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VOLUME:116 No.4, DECEMBER 27TH, 2018

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IMPACT OF OBAN DEAL BEING KEPT SECRET

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE environmental impact assessment for the controversial Oban Energies project will not likely be made public until a new heads of agreement is inked, Labour Minister Dion Foulkes said yesterday.

Despite this, Mr Foulkes, who co-chairs the Cabinet subcommittee spearheading the Oban review and renegotiations, insisted the government was committed to ensuring transparency and accountability throughout the process.

Mr Foulkes confirmed the government’s negotiating team was set to meet with Oban principals on January 7. “We are in receipt of the complete EIA for the project,” he said.

SEE PAGE SIX

SAINTIL TO BE DEPORTED NEXT YEAR

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

ONE Family favourites: The winners of Junkanoo chose the theme of nursery rhymes. Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

Junkanoo winners tell own story

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net ONE Family sashayed its way to victory as the group was declared the unofficial winner of the 2018 Junkanoo Boxing Day parade last night. The group wowed the judges and crowd with its theme “Nursery Rhymes: The Ones We’ll Always Remember”, scoring a total of 87.55 points.

In the unofficial results, the Valley Boys came second with

85.61 points, Roots third with 85.46, Genesis fourth with 83.07, and Saxons finished fifth with 82.81 points.

Music Makers and Prodigal Sons were both disqualified.

In the B group category, Colours was declared the unofficial winner with a total of 78.91 points.

Original Congos placed second with 76.39 points, Body of Christ came in third with 68.00 and Fancy Dancers rounded off the top four with 67.77 points.

One Family also won several other major categories, including best costume, with 88.56 points; best choreography, best Shirley Street and best off-the-shoulder. It was the group’s first victory since the 2016 Boxing Day parade.

Valley Boys placed second in the overall costume category with 83.25 points, Genesis third with 82.06 points, Saxons 81.88 points and Roots placing fifth in the overall costume category with 79.94 points.

SEE PAGE THREE

HAITIAN-Bahamian Edward Israel Saintil, who was targeted in an explosive FBI undercover operation into US visa fraud in the Bahamas, will be deported to this country following his sentencing early next year.

Court filings state Saintil pleaded guilty to one count of encouraging and inducing an alien to come to the United States for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.

He consented to a forfeiture order for a Samsung Galaxy S8, and any property derived from or SEE PAGE SEVEN

TOURISTS WARNED TO AVOID FISH FRY

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A MAJOR cruise line yesterday “blindsided” a Cabinet minister by warning its passengers that the Arawak Cay Fish Fry was a “particular area of concern” for crime.

Royal Caribbean captain Srecko Ban, in a letter to Anthem of the Seas passengers that was dated yesterday, wrote: “We feel

it is important to make our guests aware that Nassau has been experiencing an increase in crime. Non-violent crimes, such as theft of personal items, are the most common types of crimes being committed.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas probably needs to create “a working group forum” to address the cruise industry’s crime concerns.

Captain Ban, who conceded that “thousands routinely travel to Nassau without incident” wrote: “We recommend guests not venture too far from tourist areas and consider ... an organised tour. Particular areas of concern include the Sand Trap, the Fish Fry and other areas of Nassau referred to as ‘Over-theHill’ by locals, which should be avoided after sunset.”

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

DIANE PHILLIPS OH, FOR SOME RESPECT WHEN OUT SHOPPING

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Thursday, December 27, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 27, 2018, PAGE 3

Photos: Shawn Hanna/ Tribune Staff

One Family wins star prize at this year’s Junkanoo

from page one One Family was the last A group to perform during the 2018 Boxing Day parade, making its way down Bay Street well into the morning, in a parade marked by significant delays.

Music Makers was the first A group out of the gate, followed by Saxons.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis again rushed with Saxons, shaking his cowbells down Bay Street alongside his grandson.

However, between third A group Genesis and Valley Boys, there was a delay of more than 90 minutes, during which a series of B and C groups rushed.

Valley Boys alleged on its Facebook page that this delay was due to Genesis blocking its entryway. “Da Valley has been waiting to enter the parade, but

GENESIS has the entryway BLOCKED and no one can pass!!” the post, which was uploaded during the parade, claimed. In the comments under the post, some Valley fans called for Genesis to be disqualified over this. One Family did not rush until well after 8am, but was deemed well worth the wait.

A number of Cabinet ministers were present at the parade, including Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest, who emphatically stated that he was rooting for the Valley Boys, “all the way.” When asked if he was excited to see Dr Minnis rush with the Saxons, Mr Turnquest answered diplomatically.

“We’re excited for Junkanoo,” he laughed. “This is a tremendous cultural expression, world-recognised.

Certainly it is an exciting production. We’re very excited for all of the groups

that come out and put their all on Rawson Square, Bay Street.”

Also present was United States Congresswoman Maxine Waters, pictured right, who told reporters she is a veteran Junkanoo attendee, explaining that

her husband, Sid Williams, was an ambassador to The Bahamas during the Clinton administration. “And so we’ve been coming here for many years and certainly we love Junkanoo,” she said. “So we try to get here every year. ”

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THE TRIBUNE

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Images of suffering can bring about change – but are they ethical?

IN A series of provocative photographs, poor children in India were made to pose in front of fancy tables covered with fake food. A prize-winning Italian photographer, Alessio Mamo, took these pictures in 2011, as part of a project called “Dreaming Food.” After the World Press Photo Foundation shared the photos on Instagram, they sparked a bitter controversy. Many considered them unethical and offensive.

In his apology, Mamo described his desire to show to a Western audience “in a provocative way, about the waste of food.” He was attacked for lacking cultural sensitivity and violating 21stcentury photographic ethics.

Despite such risks, as a public law scholar, I am aware that images of suffering are often part of human rights campaigns. And freedom of expression, including visual representation, is protected by a United Nations treaty and many national constitutions. At the same time, however, I argue for ethical limitations on the right to take pictures.

The controversy around Mamo’s socalled “poverty porn” images is not the first time that such questions have been raised. One such case was that of the 1936 black-and-white photograph of Florence Owens Thompson that became the iconic image of the “Migrant Mother” during the Depression. Photographer Dorothea Lange took the picture for Resettlement Administration, a New Deal agency tasked with helping poor families relocate. It showed Thompson, with her children, living in poverty.

The family survived on frozen vegetables and birds they hunted. The photo was intended to build support for social welfare policies. The photo raised some moral questions. While Lange shot to fame, no one knew the name of the woman. It was only decades later that Thompson was tracked down and agreed to tell her story. As it turned out, Thompson didn’t profit from “Migrant Mother” and continued to work hard to keep her family together. As she said later, “I didn’t get anything out of it. I wish she hadn’t taken my picture. … She didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.”

Thompson felt “bitter, angry and alienated,” over the “commodification” of her image, wrote scholars Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites, in their study of powerful images.

Thompson was the poster child for the Depression, and she did take some pride in that. Her photo benefited many. But, as she asked a reporter, “what good’s it doing me?”

Another striking example is a 1993 photo by South African photographer Kevin Carter showing a young Sudanese girl, with a vulture perched near her.

The iconic image captured public attention by focusing on the plight of children during a time of famine.

