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Tribune

UNCLE FEARED FOR LIFE IN AXE ATTACK

Assailant shot by police ‘had mental issues and killed close friend’

By JADE RUSSELL jrussell @ tribunemedia.net

THE uncle of the 31-year-old assailant who was fatally shot by police on Sunday after he killed a man with an axe, said he feared for his life during his nephew’s rampage noting “either he would have killed me, or I would have killed him”.

Christopher McIntosh told The Tribune yester day that Larry McIntosh had lived with him his entire life, explaining that his nephew was someone

who struggled with mental issues and a drinking problem.

According to police, before 7pm two men were arguing at Kenilworth Street off Mount Royal Avenue. The aggressor in this matter, while armed with an axe, chopped the victim in his upper body.

Police responded and observed the suspect attempting to chop the man a second time; subse quently, the police fatally shot the suspect.

EMS personnel were

‘BRACE’ FOR INSURANCE HIKES: IAN RECALLS ANDREW EFFECTS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor

BAHAMIAN property owners were yesterday warned to brace for further insurance hikes with one underwriter revealing Hur ricane Ian’s multi-billion dollar devastation brought back memories of market conditions from 30 years ago.

Timothy Ingraham, Summit Insurance Compa ny’s managing director, told Tribune Business the storm was set to “make a bad sit uation even worse” given the losses it has inflicted on the already-struggling global reinsurance market which Bahamian carriers rely upon to underwrite all insured risks in this nation.

NEW PUBLIC PROCUREMENT BILL COMING

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings @ tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minis

ter Glenys Hanna Martin is “hopeful” that the mask mandate will be lifted in classrooms soon, noting she was aware conditions are not ideal.

As of Saturday, the coun try’s mask mandate was largely relaxed with the exception of those access ing healthcare facilities, visiting senior care homes or in an indoor classroom

setting. The adjustments to the mask mandate were rec ommended by the advisory committee at the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

Mrs Hanna Martin said that with the assistance of Health Minister Dr Michael Darville, plans to further relax mask measures are in the works.

“I have spoken to the minister of health about it, of course we are very empa thetic for the situation of students and teachers in the classroom, which already have conditions which are not so ideal,” she told reporters yesterday.

The education minister

THELMA GIBSON WORKERS ‘HAVE HAD ENOUGH’

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle @ tribunemedia.net

TENSION between teachers at Thelma Gibson Primary School and the school’s principal continued yesterday, with a number of workers allegedly calling in sick or refusing to show up to work.

In a statement released to the media yesterday, BUT president Belinda Wilson insisted that work ers, inclusive of teachers and teacher’s aides, have had enough and want offi cials to remove the school’s

SENIOR CIVIL SERVANT CLAIMS VICTIMISATION

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell @ tribunemedia.net

A SENIOR civil servant believes she is in the waning days of her public service career due to alleged vic timisation, having spent the better part of the last sev eral months “staring at the walls every day” without any tasks to carry out.

“I have no portfolio, no support staff and I have been doing absolutely noth ing all day, every day,” the public officer claimed to this newspaper.

She was explaining the

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said yesterday that a new Public Procurement Bill will soon be released for consultation. He made the announcement while giving remarks at the launch of the GoBoneFire eProcurement platform through which goods and services for all government and quasi-government agencies will be sourced. SEE PAGE FOUR (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

GLENYS

Uncle feared for life

summoned to the scene and con firmed that both males had no signs of life.

Mr McIntosh said the night of his nephew, Larry’s rampage, he had taken an axe that he used to shatter the windows outside their home, destroying anything in his path.

Initially Mr McIntosh was listening to the radio inside his home, but he began to hear “banging” sounds echoing in the background.

He then went to check what was hap pening and found his nephew with an axe in his hand.

“Larry and I met face to face when I opened the front door, he had the hatchet after he already had slashed the windows,” Mr McIntosh told The Tribune.

“I was able to get back inside the house, he got over with the hatchet with full force intentionally to come inside behind me.”

Mr McIntosh said at that moment he locked himself in the house and tried to call the police, not knowing his nephew had killed someone outside.

He said Larry was drinking the night of the incident; he suggested alcohol had a horrible effect on the deceased.

During the interview, Mr McIn tosh revealed that the man who was killed by his nephew was actually his

LARRY MCINTOSH

nephew’s good friend, which made the incident even more troubling.

“They were friends all their life, so I can’t figure out why that would happen,” he said.

When asked what could have caused Larry to act that way, Mr McIntosh said he had warned the victim about him and his friend disturbing the neighbourhood.

Mr McIntosh said he gave them seven days to get their act together to stop their drinking and bad attitude. How ever, he believes Larry was offended by that.

Back in 2019, Mr McIntosh said Larry was admitted to Sandilands Rehabili tation Centre as he would sometimes roam the streets naked.

He said after his nephew was released later in 2019, he started to rebuild his life that led to a habit of drinking.

When asked if he felt upset at the police for fatally shooting Larry, Mr Mcintosh responded “the police had to what they had to do.”

“Either he would have killed me, or I would have killed him,” he also said.

Mr McIntosh gave his condolences to the family of the other deceased man; he emphasised that they were close friends who sadly died tragically.

“Everybody trust them two together, they were friends.”

He lamented the fact that both men who once shared a friendship are now dead.

This comes after two men were fatally shot by police in separate incidents last month.

On September 26, police said they shot a wanted suspect dead in Gamble Heights after he allegedly pulled a gun on officers.

Police said they recovered a handgun and ammunition from the deceased.

A few days before that incident, police said a teen allegedly involved in an armed robbery was fatally shot after pulling a gun on officers.

The victim who lost his life to the assailant with the axe was marked as the 103rd murder for the year, according to this newspaper’s records.

Senior civil servant claims victimisation

extent of what she views as victimisation at the hands of senior officials in the Davis administration.

“It is clear to me that I am being forced out,” she added.

The senior official asked not to be named for fear of reprisal and a rule that forbids those in the civil service from speaking publicly about internal matters.

The Tribune also decided to withhold cer tain elements of her experience to protect the woman’s identity.

Yesterday, she recalled her storied past throughout several admin istrations in the service, including a secondment, but insisted she was never

politically affiliated.

“The thing is I didn’t even know that I was a political person and it’s amazing that I am being treated this way. I am not in politics. I don’t be up in politics. I don’t know political people or whatever.

“I did a lot of projects in the service, and nobody could say I was political with them. Those things never mattered to me. I never asked anybody who they voted for, and I didn’t single out people, so I don’t know where this came from,” she said.

Despite this, she claimed she was handed a letter announcing that she was placed on administra tive leave.

The letter, she said,

quoted General Orders as the basis for the leave.

“There was no rea soning for me being disciplined, no explana tion,” she said.

Record

A further explanation provided to her stated that while she maintained a stellar record, the deci sion to place her on leave would remain.

“It remains clear that I was forced out. I have been sitting in my little office. I have no portfo lio; I have no support staff and I am doing absolutely nothing all day,” she said.

The official was not the only one to yester day come forward with

allegations of being treated unfairly by the government.

Another official, an island admin istrator who also asked not to be named, pointed to a lawsuit levelled at the government by the Baha mas Public Service Union, over claims of victimisa tion by the administrators who fall under the Minis try of Foreign Affairs and Public Service.

The matter was addressed in a letter sent to the ministry in January.

The communication was sent by Cedric L Parker & Co representing Arimen tha Newman, Elizabeth Collie, Ernestine Fer nander, Lauretta Marshall and Carletta Turnquest, members of the BPSU.

The permanent secre taries of the Ministry of Labour, the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs were all copied on the letter.

It read: “Each of the captioned administrators received letters signed on your behalf, on or about the 29th day of Novem ber 2021, advising of their respective unsolicited, unexplained and unlawful purported redeployment from the Ministry of Agri culture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs to various other gov ernment ministries with immediate effect.

“Your said letter was issued without any due process or proper notice whatsoever and in breach of the Public Service Commission Regulations, General Orders and the principles of natural justice.

“We hereby request that you rescind the said purported redeployments forthwith and take the necessary steps to facili tate the return of these

duly appointed Family Island administrators to their substantive posts on an urgent basis.

“Should we not hear from you within seven days we shall proceed to secure the BPSU mem bers’ interest without further notice,” the letter noted.

This was the case as one of the administra tors confirmed yesterday that the matter will face the Supreme Court on November 1.

“All of us are career civil servants, all of us have several degrees and we were given the letters at the end of November to report to various gov ernment ministries and we were already serving in those capacities for two years.

“We got those posi tions as promotions. Prior to that we were already career civil servants,” the administrator said.

Letters

“The letters didn’t say much. Gave no explana tion as to why we were being redeployed. During our consultation, neither of the five of us were ever reprimanded. So, there was no explanation. We weren’t called in or any thing. We were just given the letters.

“What we didn’t under stand was during the recruitment exercise for that post there were vacancies at the time. Sev eral persons who applied to the public service had written to the Ministry of Local Government at the time saying they were not qualified for the post but the ones who they moved all of those had various degrees and the ones who were not qualified they kept.

“So, it was a lot of

confusion. But we got no explanation.

“We took it to the union and the union president looked into it and was back and forth with them trying to get the matter resolved and after it didn’t get resolved he took the issue to the attorney.”

The officials gave their accounts the day after former Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle told the Davis adminis tration to “deal fairly” with all public officers amid claims that some in the service were being victimised.

According to Mr Rolle, it was becoming common practice for some officers to be treated as “politi cal operatives” when this should not be the case as they’ve served in consecu tive governments in many instances.

His comments have been met with opposition and dismissed as untrue by government officials.

Yesterday, Foreign Affairs and Public Service Minister Fred Mitchell said Mr Rolle ought to be ashamed to open his mouth, calling him “the victimiser in chief”.

He further directed this newspaper to his previous comments regarding the allegations.

“No one has been unlawfully, unfairly, or illegally displaced in the public service,” Mr Mitch ell said Friday.

“I also want to say that you cannot have a situa tion where public servants openly go around saying they will not and do not support the government of the day who openly defy a lawful order and put obstacles in the way of the administration, push will come to shove.

“The government must have its way and aren’t we a little sick and tired, in fact plenty sick and tired, of the FNM shed ding crocodile tears for allegedly wronged civil servants?

“These are the same people who just a few years ago sent home big grown healthy police offic ers and a whole financial secretary for four years to count sheep.

“These FNM scallywags should go sit down and stop talking sugar honey iced tea. Cut it out.”

Mr Mitchell’s comments were sparked by a Free National Movement press release last week that accused the government of weaponising the Minis try of Public Service to go after career civil servants who have served across different administrations.

The party claimed the government’s conduct was destroying the bedrock of democracy.

THELMA GIBSON WORKERS ‘HAVE HAD ENOUGH’

principal, Olivia Daxon, from her post.

The group has been going head-to-head with the school’s principal in recent weeks, but relations between the parties fur ther deteriorated last month after an alleged argument between the principal and a teacher.

The BUT president said when Ms Daxon was absent from work following the alleged incident, the school “ran smoothly”, but noted that since her return to the campus last week, many workers have refused to work with her.

“Teachers, administrators and support staff at Thelma Gibson Primary School have refused to work with Principal Olivia Daxon,” Mrs Wilson claimed. “Since her return last week Thursday, teachers, administra tors and other staff have refused to work with her.

“Department of Education has refused to discipline Mrs Daxon and redeploy her from the school.

“The teachers have had enough of her and are calling upon Minister Glenys Hanna Martin to cause a decision to be made for the benefit of the teach ers, students and the success of Thelma Gibson Primary School. The school cannot progress and will not move forward with Mrs Daxon at the helm,” Mrs Wilson said.

When contacted yesterday, education officials condemned the action, saying it was not “authorised.”

They also noted that the matter was being addressed by the Labour Department, specifi cally the labour director who did not return this newspaper’s calls for comment up to press time yesterday.

For his part, Stephen McPhee, president of the Bahamas Educa tors Managerial Union (BEMU) which represents school princi pals and other senior education officers, expressed disappoint ment in what he called a “witch hunt” launched against Ms Daxon and called for cooler heads to prevail.

“This morning from what I

understand is that after they were directed from last week by the director of labour to report (to work), the president of the teacher’s union along with some of her executive officers have instructed them not to do so and not to abide the decision as agreed by the majority of the parties involved,” he told The Tribune.

“They have been using these tactics of calling in late, showing up before 11 (am) and then leav ing school saying they’re sick, as I understand. Ten teachers called in and said they were coming in late. About 10 to 14 of them,

I understand, then showed up to school and union executives showed up and met with them and then some 10 to 14 of them went to the sign-out, the register using these ridiculous claims that they feel sick and then left the premises.

“What the public needs to know is it was not the majority. A number of those persons are teacher’s aides who simply sit in a classroom with the teacher.”

Despite yesterday’s action, Mr McPhee conceded that the school’s operations continued as usual, adding that “at no point had school been dismissed.”

“The teachers have had enough of her and are calling upon Minister Glenys Hanna Martin to cause a decision to be made for the benefit of the teachers, students and the success of Thelma Gibson Primary School. The school cannot progress and will not move forward with Mrs Daxon at the helm.”

BUT President Belinda Wilson

However, this is not the first time the union has had issues with Ms Daxon, according to the BUT president.

Mrs Wilson had previously claimed that Thelma Gibson Pri mary School’s principal had to be removed from Carlton Fran cis Primary School for similar actions in 2019.

However, Mr McPhee rejected those assertions yester day, saying much of what is being reported by the union about Ms Daxon was either misleading or false information.

“What is being put in the public domain and BEMU intends to address it in the courts because Ms Daxon first of all has never been charged as it’s being placed out there by any Supreme Court while at Carlton for any wrongdoing,” he said.

“She was never reassigned by the employer as a result of any wrongdoing from Carlton.”

Rumours about the alleged altercation with a teacher from Thelma Gibson are also defama tory, he said.

“A teacher made a complaint and from what I understand that matter is under police investiga tion, but to this date, Ms Daxon

has not been charged with any thing or any wrongdoing,” he said.

He also raised concerns about the potential implications from BUT’s “illegal” action, noting that students are affected the most whenever teachers resort to industrial action.

“What I want the public to ask Mrs Belinda Wilson and the shop steward and assistant and the rest who are a part of this, how do you leave 80 students in grade one unattended because you have a personal challenge with a principal and trying to leave those children in a class room unattended?” Mr McPhee continued.

“That goes against their industrial agreement and that goes against the Child Protection Act and all other laws of aban doning and I want to know what the Ministry of Public Service is going to do.

“Belinda Wilson, who is still a public officer, on unpaid leave and these teachers and shop stewards who are (in my opin ion)doing the worst of crimes and leaving a classroom because they are deciding we don’t want to work with her unless y’all move her and we are worrying about how we get to crime in this country?”

The BEMU president also called for BUT officials to meet with stakeholders so their con cerns can be amicably resolved where possible.

“If they claim there is some wrongdoing being done, then I have no challenge with as I thought would’ve happened that the BUT president would show up to a meeting with the president of BEMU and the employer, the director or who ever else, let us sit down as adults and if you have some claims, then let us address it in accordance with your industrial agreement,” he added.

said the minister of health has assured her that officials are monitor ing the matter and when it is deemed appropriate, it will be lifted.

“I understand their con cern and I have raised that with the minister of health and he has raised it with their team,” she said.

“We are awaiting modi fication of these rules. It’s a serious situation and I’m just trusting that very soon the students in the classroom will be freed of wearing masks during learning time.”

She also emphasised that when students are outdoors, masks are not required, therefore it should provide some level of relief.

Last month, acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Phil lip Swann explained why officials recommended that masks still be worn in healthcare facilities, senior care homes and classroom settings.

“In healthcare facilities, healthcare workers and system users are to main tain the use of masks at all times to ensure that the vulnerable are protected. This has been the case in

most healthcare settings prior to COVID and per sons with a cough when provided with a mask or isolated from other per sons and spaces in a clinic setting or health setting,” Dr Swann said.

“In education insti tutions, the mask mandate for school or edu cation institutions was also retained for in class set tings and these are some of the reasons why we maintained that posture.”

According to Dr Swann, vaccination levels among school aged children are amongst the lowest, how ever officials are making final arrangements to facilitate the administra tion of paediatric vaccines in schools to help increase vaccinations among children.

MINISTER of Education Glenys Hanna Martin.

