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‘Marijuana will boost economy’

Commission report says drug has huge business potential

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana has endorsed the economic potential of a cannabis industry in The Bahamas as robust.

The commission’s report notes that wages in the sector are among the highest in the world, with starting wages for workers being $15 an hour and “a master grower’s” salary starting from around $100,000 annually.

GOLDEN Isles MP Vaughn Miller said he intends to remain in frontline politics, but he’s mulling over whether to remain independent or become aligned with another party.

Mr Miller told The Tribune that despite being alienated from the Free National Movement and disagreeing with its positions, which ultimately led

HAITIAN ON PASSPORT CHARGES

BPL BILLS SET TO GO UP BY 15%

SEE PAGE SEVEN

SEE PAGE FIVE

SEE PAGE EIGHT

A HAITIAN man was charged with 18 counts of fraud yesterday for obtaining a valid Bahamian passport using forged documents.

Ramao Ralph Smith is accused of using fraudulent documents, including two birth certificates, a voter’s card, along with a lost passport, to obtain a valid Bahamian passport.

It is alleged that he also obtained a genuine National Insurance Board card using false identification.

SEE PAGE SIX

“Whilst many Bahamians will need to be adequately trained to be growers, this profession is very doable and practical livelihood for many,” the draft preliminary report, which was leaked to the media, says.

“The equity component proposed will ensure the country sees the full benefit of this economic possibility. Globally there has been a complete lockout of people of colour and lower socio-economic status. Interestingly, the population that is locked

to his resignation from the party two weeks ago, he has not completely given up on mainstream politics.

While it is more challenging to be elected as an independent, Mr Miller said he sees the value of swing voters, whom he believes have multiplied in recent years.

This grouping, according to the MP, determines the outcomes of modern day general elections.

THE BOY WHO GREW UP TO BECOME A GIRL

By SYANN THOMPSON Tribune Staff Reporter sthompson@tribunemedia.net

‘I’M STAYING IN POLITICS BUT DON’T KNOW WHERE’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

FACE-TO-FACE

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

TERAN and Teron Davis from One Family are seen making final preparations yesterday for this year’s Junkanoo parades.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

All set for a Junkanoo party

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net WITH the 2019 Boxing Day Junkanoo parade hours away, members from the leading Junkanoo groups across New Providence say they are ready to rush on Bay Street and wow spectators with their various themes.

Speaking to The Tribune about their final preparations leading up to the highly anticipated event, representatives from the Valley Boys, Saxon Superstars and One Family groups said their costumes,

head marshal of the Valley Boys, said the public can expect an “exceptional” presentation from their group. “To be quite frank, we are well on the way,” he said. “Many persons in the Junkanoo world believe that we don’t have a lot of things because many of our members are in other groups now, but this has actually allowed a lot of persons who have ONE Family at work hidden talent to emerge.”

Insisting that the group music and choreography are certain to captivate is doing something that the judges and crowd on has never been done December 26.

Collin Ingraham, deputy SEE PAGE TWO

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

BPL chairman Donovan Moxey yesterday revealed that the extra charge consumers must pay come March 2020 will likely be equivalent to 15 percent of their electricity bills, finally clarifying that the National Utility Investment Bond fee, which will service BPL’s new $650m debt, will be calculated as a percentage of every business and household’s energy consumption.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

The Tribune

Your next edition is out on Friday and will include Obituaries & Religion

PAGE 2, Tuesday, December 24, 2019

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE

from page one before, he added: “Our theme for Boxing Day is ‘Wildlife in the Serengeti’.

Many persons come and say. ‘Oh, we’re bringing Africa,’ (but) I like to point out to people that there are 194 countries in the world (and) Africa happens to have 54 of them.”

Mr Ingraham said the presentation will bring an important aspect of Africa to life by “specifically focusing” on the “beauty and majesty” of the endangered species on the continent.

In terms of costume design, he also said that the public will be “surprised” with the level of costuming that the group is going to bring to Bay Street.

“We’ve seen images of the other groups and we know that they use pretty

THE TRIBUNE Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

colours and stuff, but they’re not pasting,” he said. “They’re not using the traditional Junkanoo (designs) and it looks more like carnival. So, we’re going to bring that same level of beauty, but we’ll be pasted; whether it’s choreographed, or brass or developed costumes.”

Stating that the Valley Boys expect to be this year’s champion, Mr Ingraham also warned the other groups to come prepared.

“This is going to be an awesome presentation and our performance is going to be exceptional. We’re prepared and we intend to win,” he said.

Anthony “Slippery” Etienne, lead costume designer for the Saxon Superstars’ Boxing Day parade presentation, also told this newspaper that his group is ready to take

the lead. “You can expect a wow, because we’re dealing with a cancer theme and it’s the first time this theme is going to be on Bay Street,” he said. “Everybody wants to find out how we’re going to bring this theme to life, and it was a challenge, but at the end of the day all of the designers got together and made it happen.”

Mr Etienne explained that the group’s costumes and props will feature different fruits and vegetables, along with the food pyramid, to highlight the importance of maintaining a balanced diet to decrease the likelihood of developing the illness.

“To all those other groups,” he added, “we’re coming to cure you, so expect to be cured on Bay Street. Everyone can expect a good show. It’s going to be good music that you’ve never heard before (and) everything will be solid.”

Down at the One Family Junkanoo shack, Gary “Stoogie” Kemp, one of the group’s highlight free dancers, said that they plan to stick to their roots and engage their younger fans.

“We haven’t been straying away from the kids, (instead) we’ve been fascinating the crowd by targeting them. So, this year, you’re going to see Donkey Kong, Pac Man and a lot of the popular games from the old and the new era,” he explained.

In terms of music and costuming, Mr Kemp insisted that the group, which won last year’s Boxing Day parade, is tighter than ever.

“The brotherhood this year that’s been displayed in the shack has been tremendous where everybody is being their brother’s keeper, so don’t expect no sore fingers or thumbs, just pure unity.”

The free dancer also had a few remarks for One Family’s competitors.

“This ain’t looking too good for them,” he said.

“Tell Roots don’t come, tell Saxons don’t show up, (and) tell the Valley we hope they go home early, because it’s going down… we’re going to show you how to play games on Bay Street.”

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, December 24, 2019, PAGE 3

AT THE FRONT OF THE CHURCH WAS A WREATH WITH WHITE LILIES, REPRESENTING PEOPLE WHO DIED OR ARE STILL MISSING

Memorial service in Grand Bahama for Dorian victims

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net A MEMORIAL service was held on Sunday at Jubilee Cathedral to honour the 31 victims in Grand Bahama who lost their lives during Hurricane Dorian or are presumed dead in the aftermath of the deadliest and destructive storm in the Bahamas’ history.

At the front of the church was a wreath with over 30 white lilies, each representing the nine persons who died, and the 22 others, including several children, who are still missing and feared dead from East Grand Bahama.

As singer Jay Mitchell sang a moving song tribute for the victims, and as photos and names of the deceased and the missing were displayed on a big screen, a wailing griefstricken woman had to be escorted out of the church by an usher.

September 1 is a day that will never be forgotten by many - it was the day when Dorian made landfall in Abaco, the Category Five storm decimating that island before moving to Grand Bahama with 180 mph winds and 20-ft storm surge, the storm staying stationary over the island for 40 hours.

The brunt was felt in East Grand Bahama where lives were lost, and many are

still unaccounted for. Most of the missing are from the High Rock community where more than a dozen had been swept away by the storm surge.

The names read of the deceased were: Catherine Armstrong, Clarissa Collie, Daisy Cartwright, Freeman Carey, Irene Saunders, Kenel Joseph, Latrvalia Williams-Daniel, Ango Daniel, and Marvin Rolle.

The names read of the missing were: Aaron Cooper, Adam Cooper, Albert Bridgewater, Clarence Jones, Darnita Cooper, Donluck Munnings, George Laing, Hennilee Mackey, Howard Bevans, J’vonaje Forde, Mateo Bethel, Monique Munnings, Omarion Munnings, Philip Thomas, Philip Thomas Jr, Raphaela Munnings, Remeille Thomas, Roswell Pinder, Shirlene Cooper, Sybil Pinder, Tanae Pinder, and Terrell Lightbourne.

