09232022 NEWS, SPORT AND BUSINESS

‘KEEP MASK RULES AT SUPERMARKETS’

Roberts fears stores would become super spreader of COVID-19

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

SUPER Value’s principal yesterday urged the Gov ernment to maintain the COVID mask mandate for supermarkets and prevent the sector from becoming “the number one spreader” of the virus.

Rupert Roberts said he felt it was “too dangerous” to end the mandatory wear ing of masks in food stores

given that they typically attracted large numbers of shoppers who frequently find themselves in close proximity to one another.

Acknowledging that his call may prove unpopular with some, while revealing that the 13-store chain plans to require all its staff to con tinue wearing masks, he said: “If we’re wrong, we’re wrong on the side of caution.”

PM SEEKS TO CUT DEBT TO 50% OF GDP THIS TERM

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis says his goal is to reduce the coun try’s debt to gross domestic product ratio from 82 per cent to at least 50 percent by the end of this term.

During an interview with Bloomberg in New York yesterday, Mr Davis also sought to set the record straight that The Bahamas was in the position to fulfil its obligations despite the debt the country faces.

This debt, he said, was directly linked to the conse quences of climate change in the form of hurricanes that have brought devasta tion to the country over the years.

Mr Davis is in New York for the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he will deliver The Bahamas’ state ment. The session began on Tuesday.

“There is some misin formation that’s in the marketplace that suggests

FIVE DAYS WITHOUT

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

SOME Ragged Island residents incensed by a five-day electricity blackout last week have questioned whether the island’s newly commissioned solar plant is effectively servicing Bahamas Power and Light customers.

In interviews with The Tribune, residents recalled the “struggle” they expe rienced when a generator supplying power to about 50 customers on the island was struck by lightning leaving them without electricity.

While power was restored over the weekend through a replacement generator,

MINISTER AND FORMER PM ON SAME SIDE AGAINST PROPOSAL

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

ENVIRONMENT Min ister Vaughn Miller and former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis have both voiced concerns surround ing “problems, problems, problems” with the pro posed $63m Adelaide Pines project in which Albany’s

SECOND MURDER IN TWO DAYS

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigat ing a second homicide in as many days after a man was shot dead yesterday morn ing off Hamster Road. A day earlier, police said a man was found dead in a stairwell in a building on Boyd Road with stab wounds.

Press liaison officer Chief Superintendent

been shot multiple times.

No formal identification has been made, but a wellplaced source reported that the victim was Darren Gibson.

“Our preliminary inves tigations or information thus far reveals that a male had just left a resi dence here when a van, believed to be either white or green, approached the deceased,” she told report ers on the scene.

developer is a shareholder. Mr Miller and Dr Minnis found themselves on the same side over the southwestern New Providence venture that has pledged to create up to 300 full-time jobs via the development of an 180-lot community together with 19-25 spaces for com mercial and light industry.

Chrislyn Skippings said around 7am, police were alerted that a man had

A GROUNDBREAKING ceremony was held yesterday at the Ranfurly Homes for Children as part of a project to create a four-unit home for young adults transitioning from the children’s home into the adult world. See PAGE TWO for more.

Photo: Moise Amisial

By LETRE SWEETING lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Ranfurly Homes for Children accepted a cheque for over $200,000 yesterday to complete a new four-unit transitional home for young adults.

The Ranfurly Homes’ STEP Programme, which provides young Bahamians,

ages 18-21, with the tools, resources, and support they need to transition into inde pendent living, received a $204,000 cheque yesterday morning toward complet ing the construction of four new one-bedroom units as well as other initiatives.

The Ranfurly Homes for Children accepted the cheque for $204,000 from the Private Trust, a

leading independent trust company, based in Nassau. The donation will aid in the completion of two sets of four-unit transitional homes for teenagers who have aged out of The Ranfurly Homes care and protection programme.

The construction for the new units, just at the back of the Ranfurly Homes for Children facilities, are currently in progress, with the foundation and cement walls already con structed as a part of the programme’s second phase of groundbreaking.

Joey Ann Premock, president of the Ranfurly Homes board of directors, said that young adults from the facility can apply to be a resident of the transitional homes through the board of directors.

“They would need to complete an application form. Once approved by the board of directors of Ranfurly they would then sign a contract pledging to be on their best behaviour during their stay, agree

to the monthly payments and utilities, and agree to take care of all furnishings, appliances, etc. They agree to a maximum stay of one year and/or give sufficient notice if leaving early. In addition, they also have to sign an additional house rules and requirements agreement,” she said.

Gowon Bowe, treasurer of the Ranfurly Homes for Children and Fidelity Bank CEO, said the homes which aren’t meant to be permanent, will help the children learn the impor tance of being responsible for their first home, includ ing the bills and some other resources that come with it.

“The intent behind it is to have a structure that is secure for them, at a cost that is reasonable for them. So really, the better way of looking at this is as a controlled apartment vil lage for young adolescents coming out of the home in order to prepare them for what they’re gonna have to do later on,” Mr Bowe said.

He added that while

Ranfurly Homes is grate ful for its donors, the road to completion of all phases of the STEP programme is one that requires ongoing funding.

Mr Bowe said that while the children do pay for rent and utilities, the Ranfurly Homes continues to sup port them and is responsible for the regular operations of the transitional homes.

Mervline Antenor, an 18-year-old resident of the phase one transitional home units that were con structed in the fall of 2019, said she appreciated the chance she was given to experience a “taste” of what adult life is like.

“I am a former resident of the Ranfurly Home and I am a current resident of the transitional home. I currently work. I work fulltime at Pizza Lab in Baha Mar and I’m currently trying to enrol in school for UB, January coming. I went (into the transitional home) October 1, 2019. “It was my birthday. I felt safe, great at the time, knowing

that I have an opportunity to live in the transitional home to feel what real adult life tastes like. It was actually great for me and it’s like a learning thing for me. (I’m) getting the hang of it.”

Construction for the first phase of the Ranfurly Home’s STEP Programme began in Spring 2019. Phase one was officially completed as the year ended, with the help and financial support of Bahamas Charitable Giving Foundation (BCGG), Mac Taggert Third Fund and Zonta Club of New Provi dence and many others.

These sponsors, includ ing The Giveback Girl led by Scieska Adderley, who stepped in to assist with the décor of the phase one units, also stepped in to assist in the development of the phase two units.

To learn more or lend support, contact the Ranfurly Homes at 242393-3115, email mail@ ranfurlyhome.org or visit their website at www.ran furlyhome.org. TO HELP YOUNG TAKE THE NEXT STEP

CONTEST SEEKS OUT TALENTED ARTISTS

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

CELEBRATING 100 years of business in The Bahamas, HG Christie has partnered with CAB Gallery to highlight the country’s talent with the official launch of an art competition yesterday.

HBC president and man aging broker John Christie said the competition’s theme, “This Island of Mine”, was chosen to be an “ode” to the islands of The Bahamas.

The theme was really meant to be an ode to the islands and will hope fully allow each artist to share with the country and the world the things they appreciate and cherish most about the island they choose to highlight,” he said.

The art competition will feature submissions from

participants aged 15 to 21.

CAB Gallery is excited about the partnership and the opportunity to allow local artists to show their talents.

“Local artists have a wealth of imaginative talent that deserves to be show cased on both the national and international stage,” said Natascha Vasquez, founder and curator at CAB Gallery.

“We are so excited to see the amazing submissions that come in as a result of this competition and we’re even more excited about the opportunity to exhibit that work as part of a new curated collection.”

Ms Vasquez believes this competition serves as an opportunity for upand-coming artists to get recognition on a national scale.

Also in attendance at yes terday’s announcement was

Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg. He expressed his grati tude to HBC and CAB Art Studio for supporting and providing a platform for Bahamian artists.

“I for one, am pleased when collaborations like this result in the chance for young people to shine and be recog nised for their work,” he said yesterday. “I know that you will put forward some excep tional work and I’m looking forward to seeing how each of you will showcase our beautiful country.”

Interested artists can submit their artwork by social media, in the hope of having the opportunity to present their artwork for an evening of celebra tion at CAB Gallery, which famously features and sells the work of both emerging and established local artists.

The deadline is Novem ber 18.

BY DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

AN AMERICAN citizen was arrested at the Bimini Airport this week after suspected marijuana was reportedly found in his lug gage, a senior police official reported.

The discovery was made shortly after noon at the South Bimini Airport,

reported Assistant Super intendent of the Police Stephen Rolle.

He said officers from the South Bimini Police Station were at the airport when they received information from security officers that a passenger onboard an international flight was in possession of dangerous drugs.

ASP Rolle said offic ers approached the adult

male while at baggage claim and informed him of their suspicion. A search was conducted of the pas senger’s luggage. Officers discovered two plastic con tainers with a quantity of suspected marijuana.

Investigations are contin uing into the matter.

ASP Rolle said that an American male was arrested as a result and taken into police custody.

FROM left, Gowon Bowe and Joey Ann Premock of the Ranfurly Homes board and Bruno Roberts, of Private Trust, with a cheque for $204,000.

18-year-old Mervline Antenor at yesterday’s ceremony.

RANFURLY board president Joey Ann Premock speaking to the media yesterday.

PM seeks to cut debt to 50% of GDP this term

that our debt sustainability is such that we will not be able to fulfil our obligations in the future,” Mr Davis said yesterday.

“Far from the truth. One just has to come and see what is happening in our country. I was elected in September 2021. When we came in, the debt to GDP ratio was over 100 percent. In less than a year we’ve brought it down to 82 per cent and the trajectory is (to continue) carrying it down.”

Asked whether his admin istration was working toward a goal, Mr Davis said: “We’re trying to get it to at least 50 percent by the end of my term. My term may not be

the next five years, it may be more, but by the end of this term we hope to bring it down to the 50 percent. We’re working towards it.”

He continued: “What I want to say though is that the responsibility of our debt is not of our own

making because if one were to look at the profile of our debt and how it was incurred you would find that up to 40 or more per cent of that debt is directly related to the consequences of climate change.

“So, for example, we had

Dorian in 2019. The loss in damage resulting from that was $3.4bn. Previously we had Matthew. (In) 2016 we had Matthew (and) that was $750m in loss damage.

“(In) 2015, we had Joaquin, which was another $400 (million) or $500m odd in loss and then previous to that we had Irma, Maria and several other hurricanes and so most of our debt is basically related to matters to which we did not contrib ute and so the industrialised countries that have been using fossil fuel for centu ries I think their bill is due.”

He was also asked if he thinks that debt forgiveness should be one of the ways that industrialised countries are held accountable for their carbon emission that

affect small island develop ing states.

“Debt forgiveness or we need to find (a way) to make these industrialised countries accountable for what we’ve had. What you must remember is that most people are now talking about mitigation and adap tation,” Mr Davis said.

“Loss and damage is still not making its way to the agenda and when you look at mitigation you’re talking about reducing the carbon emissions when you’re talk ing about adaptation we’re building for resilience and to be able to adapt.

“But what we have to realise is that there is still a lot of carbon in the air. It is not enough to just reduce our emissions.

“Now there is still a lot of carbon in the air that has to be sucked out. It has to be not just mitigation. It has to be a means of pulling out of the air some of the carbons that have already been there because of the conduct and actions of the industrialised countries.”

The Prime Minister also talked about the exclusion faced by small island devel oping states from the World Bank in receiving funding.

“Accessing these funds, the criteria they use excludes a number of our small island developing states. They look at our per capita income as one of the criteria to access climate funding and that would not be fair to many of our countries.”

GOVT WILL ‘CRAFT RESPONSE’ AS SURVEY SHOWS BAHAMIANS SKIP MEALS

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL Services and Urban Development Min ister Obie Wilchcombe says the government will study the data from a recent United Nations Food Survey to craft its response to people’s needs.

The survey found that some Bahamians were eating less or skipping meals because of soar ing prices brought on by inflation.

Mr Wilchcombe was con tacted after Free National Movement Deputy Leader Shanendon Cartwright accused the Davis admin istration of not prioritising relief for vulnerable Baha mians in view of the report.

Yesterday, Mr Wilch combe said the data from

the survey will be used to assist the government in determining a strate gic approach in moving forward.

“Valued data that we will study,” he told this newspaper yesterday when asked to respond to the study’s findings. “The data will be utilised to assist us in determining our stra tegic approach in moving forward.”

Mr Wilchcombe said the Davis administration is committed to fulfilling the pledge of the social revolu tion, which is to “feed the poor, heal the sick, guide the youth and bring peace to every heart.”

In response to Mr Cart wright, he encouraged the opposition to not use the poor as a “political football”.

“The poor must not be used as a political foot ball,“ Mr Wilchcombe said yesterday.

“To boast of our work is equally as bad as using the most vulnerable as a subject while obviously scraping to make headlines.”

In a press release yester day, the MP for St Barnabas said the government has failed to fulfil its promise to structure more program ming and assistance to the poor.

“An even greater injus tice has added insult to injury. The government’s long awaited promise to structure more program ming and more assistance to the poor and most vul nerable in our society is nowhere to be found,” Mr Cartwright said.

However, Mr Wilchcome

said the government is aware of the needs of Baha mians and is “weighing the options.”

“We have already determined the need for a comprehensive school breakfast programme, so we will team with the Min istry of Education,” Mr Wilchcombe said. “We have discovered that there are many who need a place at night to secure a meal. We are weighing the options.”

Meanwhile in a statement posted to his Facebook page yesterday, Prime Min ister Philip “Brave” Davis acknowledged that the cost of living has been “too high” for a long time, exac erbated by global inflation which has made it “harder than ever” for Bahamians to pay their bills. He said his administration

is helping Bahamians in several ways.

“We are helping Baha mians cope with the crisis in a number of ways: We have lowered the customs duty on many food items –eggs, chicken, flour, cheese, and a range of healthy vegetables have now had their customs duties decreased significantly or are completely duty-free. We’re hiring new price control enforcers. We’re supporting church feed ing programmes that reach so many. We’re spending a lot more on social assis tance than the country did in 2019, before Dorian and COVID.

“We don’t just want to help Bahamians through today’s crisis, we want to reduce our dependence on food imports dramatically

– so we never find our selves in this position again. That’s why we’re making an historic investment in agri culture and food security. We need to grow more of what we eat here at home. If we do that, we’re going to pay less for our food, we’re going to eat healthier, and we’re going to create a lot of new opportunities. We have some really innovative programmes that can help Bahamian entrepreneurs understand the enormous potential in agriculture and fishing, provide concessions and tax breaks, and offer technical support, too.

“These are difficult times, but we’ve built a strong foundation in our first year and will continue to provide crucial relief for Bahamians as we recover and make progress together.”

“It’s reported that a male who was clad in all blue, short blue pants and a blue shirt, exited the van, approached the victim and shot him multiple times. EMS was here on scene and they pronounced that there were no vital signs of life.”

She added that the victim appeared to be in his early 40s. At the scene, she said there was no indication to suggest he is known to police.

Asked about a vehicle that officers were investi gating with a government licence plate, CSP Skip pings said: “We believe that there’s some connection with the vehicle and the deceased, but at this time we’re not able to say if he owns the vehicle.”

In August, Police Commissioner Clayton Fer nander said he hoped the country could “finish the

year strong” and not sur pass 100 murders this year. At the time, there had been 85 killings.

The country is now primed to pass that 100-murder mark with yes terday’s killing making the 97th for the year, according to this newspaper’s records.

CSP Skippings expressed a similar sentiment of not wanting to hit 100 homi cides this year.

“Well, we remain resil ient in our efforts in the fight against crime and, yes, we don’t want to reach that 100 number. However, eve rybody plays a part in this fight against crime,” she said yesterday.

CSP Skippings men tioned the commissioner’s press briefing earlier this week where weapons recovered during the past week were shown.

She added: “And if we look at the amount of ammunition that was recovered during that time

period, that was well over, I think, about 100 rounds of ammunition. So if you take one ammunition, or one round, that’s one life that was saved. And so we’re continuing in the fight against crime.

“But I want to reach out to parents, family members, girlfriends, and significant others. If you know that your partner or your friend, or your relative, or some one who is in possession of a firearm, you need to reach out to your law enforce ment agency - you need to partner with us.

“That same weapon that your friend, cousin, brother, nephew may have - they may have to harm someone else.

“But in reality, that same weapon can be used to take your life. And so it’s impor tant that you partner with your police department and give us that information so that we can remove all of these illegal weapons.”

A WOMAN is comforted at the scene of yesterday’s murder.

Photo: Moise Amisial

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, centre, and Bahamas Ambassador to the United States Wendal Jones in New York City yesterday.

‘Let businesses set own rules over mask rules for customers’

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

GROCERY store man agers said yesterday that while they support the lifting of the country’s mask mandate, they also believe businesses should be allowed to set their own mask wearing rules for customers.

One of them was Kim Smith, manager of Village Grocery Store on Paradise Island.

