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VOLUME:115 No.256, NOVEMBER 29TH, 2018
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INSIDE
PM: Patients safe in doctors’ revolt
Minnis insists care still medics’ priority - not cash By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis is convinced doctors will not jeopardise the healthcare of patients as members of the Consultant Physicians Staff Association head into their third day of industrial action. Dr Minnis declined to comment substantively on the doctors’ concerns when asked yesterday, but said he will reach out to CPSA head Dr Locksley Munroe and try to reach an amicable solution with him, “colleague to colleague”.
The Public Hospitals Authority activated its emergency operations centre on Tuesday, declaring that all out-patient specialty clinics and elective surgeries have been cancelled until further notice as 115 senior doctors withdrew their services following failed negotiations with PHA. Senior doctors are fighting for a base salary increase from $48,000 to $75,000, but PHA reportedly would agree to an increase up to only $60,500. Meanwhile, the Bahamas Nurses Union is seeking SEE PAGE FIVE
THE government’s top official has branded key civil servants as “extraordinarily weak”, with The Bahamas’ “40 percent overstaffed” public sector ranking among the Caribbean’s worst performers. Cabinet Secretary Camille Johnson’s criticism is disclosed in a just-published Inter-American Development Bank
assessment that gave The Bahamas a score of only 19 out of 100 for civil service development and quality. The report, which said the Bahamian civil service has “room for significant improvement”, revealed that Ms Johnson - who heads the service - said it was “overstaffed by as much as 40 percent”. And she is not the only senior official holding major concerns about its efficiency and effectiveness. FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
L SOUR CE
LIGHTS OUT FOR 5,400 ‘CAN’T PAY’ FAMILIES By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net
WORKS Minister Desmond Bannister revealed yesterday that 5,412 households across the country are “off the grid,” as a result of not paying energy bills for 60 days or more and collectively owe Bahamas Power and Light more than $5m. The revelation came as he clarified statements reported in the press that have been attributed to him over the last week. Those reports, claimed the Carmichael MP, had suggested the number of disconnected consumers had maxed out at around 6,000, with a low point of 4,500. However, addressing those figures again yesterday, Mr Bannister insisted the total was at 5,412 nationwide. SEE PAGE SEVEN
THREE-YEAR CUT OFF FOR INVESTORS’ INCENTIVES
SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS ‘EXTRAORDINARILY WEAK’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
$1
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
‘SANDALS BUTLER GROPED MY BRIDE’ AMERICAN couple John and Ashley Reid Pascarella are suing Sandals Resorts for $30 million, alleging the butler molested the bride as she slept. Full story - Page 3.
THE Bahamas’ bid to secure a longer investment transition period than three years was blocked by the European Union, which had demanded these incentives be ended in six months. Deputy prime minister KP Turnquest yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that existing investors will only be able to enjoy their special investment incentives until end-2021 after EU resistance thwarted the government’s efforts to obtain up to a 20-year extension for these clients. FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
MISSING PILOT: SEARCH TO BE ABANDONED? By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net
A SEARCH and recovery effort is still ongoing for missing pilot Byron Ferguson and his aircraft however nothing new has been found, National Security Minister Marvin Dames and Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore Tellis Bethel said yesterday. The story of Mr Ferguson, 34, whose six-seater plane crashed in the waters
WRECKAGE from the plane off Nirvana Beach on November 8, has transfixed the nation, with much public criticism levied at the way law enforcement
has conducted initial search efforts into the incident. Mr Dames and Commodore Bethel spoke to reporters yesterday following the commissioning ceremony of HMBS Madeira at the RBDF Coral Harbour Base. “The (RBDF) along with (Bahamas Air Sea Search and Rescue Association) BASRA and the (police) and volunteers continue to search,” Mr Dames told reporters. SEE PAGE SEVEN
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
DIANE PHILLIPS DUSTING OFF THE COVERS TO FIND HIDDEN MEMORIES
SEE PAGE EIGHT
PAGE 2, Thursday, November 29, 2018
THE TRIBUNE
COMPUTER CODING PROGRAMME LAUNCHED IN GRAND BAHAMA By ANDREW COAKLEY
WITH its continuing goal of transforming Grand Bahama into “Silicon Island” and the country’s technology hub, the Office of the Prime Minister in Grand Bahama has joined forces with the YMCA to launch a computer coding, ICT skills development programme. Minister of State for Grand Bahama Kwasi Thompson said the launch of the YMCA’s programme is yet another step in the progress of realising the dream of the second city becoming a tech hub. “We are pleased to work with the YMCA to make this programme possible, which will expose 100 young people to software development and coding skills, which are the essentials for the technology industry,” said Senator Thompson, who officially launched the programme on Saturday. “The importance of this programme is proven in the fact that technology will be needed in every single profession, so I (encourage)
you young people to continue pursuing whatever dreams you may have, but do it through the lens that technology is going to give you an added advantage, when it comes to your respective professions. And the earlier you are exposed to it, the better.” Those taking part in the computer coding, ICT skills development programme will benefit in two ways – not only will they have the opportunity to receive ICT or technology training, but they will be provided with more possibilities and opportunities for their future. Mr Thompson encouraged the first phase of students for the YMCA computer coding, ICT skills development programme to take the opportunity seriously and to take full advantage of it. He urged them to complete the programme and be anxious to put in practice all that they have learned to not only obtain employment, but to change their island, their country and positively affect the world.
BAIL DENIED AS PAIR FACE MULTIPLE FRAUD CHARGES AT ROYAL BANK OF CANADA By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net
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A 40-year-old man was charged yesterday with forging multiple Royal Bank of Canada cheques drawn on a local cable provider’s account, and then using them to obtain $20,000 cash from one of the bank’s branches earlier this month. Carrol Burrows, of Oxford Avenue, was arraigned before Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux on multiple fraud related charges concerning the $17,000 he is alleged to have fraudulently obtained from RBC’s Mackey Street location last week. Burrows and another man, 28-year-old Juan Adderley of Victoria Gardens, are further accused of forging a RBC cheque in attempts to defraud the RBC branch of another $10,000 around the same time. It is alleged that on November 21, Burrows forged a RBC cheque, drawn on Cable Bahamas’ account and made payable to Thomas Rolle in the
amount of $7,000, and then fraudulently obtained that amount of cash from the bank on November 21. The next day, on November 22nd, he allegedly forged a RBC cheque made payable to Theodore Knowles in the amount of $10,000 and then fraudulently obtained that amount of cash from the bank. He is further accused of laundering the $7,000 on November 21, and the $10,000 on November 22, knowing that they represented the proceeds of crime. The two men are also accused of forging a RBC cheque made payable to Ronald Cartwright in the amount of $10,000, and attempting to defraud RBC at Mackey Street of that amount. Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges and the matter was adjourned to February 20 and 21, 2019 for trial. Bail was denied and the two were ordered to be remanded into custody until those dates or until such time as they are successful in getting bail from the Supreme Court.
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THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 3
AMERICAN COUPLE SUING SANDALS FOR $30M, ALLEGING BUTLER MOLESTED BRIDE
‘As I started to wake myself up, I screamed. I realised his hands were down my pants and I jumped out of bed.’ By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net
AN American couple are suing Sandals Resorts for $30 million, alleging the butler assigned to them as part of their “dream wedding” package in the Bahamas molested the bride as she slept. Ashley Reid Pascarella, 32, and her husband John Pascarella, 32, booked their wedding package in April 2016 at Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau. The couple arranged for 70 guests to join them on what was to be the wedding of a lifetime — a dream trip which instead descended into a nightmare, based on the allegations the couple described in their lawsuit, which was filed in the Supreme Court of the state of New York on Tuesday. According to the court documents, Sandals assigned a butler to the couple. On April 15, 2016, the lawsuit alleges Moral Adderley “stealthily entered the bedroom of (Mrs Pascarella) and undertook surreptitiously to fondle, grope, and take sexual liberties of (her) beneath her bed-clothes and clothing.” Mrs Pascarella also described the ordeal to the New York Post, which she said occurred around 2am. “Something was prompting me to wake up, something was wrong,” she told The Post. “As I started to wake myself up, I realised his hands were down my pants and I jumped out of bed. I screamed. He got up, he ran out of the room. I was just kind of disheveled and disoriented. I couldn’t make sense of what just happened. I was in shock.’’ Mrs Pascarella said her husband was in the bathroom at the time of the attack. Upon hearing her screams, he took off after the butler, who was subsequently arrested, the couple said. Mrs Pascarella also said that although resort officials told her the butler had been fired that night and his work phone with client information confiscated,
AMERICAN couple John and Ashley Reid Pascarella, above and top, are suing Sandals, alleging butler Moral Adderley, inset, molested the bride as she slept. she was “horrified” the next morning when he called her cell phone “to take her breakfast order as if the assault never occurred.” Despite the traumatic event, the couple decided to have their wedding, not wanting to disappoint the dozens of guests who flew to join them. According to court documents, officers from the Cable Beach Police Station processed Mrs Pascarella’s sexual assault report on April 15, 2016. On April 22 2016, the lawsuit says the butler pleaded guilt to indecent assault in a Magistrate’s Court. The Pascarellas told the Post that the resort staff were “very dismissive” of the matter and solely offered them a refund of the event - $15,000 - in exchange for the couple signing a nondisclosure
agreement — a proposal the couple rejected. Mrs Pascarella also said she was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the incident and has spent two years in therapy. In the lawsuit, the couple says the “pain, suffering, hurt, and humiliation” of the assault were “due entirely to the negligence,
failure, direct and indirect, of (Sandals), its agents, servants, and/or employees.” The two are suing the resort for $10m for the resorts’ negligence, another $10m at least for the breach of contract, and a third sum of at least $10m for Mr Pascarella’s “loss of consortium”. Sandals spokeswoman Debbie-Ann White, senior vice-president of public relations and promotions at Unique Vacations Inc, sent a statement to The Tribune on the matter. “There is nothing more important than the safety and security of our guests, and we take allegations of criminal assault at our resorts seriously,” the statement noted. We have worked tirelessly over decades to create a safe and enjoyable environment at our resorts, and our efforts include collaborating with various government and law enforcement resources to ensure we are among the safest resorts operating in the Caribbean. “Our approach relies on a combination of robust policies, employee training, and security infrastructure and technology across all our resorts in multiple countries. We routinely evaluate these to ensure they reflect best in class methods in the locations where we operate.”