Families of the victims also attended the service, which was hosted by the Grand Bahama Port Authority under the patronage of well-known Freeport philanthropist Lady Henrietta St George, who was also in attendance. Sarah St George, vice chairman of the GBPA, along with her brother, Henry St George, vice president of the GBPA, and other executives were also present.

Lady Henrietta, and her late husband, Edward St George, who was the chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, were prominent figures in Freeport for many years before his death. A year before his passing in 2004, they held an island-wide memorial service for the five missing boys of Grand Bahama who

mysterious disappeared in 2003, and whose remains were later found.

Speaking on behalf of the government, Senator Jasmine Darius called on Bahamians to support each other during this difficult time.

“We all been touched by the apocalyptic and catastrophic Hurricane Dorian;

every family across GB, and it is our prayer that Jehovah will give the families (of the victims) peace, and we encourage you to remember the lives and legacy of (the victims),” she said.

During the homily, Rev Dr Robert Lockhart, president of the Grand Bahama Christian Council, indicated

that the entire island has been touched by the tragedy. “We all lost because… they are our fellow countrymen…and we will miss them all because they all added something to this great community, he said.

All of us are connected in some way because of the smallness of us as a people, and nation.”

PAGE 4, Tuesday, December 24, 2019

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What do kids really think about Santa?

CHILDREN’S belief in Santa may be taken as evidence that they’re gullible or unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. But, consider your reaction to the following scenario: The past few nights, the local news has been filled with reports of an unidentified person who has broken into homes, stolen car keys and driven away with vehicles. The culprit hasn’t left much evidence behind, aside from muddy boot prints.

You wake one morning to find a trail of mud on your floor, notice your car keys are missing and run to the window – your car is gone. You immediately think that this must be the work of the person from the news. Minutes later you get a call from your messy – and inconsiderate – roommate. He apologetically explains that he tried to walk to work as usual, but it was raining heavily, so he went back into your apartment with soiled shoes and borrowed your car for the day.

In the US, adults, peers and TV commercials give children the constant narrative that Santa exists. Children visit shopping centers where they meet a person elaborately dressed as Santa, sit on his lap and divulge their desired gifts. Parents then plant evidence – the cookies and milk on Christmas Eve, the half-eaten cookies, the half-empty milk glass and – most important – presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

Believing that Santa exists is no more evidence that children are gullible than is your initial deduction that a wanted criminal broke into the apartment. To the contrary, children are at times more skeptical than adults about a variety of people’s claims and assertions.

The topic of children’s beliefs about Santa is particularly intriguing to me, as a scholar who examines children’s beliefs in what they’re told, their concepts of people and minds, and their understandings of the extraordinary. Research on children’s cognitive development supports an intriguing and nuanced story about children’s belief in St. Nick.

To believe that Santa exists is one thing. But do children believe that Santa can do all of the extraordinary things that parents and other adults purport? Do they believe that Santa can fly around the Earth in one night, on a sled pulled by reindeer, and deliver gifts to every child’s house; or that Santa really knows if they’ve been naughty or nice?

This is where the developmental story becomes more interesting and nuanced.

These beliefs depend on children’s concepts of the world, and these concepts undergo dramatic development across childhood.

For example, there are substantial individual differences and

developmental changes in how children conceptualise the Earth and in how they conceptualise time and speed.

If a young child believes that the Earth is rather small or that there aren’t many people in the world, then believing in Santa’s 24-hour mass gift distribution isn’t so far-fetched. There are also substantial differences in children’s concept of minds. Young children, in particular, find it difficult to conceptualise someone who is all-knowing or who knows about their every thought and move. Preschoolers likely believe that Santa has a special mind, that he may know some things that most other adults don’t know but not everything.

So, young children typically believe that Santa exists, but in a more mundane form than adults let on.

Yet, even within cultures where messages about Santa and physical evidence of Santa’s existence pervade, most children eventually come to realise that Santa doesn’t exist.

Messages from friends may slowly erode children’s belief, or children may catch parents in the act of feasting on Santa’s cookies or placing presents under the tree.

Also, as children increasingly understand the magnitude of Santa’s purported powers – for example, when they realise the distance Santa would need to travel and how many houses Santa would need to visit on a single night – this may raise doubts about Santa’s purported qualities and eventually inspire doubt in Santa’s existence altogether.

By the age of about eight, most children don’t actually believe in Santa anymore.

So are there consequences to deceiving children about Santa? Do children lose trust in their parents when they realise that it was all an elaborate ruse?

There’s not much research that directly answers these questions. One of the few studies that asked children about their reactions found that children experienced more positive emotions than negative emotions when they learned about the myth, whether they discovered the ruse themselves or parents told them.

Considering that children may understand that it’s a game before their parents realise that they do – and children continue playing along – and considering that the whole fantasy plays out in the context of fun and togetherness, there’s probably more to gain by playing along than there is to lose.

By Jonathan Lane, Vanderbilt University. This article first appeared on The Conversation

HBO must compete EDITOR, The Tribune THE Bahamas government is in no position to carry out the unreasonable demands of HBO Latin America, even in the face of the threat of having the Trump administration withdrawing its trade preferences. HBO is owned by Warner Media Entertainment, a subsidiary of AT&T. Warner Media Entertainment’s revenue for 2018 was $33 billion. To get an idea of how massive this media conglomerate is in terms of high finances, the Bahamian government’s revenue for 2012 --three years prior to the introduction of VAT, was just $1.5 billion.

With thousands of Bahamian households utilising Android TV Boxes, Fire TV Sticks and other streaming devices, traditional cable and satellite services are fast becoming obsolete.

In the US, approximately

6.5 percent of American households access illegal television streaming services each month, which represents a revenue loss of $4.2 billion annually to traditional cable TV and satellite providers, while illegal streaming operators are generating upwards of $840 million on an annual basis. The US government, with its first world technology, cannot effectively police its 329 million citizens in regards to which streaming services they access, so how does HBO Latin America expect a government of a third world country to do it? HBO Latin America needs to get with the times. Even legitimate streaming services are hurting traditional cable TV and satellite providers.

This is the age of Netflix, Hulu, Quibi, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music, CBS All Access, Crackle, Plex, Sling, YouTube Red,

Crunchyroll, PlayStation Vue, ESPN+, DC Universe, R.I.P Seeso, VRV, Boomerang, Apple TV, Spotify, Apple Music and Disney plus. These legal streaming services costs between $5 and $15 per month – much cheaper than traditional cable TV. Rather than make unreasonable demands, HBO Latin America needs to lower its astronomical fees in order to compete with the foregoing streaming service providers. As for petitioning President Donald Trump to punish The Bahamas and this region; after being impeached by the Democratic controlled House of Representatives, I would suspect that Trump currently has far more pressing matters to attend to.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama.

December 22, 2019.

We need to spark engine EDITOR, The Tribune MY Grandmother used to tell the story of bumping into one of the leading Bay Street merchants in his store in about 1970, not too long after the defeat of the UBP. Miraculously, the merchant recognized her from her childhood in the 1920s, when she would come from Long Island on her grandfather’s sailing vessel, which docked at the market range, not far from his store.

Being half-mischievous, she asked the merchant how things were going, with the new government and all. To her surprise, the old man broke into a broad smile. From when she last saw him, he explained, and for many years thereafter he had only that one store on Bay Street. But now, thanks to the little man coming up, he had a total of five, including one out on Lyford Cay, one on Harold Road and one in Palmdale.

Things were great.

It is an enduring irony of Bahamian history that those who benefit most from the growth of incomes at the lower end have been most resistant to policies that support it. A generation earlier, the antecedents of that wise old merchant were busy trying to stop the US contractors of the Windsor Field airport from paying their Bahamian workers too much – the same workers who had nowhere to spend those earnings but in the stores of those very merchants.