Unlike other images depicting starving children with “flies in the eyes,” this one highlighted the predicament of a vulnerable famine victim, crawling to a food station in Ayod, in South Sudan.

The picture won Carter a Pulitzer Prize in 1994, but also precipitated an avalanche of criticism. Although Carter scared the vulture away, he did not carry the girl to the nearby food station. The fate of the girl remained unknown.

In a critical essay about the image, scholars Arthur and Ruth Kleinman asked: Why did the photographer allow the predatory bird to move so close to the child? Why were her relatives nowhere to be seen? And, what did the photographer do after he took the picture?

Two months after receiving the Pulitzer, in July 1994, Carter took his own life. Apart from his own challenging personal circumstances, his suicide note revealed that he was haunted by the vivid memories of the suffering that he witnessed.

Admittedly, famine, poverty and disasters need attention and action. The challenge for journalists, as scholar David Campbell notes, is to mobilise public reactions before it is too late.

These catastrophes require prompt intervention by government and relief agencies, through, what human rights scholar Thomas Keenan and others call, “mobilising shame” – a way of exerting pressure on states to act to rescue those in dire circumstances.

Such an effort is often more effective if images are used. As Rakiya Omaar and Alex de Waal, co-directors of African Rights, a new human rights organisation based in London, note, “The most respectable excuse for selectively presenting images of starvation is that this is necessary to elicit our charity.”

The truth is, these images do have an impact. When James Nachtwey, an American photographer, took photos of the famine in Somalia, the world was moved. The Red Cross said public support resulted in what was then its largest operation since WWII. It was much the same with Carter’s image, which helped galvanise aid to Sudan.

Nonetheless, as Campbell contends, media coverage can reinforce negative stereotypes through an iconography of famine or images of those starving in “remote” places like Africa. His argument is that individuals continue to present people in what the Kleinmans call the “ideologically Western mode.”

In this framing, the individual appears without context, usually alone, and without the ability to act independently.

Greater awareness of the power of images in different contexts has exerted pressure on NGOs and journalists to shift from a “politics of pity” to a “politics of dignity.”

Eventually, much rests on the stringent ethical standards that photographers set for themselves. What they do need to remember, is that often, good intentions do not justify the use of questionable images of suffering.

By Alison Dundes Renteln of the University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

This article first appeared on The Conversation.

Has a permit been issued for the work at Baha Mar? EDITOR, The Tribune GLAD someone saw this development … seemingly quietly the expansion of the original dock has now a breakwater and marina docks.

The water off Baha Mar is shallow so I have to ask … Has the Port Authority granted approvals for substantial dredging as to facilitate

docking of reasonably sized yachts? If, yes, what is the scope?

I am reminded that the water from Arawak Cay to Delaport is a protected area … no fishing … limit on speed of water craft (hmm no one follows that probably haven’t a clue there is a limit!)

Nassau Port Authority - also Town Planning has a permit been issued

for dredging in any fronting Baha Mar and surrounding water area?

Office of the Prime Minister - when was there a sea bed lease signed between government and Baha Mar? What is the terms and lease?

JEROME HUGGINS Nassau December 2, 2018

Going into a year of hope EDITOR, The Tribune IF NO one else in The Bahamas believes that I am a prophet, I do. Please, my beloved fellow Bahamians, do not take this assertion as an attempt to big up myself or a vain one to convince any reader to accept whatever I might say or prognosticate without a dose of Morton Salt. Nor, I declare and proclaim is that to suggest any degree of infallibility.

In 2019, the campaign for the general elections due in 2022 will commence. Some might say that this is too far out to be stating this as a fact, but next year will define and flesh out the success or failure of the ruling FNM and the leadership skills or lack thereof, of our erstwhile Prime Minister, the Most Hon Dr Hubert A. Minnis (FNM-Killarney). What they both have demonstrated, so far is not impressive, in my opinion.

Our economy, while it just received a favourable ranking by the foreign financial oversight organizations, is fragile and less than robust. Crime, especially homicides, armed robberies and rapes continue to be unacceptably high. Land ownership in New Providence is an elusive proposition for the average Bahamian. Our health care systems are on life support. Education and civilized community behaviour has fallen by the wayside.

Direct foreign investments, which traditionally have driven the economy, especially in hotels; condominiums and the tourism sectors, are vital but seem to be drying up. Bahamian entrepreneurs continue to lack access to capital due to the abject failure by successive administrations to free up and liberalize our ancient financial laws as they relate to Bahamians. The improvement and expansion of the Industrial Park concept here in New Providence; Grand Bahama and some of the other Family Islands would be a win/win situation for all concerned.

The FNM’s biggest problems, in my view, are bad communications and perceived arrogance. The

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net majority of the labour unions, based on my numerous conversations with the leaders, as well as the majority of Bahamians, supported and voted for that party in 2017, include me in that number also.

My current MP, the Hon. Marvin Dames (FNMMount Moriah) used to be accessible and ‘in touch’.

Now, if one were to reach out to him, via his ministry or constituency headquarters, either he is never in or the secretary informs: ‘Minister will return your call’.

This, needless to say, never happens, at least not yet.

Mind you, I am not suggesting that all of the FNM Members of Parliament are politically lousy but there are far too many and they are giving their party a terrible reputation. The Most Honorable PM is among the ‘chief’ offenders. He once ‘promised’, directly and through the putative Press Secretary, my friend and colleague, Anthony ‘Ace’ Newbold, to host monthly or regular press conferences. Since elevation to high office, the Most Hon Prime Minister has conducted one or two vents bogusly labelled as ‘press conferences’. This, dear reader, is nothing short of an insult.

In 2019 the average Bahamian must look within and must come up with her/ his own game plan. For too long we have been seeking and looking for political saviours. Alas, in the truest sense of the term, there are none, in my considered view. A saviour desires to lead one to salvation for salvation sake.....no known strings attached. In politics, 99% of the practitioners of this art, does whatever he/she does with a jaundiced eye on usefulness or the number of votes are at your command or disposal.

Ordinarily, they only know you when they, in fact, need you.

It is unfortunate that over the years Bahamians have demonstrated a marked preference for either the established PLP

or the FNM, which is a hybrid between the very much alive UBP and the almost irrelevant remnants of the former Free PLPs, once led to the political slaughter, figuratively and literally, by the late Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield.

In 2019 get back to basics.

Cut back on all unnecessary expenses and curb the exorbitant, well known levels of sweethearts. No job?

Learn marketable skills and become self employed. Get involved in a local bible based church and engage your relatives; neighbours and friends. If you don’t already have a savings or investment account, do so the first income/pay cheque in January. Your local bank; investment vehicle and any number of insurances companies offer unlimited opportunities of small initial investments.

Personal ethics and grooming are also to be embraced and cultivated.

An individual personal characteristics, as displayed in public, is critical to success. Good grooming must also be practised all times.

The continued ‘don’t care’ attitude to a whole bunch of our people must come to an end. While wasting time we are, collectively, falling down on personal and national productivity. As I’ve asked before: ‘Who is the Joshua who will take us across into the Promised Land?’

I submit, that that Joshua is here with us now in the form and personage of the Hon. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis.

This is pure prophecy. Yes, it might look difficult but Brave has been training to become Prime Minister for at least a decade. He is seasoned; emphatic and, more importantly, he has the common touch.