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THE TRIBUNE
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How immigrants negotiate a place in America ONCE undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers arrive on American soil, they run the risk of being stopped by law enforcement officials who are charged with investigating their status. A memo released by the Department of Homeland Security in February reveals how great this risk will be under President Donald Trump. The department is planning to hire thousands of additional enforcement agents and has widened the scope of immigrants who are a priority for deportation. It also calls for an expansion of the 287(g) programme that designates law enforcement officers as immigration officers, which poses a series of questions that are as of yet unanswered. What kind of training will they receive? Will they speak more languages than English? What are their competencies in areas such as cross cultural communications? My research has indicated that many, if not most, encounters between noncitizens and police focus solely on the violation or crime, rather than immigration status. But accusations about arresting officers violating noncitizens’ rights through, for example, excessive force and abuse have raised questions about who is targeted, and why some migrants are arrested and others let go. The stakes are extremely high for immigrants – especially at the borders and during traffic stops. Officers exercise discretion as to how to treat each case. The risk now is that officers’ decisions are being informed by a White House that claims undocumented people and asylum seekers are unwanted because they are criminals or terrorists. Research shows that exposure to anti-immigration laws can easily trigger negative racial attitudes within the population and among officers of the law. As the research of historian of ideas Marc Angenot has suggested, the social discourse is modified by proclamations coming from powerful voices, such as governments. So a version of reality that describes vulnerable migrants as criminals can affect what is said about migrants, and thus affect how an officer will choose to enforce the law. Following up on my recent book, Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law, I’m focusing my new research on how language is at play during “first encounters” between migrants and officials in the US I’m interviewing officers and officials on the front lines to learn how language and communications affect whether and how they will enforce federal immigration rules, statutes and regulations. There are an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the US. including those living in mixed-status households. This suggests that officers will have to make tough choices about enforcement. Language, among many other factors, can play an important role in these decisions. Most undocumented migrants speak Spanish, but even in a single language there are issues of
accents, intonations and inflection. A Spanish speaker trained in Spain may have great difficulty understanding a Cuban speaker, for example, and given how crucial are these first encounters, the resulting misunderstandings could be very damaging. When a person with a viable asylum claim enters the US, or when an undocumented person is stopped by a police officer, the first challenge that the migrant faces is to simply make him or herself understood in English. In some cases, the officer has foreign language training, which can help. But even if there is adequate linguistic skill, communication issues are more than just the rendering of one language into another. An immigration lawyer I interviewed indicated to me: “There is a cultural barrier. For instance, Guatemalans tend to be very deferential, so they do not want to answer any question directly. Many of their answers begin with: ‘Thank God that…’ and then just continue along beginning at a point that is two years before anything happened. [Even] for a translator it’s very difficult, because they want to just go all over the place, and the answer has nothing to do with the question.” An unaccompanied minor seeking entrance to the US through its southern border may invoke gang violence in Central America as the reason for his flight, and thus appeal to humanitarianism and international law. A crop-picker who is pulled over by a police officer in a farming community might act with deference and respect, indicating family values and obedience to the law. Or, she might try to emphasize how much she is needed by the farmer who has employed her, and how important her labor is to the community and for the country. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argues that linguistic interactions are like negotiations inside of a kind of marketplace. As such, the meaning of an utterance isn’t determined by a simple substitution of one meaning for one word. Rather, he says, utterances are negotiated, bartered, bought and sold as though they were goods. An officer can choose to examine these wares and weigh their value. He can ask for more information about their origin, or even buy them. Trump has been marketing utterances about securing our borders, and blocking certain types of migrants from entering the U.S. What can migrants say to officials who are threatening to arrest and deport them? What if they have grounds for staying, but don’t possess the linguistic wares required to effect the appropriate negotiation? Finally, how is a vulnerable migrant supposed to communicate all of the necessary facts of his case in a place that is hostile to his very presence? By Robert F Barsky of Vanderbilt University. This article first appeared on The Conversation.
What would happen if we had to deal with a major crash? EDITOR, The Tribune WHAT would happen, God help us if it did, a 737 or 767 was to crash in the waters off LPIA? The Bahamas is an archipelagic group of islands within which there is a strong aviation linkage between the hubs of Nassau and Freeport and the remaining islands. Served by scheduled airlines - charter and those numerous ‘hackers’ which successive governments refuse - totally refuse – to regulate. This most recent incident off NavonaLove Beach has dramatically witnessed the unpreparedness of our Emergency Services if this aircraft was carrying six-eight-ten or more passengers it would have been a total
tragedy, a disaster. Why? Planes have been flying through our country for years and we seem to trust in the Almighty rather than preaching. The not so long ago Andros ‘hacker’ crash and the loss of lives promises yet again we will regulate, but nothing has been done. It is understood that some local MP’s fly every week on known “hacker aircraft’ trusting. Few years back the crash off Coral Harbour Road, eight lost their lives, and again promises and what? Nothing “hacking” is still a very viable industry. W THOMPSON Nassau, November 16, 2018.