New Public Procurement Bill released soon for consultation

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said yes terday that a new Public Procurement Bill will soon be released for consultation.

He made the announce ment while giving remarks at the launch of the GoB oneFire eProcurement platform through which goods and services for all government and quasigovernment agencies will be sourced.

Mr Davis explained that this “new day” govern ment is solidly resolved in its ideals of good gov ernance, integrity, and accountability.

“Procurement will nec essarily be affected by our transformative co-depend ent policy advances that require amendments to the Public Financial Man agement Act, the Public Procurement Act, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act,” he said.

“A new Public Pro curement Bill will soon be publicised for con sultation. GoBonfire is

a necessary change in that process. The retiring platform was launched in 2005, well before the passage of the Public Procurement Act, 2021. Unfortunately, its age

limited its function.

“Our Blueprint for Change speaks directly to digital transforma tion and, specifically, the Government Procure ment Platform. GoBonfire

aligns with our ease-ofdoing-business approach to rescue the economy. From anywhere, a busi ness entity can submit proposals for procure ment opportunities with

government and quasigovernment agencies.”

This revelation comes after news that the Free National Movement intends to take legal action against the Davis administration to initiate a judicial review targeting the government’s failure to follow the Public Pro curement Act.

The FNM’S leader Michael Pintard told this newspaper last week that he had already spoken with two attorneys and got a quote for a retainer for one of them in relation to this matter.

Last week, the prime minister challenged the opposition to “bring it on” in response.

In May, Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis told reporters the government was hoping to amend the Public Procure ment Act in the 2022/23 budget period with a view of making it “user friendly” to ensure better compliance and greater transparency.

Meanwhile, the nation’s leader spoke about the value of the procurement platform.

He mentioned for fiscal year 2022/2023, an allo cation of approximately $795 million for recurrent and capital expenditure that represents “vast pro curement opportunities for goods and services and for construction services”.

“The budget is struc tured around three priorities: managing the cost of living for Baha mians; creating and expanding jobs and own ership opportunities for Bahamians; and enhanc ing the safety and security of our communities and borders.

“The focal activities of

the GoBonfire eProcure ment Platform embrace our governance ideals

and provide a requisite solution to facilitate our objective. From GoB onfire, we will assist the government by enhanc ing our ability to gather accurate, real-time data to inform decision-making, to ensure that obligations, including payments are being met on time, and to monitor the life cycle of the project.”

Mr Davis also said: “We have carefully selected this solution because it will ensure that procurement is consistent across the public sector - reducing cost without compromis ing quality, minimising product failures, and assuring operational effi ciency to improve outputs of the supply chain.”

He highlighted the Cor ruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of Transparency International for 2021; The Bahamas ranked 30 out of 183 countries with a score of 64 out of 100.

Particularly, firms in the United States of America identified cor ruption as an obstacle to the foreign direct invest ment approval process and reported perceived corruption in government procurement.

“That is why we commit ted to fiscal consolidation and the modernisation of infrastructure to justify and procure public goods and services in an effi cient, transparent and accountable manner,” the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP said.

Simon Wilson, the Min istry of Finance’s financial secretary, said the total cost of the platform is $150,000 — compared to the existing platform it is “cheaper”.

Bahamas Cham ber of Commerce and Employers Confedera tion Chairman Khrystle Rutherford-Ferguson said the Chamber, as a part of its mandate, supports ini tiatives that bring with it opportunities for the busi ness community.

She added: “We are advised that this e-pro curement portal provides increased opportunities for small and mediumsized Bahamian businesses to participate in national procurement. Further, this system supports competition and reduces government expenditure.”

“Although it is trite to say that small and medium size enterprises are the lifeblood of the Baha mian economy, I would be remiss if I did not under score that at this and to say that the saying is still very true.

Accordingly, a system which supports increased opportunities is well received and con sidered a step in the right direction.”

PRIME Minister and Minister of Finance Philip ‘Brave’ Davis officially launched GoBonfire eProcurement Platform at Margaritaville Beach Resort, Compass Rose Ballroom, yesterday. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

THE GOVERNMENT, through the Ministry of Finance officially launched GoBonfire eProcurement Platform at Margaritaville Beach Resort, Compass Rose Ballroom. Pictured from second left: Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the United States of America Usha E. Pitts; Minister of Economic Affairs Michael Halkitis; and Parliamentary Secretary Wayde Watson. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

WILSON HAS FAITH THAT MEASURES IN PLACE WILL RELIEVE INFLATION BURDEN

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter

AFTER a report show ing an increase in local inflation, Financial Sec retary Simon Wilson said he has faith that the cur rent measures in place will relieve the burden.

Mr Wilson said officials do not see inflation rising above five percent on an annual basis. He spoke to reporters at the sidelines of the launch of the GoB oneFire eProcurement platform yesterday.

“I think the first thing is I have faith that the measures in place will relieve (the) burden. So inflation, we see inflation being elevated. And in comparison to the last 10 years, because of global factors, but we don’t see it at a high level. So we don’t see inflation rising above five percent on an annual basis,” he said.

Asked what he would say to consumers, he noted: “I think overall price level, we expect it to rise, because we import inflation. So we expect it to rise, but we don’t expect it to be a dramatic rise because we have a very good fiscal policy. So we don’t generate a lot of the government deficits going down. So we know the money supply is not expanding rapidly.”

Mr Wilson said despite concerns from some, offi cials do not expect huge inflation in construction materials.

“I don’t think the num bers demonstrate that is true.

“What we see inflation in terms of in the price level, obviously, on fuel costs, which will translate into energy costs.

“We see inflation in food costs, but we have not

seen a dramatic increase in inflation in construc tion materials plus, if you remember, during the budget, we reduced a whole range of building materials that are duty free.

“So immediately, there was a decrease in the price level.”

This comes after Baha mian contractors warned it is “inevitable” that Florida’s post-Hurricane Ian reconstruction will hit building material prices and availability here as local inflation was revealed to have hit seven percent.

Leonard Sands, the Bahamian Contrac tors Association (BCA) president, told Tribune Business that much will depend on the extent of the Category Four storm’s devastating impact plus the nature and scale of rebuilding in the so-called “Sunshine State”.

While it was currently impossible to forecast the precise impact for Bahamian construction costs, he acknowledged that Ian’s fall-out could fuel further increases in building material prices that have otherwise “plateaued” and been relatively stable since midMarch following hikes induced by post-COVID supply chain shocks and US housing demand.

The threat of renewed building material supplies price increases, sparked by Florida’s reconstruction demands and associated product shortages as the state sucks up a large portion of available sup plies, emerged just as the Bahamas National Statis tical Institute revealed this nation’s inflation rate hit seven percent for the 12 months to end-July 2022.

FINANCIAL Secretary Simon Wilson.

88 UPS units donated to Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings @ tribunemedia.net

PRECISION Power Solutions Limited yester day donated 88 UPS units to the Ministry of Educa tion and Technical and Vocational Training.

Michael Turnquest, the company’s chief operat ing officer, said he hopes to continue fostering relationships with the Ministry of Education.

“We think that in the education system, espe cially the computer labs, you need computers that are up and running at all times,” Mr Turnquest said yesterday. “We have students who cannot lose data at any point and time. This is why we found it fitting to partner with the Ministry of Edu cation today and make this happen.”

Mr Turnquest encouraged corporate Bahamas to partner with the government in hopes of bringing about change.

Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin, who was present, expressed her gratitude for the donation in the education sector.

“I just want to put on the record that we are

very grateful and that it is only through the global involvement of all stake holders that we can have a successful and fragile education system,” she said.

She urged corporate

“We think that in the education system, especially the computer labs, you need computers that are up and running at all times. We have students who cannot lose data at any point and time. This is why we found it fitting to partner with the Ministry of Education today and make this happen.”

Michael

partners to move beyond the singular objective of profits and understand the importance and the integrated necessity of helping to build educa tion in the country.

According to Mrs Hanna Martin the UPS units will be distrib uted to schools in both New Providence and the Family Islands.

She also spoke to the issue of testing students to glean the extent of learn ing loss, which occurred during the COVID-19 as students were forced into virtual learning.

Previously she said the testing would occur this month.

When asked by report ers yesterday about the issue, the minister said: “I am advised that it will be during this month, we have already lost early October.

“The recommendation has been made by the committee for the entity that will lead the charge for us and that has to go to Cabinet for ratification once that is done, we are preparing to have that before Cabinet shortly, if and when there is ratifica tion we will roll out,” she also added.

She said officials were hoping to test students individually; however, she is waiting to be guided by those who will undertake the exercise to provide additional details.

WASM invests $40m on campus in Grand Bahama

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock @ tribunemedia.net

WESTERN Atlantic School of Medicine (WASM) has invested $40m to date on its campus in Grand Bahama, surpassing the original heads of agreement investment of $13.5m for the first phase.

“We are 322 percent over our commitment on finan cial investment,” William Colgan, chairman of WASM, revealed yesterday at the school’s Freeport campus off East Sunrise Highway.

“Our original investment required by the govern ment was $13.5m, and we spent $43.5m to date,” he said. “When you look at what our commitment was and where we are today, we have not fallen short of any commitment we made to the Bahamas.”

Mr Colgan believes that the medical school could attract more than 1,000 stu dents to Grand Bahama. And, he added, it is expected that student spending would generate some $25m annu ally in the local economy by 2030.

Currently, there are just under 70 students attending the medical school.

Chairman Colgan esti mates that each student generates between their families visiting and at the school, for housing and entertainment, an average of $25,000 per year per student. In terms of money spent, he said every faculty is at least $35,000.

“Based on those numbers by 2030, the economic benefit to GBI will be on an annual basis of up to $25m,” he said. “That would be $25m new dollars that will be spent on this island by 2030.”

Mr Colgan indicated that WASM has already completed 37,000 sq ft of academic building space, which is phase one. During phase two, the second aca demic building space will be 54,000 sq ft, and for the third phase, they will have some where around 200,000 sq ft of academic buildings at the campus.

“We had a serious com mitment to the island and our commitment really is building a medical school. We spent about $40m to date invested in GBI and our vision is obviously to make a major statement. We believe we can build a world class academic institution here that can compete with any academic institution around the world,” he stated.

Mr Colgan said WASM acquired the site that was initially identified by PHA to build the new hospital in 2021 under the previous Minnis administration.

“They felt it was not going to be achievable, and there fore, they openly allowed us to (acquire) the land,” he explained.

“Even during the pan demic, with the supply chain challenges, we were able to build a magnificent facility.”

At WASM, the current building structure can accom modate up to 250 students.

There are two lecture halls, each with the capacity to accommodate 168 students; six patient exam rooms; four simulation labs; and 28 faculty and staff offices, a library, and student lounge.

Plans are underway to clear land to begin construc tion of the second phase, Mr Colgan said. When com pleted, the school will be able to accommodate up to 600 students. Additionally, it would include three more

lecture halls with 168-student capacities, six more patient exam rooms, an anatomical science lab, research room, and 12 additional faculty and staff offices, and student lounges.

According to Mr Colgan, WASM has also surpassed its commitments signed in the original HoA, in terms of construction and job creation.

The initial construction they negotiated was to build 14,000sq ft in phase one, but they completed 37,500 sq ft of space. In terms of jobs, he said they had committed to create at least 50 jobs.

“We are well on track, we have 50 full-time jobs as a result of that,” he said.

He also reported that 150 temporary construction jobs were also created during the construction period.

Mr Colgan said they had committed that in addition to the 50 full-time employ ees, WASM would grow that between five to 15 percent per year.

“When we complete phase two, we would have invested $62.7m, which is 161 percent over our commitment with regard to space being built,” he reported.

“We fully anticipate 100 percent Bahamian work force that will be utilised, and we would have more than doubled the amount of investment that we originally agreed with the government we would spend here on GB,” Mr Colgan said.

“For phase three, we com mitted to build at least 42,000 sq feet.

“By the end of phase three, we have already exceeded the investment of $37.1m in GBI in phase one that we promised to invest by the end of phase three,” Mr Colgan said.

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Nobel prizes most often go to researchers who defy specialisation

(THE CONVERSATION) Experts often recommend that people special ize in one field of work or research to maximise their chances of success. Yet our recently published research indi cates that successful innovators take a broader path.

We looked at the careers of Nobel Prize winners, who are arguably among the most innovative people in the world. We found that they are unusually likely to be what we call “creative polymaths.” That is, they purposely integrate formal and infor mal expertise from widely varied disciplines to yield new and useful ideas and practices.

In fact, the testimony of science lau reates who were students of previous laureates suggests that creative polym athy is a skill that can be learned. We have written about some of these in our books “Discovering” and “Sparks of Genius.”

Many of these laureates discover problems by looking at topics in new ways, or they solve them by transfer ring skills, techniques and materials from one field to another. They often use conceptual tools such as making analogies, pattern recognition, body thinking, playacting and modeling. In one notable example, Alexis Carrel won his Nobel Prize in medicine in 1912 by adapting lace-making and embroidery techniques to transplant surgery.

• A psychologist, inventor and economist Herbert Simon won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1978 for “his pioneering research into the deci sion-making process within economic organisations.”

He was a professor in several departments at Carnegie Mellon Uni versity. His colleagues often called him a “Renaissance man” because of his vast range of interests and wideranging curiosity. Over the course of his career, he made major contribu tions to the study of computer science, artificial intelligence, psychology and philosophy, as well as economics.

Beyond Simon’s scholarly work, his additional interests included piano playing, musical composition, draw ing, painting and chess.

He often referred to the intellec tual excitement, emotional pleasure and novel insights he derived from integrating his many hobbies with his work.

“I can rationalise any activity I engage in as simply another form of research on cognition,” he declared in his 1996 autobiography. He went on to add, “I can always view my hobbies as part of my research.”

• A geneticist, illustrator and cookbook author Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard com bined an equally diverse range of skills to win the 1995 Nobel Prize in physiology – or medicine – which was awarded for her “discoveries con cerning the genetic control of early embryonic development.”

“I’m very curious and I like to understand things,” she said in a 2003 interview, “and not only science … I also did music and I did languages and literature and so on.”

That included forays as an illustra tor, puzzle designer and author of a best-selling cookbook.

As a science student, Nüsslein-Vol hard proved equally broad-minded, trying physics, physical chemistry and biochemistry before settling on embryology. Her many profes sional and personal interests proved useful in coming up with new ques tions and techniques, and in order to produce novel results. She advises scholars to become similarly broad and idiosyncratic.

In a 2017 interview, she said, “You should, as far as possible, avoid main stream areas and change fields after your Ph.D. in order to be able to develop an independent profile and work on an original, self-selected topic.”

• The importance of creative polymathy

We have found that Carrel, Nüsslein-Volhard and Simon are typi cal of Nobel Prize winners – but not at all typical of most professionals. As part of our creativity research over the past 20 years, we have gathered information about the work, hob bies and interests of 773 laureates in economics, literature, peace, physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine between 1901 and 2008.

We found that the vast majority of laureates have or had formal – and often also informal – education in more than one discipline, developed intensive and extensive hobbies and changed fields. Most importantly, we found, they have intentionally sought out useful connections among their diverse activities as a formal strategy for stimulating creativity.

Our analysis finds that scientists who win a Nobel Prize are about nine times more likely to have training in crafts such as wood- and metalworking or fine arts than the typical scientist.

And unlike most social scientists or other students of the humanities, Nobel laureates in economics are almost universally trained in math ematics, physics or astronomy. Nobel Prize winners in literature are about three times as likely to be fine artists and 20 times as likely to be actors than members of the general public.

In sharp contrast to typical pro fessionals who view their hobbies as irrelevant or even detrimental to their work, Nobel laureates perceive their varied interests and hobbies as impor tant stimulants.

As playwright and actor Dario Fo, winner of the 1997 Nobel for litera ture, and also a painter, put it in an interview: “Sometimes I draw my plays before I write them, and other times, when I’m having difficulty with a play, I stop writing so that I can draw out the action in pictures to solve the problem.”

We have found that most Nobel laureates have made equivalent statements.

• Fostering creative polymathy

We believe it is possible to foster the fruitful interaction of wide-ranging interests. One study found that people who double major in college are more likely to exhibit creative behaviours or become entrepreneurs than people who majored in one subject.

Another research study found that having a persistent, intellectually challenging hobby – such as musical performance, acting, visual art exhibi tion, competitive chess or computer programming – is a better predictor of career success in any field than are grades, standardised test scores or IQ.