Sound stupid? Before you laugh, consider that a variant of such thinking is very much alive in The Bahamas today, and often espoused by smart-seeming people. It is on exhibit every time a government minister or economist questions whether we can “afford” a rise in the pitiful minimum wage or when a government gives closed-door concessions to a foreign investor which effectively concede away the whole benefit of permitting foreign investment in the first place.

And unfortunately all governments since independence have, to a greater or lesser extent, been taken in by the neo-liberal hoax that proposes an inverse relationship between wage

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net growth and economic competitiveness.

Basically everyone agrees that money comes into the Bahamian economy through foreign direct investment. But once it gets here, the hoax proposes that it magically enhances living standards through some invisible hand. Hence just getting it here is the goal. In reality, foreign investment is only a net benefit to The Bahamas insofar as it is leveraged to enhance wages, thus boosting consumption, which is the real driver of the domestic economy.

For the last few decades, rising prices have meant that wages have not kept up with consumption.

This explains the growth of consumer credit, which simply shifts the burden of consumption onto future employees and employers. Wisely, no government questions the role of consumption in the domestic economy. Unwisely, no government has countered the troubling shift to credit by pursuing a robust wage growth policy.

The present crew seem to view the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment and economic growth in absolutist terms, as if all you have to do is attract investment projects and this will somehow magically turn into enhanced living standards. It won’t – especially when you factor in the vast concessions in public income (taxes) and government’s tolerance of labour-unfriendly practices among investors.

Unable to explain how the historically very high levels of foreign investment in The Bahamas have failed to produce commensurate economic growth in the last two decades, the FNM simply assumes that too much is never enough and gets ever more desperate (and less discriminating) in its pursuit of more investment. Hence Oban, the Lighthouse Beach project in Eleuthera, GIBC in Grand Bahama and presumably many more embarrassments to come.

This will inevitably lead

to a cyclical race to the bottom, as government pursues policies that extract less benefit from foreignowned projects, then uses the resultant disappointing growth as evidence that we need to concede even more benefits to keep the investments coming in. This kind of desperate and muddled thinking is codified in the Commercial Enterprises Act, which undermines the very protections (like Bahamians-only restrictions on the professionals that service investment projects) that render foreign ownership not just palatable to the population but worthwhile to the economy.

Until it is repealed, this truly idiotic piece of legislation will only reduce the margin of benefit to the Bahamian economy of whatever investment it supposedly brings.

While the PLP has clearly had a better record of raising wages, supporting trade unions and investing in things like universal healthcare, it has done so on the narrow basis of social justice, without apparently recognizing that all these measures are a more effective means of growing the economy than simply bagging more investment projects.

According to independent analysts, NHI with a single payer, public provider system would have added more percentage points to the Bahamian economy than Baha Mar (of course both together would have been ideal). A minimum wage boost to $350 a week would also boost growth, by causing a knock on effect across the wage spectrum.

Wage-driven consumption is the engine of the domestic Bahamian economy. Enhancing consumer confidence and spending power by reducing taxes on consumption, reducing costs of utilities, implementing free-at-thepoint-of-access healthcare and increasing the minimum wage are among the most obvious means of converting our already very high levels of foreign investment into fuel for that engine. Without such fuel, foreign investment is a waste of time.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, December 22, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net PLP leader Philip “Brave” Davis said yesterday that Minister of Works Desmond Bannister should “put up or shut up” as he called the minister’s claims of the Christie administration trying to buy the 2017 election as “disingenuous and dishonest”.

Mr Bannister alleged that the administration was shelling out contracts and jobs the day before the last election.

However, Mr Davis told reporters on Monday that the records of the ministry’s files show that most, if not all, of the contracts had been in talks for a while.

“It is not what he gives as an impression that somehow the government just before the election devised these projects and then issued them at that time,” Mr Davis, former minister of works, said.

“These are projects that had been in train for years

Tuesday, December 24, 2019, PAGE 5

Davis dismisses Bannister The Tribune claims over 2017 election 16 A1MAIN

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and then culminated. It’s just that it took that time to get it to a signing position and he’s aware of it and to suggest that the election is being bought by the signing of these contracts is disingenuous and dishonest.

“He has not in any way connected the signing of the contract with the winning of the election anyway. What evidence does he have to support the contention that the award of contracts or the signing at that time was for the purpose of buying an election? It’s a despicable assertion.”

In a press statement, he further accused Mr Bannister of misleading the public.

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By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel said the Bahamas Bar Council should stop acting “politically” and admit two Africans working in senior positions at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to the Bahamas Bar. In November the council rejected the applications of Nigerian Nikiruka JonesNebo and Ugandan David Bakibinga who have been serving as deputy director of public prosecutions and assistant director of public prosecutions for about seven months. Their hiring had upset some local lawyers who believed Bahamians should have filled the roles.

Without admission to the Bahamas Bar, the lawyers cannot argue cases in court as expected of

Bannister accuses Christie regime of “It’s dishonest spending millions for the “Mr Bannister is clearly FNM (Free National Move- seeking to deflect from the ment) to criticise a practice incompetence and ineffor which they are the chief fectiveness of the FNM culprits. but they have administration. HAITIANS More than no shame,” he said. “It is two years in office, CAUGHT INthey cheap and dishonest to use have nothing toJOINT showOPso it’s the media to throw political blame the PLP (ProgresNYGARD TO ESCAPE shade; I publicly challenge sive Liberal Party) time.

PRISON SENTENCE to put his We have heard this song Mr Bannister UPbefore; it is a money where his mouth SERVING many times is. Put up or shut up, Mr scorched record.”

A TREAT Bannister.

He suggested the

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of Works Desmond Bannister yesterday accused the Christie administration of trying “to buy an election” through doling out “tens and tens of millions of dollars” in contracts and jobs just 24 hours before it was voted out of office in May 2017.

“There were tens of millions of dollars of contracts signed the day before the election,” he said “There was one (for the Post Office),

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

CANADIAN fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s three -month prison sentence for publishing sensitive emails stolen from a local advocacy group has been stayed out of fairness to allow him to appeal his conviction.

Court of Appeal Justice Roy Jones, in a written ruling, said to “remove any risk of unfairness”, he would stay Nygard’s 90-day sentence for breaching an injunction preventing him from publishing private

one in Grand Bahama for the administrative building (in Eight Mile Rock), the roads in Andros. There were a number of them for millions and millions of dollars.

You have to think the worst about people who do that in terms of intending to purchase an election.

“We’ve honoured all those contracts. It required us to make commitments that we may not have necessarily thought were in the best interests of the Bahamian people.”

SEE PAGE SIX

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

correspondence that were stolen from Save the Bays.

Justice Jones granted the stay primarily because if Nygard ends up winning his appeal, the 90 days he would have spent in prison “cannot be undone” and the sentence would in turn render his appeal pointless.

However, Justice Jones said his decision to stay the custodial sentence was because Nygard has since “partially” purged his contempt by paying a $150,000 fine as well as the $15,000 penalty for late payment.

NEARLY 200 Haitian migrants were apprehended during a joint operation by law enforcement officers in waters off Inagua.

According to a statement from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, authorities have stepped up enforcement efforts at the country’s southern border, because it continues “to be an area of concern” for the agency.

The RBDF said as a result of this and shared intelligence, 185 Haitian migrants were apprehended late Friday during a joint operation by the RBDF, Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT - a tripartite agreement between the US, Turks and Caicos and Bahamas) and Turks and Caicos authorities.

SEE PAGE FIVE

minister should use his authority and the FNM’s majority in Parliament to bring legislation to the House of Assembly to stop government contract spending and hiring in an election year.

However, he said, this would not happen under an FNM government because Mr Bannister nor the government believes “one single word” of the minister’s political rhetoric.

Mr Bannister told Tribune Business that “tens of millions of dollars” in contracts and jobs were given, including a $17.415 million post office deal ahead of the last election.

“There was one (for the post office), one in Grand Bahama for the administrative building (in Eight Mile Rock), the roads in Andros.”