When history has a story to guide us EDITOR, The Tribune HUNDREDS of Bahamians who are adherents of the Rastafari faith recently commemorated the coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen as the 225th emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930. Claiming to be the direct descendant of Old Testament King Solomon and the queen of Sheba via Menelik I, Ras Tafari acquired the pompous appellation Haile Selassie I, which means ‘‘Might of the Trinity.’’ There is no evidence that Ras Tafari and the Makonnen royal family are descendants of Solomon. Even Ras Tafari himself admitted to Ethiopian aristocrats that the Solomonic legend was just that – a legend. Ethiopians of the lower socio-economic class clung to this belief. What’s more, the biblical texts of 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9 concerning Solomon and the queen of Sheba are silent regarding any intimate relations between the two, which is odd, seeing that 1 Kings 11 informs us that the polygamist Solomon had amassed a harem of 700 wives and 300 concubines. The entire purported love affair between Solomon and the queen of Sheba is based on an Ethiopian Orthodox Church text called the Kebra Nagast. However, there is good reason to believe that the Sheba mentioned in Scripture was located in present day Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, not in Ethiopia. Along with the November 2 holiday, Bahamian Rastas also regard Ethiopian New Year’s Day (September 11); Marcus Garvey’s birthday (August 17); Ras Tafari’s birthday (July 23); Ethiopian Constitution Day (July 16); Groundation Day (April 21) and Ethiopian Christmas Day (January 7) as holidays on their annual calendar. According to Joseph Hibbert, Leonard P. Howell, the founder of Rastafarianism, believed that every nation had its own
LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net god. If true, it would then mean that the eccentric Howell was a henontheist. Hibbert acknowledged that the Rasta founder dabbled in Hinduism. To Howell, Jesus was the God of white people, Ras Tafari was the god of the Negro race and Rama, Krishna and Buddha were the gods of the Indian people. When Ras Tafari was coronated in 1930, which purportedly fulfilled a prophecy by Marcus Garvey, founder of the United Negro Improvement Association, Howell, along with Archibald Dunkley, Robert Hinds and the aforementioned Hibbert, surmised that he must be the god of Africans. Ironically, Ras Tafari didn’t consider himself to be black. According to him, he was white. Moreover, he owned slaves. This embarrassing aspect of Haile Selassie’s life is conveniently ignored by his black devotees. The Rastas’ belief in Ras Tafarai’s divinity was apparently augmented after invading Italian forces under Benito Mussolini were expelled from Ethiopia with the assistance of Great Britain in 1941; and the official state visit of Hailie Selassie to Jamaica in April 1966 under the auspices of the Jamaican Labour Party government of Prime Minister Alexander Bustamante. Bahamian Rastas, along with their religious counterparts throughout the Caribbean and the rest of the world, are guilty of cognitive dissonance. If Bahamian Rastas are willing to take at face value the historical accounts of Rasta Tafari’s 1930 coronation and his decades-long reign over the Ethiopian people, why then are they refusing to accept the unbiased historical accounts surrounding his demise in 1975, reportedly at the
hands of the CommunistLeninist Derg Leader Mengistu Haile Mariam? It has long been rumoured that the 83-year-old Ras Tafari was strangled to death on August 27, 1975 and that scores of Selassie loyalists were executed on Black Saturday, which was on November 23, 1974. That was the infamous Massacre of the Sixty. Notwithstanding the explanation given for Ras Tafari’s death as a result of respiratory failure, many Ethiopians believe that their monarch was assassinated by the Junta military. In 1992 his buried remains were discovered in the Imperial Palace in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church gave Selassie a state funeral in November of 2000. Interestingly, the widow of Bob Marley, Rita, took part in the service. In his 1975 ‘‘Rastaman Vibration’’ album, Bob Marley included the song ‘‘Jah Lives’’ after hearing of the demise of his human god. Like his Bahamian counterparts, Marley was not willing to accept the truth of Selassie’s mortality. As Leonard E Barrett, Sr stated in his book The Rastafarians, death is not a factor to Rastas; it only comes to white people. If Bahamian Rastas believe in the divine inspiration of Scripture, then they will accept at face value Hebrews 9:27, which says that ‘‘it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.’’ And now that we have established the historicity of Ras Tafari’s tragic death in 1975, it is now time for members of the Rastafari faith to reexamine their long held doctrine of the divinity of the fallen Ethiopian emperor. If Selassie is in fact dead, and we have no valid reason to believe otherwise, then that would mean that he was no more god than the late American cult leader Jim Jones. KEVIN EVANS Freeport Grand Bahama November 3, 2018
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 5
Patients will be safe in doctors’ revolt, says PM from page one
permission to have a strike poll on December 4 while the Bahamas Doctors Union, the representative body for junior doctors in the country, is considering industrial action as well. “I am a physician also and therefore I want to hear my colleagues’ concerns,” Dr Minnis told the press after the House of Assembly broke for luncheon recess. “I will call Munroe and see what the issues are.” Dr Minnis met with the CPSA weeks ago, but did not resolve their issues. “I’m confident that doctors are very reasonable individuals, they’re professionals,” he said. “I’m confident we can come to an amicable solution. The last thing any doctor wants to do is jeopardise patients’ care. That is not our training. “I’ll give an example. There is a particular doctor who, because he feels that patients may possibly be delayed in receiving their healthcare, he has offered services at his private office, but once an individual has a booking for any particular clinic and they
cannot be seen, they can come with that appointment plan to a private facility and be seen by him, free of charge. That’s how doctors are. We are not driven by money. We are driven by our profession, which is to care for people. The last thing a doctor will do is compromise individual’s care.” Dr Minnis was referring to a special free clinic offered this Friday and Saturday by Dr Harold Munnings to accommodate patients affected by the doctors’ actions this week. The clinic runs 10am-1pm on Friday and 9.30am-12.30pm on Saturday at Grosvenor Medical Centre. Priority will be given to the elderly and Family Island patients; persons must bring a PMH appointment slip and medication. Dr Minnis also dismissed Official Opposition Leader Philip “Brave” Davis’ criticism of the government’s handling of the matter. “He’s the opposition, meaning he opposes,” he said. “But he’s the leader of the opposition, so he is the leader of the opposing faction, so he’ll oppose anything we say. If we say the world is black, he’ll say THE CPSA held a press conference on Tuesday related to impending strike at PMH and all PHA facilities. Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff it’s blue.”
‘DON’T USE PUBLIC HOSPITALS TO TREAT PRIVATE PATIENTS’ STRIKING doctors have been warned they must not use public hospital facilities to treat private patients during their current action against the Public Hospitals Authority. The warning will hit the consultants hard in the pocket as without the operating rooms and other facilities of the Princess Margaret Hospital and other centres, their earnings will be drastically reduced so long as their action continues. PHA Managing Director Catherine Weech told The Tribune last night: “We made it very clear to them that if they would not provide to the public in our hospitals then they couldn’t provide to private patients either. “We are trying to manage that but accept we need to be real about it. (Minister of Health Dr Duane) Sands made it clear that our facilities must not be used.” Ms Weech said the PHA accepted that consultants may attend surgeries with what they could inform the authority was an emergency situation. “But I am cognizant of the fact that we have no way of knowing for certain that when an emergency pops up that it is in fact an emergency,” she said. Over the coming days, she said, the PHA would be monitoring the numbers of patients passing through theatres to see if it is consistent with what the authority would expect from its “no private“ instructions.
STRIKE ACTION AFFECTS CLINICS IN G BAHAMA By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
DOCTORS’ industrial action affected patients in Grand Bahama where about 15 to 20 patients attending clinics at the Rand Memorial Hospital yesterday morning were told that their appointments were cancelled. Philippa Rolle Curry, one of the patients waiting to see a doctor, arrived at 7am for her 8am clinic appointment only to be told it had been cancelled. “They told us that the clinic was cancelled because the doctors are on strike,” Mrs RolleCurry told reporters. She said that her clinic appointment has been rescheduled for early December. Mrs RolleCurry, who now works in Bimini and got time off to go to Grand Bahama to attend the clinic, was disappointed she could not see a doctor. “I am from Grand Bahama, but I work in Bimini at the Hilton Resorts World. I went to clinic to see Dr Lockhart. My appointment was for 8am and I was there around 7am, and we were told at about 9am that the clinic has been cancelled for today and would be rescheduled December 5,” she said. According to Mrs RolleCurry, she also has a therapy appointment with the doctor this week. She complained it is costly for her having to travel back and forth between Bimini and Grand Bahama to keep her doctor’s appointment. She is calling on the government to resolve whatever issues exist with doctors for the patients’ sake. “I don’t know what the internal issues are, but the government needs to really do whatever they have to do speedily because my job
is on the line. I (am) here now because I have a doctor’s certificate not to return to work, but I am scheduled to return for work on Friday. “If I stay here who knows what is going to happen. I don’t have money to go back and forth from Bimini again for December 5.” On Tuesday, Consultant Physicians Staff Association, backed by the Bahamas Doctors Union, said they would withdraw services this week warning that only “life and death” cases will be accommodated until there is a resolution over outstanding physician reimbursements and improvements to base salaries. Anyone reporting to any of the country’s public medical facilities will experience “difficulties” receiving care, the doctors insisted, adding that no elective procedures were to be carried out. Later, the Public Hospitals Authority advised that all electives were cancelled. These included procedures at out-patient specialty clinics, inclusive of medical, surgical, dental, ENT (ear, nose and throat), eye clinic and family medicine clinics, which were reduced until further notice. In a move seen as crippling to healthcare, the two unions maintained the planned industrial action could range from “work to rule”, which means following working rules and hours exactly as they are required to reduce efficiency – utilising sick days, go slow, taking leave as is desired or even demonstrating in the coming days. CSPA President Dr Locksley Munroe said doctors are frustrated by the way officials are dealing with their longstanding concerns. Chief among complaints are doctors’ salaries. Asked on Tuesday what it would take for the PHA to put an end to doctors’
grievances, Dr Munroe said: “Essentially they would need to correct our salaries and we are not even asking for what is the true value and worth of the consultants, we’re simply asking that our services be honoured. It is still essentially an honorarium that we are asking for so if they can honour that request and as people speak about demand we’re not making demands we are simply asking that you respect what it is that we do. Once they do that then everything will be sorted out.”
ABOVE, and below left: the scene at Rand Memorial Hospital yesterday.
