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VOLUME:117 No.16, DECEMBER 12TH, 2019

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Minnis secures confidence vote as ‘martyr’ Miller quits

‘FNM will not repent.

I shall not recant.’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

GOLDEN Isles MP Vaughn Miller resigned from the Free National Movement in the House of Assembly yesterday, joining Centreville MP Reece Chipman as the second parliamentarian to leave the party this year after being elected on an FNM wave in 2017.

Mr Miller has repeatedly assailed the Minnis administration’s legislative agenda and he announced his departure

during the debate on a confidence motion in Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday.

“Two cannot walk together except they be agreed,” he said. “Our differences are irreconcilable. The FNM will not repent, and I shall not recant. Therefore, I am requesting as of the next sitting of the House of Assembly, I am seated among the independents.”

In resigning, Mr Miller backed opposition leader Philip “Brave” Davis’ view of the circumstances

SEE PAGE THREE

GOLDEN Isles MP Vaughn Miller resigned from the FNM yesterday

DIES CHURCHES WARNED - DON’T VICTIM AT SCENE OF SET UP UNLAWFUL CENTRES KNIFE FIGHT

By SYANN THOMPSON Tribune Staff Reporter sthompson@tribunemedia.net MINISTER of Immigration Elsworth Johnson said yesterday any churches and facilities that are setting up additional shelters not sanctioned by the relevant government agencies are doing so illegally.

Mr Johnson told The Tribune the Disaster Preparedness and Response

ELSWORTH JOHNSON Act outlines the standards required in order for

a church or any facility to become a shelter. His remarks came after Director of Immigration Clarence Russell told a media outlet that officials had discovered various church groups and others were harbouring undocumented immigrants in facilities not been designated as emergency shelters by the government.

“There is a legal regime

handle this transition with respect and sensitivity.

When asked if ACP Strachan’s move to chief of security to the Willie Mae Pratt and Simpson Penn juvenile detention schools was a demotion, he said: “Demoted? That’s incorrect, totally incorrect

POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding a stabbing incident that left a man dead yesterday morning.

According to reports, shortly after 2am a group of men were involved in an altercation on Elizabeth Avenue and Bay Street which resulted in a man being stabbed. Paramedics were called to the scene and attempted to revive the victim but he was pronounced dead on the scene.

The Tribune understands the victim is 27-year-old, DeAngelo “Defense” Mortimer, however, his identity was not confirmed by police.

Mortimer’s death brought the country’s murder count to 93 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

In 2018, police reported 91

SEE PAGE FIVE

SEE PAGE SEVEN

SEE PAGE SIX

JOB SWITCH ‘IS NOT DEMOTION’

By SYANN THOMPSON Tribune Staff Reporter sthompson@tribunemedia.net MINISTER of National Security Marvin Dames said yesterday that the secondment of Assistant Commissioner of Police Kendal Strachan to chief of security under the Ministry of Social Services is

not a demotion nor is it personal. Mr Dames told reporters outside of the House of Assembly that the government had been making announcements about the changes at various government agencies, including the police force.

The national security minster emphasised that the government wants to

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

PAGE 2, Thursday, December 12, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

SANDS CONFIRMS IMPORTED CHILD MEASLES CASE

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands confirmed another imported case of measles in a three-year-old tourist on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters outside of Cabinet, Dr Sands said the Ministry of Health has continued with its vaccination programme to combat the spread of such illnesses.

“We intended to get as many as 30,000 persons

vaccinated. The last update I believe we (have) gotten about 10,000 of them vaccinated but there are teams at the airport. There are teams at a number of places specifically because it’s impossible to tell...140,000 people died of measles last

year around the world,” he said.

“The anti-vaccination movement has created a big big problem with a disease that is preventable and to have 140,000 people die from a preventable disease is unacceptable. The

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands Bahamas has about an 85 to 90 percent coverage rate for measles and we want to get that up to 90 to 95 percent certainly by the middle of next year.”

When asked if he thought the government would ever consider ensuring people coming into the country have been vaccinated for measles, Dr Sands said the most important thing is to ensure that Bahamians are immunised.

He said: “And so because it becomes an issue of international best practices. Certainly, the idea for yellow fever and other really dreadful communicable diseases that vaccinations are necessary. We would be guided by the Pan American Health Organisation (and) the World Health Organisation about what international policy would be appropriate.

“But we can certainly see to it that our people are protected. I say to you if you haven’t been vaccinated or you’re not sure then get a top up.”

Last month, the Ministry of Health issued a statement confirming one case of measles being imported into New Providence.

Chief Medical Officer

Dr Pearl McMillan said the case was a three-year-old female child who travelled from Windsor, Ontario, Canada to Nassau via direct flight onboard Air Canada on November 22, returning on Air Canada on November 29.

The statement read: “The child presented to a local physician in Nassau on November 25, 2019 where the father gave history of the child having a generalised rash occurring about body which began on November 24, 2019.

There was no history of fever. Immunisation history reflected up to date status with the child having received measles, mumps and rubella (MMR vaccine) at the age of one year.

“The child was referred to hospital and subsequently admitted for further assessment and management. The child had a non-remarkable clinical course.”

The statement continued: “The Ministry of Health is conducting the required in country risk assessment and continuing heightened surveillance activities in country. We appreciate the support of PAHO/WHO as we continue to deal with this matter nationally.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 12, 2019, PAGE 3

from page one

Minnis secures confidence vote as ‘martyr’ Miller quits

surrounding the lease of the Town Centre Mall to house the General Post Office, saying the Minnis administration misled Parliament when it tabled and passed a resolution last year that said St Anne’s MP Brent Symonette was not involved in discussions and negotiations over renting the mall when he was minister of immigration and financial services.

Mr Miller voted against that resolution last year, drawing the ire of FNMs everywhere, he said.

“Many of my FNM colleagues reviled me,” Mr Miller said. “Many FNMs, near and far, persecuted me and spoke and plotted all manner of evil against me. It was said that I was finished politically; that I would not win the party’s nomination in 2022. But the party itself, losing support at an alarming rate, and on this current trajectory, is headed for a crushing defeat in 2022. It was said

that I would be destroyed by the party, but the party itself, if it continues on its present path, is on the path of self-destruction.”

After resigning from Cabinet in July, Mr Symonette, who is part owner of the Town Centre Mall, revealed Dr Minnis called him to discuss the government’s plans to rent the mall before that resolution was brought to Parliament.

Mr Miller said: “I did not need the member for St Anne’s to disclose months later that he was indeed involved in intimate discussions with the prime minister regarding the lease. All he did was to confirm that it was indeed a corrupt deal, from the moment of its conception.

And he knew it instinctively, for one moment, and then he was internally overpowered.

“Guided by the Holy Spirit, I struck out at the lease agreement, totally unaware at the time, like many others, that there were misleading assertions in the resolution; and I dealt a mortal blow. When it dawned on me what was happening, naturally, I mutinied, I rebelled!

“Why would a prime minister conspire with a Cabinet minister to mislead the House? In the Westminster system, which was involved against me, what is the custom regarding misleading the House?

Why should a prime minister not be smartly punished

for misleading the House?

The bad example set for the younger generations is that nothing is wrong with misleading people, so long as it achieves the desired results and so long as one is not caught.”

Signs of Mr Miller’s discontent with his party first appeared in March, 2018 during the mid-year budget debate. He said at the time that there appeared to be a disconnect between the Minnis administration and Bahamians. “They are not feeling us,” he said.

Later that year he voted against the increase in value added tax to 12 percent and was subsequently fired as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Social Services. His criticisms of the

VAUGHN MILLER administration since then have only grown harsher.

Yesterday he said being a political martyr––“one who suffers political death for standing up for righteousness”––is the greatest honour he could receive.

“If I am to be forcibly removed from the political stage, the record shows

that I took my stand, instinctively, for righteous governance,” he said.

“Based on the rhetoric of my colleagues before and during the election campaign of 2017, rhetoric that spoke to integrity, honesty and transparency and other lofty and noble ideals, I was convinced that we were on a glorious road to a golden age: no more corruption, no more untendered contracts, no more victimisation and persecution, no more favouritism, no more neglecting the poor. I recognised that integrity was being desecrated, but I will forever praise integrity and despise corruption.”

Editorial View - Page 4

IN a show of unity, FNM parliamentarians walked to the House of Assembly together yesterday.

Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

A united front FNM’s revised motion puts PM on the front foot

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net A VOTE of confidence motion in Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis passed the House of Assembly last night.

A division of the House was not taken to show who exactly supported Dr Minnis and who did not, although the opposition called for such a vote.

