Posted by Sen. Fred Mitchell: Uncensored on April 10, 2001 at 10:39:42:
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
Sen. Fred Mitchell Uncensored
Fredmitchelluncensored.com
e-mail timbuktu@batelnet.bs
PRAISE FOR BRADLEY ROBERTS
There has been a lot of sanctimonious claptrap written and spoken about Bradley Roberts MP for
Grants Town and his action in the House of Assembly on Wednesday 4 April. Mr. Roberts called the
Prime Minister a madman and he forced the early closure of the House by threatening mayhem. Some
persons on the other side of the House ducked, as the Leader of the Opposition restrained Mr. Roberts
telling him: "Don't throw the book". We applaud Mr. Robert's action and he should have thrown it.
It is incredible how pompous and dishonest some in this country can be. Polite to a fault. Here we
have the Prime Minister of the country using the power of the office to impose and limit and restrict free
debate. What is one to do after this is done, time and time again? We have to raise our voices and
sometimes physical actions may be necessary.
One remembers the situation in South Africa. The conservative elements in this country could not
understand and refused to understand why we condoned the violence used against the Apartheid
regime. Sometimes it is the only way to achieve and do good and certainly in that situation in South
Africa that was blandly and most often physically oppressive, there was no choice.
We have not reached that point in The Bahamas, but the Prime Minister of The Bahamas must come to know that there are consequences for his actions. And if he persists in oppressing the minority then the minority is going to cause trouble for him, even if it means causing physical trouble for him.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL IN THE HOUSE
Last Week we reported that the Air Traffic Controllers at the Nassau International Airport had been locked out illegally by the Government of The Bahamas their employer. By letters dated 23 March, the Government sent them home on what is being politely called 'administrative leave' for three months. The hitch is, according to the rules of their profession if they are off the job for three months, then they are decertified as controllers and then the Government will say you are fired. This is contrary to the rules of the Public Service on how you discipline an employee of the public service. So we are off to court before Senior Justice Emmanuel Osadebay on Wednesday 11 April to seek an order to quash the decision. Air Traffic Controllers demonstrated on the House day and President Roscoe Perpall had his youngster with him in this Tribune photo. But the House of Assembly agreed with the Opposition that as a matter of urgency, the matter of air traffic control needed to be debated in the House. The Leader of the House Algernon Allen came with the lame excuse that the Government was withdrawing the offer to debate because a legal action had been filed in the Courts and to discuss the matter would make it sub judice. Of course that did not prevent the Minister for Transport C.A. Smith from going on the radio and talking about the matter to all and sundry. The sub judice rule, that while a matter is active in the courts, it cannot be discussed was only used as an excuse not to debate the matter. The Prime Minister though insisted that since the PLP was interested in safety at the airport, the Minister could speak to the issue of safety. Bradley Roberts had enough. He exploded and told the Prime Minister that he is a madman; that if Mr. Smith could speak then the Opposition could speak. He raised a book about to throw it at Mr. Ingraham but Perry Christie, the Leader of the Opposition stepped in to restrain the action. "Don't throw the book," he said. We applaud Mr. Roberts' action. Next time: throw the book!
INGRAHAM OVER THE HILL
Those who had any doubt that we were in election season should now be able to see. Hubert Ingraham and his disintegrating FNM took their road show to Englerston, the seat of PLP MP Philip Galanis. The PLPs outnumbered the FNMs in the crowd and Perry Christie's spies were everywhere. Mr. Ingraham had great difficulty connecting with the crowd. But one thing is clear: this man has been deeply wounded by the talk that he is an Uncle Tom. So everything he is doing now is designed to get the support of the Black masses. We don't know why he doesn't go into Montagu where he belongs and of whose kind he is. Anyway the latest salvo in the ghetto was to tell the young men to value life. That slime ball Ozzie Brown who mis-edits the Nassau Guardian had a headline to that effect and a picture of Mr. Ingraham hugging a young boy on the front page (we hope the little boy was holding onto his pockets). But what we understand is coming is a September election on the old register because the Prime Minister is unable to get the people out to register. That's what the FNM insiders are saying.