PAGE 6, Thursday, November 29, 2018
THE TRIBUNE
AUDIENCE members look on as, below, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis addresses a town hall meeting last night. Photos: Terrel W Carey/ Tribune Staff
40 to be hired as part of plan to clean up Over-the-Hill By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net FORTY people in Centreville and Bain and Grants Town will be hired as environmental monitors for a 52-week programme to identify and help get rid of bulk waste, derelict vehicles and other environmental hazards, according to Rocky Nesbitt, the project manager of the Over-the-Hill rejuvenation initiative. He announced this during a town hall meeting at the Grants Town Wesley Methodist Church last night where residents were informed how to access concessions under the Economic Empowerment Zone programme. Mr Nesbitt said the workers, who must be between 18 and 45, will be hired expeditiously, as Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis wants them to receive their first pay cheque before Christmas. It’s not clear how the list of applicants will be whittled down to 40. The monitors will be assigned designated blocks in the historically impoverished communities that comprise the zone and will be supervised by senior environmental inspectors. Cleaning up the communities has been a key feature of the programme so far. Mr Nesbitt said since January the Over-the-Hill unit has had “four successful clean-up campaigns” in which “about 200 persons assisted from the targeted
area, moving about 150 derelict cars and about 500 tons worth of waste in Bain and Grants Town and Centreville”. The most prominent component of the Overthe-Hill programme, nonetheless, has been tax concessions, which include business licence fee exemptions, real property tax exemptions, stamp and excise duty exemptions and customs duty exemptions on material used to build and renovate properties. Financial secretary Marlon Johnson fleshed out details about the concessions regime, providing specifics on how long access to certain exemptions will last and what conditions must be satisfied to maintain them. Customs duty exemptions on material used for construction and renovation of buildings in the zone will be valid for two years, he said, while eligibility to real property tax exemptions will require that a property is well maintained and in use. People not making improvements to their homes or businesses will not be qualified for real property tax exemptions. Mr Johnson said documents showing clear title to land is not necessary to reap the programme’s benefits given the legacy issues surrounding land in the country and particularly in Over-theHill communities; it would be sufficient for residents to provide proof of residence on a property for 12 continuous years.
Furthermore, only businesses up to date with National Insurance Board contributions and business licences taxes are eligible for the benefits, though Mr Johnson said they could enter government payment plans. The business licence tax waiver is valid for one year, he said. Applications for the exemptions are available at the Ministry of Finance and Urban Renewal centres in the zone. When approved, the applications will result in a certificate of trade for businesses or a certificate of development for construction. The construction project applications must include a list of materials needed to complete the project. The list will be reviewed by a quantity surveyor “for reasonableness”, according to Mr Johnson who said the surveyor will regularly visit construction sites and conduct a final review on the project’s completion. Mr Johnson said the Ministry of Finance is working on an automated system that would allow residents to benefit from customs duties exemptions even when they shop locally, saving them the hassle of buying their materials abroad. During a question and answer period at the end of the town hall, residents expressed a range of frustrations with their state of being, with most identifying a lack of well-paying jobs as a key problem.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 7
MISSING PILOT: SEARCH TO BE ABANDONED? from page one
“To date, I’m sad to say we haven’t come up with anything new. We’ll continue to work, we’ll continue to assess as we move forward. I know this is very difficult for the family, it’s a very sensitive issue and we all feel it for the family.” Mr Dames noted such cases are “tough” on both the victims’ families and responders. “This is not the first incident - I mean, we’ve had other incidents where families have lost loved ones in one way or the other and it’s always difficult, especially when family members go missing and you can’t find them. It’s tough on families. “It’s also tough on those
responders as well, because you know there’s almost always a fixation to try and bring closure. And this is a tough one but we’ll continue to do what we need to do and we’ll continue to assess along the way as we move forward.” Commodore Bethel also discussed the incident, telling The Tribune the search for both Mr Ferguson and the aircraft are ongoing, but noting eventually law enforcement will have to come to a “determination” regarding search efforts. “(The search) continues, but there’s been no new finds,” Commodore Bethel said. “So eventually we’re going to have to make a determination as to where we go from here. This is the search and recovery effort. And within a
SOME of the wreckage from Byron Ferguson’s plane that was retrieved by volunteer divers. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff few days we’ll determine where announced to the media. On November 15, a civilian we’re going to go from here.” He added there have been effort to locate the plane proved “no leads whatsoever,” besides fruitful after a team mobilised what has already been found and by Gina Knowles, co-founder
of online support group HeadKnowles, discovered plane debris in the waters off Nirvana Beach. Locating an estimated 60-70 pieces of debris, the team made its discovery 40 minutes into the search, 600ft away from the plane’s original location, and 80 feet deep. Search efforts by officials also yielded finds of aircraft debris, the RBDF previously said. Last week, the RBDF said a joint recovery effort involving multiple government agencies and volunteer support included a deep sea diver who reached a depth of 404 feet. The diver “discovered more debris cascading down the face of the continental shelf,” sharing that the plane would have “descended into much deeper waters”.
LIGHTS OUT FOR 5,400 ‘CAN’T PAY’ FAMILIES from page one
He said: “For the last 20 years or so, many of our brothers and sisters have been off the grid. And that is a challenge. That is a challenge whether it is 6,000 or whether it is one. One or two are off the grid is a concern for all of us.” Mr Bannister also gave community specific reports for disconnection. He said there are 4,639 households without power in New Providence. As for the Family Islands, in Abaco, there are 58 consumers without electricity holding a combined balance of $64,822.10; 14 in Acklins with a combined balance of $36,353.35; 85 in Bimini with a combined balance $136,040.93; 66 in Cat Island with a combined balance of $34,342.43; six in Crooked Island with a combined balance of $13,265.25; 88 in Eleuthera with a combined balance of $113,778.75; 14 in Exuma with a combined balance of $8,108.05; 11 in Great Harbour Cay with a combined balance of $9,349.10; 52 in Inagua with a combined balance of $311,200.15; and 36 in San Salvador with a combined balance of $16,576.65. Meanwhile, in North Andros, there are 132 disconnected patrons holding a combined balance of $128,393; 116 in Central Andros holding a combined balance of $153,458.92; 19 in Mangrove Cay with a combine balance of $11,840.85 and 77 in South Andros holding a combined balance of $80,464.72. In total, these accounts
owe Bahamas Power and Light approximately $5,393,857.50. His comments came during debate on an amendment to value added tax legislation to increase the VAT exemption on power bills from $200 to $300. According to Mr Bannister, approximately 52,364 Bahamian household benefited from the exemption when it was offered to consumers who kept their bills at $200 or less. That marked a cumulative relief of $4m nationwide. This comes as the government has faced major backlash over the rise in electrical bills in recent months. Addressing those bill increases yesterday, Mr Bannister moved to explain the process by which BPL calculates its billings. “BPL charges a base rate for every consumer, everyone,” he explained. “If you use zero to 200 kilowatt hours per month, you are charged based rate of 10.9 cents (kilowatt hours); from 201 to 800 kilowatt hours (kilowatt hours), you are charged 11.9 cents and over 800 kilowatt hours, you are charged 14.9 cents per kilowatt hours. “What many of us don’t understand is that base rate does not relate to your fuel consumption. Base rate pays for the operations of the utility. So it pays salaries; it pays for things like installing metres; it pays for trimming trees; it pays for its infrastructure, installing poles and lines; it is for replacing lines; the vehicles that they use. (It pays
for) everything except fuel related expenses.” He added: “Now there is something called a fuel charge, that is referred to as a surcharge. It is not really a surcharge, it is really a fuel charge and that is what actually accounts for the fuel expenses. Your actual fuel use is paid for in that fuel charge. So, it is not a surcharge. What happens is that BPL takes the total cost of fuel that is burned…. and they divide that by the total kilowatts of power that you use throughout The Bahamas.” As an example, Mr Bannister used October’s fuel and service rates, indicating that the $33,916,303.66 spent was divided by the 166,467,295 kilowatt hours used by consumers across the country - equalling a 21.76 cents charge per kilowatt hour. He added: “So the fuel charge, based on the total consumption which you will see in December, would have been 21 cents. But BPL doesn’t pass the full amount on. They’ve capped that charge at 19.15 cents. And so, the charge that you actually see, what we call a fuel surcharge, is not a fuel surcharge, it is actually you paying for the fuel that is being used throughout the country.” Added to that, he explained that consumers in New Providence are currently subsidising a large percentage of the fuel cost being levied on Family Island consumers. He also spoke about changing oil prices on the international markets and their effect locally.
Mr Bannister insisted that it would be irresponsible for anyone to blame the government for these current global trends. Mr Bannister also referred to the legacy issues plaguing BPL. “Since about 2004/2005, BPL has been (saddled) with a legacy debt. “That legacy debt has
reached $500m. “The reality is, this is a company that has been saddled with huge debt,” Mr Bannister said. According to the Carmichael MP, it has been a tradition by successive administrations for respective ministries to not pay BPL in a timely manner. Mr Bannister said BPL
has normally been left in arrears from anywhere between $90m and $100m annually due to business practices. That in addition to the longstanding sums of millions owed by consumers. To date, Mr Bannister revealed that BPL had balances in receivables of $91,796,126.