Similarly, our own research has found that science professionals with per sistent crafts hobbies are significantly more likely to file patents and set up new companies than those without.

In our view, an increasingly com plex and diverse world needs not only specialised experts but also creative generalists – the polymathic types who specialise in the breadth and integration that drive knowledge beyond what people already believe is possible.

(This article is by Robert RootBernstein of Michigan State University for theconversation.com. The Conver sation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commen tary from academic experts.)

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Exclusivity of wisdom

EDITOR, The Tribune.

HUMAN beings are not all great thinkers. Don’t want to insult anyone, but think about it.

Building a house or com munity along river banks or waterways that will in time flood. Notice how many communities are located in flood plains? Also, notice how the community contin ues to live there knowing that disaster will cometh once again.

Watch people tie all sorts of things onto their vehicles’ roof believing that they will be able to travel safely with their load secure?

Leave high school incom plete only to regret it in your midlife.

The temperature outside is warming, the ice below you is thinning and yet you go ice fishing, often way out along the water flow with your new snowmobile.

You have a fire arm, a pistol. Thinking about hiding it, you place it in a shoe box under your bed. You have young children at home too.

You purchase a fixer up building, with every inten tion of fixing it over time, with a limited budget. Have to own something like the folks did before you. You did not spend the money on a forensic engineer, some one who could have told you the building is a death trap to your health and pocket book.

You were given the opportunity to experience higher learning. Your par ents thought you’d learn

useful things, but you chose to study seemingly useless subjects that inter ested you. Hey, it’s not your money, right?

You’re late for a date in an urban centre. The night club is just the other side of this city block. Maybe you should go through that darken alley down yonder. It may save you some time. Bought a used motor bike. Your friends chal lenge you to do things you know are danger for you and others. You accept their challenge, bravely.

There are many people out there who are unedu cated. Yes, I said it. There are uneducated people out there, often it is not their fault. They may not have had the opportunity. You do what you must, often for your family and your self. While you may not be well educated, you can be extremely wise. Knowing what is right and wrong has always been something we learn as children and young folk. They call it common sense, astuteness, resource fulness, levelheadedness, mother wit, enterprising or someone with horse sense.

The Virtue of Wisdom is what we all need, some thing we need to acquire or strive for as we move along in our worldly jour ney. How do you acquire wisdom? We look to Aris totle for some points that matter. You must learn to

contemplate. Don’t freak out, folks. That only means you need to learn how to think. Simply look, observe, contemplate and then act.

Always think before you do something. So many of our neighbours react without contemplating the question, situation, event they are living. It is useless having knowledge, without applying that knowledge.

Martin Luther King was a knowledgeable and wise man. Mr King became a legend, a name with power because he took a stand against inequality, racism and hatred. He acted upon his principles. Wisdom and knowledge have no worth unless they are acted upon.

“If a good man sees evil, and walks away without stopping this evil, is he a good man? “It is the failure of good men, that allows evil to continue spread ing in this world”. May have been said by Winston Churchill, but nonethe less its meaning says every person you know, every neighbour you have can be a Martin Luther King. Every one of them. All they need to do is see, observe, contemplate and then act upon your principles. Lift up your family, neighbours and others using something poor, wealthy, uneducated or different people havethe Power of WISDOM. Wisdom will help you sur vive and prosper on your life’s journey.

STEVEN KASZAB Bradford, Ontario. October 3, 2022.

Try to save another generation

EDITOR, The Tribune.

LOSING a generation of young people? Should have read Another Generation may be already two gone - lost!

Said many, many times the disintegration of the essential nuclear family fathermother-children over the past 40 plus years what we have today is a direct result.

To re-establish the nuclear family quickly is impossible: Certainly, it will take generations.

Sure, most have noticed, either the victim or the person arrested, rarely has the same name as the mother, clear identification of the rape-abortion of the nuclear family.

I recall Sir Lynden proposing a National Youth Service compulsory from 17-18 years - too late by then, consummate criminals you have to catch the young at 7-10 years at the latest.

Without exception all school students will be part of a Civic Service group

Scouts, Girl Guides, Boys Brigade, Rang ers, etc, minimum once a week as part of extra-curricula activities - one afternoon training in the disciplines those great youth organisations have proven over the years.

We don’t need a Ministry of Youth Ser vice version, we have these knowledgeable youth developers to use their programmes – no over loading in trainers in Ministry, etc – stipend possibly to the organisations.

Compulsory, no exceptions. This is my first step to try, and I mean try seriously to save another generation as three - Prime Ministers before the current have lost theirs.

We are dealing with a low percentage, but all must be trained in normalcy of civics.

PAULA

BRITISH artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, and his wife Alena, pose for a photo in the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion, in Tenterden, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist’s trade mark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles, in Kent, England, Monday. (Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/PA via AP)

MAN

ON FIREARM, AMMUNITION CHARGES

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was granted bail in Magistrate’s Court yesterday in connection with firearm and ammu nition charges.

Harry Deus, 32, represented by attorney Geoffrey Far quharson, stood before Magistrate Kendra Kelly on charges of possession of an unlicensed fire arm and possession of ammunition.

On September 30 in New Providence, it is said that Deus was found with a black .9mm Taurus G3 pistol with the serial number erased. At the time of his arrest, it is further alleged that the accused also had 15 rounds of .9mm ammunition.

In court Deus pleaded not guilty to both charges.

As there was no objec tion to bail by prosecutor Sergeant Vernon Pyfrom, Deus was granted $8,000 bail. Deus’s trial is set to begin on January 23, 2023.

MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER, ATTEMPTED MURDER

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was sent to prison yes terday in connection with a grill-out shooting last month that left a man dead.

Spencer Lewis, 31, faced Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans on charges of murder and attempted murder.

According to prosecutors, Lewis, being concerned with others, is accused of approaching a grill-out at Lucky Heart Corner around 8pm on September 19 in a heavily-tinted purple Toyota Passo. Once there, the alleged culprits are said to have opened fire at two men, Max Dar ville and Deiondre Demeritte, with the victims being hit by multiple rounds from the firearms.

While both Darville and

MAN JAILED FOR INDECENT ASSAULT OF 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A 41-YEAR-OLD man was sentenced to twoand-a-half years in prison yesterday for the indecent assault of a 10-year-old girl last December.

Jason Eneas faced Mag istrate Kendra Kelly for the continuation of his indecent assault trial. This comes after the minor’s tearful recounting of the incident in a previous court appear ance. The magistrate retold the court that on Decem ber 5, 2021, in the early morning hours, a naked Eneas entered the 10-yearold’s room and proceeded to touch her stomach and chest.

While the accused tried to pursue the victim into another room, the 10-yearold successfully managed to run away from him.

The accused has prior convictions.

After reviewing the evi dence and stating her belief in the minor’s testimony, the magistrate found Eneas guilty of the offence and convicted him yesterday.

Eneas was sentenced to two-and-a-half years at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, with time served from his arrest on December 7, 2021, reducing his prison time to about 18 months.

Eneas was also informed of his right to appeal the court’s sentencing within seven days.

RISE BAHAMAS HONOURS MIGUEL CURRY

Demeritte were taken to the hos pital by a private vehicle, Darville later died.

In court, Lewis was not required to enter a plea. He was informed that his matter would be fast tracked to the Supreme Court by way of a voluntary bill of indict ment (VBI).

The magistrate further informed the accused that as she lacked the jurisdiction to grant him bail he

would have to apply for it through the higher court.

Until bail is granted, Lewis will be remanded to the Baha mas Department of Correctional Services.

While the VBI of the accused is slated to be served on February 16, 2023, Magistrate Vogt-Evans informed him that he will be called back to court if it is available at an earlier date.

TWO YEARS, THREE MONTHS IN PRISON FOR STEALING AND LYING TO OFFICER

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was sentenced to two years and three months in prison in Mag istrate’s Court yesterday after admitting to stealing $88 worth of goods from a shop and lying to an officer.

Victor Johnson, aka Alexander Thompson, 43, appeared before Senior Magistrate Caro lyn Vogt-Evans on charges of stealing from a shop, receiving and deceit of a public officer.

On September 17, the accused stole $88 worth of goods from Mama’s TGS convenience store

on Andros Avenue. These items include Stoli, Jack Daniels, coconut rum and four grabba leaf packages.

Then on September 28 also in New Providence the accused deceived officer Alpheus Bevans by giving him a fake name.

In court the accused pleaded guilty to the stealing and deceit charges resulting in the receiving charge being withdrawn.

It was also revealed that the accused has offences with a previous one year sentence at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDCS) for assault and stealing.

In addition to saying that

he was recently employed, the accused claimed that the complainant in the stealing matter owed him an explanation for his actions.

Magistrate Vogt-Evans then called the accused a menace to society due to his repetitive criminal history.

As such she sentenced him to serve two years at BDCS for the stealing charge and an additional three months for the deceit charge to be served consecutively.

Before being taken back into custody the accused was told of his right to appeal sentencing within seven days.

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

RISE Bahamas has hon oured fifteen-year-old Miguel Curry as a “hero”.

The 11th grader was struck by a speeding vehi cle on Bernard Road on

September 15.

The victim was shielding his younger sibling from being hurt during the hit and run.

On Friday, RISE Baha mas hosted a Fun Day for Miguel and his younger brother at Fusion Super plex’s game room.

RISE Bahamas founder and president Terneille Burrows said her group wanted to highlight the pos itives of the situation.

“I want to take the opportunity to highlight the positive and the good because I believe that Miguel is a hero. Even though it was his little brother that he saved from the car hitting them, it still proved that he had heart above all else,” she said.

She added that RISE Bahamas aims to show case love and community building efforts, hence this initiative to highlight Miguel.

Ms Burrows is also appealing to the public to come forward if anyone has information on the incident.

When asked by reporters how he feels to be hon oured Miguel said he felt flattered.

He said: “Well I feel kind of flattered that someone would actually take me out, because I don’t really get to go out that much.”

The siblings were taken to the hospital by EMS

where they were treated and discharged after the hit and run.

Miguel said he is on the road to recovery as he is now able to walk on his leg.

A marketing coordinator at Fusion Supurplex said the company was happy to partner with RISE Baha mas for the event.

“We are so honoured and it’s such a privilege to partner with RISE on such an occasion,” said Janae Ferguson.

“It’s courageous to step in like this and save your brother because it truly could’ve been way worse. We are so grateful that things didn’t turn out that way. “

Ms Ferguson also added that all heroes do not wear capes, therefore Fusion is happy to host the brothers.

In a previous interview with The Tribue, Miguel said he would have forgiven the motorist who struck him if the person had stayed on the scene to assist.

“I would say if you did like help then I would have forgiven you, but you didn’t help me, so I can’t forgive you for that,” he said last month.

Police in New Providence are searching for the driver of a black vehicle who “refused to remain on the scene and fled the area in a westerly direction.”

RISE BAHAMAS presented Miguel Curry, 15, and his six-year-old brother, Malachi, gift cards to Fusion Superplex game room.

MIGUEL said he is on the road to recovery as he is now able to walk on his leg.

What’s best for baby

Breastfeeding is a subject often shied away from, overlooked, disre garded and even shunned.

Somehow, having a healthy discussion about breast feeding lands in a grey, taboo area. Even though there is a fundamental, primal intelligence and knowledge that this is the most natural and most sig nificant way to feed a baby, many still seem uncomfort able with delving deeply into the topic. This behav iour came about over a period of time. The norm began to shift from breast feeding to bottle feeding with the introduction of the industrial era and the diversification of the role of the woman in modern society.

The art of breastfeed ing is something that should have evolved along with the changes in society. However, it became inconvenient and unpopular. This was a trag edy. We see the statistics and studies that show the decline in nutrition and rise in illnesses that came along with the advancement of society. While the fast food and microwave culture are partly to blame, we can look even further back to the first food source of a human being.

The very first choice made for the health and nutrition of the child can help set the course for the rest of their lives. Milk is the predominant source of food for any infant for at least the first year of their life. When infant formula is chosen, it is a decision to give the baby a chemically derived formula, safe for consumption, with a cow’s milk or soybean base. It is a powder to which water must be added. For best results, that formula must be measured, mixed at the right temperature for the baby, and will include some insoluble ingredients that will be passed out by the baby. When the mother decides to nourish the baby

own body, she is continu ing the natural process of infant nutrition from the umbilical cord to the breast. She is able to give the baby a formula that is of nature’s design. Without having to measure or sanitize any bottles, she is able to pro vide the baby with perfect nutrition. She can be confi dent that it is always at the right temperature.

The act of feeding the baby is also providing the emotional and intellectual support needed for whole some nurturing. The breast milk even adjusts when a baby is ill to meet its needs and boost its immunity.

The first week in October is celebrated as National Breastfeeding Week in The Bahamas. During this week, the Bahamas National Breastfeeding Association (BNBA) hosts a week of activities to bring awareness to the nation about the importance of breastfeeding and to advocate for the rights of breastfeeding mothers.

I am one of them. My son, Victorious is now a year old and still breastfeeds regularly throughout the day and night. For the first six months of his life, he was exclusively breastfed. He did not need any sup plemental food or water during the time. This is according to the recom mendations of the BNBA and the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO recommends mothers to “exclusively breastfeed infants for the child’s first six months to achieve optimal growth, development and health”. Thereafter, they should be given “nutritious com plementary foods and continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years or beyond”.

With that said, my daugh ter Victory, now three years of age, is no longer offered the breast, but she is not denied it when she asks for it every once in a while.

According to medela. com.au: “If a baby or child is not actively weaned from

ABOVE LEFT: Winners receiving their prizes at the Baby Olympics at the Town Center Mall.

breastfeeding, the natural age that weaning occurs is anywhere from 2 to 6 years of age. Breast milk contin ues to provide nutrition, assists with the immune system, provides gut micro biota, comfort and social and intellectual develop ment for as long as the breastfeeding relationship continues. Tandem feeding supports both the relation ship with the new baby and continues the breastfeeding relationship with the older sibling.”

As a breastfeeding mother and advocate, I have had the opportunity to spread the message to my fellow Bahamians, and help mothers and fathers who choose to make breastfeed ing a priority for their baby. I have also had the oppor tunity to hear the issues or complaints that have resulted in many a mother turning away from the natu ral gift that serves both her and the baby.

For example, mothers often say: “I couldn’t pro duce enough milk for the baby”. However, most of the time, those mothers actually did have enough milk. There are a few sce narios which are mistaken for lack of milk: the breast is producing colostrum; the breast appears deflated; or the baby is fussy and the lack of milk is blamed.

In the case of the newborn, before the breast ever produces milk, it will produce a golden-coloured sticky fluid known as colos trum. This colostrum is the first form of breast milk that is released by the mammary glands after giving birth. According to clevelandclinic.com, it is nutrient-dense and high in antibodies and antioxidants to build a newborn baby’s immune system. It changes to breast milk within two to four days after your baby is born. Colostrum is thicker and more yellow than tra ditional breast milk. So mothers, be patient and know that the fluid is pro viding the baby with exactly what it needs. At birth, the baby’s stomach is no bigger than a toy marble.

For those who don’t have a robust milk produc tion, know that as long as you continue to exclusively breastfeed the baby and drink lots of water, the milk will continue to supply the baby. Even when the breast seems deflated, continue to feed and you will feel the milk springing from the mammary glands.

Then there are the fussy babies - their mothers assume they need to sup plement the baby’s feed for satiation. The breast milk is likely not the cause. Try colic aids, taking the baby for walks or a nice bath, and other soothing and comforting methods. What is important to note, is that many of the cases in which the decision is made to give the baby formula as opposed to breastfeeding could have been avoided with proper consultation from a lactation consultant.

Of course, there are situa tions in which breastfeeding is not possible or is difficult. For example, mothers who had to remain in hospital for an extended period of time or who may be facing certain medical condi tions. More importantly, every parent can take the time to discuss these issues and options with their child’s paediatrician.

The doctors, themselves, sometimes need school ing in this area, as medical school can negate to cover education on breastfeed ing sufficiently. The BNBA wants to partner with more doctors and help to educate them on the “gold stand ard” for feeding infants.

During National Breast feeding Week, members of the BNBA continue to push to normalise breastfeeding in the country and advocate for this fundamental right to nutrition for children. The 2022 theme is: “Step up for Breastfeeding: Educate and Support”. The BNBA has been in talks with Ms Sharon Martin and the National Tripartite Coun cil, with efforts to look at the current legislation as it relates to breastfeed ing, and make changes that would support breastfeed ing mothers, especially as they return to work.

