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MEETING WITH THE CHAMP

We (Lee Davis our assistant and myself) were walking down Bay Street on an assignment of some kind on Wednesday 27 September and as we were turning into King's Court, the offices of Attorneys Alfred Sears and Cedric Parker, there was a crowd gathered around a figure. Mr. Parker called out: " Fred! Come and Meet Muhammad Ali". The things that make your day.

So we sauntered over to the spot and waited our turn as the other people ran up and paid homage. The Champ was there giving out pictures and smiling with the crowds. He is stooped and slow but there is still that old twinkle in his eye. He is suffering from Parkinson's disease. And of course there is still the thrill of the fans. American tourists stopped their driver and ran out of the taxi to get a handshake, a picture and a photo. This must have gone on for about an hour.

"Champ," says Mr. Parker, "I want you to meet one of our Senators" Where is the camera when you want one was the thought that immediately went through this head. The Champ slowly turns around, looks and says as he shakes hands: "So that means you're not as dumb as you look?" Still the same Ali. We got colour pictures with his signature, not the black and whites, given to lesser mortals. Clever thing, he does not have to sign autographs, just give out pictures with the autographs already on it.

Mr. Ali was in town, the guest of an American resident Yank Barry. He had done the rounds, pictures with the Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson, the Minister for Immigration Tommy Turnquest and the Minister of Economic Development Carl Bethel. The question is what is he up to in The Bahamas? Chances are it's some business scheme, although his minder, the American, said that he and Mr. Ali were interested in Mr. Ali's food to the poor programme for The Bahamas.

The last time Mr. Ali tried to get any deal going in The Bahamas was called "Drama In Bahama" which
was a financial disaster and for Mr. Ali an embarrassing end to his career. It was an embarrassment. Mr. Ali flew here from Australia where he witnessed the opening of the Olympic games.

Like the story of the encounter with former US Vice President Walter Mondale (see column May 2000) and this columnist crossing paths twice but Mr. Mondale not knowing, so it is with Ali. This columnist has to thank Muhammad Ali for unwittingly providing a huge audience for this columnist to deliver his Centreville constituency report as a first time delegate at the PLP convention 1975. Hoping and praying that Mr. Ali did not visit the convention before this columnist spoke. The hall was full of all PLP big wigs for that report for which there was a standing ovation led by former Prime Minister Lynden Pindling. So it was good to se Mr. Ali again.

This week, we have topped 90,000 hits for the month of September. That is an all time high. Up to midnight 30 September there were 95,981 hits on the site for the month of September. Thanks for reading and keep reading.
 
 

Address to the Senate Budget Debate / Haitian Issue
Address to the Senate Clifton Cay Debate / Haitian Issue
Address to PLP Leadership meeting in Exuma / Haitian Issue
Address of Sean McWeeney/Pindling  funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage

For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.

Click here for the statement	Click here for photos and events

e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs

GOD BLESS THE GOLDEN GIRLS
Debbie Ferguson, left, of The Bahamas, crosses the finish line of the women's 4 x 100 metre relay ahead of U.S. sprinter Marion Jones. The Bahamas won the gold medal in the event, Jamaica the silver medal and the United States won the bronze medal. (Thomas Kienzle/AP Photo) It is difficult and yet easy to express the feeling in Nassau after the 4:30 a.m. (EDT) Saturday 30 September victory of the Bahamian female quartet Savatheda Fynes, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Stirrup and of course the irrepressible Pauline Davis Thompson in the 4x100 relays at the Sydney, Olympics.  Mrs. Davis Thompson could have said many things about God and family and country, but she summed up the national mood when she said that the small Bahamas, a David had triumphed over the mighty Goliath, the United States. Marion Jones, the US 100 metre champion, embarrassed by her loss, did not even have the grace to show up for the medal ceremony.  Her excuse, she was preparing for another race. Our country was lifted by the victory in so many ways.  The United States that is a country that is supposed to be our friend has been pressing upon us on every side, and Bahamians have had enough. US is always telling us we don't do enough or we aren't doing things right.  Our leaders are constantly bowing down to the US, ignoring the national resentment.  And so we were able without saying one word, without firing a single shot, we were able to strike back at them in a way that they cannot strike back at us.  We beat them fair and square.  We controlled every leg of the race.  CNN tried to blame it on sloppy passing, the loss of the US team, but we simply beat them. Wherever you went in Nassau, the talk was about the Golden Girls.  They are now national heroes, embraced in a way that Sir Durward Knowles, the first Bahamian to win gold at an Olympics never was. His sport was sailing, a sport for the elite and remote from the masses. Sir Durward himself must be proud, as he lies in his hospital bed, apparently awaiting at the age of 82 a heart by-pass operation. The normally dour Mrs. Dillet, the bakery lady, was singing at the cash register on Saturday morning: "Pauline, Debbie, Savatheda, Chandra. Gold!Gold!Gold!" At the airport, Prince Livingstone, a tour bus driver used the Golden Girls as a metaphor for what the PLP must do. "We must run straight ahead," he said. " Looking neither left nor right."  Under the silk cotton tree in Fox Hill, they were arguing about the strategy of the race. On the Southern Recreation ground, they were supposed to be playing softball, but they were talking about the race.  Junior Rolle, from Exuma, was at the City Market Food Store on Cable Beach, as he reached for his package, he said to this writer:" What about those girls?" The one lament, the Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham did not find himself nor any member of his Government down in Australia for the occasion. And so the country feels good about itself. Many people stood in their bedrooms, tears streaming from their eyes as our national anthem was played.  Some had stayed up all night just to get a glimpse.  In the Dillette household, the home of the editor of this site, his wife woke all the children: "Anyone can watch the replay," she said. We needed this one.  No other country did it. Bahamians were hoping that the our women's relay team would produce gold at the Olympics as they did at the World Championships. The Golden Girls did it.  And congratulations to them.  GOD BLESS THE GOLDEN GIRLS!
 

PAULINE DAVIS-THOMPSON WINS OLYMPIC SILVER

GAMBIER HOUSE RENAMED
Perry Christie, the Leader of the Opposition announced at a press conference at the old Gambier House, the PLP's national HQ, at Farrington road, that it is being renovated at a cost of some $250,000 and will be officially renamed  Lynden Pindling House on 16 November 2000.
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CONDOLENCES FOR FORMER CANADIAN PM
Pierre Trudeau, the Prime Minister who led Canada, for a remarkable period of 16 years in the 1970s and 1980s died this week. We send our condolences to the Canadian people and especially those Canadians who visit this site. We admired Mr. Trudeau and during a stint as a Commonwealth Observer in South Africa in 1992 got to put his name forward to former South African President Nelson Mandela as a possible honest broker in the dispute with Zulu leader Buthelezi. Mr. Trudeau had the kind of tough and iconoclastic spirit to be admired in politics. He was a liberal thinker but when called upon to put down a guerilla kidnapping in Quebec which meant suspending civil rights, he answered his critics who asked how he could do it by saying: "Just watch me!" May he rest in peace!

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CLEOPATRA CHRISTIE LEAVES THE AG'S OFFICE
The exodus from the Attorney General's office continues. Bahamian lawyers are being forced out by an FNM Attorney General who pays absolutely no attention to her job. The latest to go is long time public servant Cleopatra Christie, who was able to retire (instead of resign) with full pension under a little known provision of the public service rules. The Government is now reportedly seeking to set that aside but she has them on the law. Mrs. Christie has been insulted and pushed around from pillar to post. The FNM abolished her post of Solicitor General and gave her a post as Assistant Director of Legal Affairs but hardly gave her any work to do. They ignored her opinions, most recently an opinion supported by former Justice of Appeal Boyd Carey that two Bahamian policemen Michael Ellis and Wellington Francis were wrongfully dismissed from the Force. So she has now gone to the private sector. The stories are now coming out about how Vlyma Hilton, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, has left the country to go back to Jamaica. We think that is a good idea but the problem is how the Government treats people. They gave the woman the impression that after her stint as Director of Public Prosecutions she would get the job to head up the enforcement of the Mutual Legal Assistance requests from the US Government. The Bahamians in the AG's office protested and after giving a solemn promise for the job, the offer was reportedly summarily withdrawn. No wonder this Government has such a bad reputation as an employer. And further, no wonder the US has forced this financial blacklist on us. One of their complaints was the inability of The Bahamas to follow through on Mutual Legal Assistance requests.

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TROUBLE AT SCHOOL

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ANOTHER INMATE DIES IN THE PRISON
A third inmate at the prison in Nassau has died. His name us Winston McKenzie, 35 years old. This is the third time that foul play is suspected in two months in the death of an inmate. The first was Mario Don Seymour 23 August. It has now been revealed in a Coroner's Court that Mr. Seymour was strangled to death. On 12 September 22 year old Jermaine Brennan was found dead in his cell, and now Mr. McKenzie on Thursday 28 September. The question is : what is going on in the prison? The American authorities have described the place as a hellhole. It is clearly a dangerous and unsafe place to be. The Government does not appear to be acting with any speed to clean up the situation. There needs to be a full and public inquiry on this issue. When one goes to prison, you are being punished but you should not have to fear for your physical safety.

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BAHAMIAN STUDENTS IN CUBA
One parent has returned from the place where the Bahamian students are now ensconced for their education in Cuba.  The drive is some five hours away from Havana.  While the parent was impressed with Havana, he claims that he and other parents were shocked by the state of the campus. But he says that the morale of the students is high.  They are excited and unified.  Let's hope it stays that way. Interestingly, the parent said that while parents were concerned about the state of the premises, no one asked about the quality of the teachers.  (See story last week's column)

WENDALL JONES CRUSADES AGAINST GALANIS
For the second time in as many weeks, the Bahama Journal, the weekly afternoon paper has carried stories about PLP MP Philip Galanis and his alleged connection to the disappearance of funds. According to the Journal story, Mr. Galanis has been asked to resign as Treasurer for the Dundas Endowment Fund. The Journal also reported that American former clients are contemplating civil action against Mr. Galanis. Mr. Galanis for his part denied any misappropriation or stealing of funds. He responded that the whole matter seemed motivated by politics. The rumour is that Mr. Jones wants to get the nomination for the FNM for Englerston, and that the stories are being run to sully Mr. Galanis' reputation. Not a nice thing to do! In order for Mr. Jones to be able to do that, and keep his radio station, he will have to do some persuading to his FNM buddy Hubert Ingraham. The Government's policy is no politician can own a radio station. But we are sure they'll fix up the rules if they really mean to give him the nomination.

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INTRIGUE IN THE FNM CONTINUES
The U.S. Ambassador held a party on Wednesday 27 September at his home to welcome his new Deputy Chief of Mission Dan Clune. The usual suspects were there. The FNM politicians were out in full force and they immediately repaired to their separate corners to discuss the intrigue in their party. One of the dissidents started a barrage to this columnist about how his fellows are outdoing the PLP in teifin'. He claimed that the FNM Government is robbing the treasury blind, right in front of the eyes of the people. He claimed that during the Pindling era, one suspected corruption but you could never find it. He said that under this Government it is right in front of your eyes. They are grabbing all they can get, he claimed. At that point a Minister of the Government came up so we had to discontinue talking. But such is the state of the FNM . Tennyson Wells, the insurgent candidate for leader of the FNM was positively brimming. He promised that in six weeks, the problem of Mr. Ingraham will be solved.

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CABLE BAHAMAS RESPONDS

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TELEPHONE SERVICE OUT TO THE SOUTH BAHAMAS

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ALGERNON ALLEN MARGINALIZED
The Minister of Housing aka the Minister of Idle Poetry, Algernon Allen is having a hard time these days grabbing a headline. He is neither fish nor foul in the FNM - not with Tennyson and not with Ingraham. He is totally isolated. There he was sitting with the Governor General at Government House with Sir Clement Maynard and Lady Patricia Isaacs. The purpose was to accept a report on the Commission on Aging headed by Lady Isaacs. He looked like a sad and lonely man. Sources in the FNM tells us that his Cabinet colleagues don't share their inner most secrets with Mr. Allen, driving him into the hands of Tennyson Wells. Mr. Allen has to be fish or foul. By the way, the Governor General's contribution to the effort to help the aging is to put an elevator at the ballroom of Government House. He said that he is concerned about the old people struggling to get up the steps.
 

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INGRAHAM ON THE OECD TRAIL
Hubert Ingraham has another two weeks or so to go on his European vacation. He is over in Europe going from Switzerland, to France, to Spain, the Netherlands and then to the UK to help calm the waters with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (OECD). According to Mr. Ingraham's spin-doctors, he is doing well. Anyone on a paid holiday by the Bahamian people would be doing well. Mr. Ingraham returns to The Bahamas on 14 October. At that time, we will see what concrete things he has accomplished for this country on solving this major political and financial crisis. You remember that the OECD and G7 Countries have issued certain warnings and advisories with regard to The Bahamas and a number of other countries on our tax policies (we are said to be a harmful tax jurisdiction) and on our money laundering initiatives. We are blacklisted for those things and if we don't clean up our act, we are to face sanctions.

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PROSTATE CANCER
All men over forty are asked to get their prostates checked on an annual basis. There has been a dramatic increase in interest in this since the death of Sir Lynden Pindling at the age of 70 from the disease. It is now known that Sir Lynden knew about his elevated PSA long before he did anything about it. Protein Specific Antigen (PSA) can be measured by a blood test and is said to be a sure marker for prostate cancer. There is a traditional resistance of Bahamian men to go to the doctor. Younger men should start getting used to an annual physical. A close friend of the Prime Minister in his mid fifties and a former Superintendent of Police also in his mid fifties are both now suffering from the disease, as is a senior officer on the Force today, who is in his early fifties. Please get it checked.

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BANKS ARE UNDER ATTACK
Bahamian businessmen are said to be gathering their forces for an onslaught against Bahamian banks. The feeling is that their polices are racist and prejudicial when it comes to lending. Especially on the hit list is CIBC. The problem is said to be inexplicable at a time when the country is said to be flush with money. Stay tuned!

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^{NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA}

Young Liberals Speak Out - The Progressive Young Liberals have spoken out against a 7% increase in the cost of residential electricty in Grand Bahama by Freeport Power Company. The group called for an independent agency to regulate the price of electrical power. Many Grand Bahama residents privately complain that the cost of power increases while outages, power spikes also increase with decreasing reliability. The story was reported in the Freeport News with this photo by Vandyke Hepburn showing Young Liberals Chairman Rhondi Knowles in the red shirt at left surrounded by members and Progressive Liberal Party officials.

Coaches Honoured - The group Helping Our Youth Through Education & Sports (HOYTES) held a gala banquet Friday 29 September to honour several sporting coaches who work with youth in Grand Bahama. Among those so honoured were Albert 'Bert' Bell, pictured, Elva Davis, Gilbertha Gaitor, Stephanie Higgs, Anthony Robinson and Maxwell Sweeting. Hoytes was founded by Mr. Gladstone 'Moon' McPhee, himself a coach of note in The Bahamas. The event was attended by Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie and hundreds of the coaches' well wishers and supporters.

Political Lessons? - Burton Miller, Chief Councillor of the City of Freeport met recently with the Mayor of Greater London. The occasion was a recent trip to London by the Chief Councillor. Mr. Livingston's election as Mayor of London was marked by a lack of support from his party and Mr. Miller is known to have had somewhat similar difficulties in his last election. We wonder whether the two compared notes?

'Our' Lucaya - Hutchison Whampoa, the mainland Chinese group which owns major portions of Freeport including the hotel development on the city's Lucaya Strip of beach, has decided to market the hotel development under the brand name 'Our Lucaya'. Public Relations 101 will teach that the first step in confronting a perception difficulty is to 'officialize' your side of the argument; often accomplished with a name change. The fact is that it has always been the Bahamian people's Lucaya and until the recent influx of thousands of foreigners connected with the project - and their often preferential treatment over Bahamians - the question was never even raised. Things that make you go hmmmmm! Pictured are Chef Edwin Beckles and Marco Nijhof, hotel senior V.P.