While fully supporting the government’s decision to relax the mask protocols, Ms Smith also said business owners should be allowed to decide whether they want to keep mask protocol in place for customers.

This, she added, is

because some workers may be at high risk for contract ing the disease.

“We are totally in agree ment because this mandate should have been lifted months ago because as you know, I am here on Para dise Island so we have such a problem with the tourists because when they come out of the hotels, they then are faced with a whole set of rules of having to wear masks because once they’re in the hotel, they don’t have to wear masks and the employees don’t have to wear masks,” she said.

“I think at this point, it should be lifted and in terms of my staffing, if any of them feel that they want to wear their mask they can so I am not going to tell them that they can’t wear a mask.”

NO MORE COVID TESTS FOR UNVACCINATED TRAVELLERS

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

GOVERNMENT has removed its COVID-19 testing requirement for unvaccinated people enter ing The Bahamas, the Ministry of Health and Well ness announced yesterday.

In a press statement, the ministry said the policy took effect on Tuesday and allows Bahamian residents and visitors, regardless of their vaccination status, to enter the country without having to take a COVID test.

“All other platforms that capture and report on COVID-19 testing and related data in the country will remain in place and the results will continue to be reported to the surveillance unit at the Ministry of Health and Well ness,” the statement added.

“The Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and adjust proto cols as necessary based on

the latest scientific data.”

The ministry also reminded visitors and citi zens to continue following preventative measures.

The announcement comes a day after the gov ernment revealed plans to relax the country’s mask mandate from October 1.

While mask wearing is not currently required in outdoor settings, it is still largely required indoors.

Once the new policy takes effect, mask wearing will not be required in most settings except for those accessing healthcare facilities, visiting senior care homes or in an indoor classroom setting.

The decision to further ease the remaining COVID19 restrictions comes as the nation continues to record low COVID-19 cases.

The Bahamas has recorded more than 37,000 cases of COVID-19 and 800 virusrelated deaths since the start of the pandemic. However, only 115 virus cases were said to be still active at last report.

In terms of businesses establishing their own health entry protocols, she added: “They should give us the leeway to do just as we should (because) we know our customers and we know our employees and we should have some auton omy in terms of being able to make the right decision for our business so that’s how I feel personally.”

Cyril Carey, manager of Kenneth’s food store, also expressed similar senti ments to this newspaper.

“I welcome it because at this point, from what I’ve seen abroad, people have been managing it pretty well,” he said of the impending end to the mask mandate. “We’ve already started it in the hotels and if The Bahamas has

given them the privilege, why should the Bahamian people in general not have the same privileges as the individuals in the hotels?

“Giving business owners the freedom to do as they please in regard to (mask wearing) and if they wish because it’s their estab lishment, I feel that the government should be a bit lenient for the owners who request that individu als wear a mask coming into their stores so we should have the flexibility.”

However, some people in the business sector share a different view.

Krystynia Lee D’Arville, co-president of the Baha mas Federation of Retailers, said she doesn’t believe that businesses should require their customers to wear

masks once the mandate has been lifted, noting it should be a personal choice for the customer.

“I don’t think that the gov ernment should involve itself in these policies with the pri vate sector. I believe that if an individual wishes to wear their mask, then that individ ual could make that choice just as any medical issue that someone has. If they wish to wear a mask, then they should wear a mask for their own comfort,” she told this newspaper.

“I don’t think we as businesses and/or the gov ernment, once it is lifted and then it is up to the indi vidual, I don’t think that businesses should force and/or be forced to make those decisions when we are through the pandemic.”

“I think that can be on an individual basis and the government and visi tors need now to get out of the medical arena. Now in the medical world, that’s one thing but in the pri vate sector enterprise, it’s another.”

While mask wearing is not currently required in outdoor settings, it is still largely required indoors.

But, as of October 1, mask wearing will not be required in most settings except for in healthcare facilities, senior care homes or in an indoor classroom setting.

A school may request exemption from the mask requirement if at least 80 percent of students and 90 percent of staff are fully vaccinated.

NEW ASPHALT PLANT COMMISSIONED

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

WORKS and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears com missioned a production facility, the Astec Double Barrel Six Pack Asphalt Plant, on Friday.

The minister said the day marked a significant land mark in the progress of the “extraordinary facility” and this “major development” was a “long time in the works”.

He said BahaMix pro posed a few years ago that the current Almix Asphalt

Plant would be replaced with a more efficient and mechanically advanced plant with recyclable capabilities to produce cost savings over the ensuing fiscal period.

“BahaMix supplies asphalt to the public and private sectors. It fulfils a critical role as a part of the government’s agenda to provide and maintain proper roads and paved surfaces, but it is not only the public infrastructure, churches, and the parking lot of churches, civic and cultural institutions also are beneficiaries of the resources, the expertise of BahaMix,” Mr Sears said.

“The BahaMix Almix Asphalt Plant production data reveals that from the year 2002 to present, the Almix plant produced a total of 536,116.7 tonnes of asphalt and has been operating for 15 years. That is the old plant, its state of disrepair is clearly indicated as a direct result of its age of existence. The metal corrosion to indi vidual plant components is obvious, and subsequently maintenance costs were reflective of the same.

“Down time for repairs therefore impacted the economic efficiency of plant operations. The esti mated downtime for plant repairs over the last two years translates into an average plant repair costs of $400,000 annually, or approximately $1,095 per day. The need for a new asphalt production facil ity was self-evident. On February 21, 2019, Baha Mix proposed that the current oil mix asphalt plant be replaced with a more efficient and mechani cally advanced plant with recyclable capabilities to produce cost savings over the ensuing fiscal period.

“The proposal was accepted and approved by

the Cabinet to purchase an Astec manufacturing asphalt plant on March 11, 2019, at a cost of $3,519,870.

BahaMix purchased the new state of the art asphalt plant from Astec, a plant manu facturing company located in Chattanooga, Tennessee,” He said the new plant is designed to produce 200 tonnes of asphalt per hour and offers technology that is needed to meet the cur rent demands.

Unlike the existing asphalt plant, which was manufactured 17 years ago, the new Astec double barrel six pack is a “counter flow zero emissions” plant and is thereby classified as envi ronmentally friendly with a big baghouse - lowering the carbon footprint of The Bahamas, which eliminates atmospheric contamination.

Mr Sears highlighted: “On February 12, 2020, the contract was signed, and construction began. Con crete Concepts completed 80 percent of the works before contractual issues arose. The construction came to a complete halt in June of 2021. BahaMix retendered the works and the tender was won by Dove Tail Construction in the amount of $124,068. Dove Tail Construction com menced construction works on January 25, 2022.

“In anticipation of the construction aspects of the asphalt plants, BahaMix went out to tender for the construction of the founda tion supports in the amount of $304,000. On March 16, 2020, the Astec Asphalt Plant arrived in Nassau and in April 2020, Cabi net approved additional funding in the amount of $2,587,600 to cover the non-waiver of custom duty, incurred freight expenses, and foundation construc tion costs.”

WORKS and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears; Parlimentary Secretary Bacchus Rolle; Minister of State in the office of the Prime Minister Myles LaRoda; Trevor Newbold, finance officer in the Ministry of Works and Utilities; Ryan Rahming, general manager of BahaMix; Rev Dr Delton Fernander; Rev Laish Boyd, and other BahaMix staff at the asphalt plant ribbon cutting.

Photo: Austin Fernander

NOTICE is hereby given that KAVITA GARIKAPARTHI of P. O. Box SS-19200, #64 Commonweath Avenue, Blair, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 23rd day of September, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

FIVE DAYS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY FOR RAGGED ISLAND RESIDENTS

BPL’s chief technology officer Burlington Strachan told The Tribune yesterday that the solar plant was not working during the com missioning ceremony last month.

However, he was ada mant that before this issue, the $5m microgrid had been functioning properly since December.

“There was a major lightning storm on Ragged Island that damaged the conventional generator and caused issues with the bat teries storage system – the micro grid,” Mr Strachan said yesterday.

“We are currently assess ing that situation. We

already got conventional generation back to the island. It happened early Sunday morning and so we are diagnosing the prob lem right now with respect to the microgrid and the remote communications to it with an intention to get it up and functional as quickly as possible.”

Asked about the con cerns of residents that the microgrid had not been functioning consistently, he said: “The microgrid was functioning from Decem ber of last year up until commissioning.

“We had an incident at one point where there was a component failure that we had to get addressed and it was a while when we were waiting for that part

to come in from the manu facturer under the warranty and then we had this inci dent as well.

“Some of the issues with the power on Ragged Island were not due to the micro grid, but were due to other things and so this is really no different from any other power system. It’s just solar based so there will be issues from time to time, but the system has been function ing as expected.”

He continued: “We had the part failure before the commissioning and then after the commissioning we had this issue with the light ning strike and so that’s why we were sort of running the system.

“They saw frequent out ages because we were

running the microgrid in the day and then switching to conventional generation during the night to mini mise having long outages.

“They were having shorter outages.”

Ty Wallace, a Ragged Island resident, thinks that the grid has been of little benefit to Ragged Islanders.

“They installed the solar system there when they had the big ‘to do’ the other day with the prime minister and deputy prime minister coming to Ragged Island. At the time when they announced Ragged Island to be the first green island or whatever the system was not working at that time, period.

“When they installed the system, it ran for maybe

three weeks then it shut down.

“The guys got it sorted and it ran for another two weeks. Then it went back down, and we had to run on the generator from then until the generator was struck by lightning last week.

“Then there was no power for five days and then the generator was sent. That solar plant is not working at all,” he said.

Another resident, Kervin Wallace, described the microgrid as “garbage”.

“It has to be pure gar bage,” Mr Wallace said, adding that he was affected “big time” by there being no power on the island last week. He arrived in Nassau on Friday

leaving his family on Ragged Island struggling with having no electricity.

Meanwhile, another resident said she had no water and was initially hard pressed to find canned gas for her portable stove.

“It was a struggle. You didn’t have any water,” the woman, who did not want to be named, said. “You had to search and find water and all of the residents have rainwater tanks so you just had to make do.

“When night came you had to go to your bed because there was no power. Like how I have an electric stove I had a port able lil’ hurricane stove, so I was able to use that. There was trouble finding gas, but I did get some eventually.”

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP SUPPORTS LAWS TO STOP MARITAL RAPE

By JADE RUSSELL jrussell@tribunemedia.net

LOCAL advocacy group

Human Rights Bahamas said it supports govern ment’s efforts to criminalise spousal sexual abuse.

The proposed Sexual Offences (Amend ment) Act was presented recently during the Minis try of Social Services and Department of Gender and Family Affairs’ sexual offences legislation one day symposium.

The draft amendment to the Sexual Offences Act

seeks to criminalise marital rape and redefine what con sent is.

The topic has sparked mixed reviews with the public, however, Human Rights Bahamas in a press release said it fully sup ports Attorney General Ryan Pinder’s position on the question of martial rape.

Under the proposed bill, rape is redefined as “the act of any person not under fourteen years of age having sexual inter course with another person without the consent of that person where he knows that

person does not consent or is reckless as to whether the person consents.”

Human Rights Baha mas said that currently an individual in a marriage is legally allowed to sexually force themselves upon the other spouse against their will.

“In virtually any other context, this would be regarded as repugnant behaviour and the per petrator would be tried, convicted and jailed. ‘No’ must always mean ‘no’ in every context, otherwise women are essentially second-class citizens,

barred from accessing the rights enshrined in our Constitution.”

The local advocacy group argued that as rape within a marriage does not con stitute legal grounds for divorce in The Bahamas, currently many women are forced to give other reasons to end their marriage.

“When the truth is that they (women) simply cannot endure another moment of living as the frightened victim of repeated sexual assault,” Human Rights Bahamas (HRB) said.

Regarding the argument

from some quarters that changing the law will encourage married women to make false accusations of rape, HRB called that “irra tional” and “meaningless”.

“The same could be said of any sexual crime, or indeed any violent assault or other inter-personal offence currently on the books,” HRB said.

“The fact of the matter is, Bahamian women hold the institution of marriage to be just as sacred as men do; the idea that protecting their rights will lead to frivolous accusations of sexual abuse in order to secure grounds

for divorce or in some way ‘punish’ their husband, are ridiculous and insulting. In any case, the law already has provisions for dealing with false accusations and if these are good enough for existing crimes, they would also be for marital rape.

“Human Rights Baha mas applauds the Davis administration for working towards the criminalisation of marital rape; we encour age them to prioritise this effort, along with other steps towards correcting the shocking imbalance of rights between men and women in The Bahamas.”

100 MEMBERS OF DEAF GROUP VISIT BREEZES

MEMBERS of a deaf group recently had a visit in Nassau at Breezes Resort & Spa.

Tabitha and Mac Partlow, owners of the Passagers Deaf Travel, have been organizing group travel to other des tinations for this group for sometime - it was their first visit as a group to Nassau.

The group was 100 members strong and, having been cut-off from travel due to COVID-19 over the past few years, were ready to explore Nassau and Breezes.

The group travelled with interpreters and a host of staff that arranged private get-togethers, costume compe titions, game nights, spa dates and more. Pictured are mem bers enjoying a day at the pool.

CROSSING GUARDS BACK IN FREEPORT

By DENISE MAYCCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE City of Freeport Council has confirmed that crossing guards will return on Monday to again assist students on the streets.

This comes after con cerns were raised over the absence of crossing guards at the various public schools in the Freeport area.

Chief Councillor Frazette Gibson, of the City of Free port District Council, told The Tribune that the coun cil has hired ten additional crossing guards to assist stu dents during peak morning and after-school hours.

“We have hired persons who are presently being trained and will begin on Monday, September 26,” she said.

Ms Gibson said she was aware of concerns expressed by the school principal at Maurice Moore Primary School. During their monthly meeting last Tuesday, she said the issue was addressed and a decision was made to hire guards.

“Safety is an important concept to citizens, and we at the City of Freeport Council believe that the incident as it relates to the crossing guards was most unfortunate,” she said.

“The principal at Mau rice Moore Primary had contacted me and some administrators expressing the importance of crossing guards and we could not let that issue continue any fur ther. So we acted with haste to address it immediately.”

Initially, some 13 crossing guards were employed in the Freeport area before the

closing of the last school year.

When school reopened in September, only one crossing guard was stationed at the cross walk on Coral Road.

According to Ms Gibson, the Road Traffic Department had assumed responsibility for salary payments of cross ing guards in 2020.

She noted that in 2020, the City of Freeport Coun cil petitioned the former government at the time to take on the salaries of crossing guards because “the council’s budget had

been cut severely.”

Principal Rodney Bethel of Maurice Moore Primary School said that a cross ing guard is needed at the school to ensure the safety of their students. He said that a security officer and a school aide had been assist ing students with crossing the street after school.

He told The Tribune that he hoped the matter could be addressed soon because traffic flow is very heavy around the school in the morning and after school.

NOTICE Providence, Minister

‘Knocking on famine’s door’

THE UN food chief warned yesterday that the world is facing “a perfect storm on top of a perfect storm” and urged donors, particularly Gulf nations and billionaires, to give a few days of profits to tackle a crisis with the fertiliser supply right now and prevent widespread food shortages next year.

“Otherwise, there’s gonna be chaos all over the world,” World Food Program executive director David Beasley said in an Associated Press interview.

Beasley said that when he took the helm of WFP 5 1/2 years ago, only 80 million people around the world were headed toward starvation. “And I’m thinking, ‘Well, I can put the World Food Program out of business’,” he said.

But climate problems increased that number to 135 million. The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020, doubled it to 276 million people not knowing where their next meal was coming from. Finally, Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, sparking a war and a food, fertiliser and energy crisis that has pushed the number to 345 million.

“Within that are 50 million people in 45 countries knocking on famine’s door,” Beasley said. “If we don’t reach these people, you will have famine, star vation, destabilisation of nations unlike anything we saw in 2007-2008 and 2011, and you will have mass migration.

“We’ve got to respond now.”

Beasley has been meeting world lead ers and speaking at events during this week’s General Assembly gathering of leaders to warn about the food crisis.

General Assembly president Csaba Korosi noted in his opening address Tuesday that “we live, it seems, in a permanent state of humanitarian emergency”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that conflicts and humanitarian crises are spreading, and the funding gap for the UN’s humanitar ian appeals stands at $32 billion - “the widest gap ever”.

This year, Beasley said, the war shut down grain shipments from Ukraine — a nation that produces enough food to feed 400 million people — and sharply curtailed shipments from Russia, the world’s second-largest exporter of ferti liser and a major food producer.

Beasley said donor fatigue often undermines aid, particularly in countries in ongoing crisis like Haiti. Inflation is also a serious issue, raising prices and hitting poor people who have no coping capacity because COVID-19 “just eco nomically devastated them”.