Breastfeeding moth ers facing the dilemma of having to return to work and still want to breastfeed can tune in to the BNBA Breastfeeding Seminar on Wednesday, October 5. Inperson sessions will be held at the Ministry off Health and Wellness, while virtual sessions will be held via Zoom. IM International Educational Support Ser vices has also launched a Breastfeeding Workplace Bahamas campaign.

On Saturday, October 1, the BNBA took part in a Thanksgiving Church Service at Hillview SeventhDay Adventist Church. On Sunday, October 2, the BNBA Baby Olympics was held at the Town Centre Mall. Exclusively breast fed babies participated in crawling, walking and run ning categories. Also on Sunday, the BNBA visited Friendship Tabernacle in Abaco. On Monday, Octo ber 10, activities will wrap up with an Umbrellathon at Pinewood Gardens Park beginning at 8am. For more information, contact BNBA President Nurse Trineka Hall at 806-8314, Nurse Ampusam Symonette at 421-4713 or Nurse Linelle Thompson at 565-0118.

ABOVE: Left to right – Lisa Adderley, Pastor Silbert Mills, and Amanda Innocent celebrating Na tional Breastfeeding Week at Friendship Tabernacle in Abaco.

TOP: Left to right – Nurse Ampusam Symonette, Dr Lillian Jones, Nurse Carlotta Klass, Rev Dr Michael Toote, Nurse Trineka Hall, Danina Black, Nurse Debbie Munnings and Nurse Anna Forbes at Hillview Seventh Day Adventist Church celebrating National Breastfeeding week.

NEW

Having commented last week that the new British Prime Min ister, Liz Truss had made a good start, only days later the picture has changed dramatically.

In charge for barely a month, she and her Chancellor of the Excheq uer, Kwasi Kwarteng have created economic and political mayhem through an emergency mini-budget unveiling sweeping tax cuts and plans to boost economic growth. This was preceded by a hugely expensive package to cap typical energy bills which the government claimed was a major undertaking that needed to be pushed through quickly.

The tax reductions included the reversal of a rise in National Insur ance and abolition of corporation tax rises and of the higher rate of peronal income of 45 percent tax that would have given money back to the wealthiest. The mini-budget attracted a fierce hostile reac tion because it did not contain an assessment by the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the body that examines the govern ment’s tax and spending plans. Nor did the government say how these cuts would be paid for and produce a plan for managing the inevitable debt.

Policy analysts criticised the lack of information and assessment and there was turmoil in the financial markets which, it is said, detest the notion of countries spending and borrowing at high levels without spelling out in detail how this will be done. Doubts were raised about the sustainability of the propos als and, in particular, how the debt

would be serviced.

There was also a negative response from the IMF which issued the sort of warning normally reserved for emerging markets.

The result was a collapse in con fidence and a historic drop in the pound sterling against the US dollar though it has subsequently bounced back to pre-mini-budget levels; not least, apparently, in the knowledge the Bank of England will have to ratchet up interest rates to sup port the currency and put a lid on inflation.

All this, of course, has meant instead of taking the stage in tri umph at the Conservative Party

conference this week, Ms Truss is facing a rough ride. There have been serious political consequences in the short-term. The heavy criti cism and turbulence in the markets, with the Bank of England having to pump billions into buying up gov ernment debt, have contributed to the opposition Labour Party’s huge lead over the Tories in the polls - to the extent that, if an election were held tomorrow, Labour would probably win by a landslide.

However, the PM made clear over the weekend the government had no intention of backtrack ing. Indeed, she has doubled down on her economic strategy but has admitted she and the Chancellor should have laid the ground better before announcing their tax-cutting policy and that she had learnt les sons from the fierce reaction. She stressed it was now important to regain the confidence of the mar kets and restore stability and her government’s credibility for sound economic management. So, it is significant that subsequently the Chancellor announced the abolition of the 45 per cent higher tax rate would be reversed on the grounds that it was drowning good aspects of the plan.

Nonetheless, the Tory govern ment’s reputation has been badly damaged. Observers are saying the Chancellor could have averted chaos if he had stuck to assistance with energy bills, the reversal of National Insurance increases and cancellation of corporation tax rises. Reportedly, he now accepts he should have laid more emphasis on spending restraint and ought to have obtained, in advance, an eco nomic forecast from the OBR.

Clearly, the PM and her Chan cellor mishandled the execution of their plan by failing to explain plau sibly how the government would pay for the tax cuts.

Their perceived recklessness spooked the financial markets, while scrapping the 45 percent higher income tax band gave the undesirable impression that the government was favouring the rich. Such misjudgements have been a gift to Labour which has been painting the Tories as irresponsible, incompetent and biased towards the wealthy.

The next step is publication of the government’s medium-term fiscal plan, with an OBR forecast, on November 23. The idea is to put the UK on course for lower

taxes, creation of higher growth, greater productivity and innovation and supply-side reform. To many people, that sounds like libertari anism writ large – the philosophy which, inter alia, holds that the way to achieve economic growth is to reduce the size of government and its spending and taxing while dereg ulating the market process and restoring to individuals the right to make the important decisions in their lives.

While awaiting further details of the plan, some are now saying, if the issue is not handled properly from now on, all this is sufficiently serious to produce a sea change in UK politics that could even lead to a collapse of the new Conservative government.

Alarm in Europe at far-right victory in Italy

By all accounts this is a critical time for Europe.

The war in Ukraine and spi ralling energy costs - caused in part by its own European Union sanctions against Russia - are contributing to increased inflation and an acute cost of living crisis across the continent, and there is a danger of energy shortages during the coming winter. But, to make mat ters worse, it is now faced with a new threat that could alter the balance of power within the EU.

In last week’s general election in Italy, a rightwing alliance has emerged as the winner and will form the most right leaning Ital ian government since the Second World War.

Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy party (FdI), which took 44 percent of the vote, will become the country’s first woman Prime Minister when she is asked by Italy’s President later this month to form a government. By coincidence, she will take office on the centenary of the coup that brought the fascist leader, Benito Mus solini, to power in 1922.

The FdI is said to be rooted in a post-war movement which arose out of Musso lini’s rule, but Meloni says firmly that she and her party have turned away from fas cism. Nonetheless, although anticipated in the polls, her victory is sending shock waves through Europe.

There have been dif fering reactions to this far-right victory – from

BROTHERS of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

jubilation by Eurosceptic parties to extreme concern by EU leaders worried about a threatened change in the balance of power in Europe. For them, it has been described as a ‘night mare scenario’. Italy’s current Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, helped to bolster his country’s promi nence and influence in the EU, of which the nation was a founding member. As Europe’s third-largest econ omy with an established history of involvement in the bloc, Italy has also sup ported its closer integration. Now, Meloni’s right-wing alliance has reignited fears in Brussels about the buildup of a nationalist front in Europe, with the success of the far-right Sweden Democrats in last month’s

Memories of expulsion of Ugandan Asians

Fifty years ago - on September 18, 1972 - the first evacuation flight of Asians expelled by the Presi dent of Uganda, Idi Amin, arrived in the UK. In August, he had given some 60,000 Asians resident in Uganda 90 days’ notice to leave the country. Nearly half of them were admitted to the UK and settled there.

In justifying his action, Amin, who was Uganda’s third President and was in office from 1971-79, accused Asians of ‘economic sabotage and corruption, ethnic insularity and disloyalty’ - all of which was vigorously disputed by Indian leaders. He also vowed to ‘give Uganda back to ethnic Ugan dans’. Amin later became notorious as a brutal dictator who harassed and murdered large numbers of his own people.

Ultimately, some 28,000 Ugandan Asians settled in Britain, the largest group of refugees ever to be accepted there. The then Prime Minister, Edward Heath, set up a Uganda Reset tlement Board to coordinate action to find accommodation for those unable to make their own private arrangements and to help the refugees to find jobs.

Volunteer groups and chari ties also provided assistance and support.

By the time of this 50th anniversary, the clear evidence is many of the refugees and their descendants have excelled in various fields – from business and finance to politics, science and the arts. There have been a number of commemorative events to mark the anniversary together with expressions of gratitude and appreciation. For example, the Ugandan-born chair of trustees of the British Asian Trust, Lord Gadhia, has publicly praised the ‘generosity of spirit of the British people in welcoming them’ and said ‘this was a moment to express our community’s eternal gratitude to all those who supported us in our hour of need’.

How pleasant it is, amid all the horrors in the modern world, to write about this today. Despite the original misery of expulsions on such a large scale, it is ultimately a satisfying and encouraging story to tell -- for once, some good news!

elections and the advance of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party in France as well as governments in Hungary and Poland which are in danger of changing into illiberal democracies.

According to reports, Meloni is deeply Euroscep tic. But she has stressed she is not calling for Italy to leave the euro as its cur rency or the EU altogether.

She is an ardent nationalist and is likely to march in step with Hungary and Poland on issues like immigration.

She has also emphasized her support for Ukraine. But, apparently, she sees herself as an Atlanticist as well.

She has been called a hardedged firebrand though also a measured conserva tive politician in favour of family values who appeals to mainstream voters, and she supports some form of

welfare for those in genuine need.

It seems that many people are impressed with her political style and by the fact that she knows how to talk to ordinary people. At the same time, she is a political pragmatist who understands that her coun try has huge public debt -- together with an elderly population and big pen sion liabilities -- and needs fiscal discipline while also welcoming the anticipated COVID-19 post-pandemic funding from the EU. She claims there is a pressing need to get Italy back on its feet and to revive its splut tering fortunes after 30 years of stagnation.

Interestingly, commen tators have unearthed a raucous speech Meloni made earlier this year that summed up her overall

approach, the key elements of which were: ‘yes to nat ural family; no to LGBT lobby; yes to sexual identity; no to gender ideology; no to Islamist violence; yes to secure borders; no to mass migration; no to big interna tional finance and no to the bureaucrats of Brussels.’

After hearing all that, per haps there is little wonder Brussels fears the worst.

Moreover, her rhetorical insistence on identifying and pursuing Italy’s national interest is at odds with the notion of European integra tion. That said, there seems to be a growing acceptance that at the moment the EU’s primary concern is to sur vive the tough winter ahead in the face of an economic downturn and energy short ages that could lead to social unrest. In particular, high energy prices, precipitated

by the war in Ukraine, have increased pressure on gov ernments across Europe to cushion the blow to con sumers and businesses.

Some observers are now saying in such circumstances there is no space for EU grand designs about ever closer political union. In the view of many, that is a battle which Brussels may have already lost, since increas ingly there appears to be a push towards a so-called ‘sovereignist’ Europe which rejects supranational over sight and seeks to restore powers to individual states. Be that as it may, of more immediate concern to Paris, Berlin and the European Commission is the danger of far-right successes in Sweden and Italy leading to a ‘populist front’ within the EU that could even block EU decision-making.

BRITISH Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, left, and British Prime Minister Liz Truss at the Conservative Party annual conference at the Interna tional Convention Centre in Birmingham, England, Sunday. (Aaron Chown/PA via AP)

TERRITORY RUSSIA IS TRYING TO ABSORB

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)

— Ukrainian forces scored more gains in their counter offensive across at least two fronts Monday, advancing in the very areas that Russia is trying to absorb and chal lenging Moscow’s effort to engage fresh troops and its threats to defend incorpo rated areas by all means.

In their latest break through, Ukrainian forces penetrated Moscow’s defences in the strategic southern Kherson region, one of the four areas in Ukraine that Russia is in the process of annexing.

Kyiv’s troops also con solidated gains in the east and other major battlefields, re-establishing Ukrainian control just as Russian Presi dent Vladimir Putin is trying to overcome problems with manpower, weapons, troop morale and logistics, along with intensifying domestic and international criticism. Putin faces disarray and anger domestically about his partial troop mobilisation and confusion about the establishment of new Rus sian borders.

Ukraine’s advances have become so apparent that even Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, who usually focuses on his military’s successes and the ene my’s losses, was forced to acknowledge it.

“With numerically superior tank units in the direction of Zolota Balka and Oleksandrivka, the enemy managed to forge deep into our defences,” Konashenkov said Monday, referring to two towns in the Kherson region. He coupled that with claims that Rus sian forces inflicted heavy losses on Ukraine’s military.

Ukrainian forces have struggled to retake the Kherson region due to its open terrain, in contrast to their successful breakout offensive in the northeast around the country’s sec ond-largest city of Kharkiv that began last month.

Ukraine has pressed its counteroffensive in the Kherson region since the summer, relentlessly pum meling Russian supply lines and making inroads into Russian-held areas west of the Dnieper River. The Ukrainian military has used U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to repeatedly hit the main bridge across the Dnieper and a dam that served as a second crossing. It also has struck pontoon bridges that Russia has used to supply its troops.

As the front lines shifted, the political theatre in Moscow continued, with Russia’s lower house of parliament rubber-stamp ing annexation treaties for Ukraine’s Kherson, Zapor izhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions to join Russia.

The upper house will follow suit Tuesday. This follows annexation “refer endums” that the Kremlin orchestrated last week that the U.N. chief and Western nations have said were ille gal and fraudulent.

Russia’s moves to incor porate the Ukrainian regions, as well as Putin’s effort to mobilise more troops, have been done so hastily that government officials have struggled to explain and implement them. On Monday, the issue was basic: Exactly what areas of Ukraine is Russia trying to incorporate?

Kremlin spokes man Dmitry Peskov said Donetsk and Luhansk are joining Russia with the same administrative borders that existed before a con flict erupted there in 2014 between pro-Russian sepa ratists and Ukrainian forces. But he added that the borders Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are still undecided.

“We will continue to dis cuss that with residents of those regions,” Peskov said.

A senior Russian law maker offered a different view. Pavel Krasheninnikov said Zaporizhzhia will be absorbed within its “admin istrative borders,” meaning Moscow plans to incorpo rate parts of the region still under Kyiv’s control.

He said similar logic will apply to Kherson, but that Russia will include two dis tricts of the neighboring Mykolaiv region that are now occupied by Russia.

Frustration and desperation mount as Ian’s effects linger

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Days after the skies cleared and the winds died down in Florida, Hurricane Ian’s effects per sisted Monday, as people faced another week with out power and others were being rescued from homes inundated with lingering floodwaters.

Ten additional deaths were blamed on the storm in Florida as frustration and desperation mounted in the path the storm cut through state. And the hurricane’s remnants, now a nor’easter, weren’t done with the U.S.

The mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts were get ting flooding rains. The storm’s onshore winds piled even more water into an already inundated Ches apeake Bay.

Norfolk and Virginia Beach declared states of emergency, although a shift in wind direction prevented potentially cata strophic levels Monday, said Cody Poche, a mete orologist with the National Weather Service in Wake field, Virginia Coastal flooding shut down the only highway to part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and flooding was possible all the way to Long Island, the National Weather Service said.

At least 78 people have been confirmed dead: 71 in Florida, four in North Carolina and three in Cuba since Ian made landfall on the Caribbean island on Sept. 27 and in Florida a day later.

Search and rescue efforts were still ongoing Monday in Florida. More than 1,600 people have been rescued statewide, according to Florida’s emergency man agement agency.

Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy told NBC’s “Today Show” that resi dents who evacuated were largely being kept away from their homes because of searches likely to last a few more days.

Washed-out bridges to barrier islands, flooded roadways, spotty cell phone service and a lack of water, electricity or the internet left hundreds of thousands isolated. The situation in many areas wasn’t expected to improve for several days because waterways were overflow ing, leaving the rain that fell with nowhere to go.

In DeSoto County, northeast of Fort Myers, the Peace River and tribu taries reached record high levels and boats were the only way to get supplies to many of the county’s 37,000 residents.

The county was prepared for strong winds after being hit by Hurricane Charley in 2004, but it was not pre pared for so much rainfall, which amounted to a year’s worth of precipitation in two days, DeSoto County

“This flood has been pretty catastrophic,” said Deriso, adding that offi cials hope to open one of the area’s main highways by Tuesday.

Joe Gunn said the first two days without power at his Punta Gorda home weren’t bad because he, his wife and 4-year-old daugh ter like to camp.

But then they ran out of gas, Gunn said as he waited for an hour for $20 worth of premium fuel from a Bonita Springs station, one of the few open in the area.