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THE ART OF BOUNCING CHEQUES

There is now a group of businessmen who are finally seeing their way clear to start a concerted action against the banking practices in this country. So many of these practices seem usury. The banks claim to have so much money, yet their practices for lending are stuck in 19th century mortgage law. They disrespect their customers, and they pile up the profits for shareholders without a social conscience. That is the prevailing view of the businessmen, and it is easy to have sympathy for their position. Banks bounce cheques if you do not have an arrangement with them for an overdraft or 'facility' as it is euphemistically called. Except, they don't bounce cheques if they believe that you are good for it. So it all rides on confidence. But even where they believe you are good for it, they charge you 10 dollars plus the interest for going over the so-called limit. When they bounce the cheque, they charge you 15 dollars on your end for bouncing the cheque, and the bank to which it is returned charges you 15 dollars for the returned cheque. A racket, if you've ever seen one. Then there is the pernicious commitment fee. What in God's name that is for? No one knows, but if you negotiate a loan with a bank, after they grant you the loan, they charge you one percent of the amount of the loan for the privilege of giving you the loan. One helluva racket.

They are all sweetness and light when they are lending the money. They are all like American Express. When you see these American Express commercials on TV, they tell you come and sign up, you can get instant credit, approval in seconds. Banks here will allow you to pay $550 down on a $32,000 car and let you walk out of the showroom. But miss a payment, and the car is towed away in a minute, together with towing fees and late fee charges and of course interest upon interest. American Express is a terribly and incompetently run company, known for harassment of its customers. One bank in Nassau has the reputation of even taking your dining room table out from under you while you are eating for missing a payment.

So these are but a few examples of the complaints at the consumer end. At the business end, there are complaints about over collateralizing . Failure to grant small loans when the banks have an abundance of capital as security. Loan officers make moral judgements on the behaviour of businessmen in granting a loan, when really all the bank cares about is making money. No morality in that. Some loan officers appear jealous that their customers will get too much money.

The businessmen say they have had enough, and plan to build on the work in Parliament by Bradley Roberts and Ervin Knowles about bad banking practices. It is time, they say, to bring the banks to heel and to bring the banks in The Bahamas into conformity with modern competitive practices. They argue that the banks in this country are a cartel, and they act in collusion with one another. They have a system of blacklisting, and it is time for the Government to step in and stop the practices. We wish them all the luck. Enough is enough.

The month of September was the highest month ever. The statistics record that number of hits up to 30 September at midnight as 96, 981. This is remarkable. Up to midnight 7 October, there were 12,198 hits on this site for the month of October.  Thanks for reading and keep reading.

Address of Sean Mcweeney/Pindling  funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage

For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.

Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blackisting	Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral

e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs

BASKING IN THE GLOW OF THE OLYMPICS

CHRIS BROWN HONOURED IN ELEUTHERA

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WOMEN IN THE LEAD
The fact of the brilliant victory of the women at the Olympic Games and their consistent work over the year raises the question again of the leadership of women in society. In almost every sphere women are beating the men in accomplishment throughout our country. The last arena is politics. The Tribune wrote a speculative piece about whether or not Janet Bostwick (FNM) or Cynthia 'Mother' Pratt (PLP) could become the next Prime Minister. In the College of The Bahamas, there is a ratio of three women to one man. Clearly this is a time for some public policy intervention. A client from France told us the other day that there is no such mismatch in achievement in France. So what is happening with us? It was ironic in a macho culture like The Bahamas that you had the women on the victory stand, all smiles and not a tear in sight, singing lustily the national anthem. But the male collapsing in tears after just missing a medal in the race. Interesting contrast. That's all!
 

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PERRY CHRISTIE'S COMMENTS ON THE VICTORY
The Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie held a press conference on Monday 2 October to congratulate formally the Golden Girls. He made some more wide reaching and philosophical comments about sports. He repeated those at a public rally held on Windsor Park on Tuesday 3 October. He castigated the FNM for their raking Pauline Davis Thompson and Frank Rutherford over the coals for being hired by the PLP Government in the Ministry of Tourism while the PLP was in power. It was former Prime Minister Lynden Pindling's way of finding a way to provide them with funding while they trained for track. Now it turns out that Pauline is a find of the century, and all the glad handers from the FNM are there pressing the flesh and mugging for the photographers. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. Mr. Christie called for more support for sports. And he said : "Don't tell me about money." He said when the FNM wanted to find two million dollars to pay Manny Diaz for trees, they found it. When they wanted to find three million dollars to pay for a Commission of Inquiry that proved nothing, they found it. And when they wanted to do an audit of the Treasury because they thought the PLP stole money, they found the one million dollars to do it. As for the PLP, Mr. Christie said that each of the women should get a house, in addition to whatever it was that the Government suggested. And the streets where they lived and grew up ought to be renamed in their honour. The house suggestion took a page from the Jamaican Government and the Reggae Boys who made it to the Soccer World Cup. Clearly, the Government needs to do a rethink on these issues, but since they have no care for young Bahamians, it will take the PLP's return to power to get it done properly. Mr. Christie is shown at the microphone during the public rally in this Guardian photo.

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BAHAMIANS RULE IN THE MEDAL TALLY - REALLY!
An alert reader brought this story to our attention, written by Garth Woolsey (pictured) and published in the sports section of the Toronto Star. We repeat it hear for the benefit of our readers with thanks to the Toronto Star and Mr. Woolsey: As athletes representing the No. 1 nation in the final Olympic medal tally, they have every right to strut and preen and pose. But we're not talking about the Americans here, nor are we referring specifically to that odious WWF-style exhibition put on by their 4x100-metre men's relay team. No, so far as anyone around here can recall, no one has lately referred to the good citizens of The Bahamas as ugly, arrogant or anything else that goes hand-in-glove with being the most powerful nation on Earth (sports category). Then again, no one has called the Bahamians Olympic champions, either.But in terms of medals won compared to nations' populations, The Bahamas comes out on top. They won a gold in the women's 4x100 relay and Pauline Davis-Thompson won silver in the 200 metres. With a population of only 294,982, that works out to 6.78 medals per million. Rule Bahamas. Using that same system of measurement, the U.S. with its 97 medals and 275.6 million people, ranked only 46th. Canada's 14 medals and population of 31.3 million means we won .448 medals per million, ranking us No. 40 on the list. Those wishing to view the entire standing can find it at  www.medaltally.com . The top 10 (medals and population): Bahamas, Barbados (1 and 274,059), Iceland (1 and 276,365), Australia (58 and 19.2 million), Jamaica (7 and 2.6 million), Cuba (29 and 11.1 million), Norway (10 and 4.5 million), Estonia (3 and 1.4 million), Trinidad and Tobago (2 and 1.2 million), Hungary (17 and 10.1 million).

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WHILE THE WOMEN RAN... INGRAHAM BREAKFASTS IN PRAGUE
Hubert Ingraham has to take the title the most arrogant man of the century. He is so full of himself. First, you know our position that the little lout should not be wasting the tax payers money over in Europe where he says he is trying to get us off the blacklist. Almost every day since he left in mid September, there is some report or other coming back to us in the press about how much progress he is making. The last was a report saying that the OECD had taken note of our position and that we were almost in compliance. Of course almost is not good enough. Anyway, Mr. Ingraham was in Prague according to his own statement. He did not see the race in Sydney. Now almost every other Bahamian patriot that we know was watching the race. Some in Nassau stayed up or got up just before 4 a.m. to make sure that they saw the final. What was the Prime Minister of The Bahamas doing stuffing his gut? According to the Prime Minister's own statement, he was having breakfast in Prague (la de da) when a member of the Czech security detail came to him with a message saying that our Golden Girls had won in Sydney. Surely the Prime Minister should have been watching the race himself. Then he issued an edict about how he was going to give them money and crown land and some other suitable gifts. Sheeesh! You think he had boiled fish in Prague? By the way, it reminds one of the story told by some of my former Peoples Democratic Force (PDF) colleagues. This is the now defunct political party which this columnist headed. Shortly after Mr. Ingraham became Leader of the Opposition in 1990, he invited this columnist to lunch with him and his boys. Not the favourite pastime, lunch with Ingraham; so instead the young colleagues were dispatched. They came back to ask if a message could be sent to Mr. Ingraham that it was not proper etiquette to chew your bones up and spit them into your plate. Not in public Mr. Ingraham. Maybe at home, but not in public. We hope he didn't try that in Prague.

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NBC COVERAGE OF THE GAMES
Bahamians had two choices in watching the Olympic Games. They either watched NBC out of the USA or they watched CBC, out of Canada. They were complaints about the lousy coverage by NBC. Bahamians were positively livid. They claimed that NBC cut away from our team in the original parade on opening night just as they came within view of the camera. The claim is that they did the same thing with the Atlanta games. CBC was a little better. Bahamians think that NBC has it in for The Bahamas ever since Brian Ross and that vicious attack on the country as a nation of drug runners. Bahamians complained that NBC gave no credit to the Bahamian women's team that defeated Marion Jones. They claim NBC did not show the medal ceremony with The Bahamas national anthem being played. The salvation was a feed to the Caribbean that highlighted all Caribbean athletes. So on the morning following the victory, ZNS TV in Nassau must have played that race about five thousand times courtesy of the Caribbean feed. As for NBC and CBC, they obviously have to be concerned about their domestic audiences. Americans and Canadians come first with them obviously.
 

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NO ANTI-US SENTIMENT
Last week, we received an e-mail from one of our regular readers who is partly responsible for public policy in the tourism area. His concern was that Bahamians should not take the victory over the US in the relays as an opportunity to whip up anti-American sentiment. You may remember the comment made that after months of feeling oppressed by the US over the blacklisting of our country as a financial services centre, and after months of being told that we do everything wrong by the US, the country took the victory over the US at the Olympics as a sign to the US that we got you back. But that is not a serious anti-US sentiment. It is all good-natured. One remembers a similar concern in the waning years of the PLP's administration that pro-Black sentiment might alienate the tourist trade. That was overstated as well. So one hopes that any fear of a serious anti-US sentiment is calmed.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY 'SIR' JOHN CHIPMAN
It turns out that John 'Chippie' Chipman was born on the same day as this columnist 5 October. The year was 1953 for Fred Mitchell and 1928 for Sir John. We call him Sir John because we are campaigning for a knighthood for the quintessential Bahamian entertainer. He says that he enjoys life. He has made a lot of money and he intends to spend every penny before he goes. Chippie hosted the lunch bunch at his grandson's Wall Street café on Bay Street on Tuesday 3 October. Happy Birthday Sir John.

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PLP HOLDS A RALLY

The Progressive Liberal Party held its first national public rally on Windsor Park on Tuesday 3 October. There was a good turn out. Speakers included new candidates John Carey (Carmichael), Kenyatta Gibson (Kennedy), Melanie Griffin (Yamacraw) substituting for Glenys Hanna Martin of Holy Cross, Agatha Marcelle (South Beach). Bradley Roberts MP Grants Town and PLP Leader Perry Christie also spoke. The rally was a little too long and in some parts too serious for a public gathering but not bad for a first effort. Perhaps one way of making the whole thing crisper is to eliminate the MC and just have the speakers introduce one another, like the baton pass in relays. There has been a reluctance to hold rallies because they tend just to attract the old faithful who move from place to place. And while there is a value in taking account of the fear that the new voters who we want to attract will be turned off, the rallies have the effect of raising the spirits of demoralized troops. And the troops want more action. The other importance is training the new candidates in speaking to public forums. Thirdly you can use the newspaper and TV coverage to get the message out to the wider group. Finally, it helps the party to fine tune issues. The rallies should be done every two weeks. Let's hope this continues. Perry Christie is pictured in the Nassau Guardian photo being greeted by supporters at the rally.

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THE PRISON GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE
The inquest into the death of prison inmate Mario Seymour, the former police officer, continued during the past week in Nassau before the Coroner Winston Saunders. Mr. Seymour was discovered gravely and fatally ill in his cell on 22 August (see last week's story). He is the first of three prison inmates to have been found dead in the last eight weeks. The law requires an inquest into the deaths. But the inquest has only heightened the public alarm about what is going on in the Fox Hill prison described by the US authorities as a hell hole. One prisoner, whose name the press were asked not to reveal, said that he feared for his life because of his testimony. He said that there was a system in the prison where inmates who were friends or family would create disturbances and fights to get a person moved from a cell in order to have a member of their family who was about to come into jail join them. If this is true, clearly it must be done with the collusion of the authorities On another day, a prison inmate who had refused to eat his breakfast, fainted in the court room, and had to be taken away in the ambulance. The inquest is now at a halt because Coroner Winston Saunders is ill. Mr. Saunders was hospitalized for two days during the week, suffering from severe back pains. The pains are believed to be connected to an operation that he had on his back during the summer. He expects to resume court on Monday 9 October. Clearly though, there needs to be a massive shake-up in the prison. Something is very very wrong!
 

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ALBERT MILLER'S WIFE IS ILL
Laurie Miller, formerly Gibbs, the wife of Grand Bahama Port Authority Co-Chair Albert Miller, is ill in hospital in the United States. Mrs. Miller is believed to be suffering from heart disease. She underwent heart surgery on Wednesday 4 October. She is in guarded condition. We wish the Miller family well.

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EMERALDS PALMS HOTEL IS SOLD
 The Emerald Palms Hotel in South Andros, stage for many of the changing scenes of the life of Former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling, has been sold by the Hotel Corporation. In one of the earlier editions of this column we questioned how Arne Peterson of Freeport, the friend of Minister of Tourism C. A. Smith was getting this hotel for a steal at five hundred thousand dollars. The Hotel, which is owned by the Hotel Corporation of The Bahamas, is said to be appraised at 2.6 million dollars. The manager of the Emerald Palms Leonard Knowles, a long time friend of the Prime Minister appears now to have been abandoned by his friend who was busy breakfasting in Prague (see WHILE THE WOMEN RAN story above). Mr. Knowles has been told that his last day as manager is 16 October. He is to hand over the keys to the new owner on that date. That is also his last day on the job. He is being offered eight weeks compensation. So much for friendship!

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BAHAMASAIR FROM BAD TO WORSE
Travel within and out of The Bahamas is fraught with difficulties and discomfort. For you who are Americans or Canadians or other non-Bahamian visitors to this site, it is much more than the discomforts which you yourselves may experience at your airports with delays and the like. We are frustrated in this country over our complete inability to put together a national airline that works. The airline, despite the hard work of its staff, is a natural disgrace. It is a total and abject failure, and a disservice to the Bahamian people that should be packed up and put away. We must somehow start again. William Allen, now the Minister responsible for Bahamasair, used to be the Chairman when the PLP was in power, then he was its Deputy Chairman, now he is the Minister. So he is responsible for this whole rotten company in large measure. It is political and managerial inadequacy that must be in part responsible for this mess. Here is an airline that does not have enough planes, has too many routes, too much staff and yet cannot get any plane to leave at any time on time to anywhere. The level of frustration of passengers is at breaking point. We have a new management team in place, hotshots from the banking world (God Bless 'em!), an Abaco lawyer and businessman as the Chairman. All to no avail. Their latest bit of managerial nonsense was selling the Short aircraft that they had before getting new aircraft to replace them. To get to Long Island, we were delayed by two hours, mercifully short when one considers other people's stories. The lack of explanation, the regularity with which it occurs. The discomfort of the hot planes and the bad smells on the planes. This Senator travelled on a Dash 8 in Austria with aide Lee Davis in November last year, we could not believe that it was the same plane that Bahamasair uses. We need to stop molly coddling these people that we have working for us and running this airline. Let us admit that the experiments have failed, pack up and go away. Get someone else to try some other way. We know what to do.