So mothers, he said, are forced to decide: Do they buy cooking oil and feed their children, or do they buy heat ing oil so they don’t freeze? Because there’s not enough money to buy both.

“It’s a perfect storm on top of a per fect storm,” Beasley said. “And with the fertiliser crisis we’re facing right now, with droughts, we’re facing a food pric ing problem in 2022. This created havoc around the world.”

“If we don’t get on top of this quickly — and I don’t mean next year, I mean this year — you will have a food avail ability problem in 2023,” he said. “And that’s gonna be hell.”

Beasley explained that the world now produces enough food to feed the more than 7.7 billion people in the world, but 50 percent of that food is because farm ers used fertiliser. They can’t get those high yields without it. China, the world’s top fertiliser producer, has banned its export; Russia, which is number two, is struggling to get it to world markets.

“We’ve got to get those fertilis ers moving, and we’ve got to move it quickly,” he said. “Asian rice production is at a critical state right now. Seeds are in the ground.”

In Africa, 33 million small farms feed over 70 percent of the population, and right now “we’re several billion dollars short of what we need for fertilizers.”

He said Central and South America also faced drought and India was buffeted by heat and drought. “It could go on and on,” he said.

He said the July deal to ship Ukrain ian grain from three Black Sea ports is a start, but “we’ve got to get the grains moving, we’ve got to get the fertilizer out there for everybody, and we need to end the wars”.

Beasley said the United States con tributed an additional $5 billion for food security, and Germany, France and the European Union are also stepping up. But he called on Gulf states to “step up more” with oil prices so high, particu larly to help countries in their region like Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.

“We’re not talking about asking for a trillion dollars here,” Beasley said. “We’re just talking about asking for a few days’ worth of your profits to stabi lise the world,” he said.

The WFP chief said he also met with a group of billionaires on Wednesday night. He said he told them they had “a moral obligation” and “need to care”.

“Even if you don’t give it to me, even if you don’t give it to the World Food Program, get in the game. Get in the game of loving your neighbour and helping your neighbour,” Beasley said. “People are suffering and dying around the world. When a child dies every five seconds from hunger, shame on us.”

By EDITH M LEDERER Associated Press

Please don’t get rid of cheques

EDITOR, The Tribune.

SO, the good Governor of The Central Bank thinks cheques are redundant and in 2023 he will declare them a dinosaur.

When employees were paid cash or by cheque there were plus - about 25,000 chequing accounts identified to the middle class and more wealthy people average Joe Baha mian dealt solely in cash and that was it.

Employers decided to go to transfer of pay cheques to employee bank accounts wow! chequing accounts exploded to over 160,000 plus, but what the good Governor is missing is those accounts are active once a week when the pay cheque is withdrawn and cash taken leaving the same honest-to-God cheque users mostly, as said middle class and more

wealthy, using cheques — historically almost as old as currency you don’t need a printed cheque format, just I promise to pay and the appropriate postage stamp it’s legal.

Consumers today used to an extent electronic trans fer a lot even the small salaried person debit cards and you see them making small purchases, I mean small, a few dollars Credit cards if you wish to increase the amount of cash you have available.

There is absolutely no reason to delete cheques. They don’t cost the bank or the Central Bank a dime printing and clearing are to the cost of the user. What is strange, remem ber all the bally-hoo about

electronic clearing, $1 plus million bush crack gonevery recently CIBC added to their now costly ser vices forwarding scanned cheques you use, that has had to have a cost — you mean CIBC didn’t cheque what the cheque policy of the Central Bank was? Hard to swallow that.

It is totally illogical why The Central Bank plans to remove the use of cheques. The same group that used them before will continue to use them. Pension ers will be happy if they stay, as will a lot of busi nesses. Tracking payments is far easier with paper than electronically.

No, protect the right of over 25,000 living Bahamians we want cheques to stay.

K FERNANDER Nassau, September, 2022.

EDITOR, The Tribune.

WHO are we? Saxon’s Superstars want to know.

Great question because a lot of us have either for gotten where we came from or are too ashamed to even ride through the corners where we spent almost all of our childhood, and noth ing is wrong with that. It’s all up to you. I can’t fault you for that.

But I promise you. I guar antee you that there were people through that corner, beside your family, who did not go to sleep each night without praying for you and are proud and very happy because of how successful you have become.

There are people in that community that brag about your accomplishments.

They have pictures of you in their homes, and newspa per clippings of you fill their scrapbook. You are their idol.

They love the dirt you walk on.

Bet you didn’t know that?

We are happy to see so many of our athletes that have turned pro visit their former schools to

encourage our young stu dents to be better people. They want to make a dif ference. They want to give back.

But today it’s not about them. The focus is on us who only made it this far by God’s grace and the prayers of the matriarchs that spent countless hours and sleep less nights on their knees praying for us.

Furthermore, you don’t have to be famous to make an impression on an at-risk youth.

They don’t need another hero. All they need is some one to point them out of the ruins away from the wreckage.

They don’t need to repeat the same mistakes. They are the children, the last generation, the ones we left behind.

Are we going to leave them there without even an attempt to show them the way out? If we did, all of the accomplishments we made would have been in vain.

They heard about you, their parents are tell ing them about you.

“Why don’t you be like

so-and-so who used to live up the road. “But they have a problem identifying with someone who does not speak to them. They don’t want to be like someone that believes they are better than others.

Hence the divide.

ANTHONY PRATT born dere, ya born dere’

Why do you think they turn to crack teeth nation and mad-ass?

It is too bad that we read the obituaries of people we know, who we grew up with, there is no men tion of their roots. Not a lick. Even in death, they are ashamed of their back ground. That period in their lives never existed.

Smokey 007 sang “ya born dere, Ya born dere”

So, what do we do with our lives?

We leave only a mark Will our story shine like a light Or end in the dark Is it all or nothing?

What will our epilogue read?

God bless you. God bless the Bahamas.”

THE SOYUZ-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-22 space ship carrying a new crew to the Inter national Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. The Russian rocket carries NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.

Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

TWO ACCUSED OF BAIL VIOLATIONS

court imposed daily curfew by leaving his residence at 9.45pm on September 20.

involvement in the death of 58-year-old Craig Trevor Smith in 2018.

TWO men were charged in the Magistrate‘s Court yesterday for alleg edly violating their bail while on release on sepa rate murder charges.

Derico “Sparky” John Bowe, 29, represented by attorney Ryszard Humes, was taken before Senior Magistrate Vogt-Evans charged with violating his conditions of bail.

His $40,000 bail on two murder charges was granted in the Supreme Court in July.

He is alleged to have killed Andrew Mackey on May 4 and Arison Pratt on April 30.

Bowe is said to have breached the terms of his

In court, the accused pleaded not guilty. With no objections from prosecutor ASP Lewis, bail was again granted to Bowe at $7,000 with one or two sureties. Under the conditions of this bail, the accused is expected to sign in at Central Police Station every Monday, Wednes day and Friday by 7pm. He was warned that failure to comply with these terms will result in his bail being revoked.

Bowe’s trial is set for Jan uary 26, 2023.

The second man, Keith Stubbs, 26, also faced Mag istrate Vogt-Evans on four counts of bail violation.

He was granted $20,000 bail in 2020 for his alleged

Between September 14-20, Stubbs failed to charge his electronic moni toring device (EMD) on four occasions.

In court, Stubbs pleaded guilty. He told the judge that the electricity was turned off at his residence and that his landlord has yet to resolve the issue. Bowe also said that he has to try and charge his EMD in the morning at a neigh bour’s home resulting in some difficulties.

Magistrate Vogt-Evans accepted the defendant’s explanation, warning and discharging him for the matter. The magistrate also advised Stubbs to charge his EMD at the nearest police station.

A YEAR IN JAIL OVER LOADED PISTOL

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was sentenced to one year at the Bahamas Department of Correc tional Services yesterday for having a loaded pistol.

Philip Taylor, 23, stood before Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm and

possession of ammunition.

Taylor was arrested in June 2020 after he was found with a silver and black Smith & Wesson .40 pistol.

In addition to this pistol having had its serial number erased, it also contained six unfired rounds of .40 ammunition.

In his latest court appear ance, Taylor reversed his earlier position and pleaded

guilty to the charge.

After he accepted the facts in his case and his counsel lodged his offi cial plea of mitigation, the court sentenced Taylor to one year at BDCS for both charges to be served concurrently.

Taylor has within seven days to appeal the court’s sentencing.

He was represented by attorney Roberto Reckley.

MAN MUST COMPENSATE BROTHER FOR FIGHT

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was ordered to pay $3,000 in compensa tion and bound to keep the peace for one year yes terday after admitting to stabbing his brother during a fight.

Corey Hepburn, 30, faced Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans on a charge of grievous harm.

On September 19, Hep burn got into a fight with his brother, Akeem Coakley, which resulted in Coak ley being stabbed in their kitchen. This resulted in the complainant suffering a

punctured abdomen. In court, Hepburn pleaded guilty with expla nation to the charge and took responsibility for his actions. After accepting the facts in his case, the accused said he was fight ing with his brother over a power cord and as the fight escalated in the kitchen, he accidentally grabbed a knife and stabbed Coakley in self-defence.

An emotional Hepburn told the court that he has a good relationship with his brother and never meant to hurt him. Before con victing him for the offence the magistrate noted that

he could have killed his brother.

As part of his conditional discharge, Hepburn was ordered to compensate his brother $3,000 or risk eight months in prison. He was further bound to keep the peace for one year or in default, pay a $1000 fine or face another eight-month prison sentence.

Hepburn is expected to pay a portion of his fine before his release with subsequent $200 weekly payments until he com pletes the balance.

Hepburn is to return to court for a report on December 6.

FTX donates 100 laptops to Ministry of Education

By JADE RUSSELL jrussell@tribunemedia.net

FTX DIGITAL Markets donated 100 laptops to the Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training yesterday to assist teachers in need.

Valdez Russell, FTX’s vice-president of commu nications, presented the donation to Education Min ister Glenys Hanna Martin along with other ministry representatives.

Mr Russell said: “FTX recently celebrated one year of attaining its licence and doing business here in The

Bahamas, and one of the first public contributions we made was to the Ministry of Education. During that time, it was acknowledged that there was a need for some 300 laptops to be distributed to educators who needed to deliver classes virtually to students across the archi pelago. We acknowledged this need; we mobilised in meaningful ways. And a year later, we are now presenting the first of 100 laptops to the minister.”

Director of FTX Digi tals Markets Zoe Gibson Bowleg also shared similar sentiments noting that this donation was especially

important to her. Ms Hanna Martin thanked FTX Digital Mar kets for the donation.

“Thank you,” she said. “I always say it takes a vil lage. And it sounds cliche, but it’s not particularly in the field of education, which is the enterprise that guarantees for us as best as possible, a prosperous, peaceful nation. I know that FTX is headquartered in The Bahamas. And I’m very grateful that they have understood the importance of sharing in the village in the development of the nation as a whole, and in particular, for education.”

MAN ACCUSED OF ASSAULT WITH ROCK

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN with a hearing disability was charged in the Magistrate’s Court yes terday with assaulting a man with a rock and dam aging his car.

Courtney Forbes, 44, with the assistance of an interpreter for the deaf, faced Assistant Chief

Magistrate Subusola Swain on four charges. These include assault with a dan gerous instrument, threats of death and two counts of damage.

On September 17 in New Providence, Forbes is said to have assaulted Glen Cox with a rock and threat ened him with death. On the same day the accused is further alleged to have caused damage to Cox’s

BMW sedan’s rear wind shield. He also reportedly caused damage to the rear windshield of Jean Claude Cineus’ vehicle.

In court, Forbes pleaded not guilty to the charges.

His previous court bail of $5,000 was upheld, as he was granted it while he awaited an interpreter on an earlier date.

His trial is scheduled to start on December 1.

VALDEZ Russell and Zoe Gibson Bowleg, both of FTX, presenting one of the laptops to Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin.

Photo: Moise Amisial

‘Why reunification between the mainland of China and Taiwan is the only viable option’

By DAI QINGLI , Chinese ambassador to The Bahamas

THROUGHOUT

na’s history, there has been a great yearning for unity and stability among the Chinese people. China had seen some of its best times, as a united, power ful and prosperous country leading the world in many ways. And among its worst nightmares were those internecine wars and con flicts inflicting destruction and misery upon its own people and inviting foreign aggression.

Although China still has territorial and maritime dis putes in its West and in the South China Sea, Taiwan is by far the deepest and most visible scar on the collec tive psyche of the Chinese nation.

Having Taiwan reunited with the motherland is the shared will and aspiration of the 1.4 billion Chinese people. It is seen as the ulti mate hallmark of China’s rejuvenation. The Chinese government and people will go any length and pay any price to resolve the Taiwan issue and realise the com plete reunification of the motherland.

NARROW STRAIT

Having lost the civil war with the Communists in 1949, the Kuomintang (Nationalists) led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan with the avowed goal of retaking the mainland. The Chiang regime prohibited any form of exchanges across the Taiwan Strait. A few months before his death, Chiang’s son,

Taiwan Strait. The visits, which started as a trickle at the end of 1987, quickly burst open the floodgates of exchanges between the Chinese across the Taiwan Strait. In 1992, cross-Strait

the Taiwan Strait belong to one China and will work together toward national reunification”.

The 1992 Consensus, serving as the anchor of cross-Strait ties, has ena bled institutionalised

culminating in the first meeting and direct dialogue between President Xi Jin ping and leader of Taiwan, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, in 2015 in Singapore.

Warming ties between the two sideshave benefited both. The volume of crossStrait trade, which was only US$46m in 1978, jumped to over US$328 billion in 2021, up more than 7,000 times. The mainland has been Tai wan’s largest export market for the past 21 years and the largest destination for its off-island investment. In 1987 fewer than 50,000 visits were made between the two sides; by 2019 this number had soared to about nine million.

WIDENING DIVIDE

Along with bur geoning economic and people-to-people ties, cross-Strait relations have seen regular flare-ups of tension in the past few decades.

For nearly forty years after 1949 when Taiwan was ruled by the Chiangs, the Taiwan authorities, insist ing that they should remain the legitimate government for the whole of China, opposed ‘two Chinas’ and ‘Taiwan independence’ just like the mainland.

Things started to change after 1988 when Lee Tenghui became the leader of Taiwan. Initially paying lip service to one China, his true colours as a separatistin-chief on Taiwan was soon exposed. He started to trum pet that “Taiwan is already a state with independent sovereignty”. He went on to claim in 1999 that crossStrait relations were “special state-to-state relations”.

For years, Lee sup ported and emboldened a separatist movement and encouraged the propa gation of the “Taiwan independence” ideology.

Lee’s unscrupu lous promotion of secession eventually led to the election of the Demo cratic Progressive Party (DPP), a previously mar ginal political force, whose platform calls for independ ence, in 2000.

DPP leader Chen Shuibian created his own term “one country on each side” (of the Taiwan Strait) in 2002. Chen spared no efforts in fabricating a legal basis for “Taiwan independ ence” by terminating the “National Unification Com mission” and the “National Unification Program” and attempting to revise Tai wan’s “constitution” based

one-China.

In 2016, the DPP came back to power under Tsai Ing-wen, who continued the party’s “salami tactic” of pursuing “incremen tal independence”. Tsai tried to contrive a separate cultural identity for the Taiwanese, shifted Chinese history into the section about East Asian history in textbooks and tried to remove “Chinese unifica tion” from Taiwan’s laws.

A consistent theme of DPP’s rule was to deny and distort one China, col lude with external forces to create “one China, one Taiwan” in the international community, and prepare for resisting reunification by force through persistent weapons procurement.

ALL OPTIONS ON THE TABLE

Peaceful reunification has always been the preferred option for the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government in resolving the Taiwan question. China will make utmost efforts in utmost sincerity to strive for this Yet the growing dangers of secession left China with no choice but to maintain credible deterrence against separatist adventurism and external interference.

The Anti-Secession Law promulgated in 2005 stipu lates: “In the event that the ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist forces should act under any name or by any means to cause the fact of Taiwan’s secession from China, or that major incidents entailing Tai wan’s secession from China should occur, or that pos sibilities for a peaceful reuni fication should be completely exhausted, the state shall employ nonpeaceful means and other necessary measures to pro tect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

In no way does this law target the people on Taiwan. Use of force would only be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances.

In recent decades, when ever the separatist forces and their American backers tried to push the envelope by provoking confronta tion, China would react with firm actions to show its resolve and capabilities of upholding sovereignty and territorial integrity.

No matter whether it was Lee Teng-hui making a “private” visit to the US in June 1995 or US House Speaker insisting on visiting Taiwan in August 2022, the mainland would conduct large scale military exer cises in the Taiwan Strait and adjacent waters. The only difference is China’s growing capabilities to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

ONE CHINA

Following Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, UN Sec retary-General António Guterres reiterated that the UN abides by the oneChina policy and UNGA Resolution 2758, which has become an overwhelming consensus and basic norm governing international relations.