The family then drove to get supplies and a hot meal.

Gunn was preparing for another stressful night, worried someone might try to steal his supplies. “I am constantly listening to the generator. It’s pitch black outside of the house,” he said.

Across southwest Flor ida, residents whose homes were overrun by the sea or floods threw waterlogged

mattresses, couches and other belongings into the street and tore out floors and cut into walls, hoping to dry the shells of their houses before mold set in.

“Everything that got water is starting to mold. We’re cutting all the dry wall out, 2 feet up, trying to get things dried out to save the house and to pro tect it from more damage,” said Jeff Rioux, thankful for several days of nice weather and generators to run fans.

Neighbours helped each other where they could.

“I lost everything,” said Alice Pujols, crying as she picked through the heaps of castaway clothes at a stranger’s home. “I’m just looking for what I can salvage.”

About 550,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without electric ity on Monday morning, down from a peak of 2.6 million.

But that is still nearly the same amount of customers

in all of Rhode Island.

The current goal is to restore power by Sunday to customers whose power lines and other elec tric infrastructure is still intact, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Monday. It does not include homes or areas where infrastructure needs to be rebuilt.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to visit Florida on Wednesday.

The president was in Puerto Rico on Monday, promising to “rebuild it all” after Hurricane Fiona knocked out all power to the island two weeks ago.

In Virginia, the U.S. Navy postponed the firstever deployment of the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the nation’s most advanced

aircraft carrier, according to a statement from the Navy’s 2nd Fleet.

The carrier and other U.S. ships were sched uled to leave Norfolk on Monday for training exer cises in the Atlantic Ocean with vessels from other NATO Countries.

Coast Guard, munici pal and private crews have been using helicopters, boats and even Jet Skis to evacuate people over the past several days.

After moving across Florida, Ian made another landfall in the U.S. in South Carolina as a much weaker hurricane.

Officials said Monday that crews were finish ing removing sand from coastal roads and nearly all power had been restored.

Commissioner J.C. Deriso said.

BEACHGOERS walk past a collapsed pool deck Monday, in Daytona Beach Shores, Fla., as hotel and condo seawalls and decks along the Volusia County coastline were gutted by Hurricane Ian last week. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

BEACHGOERS walk past a collapsed boardwalk and seawall, Monday, in Daytona Beach Shores, Fla., as hotel and condo sea walls and decks along the Volusia County coastline were gutted by Hurricane Ian last week. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

RESCUERS help evacuate Suzanne Tomlinson, a resident who rode out the storm, as they carry her to a waiting boat in the af termath of Hurricane Ian on Pine Island in Florida’s Lee County, Sunday. The only bridge to the island is heavily damaged so it can only be reached by boat or air. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

FLOODED campers are seen at the Peace River Campground in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Arcadia, Fla., Monday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Charlton, Wilson inducted into Howard Hall of Fame

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemeddia.net

7 NO-HIT INNINGS VS TEXAS JUNG GETS HIT IN 8TH

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — New York Yankees right-hander Luis Severino pitched seven no-hit innings against the Texas last night, and rookie Josh Jung got the Rangers’ first hit with a one-out single in the eighth off Miguel Castro.

In the same game slugging teammate Aaron Judge is looking for his 62nd homer, Severino faced the minimum 21 batters through seven innings in only his third start since missing two months with a right lat strain.

It’s

very rare that you hear or see two Bahamians compet ing in the same sport and excelling at the same time in college.

For Grand Bahamian arch-rivals and close friends, David Charl ton and Kenneth Wilson shared that bond together again as they were inducted in Howard University’s 2022 Athletic Hall of Fame class with other members of the Bison men’s 4 x 400 metre teams that won NCAA All-American hon ours in 1982 and captured the Penn Relays in 1983.

Their team also joined the list of Bison induct ees that included the 1961 CIAA Men’s Golf cham pionship team as well as the 1995 wrestling team in a ceremony on Friday at Howard University in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A total of 24 athletes, an administrator and two coaches, along with nine other persons receiving the Buffalo Soldier award, were also inducted during the ceremony at the Mar tin’s Crosswinds.

While Charlton was the pop off man for the relay team, Wilson came out on the first exchange on the second leg.

Together, they helped to push the Bison team out front and during their

World Cup Watch:

Ronaldo’s game time a concern for Portugal

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer

BY the time Cristiano Ronaldo arrives in Qatar, the Portugal star might be straddling a fine line between being fresh and simply being not sharp enough to make a tell ing contribution in what is likely his final World Cup.

Make that one start in seven Premier League games for Ronaldo at Manchester United this season, and only one goal for club or country in all competitions. Oh, and that was a penalty in a Europa League match against Moldovan team Sheriff Tiraspol. Ronaldo — one of world soccer’s greatest

ever goal-scorers — didn’t even make it off the sub stitutes’ bench in the 6-3 loss to Manchester City on Sunday, a somewhat bewil dering situation given how desperately the game was

going for United at Etihad Stadium.

Expect to see Ronaldo get his weekly run-out for the English club in the Europa League on Thurs day, this time at Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus as United continues its trek around some of the con tinent’s more unheralded soccer destinations.

It’s doing little for Ron aldo’s reputation or brand — and won’t be making Portugal coach Fernando Santos feel too great, either.

What kind of state is the 37-year-old Ronaldo set to be in when he links up with Portugal in mid-November

Manager Aaron Boone had a discussion with Sev erino in the dugout after the seventh inning, and Severino appeared to try to talk Boone into letting him continue.

Castro made his first appearance since July 10 after recovering from a strained shoulder. With the Yankees ahead 3-0, he allowed a clean single to left by Jung, who is hitting just .195.

Severino had seven strikeouts, including strik ing out the side in the fifth inning.

He has thrown 63 of 94 pitches for strikes, averag ing 97.9 mph for 47 fastballs and reaching a top velocity of 100.3 mph.

He threw 17 changeups, 16 sliders, 11 sinkers and three cutters.

Texas’ only runner was Josh Smith, who walked in the third and was imme diately erased when No. 9 batter Bubba Thompson grounded into an inningending double play.

The no-hit bid by Sev erino comes two days after José Suarez of the Los Angeles Angels lost a per fect game in the seventh inning against the Rangers when Marcus Semien led off with a single.

Texas was last no-hit in 2021, when Joe Musgrove of the San Diego Padres and Corey Kluber, then with the Yankees, both threw no-hitters at Globe Life Field about six weeks apart.

AP source: Heat, Herro agree on 4-year, $130 million deal

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer

MIAMI (AP) — Tyler Herro’s future is secure, and the Miami Heat have him locked up for five years.

Herro signed a fouryear contract extension with the Heat on Sunday. A person with knowledge of the details said the deal could be worth as much as $130 million — less than the maximum that Herro could have gotten, but a sig nificant commitment from Miami nonetheless.

The deal has $120 mil lion in guaranteed salary and another $10 million in incentives, said the person, who spoke to The Associ ated Press on condition of anonymity because the financial details were not made public. ESPN first reported the sides had reached an agreement.

It answers the question of whether Miami would let the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year go into this season without an exten sion. And now, about two weeks before the start of the regular season, that piece of business is complete.

“Tyler is an impact multifaceted player and we are excited to have him signed

for the next five years,” Heat President Pat Riley said.

“His improvement every year since we drafted him has led to this day. We believe he will continue to get better.”

The move also means Miami’s core is locked up for years.

Jimmy Butler, Bam Ade bayo, Kyle Lowry and now Herro are among the regulars who have multi ple seasons on their deals with the Heat, who won 53 games last season, were the No. 1 seed for the East ern Conference playoffs and went to Game 7 of the East finals before falling to Boston.

For the 2023-24 season, these five players alone — Butler, Adebayo, Lowry, Herro and Duncan

CRISTIANO Ronaldo (AP)

TYLER Herro (AP)

DAVID Charlton in action for Howard University.

KENNETH Wilson in action for Howard University.

DAVID CHARLTON, standing third from left, with some of the other inductees into Howard University’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

LUIS Severino

RICHARDSON TALKS NATIONAL TEAM BASEBALL, YOUTH MOVEMENT

By RENALDO DORSETT

ACCORDING to Bahamian baseball pio neer Antoan Richardson, the continued success of Bahamian players with the Great Britain Baseball pro gramme should intensify efforts for The Bahamas to field its own independent senior national team.

Richardson, the first base coach for the San Francisco Giants, said that watching Bahamian players lead the charge for Great Britain to its first World Baseball Classic appearance last month, should prompt stakeholders to take deci sive action.

“It’s like mixed emo tions, I’m excited for all of the players that got a chance to play on that stage and now get a chance to potentially play in the WBC but on the other side of it, it’s heart wrecking to know that we as a coun try don’t have a team. It’s just really important now to figure out how to make that happen,” Richardson said.

“It’s just been way too long, I think since I was a teenager we have been talking about being better at the politics around base ball and 20 years later we are still having some of the same conversations. I just think we have to do a better job of getting together, and figuring this thing out so that the next time we have this conversa tion we are excited about

the Bahamian team and not necessarily the Great Britain team. But I’m defi nitely excited for all the young players who got a chance to experience that and now get to go to the classic.”

It was the third time Bahamians have been a part of a Great Britain roster at the WBC Qualifi ers. Richardson and Albert Cartwright were the first to join the roster when Great Britain made its debut at the 2013 Qualifiers in Regensburg, Germany. The team finished 1-2.

At the 2017 Quali fiers in Brooklyn, New York, Richardson and Cartwright were joined by Ali Knowles, Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm Jr, Kyle Simmons, Todd Isaacs, Reshard Munroe, Byron Murray and Champ Stuart. That team finished just one game shy of WBC qualifi cation when they suffered a 9-1 loss in the final.

This year at the 2022 Qualifiers, it was Anfernee Seymour, D’Shawn Knowles, Tahnaj Thomas, Chavez Fernander, Ural Forbes and Cartwright making the transition to first base coach that led Great Britain to an undefeated record in Regensburg, Germany.

Bahamian players are eligible to compete for Great Britain once their parents were born in the Bahamas while it was still a British colony, prior to Independence.

Great Britain is cur rently ranked no.23 in

the world by the World Baseball/Softball Con federation (WBSC) while The Bahamas is ranked at no.80. To achieve a higher ranking and gain eligibility for international events, The Bahamas is required to gain points by competing in regional Pan American Baseball Con federation (COPABE) events. COPABE is the governing body for base ball in the Americas.

The path toward gain ing those points begins in earnest when The Baha mas hosts the Caribbean Cup December 4-11 at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium. The Caribbean Cup will feature The Baha mas joining visiting teams from the US Virgin Islands, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cura cao, Colombia, Aruba, Peru, and Cuba, all vying for a spot at the Central American and Caribbean Games, scheduled for next year in El Salvador.

According to the WBSC, the last international tour nament for The Bahamas

was the 2018 U18 men’s baseball World Cup Quali fier for the Americas in Panama. The last senior men’s national team to compete was at the 2009 World Baseball Chal lenge in British Colombia, Canada.

Richardson also said the country’s continued influx of talent available for these tournaments and headed into the professional ranks, warrants continued sup port and infrastructure to help transition those play ers along their respective career paths.

“My personal hope is that we just get a little bit more guys into the major leagues and then we get a little bit more players developing at a higher level,” Richardson said.

“It’s how we invest into the futures of these young players and giving them all the resources they need to get to the major leagues.”

Sebastian Walcott and Janero Miller were recently listed among the top 20 International Prospects for

the class of 2023 by MLB Pipeline. The Bahamas is one of only three countries with multiple players listed in the top 50. Walcott was ranked no.8 while Miller, was ranked at no.16. It was also the second consecu tive year a Bahamian was ranked in the top 10. San Francisco Giants infielder Ryan Reckley was ranked no.9 in the class of 2022.

“Every year we seem to be pushing out new talent and that’s exciting. Base ball has come a long way in the last 15 years in The Bahamas. To be able to witness it, to see the gen esis of where it is now and think to where it can be is really exciting,” Richard son said.

“I really want to encour age the federations and the people in charge to kind of get behind this thing and get the right people in the room and start talking about how we can be better for our baseball commu nity because there’s a lot of talent that we need to support.”

Albert Pujols hits No. 703, moves past Babe Ruth for 2nd in RBIs

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Albert Pujols hit his 703rd home run last night, break ing a tie with Babe Ruth for second place in career RBIs, but the St Louis Car dinals lost to Pittsburgh 3-2 when the Pirates drew four consecutive walks in the ninth inning to force home the winning run.

The 42-year-old slugger connected off right-hander Mitch Keller, pulling a tworun shot into the left-field stands to snap a scoreless tie in the sixth inning. It was Pujols’ 35th career home run at PNC Park, his most at any visiting ball park. The drive gave Pujols 2,216 RBIs, passing Ruth on the all-time list. Hank Aaron holds the record with 2,297.

With the score tied 2-all in the ninth inning, the Pirates loaded the bases when Ke’Bryan Hayes, Miguel Andujar and Rodolfo Castro drew consecutive walks from Giovanny Gallegos (3-6).

JoJo Romero relieved and walked rookie Oneil Cruz to end the game.

Yohan Ramirez (4-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win.

MARLINS 4, BRAVES 0

MIAMI (AP) — Jesús Luzardo struck out 12 in six innings, Bryan De La Cruz hit a two-run homer and Miami prevented Atlanta from clinching its fifth straight NL East title.

After sweeping the rival Mets at home over the weekend, Atlanta arrived in Miami needing one win or a New York loss to wrap up the division crown and a first-round playoff bye.

But the Braves were unable to solve Luzardo or slow De La Cruz — and the Mets were rained out at home against Washington.

New York is 1 1/2 games behind Atlanta heading into Tuesday’s doubleheader versus the last-place Nationals, while the Braves will play the

second of three games at fourth-place Miami.

Dansby Swanson had two of Atlanta’s four hits, all off Luzardo (4-7). Braves sluggers Austin Riley and Matt Olson struck out three times each against the left-hander, who walked one in his first win since Aug. 7.

De La Cruz also doubled and singled for the Mar lins. Jesús Sánchez doubled twice and singled as Miami snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Braves.

RED SOX 4, RAYS 3

BOSTON (AP) — Tyler Glasnow gave playoff-bound Tampa Bay a short but strong start in his second outing since Tommy John surgery last year, but the Boston Red Sox rallied against the bull pen to hand the Rays their fourth straight loss.

Boston pushed Tampa Bay closer to the No. 6 playoff seed in the AL. The Rays entered the night trailing Seattle by 1 1/2 games for the fifth seed. Tampa Bay will either face AL East rival Toronto, which occupies the top wild-card spot, or AL Cen tral champion Cleveland in the opening round.

Glasnow struck out seven and held the Red Sox to two hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Christian Arroyo hit a two-run double and Kiké Hernández added a tying RBI double during a three-run sixth inning for last-place Boston, which ended a three-game skid.

Rafael Devers drove in the go-ahead run with a sacri fice fly in the seventh.

Kevin Herget (0-1) relieved Glasnow and pitched the rest of the game, allowing four runs and seven hits.

John Screiber (4-4) worked a scoreless seventh.

REDS 3, CUBS 1

CINCINNATI (AP) — Hunter Greene pitched six scoreless innings and

Cincinnati remained at 99 losses.

The Reds (61-99) snapped a six-game skid and can avoid losing at least 100 games for the second time in franchise history if they sweep the three-game series. Cincinnati finished 61-101 in 1982.

Greene (5-13) and relievers Derek Law, Buck Farmer and Alexis Diaz combined on a two-hitter to stop the Cubs’ winning streak at seven games.

Chicago only got one runner past second base before scoring under odd circumstances in the ninth against Diaz, who picked up his 10th save.

The Cubs scored in the ninth on a game-ending double play that wasn’t completed until Este ban Quiroz wandered off second base and was tagged.

Cubs rookie righthander Hayden Wesneski (3-2) worked six innings, allowing four hits and two runs — one earned — with one walk and six strike outs. He hit Jonathan India twice with pitches.

ROYALS 5, GUARDIANS 2 (10 INNINGS)

CLEVELAND (AP) — Rookie Drew Waters belted a three-run homer off Kirk McCarty in the 10th inning, sending Kansas City past Cleveland.

Waters’ third home run in four games landed on the porch in left field, scoring automatic runner Nicky Lopez and Michael A. Taylor. The 23-year-old outfielder went 2 for 4 with four RBIs as Kansas City won for the second time in seven games.