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THE BATELCO DEATHS ON REFLECTION
Dwayne Tucker and Hastings Rollins met terrible deaths on a 260 foot tower in Staniel Cay last week (See last week's column) But as Batelco workers they evoked a response from the workers of that company that has been demoralized ever since the clumsy and stupid way the Government of Hubert Ingraham tried to privatize the Corporation. There was an outpouring of love and unity at the memorial service on Thursday 5 October at the Church of God of Prophecy, and at the funerals held on Saturday 7 October. Picewell Forbes, the radio talk show host, had a Batelco Day and he invited persons to call the radio to give a wake up call to the staff of Batelco. For one half hour the calls came in. Mr. Forbes himself seemed at the point of tears as he recalled his friend Dwayne Tucker. The Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson and Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie both attended the memorial service. The service offered by Batelco these days is so poor. Down here in Long Island because of the collapse of the tower, it is like living in the dark ages. It turns out that you cannot call the UK by your cell phone because of some policy of Batelco which was not known to this columnist until now. The service to the island is still intermittent. But the staff needed a boost, and we wish them well through this crisis. The two men were clearly well loved, and symbolize the best of what that company used to be. Meanwhile, the Government still can't say when the company is going to be privatized. The latest is early next year. Wherehave heard that before? BaTelCo employees are shown mourning during the memorial service in this Nassau Guardian photo.

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BAHAMIAN UN AMBASSADOR HOSPITALIZED
Anthony 'Boozie' Rolle the Ambassador of The Bahamas to the United Nations was hospitalized for two days last week with a bleeding ulcer. He was transfused as a precaution and released.

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THOUGHTS ON A BIRTHDAY
Usually on the morning of the 5th of October, the day that one was told is our birthday, Mom calls to sing the little ditty "HAPPY BIRTHDAY". Not last year and not this year. Not any more ever. She died on 4 May 1999. So that has changed. It is also a time of reflection. A friend of ours literally hides himself away and laments that he is getting old and over the hump. Many men worry that as they get older their sexual life becomes less adequate. Then there is the question of one's own mortality and preparing for retirement and whether or not you will be financially secure. Well there is all of that in the mix but really in so many respects it is just another day of doing what you know you have to, to continue and go forward. This life is not a movie script. It is a work in progress, new things every day.
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COLIN WELLS FOUND DEAD
The news broke this afternoon (Sunday 8 October) that prominent businessman Colin Wells was found dead in his Ford Explorer in the Pitt Road in new Providence.  In response to initial reports that his body was nude with gunshot wounds, Police say there was no evidence of external injury.  Mr. Wells was the owner of two pharmacies.  He was once a prominent fundraiser for the PLP and for the Red Cross. Mr. Wells had dropped out of sight politically after two high profile cases of indecent assault were brought against him.  Both were dismissed and he was acquitted. An autopsy is to be conducted to determine the cause of death.  More on this breaking story next week.

FR. PESTAINA'S WIFE DIES
Ruby Pestaina the wife of former Dean of the Cathedral of Christ Church in Nassau has died after fighting a four year battle with breast cancer. The Pestainas also spent years in Grand Bahama, where Father Pestaina was Priest in charge of the pro Cathedral of Christ The King in Freeport. We extend  our condolences.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Trying to impress Ivcher with money is like trying to impress a prostitute with your penis" - Baruch Ivcher, a businessman run out of Peru after reportedly being offered 72 million dollars by Venezuelan agents of embattled Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for his shares in his local television station.

^{NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA}

Police Olympian Welcomed Home -
Six Police cars complete with outriders and lights flashing came to Grand Bahama International Airport to collect Wellington Saunders, a policeman and member of The Bahamas Men's 4 x 100 relay team. Mr. Saunders was welcomed by the acting Assistant Commissioner for Grand Bahama Ellison Greenslade.
 
 
 
 

Environmental Oversite for Lloyd Werft -

Ambassador Stopped At The Gate - Grand Bahama political observers were rolling with laughter this week as Ambassador Earl Deveaux, with entourage, was turned away from not one, but two of the island's industrial establishments. Reports are that when the former Minister with his group of environmental inspectors and Local Government officials turned up at Polymers International, he was told that those responsible for his tour were unavailable and not yet prepared to receive him. A thousand apologies, they are reported to have offered, but could the Ambassador return at a later time? Moving on to the rock crushing facility Dravo Bahamas, the Ambassador was reportedly told that they had to "finish cleaning up the plant". The Ambassador and his group had no choice but to reschedule and return later in the day. Well!

Senator Marcus Supports - Senator the Honourable Dr. Marcus Bethel continues to support positive and productive activities for youth in Grand Bahama. Dr. Bethel is shown making a donation for the support of the Freeport Youth Marching Band to band leader Anthony Taylor. The donation, said Dr. Bethel, is a way of "encouraging continued service in youth programmes".
 
 
 

World Teachers' Day - World Teachers' Day was celebrated by Government schools in Grand Bahama thursday 5 October, with classes dismissed for the afternoon and teachers gathering downtown for a march featuring two bands and an inspirational speech by criminolgist Dr. Ellsiton Rahming (pictured). Dr. Rahming reminded the gathering that everyone needs a teacher if he or she is to become anything. Dr. Rahming encouraged the teachers to instill in their students a sense of ambition, dedication and goal orientation.
 
 
 

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THE POLITICAL SEASON COMETH

The first cold front of the season passed through the northwestern Bahamas last week, and brought with it cool , brisk air and a downpour of rain. In North Eleuthera, where the people of Harbour Island had gathered for their homecoming and annual regatta, the regatta had to be cancelled because the waters were too rough, and there was a tornado on the night of the 12th to the 13th October. This columnist loves this time of year. It is the time when the PLP traditionally holds it annual convention. It is political season and an exciting time. An exciting chill is in the air.

The governing Free National Movement plans to hold its convention beginning the 7th November. The Prime Minister is scheduled to return home from his failed trip to Europe on Saturday 14 October. He will meet a lot of intrigue going on, and we report some of what we have found out. He has a party that can only be described as in foment.

On the PLP side, Perry Christie will hold the first PLP convention when he will be the undisputed Leader of the PLP. That begins the week after the FNM's convention. There is likely to be a race for Chairman of the Party as Mr. Christie sets his priorities for the next year.

The country has an air of excitement. The past weekend included the last Discovery Day Holiday (13 October) in the history of the country as the Government proposes next year to create National Heroes Day. We report on the presentations made by the National Heroes Day Committee of which this columnist is a member to five deserving Bahamians. But the excitement comes because it appears that on 18 October, the day Parliament returns from slumber imposed by Mr. Ingraham's European holiday, there is to be a general strike. We report on the dress rehearsal to that event and what has the labour movement so fed up.

This week we had 27,235 hits on this site up to midnight 14th October for the month of October. Please keep reading and thanks for reading.

Address of Sean Mcweeney/Pindling  funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage

For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.

Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting	Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral

e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs

POLITICAL INTRIGUE IN THE FNM
On the one hand, you have FNMs calling up this columnist and vowing that Ingraham's day is finished. On the other the Ingraham forces are threatening to crush Tennyson Wells and his forces. They say that Mr. Wells has not got the intellectual equipment to be the Leader of the FNM and must be taught a lesson. The words are bitter on each side. One FNM MP for a family island told his supporters that he would rather break up the FNM than see Tennyson Wells the leader of the party. Some political observers last week were surprised when the news surfaced that James Knowles, the Minister of Transport and Works who had up to now been swearing that this was his last time in Parliament has now changed his mind and told his supporters that he intends to run again. This immediately sent out shock waves in the political community because it was a signal that the Prime Minister himself has in fact changed his mind and intends to run for a third term of office. Mr. Knowles is solidly in the Ingraham camp. And you will remember that we reported in this column that a delegation to the convention from Long Island was elected without the knowledge of Mr. Knowles some weeks ago. We have learned that Mr. Ingraham and his forces have successfully overturned and cancelled that delegation which includes former UBP Chairman and MP Errington Watkins and replaced it with a more favourable delegation to Mr. Ingraham and one that Mr. Knowles can control. Meanwhile throughout Long Island as this columnist travelled around, the people were expecting the demise of Mr. Knowles. The folks have no quarrel over what the Government has done for the island but they say that he has been a bad and contemptuous representative. They mean to replace him with Larry Cartwright, husband of the island's chief Councilor Ann Cartwright. Mr. Knowles has been at loggerheads with local government for the last three years. Mr. Cartwright is the overwhelming choice of Long Islanders to replace Mr. Knowles, but the Knowles forces say that Mr. Cartwright a well-known and popular civic leader in Long Island is too soft for politics. When Mr. Ingraham returns, he will have a lot to think about.

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INGRAHAM'S EUROPEAN TRIP IS A FAILURE 
We have reported on the trip every week since Hubert Ingraham, the country's chief slave, left for Europe, ostensibly to get the country off the blacklist of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the agencies of the G-7 countries. This blacklist is a list of non-cooperating countries on tax issues and countries that are accused of not having strong enough structures to prevent money laundering and drug money getting into the legitimate banking system. The Prime Minister has been in Switzerland and the Netherlands, Spain and France and ultimately the United Kingdom. He has in short been from pillar to post. He took William Allen, the hapless Minister of Finance with him as well as Julian Francis, and the Governor of the Central Bank. All to no avail. The Prime Minister even went to Prague, remember he was feeding his face there when the Golden Girls won their race at the Olympics. The result: zero, nada, zilch. He saw no Head of Government or State. He spoke to no Prime Minister, King or President. He spoke only to sub-level officials. The Secretary General of the OECD a former Canadian Finance Minister told the Prime Minister that all that he said was very well but the removal of the country from the blacklist was premature. The Tribune said it right: the trip was a failure. Mr. Ingraham returned home on Saturday 14 October with his tail between his legs, and he now has his spin-doctors singing a different tune. He now says that actually the trip was never to get removed from the list, it was simply to get an understanding of the problem. Yeah right! Next time stay your you know what home and don't embarrass this country again. Send Bill Allen and the others to do the servant's work. No Prime Minister of this country should set us up for such a slap in the face again.

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THE GOLDEN GIRLS ARE SHOWERED WITH LOVE

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PLP MEETS THE HAITIAN LEADERSHIP
Perry Christie, Leader of the Opposition, this Senator, the Opposition's spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Labour and Immigration and Philip Galanis, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, met with the Haitian leadership on Tuesday 10 October. The meeting came at the request of the Haitian leadership who were concerned about statements made by this columnist on the creolization of The Bahamas. There was a frank exchange of views. Mr. Christie reiterated that the PLP is in general a friend of the Haitian community in the Bahamas, but that Bahamians are concerned at the unimpeded illegal immigration into the country. He said that there must be a commitment to stop it and that there must be a control of the orderly flow of Haitian labour into the country. The group has agreed to meet again. Bishop Andrew Stuart of the Kemp Road Union Baptist Church led the group.

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A VISIT TO LONG ISLAND

THE DARK SIDE OF LONG ISLAND.

EARL DEVEAUX, THE FIRED MINISTER ANSWERS
The Lead story of ZNS News on Friday 13 October in Freeport was the response of the Ambassador for the Environment and former Minister of Agriculture to a piece in last week's column in which it was reported that he and his party were turned away from the Polymers facility in Freeport when they went there to inspect it. The Minister said it was not true. He said that this Senator was only spinning propaganda. But Mr. Deveaux since you are answering, why don't you answer this: the Prime Minister when he sacked you from the Cabinet in January said that you would spend your time developing a Ministry of the Environment. He said that you would be back in the Cabinet by September of this year. Well September has come and gone: where is the Ministry of the Environment and when you are to become a Minister? By the way, we stand by the story. The would be Minister was turned away. Polymers said that they were not ready to receive him.
 

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MORE ON FOREIGN JUDGES

COVERAGE OF THE DEATH OF COLIN WELLS
Colin Wells was from all accounts a successful businessman. First, he was a powerful Coca-Cola executive. He was close to the power structure in the then governing Progressive Liberal Party and a big fundraiser for the Bahamas Red Cross. Little would he have known that in death that would all come back to haunt him. His downfall was swift and punishing. In the 1980s the police brought two charges of indecent assault against him. It was clear from the evidence that the charges should never have been brought. The evidence was simply not there and all the cases failed on no case submissions. In other words, he was not even called upon to give a defence. But given the fact that the persons involved were young males, the police no doubt could not resist the embarrassment, particularly since it would have meant an embarrassment to the then governing PLP. It is part of the general homophobia prevalent in The Bahamas. After the trials, he disappeared from sight, and began rebuilding his life as a private citizen. He bought Cole Thompson Pharmacies from Garret Finlayson and set about trying to make a living. The country and his generation, of course, never forgot, and some people never forgave his private life, especially The Tribune. We reported on this site last week that Mr. Wells was found dead in his Ford Explorer in the Pitt Road in New Providence. He lived in the Pilot House condos on Bay Street East. He had been missing for about a day. According to The Tribune Mr. Wells was found in a nude or partially clothed condition, and in an "unusual position" in the back of the vehicle. They then brought up all the old stories about the charges and kept tying him to Lady Marguerite Pindling, wife of the late former Prime Minister, who was the head Red Cross Fundraiser during the early years of the Pindling administration. The Tribune says that the police have appealed to the gay community of New Providence for help in determining what happened between the hours of 9:30 p.m. Saturday 7 October and 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon when the body was found. The Tribune said that Mr. Wells was a homosexual who led a double life. They never explained this, but there was the interest in selling newspapers. The police have said that they suspect he simply had a heart attack but they have not ruled out foul play. They believe he died elsewhere and that the person who was with him probably lives in the Pitt Road area. That person is suspected to have driven the vehicle there after Mr. Wells died and then abandoned it, calling the police. That's the talk going around. Mr. Wells is to be buried on Tuesday 17 October. A lot of men are scrambling around trying to figure out whether they want to be seen at the funeral for fear they will be called homosexual. There are lots of bawdy jokes being told about it. But all of this, appears awfully insensitive to his family. No fault of their own.

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INQUEST INTO THE DEATH OF THE STUDENT
The S.C. McPherson student who died in the classroom some two weeks ago is now the subject of a corner's inquest. This columnist represents the teacher who was involved in the incident who has been accused by the public of beating the boy to death. The mother and the pathologist took the stand on Wednesday 11 October. It turns out that the child suffered from Long TQ syndrome, a rare heart arrhythmia that can be precipitated by the least excitement. It is not clear whether the school was fully aware of the problem. According to the pathologist this is a condition, which requires minutes to intervene before death, and one would need a defibrillator and someone trained in CPR to act when a crisis occurs. The child had a history of illness and his father died of a heart attack at the age of 40. It is certainly clear that even if the school were aware that they would not have been a position to do anything when a crisis occurred, since no one is trained in CPR and there is no defibrillator on the scene at the school. The inquest continues on Monday 19 October when this columnist will cross-examine the mother of the child.

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CALLING ALL FNM MPS
Late reports to us say that the FNM Leadership was calling all FNM MPs to meet the Prime Minister at the Nassau International Airport at 9 p.m. Saturday 14 October. Mr. Ingraham is coming home from a vacation at the expense of the Bahamian people in Europe ostensibly to get us off the OECD blacklist. As we report in this week's column that effort failed. One MP called us up in apoplexy. " They must think I'm f...ing crazy," he said. More next week on who showed and who didn't.

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ONE CHILD BACK FROM CUBA?
The Bahamians in Cuba reported that David Wallace, the Member of Parliament (FNM) for West End and Bimini traveled to the campus in Cuba where his son was newly ensconced on a Cuban Government scholarship and brought the child back home. He was apparently dissatisfied with the conditions. Most others reportedly are coping. 