Brave, like it or not, is the Joshua whom we have long been expecting. 2019 will be a year of hope and deliverance/ if you all embrace it and dispense with the political clap trap of the misguided and out of touch FNM. Happy New Year and, remember, in all things, to God be the glory.

ORTLAND H. BODIE, JR Nassau, December 26, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

‘Mr PM, how can you wish me Merry Christmas when you can’t find my son?’

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net THE disappearance of 40-year-old Marvin Pratt has darkened the Christmas holiday for his mother, who continues to appeal for authorities to bring her son home.

Barbara Saunders told The Tribune yesterday she believes her son is still alive and in police custody despite repeated denials from top officials.

Now, nearly one month since he was last seen by a neighbour, she recalled a conversation she had with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis on Christmas Day. “The PM call me yesterday morning,” she said, “and tell me Merry Christmas. I say, ‘how can you tell me Merry Christmas and your people pick up my son

and can’t find him?’

“I tell him, ‘I don’t have no Christmas, my son went missing for a little while, I believe you have heard about it.’ He says he was off the island and he didn’t know about it, and just heard a little something when he reach back.

“He called and he said, ‘I heard you was trying to call me.’ When he said Merry Christmas, I said ‘I don’t have no Christmas, only y’all have Christmas,’ and I tell him what is what.”

She also said: “He (the prime minister) say he will check in with the commissioner. They can tell the commissioner anything.

They need to find my child.

I don’t care how they bring him, they need to bring him, bring him that’s my child.”

Mr Pratt’s family insists he was arrested by Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU)

officers on December 5, a claim Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson has denied.

Ms Saunders yesterday claimed it was not the first time her son was picked up by police with no formal arrest report entered in the system.

“They always picking up people and not putting them in the system,” she said. “From he was younger he used to be in problems.

I can tell you, he good and he bad. I see them pick him up and carry him before and they telling you he ain’t there.

“Sometimes (police) they come down there when the boys on the corner and just slap ‘em up and tell them go home. That’s how they treat people children.”

Police are investigating the matter as a missing person case, and

have suggested it is irresponsible for media to report the family’s claims.

However, last week the human rights group, Rights Bahamas, filed a writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court seeking to compel the Royal Bahamas Police Force to produce the Gambier Village resident.

Yesterday, Ms Saunders said: “I still believe he’s alive because he ain’t come to me yet. I feel like he still alive. I feel like they have him some place and if that was an MP son they would search every car, every house, every corner. They would have this Bahamas dig up. It’s my time now, but we still on this earth. How could people be so cold and have children? “(Marvin) live right in the back (of me). He was always there, ain’t had no children. Don’t care how

Thursday, December 27, 2018, PAGE 5

MARVIN PRATT old he is, he will always be my child. I ain’t have no Christmas. I used to do all the lights. I run couple white lights in the yard and a white light around his house, a light so he could see to come home.

“You cannot treat a human being like that.

Whoever they is, whoever pick him, whoever had their hand inside it, something will happen to all of them. Whenever you do wrong to someone it does come back to you seven times you and your children. God above he see and he’s watching.”

TURNQUEST: WTO WORRIES OVERBLOWN - WE’LL PROTECT THE BAHAMAS

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest has said that concerns over World Trade Organisation ascension are being “exaggerated,” further asserting that the government would work to “protect” the interests of local businesses.

Mr Turnquest made these remarks on the sidelines of the 2018 Boxing Day Parade, when he also addressed his hopes for the country for the New Year, the country’s unemployment rate 10 years after the Great Recession, and legislative requirements for the European Union and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Minnis administration is pushing for the Bahamas to become a full WTO member state by the end of 2019.

However, the topic of WTO ascension has been a source of debate in the nation, with many activist groups campaigning against it.

When asked specifically about concerns that the privatisation that accompanies WTO ascension will hurt Bahamians, Mr Turnquest directly addressed and attempted to assuage the anxiety of the retail sector.

“I think the negotiating team has been very diligent about making sure that we protect the local Bahamian manufacturer,” he said.

“In the retail sector, first off, you’re not (going to) find that the large box retailers that people are talking about are (going to) come to The Bahamas, for instance, because the population is just not big enough to justify that.

“So I think the fears about that is probably a little bit exaggerated,” he continued. “We do recognise that there will be some service providers who they want to come into the market. But at the end of the day, The Bahamas still has the right to determine who it wants to allow into its local domestic economy.

“And the government of The Bahamas will always be mindful of what affects any new entrant, foreign entrant in particular, will have on the local businessperson, and ensure that we protect those interests as best we can.”

The deputy prime minister also said the government believes it “has done everything that (it) had to do” to satisfy the demands of the EU and OECD. “There are still some matters with respect to now give an affect to the laws that

we have already passed and we’ll be working on that through the end of the year, so that come January 1, we will meet all their requirements that they’ve put forward to us,” he added.

“So at this point we believe that we’ve done everything that we need to do. We’re sitting in a pretty good position and we’ll see what happens at the end of the year.”

Mr Turnquest also discussed the unemployment rate in The Bahamas, which still stands in the double digits, ten years after the Great Recession. Meanwhile the unemployment rate in the United States is under four percent.

When asked if this represents a new normal for the country, Mr Turnquest said no. “No, not really,” he replied. “I think there’s obviously been a transition. Whenever the (United States) turns around or starts to grow, there’s a lag.

“And so, as we see investments start to come, our unemployment will start to decrease. But there is normally a lag between the US economic growth and our numbers. So it’s not unusual.

“However, we will never be able to match the pace of the unemployment growth in the US, just because of the size of the economy.

SKELETAL REMAINS FOUND OFF HIGHWAY POLICE are investigating after skeletal remains were found on Tuesday.

Officers were called to a bushy area off the EastWest Highway shortly after 11am, where the remains of a human were reportedly found.

Police will await an autopsy report to determine the cause of death.

Police also recovered two illegal firearms in separate incidents yesterday. In the first incident, shortly after 3am, anti-gang and firearms officers searched a parking lot of a night club at St Alban’s Drive and recovered a .380 pistol. No arrest was made.

In the second incident, shortly after 4am, officers

on mobile patrol on Lexington Avenue observed a man standing on the side on the street.

The man, upon seeing the officers, threw an object to the ground and ran, making good his escape. Officers conducted a search and found a .762 rifle and 11 rounds of ammunition.

TWO INJURED IN SHOOTING INCIDENTS

By RIEL MAJOR

TWO men are in hospital after they were injured in separate shooting incidents.

In the first incident, a man was driving on Soldier Road, near Taylor Street shortly after 9pm on Sunday, when two men on a trail motorbike opened fire on the man’s vehicle shooting him several times before speeding away.

He was taken to hospital and is listed in serious but stable condition.

In the second incident, a

man was driving on Turnquest Avenue, Stapledon Gardens, when the occupants of a white Nissan Note opened fire on his vehicle shooting the man several times before speeding away.

That incident took place shortly after 5am on Monday.

Police also reported that one man is in custody after the recovery of an illegal firearm and ammunition.

According to police, Flying Squad officers were patrolling Marshall Road

and noticed a man walking.

