10272022 NEWS, SPORT AND RELIGION

PM admits PLP cheque did not cover full costs

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis was adamant yesterday “that everything will be reckoned” regard ing his recent controversial trip to Bermuda and admit ted that a $24,750 cheque paid to the Public Treasury by the Progressive Liberal Party as reimbursement did not cover the total of bills for the event.

He also told The House of Assembly yesterday that he made a decision that the

government will not pay for any aspect of the trip, despite going in his official capacity as Prime Minister. His comments came after Free National Movement leader Michael Pintard said it was a breach of the law for the government to pay for a political trip, no matter if the Public Treas ury was reimbursed.

On Tuesday, the PLP released a copy of a $24,750 cheque to the Public Treasury it said reflected payment from the organisa tion for the trip.

AIRPORT CHIEF: NO WORRY OVER ADVERTISING PARTNER

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

NASSAU airport’s chief Vernice Walkine yester day rejected concerns its new advertising partner could run afoul of contract bid requirements and the National Investment Policy.

The Nassau Airport Development Company’s president and chief executive said “extensive due diligence”

was conducted before RG Media (Bahamas) was named the airport’s advertising con cession operator.

Concerns were raised after the firm was only incorporated on May 30, 2022 - and led by Shane Garner, John Bull’s finan cial controller, despite the tender requiring “five to ten year’s experience” in oper ating airport advertising.

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

THE best friend of a 25-year-old woman who was killed in a traffic acci dent in Grand Bahama on Tuesday said the vic tim’s biggest fear was leaving her son in the world without her.

According to police, shortly after 5.20pm on Tuesday, officers received reports of a traffic acci dent involving a grey Dodge Avenger vehicle, driven by a woman and

accompanied by a male child, travelling east on East Sunrise High way in Freeport, Grand Bahama.

The 25-year-old victim who was killed in the accident was identified by her best friend as Telia Tamar Simms.

Police said Ms Simms lost control of the vehi cle and hit a tree in the centre median. She was examined by Emergency Medical Services and was later pronounced dead at the scene.

The child was taken to hospital for medical attention and is listed in stable condition.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Mia Collie recalled her last conversation with Ms Simms on Tuesday.

“Yesterday (Tuesday) we spoke like we always do and at the end of our conversation we ended with the ‘I love you’s,” she said.

Having recently cel ebrated her 25th birthday

DAUGHTERS OF US RESIDENT MAY ALREADY HAVE BEEN DEPORTED

By LETRE SWEETING lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR and Immigra tion Minister Keith Bell said yesterday that depor tation documents signed several days ago may have included the two minor daughters of US resident Clairnise Louis.

This comes one day after The Tribune received a letter addressed to Mr Bell on Monday written by Ms Louis’s attorney asking for the Department of Immi gration to release her two girls into the custody of relatives in The Bahamas as there is no one to receive them in Haiti should they be deported.

DAVIS:

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said his administration is looking at how best to deal with the shanty towns in Abaco that are not covered by an existing court injunction, adding demolition was among the options that can be taken.

However, the prime minister was noncommit tal regarding whether the country has an immigration crisis saying: “Will I call it a crisis or not? I don’t think we’re there yet, but there are challenges in that area.”

Yesterday, as Mr Davis left the House of Assem bly, he was asked about the issue.

Traffic

victim’s biggest fear was leaving son alone

just a little over a month ago, Ms Simms was said to be “loved by all”.

In the words of Ms Collie, “To know Telia is to love her.”

In a heartfelt Facebook post dedicated to her friend, Ms Collie reflected on one of the biggest milestones of her late best friend’s life: motherhood.

“The birth of Saint (her son), was the birth of a new Telia,” Ms Collie said. “She was calmer, more passive and overly affectionate.”

Friends for more than ten years, Ms Collie told this newspaper, the friend ship was filled with timeless memories and growth.

She said: “The last ten years since meeting her have been full of love, laughter, joy, and then when my godson Saint was born, it was a chapter of new beginnings — it was time for us to grow up. Our goals in life were to be happy, successful and outstanding human beings.”

The deceased is said to have had an “unbreakable” bond with her son.

Ms Collie said of Ms Simms: “Your biggest fear was leaving your baby Saint alone in this world, you have left me so heartbroken just fathoming this.”

She pledged to be “the best godmother and fill-in mom for Sainty”.

Many expressed their sympathies on social media after the accident.

“You were a listening ear, a true friend, a sweet and genuine person — never once was different around me. You will definitely be missed, baby girl, I love you my friend,” said one Face book user.

Another user said: “You are my first friend and class mate to leave me. RIP to a real gem. SJC (Saint John’s College) ‘15 will never be the same without you.”

Earlier this week, Assis tant Superintendent Stephen Rolle said recent traffic deaths are a con cern and also noted that drivers should be vigilant as the Christmas season is approaching.

“We are coming close to the Christmas season now, you will find more vehicles on the road, pedestrians, and even motorbikes. So, I want to say to those indi viduals who may be driving recklessly or within breach of the speed limit to be mindful of the other road users. And try to avoid any mishaps as much as possible. Like I said, we are nearing the Christmas season and we want this to be a safe Christmas for all,” the press liaison officer for Northern Bahamas and Grand Bahama said.

Yesterday, police said 38 traffic fatalities have been reported to date for the year.

DAUGHTERS OF US RESIDENT MAY ALREADY HAVE BEEN DEPORTED

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Ms Louis was born in The Bahamas to Haitian parents. Her children are 11 and nine years old and were born in The Bahamas to Ms Louis and Haitian fathers according to birth certificates seen by this newspaper.

When asked if Ms Lou is’s children have been deported, Mr Bell said, “I am not certain, but I know I signed a number of depor tation documents two days ago.”

He was also asked if Ms Louis’s children were in fact taken into custody because it is suspected someone was attempting to smuggle them into the US.

Mr Bell said: “There were a number of per sons who were taken into custody, I do recall a par ticular case of a similar nature, but I have asked the Director (of Immigration Keturah Ferguson) to look into the matter and then I will be able to assess and determine.”

He could not provide fur ther details and attempts to reach Ms Ferguson for comment were unsuccessful up to press time.

According to the letter from Ms Louis’ attorney, on October 19 the mother was advised that her chil dren were taken into custody while attempting to travel to the US. The letter noted that Ms Louis made arrangements to return to The Bahamas once she was advised of the circum stances surrounding her children.

“On our client’s arrival in The Bahamas, she (Ms Louis) made inquiries at the Immigration Department and was advised that her children were in fact taken into custody while attempt ing to travel to America,” the letter noted.

“Our client instructs that she has no idea how her children were placed in the position in which they found themselves when they were taken into cus tody. Our client denies any involvement in the attempted smuggling.

“This matter is of seri ous concern to our client because she was making excellent progress with the American officials in acquiring status for her children.”

Ms Louis is willing to present herself to both the Bahamas Department of Immigration and the Royal Bahamas Police Force to be interviewed, said the letter.

Ms Louis’s children were staying with her brother in The Bahamas, while she resided and worked in the US, her attorney said.

“We are advised that our client, a legal resident of the United States of America, relocated to America some seven years ago and left her children in the custody of her biological brother.”

The letter continues: “We are instructed our client travels to The Baha mas every two to three months to visit with her children and has applied to the American authorities for status for her children to have her children live and reside with her in America.”

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TELIA TAMAR SIMMS, who died in a traffic incident, and her best friend Mia Collie.

Bermuda costs ‘will be’ paid up

The FirstCaribbean International Bank cheque was dated October 21, 2022, the day after Mr Davis returned home.

As he wrapped up a brief interview with reporters yesterday, the prime minis ter was asked whether this money covered the trip’s full cost. He replied: “No.”

“Everything will be reck oned,” he said when asked whether the remaining cost had been settled.

This comes amid con troversy and after calls from the official opposition for the government to be transparent and reveal the documentation that shows who paid for the October 19 trip.

Mr Davis left Bermuda on October 20.

During yesterday’s House of Assembly sitting, Mr Pintard raised the issue, questioning who gave authorisation for public funds to be used to pay for the flight and other things associated with the trip.

He called for heads to roll over the issue.

“Now here we are again on a trip to Bermuda, a country I love and used to spend a wonderful time there with my mom, abso lutely love it,” he said.

“What is at odds here though, is that this admin istration is keen on commingling government business with party busi ness and then we put public servants in an odd posi tion because we have them making statements that are not at all accurate. So, the statement coming from the Office of the Prime Min ister was at odds with the statement coming from the PLP chairman and the CEO of the Progressive Liberal Party, two state ments. Both statements on the same subject, but at odds with each other.

“So, the public is unclear on several things. One, what was the objective of the trip? Two, who paid for the trip? So, the smoke is clearing a little and we can see the pattern of behaviour. The pattern of behaviour suggests that the Progressive Liberal Partyled government paid for a trip and was reimbursed by its party apparatus, that’s just what it appears to be at the surface.

“The question is, is that not a breach of the law? Sorry, let me not ask a ques tion, it is a breach of the law to have a government pay for a political trip and to be reimbursed by a political organisation, it is a breach of the law.

“The question is will heads roll as a result of it? The question is who author ised the payment? Who authorised the Ministry of Finance to make payment for the trip? Was it the min ister of finance? Was it the financial secretary? Who authorised the treasurer to cut the cheque? Under what circumstances can a public official pay for a private situation and then later on have some people say ‘Don’t bother man I got you’.

“Which law, which set of protocols permit this

government to make that decision? We believe that the law has been broken.

“So again, the govern ment has paid for a trip, we’ve seen nothing to the contrary. I have asked at least two days ago can the government lay the corre spondence on the table of the House between either the Office of the Prime Minister, the Bermudian government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bermudian government so we can at least understand what the objective of the trip is.

“Secondly, can we lay on the table any invoices or payments made. This may be perfectly innocent, but we’d like to see what the figures are, and we’d like to see who’s paying.”

He also said: “No, based on the dates of things circu lating it looks as though it was a reimbursement, and we understand clearly that the government when it is on official business the gov ernment of The Bahamas pays for the trips and it pays for those members of the delegation. If the party was paying for the trip then that should have been stated

clearly from the beginning and maintained clearly throughout this discussion.”

When he responded in the House of Assembly, Mr Davis said based on Mr Pintard’s assertions he had not demonstrated a clear understanding of how the Westminster system works.

“When the prime minis ter travels, he travels as the prime minister of the coun try and the Office of the Prime Minister takes care of the holder of that office,” Mr Davis said.

“If the prime minister is travelling and the Office of the Prime Minister pays the bill the only thing that is left to do is to determine who ever goes with him — there will be a reckoning at some point in time. There will be a reckoning.”

Mr Davis said the trip has been in the works for several months after he travelled to Austin, Texas, to speak at a crypto conference.

While there, Mr Davis said he met Bermuda’s premier and a few mem bers of Parliament. They extended an invitation to him for a visit in October around the time when the

Progressive Labour Party was to have its convention. Mr Davis said he accepted the invitation.

Later, he said the office of the premier was in contact with the Ministry of For eign Affairs to ensure that he would still come.

“I then said I would go. That’s what I said I will go and travel as prime min ister. As it evolved the question was how would I get there and it turned out that for me to get to Bermuda going would spend one night in New York, coming back I would spend one night in New York.

“I decided that was ineffi cient for me. I would be out of the country too long.”

He said the initial esti mates for the trip started at $150,000 and “then that’s when the trip started slip ping out of my mind”.

However, Mr Davis said they were able to use a Bahamian airline, which agreed to do the trip at a reasonable cost.

“By this time this was like two days before the trip. I was thinking whether or not I was about to post pone the trip for another time, but since we were able to do that, that was how it evolved. I was going as the prime minister of the country.

“In the meantime, the premier also invited the PLP because the PLP of Bermuda was formed by the PLP of The Bahamas.

“Once they said they were coming as well I said well OK they could come, a 50-seater plane was being chartered and they came. I then said we will reckon, but by the time that had

been done, I had already made the arrangements.”

“The day I was leaving I left instructions,” he went on, “that my senior policy advisor, because PLPs would be on the flight, to make sure we will pay for the charter at least and make arrangements when we get into Bermuda we will pay for the hotels, and

we reckon and reimburse whenever we get all of the receipts. That’s what the decision was.

