Grand Bahama,

met with the Lucayan Renewal Holdings Board just weeks after the Davis administration took office to get a briefing and update on the resort’s sale.

“They certainly got a very clear message from the Board,” one contact familiar with developments told this newspaper, confirming that directors had recommended ending talks with ITM/Royal Caribbean.

“That was their unanimous advice to them.”

Another source, confirming this information, told this newspaper. “They [the Board] urged them to

GRAND LUCAYAN RESORT decouple or bifurcate the agreement, bring the ITM/ Royal Caribbean deal to a close, cancel the contract, give them the deposit back and move on. That is the advice all the directors gave to the incoming government.

“They said this has dragged on long enough.

The deal reconfigured by ITM/Royal Caribbean was not only unsatisfactory in their opinion but insulting.

They wanted to leverage the concessions and subsidies that they would gotten, and other rights they would have gotten under the Heads of Agreement, and leverage those on the mortgage they would have received from the Government.”

Confirming that ITM/ Royal Caribbean was seeking vendor financing from the Government, the source said just $10m of the $65m purchase price was to be paid up front. “The redevelopment timeline, which was to initially have taken two years, was now to take 10-15 years. The deal makes no sense,” they added.

“Royal Caribbean looks at the hotel as an afterthought. Their focus is on the port. The catalyst and engine driving them to consider the hotel” was the planned Royal Beach Club investment on Paradise Island’s western end.

Mr Cooper could not be reached for comment, despite multiple requests and attempts, while Michael Scott QC, Lucayan Renewal Holdings chairman, declined to speak. He and the Board appointed by the Minnis administration have all remained in place currently, while tendering their resignations, to give the current government time to appoint replacements if it wishes.

Another source, meanwhile, said Mr Cooper’s suggestion that the Grand Lucayan has cost taxpayers some $200m to-date was somewhat high, pegging the actual cost at closer to $150m - still a substantial sum.

They added that the former government acquired the Grand Lucayan to prevent its closure by Hutchison Whampoa’s real estate arm in 2018, thereby stopping the possibility of a second Royal Oasis-type situation occurring in Freeport.

“It was a decision taken to prevent the bottom falling out of Freeport’s tourism market, and was dealt with purely on business terms,” the source said. “It had nothing to do with politics.”

Mr Cooper, after meeting with the Lucayan Renewal Holdings Board in late September, described the ITM/ Royala Caribbean deal as “egregiously bad” although he provided no details and gave no specifics on what course of action the new government may take.

“We have looked at the details extensively. I can tell you it is costing the Bahamian people,” Mr Cooper said. “And I can tell you that sometime during the last several years we would have made certain public comments to the deal itself.

“I specifically recall saying that it was an egregiously bad deal. I am disheartened to say I did not hear anything to change my view.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, the former minister of tourism and aviation, had blamed the ITM/Royal Caribbean joint venture’s failure to reach agreement on a separate deal with the Hutchison Whampoa-owned Freeport Harbour Company for delaying the Grand Lucayan’s sale.

He revealed that concluding negotiations over Freeport Harbour’s redevelopment - including the addition of new cruise berths - was a “condition precedent” that must be satisfied before the joint venture will acquire the resort from the Government - a situation that prevailed through the general election.

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HELP WANTED RETAIL STORE MANAGER A successful retail business is looking to strengthen its team through the addition of a Retail Manager, responsible for all aspects of the daily operations of the business, based on the following requirements:

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motivated Leadership skills Ability to motivate sales team through training and mentorship

Candidates who meet the above-mentioned requirements ON LY are invited to submit their resume to Bahamas.com@gmail.com.

SALES ASSOCIATE/CASHIER A successful retail business is looking to strengthen its team through the addition of a Sales Associate/Cashier, based on the following requirements:

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Candidates who meet the above-mentioned requirements ON LY are invited to submit their resume to Bahamas.com@gmail.com.

PAGE 18, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

GB POWER PROMISES $50M NETWORK SPEND FROM PAGE 24 Bahama Island at this time, as it is our firm position that the people of Grand Bahama should not be further burdened on the heels of the economic stagnation caused by Hurricanes Matthew and Dorian, which was compounded by the global pandemic,” the statement read.

“We have scheduled a meeting with GBPA and the Cabinet Committee in the next two weeks regarding this application, and will be very clear and direct with our message.

The people and businesses of Grand Bahama have suffered enough, and are looking for compassionate leadership in governance and in corporate Bahamas.”

The Cabinet committee features three ministers with strong Grand Bahama connections. Besides Mrs Moxey, they include her predecessor, Dr Michael Darville, now minister of health and wellness, and Obie Wilchcombe, minister of social services and urban development, who is also MP for West End and Bimini.