He also said: “You have to think the worst about people who do that in terms of intending to purchase an election. We’ve honoured all those contracts. It required us to make commitments that we may not have necessarily thought were in the best interests of the Bahamian people.”

However, the government did not follow through with the PLP’s proposed plan for the General Post Office relocation.

Miller considers options as he plans political future SEE PAGE THREE

FOX Hill MP Shonel Ferguson was hard at work yesterday, helping serve at the Bahamas Feeding Network Christmas lunch. More pictures - Page 3 Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

MAYNARD: WE’LL STILL HAVE LOAD SHEDDING

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Electrical Workers Union president Paul Maynard believes load shedding at Bahamas Power and Light will still occasionally happen until an additional 90 megawatts of generation is brought on stream.

He spoke after BPL chairman Dr Donovan Moxey declared the load shedding era over following

PM MINNIS, right, with BPL chairman Donovan Moxey

the installation of seven Wartsila engines that generate 130 megawatts of power.

Works Minister Desmond Bannister has indicated that millions will be spent to bring an additional 90 megawatts of capacity online by 2021 for a total of 222 megawatts.

Asked about Dr Moxey’s prediction, Mr Maynard said yesterday: “I wouldn’t say that if I were him. (The equipment) is still going to trip; 130 won’t hold you, wait until we get the 90. (Dr Moxey) is getting his advice

SEE PAGE FIVE

INSIGHT

WHY WE SHOULD CHERISH THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

SEE PAGE SEVEN

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from page one Mr Miller said: “I intend personally to remain in politics, however before I made this decision (to resign) I spoke to my wife and some other persons I am close with so they were aware of what I was going to do. I am going to have a follow-up conversation with them and take a lot of time, not only to think, but I am a pastor and believer in the Christian faith and so I am going to take some personal time in prayer and meditation.

“Personally I do intend to remain in politics, absolutely, but I want to make certain that this is the will of God for my life at this time.”

He also said: “The group of Bahamians that we term swing voters, I call them independent voters. They are not party aligned in their voting. That grouping of voters has expanded and grown tremendously and it’s that grouping of voters who will determine who we have in government.

“The bases of the PLP or the FNM do not determine who are in government. It’s the independent voters who make that determination.

“I think the Bahamas is still PLP or FNM so my decision will have to be if I decide to be party aligned or if I decide to remain independent and that if I

VAUGHN Miller intends to remain in front-line politics, but is mulling over whether to remain independent or not decide to remain in active front-line politics, obviously that would be party aligned PLP, DNA or if some other entity emerges or continue

as an independent so that decision definitely will have to be made.

“I give myself by the first quarter of next year and

will use that as my window of opportunity to decide whether I intend to remain in active frontline politics,” Mr Miller added.

This comes after Golden Isles Constituency Association Chairman Brian Brown told this newspaper last week that Mr Miller had

been mentally and physically absent from the area long before he resigned from the FNM. Mr Brown also said the situation made it clear that the organisation needed to do a better job at selecting its candidates.

Mr Miller said these comments were “disingenuous”, adding his relationship with the association had been strained after he voted against the increase of value added tax last year.

Relations deteriorated after he voted against the government’s resolution to relocate the General Post Office to the Town Centre Mall. The mall is partly owned by St Anne’s MP Brent Symonette, who was minister of immigration at the time the resolution was debated in Parliament.

“Nobody (from the party) pulled me in. It’s very surprising to me because like I said I didn’t enter politics to be what we call a political dissident,” Mr Miller said. “That wasn’t my intent so I was looking forward to having that conversation.”

He added: “I would certainly say in the leadership that I served under I expected more communication (and) more interactions. I expected more in terms of more reaching out. You expect a difference, but it’s how you handle the difference.

I don’t think they were handled well at all.”

PAGE 6, Tuesday, December 24, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Man admits murdering girlfriend as they headed towards Bahamas A MAN in the United States pleaded guilty to strangling his girlfriend and pushing her off a Carnival cruise ship headed for The Bahamas.

According to the US Justice Department, Eric Duane Newman admitted to strangling Tamara Tucker, with whom he had boarded the ship in Florida

on January 18, 2018. The 55 yearold man from Topeka, Kansas, pleaded guilty before Chief US District Judge Julie Robinson of the District of Kansas to one count of second degree murder for killing Tucker with malice aforethought.

“According to the admissions made in connection with the plea,

Newman and Tucker boarded the Carnival Elation cruise ship on Jan 18, 2019, in Jacksonville, Florida, to take a round-trip voyage to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Newman and Tucker were staying together in a cabin room on the 13th deck of the cruise ship,” the Justice Department said.

“Before midnight on January 18, Newman became involved in a verbal argument with Tucker inside their cabin room.

At approximately 12.15am on January 19, Newman physically attacked Tucker, and strangled her by placing both of his hands around her neck. In the process of strangling her, Newman pushed

SMITH Eclaire (left) and Ramoa Ralph Smith (right) being brought to court yesterday.

Haitian denies 18 counts of fraud

Tucker over the cabin room balcony railing causing her to fall to her death onto the 11th deck.

Ms Tucker died from blunt force trauma as a result of the fall. At the time, the cruise ship was sailing on the high seas in international water, approximately 30 nautical miles from New Smyrna Beach, Florida.”

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

from page one The 27-year-old pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorney, Geoffrey Farquharson told the magistrate that there is no evidence supporting the charges as there needs to be proof that the documents were forged. Magistrate Andrew Forbes advised Farquharson that he can make that submission at trial.

Smith was denied bail and must submit an application to the Supreme Court for pre-trial release. His trial begins on March 9, 2020.

Meanwhile, 37-year-old Smith Eclaire was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to defraud the

government in order to gain status in the country.

The Haitian man pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false pretences. Eclaire used the name of Maxon Pierre to obtain valid documents from the Criminal Records office, a passport from the Haitian Consulate and obtained an immunisation card in the same name in his alleged attempts to defraud the government and become naturalised.

Eclaire told Magistrate Forbes, “I know I did something wrong. I was not supposed to do it. I did not know the country’s laws well.”

Magistrate Forbes asked him if defrauding the government is legal in

Haiti, to which Eclaire answered, “No.” The 37-year-old apologised to the judge and asked to be sent back home to Haiti or have his sentence reduced.

Eclaire explained that he did not intend to commit the wrongdoing but that life was hard. He added that his mother passed away, he has a wife and four children and was trying to gain status in the Bahamas after living in a difficult situation.

Magistrate Forbes sentenced him to three years for each count to run concurrently and advised that he is able to appeal the sentencing. Once the sentence is up, Eclaire must be handed over to immigration officials, the judge ordered.

25-year-old accused of stealing from Mr Ship It

By SYANN THOMPSON Tribune Staff Reporter sthompson@tribunemedia.net A MAN was arraigned in Magistrate’s Court yesterday, accused of stealing more than $14,000 from his employer, Mr Ship It. Lavaughn Cooper, 25, pleaded not guilty after Magistrate Andrew Forbes read out the 14 counts of stealing by reason of employment and falsifying accounts that Cooper is accused of committing.

It is alleged that while working as a customer service representative of the courier service, Cooper did not make sales entries on closeout sheets which he was required to do, but instead stole and falsified documents between August 19 and September 30, resulting in money not

LAVAUGHN Cooper (right) and D’Angelo Culmer (left) outside court yesterday.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff being paid into the company totaling $14,878.82.

Cooper was denied bail; trial of the case begins on February 17, 2020.

FIVE PEOPLE INJURED IN TWO SEPARATE SHOOTING INCIDENTS FIVE people - a woman and four Grand Bahama men - were injured after two separate shooting incidents yesterday, police said.

The woman, a resident of New Providence, was shot during her commute to work, police said.

Police were told that shortly after 4am yesterday, the woman left a home in Hope Gardens, Nassau Village, jumped in a vehicle and was on her way to work when she heard gunshots and realised she had been shot.