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DARRON CASH ON THE RADIO
While in Long Island we heard a voice that sounded very much like the FNM Senator Darron Cash. The voice said that he was hosting a radio show that would allow persons to call in. The Leader of the Opposition should ask for an official answer on this. Unlike Senator Wilchcombe who has gone to a private radio station, ZNS is a publicly owned facility. If Senator Cash is going to have a show on ZNS then Senator Wilchcombe ought to get equal time on ZNS. ZNS also announced that D. Paul Reilly is to have a weekly round table talk show on ZNS TV. Not one PLP is included in the group of panelists. Senator Lynn Holowesko (FNM) is said to be amongst the group. Again, if the FNM is going to have a Senator on that show, what about the PLP?

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FOX HILL LADIES

NATIONAL HEROES DAY
The Rev. Sebastian Campbell, the Head of the National Heroes Day Committee, presided over a service of recognition for five persons in Rawson Square on Thursday 5 October. This was the third such service. The five persons honoured were Mamie Astwood, Alexander Maillis,  Leonard 'Boston Blackie' Miller, Fernley Palmer (pictured at left with Fr. Campbell Guardian photo) and Nurse Persis Rodgers (pictured at right with Fr. Campbell Tribune photo). The National heroes Day was born out an effort by this columnist in 1990 to establish his political party the People's Democratic Force. Fr. Campbell was the only priest who would agree to do the mass in the square in the face of fierce opposition from the then PLP Government. Since that time, this columnist gave up heading the Committee and asked Fr. Campbell to do so in order to broaden its image and participation. He has done an excellent job. The Government has now embraced the idea and says that 12 October is now to be celebrated as National Heroes Day. The original celebration came upon the anniversary of the passing of Sir Milo Butler, the late first Bahamian Governor General who died on 22 November 1979. 

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GENERAL STRIKE LOOMS

WHAT THIS COLUMNIST REMEMBERS MOST ABOUT MRS. LIGHTBOURNE

^{NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA}
Whose Jobs? - Less than 20% of the former employees of the Lucayan Beach Hotel, now part of 'Our Lucaya' have been rehired in the rejuvenation of the Lucaya Strip. Grand Bahama officials of the Hotel, Catering & Allied Workers Union held a news conference this week to complain. According to a union officials, "With all the talk of jobs for anyone who wants them, there are Bahamian professionals in the hotel field in Grand Bahama going begging." The union charges that 'Our Lucaya' is attempting to keep the union out.

Bahamasair Again - Six-hour delays beginning Wednesday 11 October travelling on Bahamasair from Grand Bahama got worse before getting better this past week. Among the problems, "operational reasons" and a union dress rehearsal for a general strike to come. See report above. One observer recalled that when the PLP was in Government, "They caught hell for Bahamasair" Now people mostly grumble under their breath. Go figure.

Crime of Passion - Even in these jaded times, the communities on Grand Bahama were horrified by news of the murder of a 37 year old Jones Town woman with a spear gun, reportedly by her recent ex-lover. The two had apparently just broken off a relationship. Police are investigating.

Last Conch Cracking - With the demise of the Discovery Day holiday this year also came the last McLean's Town Conch Cracking contest. The event has been held each Discovery Day in the remote easternmost settlement of Grand Bahama for years. Discovery Day is to be replaced by National Heroes Day. No word yet on whether there will be a National Heroes Day Conch Cracking Contest.

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A FREEPORTER'S DILEMMA

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A FREEPORTER'S DILEMMA

It has just been over a month since the former Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling passed away. Yet here we were sitting at breakfast at Kristi's in Freeport and a Bahamian contractor, an FNM supporter, was explaining that while his company could work on a site at Lucaya, he was banned from going inside the premises and had to direct the work of his company from outside the gates of the project. His offense: violating a rule that required a decal to be on his truck to get past security. The ban has not been removed despite intervention at the ministerial level.

The story was apropos because the Prime Minister and Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham had come to town, accompanied by an entourage of the faithful, stealing away others' seats on Bahamasair, to listen to a day long set of presentations by representatives of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. There were slide presentations about The projects by Hutchison Whampoa at Lucaya and the new owners of the former Princess Hotels. Lloyd Werft, the ship builder, was scheduled to be there for a presentation but refused to attend (see story below). Then the Prime Minister went on a tour with his party, with community leaders and the press and then of course he was fed a sumptuous lunch.

The story told at the beginning is symptomatic of the mood in Freeport these days. The Bahamian has become a second class citizen in his own country, and everywhere you turn while people are working there are complaints about how bad things are. The only ones who don't seem to realize it are the FNM MPs who are stuck under Hubert Ingraham.

Freeport does not belong to Bahamians anymore. Bahamians are marginalized in the city. So the late Sir Lynden's famous speech that the unbending social order in Freeport must bend or be broken, delivered with aplomb in 1969 is mocked. That order is back with a vengeance. Nothing demonstrated that when the Prime Minister was apparently unable to access the Lloyd Werft site by land, he had to visit by boat. The owners of Lloyd Werft were telling it around that the Prime Minister would not be coming on to their property.

And yet despite the support of obviously racist developers, despite the obvious discrimination against Bahamians, the FNM supporters continue to cling to their mantra: "I am an FNM". As the Christians like to say, not everyone who says "Lord! Lord!" will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Clearly in this case some pigs are more equal than others. But even being close to Hubert Ingraham is not a guarantee of gratitude. In fact, it is more likely that you will be the object of contempt because of it.

This week we had 45,012 hits on the site for the month of October. Please keep reading and thanks for reading.

Address of Sean Mcweeney/Pindling  funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage

For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.

Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting	Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral

e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs

THE FREEPORT ILLUSION
The Prime Minister credited Theo Farqhuarson, the loquacious political activist who supports the FNM, with arranging for the PM and the Grand Bahama Port Authority executives to put on a show in Freeport on Friday 20 October. It was just that a show. All the people there were foreign businessmen saying what they are building in Freeport. All the persons invited and who attended were FNM supporters. Clearly the FNM is in trouble in Grand Bahama. The troops are demoralized, and when you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, you baffle them with your bullsh... That's the line the Prime Minister means to take. And so you had front-page pictures in both newspapers of the Chief and his sacked former Minister of Agriculture, now would be Minister for the Environment and the heads of the Port Authority grinning and musing with anticipation and pronouncing about how well Freeport is doing. The Prime Minister said that some 800 million has been invested in Freeport over the last two years. Six hundred million of it alone from Hutchison Whampoa who is building the hotel and casino complex on the Lucaya strip. But it is all an illusion. The Lloyd Werft project appears to have become a serious rift between the Government and the investors. The environmental impacts are disastrous. The poor people in Grand Bahama do not feel the affects of the economic changes. Life is still hard, and to add insult to injury living in Freeport today is like living there prior to 1969. Bahamians have no say in their city and no Government to turn to for comfort. This is a real story of the Emperor's New Clothes. The Government is lying to its people and has a group of conspirators who are getting rich off the backs of the Bahamian people and helping the PM to maintain this illusion. Shown is The Tribune photo of the tour published on Saturday 20 October.

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FNM IN PROBLEMS 
With the convention of the Free National Movement only weeks away, the FNM Council has apparently voted in favour of a Leader-elect. Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and Leader of the FNM reportedly walked out of the meeting on Thursday 19 October. It is a move that he opposes. And so it looks like the battle lines are drawn. Maurice Moore, the former MP and Ambassador, who is supporting insurgent Tennyson Wells MP said that Leader-elect is the way to go. But some are saying that Tennyson should just be done with it and run for Leader and oppose Ingraham at the next convention. They worry though that if Mr. Wells wins that the Governor General who supports Mr. Ingraham and has a son in the Ingraham Cabinet may not co-operate. He may insist that it's the head count in the House that counts, i.e. who controls the majority of Members of the House not the party. Also declaring his hand at the FNM Council meeting was Algernon Allen who is going to run for leader at the appropriate time. The Americans must be salivating at that possibility. 


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PEOPLE ARE TALKING
They say that several weeks ago the police conducted a raid at a favourite breakfast establishment looking for papers for selling numbers. To the surprise of the police they had to climb down because members of the Cabinet were said to be having breakfast at the establishment. Things that make you want to go: "Hmmm!"

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DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (DST) TO END
The Cabinet Office has announced that The Bahamas will return to Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Sunday 29 October at 2 a.m. All clocks should be turned back one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday 29 October. 

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THE PM REPORTS ON HIS EUROPEAN VACATION
It is amazing how paper will sit still for any words to be written on it. And so if you read the Prime Minister's statement to the House of Assembly on his month long stay abroad in Europe at the expense of the Bahamian people, you would think that he actually did something while he was there. The fact is that on 18 October, he reported that he accomplished nothing like what he said he would. When he left, the avowed intent, the understanding of the Bahamian public was that he would get The Bahamas off the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's blacklist. You will remember that this is a list of non-cooperating countries that do not have clear policies to discourage tax evasion. Further the Financial Stability Forum and their Financial Action Task Force, agencies of the G-7 countries have a set of concerns that have to do with money laundering. The whole effort over the last year has set the Bahamian offshore sector topsy turvey. And no one quite knows what to do. The Prime Minister has led the way of the ignorant by thrashing around from pillar to post giving away the Bahamian store. While he saw no head of state while he was away or head of government, he did manage to see finance ministers. That only goes to show that the hapless William Allen, our now so-called Minister of Finance should have done this messenger's job. The Prime Minister claims that the pressure is now off us and that he expects that the problem of the list will be solved once he passes new pieces of legislation.

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THE PROMISED LEGISLATION BY THE PM ON BANKING
On Thursday 19 October, the Nassau Guardian had a stupid headline: "DISMANTLING OF BANK SECRECY BEGINS: PM TABLES BILLS TO GET BAHAMIANS OFF BLACKLIST". The headline was stupid because it is simply not true. Bank Secrecy in the Bahamas is not to be dismantled. It is a figment of the imagination that a confidential relationship between a banker and his client is going to be disrupted in a country where there is a right to privacy and private property. That right has never extended to criminal matters, and all that the new laws can do is strengthen any doubt about the ability to get at criminal material. The Prime Minister told the House of Assembly on Wednesday 18 October that he will bring to Parliament the following bills: "A Financial Intelligence Unit Act; A Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act; A Central Bank of The Bahamas Amendment Act; A Banks and Trust Companies Regulation (Amendment) Act; A Banks (Amendment) Act; Proceeds of Crime Act; a new International Business Companies Act; a new Financial Service Providers Act; A new Financial Transactions Reporting Act; and a new Mutual Legal Assistance (Amendment) Act. It is clear that Mr. Ingraham has sold the country out in the name of trying to save it. But he has thrown the baby out with the bath water.

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FOREIGN EXPERTISE FOR THE CENTRAL BANK
After 26 years of being operated and run by Bahamians, the Central Bank is now to have foreign advisors come into tell the Bahamians in the bank how to run it and make sure that no crooked behavior is leaking into the banking system. That is the promise that the chief sellout king made when he went to Europe on vacation to speak to the OECD. Some have suggested that spies will now be firmly implanted in the bank who can faithfully report to their masters in the developed world.

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GRAYCLIFF DISPUTE SETTLED FOR NOW
We were out on the streets outside Graycliff restaurant just observing the labour struggle. Workers gathered on Tuesday 17 October, following a mass rally at the Bahamas Communications and Public Officer's Hall. Hundreds gathered and they were in a foul mood having just been disappointed by their labour leaders. They hurled abuse at the police and at the owners of Graycliff. According to the son of Graycliff Owner Enrico Gazzaroli, Paolo, who is said to be the new owner of the property, the crowd said: "I feel like killing Italians tonight!" and during the time that this columnist was there, the crowd certainly shouted: "Who let the dogs out?" They did this when the police arrived. The police for their part were restrained in the face of great provocation. They were called stooges for the Graycliff owners and traitors. For the greater part they remained stoic. This columnist tried to explain to workers that we had no quarrel with the police. The demonstrations outside Graycliff began on Saturday 14 October in the evening. The Graycliff's original owners purported to transfer the business to their son in what appeared to be an attempt to get rid of the Union. The demonstrations, led by the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and joined by the PLP, shut down the restaurant. According to the owners, they lost tens of thousands of dollars. They capitulated on Tuesday night 17 October. The press was given a copy of an agreement between the Union and the owners, brokered and witnessed by Bishop Neil Ellis. The agreement is that negotiations will begin for the unionizing of the new business and the negotiations are to end by January 2001.

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LABOUR LEADERS UNDER PRESSURE
On Tuesday night 17 October, Labour leaders asked their supporters to gather at the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union Hall to be told whether or not they were going to continue to Bay Street and Rawson Square to face down Hubert Ingraham over the proposed labour bills that are opposed by both the business community and by the labour movement. Labour had threatened that they would call a general strike on Wednesday 18 October if the Prime Minister did not back down. A dress rehearsal stoppage the week before led to the crippling of the country in key areas, mainly at the airport. When Mr. Ingraham arrived in town on Saturday 14 October from his European vacation, he announced that he had no intention of proceeding with the bills on the 18 October in the House as he had promised before he left. His new priority would be the financial bills (see previous story). That seemed to take the sting out of any action planned by the unions, and union leaders seemed puzzled as to what to do. Enter Bishop Neil Ellis who is turning out to be a Jesse Jackson of The Bahamas. He arranged a meeting between the Prime Minister and the Labour leaders to settle the disputes. The Prime Minister and the leaders met on Monday 16 October and he climbed down or so the leaders thought. He agreed to refer the matters to a committee and postpone dealing with them until the end of November. The union members thought the leaders had been duped. Mr. Ingraham never intended to proceed anyway so what kind of climb down was that? Upon that happening, though, the leaders agreed to meet the next morning at Tuesday 17 October to decide what action to take re the demonstration in the square. They voted overwhelmingly in favour of stepping back from the breach.

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UNION MEETING ENDS IN CHAOS
By the time this Opposition spokesman on Labour arrived at the meeting of the movement to communicate the decision of labour leaders not to march on Bay Street, it was late and the meting was in chaos. Workers on the outside were shouting that the union leaders had sold out, that they were traitors and that they (the union members) were going to Bay Street anyway. There was a clear division between the Union Leaders themselves. Shane Gibson, head of the telephone workers and broadcast union told his workers that he would not be going out and while he did not discourage his workers from going, he would not support it. Pat Bain from the hotel workers union told his workers not to go and some of them in an angry mood outside Graycliff later that night claimed that he told them that if they lost their job as a result of going to Bay Street, not to come to him because he (Mr. Bain) would not represent them. William McDonald of the Civil Service Union told his workers not to go either. Frank Carter whose job it was to explain to workers why they should not go was interrupted before he could get very far. According to the Nassau Guardian, workers shouted at him: "You are a sell-out." The crowd then tried to physically attack him. They were restrained. The meeting then had a quick pause and the leaders reversed themselves and announced that in a accordance with the wishes of the people they would go to Bay Street. But that was the work mainly of the Trade Union Congress Affiliates, even though Duke Hanna from the other umbrella union joined in the decision. The moderate union leaders did not resile from their positions. Kingsley Black of the Bahamas Union of Teachers told his people not to come out either. What labour observers are saying is that Mr. Ingraham has successfully divided the labour movement. He has portrayed the heads of the umbrella union Obie Ferguson of the TUC and Duke Hanna of the NCTU as two radicals with a political agenda. On Friday 20 October, the two heads held a press conference in Nassau and they denied that there is a rift in the Union movement.

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DEMONSTRATION DAY IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE
On Wednesday 18 October, Radio Bahamas news reported that there were some 1000 people in the public square. These were the usual political activists (see Tribune photo) and the workers who opposed the decision of their labour leaders not to show up in the square. They hurled abuse at the Prime Minister. Observes say that he was visibly shaken by the signs that read: HUBERT GAT TO GO. One of his FNM colleagues called with glee about it. The Tribune reported that Mr. Ingraham was spirited out the back door to avoid the crowd. It is clear that Mr. Ingraham is sensitive to this stuff and he forced them to retract the story a few days later, saying that he left as he always leaves though the eastern door of the House. But while the demonstration was significant it was not what it should have been and the country has the impression that the labour leaders are divided. The workers themselves appear to be without effective leadership and this is a volatile situation. It is just such a situation that led to the Burma Road riots in 1942. 