The committee’s other members include Alfred Sears, minister of works and utilities, who has responsibility for Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), and Ryan Pinder, the attorney general. They have been charged, according the Government’s release, with

ensuring “the rights and interests of the residents of Grand Bahama are protected, consistent with the national energy policy”.

The statement made several references to the Electricity Act, and the Government’s duty to develop and uphold a national energy policy, even though GB Power is presently challenging the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s (URCA) authority to regulate it in the Supreme Court.

One potential consequence of this latest controversy could be renewed demands for URCA to assume regulation of GB Power. The Government, though, acknowledged that the electricity rate proposal is something that GB Power is mandated to submit every three years in accordance with the Regulatory Framework Agreement it has with the GBPA. The GBPA now has to approve GB Power’s submission, but first the application has to be fully published and undergo a 45-day public consultation process so that the views of Grand Bahama businesses and residents can be taken into account.

The GBPA yesterday said its decision will be communicated to the utility no later than December 1, 2021, having received

the proposal on September 23. However, this was only made public via simultaneous releases yesterday, indicating that the 45-day consultation period must have begun.

Describing its proposal as the first electricity rateadjustment application submitted since 2015, GB Power justified its plan on the basis that more than four out of ten residential customers - the lowest energy users, who are typically those on the lowest incomes and therefore more vulnerable - will either see their base rates remain the same or actually decrease.

As a result, the financial burden from the rate increases will in theory fall on those who have a better ability to pay and afford them, namely Grand Bahama’s industrial and private sectors plus middle class and wealthy households.

While attempting to demonstrate a progressive approach to the base rate adjustments, GB Power said increases were needed to finance the maintenance of its generation and transmission and distribution

(T&D) operations moving forward.

And, incorporated into its proposal, the energy monopoly said it had included a generation plan that will result in 15 percent of Grand Bahama’s energy needs met from renewable sources by 2026. This, it added, involves independent power producers (IPPs) providing energy to GB Power’s grid, thus improving supply diversification and security while reducing carbon emissions.

“Because of the decrease in load due to the impacts of Dorian and COVID, GB Power does not need to make significant investments in new generation.

However, over the next five years we plan to invest [around] $10 million per year in maintaining generation and T&D investments, including AMI (smart metering) technology,” the utility told Tribune Business.

“Additionally, via internal investments and in partnership with interested investors (IPPs), we will introduce utility-scale solar projects that will culminate with an investment

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NOTICE

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that EULAINE JOSEPH of Lazaretto Road, Nassau, The Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 13th day of October, 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE is hereby given that REGINAL DAMIS of Gladstone Road, Nassau, The Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 13th day of October, 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

in battery storage towards the end of the planning horizon.

“We are actively working with several credible IPP proponents, and we are continuing to develop our own 5 MW solar park which was deferred due to the passage of Dorian. The energy cost implications and carbon savings are dependent on many factors, such as the agreed price for renewable energy from IPPs, and the final size, efficiency, and completion date for the installations.”

No figures were provided for the battery storage project, as GB Power described the base rate rises as unpopular but necessary. “We are sensitive to the state of Grand Bahama’s economy. As with so many businesses in Grand Bahama, GB Power has not been immune to the economic challenges brought

by Dorian and COVID19,” the utility said.

“We know no one wants to see rates increase. But the reality is that we need to continue to invest in our operations to maintain safe, reliable and increasingly renewable electricity

THE TRIBUNE

service for customers for years to come.”

Side-stepping queries on the Government’s intervention, GB Power also defended its tariff structure after this newspaper questioned why the highest rates were being levied on its largest energy consumers when many other electricity users have adopted the opposite approach.

“It’s important to note that our commercial rates do decline as those customers consume more, and the idea behind that is that this would incentivise them to grow their business, translating into jobs in the community and a more robust economy,” GB Power replied.

“The rates for the residential sector increase with more use due to two factors: The cost to serve this sector and the desire to pass on lower rates to customers who use less power.

“We believe that we have proposed a rate structure that is in the best interests of customers and the utility – one that recognises and shields those families who are most vulnerable and encourages energy efficiency.”

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, REGINALD THOMAS SMITH AKA THOMAS REGINALD SMITH JR of Maria Ave, East Park Estates, P. O. Box EE-15969 Nassau, The Bahamas, intend to change my name to THOMAS REGINALD SMITH. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Chief Passport Officer, P.O.Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 19

GB POWER CRITIC: RATE INCREASE IS ‘LAST STRAW’ FROM PAGE 24 organisations that is keeping us afloat”.

“All I can say is that we won’t settle for it,” Pastor Victor blasted. “We’re going to vigorously oppose this. We’re going to be holding a press conference on Thursday, a virtual town meeting on the rate increase, and doing protests. There will be a demonstration. We’re going to demonstrate and definitely will be meeting with the Government.