The man saw the officers and acted in a suspicious manner which resulted in officers conducting a search, discovering a .40 pistol which contained six rounds of ammunition.

The incident took place shortly after noon on Sunday.

Anyone with information on these or any other crimes is asked to call the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991/2, Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477) or the nearest police station.

MAN DEAD AFTER FALLING OFF POTTER’S CAY DOCK POLICE are investigating an alleged drowning that occurred at Potter’s Cay dock on Sunday.

According to police reports, shortly after 9pm, a man was sitting on the edge

of Potter’s Cay dock when he was seen falling into the water. Residents rescued the man and began CPR. Paramedics came and took the man to hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Police said foul play is not suspected at this time and an autopsy will take place to determine the exact cause of death.

Investigations are ongoing.

But again, you should see the trends start to more align in the next year as we go forward and as the economic effects in the US start to take affect and people have the confidence to invest offshore.”

In July, it was reported that the country’s unemployment stands at ten percent — a fractional decrease when compared with November 2017’s rate of 10.1 percent.

At the time, Mr Turnquest conceded that the Minnis administration still

has a lot of work to do to ensure every Bahamian has the opportunity to earn a decent living.

During the Junkanoo parade, Mr Turnquest also mentioned his hopes for the country for the New Year.

“We recognise that there’s still a lot of work to be done in order to uplift the Bahamian people, to assure that they can realise their goals and aspirations,” he said. “It’s been a difficult two years as we try to turn around our situation….

We’re making significant progress, we believe that the works that we’ve done over the last two years will start to manifest in 2019 and hopefully that will translate to the average Bahamian, to be able to find new jobs or the career of their choice and be able to take care of their families and (really start) forward progress in terms of overall economic activity.

“So we’re looking forward to reaping some of the hard work that we’ve done.”

PAGE 6, Thursday, December 27, 2018

WHEN DR SANDS PLAYED SANTA...

MINISTER of Health Dr Duane Sands turned Santa on Christmas morning with a delivery of gifts to patients at the Children’s Ward of the Princess Margaret Hospital. Pictured with Dr Sands is Glen Ward, of Bahamas FirstALERT Weather Nework, Ltd, nurses from the ward and members of Kiwanis Club of New Providence. Kellys and the Aidan Roger Carron Children’s Foundation helped provide the toys.

THE TRIBUNE

TOP BAHAMIAN SURGEON LANDS US CLINIC ROLE PATIENTS of a top Bahamian surgeon are being reminded they must pick up their records before Monday ahead of the doctor’s move to an award-winning US medical facility.

Dr Darius Unwala is to join the Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute in the United States, part of the award-winning Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr Unwala will take leave from The Princess Margaret Hospital and Doctors’ Hospital, where he has served as a consultant urologist since 2011. He specialises in treating kidney and urology-related conditions, including sophisticated, minimally invasive laparoscopic and endoscopic procedures.

“We are pleased to welcome Dr Unwala to the world-class faculty of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic, which

DR DARIUS UNWALA has been ranked as the No 1 or No 2 urology programme in the nation

by US News and World Report every year since 2000,” said Eric A Klein, MD, chairman of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic.

According to a source close to Dr Unwala, the decision to take leave was a difficult one.

“Darius has dedicated his academic career, his knowledge, his medical life to trying to find better ways to treat those who suffer from kidney and urology-related conditions,” the source said.

Dr Unwala is married to Dr Rashmi Unwala, who will be taking up the post of assistant professor of dermatology at the Cleveland Clinic.

Davis: No reason to block web shop political donations

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net OPPOSITION Leader Philip “Brave” Davis does not expect the Minnis administration to push a bill that would prohibit web shops and their bosses from giving money to political parties.

Such a provision is in a draft bill to regulate campaign finances of political parties which

Attorney General Carl Bethel recently gave the Progressive Liberal Party. The draft bill, the Political Parties Registration and Election Financing Bill 2012, would prohibit people or companies licenced under the Gaming Act from contributing to a political party or candidate. The bill was drafted under the last Christie administration.

Asked on Monday about the gaming provision, Mr

Davis said he couldn’t see a rationale for it.

“I don’t know why they would say that because I think the gaming shops contribute to all parties so why they would want to restrict that is not sensible to me,” he said.

“So the shipping companies could, the banks could, other businesses could but what is so special about the gaming business that they shouldn’t? I would not expect that provision to be

in any final bill.”

The Tribune reported last week that Mr Bethel, seeking to kickstart discourse about the longstanding issue, is expected to recommend a number of changes to the bill in the new year. He said the bill needs a lot of work and has not publicly endorsed any of its provisions.

Mr Davis declined to reveal his guidelines for campaign finance legislation. He said his hope is that whatever is produced secures bipartisan support.

“I want to see what they are proposing because at the end of the day it has to be a document we all sit down to agree on a bipartisan basis and that’s what I hope, that whatever we settle upon it will be something that’s bipartisan as opposed to having any issue or rancour about,” he said.

Although the bill was drafted during the Christie administration, of which Mr Davis was a part, it never came before to Cabinet, the PLP leader said.

“I never saw the bill until (Mr Bethel) sent it to me,” Mr Davis said.

“That bill may have been the bill drafted by the Reform Commission, as they often do when they hear desires of a party, they may have been hearing about campaign reform on the campaign trail and people talking about it and they may have decided to have something ready in the event they are called upon to do so. Ordinarily what they would do is

they would not reinvent the wheel. The regulation of campaign finances is nothing new so what I would expect them to do is to look at the existing legislation in other jurisdictions, try to benchmark it against the culture or utterances they have heard in the public domain by politicians and tailor a document in that context.”

In a statement released late last week, the Democratic National Alliance noted talk of campaign finance legislation comes as the government struggles to pass legislation regulating non-profit organisations legislation that would impose disclosure requirements on them.

“The legitimate concern of the populace that political parties just like NPOs should not be exempt from scrutiny seems to have forced the government to finally propose campaign finance legislation,” DNA deputy leader Arinthia Komolafe noted.

She added: “We believe that it is extremely important that the Bahamian people are aware of the sources of funding for political organisations.

The legislative and policy priorities of successive administrations upon assuming office point to an obvious need for transparency and accountability in the campaign finance process.

“An effective campaign finance legal framework will reveal special interests and groupings that may seek repayments in favours,

contracts and appointments from political parties following election victories.

The discourse on campaign finance regulation has been taking place in The Bahamas for decades without any meaningful progress by the Progressive Liberal Party and Free National Movement administrations to date.

“Campaign finance reform in The Bahamas is long overdue and should not be delayed any further. While it can be argued that the Government’s recent pronouncement is only an attempt to placate the Bahamas Christian Council, NPOs and the Bahamian people, we are hopeful that this is not another grandiose announcement without any intention to implement this vital framework. The Bahamian people deserve and urgently demand good governance from an administration that promised that it would be ‘the people’s time’. We implore the government to proceed with completing the drafting, tabling and passing of the legislation without any further delay and pray that this crucial legislation does not meet the same fate as the Freedom of Information Act, which has been put on the proverbial backburner.

Campaign finance reform has been at the heart of the DNA’s platform for good governance and the DNA looks forward to providing valuable input into the draft legislation and working with the government to complete this process as soon as possible.”