While attempting to drive to the hospital, she saw an ambulance and got the

attention of the driver. She received assistance from EMS and was transported to hospital, where she is listed in stable condition.

Shortly before 1am Monday, police were called to a business on Bayshore Road, West End, Grand Bahama, where a gunman had opened fire, injuring four men. The victims were taken to Rand Memorial Hospital and seen by a doctor. Three of the victims’ injuries are said to be non-life threatening and one male is listed in serious but in stable condition.

Investigations into both incidents are continuing.

In other court news, a couple was charged with attempted fraud of the Bahama Island Cooperative Credit Union by attempting

to defraud the entity of $4,500. D’Angelo Culmer, 25, and 21-year-old Nikita Pinder were charged with two counts each of attempting to defraud by false pretences and conspiracy to commit fraud between October 25 and November 6. Both pleaded not guilty.

After their pleas, Culmer explained to the judge that the two accused live together and have four children. He told the judge that Pinder had nothing to do with the fraud and asked if he could change his plea. Magistrate Forbes explained to Culmer his rights and what happens under the Police Act. However, Culmer kept his not guilty plea and the trial begins on March 10, 2020.

Meantime, 20-year-old Javon Johnson was charged with four counts of armed

robbery and possession of an unlicensed firearm.

Johnson is accused of robbing Kelson Solomon of a 2008 blue Honda Civic, a black Alcatel cellphone valued at $50 and a $10 chicken combo with wild berry tea. Police found Johnson with an unlicensed firearm loaded with 10 unfired rounds.

Johnson’s attorney, Ian Cargill, told Magistrate Forbes that his client had been slapped several times to his head and needed medical treatment. The magistrate allowed for him to receive medical care.

A co-defendant allegedly involved in the robbery is hospitalised and could not attend court. Johnson was not required to enter a plea. He was denied bail. The case is adjourned to March 4, 2020 for a

NIKITA PINDER voluntary bill of indictment.

Additionally,18-year-old Emmitt Smith was charged with two counts of armed robbery connected to the theft of a white and rose gold Apple iPhone 8 plus, valued at $600. Smith was not required to enter a plea, the matter is adjourned for service of a voluntary bill of indictment on March 5, 2020.

ARMED MAN ROBS FAMILY OF FIVE

By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A FAMILY of five in Nassau was robbed of cash, jewelry and other personal items on Monday morning.

According to police, the armed robbery happened shortly after midnight when the family, an adult man, a woman and three juveniles, arrived at a residence on Arawak Avenue off Pyfrom Road. While standing on the porch attempting to enter the home, an armed man approached and robbed them. The culprit jumped a wall and escaped on foot.

Police are also investigating another armed robbery.

The incident occurred shortly after 5am. A couple was inside their home on Sequoia Street, Pinewood Gardens when two armed men entered the home, held them in the house at bay and robbed them of cash and keys for a vehicle.

Before escaping, the robbers physically assaulted the male victim.

Chief Superintendent Solomon Cash told The Tribune back in November that while he did not think armed robberies had increased, police presence will be strengthened for

SOLOMON CASH the Christmas season. “I wouldn’t say we’ve had a lot of armed robberies, but we are beefing up patrols.

Beefing up patrols is a part of (our) strategy particularly in the shopping areas, the high-volume shopping

areas so you will see more police moving closer to Christmas season,” CSP Cash said.

“We don’t expect any crime to increase, but we are in a preventative mode, so we aren’t expecting the worst. We are expecting a good Christmas for all Bahamian citizens and in ensuring that you will see high volumes of police presence.”

Police are appealing to anyone with information on these incidents to contact the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991/2, Crime Stoppers at 328-8477, or the nearest police station.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, December 24, 2019, PAGE 7

Here’s some festive verse to get us in the Christmas spirit

from page one out is also the population that took the blunt of the blow on the war on drugs.”

The report says licensing fees, real estate, employment, an equity programme and taxation are areas that would produce direct economic effects from legalisation and creation of a cannabis industry for medicinal and/or recreational use. It is recommended that the Bahamas have ownership of the industry, with 51 percent ownership by Bahamians in private companies and no more than 49 percent ownership staged from foreign companies. The commission recommends that a cannabis tax not exceed ten percent, arguing that overtaxation would foster a black market.

The commission has recommended that recreational cannabis be permitted for adults over 21 years and medicinal cannabis for adults over 18. It recommends that a committee of people with knowledge of medicine determine who can cultivate cannabis for medicinal use. Those permitted would be allowed to cultivate up to five mature plants.

The report also notes that more than 1,000 people discharged from the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre from 2014 to 2018 had a primary diagnosis of marijuana use. During that period the numbers gradually increased, from 139 in 2014; 167 in 2015; 204 in 2016; 240 in 2017 and 278 in 2018.

The 278 people primarily

‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through the House, Every MP was stirring, from “superstar” to “louse.”

The stockings were hung in the smokers’ room with care, obviously “Lanisha” didn’t decorate in there.

Minister and backbenchers avoided their beds, As visions of pay raises danced in their heads.

Doc sat in the kitchen, with his brother “Boxer” square on his lap, Saying “Why you gee that ‘conchy joe’ woman dat slap?

Now I gat to deal with all kind of crap.”

When out of the blue there arose such a clatter, Then Halston Moultrie appeared, and the whole House scattered, Away to the window Moultrie flew like ‘red flash’, Tore open the shutters, and prepared for another “media” clash.

The moon peered down on Bahamaland below, As Doc gazed up wondering, “Why Ferreira still so slurry and slow, and why he got that goat and three birds in tow?”

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear?

Two ex FNM MPs toting plates out of there.

Now the PLP with a brave-hearted driver, so lively and quick Saying, “I say Shane ain’t gern ta jail, we far too slick,” And faster than Miller from Golden Isles carried his behind, Doc shouted, “Office of the Spouse, a year later, is working just fine!”

“Now Dionisio! Now Jeff!

On Duane! Carl ! and Marvin !

“Don’t study Brave, for him our people ain’t starving, and oh by the way, nice suit Marvin” Meanwhile, green with envy, spying way across the land, Kolomafe groaned saying, “DNA is a party and yes we still stand.”

Freddy Mac jumped up, and said, “You know I’se speak my mind, I’ne scared a none a yinna, and Freeport don’t tote no line!”

Travis sprung up, and said, “Don’t forget da Over-da Hill plan, and yes Doc you still the man.”

Peter was in the corner, playing blind and deaf, Thinking, “When da IMF finish, we’ne ga have nuttin left!”

Doc stood up, his mouth drawn up like a bow, The hair on his head was suddenly white as snow, He started shaking, like a bowl full of jelly, Saying, “Man, I cracked them once, now the Press all in my belly!”

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself, And slowly put the Mace back on top of the shelf; The look in his eye, and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but sat down all forlorn, Then said, “The Honeymoon over, next election I probably gone?”

Brave rode away, like the down of a thistle, Saying, “These FNMs just as guilty, so you point and I’ll whistle!”

Doc went to bed, and turned out the light Merry Christmas everyone, and please lock your doors tight!

Marijuana could be major boost to economy - report diagnosed with marijuana use in 2018 represented 26.2 percent of all discharged patients from the centre.

The statistics also show 465 people, or 43.8 percent of all patients discharged from the centre during that period, had at least a secondary diagnosis of marijuana usage.

On the other hand, the number of discharged inpatients with either a primary or secondary diagnosis of marijuana usage declined from 143 in 2014 to 91 in 2018.

According to the report, 6,809 people were arrested for possession of cannabis/ marijuana products from 2014 to 2018. This includes 4,280 people for possession, 2,452 for possession with intent to supply, 57 for cultivation, two for having marijuana capsules, 11 for having baked goods, five for importation and two for conspiracy to import.

DR Minnis has said he favours decriminalising possession of small amounts of marijuana

Quinn McCartney, BNCM co-chairman, said yesterday the commission has not finalised its preliminary report. When contacted, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis also stressed that the draft report was not final and had not yet been presented to Parliament. He told this newspaper that the final report would be tabled in Parliament, adding his administration was investigating to see who leaked the document prematurely.