In bringing a no confidence motion, opposition leader Philip “Brave” Davis accused the prime minister of “knowingly, intentionally and deliberately” misleading the House by claiming Brent Symonette was not involved in discussions and negotiations over renting the Town Centre Mall to host the General Post Office when he was minister of immigration and financial services.

After he resigned as minister, Mr Symonette, a part owner of the mall, revealed Dr Minnis called him to discuss the government’s plans to rent the mall before the resolution was brought to Parliament, an admission that appeared to contradict the resolution that was passed.

Progressive Liberal Party MPs walked out of the chamber after standing in dissent to the resolution, angered that Mr Davis

was not allowed by House Speaker Halson Moultrie to close the debate.

Bamboo Town MP Renward Wells had earlier amended Mr Davis’ no confidence motion with the consent of majority members, deleting its criticisms and replacing them with full praise of the prime minister.

In a show of unity, FNM parliamentarians congregated at Cabinet Office yesterday morning and walked to the House of Assembly together, flanked by a few dozen party supporters.

Their revised motion listed many of what they view to be the administration’s accomplishments, including championing of small and medium sized businesses through the establishment of the Small Business Development Centre and implementing free tertiary education for Bahamians enrolled fulltime at the University of the Bahamas and the Bahamas Technical & Vocational Institute. “(Dr Minnis) has implemented a reform agenda designed to correct the many errors and abuses of the last PLP government and brought economic growth and diversification of the economy, systemic improvements in the public service, greater accountability and relief to thousands

of suffering Bahamians,” the amended motion said.

Mr Symonette, the St Anne’s MP, attended the sitting, but did not speak.

Dr Minnis said the opposition was engaged in gimmicks and games.

“We are creating economic opportunities for Bahamians through job creation, through greater ownership and entrepreneurship opportunities and by enhancing the shareholder society,” he said last night.

South Beach MP Jeffrey Lloyd and others declared their “unequivocal” support for their party leader.

Some, like Long Island MP Adrian Gibson, dismissed Mr Davis’ motion as a “mere distraction” and “political gamesmanship

PLP leader Philip Davis

on the part of the opposition” while Fort Charlotte MP Mark Humes presented life-size posters of news articles reflecting controversies involving Mr Davis when he was deputy prime minister.

Mount Moriah MP Marvin Dames declared the last Christie administration the worst in the history of the region, insisting PLP politicians believe they are “entitled to lead this country” for ever.

Elizabeth MP Dr Duane Sands lamented that the opposition pressed forward with what he said should be a rare parliamentary procedure, not something “conducted as fiat.”

For his part, Marco City MP Michael Pintard expressed confidence in Dr Minnis but called for his colleagues to demonstrate a “greater sense of urgency” and be more collaborative with their approach to governance, especially in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.

Meanwhile, PLP Exuma & Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper highlighted the December 7, 2016 act of seven FNM parliamentarians to remove Dr Minnis as leader of the opposition, saying: “We were warned.”

East Grand Bahama MP

Peter Turnquest recalled the same matter but noted he stood with Dr Minnis at the time because he believed the Killarney MP “had the best interest of the country at heart.”

Engerlston MP Glenys Hanna Martin highlighted Golden Isles MP Vaughn Miller’s resignation from the FNM yesterday, calling it a “blow to the

administration and a statement of lack of confidence unlike anything I could say.”

During the debate, FNM parliamentarians emphasised the deplorable state of the former General Post Office building on East Hill Street, a problem they met in place and addressed by moving it to the Town Centre Mall.

PAGE 4, Thursday, December 12, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

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

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

jamaaltheartist@gmail.com

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

Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

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

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A victory for Minnis - but a greater battle ahead AS PREDICTED, the vote of no confidence – which was switched around to become a vote of confidence – ended up in Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ favour.

It was not a ringing endorsement, full throated and enthusiastic. Indeed, he lost another member of his party in the process – Vaughn Miller MP quitting to become an independent.

Miller has been uncomfortable in the FNM for a while. Fired by Minnis from his role as a parliamentary secretary after voting against the increase in VAT, he has been a frequent critic within the FNM ranks, including on the post office issue that prompted yesterday’s vote. His criticism has hardly galvanised public opinion – and his departure makes less of a splash and more of a ripple. It would matter more if the FNM’s majority wasn’t so large – but it is.

As blows go, it’s much softer than the one landed on Minnis when fellow FNM MPS Neko Grant, Loretta Butler-Turner, Hubert Chipman, Richard Lightbourn, Theo Neilly, Andre Rollins and Edison Key signed a letter after a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

He was ousted as leader of the Opposition and replaced by Mrs Butler-Turner.

And yet he was the winner in that long game. He, in turn, swept away that group as FNM candidates for the election that saw him become prime minister.

Is the stage different now, though?

Then, the FNM were seen as the relief

to the perceived corruption, incompetence and especially arrogance of the PLP government of the time.

Now? People feel in general no warmer towards Dr Minnis’ personality, it seems, and the feeling of wariness has set in among FNMs as the next election draws nearer on the horizon.

“They are not feeling us,” said Mr Miller yesterday as he quit, adding: “The party itself, losing support at an alarming rate, and on this current trajectory, is headed for a crushing defeat in 2022.

It was said that I would be destroyed by the party, but the party itself, if it continues on its present path, is on the path of self-destruction.”

The path has been set by Dr Minnis.

Mr Miller’s is not a lone voice in the FNM warning of such an election outcome, he’s just the one saying it aloud in Parliament.

Whether he stirs up old wounds from the last time Dr Minnis faced dissent – and a vote of no confidence – is one thing, what he does about it is another.

Last time, he did what he needed to do to shore up his support in the party and convince the public that he was the better alternative to the PLP. Can he do the same again? Or will voices in the party suggest another horse might need to run this race? One thing is for certain – winning over his own party will be the easy task. Winning over the people will be an altogether greater challenge.

No room at the church ACROSS the country in the past couple of weeks, the Christmas story has been told – to school halls and church audiences.

Parents and congregations, family and friends have followed the story of Mary and Joseph headed for Bethlehem, only to find, of course, no room at the inn.

A different group of people are seemingly being told there will be no room this Christmas. Refugees from Hurricane Dorian are already being told that the remaining shelters are to be closed by the end of the year.

And now Minister of Immigration Elsworth Johnson has said churches are not allowed to take in refugees if they don’t have shelters sanctioned by government agencies. Those would be the same agencies closing the shelters down.

Mr Johnson is worried that churches

AHEAD of the confidence vote on Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis in the House of Assembly yesterday, and after FNM chairman Carl Culmer said he expected all of the party’s parliamentarians to support the PM, readers posted their opinions on tribune242.com.

Proudloudandfnm said: “Now if Bahamians were to use their power these MPs would ONLY vote as we want. Not the party . . . COUNTRY FIRST! Minnis is an empty suit, if anyone takes a no confidence motion to the House it should be FNMs. He is your PM after all, and he is LOUSY AT HIS JOB . . .”

Sheeprunner12 posted this comment: “We are going to start the debate all over again . . . who does a Bahamian MP ultimately represent?? His constituents or his party??”

Geostorm had this to say: “Get over it people, Dr Minnis is the duly elected Prime Minister of the Bahamas. We have a parliamentary system of government . . . what

– and any other facility setting up a shelter – might harbour undocumented migrants. We can well imagine he doesn’t want to see pictures of immigration officers raiding a church over the Christmas season.

He also talks about the need for facilities to be adequate for those seeking shelter – which is a fair point, and one which many churches meet considering so many of them are already hurricane shelters.

So with the existing shelters closing, and no room at the church, where will people go?

At this stage, a stable is looking a lot better prospect than many of these evacuees will be facing.

Don’t let these victims of nature become victims of inhumanity. Find a solution, or stop pretending to be Christian.

that means in layman’s terms is he ‘AIN’T’ going anywhere! Today’s vote of confidence is a waste of time. If the good Doc, whom I fully support, is doing such a bad job in your opinions, then by all means, meet him at the polls in 2022 and put your vote where your mouth is.

Until then, let the man get on with trying to clean up 40 years of mess that has been left behind by successive governments!”

Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest said eliminating VAT on services in the Dorian-hit islands would be difficult to police and too costly, prompting this comment from Truetruebahamian: “Thank you for being more up front and truthful about the facts of what we owe, what we need and, after the horrendous blow of Dorian, what

we can reasonably expect.