IMPACT OF OBAN DEAL BEING KEPT SECRET from page one “The technical people they are reviewing it, and we will go from there.

“The amended heads of agreement has to come first before we reveal the EIA,” Mr Foulkes said when asked if the report will be made public.

He continued: “We’re going to be transparent about the whole process.

Oban will be accountable at every stage of the way. The prime minister has asked me as the chairman of the committee to keep the public informed every step of the way.

“So there is nothing that’s going to happen unless we have full disclosure. The EIA has already been presented to us, the review of it is a very complicated process, several government agencies, including Town Planning (Committee) and the BEST Commission, certain regulations and laws

that have to be complied with.”

When pressed further, Mr Foulkes said: “But that’s all I am prepared to say at this time. Cabinet has to make decisions every step of the way. I don’t want to preempt or presume what Cabinet will say, but the prime minister wants it to be done thoroughly.”

On the sidelines of a $25,000 donation to Grand Bahama’s Superstar Rockers Junkanoo group on Saturday, Oban operations manager Alexander Grikitis revealed the EIA for its $5.5bn oil storage terminal and refinery project in East Grand Bahama had been completed.

He also said the company is still committed to the country and its people.

“We are looking to show our support and showing we are here to support more jobs, and in the long-term Oban has now completed its EIA for our project,” Mr Grikitis said on Saturday.

“We are hoping to get our permitting going in the New Year, and early January we have a meeting with the government.”

The government’s initial agreement with Oban sparked intense criticism, including points of opposition from several environmental organisations that took issue with the lack of an environmental impact assessment, given the project’s risk factors.

The fallout prompted an admission from Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis that there were gross missteps in the government process.

Yesterday, Bahamas National Trust executive director Eric Carey said his organisation had not yet seen the EIA report, and only learned of the date for the upcoming meeting after reading The Tribune.

“We’ve not seen it,” Mr Carey said, “we will have a meeting to discuss it, and we will release a statement.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, December 27, 2018, PAGE 7

Back on schedule Bahamasair chief says company on right track

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net AFTER a weekend of chaos, cancellations and lengthy delays, operations at Bahamasair are back on schedule, the airline’s managing director Tracy Cooper has said.

During a press conference at the company’s Coral Harbour Road offices earlier this week, Mr Cooper blamed the airline’s recent failures on several “mitigating circumstances,” which he said were compounded despite the company’s best efforts to right itself.

Expanding on these series of factors which he first revealed on Sunday, Mr Copper on Monday said while the airline had

prepared for various scenarios which included aspects of what transpired last weekend, none of its contingencies could address the issues that arose collectively.

“We didn’t anticipate something like this happening a day or two before Christmas with all of those circumstances,” he said.

“We would just like the public to know that it was not the fact that Bahamasair was just delinquent, but really it was mitigating circumstances that caused Bahamasair not to be able to operate as it should have,” he told reporters.

He later added: “We operated these three days around the clock. We were operating flights well into the night, we had flights coming in from Miami at 3am, 5am and we kept our staff in place to make sure that they can deal with the passengers.”

Over the weekend, several Bahamasair flights servicing Florida airports were cancelled or delayed due to a “massive weather disturbance” and power failure.

Tensions ran high in Florida airports according to passengers, some of whom also took to social media to voice their frustration at delays of over 12 hours.

“(Flight) schedule for 4.40pm, finally in Nassau at 5am,” one passenger posted on Facebook.

A tourist, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Tribune this week that people were “screaming and arguing” in the Miami airport on Thursday night. It was a poor start to this guest’s first trip to The Bahamas, who said the entire ordeal was worsened by the lack of communication provided by the airline.

He explained that for hours, passengers were given no updates

as to when they would be travelling, and simply told that their status was “on hold.”

The outcry prompted several statements from Mr Cooper and the airline which noted the airline’s inability to service its routes due to weather, technical issues in New Providence or delays due to the airline’s struggles.

Attempting to further clarify these dilemmas on Monday, Mr Cooper revealed that two of the airline’s planes were grounded due to repairs and maintenance.

Additionally, it was revealed that a stand-by aircraft the airline had subleased, a MiamiAir 168-seater, was unable to render assistance due to weather.

The aircraft was scheduled to fly into Miami last Thursday to transport a group of stranded passengers and pick up its additional crew. Because of this setback, the aircraft flew directly to Nassau where it wasn’t utilised afterwards.

Bahamasair on Monday also made public its plans to contract freighter services to offset the high capacity it normally encounters during the holiday season.

However, that agreement was sidelined for much of the weekend

because, like Bahamasair flights, the contracted freighter service was grounded in Nassau for extended periods of time.

Lastly, Bahamasair said it had arranged to have its new 737 aircraft added to it fleet from as far back as September, but delays with the company providing the aircraft shelved those plans.

Mr Cooper said: “In retrospect, the public doesn’t know what is happening behind the scenes, so therefore the general public or the flying public who are flying on Bahamasair will only understand what they see, as to the fact that Bahamasair could not provide a flight for them at the time it was promised.”

He added: “So, we are not blaming the public for saying they did not have a good experience, they didn’t. But, what we are trying to explain to the public is it wasn’t because of Bahamasair’s lack of effort, it was because of other things that restricted Bahamasair from performing its duties and carrying out these flights.”

According to Mr Cooper, Bahamasair has now successfully transported all passengers and baggage affected by delays and cancellation over the weekend.

SAINTIL TO BE DEPORTED NEXT YEAR OVER VISA FRAUD SCAM

from page one

traceable to the proceeds obtained directly or indirectly from the offence.

A forfeiture money judgement for $7,100 has been entered, and the $1,329.80 in cash that was seized at the time of his arrest will be credited towards the judgment.

Saintil was arrested in late September after the FBI allegedly recorded conversations between him and paid informants over several months, in which he boasted of close relationships with both current and former top Department of Immigration officials and also claimed a capacity to obtain fraudulent bank statements to support US visa applications.

He told the lead FBI

informant it would cost $11,000 to obtain Bahamian work permits for two Haitian nationals: $1,500 to get a fake Bahamian employer; $2,500 for the Department of Immigration official to approve the application; and another $1,500 for other expenses like application fees, labour certificate, police and medical records, and his profit.

Saintil settled on $10,500 to provide the work permits, and bank letters indicating the Haitian nationals had Bahamian bank accounts.

He obtained a labour certificate and work permit for one Haitian national, who, he said, was employed as a handyman for his company “Saintil’s Painting & Cleaning Services”.

The Tribune has withheld

the name of the immigration official who signed the approval of the work permit.

Saintil also offered to arrange a marriage for one of the informants at a cost of $13,000, and smuggle either informant into the US on a private boat from Bimini for $6,500.

Before his arrest on September 27, Saintil met with the lead FBI informant in a hotel room in the District of Columbia, and received a total payment of $15,000 in three separate envelopes for the balance owed on the work permit; payment for the boat ride; and the arranged marriage.

According to prosecutors, the maximum sentence for this offence is ten years’ imprisonment; a fine of $250,000 or twice the monetary gain or loss of the

offence; and an obligation to pay any applicable interest or penalties on fines and restitution not timely made.

Saintil is expected to be removed at the time of his sentencing in late February, or at the completion of his jail sentence if imposed.