Cleveland has won 11 of 14 and is an MLB-best 22-6 since Sept. 5. The Guard ians will host either Tampa Bay or Seattle in a bestof-three wild-card series beginning Friday.

Closer Scott Barlow (7-4) pitched a scoreless ninth and Taylor Clarke worked the 10th, earning his third save. McCarty (4-3) allowed three runs, two earned, in two innings.

Bobby Witt Jr. singled and stole his AL rookiebest 30th base for Kansas City, but also committed a fielding error in the sixth

that permitted Cleveland to tie the score.

BLUE JAYS 5, ORIOLES 1

BALTIMORE (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 32nd homer and Toronto edged closer to the top seed for an Ameri can League wild card series with a rain-shortened vic tory over Baltimore.

Play was halted by rain with Toronto batting with two outs in the eighth and called after a wait of 55 minutes.

Toronto would host a best-of-three playoff series starting Friday if it wins one more game or Seattle loses at least one of its final four games.

Whit Merrifield went 3 for 3 with an RBI for the Blue Jays, who have won for straight.

José Berríos (12-7) allowed one run and three hits with five strikeouts and three walks over six innings. Tim Mayza earned his second save.

Dean Kremer (8-7) allowed four runs and six hits with four strikeouts and one walk over six innings.

By The Associated Press

October 4

1925 — Fans saw the unusual spectacle of two managers, both famous hitters, pitch against each other in the season finale. Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers threw one perfect inning and George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns worked two scoreless frames in Detroit’s 11-6 victory.

1941 — The New York Yankees took a 2-1 lead in the World Series with a 2-1 win over Brooklyn. Freddie Fitzsimmons held the Yan kees to four hits through seven innings. With two outs in the seventh, oppos ing pitcher Marius Russo hit a line drive off Fitzsim mons’ knee that broke the kneecap. The ball caromed to shortstop Pee Wee Reese to end the inning.

1948 — The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox 8-3 in a one-game AL playoff. The pitching of Gene Bearden and the hit ting of Lou Boudreau were chiefly responsible for the championship victory.

1955 — The Brooklyn Dodgers won their first World Series with Johnny Podres blanking the Yan kees 2-0 in the seventh game.

1964 — The St. Louis Cardinals clinched the NL pennant with an 11-5 tri umph over the New York Mets to end the closest pen nant race in NL history.

1969 — The major leagues staged their first divisional championships as the New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves 9-5 and the Baltimore Orioles nipped the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 12 innings in the opening games.

1987 — The Detroit Tigers took advantage of one of the great collapses in baseball history to win the AL East title, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 1-0 behind the six-hit pitch ing of Frank Tanana. The Blue Jays lost their last seven games of the season, including three straight in the season-ending series in Detroit.

1999 — The New York Mets, behind the strong pitching of Al Leiter, clinched the last remaining postseason berth by beating the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 in a one-game playoff for the NL wild card.

2001 — San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hit his 70th home run of the season in the Giants 10-2 win over the Houston Astros. Bonds homered off rookie Wil fredo Rodriguez to tie Mark McGwire’s single-sea son record.

2005 — Reggie Sanders hit a grand slam and set an NL division series record with six RBIs to help St. Louis beat San Diego 8-5 in the first game of their divi sion series.

2011 — Adrian Beltre hit three straight home runs and the Texas Rang ers powered themselves back into the AL champi onship series, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 to win their playoff series. Beltre became just the seventh player to homer three times in a postseason game.

2014 — Brandon Belt homered off Tanner Roark in the 18th inning, lifting the San Francisco Giants to their 10th consecutive postseason victory, edging Washington 2-1 for a 2-0 lead in the NL Division Series.

2016 — Edwin Encar nacion hit a three-run homer in the 11th inning off Ubaldo Jimenez, and Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2 in the AL wild card game to advance to a Division Series matchup against Texas.

ANTOAN RICHARDSON, first base coach for the San Francisco Giants, said that watching Baha mian players lead the charge for Great Britain to its first World Baseball Classic appearance last month should prompt stakeholders to take decisive action.

CARDINALS’ ALBERT PUJOLS, top, celebrates with Juan Yepez as he heads to the dugout after hitting home run No. 703 in his career in the 5th inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday.

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Deandre Ayton and Suns lose preseason opener

By RENALDO DORSETT

THE Phoenix Suns opened their 2022-23 NBA preseason on the wrong end of a shocking result to a non-NBA opponent.

Deandre Ayton finished with 22 points and six rebounds but the Sun suf fered a 134-124 loss to the Adelaide 36ers of the Aus tralian National Basketball League, Sunday night at the Footprint Center in Phoe nix, Arizona.

Ayton shot 11-14 from the field in just over 22 minutes.

It’s the first time an NBA team lost an international exhibition game since 2016 and the first time within the last 10 years. It was also the first time an NBA team has lost to a NBL team.

“It’s just preseason,” Ayton said. “We’re still learning at the end of the day. It’s unacceptable but at the same time we’re just getting back and we’re trying to polish up some things to get ourselves better.”

The Suns were favoured by approximately 30 points. Ayton discussed his approach to the preseason opener.

“Just getting in the mix, getting the looks you’re comfortable with, getting to your spots, I’m just learn ing. Being patient, I’m still a little shaky on this being patient,” Ayton said. “They threw some doubles at me where I didn’t expect to be doubled so early but it’s cool to learn everything like knowing where the help side is coming from. I’m usually just quick to go into my moves, especially when my back is turned for spin moves. Still have the little guards coming in and taking the ball from me, I just have to be patient, ball fake, tell guys to cut through and just go to work after that.”

The Suns finished with an NBA best and new fran chise record of 64-18. The no.1 overall seed in the Western Conference, they were upset in the second round of the playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks in seven games.

Despite the setback, Ayton said the focus of the roster remains the same, the chase of the franchise’s first NBA title.

The Suns return four of five starters from the past two seasons and that start ing lineup had an efficiency rating of +11 in their 22 minutes on the floor.

The 36ers led by as much as 16 points before the Sun trimmed the deficit to a one possession game with just under six minutes left to go in the fourth quarter.

“We have been playing with each other for a while,

we just started picking up our pace, doing everything with intent, being a little bit more accountable in a way but [in these exhibi tion games] we only have so much time. The ball started to move a lot more,” Ayton

said when asked about the difference between the two halves. “We were finishing shots in the open corner and when we got that ball moving it’s hard to stop our offence.”

The Suns continue the preseason when they travel to California to face the Los Angeles Lakers on October 5.

Phoenix will open the regular season at home against the Dallas Maver icks on October 19.

In his fourth season, Ayton averaged 17.2 points on a career high 63 per cent from the field and 10.2 rebounds per game in 58 appearances.

After signing a new fouryear $133 million contract this offseason to remain with the Suns, Ayton said he looks to improve and take his game to new levels this season.

“Just trying to be aggres sive and do some of the things I’ve been working on in the offseason,” Ayton said.

“Just to see where I’m at, getting to the rim and finding spots where I’m comfortable at on the floor. And just being available for my teammates when they’re ready to make quick decisions.”

French star Wembanyama set for his first taste of NBA life

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson have been linked constantly over the last couple years, with just about every prognosti cator anointing them as the top two picks in the 2023 NBA draft.

Thing is, they don’t know each other.

That’s about to change. Wembanyama — he’s listed at 7-foot-2, some say he’s 7-foot-4 — and the Parisbased club Metropolitans 92 are in Las Vegas to take on Henderson and the G League Ignite in a pair of exhibitions, the first today and the second on Thursday.

“We’re playing against an NBA team, with NBA rules, on an NBA court,” Wembanyama said yester day. “This is really going to be a first for me. I’m curi ous to know how it’s going to go. I know it’s going to go well, but I’m still curious.”

Victor vs. Scoot. Scoot vs. Victor. They’re not play ing 1-on-1, but they are the clear headliners and the reasons why these first-oftheir-kind games were put together.

Wembanyama is listed as a centre but plays all over the floor with guard skills in a big-man frame; Hender son is a point guard who has been getting tons of atten tion for years.

“Out of all the pros pects I’ve heard about in our class, I think he’s my favourite one,” Wembany ama said. “I think he’s the most reliable that I’ve seen. He’s really a great player. If I was never born, I think he would deserve the first spot.”

Henderson — a five-star recruit from Georgia who signed with the Ignite last year and played in 10 games — sees these two games as an opportunity, downplay ing the 1-on-1 storyline.

“People always try to compare and contrast who ever. I don’t look at it like that,” Henderson said. “I look at it as two good ballplayers.”

The Ignite programme exists to develop young prospects in preparation for the NBA Draft, mixing them with veteran talent to help guide them along the way. It has featured three eventual top-10 picks — Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga last year, Dyson Daniels this year — in its first two seasons.

Henderson is a huge draw for the Ignite this year. The Ignite also have Shareef O’Neal, the son of Shaquille O’Neal. But much of what the Ignite would ordinarily be doing right now would be barely noticed nationally; hence, the games against Wemban yama were put together.

The Los Angeles Lakers are playing in Las Vegas

university’s track and field team.”

this week, a pair of pre season matchups against Phoenix and Minnesota.

Wembanyama is going to those as a fan; he’ll have a slightly different view of NBA games next season.

“He’s one of those type of players, honestly, where you say like there’ll never be like another Shaq or there’ll never be another

that,” Ignite coach Jason Hart said. “He’s that. You’ll never see another one of those. The scouting report on him is tough. ... I’m honoured that I’m getting to play him at 18, because at 24, he’s going to be something different.”

Wembanyama has been a pro for three seasons

already, spending last season with ASVEL in France — a club owned by San Antonio Spurs legend Tony Parker. He made the decision this year to join Metropolitans in part to be coached by Vincent Collet, who also coaches the French national team. Collet is welcoming the chance.

T-WOLVES EASE TOWNS BACK IN AFTER ILLNESS

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns has returned to the court for prac tice with the Minnesota Timberwolves, after a delayed start to training camp due to an unspeci fied illness that was serious enough to war rant hospitalisation.

Towns took part in non-contact drills with the team yesterday. He will not play in Minneso ta’s first exhibition game today at Miami, coach Chris Finch said.

“He’s in really good shape. He does a really good job. He never really falls out of shape when it comes to his cardio,” Finch said. “I think with him, it’s just getting his feel back, some strength back, maybe a little bit of weight back on him. But I would expect he’ll be ready to go within a week. Certainly with a good week of normal training, he should be feeling pretty good.”

Towns declined to divulge many details of his ailment, but he said was just cleared by doctors for walking on Saturday.

“I wasn’t too worried about basketball for a while. But I miss the game. I love the game. I miss these guys. Sick and tired of recovering at the house and not being able to leave and do any thing,” said Towns, who’s entering his eighth NBA season.

As for being ready in time for the season opener on October 19, Towns said, “Right now, it looks good.”

“I think he’s the best prospect we’ve ever had in our league,” Collet said. “He’s amazing, not only by his size, but incredible skills. Despite that, he still needs to learn the game. He’s very young. ... We will try to give him this experi ence. That’s the deal we have together, him and me. We want to give him the experience before he gets to the league. It’s most important to get him ready for what will follow next year.”

tenure at Howard Uni versity, they only lost one relay.

For Charlton, who returned to Howard Uni versity for the ceremony, he said it’s always good when one could be recognised for their accomplishments while they are still alive.

“I appreciate Howard Athletic Department for recognising us,” Charlton said.

“I believe going to Howard was the correct choice. I got a degree in engineering and coach Moultrie made sure that all of the athletes he coached graduated.

“He went beyond the call of duty to ensure that we stayed in school and was eligible both academically and athletically because of the small setting of the

Although he didn’t get to attend the ceremony, Wilson said he was very humble to receive the award. “All we as Baha mians want to do is set the stage for other Bahamians who follow in our foot steps,” Wilson said. “We want to be good examples for the schools that we attended.”

Calling it a “fantastic” tenure at Howard, Wilson said he enjoyed competing with Charlton.

“David was my homeboy from Freeport. We both came up through coach Errol Bodie, so I would like to give thanks to him. He chose this school for us,” said Wilson.

“At the time, we had so many schools that came to Grand Bahama to recruit us, but coach Bodie wanted us to go to Howard University. We

were very grateful for that. Having David there as my homeboy was an honour.

We were friends from

and we

still friends up to this day.”

Charlton is now a coach of the Star Trackers Club, which has produced a number of star athletes, including his own daugh ter, Olympic 100m hurdler Devynne Charlton, who is coming off a sensational season winning the silver medal at both the World Indoor Championships and the Commonwealth Games as well as a bronze at the NACAC Championships.

Charlton, who is in part nership with his wife Laura at Prescription Parlour, said he’s honoured to have been inducted with Wilson, a public servant employee who also assists T-Bird Flyers Track Club’s coach Foster Dorsett in coaching his sons, Ken Wilson III, a 10-year-old at St Cecilia’s and Joshua Wilson, who attends Galilee Academy.

“With him being there was a great asset,” said Charlton of teaming up with Wilson.

Robinson — are under contract to Miami for about $155 million. Herro was the overwhelming pick as the NBA’s top sixth man last season, making him the first player to win the award as a member of the Heat. He averaged 20.7 points, nearly four more per game than any other reserve in the league.

“Tyler was ignitable for this team,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when the award was announced. “He was that way all season.”

Herro grew up in Wis consin and played one year at Kentucky before getting drafted by Miami. He is entering his fourth season and could have gotten an extension for as much as five years and about $188 million. The new deal kicks in at the start of 2023-24 season.

DEANDRE AYTON, of The Bahamas, finished with 22 points and six rebounds but the Sun suffered a 134-124 loss to the Adelaide 36ers of the Australian National Basketball League at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday night.

BOULOGNE-Levallois Metropolitans 92’s Victor Wembanyama speaks to the media yesterday in Las Vegas.

(AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

DAVID

49ERS USE DEFENCE, DEEBO SAMUEL TO BEAT RAMS

By JOSH DUBOW AP Pro Football Writer

SANTA CLARA, Calif.

(AP) — Deebo Samuel turned a short catch into an electric 57-yard touchdown, Talanoa Hufanga returned an interception for a score and the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 24-9 last night.

Jeff Wilson Jr also scored on a 32-yard run that gave the Niners (2-2) their sev enth straight regular-season win over their in-state rivals.

The Rams (2-2) won the matchup that meant most in last season’s NFC

championship game on the way to a Super Bowl title, but this meeting looked more like their recent regu lar-season meetings.

San Francisco used a relentless defence to slow down coach Sean McVay’s offence and got enough big plays for the win.

Nick Bosa had two of San Francisco’s seven sacks against Matthew Stafford to give him an NFL-best six on the season and Hufanga iced it with his 52-yard pick-6 in the fourth quar ter. It was San Francisco’s fourth pick-6 against the Rams in their last six regu lar-season meetings.

Samuel once again delivered the big blows offensively. The key play came late in the second quarter when he turned what looked to be an interception by Jimmy Garoppolo into a touchdown.

Derion Kendrick jumped the 5-yard route and nearly got the pick. But Samuel made the catch and that’s when his work really started. He broke tack les from Taylor Rapp and Jalen Ramsey and weaved his way through the Rams defence for the final 52 yards to give the Niners a 14-6 lead.

The Rams moved the ball efficiently down the field on the opening drive before a sack by Samson Ebukam stalled the drive and forced Los Angeles into a field goal. LA struggled to move the ball consistently after that and the Rams couldn’t finish drives when they did. They were held to field goals on three trips into the red zone.

San Francisco struck back with big plays that led to two long touchdowns. Wilson took advantage of string blocking on a 32-yard burst up the middle on the opening drive for the 49ers that made it 7-3. Samuel

added the second touch down and Robbie Gould kicked a 25-yard field goal after a Niners drive stalled at the 1.

Gould missed a 42-yarder midway through the fourth quarter to keep the Rams in the game until Stafford’s interception.

BIG HIT One of the biggest hits of the game was delivered to a protestor who ran out on the field late in the second quarter with a device letting out pink smoke.

As the protestor got close to the Rams sidelined, linebacker Bobby Wagner came off and flattened him

with a big hit. The man was taken off the field by secu rity and the game quickly resumed.

INJURIES

Rams: Coleman Shelton, filling in for injured center Brian Allen, left the game with an ankle injury in the first quarter.