On the basis of one China, the Chinese govern ment has shown flexibility in Taiwan’s participation in some inter-governmental international organiza tions in appropriate ways.

For example, Taiwan has no difficulty participating in the Asian Development Bank, the Asia-Pacific Eco nomic Cooperation, and the International Olympic Committee in the names of “ Taipei, China” and “Chi nese Taipei.”

And on the basis

of one China, the Chinese government facili tated non-governmental economic and cultural con tacts between Taiwan and foreign countries.

As a result, every year, millions of Taiwanese go abroad for travel, business or study, as well as for aca demic, cultural or sports exchanges. In 2021, Taiwan ranked as the 16thlargest trader in the world.

During the pandemic, for example, the Chinese Gov ernment has given Taiwan 400 updates, and approved 47 visits by public health experts from Taiwan to 44 WHO technical activities over the past year. Taiwan received multiple notifica tions on COVID-19 from the WHO Secretariat.

Chinese embassies and consulates abroad extend the same consular protec tion to Taiwan compatriots, particularly in times of war or natural disasters.

At the same time, the Taiwan authorities’ attempts to enlarge their “international space” through “pragmatic diplo macy” will continue to be firmly opposed by China, as their true intention is to create “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.”

THE WAY TO GO

Peaceful reunification and “one country, two systems” will remain the Chinese government’s basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question. The basic propositions of one country, two systems are as follows. First, there is only one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalien able part of China. One Country is the precondition and basis for two systems; Two systems is subordinate to and derived from one coun try; The two are insepara ble under the one-China principle.

Second, after peace ful reunification, Taiwan may continue its current social system and enjoy a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the law. The two social systems will co-exist and develop side by side for a long time to come.

Third, provided that Chi na’s sovereignty, security and development interests are safeguarded, Taiwan after reunification will enjoy a high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region. Taiwan’s social system and its way of life will be fully respected, and the private property, religious beliefs, and lawful rights and inter ests of the people on Taiwan will be fully protected.

Foreign countries can continue to develop eco nomic and cultural relations with Taiwan. With the approval of the central gov ernment of China, they may set up consulates or other official and quasi-official institutions in Taiwan, international organisations and agencies may establish offices on Taiwan.

In the 1920s, a well-known Chinese scholar wrote a series of seven poems, liken ing China to a mother and the seven cities or islands that were lost to foreign aggressors to her seven sons. In each of the poems, a son would express his sufferings due to forced separation from his beloved mother. All the poems ended with the same line, “O Mother, I must come back to you.”

By now six of the seven sons have long been reu nited with their mother. Taiwan as the seventh wan derer will come back, too, one day, hopefully in the not too distant future.

• This is the second of three articles by Chinese ambassador Dai Qingli. See Insight on Monday for the final article.

‘In no way does this law target the people on Taiwan. Use of force would only be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances.’

Trying to take up incentives turns into a saga

A YOUNG couple, solid professionals with sound jobs and a dream for their future on the family island where they were raised, say with every day and every reply from government their dream is sliding far ther away.

We’ll call them Monique and Sean.

Monique first heard about the news that inspired the dream in June 2021. That’s when the former gov ernment, the Minnis administration, made the announcement intended to drive family island com merce, reawaken a spirit of entrepreneurship and perk up economies suffering from pandemic shutdowns and brain drain.

Called the Special Tax Concessions for Andros and the Southern Islands, the incentive programme was part of the 2021-2022 budget that took effect on July 1, 2021. That was more than 400 days ago and there has hardly been a day that has gone by that either Monique or Sean has not tried to take advantage of the incen tive to allow them to build a small café which they would over see with the help of a sala ried manager as they both kept their full-time jobs.

By Diane Phillips

“We applied on MyGateway, the govern ment portal, and it asks you if you are applying as an individual or a busi ness,” she continued. They applied as a business.

But for a business, it requires a business licence and an expiration date to move forward. So, for the type of business which is food handling, they cannot get a business licence until the building is built and inspected by Town Planning and Environmental Health. But that, of course, means they would have to build without the exemptions that fueled the dream when government made the offer.

‘The idea was that by granting tax exemptions for a two-year period it would drive business, but if you can’t get a licence until you have the business and the building is inspected, how is it going to help you import the materials you need that you were supposed to be able to save VAT and customs duties on?’

“The incentives will allow us to bring in con struction materials, equipment, appliances and furniture VAT and duty free and that makes a huge difference to our overall budget, allow ing us to turn out a better product and provide a better experience for the local community as well as visitors,” said Monique.

Construction materials are actually duty free, but not VAT free on the island, while equipment, appliances and furniture command both forms of taxation.

“It’s like a circle that keeps going round and round and ends up back where it started,” she explains. “We are so frus trated. The idea was that by granting tax exemptions for a twoyear period it would drive business, but if you can’t get a licence until you have the business and the building is inspected, how is it going to help you import the materials you need that you were sup posed to be able to save VAT and customs duties on?”

The couple has called the Department of Inland Rev enue probably at least 30 times, including many times when no one picked up an extension. They tried to find contacts, they sent emails and follow-up emails.

“There was never a response to any of them,” says Monique.

Someone suggested applying for a provisional

business licence, so she tried that.

“But unfortunately, you can’t get a provisional busi ness licence for anything to do with serving food because it is considered high risk.”

Frustration is not limited to the tax issues.

Getting the plans approved for the small 600 square foot build ing took three months, though the couple was kept updated. Most seat ing will be outdoors in a garden setting.

Sean and Monique even tually gave up trying to make the government’s incentive programme work for the construction of the café.

“On the family islands that these incentives were designed to help, there isn’t a lot of retail space people can lease. So if they want to open a storefront, people will want to build especially if there is some land that is owned by the family.

“So while we are ready to build and created the dream based on the incentives, it has been an ex-ercise in futility and frustration because the process just was not thoroughly thought through in my opinion,” she said.

Was the Special Tax Con cessions for Andros and the Southern Islands another promising headline that sounded like a winner but instead of a plan, dissolved into rhetoric and campaign bluster or were there good intentions that just lacked follow through?

One young couple with a dream will build their café. They hope to benefit from the tax concessions for furniture and equipment. They will enliven the cul ture and add a slight boost to the economy on their island.

But they will pay out of pocket, take longer to com plete and hope that next time a promise made is a promise kept.

VILLAGE ROAD IMPROVEMENTS

IF YOU travel the Village Road and Shirley Street area, you know that at peak hours in the morning westbound traffic crossing that intersection can be backed up for miles. In the late after noon, east-bound traffic crossing the intersection of Village and Eastern Roads is equally impacted, sometimes stretching as far back as the Paradise Island bridge.

Sitting in traffic, burning gas at just south of $7 a gallon, is something no one should have to endure if there is a way around it and here is what my friend, an engineer, suggests:

Because the hold-up is caused by the lumps or uneven trenches of sand and rock in the road at the specific intersec tions, asphalt those two ditches for the

time being. Each is only about 30 feet across. Reducing the need to slow down to a crawl of one mile an hour will allow traffic to resume a more normal flow.

It is not the work on Village Road, per se, that is causing the delays, a pro ject that was long needed and appears to be well organised except for unan nounced interruptions to power and utilities on the side streets. It is simple a few trenches and the cost of a tem porary asphalt fill will not make a dent in the coffers of those carrying out the project but will allow for fewer delays and will reduce air pollution and public frustration while adding to produc tivity. The road will eventually be all asphalted, a temporary layer can only help.

CARS crossing the battered road of Village

TRUMP IS ACCUSED OF VAST FRAUD IN NY SUIT

FORMER President Donald Trump padded his net worth by billions of dol lars and habitually misled banks and others about the value of prized assets like golf courses, hotels and his Mar-a-Lago estate, New York’s attorney general said on Wednesday in a lawsuit that seeks to permanently disrupt the Republican’s ability to do business in the state.

Attorney General Letitia James dubbed it “The art of the steal”.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan, is the culmination of the Democrat’s three-year civil investigation into Trump and the Trump Organiza tion. Trump’s three eldest children, Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump, were also named as defendants, along with two longtime company executives.

In its 222 pages, the suit details dozens of instances of alleged fraud, many involving claims made on annual financial statements that Trump would give to banks, business associates and financial magazines as proof of his riches as he sought loans and deals.

For example, accord ing to the lawsuit, Trump claimed his Trump Tower apartment — a threestorey penthouse replete with gold-plated fixtures — was nearly three times its actual size and valued the property at $327m. No apartment in New York City has ever sold for close to that amount, James said.

Trump applied similar fuzzy math to his Mar-aLago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the lawsuit alleged, by valuing the private club and residence as high as $739m — more than ten times a more reason able estimate of its worth. Trump’s figure is based on the idea that the property could be developed for resi dential use, but deed terms prohibit that.

“This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive banks and the people of the great state of New York,” James said at a news conference.

ALEX JONES

TESTIFIES OVER HIS SANDY HOOK LIES

ALEX Jones took the stand Thursday at his Con necticut defamation trial, acknowledging he had promoted the conspiracy theory that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, but angrily refusing to keep apologising for that.

More than a dozen relatives of the 26 shoot ing victims showed up to observe his often con tentious testimony in Waterbury Superior Court, about 20 miles from New town, where the shooting occurred.

Jones was found liable last year by default for damages to plaintiffs with out a trial, for what the judge called his repeated failures to turn over docu ments to their lawyers. The six-member jury is now deciding how much Jones and Free Speech Systems, parent of Jones’ Infowars media platforms, should pay the families for defam ing them and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.

On Thursday, Jones admitted calling parents “crisis actors” on his show and saying the shooting was “phony as a three-dollar bill”.

Plaintiff attorney Chris topher Mattei accused Jones of putting targets on the parents’ backs, point ing to the family members in the courtroom and saying “these are real people”.

“Just like all the Iraqis you liberals killed and love,” Jones responded. “Just, you’re unbelievable. You switch on emotions, on-and-off when you want. You’re just ambulance chasing.”

Why Charles won’t be Britain’s ‘green’ king

LONDON Associated Press

ON A blustery November day last year Britain’s future king stood before world leaders to deliver a rallying cry that they should “act with all despatch, and decisively” to confront a common enemy.

The clarion call — in the vast, windowless hall of a Glasgow con vention centre at the opening of the UN climate conference — con cerned an issue long dear to the heart of the then-Prince Charles.

Climate change and loss of biodi versity were no different from the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, he said. “In fact, they pose an even greater existential threat, to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing.”

He warned leaders that time was running out to reduce emis sions, urging them to push through reforms that are “radi cally transforming our current fossil fuel-based economy to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable”.

“We need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector,” he said, adding that the trillions at businesses’ disposal would go far beyond what governments could muster and offered “the only real prospect of achieving fundamental economic transition.”

It was a fierce call to arms quite unlike the gentle appeal delivered by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in a video message that evening.

For decades, Charles has been one of Britain’s most prominent environmental voices, blasting the ills of pollution. Now that he’s mon arch, he is bound to be more careful with his words and must stay out of politics and government policy in accordance with the traditions of Britain’s constitutional monarchy.

“Charles will have very little freedom of maneuver now that he is King,” said Robert Hazell, an expert on British constitu tional affairs at University College London.

“All of his speeches are writ ten or vetted by the government,” Hazell added. “If he makes an impromptu remark which seems at odds with government policy, the press will pounce on him to point out the inconsistency, and the gov ernment will rein him in; he will have to be far less outspoken than he has been in the past.”

Still, many say it’s unlikely he will abruptly stop discussing climate change and the environment – not least because they are issues that are above political ideology.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week that it would be “perfectly accept able” for the monarch to advocate

for climate action, even though his role is meant to be apolitical.

“It’s important that the monar chy distance from party political issues,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “But there are issues like climate change where I think if he chooses to continue to make statements in that area, I think that is perfectly acceptable.”

“It should be something that’s above politics, the need to act on climate change,” he added.

Keeping mum on climate may be particularly tricky for Charles in light of the current Conservative government’s ambivalent stance.

While the government says it remains committed to the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by mid-century, the administration led by new Prime Minister Liz Truss is encouraging more North Sea oil drilling and reversing a ban on fracking in a bid to boost the domestic energy supply.

Britain’s government formally confirmed Thursday it was lift ing a 2019 ban on fracking — or hydraulic fracking, the controver sial method of extracting shale gas — in England. Officials brushed away criticism from environmental groups and argued that the move would reduce UK dependence on international gas prices, which have soared amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Truss’ government also announced a new round of licens ing for companies to search for oil and gas in the North Sea.

Energy Secretary Jacob ReesMogg has said Britain should keep burning the fossil fuels at its disposal.

“We need to be thinking about extracting every last cubic inch of gas from the North Sea,” he said in a recent radio interview, citing the need for energy security.

In the past, Rees-Mogg has spoken out against building more on-shore wind farms in Britain and questioned the effect that rising carbon dioxide emissions are having on the climate, even though experts say the warming effects of increasing CO2 levels are clear.

As environment secretary in 2014, Truss called large-scale solar farms “a blight on the landscape” and scrapped subsidies for farmers and landowners to build them.

Speaking in a 2018 BBC docu mentary marking Charles’ 70th birthday, his sons William and Harry revealed the frustration their father feels at the world’s failure to tackle environmental challenges. They recalled how, as teenagers, Charles would make them go litter picking during the holidays and obsess over the need to turn off lights.

Such small actions pale in com parison to the air miles the monarch has racked up over a lifetime of jet ting around the world — though he claims to have converted his Aston Martin to run on surplus white wine and cheese.

Charles’ lament that many people “simply pay no attention to science” on climate change has also been called out by those who

point out that he has long been an advocate of unproven naturopathic therapies.

Some of Charles’ subjects want him to continue the fight against cli mate change, even as king. Yet the new king himself has acknowledged that his role as ecowarrior cannot last, at least in its current form.

“I’m not that stupid,” he told the BBC four years ago on being asked whether he would continue his activism as before.

The battles of a prince are not those of a king, he explained, but made clear that they can still be fought by the next in line, Prince William.

In his first address as sovereign to the nation on September 9, Charles emphasised that, saying “it will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply”.

“But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others,” he added.

Like Charles, William, 40, has made climate change one of his main advocacy topics. Last year he made his mark by awarding the first Earthshot Prize, an ambitious “legacy project” the prince founded to award millions of pounds in grants for environmental initiatives around the world over the next ten years. His efforts, however, have been undermined by criticism that his conservation charity invested in a bank that is one of the world’s biggest backers of fossil fuels.

WHILE world leaders from wealthy countries acknowledge the “exis tential threat” of climate change, Tuvalu Prime Min ister Kausea Natano is racing to save his tiny island nation from drowning by raising it 13 to 16 feet above sea level through land reclamation.

While experts issue warnings about the even tual uninhabitability of the Marshall Islands, Presi dent David Kabua must reconcile the inequity of a seawall built to protect one house that is now flooding another one next door.

That is the reality of cli mate change: Some people get to talk about it from afar, while others must live it every day.

Natano and Kabua tried to show that reality on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assem bly. Together they launched the Rising Nations Initia tive, a global partnership aimed to preserve the sovereignty, heritage and rights of Pacific atoll island nations whose very exist ence have been threatened by climate change.

Natano described how rising sea levels have impacted everything from the soil that his people rely on to plant crops, to the homes, roads and power lines that get washed away. The cost of eking out a living, he said, eventually becomes too much to bear, causing families to leave

and the nation itself to disappear.

“This is how a Pacific atoll dies,” Natano said. “This is how our islands will cease to exist.”

The Rising Nations Ini tiative seeks a political declaration by the inter national community to preserve the sovereignty and rights of Pacific atoll island countries; the crea tion of a comprehensive program to build and finance adaptation and resilience projects to help local communities sustain livelihoods; a living reposi tory of the culture and unique heritage of each Pacific atoll island coun try; and support to acquire UNESCO World Heritage designation.

The initiative has already gained the support of

countries like the United States, Germany, South Korea and Canada, all of which have acknowledged the unique burden that island nations like Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands must shoulder.

A UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in February spelled out the vulnerability of small island developing states and other global hot spots like Africa and South Asia, whose populations are 15 times more likely to die from extreme weather compared to less vulnerable parts of the world.

If warming exceeds a few more tenths of a degree, it could lead to some areas — including some small islands — becoming uninhabitable, said report co-author Adelle Thomas of Climate Analyt ics and the University of the Bahamas. On Wednesday, Natano noted that Tuvalu and its Pacific neighbors “have done nothing to cause climate change,” with their carbon emission contribu tion amounting to less than .03% of the world’s total.

“This is the first time in history that the collec tive action of many nations will have made several sovereign countries unin habitable,” he said.