In his supporting plea statement, Saintil conceded the entry of the judicial order of removal rendered him permanently inadmissible to the United States.

“I agree that I will not enter, attempt to enter, or transit through the United States without first seeking and obtaining permission to do so from the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, or other

designated representative of the US government,” his plea statement read.

The FBI’s undercover operation kicked off in 2016 after agents were tipped off to claims a Haitian national living in the Bahamas - Edna St Fleur - had obtained a US visa fraudulently.

St Fleur, along with two other Haitians and a Bahamian woman, were also indicted in a separate case for allegedly conspiring to commit visa fraud.

While Bahamian Pauline Pratt has been sentenced and deported, and Haitian Johnlee Paul is under house arrest awaiting trial; Haitians Kevin Desir and St Fleur are

reportedly still at large. The statement of offence filed by US Attorney Jessie K Liu last week stated Saintil was paid $1,500 by a third party to obtain a Bahamian work permit for St Fleur sometime around summer or fall of 2017.

St Fleur attempted to enter the US on October 13, 2017, and provided a Bahamian work permit stating she was Saintil’s employee when questioned

by US Customs and Border Protection.

“St Fleur never worked for defendant Saintil,” the court filing read. “Defendant Saintil never employed or intended to employ St Fleur.”

PAGE 8, Thursday, December 27, 2018

I

N every life, there comes a time when reality hits with a thud, like realising that you had the whole year to get ready for Christmas and suddenly it is here.

And once again, though you promised last year and the year before that and probably the year before that it would never happen again, you blew the 8720 hours since the last time and you have 40 hours left to go before the big day.

The pressure is on. In your year of 8760 hours you chose to do things other than preparing for the day of over-indulging and you have no one to blame but yourself but then again you and your husband (well, my husband and I) agreed this year no gifts. Kids are grown, we have a big wedding coming up in March so no gifts, agreed, firm.

Right? Wrong. Okay, we relent. A few little gifts. We have something in mind for our daughter who is getting married soon and at the last minute we decide to head to Bay Street.

It is a Sunday, Christmas is still more than a day and a half away and we are expecting a pleasant outing.

The Bay Street that I touted as the street of shopping dreams, of simple architectural wonder and hidden architectural treasures, the Bay Street I lured locals and visitors to in past tourism-related posts with live entertainment Sunday after Sunday when we introduced Sunday shopping in the mid-1990s, is not the Bay Street of today.

Much of the architectural beauty is still intact. And a few shops have maintained their dignity. John Bull was a sight to behold, dressed to the hilt with Christmas trees throughout the interior, festive, bright and classy. The Linen Shop lived up to its name as The Christmas Corner. Fendi’s window was striking as always. Coin of the Realm on Charlotte Street, once a munitions storehouse, retained its centuries’ old charm with

THE TRIBUNE

Oh, for a little respect while out shopping original rounded brick ceilings and showcases filled with gold and silver treasure. Pandora was hosting some sort of event that drew standing room only crowds sipping champagne. We might have gone up Parliament Street under ordinary circumstances, but…

But except for those few highlights, Bay Street was little short of a nightmare.

Bleachers that go up way too early every year, days ahead of Junkanoo, had turned Nassau’s main tourist thoroughfare and locals’ once-favourite shopping walk into metal mayhem that would offend any camera. Imagine the selfies visitors would post to social media telling friends and followers they were in Nassau. What was the message? “December and here we are in the land of sunshine and aluminium. Be sure to come to The Bahamas on your next vacation.”

If you manage to mentally ignore a street of bleachers, you have less chance to avoid the hassling by hustlers standing in every third or fourth doorway and

on the sidewalk, which by the way, is illegal because the sidewalks belong to the Ministry of Works and hustling without a licence is not permitted. But no one is enforcing the rules downtown and though I am sure that the Downtown Nassau Partnership and Ed Fields are trying, the situation is out of control and so offensive it gives rushing a new meaning – how to get off Bay Street fast.

Store after store, we were bombarded. Voices coming at us: “Hey, happy honeymooners…” from one man who obviously needed glasses. “Take this flyer,” ordered a woman with a southern Caribbean accent.

“Where you from?” asked another man who had great difficulty understanding Nassau as the answer.

“Here, take this sample, just for you,” said another.

By the fourth time we were asked by a hassling hustler outside a store where we were from, my husband stopped and asked where the well-dressed young hustler was from and the man answered “Israel”. I

confess. I am Jewish and proud of it, but I also know that different cultures exhibit different behaviour in different parts of the world and what is appropriate behaviour in one place may be offensive in another.

Nassau is not the Middle East nor is it North Africa, it is not Vietnam or Lebanon or Morocco where it is accepted that people selling goods attract attention by calling out to anyone who might have a dollar, franc, peso or ruble in their pocket, where you are bombarded by voices and cries for your business, where you fight for the right price, scream if you have to and, like going into battle, bargain till you drop.

That is not the Bahamian way. Nor is it the way that Americans, Canadians, South Americans or Brits expect to be treated when

shopping. Hustling and hassling hurt and if Bay Street merchants are blaming the pain they are feeling on the 4.5% hike in VAT in 2018, they only have to look at the Mall at Marathon where on Monday you could not find a parking space. Even if the spend at the Mall is less than it was the year before - which is what we are hearing - at least shoppers are treated with respect, not accosted and not fleeing.

The new Bay Street hustle hurts everyone, but no one more than those who are vested and invested in its properties with rents of $100 a square foot and up and business licence fees that make surgery feel like a recreational activity.

They can complain about cruise passenger spend all they want but cruise lines are right, their passengers

want to get off the ships when they want and they want an authentic experience. They are prepared to spend – all you have to do is look at what they spend in other ports. It is not the cruise lines’ fault that their passengers rush back to the ship in Nassau. We know how they feel. We walked from east of East Street to Frederick Street and back. An hour or more that should have been a pleasant amble with holiday music and festive decorations became an ardent effort to dodge hustlers outside stores and escape with partial sanity intact.

By the time we got back to the corner of Parliament and Bay, we could not even turn up Parliament Street. We felt stripped of emotional energy, zapped by being accosted at every turn. For the Bahamian woman who said she had the worst Christmas season in the 12 years since her shop has been open and the man who said they are considering bringing in a less expensive line of goods next year, both of whom depend heavily on locals shopping downtown in December, we feel your pain.

Your future depends on the action you take because another reality that hit us was this - the hike in VAT pales by comparison with the spike in hassling. Stop the rudeness or suffer the consequences, Bay Street.

Your future, your hands.

Your wisdom, your wealth and the preservation of historic heritage and economic prosperity in the heart of the once proudest city in the region.

SHOPPING as it should be.

Bay Street will pay a high price if it does not improve.

And on the positive side, good signs...

ON A positive note, kudos to the Minister and the Director of Works for those new signs marking critical intersections and T-junctions where traffic entering the road from a side street is warned to take the outside approach around a median. Designed in bright yellow and blue with a striped rounded centre divider (looks like a bathing suit with cleavage),

the new signs are clear metal messengers that will help drivers avoid hitting the median or another vehicle. Nice work … Check it out in several places including the intersection of Eastern Road and Fox Hill Road.