But that flew in the face of contrary rumours that Mr. Ingraham had put a stop order on his order for 200,000 T-shirts and 100,000 golf shirts. His supplier had done shirts for 15 constituencies but was a told to stop. It also flies in the face of another story going around that Mr. Ingraham intends to gerrymander the seats by reducing them from 38 to 40… that he intends to change the names of 15 constituencies. So that means when the election comes, people won't even know where they are. All things will be new and confusing. Our bet is that the election is next year so that he can carry out his evil intentions. But we always say, the best laid plans of mice and men.…
You know the rest.
INGRAHAM ON DISCRIMINATION WITHOUT COMMENT
The Prime Minister says that he intends to bring legislation to the House to end discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference. Here is what the Bahama Journal quoted him as saying on Thursday 5 April at his party's rally in Englerston: "… Now we're introducing a minimum wage in law for everyone else. Everyone is entitled to a decent pay for a decent days work, and we're going to put in a law minimum standards for the workplace, and we're going to legislate against discrimination against the aged, against women, against the handicapped and we will end discrimination based on sexual preference."
LEVI GIBSON CELEBRATES 87th BIRTHDAY
He is my godfather. He Levi Gibson, the real estate broker, who is the quintessential godfather. He is the godfather to many many persons. He has helped many many young people get a start in life. He is a good man. He was born in a whole different Bahamas in the poor settlement of Simms, Long Island. From that settlement he has risen by his bootstraps and with a primary school education to the highest heights and councils of the land. He is a founder of Kiwanis in The Bahamas. He has served on numerous boards. He is a former President of The Bahamas Amateur Athletic Association (BAAA). He is the founder of Levi Gibson Real Estate. He is a former valet to the late Sir Harold Christie. He is simply a good and great man. His birthday was 5 April and that made him 87. We hope he had a good day.
A COUNTRY IN FEAR
Every time the chief slave in the country, AKA the Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham goes on the stump, he
is always talking about how he freed the slaves. He keeps talking about how much freedom there is in the
country. But freedom from whom and for what? The picture we show from the Nassau Guardian is the Chief Justice Dame Joan Sawyer swearing in the last Chairman of the defunct United Bahamian Party Geoffrey Johnstone as Governor General, acting while Sir Orville Turnquest was out of the country until Sunday 8 April. It is disgraceful that you have a man who still solicits money for FNM causes and conventions take off that hat one day and the next day be sitting in Government House as a Governor General, then next day he is out raising money again for the FNM. There we have one of the former masters, thought long to have been vanquished, as our overlord again. Nice man, but the symbolism is wrong. But that's how Hubert goes. So there is plenty of freedom for the others. But what about the lowly workers? We get this scenario all the time: a worker calls from Paradise Island. He and his fellow workers are working in an office without windows, air conditioning only. There are fumes coming through the system that are making them ill. He calls and asks this senator what to do. The response was immediate, go to your union representative and complain. But, he says, the people are afraid that they might lose their jobs if they complain and be seen as troublemakers. My response: what is the problem with this generation? They will suffer sickness and permanent injury to their health for three hundred dollars a week at Sun International rather than complain and get the matter straight. And then in Lucaya, Grand Bahama. There was an election two weeks ago for the recognition of the Union as the bargaining agent for the hotel. Of the 1500 employees, only 500 participated in the vote. One third of the potential voters. They told our friends that sure they support the union but they can't afford for the man to see them voting on that issue. So again we ask the Overseer and Chief Slave. What freedom did you give and for whom?