Representatives from other nations who attended Wednesday’s event did not deflect responsibil ity. But whether they will do enough to turn things around remains to be seen. ATOLL DIES’

BIDEN VOWS NOT TO WALK AWAY FROM PUERTO RICO

SAN SALVADOR, Puerto Rico Associated Press

PRESIDENT Joe Biden said yesterday the full force of the federal government is ready to help Puerto Rico recover from the devasta tion of Hurricane Fiona even as Bermuda and Can ada’s Atlantic provinces were preparing for a major blast from the Category 4 storm.

Speaking at a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency offi cials in New York, Biden said, “We’re all in this together.”

Biden noted that hun dreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already on the ground in Puerto Rico, where Fiona caused an island-wide blackout.

More than 60 per cent of power customers remained without energy on Thursday, and a third of customers were without water — and local officials admitted they could not say when service would be fully restored.

Biden said his message to the people of Puerto Rico who are still hurting from Hurricane Maria five years ago is, “We’re with you. We’re not going to walk away.”

That seemed to draw a contrast with former Presi dent Donald Trump, who was widely accused of an inadequate response to Maria, which left some Puerto Ricans without power for 11 months.

The hurricane was expected to still be at

Category 4 force overnight when it passes close to Ber muda, where authorities there were opening shelters and announced schools and offices would be closed on Friday.

Fiona’s outer bands were already reaching the British territory in early afternoon.

It’s expected to still be a large and dangerously potent when it reaches Can ada’s Atlantic provinces, likely late Friday, as a posttropical cyclone.

“It’s going to be a storm that everyone remem bers when it is all said and done,” said Bob Robichaud, warning pre paredness meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

Hundreds of people in Puerto Rico remained cut off by road four days after the hurricane ripped into the US territory, and frus tration was mounting for people like Nancy Galarza, who tried to signal for help from work crews she spot ted in the distance.

“Everyone goes over there,” she said pointing toward crews at the bottom of the mountain who were helping others also cut off by the storm. “No one comes here to see us. I am worried for all the elderly people in this community.”

At least five landslides cover the narrow road to her community in the steep mountains around the northern town of Caguas. The only way to reach the settlement is to climb over thick mounds of mud, rock and debris left by Fiona.

BRITAIN’s then-Prince Charles addresses a Commonwealth Leaders’ Reception at the COP26 Summit, at the SECC in Glas gow, Scotland, in November last year.

Photo: Stefan Rousseau/AP

PRESIDENT of the Marshall Islands David Kabua ad dresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

Photo: Jason DeCrow/AP

‘Jazz’ says he’ll suit up for Great Britain

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Great Britain baseball has an opportu nity to field its most talented roster of all time when it participates in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm Jr confirmed his plans to return to the international stage and join Team Great Britain for the second time in his career next March when the best national pro grammes compete in the fifth edition of the event.

The Miami Marlins AllStar infielder addressed future national team pros pects and his injury status when he joined the Bally Sports broadcast team as the Marlins hosted the Chicago Cubs Wednesday night at loanDepot Park in Miami, Florida.

“It’s going to be sick for me,” Chisholm said, “because you’re out there and you never really get a chance to ever play with anybody from your hometown or even family

Chisholm Jr gives update on injury

members at that. I’m about to get to experience it all.” Chisholm was one of nine Bahamians on the roster for Great Britain in the 2017 WBC Qualifiers in Brooklyn, New York.

He had his best game of the qualifier when he fin ished 3-5, drove in an RBI, scored a run and stole two bases in a 14-0 win over Pakistan. Great Britain eventually suffered a 9-1 loss to Israel in the qualify ing game.

Great Britain recently qualified for the WBC, for the first time in programme history, with its undefeated performance at last week’s qualifier in Regensburg, Germany.

The tournament will be hosted March 8-21 across several venues. Pool A will compete at Taichung Intercontinental Base ball Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan, Pool B and tourna ment quarterfinals will take place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, Pool C

JAZZ Chisholm Jr

at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, and finally Pool D, quarterfinals, semifinals and championship will take place at Chisholm’s home stadium - loanDepot Park.

Great Britain will com pete in Pool A against Chinese Taipei, Nether lands, Cuba and Italy.

After a three-year gap between the first two installments of the tourna ment, plans were made for the World Baseball Classic to be repeated every four years following the 2009

event. The third install ment of the Classic was held in 2013, and the fourth was held in 2017. The fifth, originally scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tournament is being expanded from 16 to 20 national teams, with all teams that participated in the 2017 edition automati cally qualifying, plus four additional spots.

Sixteen teams had already secured a berth in the 2021 WBC - Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Israel, Italy, Japan, Neth erlands, Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, United States and Venezuela.

Great Britain and the Czech Republic earned two of the most recent tournament berths follow ing their success at the Pool A qualifier in Germany.

The final two teams in the field will be the winners out of the Pool B qualifier,

September 30 to October 5 in Panama City.

Chisholm’s last appear ance on the field in a Marlins uniform was June 28. He originally suffered the back injury early in the season on a slide and eventually re-aggravated the injury in late June, which forced him out of the lineup.

Due to a back strain, Chisholm has been on the injured list since June 29. He underwent a CT scan on July 21 that revealed a stress fracture in his lower back. The Marlins offi cially ruled him out of a return for the remainder of the season. Chisholm also revealed that he played this season with a torn menis cus which he suffered prior to the season.

MLB.com reported that Marlins manager Don Mat tingly and general manager Kim Ng announced that Chisholm Jr would not

SOFTBALL: QC COMETS SENIOR GIRLS WIN 2 STRAIGHT

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT was the second straight lopsided victory for the Queen’s College Comets, but their senior girls’ softball team still feel they have not yet produced their best efforts so far in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools 2022 season.

The Comets, coming off a rout over the Kingsway Academy Saints in their season opener on Tues day, pulled off their second abbreviated victory with a 13-1 decision over the St Andrew’s Hurricanes yes terday at their home field at Queen’s College.

“We played as well as we could, but I felt we could have played better,” said catcher Jada Wallace, who batted fourth in the line-up

SEE

FORMER SENIOR SPORTS OFFICER COLEBROOKE DIES AT 68

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN relaunching its water safety programme for pri mary school students, Let’s Swim Bahamas is eager to get more Bahamians learn ing the importance of being able to swim in an archipel ago surrounded by water.

Let’s Swim Bahamas, led by the husband/wife team of Andy and Nancy Knowles, showed a docu mentary to a number of invited guests on Tues day night at Harry Moore Library at the University of the Bahamas.

It provided an oppor tunity for sponsors, stakeholders and the gen eral public to get a chance to view what has taken place in the programme since its inception in Octo ber, 2008 with the Thelma Gibson Primary School as BAHAMAS

Federer’s final match comes in doubles alongside rival Nadal

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer

LONDON (AP) — It was quite a collection of tennis luminaries shar ing the black indoor hard court for a Laver Cup doubles practice session yesterday, 66 Grand Slam titles among them, a group collectively nicknamed the Big Four: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on one side of the net; Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray on the other.

This team event founded by his management com pany marks the end of Federer’s career, and his last match will come tonight alongside long time rival Nadal for Team

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture is mourning the loss and reflecting on the life of its former senior officer Kevin Colebrooke, who also served at one time as the acting director of sports. He died at his home on Friday, September 16.

Colebrooke, 68, was married to Cora BainColebrooke, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture. He has one daughter, Kris ten Colebrooke, a member of Bahamas Aquatics.

As a former track and field athlete, Colebrooke graduated from St Augus tine’s in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1981 and joined the public service as a sports officer at the

SEE PAGE 13

Equestrian Bahamas: Kacy Lyn Smith and Chicago M 9th overall

SOMETIMES the road to success involves taking a step backward, as Kacy Lyn Smith discovered after fall ing short at the FEI North American Jumping Cham pionship for Juniors/Young Riders earlier this summer.

The first step was to give her horse, Chicago M, a well-deserved rest. Then at the beginning of Septem ber Kacy Lyn and Chicago returned to the ring at the Swan Lake Quentin Fall Classic Show to ride in the Low Juniors Division.

At 1.20m, the fence heights were considerably lower than the pair’s usual competition level, but it was the refresher they needed.

“[We] did the Low Jun iors to sort of get us back

Europe against the Team World doubles pairing of Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock.

“I’m not sure if I can handle it all. But I’ll try,”

FROM left, Andy Murray, Novak

Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at a training session ahead of the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 in London yesterday. (AP Photo/ Kin Cheung)

LET Bahamas coaching support staff pictured above.

Photo: Rufner Saunders

KACY Lyn Smith and Chicago M had four faults in a time of 67.91 seconds to place 9th out of 26 in the Open 1.30m Jumpers at the 2022 Devon Fall Classic.

Photo:

UB MINGOES’

RONALDO SCORES TWO GOALS ON OPENING DAY

UNIVERSITY of the Bahamas Mingoes striker Ronaldo Green scored two goals over two matches on opening day of the Baha mas Football Association’s season over the weekend.

The Mingoes drew with Bears FC 1-1 in the open ing match and blanked the Baha Jrs FC 2-0 in the second match at the Roscow R.L. Davies field Sunday.

Green scored early in the first match against Bears FC but The Bears responded with the equaliser.

Against Baha Jrs FC, Green scored easily on a penalty kick to put The Mingoes up 1-0.

Morgan Wood, on a brilliant attack, was able to find the back of the net for The Mingoes and put them up 2-0. The defence was then able to hold back a few strikes to hold on to the 2-0 score.

The Bahamas Foot ball Association opened the season with a jam boree with sides playing 15-minute halves with a brief intermission.

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer

THE imminent pros pect of relegation from the Nations League’s elite is unlikely to worry Gareth Southgate.

What might be troubling the England coach far more is the fitness issues, poor form or fragile club status of some of his key players two months out from the World Cup.

From the team that started the European Championship final against Italy last year, defenders Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw have been dropped by Manchester United and central midfielder Kalvin Phillips requires shoulder surgery and could miss the World Cup .

Goalkeeper Jordan Pick ford is out injured, centre back John Stones has been playing as a right back for Manchester City, and mid fielders Declan Rice and Mason Mount have been in underwhelming form for West Ham and Chel sea, respectively, in the first six weeks of the Premier League.

There’s plenty for South gate to ponder, then, heading into matches against Italy — in Milan today — and Germany — at London’s Wembley Stadium on Monday — in a Nations League group where England is in last place after two draws and two losses.

Another loss in Italy will see England drop into the

second tier of the UEFA tournament, which will damage the pride of South gate’s squad, if nothing else.

It’s the bigger picture — essentially, the World Cup — that is key for South gate, and what he will effectively be judged on, with some critics having rounded on him after a shocking 4-0 home loss to Hungary in England’s last match .

Southgate will want to see a reaction in the coming week.

“I’m not going to speak for the manager, but I’m sure he’s got certain play ers that are 100 percent to go to the World Cup, and then there’s obviously cer tain places and numbers that are still up for grabs,” England midfielder Jack Grealish said.

“We have two matches now that are going to be very tough opposition and this is really like your preWorld Cup camp. We were saying before that, before the Euros, we had a good few weeks of training ses sions, good friendlies, and we’re not going to get that this time. But everyone’s in the same boat, so it’s something that we need to embrace and look forward to.”

Nick Pope is likely to fill in for Pickford, who should be back soon after the international break, while Jude Bellingham might be favourite to replace Phil lips after enhancing his burgeoning reputation with

Assistant head coach Alex Thompson said that

overall he was pretty happy with the team’s perfor mance at the jamboree.

“We’ve been working on some things in prepara tion for our upcoming trip and it was good to see the habits that we have been working on be consistent in the matches,” he said.

“We have a few more freshmen added to the squad and they performed pretty well. It’s a building process but it’s good to see them coming in and func tioning within the system and the team.”

Thompson added that chemistry within the team is thriving as they play more together. “Midfield ers stayed connected, our backline was consistent and kept the ball well and our front three worked hard as well,” he said. “We gave them some specific instruc tions for the matches today and they carried them out.”

The Mingoes are expected to play in two matches this weekend in South Florida against The Fort Lauderdale Univer sity Eagles.

RONALDO SAYS HE IS NOT PLANNING TO RETIRE AFTER WORLD CUP

LISBON, Portugal (AP)

— This year’s World Cup apparently won’t be the end for Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 37-year-old Por tugal star said he is not considering retiring from international soccer in December after the tourna ment in Qatar, and plans to play at the 2024 European Championship.

“I’m still motivated. My ambition is really high,” Ronaldo said at an event late Tuesday after being recognised by the Portu guese soccer federation for his scoring feats. “I’m in a national team with a lot of youngsters. I want to be in the World Cup and at Euros. I want to make that commitment now.”

Ronaldo earlier this year had already dismissed retirement talks when asked if the World Cup in Qatar would be his last.

The forward has been struggling at Manchester United and has not been an undisputed starter with the English club.

Ronaldo will enter the World Cup holding the men’s all-time record of 117 international goals. He is preparing with Portugal for Nations League matches at the Czech Republic on Sat urday and against Spain at home three days later.

UKRAINE FINALLY LOSES IN SCOTLAND, 3-0 IN NATIONS LEAGUE

The teams returned to the place where Ukraine won a World Cup playoff in June, though neither will go to the tournament in Qatar in November because Wales advanced from their knockout bracket.

strong performances for Borussia Dortmund.

At age 19, Bellingham has so much potential and Rice — a lock in central midfield under Southgate — envisages playing along side the teenager for a decade.

“I hope that we can go on for the next 10 years and create a special, special bond in the middle of the pitch,” Rice said.

“He’s energetic, he’s strong, has self-belief, no fear,” Rice added.

“He’s got everything as a 19 year old, you know. He’s a man, he has played on the big occasions already.”

Maguire is set to start, while Southgate has to choose between Shaw and Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell at left back, neither of whom

have seen much game time recently.

“It is not ideal,” South gate said of some of his key players not playing for their clubs, “but we feel they have been, and can be, important players for us. It is not a perfect situ ation but there is still a lot of football to be played before Qatar.”

Still in shock from fail ing to qualify for a second consecutive World Cup, European champion Italy is looking to regain some respect. That process could begin by reaching the Nations League’s Final Four.

Hungary leads on seven points, one more than Ger many, and they meet in Leipzig today. Italy is on five points and England

has two. “We know we owe something to our fans,” Italy centre forward Ciro Immobile said. “In tough times, the national team has represented a common bond for everyone and we saw how united Italy was during the European Championship. That’s where we need to restart from.”

Immobile, who was criti cised for his lack of goals during World Cup quali fying, considered retiring from the national team.

“As the weeks went by I realised that it shouldn’t be others to decide my des tiny,” he said. “I still have a lot to give.”

Italy is missing mid fielder Marco Verratti and winger Federico Chiesa due to injury. LEAGUE RELEGATION LOOMS

Scotland dominated play and wasted good scoring chances before captain John McGinn struck in the 70th minute with a low shot after using his strength to shrug off defender Valeriy Bondar.

Substitute Lyndon Dykes padded the lead with a pair of headers from corners in the 80th and 87th.

Scotland now leads Group 1 in the Nations League second tier by two points from Ukraine with two rounds left. Scotland hosts Ireland on Saturday then travels to play Ukraine again on Tuesday.

into the ring after Young Riders,” noted Smith. The “step back” paid off: with rebuilt confidence, the pair finished 1st and 2nd in their two classes, winning overall Division Champion.

Back in the groove, last weekend Smith and Chi cago M returned to the higher, more technical courses at the 2022 Devon Fall Classic in Devon, Pennsylvania. As there were no 1.30m Amateur classes Smith opted to ride in the 1.30m Open, com peting in good company against the likes of former USET team member and Pan-Am bronze medallist Laura Chapot, and other notable professionals.

Nonetheless the pair did well, riding a fast, aggres sive first round in a time of 67.91. A rail down at fence 9 cost them four faults and a place in the jump-off.

However, the initial time was still fast enough to place the pair as the fastest of the non-clear rounds and finish in 9th place out of the 26 competitors.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Ukraine finally lost a game at Hampden Park, beaten 3-0 by Scotland which moved atop their Nations League group on Wednesday.

UB Mingoes striker Ronaldo Green moves the ball against Baha Jrs FC on September 18. He scored one goal in each match for The Mingoes.

UB Mingoes men’s soccer players celebrate Morgan Wood’s goal against Baha Jrs.

Photos: UB ATHLETICS

ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate leads a training session ahead of the upcoming Nations League soccer match against Italy, at St George’s Park, Burton-on-Trent, England, on Tuesday.

(Mike Egerton/PA via AP)

UB Mingoes men’s soccer forward Morgan Wood moves the ball against Baha Jrs FC en route to scoring.

UB Mingoes men’s soccer midfielder O’Bryan Hinds in action against Baha Jrs.

UB Mingoes men’s soccer forward Morgan Wood challenges Baha Jrs FC player.