Last month, Dr Minnis said he favours decriminalising possession of small amounts of marijuana and making the substance legal for medicinal and/or scientific purposes. Becoming the first sitting prime minister to publicly support some form of marijuana decriminalisation, he said he hopes the decriminalisation process will happen before the end of this term.

... BUT THERE’S STILL MUCH WORK TO DO, SAYS DAVIS

By LEANDRA ROLLE lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A DAY after the Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana’s preliminary report was leaked, PLP leader Phillip “Brave” Davis said there is still much work that needs to be done by the commission before the nation moves to decriminalise the drug.

He also noted that the country needs to take a “responsible approach” to the decriminalisation of marijuana. He also recommended that the government not put an age limit on who can access medical marijuana, adding this should be up to a doctor’s discretion.

“During my sojourn in the practice of law, I’ve seen the use of marijuana and what the dilatory effects it may have had on some and what good impact it would have had on others,” he told

WE need to take a responsible approach to the decriminalisation of marijuana, says PLP leader Philip Davis reporters during a press reports are showing that conference yesterday. children at the age of eight “We have to find that fine and in junior high school balance to ensure that the are using marijuana. That’s good that can come out of not something that we this does not eventually would want. have the unintended conse“So, the message has to quence of overly burdening be that we’re not too perour inner-city youth. missive of the use in young “For example, being children. So, we have to responsible, we cannot look at age and look at age approach it in a way where qualifications and these are young people who are still some of the factors, so the in high school (are using the work still has to be done.” drug) for example. I think The draft marijuana

report recommends the legalisation of medicinal marijuana and the decriminalisation for possession of up to one ounce of the drug.

“The allowable one ounce of marijuana may be subject to increase after a review of implementation.

Recreational marijuana should be permitted for adults over 21 years and medicinal marijuana should be permitted for adults over 18 years of age,” the report said.

Other recommendations noted in the report includes a national educational campaign on the use of marijuana, the expungement of all police records regarding the possession of small amounts of cannabis and predominant Bahamian ownership in the Cannibas industry.

When contacted yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis stressed that the report was a draft, preliminary document.

Dr Minnis said once the final report is ready it will be presented to Cabinet then Parliament for all to see, adding that officials are investigating how it was leaked to the media.

However, speaking on the draft recommendations yesterday, Mr Davis commended the work conducted by BNCM, but noted that there are several aspects of the report that warrants further observation.

One such aspect, he said, includes the age limit for medicinal marijuana.

“I don’t think you have to put an age usage on the medicinal aspect of it because it is to cure ills and young people do have ailments that do require treatment. I think that ought to be left to the prescribing physician who is going to determine whether a young child should be treated with medicinal marijuana,” he told reporters.

Mr Davis also said the Bahamian people need to be educated on the farreaching impacts of the drug.

The draft report found the public to “generally” have feelings that small amounts of marijuana should not result in jail time.

The Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP said: “I think we have to start off by educating our people as to the consequence of this use. We need to have sufficient studies and data to inform the policy positions that we take. I don’t think we should just adopt any approach or policy without their being sufficient scientific data and research and that ought to inform our policy going forwards.

“I think we leave that to the experts who are administering and taking under whose care a patient might be and who might require the use of medicinal marijuana.”

PAGE 8, Tuesday, December 24, 2019

C

HRISTMAS time is a time for family and friends to gather and spend quality time together. It’s a special time of the year. No matter whether you celebrate it or not, you will find that those celebrating will probably still buy you presents or ask you to come by the house and enjoy a meal with loved ones.

Often, you will see loved ones who you have not seen in a long time. In my case, there’s a childhood friend of mine that I haven’t seen in many, many years. They live in another country, so it is not uncommon for distance to cause people to lose touch. Last week, I made extra effort to find out where they are and how they are doing. I didn’t want the new year, and a whole new decade, to roll in without hearing from them. So, I did some searching and some asking… and I found them!

I was in shock. Why? Because the person I grew up knowing as a girl, now identifies as and looks a man. It’s only by looking carefully at the eyes that I realised that it was indeed my friend. On social media, others say ‘he’ when referring to my friend. For me, this was a shocker. I have never known anyone who is a transgender.

Because of how close we were, because our families are very close, and because I know how smart and talented they were growing up, I could not just decide to cut this person off and move on with my life. I knew that it was necessary for me to accept them for who they are. I am even more sensitive to their plight because I went through a time when my life choices led me down a road where I was not close with family and friends.

I was growing locks, wearing long clothing and eating vegetarian 25 years ago – a time where it was no where near as popular and

I felt like I was a girl from as young as I can remember, says Alexus

commonplace as it is today.

Back then, it was considered bizarre. There was

also a lot of misinformation about the Rasta movement back then and therefore, I

Funeral Service for STANLEY BRUCE BETHEL JR., 73 of Boatswain Hill, will be held on Friday, December 27th, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. All Saints Anglican Church, East Street.

Officiating will be Rev’d Fr. Stephen Davies, Fr. Berkley Smith and Fr. Addison Turnquest, assisted by other ministers of the Clergy. Interment will follow in Lakeview Memorial Gardens, John F. Kennedy Drive.

Predeceased by his Children: Gary Bethell, Timothy Bethell, Desiree Davis, Eddison Thurston.

Left to cherish fond loving memories are his loving wife: Anita Cheryl Bethell; Sons: Stanley Bethell III, Desmond Bethell, Stanton Bethell(Valerie), Stanvaughn Bethell, O’Ryan Bethell; Daughters: Patrice Moxey (Jerome), Natasha Bethell-Moss (Leroy), Delza Graham, Deirdre Chiacchiari (Maurice), Simone Bethell, Stanleia Bethell, Sade Bethell; Grandchildren: Kimberly Bethell, Antonio Bethell, Jarran Bethell, Tyockin Bethell, Edison Thurston, D’angelo Bethell Jerchovia Moxey, Jervante Moxey, Destinay Bethell, Jessica Chiacchiari, Luca Chiacchiari, Marcelino Moss, Luke Ferguson; Great-Grand Daughters: Hannah Bethell, Tyranique Bethell, Egypt Bethell; Mother-in-law: Maritta Cartwright-Brown; Sisters: Dr. Eleanor (Ellie) Thompson, Winnifred Russell; Brothers-in-law: Neville Davis, Clement Cartwright, Mark Cartwright, Elvis Cartwright, Glenroy Cartwright; Sisters-in-law: Sylvia Bethell, Cassandra Lewis, Ida Barbes; Uncle: Peter Bowe; Nieces: Deidre Armstrong, Dominique Thompson, Melodie Lavarity, Karla Bootle, Chrystal Holmes, Michaela Staurt, Michaelle Richards, Tanya Bethell-Bevans, Dornell Lightbourn, Kim Saunders, Therell Bethell, Mikiko Bethell-Candela, Peteche Bethell, Adonna Morton, Laverne Bethell, Yvette Bethell, Sharese Hanna, Anastasia Bethell, Shaniqua Bethell, Christine Bethell, Chrystal Bethell; Nephews: Phillip Russell, Apostle Stefan Russell, Stanley Marvin “Cracka” Bethell, Brian Bethell, Mechanko Bethell, Damien Bethell (Texas), Daxton Bethell, Marc Bethell, Kevin Bethell, Keith Bethell, Wayne Bethell, Charlton Bethell, Demetrius Bethell; God Children: Carmie Cartwright, Vadalia Burrows, Temy Elliot; Adopted son: Darren Ferguson; Cousins: The Family of the Late Hilton and Theus Bain, the family of the Late Anita Strachan, the family of the Late Burke and Thomasina Bowe, the family of the Late Cecil and Dorothy Bowe, the family of the Late Preston Albury, The family of the Late Bessie Demeritte, the family of the Late Hubert and Ethel Cumberbatch, the family of the Late Wilfred and Winnis Bethell, the family of the Late Hosea and Emily Heastie, the Hon. Janet Bostwick and family, the family of Angelina Turnquest, the family of Angela Palacious; A host of other relatives and friends including but not limited to: Pericles Mallis and Family, Sterling Quant and Family, Ruth Bowe-Darville, Algernon Allan and family, Shane Gibson and family, the family of the late Lillian Williamson, the family of the late Marcus Bethel, James Moultrie, Minister Desmond Bannister, Vaughn Miller, Keith McCartney and the staff of Battery & Tyre Specialist, Gus Otten, Ian Lightbourn, Minky Isaacs, Tom Hanna, the Boatswain Hill community, The Harbour Island Community, North Eleuthera Community, the Cat Island Community, Max Julian and the staff of Cowpen Building Supplies, the Gomez family, Janet Walkine, Anna Bethell and family, Lillian Roberts and family, The Lewis family, the Johnson family, the Mckenzie family, the Godet family, Rosco Glinton, Michael Halkitis and family, Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Ferguson and family, Johnly Ferguson and Family, Air Express Family, Beverly Knowles and family, Dayrrl and family, Ashley Fry and Family, Dannia, Kristy and Leslie Kemp, The Thompson family, the Knowles family, Queens College class of 2001, Carmie Maycock and Family, The Staff of Bethell’s Trucking & Heavy Equipment Service Limited, Baptise, Ismael, Angela, Curry Methodist Church family, New Providence Community Church, The Progressive Liberal Party, The Free National Movement, The North Andros Community, The Acklins Community, E. Charles Moss and family, the Nottage family, Charles Carter and family, the Cartwright family, the Family of the late Vera Gibson, Evannette Davis and family, Gloria Whymms, Jessie Ferguson, Cadrington Coleby, Anthony Farrington and family, the staff if IDDC, Ray McKenzie and family and the staff of CCG, James Rolle and family and the staff of Proline, Damien Francis, Orthanel Humes, Jermaine Delaney, Bahamas Hot Mix, The Staff of Ministry of Works, Sir William Allen and family, Dr. Frankline Walkine, Dr. Fredrick Smith, Darrell Rolle, Rev Simeon Hall; Thank you to Dr. Leonardo Culmer, Nurse Jennifer Munnings, Nurse Destiny Cargill, Nurse Deonya Knowles, and Nurse Marsha Leone Minns for assisting Mr. Bethell in his final days.