“Here’s what we’re faced with. We’re still recovering from Hurricane Dorian.

We’re not out of the pandemic. The economy on the island has been devastated.

We believe our unemployment rate is among the highest in the country.”

He added that NGOs such as Rotary International were helping to “prop up” the stricken Grand Bahama economy through home repairs and other Dorian-related activities. “A number of NGOs are still active on the island and pumping money into the economy,” Pastor Victor added. “We’re being kept afloat.

“If you look at the dynamics of the economy, with the increase in electricity rates while all this is going on you’re taking money that is being pumped into the economy into the pockets of the Power Company. It doesn’t make sense.

You’re creating an imbalance in the economy. We have challenges with prices in the food store, shipping costs. All this is affecting us.

“When you look at electricity for businesses, that’s going to cause them to put up their prices. They have to put up their prices to reflect the increase, and we will have cost of living increases on the island because the Power Company wants more profits.

We have to stop it. This is the last straw for us.”

Pastor Victor said GB Power’s pledges to protect its most vulnerable consumers were “all a ploy” and “a public relations move” as, unlike many other utilities, the base rate increases the more you consume whereas in other countries it is the complete opposite.

“Our tourism industry is in the worst shape it’s been in for decades,” he added.

“What’s this going to do to the hotel industry? They’re having enough trouble getting people in their rooms.

Something has to be done.

There has to be a force at hand somewhere.”

He was far from alone in his concerns. Magnus Alnebeck, the Pelican Bay hotel’s general manager, told Tribune Business that the GB Power proposal amounted to seeking more money from a declining population and business community that was largely relying on equity injections to keep it afloat.

“The most interesting thing in that statement is the line where they’re talking about how demand for power has gone down drastically over the past five years,” he said. “That’s the constant battle we have in Grand Bahama; we’re trying to suck more and more money out of a declining population.

“At the moment we, like everybody else, are at the mercy of owners putting in cash for the privilege

of operating businesses in Grand Bahama. That’s the reality.” Mr Alnebeck added that GB Power, as a monopoly and essential service, could easily pass its costs on to customers while Pelican Bay as a competitive business cannot.

GB Power, in seeking to justify increased electricity base rates for certain customer segments, yesterday said the extra funds were required to help maintain its generation and transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure as it pledged to invest a total $50m over the next five years in this area - or $10m per annum.

“GB Power has faced significant challenges since our last application in 2015, with impacts from two major unprecedented hurricane events, Matthew and Dorian, and in each case, has responded with quick action to safely restore the Island’s electricity in record time,” said Dave McGregor, GB Power’s president and chief operating officer of Emera Caribbean.

“Despite the challenges, we’ve continued to manage the operations and capital investments to stabilise rates for customers. We know no one wants to see rates increase, but the reality is that we need to continue to invest in our operations to maintain safe, reliable and increasingly renewable electricity service for customers for years to come.”

GB Power, in a statement, said the average increase to the all-in rate for all customers was projected to be 4 percent.

It compared this to what it said was an average 8.4 percent inflation rate in The Bahamas over the past several years, although this figure is higher than the ones quoted by the Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and there was no explanation as to where it came from.

The electrical utility, meanwhile, said that its electricity rate application would protect the most vulnerable households and individuals in Bahamian society from any rate increase. “The application proposes a 3.2 percent rate reduction for residential customers who consume up to 200 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month, representing about 18 percent of customers,” said Nikita Mullings, GB Power’s chief operating officer.

“In addition, there is no change in base rates proposed for residential customers consuming between 201 to 350 kilowatt hours per month, representing 24 percent of customers. Together, this pricing structure will result in 42 percent of residential customers having a decrease or no change to the base tariff.”

GB Power added that the extent of any rate increase for other residential customers will depending on their monthly consumption.

Persons consuming 351 to 800 kilowatt hours per month, representing about 32 percent of customers, will see a base rate increase ranging between 0 percent to 7.5 percent, it said.

The utility continued by saying customers consuming more than 800 kilowatt hours per month, representing about 26 percent of its customers, will

experience a base rate increase of 7.5 percent to 8.9 percent.

So-called “general service large” customers will see an increase of 3.5 percent to 4 percent, and commercial customers would feel across-the-board increases of 4.4 percent.

“With regard to fuel cost, we have 80 percent of our fuel needs hedged for 2022 so we can predict

that the fuel charge will remain at 10 cents per kilowatt hour through the next 15 months,” added Mrs Mullings.

“This charge has remained fixed at 10 cents since 2016, resulting in fuel rate stability for customers for seven years. To help ensure this fuel rate stability beyond 2022, we will continue to secure

competitively priced fuel through our hedging programme going forward.”