PUBLIC NOTICE
FORMATION OF SUPPORT AND ACTION GROUP. TO OWNERS AND BENEFICIARIES OF LAPSED UNIVERSAL LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES WRITTEN BY CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY UNDER NEW COMPANY ADMINISTRATION SINCE 1st JANUARY 2004 Your savings have disappeared and you have been told your Investment Account Value (IAV) is zero $00.00.You may be the victim of an elaborate SCAM. Current “ premium paying” owners may also be victims. New terms have been unilaterally added to the administration of the contact ; ‘Mortality Charges’, ’Yearly Increase in Cost of Insurance per $1000.00 of insurance coverage’( no formula as to how it is calculated),’Planned Premium’, ‘Plus 75% rating’, ’Current Modal Premium’, ’Current Modal Amount’, ‘Annual Policy Statement’,’ Notice of Pending Cancelation (NPC)’, . Current ‘premium paying’ owner’s IAV may be in (over draft) i.e. technically lapsed . The definition of ‘Life Insured’ had been changed so that death or disability is no longer the event that require the company to pay amounts in accordance with the policy’s provisions, which has serious implications for the insured’s Estate . The New Administrator(NA), from day one, has never properly set up the IAV as contemplated in the policy , ‘IAV at the beginning of any policy month includes ( a) any net premiums paid, minus( b) any withdrawals made from the account during the previous month, minus( c) the Monthly Deduction (MD) for the previous month , and at the beginning of each day ,the Account Value is adjusted to include the interest credited for the previous day’. The NA, from day one, has never complied with the provision ‘we will declare the rate of interest credited in the investment Account from time to time but no less frequently than monthly .It will not be less than 3%’. You would have never seen such a declaration and in fact no interest was ever paid. The ULP was designed so that after only a few regular premium payments the issue of a Lapse would not be remote possibility , and an overdraft or zero balance was impossible, as the policy lapses 30 days after the IAV was insufficient to pay the low MD on monthly deduction date. The NA created the NPC which is issued 18 days before a scheduled premium is due and provides the authority for the NA to lapse the Policy if payment is not received before the Lapse date set out in the Notice. The Lapse is effected on overdrawn accounts on payments past the lapse date. Request a proper Statement of IAV from your NA as of today’s date . Based on your record of premiums paid, the fixed monthly deduction, and the minimum 3% interest to be earned , we can compute your true IAV as at the date of any purported lapse. Tele 4574379.
PAGE 8, Thursday, November 29, 2018
E
VERY time I get into one of those frenzies known as the immediate need to de-clutter, I stop cold at one room where history lives. It’s a small room that doesn’t really have a name but seems to hold everything that doesn’t fit anywhere else. In a simpler life, we all used to have drawers like that, the place where we tossed scissors and tape and the green wire ties that we use to tie whatever together. There’s a pretty comfy sofa in the room, a sofa that no longer fits into the living room; there’s an all-in-one washer-dryer and the modem and router that operate the internet. There’s a small, mostly outdated sound system and a large book and whatnot piece of furniture that takes up a whole wall. It’s filled with photographs and letters and children’s school projects and report cards. And at the bottom space of this wall of packed memories is a stretch of attractive tile floor that has never seen the light of day. It’s about six feet long and about 24 inches high and it’s where our vinyl records are stored. Decades have passed since we last played one. Perhaps it was Barbra Streisand’s A Christmas Album or a Bee Gees album with Stayin’ Alive, from the John Travolta movie Saturday Night Fever. Supposedly Stayin’ Alive is the happiest song ever written as measured by the sparks it triggers in the happy part of your brain. The point is it’s been so long since we played one of those records I can’t remember what was the last one or when we finally tossed the old non-working turntable out. But every time I look at the stack of albums standing upright in their designated space - like retired soldiers without a purpose -and think should I just toss them, I can’t. Maybe it’s the covers. Like the one with JFK speaking in Profiles in Courage or Elvis wrestling, squeezing every bit of sound out of that great big guitar and moving his mouth and hips like nobody’s watching. Or maybe it’s the faraway look on Carole King’s face on Tapestry or any of the many Beatles albums with the boys from Liverpool, right, who shocked us with their long hair and rocked the music world with their sound. It turns out we are not alone, my
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Dusting off the covers to reveal the memories hidden beneath husband and I, when it comes to hanging on to those old records. Vintage vinyls are making a comeback. Forbes is projecting that 40 million longplaying records will sell this year. Turntables are back in stores like Best Buy. And collectors and ordinary folks are amping up the price of records, categorising them by condition
– excellent, very good, near mint and good. No one ever admits to trying to sell ‘tattered’ or ‘a little worse for wear’ like most of these albums now are considering the fact that the fragility of vinyl pretty much led to it losing the battle to cassettes which lost the battle to compact discs in the 1980s. It was not until I was in Houston recently that I realised the comeback of the longplaying vinyl record was real. There in a large book store that clearly served a nearby college for the up-and-comers of the medical capital of the universe. Within
this book store was an entire department devoted to albums. Rows and rows of old records of every genre, jazz, blues, folk, instrumental, rock, vocal, gospel. I flipped through and it was like travelling back in time and memory, recalling dancing to the Drifters, listening to Ella, singing along with Nina Simone, longing for the islands with Harry Belafonte. There it was – the magic. Looking at the face of the artist, touching the album, turning it over, seeing the lyrics in print or pulling out a special section about how the songs were created and the music produced. It was the full package that engaged you, a package that downloading can never provide. It felt personal somehow, connecting the artist to the listener, the vinyl genesis of our fascination with those who entertain us. They let us sing with them at their most powerful and hurt with them at their most vulnerable. Streaming can’t do that; a playlist can’t do that. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison may sound better on DVD than on a scratchy old album but we would never understand the suffering he endured if we had not first seen him on that album cover with his mouth twisted and the streaks of sweat pouring down the side of his face. There are reports of rare, perfect condition albums going for ridiculous prices, the kind usually reserved for works of art. A numbered Beatles album that once belonged to Ringo Starr reportedly sold for nearly $800,000. Most of the albums that I saw in the Houston store were going for between $3 and $15. It is not likely there will be a huge black market trade in old vinyl records or that reports of breaking and entering will consist of LP records among the list of stolen goods. But for those of us who grew up in the days of music when lyrics told a story you could remember and repeat - even if your voice was no match for the artist’s. Keeping those old records is more than nostalgia. It is a matter of respect and a nod of approval to the effort and artistry that went into creating every album cover to cover, filling in the gaps that let us into the lives of those who gave us such joy through the music they shared.
Looking back at times gone by ...
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 9
ROMAINE lettuce on the shelves of a store in the US, despite concerns over a new E coli outbreak.
Photo: Mark J Terrill/AP
Stay clear of eating unlabelled Romaine lettuce, public told By RIEL MAJOR THE Bahamas Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority has urged the public to avoid eating romaine lettuce from the United States that is unlabelled after an investigation into the breakout of E coli showed a link to the Californiagrown variety. BAHFSA released a press statement yesterday notifying the public that the Food and Drug Administration said agencies in the United States are now required to label their romaine lettuce and consumers should avoid eating produce grown in Northern and Central California. Labels must state the harvest location, harvest date and whether the lettuce is hydroponically or green house.
In its press release, BAHFSA wrote: “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, and US state and local agencies, have linked reported illnesses to lettuce grown in California. “Preliminary results of a trace-back investigation revealed that those who became ill in several parts of the US were exposed to romaine lettuce harvested in California, specifically the Central Coast growing regions of Northern and Central California.” Romaine lettuce, hydroponically and greenhouse grown, outside of the California region does not appear to be related to the current outbreak, it was said. “The FDA recommends that if romaine lettuce does not have (the new labels), consumers should not eat
it. They also recommend that consumers avoid eating romaine from the Central Coast growing regions of Northern and Central California.” Regarding a salmonella outbreak from turkey products, BAHFSA said: “The turkey recall by the USDA, including the Jennie-O brand turkey products identified in that company’s voluntary recall, remains in effect.” BAHFSA warned consumers to be aware and to properly prepare any raw products before consumption. “Persons who consume contaminated lettuce may experience the effects of the illness for 12 to 24 hours or up to a week after ingestion. These effects may be in the form of vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, loss of appetite and, in immune compromised individuals, kidney failure.
“Those who consume contaminated turkey may experience fever, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite within 12 to 72 hours after eating the contaminated product; children five years and younger, the elderly, pregnant, and persons with a compromised immune system may experience a more severe level of illness. “If you or a family member shows signs of these symptoms, report immediately to the nearest Community Clinic for treatment,” the BAHFSA said. Last week, BAHFSA said because of the recent E coli outbreak, consumers in the Bahamas should voluntarily throw out any lettuce they may have bought from stores selling US derived lettuce products. The outbreak has sickened 43 people in 12 US states, according to international reports.