Yes, we must tighten our belts, fix the miserable legacy of structures and structural civil servants, over-extensions and crony false contractual failures also unbelievable debts inherited from previous administrations. We need to collect all that is owed, and the debt will not be paid unless those who are skipping away actually do their true patriotic duty and pay up.

“Also the idea of using funds collectively that disappear into the dark hole called the ‘Consolidated Fund’ must be reassigned, divided into recognisable and accountable factors, and the dark hole closed like banishing the demons into a similar dark hole.

The references and parallels are there - they have always been there. It is time for light to be shone brightly down that dark hole and it being forever sealed.”

Don’t miss your chance to join the debate on tribune242.com.

Joining the WTO makes no sense EDITOR, The Tribune

I REGARD Zhivago Laing both as a friend and as a very intelligent and principled Bahamian. But on the supposed desirability of the Bahamas (a country that imports everything and exports next to nothing) joining the WTO, he is simply very wrong.

From start to finish, this proposition makes no sense for The Bahamas.

And as we have seen from last week’s comments from Mr. Laing, it could involve major sacrifices.

We have an economy that is completely open to imports (the avowed purpose of the WTO) and which derives almost all of its foreign exchange not from exports of goods or products (the removal of barrier’s to which is the primary incentive of the WTO), but from the sale of services. While in recent years, it has become fashionable to characterise our primary services – tourism and banking – as “intangible exports”, this term is a misnomer insofar as it implies that these services are affected by traditional trade rules. They are not.

Most of the services that we sell in The Bahamas are sold locally. For example, as a land lawyer, I am approached by international individuals seeking to purchase property in the Bahamas and needing the services of an attorney, realtor, insurance company, etc.

The resultant transaction

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net brings in foreign exchange and involves no requirement on my part (or the Bahamian realtor’s, or the Bahamian insurer’s) to obtain rights of establishment, entry or settlement in the jurisdiction of the purchaser. Neither can a foreign jurisdiction tax the Bahamian real estate or the services that are purchased, thus creating a traditional barrier to the “export”– because the entire transaction takes place in the Bahamas.

The same applies to those coming here for offshore banking or trust services.

And between them, these two sectors (real estate and banking) account for a huge proportion of the activity that sustains our middle class.

Tourism, which accounts for even more of our service-driven economic output, is also local. US tourists coming to Atlantis or going to swim with pigs in Exuma do not consult with their local trade officials before booking a holiday. In fact, once they leave home, it is none of the business of the US (or British, or Canadian, etc.) government where they are going, what they are doing or how much it costs.

While there are marginal activities (like crawfish exports) and notional

prospects that may conceivably benefit from access to new markets, neither justifies the loss of our right to maintain Bahamians-only restrictions to selected areas of our domestic economy, as the WTO will clearly demand.

As with our proudly yet dismally ‘compliant’ reaction to various international agencies over our offshore banking industry (also sold to us in complex terms by ostensibly qualified, highly educated officials), the common sense instincts of ordinary Bahamians were very right and the foolhardiness of joining the international bandwagon is now clear for all to see. The industry will now be chipped away until it is gone, notwithstanding the protestations of our gullible ministers.

And to join the WTO would be to mount an even more needless slippery pole.

Bahamians, don’t be fooled by the big words and complex arguments. Just ask yourselves how a country that exports nothing and imports everything could possibly benefit from membership of an exporter’s club that threatens to bring “competition” to the protections that created your middle class.

Just apply Occam’s razor.

If it sounds downright stupid, that is because in all likelihood it is.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, December 11, 2019.

Sad death of Felix Bethel EDITOR, The Tribune F- Freedom fighter in every sense of the word.

E- Exemplary in all he said and did.

L- Lobbying for truth, Justice and right.

I- Intelligent beyond measure.

X- xtra sensory perception beyond this world.

Bethel.

Mr Felix Bethel’s untimely death knocked the wind right out of my sails.

He was a true man of God and educated and intelligent to the nth degree.

I am still trying to adjust to the heavy blow which explains my tardy response to his death on November 21, 2019. Therefore, I would much oblige a space in your most valuable periodical in spite of this.

Mr Bethel achieved his three score and ten (70 years) and had phenomenal strength of character. Education and preparedness were his main goals thus the need for him to qualify himself. Thus he ventured abroad to UWI, Mona campus Jamaica and the University of Miami Florida, etc.

Mr Bethel focused on his passion which was photography after retiring from the University of the Bahamas.

Condolences are extended to his mother Dr Sylvia Bethel; sons; Frederick, Tayo, Khalil, and Madhiba Bethel; daughters; Khaula Reid, Tsia Bethel, Keturah Bethel, Xan-Xi Sweeting, Zakita Bethel, Chantia Sweeting and a host of brothers,

grandchildren, nieces and nephews, cousins, too many to mention; other relatives and friends.

I remember too, Mr Bethel, inviting me to sit in on his philosophy Classes, but I guess I thought the invite was too good to be true and was hesitant. It would be a missed opportunity that I regret to this day.

I guess I did not want him to get into any trouble. I now realise the offer would have done wonders with my poetry.

However, may his soul rest in perpetual peace. To God be the glory, Great things he has done. We will see him again some sweet day!

LOXSLEY L BASTIAN Nassau, December 10, 2019.

THE TRIBUNE

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net A 32-year-old woman denied allegations yesterday that her neglect led to her son being shot with a gun that accidentally went off as the boy and another child were playing with it.

Kara Johnson, of Romer Street, Fox Hill, entered a not guilty plea to allegations she unlawfully neglected her nine-year-old son on December 8 that ultimately led to the child being shot in

Thursday, December 12, 2019, PAGE 5

Mother denies neglect after son is shot while playing with gun the groin. Johnson, as well as her boyfriend Rasjard McIntosh, further denied allegations they were found in possession of a black, 9mm revolver and three rounds of 9mm ammunition on the date in question.

According to initial police reports, shortly after 2pm on the date in question, Johnson’s son was visiting relatives at Romer Street, Fox Hill, when another child found a firearm inside the home. As

the two children were playing with the gun, it went off and struck Johnson’s son in the groin.The little boy was taken to hospital where he was said to be in stable condition.

Given their not guilty

pleas, Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle-Davis adjourned the matter to February 10 for trial.

Bail was denied to McIntosh and he was ordered to be remanded to the Bahamas Department of

Correctional Services while Johnson was granted $9,900 bail by a Supreme Court judge.

Attorney Bjorn Ferguson represents Johnson, while Alex Dorsett represents McIntosh.

Policeman’s job switch is not demotion, says Dames

LEFT: MINISTER of National Security Marvin Dames; above: Assistant Commissioner of Police Kendal Strachan; below: attorney Wayne Munroe

from page one and it is nonsense. “I do know, however, we would have made these pronouncements a long time ago that these agencies are going through transition: the police, the defence force and the department of corrections, the government has taken a position. We are positioning these agencies for the future as is the case in the corporate and the private world that changes do happen, but as far as demotions are concerned that is totally incorrect.”

In March, several senior officers were directed to take outstanding vacation leave; ACP Strachan was among that group and upon

PICTURE ERROR A PHOTO printed on page seven of Wednesday’s Tribune incorrectly identified Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas president Daniel Thompson as Bahamas Public Service Union president Kimsley Ferguson.

The photo, published under the headline “Union boss Ferguson cries foul in election”, showed Mr Thompson, who is not the subject of the legal action to which the accompanying article referred. The Tribune would like to clarify that Mr Thompson, who is also assistant secretary general of the National Congress of Trade Unions Bahamas, has not accused a fellow union leader of trying to sabotage his ambitions.

The Tribune apologises for the error.

his return was transferred to the Ministry of Social Services. ACP Strachan’s attorney Wayne Munroe described the secondment of his client as “insulting and disrespectful”.

Meantime, Mr Dames told reporters that the government is using all agencies to combat crime.

“I know the position that the government had taken is in line certainly with our multi-agency approach to addressing crime, Assistant Commissioner Strachan has been attached to the Ministry of Social Services to serve certainly as an advisor to the minister on crime and safety matters as well as a chief security officer. Under that remit as you know, we have Simpson Penn and

Willie Mae Pratt, we have Urban Renewal, we have any number of other entities under the ministry that requires significant support,” he said.

While Mr Dames did not confirm if the vacation leave of eight senior officers earlier this year was a part of the government’s move to re-organise the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s top heavy hierarchy, he did say that the government is taking recommendations from a police manpower audit tabled in the House of Assembly last May. “We would have done these audits for a reason, we have to come to a place where when we do the work, when we do the empirical study at the end of the day we

need to look at those recommendations coming out of those studies and see what is important to apply to improve the level of efficiency and professionalism to ready these agencies for the future because at the end of the day, it is service to the Bahamian people,” said Mr Dames.