BRISSETT, BROWNS TOP STEELERS 29-17

By TOM WITHERS AP Sports Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) — Jacoby Brissett threw two touchdown passes, Nick Chubb ran for a score and the Cleveland Browns bounced back from their epic meltdown four days earlier to beat the rival Pitts burgh Steelers 29-17 last night.

The Browns (2-1) built a ninepoint lead early in the fourth on Chubb’s 1-yard run and then held on for dear life.

The Steelers (1-2) pulled within 23-17 on Chris Boswell’s 34-yard field goal with 1:48 left before Pitts burgh attempted an onside kick.

But unlike in Sunday’s 31-30 loss, when the New York Jets overcame a 13-point deficit in the final 1:55 helped by a recovery, the Browns

batted the ball out of bounds. Cleveland fans could finally exhale when cornerback Denzel Ward fell on a Steelers fumble in the end zone on the final play for a mean ingless touchdown.

Brissett connected with Amari Cooper and David Njoku for TDs, and finished 21 of 31 for 220 yards.

The 29-year-old had his second straight solid game as he fills in while Deshaun Watson serves an 11-game suspension.

Chubb had 113 yards and pushed and twisted across the goal line on fourth-and-goal with 9:29 left to put the Browns ahead 23-14.

Mitch Trubisky and the Steel ers’ stagnant offence showed signs of life in the first half, but bogged down after halftime, punting on their first three possessions while

gaining just 54 yards. Criticised for not throwing deep the first two weeks, Trubisky launched a few long balls but didn’t connect nearly enough.

The win smoothed over a rough few days for Cleveland.

Sunday’s debacle was followed by Myles Garrett criticising fans for booing the Browns as they left the field, and a fan was arrested on charges he threw a plastic bottle in the direction of owner Jimmy Haslam on the sideline.

But there was little drama this time, just a win over their hated neighbours from Pennsylvania.

Rookie Cade York’s 34-yard field goal gave the Browns a 16-14 lead in the third quarter, when Cleveland lost four players, including starting linebackers Anthony Walker Jr and

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, to injuries. Brissett’s 7-yard TD pass to Njoku put the Browns up 13-7 with 8:58 left before halftime. But for the second straight week York missed an extra point.

Trubisky led the Steelers on a 75-yard scoring drive — 51 yards coming on the ground — before the QB rolled right and scored from the 1. Boswell’s PAT put Pittsburgh ahead 14-13.

Steelers rookie receiver George Pickens expressed frustration about not getting the ball during a loss to New England last week, saying he was open “90 percent of the time.” He wasn’t joking, either.

Donovan hits grand slam as Cards top Machado, Padres 5-4

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Brendan Donovan hit a grand slam in the seventh inning to lead Albert Pujols and the NL Central-lead ing St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-4 victory against the San Diego Padres yester day, snapping a three-game losing streak.

Pujols remained at 698 career homers, although he did drive two balls to deep left field, one for a single and one for an out on the warning track. The next stop in his pursuit of the 700-homer club is Dodger Stadium, where the Car dinals open a three-game series on Friday.

Manny Machado hit his 30th homer for the Padres, who had won five in a row. Nick Martinez (4-4) got the loss.

Donovan’s slam made a winner of Jack Flaherty (1-1), who struck out nine in six innings. Giovanny Gallegos pitched the ninth for his 14th save.

ORIOLES 2, ASTROS 0

BALTIMORE (AP) — Kyle Bradish came within one out of his first career shutout, outpitching Justin Verlander in a stellar per formance and leading Baltimore to the victory.

Bradish (4-7) struck out 10 and walked none. He departed after Jeremy Pena’s two-out single in the ninth, and Felix Bautista struck out Aledmys Díaz for his 15th save.

Trey Mancini went 0 for 3 in his first game back at Camden Yards since the Orioles traded him to Hou ston on Aug. 1, and the Astros failed in their first attempt at earning their 100th victory this season.

The Orioles remained four games behind Seattle in the race for a postsea son spot, but they were set to gain ground on the loser of the Tampa Bay-Toronto game. Verlander (17-4) allowed two runs and six hits over six innings in his second game back from a calf injury.

JUDGE FALLS JUST SHORT OF 61, YANKS CLINCH PLAYOFF BERTH

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge fell a few feet short of a recordtying 61st homer, hitting a 404-foot drive caught just in front of the centre field wall, and the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4 last night on Josh Donaldson’s 10thinning single to clinch their sixth straight playoff berth.

Judge had walked three times and struck out once before he came to the plate with the score tied 4-all in the ninth. The crowd of 43,123 was on its feet for every pitch, and Judge drove a 2-2 fastball from Matt Barnes just to the right of straightaway centre. “I just got under neath it a little bit,” Judge said. “A pretty windy night, so I was hoping maybe it was blowing out at the time I was hitting, but just missed it.”

The ball left the bat at 113 mph, and fans waited in anticipation as Judge jogged toward first base. But they groaned in unison as Kiké Hernán dez made the catch a step in front of the fence, not far from the 408-foot sign — leaving Judge still one home run shy of the American League record set by Yankees slugger Roger Maris in 1961.

CINCINNATI (AP)

— Kolten Wong hit a career-high three homers and drove in five runs,

leading Brandon Wood ruff and Milwaukee to the victory.

Wong hit a two-run drive in the second inning against Hunter Greene (4-13). He hit another two-run shot in the sixth off Dauri Moreta and a solo drive in the eighth against Joel Kuhnel. Wong has 15 homers and 46 RBIs on the season.

The second-place Brew ers (80-70) opened a four-game set against lowly Cincinnati with their second straight win. Woodruff (12-4) struck out 11 in six innings. Kyle Farmer hit his 13th homer in the sixth for Cincinnati.

MARINERS 9, ATHLETICS 5

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)

— Julio Rodríguez doubled and scored before leaving with lower back tightness, and the Mariners avoided a three-game sweep.

Rodríguez slowly walked off the field with a trainer in the bottom half of the first inning. He recently missed three games in Anaheim with a lower back issue.

Jarred Kelenic homered and doubled for Seattle in his first game since being called up from Triple-A Tacoma. Adam Frazier had

Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture on March 2. He served for 38 years eventually being promoted to deputy director of sports and subsequently sat in as the interim director of sports.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg said Colebrooke honestly pursued the profession to which he aspired, and when he faced challenges in realising those aspira tions, he painstakingly created the framework for achieving them in whatever the capacity of his service.

Working under the supervision of the late Win ston ‘Gus’ Cooper in the newly minted Department of Sports, Bowleg said Colebrooke consistently exhibited such a construc tive approach throughout his years of productive service. “In such a regard, Kevin also proved himself to be another revolutionary figure in national develop ment through sports. For in his extended tenure with my Ministry, he himself, serving as the liaison officer for a number of national core sport associations and

federations, among which were golf, table games, rugby, swimming and the Royal Life Guard Associa tion,” Bowleg said.

“His ultimate focus cen tred on Swimming/Life Guarding however, no doubt a reflection of his keen interest in the propa gation of that sport in a country two-thirds of which is comprised of water but as much two-thirds of its youth unable to swim.”

Colebrooke’s passion for growing the sport of swimming is reflected in his joyous acceptance of his assignment to dedicate himself to representing the interests of the Department of Sports by understudying all aspects of the construc tion of the Betty Kelly Kenning National Swim Complex at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Center in 2010. “In assuming such a demanding task, he inhabited the construction site from start to finish, resulting in him becoming intensely familiar with all the many complexities of that facility’s three com puterised infrastructure, all its systems of operation and all best practices in an ordained maintenance pro gramme,” Bowleg said.

“Equally as nationally notable is that Kevin was more than supportive of the decision by the late Betty Kelly Kenning, a genuine nationalist who maintained her pledge to construct the National Swim Complex, undeterred by the escalation in the cost of completing the project, from the initial $3.5 million to $5 million and then to $7.5 million.”

Bowleg said Cole brooke’s determination to complete the project ema nated from his personal experiences and exploits as a member of this country’s first national swim teams in the early days of the 1940s.

“Likewise was Kevin in Kelly-Kenning’s confi dence when she eschewed kinetic lobbying to instead

three RBIs, and Matthew Boyd (2-0) pitched two innings for the win.

Seattle entered the day with a four-game lead over Baltimore for the third and final AL wild card.

Stephen Vogt tripled in three runs for Oakland. Vogt also announced he will retire at the end of the season, ending a 10-year major league career.

Kirby Snead (1-1) was charged with the loss.

GIANTS 3, ROCKIES 0 DENVER (AP) — Mike Yastrzemski homered and John Brebbia pitched an inning in his second start of the series, helping the Giants complete a fourgame sweep.

Brebbia was followed by five relievers in the 10-hit shutout.

Jharel Cotton (3-2) pitched 2 2/3 innings for the win in his first big league appearance since he was claimed off waivers from Minnesota on Sunday. Camilo Doval got three outs for his 24th save.

Brebbia also worked a scoreless inning when he got the start for Tues day night’s 6-3 victory. He became the first Giants

construct the swim com plex on a private school property some miles to the east, away from the densely populated centres surrounding the Queen Elizabeth Sports Center,” Bowleg said.

“Conclusively then, in the course of his superla tive career, Kevin played a major role in the organisa tion and execution of every Bahamas Games held in 1989, 1991, 1995, 1998, and in 2001, and was actively engaged with the plan ning of the Golden Jubilee Bahamas Games scheduled for 2023.”

Colebrooke was also provided the impetus for the Bahamas to host the Junior Commonwealth Games in 2017. “Also, he implemented a number of developmental pro grammes at the National Swim Complex and pro vided the framework for many others, Bowleg said.

According to Oria ‘Big O’ Wood, another senior sports officer in the Min istry, Colebrooke worked hard to ensure that a swim programme was initiated at the Betty Kelly Kenning swimming complex and carried out his duties to the best of his abilities. She

pitcher to start twice in the same series since Dominic Leone against San Diego last September. San Fran cisco pulled off its first sweep of at least four games against the Rockies since July 15-17, 2019.

RANGERS 5, ANGELS 3 ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Corey Seager hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning, send ing Texas to the win.

Seager drove a 1-1 fast ball from José Quijada (0-5) deep to left-center for his 32nd homer, extending his career best in his first season with Texas.

Quijada came in to pitch the eighth and walked lead off hitter Marcus Semien before Seager connected for his opposite-field shot.

Matt Moore (5-2) got three outs for the win, and Jose Leclerc handled the ninth for his seventh save in eight opportunities.

Angels star Shohei Ohtani was held out of the starting lineup, but he pinch-hit with one out in the ninth and doubled into the right-field corner. Luis Rengifo and Mike Trout then struck out swinging.

ROYALS 4, TWINS 1 KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jonathan Heasley pitched six innings of twohit ball, and the Royals beat the Twins to complete a three-game series sweep.

Edward Oliveras and Drew Waters homered for Kansas City. Salvador Perez also drove in a run, extend ing his streak to seven straight games with an RBI.

Heasley (4-8) allowed one run, struck out three and walked two. Brad Keller got three outs for his first career save.

The first home sweep of at least three games by the Royals since July 2021 also probably ended the fading playoff hopes of the Twins, who two weeks ago were in the midst of an AL Central race but lost eight of nine on their road trip.

remembered Colebrooke as being “stylist, playful, meticulous and blunt.”

Timothy Munnings, who was then hired as the director of sports, said the Department of Sports at the ministry lost a valuable member of the team when he demitted office. He referred to Colebrooke as a dedicated public servant for over 30 years, whose knowledge and experience played an integral role in the operation of the Min istry as a whole. “Even in his retirement, Kevin remained willing and avail able to assist and joined the Bahamas Games organis ing committee to lend his expertise to this major national sporting event,” Munnings said. “Kevin was also a lover of the water and focused much of his energy in ensuring that both the Betty Kelly Ken ning Aquatic Centre and the South Beach Pools facilities were functioning for all those that wanted to swim and was the driving force to attract interna tional universities to the pools for winter training.”

The Tribune Sports Department extends its condolences to the Cole brooke family.

By The Associated Press

Trubisky finally hit him with a long ball, but it took a spectacular, one-handed catch by Pickens for a 36-yard gain. HISTORY: 40PLAYER

SEPTEMBER 23 1952 — Rocky Mar ciano knocks out Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round to retain the world heavyweight title.

1979 — St. Louis’ Lou Brock steals his 938th base to break Billy Ham ilton’s record as the Cardinals beat New York Mets 7-4 in 10 innings.

1983 — Gerry Coet zee knocks out Michael Dokes in the 10th round to win the WBA heavy weight title in Richfield, Ohio.

1988 — Jose Canseco is the first player to steal 40 base and hit 40 home runs in the same season.

2007 — For the first time in NFL history, two players have 200-plus yards receiving in the same game — whether they were opponents or teammates — in Phila delphia’s 56-21 rout of Detroit. Philadelphia’s Kevin Curtis has 11 receptions for 221 yards and Detroit’s Roy Wil liams catches 9 passes for 204. Detroit’s Jon Kitna sets a franchise record with 446 yards passing.

2018 — Tiger Woods caps off one of the most remarkable comebacks in golf history. Woods ends his comeback season with a dominant victory at the Tour Championship. He taps in for par and a 1-over 71 for a two-shot victory over Billy Hor schel. It’s the 80th victory of his PGA Tour career and his first in more than five years.

2018 — Drew Brees sets the NFL record for career completions while passing for 396 yards and three touchdowns and running for two scores to lift New Orleans past Atlanta 43-37 in over time. Brees breaks the record of 6,300 career completions set by Brett Favre.

the 41-year-old Federer said about his sure-tobe-emotional on-court farewell after 20 major championships, a total of 103 tournament titles and hundreds of weeks at No. 1 across nearly a quarter of a century as a professional tennis player.

“Sitting here,” Federer said Thursday at a team news conference, with Nadal, who is 36, to his left, and Djokovic and Murray, both 35, a couple of seats down to his right, “it feels good that I go first from the guys. It feels right.”

Federer is ending his play ing days following a series of operations on his right knee. He hasn’t competed since a quarterfinal loss at Wimble don to Hubert Hurkacz in July 2021.

In February of this year, when word emerged that Federer would be in London this week, he said Nadal messaged him suggesting they play doubles together again. They teamed up to win a doubles match during the first Laver Cup in 2017.

The full lineup for Day 1 of the three-day Laver Cup was announced yesterday.

The singles matches will be Sock against two-time 2022 Grand Slam final ist Casper Ruud of Team Europe, Diego Schwartz man of Team World against 2021 French Open runnerup Stefanos Tsitsipas of Team Europe, and Alex de Minaur of Team World against three-time major champion Murray, before the Federer-Nadal doubles match closes the schedule.

Everyone knows what the main event will be: Feder er’s goodbye.

“For me,” Murray said, “it feels right seeing him and Rafa on the same side of the net together.”

BREWERS 5, REDS 1

KEVIN Colebrooke

CARDINALS’ Brendan Donovan (33) celebrates with teammate Albert Pujols, right, after hitting a grand slam during the seventh inning against the San Diego Padres yesterday in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

BAHAMIAN PLAYERS HELP GREAT BRITAIN ADVANCE TO 2023 WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC

its pilot project. Before taking a break because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the programme had already spread its wings to more than 10 schools and with its relaunch, the Knowles and its team is out to reach all of the gov ernment primary schools in New Providence.

Zane Lightbourne, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Educa tion, said the programme is super important for the development of the nation, especially consider ing the amount of drownings that took place during the summer months when the children were off from school.

“This was the most active drowning season. I don’t know what is happening, but it seems as if every other week you tune into the news, you heard about

someone drowning,” Lightbourne said. “So it tells us the need for people to water safety skills and be able to learn to swim because we are surrounded by water.”

While they won’t be able to cater to all of the students, Light bourne said they are making a stab at a big chunk of it. He said the young children in their schools look forward to the programme.

“We have to catch them at an early age so they can develop the habit of learning how to swim before they get too old and venture into other things,” Light bourne said. “It’s like riding a bike. Once you learn how to do it early in life, you can get to do it for the rest of your life.”

Lightbourne said he was more touched over the testimony of Rufiner Saunders, a parent, who in the document claimed that she was fearful of getting into the water even when she took

her children to the beach. He noted that like Saunders, who eventually got over her fears and did some swim lessons with Let’s Swim Bahamas, she is now assisting the programme, while her children continue to excel as swimmers.

Bahamas Aquatics’ president Algernon Cargill, who was fea tured in the documentary, said they are just as excited about the programme because it not only teaches the youngsters how to swim, but it also serves as a feeder system for their national pro gramme. “Andy and Nancy have done an excellent job over the years in teaching Bahamians to swim and Bahamas Aquatics fully endorses the programme and we support Andy and Nancy in their endeavours,” he stated.

The programme has also ben efitted the Bahamas Yachting Club, whose president Laura

Lowe and her husband, Jimmy Lowe, were on hand to show their support of the Knowles and their crew of volunteers.