49ers: Colton McKivitz, filling in for injured AllPro LT Trent Williams, left the game in the second half with a knee injury and didn’t return. ...

UP NEXT Rams: Host Dallas on Sunday.

49ers: Visit Carolina on Sunday.

NPCA HOSTS ITS TOUR DE CLIFTON PIER

THE New Providence Cycling Association hosted its Tour de Clifton Pier on Sunday with two stage races held around the Clifton Pier area.

The first was the short road race and the other was the individual time trials with Felix Neely, Allan Adderley, Barron Musgrove Jr and Tomas Knowles emerging as some of the winners.

Neely took the title in the men’s short stage race with Kevin Daley second, Wess Albury third, Pat rick Paul fourth, Jeff Tynes fifth, Giles Sawyer sixth, Jay Major seventh and Wayne Price eighth.

Allan Adderley was the male masters winner ahead of Kenton Roker and Wayne Price, who was tied for second.

In the junior boys 15-17 category, Barron Musgrove Jr captured the title, while Thomas Knowles got the junior boys’ 12-14 title over Nathaniel Adderley. Theddus Knowles won the junior boys 9-11 title with Anthony Knowles coming in second.

In the time trial that cov ered one lap over a 5.83 mile course, Felix Neely took the tape in 14 minutes and 50 seconds.

Kevin Daley was second in 15 mins.39 and Wess Albury was third in 15 mins.55 secs.

The other finishers in order were Patrick Paul, fourth in 16 mins.02 secs; Giles Albury, fifth in 16 mins.33 secs; Jeff Tynes, sixth in 16 mins. 52 secs;

RONALDO

ahead of the World Cup?

Fired up for the World Cup? Sure.

Fresher than many of his peers, especially those play ers in the thick of a packed European club schedule over the next six weeks? Almost certainly.

Yet, from the limited game time Ronaldo has gotten so far this season, there’s a growing feeling he will not be in the sort of rhythm Portugal needs him to be for its matches against Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea in Group H. Ron aldo was rusty in front of

Barron Musgrove, seventh in 16 mins.51 secs; Wayne Price, eighth in 17.04mins; Jay Major, eighth in 17 mins.24 secs and Allan Adderley, ninth in 23mins.

The juniors competed in a 5.83 miles course with Thomas Knowles taking the 12-14 category in 21 mins.51 secs over Nathan iel Knowles, who did 25 mins. 20 secs for second.

And in the 5.83 miles race for junior boys 9-11 years, Anthony Knowles got first place in 22 mins. 20 secs and Thaddeus Knowles had to settle for second place in 23 mins.50 secs.

BCA’s president and race organiser said they were pleased with the turnout for the event, despite the fact that they had to deal with some delays in closing out a long season.

“We had to reschedule and postpone some events because of the weather, COVID-19 protocols and the likes,” he said. “But we continue to build on

goal for Portugal in its big Nations League match against Spain last week, squandering three decent chances in a 1-0 loss and not displaying the kind of clinical finishing expected of such an expert in front of goal.

Even in his rare oppor tunities for United this season, he has snatched at chances, seemingly anxious to make the most of his lim ited time on the field.

Also, how will Ronaldo’s match fitness hold up if he’s just not getting the minutes at United?

Ronaldo wore a look of sheer frustration as he sat in United’s dugout while City’s goals were flying in.

our programmes here in New Providence. “We are looking at starting a BMX and mountain bike season during the month of January and February so that we can offer another aspect of cycling here in

United manager Erik ten Hag said he was protecting Ronaldo’s reputation by not bringing the striker on.

It might be too late for that.

It’s almost impossible to imagine Ronaldo getting dropped by Portugal at the World Cup.

At the same time, it’s almost impossible to imag ine Ronaldo being the fearsome striker of old in Qatar, either.

IRAN’S

PROTESTS

Iran’s national team players both at home and in Europe have been openly showing support for protests in defense of women’s rights and against

New Providence because we find that the space on the road is getting smaller and smaller so some traffic to contend with.”

On behalf of the NPCA, Musgrove congratu lated all of the cyclists for

a government crackdown after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.

Asia’s top-ranked men’s team is in a World Cup group with the United States and England, and outspoken Iran play ers picked to go to Qatar look set to test FIFA rules against political statements at games.

Star striker Mehdi Taremi played for Portu guese champion Porto at the weekend again wearing a black wristband that has become a symbol for the protests.

In the Iranian league, goal celebrations were typi cally muted to acknowledge

making the event a success. He noted that the asso ciation will reintroduce the mountain bike and BMX obstacle course race in about two weeks before they end the year with their road race.

turmoil in the country that is entering a third week.

XHAKA’S ROLE

A tactical tweak by Pre mier League leader Arsenal has turned Granit Xhaka into one of the success sto ries of the opening months of the English season. It remains to be seen if Swit zerland will make the same change at the World Cup.

Xhaka has typically played as a holding mid fielder in his six turbulent years at Arsenal, during which time his defensive indiscipline and occasional rashness in his tackling often has been exposed.

This season, however, he is playing further forward in midfield, as one of the two

CARLOS Alcaraz (AP)

ALCARAZ, NADAL PUT SPAIN AT 1-2 IN ATP RANKINGS FOR 1ST TIME

NEW YORK (AP) — No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 2 Rafael Nadal are the first countrymen to top the ATP rankings in 22 years.

And the two players from Spain are the first men from somewhere other than the United States to sit at 1-2 since the tour introduced computerized rankings in 1973.

Alcaraz is a 19-year-old who rose to the top spot by winning the US Open last month for his first Grand Slam title, becoming the youngest man ever to be No. 1.

Nadal is a 36-year-old who has spent 209 weeks atop the rankings and owns a men’s-record 22 major championships, including at the Australian Open in Jan uary and the French Open in June. He rose from No. 3 to No. 2 on Monday, swap ping places with U.S. Open runner-up Casper Ruud.

The last time players from the same country held Nos. 1 and 2 in the ATP rankings was in August 2000, when Americans Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras did it.

“Proud to share this historic moment with @ RafaelNadal, the best player of all-time,” Alcaraz wrote in Spanish on Twitter.

The only other changes in the ATP top 10 yesterday came with Jannik Sinner sliding from No. 10 to No. 12. That allowed Hubert Hurkacz to move up one spot to No. 10, and Taylor Fritz to shift one place up to a career-best No. 11.

Iga Swiatek remained at No. 1 in the WTA rank ings, where she’s been since replacing the retired Ash Barty there in April.

Two-time major final ist Ons Jabeur stayed at No. 2. She was followed by No. 3 Anett Kontaveit and No. 4 Paula Badosa, who swapped spots on Monday.

No. 8s in a 4-3-3 formation that is proving mightily suc cessful for manager Mikel Arteta, whose team is top after eight games.

Given more attack ing freedom, Xhaka has scored two goals — the latest coming in a 3-1 win over local rival Tottenham on Saturday — and set up three more to show he has an eye for goal.

For Switzerland, Xhaka tends to play as one of the two anchormen in midfield and rarely lets his country down. Switzerland coach Murat Yakin might think it’s too close to the World Cup to switch the role of his captain. He must be tempted, though.

SOME of the winners of the New Providence Cycling Association’s Tour de Clifton Pier. The first was the short road race and the other was the individual time trials with Felix Neely, Allan Adderley, Barron Musgrove Jr and Tomas Knowles emerging victorious.

Over 1,800 travellers hit by Bahamasair sickout

newspaper: “I don’t think so.

“I think the Bahamian people and travelling public understand Bahamasair’s track record and recognise this is something that does not happen every day... Hopefully there will not be any further disruptions from here, and customers can expect we’ll get back to regular quality service from here.”

Mr Cooper conceded that Bahamasair, which is due to receive $32m in taxpayer subsidies during the 20222023 fiscal year, will take a financial hit as a result of the flight cancellations but said it was impossi ble to quantify the extent just yet. Many passengers flew with other airlines on Sunday afternoon in a bid to ensure they reached their destinations.

“I don’t know how many were placed,” the Baha masair chief said. “We had to put up passengers at all of the stops. There will be a financial impact at the end of the day. Some people would have gone out and they have their own arrangements. It’s going to take a while for us to tabu late all the impact.

“It’s unfortunate, but we’ve had regular opera tions today. Everything was fine. We were able to adjust the schedule by adding a flight or two, and were able to accommodate all parties affected yesterday. Hope fully we’ll have..... how do I put it, a situation where all of the parties understand what these impacts are and we can mitigate and pre vent them in the future.”

Mr Cooper said union executives indicated Sun day’s sickout was related to the industrial agreement

that it is negotiating with Bahamasair, although Gladstone Adderley, the AAAWU’s president, again did not respond to calls and messages from this newspa per seeking comment.

“There were two items remaining they were look ing at,” Mr Cooper said of the talks. “One of them being the pay structure, and the just had to do with insurance. We were able to come to an understand ing on the pay adjustment, and the issue to do with the insurance just requires some industry input to the fact we need to talk to industry partners to make sure we understand and get the best situation in hand as far as the insurance.”

Bahamasair on Sunday hit out at the “unwarranted sickout” by 80 percent of rostered flight attend ants. The “unforeseen” industrial action sparked

long lines of frustrated passengers at Lynden Pin dling International Airport (LPIA) after it was forced to cancel outbound flights from Nassau to key Flor ida destinations including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

One Bahamian airline industry source, speaking on condition of anonym ity because they were not authorised to speak pub licly, said on Sunday of the situation: “This is an action on the part of the steward esses. The stewardesses themselves have taken action, and the union is trying to get them back in.

“They’re getting some assistance from the domes tic operators to complete their flights. I don’t know what triggered the stew ardesses’ action. Up until yesterday [Saturday’ every thing was running normally. The fact they’ve had to call

on the domestic operators is a good indication that they’ve been crippled.”

Besides the three Florida destinations, Bahamasair was also forced to cancel flights to Freeport, Marsh Harbour and Rock Sound/ Georgetown. Passengers on incoming Bahamasair flights also spoke of delays.

However, the national flag carrier, in a statement issued yesterday, said its dis cussions with the AAAWU “should prevent such actions from reoccurring”.

The statement, signed by Mr Cooper, apologised to impacted passengers for the disruption. It said travellers were alerted by e-mail or text message as to which flight they had been rebooked on if this was not dealt with by airport agents on Sunday. No penalties were charged.

The sickout, though, was not what is desired a

Tourism rebounds to 90% pre-COVID level

the prior year, attributed to gains in the air and sea com ponents of 3,789 and 39,537, respectively.”

Turning to the perfor mance over the first seven months of 2022, the Central Bank added: “On a yearto-date basis, total arrivals recovered to 3.677m com pared to just 597,233 in the comparative 2021 period, when a 65.5 percent con traction was registered.

“Supporting this out come, air arrivals rose to 892,738 passengers, relative to the 34.6 percent expan sion in the preceding year, reflecting gains in all major

markets. Further, sea arriv als increased to 2.784m visitors, a turnaround from a 92.2 percent decline in 2021.”

The regulator continued: “More recent data provided by the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) indicated that for the month of August, total departures net of domestic passengers grew to 132,347 from 101,530 in the corresponding month of 2021. Specifically, US depar tures rose to 116,335 from 94,166 in the previous year, while non-US departures advanced to 16,012 from 7,364 in the preceding year.

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL

The Public is hereby advised that I, DOUGLAS DONNAVON ROLLE of #500 West Bay Street, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, intend to change my name to DONNAVON DOUGLAS MORRIS. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Chief Passport Officer, P.O.Box N-742, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

“On a year-to-date basis, total outbound traffic expanded to 908,199 from 475,317 passengers in the prior year, extending the 24 percent recovery a year earlier. Reflecting this out turn, US departures rose to 787,527 visitors following a 41.1 percent increase in the corresponding 2021 period.

Similarly, non-US depar tures rebounded to 120,672, a switch from a 63.4 per cent decline in 2021.

“In the short-term vaca tion rental market, data provided by AirDNA for August revealed posi tive trends. In particular, total room nights sold advanced to 140,512 from

93,635 in the correspond ing 2021 period. Reflective of this outturn, the occu pancy rates for both entire place and hotel compara ble listings increased to 55.1 percent and 51.9 per cent, respectively, from 49.9 percent and 46.5 per cent in the prior year.

“Further, price indicators showed that year-over-year, the average daily room rate (ADR) for entire place list ings rose by 4.6 percent to $506.85, while hotel com parable listings firmed by 2.4 percent to $178.90.” As a result, the Central Bank’s economic outlook was little changed from prior months, with the external reserves

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL

The Public is hereby advised that I, CAMARI JUSTIN GEORGE RICHARDSON of Treasure Cove, Yamacraw Hill Road, New Providence, Bahamas, intend to change my name to CAMARI JUSTIN GEORGE SMITH. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Chief Passport Officer, P.O.Box N-742, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

forecast to remain healthy despite a $63.3m decline in August to $3.268bn.

The prior year had been boosted by the receipt of $140.3m in special draw ing rights (SDRs) from the International Mon etary Fund (IMF), and the Central Bank added: “Notwithstanding some anticipated seasonal draw downs over the remainder of the 2022, external reserve balances are forecasted to remain robust, supported by expected foreign cur rency inflows from tourism and other net private sector receipts, thus ending the year above international benchmarks.

“Consequently, exter nal balances are poised to remain more than adequate to sustain the Bahamian dollar currency peg...... In the labour market, the

tourism industry and wider economy still rebound ing from COVID-19. And Bahamasair’s $32m in taxpayer subsidies for this fiscal year is in addition to the $108m-plus handed out over the previous two for $140m in three years.

Airports, and the depart ing flight, are the final impressions of a destina tion for stopover visitors and this will not have been a particularly good one for those caught in the tur moil. The action was also ill-timed given that Ches ter Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, and his team were last week in New York on a major tourism promotional push following a previous one earlier last month on Florida.

unemployment rate, while declining, is projected to remain above pre-pandemic levels.

“Job gains are likely to be concentrated in the con struction sector and the full rehiring of tourism sector employees. As it relates to prices, inflation is fore casted to stay elevated, underpinned by the rise in international oil prices, higher costs for other imported goods and supply chain shortages, associated with geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe.”

The Central Bank said “new and ongoing foreign investment-led projects, along with post-hurricane reconstruction works, are anticipated to provide impetus to the construction sector, and by extension economic growth” to help counter the downside risks of higher inflation and increases in global interest rates as a consequence.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that SCARLETT WILSON of P. O. Box F43231, Freeport, Grand Bahama, 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 27th day of September, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

N O T I C E

1.7600.000N/M0.00%

-0.4380.000-9.0 0.00% 10.656.75Commonwealth

10.35 10.350.00 0.1400.00073.90.00% 3.652.27Commonwealth

3.58 3.580.00 0.1840.12019.53.35% 8.255.29Colina

8.23 8.230.00 0.4490.22018.32.67% 17.5010.25CIBC

16.00 16.000.00 0.7220.72022.24.50%

0.1020.43430.813.82%

0.4670.06022.50.57%

0.6460.32815.83.22%

PATRICKS BLUE HORIZONS LTD.

N O T I C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) PATRICKS BLUE HORIZONS LTD. is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000.

b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on 28th September, 2022 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

c) The Liquidator of the said company is Octagon Management Limited, The Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, Nassau, Bahamas.

Dated this 4th day of October, A. D. 2022

Octagon Management Limited Liquidator

N

GLOBAL LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act

dissolution of the said company commenced on 28th September, 2022 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

c) The Liquidator of the said company is Credit Suisse Trust Limited, The Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, Nassau, Bahamas.

Dated this 4th day of October, A. D. 2022

BOB imposes ‘heavy penalties’ on early building loan payouts

The post-COVID surge in building material and con struction costs has seen many commercial banks moving away from issu ing fixed-price mortgages for new builds, in particu lar, since it is impossible to accurately determine the sum required.

Mr Brathwaite added that this reluctance has been worsened by the increasing tendency of construction mortgage bor rowers to instantly seek to refinance such loans with a rival financial institution immediately upon comple tion in a bid to obtain more favourable terms and lower debt servicing costs.

Some may view the impo sition of penalties to deter such behaviour as anticonsumer and a restraint of trade/competition, but commercial banks view construction mortgages as long-term loan assets that need to be matched with

deposit liabilities to ensure they generate returns and remain solvent. Borrow ers treating these loans as short-term bridging facili ties does not fit into this requirement.