“At the end of the day the question is who paid for it? The government will not pay for it. In fact I have decided that they will not take care of whatever I went for. I will pay for it myself.”

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis yesterday.

Photo: Moise Amisial

He said it was a concern for the government and pointed to dysfunction and challenges emanating from other parts of the world, causing an influx of irregu lar migration.

“The world is contending with it, we have to contend with it,” Mr Davis also said.

“And yes, we have to

find a balance to how we deal with it without impact ing the lives of our own citizens.”

Asked if the Davis administration would consider demolishing the shanty town structures that aren’t covered by the injunction, he said: “We are going to look at how best to deal with these things in a humane way and if that’s one of the

A I S A W S

routes, that’s an option that’s out there.”

The injunction was granted by Supreme Court Justice Cheryl GrantThompson in 2018. It banned demolition in New Providence and parts of Abaco.

However, it has been more than one year since the justice adjourned a judicial review into whether demolition of the

unregulated communities is unconstitutional.

Earlier this month, Immi gration Minister Keith Bell said there would be an increased number of immi gration officers deployed to Abaco due to the recent expansion of several shanty towns there, with one unregulated community mushrooming to 200 acres since 2019.

A recent operation on Abaco resulted in 52 arrests and exposed the scope of the worsening shanty town problem.

The Department of Immigration launched Operation Expedition from October 7 to 10, where immigration offic ers as well as the Royal

Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force went to the island to explore, detain, and eventually repatri ate any irregular migrants found.

The expedition found that one shanty town in par ticular - The Farm - grew from 50 acres to about 200 acres since Hurricane Dorian.

Other shanty towns, including a large area in Marsh Harbour, have expanded as well.

Abaco residents who have repeatedly voiced frustrations about the growing shanty towns on the island last week told The Tribune they want the government to “put their

money where their mouth is” when it comes to deal ing with the unregulated communities.

The residents were responding to recent com ments made by Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears who said it was time for “considered action” to address the expansion of shanty towns.

He also told reporters that the government hoped to host a press conference soon to announce their plans to address the illegal developments.

However, according to Abaco residents, it’s some thing that they have heard before and still nothing has been done to date to resolve the problem.

By LETRE SWEETING lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said he will continue to advocate for “justice and fairness” for small island nations during the current climate crisis ahead of COP27 next month.

Mr Davis made these comments yesterday speak ing on his preparation for the United Nations Cli mate Change Conference (COP27), which will be held in Egypt from Novem ber 6-18 this year.

Mr Davis said he will continue to stand on his statements made at COP26 last November, where he pointed to rising tempera tures and natural disasters such as Hurricane Dorian to highlight the effects of the climate crisis in small developing island nations like The Bahamas.

“I am going to con tinue my advocacy on the issue of how small island developing states are being impacted by the climate crisis and I am now impressing upon my fellow heads that the narrative probably has to change because the narra tive over the last 26 years has not produced the kind of results that we think we ought to have had,” Mr Davis said yesterday.

He continued: “We are talking about climate jus tice and fairness.

“I think we now have to move that argument and call it enlightened self-inter est because unless the large emitting countries appreci ate that it’s going to impact them, perhaps the universe itself, they’re not going to move,” Mr Davis said.

In August, during the closing session of the Car ibbean Regional Heads of Government high-level talks on climate change at Baha Mar, Prime Minis ter Davis outlined the next steps for COP27 and poten tial considerations for the region.

He said the Caribbean Regional Heads of Govern ment will attend COP27 in an effort to advance climate action.

Mr Davis said at the time that a draft summary consisting of three to four pages which will outline the proceedings of the conference was currently being prepared in collabo ration with the UNFCCC Secretary.

Last year at COP26 in Scotland, he urged world leaders to show courage in the fight against climate change, warning that the world is running out of time to prevent disasters.

At the time, scientists had warned that if tem perature continued to rise and wasn’t kept beneath 1.5 degrees Celsius, the planet would experience devastat ing effects like more deadly floods and more intense droughts.

‘Government has defamed prison Commissioner’

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE attorney rep resenting Corrections Commissioner Charles Murphy accused the gov ernment of defaming his reputation while having no intention of investigat ing allegations about his tenure.

She was contacted to respond to reports from a local daily about the Min istry of Finance’s decision not to fund an independent inquiry into Mr Murphy’s actions while heading the correctional facility.

“As we said before, they said it and Mr Murphy has been waiting for them to contact him to answer these allegations and noth ing. And though it just speaks to solidify what our position was in the very beginning, that this was pure spite and victimisa tion. There was never any intention to have any inves tigation because it was well known that there was no wrongdoing on the part of Mr Murphy,” Romona Far quharson said.

“So they basically defamed a senior public servant. Sought to blem ish his career, put him out to pasture, and now once he has reached the time for his retirement, now you’re going to announce that

you’re not going to have the investigation.

“All it does is strengthen our position before the courts. But it’s absolutely disgraceful. And even in light of that, they prom ised us in writing that they would get back to us and they would seek to deal with this matter. We’ve heard nothing.”

Commissioner Murphy was sent on leave in Sep tember 2021 so officials could investigate the case of Prescott Smith, a man who was being kept at the prison in a possible breach of a Supreme Court order.

It was announced he would be placed on leave and replaced by Acting Commissioner Doan Cleare. Mr Cleare had been ordered to return to the prison along with Ber nadette Murray, another deputy commissioner who had been sidelined by the previous administration.

National Security Minis ter Wayne Munroe’s firm, Munroe & Associates, filed a lawsuit in 2019 on behalf of the Deputy Commis sioners Cleare and Murray. The pair alleged that former National Security Minister Marvin Dames forced them to take vaca tion leave to facilitate the promotion of Mr Murphy, their deputy.

According to The Nassau Guardian, the Ministry of

Finance has decided not to fund an independent inquiry into Mr Murphy’s actions.

“To engage the inde pendent inquiry would have required us paying to bring in the chap from Canada, paying his per diem, all of that, and then paying like two or three other people. It was decided that that would be an expense that wouldn’t be undertaken,” Mr Munroe told The Nassau Guardian.

He also said: “The Minis try of Finance has decided that they’re not going to fund it. That’s the blunt ver sion of it. So, we’ve been asked simply to collate the information and to act on it in terms of correcting things that we’ve found.”

Yesterday, Ms Farquhar son said the actions taken against her client was an “abuse of power”.

She said her client has been distressed and described how it has affected people around him.

“He’s been trying to make the best of it, obviously, but it’s been distressing things because again, it not only affects Mr Murphy, but his family as well. His wife, a senior civil servant, a principal of a school, a senior person in the educational system, children, everyone is affected by it,” she said.

CHARLES MURPHY, Commissioner of the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. The gov ernment has decided not to fund an independent inquiry into Mr Murphy’s actions while in charge at the prison.

Our public servants deserve better

WHEN Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander took up his post, one of the first things he addressed was the vaca tion leave he was forced to take under the Minnis administration.

Clearly affected by his treatment at the time, he said while being inter viewed on Jerome Sawyer’s television show “On The Record” in August that he was “still trying to find out today what really happened”.

He claimed some of his colleagues stopped talking to him due to an “instruction”. He said: “When I moved about, some people stopped calling. Some of my own colleagues stopped even communicating and some of them said they got instructions.”

He added: “It came from the top because officers came and told me that certain people told them they don’t want them around Fernander.”

Commissioner Fernander was not alone in being forced to take leave –so were then Assistant Commissioner Leamond Deleveaux, now Deputy Commissioner, and Assistant Commis sioner Kendal Strachan. Mr Fernander and Mr Deleveaux filed a lawsuit after their treatment.

Commissioner Fernander said that he felt “somebody should speak up”.

In this column, we spoke of how there must be a better way to use the talents of officers who have given so much for our country, and questioned why they would be forced on leave then reas signed to jobs that just seemed to keep them out of the way.

Which brings us now to the case of Charles Murphy. The current adminis tration sent him on leave in September so officials could investigate the case of Prescott Smith, a man who was being kept at the prison in a possible breach of a Supreme Court order.

There was talk of an independ ent investigation, with a lawyer to be brought in from Canada to handle the probe.

And yet, that never happened – and now National Security Minister Wayne Munroe has reportedly said that the government has decided not to fund that inquiry.

This column carries no torch for Mr Murphy. Indeed, we previously said in this column that he had some cheek

when he told one of our reporters that they “ought not to take up” questions on whether COVID had reached the prison, despite officers feeling their con cerns on the matter were ignored. He also dismissed concerns raised by pris oners about small pieces of broken glass allegedly being found in inmates’ food.

So we say without favour that if the treatment of Mr Fernander was unfair, then so too seems the treatment of Mr Murphy.

To remove someone from their post pending an investigation that a year later you decide you won’t fund is no way to treat any public servant.

Indeed, if any government can act this way, then where is the defence for any public servant who just wants to do their job?

Attorney Romona Farquharson said “they basically defamed a senior public servant. Sought to blemish his career, put him out to pasture, and now once he has reached the time for his retire ment, now you’re going to announce that you’re not going to have the investigation”.

That the matter is further compli cated by Mr Munroe’s law firm having previously represented Deputy Com missioners Doan Cleare and Bernadette Murray in a lawsuit after the pair were sidelined by the previous administration is an extra frustration.

Public servants should not have their careers tainted by the perception that they are being picked – or picked on –by one administration or another, and nor should the talents of those long in their posts be wasted by putting them on prolonged leave or shuffling them off to make-work roles to get them out of the way.

More than that, if a person is subject to accusations so serious it requires their removal from their post, then proof is required, and an opportunity for that individual to answer such claims. That’s not just fairness, that’s the principles of justice.

If the police officers were treated poorly by the Minnis administration, then so too has Mr Murphy been by the Davis administration – and so the cycle goes on.

We must do better – it’s the least our public servants deserve.

PICTURE

Bishop is not the right choice

EDITOR, The Tribune.

AS A devout Christian and a man of deep faith, with no political affiliations or agenda, I have been sickened by the repeated innuendos that our honour able prime minister may in fact be considering a bishop for the position of governor general. In a recent gettogether with numerous Christian colleagues, we were all equally horrified by the prospect. This would be the prime minister’s greatest dereliction of duty should this in fact be true and an insult to the entire Christian community. By the same manner in which the Bahamian Christian community never forgave Prime Minister Christie for legalising gambling, this egregious act would be sim ilarly unforgivable.

At what point did it become okay for a man ordained by God to lead his people, to then aban don that post and swear an oath to the Crown and government? It’s out right shameful and utterly disgraceful that with eve rything this country has to deal with, the enormous social ills that plague us today, we now have to bear witness to a man of the cloth happily jumping

into politics. Does he assume that the governor general title is more impor tant than the one God bestowed upon him to lead his church?

Need I remind the venerable bishop that as governor general his role would be to subju gate to the political will of the prime minister and the salary that he collects from the government now ensures that this former leader of the church remain silent on issues like marital rape, same sex marriage, gambling, crime, illegal migrants, marijuana legalisation, rising poverty and economic inequality or a myriad of other issues plaguing this country. Will the religious and holy doc trines that he imbued into his congregation week after week now be silenced because of his new secular duties? They’d have to be if he were to accept this position.

“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteous ness suppress the truth”

(Romans 1:18).

It bears mentioning that I hold absolutely no illwill towards the bishop and acknowledge that he may very well be a man of honour. My objection is to the distasteful principle of casting aside a cloak of gold for a shiny suit tethered to both the government and an antiquated monarchal system that’s admittedly marred by its close con nection to colonialism and slavery.

This country is full of qualified decent citizens with a lifetime of service to The Bahamas who will excel at the governor gen eral position. Should the prime minister be looking to replace Sir Cornelius A. Smith, I suggest he look at one of them more carefully rather than risk insulting the entire Christian com munity with such a reckless choice. For the prime min ister, I end with this word of caution from countless members of the Christian community for your politi cal future; when selecting the next governor general, keep church and politics separate!

A CONCERNED MAN OF GOD Nassau, October 26, 2022

No surprises from the FNM

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IN A letter published in your column on the 26th October, a Mr Felix Sands laments that the Free National Move ment “(chose) the wrong side on the price control issue”.