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CROWD CONTROL BY THE POLICE
The Graycliff demonstrations are interesting from another point of view, the police control of the situation. First of all Superintendent Burkie Wright ought to be congratulated for the exercise of restraint in the face of clear provocation. No arrests were made during the entire episode outside Graycliff. And we mean provocation, like this: A woman passes by as the demo is breaking up and says: "I going home now to steep my pee so that I could have it to throw on you all tomorrow." And such a pretty woman too! The one problem we thought was when re-enforcements were called for, the police arrived in lockstep with sub-machine guns at their sides. This seemed to be inflammatory and ill-advised. The police pleaded that they needed this for their protection but it just seemed a source of trouble, carrying machine guns at close quarters like that. The other officers were armed with holstered side arms. They were not threatening. There must be some other crowd control mechanism than sub-machine guns. To give you an example of the potential problem. This column reported to the Deputy Commissioner of Police that while Superintendent Wright was trying to defuse a situation with a rowdy young woman, a young constable, one Pickstock, was pushing the young lady. The Superintendent ordered the young constable to stand down. The constable ignored the order and kept pushing and then challenged the Superintendent who was dressed in plain clothes, even after it was established that this was his superior officer. This columnist watched as the two men had to be parted when the young officer sought to challenge the Superintendent not only orally but physically. This columnist had an uncle who was a Deputy Commissioner Police and had he been on duty that night that officer would be on a charge as fast as you could say Jack Sprat. But it is precisely that kind of lack of discipline on the part of young officers that makes carrying sub-machine guns around so scary and dangerous.

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MAURICE GLINTON'S GRANDMOTHER DIES
Maceita Louise Lightbourne died in Freeport, Grand Bahama a world away in geography and time from the place that she was born. Mrs. Lightbourne is the grandmother and matriarch of the family of Maurice Glinton, Attorney-at-Law. She was 97 years old at the time of her death and up to the time of her death in good health. Mrs. Lightbourne who was predeceased by her husband is survived by six children. Mrs. Lightbourne lived with the Glintons in Freeport up to the time of her death. We send our condolences to our friend and brother Maurice Glinton and his entire family on the passing of this important woman in all of their lives.

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COLIN WELLS IS BURIED
Businessman Colin Wells was buried in Nassau on Tuesday 17 October. The service was conducted at the Holy Cross Anglican Church and the celebrant was Fr. Laish Boyd. Mr. Wells is survived by his four sons. Last week we reported the unseemly coverage of the passing of Colin Wells. The Tribune continued the coverage this week with what purported to be a major analysis of his life, dredging up old stories of sexual peccadilloes. The coverage of The Tribune seemed closer to that of The Punch, the weekly gossip paper. PLP MP Bradley Roberts was amongst the mourners at the funeral and he reported that Mr. Wells' four sons spoke glowingly about their father and his love for them and their love and admiration for him.

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CHRISTIE SENDS A MESSAGE
The occasion was the 80th birthday of Naomi Christie, mother of the Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie. The buzz was: what did he mean by he may be withdrawing from public life because of certain events which might unfold? It appears that Mr. Christie has made it clear that the nomination of the candidate for office in South Andros that he opposes is so fundamental that he would resign as Leader of the PLP rather than run with that person on the ticket. Friends of Mr. Christie say that security briefings indicate that there is a real threat to the national security interests of The Bahamas should that nomination go ahead. A showdown is expected on the issue as early as Tuesday night 24 October.


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DRUG CARTEL TRYING TO BUY INFLUENCE IN PLP?
The antennas of all PLPs should be sensitive to the reports circulating around the intelligence community both in the US and in The Bahamas that drug interests are trying to buy influence in the Bahamian legislature by seeking to get candidates friendly to themselves nominated by the PLP. The PLP's party Leader has stated as a matter of policy that no one suspected of being involved or tainted in anyway with drug money or drug interests will be allowed to be a PLP candidate.

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PLP CONVENTION
The PLP's Annual Convention is to be held from 12 November until 15 November at the Marriott Crystal Palace Hotel.

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BAPTIST DAY MARCH
This columnist was invited by the Rev. Dr. William Thompson, President of the Bahamas Missionary and Educational Convention to march beside the him in the annual Baptist Day parade. Some 80,000 marchers and spectators turned out on the streets of New Providence for the march. It was an amazing spectacle. The photo shows this columnist with Dr. Thompson and other marchers in full step to the music of the Bahamas Brass Band. We shall always remember this quote from Dr. Thompson at the church service as he warned the Government of the breakdown under their watch: "Red carpet for foreigners; Red tape for Bahamians."

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NEW THREAT TO BAHAMAS FINANCIAL SECTOR
Just when Hubert Ingraham returned home from his European vacation boasting about how the pressure was off from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a new threat is now reported in the press. According to The Tribune and the associated press (Friday 20 October), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States has filed suit in the US to force the disclosure from MasterCard and American Express those US citizens who have their credit card accounts in The Bahamas and two other Caribbean territories. The IRS believes that with those records they can check against the tax returns of the individuals in the US and see whether or not they have been underreporting their income.

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  BENCHMARK SEMINAR
Benchmark Bahamas Ltd. the mutual fund managers held a seminar on The Bahamas capital market Saturday 21 October. A small but enthusiastic group of investors and potential investors turned out to hear Benchmark principal Julian Brown expound on the emerging Bahamian stock market and how best to participate in it. Noting that no more than two percent of Bahamians take part in the stock market, Mr. Brown called for more investors. "The main point in trading stocks," said Mr. Brown "is whether the next idea is better than the one you have". Julian Brown is pictured explaining a point to a member of the audience. The seminar was held at the British Colonial Hotel.

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  LENOX PATON LAW FIRM ON BLACKLIST
In The Tribune Saturday 20 October, the law firm of Lennox Paton has a letter on the editorial page advising the Government that it is a mistake to capitulate to the anti-tax free initiatives of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). According to the letter, The Bahamas can only maintain itself as a financial centre so long as there is a competitive advantage. That advantage is the lack of taxes, confidentiality and the lack of regulations. The firm argues that if we lose that then we are out of business. That is the line we mean to take and have taken. Mr. Paton is himself an expatriate who now lives and practices in The Bahamas. His firm does a large chunk of the IBC business in The Bahamas. We will try to get the full text of the letter from the firm to publish in next week's column.

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  IBC LEGISLATION TO CHANGE
The Prime Minister said in his comments to the House of Assembly that the IBC legislation to be passed this year will abolish bearer shares and remove the restriction on the companies doing business in The Bahamas, subject to exchange control approval.

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  CONGRATULATIONS TO MORGAN GRAHAM
Morgan Graham is as fine a specimen of a good family life that you would want to find in the Bahamas. At 41 years of age, he seems to have everything going for him. Now he has been appointed the Director of Human Resources at the Grand Hotel on Paradise Island. The photo of Mr. Graham, a former Labour Officer at the Department of Labour, is shown. Mr. Graham is married and has two children. He and his wife Sabrina attend the Holy Family Catholic Church. Mr. Graham says that he is first and foremost a family man, and spends lots of time with his kids. Congratulations to Morgan Graham.

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  CONGRATULATIONS TO BAHAMEN
The Bahamian group Bahamen is to play the song "Who Let The Dogs Out?" when the fourth game of the World Series of Baseball in the United States kicks off in New York where the Yankees of New York are meeting the Mets of New York. Bahamen is said to be enjoying considerable success in the field of music in the US market and in Japan. The group formed in the early eighties, but it was not until 1991 that its music came across the desk of A&R record executive Steve Greenberg. Mr. Greenberg has now signed them to his own label, and asked them to record the song. It has apparently gained anthem status during the past summer in the music world. Nehemiah Heild, former leader singer of the group who is now a solo act is also enjoying considerable success in Japan. His new song reached number 9 in the charts there. Congratulations to them all.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRED MITCHELL
Henry Weymss is a client of this Senator, and each year he presents a special gift for 5 October, the birthday of this Senator. This year he had his sister who is in the cake making business make a cake and the icing included a photo made out of icing of the official portrait used on the masthead of the site. Our photo shows Mr. Weymss presenting the cake at the offices Gwendolyn House on Tuesday 10 October. Thank you Mr. Weymss. Please note that the obvious mar on the cake is as a result of this Senator's over enthusiasm for icing, and not from any fault of the cake maker! From left: Mr. Weymss, Al Dillette, this columnist and Terence Bethel.

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^{NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA}

Environmental Officers Pulled From Polymers- The Department of Environmental Health is in big trouble in Grand Bahama. Reports reaching us say that the business community is in such control of the politicians in Grand Bahama that when the Department's team went to visit the Polymers factory, maker of Styrofoam; within minutes of their entry, they received a call and were told to get off the people's property immediately.

PM Has To Tour By Boat- It is curious that the Prime Minister chose to tour the new arrangements for Lloyd Werft and Dravo Rock (the replacement for Bahama cement plant in Freeport) by boat on Friday 20 October. The reports are that Lloyd Werft is thinking of pulling out of the environmentally sensitive project in the Hawskbill Creek. This was reported by Cool 96 Radio in Freeport. Local activists have charged that the Government had no environmental impact study done, and the sand blasting methods used by Lloyd Werft are old environmental technology. They have no proposal to dump paint waste except in the waters of the creek. They refused to allow Earl Deveaux, the so-called Ambassador for the Environment on the property when he tried to visit last week, and so did Dravo Rock. Mr. Deveaux had his people in Grand Bahama deny the information reported on this site two weeks ago. This week, Mr. Deveaux returned with the Prime Minister and he too could not get on to land but was forced to watch it from afar by boat.

Gag Order On CDR Activists - A report reaching us says that ZNS has been ordered not to report the words of certain Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) activists. The CDR people have had the FNM reeling and ZNS has been told nothing must be said about them or for them. Sounds very much like Ozzie Brown's tactics at the Nassau Guardian.

Marcus Bethel 'Dis-invited' -Senator Marcus Bethel received a strange fax message from the Office of the Prime Minister just before the PM's arrival for his grand tour on Friday 20 October. It was a schedule of the PM's visit and it asked for his comments. The Senator called Lindy Russell, Parliamentary Secretary at the PM's office in Freeport to ask the meaning of it. "Does this mean I am invited to this," asked the Senator? Mr. Russell said that Senator Bethel was not invited and the schedule had been sent to him by mistake. Things that make you go "hmmm!"
 
PM Takes No Questions - Most observers thought that it was interesting that the Prime Minister, as much as he likes to talk, took no questions during his entire tour of Grand Bahama last Friday. There are too many unanswered questions and of course he has no defence on how he has sold out The Bahamas.

FNM Infighting and Threats - There is a real 'take no prisoners' attitude taking hold within the FNM. This was never more in evidence than at Geneva's, the restaurant where FNMs gather on Sunday mornings for breakfast. On Sunday 22 October the talk was all about the pre-convention FNM cruise on the Discovery in the afternoon. Nesbitt Higgins who supports the insurgent Tennyson Wells for Leader of the FNM, told the Ingraham forces that the FNM is now going through a period of purification and that once the purging takes place, the organization will be stronger. Translation, Mr. Ingraham and his forces will be out after the convention. Ingrahamites in the room are reported to have cowered in silence.

Where Was The PM? - On 22 October Sunday morning at Geneva's, the question was asked: where was the PM? The matter arose because of the FNM's cruise taking place that afternoon. Someone replied that he was probably out yachting with the heads of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. "Well," said one smart fellow, "Let's see if those Port people can vote for him at this next convention." Translation, Mr. Ingraham and his forces are in trouble.

Deja vu - Another Attempt at a Licencees Association - The City of Freeport Council, in a speech by Ken Hutton the Chairman of its Licencing Advisory Committee, has announced that it is to work to "activate and involve an Association of Licencees of the Grand Bahama Port Authority to ensure that both the Grand Bahama Port Authority and The Bahamas Government can address future concerns of Freeport businesses in a timely fashion". Under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, licencees of the Port have certain consultative and veto rights and are a potential counterweight to the power of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. This is the most recent attempt at forming a Licencees Association. All others have disintegrated into political backbiting and treachery aided by various fifth columnists and agents provocateur.

Homeowners Association - Outraged at notice of a sixty percent increase in their service charges, home and land owners in the Bahamia subdivision of Freeport have formed an association. The subdivision is part of the former Princess Properties bought by new developers who began their experience with hotels in Nassau. Pictured are Association Chairman Mark Roberts, left and Bahamia homeowner and political activist Forrester Carroll, right.

Albert Miller's wife recovering - Mrs. Laurie Miller, wife of Grand Bahama Port Authority Co-Chairman Albert Miller, is back in Freeport recovering from a heart operation. She sounds in good spirits. Mrs. Miller took ill a month ago and was flown to Miami for treatment. Son-in-law Donald Archer is also said to be well and back in Freeport following an operation.

 Golden Girls Welcomed - Shown waving their flags to the crowds during warm celebrations of welcome in Grand Bahama are Golden Girls Sevatheda Fynes, Chandra Sturrup, Eldece Clarke-Lewis, Debbie Ferguson and Pauline Davis-Thompson.

It has just been over a month since the former Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling passed away. Yet here we were sitting at breakfast at Kristi's in Freeport and a Bahamian contractor, an FNM supporter, was explaining that while his company could work on a site at Lucaya, he was banned from going inside the premises and had to direct the work of his company from outside the gates of the project. His offense: violating a rule that required a decal to be on his truck to get past security. The ban has not been removed despite intervention at the ministerial level.

The story was apropos because the Prime Minister and Chief Slave Hubert Ingraham had come to town, accompanied by an entourage of the faithful, stealing away others' seats on Bahamasair, to listen to a day long set of presentations by representatives of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. There were slide presentations about The projects by Hutchison Whampoa at Lucaya and the new owners of the former Princess Hotels. Lloyd Werft, the ship builder, was scheduled to be there for a presentation but refused to attend (see story below). Then the Prime Minister went on a tour with his party, with community leaders and the press and then of course he was fed a sumptuous lunch.

The story told at the beginning is symptomatic of the mood in Freeport these days. The Bahamian has become a second class citizen in his own country, and everywhere you turn while people are working there are complaints about how bad things are. The only ones who don't seem to realize it are the FNM MPs who are stuck under Hubert Ingraham.

Freeport does not belong to Bahamians anymore. Bahamians are marginalized in the city. So the late Sir Lynden's famous speech that the unbending social order in Freeport must bend or be broken, delivered with aplomb in 1969 is mocked. That order is back with a vengeance. Nothing demonstrated that when the Prime Minister was apparently unable to access the Lloyd Werft site by land, he had to visit by boat. The owners of Lloyd Werft were telling it around that the Prime Minister would not be coming on to their property.

And yet despite the support of obviously racist developers, despite the obvious discrimination against Bahamians, the FNM supporters continue to cling to their mantra: "I am an FNM". As the Christians like to say, not everyone who says "Lord! Lord!" will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Clearly in this case some pigs are more equal than others. But even being close to Hubert Ingraham is not a guarantee of gratitude. In fact, it is more likely that you will be the object of contempt because of it.

This week we had 45,012 hits on the site for the month of October. Please keep reading and thanks for reading.

Address of Sean Mcweeney/Pindling  funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage

For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.

Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting	Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral

e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs

THE FREEPORT ILLUSION
The Prime Minister credited Theo Farqhuarson, the loquacious political activist who supports the FNM, with arranging for the PM and the Grand Bahama Port Authority executives to put on a show in Freeport on Friday 20 October. It was just that a show. All the people there were foreign businessmen saying what they are building in Freeport. All the persons invited and who attended were FNM supporters. Clearly the FNM is in trouble in Grand Bahama. The troops are demoralized, and when you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, you baffle them with your bullsh... That's the line the Prime Minister means to take. And so you had front-page pictures in both newspapers of the Chief and his sacked former Minister of Agriculture, now would be Minister for the Environment and the heads of the Port Authority grinning and musing with anticipation and pronouncing about how well Freeport is doing. The Prime Minister said that some 800 million has been invested in Freeport over the last two years. Six hundred million of it alone from Hutchison Whampoa who is building the hotel and casino complex on the Lucaya strip. But it is all an illusion. The Lloyd Werft project appears to have become a serious rift between the Government and the investors. The environmental impacts are disastrous. The poor people in Grand Bahama do not feel the affects of the economic changes. Life is still hard, and to add insult to injury living in Freeport today is like living there prior to 1969. Bahamians have no say in their city and no Government to turn to for comfort. This is a real story of the Emperor's New Clothes. The Government is lying to its people and has a group of conspirators who are getting rich off the backs of the Bahamian people and helping the PM to maintain this illusion. Shown is The Tribune photo of the tour published on Saturday 20 October.

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FNM IN PROBLEMS 
With the convention of the Free National Movement only weeks away, the FNM Council has apparently voted in favour of a Leader-elect. Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and Leader of the FNM reportedly walked out of the meeting on Thursday 19 October. It is a move that he opposes. And so it looks like the battle lines are drawn. Maurice Moore, the former MP and Ambassador, who is supporting insurgent Tennyson Wells MP said that Leader-elect is the way to go. But some are saying that Tennyson should just be done with it and run for Leader and oppose Ingraham at the next convention. They worry though that if Mr. Wells wins that the Governor General who supports Mr. Ingraham and has a son in the Ingraham Cabinet may not co-operate. He may insist that it's the head count in the House that counts, i.e. who controls the majority of Members of the House not the party. Also declaring his hand at the FNM Council meeting was Algernon Allen who is going to run for leader at the appropriate time. The Americans must be salivating at that possibility. 


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PEOPLE ARE TALKING
They say that several weeks ago the police conducted a raid at a favourite breakfast establishment looking for papers for selling numbers. To the surprise of the police they had to climb down because members of the Cabinet were said to be having breakfast at the establishment. Things that make you want to go: "Hmmm!"

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DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (DST) TO END
The Cabinet Office has announced that The Bahamas will return to Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Sunday 29 October at 2 a.m. All clocks should be turned back one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday 29 October. 

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THE PM REPORTS ON HIS EUROPEAN VACATION
It is amazing how paper will sit still for any words to be written on it. And so if you read the Prime Minister's statement to the House of Assembly on his month long stay abroad in Europe at the expense of the Bahamian people, you would think that he actually did something while he was there. The fact is that on 18 October, he reported that he accomplished nothing like what he said he would. When he left, the avowed intent, the understanding of the Bahamian public was that he would get The Bahamas off the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's blacklist. You will remember that this is a list of non-cooperating countries that do not have clear policies to discourage tax evasion. Further the Financial Stability Forum and their Financial Action Task Force, agencies of the G-7 countries have a set of concerns that have to do with money laundering. The whole effort over the last year has set the Bahamian offshore sector topsy turvey. And no one quite knows what to do. The Prime Minister has led the way of the ignorant by thrashing around from pillar to post giving away the Bahamian store. While he saw no head of state while he was away or head of government, he did manage to see finance ministers. That only goes to show that the hapless William Allen, our now so-called Minister of Finance should have done this messenger's job. The Prime Minister claims that the pressure is now off us and that he expects that the problem of the list will be solved once he passes new pieces of legislation.

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THE PROMISED LEGISLATION BY THE PM ON BANKING
On Thursday 19 October, the Nassau Guardian had a stupid headline: "DISMANTLING OF BANK SECRECY BEGINS: PM TABLES BILLS TO GET BAHAMIANS OFF BLACKLIST". The headline was stupid because it is simply not true. Bank Secrecy in the Bahamas is not to be dismantled. It is a figment of the imagination that a confidential relationship between a banker and his client is going to be disrupted in a country where there is a right to privacy and private property. That right has never extended to criminal matters, and all that the new laws can do is strengthen any doubt about the ability to get at criminal material. The Prime Minister told the House of Assembly on Wednesday 18 October that he will bring to Parliament the following bills: "A Financial Intelligence Unit Act; A Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act; A Central Bank of The Bahamas Amendment Act; A Banks and Trust Companies Regulation (Amendment) Act; A Banks (Amendment) Act; Proceeds of Crime Act; a new International Business Companies Act; a new Financial Service Providers Act; A new Financial Transactions Reporting Act; and a new Mutual Legal Assistance (Amendment) Act. It is clear that Mr. Ingraham has sold the country out in the name of trying to save it. But he has thrown the baby out with the bath water.

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FOREIGN EXPERTISE FOR THE CENTRAL BANK
After 26 years of being operated and run by Bahamians, the Central Bank is now to have foreign advisors come into tell the Bahamians in the bank how to run it and make sure that no crooked behavior is leaking into the banking system. That is the promise that the chief sellout king made when he went to Europe on vacation to speak to the OECD. Some have suggested that spies will now be firmly implanted in the bank who can faithfully report to their masters in the developed world.

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GRAYCLIFF DISPUTE SETTLED FOR NOW
We were out on the streets outside Graycliff restaurant just observing the labour struggle. Workers gathered on Tuesday 17 October, following a mass rally at the Bahamas Communications and Public Officer's Hall. Hundreds gathered and they were in a foul mood having just been disappointed by their labour leaders. They hurled abuse at the police and at the owners of Graycliff. According to the son of Graycliff Owner Enrico Gazzaroli, Paolo, who is said to be the new owner of the property, the crowd said: "I feel like killing Italians tonight!" and during the time that this columnist was there, the crowd certainly shouted: "Who let the dogs out?" They did this when the police arrived. The police for their part were restrained in the face of great provocation. They were called stooges for the Graycliff owners and traitors. For the greater part they remained stoic. This columnist tried to explain to workers that we had no quarrel with the police. The demonstrations outside Graycliff began on Saturday 14 October in the evening. The Graycliff's original owners purported to transfer the business to their son in what appeared to be an attempt to get rid of the Union. The demonstrations, led by the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and joined by the PLP, shut down the restaurant. According to the owners, they lost tens of thousands of dollars. They capitulated on Tuesday night 17 October. The press was given a copy of an agreement between the Union and the owners, brokered and witnessed by Bishop Neil Ellis. The agreement is that negotiations will begin for the unionizing of the new business and the negotiations are to end by January 2001.

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LABOUR LEADERS UNDER PRESSURE
On Tuesday night 17 October, Labour leaders asked their supporters to gather at the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union Hall to be told whether or not they were going to continue to Bay Street and Rawson Square to face down Hubert Ingraham over the proposed labour bills that are opposed by both the business community and by the labour movement. Labour had threatened that they would call a general strike on Wednesday 18 October if the Prime Minister did not back down. A dress rehearsal stoppage the week before led to the crippling of the country in key areas, mainly at the airport. When Mr. Ingraham arrived in town on Saturday 14 October from his European vacation, he announced that he had no intention of proceeding with the bills on the 18 October in the House as he had promised before he left. His new priority would be the financial bills (see previous story). That seemed to take the sting out of any action planned by the unions, and union leaders seemed puzzled as to what to do. Enter Bishop Neil Ellis who is turning out to be a Jesse Jackson of The Bahamas. He arranged a meeting between the Prime Minister and the Labour leaders to settle the disputes. The Prime Minister and the leaders met on Monday 16 October and he climbed down or so the leaders thought. He agreed to refer the matters to a committee and postpone dealing with them until the end of November. The union members thought the leaders had been duped. Mr. Ingraham never intended to proceed anyway so what kind of climb down was that? Upon that happening, though, the leaders agreed to meet the next morning at Tuesday 17 October to decide what action to take re the demonstration in the square. They voted overwhelmingly in favour of stepping back from the breach.

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UNION MEETING ENDS IN CHAOS
By the time this Opposition spokesman on Labour arrived at the meeting of the movement to communicate the decision of labour leaders not to march on Bay Street, it was late and the meting was in chaos. Workers on the outside were shouting that the union leaders had sold out, that they were traitors and that they (the union members) were going to Bay Street anyway. There was a clear division between the Union Leaders themselves. Shane Gibson, head of the telephone workers and broadcast union told his workers that he would not be going out and while he did not discourage his workers from going, he would not support it. Pat Bain from the hotel workers union told his workers not to go and some of them in an angry mood outside Graycliff later that night claimed that he told them that if they lost their job as a result of going to Bay Street, not to come to him because he (Mr. Bain) would not represent them. William McDonald of the Civil Service Union told his workers not to go either. Frank Carter whose job it was to explain to workers why they should not go was interrupted before he could get very far. According to the Nassau Guardian, workers shouted at him: "You are a sell-out." The crowd then tried to physically attack him. They were restrained. The meeting then had a quick pause and the leaders reversed themselves and announced that in a accordance with the wishes of the people they would go to Bay Street. But that was the work mainly of the Trade Union Congress Affiliates, even though Duke Hanna from the other umbrella union joined in the decision. The moderate union leaders did not resile from their positions. Kingsley Black of the Bahamas Union of Teachers told his people not to come out either. What labour observers are saying is that Mr. Ingraham has successfully divided the labour movement. He has portrayed the heads of the umbrella union Obie Ferguson of the TUC and Duke Hanna of the NCTU as two radicals with a political agenda. On Friday 20 October, the two heads held a press conference in Nassau and they denied that there is a rift in the Union movement.

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DEMONSTRATION DAY IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE
On Wednesday 18 October, Radio Bahamas news reported that there were some 1000 people in the public square. These were the usual political activists (see Tribune photo) and the workers who opposed the decision of their labour leaders not to show up in the square. They hurled abuse at the Prime Minister. Observes say that he was visibly shaken by the signs that read: HUBERT GAT TO GO. One of his FNM colleagues called with glee about it. The Tribune reported that Mr. Ingraham was spirited out the back door to avoid the crowd. It is clear that Mr. Ingraham is sensitive to this stuff and he forced them to retract the story a few days later, saying that he left as he always leaves though the eastern door of the House. But while the demonstration was significant it was not what it should have been and the country has the impression that the labour leaders are divided. The workers themselves appear to be without effective leadership and this is a volatile situation. It is just such a situation that led to the Burma Road riots in 1942. 



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CROWD CONTROL BY THE POLICE
The Graycliff demonstrations are interesting from another point of view, the police control of the situation. First of all Superintendent Burkie Wright ought to be congratulated for the exercise of restraint in the face of clear provocation. No arrests were made during the entire episode outside Graycliff. And we mean provocation, like this: A woman passes by as the demo is breaking up and says: "I going home now to steep my pee so that I could have it to throw on you all tomorrow." And such a pretty woman too! The one problem we thought was when re-enforcements were called for, the police arrived in lockstep with sub-machine guns at their sides. This seemed to be inflammatory and ill-advised. The police pleaded that they needed this for their protection but it just seemed a source of trouble, carrying machine guns at close quarters like that. The other officers were armed with holstered side arms. They were not threatening. There must be some other crowd control mechanism than sub-machine guns. To give you an example of the potential problem. This column reported to the Deputy Commissioner of Police that while Superintendent Wright was trying to defuse a situation with a rowdy young woman, a young constable, one Pickstock, was pushing the young lady. The Superintendent ordered the young constable to stand down. The constable ignored the order and kept pushing and then challenged the Superintendent who was dressed in plain clothes, even after it was established that this was his superior officer. This columnist watched as the two men had to be parted when the young officer sought to challenge the Superintendent not only orally but physically. This columnist had an uncle who was a Deputy Commissioner Police and had he been on duty that night that officer would be on a charge as fast as you could say Jack Sprat. But it is precisely that kind of lack of discipline on the part of young officers that makes carrying sub-machine guns around so scary and dangerous.

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MAURICE GLINTON'S GRANDMOTHER DIES
Maceita Louise Lightbourne died in Freeport, Grand Bahama a world away in geography and time from the place that she was born. Mrs. Lightbourne is the grandmother and matriarch of the family of Maurice Glinton, Attorney-at-Law. She was 97 years old at the time of her death and up to the time of her death in good health. Mrs. Lightbourne who was predeceased by her husband is survived by six children. Mrs. Lightbourne lived with the Glintons in Freeport up to the time of her death. We send our condolences to our friend and brother Maurice Glinton and his entire family on the passing of this important woman in all of their lives.

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COLIN WELLS IS BURIED
Businessman Colin Wells was buried in Nassau on Tuesday 17 October. The service was conducted at the Holy Cross Anglican Church and the celebrant was Fr. Laish Boyd. Mr. Wells is survived by his four sons. Last week we reported the unseemly coverage of the passing of Colin Wells. The Tribune continued the coverage this week with what purported to be a major analysis of his life, dredging up old stories of sexual peccadilloes. The coverage of The Tribune seemed closer to that of The Punch, the weekly gossip paper. PLP MP Bradley Roberts was amongst the mourners at the funeral and he reported that Mr. Wells' four sons spoke glowingly about their father and his love for them and their love and admiration for him.

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CHRISTIE SENDS A MESSAGE
The occasion was the 80th birthday of Naomi Christie, mother of the Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie. The buzz was: what did he mean by he may be withdrawing from public life because of certain events which might unfold? It appears that Mr. Christie has made it clear that the nomination of the candidate for office in South Andros that he opposes is so fundamental that he would resign as Leader of the PLP rather than run with that person on the ticket. Friends of Mr. Christie say that security briefings indicate that there is a real threat to the national security interests of The Bahamas should that nomination go ahead. A showdown is expected on the issue as early as Tuesday night 24 October.


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DRUG CARTEL TRYING TO BUY INFLUENCE IN PLP?
The antennas of all PLPs should be sensitive to the reports circulating around the intelligence community both in the US and in The Bahamas that drug interests are trying to buy influence in the Bahamian legislature by seeking to get candidates friendly to themselves nominated by the PLP. The PLP's party Leader has stated as a matter of policy that no one suspected of being involved or tainted in anyway with drug money or drug interests will be allowed to be a PLP candidate.

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PLP CONVENTION
The PLP's Annual Convention is to be held from 12 November until 15 November at the Marriott Crystal Palace Hotel.

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BAPTIST DAY MARCH
This columnist was invited by the Rev. Dr. William Thompson, President of the Bahamas Missionary and Educational Convention to march beside the him in the annual Baptist Day parade. Some 80,000 marchers and spectators turned out on the streets of New Providence for the march. It was an amazing spectacle. The photo shows this columnist with Dr. Thompson and other marchers in full step to the music of the Bahamas Brass Band. We shall always remember this quote from Dr. Thompson at the church service as he warned the Government of the breakdown under their watch: "Red carpet for foreigners; Red tape for Bahamians."

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NEW THREAT TO BAHAMAS FINANCIAL SECTOR
Just when Hubert Ingraham returned home from his European vacation boasting about how the pressure was off from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a new threat is now reported in the press. According to The Tribune and the associated press (Friday 20 October), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States has filed suit in the US to force the disclosure from MasterCard and American Express those US citizens who have their credit card accounts in The Bahamas and two other Caribbean territories. The IRS believes that with those records they can check against the tax returns of the individuals in the US and see whether or not they have been underreporting their income.

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  BENCHMARK SEMINAR
Benchmark Bahamas Ltd. the mutual fund managers held a seminar on The Bahamas capital market Saturday 21 October. A small but enthusiastic group of investors and potential investors turned out to hear Benchmark principal Julian Brown expound on the emerging Bahamian stock market and how best to participate in it. Noting that no more than two percent of Bahamians take part in the stock market, Mr. Brown called for more investors. "The main point in trading stocks," said Mr. Brown "is whether the next idea is better than the one you have". Julian Brown is pictured explaining a point to a member of the audience. The seminar was held at the British Colonial Hotel.