GB Power added that its application included a generation plan that compared energy demand forecasts with its current production capacity. “The generation plan shows that, with a notable drop in load over the past five years, there is no need for significant

generation investments,” said Mr McGregor.

“However, this is an opportune time to make investments in small utilityscale solar plants where and when it makes sense for our customers from a cost perspective. That is, where the cost of solar would be less than or equal to the cost of fuel.”

PAGE 20, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

The perfect storm

By Chris Illing

T

here is still a shortage of containers all over the world.

The ships are jammed in the ports, for example, in Los Angeles. The pandemic is disrupting global trade.

Anyone looking at world trade is somewhat astonished. There is a lack of product and raw materials everywhere, and prices are sky rocketing. Our local Super Value chain warned consumers to expect rising prices in the food store. The containers seem to be the bottleneck. What is going on?

You could say that this is the perfect storm that has

been brewing. And it is also a long-lasting one.

It all started with COVID19. The pandemic has distorted the situation and unbalanced supply and demand. When the first US stimulus checks were issued in April 2020, and people started buying again, the demand skyrocketed.

World trade suddenly just could not keep up with the demand. The shipping companies did not have enough capacity to transport the goods in demand. It was not because the shipowners sent fewer ships on to the water because of COVID. On the contrary.

It all started in Long Beach, California, in April 2020.The ships got stuck

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that LEXIRA LEXIUS of Lazaretto Road, Nassau, The Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 13th day of October, 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that EDNEL JOSEPH of Lazaretto Road, Nassau, The Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 13th day of October, 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

there and the port could not keep up with the handling.

We were able to see in real time how this traffic jam affected companies.

Long Beach is one of the ports through where a great deal of goods arrive from China into the US. Suddenly, thousands of containers full of clothing and shoes were standing somewhere on some ship, waiting to enter the port of Long Beach.

The ordered goods simply did not arrive in the shops.

Shortly afterwards you could see how the stock market price of Nike collapsed.

There have been attempts to bypass Long Beach as an importing port.

Some shipping companies or freight forwarders have tried to call at the east coast.

However, this means the ships had to travel through the Suez Canal from Asia.

The calculation was that you would then have longer transit times, but that you would be better able to plan.

That was the biggest problem off Long Beach: You did not know when a ship could be unloaded. Maritime trade is primarily about predictability.

At least that was the idea.

But then the Ever Given got wedged in the wall of the Suez Canal and the ships

were backed up there as well. And we had the same problem that nobody knew: Will it take one day until the ship is free again or will it take one month? This, of course, meant that planning was no longer an option.

There was the idea of sending the ships via the route around South Africa.

The calculation was that they would be at the ports of destination before the ships that were backed up in the Suez Canal. It was assumed that it would pile up again at the ports when the Canal became free again. And that has been confirmed, even if not to the extent that many feared.

This is a chain of unfortunate coincidences.

We now see again and again that port capacities collapse when there are COVIA outbreaks. The authorities in Yantian have just closed large parts of the world’s fourth largest port.

This also affects the supply chains. In addition, the US is currently acting like a black hole for containers. Many countries are sending goods to the US, but the containers stay there because hardly anything is exported from the US and nobody wants to send the boxes back empty.

One thing about containers is that they are often not where you need them. But that also has an advantage. Containers are also a supply and demand commodity.

The increased demand and undersupply of capacity has caused prices to skyrocket on some routes to an extent that has surprised even die-hard supply chain experts.

We have seen connections that normally go for $2,000 that are now $16,000. This is simply because there is no more space on the ships.

If we can better predict when which ship will arrive where, planning can be done much more efficiently along the rest of the value chain and prices will decrease again. Many companies are currently investing in this.

In order to come up with solutions, one must see that maritime trade is still the backbone of the world economy. It is just not economical to transport toilet paper by plane. And, yes, there is now a train line from China to Germany. Nevertheless, 99 percent of all goods come by ship. That will not change either.

Recently, it was reported that an incredible number of new ships had been

ordered. But a ship is not ready tomorrow; it takes a long time to get on the water. And there is very little unused capacity in the entire chain - the ports also are extremely full.

One of the biggest problems is that goods that are currently on the water represent tied-up capital. This applies to Nike shoes and car parts, but the more it is, the more expensive the goods are. One solution could therefore be for companies to gain a better overview of where which goods are currently, and when their predicted arrival is. This makes it much easier to plan many processes from one end of the supply chain to the other. If one knows six weeks in advance that the auto parts will be two weeks’ late, one has several weeks to respond.

We see that many companies are dealing with the topic of tracking and visibility. The worldwide trend and debate about producing more regionally again flared up during the pandemic.

What we are observing, however, is that most of the containers are still coming from China. I do not think that is going to change either overnight.