While I wholeheartedly agree with the author’s sen timents, I am left to wonder how long he has been

observing events in this country. Had he been at it for long, then he would have noted that the Free National Move ment has also been on the wrong side of Independ ence, Bahamianisation, National Insurance, The Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Pindling’s proposed National Youth Service and Christie’s proposed

National Health Insurance for Bahamians. With a record like that, I would expect a percep tive writer like Mr Sands to reserve his surprise for that unlikely day when the Free National Movement finds itself on the right side of something.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, October 26, 2022.

THE MEMBERS of Team Bahamas in Marseille, France, at the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Motorsport Games - the first ever Bahamian karting team. See SPORTS for more.

AMERICANS FINED OVER POSSESSION OF HEMP

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

TWO Americans were fined in Magistrate’s Court yesterday on separate drug charges.

Jerica Howell, 32, of New York, faced Magistrate Samuel McKinney on a charge of possession of dan gerous drugs.

On October 21, while attempting to return home, Howell was arrested at Lynden Pindling Interna tional Airport after eight grams of Indian hemp were found in her suitcase in a clear plastic bag.

The accused pleaded guilty to the offence. She apologised for her actions and said that she was una ware of the legal status of marijuana usage here.

The magistrate fined Howell $300 for the offence.

The other American, Anthony Blake Jr, 22, of Georgia, also faced Mag istrate McKinney for possession of dangerous drugs.

On October 21 in New Providence, after being stopped by authorities after he was found riding his scooter the wrong way on the sidewalk, drugs were discovered in the vehi cle. Eight grams of Indian hemp in a clear plastic bag were confiscated from the accused.

While Blake pleaded guilty to the charge, he also told the court that he is “not a bad person”.

For the offence, he was fined $300.

PUBLIC POLICY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

AFTER several months of meltdown, temper tan trums and recklessness at 10 Downing Street, with three Conservative leaders and prime ministers, the grownup now in the chair as prime minister is 42-yearold Rishi Sunak.

Sunak follows the comi cal and bumptious egomania of the petulant 58-year-old Boris Johnson, who was des perate to return to office, and the implosion of 47-year-old Liz Truss, who was terribly out of her depth.

There is considerable mistaken talk about Sunak not being elected by the British public and the need therefore for a gen eral election. We have a parliamentary system of representative government in which a party is elected to office. There is no direct election of a prime minister.

While some may argue for an election in the UK for political reasons, Sunak is constitutionally the prime minister because he commands a majority of members in the House of Commons.

Sunak, a wunderkind, was born in May, 1980. Marga ret Thatcher, a lioness of the Tories, came to power in May, 1979. Sunak was a one-year-old when Thatcher

became the first female prime minister of Great Britain.

The times are differ ent and they are different characters, coming from different backgrounds. Sunak is the first Hindu prime minister, whose par ents are of Indian-Punjabi descent born in Africa.

Still, Thatcher and Sunak share a number of critical commonalities: highly disci plined policy wonks thrilled by the work of government, ideas and policy details in a wide range of areas.

DRIVEN

Many who enter politics and government are driven by mostly egotism, narcis sism, a desire for riches and rewards, and motivations other than a desire to do big and compelling things through public service.

Writing in The Atlantic, Graham Allison empha sized that for the Father of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, “the ultimate test of a political system is whether it improves the standard of living for the majority of people”. For some, the ultimate test is whether it improves their individual standard of living.

To improve the standard of living and quality and

longevity of life of a people requires political leaders and public officers who appreci ate and know how to craft and execute public policy and to manage a nation’s affairs through good governance.

Over a number of years, we have fallen into national decline for a number of rea sons, including the poor, sclerotic and scattered quality of public policy and govern ance. We have witnessed at home and abroad a parade of men and women in politics who lack most of the basic characteristics and experi ence needed to understand how to develop a nation.

Domestically, we have seen in successive cabinets, individuals who do not understand basic economics, national and world history, basic concepts of policy for mulation, the constitution or other basic information on the level of a reasonably read individual.

Yet, suddenly, they are thrust into decision-mak ing as parliamentarians and cabinet ministers. The power often overwhelms them, typically injecting high doses of egomania and instant expert syndrome.

GOLDEN AGE?

One must be careful not to

romanticise about so-called past golden ages. Still, there was a period after independ ence when there was a cadre of public officers and perma nent secretaries, like the late Lois Symonette, who knew the system and who were curious and intellectually highly competent.

Quite a number of those who populate the ranks of senior officers today in the public service are incuri ous, poorly read, marking time and, sadly, not espe cially competent. Many do not have an appreciation of world affairs and cur rent events from which they might draw knowledge and inspiration.

Public policy and govern ance are not sexy topics. But when increasing numbers of politicians and public offic ers lack a grasp of both, a country stalls, institutions atrophy, infrastructure crumbles, living stand ards decline, and malaise becomes normative.

A master class and per haps one of the greatest periods of innovation in public policy and good gov ernance was the three terms of Hubert Ingraham and the FNM in office begin ning in 1992.

A study guide or a sort of Cliff Notes for these three dynamic periods of govern ment is being published in three volumes under the title: “I Say What I Mean and I Mean What I Say, Hubert Ingraham in His Own Words.”

Prime Minister Ingra ham was a policy wonk, who often understood one of his minister’s portfolios better than the minister. His mastery of detail in areas ranging from public health to transport to immigration was extraordinary.

Ingraham often used the preparation of his speeches

as policy planning docu ments, which would also communicate to and lay down markers for the public, the public service, the media, business and other stakeholders.

He took the formula tion of his vision, ideas and policy prescriptions seriously, which is why he retained scores of manu scripts dating from before he became prime minister.

He was aided by one of the best public officers of her generation. There is an apocryphal story, perhaps not factually correct, which makes a broader point. A story used to circulate that a former prime minister of a Caricom neighbour once said to Hubert Ingraham: “Every Caribbean prime minister needs a Teresa Butler.”

He was referring to the woman who had served with distinction as Mr Ingraham’s permanent sec retary in the Office of the Prime Minister and then as his senior policy advisor.

Making good public policy is hard, arduous, laborious work. It involves tremendous attention to detail and proper con sultation. It also involves political and economic philosophy or a broader instinct and vision about human development.

VISION

Vision is not a public rela tions exercise with clichés, high blown rhetorical flour ishes, big announcements and glittering presentations.

Vision comes from the mind and heart of a leader or a party, and from what that leader or organisa tion wants for a people in education, health care, economic development, housing, infrastructure and myriad areas of national development.

The best leaders, like Ingraham and Singapore’s Lee, understand the need for long-term vision and gradual changes over time, depending on resources and how quickly a leader can bring the people along.

In our system, the Prime Minister is the most impor tant member of cabinet and that is why we call him or her prime (or first), and he or she has impor tant constitutional powers including certain powers of appointment.

The prime minister’s chief responsibility is the coordination and discipline

of the cabinet where he or she is primus inter pares (first among equals).

A prime minister is expected to provide leader ship for his or her colleagues; is responsible for the agenda and conduct of the proceed ings of the cabinet as well as discipline; is responsible for the overall coordination of the government; and is the chief spokesperson for the government.

Cabinet debates policy matters and comes to a conclusion or conclusions which are then binding on the relevant minister and all of his or her colleagues as well as other relevant agen cies of the government.

Once a cabinet conclu sion is arrived at, neither the prime minister nor any other individual min ister can legally overturn, reverse or vary such deci sion. However, the cabinet can collectively revisit any previous conclusion.

Sometime after inde pendence the policy planning unit in the Office of the Prime Minister ceased to exist. It was a ter rible institutional loss that had a telling effect.

Most governments have well-structured policy plan ning units (PPU), which may be different from a unit that develops longrange national plans. Some governments have separate delivery units, the primary focus of which is oversight of the execution and evalu ation of policy.

PPUs are typically located in the office of the head of government, whether a prime minister or a presi dent. They are charged with turning manifesto and cam paign commitments into public policy.

We are lagging behind as a nation in many areas because the quality of governance has declined over the years, including a more structured approach to policy planning. As the admonition goes: “Those who fail to plan...”

The complex of chal lenges we face as a country, such as stagnant growth, high levels of social dysfunc tion and crime, mounting debt with high serving costs, climate change and ongo ing external shocks require the best people possible to manage national affairs.

We may only begin to address the difficulties we face if we can find the kind of governance, ideas and policy ingenuity that may arrest our national decline.

since it became clear in the late spring and early summer of 2020 that Joe Biden would emerge from a crowded, desperate Democratic Party primary campaign as the challenger to Donald Trump’s bid for re-elec tion, there has been much speculation about whether the fate of these two sep tuagenarians is inextricably linked.

After Biden won a rather convincing victory two years ago by, ironically, almost exactly the same Electoral College margin that Trump had achieved four years earlier, and Trump continued to deny and attempt to negate the outcome, the prospect of the first rematch since 1956 began to gain currency.

Back 70 years ago, Dem ocrat Adlai Stevenson, the heir to a family political legacy and successful Illi nois politician, was chosen by his party to oppose an overwhelmingly popular World War II hero and vic torious commander of the Allied military forces that had vanquished Nazi Ger many in 1945.

General Dwight Eisen hower, known to virtually everyone as “Ike,” had also served as president of Columbia University after the war. Both parties had tried to recruit Ike, and the GOP secured his allegiance. It was after Ike’s decision to join the Republican Party that the Dems turned to Stevenson.

Stevenson never really had much of a chance, either in 1952 or four years later in the rematch. In the first contest, Eisenhower prevailed by 442-89 in the Electoral College and won 39 of what were then the 48 states in the U.S. (Hawaii and Alaska didn’t become states until 1959). In 1956, Eisenhower racked up a huge win in the popular vote and captured 15 more electors and two more states.

EVERNow, on the eve of what may be quite consequen tial mid-term American elections, Biden is assuring everyone that despite the fact that he will be 82 two weeks after taking office for a prospective second term and is already the oldest man ever elected to be the American chief execu tive, he has every intention of running again. Trump would be only a mere 78 years old if he ran again. Against virtually anyone else, Trump’s own age would be a huge issue.

And yet, the odds favour a Biden-Trump rematch, irrespective of what hap pens in the Congressional and state elections in under two weeks from today.

Biden has said he will run again, and while he has attempted to be coy about his intentions, Trump clearly is aching for a chance to reclaim the White House. Both men exercise considerable, perhaps insu perable, power over the direction of their respective parties.

If Trump does decide to run again in 2024 and the Republicans again choose him to be their presiden tial nominee – both events seem statistically likely at this point – he will virtually ensure that Biden will be chosen by the Democrats, despite misgivings many of their most influential elders clearly have about his age and relative unpopularity.

Biden will be ensured of nomination if Trump runs for the same reason that he got the nod two years ago: He was by far the most likely Democrat to beat the bombastic New York tycoon. Biden would likely win again. And the example of Ike and Adlai Steven son would be resuscitated endlessly.

But if Trump doesn’t run or isn’t nominated, watch out. There might not be Joe Biden on a national ticket two years hence, either.

Trump and Biden thus seem destined to be inex tricably linked in future history books. But it is the

potential link between Trump’s fate and that of Russian Vladimir Putin that seems more topical and, frankly, relevant at this point.

Trump is presently beleaguered. The January 6 commission consisting of sitting members of the House of Representatives has orchestrated an impres sive and often riveting exposition of Trump’s vil lainous role in one of the greatest moments in Amer ican sedition. The question remains open and conse quential as to what legal remedies may be found for Trump’s illegal incite ment of that disastrous riot. The January 6 committee has now officially sought his testimony under oath and Trump has of course refused. The Department of Justice will have to figure out how to deal with this.

If that were not serious enough, Trump remains in the legal spotlight in sev eral other venues, including in Atlanta where the local district attorney has been methodically building a case against Trump and others for attempted interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

So far, the case has ensnared, according to news reports, a United States senator, a congress man, a local Cadillac dealer, a high school economics teacher, the chairman of the state Republican Party, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, six lawyers aiding Mr. Trump, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and, of course, the former president himself. The pros ecutor’s belief seems to be that the fact that Trump & Company did all their misdeeds largely out in the open does not indem nify them from criminal prosecution.