Friends may pay their last respects at the church on Friday from 9:00 a.m. until service time.

felt even more ostracised. I know how it feels to be discriminated against based on my beliefs and my appearance. It didn’t matter how neat it was – it was too different from the times.

Back then, I couldn’t find many examples of women like myself to follow. It was definitely an unpopular identity. Today, it seems to be the ‘in’ thing, and many people in today’s black conscious movement have only heard about the struggles that people like me faced in order to pave the way.

With this background, there was no way in my mind that I could ignore my friend. With all my perplexity about the transgender topic, I decided I needed to find out more so that I could meet my friend where they are at. I know many people can’t do that.

They want to judge them and immediately point out their wrong and try to force them to look at life from their perspective. But for me, I prefer to meet people where they are at. I try to live in such a way that my light would shine just by me staying true to myself. I try to come from a place of understanding, and I keep my mind open to learning at all times. I always believe there is something I could learn from another human being, and so I keep avenues open for me to learn.

I decided to reach out to Alexus D’Marco, a transgender and president of the Alexus D’Marco foundation. Honestly, it is only because this situation reached my own doorstep that I am addressing it in my weekly column. The opportunity never presented itself before, and I had not gone out looking for someone like Alexus to interview in the past. Even as I write this story, I keep mixing up the ‘he’ and ‘she’, because it does take some getting used to. Alexus helped me to understand her world – born male, identifying as female. She even did a legal name change and has undergone medical procedures to go with it. She is a transgender: a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.

“I felt like I was a girl from as young as I can remember,” Alexus shared.

“I remember when I was in the third grade. When the teacher would line up the children by girls and boys, I kept going on the girls’ line instead of the boys’ line.

Every time they put me on the boys’ line I would say, ‘I’m on the wrong line’ and I would try to join the girls’ line. I remember that my teachers called my parents in and told them that something is going on.”

Alexus ended up being referred to Sandiland’s Rehabilitation Center for treatment. As a child, he was

THE TRIBUNE

MAIN picture: Alexus D’Marco, transgender advocate; below: Summer JL Blossom and Tariq Travelocity, winners of the Alexus D’Marco Foundation’s “Fresh Face” Pageant held last week.

not subject to pharmaceuticals, but he did undergo psychic evaluation and counselling.

“I can remember them sitting me down and showing me the (black paint splashes on the white cards and asking me what I saw.

I would see flowers, butterflies and things like that.”

It was hard for him as a young boy, because so many people simply did not understand why he wanted to be a girl. He felt that his brain and his body did not match.

“They took me to see Dr Matthew Rose at St Luke’s Medical Center,” Alexus said. “Dr Rose was way ahead of his time. While all the other counsellors and doctors they took me to could not understand what I was going through, he showed them (medical reasons based on his testing and examinations) why I felt more like a girl than a boy.”

As Alexus grew, he began to identify more and more with his feminine side. By the time he was in high school, his schoolmates were calling him “Queenie”. Alexus says she didn’t experience a lot of bullying in high school.

He would perform well in classes and mates would say, “Queenie is smart!”

When Alexus completed high school, he decided to go to America in order to make the transformation and become the female he always wanted to be.

Alexus underwent counselling, hormonal treatment, medical intervention including surgery, and psycho-social support.

She returned to The Bahamas with her new name and identity and decided to set up her own foundation to provide support for people who face the same plight. The Alexus D’Marco Foundation links persons in the LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning) community with the resources they need to be themselves.

She says that they need better access to education, because unlike her, many of them are bullied and even face violence in school.

She said they need access to better healthcare. She explained that a trip to the hospital is belittling. Nurses would call one another and make a spectacle of them and would not show them the respect they deserve and in some cases, not offer them proper medical care because of their lifestyle choice. She said that they also need access to justice.

Many LGBTIQ community

members, she said, have reported that if they go to the police station to report a crime done to them, police officers would mock them and call one another just like nurses do. She said they would tell them that the violence or injustice happened to them because of the choice they made. The cases, she said, would get lost in the system and never make it to court. Jobs, she said, are difficult to find for the community, but she commends Bahamar for changing that by accepting them once they are qualified for the job. Most recently, she says a lesbian couple from Grand Bahama was denied opportunities to rent an apartment because landlords did not want them living in their building.

“Many in the community have migrated from The Bahamas to Canada where they are accepted the way they are,” she said.

She decided to stay, she said, because she wants other young people who may be in the same position that she was as a child, to be able to live in a country that will accept them and not treat them differently from any other Bahamian.

Her foundation, she feels, has helped to create a society that is becoming more accepting of them.

Alexus is in a five-year relationship with a heterosexual man. She says that most trangenders choose long lasting relationships.

I questioned her about the bathroom issue… which bathroom do they go into?

“They go into the bathroom that is the one they identify with,” she said, “and they close the booth behind them and use the bathroom in privacy.”

She said most of them do not feel the need to tell someone what they are transgender the minute they meet someone. Only if they plan to take the person seriously or take it beyond that setting would they reveal more.

Social media was a buzz this weekend when popular transgender couple Precious and Myles Davis delivered a baby. Whether for or against the lifestyle, as times change, it is an issue that must be addressed and in my case, I decided to take a step by first understanding why they feel compelled to live their lives differently from the way they were born.

You can discover more by following Alexus D’Marco on Facebook and keeping up to date with her advocacy or email thedmarcofoundation@gmail.

PAGE 10, Tuesday, December 24, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

A FORMIDABLE MAN WHO WILL BE MISSED BY SO MANY I SHOULD like to take this opportunity to add to the many tributes paid to Richard Coulson who passed away earlier this month. I believe it was clear to all who came to know him well that Dick was a truly remarkable man, endowed with many and varied talents including a razorsharp intellect and a sound knowledge of the workings of the world. During a successful professional career as a widely-travelled lawyer, banker and financial adviser, he must have been a formidable operator – particularly at his peak.