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  LENOX PATON LAW FIRM ON BLACKLIST
In The Tribune Saturday 20 October, the law firm of Lennox Paton has a letter on the editorial page advising the Government that it is a mistake to capitulate to the anti-tax free initiatives of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). According to the letter, The Bahamas can only maintain itself as a financial centre so long as there is a competitive advantage. That advantage is the lack of taxes, confidentiality and the lack of regulations. The firm argues that if we lose that then we are out of business. That is the line we mean to take and have taken. Mr. Paton is himself an expatriate who now lives and practices in The Bahamas. His firm does a large chunk of the IBC business in The Bahamas. We will try to get the full text of the letter from the firm to publish in next week's column.

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  IBC LEGISLATION TO CHANGE
The Prime Minister said in his comments to the House of Assembly that the IBC legislation to be passed this year will abolish bearer shares and remove the restriction on the companies doing business in The Bahamas, subject to exchange control approval.

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  CONGRATULATIONS TO MORGAN GRAHAM
Morgan Graham is as fine a specimen of a good family life that you would want to find in the Bahamas. At 41 years of age, he seems to have everything going for him. Now he has been appointed the Director of Human Resources at the Grand Hotel on Paradise Island. The photo of Mr. Graham, a former Labour Officer at the Department of Labour, is shown. Mr. Graham is married and has two children. He and his wife Sabrina attend the Holy Family Catholic Church. Mr. Graham says that he is first and foremost a family man, and spends lots of time with his kids. Congratulations to Morgan Graham.

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  CONGRATULATIONS TO BAHAMEN
The Bahamian group Bahamen is to play the song "Who Let The Dogs Out?" when the fourth game of the World Series of Baseball in the United States kicks off in New York where the Yankees of New York are meeting the Mets of New York. Bahamen is said to be enjoying considerable success in the field of music in the US market and in Japan. The group formed in the early eighties, but it was not until 1991 that its music came across the desk of A&R record executive Steve Greenberg. Mr. Greenberg has now signed them to his own label, and asked them to record the song. It has apparently gained anthem status during the past summer in the music world. Nehemiah Heild, former leader singer of the group who is now a solo act is also enjoying considerable success in Japan. His new song reached number 9 in the charts there. Congratulations to them all.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRED MITCHELL
Henry Weymss is a client of this Senator, and each year he presents a special gift for 5 October, the birthday of this Senator. This year he had his sister who is in the cake making business make a cake and the icing included a photo made out of icing of the official portrait used on the masthead of the site. Our photo shows Mr. Weymss presenting the cake at the offices Gwendolyn House on Tuesday 10 October. Thank you Mr. Weymss. Please note that the obvious mar on the cake is as a result of this Senator's over enthusiasm for icing, and not from any fault of the cake maker! From left: Mr. Weymss, Al Dillette, this columnist and Terence Bethel.

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^{NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA}

Environmental Officers Pulled From Polymers- The Department of Environmental Health is in big trouble in Grand Bahama. Reports reaching us say that the business community is in such control of the politicians in Grand Bahama that when the Department's team went to visit the Polymers factory, maker of Styrofoam; within minutes of their entry, they received a call and were told to get off the people's property immediately.

PM Has To Tour By Boat- It is curious that the Prime Minister chose to tour the new arrangements for Lloyd Werft and Dravo Rock (the replacement for Bahama cement plant in Freeport) by boat on Friday 20 October. The reports are that Lloyd Werft is thinking of pulling out of the environmentally sensitive project in the Hawskbill Creek. This was reported by Cool 96 Radio in Freeport. Local activists have charged that the Government had no environmental impact study done, and the sand blasting methods used by Lloyd Werft are old environmental technology. They have no proposal to dump paint waste except in the waters of the creek. They refused to allow Earl Deveaux, the so-called Ambassador for the Environment on the property when he tried to visit last week, and so did Dravo Rock. Mr. Deveaux had his people in Grand Bahama deny the information reported on this site two weeks ago. This week, Mr. Deveaux returned with the Prime Minister and he too could not get on to land but was forced to watch it from afar by boat.

Gag Order On CDR Activists - A report reaching us says that ZNS has been ordered not to report the words of certain Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) activists. The CDR people have had the FNM reeling and ZNS has been told nothing must be said about them or for them. Sounds very much like Ozzie Brown's tactics at the Nassau Guardian.

Marcus Bethel 'Dis-invited' -Senator Marcus Bethel received a strange fax message from the Office of the Prime Minister just before the PM's arrival for his grand tour on Friday 20 October. It was a schedule of the PM's visit and it asked for his comments. The Senator called Lindy Russell, Parliamentary Secretary at the PM's office in Freeport to ask the meaning of it. "Does this mean I am invited to this," asked the Senator? Mr. Russell said that Senator Bethel was not invited and the schedule had been sent to him by mistake. Things that make you go "hmmm!"
 
PM Takes No Questions - Most observers thought that it was interesting that the Prime Minister, as much as he likes to talk, took no questions during his entire tour of Grand Bahama last Friday. There are too many unanswered questions and of course he has no defence on how he has sold out The Bahamas.

FNM Infighting and Threats - There is a real 'take no prisoners' attitude taking hold within the FNM. This was never more in evidence than at Geneva's, the restaurant where FNMs gather on Sunday mornings for breakfast. On Sunday 22 October the talk was all about the pre-convention FNM cruise on the Discovery in the afternoon. Nesbitt Higgins who supports the insurgent Tennyson Wells for Leader of the FNM, told the Ingraham forces that the FNM is now going through a period of purification and that once the purging takes place, the organization will be stronger. Translation, Mr. Ingraham and his forces will be out after the convention. Ingrahamites in the room are reported to have cowered in silence.

Where Was The PM? - On 22 October Sunday morning at Geneva's, the question was asked: where was the PM? The matter arose because of the FNM's cruise taking place that afternoon. Someone replied that he was probably out yachting with the heads of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. "Well," said one smart fellow, "Let's see if those Port people can vote for him at this next convention." Translation, Mr. Ingraham and his forces are in trouble.

Deja vu - Another Attempt at a Licencees Association - The City of Freeport Council, in a speech by Ken Hutton the Chairman of its Licencing Advisory Committee, has announced that it is to work to "activate and involve an Association of Licencees of the Grand Bahama Port Authority to ensure that both the Grand Bahama Port Authority and The Bahamas Government can address future concerns of Freeport businesses in a timely fashion". Under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, licencees of the Port have certain consultative and veto rights and are a potential counterweight to the power of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. This is the most recent attempt at forming a Licencees Association. All others have disintegrated into political backbiting and treachery aided by various fifth columnists and agents provocateur.

Homeowners Association - Outraged at notice of a sixty percent increase in their service charges, home and land owners in the Bahamia subdivision of Freeport have formed an association. The subdivision is part of the former Princess Properties bought by new developers who began their experience with hotels in Nassau. Pictured are Association Chairman Mark Roberts, left and Bahamia homeowner and political activist Forrester Carroll, right.

Albert Miller's wife recovering - Mrs. Laurie Miller, wife of Grand Bahama Port Authority Co-Chairman Albert Miller, is back in Freeport recovering from a heart operation. She sounds in good spirits. Mrs. Miller took ill a month ago and was flown to Miami for treatment. Son-in-law Donald Archer is also said to be well and back in Freeport following an operation.

 Golden Girls Welcomed - Shown waving their flags to the crowds during warm celebrations of welcome in Grand Bahama are Golden Girls Sevatheda Fynes, Chandra Sturrup, Eldece Clarke-Lewis, Debbie Ferguson and Pauline Davis-Thompson.

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NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

THE QUALITY OF LIFE

Reports from the Road Traffic Department some weeks ago provided a little noticed statistic that said much about the quality of life which we enjoy in the island of New Providence today. There are some 125,000 vehicles in New Providence, an island 21 x 7 miles. Each day there are 25 new vehicles licenced to drive on the roads and there are ten vehicles that leave the road. So that every day there is a net gain of 15 cars on the streets of New Providence.

Journeys that used to take only minutes five years ago are now stretching into one hour, and the frustration of drivers is evident. Periodically you will see letters to the editor complaining about the number of cars in the streets but that is about it. On the Eastern Road, if the Water and Sewerage Corporation or BaTelCo is engaged in a road trenching service, it is a major nightmare for commuters on their way to work. The delays can sometimes be one hour and a half. This is all the more so when school is open. All we get is that someone needs to do something about the traffic.

But we have a love affair with the car. The bus service is inadequate, and at the political level there does not appear to be any planning related to the traffic problems. It is one of these kind of free market issues. Every young person who gets out of high school wants to get his or her driver's licence and each person wants to buy a car.

Cars are in such demand that a car appears to be even more valuable an investment than land, at least to the banks. The interest rate to borrow for cars is relatively high, but the down payment and terms are easy. We gave the example once before of how it is possible to buy a $35,000 car by simply putting $550 down, and Commonwealth Bank will let you walk out of the showroom with a brand new Nissan Maxima, insurance costs in included for the first year.

Some have suggested that we go the route of Bermuda and limit cars to one a family. Which Government has the strength of character to do that is beyond us, but we are like the rest, something has to be done. The solution is in the short term more roads but there must eventually come a public bus system that is properly and centrally managed. We suggest that we look at sea transportation as an alternative to land based public transportation. Docks would be located at strategic places along the shoreline and then you can park your care and take a water taxi to town to work. But our quality of life is deteriorating because of the car and something must be done about it.

This week the intrigue grew in the Free National Movement as they move inexorably toward their first convention in three years. We report on that.

This week we had 58,695 hits on the site for the month of October up to midnight 28 October. Thanks for reading and please keep reading.

Address of Sean Mcweeney / Pindling  funeral
Gilbert Morris on OECD Blacklist
Fred Mitchell Antioch College speech
The funeral coverage

For a photo essay on the funeral of Archdeacon William Thompson. Click here.

Professor Gilbert Morris on the country's blacklisting	Coverage of Sir Lynden's death & funeral

e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs

JIMMY KNOWLES DEFEATED AT FNM BRANCH MEETING
The events of Friday 27 October have raised doubts about whether Long Island MP James Knowles will retain the nomination of his party for that constituency. James Knowles is an Ingraham man.  His friends say that he has been busy telling his friends and supporters that he would see the FNM break up first before he would allow Tennyson Wells to be the leader of the FNM. The lines were drawn earlier this year when after doing without a constituency association for years, the Secretary General of the FNM Roston Miller moved to establish the association.  Errington  'Bumpy' Watkins  was elected Chairman of the Association.  Mr. Watkins is the former UBP chairman and MP for Abaco connected with the anti-independence movement.  He is a native of Long Island and is a successful businessman and farmer in Long Island.  He is a leader of his community.  He has solid support. Delegate elections for the upcoming FNM convention were also held by Mr. Miller in August.  A pro-Wells delegation was elected.  Mr. Ingraham was furious with his Minister and Jimmy was furious with the community. With Mr. Ingraham's help, he got the Chairman of the Party to lead a delegation including Senator Edwin 'Vikie' Brown to hold fresh elections for delegates and reverse the first result.  Two meetings were called without reference to the local Chairman, Mr. Watkins. The community was furious.  They waited for Mr Knowles.  On Friday 27 October at 6 p.m. there was a meeting in Simms, Long Island.  PLPs were allowed into the meeting and he got a partial victory.  One of his people Shervin Smith was elected as a delegate.  The other person Maxwell Adderley, unbeknownst to Mr. Knowles is a Wells supporter.   Then the meeting moved into the south at the High School in Buckley's, Long Island, just south of Deadman's Cay.  Mr. Knowles was so afraid it appears that a call went out to Frank Watson, the Minster of National Security who instructed all the police officers in Long Island to attend the meeting. One of the audience told Mr. Knowles that he ought to be ashamed of himself after 23 years he needed police to protect him in his own constituency.  Harold Adderley, a former PLP supporter, came to the meeting. He reminded Mr. Knowles that he was the only MP that forced the then Prime Minister of the country Sir Lynden Pindling while on his post-independence tour of the country to ride around on the back of a truck.  Then he said Mr. Knowles was a disgrace because he allegedly called the mother of Tennyson Wells "a hog".  Mr. Wells' mother was in the audience and was said to have to have been restrained form going after Mr. Knowles.   The vote was taken and there was a full scale revolt.  The Wells forces won 132 to 34.  And so its a pro-Wells delegation in Long Island. Now what, for Mr. Ingraham who has promised to mash up Mr. Wells.  Mr. Watkins told the crowd in his opening remarks to vote for their neighbours because he understood that Jimmy Knowles was building a house in Abaco and they didn't know when he would be seen again.  It looks like the Wells forces are gaining.
 

MEANWHILE IN NASSAU FOR THE WELLS FORCES
The Wells forces of the FNM now have in their possession two letters that show a clear connection between the now Prime Minister and the US Government.  One letter which was published in the country before, purports to show that Mr. Ingraham's calls were to be accepted collect to a an anti-drug task force in Jacksonville, Florida.  No doubt the letters will flood the FNM convention and Mr. Ingraham will have to defend his patriotism.  We are checking  with our lawyers to see if we can publish these letters next week.  But clearly, you should not be that desperate to become Prime Minister that you would leak information to another Government about your country.
 