PAGE 10, Thursday, November 29, 2018
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McAlpine acting like a little child, says Collie By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net WHILE Pineridge MP Rev Frederick McAlpine is being described as “the people’s MP” by some of his constituents, not everyone is supportive of the position he took last week when he joined a protest march outside of Parliament. Expressing strong disappointment with Mr McAlpine was Hansel Collie, vice chairman of the Free National Movement
Pineridge Association. “I do not support his stance,” Mr Collie told The Tribune. “I believe the Pineridge MP is losing his head. He is acting like a little child. You know when you take a toy from a child they react until they get it back. “Pineridge is disappointed. The MP never requests anything for Pineridge but lambasts his own government,” Mr Collie said. Last week FNM chairman Carl Culmer criticised Mr McAlpine, calling him a hypocrite for supporting
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protesters who were demonstrating against the Minnis government outside Parliament. However, Mr McAlpine who said he always puts his constituents first above the party, said he is not a hypocrite, but believed the party is hypocritical for refusing to see why many Bahamians are angry having voted for a government that has now gone contrary to what it promised. Pineridge resident Jeffrey Allen said he supports the MP for his “moral courage.” Mr Allen said that the country needs leaders who are really going to change the status quo in Bahamian politics. “That nice cushy life and just going along to get along, that is not going to cut it any longer,” he said. “In principle, we have drifted away from the principles of representative government, and I think MPs by and large have become vessels of their parties as opposed to representatives of the people. So, I think in principle I certainly support his action,” Mr Allen said. The Pineridge constituent said he is not shocked that Mr McAlpine is being
PINERIDGE MP Rev Frederick McAlpine at last week’s march outside Parliament. “I think he speaks out for put first. “I am tired fighting for scraps in my country. so many people that do not This country is supposed to have a voice to speak out. be for Bahamians. And I He is doing some things am not one of these ultra- that other MPs are silent to nationalists who believes do, and I applaud him,” he that everybody who comes said. “He is more like a hero… from the outside is an invader, but the bottom I know him and know his line is the true meaning of qualities. A lot of people nationalism is to put the have a lot of negative things people of your country first. to say, but him being a man And that has not been real- of God, you will see things ity for the better part of 40 that you are not supposed to accept. years,” he said. “I think he is doing a He added: “The man (Mr McAlpine) I will give him very good job with what is credit for his moral cour- going right now. A lot of age. He, like a lot of people, people are very impressed do not have answers and and surprised that he took that is why we need lead- a stand.” Mr Swann, however, said ership that will actually start to look at resources Prime Minister Dr Hubert we have in the country Minnis is not at fault with and figure out the way for- what is going on with the ward and marry that to best economy. “We are in a global situadvice you have around. But nobody can figure who ation and anything that we are and why we here. is going on with the US That is a question that has trickles down to us. And to be answered and it is the PM is trying to do only answerable by Baha- things to keep the econmians but, yet we continue omy up and to keep us on outsource this questions to par.” he said. However, Mr Swann said that govforeigners.” Pineridge resident Tracey ernment could have taken Swann supports Mr McAlp- a different approach by ine and says he is “the taxing the rich and not the poor. people’s MP.”
criticised for his action. “I expect them to call him hypocrite and everything else because the normal way of dealing with this is that everything is done in-house and keep up appearances. But the truth is that we are in an economic and global reality that is pretty much unprecedented. I say in last 40 plus years of independence people do understand how serious it is right now. And here in Freeport, we’ve had basically perpetual downturn in not only the economy, but the whole ethos of what it means to live on this island. It is like everything is trending downwards,” Mr Allen said. “But I would say it is a far greater threat to the national picture that anybody is really taking note of. That is our leaders have continually sold us out for messed up porridge to these international organisations, like the IMF (International Monetary Fund), and to this one and the next, and the little sovereignty we have as a small nation has been completely eroded and lost,” he said. Mr Allen believes that Bahamians are not being
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Henfield ‘must do more’ after anti-gay slur By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net ACTIVIST Erin Greene yesterday suggested parliamentarians adopt an anti-hate speech campaign after a senator used a homophobic slur on social media. Senator Ranard Henfield used the slur in a bitter war-of-words with another Facebook user in the comment section of his post detailing a stabbing incident on Friday of last week. His account of a brawl that started outside Lil Caesar’s in Carmichael and continued inside the establishment has gone viral - along with claims that he grossly exaggerated the ordeal. Mr Henfield has since declined comment on those accusations. The post was made on his personal account, but Mr Henfield posted an apology for the slur to his official senator page. He said used the derogatory phrase in anger because the commenter made disrespectful remarks about his mother, adding he only got into the argument in a bid to distract the user from a “malicious attack” on another commenter - a senior citizen. In the now-deleted
thread, Mr Henfield told the Facebook user he was keeping him engaged so that the police force’s Cyber Crime Unit could track his IP address. “The things he was telling that lady about under her skirt left her embarrassed, offended and disappointed,” Mr Henfield posted to his official Facebook page. “In an effort to deflect his anger to me, I engaged him. He went off on me as expected and discontinued his attack on her. It made a turn for the worst when he crossed the line again and said that he wants to get sexual with my mother! “In that moment, I blew my top and used a derogatory phrase in response to him. “It was an offensive phrase and I apologise for using it in response to what he said about my mother.” Noting that people are entitled to free speech, Mr Henfield said he deleted the post not only because of the user’s derogatory comments but his own “disrespectful” response. Yesterday, Ms Greene acknowledged the apology but furthered it would be more impactful if it was accompanied by action. She took the outspoken
senator to task over his comments earlier this week, posting a screenshot of the comment to her own page. “Action (should be) intended to repair the damage caused by this hate speech,” Ms Greene told The Tribune yesterday. “An action could be the adoption of an anti-hate speech campaign, led by Senator Henfield and his parliamentary colleagues, including the speaker of the House of Assembly. “This would be an appropriate response to this unfortunate incident, as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas takes its seat at the UN Human Rights Council. It is also an opportunity for the senator and the state to reassure all members of the LGBTI community that the state understands its obligation to protect all vulnerable and minority communities in the country.” Ms Greene added she was “deeply troubled” by the phenomenon of pitting one vulnerable group against another, which she called a divisive mechanism. “Nothing justifies the use of sexist and homophobic slurs,” she said, “not even defence against sexist speech.”
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Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 11
SENATOR RANARD HENFIELD
PAGE 12, Thursday, November 29, 2018
THE TRIBUNE
HMBS Madeira joins the fleet
By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net
PHOTOS: Eric Rose/BIS
THE Royal Bahamas Defence Force commissioned a new vessel yesterday, HMBS Madeira. Both Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Minister of National Security Marvin Dames delivered remarks at yesterday’s ceremony, held at the Coral Harbour Base, which was also attended by Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling. HMBS Madeira is the last of nine vessels that were procured through the government’s 2014 $230m Sandy Bottom Project. It is one of four 30-metre Damen 3007 Stan Patrol Craft, according to the RBDF. Dr Minnis described the history of the RBDF in his speech and underscored the vast maritime territory it is responsible
for protecting. “The security of our borders, including new threats posed by technological advances, requires a dynamic combination of air and marine assets, bases, as well as advanced detection and communication systems,” Dr Minnis said. “The force recently completed the first phase of its decentralisation programme, with the acquisition of patrol craft under the government’s Sandy Bottom Project. “The implementation of the second and third phases of the force’s decentralisation programme, which are currently underway, is designed to create a multilayered security strategy. “This includes the establishment of bases in the Northern Bahamas, and the acquisition of detection and tracking technologies,” he said.
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Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 13
THE CANADIAN Lyford Cay Foundation receives the donation for $4m at Government House.
$4m donation to help students in Canada LYFORD Cay Foundations has announced an “unprecedented” $4m donation to the Canadian Lyford Cay Foundation to establish the Thomson Leadership and Innovation Award, available to be awarded to qualifying Bahamian students for study in Canada as of autumn next year. On Tuesday, Peter A Thomson and Patricia Thomson Leonard, representing the family of Peter N Thomson, and members of the boards of Lyford Cay Foundations paid a courtesy call on Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling to formally announce this landmark investment. “The donation of $4m from the Peter N Thomson Family Trust to the Canadian Lyford Cay Foundation notably is the largest single investment in Lyford Cay Foundations’ 50-year history of impacting The Bahamas through philanthropy,” a press release said. “With this donation, the Thomson family joins other generous Canadian families such as the Rogers family and Birchall family before them in establishing an endowed fund with the Canadian Lyford Cay Foundation for the creation of scholarship opportunities for Bahamians in perpetuity.” The Thomson Leadership and Innovation Award is named for prominent Canadian businessman Peter N Thomson who was born in Montreal but moved to The Bahamas in 1964. Known for both his love for The Bahamas and his innovation in business, Mr Thomson served on over 80 corporate boards during his career. Before passing away in 2011, Mr Thomson made his wish clear to continue to impact the future of his beloved Bahamas. His daughter and board director of Canadian Lyford Cay Foundations, Mrs Leonard, was one of the visionaries behind the creation of the award. She reflected on why her family chose to give in this way. “My father loved The Bahamas and he was grateful for the opportunity to enjoy the sea and call this beautiful country home,” Mrs Leonard said.