CABLE BAHAMAS READIES FOR GROWING CYBER THREAT

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net CABLE Bahamas is “simplifying tasks” and “reducing compliance costs” as its moves to combat fraud in a period of accelerated “digital transformation” driven by COVID-19.

Franklyn Butler, the BISX-listed communications provider’s chief executive, told a webinar that both Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19 had shown that digital transformation was far more than just the

mere ability to pay bills online Speaking at an event held by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) Bahamas chapter and Citadel Consultants, he added: “How do we simplify our tasks?

How do we really create an environment that is less paper-centric and really can reduce the compliance cost?

“It is about how do we really drive this idea of digital transformation and, for us, obviously with the pandemic and lockdowns, this whole idea of digital transformation became front and centre in our business in a way we never thought before. We thought digital transformation was allowing you to pay online and that was the be all and end all.”

With persons forced to work remotely, and operate online, risks associated with cyber fraud and identity theft, as well as online scams such as phishing and click fraud, have increased.

“I recently saw a statistic where I was driving down Shirley Street and it says 91 percent of cyber breaches start from an e-mail,” said Mr Butler.

Dwayne Davis, Cable Bahamas’ chief information officer, added: “Some things that we have done thus far, as an example, we’ve upgraded all of our routing, switching and firewalls.

That is the gateway to our network, so what you do is you protect your home.

“The second thing we did was internally we also upgraded our VPN (Virtual Private Network), and went

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that DANIEL DESAUGUSTE of Treasure Cay, Abaco, The Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 13th day of October, 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

to a more robust connection to our gateway.”

Mr Davis said the “biggest problem” for cyber security “happens from within”, and that regardless of what security Cable Bahamas or any telecommunications provider puts into their network, human error will always find a way to thwart these efforts.

To ensure its system is as safe as it can be, Cable Bahamas tries to break into its own network and, often times, hires outside contractors to do this so that any vulnerabilities can be detected.

Mr Davis added: “As one of the premier communications providers in the country, I think any company that wants to get information, the bare minimum they should ask for is what is the security landscape and how informed are our employees.

“Secondly, they should look to utilise penetration testing and the other testing that we would have done internally. We have an internal audit committee that audits all of us, so basically we are auditing ourselves.

“Lastly, Cable Bahamas has something called Bahamas Cloud, which is our hosted data centre. So there are certain reports they will expect from the data centre providers that we will give them and, last but not least, we are always happy to work with any company auditors.”

PRIMARY TEACHING JOB OPPORTUNITY Temporary full time Primary Art Teacher needed A pre-eminent, well-established, independent, international school in Nassau is seeking a temporary full-time qualified ART TEACHER for employment between 25th October and the 10th December (with possible further). Candidates should have sound classroom experience; a passion for art and innovative education; a professional attitude towards work; a friendly and cooperative disposition; a willingness to work in a team environment; experience of online and in class teaching; a determination to grow professionally; and strong communication & organisational skills.

The successful candidate will be required to: • Prepare and deliver well-planned learning experiences and curricula for learners aged 3 to 11 • Differentiate curriculum objectives to support a diverse range of learners • Show consistent, compassionate, classroom management skills • Assess student learning and produce detailed reports • Use learning data to inform and adapt instruction • Contribute to the co-curricular programme and whole-school activities in a committed and enthusiastic manner • Maintain high standards of professionalism • Communicate positively with parents, staff, and administration Please forward your resume and introduction letter by email to teachingbahamas@gmail.com.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 21

POULTRY FARMER: ‘IT’S LIKE WE’RE SPINNING ON HAMSTER WHEEL’

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net AN Abaco poultry farmer yesterday said the agriculture industry would become more appealing to entrepreneurs and investors if the Government eliminates tiresome bureaucracy.

Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird Poultry’s operations manager, told Tribune Business “anything is possible” when it came to making agriculture more appealing as a business venture, but said misconceptions about the industry being just ‘dirty work in the field’ needs to change.

“There is a lot of technology and science to this, so it’s not what people think a lot of times. There are things like machinery, learning about soil and chemical compositions and all sorts of stuff you learn when you get into agriculture,” Mr Pinder said.

He added that the Department of Agriculture was “understaffed and underfunded”, despite Clay Sweeting, newly-appointed minister for agriculture, marine resources and Family Island affairs vowing to make the sector “sexy” and more appealing to investors and entrepreneurs.

Mr Pinder said: “One of the biggest problems that’s

been going on for as long as I know is getting tax concession permits. You have to wait two to three weeks, and some times up to six weeks, in order to get your duty-free items. In this day and time it’s something that needs to be dealt with and it’s just not acceptable.

“If I don’t really need it, I don’t bother with it, because it only holds up my Customs paperwork and if then that’s not done, the Customs department is on my case because my stuff isn’t cleared. Often times you need the stuff right away, and you can’t get it unless you pay the duties.