A suggestion for the same Minister and Director – move the pedestrian crossing at the north end of Baha Mar Boulevard

further south. There have already been numerous accidents and it may just be a matter of time before someone loses a life. There is simply too little time to stop when you come around the roundabout from the west and the crossing is right there. One hundred feet to the south is all it would take to correct it. And you could save a life.

THE TRIBUNE

TALLINN, ESTONIA Associated Press IN THE Estonian capital of Tallinn, three-day-old Oskar Lunde sleeps soundly in his hospital cot, snuggled into a lime green blanket decorated with red butterflies. Across the room, his father turns on a laptop.

“Now we will register our child,” Andrejs Lunde says with gravity as he inserts his ID card into the card reader.

His wife, Olga, looks on proudly.

And just like that, Oskar is Estonia’s newest citizen. No paper. No fuss.

This Baltic nation of 1.3 million people is engaged in an ambitious project to make government administration completely digital to reduce bureaucracy, increase transparency and boost economic growth. As more countries shift their services online, Estonia’s experiment offers a glimpse of how interacting with the state might be for future generations.

Need a prescription? It’s online. Need someone at City Hall? No lines there — or even at the Department of Motor Vehicles! On the school front, parents can see whether their children’s homework was done on time.

Estonia has created one platform that supports electronic authentication and digital signatures to enable paperless communications across both the private and public sectors.

There are still a few things that you can’t do electronically in Estonia: marry, divorce or transfer property — and that’s only because the government has decided it was important to turn up in person for some big life events.

Thursday, December 27, 2018, PAGE 9

No more paperwork: Estonia edges toward digital government PARENTS of newborn Oskar Lunde, Andrejs and Olga, share their experience registering their baby as a citizen.

This spring, government aims to go even further.

If Oskar had been born a few months later, he would have been registered automatically, with his parents receiving an email welcoming him into the nation.

Marten Kaevats, Estonia’s national digital adviser, says the goal is a government that supports its citizens while staying out of the way.

“In an ideal world, in the case of an invisible government, when a new child is born neither of the parents would ever have to apply for anything: to get maternity leave, to get child support from the municipality, to get a kindergarten place, to put

the name to the child,” he said. “All of those different services would be delivered automatically.”

Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, says other countries have a lot to learn.

Estonia took time to build security and privacy into its model, in contrast with failed efforts by private companies to provide secure online voting systems in the United States, for example.

“It made sure that state accountability is part of the process,” he said.

Estonians largely seem to have embraced the system despite global concerns about

data hacks.

At a demonstration showcasing the digital system, project manager Indrek Onnik stood beside a huge screen illustrating his profile. He showed off his high school grades from a decade ago and his driving license records. If he had a dog, its vaccination record would appear there, too.

Citizens can monitor their data and see if any government or private institution accesses it.

“To generate trust, you really have to have transparency,” he said. “And that’s why people have access to their own data. And that’s why they can actually see

if the government has used their own data.”

The platform is underpinned by software called X-Road, a decentralized data exchange system that links databases. Outgoing data is digitally signed and encrypted, and all incoming data is authenticated and logged.

The government, fearing attempts to compromise its borders by neighboring Russia, also has a backup plan to restore digital services in the event of invasion or severe cyberattacks: data “embassies” in countries like Luxembourg. Like a regular embassy, the servers are considered Estonian territory and would give the government a chance to boot up elsewhere if needed.

Making life simpler for citizens has economic benefits in a country otherwise known for unforgiving winters and old growth forests.

The project, which began in 1997, laid the groundwork for Estonia’s booming tech sector. Skype, the video-calling service Microsoft bought for $8.5 billion in 2011, is Estonia’s most famous hightech export, but the impact is broader. Information and communications accounted for 5.9 percent of the economy last year.

The government hopes to increase that figure with an “e-residency” program that lets entrepreneurs around the world register their businesses in Estonia and gain a foothold in the European Union. More than 51,000 people from 167 countries have applied at a cost of 100 euros ($114) each.

ELON MUSK’S NEW TUNNEL ‘A LITTLE ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES’ LOS ANGELES Associated Press

ELON Musk unveiled his underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday, allowing reporters and invited guests to take some of the first rides in the revolutionary albeit bumpy subterranean tube — the tech entrepreneur’s answer to what he calls “soul-destroying traffic”.

Guests boarded Musk’s Tesla Model X and rode along Los Angeles-area surface streets about a mile away to what’s known as O’Leary Station. The station, smack dab in the middle of a residential neighbourhood — “basically in someone’s backyard”, Musk says — consists of a wall-less elevator that slowly took the car down a wide shaft, roughly 30 feet below the surface.

The sky slowly fell away and the surprisingly narrow tunnel emerged.

“We’re clear,” said the driver, who sped up and zipped into the tunnel when a red track light turned green, making the tube look like something from space or a dance club.

The car jostled significantly during the ride, which was bumpy enough to give one reporter motion sickness while another yelled,

ELON MUSK unveils his undergound tunnel to media and invited guests.

“Woo!” Musk described his first ride as “epic”.

“For me it was a eureka moment,” he told a room full of reporters. “I was like, ‘This thing is going to damn well work.’”

He said the rides are bumpy now because “we kind of ran out of time” and there were some problems with the speed of his paving machine.

“It’ll be smooth as glass,” he said of future systems.

“This is just a prototype.

That’s why it’s a little rough around the edges.”

Later in the day, Musk emerged from the tunnel himself inside one of his cars. He high-fived guests and pumped his fists in the air before delivering a speech in the green glow of the tunnel about the technology and why it makes sense.

The demo rides were considerably slower — 40 mph — than what Musk says the

future system will run at: 150 mph. Still, it took only three minutes to go just over a mile from the beginning to the end of the tunnel, the same amount of time it took to accomplish a right-hand turn out of the parking lot and onto a surface street even before the height of Los Angeles’ notorious rush-hour traffic.

The tunnel is just a test to prove the technology works and could one day cure traffic.

Tuesday’s reveal comes almost two years to the day since Musk announced on Twitter that “traffic is driving me nuts” and he was “going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging”.

“I am actually going to do this,” he added in response to initial skepticism. Soon after, he began The Boring Company, tongue in cheek intentional.

Since then, Musk has only revealed a handful of photos and videos of the tunnel’s progress.

On Tuesday, he explained for the first time in detail just how the system, which he simply calls “loop”, could work on a larger scale beneath cities across the globe. Autonomous, electric vehicles could be lowered into the system on wall-less elevators the size of two cars or spiral ramps. The elevators could be placed almost anywhere cars can go.

A number of autonomous cars would remain inside the tunnel system just for pedestrians and bicyclists. Once on the main arteries of the system, every car could run at top speed except when entering and exiting.

“It’s much more like an underground highway than it is a subway,” Musk said.

• SPACEX has launched the US Air Force’s most powerful GPS satellite ever built.

A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, hoisting the satellite into orbit.

The satellite was supposed to soar on Tuesday but rocket concerns and then weather delayed the flight.

Heather Wilson, secretary of the Air Force, says this next-generation GPS satellite is three times more accurate than previous versions and eight times better at anti-jamming. It’s the first in a series and nicknamed Vespucci after the 15th-century Italian explorer who calculated Earth’s circumference to within 50 miles.