The Georgia case is making headlines these days, because Atlanta’s DA has subpoenaed South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham for tes timony about his role in

the post-election skulldug gery, and Graham has run to Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas for help. Thomas, a Geoorgia native who administratively super vises Georgia cases on the high tribunal, promptly granted Graham indemnifi cation from having to testify and, presumably, be com pelled to tell the truth under oath. But Thomas’ relief may be short-lived and the case is separately gaining momentum anyhow.

Related cases in New York City may also turn out to be quite troublesome for Trump. The Manhattan dis trict attorney is continuing his predecessor’s investiga tion into illegal perquisites allegedly granted to Trump Corporation executives.

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, has meanwhile ramped up her own civil investigation into Mr. Trump’s finan cial statements, according to the New York Times. She recently filed a lawsuit that accused him, his chil dren and his company of “staggering” fraud and mis representation of assets to evade taxes. The suit filed by Ms. James also seeks to bar the former president, as well as his children, Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, from ever running a business in the state again.

And there’s also the ongoing FBI investigation into Trump’s mishandling

Federal investigators have tried to manage the public and skillful pushback from Trump, who calls the whole investigation a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” and from his platoon of lawyers.

Trump support ers claim that all these inves tigations, which are being conducted by elected and appointed Democratic officials, have the aim of barring Trump from ever running for office again.

This hardly seems to be a claim altogether without merit: Democratic leaders would clearly be relieved if Trump were to be legally prohibited from ever run ning again.

But for the present and for the foreseeable future, there’s no likelihood of any of these suits really impacting Trump directly or calamitously. A majority of his endorsed candidates are going to prevail next Tues day, and his influence on the GOP is not likely going to be eroded anytime soon.

What if Trump does run again in 2024? What does that mean for one of his avowed heroes, Vladimir Putin?

Putin has for nine months presided over a military and political disaster after unwisely invading Ukraine in a brazen land and power grab right under West ern and NATO noses in Europe.

As he observes his Chi nese counterpart rewarded with what looks like a life time license to preside over the world’s most populous nation, Putin may be feeling some heat over his Ukraine misjudgments.

Rumours of insurrection against Russian leaders have largely been fantasies for the past 100 years, but it is reasonable to wonder for just how long the Moscow military and civilian bureau cracy and political elite will tolerate such a humiliating and draining misadventure at the hands of a Ukraine they all disdain.

While Putin has by all accounts been careful to accumulate and maintain an impressive degree of con trol over Russian politics and his nation’s economic elite, Russians are nothing if not fiercely nationalis tic. If the public opinion of Putin’s Ukraine war slips into a concern that defeat looms, he might really be in trouble.

If so, he could always point to his ties to a newlyreelected Trump.

Stranger things have happened.

of classified documents he allegedly and improperly took with him into politi cal exile in Florida after decamping from the White House in January 2020.

US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

INVESTMENT FUND

EE A S’

By JADE RUSSELL jrussell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said yes terday the National Investment Fund Bill paves the way for a new framework that moves the country toward cru cial national development goals.

“This new framework for governance of the nation’s assets and investments will allow our country to move forward on crucial national development goals,” he told Parliament.

Through this bill, The Bahamas Resilient Infra structure Fund will be created that will help pro mote partnerships for development and in other instances, the redevelop ment of Family Island infrastructure, Mr Davis said.

Additionally, as a part of the Bahamas Resilient Infrastructure Fund several sub-funds will be intro duced such as the Growth Fund for the Family Islands, Food Security Fund, and Renewable Energy Fund.

He said a Growth Fund for the Family Islands will be an investment fund to promote the development of infrastructure to sup port local Family Island economies and to sup port sustainable tourism – including airport, port and maritime infrastructure, and the provision of key infrastructure services.

He continued: “A Food Security Fund: An invest ment fund to promote the development of sustain able food production, to improve self-reliance and reduce exports. For exam ple, one initial focus will be the aquaculture and fisheries segment, given its high potential in our archipelago.

“A Renewable Energy Fund: An investment fund to promote the develop ment of cleaner, more efficient energy projects.”

Mr Davis tabled the National Investment Funds Bill yesterday at the House of Assembly.

He said that the bill had two main objectives.

One being to author ise the establishment of National Investment Funds, in efforts to advance the blue, green, and orange economies of the country.

Secondly, to provide effective and transpar ent management of the natural resources of The Bahamas, along with pri vate investments held by the government.

Mr Davis said the bill is based on how national funds are designed on global principles of good governance.

He continued: “We are proud that this National Investment Fund Bill is structured in line with ‘The Santiago Principles’.

“These are a set of 24 global principles that assign best practices to the operation of national funds to ensure transpar ency, accountability, high ethical standards, and independence, especially in the auditing and public disclosure requirements of the funds, which include making that information easily available online to the public.

“This will put The Baha mas among the top tier of world-class national funds, and demonstrate to Baha mians and to investment partners alike, that they can be confident in the integ rity of this Fund and have confidence in doing busi ness in The Bahamas and with the government of The Bahamas.”

He said the bill will aid in the country’s development and future progress.

“This new framework for governance of the nation’s assets and investments will allow our country to move forward on crucial national development goals,” he told Parliament.

“We are confident that our innovative solutions to long-standing challenges will build progress across our islands.

“We can’t – we won’t –let the turbulence of these times stand in the way of our national development.”

AI RA ED R A

A SED RDER ID

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was granted bail in the Supreme Court yes terday in connection with an alleged failed murder bid in early September.

Montre David, 24, repre sented by Ciji Smith-Curry, appeared before Justice Guillimina Archer-Minns by conference call for determination on his bail for a charge of attempted murder.

According to police reports, on the night of September 8 in Dignity Gardens, David is alleged to have shot Billy Cejour, who although hit multiple times about the body sur vived his injuries.

In court, the prosecution

raised no objections to the defendant’s bail, but asked that strict conditions be attached.

As such, $15,000 bail was granted to David with one or two sureties on condition that he sign in at Carmi chael Road Police Station every Wednesday and Sat urday by 7pm.

Justice Archer-Minns further warned the accused not to interfere with any witnesses in this case, as failure to comply with any of these conditions would result in his bail being revoked.

David is expected to be served his Voluntary Bill of Indictment for the charge on December 12 before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.

VAT LIFT ON POWER

I I SI I I A ’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Move ment leader Michael Pintard said the govern ment’s amendment to the Value Added Tax Bill to increase the VAT-free ceil ing on Bahamas Power and Light bills from $300 to $400 is “insignificant”.

The amendment, which was debated yesterday, comes days ahead of an electricity bill increase, set to take place next month due to a higher fuel surcharge.

During the debate in Parliament, Mr Pintard persisted that the Davis administration failed to act in a timely manner regard ing hedging trades that would have locked in cheaper fuel prices for consumers.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis had earlier told parliamentarians that as consumers would face a high fuel surcharge, the ceiling was being raised to “bring some relief to the least among us”.

Mr Davis asked the oppo sition to partner with the government to assist people in need of the help.

Mr Pintard said: “One of the few times we have been here in the last three and half months with an admin istration that has developed a pattern of behaviour that is worrisome, after making fundamental errors they returned to Parliament or televised addresses to make promises popular in nature, unfortunately with insuffi cient funds to fund as time goes on. I refer to it as an act of extending candy that tastes sweet in the moment of announcements, but cer tainly cavities will follow later. That is the pattern of behaviour.

“Here we are today debating the issue of amending the VAT Act of 2014 to increase BPL VAT exemption from $300 to $400. We make a big deal of it as if this is something dramatic and significant for the transformation of Baha mian lives. Bahamians who have gone through COVID, gone through Dorian who are a part of an economy that is struggling to recover and no less than the chief executive officer of the country moves this bill.

“Rather than move the amendment they should come to apologise for this Band-Aid solution that they have brought here because what was not included in the prime minis ter’s presentation is that we are here precisely because the member for Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador assisted by the member for Fort Charlotte refused to execute the trades that they were advised were abso lutely necessary to stave off what we now face and they are now looking to Ukraine and Russia as scapegoats for where we are today.”

Mr Pintard also said: “There was ample evidence that we had a plan in place to maintain the price of fuel in the vicinity of 10.5 cents and even if it increased certainly not beyond 11.5 cents. That information was ignored and we challenge the minister of works, we challenge the prime minis ter in this House that they have seen none of these documents.”

To this, Mr Davis said he had seen no papers or advice, adding “none reached my desk”.

For his part, Works

Minister Alfred Sears said: “Not only was I not provided but what this hon ourable member of Marco City has failed to disclose to this honourable House is that what was on the table was a rate reduction bond to borrow $500m.

“The first briefing that I received was that this was urgent, this was the solu tion, that this would solve the problems of energy in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and they said it had to be signed right away.

“It was not disclosed that this $500m package had no provision for renew able energy, no provision for wind, no provision for ocean thermal.”

Members then began heckling from both sides, with House Speaker Patri cia Deveaux having to rise to her feet to return order in the lower chamber.

Mr Sears said it was the former Minnis admin istration that failed to act, adding they had not approved the rate reduction bond.

However, Mr Pintard insisted that Mr Sears was attempting to deflect from the hedging issue.

Mr Sears maintained that the Minnis Cabinet refused to approve the rate reduc tion bond.

He continued that the hedge is still active and will not expire until 2024. The minister said a BPL com mittee was working through how to extend the hedge.

“I have not seen a draft Cabinet paper; no draft Cabinet paper has ever been submitted to me and this is why I was sit ting there minding my own business, but the honour able member invited me so therefore I can say for the record that no draft Cabi net paper prepared by the honourable member or any of his colleagues has been presented to me,” Mr Sears said.

Still, Mr Pintard levelled another round of allega tions saying that Mr Sears had been briefed by the hedge committee.

“I have not met with the hedge committee of BPL. I have not met with the hedge committee within BPL,” Mr Sears insisted.

Mr Pintard repeated that the necessary trades were not executed. Had this been done, Bahamians would have been protected from spikes in electric bills, he said.

This led Mr Davis to stand and urge Mr Pintard to explain the trades he was referring to and whether the $500m rate reduction bond was an appropriate arrangement.

Mr Pintard explained that the initial contract that was put in place outlined 80 percent of anticipated fuel volumes were hedged in the first year leaving 20 percent exposed to market pricing, 50 percent of the antici pated fuel volumes were hedged in year two leaving 50 percent exposed, and 25 percent of the anticipated fuel volumes were hedged in year three, leaving 75 percent exposed to market pricing.

He said the Davis admin istration had not disclosed that in all sensible financial hedging transactions, 100 percent is never hedged.

“Had they locked in the 10.5 cents per kilowatt rather than leave so much fuel subject to variation in price on the open market, you would not be in this position,” Mr Pintard said.

FNM leader Michael Pintard in Parliament yesterday.

Photo: Moise Amisial

Mitchell says goalposts shifting on tax

By EARYEL BOWLEG

DESPITE the notion that Caribbean countries with competitive tax regimes are robbing European countries of revenue, For eign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said the evidence shows the opposite of this is true.

Mr Mitchell addressed the 39th conference of the

Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina yesterday.

The Fox Hill MP spoke about the tax competition while he said the issue of climate change is “front and centre” for The Bahamas citing the impact of Hur ricane Dorian such as the cost in damage and lives lost.

“And the question is, are

we sufficiently serious when we come to COP27, to pro vide the funding for loss and damage, and to provide monies for us to be able to adapt, and to mitigate the effects of climate change. So far, the money has not been present or put there for this to happen,” he said.

“And secondly, we keep arguing for this multidimensional vulnerability index, because it’s been said time and again, that gross

national product per capita does not adequately point out the vulnerabilities of our countries. So when we go to COP27, we will be again arguing on loss and damage, and arguing that we need to move to a mul tidimensional vulnerability in that in our region, we are suffering the instability of Haiti.”

He highlighted there is an ongoing concern about the instability and

humanitarian needs of Haiti and The Bahamas along with its CARICOM member states have decided to work towards some kind of solution for this.

“I understand that there is a resolution which is potentially to be crafted and go through the United Nations Security Council shortly to be able to pro vide that support. And I hope that every country here in this room will sup port those efforts at the United Nations Security Council to support trying to do what we can to restore order and progress in the Haitian Republic,” he said.