It’s just really messed up.”

Mr Pinder argued that implementation of

Customs’ Electronic Single Window, known as Click2Clear, in 2019 further complicated the process.

“Because of the way they changed it, if you had an entry before, whether it was duty-free or taxable, it was all on one entry. But now they have it so you have to put your dutiable stuff on one entry and you have to put your duty-free stuff on another entry, and they have to add the Excise tax, too, on another entry,” complained Mr Pinder.

He now has to make three separate entries for one set of supplies, all of which increases brokerage costs. “So instead of our concession and the situation getting better, it has actually

gotten worse with this new Customs system. Unless I’m bringing in something that’s worth several thousands of dollars, it just isn’t worth it,” Mr Pinder added.

Shipping costs are another obstacle. Mr Pinder said: “The cost of inter-island shipping is a big problem. The way the mailboats are set up makes it difficult for farm products to get around the country, especially for perishable items.

“Some things like onions aren’t so bad because they can stay in dry storage, but when you’re talking about perishable items like meat, these things need to be kept refrigerated or frozen. It’s very challenging.

CORAL FARM ‘SHOWCASE’ EYES 1M ANNUAL TARGET FROM PAGE 24 related water-borne activities, such as scuba diving and snorkelling; fisheries sustainability; and provide more resilient natural defences to climate change and the storm surges driven by increasingly powerful hurricanes.

“We think there’s a real opportunity for The Bahamas to showcase cutting edge models, technologies, solutions that not only benefit the Bahamian people and ecosystems here, but serve as a proving ground for islands and other nations around the world,” he told this newspaper. “It’s definitely an opportunity for new and needed leadership in environmental protection and climate action.”

Using “micro fragmentation” to accelerate coral reef growth, and relying solely on species native to The Bahamas to also provide diversity, Mr Teicher said Coral Vita is able to grow pieces “up to 50 times’ faster” than rival farms using conventional techniques.

“At current capacity we can grow up to 30,000 pieces of coral a year,” he revealed.

“It’s our vision that within the next year or two we can grow 100,000 corals a year, and eventually have a farm that that can grow one million or more corals a year.”

Mr Teicher said it was “tough to say” when the latter target will be hit, although he voiced optimism that it will be reached “within the next several years”. The Grand Bahama farm, which currently has ten employees, half of whom are local, will “be hiring a few more next year with the emphasis on Bahamians”, and reaching the one million pieces mark could take the workforce “to a couple of dozen”.

Both himself and Mr Halpern come from strong environmental backgrounds, with the latter more on the academic side and Mr Teicher with a grounding in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and “the policy space”.

Having worked on climate adaptation policy in the White House during the Obama administration, Mr Teicher said he was first introduced to coral farming while working with Eli Africa, an NGO,

in Mauritius in 2012. The group had received a grant to do a coral farming project in partnership with the Mauritius Oceanographic Institute.

“It was my first experience of coral reef restoration, and I saw how reefs could be brought back to life, but the current funding model had limitations,” he disclosed.

Reliant on donor and grant funding, he realised that only marine research institutes or NGOs would be willing to engage in coral farming, with reef restorations likely to take up to 25-30 years.

The Mauritius project produced 5,000 coral reef pieces before it came to an end, and Mr Teicher said Coral Vita incorporates a completely different approach that allows the production of coral to be “scaled up” in partnership with scientists via “a business model that unlocks the funding”.

While the Government and Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) have hired Coral Vita for its first renovation, he added that hotels, developers and communities in The Bahamas can all contract its services.

“Anyone benefiting from the restoration of a reef can hire - from the Government to Lyford Cay and Viva Fortuna and everybody in between,” Mr Teicher added.

He explained that Coral Vita was attracted to Grand Bahama because “of the ecological need and opportunity. It’s estimated that 80 percent of the reefs in The Bahamas are dead, but we can also rebuild them.

There’s also an opportunity to test the business model”.

Noting that Coral Vita’s Grand Bahama farm is also serving as a tourist attraction, as well as education facility for students and others, Mr Teicher said the

business had already demonstrated its own resilience by rebuilding from Hurricane Dorian’s 17-foot storm surge and surviving the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic after it opened in May 2019.

“The Bahamas would not exist without coral reef,” he added. “The limestone under your feet came from a reef..... We’re starting in Grand Bahama, but are very interested to restore reefs throughout The Bahamas.

We’re in it for the long haul.

We’ll be around for a few years yet....

“I think this is as important as it could be. There’s a real opportunity to create local jobs behind a whole restoration economy that preserves the ecosystems that sustain all of us. There’s a myriad of benefits that this can provide if we scale it up.