Lockheed Martin developed the advanced GPS technology and is building the satellites at a facility near Denver.

Sunday’s launch was Space X’s 21st and final launch of the year, a company record.

• WHEN drones buzzing over the runway forced London’s busy Gatwick Airport to shut down, many travellers wondered why it’s so hard for authorities to stop such intruders.

Shoot them down, some said. Jam their signals, others suggested.

Experts say it’s not that easy.

Britain and the US prohibit drones from being flown too high or too close to airports and other aircraft. In Britain, it is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

Still, there is little to stop a drone operator bent on disrupting air traffic, which British officials say was the case with the Gatwick incident that began on Wednesday evening.

The number of close calls between drones and aircraft has increased dramatically in recent years as the popularity of drones has soared. Basic models for amateurs sell for under $100; larger, more sophisticated ones can cost hundreds more.

Britain had 120 reports of close encounters in 2018, up from 93 last year. In 2014, there were six, according to the UK Airprox Board, which catalogs air safety incidents.

In the United States, there were nearly 2,300 drone sightings at airports in the year ending June 30, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

Runways have been temporarily closed, but an FAA spokesman said he could not recall drones ever leading to the shutdown of a US airport.

A drone hit a small charter plane in Canada in 2017; it landed safely. In another incident that same year, a drone struck a US Army helicopter in New York but caused only minor damage.

“This has gone from being what a few years ago what we would have called an emerging threat to a more active threat,” said Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of askthepilot.com. “The hardware is getting bigger and heavier and potentially more lethal, and so we need a way to control how these devices are used and under what rules.”

PAGE 10, Thursday, December 27, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

In Iraq, Trump defends withdrawal from Syria AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq Associated Press

IN A surprise trip to Iraq, President Donald Trump yesterday defended his decision to withdraw US forces from Syria where they have been helping battle Islamic State militants.

“We’re no longer the suckers, folks,” Trump told American servicemen and women at a base in western Iraq. “We’re respected again as a nation.”

Trump said it’s because of US military gains that he can withdraw 2,000 forces from Syria. During his first visit to a troubled region, Trump also said he has no plans to withdraw US forces from Iraq.

“I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds,” Trump told troops clad in fatigues at al-Asad Airbase west of Baghdad. “Eight years ago, we went there for three months and we never left,” he said. “Now, we’re doing it right and we’re going to finish it off.”

He said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to take out “any remnants” of IS left in Syria. The US presence in Syria was not meant to be “openended,” he said, adding that other wealthy nations should pay for rebuilding Syria.

“The nations of the region must step up and take more responsibility for their future,” said Trump, who said there would be a “strong, deliberate and orderly withdrawal” of US forces from Syria.

Trump’s trip to Iraq came a week after he stunned his national security advisers by announcing the US troop withdrawal from Syria.

PRESIDENT Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at a hanger rally at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq yesterday.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly resigned following the announcement, and Trump’s decision rattled allies around the world, including in Iraq.

Trump’s trip was shrouded in secrecy. Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness yesterday evening. It is his first visit with troops stationed in a troubled region. Fifteen years after the 2003 invasion, the US still has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq supporting the government as it continues the fight against remaining pockets of resistance by the Islamic State group. IS

has lost a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria but is still seen as a threat.

Trump, who speaks often about his support for the US military, had faced criticism for not yet visiting US troops stationed in harm’s way as he comes up on his two-year mark in office. He said in October that he “will do that at some point, but I don’t think it’s overly necessary.” He later began to signal that such a troop visit was in the offing.

Trump had planned to spend Christmas at his private club in Florida, but stayed behind in Washington due to the shutdown.

His visit comes at a time when

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his Middle East policy is in flux.

He went against the views of his top national security advisers in announcing the Syria withdrawal, a decision that risks creating a vacuum for extremists to thrive.

There are dire implications in particular for neighboring Iraq. The Iraqi government now has control of all the country’s cities, towns and villages after fighting its last urban battles against IS in December 2017. But its political, military and economic situation remains uncertain, and the country continues to experience sporadic bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, which most people attribute to IS.

NO END IN SIGHT TO SHUTDOWN WASHINGTON Associated Press A SHUTDOWN affecting parts of the federal government appeared no closer to resolution yesterday, with President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats locked in a hardening standoff over border wall funding that threatens to carry over into January.

Trump vowed to hold the line, telling reporters as he flew to Iraq that he’ll do “whatever it takes” to get funding for border security.

He declined to say what amount of wall funding he would accept in a deal to end the shutdown, stressing the need for border security.

“You have to have a wall, you have to have protection,” he said.

The shutdown started Saturday when funding lapsed for nine Cabinetlevel departments and dozens of agencies.

Roughly 420,000 workers were deemed essential and are working unpaid, while another 380,000 have been furloughed.

While the White House was talking to congressional Democrats — and staff talks continued on Capitol Hill — negotiations dragged into yesterday, dimming hopes for a swift breakthrough.

The shutdown has been playing out against the backdrop of turmoil in the stock market, which is having a roller-coaster week.

JAPAN TO RESUME COMMERCIAL WHALING, BUT NOT IN ANTARCTIC TOKYO Associated Press

JAPAN announced yesterday that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings.

Japan switched to what it calls research whaling after the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s, and now says stocks have recovered enough to resume commercial hunts.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would resume commercial whaling in July “in line with Japan’s basic policy of promoting sustainable use of aquatic living resources based on scientific evidence.”

He added that Japan is disappointed that the IWC — which he said is dominated by conservationists — focuses on the protection of whale stocks even though the commission has a treaty mandate

A MINKE whale is unloaded at a port in Japan in 2017 for scientific purposes. for both whale conservation and the development of the whaling industry.

“Regrettably, we have reached a decision that it is impossible in the IWC to seek the coexistence of states with different views,” he said at a news conference.

Suga said the commercial hunts would be limited to Japan’s territorial waters and its 200-mile (323-kilometer) exclusive economic zone along its coasts. He said Japan would stop its annual whaling expeditions

to the Antarctic and northwest Pacific oceans.

Non-signatory states are not allowed to do so, according to Japanese Fisheries Agency officials.

The environmental group Greenpeace condemned the decision with Sam Annesley, executive director of Greenpeace Japan, saying: “The declaration is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures.”

INDONESIA SAYS AVOID COAST, FEARING NEW TSUNAMI INDONESIA Associated Press

INDONESIAN authorities urged people to avoid the coast in areas where a tsunami killed at least 430 people over the weekend in a fresh warning issued on the anniversary of the catastrophic 2004 Asian earthquake

and tsunami. The big waves that followed an eruption on a volcanic island hit communities along the Sunda Strait on Saturday night.

The eruption of Anak Krakatau, or “Child of Krakatoa,” is believed to have set off a large landslide on the volcano, apparently on its slope and underwater, displacing water that slammed into Java and Sumatra islands.

Valley Boys

JUNKANOO 2018

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PAGE 12, Thursday, December 27, 2018

Roots

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Original Congos

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Thursday, December 27, 2018, PAGE 13

Genesis

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Music Makers

Conquerors for Christ

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Saxons

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PM HUBERT MINNIS rushes with his grandson.

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Colours

Thursday, December 27, 2018, PAGE 15

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. . . and, finally, the crowd