MURDER MOST FOUL
The number of homicides in The Bahamas reached the number 65 this week, just one death short of the total number of homicides in The Bahamas for last year, and there are still two months left to go. The public seems immune to it and the Government does not react to it. The last two murders seemed to be domestic arguments, one the death of a woman by a stone being mashed into her face, and the other being burned by fire. Two weeks ago the Progressive Liberal Party's Women's Branch raised the alarm about the increase in domestic violence in The Bahamas. The PLP wanted the country and the Government to have a major focus on the issue. Dr. Sandra Dean Patterson, the social worker, spoke with the Nassau Guardian and was reported on Friday 27 October to be alarmed about the increase in domestic violence. She said that prosecutions need to be consistent and certain [our words]. Dr. Patterson told the Bahama Journal that the Women's Crisis Centre has been agitating the Office of the Attorney General to prosecute physical abusers. She said that there has been resistance to that. "I guess the feeling is that so often women change their minds. After they go and report it the man then tells them they're sorry they won't do it again."  But people wonder about whether or not the murder rate is saying something about us as a people that is more profound. Is it the foreign elements of the population? Is it too much growth and greed? Is it that we have lost our sense of values as we pursue wealth to the exclusion of all else? What is it? Like everything else people blame the Government for not getting a handle on the situation and shrug their shoulders by saying: something must be done about it.
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REFORM IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE
This week marks Public Service Week in The Bahamas so proclaimed by the Acting Prime Minister Frank Watson. The Minister for the Public Service is Tommy Turnquest, son of the Governor General. He had all the big wigs out during the week beginning with his Dad on Sunday 21 October at the Golden Gates Assembly Church to mark the beginning of the week. Scores of retired and long serving pubic servants were honoured with ribbons and medals and promises. And the promises, ribbons and medals seem to have gone a long way. This Senator was able to attend the tail end of the church service, having been at another function. The civil servants seemed grateful for the recognition by the Government. The PLP has to take note of this obvious campaign ploy. Later in the week at the awards ceremony on Wednesday 25 October the Prime Minister made some major policy pronouncements about the civil service which should also have political significance. The PLP ought to again take note.
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AGE OF RETIREMENT TO CHANGE
The principal complaint of the civil servants who talked to this Senator was the fact that the retirees got inadequate pensions. Many wondered aloud how they were expected to live off the pensions that the Government provided. The other complaint was that of existing public servants that their salaries were inadequate. Mr. Ingraham who has the country guessing about his intention to leave the Office of Prime Minister gave the awards at Government House in the presence of the Governor General. In his address, he promised to look at the question of linking pension increases to retirees to that of the raises for public servants that are still active. He also promised that he would seek to raise the mandatory retirement age from 60 as it now is to 65. According to Public Service Minister Tommy Turnquest, General Orders the rules that govern the public service are to be revised, updated and replaced. He said all the right political things. Mr. Ingraham said that pensions and gratuities paid out to public servants annually amount to some $48 million dollars or five percent of the country's annual budget. Again something needs to be done. Mr. Ingraham is shown in a Tribune photo presenting an award to retiree Arthur Barnett.
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EDWARD ST GEORGE SPEAKS OUT OF TURN
Before Hubert Ingraham became the Prime Minister and he was only the so-called Delivery Boy, PM in waiting, he used to tell Edward St George the principal of the Grand Bahama Port Authority to stay out of the political affairs of The Bahamas. Friends recall the first meeting of the two men after the General Election victory of 1992, and the words, cussing words, were said to have flown fast and furious. But now the two seem to be fast friends and Mr. Ingraham has forgotten those words of warning, In Mr. Ingraham's presence while he was touring the city of Freeport last week, Edward St. George launched a broadside at the Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR), party of PLP elected MP Dr. Bernard Nottage. Mr. St. George said that CDR activists were scaring away investors. CDR has led an active campaign against environmental degradation in Freeport and exposed the lies of the Government and investors about the state of the economy in Freeport. Mr. St. George's latest concern was the attack of CDR on the Lloyd Werft shipping facility, which appears to be in financial trouble. It appears that the major German investors are out to pull out because it is unable to put in place a satisfactory environmental safety programme. They simply want to dump the old paint removed from ships into the Hawksbill Creek. The CDR activists would have none of it, and thus Mr. St. George's broadside. Mr. Ingraham just sat grinning as St. George spoke. Things surely have changed since 1992, and maybe the Bahamian people will change Mr. Ingraham now that he has changed. Mr. Edward St. George is pictured in the Bahama Journal photo.
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HUBERT INGRAHAM: WILL HE OR WON'T HE?
The Tribune had a scary but interesting headline on Thursday 26 October. It read: PM TO STAND AGAIN. The headline was misleading but it started all sorts of debate. The Tribune interpreted remarks by Hubert Ingraham in Freeport spoken during his progress in Grand Bahama last weekend as meaning that Mr. Ingraham had committed himself to running for a third term for Prime Minister. Mr. Ingraham was quoted as follows: “I have been elected and I will be up for re-election at the November convention, If the party wishes to elect me then it will do so and if it doesn't wish to do so, it won't do so… I do believe that I have an incomplete agenda and I am seeking as rapidly as I can to implement that agenda as some roadblocks have deterred a portion of that agenda from moving along as rapidly as I had hoped. But I do intend to complete it with a view to having a higher percentage of that agenda completed prior to the next election.” The fact is that the convention of the FNM comes up on 7 November and all party officers have to stand for re-election. Mr. Ingraham's second term as Prime Minister is not up until April 2002. So when he stands again as Party Leader in November he will not be entering the third term as Prime Minister. But the speculation is rife that that is what he intends to do, and as they say never let the truth get in the way of a good story. But we must tell you that Tennyson Wells and the folk of his group in the FNM are convinced that they have the votes to defeat Mr. Ingraham at the convention and to put in place a Leader-elect. So desperate are Mr. Ingraham and his forces that they dispatched the Party Chairman down to Long Island on Friday 27 October to overturn the previous delegates elected under the supervision of Party Secretary-General Roston Miller. Mr. Ingraham is entirely hostile to Mr. Miller. Desperate men do desperate things.
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ALLEN DECLARES HE IS RUNNING
Just in case you were wondering why Algernon Allen was gingerly tip-toeing through the tulips of politics being Mr. Nice Guy to the old and the young, the Minister of Social Services aka Minister of Idle Poetry, has shown his hand. We knew it all along. Mr. Allen told The Tribune, published on Thursday 26 October that he intends to put his hat in the ring for the Leadership of the Free National movement when Mr. Ingraham's third term is up. That set the cat amongst the pigeons. At the start of the week there was speculation that Mr. Ingraham was about to dismiss Mr. Allen for reasons of disloyalty, but nothing came of it. Mr. Allen told The Tribune that he made his intention known at that fractious Council meeting on which we reported that took place last Thursday 19 October. Said Mr. Allen: "The country will increasingly demand a sensitive and a compassionate leadership who will develop a new social vision, a social transformation for the betterment of all the people of The Bahamas.” He sounds like one of those sound bite candidates running for office in the US. Trying to say the right thing. But it is difficult to imagine that he is to be the Prime Minister and if he could not as Minister of Social Services do anything to improve the lot of the poor and the downtrodden while he had that job why should we trust him with the Office of Prime Minister. He must be joking.
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CITY MARKET LICENCE REJECTED
This Senator represented a group of small Bahamian businessmen mainly from the Carmichael Road area in their objections to the granting of a shop licence in principle to Bahamas Supermarkets, the parent company for the food store giant City Markets. The application was turned down by the Licencing Authority at its hearing on 18 October. The decision was recently published. The Licensing Authority Chairman said that the area of Carmichael Road was adequately served by the small food store owners in the area now and the need for the supermarket giant did not exist in the area. City markets still has an appeal to the Minister of Economic Development Carl Bethel. This is one of the few decisions by an FNM agency taken for the benefit of small Bahamian businessmen against foreign business interests.
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HUBERT INGRAHAM TRAVELS AGAIN
The Tribune reported on Friday 27th October that Hubert Ingraham left the country on Friday 27 October for a private visit to Canada. He was to attend the graduation ceremonies of his daughter Kelly from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. He returns to the country on Sunday 29 October. Of course, our trusty man Frank Watson is serving as Acting PM, minding the store until Mr. Ingraham gets back in town.
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WHITNEY BASTIAN LOSES NOMINATION BID
There was great excitement at the PLP’s headquarters in Farrington Road. Busloads of people from Andros were brought to town and gathered around the meeting hall on Tuesday 24 October to put pressure on the Candidates Committee of the PLP headed by party Leader Perry Christie to nominate businessman Whitney Bastian for the South Andros seat. There was a spirited discussion and words flew fast and furious. The end result according to The Tribune was a vote 15- 6 against Mr. Bastian’s candidacy. Mr. Bastian called a press conference at the Nassau Beach hotel the next day saying that the party had violated its own Constitution in making the decision against him. He threatened to take the Party to court. In an earlier interview with the Tribune, Party Chairman Obie Wilchcombe told the Tribune that Mr. Bastian "meets all the criteria and there is no reason why he should not get the nomination.” Cheryl Burrows of South Andros said that she felt that the PLP had disrespected the people of South Andros by not choosing Mr. Bastian. Mr. Bastian answered questions about his drug conviction in 1992. The conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal. He said: “That particular conviction came out of the 1987 PLP convention where certain party officials wanted to deny me and were successful in denying me the opportunity to run for office.” Perry Christie, Party Leader of the PLP, told The Bahama Journal on Friday 27 October that party nominations should not be discussed externally but that the process for Mr. Bastian was open and fair. The PLP generally supports Mr. Christie’s position. This Senator supports the Candidates Committee's decision. Mr. Bastian is pictured in the Tribune's photo
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NO CONCH IN TOWN
According to The Tribune of Wednesday 25 October, local restaurants are running low on fresh seafood supplies as windy conditions force fishermen to stay in port. The weather has changed the last two weeks in New Providence. The weather has been windy; with gale force winds at times, and the sky has been overcast, grey with intermittent bursts of heavy rainfall. Bahamians love the weather but tourists are not happy about the cloudy weather. But it's good to give the grouper stocks a rest. And the conch stocks as well.
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WAR OF WORDS ON BUS TRANSPORTATION
Rev. Simeon Hall, who is the President of the Bahamas Christian Council was to the point and direct. He was reported by The Tribune to have said about jitney drivers that some of them need to be “removed from civilized society”. Nicholas Jacques, the President of the Bus Owners Association was furious and called for Rev. Hall to apologize. Mr. Jacques said that Rev. Hall should stick to his job of winning souls. He said that Rev. Hall should not interfere with things of which he knew nothing. Rev. Hall was unrepentant: “He has his opinion and I have mine. He said himself that there are several fellows driving jitneys who don't act as they should. The whole country is beset by a spirit of indiscipline and it runs through all sectors of our society, particularly in these public institutions.” The jitneys are under the gun now because the Comptroller of Road Traffic has embarked on a campaign of fines and suspensions for bad jitney drivers. Last week a jitney driver struck another motorist in the face in a road rage incident. Mr. Jacques and his fellow owners have now asked the Government for an increase in the fare for jitneys from 75 cents to one dollar and on extended runs to $2. Of course, many remember that it was Mr. Jacques and fellow activist Rodney Moncur who forced the Government of Sir Lynden Pindling to back down on an increase in the fare to one dollar back in 1989.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO NEW LAWYERS
Fourteen new lawyers were called to the Bar of The Bahamas on Friday 27 October. Chief Justice Joan Sawyer presided. Cilis Watkins, a graduate of C. R. Walker High School and from a family of teachers and educators was amongst the new lawyers. He worked with this Senator's firm Gwendolyn House for a short time. He is now employed at Anthony Thompson & Co. Keith Bell who got a first class honours at UWI for his Law Degree and won top honours in the debate competition at the law schools of the Council of Legal Education of the West Indies and was the top graduate of the Eugene Dupuch Law School was also called to the Bar. Donovan Dorsette, Mr. Bell's fellow police officer, was also called to the Bar. The two officers are now doing pupilage at the Attorney General's Office and helping to draft a new Police Act, they're recently returned from a stint in Barbados, their old stomping ground doing research on the point. Antoinette Allen, the friend of a friend, was also called to the bar. Ms. Allen works at Graham Thompson & Co. Congratulations to them all. A smart and ambitious crop of young Bahamians. The top of the heap.
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ATTENTION YOUNG LAWYERS
Chief Justice Joan Sawyer has published three new Practice Directions relating to injunctions both inter parte and ex parte. Please note the Tribune Thursday 27 October, page 20. We will try to get the electronic version and provide it for you if we can. Also practice directions relating to civil and criminal appeals from Magistrates Courts. This is another attempt by the Chief Justice to get on top of the problem of delay in the system.
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FRED MITCHELL ON THE POST OFFICE
On Monday 23 October, this Senator as Opposition spokesman on labour, held a press conferences at the main Nassau Post Office to complain about the state of the postal service. A call was made to privatize the Post Office. The mail services have deteriorated steadily in The Bahamas The mail sometimes takes ten to fourteen days to be delivered within New Providence. Delays to the Family Islands are worse. Mail from US gets lost or misdirected. The Post Office in Freeport is badly in need of repair. The Postmaster answered the criticism the next day saying that what this spokesman said was not true. Of course we were not talking to the Postmaster. The Minister is Dion Foulkes and he needs to give a comprehensive statement to the public about the Post Office and what the Government intends to do about bad service. The statement was well received. You can click here for the full statement.
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MITCHELL: PINDLING AND ME
This columnist has finally gotten a start on the book about his political experiences from 1976 to the present. A public presentation was made for two hours in the form of a lecture at the College of The Bahamas auditorium in Nassau called: Pindling & Me, a social/political history. You can click here for the full text of the address. Video tapes are available of the presentation.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO GORMAN BANNISTER
His father was a good friend and supporter. Liked the man a lot, Everette Bannister. So this columnist attend the wedding of Gorman Bannister, publisher of Black Belt News, the scorchingist newspaper in The Bahamas, on Friday 27 October at 11 a.m. A cadre of PLPs and CDR people were present. Pierre Dupuch and his wife also attended. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Bannister. Mr. Bannister is married to the former Elizabeth Burns, secretary to Mr. Bradley Roberts PLP MP for Grants Town and executive with Burns House.
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OWEN BETHEL SAYS DON'T WORRY ABOUT IRS
Last week we reported that the Internal Revenue Service of the United States has a new attack on The Bahamas. It has filed suit in the US courts to get American Express and MasterCard who have offshore account transactions to disclose those transactions and accounts of US citizens. It is a means at getting at tax cheats, or in the more polite parlance, those who underreport their income. Owen Bethel, President of Montague Securities International, seemed not to be too bothered about it. He was quoted in the Tribune's business section of Tuesday 24 October as saying ”One of the objectives of [of the IRS] is sabre rattling, in that if they raise the issue, they cause other people to think twice before attempting to avoid tax payments. It is intended to put fear in those who may be considering it at this time.”.
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GOLDEN GIRLS AT ATLANTIS
The men of Atlantis Paradise Island cannot resist mugging it up with beautiful, talented ladies. Sun International executives at Paradise Island were shown this week in a picture with three of the Golden Girls. The women had a chance to get some rest and relaxation on the tab of Atlantis. The picture by Gus Roberts shows from right: Pauline Davis-Thompson (gold and silver medallist in the Olympics 2000; Senior Vice president for Sun J. Barrie Farrington; Gold Medallists 2000 Olympics Debbie Ferguson and Eldice Clarke-Lewis and Ed Fields, VP of Public Affairs at Sun. Chandra Stirrup, the last of the women medalists joined the group later. Both Sevatheda Fynes and Chandra Sturrup, the other members, were not present for the photo.
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THE NEW OLYMPIC POOL IS A BIRD BATH?

Seven and half million dollars were spent on the new National Aquatics Centre. The olympic-size swimming pool was built by the Bahamas Government with its money and that of Betty Kenning the rich heiress to the Kelly Lumber Yard fortune. According to Vincent Wallace-Whitfield, president of the Bahamas Swimming Federation, the facility is under-utilized. He also told The Tribune on Tuesday 24 October that there are no security guards at the facility. Mr. Whitfield said that he couldn't say if the pool was ready for use. And so it may be fair to call it an expensive bird bath. The Tribune photo of the bird bath is shown.
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BLACKLIST SPEECH FROM THE PRIME MINISTER
We carry the text of the Prime Minister's Communication to the House of Assembly delivered on 18 October, 2000.  Mr. Ingraham went on a progress through Europe for one month beginning in September.  He reported in this address what he accomplished.  We think that Mr. Ingraham is badly misguided and has sold out the interests of The Bahamas but since this is public policy we think that our readers ought to see it. Click here.
 

NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA

Tennyson (& his chequebook) To The Rescue - FNM Leader-elect hopeful Tennyson Wells is said to have come to the rescue of the Grand Bahama FNM's pre-convention boat cruise this past week. The cruise which normally nets somewhere around 1200 patrons managed to sell only 300 tickets. The resulting cash deficit left the cruise ship 'Discovery' docked until funds were provided. Enter Tennyson Wells. Meantime Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham is reported by observers to have "shaken hands and beat a hasty retreat from the cruise when he realized that he would have been outnumbered by opponents within the party". The cruise turned out to be a colossal flop with party forces bickering over where money from former cruises was spent. FNMs in Grand Bahama are now fast approaching the deadline of whom to support in the convention excitement over leader, but this past week, at least, observers say that Wells was clearly the man.

First Couple Visits - The Governor General and Lady Turnquest were patrons at the recent Red Ribbon Ball in Grand Bahama sponsored by Imperial Life in the cause of AIDS prevention and treatment. By all accounts, the ball was a success.

St. George on Lloyd-Werft - Grand Bahama Port Authority Chairman Edward St. George this week promised "a big announcement" concerning the beleaguered ships' dry dock facility Lloyd-Werft (See story above). Word is that Lloyd-Werft is not closing, but changing hands. Insiders say that the move has nothing to do with charges that the facility is not environmentally sound but more to do with recent costly errors made which caused a falling out with Mr. St. George. Stay tuned.