Mr Mitchell expressed concerns regarding the views on international tax matters.

He added: “The Baha mas, though, is concerned that there is an asymme try, and I hope I listened yesterday to the repre sentative of the OECD.

And I’m informed that after the foreign ministers speak, we will hear from the European Union, but there’s an asymmetry which exists between CARICOM countries and the EU with regard to their view of what is happening on interna tional (tax) matters.”

“And I say this because the bottom line is poverty and uplifting people from poverty in our societies and 10-20 years ago, the mantra across the hemisphere and region was international competition and trade. And international competition and trade meant that we could use whatever assets we had to lower the cost of doing business and this included tax competition.

“Suddenly, the EU has found religion on this point, and tax competition has now become somehow immoral.

The next thing we know is the rules start changing - chang ing unilaterally. And these mandates are being imposed upon CARICOM countries.

And every time you meet the last goalpost, the goal posts have shifted again, again unilaterally. And what they’re saying is that these societies, the Caribbean soci eties that are engaged in this tax competition, are robbing the European countries of revenue.”

He said the evidence is that these countries are not

robbing these European societies of any significant sums.

“When the evidence is, in fact, just the opposite, first of all, the taxes that are being lost, and the money laundering and the allega tions that there’s evasion. We know that in devel oped countries that much more money passes through those systems than can ever pass through the systems in the CARICOM countries. So that’s the first thing,” the minister stated.

“Secondly, the evidence is that people park their money in our societies, but the money goes right back, when it’s cashed into the developed societies. And the one that comes to mind is Cameron’s father, who used to be the prime minister of Britain, discov ered that his father had put assets in The Bahamas. When he discovered it, the assets were cashed in and returned to the UK. So the evidence is that the socie ties are not robbing these European societies of any significant sums - at least that’s my view of it.

“But what I do know is that as a result of changing these people in The Baha mas, who had good incomes as a result of this tax com petition, which is what I choose to call it, have now lost those incomes and are now scraping for jobs in our countries in a place where they had comfortable middle class incomes.”

Mr Mitchell said he took offence to a statement that was attributed to a spokes person for Oxfam, an “anti-poverty organisation and anti-hunger organisa tion” in the UK, in which it was said after the latest blacklisting of The Baha mas the country deserved what it got.

“And I thought to myself how can an organisation that knows what the net effect of the policies, these unilateral decisions are going to be on the society in The Bahamas and through out the Caribbean? How can someone justly make such a statement is in fact outrageous and perhaps they need to go and revisit that statement. Because it is really causing dislocations in The Bahamas and across the Caribbean region.”

MAN ACCUSED OVER DEADLY BOAT TRAGEDY

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was granted bail in the Supreme Court yes terday in connection with the tragic sinking of a sus pected migrant vessel that left 18 people dead in late July.

McKenzie Jerome, aka “Jerome McKenzie”, 53, appeared before Justice Guilimina Archer-Minns on an online conference call for bail determination for a charge of 18 counts of manslaughter. The accused faced two addi tional charges on this matter for allegedly failing to register or licence the craft in this incident.

It is alleged that on July 24, Jerome being concerned with three other men — Donald Watson, 39, Eulan McKinney, 49, and Wilbens Joseph, 37 — caused the deaths of 17 Haitian migrants (16 women and one man) as well as an unborn foetus.

Official reports indicate that around 1am on July 24, a twin engine speed boat capsized in rough seas while

en route to Miami. Officers from the RBPF and RBDF managed to rescue more than 25 of the approxi mately 60 persons on board the vessel seven miles off New Providence.

In court, upon review ing attorney Alex Dorsett’s bail submission for Jerome, the justice determined it will be granted. However she noted that due to the gravity of the offence, con ditions will be imposed.

Jerome’s bail was set at $30,000 with one or two sureties. His passport is to be surrendered to authori ties and he is prohibited from leaving New Provi dence as he awaits trial.

In addition to being fitted with an electronic monitoring device, the accused is expected to sign in at Quakoo Street Police Station every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday by 7pm. Jerome was also warned not to interfere with any witnesses.

Jerome, with his coaccused, are still awaiting service of their voluntary bills of indictment for the charge.

Darville tables new NHI Bill in Parliament

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness

Minister Dr Michael Dar ville yesterday tabled the new National Health Insur ance Bill 2022, which once passed will repeal the NHI legislation of 2016.

This new bill, Mr Dar ville told the House of Assembly, represented the Davis administration’s commitment to healthcare reform by way of universal healthcare for all Bahamian citizens and residents.

Through the 2016 law, the National Health Insur ance Bahamas programme was launched and the National Health Insur ance Authority, the agency responsible for the delivery of accessible and affordable healthcare services to all Bahamians, was formed.

The minister said to call NHI anything less than a success story would be an understatement, adding that many countries around the world were looking at The Bahamas’ model.

He said: “Since 2017 we have enrolled over 135,000 Bahamians in the NHI programme who are now covered for some essential primary healthcare ser vices and have been paired with their selected family doctor throughout our archipelago.

“The authority has also focused on provid ing coverage for the most underserved in our commu nities, including residents of many Family Islands.

Today nearly 20,000 of those enrolled in NHI live across 17 Family Islands and we are still expanding our services throughout The Bahamas.

“Patient satisfaction rates remain well over 90 percent and according to the recent polling, 95 percent of Baha mians still believe that the National Health Insurance Authority is the right path towards universal health coverage and despite many challenges we face, NHI remains a shining example of unity and commitments towards this bold trans formative social agenda.

“Over the past year National Health Insurance has proudly collaborated with other key system stakeholders, including the Public Hospitals Authority, the Department of Public Health, the Pan American Health Organisation and many others in an effort to streamline the delivery of healthcare services by way of integrated care.

“This modern approach to healthcare will improve the clinical outcomes and access to essential primary healthcare delivery services throughout our country.”

He continued: “While the growth of NHIA is a tremendous success story and is history in the making, the current legislation is no longer sufficient to meet the evolving needs of NHI and the increasingly complex financial landscape existing in The Bahamas.

“Over the past few years with the ongoing COVID19 pandemic and Dorian we

KIDNEY TRANSPLANT PLAN LAUNCHED

THE Ministry of Health and Wellness plans to launch a comprehensive kidney transplant pro gramme, with the aim of performing ten transplants by the end of next year.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Dar ville, with Permanent Secretary Collin Higgs and other health officials, recently met Bahamian physicians Dr Rhea Thurston-Carroll and Dr Vantario Taylor and mem bers of the international non-profit organisation

Transplant Links Commu nity (TLC), including CEO Aimee Jewitt-Harris, to dis cuss the implementation of a living donor kidney trans plant programme.

The need for public education about kidney transplants and the estab lishment of an end stage renal failure registry in The Bahamas were also discussed. In September, Cabinet gave approval for

the ministry to commence a hospital facility assess ment from its budget. The assessment by the TLC team reported satisfaction that with some instrument upgrades and additional needs assessments, a kidney transplant programme can be successful in The Baha mas, a press release from the Ministry of Health noted.

“Kidney failure and dialysis continues to put a heavy burden on the public health budget,” the Minis try of Health said. “While dialysis remains a viable option for kidney failure treatment, this living donor programme would give patients an improved qual ity of life and a cost burden relief to the healthcare system. The aim is to have performed ten transplants by the end of 2023 with legislative amendments to the Drug Prescription Act to make the anti-rejection medication

at no

have witnessed first-hand the importance of main taining accessible primary healthcare and the impact of primary healthcare coverage on the overall health and wellbeing of our people.

“We have also seen the staggering financial impacts of acute care and the tremendous burden at our hospital brought on by patients suffering from

chronic non-communica ble diseases. The reality is in many cases the pre scription to address our complex health challenges is in affordable, robust pri mary healthcare that can mitigate many of our health challenges brought on by the impact of poorly man aged non-communicable diseases.”

He said the new bill would modernise NHIA

legislation to meet the current realities of the healthcare system and bring together both public and private clinical practices under a common finance structure that rewards performance quality and service excellence.

It also lays out the legal framework for the rollout of a suite of services called the standard health ben efits package that all NHI

beneficiaries will receive what is available now and much more.

“Some of these ser vices included primary healthcare services, health education and promotions, early detection and pre ventative care, diagnostic imaging, paediatric and maternity care, screen pro grammes for cancers and other conditions,” Dr Dar ville said.

to the patients.”

BAPTIST CHURCH HOSTS FESTIVAL TO

I E IEVERS R S IRI A WAR ARE’

THE Providence Bap tist Church will be hosting “The Never Scared Spirit ual Warfare Festival” in an effort to empower believers in their battle against spir itual attacks.

The festival will kick off tomorrow night at the church on Robinson Road and concludes on October 30. The opening service begins at 7pm.

Noted Bahamian pastor and evangelist, Angela Munnings of Cat Island and of Inner Wheel Outreach Ministries in Orlando, Florida, has been invited to share her story, and to impart knowledge and faith applications tailored to this day and age.

This will be in the form of workshops and anointed preaching.

Additionally, Bahamian gospel recording artists, the Eboni Praise and Worship Ministry, will “release the sound of heaven” in a night of worship, intercessions and declarations, to prepare the way for God’s glory to shine. Their single, “No Other Name,” will be the

theme for tomorrow night’s service.

Pastor Clinton Minnis said the event is exactly what is needed to reposi tion people’s faith.

“We are pleased to present to Nassau an expe rience that will speak to the cloud of darkness which appears to be overwhelm ing for some, but certainly not for others. In response to the following depressing, emotional and psychologi cal acts of spiritual assaults, caused in part by our lack of diligence, and in some

cases, unchristian attitudes, anti-social behaviours and disrespect for law and order, the church must do what it should know best,” he told Tribune Religion.

“Our enemy, (the spirit and angel of dark ness), always seeks to use human beings as vessels as instruments of death and destruction, such as guns and knives as swords for physical, and words as weapons for informa tional attacks, to paralyse and defeat our hope and good intention, and our

reputation. His desires are strategically designed so that he can cause us to sur render in fear. However, 2 Timothy Ch 1 vs 7, reminds us that, ‘God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, (to respond in faith), love (to conquer our sins and those of others), and a sound mind, (not to be easily persuaded against the will of God).”

For more information about the event, contact 242-803-6326.

A A IA S E AR IS RIS ER R ER S RE EIVE

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN gospel artist and ordained minister Christopher Roberts is being honoured by the Antigua Barbuda Gospel Music & Media Awards for his contribu tions to the world of gospel music on a regional scale.

Mr Roberts was selected by the organisation to be the recipient of the Legacy Award for Distin guished Service. The awards show takes place on November 5.

Mr Roberts began his music career at the age of nine when he made his singing debut on stage at the Polaris Hall at Holiday Inn on Paradise Island.

He had his share of challenges during his formative years. At age 11, he gained national attention when he ran away from home and the local newspapers ran stories with the headline: “Eleven-yearold boy missing”.

This adventure landed him in front of the Juvenile Panel; he had to undergo a psychological evaluation at Sandilands and was placed on a probationary period.

One day before his 14th birth day, he was placed in the custodial care of the Boys Industrial School. For him, this was a blessing in dis guise. It was at the Boys Industrial School where he accepted Christ into his life and began his career in choir directing.

This choir and its members, born out of a unique set of cir cumstances, garnered attention with its appearances on national radio, at concerts, churches and other special government and civic events.

In 1991, Mr Roberts was given the opportunity to conduct his first choir workshop with the

Southland Church of God Choir under the direction of the late Sister Lovetha Robinson. This experience ignited a new fire in his spirit and shortly thereaf ter, the New Providence Gospel Music Workshop was born. The name was later changed to the Interdenominational Music and Arts Gospel Workshop – Baha mas (IMAGE - Workshop) which ran for 35 years.

The ability to totally transform a choir has taken Mr Roberts into almost every church and denomi nation on every island or the Bahamas, to various parts of the United States, Canada, Europe and parts of the Caribbean. He has also had the privilege of either singing with or directing choirs for Rev Timothy Wright, John P Kee, Kirk Franklyn, Donnie McClur kin, BeBe and CeCe Winans, and Shirley Caesar.