“The Bahamas, the Bahamian people and the economy really need healthy ecosystems, and it’s not just

a matter of protecting them but creating this whole new Blue Economy, protecting the ecosystems that protect us all and driving jobs and revenue throughout the country.”

Winning The Earthshot Prize will enable Coral

“There is no boat that goes between Nassau and Freeport that can carry frozen freight. There was one that would carry our product on the deck, telling us it is such a short distance that it wouldn’t matter. But we wouldn’t put our product on that. I wouldn’t send chickens out like that,” he added.

“Crop insurance is another big thing. They have been talking about crop insurance for the past 20 years, but nothing has been done. It’s like we’ve been spinning on a hamster wheel and repeating the same thing over and over again.”

Vita’s goal to accelerate its ambitions to “scale up” and realise its dreams to create an international network of coral farms, including deploying the latest technology in coral farming as well as developing funding models to make coral restoration more financially viable for coastal communities.

PUBLIC NOTICE

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

PRIMARY TEACHING JOB OPPORTUNITY Second Grade Teacher

A well-established, independent primary school in Nassau is seeking a full-time qualified SECOND GRADE teacher for the end of October 2021.

Candidates should have sound classroom experience, a passion for educating young minds, experience with Google classroom and virtual teaching, a professional attitude and work ethic, a friendly and cooperative disposition, a willingness to work in a team environment, and strong communication and organisational skills.

The successful candidate will be required to: • Prepare, plan and deliver all lessons and curriculum both face to face and virtually • Show strong classroom management skills • Assess students and write detailed termly reports • Communicate positively with students, parents and colleagues.

If you think you have the commitment, passion and energy for our school, please forward your resume, introduction letter and two references by email to

timetoteach242@gmail.com We look forward to hearing from you.

PAGE 22, Wednesday, October 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

MINISTER WARNS ON ‘ALARMING’ FOOD PRODUCTION PREDICTIONS A CABINET minister has branded as “alarming” forecasts that Bahamian agriculture’s share of the domestic food market will halve to just 4 percent within the next five years.

Clay Sweeting, minister of agriculture, marine resources and Family Island Affairs, said this showed The Bahamas’ current food system is “unsustainable” as he gave an address to mark World Food Day 2021.

Calling on Bahamians to play their part in reducing this nation’s annual $1bn food bill, he said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how fragile the

country’s reliance on outside supply really is.

In particular, Mr Sweeting said Bahamian agriculture’s 8 percent share of the domestic food market is projected to be cut further by 50 percent over the next five years. “This is very alarming and our current food system is unsustainable,” he argued.

“There is the increasing recognition that the sustainable transformation of our food system must also be central in our efforts to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030, thereby accelerating the collective action for achieving a diversified economy through food and agriculture.”

Mr Sweeting added that COVID-19 had highlighted the “fragility and inequalities” of the Bahamian food system, and “underscored the urgency to make them more sustainable, inclusive and resilient”.

“When we speak of food systems, we are referring to the sum of activities involved in producing, processing, transporting, consuming and disposing of food. These activities are cross-cutting and integrated throughout our ministries, industries and private sectors. Each of you participate in the food system every time you eat,” he said.

“As a major food importing country, we are at a higher risk for food shortages and increased food prices.” The Bahamas’ food import bill is pegged at $1bn per annum. In 2012, food and agriculture accounted for 1.2 percent of GDP. However, by 2018, this had fallen to a 0.7 percent share.

Mr Sweeting said Bahamians can help to reverse this trend by engaging in sustainable practices such as using biopesticides; solar energy at processing plants; eating more local produce; and reducing the carbon footprint.

“We must take care of our natural resources. Reduce,

reuse, recycle are very basic principles that can help preserve our natural resources for a better environment and a better life. Do not be so quick to discard kitchen scraps, but rather use it for your compost or use more glassware than plastics,” he added.

Other actions, the minister suggested, involved supporting local farmers; choosing healthier meals to incorporate whole foods; supporting local restaurants serving Bahamian cuisine; recycling and reuse for a better environment; and involving children in outdoor nature activities

“It is my hope that you will be inspired to also become involved in the many facets of the industries, whether as an agri/ marine business entrepreneur or a technician to assist in charting the way forward to achieving a diversified economy through food and agriculture in The Bahamas,” Mr Sweeting said.

World Food Day, held on October 16, was collectively commemorated by more than 150 countries.

This year’s theme was: Our Actions are our future. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and better life.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, PAGE 23

business@tribunemedia.net

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021

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Coral farm ‘showcase’ eyes 1m annual target

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamian winner of Prince William’s £1m Earthshot prize yesterday disclosed it is targeting production of 1m coral pieces per year to help “showcase” this nation’s environmental credentials.

Sam Teicher, co-founder of Grand Bahama-based Coral Vita, told Tribune Business that the

country has “a real opportunity” to demonstrate “new and needed leadership” in the fight against climate change by acting as “a proving ground” for technologies and methods such as those employed by his company.