“He always promised Lyford Cay Foundations’ chairman Harry Moore that he would create opportunities for the youth of The Bahamas. “As a family, we were confident of Lyford Cay Foundations’ trusted history of transformation through education, making this an ideal way to give back.” Tim Unwin, president of the Canadian Lyford Cay Foundation, expressed the potential of this unique gift. “We are tremendously thankful to the Thomson family for sharing Lyford Cay Foundations’ vision for every Bahamian to fulfil their full potential,” he said. “The future of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas belongs to the youth of our archipelago. With the support of this donation, their future is even brighter.” Those awarded will receive a scholarship with a maximum of CAD $30,0000 per year for technical/ vocational, post-graduate certificate/diplomas or graduate studies in Canada. Basil Goulandris, chairman of Lyford Cay Foundations, echoed the sentiments of thanks. Mr Goulandris said: “This is a momentous day - momentous, because this level of investment in the youth of The Bahamas is transformational – on the threshold of celebrating 50 years of impact next year, we have created a new scholarship opportunity, aimed at serving the most visionary students in The Bahamas to hone their skills with post-secondary education in areas not available in The Bahamas. “To the Thomson family we say thank you for investing in Lyford Cay Foundations, making the visions of our youth closer to becoming reality.”
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PAGE 14, Thursday, November 29, 2018
THE TRIBUNE THE SCIENTIFIC drilling ship JOIDES Resolution arrives in Honolulu after successful sea trials and testing of scientific and drilling equipment. IODP, CC BY-ND
By SUZANNE O’CONNELL Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University IT’S STUNNING but true that we know more about the surface of the Moon than about the Earth’s ocean floor. Much of what we do know has come from scientific ocean drilling – the systematic collection of core samples from the deep seabed. This revolutionary process began 50 years ago, when the drilling vessel Glomar Challenger sailed into the Gulf of Mexico on August 11, 1968 on the first expedition of the federally funded Deep Sea Drilling Project. I went on my first scientific ocean drilling expedition in 1980, and since then have participated in six more expeditions to locations including the far North Atlantic and Antaractica’s Weddell Sea. In my lab, my students and I work with core samples from these expeditions. Each of these cores, which are cylinders 31 feet long and 3 inches wide, is like a book whose information is waiting to be translated into words. Holding a newly opened core, filled with rocks and sediment from the Earth’s ocean floor, is like opening a rare treasure chest that records the passage of time in Earth’s history. Over a half-century, scientific ocean drilling has proved the theory of plate tectonics, created the field of paleoceanography and redefined how we view life on Earth by revealing an enormous variety and volume of life in the deep marine biosphere. And much more remains to be learned. Scientists have expanded human knowledge by drilling core samples from the world’s ocean basins, but their work is far from done. Two key innovations made it possible for research ships to take core samples from precise locations in the deep oceans. The first, known as dynamic positioning, enables a 471-foot ship to stay fixed in place while drilling and recovering cores, one on top of the next, often in over 12,000 feet of water. Anchoring isn’t feasible at these depths. Instead, technicians drop a torpedo-shaped instrument called a transponder over the side. A device called a transducer, mounted on the ship’s hull, sends an acoustic signal to the transponder, which replies. Computers on board calculate the distance and angle of this communication. Thrusters on the ship’s hull maneuver the vessel to stay in exactly the same location, countering the forces of currents, wind and waves. Another challenge arises when drill bits have to be replaced mid-operation. The ocean’s crust is composed of igneous rock that wears bits down long before the desired depth is reached. When this happens, the drill crew brings the entire drill pipe to the surface, mounts a new drill bit and returns to the same hole. This requires guiding the pipe into a funnel shaped re-entry cone, less than 15 feet wide, placed in the bottom of the ocean at the mouth of the drilling hole. The process, which was first accomplished in 1970, is like lowering a long strand of spaghetti into a quarter-inch-wide funnel at the deep end of an Olympic swimming pool.
Scientists have been drilling into the ocean floor for 50 years – here’s what they’ve found so far
THE RE-entry cone is welded together around the drill pipe, then lowered down the pipe to guide reinsertion before changing drill bits. IODP, CC BY-ND When scientific ocean drilling began in 1968, the theory of plate tectonics was a subject of active debate. One key idea was that new ocean crust was created at ridges in the seafloor, where oceanic plates moved away from each other and magma from earth’s interior welled up between them. According to this theory, crust should be new material at the crest of ocean ridges, and its age should increase with distance from the crest. The only way to prove this was by analyzing sediment and rock cores. In the winter of 1968-1969, the Glomar Challenger drilled seven sites in the South Atlantic Ocean to the east and west of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. Both the igneous rocks of the ocean floor and overlying sediments aged in perfect agreement with the predictions, confirming that ocean crust was forming at the ridges and plate tectonics was correct.
The ocean record of Earth’s history is more continuous than geologic formations on land, where erosion and redeposition by wind, water and ice can disrupt the record. In most ocean locations sediment is laid down particle by particle, microfossil by microfossil, and remains in place, eventually succumbing to pressure and turning into rock. Microfossils (plankton) preserved in sediment are beautiful and informative, even though some are smaller than the width of a human hair. Like larger plant and animal fossils, scientists can use these delicate structures of calcium and silicon to reconstruct past environments. Thanks to scientific ocean drilling, we know that after an asteroid strike killed all non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago, new life colonised the crater rim within years, and within 30,000 years a full ecosystem was thriving. Ocean drilling has also shown that ten million years later, a massive
discharge of carbon – probably from extensive volcanic activity and methane released from melting methane hydrates – caused an abrupt, intense warming event, or hyperthermal, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. During this episode, even the Arctic reached over 73 degrees Fahrenheit. This episode is an impressive example of the impact of rapid climate warming. The total amount of carbon released during the PETM is estimated to be about equal to the amount that humans will release if we burn all of Earth’s fossil fuel reserves. Yet, an important difference is that the carbon released by the volcanoes and hydrates was at a much slower rate than we are currently releasing fossil fuel. Thus we can expect even more dramatic climate and ecosystem changes unless we stop emitting carbon. Scientific ocean drilling has also shown that there are roughly as many cells in marine sediment as in the ocean or in soil. Expeditions have found life in sediments at depths over 8000 feet; in seabed deposits that are 86 million years old; and at temperatures above 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Today scientists from 23 nations are proposing and conducting research through the International Ocean Discovery Program, which uses scientific ocean drilling to recover data from seafloor sediments and rocks and to monitor environments under the ocean floor. Coring is producing new information about plate tectonics, such as the complexities of ocean crust formation, and the diversity of life in the deep oceans. This research is expensive, and technologically and intellectually intense. But only by exploring the deep sea can we recover the treasures it holds and better understand its beauty and complexity. This article on The Conversation.
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THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 15
Bahamas wins top award for scuba diving THE Bahamas continues to build on its winning streak of awards, accolades and international recognition in tourism. During the recent Dive Equipment Manufacturing Association (DEMA) trade show held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, The Bahamas captured seven awards and was named 2019 Best Scuba Diving Destination for Big Animals by the Scuba Diving Readers Choice Awards. Additionally, The Bahamas was also named the top three Best Overall Dive Destination and Best Beginner Dive Destination in the Caribbean and Atlantic Region, respectively. The Bahamas also ranked among the top four finishers in Best Wreck Diving, and Best Advanced Diving Destination in the region;
captured second place finish in Underwater Photography, and was named among the region’s top five destinations for Best Dive Value. Every year, Scuba Diving Magazine’s readers vote for the world’s best scuba diving in its Readers Choice Awards. The results and award presentations are held during DEMA’s annual trade show. DEMA, the world’s largest diving show, brings together thousands of dive stores operators, equipment manufacturers, dive destinations and dive certification providers, to network and conduct business. According to Richard Treco, Sr. Manager for Vertical Markets at the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, “Diving has been a mainstay attraction and one of the key
driving forces in tourism for us. Each year, we receive a substantial number of referrals and incremental dive business from participants attending DEMA.” “The Bahamas has been blessed with unparalleled beauty, pristine, crystal clear waters, near perfect year-round weather and a rich supply of sea animals and natural marine habitat. All of these unique attributes make The Bahamas appealing to the millions of visitors who frequent our shores each year. We are extremely happy that the readers of Scuba Diving Magazine have bestowed us with these awards,” he said. “We are especially pleased with being named the region’s Best Scuba Diving Destination for Big Animals again, an award we have consecutively won for the past forty years.”
FROM the left, Richard Treco, Sr. Manager, Vertical Markets, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, David Benz, Managing Editor, Bonnier Corp and Scuba Dive Magazine and William Cline, executive, Bahamas Dive Marketing Committee.
THREE ARRESTS AFTER DRUGS SEARCH 20-YEAR-OLD FACING MURDER CHARGE THREE men were arrested after police seized drugs during a search of a car. According to the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Mobile Division officers seized a quantity of marijuana shortly after 1am yesterday while at Baillou Hill Road. Police searched a Nissan March vehicle and its three occupants and recovered the drugs. The men were taken into custody and are expected to be formally charged this week. Police are also investigating three armed robberies that occurred on Tuesday. In the first incident, police were told that shortly after 3pm a male was at East
Street and Meadows Lane when he was approached by an armed man, who robbed him of cash, before running away. The shortly after 7pm, a male was standing outside a residence on Lumumba Lane when he was approached by two armed men who robbed him of his blue Honda Civic, licence plate number AJ 7503. About two hours later, shortly after 9pm, an armed man entered a laundromat on Robinson Road and Ethel Street, held an employee at bay and robbed the establishment of cash, before running away. Investigations are ongoing.