On March 1, 2020, he fulfilled a lifelong dream of releasing a

In-person concerts to resume at the Cathedral this weekend

THIS Sunday, October 30, the music department of Christ Church Cathedral, in conjunc tion with the Nassau Music Society, resumes in-person con certs at Christ Church Cathedral with a presentation of music entitled “Psalm, Hymns and Spiritual Tunes.”

“We are so delighted to return to some aspects of normalcy with our public music programme,” said Adrian Archer, Director of Music at the Anglican Cathedral.

“Psalms, Hymns and Classi cal Tunes” is the name given to this concert headlined by Dr Paul Jones, our associate organ ist, and choir accompanist, who has skillfully woven together dif ferent styles of music, including some of his own compositions and arrangements, using vari ous local instrumentalists and singers.”

Dr Jones is the current Head of the Department of Perform ing Arts and choral director at the University of the Bahamas, his graduate degrees in piano and conducting are from Indi ana University where he was a doctoral conducting fellow and studied piano with Menahem Pressler.

Dr Jones has served on the faculty of four universities and staff of eight churches (as organ ist and/or music director), has written two books on church music, composed 250 plus works, recorded 16 albums, performed in 14 countries, and accompa nied eight Metropolitan Opera stars as well as many top-tier orchestral soloists.

Appearing with Dr Jones at the 6pm concert will be the com bined voices of the University of the Bahamas Concert Choir, The Highgrove Singers, and the men and women of the Cathe dral Choir under the direction of Adrian Archer, flutist Dr Christine Gangelhoff, violinist Catharina Jirjahlke, Christian Justilien on Tuba, Trumpetist Yonell Justilien, cellist Romel Shearer and the UB brass and percussion players includ ing Zaavan Colebrooke, Jean Joseph, Tyreke King, Daniel Saunders, and Caleb Sears.

Tickets priced are at $20 for adults and $10 for children and may be obtained from Christ Church Cathedral, George Street, and all Customs Comput ers locations as well and may be purchased at the door.

gospel choir album. Several of songs have captured the hearts of listeners and are requested frequently on radio stations, and are charting on numerous music charts.

In June of 2021, Christopher Roberts & Friends won the award of Church Choir of the Year in the Gospel Choice Music Awards held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Later that same month, they won seven of the 13 awards they were nominated in at Bahamas Gospel Music Awards, including Collaboration of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Junkanoo Rake n’ Scrape Music of the Year, Song of the Year, Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Producer of the Year. This made them the top winners in that event.

Also in 2021, their song “Prom ised Land” was nominated in the Antigua & Barbuda Gospel Music Awards for Praise and Worship song of the Year.

The upcoming honour from the Antigua Barbuda Gospel Music & Media Awards, Mr Roberts said, feels bittersweet.

“It brings about a feeling of humility and utmost gratitude. Humility because I know that I was not the only choice, but somehow the lot feel on me, not because of me, but because of the God that I sing about. Grati tude, because there is a long list of persons who poured into and mentored me. They saw in me many times what I didn’t see in myself. It is on their shoulders that I stand in gratitude,” he said.

“On the other hand, though, I feel a sense of sadness. My min istry has primarily been in the Bahamas. For the past 41 years I have laboured tirelessly and unmatched, and it took an out side entity to do what my own (country) has never done. Let me hurriedly say that honours and awards are not my agenda,

nor are they my validation, but it does engender some kind of feeling when strangers can say thanks and the direct beneficiaries remain silent. But nonetheless, I say to God be all the glory.”

However, Mr Roberts is happy with the exposure the award will give him and the Bahamas.

“For me, this gives me hope for the music of the Bahamas. We have so many talented singers and musicians, but the opportunity to get our music heard on an inter national stage does not come by as often as we would like. So, for me and my music to receive this kind of recognition gives me hope that maybe the doors are opening and the barriers or obstacles are being removed. For many years we have been the ones receiving the missionaries and the influence of other cultures. Maybe it’s now our time to take our music and our culture as a mission to the world,” he said.

The Christopher Roberts & Friends’ 'The Choir Project' was also won three of the nine catego ries they are nominated in at the Caribbean Marlin Awards 2022; they won Outstanding Traditional Recording, Outstanding Choir Recording, Outstanding Rake n’ Scrape Recording

“I am presently in the studio working on my next single. I am about to publish my first book and I’m working on three others to be released next year. It is my desire to do a Family Island and high school tour next year. I believe that I have stories to tell, both personal and spiritual, that I believe, coupled with the music God has inspired me to write and sing, can bring relief, encourage ment, instruction, and comfort to people,” he said.

EBONI PRAISE AND WORSHIP MINISTRY

PASTOR ANGELA MUNNINGS

PASTOR CHRISTOPHER ROBERTS

ADRIAN ARCHER

CATHARINA JIRJAHLKE

DR CHRISTINE GANGELHOFF

CHRISTIAN JUSTILIEN

YONELL JUSTILIEN

DR PAUL JONES

Motorsport mania

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TeamBahamas is poised to make history for the local development of the sport when they compete in the 2022 International Automobile Federation (FIA) Motorsport Games.

The seven-member team of Dominick Robinson, Jashai Burrows, Caden Burbridge, Chris Bain, Maria Scott, Gisele Liriano and Romando Hudson are expected to compete against drivers from 72 countries at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Marseille, France. Hudson, Bain, Burrows and Liriano are scheduled to compete in the four-hour Karting Endurance race.

Top co-ed competition will also feature teams from Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, Peru, Georgia, Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Spain,

‘BUDDY’ HIELD SCORES 24 IN LOSS TO BULLS

By MARK GONZALES Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) —

Zach LaVine scored 28 points, including a key 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter that sparked the Bulls to a 124-109 victory over the Indiana Pacers last night.

The Bulls led by as many as 24 points in the second half before Pacers guard Chavano “Buddy” Hield hit three 3-pointers that cut the deficit to 95-91 late in the third quarter. He scored 24.

But Indiana forward Terry Taylor was assessed with a clear path foul, allowing LaVine to sink two free throws and the Bulls to retain possession.

Andre Drummond con verted a dunk, and Javonte Green earned a steal near midcourt and finished with a dunk to enable the Bulls to regain a double-digit lead.

DeRozan, attempting to become the 50th player in NBA history to reach the 20,000 mark, moved to with

Slovakia, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom. Each will compete in identical Tillotson T4 machinery. Official practice will commence on Friday, October 28,

ahead of qualifying on Saturday morning. The four-hour medal race will take place at 11:30am on Saturday. Burnbridge and Scott are scheduled to compete in the

Karting Slalom competition. The entry list includes 21 teams com peting in a parallel slalom course in relay format. The co-ed event features drives 14-16 years old.

UNIVERSITY OF THE BAHAMAS LADIES’ VOLLEYBALL

Mingoes lose to AU

DORAL, Florida – The Uni versity of The Bahamas women’s volleyball team dropped both matches against Atlantis University over the weekend in the South Flor ida area.

The team lost the first match Friday 25-10, 25-5 and 25-7. The second game they performed better but still lost in straight sets - 25-13, 25-21 and 25-10.

Head coach Raymond Wilson said despite the losses he saw improve ment for the team over the two matches.

“They hustled much better in the second game than the first game,” he said.

“They showed much more of their potential and their ability to play this game at a high level. I give them a little above average on their pro ductivity and I can only see better things ahead for them.”

This weekend’s tour was the team’s first set of games in more than three years. Many on the team are true freshmen as well. Coach Wilson added the team is still improving and will continue to make its pres ence known.

“This is now the practical side of things and I would give them slightly above average,” he said.

“There is much for them to learn and it isn’t just about learning basics but also how to cut down on errors. We lost a lot of points on errors. So

Ireland upsets England in rainreduced T20 World Cup game

By CHETAN NARULA Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Aus tralia (AP) — Ireland upset England by five runs in a rainy Twenty20 World Cup Group 1 game decided yesterday on the Duck worth-Lewis-Stern method for calculating revised targets.

The relentless rain in Melbourne later saw the New Zealand vs. Afghani stan game abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Ireland was sent in to bat and posted 157 in 19.2 overs with skipper Andy Balbirnie belting 62 from 47 balls and Lorcan Tucker scoring 34.

England finished 105 for five from 14.3 overs. Josh Little took 2-16 to lead the Irish attack. It’s yet another upset in a tournament that

has already seen the twotime champion West Indies fail to qualify for the second round after preliminarystage losses to Scotland and Ireland. Former champion Sri Lanka lost its first-round opener to Namibia before recovering to advance to the Super 12s.

“We were poor in the first 10 overs and let Ireland get away. We let them score freely on both sides and were not consistent (bowl ing),” England captain Jos Buttler said. “We won the toss and bowled first, know ing what we needed to do. We didn’t take advantage of it.”

The start at the MCG was delayed by 15 minutes before another 25-minute delay after only 1.3 overs were bowled.

Put in to bat, Ireland had made a good start and

reached 59-1 in the power play. Opener Bilbirnie put on an attacking display and added 82 runs off 57 balls with Tucker for the second wicket. Bilbirnie hit five fours and two sixes. Ireland was 92-1 at the end of 10 overs and it gave the team vital impetus in the match.

Bilbirnie reached his half-century off 40 balls as Ireland lost regular wickets at the other end. Tucker was unlucky to be run out at the non-striker’s end. Mark Wood dismissed Harry Tector for a duck. Liam Livingstone took 3-17 in three overs and missed a hat trick. Ireland lost nine wickets for 54 runs in less than eight overs. Wood finished with 3-34. Sam Curran took 2-31.

In response, England was down to 29-3 in 5.1 overs, losing Buttler for a two-ball duck in a significant blow. Joshua Little (2-16) then struck again as Alex Hales was out caught for seven runs. Allrounder Fionn Hand bowled Ben Stokes (6) as England fell behind the DLS par score from the

Teams must complete three laps – one test and two timed runs – to establish an overall leaderboard.

The fastest teams will then pro gress to the knockout phase of head-to-head time trials, culmi nating in the final to determine the medal winners.

The Bahamas will compete alongside Poland, Hong Kong China, Peru, Germany, Esto nia, Slovakia, Malta, Spain, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Kosovo, Hungary, Albania, Israel, Ukraine, Belize, Canada, Nether lands, and Belgium.

The Karting Slalom com petition begins on Friday and concludes with the medal rounds on Sunday.

The multi-discipline FIA Motorsports games return to competition for the first time since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Karting segment of the event has grown from 30 contested events in 2019 to 57

ANALYSIS: NO OFFENCE BUT 2022 NFL IS NO LEAGUE FOR OLD MEN

By ARNIE STAPLETON AP Pro Football Writer

DENVER (AP) — Defences have finally figured out how to keep all those high-powered offences from lighting up NFL scoreboards, and they’re also showing that in 2022 this is no league for old men.

Tom Brady, whose unretirement at age 45 is looking like a big mistake, was held without a touch down throw Sunday by a woeful Carolina Panthers team that throttled the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21-3 after trading its best player and starting a thirdstring quarterback.

Aaron Rodgers, 38, was held without so much as a third-down conversion — or one on fourth down, for that matter — for the first time in his career in the Green Bay Packers’ 23-21 loss to Washington and Taylor Heinicke.

Matt Ryan, 37, separated his throwing shoulder in the Indianapolis Colts’ 19-10 loss at Tennessee, but coach

IN THE WORLD SERIES, A 1ST SINCE 1950

By BEN WALKER AP Baseball Writer

LOOKING around Memorial Stadium before Game 1 of the 1983 World Series, Philadelphia Phil lies star Gary Matthews saw a lot of Black talent.

Joe Morgan. Eddie Murray. Garry Maddox. Ken Singleton. Al Bumbry. Disco Dan Ford. And plenty more that night in Baltimore.

“There were quite a few of us,” Matthews recalled.

When fans watch the Houston Astros and Phil lies line up this week to begin the Fall Classic, it will be a much differ ent picture. To be sure, Houston’s Jose Altuve

and Philadelphia’s Jean Segura are among scores of Latin players helping keep big league rosters diverse.

But for the first time since 1950, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Base ball colour barrier, there project to be no U.S.born Black players in this World Series. Zero.