He added: “I see sometimes persons are sometimes taking it to a personal level and that I don’t want. Many of the people speak to and in these agencies I know personally and would consider them friends and so I want to be very responsible and I do my utmost to ensure that others are aware that we have a vested responsibility to ensure that as we

carry out our duty we do it with the highest level of respect for the officers and their families and more importantly that our focus is always in the best interest of this nation and the Bahamian people.”

Mr Dames confirmed that not only the police force, but the defence force and the Department of Correctional Services will face changes. “Now it’s our time to begin to build these agencies for the future. We tend to get afraid when we start talking about building agencies for the future focusing on training, focusing on education, focusing on career development and succession planning and that ought to be the focus in any agency; not

only the uniformed agencies of this country, but also our public service. We have many young people coming back from school looking for jobs, wanting to now take all of the learning that they would have gone through and move into these departments and to show their capabilities and so we have a vested responsibility therefore to begin to prepare those persons for future leadership in this country,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Munroe has said that the matter with his client and other senior police officers raises serious concerns about the independence of law enforcement agencies under the present administration.

PAGE 6, Thursday, December 12, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

CHURCHES WARNED - DON’T SET UP UNLAWFUL CENTRES from page one

established for the creation of shelters and there is a reason for that, to ensure that they are properly staffed, that the proper protection is provided for women and children and persons who find themselves in a vulnerable position,” said Mr Johnson.

“Under the Act, it makes provision to set up these

shelters and the role of social services and all of the social welfare infrastructure and what they play. What we know is that some persons may have started to create shelters and if they are not created in accordance with the law then they shouldn’t happen, it is unlawful. If they have not been approved by the legal procedure, they should not be established.”

Beyond harbouring

undocumented migrants, those circumventing the proper legal approach for establishing a shelter can also cause havoc in the management of these facilities and adhering to humanitarian norms, according to Mr Johnson.

“There are simple things like, buildings are designed for only so many people.

When you look at what the minister of social services had to do at the sports

centre and in Fox Hill, you had people who had to come and service these facilities, for the electricity, for the air condition all those different things and it is very important in following the law to set up these things. To the extent that members of the community are not approved to create a shelter, they should not do that, because it is only when things go wrong and the world responds or better

still the community responds then we find it so,” he said.

After Hurricane Dorian in early September, scores of storm victims were displaced and sought shelter in various islands. Many of the victims were undocumented Haitian migrants from destroyed shanty towns in Abaco. The government place a reprieve on apprehension and deportation of storm victims in the immediate aftermath of the

DURING a visit to West Grand Bahama, Patricia Minnis, wife of the Prime Minister, thanked volunteers from SOL Relief for the work they have done following Dorian.

hurricane, however such practices resumed a few weeks later, to the chagrin of local and international human rights activists.

To date, the Department of Immigration has conducted repatriations of several hundred Haitian immigrants. The government has announced that shelters will be closed by the end of the year.

Editorial View - Page 4

Photos: Robyn Adderley/BIS

PM’S WIFE PAYS TRIBUTE TO VOLUNTEERS ON GB VISIT PATRICIA Minnis, wife of Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, recently spent the day on Grand Bahama visiting several seniors in the western district of the island.

Accompanied by administrator for that district, Cristian Palacious along with chief councilor Kevin Morris, the group visited Verlene Hanna, Elsie “Linda” Russell, Patience Missick, Rev. James Young, Elnora McIntosh, Medlene Smith and Cynthia Swann presenting gift baskets along with a card written by Mrs Minnis.

Before leaving, Mrs Minnis said throughout her visit, the theme was hope. “Their hope is because most of them just know Christ who

gives hope, so it’s not based on things that you get, but it’s that inner love they show for appreciation of being here, being elderly and they have their loving children around them, their grandchildren. I would like to say keep hope alive in your heart and that hope comes from Christ. Look to Him not to man for these things. If you look to Him you will find peace. Sometimes when you look at the houses, nothing is happening to the house now and it’s been four months and you feel a little down. If you look to God, you will find that peace and realise that things will happen for you and there are people who are here for you and are willing to help.”

JAPANESE FIRM DONATES $10,000 TO NEMA Off the eastern rd.

7am - 11am

Contact: 422-5871 house hold items

A JAPANESE company has donated $10,000 to the National Emergency Management Agency to aid hurricane relief.

“As a socially responsible corporate citizen, Nomura Group is committed to helping numerous disaster

victims, by raising funds to contribute to the respective organisations and agencies in charge of disaster relief and emergency management,” a press release noted.

“Nomura Group expeditiously mobilised its efforts to provide funding resources — $10,000 USD — to support the recovery

and rebuilding efforts to enable the most vulnerable and displaced citizens of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas to be on the pathway to recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

“The Japanese private sector and the people of Japan strongly believe that the people of the

Bahamas will recover promptly from the tragedy and wish to continue strengthening our cooperation, partnership and bonds of friendship going forward.”

Nomura Group is an Asia-headquartered financial services group with an integrated global network spanning over 30 countries.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 12, 2019, PAGE 7

THREE REMANDED ON CHARGES OF ARMED ROBBERY

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net THREE employees of a solid-waste management company were remanded to prison yesterday over allegations they robbed a local wholesale agency at

gunpoint of over $60,000 worth of cigarettes and one of the company’s delivery trucks last week.

Remardo Braynen, Lashad Joshua Knowles and Willis Hanna were each charged with conspiring to and subsequently making good on their plot to rob

Rashad Seymour at gunpoint of one of the Bahamas Wholesale Agency’s (BWA) white, Mitsubishi Fuso trucks worth $57,000 on December 5. In doing so, the trio is alleged to have stolen a number of pallets containing groceries worth $6,412, as well as a separate

pallet containing some 34 cases of Aspen cigarettes worth $64,957.11.

Meanwhile, another man, 22-year-old Jerry Joseph Louis, was charged with robbing a woman, Jennifer Toussaint, at gunpoint of her red, Toyota Passo worth $4,000 on December

6, and dishonestly receiving said vehicle. None of the men were required to enter pleas to the charges during their arraignment before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle-Davis yesterday. Bail was denied and they were all remanded to the Bahamas Department

of Correctional Services (BDCS) until March 4 when they will be served with a voluntary bill of indictment.

They each have a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail. Bernard Ferguson represented Braynen, Knowles and Hanna. Louis was unrepresented.

27-year-old victim dies at scene of knife fight from page one total murders, a decrease from 122 in 2017.

Earlier this week, Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson told The Nassau Guardian that a recent spike in murders was because police resources have been stretched thin dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

“None of us can plan for national disasters, and all of us are quite aware of the devastation in Abaco and Grand Bahama,” said Commissioner Ferguson.

“Up to September 1, there were about 61 homicides.

Once that devastation took place, it simply meant that the whole policing strategy, the

THE VICTIM is understood to be 27-year-old DeAngelo “Defense” Mortimer

Sands: Junior doctors may be moved, but not fired

By LEANDRA ROLLE lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AMID concerns about the unemployment status of some 20 junior doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands yesterday explained that those unconfirmed physicians will not be fired, but transferred to other posts in the public healthcare system.

This, he said, is because jobs at PMH are limited.

“What we’ve said is that there are only 13 posts at Princess Margaret Hospital and if you have 23 persons vying for those posts, then ten people will not get the posts. Those that are confirmed will be paid retroactively until July,” he told The Tribune yesterday.

“The rest will have to be employed elsewhere in the healthcare system.

You see I don’t think the public understands that we cannot infinitely expand posts simply because there are people that want jobs. If the need of the healthcare system is 500, then we hire 500 and so if you have more coming in, then some have to go.”

His comments came a

day after a representative of junior doctors raised alarm concerning the employment status and future of more than a dozen junior doctors at PMH. Bahamas Doctors Union (BDU) president Dr Melisande Bassett said at least 20 doctors faced an uncertain employment future during this Christmas season.

“These are junior doctors that would have been employed since July operating in the capacity that they are operating now,” she said. “(PHA) refuse to give them a contract, refuse to hire them but kept them lingering on all this time without paying them at the rate they should have been paid.”

BDU officials said that doctors have been functioning as senior house operators without a contract for six months.

But, to this, Dr Sands replied: “Any person who applies to work in the civil service understands that it’s a process. Confirmation can sometimes take an incredibly long time as you know… (doctors) continue to work as acting SHOs and they will continue to act until such

time until they’ve been confirmed.”