“We’re absolutely supportive of Let’s Swim Bahamas because it gets more persons involved in swimming, but it also benefits our programme too because we already have one of the swimmers who was referred to our youth sailing programme.” Lowe said.

“This programme is teaching youngsters how to learn how to swim and I’m loving it. It makes a big difference because we need to provide avenues for more persons to be able to learn how to swim.”

Lowe said their summer pro gramme is similar in nature in that they also cater to the major ity of competitors from the public schools, at least 70 percent, so it’s a plus that they work together for the benefit of all involved. Light bourne said the documentary was

for Queen’s College. “Our opponents got a lead on us, but I felt we could have made better plays in coming back for the win. I just think we could have done better than we did today.”

St Andrew’s struck first in the top of the first inning when M Mayard got on base on the first hit of the game and scored on A Clarke’s run-producing single for a 1-0 lead.

Shortstop Ciara Bowe, batting third, ripped a two-run single to plate second sacker Raashi Lyons and first sacker Shanaz Demeritte. Bowe then scored on Wallace’s grounder down the third base line. Wallace then stole second and third before she came home on an error for a 4-1 lead. The Comets went on to score five more runs to put the game out of reach at the end of the inning.

After turning a double play to stop the Hurricanes from

scoring in the second, third sacker G’Shan Brown came through with a fly ball to centre field for a lead off in-the-park home run. The Comets would go on to score three more runs to extend their lead to 13-1.

Left fielder Jasmine Smith joined Lyons, Brown and Bain in scoring two runs apiece.

Right fielder Atony Taylor and centre fielder Presconique Cooper also made their contribution by scoring a run. “We played good, but we just had a few funny hits here and there,” Brown said. “At the end of the day, we could have done better. But it’s still a good team. We will go back to practice and work on our mistakes.”

With only one run on their ledger going into the third inning, the Hurricanes left two runners stranded on base as the Comets came up with the defensive stop per to halt the game via another 10-run rule.

Mickiela Bain, who picked up the win on the mound, echoed

the same sentiments as her team-mates.

“Our team performed okay, but it wasn’t to the best of our ability today,” Bain said. “Some of our players were a bit shaky because of some mistakes we made at the

beginning. Next week at NAC (Nassau Christian Academy) we hope to play much better.”

Yiorgo Coyle, the head coach of St Andrew’s, said despite suffering their second straight loss, he was pleased to see some

return from the injured list for the remainder of the 2022 campaign. He recently underwent surgery to repair the torn meniscus but has already said that he is walking under his own power without the use of crutches.

“We went and got an MRI. It came back that I tore my meniscus. I asked the doctor, ‘Hey, can I play this season? Because I feel like I’m really gonna tear it up this season. So can I play?’ And he was like, ‘You can but you’re gonna be dealing with a lot of swelling every day and all that stuff.’ I was like, ‘I’ll just take care of that and that’d be fine.’ And going on, I ended up playing the whole season and just planned to get the surgery after the season,” Chisholm said.

“I went through a lot of swelling and a lot of chang ing my mind in the middle of stolen bases, kind of slide in different ways. Most of the times I got thrown out was because of my knee and how I was get ting into the bag.”

Chisholm is the firstever Bahamian-born MLB All-Star.

Through 60 games he had a .254 average with 14 home runs, 54 hits, 45 RBI, 12 stolen bases, and scored 39 runs.

“We could probably push Jazz to be able to come back and DH or something. I think the risk/reward on that -- he has a stress fracture in his back. It’s something you could say, ‘Well, it’s healed, but is it all the way?’ It just doesn’t seem to be worth it,” Mat tingly told MLB.com.

“I think Jazz would like to play, he would like to have played. I think the organisation basically made that decision for him, that we were going to just let this thing go, keep strength ening all year long, so we know going into the winter that he’s healthy, he’s ready, he’s doing everything, he feels great. So again, I think an organisational decision.” COMMITS TO SUIT U OR GREAT BRITAIN

well put together as it showed the commitment of the organisers and the participants to excelling in the programme. He noted that he was even more keen to see that the children involved are more disciplined with their academic pursuits.

Parents are only allowed to pay for their swim gear. All other aspects of the programme, includ ing their transportation to and from their school to the swim facilities at the University of the Bahamas and St Andrew’s School, are provided free of charge as well as their one-hour lessons each week.

The Knowles indicated that the documentary will be shown at a national level on television. However, persons interested in learning more about the pro gramme can visit the website - www.letsswimbahamas.com - for more information.

improvements from their opener against the St Anne’s Blue Waves on Tuesday. “This is a teaching year, not a coaching year,” Coyle said. “Two weeks ago, we were learning which hand to put the gloves on. This is quite positive. We had about six ladies on base and we scored a run in the first inning. It was positive.”

Against the Blue Waves, Coyle said they faced a really good pitcher, but against the Comets, they had to deal with a wellrounded defensive team that put up a lot of runs.

Riner Smith was the losing pitcher, but her batterymate Sara Claire had her share of problems, using the catcher’s shin guards that kept coming loose through out the game.

Coyle acknowledged that while they have some work to do, his team is just happy to be playing softball again. He noted that they were so excited that they were even taking team photos after the game.

TWO STRAIGHT WINS: The Queen’s College Comets senior girls’ softball team pulled off their second abbreviated victory with a 13-1 decision over the St Andrew’s Hurricanes yesterday at QC.

Photo: Clint Higgs

LENDING A HAND TO GREAT BRITAIN BASEBALL: Bahamian baseball play ers emerged as breakout stars for Team Great Britain en route to the country’s first-ever qualification for the World Baseball Classic. Veteran outfielder Anfernee Seymour led the tournament in several offensive categories while D’Shawn Knowles had one of the team’s best offensive performances in the finale in Regensburg, Germany. The Great Britain roster included outfielders Seymour, Knowles, pitchers Tahnaj Thomas and Chavez Fernander, catcher Ural Forbes and Albert Cartwright as a member of the coaching staff.

Photos: Great Britain Baseball

gains,” Mr Slatter told Trib une Business. “That’s a 13 percent increase year-todate.” And, despite the

downturn in US equity and bond markets, he added that including RF Bank & Trust’s international funds in the equation would pro duce total assets under

management growth of $85m for 2022 so far.

“We are definitely in double digits for the Tar geted Equity Fund,” Mr Slatter added, focusing on

the local currency funds.

“The Targeted Equity Fund year-to-date is up 11.85 per cent through August, and then the Secure Balanced Fund is up 6.57 percent. The Prime Income Fund is up 1.79 percent.”

He explained that the lat ter’s performance, which typically generates returns of 4-5 percent per annum and is “now edging up close to 3 percent”, had been impacted by a lack of new investment securities into which the increased investor cash sub scriptions can be placed.

“It’s a story of too much of a good thing,” Mr Slatter said of the Prime Income Fund. “We have a lot of sub scriptions flowing in, and have excess cash. It’s a good thing to have excess cash to make investments as they become available, but for a while there’s been noth ing to make investments in, so that’s acted as a drag on returns but, as we invest the cash, the performance will ramp up again.”

Voicing “cautious opti mism” for the other two Bahamian dollar mutual funds’ performance over the remainder of 2022, he added that “there’s some value there” with all five BISXlisted bank stocks - RBC FINCO, CIBC FirstCarib bean, Commonwealth Bank, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas)

and Bank of the Bahamas - shaking off their COVID loan loss provisions to return to profitability, with several resuming or increas ing shareholder dividend payments.

“In the local equities market, AML Foods is up 25 percent year-to-date just on share price appre ciation alone, not including dividends,” Mr Slatter said. “Other key drivers are Cable Bahamas, up 28 per cent; CIBC is up 33 percent; Fidelity Bank is up 21 per cent; FINCO 11 percent and Colina up 16 percent.

“It shows a very strong recovery in the local equi ties market. With the nature of equities markets, they’ve had some tough years but also some really good years. A lot of this has to do with adding to positions when the market was down in 2020, and continuing to add to positions in 2021 with the expectation of recovery in 2022. If you’re prudent, you invest for the long-term. When good stocks are slid ing you are buying.”

Explaining the subscrip tion surge into RF Bank & Trust’s investment funds, Mr Slatter told Tribune Business: “We have a tre mendous amount of liquidity in the banking system. Inves tors with money in the bank are effectively earning zero interest instead of generat ing returns, but when you factor in inflation you actu ally have negative returns of 5-6 percent.

“People are getting wise to the consequences of leav ing money in the bank with negative returns, so they’re pulling this money out of the banking sector and putting it into investment products.”

He argued that the need to put the $2.3bn in surplus banking sector liquidity, which represents monies available for lending and investing, to better use went beyond individual investors directly to the health of the Bahamian economy.

“If you have capital in the bank and it’s not doing much, it’s not doing any thing for the economy,” Mr Slatter told this newspaper. “We need to put it to use to help companies to grow and increase returns for inves tors, which will be a win-win for the economy as a whole. We need to make sure these capital holdings are more efficiently utilised, not just sitting there doing zero.”

Looking ahead to 2023, the RF Bank & Trust invest ments chief forecast that the Targeted Equity Fund was unlikely to enjoy a repeat of this year’s returns although it will still produce positive results for investors. The Prime Income Fund, though, will “outperform” 2022 while the Secure Balanced Fund will match this year’s results. And the recovery in US markets was also likely to reverse this year’s negative returns, and make them pos itive, for the international funds. 6:46 a.m. 2.8 12:51 a.m. 1.0 7:07 p.m. 3.2 12:54 p.m. 0.8 7:26 a.m. 3.0 1:28 a.m. 0.8 7:45 p.m. 3.3 1:36 p.m. 0.7 8:05 a.m. 3.2 2:03 a.m. 0.6 8:22 p.m. 3.3 2:17 p.m. 0.6 8:43 a.m. 3.3 2:37 a.m. 0.5 9:00 p.m. 3.3 2:59 p.m. 0.5

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 9:22 a.m. 3.4 3:12 a.m. 0.4 9:38 p.m. 3.2 3:41 p.m. 0.4 10:03 a.m. 3.5 3:49 a.m. 0.3 10:19 p.m. 3.0 4:25 p.m. 0.5 10:47 a.m. 3.5 4:28 a.m. 0.3 11:04 p.m. 2.9 5:12 p.m. 0.6

Super Value chief: Retain food store mask mandate

like the Government to keep the public in masks for now....

“I think that for places where people congregate, like supermarkets, they shouldn’t be replaced. That’s our thought and desire. We’d definitely be disappointed if they don’t include us in wearing the masks. We can do this in one, two or three stages.”

Not every food store backed Mr Roberts’ and Super Value’s position, though. Philip Beneby, the Retail Grocers Asso ciation’s president, told Tribune Business that Baha mians, residents and tourists should be left to decide for themselves whether they wear a mask or not. And it was up to each merchant and business to decide if they mandate staff and/or customers continue wearing masks once the nationwide requirement is dropped.

“If they feel like the time is now to drop it, I don’t have an issue with that,” Mr Beneby said of the mask mandate. “That’s what it’s going to lead to. Everybody would have their choice and, based on how they feel, how they are going, based on the environment they are in, all they have to do is pull out masks and put them on.

“Nobody is stopping them from doing that. If they feel safer, you may find some people carry a mask and, based on the environ ment and how congested it is, they may decide to pull on a mask. I don’t have any issue with that. It’s entirely up to the public if they feel safe without a mask.”

Mr Beneby added that the mask mandate’s end was unlikely to spur increased business volumes for com panies catering to domestic consumers. “I think it will help the hotels more than the grocery stores and other businesses because then the visitors will feel more freer to move about better, inside

and outside, without their masks,” he said.

“The US has lifted their mandatory mask wearing. In order for us to make tourists feel more comfort able, more welcome and make them feel like we’re not imposing any pres sure on them with wearing a mask, we had to follow suit.”

The Government, in confirming the mandatory wearing of COVID masks ends on October 1, 2022, said that thereafter they will only be compulsory in indoor school classrooms, care homes for the elderly or in accessing healthcare facilities as The Bahamas comes into line with the stance taken by multiple other countries worldwide.

There has been wide spread debate about how effective mask-wearing has been in preventing COVID19 transmission and spread during the pandemic, with global opinion divided on the issue. Mr Roberts, though, said that while the latest COVID variants may be less deadly than earlier versions, such as the Delta strain, they appeared to be more contagious and easily spread.

“If I go to Kelly’s [Home Centre], mind you it might not be as dense as a super market, but if I get up to the register and there are three to four other custom ers there, I want them all to wear masks, the cashier to wear a mask and the staff to wear masks,” he told Trib une Business. “I don’t wear a mask in the open air, but I don’t dare go into a con gested area without a mask for my protection and other people’s protection. We don’t know about this virus yet.

“COVID is still spread ing to my knowledge. I’ve seen it in my own family. I’ve seen them travel and come back with it, catching it either at the airport, or the air plane or in the coun try they’ve visited.” This newspaper, too, knows of

NOTICE is hereby given that MRS. LOUISE MUIR ROBERTS of #9 Bay Creek, Old Fort Bay, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible a citizen of The that any not be granted, should send a written signed of the facts within twentyeight days from the 16th day of September, 2022 to the Minister for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

one Bahamian chief execu tive who recently endured a rough two weeks with COVID although it will not name them for this article.

Mr Roberts, who is pres ently in the US with family, recalled how his wife was asked to pull up her mask by two elderly ladies on Wednesday when she visited a pharmacy at a WalMart store. The pharmacists on-duty also backed the call for her to fix her mask.

“I guess with the excep tion of people who are elderly or who have medical issues, it’s over,” he added of the pandemic. “But you never know when those issues come up. People, especially children, are get ting the virus and don’t even know it, and adults are getting it and thinking it’s the common cold or flu. They are travelling around among us now.

“I know an individual who thought he had the flu, then got tested, and they tested positive for COVID. You never know. I know of somebody that had an issue for two months. There’s no limit to the number of times it can attack you, and every time there’s a toll on the body.”

Conceding that many Bahamians are weary of COVID, and fatigued with the protocols that were introduced to combat it, Mr Roberts said of his supermarket mask-wearing stance: “If we’re wrong, we’re wrong on the side of caution. Given what we’ve been through, we want to act with caution. We didn’t like the lockdowns, we didn’t like the things that happened to us, and we don’t want to go through that again.

“I don’t think that will happen, but there’s a real possibility we will be stricken with a much milder virus that is more conta gious, and we don’t know what the danger is. I say: ‘Be cautious’. I want to forget the world ‘COVID’, but I still want to be safe.”

NOTICE is hereby given that WILBERT JUSTE of P. O. Box N-10326, Palm Beach Street, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister for Nationality and Citizenship,

Minister and ex-PM voice concern on $63m project

traffic that would result from adding some 180 homes to the area.

Mr Miller, speaking at the Town Planning Commit tee’s public consultation on Adelaide Pines, said he is “extremely concerned” that the project will sit on top of a “natural creek” that runs alongside the proposed site. And the man-made lake that it plans to create would “displace” the natural flow of that creek.

“This development sits on possibly the largest water lens in the island of New Providence. So we cannot think just for our selves, you cannot think just for today. As the preamble of our constitution states, we must think for those persons who will inherit, or succeed or be our suc cessors, as we can’t be just about us,” he warned.

Dr Minnis, meanwhile, focused on the increased residential and commer cial traffic that would be created by Adelaide Pines given that this was already an issue for western New Providence given the

ever-increasing develop ment in the area.

“I’m not anti-develop ment, but there are a lot of developments going on, especially in the Killarney constituency, and today we experience significant traffic flow problems,” he added. “In other words, if you want to come out of the area from Tropical Gardens, if you want to enter on to the main airport road between 8m and 10am, it is very, very difficult to get out.”

The Davis administra tion’s National Economic Council (NEC), which is really the Cabinet or a Cabinet sub-committee, approved Adelaide Pines’ acquisition of the 64-acre parcel that will com prise the development on February 7, 2022. The necessary Investments Board permit, as required by the International Per sons Landholding Act, was issued for the $4.809m pur chase of the site from Terry White, the US businessman who owns New Providence Development Company.

The project was also given the go-ahead subject to meeting all the envi ronmental and planning

permitting requirements. An NEC paper, dated January 13, 2022, revealed that Robert Myers, the well-known Bahamian busi nessman and Organisation for Responsible Govern ance (ORG) principal, and Albany’s corporate devel oper, Park Ridge Securities, are both minority inves tors in Adelaide Pines with equity stakes of 25 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

The 55 percent major ity interest is held by NME Investments, a company beneficially owned by two UK nationals, Mark and Eric Huffman. Mark was identified as a doctor, while Eric is chief executive of a London-based financial ser vices provider, Millennium Global Treasury Services. Park Ridge is beneficiallyowned by Joe Lewis, the Lyford Cay-based billion aire, golfer Tiger Woods, and Albany principal, Christopher Anand, and holds its interest via Hori zons Capital.