INHERITANCE LAWS TO CHANGE
The Prime Minister announced in Parliament on Wednesday 4 April changes to the laws dealing with Wills, Administration of Estates and Inheritance. In making the announcement he said: "For me also this is a great moment: it is the fulfilment of my lifelong political quest to bring about meaningful social change in and to our archaic unjust and unfair laws relating to the distribution of the property of deceased persons. The legislation will ensure that Bahamian society lives up to the standard of honesty, accountability and fairness to which we all claim we subscribe, insofar as property matters are concerned. It is, indeed, a long overdue step forward." These bills are of course PLP Bills that have been around since 1982. The fact is they were not proceeded with by the PLP because of a combination of factors, not the least of them married women were up in arms about the provisions on abolishing dower rights for women and the provision that would allow children born out of wedlock to claim against their husbands' estates. None of the provisions in the bills are revolutionary. They are long overdue. Mr. Ingraham admitted that he had helped to craft this legislation as a PLP backbencher when he chaired a Committee to which the late Prime Minister Pindling appointed him. The new bill limits the abolition of dower to those marriages after the act. So those who have dower rights will continue to have them. Dower is a one third life interest of a woman in the real property of her husband. The Inheritance Bill also allows a provision for children of a marriage who were not the children of the person deceased to claim upon the estate of the person deceased if during the life time, he or she was treated as a child of the deceased's married family. And the more difficult one; a provision where children born out of wedlock can claim against the estate of their deceased father, if he left a will and did not provide for their maintenance in the will. In order to qualify for that, the man must have been adjudged the putative father under the Affiliation Proceedings Act, and also have been recognized as the child with the father signing the birth certificate at the Registry of Records. Then the court can grant a provision to the extent of the reasonable maintenance of the child. Wives are again up in arms. The Government says that it will hold public discussion on the matter. The supposed real women's champion Janet Bostwick must let her views be known on this matter if it is to have any chance of public acceptance.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO COME
The election season is on. Promises! Promises! Promises! This time it's another promise of legislation. The Prime Minister and Minister of everything also announced Wednesday 4 April that he intends to present a bill to amend the constitution of The Bahamas to make men equal to women in all matters of law. What this means precisely we don't know but it should mean that the provisions in Article 26 on discrimination should include gender in the definition, it should also mean that the citizenship provisions will change substantially so that the same provisions that now apply to men will apply to women. Now get this: the Labour Bills have been on hold for one year since he announced on 28 March last year that they would be passed by Labour Day 2000; the Civil Aviation Act to help rescue the airport; the Constitutional Amendment; the Inheritance Laws and a general election. Oh yes and remember BaTelCo was supposed to have been privatized by the end of 1998. The latest deadline given by the Minister of Finance was April 2000. That deadline is passing. Word is that the Government spent 100,000,000 dollars of the Bahamian people's money downsizing BaTelCo, a million dollars on the auditor's fees alone, and the auditors still can't tell the Government what Batelco is worth. Who says there was no opposition in the country? Remember this from the Lion in Winter: "I don't have to stop you. I need only delay you."
THE CASE OF SAMUEL 'NINETY' KNOWLES
Arguments in the request by the United States Government to extradite Samuel 'Ninety' Knowles to the U.S. for conspiracy to import drugs into their country began on Friday 6 April. Mr. Knowles was brought to court in chains and has been linked to every sort of conspiracy since he was imprisoned in October of last year, real or imagined. He is before Magistrate Carolita Bethel. Mr. Knowles is pictured in The Tribune photo of Tuesday 3 April.
NIGEL BOWE TO RETURN HOME
According to The Tribune of Tuesday 3 April, Nigel Bowe is to be freed from jail after serving half of his sentence of 15 years. He was set to return home on Saturday 7 April from New Jersey where he was imprisoned. His family is said to be delighted as is Mr. Bowe about his return. Many Bahamians think that Mr. Bowe was made a scapegoat in a kangaroo court trial by U.S. Federal authorities to get at the late Prime Minister Pindling in a baseless belief that the late Sir Lynden was involved in drug smuggling.