The health minister has previously said there have been some outstanding challenges in getting medical professionals processed through the public health care system.

In October, he revealed to reporters that he hoped to have the waiting time reduced.

In the meantime, Dr Sands maintains the government is still committed to improving the health care system to better serve the Bahamian people.

“The people of The Bahamas pay and they want and are entitled to good care and this administration is prepared to provide doctors to all the people in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” he said in the House of Assembly yesterday.

“So, in Central Andros, you will now have an opportunity to have a doctor to come to your community,” he said, responding to a concern from South Andros MP Picewell Forbes. “We will provide doctors in Elizabeth Estates, in South Beach, in Flamingo Gardens and so on and so forth.”

whole country, changed.

Specifically in law enforcement, that changed also, and we had to make some changes to our plan in order to accommodate something that nobody could have foreseen.

During the period, there will always be evil people in the world. We met them here and we will leave them here.

“And, so, while we were attending to the devastation in Abaco and Grand Bahama, and you found that there were persons who had no real concern for what was going on in Abaco, they were wreaking havoc here on New Providence.

“They continued with criminal activities and, hence, for September and

October, we saw a spike in homicides. That’s a fact.

The numbers are there,” he also said.

The Minnis administration has previously said officials want to reduce the number of murders in the country to 85 by 2021.

Police are also investigating a shooting that left a man in stable condition in hospital. The man was walking in the area of Flax Street off Malcolm Road when he was shot by an armed male, who had exited a Nissan Note. The shooter escaped and the victim was taken to hospital.

Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call police at 919, 502-9991 or the Crime Stoppers hotline at 328-TIPS (8477).

PAGE 8, Thursday, December 12, 2019

L

IKE many American states, Pennsylvania is bifurcated. There are the cities. And then there is the rest of the state.

Pennsylvania has two big cities everyone has heard of, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. These urban centres, both attempting to rise from the rust and decay of the 19th and early 20th century industrial revolution in the United States, still lag far behind megalopolitan behemoths Los Angeles and Houston.

The essential core of both the City of Brotherly Love and the Steel City is still fundamentally liberal, grounded in trade union and academic influence and nurtured by generations of able and determined Democratic politicians. Both Philly and Pittsburgh are experiencing an urban renaissance that has attracted thousands of young people seeking career opportunities and a safe, relatively affordable place to raise their families.

For most of American political history, its two big cities have placed Pennsylvania (often abbreviated, even in conversation, as PA) in the Democratic column during national elections.

The state’s two senators were often referred to as the senator from Philadelphia and the senator from Pittsburgh. Both would be Democrats.

2016 represented a stunning departure from that history. The election of Donald Trump three years ago is still hailed in rural Pennsylvania as a triumph of values long ignored in Washington and New York City. Central and swaths of Western Pennsylvania are known as “Alabama without the southern accent” to most who are familiar with its fierce devotion to local football teams, close-knit families and suspicion of outsiders.

In the woodsy central

THE TRIBUNE

Does Trump magic still work for the ‘lost’ Democrats?

PRESIDENT Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Hershey, Pa

STATESIDE

with Charlie Harper

salvage yard. “Trump: Still Making America Great,” it proclaims in six-foot high red letters. No one seriously questions the president’s popularity in these parts.

Pennsylvania hamlet of Bald Eagle, just off an interstate exit but far from urban influences, a huge sign defiantly welcomes visitors to a sprawling automobile

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Mostly mountainous and heavily forested, Appalachian rural PA is not new to conservatism or support for Republican politicians.

What was new three years

ago, when Trump shocked the nation and the state’s own residents, was that many voters in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburbs either voted for Trump or sat out the election to push back against the candidacy of personally unpopular Hillary Clinton.

Two years later, in 2018, the American President had managed to offend enough of these suburban voters – reportedly mostly women – that they turned against him in Pennsylvania and elsewhere around

the country and emphatically delivered the House of Representatives back to the Democrats.

Pennsylvania is a state Trump will likely need to win again next year to remain in the White House. That is why, earlier this year, he flew to the north-central PA city of Williamsport for a rally with his base. And it’s why he showed up in the chocolate town of Hershey, outside Harrisburg, Tuesday evening for another rally with his base. Trump has visited PA twice more this year, and Vice President Mike Pence has been covering the state as well.

At one stop, Pence declared the Democrats “can’t run against our record”. With the American economy gaining an unexpectedly high 266,000 jobs last month, Pence is probably right, especially if those kinds of employment numbers continue.

At the Hershey rally, a defiant woman protester nonetheless managed to infiltrate the event, and when she became disruptive, Trump was visibly impatient when security didn’t remove her more quickly from the arena.

We’ll see more of the same in the months to come. There will be more signs like this one: “No More Years”.

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LINEN DEPARTMENT

ON THE subject of America’s relations with some of its neighbours, The Wall between the US and Mexico has moved out of the news recently. An update was provided this week by Ken Cuccinelli.

This guy actually makes Trump seem like a relative moderate. He is a dogged and very public foe of abortion; resolute climatechange denier; steadfast anti-immigrant crusader; pro-gun advocate; avowed homophobe and was an active supporter and campaigner for Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the 2016 presidential primary elections.

Cuccinelli, pictured, was elected Attorney General of Virginia in 2010 and nearly won the governorship of the state three years later, losing by far less than one percent of the vote. As the attorney general in Virginia, Cuccinelli was known for using the considerable power of his office to promote his personal beliefs and antipathies. That he nearly won the governorship in 2013 in a state now without a major Republican officeholder is amazing.

Now apparently forgiven for his 2016 support of Cruz, Cuccinelli has

resurfaced as the principal deputy director of the US Customs and Immigration Service and acting deputy secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security. He is in these acting roles because his outspoken extremism precludes Senate confirmation, even with GOP control of the US Senate.

As some legal scholars were questioning the legitimacy of even Cuccinelli’s current acting appointments, he appeared at a news conference arranged by the State Department to review immigration along the American southern border and US relations with Central America generally. Two senior State Department officials joined him, but Cuccinelli dominated the proceedings.

He explained that 88 miles of Trump’s Wall have been built this year, but that he expects another 500 miles to be completed by the end of 2020. He offered no justification for this astounding claim.

Speaking in a calm, well-modulated voice that belied his zealotry, Cuccinelli explained that “no more than one-sixth of

asylum claims from Central Americans at the southern US border are legitimate.”

He rattled off a bunch of statistics to support Trump’s immigration policies and touted a recently signed Asylum Cooperation Agreement with Guatemala, noting that similar pacts are or will be under negotiation with El Salvador and Honduras.

It all sounded reasonable, until one recalled the children in cages along the Rio Grande River and the outraged furore not so long ago in the national media.

Not forgetting that outrage was former Maryland governor and forgotten 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley, who reportedly loudly and forcefully condemned and confronted Cuccinelli when the two men encountered each other over Thanksgiving at a popular Capitol Hill bar.

Both men had attended the same nearby swanky Catholic high school, and O’Malley reportedly accused Cuccinelli of betraying the humanitarian teachings of their Jesuit priests. Eyewitnesses reported that Cuccinelli, the newly-minted Trumper, simply fled the scene to avoid further confrontation and a possible fistfight.

Not exactly like his boss.

A SYMBOL OF RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE EVEN against the bizarre background of the ongoing Democratic impeachment of Trump, Tuesday was a weird day in Washington. As two articles of impeachment were rolled out by the House Judiciary Committee, a couple of other noteworthy things happened.

First, even as the House was revealing its charges against Trump, charging that his attempts to extort Ukraine to help with his reelection represented high crimes and misdemeanours under the US constitution, the shadow of Russian interference in the 2016 election continues to dog the Trump administration.

A symbol of that Russian

interference and undue influence over Trump was the image of the Russian ambassador and foreign minister in the White House in the earliest days of the his presidency.

And yet, there was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, pictured, right back in the Oval Office this week, as if to underscore Trump’s belief that if he simply misbehaves or even breaks the law without any attempt to conceal it, the voters will forgive or even learn to ignore his misdeeds. One can wonder if the president is wrong in this belief.

Secondly, and much more encouragingly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signalled her readiness to endorse and push through the long-awaited successor to Bill Clinton’s NAFTA. The new North American free trade agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico is being hailed as good for labour, the environment and the three nations involved. USMCA is also likely to be good for the regional economy, and credit must be given to the Trump administration for pursuing this and actually negotiating a pact that improves on NAFTA.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 12, 2019, PAGE 9

Jamaican group ends its year on a high note ALL year, members of the Jamaica Diaspora Association Bahamas (JDAB) have banded together to give to the community in meaningful ways, and Christmas is no exception.