Pericles Maillis, the attor ney and environmentalist, whose property adjoins the proposed Adelaide Village site, went into more detail on Mr Miller’s concerns.

He told the meeting: “What is happening here is unprec edented. It’s mind-boggling. The developers proposed, and this is part of my formal objection, to obliterate the natural drainage channel. The wetland.

“We call it a wetland. We used to call it a swamp. In the rains, it fills up and tanks up with water. If it overflows... it goes over Adelaide Road, but it’s part of a great drainage system and it’s part of the freshwa ter lens. It goes all the way under Corry Sound and Coral Harbour.”

Mr Maillis also called for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted for the developer to be “peer reviewed” by an independent consultant because it has “major defi ciencies”. He added: “I can tell you that the real deep water lens maps are not in here. They were not avail able to the team when they were doing it… It doesn’t show the true geology and the true surface, and below surface drainage.”

Mr Myers, addressing the Town Planning Commit tee consultation, pointed to the economic impact

End ‘finger pointing’ over Fiscal Council

Minnis administration was in office.

Describing the Council’s work and processes as still being in the “embryonic” stage, Mr Bowe told this newspaper that its assess ment of the Fiscal Strategy Report is “in the process of being drafted”. While Kevin Burrows, the Coun cil’s chairman, could not be reached for comment via phone or messages, the BICA representative said it was “sad and disappoint ing” that the Opposition would “seek to politicise” the issue.

Noting that Mr Pintard and several other Opposi tion MPs sat in the Minnis

Cabinet, and would have been familiar with the issues faced by the Council in fulfilling its mandate to produce quality assessments of the Government’s fiscal plans within the timeframe required by law.

“One was the ability to access the underlying infor mation that supported the report, and then the time required to verify, validate and finalise our opinion on the underlying information, and then write the report,” Mr Bowe explained.

“My response to that with the Opposition is that they need to look in the mirror and ask themselves: Did they leave in place in the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies the system and processes that enable infor mation sharing to be done efficiently?

“They can read the Fiscal Responsibility Council report that says our ability to analyse the report was limited in the absence of information to validate it. It is not without merit to say we need to see done in time and on deadline, but there should be insight that says this is very well an embry onic process.”

that Adelaide Pines will bring. “There’s immediate and long-term employment opportunities created through the construction and the ongoing services that will be provided,” he said.

“That being landscaping or plumbers, electricians on an ongoing basis in those households, a total of 179. Increased opportunities for Adelaide Village, driven by the influx of these middle income families.” Mr Myers also affirmed that Adelaide Pines’ target market will be middle income Bahamians and their families who work in western New Providence, and pledged that it will not be an extension of the highend Albany community.

This, though, was chal lenged by Reece Chipman, the former FNM MP for Centreville, who voiced fears that Adelaide Pines will become an extension of Albany. Mr Myers, though, pointed to the develop ers’ plan to provide $1m for social and community development in nearby Adelaide.

Promising “a commit ment of $1m to build the Adelaide Community

Mr Bowe said the Coun cil’s work relies on a change of government culture which has traditionally been resistant to sharing informa tion with outside groups, individuals and parties.

Describing the Opposition statement as “disingenu ous” but correct, he added that they were complaining about the same deficien cies that existed under their watch.

“Let’s avoid the finger pointing and get to the root of the matter,” Mr Bowe said. “Before you walk you have to creep, and before you run you have to walk.”

Mr Pintard, in his state ment, said: “The Leader of the Opposition has written to the Prime Minister and requested an update on the status of these tardy reports, and to get his assurance that as minister of finance he is ensuring that the FRC is adequately resourced and working diligently to have these reports finalised and published as outlined in the law.

“When they were in Opposition, the then-PLP on a number of occasions spoke to the need for the FRC reports to be published and circulated on time. It is telling and typical of the PLP that they have no such urgency on these matters of accountability now that they are in government.....

Centre”, he added: “We would anticipate that that money will be earmarked, and we would suggest an Adelaide community com mittee that then determines where and what is built in the community because it’s obviously your commu nity. We’re a member of it, but we’d prefer that deci sion not to be driven by us but by the people in the community.”

But Sam Duncombe, environmental activist and president of reEarth, who also lives in Adelaide, voiced scepticism over such pledges on the basis that previous developers have made similar promises only to fail to follow through.

She said: “As far as the $1m promise, please don’t make me laugh. We heard the $1m promise the last time Albany rolled in and cut through our beach. We were promised a commu nity centre and a police station and this, that and the other. I don’t know what if any of those things have has been done in Ade laide, but I I’ve been living here for 15 years and I ain’t seen nothing yet.”

“The Davis administra tion has fallen into the habit of late budgetary and other critical fiscal reports. The Prime Minister must realise the damage this is causing to the credibility of his govern ment and the country. We call on the Government to ensure that these reports are completed and published before the end of the month of September 2022.”

Elsewhere, the Govern ment was tight-lipped on several other key matters yesterday. Julian Russell, the Grand Lucayan’s chair man, declined to comment on the status of the resort’s sale after the latest sevenday extension granted to prospective buyer, Electra America Hospitality Group, expired. He would only say a press statement will be issued “shortly”, but none was received last night.

And there were also international media reports that the 27-nation Euro pean Union (EU) is again set to “blacklist” The Bahamas for alleged non co-operation on tax matters at an upcoming meeting in October. This nation was added to the EU’s so-called ‘grey list’ back in February due to concerns that the bloc wanted this country to address. Ryan Pinder KC, the attorney general, did not respond to Tribune Business messages seeking comment before press time last night.

GOWON BOWE

Adelaide developer: Don’t ‘drop bomb’ on our costs

income community “com pletely out of whack”, he said the developers would have little choice but to place a venture intending to create 300 full-time jobs on hold.

Speaking after a public Town Planning Committee consultation on the devel opment, during which a Cabinet minister, former prime minister, attorney, environmental activists and residents in south-west ern New Providence’s Adelaide area all voiced concerns (see other arti cle on Page 1B), Mr Myers told this newspaper that the developers are willing to compromise within reason.

“I’m a Bahamian busi ness owner, and have spent 40 years in The Bahamas in business with my fellow Bahamians,” he said. “For the record, we always intended if we can, and it makes sense, and there are some changes that are not going to be prohibitively expensive, then we’re more than happy to consider those things.

“There is a concern because there is a price cap on middle income property. If we get numbers back that are completely outof-whack, both because of global inflation and what we may have been asked to do - and this is not a threat - but there’s a real possibil ity we would have to shelve it until prices come down or we get to a satisfactory solution.”

Pointing out that, unlike major foreign direct invest ment (FDI) projects, Adelaide Pines will not obtain major tax breaks and other incentives, Mr Myers added: “We’re not duty-free, we’re not VAT deferred. It’s expensive to do these communities because of all the new laws and regulations, which we support, but it’s ultimately making it very expensive to put in these subdivisions.”

Adelaide Pines’ electric ity cables will be buried underground rather than

run as overhead wires to protect them from future hurricane damage, he said, citing this as one example of increased costs facing the community and other devel opers. “I don’t have the numbers back yet because we’re trying to wrap up the civils and hoping we don’t have a bomb dropped on us and have to change everything, go back to the drawing board and more costs,” Mr Myers said.

“I’m still willing, as a Bahamian and as a neigh bourly person, I’m still willing to consider reason able things in order to make it better. We have no issue with that at all. We’re still willing to consider reason able things. This is not a stiff arm. This is not an unreasonable threat. We’re following a process, and expect everyone to do like wise; respect the process and the law.”

Mr Myers has partnered with Lyford Cay-based bil lionaire Joe Lewis and his fellow Albany principals, plus two UK investors, to develop a middle income housing subdivision located on the southern side of Adelaide Road opposite the eastern entrance to Albany. Adelaide Pines will feature “about 180” single family lots, together with 19-25 lots for commercial and light industry in a bid to attract businesses to the area and provide employ ment for residents.

A National Economic Council (NEC) paper on the project, written ear lier this year, said: “Some 150-200 Bahamians be employed during the con struction phase. The first year of operations will generate about 30 jobs, and that will rise steadily through the completion of the various phases of devel opment to about 250-300 permanent jobs within the complex.”

Mr Myers, meanwhile, dismissed suggestions by Reece Chipman, the former Centreville MP, that Ade laide Pines will become an

extension of Albany and not the middle income com munity it is intended to be. He added that he “cannot help people’s hysteria” and “naysayers”, while saying: “The conspiracy theo rists are entitled to their opinion.”

Pointing out that Ade laide Pines will offer two, three and four-bedroom homes ranging in size from 1,200 square feet to 1,800 square feet, located on lots containing between 6,5000 square feet and 7,00 square feet, Mr Myers told Tribune Business: “This is consistent with middle income hous ing. There’s no beach access, there’s no guar anteed access to Albany. You’ve got your own little club house, swimming pool and gym.

“The reason Albany is involved is because it’s on their doorstep and they think there’s an opportunity for their staff to live in a nice, safe, pleasant commu nity next to their work. It’s a community for working people. It’s a safe, pleasant, environmentally conscious and aesthetically pleas ing community for middle income people.”

Many of the concerns raised at the Town Planning Committee were environ mental-related. Mr Myers, though, argued that these were being raised in the wrong forum as they should have instead been directed to the Department of Envi ronmental Planning and Protection (DEPP).

And, more critically, he asserted that such concerns were too late as Adelaide Pines had already obtained its Certificate of Environ mental Clearance (CEC) eight months ago via a separate process managed by the DEPP, which also involved stakeholder con sultation and submissions.

“A lot of this comes from ‘not in my backyard and people being antidevelopment. A lot of this stuff comes from those two opinions,” Mr Myers said. However, Pericles Maillis,

the well-known attorney and environmentalist, whose Adelaide property adjoins the project site, in submissions to the Town Planning Committee on September 21, 2022, called for the public consultation to be postponed.

Revealing that he was committed to further dia logue with the developers, Mr Maillis said: “There is as yet no proper detailed Land Use Plan governing this area and covering the many statutory duties and man dates on sensitive lands.

“This project advanced to the present stage, and with considerable expen ditures put out by the developers, but without full preliminary discussion with outside stakeholders and on the assumption that the long natural geologi cal wetland feature, which closely parallels the main Adelaide Road (30 to 90 feet) or five to 65 feet from a 25-foot setback for a wall, could be reclaimed - oblit erated - and replaced by a man-made lake cut into the ground far enough in for two rows of houses on one side, and multi-family units

on the other, along the main road.”

Meanwhile, Pamela Burnside, owner of Doon galik Studios Art Gallery, and her two sisters voiced “strong opposition” to Adelaide Pines due to the potential impact on the area’s status as a major his torical and cultural site.

“Adelaide Village is an important historical site, and a valuable part of our country’s heritage and patrimony, having been established as a settlement for freed slaves in the 1830s and, as such, it has for cen turies retained its charm and character, as it should for perpetuity,” they wrote in an e-mail.

“It is unconscionable that such an abominable devel opment as that proposed by Adelaide Pines on this 21 (mile) by seven island of New Providence be even remotely considered for such a precious heritage area as Adelaide, which deserves our respect and our protection. It certainly does not deserve another sprawling development.

“The outlandish scale of 170-plus homes along with other commercial and

industrial structures, the design, the purpose, in fact, the overall nature of the proposed gated develop ment, totally disrespects the character of the area and exhibits no sense of place whatsoever. It is, in itself, offensive to us as Bahamians.”

Pointing to the environ mental concerns, the trio added: “Such lack of regard for the last few areas of beauty and peace that we, as Bahamians, have left in our country, due to constant developments such as this, should not be allowed....

“It is time for we, the people, to take a firm stand and fiercely protect our rightful patrimony for Bahamians then, now and into the future. Therefore, we would like it to strongly state that we utterly oppose any further encroach ment of this nature in or around the historic area of Adelaide.”

Investors ‘get wise’: funds up $60m

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN investment bank yesterday said total assets under management in its local currency mutual funds have increased by $60m year-todate as investors “get wise” to the negative returns on bank deposits.

David Slatter, RF Bank & Trust’s vice-president of investment management, told Tribune Business this repre sented a collective 13 percent increase for the eight months through August 2022 via a mix of net new subscriptions and investment returns for its Targeted Equity Fund, Secure Balanced Fund and Prime Income Fund.

With commercial banks effectively paying nothing, or close to zero interest, he added that surging inflation and esca lating prices meant investors who have traditionally relied on bank deposits are presently

suffering negative returns of -5-6 percent. Confronted with this reality, they are pulling funds from the banks to invest in capital markets products generating higher returns, such as RF Bank & Trust’s invest ment funds.

Mr Slatter told this news paper it remains vital to put the $2.3bn in surplus liquid ity in the commercial banking sector to more productive use, by investing in companies, the capital markets and greater

yielding investments if The Bahamas is to sustain its eco nomic rebound beyond merely recovering what was lost to the COVID pandemic.

The equities market recov ery, he added, had generated “double digit” returns and growth for RF Bank & Trust’s Targeted Equity Fund for 2022 to-date. This concentrates its investments in Bahamian dol lar-denominated stocks, while the Secure Balanced Fund is split 60/40 in favour of the

same equities with a strong mix of fixed income invest ments. The Prime Income Find focuses solely on fixed income securities such as bonds and preference shares.

“Our Bahamian dollar mutual fund assets under man agement have grown by $60m, and that will be a function of net subscriptions and capital

Minister and ex-PM voice concern on $63m project

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A SITTING Cabinet minis ter and former prime minister have both voiced concerns sur rounding “problems, problems, problems” with the proposed $63m Adelaide Pines project in which Albany’s developer is a minority shareholder.

Vaughn Miller, minister of the environment and natu ral resources, and Dr Hubert Minnis, MP for Killarney, both found themselves on the same side over a south-western New Providence venture that has pledged to create up to 300 full-time jobs via the develop ment of an 180-lot community together with 19-25 spaces for commercial and light industry in a bid to attract businesses to

the area and provide employ ment for residents.

The minister, who is MP for the Golden Isles constitu ency that includes Adelaide, voiced concerns that the pro ject will be constructed on arguably the “largest water lens” on New Providence, while Dr Minnis raised issues about the increase in vehicle

Adelaide developer: Don’t ‘drop bomb’ on our costs

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN busi nessman yesterday warned he and his partners might have to “shelve” a $63m New Providence pro ject if “prohibitively expensive” changes and conditions were imposed after Wednesday’s planning consultation.

Robert Myers, who is the Organisation for Respon sible Governance’s (ORG) principal, told Tribune Business he and his fellow investors were willing to alter the design and plans for the proposed Adelaide Pines community if sug gested adjustments “make sense”.

However, if such altera tions worsened the impact of already-increased con struction and building material costs, and throw financial projections for the planned 180-lot middle

End ‘finger pointing’ over Fiscal Council

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A FISCAL Responsibil ity Council (FRC) member yesterday demanded an end to “political finger pointing” over its failure to deliver timely reports and called on both major parties to instead “get to the root of the matter”.

Gowon Bowe, who repre sents the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) on the fiscal watch dog, told Tribune Business that the key issues remain the sharing and exchange of information between

itself and the relevant gov ernment agencies as well as the resources dedicated to the Council so that it can perform its functions effectively.

Speaking after Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, hit out over the Council’s failure to pro duce its assessments of the Government’s Fiscal Strategy Report 2021 and 2022-2023 Budget within the timeframes set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, he pointed out that the same problems existed when the

Super Value chief: Retain food store mask mandate

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

SUPER Value’s principal yesterday urged the Government to maintain the COVID mask mandate for supermarkets and prevent the sector from becoming “the number one spreader” of the virus.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business he felt it was “too dangerous” to end the manda tory wearing of masks in food stores given that they typically attracted large numbers of shop pers who frequently find themselves in close proximity to one another.

Acknowledging that his call may prove unpopular with some, while revealing that the 13-store chain plans to require all its staff to continue wearing masks, he said: “If we’re wrong, we’re wrong on the side of caution.”

The Super Value chief told this newspaper that he had reached out to Dr Nikkiah Forbes, the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ infec tious diseases head, and Dr Duane Sands, the Free National Movement (FNM) chairman, among other medical practitioners to make the case to the Davis administration that the mask mandate still be enforced for food stores.

“I’ve asked Dr Sands, and Dr Kevin Bethel and Dr Forbes, to speak on our behalf that the supermarkets want to retain the masks for now, and let’s wait and see what happens and where the virus goes,” Mr Roberts argued.

“We said: ‘Please do all you can to keep masks in the supermarket’ because if not we will become the number one spreaders.

“We have kept the public safe so far, and would like to continue that. We don’t want to kill granny and be the top spreaders. Defi nitely, definitely, we think it’s too dangerous. We will keep our staff in masks, and we would

ROBERT MYERS

VAUGHN MILLER

DAVID SLATTER