RAY MINUS ENDS COMEBACK
We promised the results of Ray Minus fight last Friday 30 March in Atlantic City, a comeback fight for the World Boxing Council Continent of Americas lightweight title. There was a TKO in the eighth round. Mr. Minus is 36 years old. He lost the fight regrettably. It appears to have ended any hope of a return to international, professional competition.
ONE HELLUVA NATIONAL TRUST MEETING
The stodgy Bahamas National Trust, bastion of polite environmental activism, was a little shaken up this week when storm troopers from the radical environmentalist side (this Senator amongst them) decided that its time for a change of regimes in the Bahamas National Trust. The Trust has statutory authority to oversee environmental matters in The Bahamas and is the guardian over hundreds of thousands of acres of national parks both above and below ground in The Bahamas. Until the radical environmentalists like Sam Duncombe from Re Earth got involved, the Trust was blithely going along to support the Clifton Cay project that would have devastated the last repository of slave and loyalist culture in New Providence. That project is dead in the water. Elections for the Board of the Trust were held on Thursday 5 April and the slate of the Trust was challenged from members from the floor. Only four of the members from the floor made it and five from the usual crew were returned. The radicals expect to continue the fight next year until the body is totally reformed.
Among the conservatives returning was Macgregor Robertson, an FNM ideologue who resigned in protest, when the Trust changed its position and condemned the Clifton Cay project. Pray tell why has he decided to return, to turn back the tide. In any event Sam Duncombe, although not making it herself to the Boardroom said that she was pleased at the results. "Change is inevitable", she was quoted by The Tribune as saying. Well said!
STATEMENT ON BARBADOS CAMPUS PROTEST
This Senator as the Opposition's spokesman on Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Thursday 5 April calling upon the Minister of Foreign Affairs to check her facts when she claimed that Barbados police during the protest did not beat the Bahamian student. The statement also raised the issue of whether or not the student could get a fair trial in Barbados given the comments of the Prime Minister of Barbados that he supports the police.
THE CONSUL GENERAL IN HONG KONG
The Bahama Journal carried an interview with Camille Johnson, a former classmate in primary school, and now Consul General in Hong Kong for The Bahamas. This is a public servant's post and as such non-political. The interview was with Ed Bethel, President of the Press Club of The Bahamas during a visit to China earlier this year as a guest of the Chinese Government. Interesting interview for me as Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs. But what was especially interesting is that she begins her days she says by accessing the Nassau Guardian's web site and the Bahama Journal's web site. No mention of this web site or any PLP oriented news and information like Bradley Roberts web site. We begin a link to that site today (see above or click here). Well you know, what more should we say? Things that make you go: hmmm!
KING AND BAHAMIAN POSTPONE
The Royal Wedding Committee planning the marriage of African King Ayi to Bahamian Richa Sands has announced the postponement of the wedding. The committee issued this statement 5 April:
His Majesty King F. A. Ayi, traditional hereditary Royal Monarch of the Guin Kingdom of the Ayigbe people of Togo, Benin and Ghana in West Africa, and his fiancee, the former Miss Bahamas Richa Sands, now known as Princess Ayele-Richa, announced they will be postponing their wedding date, originally planned for later this month, to later this summer.
The King has been occupied by several matters this month requiring his attention in his native Togo and Benin, while Princess Ayele-Richa has been travelling extensively to meet various recording and performance commitments around the world.
A spokesman for the King indicated that all these commitments have left insufficient time to properly plan and co-ordinate such an important event as the Royal Wedding.
The King and Princess expect to announce shortly the new date for the wedding here in Nassau, likely some time in July, this summer.
NEWS FROM GRAND BAHAMA
'Our' Lucaya Sales Staff - The sales and marketing team at 'Our' Lucaya has spent months trying to figure out why one season after another ends in occupancy disappointment. Could it be that not one is a Bahamian? How can you 'sell' a destination with no one who knows the place as only a Bahamian can? Perhaps it is 'Their' Lucaya. Things that make you go hmmm!