“That is eye open ing,” said Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. “It is somewhat startling that two cities that have high African American populations,

EYE OPENER: The University of The Bahamas women’s volleyball team in action against Atlantis University.

MAKING HISTORY: Team Bahamas members at the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Motorsport Games at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Marseille, France.

BAHAMAS FEEDING NETWORK’S INAUGURAL GOLF TOURNAMENT ‘TEE OFF FOR HUNGER’ A SOLID SUCCESS

NEARLY 100 players with an appetite for golf and a desire to support a worthy cause turned out for the inaugural ‘Tee off for Hunger’ golf tourna ment at Ocean Club Golf Club recently, helping to raise more than $70,000 in sponsorships, prizes and donations for the Bahamas Feeding Network.

“It was a great day for golf for a great cause,” said Felix Stubbs, chairman of the Bahamas Feeding Net work, the tournament’s beneficiary.

“We want to thank all our sponsors, volunteers, those who donated prizes and in other ways lent support to help make this tournament a success and to ease the pain of hunger for many.”

The Bahamas Feeding Network, formed in 2013 with a handful of churches, now provides 72,000 meals monthly through a net work that supports nearly 100 soup kitchens, church feeding centres and other organisations.

Its annual budget runs more than $2 million with only a tiny fraction used for administrative costs, thanks

More

to a patron who absorbs expenses, including rent.

But on this Sunday, under a clear blue sky and the shimmering ocean waters for a backdrop, the spirit of giving was matched by the drive to win.

Players had their eye on the prizes – a brand new Mercedes Benz for a holein-one on the 12th hole, a seven-day Mediterranean cruise thanks to Royal Caribbean, a Dallas sports weekend inclusive of box seats at a Dallas Cowboys game and round of golf at a famed Texas course, thanks to the Beck Group which also donated courtside seats at a Duke men’s basketball game. “The prizes we got donated were amazing,” said Mario Carey, a BFN

dining experiences includ ing Graycliff, Sapodilla and Café Matisse, resort stays from Baha Mar, Grand Isle,

Romora Bay and Stella Maris, and golf lessons and play at Albany and Atlantis all on the line – and I think it was because it was such a worthy cause.”

Carey, a golfer himself, said the level of play was extraordinary.

More than a quarter of the players came in at par or below.

Mark Carter, a volunteer who helped organise the tournament, was closest to the pin prize on that holein-one, beating out Phil Andrews by three inches.

For BFN executive direc tor Archdeacon James Palacious, the tournament’s success was a testament to the need that BFN helps to fulfill.

“When those who would even be competitors in a given industry or field come together for a worthy cause, you know the power of unity with a purpose, and that is what we expe rienced today --- a super group of people playing a game they love for a cause they respect,” explained Palacious.

MICKELSON COMPLIMENTS MCILROY AS RHETORIC SEEMS TO SIMMER

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer

DORAL, Florida (AP)

— The back-and-forth between Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy continued

yesterday, with the rhetoric tuned down considerably from some past verbal joust ing involving PGA Tour players and those who left for Saudi-funded LIV Golf. Mickelson complimented

McIlroy for his win last week, those remarks coming a day after The Guard ian published an interview in which McIlroy — now the world’s No. 1 player again — said the game isn’t

benefiting from all the acri mony between the sides.

“I see LIV Golf trend ing upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards and I love the side that I’m on,” Mickelson said two

weeks ago in Saudi Arabia, the seventh of the eight stops on this season’s inau gural LIV schedule.

But yesterday, in advance of the LIV finale at Trump National Doral, Mickel son’s tone was a bit softer: “Maybe I shouldn’t have said stuff like that, I don’t know,” he said.

“If I’m just looking at LIV Golf and where we are today to where we were six, seven months ago and people are saying this is dead in the water, and we’re past that,” Mickelson continued.

“Here we are today, a force in the game that’s not going away.”

Part of Mickelson’s word choice there wasn’t acciden tal. McIlroy made the “dead in the water” comment in February, around the time that Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau said they would remain with the PGA Tour. They both left for LIV anyway, lured by signing bonuses reportedly worth in excess of $100 mil lion. Johnson has earned about $31 million more in LIV prize money heading into this weekend’s finale.

McIlroy has made no secret about his feelings toward LIV and the deci sions players made to change tours. “This ‘us versus them’ thing has gotten way out of con trol already,” McIlroy told The Guardian. “If the two entities keep doubling down in both directions, it is only going to become

UB

PAGE 15

once we can clean it up and make less errors we will be doing great.”

The Mingoes were expected to open their New Providence Volleyball Association season yester day against the Bamboo Shack Lady Warhawks and Wilson said he’s putting the league on notice. “This will be the first time these young

irreparable. We are going to have a fractured sport for a long time. That is no good for anyone.”

LIV Golf’s finale is a team-only event that starts Friday and ends Sunday, with a $50 million purse — including $4 million apiece to each member of the win ning four-man team. The tour is funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and players who have been drawn to the large prizes have been banned from playing on the PGA Tour.

Lawsuits involving LIV players’ participation in PGA Tour and European tour events are ongoing on both sides of the Atlantic. And there’s uncertainty about who will be allowed to play in the Ryder Cup.

“I’ve always wanted to play Ryder Cups and have played with as much passion as anyone else that I’ve ever seen play a Ryder Cup,” said Ian Poulter, who has played for Europe in seven Ryder Cups and been on the winning side five times.

That was in response to McIlroy telling The Guard ian that he felt “betrayal, in a way,” that many of his past Ryder Cup teammates have gone to LIV in moves that “jeopardise” their future eligibility. “I would like to think the Ryder Cup means as much to them as it does to me,” McIlroy said. “Maybe it does. But know ing what the consequences could be, I just could never make that decision.”

ladies will have seen any type of high level volleyball action so when we hit the court for NPVA we expect a good performance from them,” he said.

“In fact I guarantee this team will be in playoffs and if people don’t watch out for us we will make championship.”

The Mingoes are next expected to play The Pan thers at The DW Davis Gymnasium.

director and tournament host. “Sports weekends, Mandara Spa treatments, MacFit membership, fine

FIDELITY pulled off a sweep in the Bahamas Feeding Network golf tournament.

DIANE Phillips thanks the Bahamas Feeding Network volunteers.

HOLE-IN-ONE Mercedes Benz by Tyreflex with Insurance Management.

HORACE Miller wins his golfing bag.

THE TITOS Handmade Vodka stall livens up the golf event.

Will Ravens make Bucs lose 3 in a row? Pro Picks says no

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer

TOM Brady hasn’t lost three straight games in 20 years. Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens aim to snap that streak.

Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-4) are struggling following con secutive losses to a pair of teams — Pittsburgh and Carolina — that are 4-10 combined.

A predictable offence, mediocre defence and poor coaching have turned the Buccaneers from Super Bowl contenders to pretenders.

Now they have to face Jackson and the Ravens (4-3) on a short week as the teams meet tonight in Tampa.

“I think there’s always hope, and then there’s real ity,” Brady said. “I think you really focus on what the reality of the situation is, and that’s we haven’t played our best football. We have a lot of quality players and we’ve got to do a better job playing well. You’ve got to take it one week at a time. Every game’s different. ... We’ve just got to go find a way to get a win.”

The Buccaneers are 1 1/2point underdogs at home, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Pro Picks leans slightly toward the home team.

BUCCANEERS, 23-21 Chicago (plus 9 1/2) at Dallas

Justin Fields played well in Chicago’s rout over New England. Micah Parsons and the Cowboys present a tougher challenge for the Bears.

BEST BET:

COWBOYS, 26-13

San Francisco (minus 1 1/2) at Los Angeles Rams

The 49ers have won seven straight regularseason games against the Rams, who beat San Fran cisco in the NFC title game last season. The Rams are getting little respect as

home underdogs coming off a bye.

UPSET SPECIAL:

RAMS, 23-20 Tennessee (minus 2 1/2) at Houston

Whether it’s a banged-up Ryan Tannehill or rookie Malik Willis starting at quarterback for the Titans, expect a heavy dose of Derrick Henry against the Texans.

TITANS, 23-17 Pittsburgh (plus 10 1/2) at Philadelphia Philly is fired up. The Phillies are in the World Series. The Eagles are 6-0 and they’re 10 1/2-point favourites at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Coming off a bye, the Eagles need to regain that momentum.

EAGLES, 27-12 Denver (plus 2 1/2) vs. Jacksonville in London

Russell Wilson’s status makes this a tough call in a matchup of 2-5 teams. Trevor Lawrence was a yard short from potentially beating the Giants.

JAGUARS, 17-16 Las Vegas (minus 1 1/2) at New Orleans

Josh Jacobs has been on an impressive three-game stretch running the ball for the Raiders. The injurydepleted Saints should be rested after playing Thursday.

RAIDERS, 28-24 Carolina (plus 4 1/2) at Atlanta

After shocking Brady and the Bucs, the Panthers face the inconsistent Falcons.

FALCONS, 23-17 Miami (minus 3 1/2) at Detroit Tua Tagovailoa is back and the Dolphins are unde feated in games he finishes.

The Lions are better than their record.

LIONS, 30-27 Arizona (plus 3 1/2) at Minnesota DeAndre Hopkins makes the Cardinals more complete on offence. The Vikings could be rusty after a bye.

CARDINALS, 26-24 New England (minus 1 1/2) at New York Jets Bailey Zappe or Mac Jones? Somehow the Patriots are road favorites against the Jets.

PATRIOTS, 23-19 New York Giants (plus 3) at Seattle

The Giants keep winning and getting little respect. Geno Smith has the surpris ing Seahawks leading the NFC West.

SEAHAWKS, 24-20 Washington (plus 3) at Indianapolis

It’s Sam Ehlinger vs. Taylor Heinicke instead of Carson Wentz vs. Matt Ryan.

COLTS, 22-17 Green Bay (plus 10 1/2) at Buffalo Aaron Rodgers has never been a double-digit underdog until now. The Packers are trying to snap a three-game losing streak and avoid embarrassment against the Bills.

BILLS, 31-23 Cincinnati (minus 3) at Cleveland Joe Burrow and the Ben gals are rolling.

BENGALS, 30-17

2022 RECORD

Last Week: Straight up: 7-7. Against spread: 8-6. Season: Straight up: 64-44. Against spread: 58-49-1.

BUDDY

seven of the milestone with a 17-point perfor mance. DeRozan entered the game with a 26.8 scor ing average, missed his first field goal attempt nearly eight minutes into the first quarter and didn’t score until convert ing two free throws in the second.

The Bulls scored a season-high 38 points in the first quarter. Green’s dunk with six minutes left in the quarter gave the Bulls a 23-13 lead that they gradually expanded and sustained until late in the third quarter.

Pacers centre Myles Turner made his season debut with less than two minutes left in the first quarter and immedi ately blocked a shot by LaVine. Indiana coach Rick Carlisle, mindful that Turner was return ing from an ankle injury, monitored his minutes.

But there was little resistance inside as the Bulls scored 30 of their 76 first-half points in the paint. They distributed 19 of their season-high 34 assists in the first two quarters.

Reserve guard Goran Dragic, who chipped in with 13 points and five assists, provided a spark with a lob pass that Drummond finished with a dunk less than two minutes into the second quarter.

DeRozan will get his next chance to reach a milestone Friday at San Antonio, where he played for three seasons before joining the Bulls in 2021.

Frank Reich said Monday that’s not why he’s benching his bruised and battered 15-year veteran in favour of second-year QB Sam Ehlinger.

Russell Wilson, side lined by a pulled hamstring, donned a headset instead of a helmet in Denver, where the offensively-challenged Broncos lost another close one Sunday with backup Brett Rypien making his second career start against the Jets.

Nathaniel Hackett said afterward that Wilson was trending toward return ing against the Jaguars in London next weekend, although it might be best for the 33-year-old QB who’s off to the worst start of his career to sit out until after the Broncos’ bye and return against the Titans on November 13.

There’s a multitude of reasons for the quarter backs’ struggles and the league-wide dip in point production so far, includ ing more blitzes and a rash of elite receivers get ting traded, leaving their former teams to recreate

chemistry, which takes time. A major factor is the explosion of shell cover ages where players cover portions of the field to form a “shell” defence, a strat egy popularised by former Broncos coach Vic Fangio that is menacing offensive play-callers and ruffling quarterbacks this season, especially in the red zone.