They wanted to end the year on a high note, after hosting successful “give back” events from the year began.

JDAB’s most recent effort involved providing wheelchairs for Sandiland’s Rehabilitation Centre and Princess Margaret Hospital.

Their wheelchair project resulted in 25 new wheelchairs for PMH and 5 for Sandiland’s Geriatric Ward.

The wheelchairs were a welcome gift, especially for the hospital, which is known for having a shortage of wheelchairs.

It’s an important part of fulfilling their motto to “inspire humanity by diving into service”. Their mission is to “create a better world through love and kindness

for the benefit of humankind”. JDAB has been actively engaged in the Bahamian community for years. Members celebrate their unique culture and heritage with Bahamian residents and the wider diaspora by giving back.

Just weeks ago, they visited the home of 95 year-old Mrs Iris Barnett, a nation builder in the field of healthcare, as a part of their “Forgotten Heroes” programme. In October, children from the Nazareth Centre received grocery and essential needs as a part of their “Children’s Home” programme in partnership with Cash N’ Go. They did the same at the Children’s Emergency Hostel this past May. In the summer, members spent two days providing lunch for kids attending the Royal Bahamas Police Force NorthEastern Division summer camp. After Hurricane Dorian, the group

moved quickly to gather supplies and essentials and visit storm survivors at the shelter to show love and encouragement.

All throughout this year and last year, JDAB made it a point to visit as many schools as possible at least once, providing the students with a hot, healthy breakfast while sharing words of wisdom and big smiles. This year, schools included Uriah McPhee, Woodcock Primary, Columbus Primary and Palmdale Primary schools.

In this way, thousands of children were fed as JDAB partnered with BTC, Pheonix Supermarket and Liquid Fruits Bahamas. Other partners participating in these and other community service projects included: Pepper n Spice restaurant, Omni Money Transfer, Milo Butler Distributors, Insurance Company of the West Indies, Ports International and Nubian Kween entertainment.

PAGE 10, Thursday, December 12, 2019

THE TRIBUNE CAPTAIN RAYMOND KING, Acting Commander Defence Force speaks to the RBDF troops in Marsh Harbour, when he toured the island to assess the current status.

Photo: Leading Seaman Deon Demeritte

ACTING COMMANDER VISITS DEFENCE FORCE TROOPS THE Defence Force troops assigned to assist with hurricane relief efforts on Abaco welcomed Captain Raymond King, Acting Commander Defence Force recently during his tour of the island, assessing the current status.

Commander Michael Simmons, Commanding Officer Northern Command and Commanding Officer Hurricane Relief (Abaco and Grand Bahama) who has been appointed to lead in disaster recovery in the Northern Bahamas, along with a very capable cadre of officers and marines

met with the Acting Commander Defence Force providing details as required.

The Acting Commodore visited an array of essential sites where the Marines are deployed and engaged with them, celebrating their tireless efforts. He sang their praises particularly in ensuring the security and safety of the residents on the island, and assured them that the country is proud of the tasks they are accomplishing.

Captain King’s final stop was at the Marsh Harbour Main Base. This is the Mobile

Base Container City that was procured under the Sandy Bottom Project, for such times. He viewed berthing accommodations, the osmosis water maker and the Galley.

Taking advantage of the situation to strategize the ACDF met with Superintendent Roderick McKenzie and Assistant Police Kendal Smith of the Royal Bahamas Police Force along with RBDF Senior Officers and Senior Enlisted to discuss joint operational strategies in maintaining law and order in Abaco.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 12, 2019, PAGE 11

Charities looking for a little extra Christmas cheer

By LEANDRA ROLLE lrolle@tribunemedia.net WITH the holidays fast approaching, many nonprofit organisations are appealing for various donations to help persons in need during Christmas.

One of them is The Good Samaritan Senior Citizens Home.

Head of the facility, Reverend Dr Kendall Capron said a second location on Claridge Road has taken in some Hurricane Dorian victims and due to a shortage of beds at the home, some of them are sleeping on the floor.

The senior citizens home has been in operation since the 1990s.

“We’re very much in need. We need all of that what you could put and I’m right here and we have the home at Claridge Road.

I’m praying for someone to bring some beds for some of the people who want to come in . . .I need some help. I have at least 30 persons, even from the storm (and) they need some place to stay,” he said. “(But) I don’t have the beds what are needed. We have people in this room that come here and are sleeping on the floor. They would leave in the day and come back in the night so we need anything that could help even for those victims that suffered from the storm.”

Rev Janet Smith-Butler, founder and administrator of Unity House, said trying to secure Christmas donations for the old folks home has not been easy, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

“It’s been really tight,” she told The Tribune. “It’s been more than tight and everybody is saying that you have to wait until next

year (because of Dorian), but you can’t wait because it’s four meals a day to feed and to cook. Some of the old folks here are hurricane victims and… (in total) I think we have some 30 or 40 persons, but that could change because around Christmas time, normally when the rest of the homes are saying no, I try to help as much persons as I possibly can and try to make them have a good Christmas.”

Rev Smith-Butler added that while she understands that the needs of Dorian victims have to be met, she also doesn’t want persons to forget to help those throughout the community. She said her home needs donations of canned food, ham, turkey and other food items.

Meanwhile, representatives from the Ranfurly Home for Children are appealing to members of the public to volunteer their time and services in an effort to make this Christmas a memorable one for the children there, especially those who were affected by Hurricane Dorian.

The home’s president, Alexandra Maillis-Lynch, told The Tribune: “The children want to do things.

They want to do stuff.

These are teenagers and these children want to go all the time, but it’s expensive and people only think that they want things, but things is not an experience.

“They want memories.

They want to do stuff. They want to go to (the) carnival.

They want to go bowling.

They want to go the movies.

They want to go to Poley’s Playhouse. They want to do paintball, you know anything. It doesn’t have to be for the whole 45 children.

We do a lot of small group activities.

“Monetary donations are (also) welcome especially when people give them to us and say buy them tickets to go out.

So, let us buy tickets for things out (of the home).”

PAGE 12, Thursday, December 12, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Men who changed for ever the view of our world

By JENNIFER TUCKER Associate Professor of History and Science in Society, Wesleyan University

seeing the world and transformed our understanding of the air we breathe.

NEAR the beginning of the new film “The Aeronauts,” a giant gasfilled balloon called the “Mammoth” departs from London’s Vauxhall Gardens and ascends into the clouds, revealing a bird’s eye view of London.

To some moviegoers, these breathtaking views might seem like nothing special: Modern air travel has made many of us take for granted what we can see from the sky. But during the 19th century, the vast “ocean of air” above our heads was a mystery.

These first balloon trips changed all that.

Directed by Tom Harper, the movie is inspired by the true story of Victorian scientist James Glaisher and the aeronaut Henry Coxwell. (In the film, Coxwell is replaced by a fictional aeronaut named Amelia Wren.)

In 1862, Glaisher and Coxwell ascended to 37,000 feet in a balloon – 8,000 feet higher than the summit of Mount Everest, and, at the time, the highest point in the atmosphere humans had ever reached.

As a historian of science and visual communication, I’ve studied the balloon trips of Glaisher, Coxwell and others. Their voyages inspired art and philosophy, introduced new ways of

Before the invention of the balloon, the atmosphere was like a blank slate on which fantasies and fears were projected. Philosophers speculated that the skies went on forever, while there were medieval tales of birds that were so large they could whisk human passengers into the clouds.

The atmosphere was also thought of as a “factory of death” – a place where disease-causing vapours lingered. People also feared that if they were to ascend into the clouds, they’d die from oxygen deprivation.

The dream of traveling skyward became a reality in 1783, when two French brothers, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and JacquesÉtienne Montgolfier, launched the first piloted hot-air balloon.

Early balloon flights were difficult to pull off and dangerous. Aeronauts and passengers fell to their deaths when balloons unexpectedly deflated, caught fire or drifted out to sea.

Partly due to this inherent danger, untethered balloon flight became forms of public entertainment, titillating crowds who wanted to see if something would go wrong. The novelist Charles Dickens, horrified by balloon ascents, wrote that these “dangerous exhibitions” were no different from public hangings.

Over time, aeronauts became more skilled, the technology improved and trips became safe enough to bring along passengers – provided they could afford the trip. At the time of Glaisher’s ascents, it cost about 600 pounds – roughly US$90,000 today – to construct a balloon. Scientists who wanted to make a solo ascent needed to shell out about 50 pounds to hire an aeronaut, balloon and enough gas for a single trip.