Speaking after Coral Vita was unveiled as one of the first five Earthshot prize winners, he confirmed that himself and fellow co-founder, Gaitor Halpern, were “in it for the long haul” in their efforts to restore Bahamian coral

• Says Bahamas can lead in global climate fight • Prince’s prize winner: ‘We’re in it for long haul’ • GB ‘flagship’ warns 80 of local reefs ‘dead’

$5.18 reefs that some estimates suggest are “80 percent dead”.

Although their immediate focus is a coral restoration project on Grand Bahama’s southern shores, Mr Teicher confirmed the duo’s ambition to expand their activities throughout the archipelago before ultimately replicating their business model throughout the world with a series of coral farms established in other countries.

Explaining that the Grand Bahama farm, into which they have already invested “several million dollars”, will always be the “flagship” venture, he added that Coral Vita’s work will also help launch this nation into the so-called “Blue Economy”, which is designed to generate wealth in a sustainable manner from using the world’s ocean and coastal resources.

While no assessment has been done on Coral Vita’s potential economic impact, Mr Teicher added that its reef restoration work promises to aid tourism and

SEE PAGE 21

GB Power promises $50m network spend EDDIE VICTOR

GB Power critic: Rate increase is ‘last straw’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BUSINESSES and civil society yesterday united against Grand Bahama Power Company’s proposed electricity rate increases, with some branding it “the last straw” and warning of protests to come.

Pastor Eddie Victor, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCC), and a long-time GB Power critic, told Tribune Business that the new tariff structure would further raise the cost of living in an economy that has been “devastated” by the combination of Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19.

With many businesses still struggling to survive, and high unemployment a serious problem, Pastor Victor argued that the energy monopoly’s application - if approved as is by its regulator, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) - would “create an imbalance in the economy” by “sucking out money from non-governmental

SEE PAGE 19

• Amid wide-scale backlash to base rate proposal • Monthly bills to rise $7$20 for 58% of home users • Gov’t against any hike: ‘GB has suffered enough’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net GRAND Bahama Power Company yesterday pledged to invest $50m over the next five years to maintain its network infrastructure, and admitted: “No one wants to see rates increase.”

The energy monopoly, facing a furious backlash from the Government, businesses and civil society groups over its revised tariff proposals (see other article on Page 1B), told Tribune Business that residential customers faced with electricity base rate increases would only see a modest rise in their monthly bills.

Asserting that 42 percent of residential customers will see either a decrease or no change in their base rates, GB Power said the other 58 percent faced with an increase will see their monthly bills rise by an average of between $7 and $20 depending on consumption.

“As noted in today’s release, 42 percent of residential customers will see a decrease or no increase in their bills,” the utility reiterated. “Customers who consume 600 kWh (kilowatt hours) per month can expect an increase of about $7 per month under the proposed rate structure.

“Those who consume 800 kWh on average will see an

increase of about $12 per month. Those who consume 1000 kWh on average will see an increase of about $20 per month.”

Many are unlikely to be reassured, though, and the newly-elected Davis administration - sensitive to the potential social and economic fall-out, as well as the potential political implications - immediately issued a statement warning it is adamantly opposed to any increase in electricity rates on Grand Bahama at this time.

Issued in the name of Ginger Moxey, minister for Grand Bahama, it argued that Grand Bahama residents and businesses have “suffered enough” as a result of Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19, and no customer segment should have to endure a further hike in energy costs.

“The Government of The Bahamas has made immediate inquiries, expressed our deep concern and taken swift action,” the statement said, disclosing that a Cabinet committee had been formed to engage with GB Power’s regulator, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), on the issue.

“The Government of The Bahamas will not support any rate increase on any portion of the customer base on Grand

SEE PAGE 18

Lucayan Board urges Royal Caribbean exit

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Grand Lucayan’s Board has “unanimously” recommended to the Davis administration that it exit the ITM/Royal Caribbean deal and “move on” with alternative options.

Multiple Tribune Business contacts, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tribune Business that the existing directors

have all advocated breaking the hotel’s sale off from ITM/Royal Caribbean’s plans to redevelop Freeport Harbour.

While the joint venture would still be free to add new cruise berths and develop a water park at that site, provided they can close an agreement with the Hutchison Whampoa-controlled Freeport Harbour Company, the Government has been advised to make alternative plans for the

Grand Lucayan as negotiations “have dragged on long enough”.

While the resort holds the most potential economic benefits for The Bahamas and its people, this newspaper understands it had become “an after-thought” for ITM/Royal Caribbean who are more focused on the harbour.

The original deal struck with the Government has

SEE PAGE 17

GRAND BAHAMA POWER COMPANY HQ