Some of the game’s most accomplished QBs are really feeling the pinch.

Brady doesn’t look like a seven-time Super Bowl winner without retired sidekick Rob Gronkowski, and Rodgers doesn’t look like the league’s two-time reigning MVP without pal Davante Adams, who was traded to the Raiders in the offseason.

Conversely, Patrick Mahomes, 27, doesn’t look like he misses superstar speedster Tyreek Hill at all.

Mahomes already has thrown for 20 touchdowns, putting him on pace for 48, just shy of the 50 he threw his first season as a starter in 2018. He’s averaged 34 TDs over the last three seasons, all with Hill, who asked out of Kansas City in the offseason and was dealt to the Dolphins.

Josh Allen, 26, also is on pace for 48 TDs, and Joe Burrow, 25, is on pace to throw for three dozen touchdowns.

Lamar Jackson, 25, has 13 TD throws, three shy of last year’s total, and he’s fifth in the league with 510 rushing yards.

Mahomes, Allen, Burrow and Jackson make up the league’s new upper echelon of elite quarterbacks, sup planting the likes of Brady, Rodgers, Ryan and Wilson.

With 11 TDs through seven weeks, Rodgers is on pace for half about half of Mahomes’ projectied TD total — 26 — after throwing

for 37 last year and 48 the year before.

Counting playoffs, Brady had 96 TD throws his first two seasons in Tampa, mir roring Peyton Manning’s renaissance in Denver in the second chapter of his Hall of Fame career. But he has just eight through seven games this season, putting him on pace for 19.

That would be his lowest in a healthy season since his first year as the Patriots’ starter in 2001, when he had 18 TDs.

Like Brady’s Bucs, the Packers are 3-4 follow ing three straight years of Rodgers going 13-3.

Their common strug gles have led to both scuffling superstars dress ing down teammates over dropped passes or missed assignments.

At least they’ll get the chance to turn things around. Ryan won’t, even though he the Colts took on the more than $50 mil lion remaining on his salary when they acquired him from Atlanta in the offseason.

Nowhere is the league’s tilt toward defence more pronounced than in Denver, where the Broncos are giving up just 16.4 points a game but are 2-5 because their odious offence is aver aging just 14.3 points per game. That has Denver fans wondering if they didn’t get themselves a lemon in Wilson, who cost the Bron cos three players and four high draft picks plus a $245 million extension before the season.

Wilson’s five TD throws in six games puts him on pace for 13 this season, a year after he threw for 25 touchdowns and two years after he had a career-best 40 in Seattle. His struggles in Hackett’s hybrid offence

Hield sank seven 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 24 points.

UP NEXT Pacers: Visit Washing ton on Friday. Bulls: Visit San Anto nio on Friday.

come just months after the Walton-Penner ownership group paid a global sports record $4.65 billion for the team but have seen thou sands of empty seats at Empower Field and thou sands of fans streaming for the exits in crunch time to beat the traffic rather than watch the Broncos fall short again.

Hackett is on the hot seat just two months into his rookie season as head coach and general manager George Paton might be get ting sweaty himself.

“When your defence is playing as well as our defence is you shouldn’t be losing games. That’s just point blank, period, a fact,” Rypien said after the Bron cos’ 16-9 loss to the Jets Sunday that gave them five losses by an average of 4.6 points.

PACKERS quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) lays on the turf with Commanders defensive end James Smith-Williams (96) over him after a game on Sunday, October 23 (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

BUDDY HIELD

We are the champions

C&S Hitmen take home NPSA title, bragging rights

With the addition of veteran Edney “The Heat” Bethel to their line-up, the C&S Hitmen picked up where they left off in 2019, winning the New Providence Softball Associa tion 2022 men’s championship title.

It came down to a sixth inning drama for the Hitmen as they came from behind for a hard-fought 5-2 victory over the Cyber Tech Blue Marlins on Tuesday night in front of a jammed packed crowd of spectators in the Bankers Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

With the win, the Hitmen joined the Sunshine Auto Wildcats, who a week ago captured the ladies’ crown with a three-game sweep over the R&B Lady Opera tors behind most valuable player Ciera Bowe, who batted .714 after going 5-for-7 with four RBI and five runs scored.

there’s not a single Black player.” “It lets us know there’s obviously a lot of work to be done to create opportunities for Black kids to pursue their dream at the highest level,” he said.

Robinson debuted in 1947 with the Brook lyn Dodgers and played in the World Series that year. Since then, the 1950 matchup between the New York Yankees and Phillies has been the only World Series without a Black player.

Houston and Philadel phia will announce their 26-man rosters several hours before Game 1 on Friday night at Minute

Maid Park, where Dusty Baker, a Black outfielder for the 1981 champion Los Angeles Dodgers, man ages the Astros. Starting in 1954 when Willie Mays and the New York Giants played against Larry Doby and Cleveland, every single team to reach the World Series had at least one U.S.born Black player until the 2005 Astros did not.

During that half-century, Black greats such as Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Rickey Henderson and Frank Robinson commanded the October stage. In 1979 alone, Willie Stargell and Dave Parker were among 10 Black players on the “We Are Family” Pitts burgh Pirates champions.

For much of that time, baseball was clearly

the dominant game in the United States, the national pastime. Over the years, as basketball and football increased in popu larity, baseball became more expensive with an emphasis on travel teams and elite showcases.

“Kids started shifting to other sports,” Matthews said.

One of Matthews’ sons, Gary Jr., was an All-Star outfielder. Another son works in the commission er’s office with diversity programmes.

By 2020, when the Dodg ers beat Tampa Bay, Los Angeles star Mookie Betts was the only Black player in the World Series.

At the All-Star Game this summer at Dodger Sta dium, Betts wore a T-shirt with the message: “We need

more Black people at the stadium.”

But on the field this weekend, despite encour aging indicators and multi-layered efforts by MLB, a World Series shut out for the first time in over seven decades.

“It’s the exclamation point,” said Richard Lap chick, director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida.

“It’s been a story that’s been ongoing since the late 1980s, the decline of Black baseball players,” he said.

Lapchick, lead author for his group’s annual reports on diversity hiring practices in sports, said Black players made up 7.2% of opening day rosters this year. That dipped from 7.6% last year and marked the lowest

since study data was first collected in 1991, when 18% of MLB players were Black.

The Phillies had no Black players on their opening roster this year for the first time since 1959. Roman Quinn, a Black backup outfielder, played 23 games before being released.

Philadelphia powerhitting rookie Darick Hall made his debut in late June and played 41 games — his mother is white and his father is Black and white, and he identifies as mul tiracial. Hall wasn’t on the Phillies’ roster for any of the first three rounds this postseason and isn’t expected to be on the World Series roster.

Houston lost in the World Series last year with Michael Brantley, a Black

outfielder, on the roster. Brantley is out for the season this year because of a shoulder injury. Relief pitcher Josh James is also Black and on the team’s 40-man roster, but he had arm surgery in early October.

MLB had 38% players of colour on opening day rosters, including Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Yuli Gurriel, Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez of the Astros and Segura, Ranger Suárez and Seran thony Domínguez of the Phillies. Many Afro Latino players embrace Black identity, yet perhaps not for the same reasons that Black U.S. players do. Race and skin colour hold a differ ent currency in places like the Dominican Republic, Panama, Cuba and Belize.

WINNING WAYS: The C&S Hitmen softball team can be seen after defeating the Cyber Tech Blue Marlins 5-2 in their fifth and deciding game last night to win the New Providence Softball Association’s 2022 men’s championship title in the Bankers Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

Photos: Austin Fernander/Tribune Staff

JONES, CBK MERSIN PLAYERS MISS EUROLEAGUE GAME WITH ILLNESS

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

JONQUEL Jones was expected to make her FIBA Euro League debut with CBK Mersin Yanisehir Belediyesi but the club sus pects foul play led to their newly signed star and sev eral other players missing yesterday’s game with an undisclosed illness.

Just hours before tipoff against Perfumerias Ave nida in Euroleague Group B play, Mersin released a statement on social media disclosing what they deemed the “shady circum stances” surrounding the sudden illness of several players.

“Our players Jonquel Jones, Gamze Takmez, Özge Yavas Özısık, Temi Fagbenie, Goksen Fitik and our conditioner Hiltima Taser, developed medical complaints such as nasuea, fatigue, and vomiting, which are possibly linked to the meals served in the hotel and started to affect the entire team as the game hour approached in Spain,” the team statement read.

“We arrived in Sala manca two days ago on Monday to get accustomed to the weather conditions and for mental preparation. It is a well-known fact by

our supporters that our sole focus is to play the finals in Euro League Women with such an ambitious team. We strongly condemn this shady circumstance and call for our federation to take the necessary action to shed light on the matter.”

Without Jones and the other players in the lineup, Mersin lost 83-66 to Per fumerias Avenida.

On October 23, Jones ended her brief offseason when she joined Mersin in Turkey’s Herbalife Nutrition Women’s Bas ketball Super League. She made her debut with 26 points and 13 rebounds in her club’s 73-70 win over Emlak.

Jones highlighted a season of high-priced

acquisitions that vaulted Mersin to no.3 in the FIBA Euro League power rankings. “The decision to acquire the services of Briann January looks smart as her hard-nosed veteran play was a foundation for Sopron’s historic title win last season. But the big news is that they will surely be frontrunners to make it to Final Four with Jonquel Jones and Chelsea Gray both agreeing moves to the club. Those two are abso lute elite at every level and immediately make Mersin serious silverware contend ers if the chemistry is good and they can play together consistently at both ends of the floor.”

Club president Serdar Çevirgen said the club is excited about the possibility of adding a player of Jones’ calibre.

“We are proud to add a world star like 5-time WNBA ‘All-Star’ Jonquel Jones to our squad,” he said. “We hope our trans fer will be beneficial for our club and our city.”

Euro League Group B play will continue for Mersin when they host Sopron Basket of Hungary on November 2.

GAMES

FROM PAGE 15

this year. Karting was also featured as a demonstra tion sport at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In total, this year’s event will feature 10 new disci plines, and The Bahamas will be one of 29 first time countries participating.

At the opening ceremony, Robert Reid, FIA Deputy President for Sport, said the growth of the sport and its diversity should be celebrated.

“[At the FIA] we’re first and foremost a federa tion of member clubs. We stood on a manifesto of regional empowerment and [national] sports clubs are very important to us. To see so many of them here, not just European clubs represented but clubs from all over the world is great. We also stood on a commit ment to double motorsport

WCUP

FROM PAGE 15

beginning. Dawid Malan scored 35 off 37 balls to hold the innings together. He put on 38 runs with Harry Brook (18). Moeen Ali scored 24 not out off 12 balls toward the end, but rain thwarted his plans.

England retained the same starting XI that opened the Super 12 stage with a five-wicket win over Afghanistan in Perth last weekend. The Irish made one change, with Hand coming in for batting all rounder Simi Singh.

Ireland lost its first game in the second round by nine

participation, so the grass roots are very important to us,” he said. “Motorsport is expensive at the top and it doesn’t have to be at the bottom end, so it’s impor tant to celebrate that at events like this one. The fact that nations have come even with one competitor is brilliant. Well done to eve rybody who’s come along, to all the countries for put ting the teams in, and to the competitors for being here. You couldn’t have a better display of equality, diversity and inclusivity than we’ve seen tonight.”

Events will be live streamed on the official FIA Motorsport Games YouTube channel and Face book page.

wickets to fellow quali fier Sri Lanka in Hobart. Ireland advanced as the second-place finisher in its preliminary group to join the top eight teams and three other qualifiers in the Super 12s.

Defeat pushed England down to third in its group with Ireland fourth.

Ireland will play Afghan istan next at the MCG on Friday when England will take on defending cham pion Australia.

New Zealand, which beat Australia in its open ing game, has three points and tops its six-team group.

Afghanistan is still bottom with one point after losing its opener against England.

JONQUEL JONES

TEAM BAHAMAS at the International Automobile Federation Motorsport Games at Circuit Paul Ricard in Marseille, France.