Some of the first Europeans who ascended for amusement returned with tales of new sights and

The first balloon flights

sensations, composed poems about what they had seen and circulated sketches.

A glass lantern slide of a print titled ‘The View of Versailles.’ Private collection, used with permission.

Common themes emerged: the sensation of being in a dream, a feeling of tranquility and a sense of solitude and isolation.

“We were lost in an opaque ocean of ivory and alabaster,” the balloon travellers Wilfrid de Fonvielle and Gaston Tissandier recalled in 1868 upon returning from one of their voyages.

In an 1838 book, one of the most prolific writers on the topic, professional flutist Monck Mason, described ascending into the atmosphere as “distinct in all its bearings from every other process with which we are acquainted.” Once aloft, the traveller is forced to consider the “world without him.”

French astronomer Camille Flammarion wrote that the atmosphere was “an ethereal sea reaching over the whole world; its waves wash the mountains and the valleys, and we live beneath it and are penetrated by it.”

Travellers were also awestruck by the diffusion of light, the intensity of colours and the effects of atmospheric illumination.

One scientific observer in 1873 described the atmosphere as a “splendid world of colours which brightens the surface of our planet,” noting the “lovely azure tint” and “changing harmonies” of hues that “lighten up the world.”

A laboratory for discovery And then there were the birds-eye views of the cities, farms and towns below. In 1852, the social reformer Henry Mayhew recalled his views of London from the perch of “an angel:” “tiny people, looking like so many black pins on a cushion,” swarmed through “the strange, incongruous clump of palaces and workhouses.”

To Mayhew, the sights of farmlands were “the most exquisite delight I ever experienced”. The houses looked “like the tiny wooden things out of a child’s box of toys, and the streets like ruts.”

So deep was the dusk in the distance that it “was difficult to tell where the earth ended and the sky began”.

The atmosphere was not just a vantage point for

picturesque views. It was also a laboratory for discovery, and balloons were a boon to scientists.

At the time, different theories prevailed over how and why rain formed. Scientists debated the role of trade winds and the chemical composition of the atmosphere. People wondered what caused lightning and what would happen to the human body as it ascended higher.

To scientists like Flammarion, the study of the atmosphere was the era’s key scientific challenge. The hope was that the balloon would give scientists some answers – or, at the very least, provide more clues.

James Glaisher, a British astronomer and meteorologist, was already an established scientist by the time he made his famous balloon ascents. During his trips, he brought along delicate instruments to measure the temperature, barometric pressure and chemical composition of the air. He even recorded his own pulse at various altitudes.

In 1871 he published “Travels in the Air,” a collection of reports from his experiments. He didn’t want to simply write about his findings for other scientists; he wanted the public to learn about his trips. So he fashioned his book to make the reports appealing to middle-class readers by including detailed drawings and maps, colourful accounts of his adventures and vivid descriptions of his precise observations.

Glaisher’s books also featured innovative visual portrayals of meteorological data; the lithographs depicted temperatures and barometric pressure levels at different elevations, superimposed over picturesque views.

He gave a series of popular lectures, during which he relayed findings from his trips to riveted audiences. Two years later, he published an English translation of Flammarion’s account of his balloon travels.

The trips of Glaisher and others gave scientists new insights into meteors; the relationship between altitude and temperature; the formation of rain, hail and snow; and the forces behind thunder.

And for members of the public, the atmosphere was transformed from an airy concept into a physical reality. theconversation.com

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 12, 2019, PAGE 13

Generous donation to help rebuild school

LEFT to right Sonia Omega Simmons Donors, Ivan Butler, Rodney Bethel VP, Lily Moxey Principal, Dinnea Cooper VP, Keerhan Mullings Donors

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net HUGH Campbell Primary School received a generous cash donation yesterday from the Friends of the Bahamas Turks and Caicos Islands group to assist hurricane restorations efforts at that school.

Sonia “Omega” Simmons, a Grand Bahama resident who has relocated to Turks and Caicos, presented a cheque for $11,000 to Principal Lilly Moxey for the

purchase of two smart boards for the institution.

Hugh Campbell sustained severe flood and roof damage during Dorian in early September. There was up to four to five feet of water in classrooms as a result of storm surge.

During a special assembly at the school, Ms Simmons said that the group, which consists of eight persons, wanted to assist in some way to the relief efforts on Grand Bahama.

“After the passing of Dorian, a few of us got together to try figure out what we wanted to

do; we knew that initial relief would come to GB and Abaco by way of things like food items and clothing, but we wanted to wait and see what we would do that no one else was doing,” she explained.

The group initially reached out to the Bartlett Hill Primary School in Eight Mile Rock where Principal Deneika Martin told them about Hugh Campbell Primary.

Ms Martin told the group that she would much rather them help that school which was much worse off than her school.

Ms Simmons contacted Principal Moxey and asked her to provide a wish list of what the school needed.

“We told her we would do what we could to raise funds to help her and looking at the school you can see the needs are great,” she said.

Ms Moxey, she said, was most keen on replacing the Promethean boards which were destroyed during the storm.

“She was trying to replace three in total and her request was for us to raise funds for one of

the boards, and we are pleased to be able to give her a cheque for $11,000 to replace two boards here,” she said.

Ms Simmons said the group works in conjunction with the Armory Company, in Freeport, which provided them with a quote for the cost of two smart boards.

“We were extremely excited to be able to do this as our team was on the ground hustling and gathering donations to be able to make this presentation today which we hope will be a blessing to them,” she said.

PAGE 14, Thursday, December 12, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 12, 2019, PAGE 15

URCA ‘trying to destroy broadcasting company’

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net THE Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority is planning to liquidate a local broadcast company fighting to prove its rightful claim to the 103.5 FM radio licence, with the company’s attorney accusing the regulator of trying to “destroy” his client.

Kahlil Parker said yesterday that not only is URCA seeking to close down Navette Broadcasting, it is doing so “in the face of serious questions to be answered” about its decision to “unilaterally” give his client’s radio licence to Olympian Frank Rutherford “without due process of law”.

Mr Parker swore to prove to the Court of Appeal that URCA’s June 2017 decision was tantamount to an “unlawful taking” of Navette’s radio licence, and why the appellate court “cannot turn a blind eye to this type of conduct.”

Mr Parker’s comments came before the appellate tribunal of Justices Stella Crane-Scott, Roy Jones and Sir Michael Barnett said it would reserve its decision on whether to give Navette more time to appeal Supreme Court Justice Ian Winder’s decision not to allow it to appeal URCA’s decision.

Navette’s legal battles with URCA stems from the former’s opposition of Island Luck chief Sebas Bastian’s radio joint venture, Paramount System’s majority takeover of ZSR Sport’s Radio’s FM licence.

Mr Bastian’s majorityowned Paramount Systems joint venture was supposed to use the 103.5 FM frequency formerly utilised by ZSR Sports Radio.

Mr Rutherford and Mr Smith’s widow are Mr Bastian’s minority partners in Paramount Systems, but they subsequently became embroiled in the legal challenge mounted by Navette Broadcasting.

Navette Broadcasting had opposed the station’s majority takeover by Mr Bastian on the basis that it is the true holder of the 103.5 licence.

In June 2017, URCA had found that Mr Rutherford, the Bahamas’ first track and field Olympic medalist, as well as the late sports broadcaster Phil Smith, were the true holders of the 103.5 FM radio licence, and not Navette Broadcasting, which previously operated ZSR Sports Radio via that frequency.

Navette countered by claiming URCA ignored the fact the licence could not have existed without it following passage of the 2009 Communications Act, which required all broadcast licences to be held by incorporated companies.

ZSR’s licence, issued pre-2009, was in the names of Messrs Rutherford and Smith and thus non-compliant with the new law.

According to Mr Parker, Messrs Rutherford and Smith had a letter of undertaking that stipulated that if they complied with certain conditions the broadcast licence in dispute would be given to them.

When the time came for the issuance of that licence, it was issued to Navette, the licensee, which he said paid the requisite annual dues to URCA for eight plus years before the events in question took place.

Thus, Mr Parker said via its decision, URCA essentially intimated that on the one hand, Navette’s licence was void because it was actually given to Messrs

Rutherford and Smith, but on the other hand, said it would “vary” the licensee and give it to a “third party” to resolve the issue.

Thus, he said URCA declared Navette’s radio licence void, then “went on to give a void licence to somebody else”.

Mr Parker submitted that if any variation was to be made, it should have been to remove everyone else’s names from the licence and leave it in his client’s name, as Navette had paid for the license and who had been the “licensee of record” on URCA’s websites for the past eight years.