Educated at Andover, one of America’s best private

schools, followed by Yale and a spell in the US army, including service in the Korean war, he also clearly enjoyed a happy personal life as a family man with many and varied interests including becoming, I gather, a high-class sailor.

Some five years ago, he produced an excellent autobiography entitled A Corkscrew Life: Adventures of a Travelling Financier. In this he chronicles - with due modesty, evident restraint and absence of hyperbole - an interesting and successful life of impressive achievement together with accounts of many good friendships in different

The

Peter Young column

W

ITH Christmas just a day away, this weekly column allows me the pleasure of writing about the joys of such a wonderful time of the year.

But it is also a moment to think about the lonely and less fortunate for whom the celebrations can be a time of woe and pain as they suffer the sadness of loss and deprivation while we are all urged to ‘eat, drink and be merry’ in the traditional way.

From childhood we are told that Christmas is all about nice presents placed by a benevolent Father Christmas on a special tree – popularised in 19th century Britain by Queen Victoria – in a family gathering with lots to eat and drink. And what, we think, can be better than that?

Later, we discover it is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, in a manger because there was no room at the inn. Then, as adults, we find out that the birth of the Messiah to save mankind from sin marked a fresh beginning, symbolising a new way of looking at life, love and death; and it became a religious holiday with the Christian message of love and redemption.

So we believe that it should always be a time of happiness, pleasure and hospitality in bringing cheer to other people’s lives in a season of goodwill. All

of this should be amidst the home and the hearth and warmth of family and friends, giving and receiving presents and singing Christmas carols in a spirit of joy and love.

For people in Britain, that means nowadays a Christmas Day sumptuous lunch followed by family and friends gathering in front of the television to watch the traditional Queen’s Speech – pre-recorded, of course, but its contents are kept under wraps and it is still awaited with keen anticipation – and with grandpa trying to stay awake after imbibing more than he is accustomed to.

Despite all this, greed and materialism are gradually taking over, resulting in commercialism at the expense of the original meaning of Christmas. But that is no reason to abandon the old traditions that anchor people in timehonoured rituals which represent the strength and true spirit of such an important event in the Christian calendar as the birth of Jesus Christ.

This is against the background of the classic work, A Christmas Carol, by famous 19th century English writer, Charles Dickens, in which the miserly Scrooge is transformed into a kinder and gentler man. It is a story of hope, generosity and compassion, and it remains a much loved tale despite the claim by some that Dickens was indulging

places over the years. He kindly gave me a signed copy at a book launch that attracted many of his friends and admirers. It is a wonderfully good read and a compelling account of what others have described as a life well lived.

As well as being an expert and wise financial adviser, whose insights and sound analysis were much in demand, Dick Coulson was a highly skilled writer who produced a regular column for The Tribune that was consistently informative and interesting. He ranged over many different subjects and expressed ideas with authority and certainty,

often explaining the intricacies of complex issues in ways that were readily comprehensible to others – and that is surely the test of a clever writer. At the same time, in prompting others to think outside their comfort zone, he was not averse to being provocative if the subject called for it.

For my part, I much enjoyed email exchanges with him about our respective columns when, true to form, he was always constructive and helpful. My colleagues at the Nassau Institute also have fond memories of his attendance at our meetings when invariably he posed pertinent

MODEST: Richard Coulson and penetrating questions to visiting speakers in that deep and unusual voice of his.

In the concluding pages of his autobiography, he penned some notably

memorable words – “Life is full of ‘what ifs’, and it’s fruitless to speculate too long. The untaken fork in the road will always remain a mystery. One can only accept and enjoy the cards that have been dealt’’.

What better advice can there be than that as people navigate their way through the complexities of their own lives. He was a distinguished and formidable man, indeed –- one of huge and varied achievement who also experienced the joy of close family relationships together with many valued friendships during a long and fruitful life. He will be missed by so many.

Sad that the joy of Christmas cannot be shared by all

QUEEN Elizabeth poses for a photo while recording her annual Christmas Day message at Windsor Castle in England. Excerpts released by Buckingham Palace show the Queen acknowledging that both Britain and her family have endured a difficult year. in sentimentality in the midst of the poverty and squalor of Victorian England in which – despite the Industrial Revolution that brought wealth to the country – there existed a huge gap between the rich and the poor.

In modern times, the

basic issue remains: how to reconcile the majority’s lavish expenditure and consumption at Christmas with the deprivation and poverty that still exists and-– perhaps more importantly in today’s society – with the misery and hurt of lonely people at a time when everyone is expected to be enjoying themselves with family and friends.

Christmas can be a difficult time without love and companionship.

Reportedly, in Britain an estimated eight million people live alone. Not all will be suffering the pain of loneliness.

But at Christmas time thousands call in to helplines, which are manned 24/7 during holiday periods, just to talk to somebody, and it is particularly hard on those with disabilities who cannot leave their homes.

Divorce and bereavement can also affect people at Christmas when the void left by their nearest and dearest seems worse. In our own case, my wife and I suffered family bereavement last year and, although one never gets over it, one learns to cope in order for life to continue.

While Christmas can be a long day for some, those who understand the pain of others say the trick is to do something completely different, like a cruise or a package holiday or to help provide succour for others like volunteering to prepare and distribute food for the homeless and rough

sleepers. If readers will forgive a trip down memory lane, my own experience of Christmas over the years has been varied. At a very early age, I can recall not wanting to upset my parents by revealing to them that I already knew about the special toy military fort they had had built – and were giving me as a surprise on Christmas morning –because I had heard it being delivered to the house on Christmas Eve when I was supposed to be asleep.

Then there was the huge alfresco Christmas lunch at our grandparents’ house in a New Zealand southern hemisphere summer with all the children seated at one long table in the sunshine.

After many family Christmas Days in England, I then found myself spending one in the bosom of my roommate’s family in New Hampshire when I was an exchange student at school in Massachusetts. A year later, I was lucky to secure a three-day Christmas pass from basic training in the Royal Marines which provided merciful temporary release from the shouting and screaming of an obnoxious drill sergeant; and another year on, as a young British officer in the West African bush with my Nigerian soldiers who were mostly Muslim, we hardly celebrated at all.

There followed enjoyable Christmases in diplomatic missions in

various countries where we not only partied hard but also wrote and performed pantomimes, to the merriment of all. More recently, with our two boys staying for the holidays in Nassau, my wife and I had a memorable Christmas Day lunch with them and others at Lyford Cay. What memories, indeed.

This year we were preparing for a family holiday deep in the English countryside of Herefordshire; and we were promised dogs, wood-burners, country walks and a concert in the local church.

But in the end the travel arrangements proved too complicated and we stayed at home after all.

So, this Christmas, as people think of the poor and needy and the sick and the lonely, perhaps one should remember the fragility of life and give thanks for the many blessings enjoyed and which all too often are taken for granted. But, above all, the most important gift is love.

As Sir John Templeton says in his wonderful book “Discovering the Laws of Life”, people need to learn to reflect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – and, if they do this, others will seek their company because of the comfort, companionship, friendship and love they experience with them.

Merry Christmas to all.

SAUDIS SENTENCE 5 TO DEATH FOR KHASHOGGI KILLING RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Associatd Press A COURT in Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death yesterday for the killing of Washington Post columnist and royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi, whose slaying in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul drew international condemnation and cast a cloud of suspicion over

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Three other people were found guilty by Riyadh’s criminal court of covering up the crime and were sentenced to a combined 24 years in prison, according to a statement read by the Saudi attorney general’s office on state TV. In all, 11 people were put on trial in Saudi Arabia over the killing. The names

of those found guilty were not disclosed by the government. Executions in the kingdom are carried out by beheading, sometimes in public. All the verdicts can be appealed.

A small number of diplomats, including from Turkey, as well as members of Khashoggi’s family were allowed to attend the nine court sessions, though independent media were barred.

PAGE 12, Tuesday, December 24, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

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