By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net
A 20-YEAR-OLD was charged yesterday with the murder of a man outside of a bar earlier this year. Clydon Stubbs, of Saffron Street, was charged before Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux with the murder of 23-year-old Tarino Bevan White on August 28. According to initial reports, shortly after 11pm on the date in question, White was sitting in his vehicle outside a bar in Kennedy Subdivision when he was approached
by a group of men. One of these men, armed with a gun, opened fire, shooting him about the body, before the group escaped the scene. The victim was taken to hospital where he later died of his injuries. Stubbs was not required to enter a plea to the charge and the case was adjourned to February 8, 2019 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI). Bail was denied and he was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim. He has the right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.
PAGE 16, Thursday, November 29, 2018
THE TRIBUNE
UK CENTRAL BANK WARNS OF DEEP RECESSION WITHOUT BREXIT DEAL
LONDON Associated Press
LEAVING the European Union without a divorce deal could plunge Britain into its deepest recession in nearly a century, with the economy shrinking 8 percent within months as unemployment and inflation soar, the Bank of England warned yesterday. The stark projection came the same day the government’s own economists said the country will be
poorer after Brexit than if it had stayed in the EU, no matter what sort of trade deal it secures with the bloc. Britain and the EU have agreed on a deal for the UK’s smooth exit in March. But British lawmakers are threatening to derail it, and Prime Minister Theresa May is battling to persuade them to support her agreement when Parliament votes next month. May says that if Parliament rejects her deal, Britain could be headed for
an economically disruptive “no deal” Brexit on March 29. The central bank said that in a worst case scenario that could mean Britain’s economy slumps far more than it had after the 2008 global financial crisis. It predicted that in a nodeal scenario — with tariffs and other trade barriers, and no transition period to help businesses adapt — inflation would rise to almost 7 percent, unemployment would soar to
7.5 percent from 4.1 percent now, the pound would fall to near parity with the dollar and house prices would fall 30 percent. “Our job is not to hope for the best but to prepare for the worst,” said Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. Despite the gloom the British economy faces in the event of a “disorderly and disruptive Brexit,” he said the U.K. financial system was robust enough to weather the shock.
MARK CARNEY
Trump dismantling US climate efforts as warnings grow dire WASHINGTON Associated Press PRESIDENT Donald Trump has moved steadily to dismantle Obama administration efforts to rein in coal, oil and gas emissions, even as warnings grow — from his own administration and others — about the devastating impact of climate change on the U.S. economy as well as the Earth. Trump has dismissed his administration’s warnings about the impact of climate change, including a forecast released Friday that it could lead to economic losses of hundreds of billions of dollars a year by the end of the century. “As to whether or not it’s manmade and whether or not the effects that you’re talking about are there, I don’t see it,” he said in an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post. Trump’s position has been that efforts to combat the emissions that cause climate change have hurt the U.S. economy.
Workers Announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris global climate accord in June 2017, he said, “The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers — who I love — and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.” An email obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act shows the administration withdrew from the Paris agreement with no clear climate policy in place. “All, the purpose of this meeting is to explore whether, post Paris, we need to develop, or simply piece
PRESIDENT Donald Trump speaks to members of the media earllier this week. together from what already exists, a policy proposal that can be characterized as the “Trump climate policy,” Michael Catanzaro, a former oil and gas lobbyist then serving as Trump’s energy and environment consultant, wrote to White House and Environmental Protection Agency officials days after the president’s announcement. The EPA did not respond to requests for details on the meeting, or on any subsequent Trump climate policy. In an email Wednesday, the State Department noted that the United States is still taking part in global climate talks, despite pulling out of the Paris accord. That includes a State Department delegation to U.N. climate talks
starting next week in Poland, in follow-up to the Paris talks. “The United States continues to participate in ongoing international climate negotiations_including those related to guidance for implementing the Paris Agreement_to ensure a level playing field that benefits the United States, its workers, and its taxpayers,” the department said in a statement. The initial shock of the abrupt U.S. retreat from the Paris accord galvanized international support for climate efforts, said Nigel Purvis, who worked on climate issues in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. It “brought other nations even closer together and they’re even more committed,” Purvis said. In the longer term, though, the Trump
administration’s retreat on climate change may hurt, showing governments and companies they can flout global concerns about coal, oil and gas emissions and not be held accountable, he said. At home, the Trump administration has initiated a rollback of a complex Obama-era effort to power the nation’s electrical grid with more renewable energy and less climatealtering coal. “We are putting our great coal miners back to work!” Trump told a cheering crowd in West Virginia this summer, touting that rollback. Many economists challenge his claim, arguing that cheaper natural gas and other market forces will mean the continued downward slump of the U.S. coal industry.
The central bank said that in the worst-case scenario, the economy would end up being between 4.75 percent and 7.75 percent smaller by the end of 2023 than in its most recent forecasts this month. However, the central bank said a strong trade deal with as few frictions as possible would mitigate the negative impact, especially if it is accompanied by a transition period to let businesses adapt.
CARLSEN BEATS RIVAL TO STAY CHESS CHAMP LONDON Associated Press NORWEGIAN grandmaster Magnus Carlsen defended his chess world championship title by beating American challenger Fabiano Caruana 3-0 in rapid tiebreaker games yesterday. After their three-week match ended in 12 draws, Carlsen wrapped up the victory quickly with three straight wins to build an unassailable lead in the best-of-four rapid format. “I felt like I had a really good day at work today,” the 27-year-old Carlsen said. “Everything kind of went perfectly.” Caruana, 26, was trying to become the first American since Bobby Fischer in 1972 to become the chess world champion but lost a rook-and-pawn endgame in the first game and then had to take big risks in the next two. Carlsen won the second after sacrificing a piece for an unstoppable attack and then managed to promote a pawn to a second queen in the third for a massive material advantage. “I was hoping to play my best chess today but I didn’t even come close to that,” said Caruana, who was born in Miami, raised in Brooklyn and lives in St. Louis. “I felt a lot of pressure but I don’t think I had added pressure because I was the first American challenger in a long time. I think the match naturally comes with a lot of pressure.” The tiebreakers were played with 25 minutes for each player per game.
PUTIN DISMISSES UKRAINE’S MARTIAL LAW AS A CYNICAL POLITICAL TRICK
KIEV Associated Press
UKRAINE’S president donned combat fatigues to implement martial law in much of the country yesterday, a move Russia denounced as a cynical political trick as both sides ratcheted up tensions after a weekend standoff in the Black Sea. Each side blamed the other for the bellicose turn of events, with Ukraine saying Russia is preparing for a full-scale invasion and Moscow calling it a political stunt by an
UKRAINE’s President Petro Poroshenko in combat fatigues yesterday. unpopular president facing tough elections. In Sunday’s confrontation, three Ukrainian naval vessels were heading from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov when they were
blocked by the Russian coast guard near the Kerch Strait between Russia’s mainland and the Crimean Peninsula it annexed from Ukraine. After many tense hours of maneuvering, the Russians opened fire and seized the Ukrainian vessels and crew. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko responded by ordering martial law in much of the country while, in Moscow, Russian president Vladimir Putin bluntly accused his Ukrainian counterpart of provoking the naval incident in order to shore up his sagging popularity.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, November 29, 2018, PAGE 19
MISS BAHAMAS NEEDS YOUR VOTE MISS World Bahamas Brinique Gibson needs your support to help her advance to the next round of the Miss World competition. The national beauty queen is representing The Bahamas in fine form at the pageant now underway in China. However, in order to move on to round two of the Head to Head Challenge, she needs the support of her own people. Since voting began, many Bahamians have expressed frustration after having trouble voting on the Miss World website. The issue was brought to the attention
of the Miss World Organization and steps were taken to remedy the situation and voting has been extended until November 29, 4AM EST. A video on social media shows how to vote for on the Miss World website. The ways to vote are as follows: 1. Like the OFFICIAL Miss World Contestant Facebook Page www.facebook.com/ Miss-World- Bahamas. 2. Vote on the Miss World Website (watch the video for step by step instructions on how to vote)
3. Like and comment on Brinique’s photos and videos on the MobStar app. Once you download the app and login, type Bahamas in the search bar at the top of the screen, then click on Brinique. To vote on Mobstar, swipe the photo or video to the RIGHT. Once you see the word “yes”, that indicates that your vote has been counted. 4. Vote on the Model Power Live Website or Android app at the following link: https://missvo.modelpowergd.com/en/?id=1#/ detail?id=22
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