According to the evidence, Navette applied for leave to commence judicial review proceedings against URCA in November 2017. However, that application was rejected in December of that year by Justice Indra Charles, who ruled that Navette had an alternative remedy in the Utilities Appeal Tribunal (UAT).

The following day, Navette petitioned the UAT on the matter, but that tribunal dismissed its appeal.

Navette then filed a notice of appeal in the appellate court of the UAT’s decision on January 19, 2018. Days later on January 29, Navette also filed a notice of appeal against Justice Charles’ decision, which was filed both out of time and without leave.

But despite those two live appeals, Navette subsequently filed to commence judicial review proceedings of URCA’s decision in the Supreme Court before Justice Winder. Navette eventually withdrew both appeals against the UAT and Justice Charles’ decision. Eventually, Justice Winder would end up dismissing Navette’s application for judicial review proceedings.

At the time, Justice Winder ruled that a decision in his hearing of a second Navette application for a “rolled-up” hearing would serve no practical purpose or result.

Yesterday, Mr Parker said he filed a notice of appeal against Justice Winder’s decision, but he made an “error”; he assumed the judge’s decision was a “final judgement” and that he did not need leave to appeal it. However, he said when he was alerted to his mistake, he discontinued that appeal, and requested leave to appeal from Justice Winder, which was ultimately granted.

Thus, Mr Parker submitted that but for his mistake, the appeal would have been filed in time, and that the appellate court should allow the appeal to proceed.

However, URCA’s attorney Sean Moree urged the appellate court to exercise caution in determining whether to grant Navette more time to appeal, and said the court should consider Navette’s “antecedents”, mainly its “continuous refusal” to “abide” by the appeal process set out by statute.

Mr Moree submitted that it would have been more proper to have appealed to the UAT in the first place as opposed to heading straight for the Supreme Court.

“The UAT was always the correct tribunal of first instance,” Mr Moree said.

Mr Moree also submitted that on two occasions to date, the Supreme Court did not even deem Navette’s action “worthy” enough to grant it leave to commence judicial review proceedings, referring to Justice Charles’ and Winder’s decisions. Thus, he said

Navette’s “chances of success” are slim to none.

Nonetheless, Mr Moree said that if Navette’s application for more time is granted, and its intended appeal sanctioned, the company would have had a “third bite at the cherry”.

Sir Michael questioned if Navette should be “punished” for making a simple “booboo” in appealing Justice Winder’s decision. However, Mr Moree said he could not agree that Navette’s mistake was a mere “boo-boo”, but rather a “procedural defect which it ought to have known and should be sanctioned as a result thereof”.

PAGE 16, Thursday, December 12, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

WEINSTEIN AGREES $25M SETTLEMENT NEW YORK Associated Press HARVEY Weinstein and his former film studio’s board have reached a tentative $25m settlement that would end nearly every sexual misconduct lawsuit brought against him and his company. More than 30 actresses and former Weinstein employees, who have sued the movie mogul for accusations ranging from sexual misconduct to rape, have agreed to the deal, according to lawyers.

Weinstein would avoid paying any of his own money and he would not be required to admit any wrongdoing as part of the deal. Insurance companies representing the Weinstein Company would cover the settlement’s cost.

THUNBERG IS TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR MADRID Associated Press

HARVEY Weinstein leaves court following yesterday’s hearing

New Jersey shootings a targeted hate crime NEW JERSEY Associated Press FEARS that a deadly shooting at a Jewish market in Jersey City was an anti-Semitic attack mounted yesterday as authorities recounted how a man and woman deliberately pulled up to the place in a stolen rental van with at least one rifle and got out firing.

A day after the gunbattle and standoff that left six people dead — the two killers, a police officer and three people who had been inside the store — state and federal law enforcement officials warned they have not established the motive for the attack.

“The why and the ideology and the motivation — that’s what we’re investigating,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said, adding that authorities are also trying to determine if anyone else was involved.

But Mayor Steve Fulop said surveillance video of the attackers made it clear they targeted the kosher market, and he pronounced the bloodshed a hate crime against Jews, as did New York’s mayor and governor.

Also, investigators believe the two dead attackers — who were believed to be a couple — identified

THE SCENE of the shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City themselves in the past as Black Hebrew Israelites, a movement whose members have been known to rail against whites and Jews, according to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In addition, authorities have found social media postings from at least one of the killers that were anti-police and anti-Jewish, the official said. The FBI yesterday

searched the Harlem headquarters of the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, which is the formal name of the Black Hebrew group, according to the official.

The killers were identified as David N. Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50 — both of them also prime suspects in the slaying of a livery driver found dead in a car trunk in nearby Bayonne over the weekend, Grewal said. Anderson served about four months in prison in New Jersey on weapons charges

and was paroled in 2011, authorities said. Two of the victims at the store were identified by members of the Orthodox Jewish community as Mindel Ferencz, 31, who with her husband owned the grocery, and 24-year-old Moshe Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn who was shopping there. The Ferencz family had moved to Jersey City from Brooklyn. Authorities identified the third victim as Miguel Douglas, 49.

“The report from the Jersey City mayor saying it was a targeted attack makes us incredibly concerned in the Jewish community,” said Evan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish civil rights organization.

“They want answers. They demand answers. If this was truly a targeted killing of Jews, then we need to know that right away, and there needs to be the pushing back on this at the highest levels possible.”

The bloodshed in the city of 270,000 people across the Hudson River from New York City began at a graveyard, where Detective Joseph Seals, a 40-year-old member of a unit devoted to taking illegal weapons off the street, was gunned down by the assailants, authorities said. They then drove the van about a mile to the kosher market.

TEENAGE climate activist Greta Thunberg said she was surprised and honoured to be named Time’s youngest Person of the Year, while adding that others in the global movement she helped inspire deserve to share the accolade.

The 16-year-old Swede has become the face of a new generation of environmental activists, drawing large crowds with her appearances at protests and conferences over the past year and a half. Some have welcomed her work, including her speeches challenging world leaders to do more to stop global warming. But others have criticised her sometimes combative tone.

DAVID BELLAMY DIES, AGED 86 LONDON Associated Press BOTANIST and broadcaster David Bellamy has died aged 86. London-born Bellamy, who became a household name as a TV personality, scientist and conservationist, died on Wednesday, according to the foundation.

His colleague, David Shreeve, described him as a “larger-than-life character” who “inspired a whole generation”.

In later life Bellamy, who lived in County Durham, attracted criticism for dismissing global warming.

In 2004 he described it as “poppycock” - a stance which he later said cost him his TV career.

Bellamy worked in a sweet factory and as a plumber before moving into TV.

LEADERS SCRAMBLE FOR FINAL VOTES AS UK’S UGLY ELECTION ENDS LONDON Associated Press ON THE last day of the British election campaign, political leaders dashed around the UK trying to win over millions of undecided voters who will likely determine the outcome.

Opinion polls suggest Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have a lead over the main opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn ahead of today’s election. But all the parties are nervous about the verdict of a volatile electorate fed up after years of Brexit wrangling.

Britain’s first December vote since 1923 has been dubbed the Brexit Election.

It is being held more than two years early in hopes of breaking Britain’s political deadlock over the country’s stalled departure from the European Union.

Johnson has focused relentlessly on Brexit throughout the campaign, endlessly repeating his slogan “Get Brexit done.” He says that if he wins a majority of the 650 House of Commons seats on Thursday, he will get Parliament to ratify his “oven-ready” divorce deal with the EU and take Britain out of the bloc as scheduled on Jan. 31.

“If we can get a working majority, we have a deal, it’s

ready to go,” Johnson said as he watched pies being baked at a catering firm in central England. “We put it in, slam it in the oven, take it out and there it is -- get Brexit done.”

As a slogan, “Get Brexit done” is both misleading and effective. If Britain leaves the EU on Jan. 31 it will only kick-start months or years of negotiations on future trade relations with the bloc, involving tough trade-offs between independence and access.

Labour — which is largely but ambiguously pro-EU — faces competition for anti-Brexit voters from the centrist Liberal Democrats, Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties and the Greens.

“My message to all those voters who are still undecided is that you can vote for hope in this election,” Corbyn said at his final campaign rally.

On Brexit, Labour says it will negotiate a new divorce deal with the EU, then offer voters the choice in a new referendum between leaving on those terms and remaining in the bloc.

For many voters, today’s election offers an unpalatable choice. Both Johnson and Corbyn have personal approval ratings in negative territory, and both have been dogged by questions about their character.