“I think the mortgage market has its own chal lenges. Some banks are not even doing any kind of construction mortgage. If you want a construction mortgage, you’ll find many banks are putting heavy early repayment clauses in there,” Mr Brathwaite told Tribune Business.

“Some people are going to a bank and saying another one said no to a construction mortgage. They come to Bank of The Bahamas, as an example, get a construction mortgage and, when the building is largely finished, go to the earlier bank to pay that out.

“To control that we have to put heavy early repay ment penalties in there so that if they try to move it, it will be very costly for

them in addition to the legal fees. The construction phase of the mortgage is a high risk phase. You have the possibility of escalating charges, you have the pos sibility of escalating costs common to imports, you have challenges with labour shortages, and you have challenges with inclement weather,” he added.

“That’s why construction mortgages are extremely high risk, and therefore attract a higher rate. But, if you can pay out the mort gage, you can reduce that rate by 50 basis points and still be OK.”

Mr Brathwaite said that, besides reducing their risk, borrowers who refinanced construction mortgages early also obtain a greater “equity position” in a finished property that now has “a better value” than when work began.

“We’ve started that a couple of months ago,” the Bank of The Bahamas chief said of the penalties for early refinancing. “Some

people have been forth coming with information, saying that was always the intent and then wanting us to waive the penalty clause. We’re saying that we won’t waive the penalty clause; that’s what’s safeguard ing our mortgage for the future.”

Mr Brathwaite, mean while, said that Central Bank permission to re-start commercial lending - a seg ment it has been barred from since 2014 after it almost caused the bank’s collapse - was critical to deploying its $179.226m in cash and Central Bank deposits for more produc tive, higher returns.

That figure is equivalent to more than 18 percent of Bank of The Bahamas’ total assets at end-June 2022, with some $165.309m - or 92.2 percent - of this sum held in non-interest bearing accounts at the Central Bank. That amount does not include $27.23m

statutory reserve held by the regulator. “You’ve hit the nail on the head. That’s exactly one of the reasons why we want to start commercial lend ing because that will absorb some of the liquidity in the system,” Mr Brathwaite said. “Not all commercial banks in The Bahamas want to do commercial lending, especially to small busi nesses. That’s definitely a space we can operate in and use up some of that excess liquidity.”

Pointing out that Bank of The Bahamas and other Bahamian commercial banks had “taken the lick last year” when it came to providing for COVIDrelated loan losses and deferrals, he added that all were now reporting higher or significant profitability.

Mr Brathwaite, saying he was “keeping my fin gers crossed that it will be better” with profits for the 2023 financial year exceed ing last year’s $11.218m,

said: “We’re on track. Once we put structures in place and create revenue streams that will are consistent, I think we’re going to be fine for this year.

“We’re really going to be focused on our mortgage portfolio. We’re going to have some campaigns for sure. We’ve reduced inter est rates more in line with the market. We’re going to try and operate more efficiently in the mortgage space. We don’t have that kind of great appetite for all mortgages. Mind you, if you look at delinquent mortgages and those homes being repossessed, at least you know what the market is like.

“It’s not quite so easy to find those exceptional low risk borrowers, but we have to do those things for us to attract the creme de la creme. I think the other banks have clearly embarked on that journey, and now we’re just catching up with them.”

‘Brace’ for insurance hikes: Ian recalls Andrew effects

now, Mr Ingraham warned reduced market capacity could be an issue if local carriers’ reinsurance part ners pull back on their exposure to this nation in Ian’s aftermath.

And he was backed by Tom Duff, Insurance Com pany of The Bahamas (ICB) general manager, who revealed that “we were already bracing for a sig nificant increase in property catastrophe costs” before Ian’s arrival in Florida and the Carolinas.

Both insurance chiefs said it was too early to determine the precise impact that Ian’s multibillion dollar payouts will have for Bahamian pre mium costs as negotiations with reinsurers over treaty

renewals are just begin ning. Each pledged that the local industry would do its utmost to minimise any increases given fears that coverage is becoming increasingly unaffordable for both homeowners and businesses in an economy grappling with both infla tion and COVID’s fall-out.

The 2022 hurricane season still has almost two months to go, and the US is still counting Ian’s costs. Ini tial estimates suggest that, adjusted for inflation, the storm may be the second costliest to ever strike Florida after’s Andrew. A research firm, CoreLogic, forecast there could be up to $47bn in insured losses, while other estimates yes terday placed the total bill as high as $60bn-$70bn.

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Reinsurers tend to lump The Bahamas in with Flor ida when calculating their prices, so Ian’s devastation will have consequences for all local property owners. Bahamian property and casualty insurers, due to their relatively thin capi tal bases, have to purchase huge amounts of reinsur ance annually to underwrite the majority of the hur ricane risks faced by this nation’s real estate assets.

As a result, Bahamian insurance premiums are largely dictated by global reinsurers when it comes to price, and the losses they suffer from hurricanes and other catastrophes. “It’s too early to say definitively, but what I could say defini tively is that it won’t help,” Mr Ingraham told Tribune Business of Ian’s impact.

“It’s going to make a bad situation in the reinsur ance market even worse than it already is... We’re already in what everyone feels is a hot market, and we feel like it’s going to get even hotter.” Even prior to Ian, Mr Ingraham said USbased reinsurers had been seeking an extra $20bn in capital support to further buttress the $200bn already in the sector’s possession.

“It was already looking difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. Ian will not make it easier; it’s likely to make it worse,” the Summit chief added. Meanwhile, the US dollar’s appreciation against

both the UK pound sterling and the euro was bad news for European reinsurers, as it meant the dollar value of exposures in The Bahamas and elsewhere that they are carrying on their books has increased.

Inflation has also prompted many busi nesses and homeowners to increase the sums insured under their policies, due to higher reconstruction costs, further increasing the burden on reinsurers. Falling stock markets, and rising interest rates glob ally, have also impacted the industry leading to con cerns about its capacity and ability/willingness to take on and underwrite risks in areas prone to natural dis asters such as hurricanes.

Mr Ingraham, who said between six to ten Florida insurers had “gone out of business” prior to Ian because they were unable to obtain sufficient reinsur ance, said: “For those of us old enough to remem ber, post-Andrew we got into a period where finding sufficient capacity was a challenge.

“Finding enough capac ity to ensure everyone who wanted to have insurance was a problem, and the rates at which we found that capacity was a prob lem. Some of us remember back to Andrew, and this certainly brings backs mem ories of it.”

He added that the true impact on Bahamian insur ance prices, and availability, will not be determined until local carriers complete renegotiation of their rein surance treaties. “We’ll obviously try to hold the line as much as possible given that we’ve had some increases in recent years,” Mr Ingraham told Tribune Business.

“There’s no guarantee that will happen but, cer tainly from our perspective, we’d like to see extra capac ity in the market where we can cover every client who comes to us. We’d like to do that at a reasonable rate, but supply and demand dic tates things. When you have a loss of capacity coupled with rising demand it may not be possible to hold off on price increases if rein surance costs are going up.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see that as much as I don’t like increasing prices because we under stand the implications of it. But, to a certain extent, it’s out of our hands,” the Summit chief continued.

“I don’t think we’ll see the level of price increases we saw post-Andrew. In terms of capacity, it depends on the reinsurers. If this year’s losses are within what they expected, we will probably not get to post-Andrew.

“The local insurers will do their best to make sure they provide clients with

NOTICE

COREIN INTERNATIONAL OVERSEAS LTD.

In Voluntary Liquidation

Notice is hereby given that in accordance with Section 138(4) of the International Business Companies Act. 2000, COREIN INTERNATIONAL OVERSEAS LTD. is in dissolution as of September 16th, 2022.

International Liquidator Services Limited, situated at 3rd Floor Withfield Tower, 4792 Coney Drive, Belize City, Belize is the Liquidator.

L I Q U I D A T O R

LEGAL NOTICE

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMPANIES ACT, 2000

CLIFFORD SQUARE GLOBAL STRATEGY FUND LTD.

Voluntary Liquidation

Notice is hereby given that in accordance with Section 138 (8) of the International Business Companies Act, 2000, the dissolution of CLIFFORD SQUARE GLOBAL STRATEGY FUND LTD. has completed, a Certificate of Dissolution has been issued and the Company has therefore been struck off the Register. The date of completion of the dissolution was 7th September 2022.

Israel Borba Lyford Financial Centre, Building 2 - Western Road P.O. Box CB-10988 Lyford Cay Nassau, Bahamas

the cover they need at a price as reasonable as they can possibly get them. I’m sure, like us, my com petitors will do our best to contain any increases to a minimum.”

Mr Duff echoed his col league’s assessment. “Put it this way: It’s not going to help us in any way in the marketplace,” the ICB chief said of Ian’s fall-out, “because we were already anticipating a significant increase in property catas trophe costs this year. Obviously a major loss like Hurricane Ian is only going to exacerbate the problem, but it’s too early to say exactly what the impact will be.

“There clearly will be an impact. Ian just complicates matters for us, and we’ll have to see how things pan out. Things will become a lot clearer in the next month or two when we’ll have a much better feel. That’s all I can say. Even before Hurricane Ian had struck Florida we were kind of bracing ourselves for increased catastrophe costs anyway because the cost of capital was increasing” for reinsurers.

Rising global inter est rates are enticing the hedge funds that finance reinsurers to invest their assets in more conservative assets that are now yield ing higher returns, further reducing market capacity. “For all these reasons we were anticipating a difficult renewal season, and Hur ricane Ian just exacerbates these problems,” Mr Duff said.

With hurricanes increas ing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, Bahamian home owners and businesses are finding that the cost associ ated with protecting their most important investment - their real estate assetsis becoming prohibitively expensive with coverage priced further and further beyond their reach.

“We’ve always got to try and get the message across to customers that it may feel like a good economy in which to cut back on your catastrophe cover, but at the end of the day it can go catastrophically wrong if you get it wrong and be a life-changing event,” Mr Duff told Tribune Business.

“We always try and per suade customers of the merits of covering their property for catastrophe perils. It’s always difficult against a background of a struggling economy with people getting back on their feet following Dorian, fol lowing COVID. It’s still a difficult time for many. The extra challenge of having to meet higher reinsurance costs is obviously some thing we have to be mindful of but it has to be done.”

PROCUREMENT REFORMS MAY REACH PARLIAMENT TOMORROW

Ministry of Finance or at the Cabinet level”. Those contract sizes were not defined.

A CABINET minis ter yesterday said reforms to the Public Procurement Act may be tabled in Par liament tomorrow as the Government unveiled the upgraded electronic system via which all public sector contracts will be made available.

Michael Halkitis, min ister of economic affairs, in confirming that the Bill containing the amendments may be tabled as early as Wednesday also disclosed that the “central Tenders Board” will remain in place to vet high-value and other contracts awarded by the Government. He also cau tioned that vendors may not necessarily win a bid even if they score highly with their initial proposal.

While “each agency will have its own tenders committee”, the minister added: “There will still be, when we come to cer tain sizes of contracts, the need for certain levels of approval either at the

The Public Procurement Act, passed by Parliament under the former Minnis administration and brought into effect on September 1 last year, just two weeks before the general elec tion, was intended to bring greater transparency and efficiency to the millions of dollars awarded in public sector contracts annually by having the process held out in the open.

However, it has been the subject of an intense politi cal battle for much of the past year which culminated in last week’s threat by the Opposition Free National Movement (FNM) to initi ate a Judicial Review legal action in the Supreme Court over the Davis administration’s alleged violations of the Act as it currently stands.

The law presently requires the Government and all its ministries, depart ments and agencies to publish - within 60 days of every contract award - the winning bidder’s name and

address; contract amount; bid title; name of the procuring entity; and bid ding method used. This means that all government contracts awarded up to August 3 should now have been publicly declared, but none have.

The Davis administration has argued that its prede cessor’s failure to follow the necessary public ser vice protocols, and appoint a chief procurement officer to oversee the Act’s implementation, meant it is impossible for the Gov ernment to reveal these contract details. However, Tribune Business’ analysis of the Act did not reveal anything to suggest dis closure hinges on such an appointment.

The legislation was also designed to prevent cro nyism, nepotism and the awarding of contracts to political favourites rather than based on ability, thus generating improved value for money for Bahamian taxpayers and cutting out corruption and wastage.

However, the Davis administration has argued that the legislation is

PM: 5% of Gov’t contracts go to young entrepreneurs

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE Prime Minister yesterday reiterated that his administration remains committed to allocating 5 percent of the Govern ment’s annual procurement budget to young Bahamian entrepreneurs.

Philip Davis, speaking at the launch of the Govern ment’s upgraded electronic procurement portal, said that while backing the “merits of competitive pro curement processes” to win public sector contracts his administration was also eyeing “legislation for intentionally discrimina tory practices to ensure that small businesses, Family Island vendors and women are afforded access to and opportunities for participa tion in the economy.

“Small businesses, Family Island businesses, businesses owned by women, and busi nesses owned by young Bahamians will be moni tored as key performance indicators (KPIs) for this administration,” he added. “However, for the sake of clarity, let me say this. Nobody should be deprived of opportunities to contrib ute to national development through procurement.”

Pointing out that the $795m allocated in

combined recurrent and capital spending in the 2022-2023 Budget “rep resents vast procurement opportunities for goods and services, and for construc tion services”, Mr Davis also acknowledged percep tions that previous government tender pro cesses have fallen short of the highest standards when it comes to integrity and fairness.

“Particularly, firms in the US identified corrup tion as an obstacle to the foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals process, and reported perceived corruption in government procurement,” the Prime Minister said, referring to the annual US Investment Climate report on The Bahamas.

“That is why we commit ted to fiscal consolidation, and the modernisation of infrastructure to justify and procure public goods and services in an efficient, transparent and account able manner,” he added. Mr Davis said the upgraded electronic procurement portal is necessary because the previous version, which was unveiled in 2005, is now too limited in its functions and scope.

“We have carefully selected this solution because it will ensure that procurement is consistent across the public sector, reducing cost without

compromising quality, mini mising product failures, and assuring operational effi ciency to improve outputs of the supply chain,” the Prime Minister said.

Khrystle Rutherford- Fer guson, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confedera tion’s (BCCEC) chairman, said public procurement represents up to 30 percent of gross domestic prod uct (GDP) in developing nations such as The Baha mas and is an “important tool, particularly now as our country continues to rebound from the impacts of the COVID-19 virus.

“The Chamber of Com merce, as a part of its mandate, supports initiatives which bring with it oppor tunities for the business community. We are advised that the e-procurement portal provides increased opportunities for small and medium-sized Bahamian businesses to participate in national procurement.

“Governments are an important source of business for the private sector, who in turn builds communities and provide jobs. As persons with vested interests in the success of our very young country, we can all appre ciate that at all levels, we should want to see systems implemented that are effi cient, that are fair, and that are accountable.”

overly-bureaucratic and cumbersome, making it unworkable in practice. It says this has ensnared simple purchases in red tape, and added to costs and inefficiency, even though clause 34’s “lim ited bidding” provides for emergency contracts. It also pointed out that the accompanying regulations and guidance notes, and multiple other require ments needed to give the law effect, were never put in place.

Meanwhile, the Govern ment’s enhanced electronic procurement platform has already attracted 400 ven dors to register following its soft launch last week ahead of yesterday’s formal unveiling.

Derek Atkins, the procurement portal’s imple mentation manager, said: “There is no limit to the platform… We’ve got some of the largest counties in the US, including Cook County, Illinois, and Harris County in Texas, with 5.7m people, they’re running huge multimillion dollar construction projects. There really is no limit as to the size of

opportunities that can be posted there.

“With the launch, we built a new portal for the Ministry of Finance vendors. It’s called MOFv endors.gov.bs.

On the top right of that page, you’ll see a login button. When you log in, when you select that it will display any open public opportunities that have been posted.

“From there, you can register a vendor account, respond to opportunities and we also have a noti fication. So during your registration, you will indi cate the services that you can provide as well as the islands that you can serve, and through that that allows the project donors to run projects and send specific notifications to those vendors of that new opportunity,” Mr Atkins explained.

“So if we’re running a construction project in Freeport, and you’re a Freeport-based vendor that provides construction ser vices, the project owner will send that invitation to you.

So it opens up that ability to become made aware of

projects that are launched and givea you the ability to submit to them.”

There will be no barri ers to anyone registering or applying for a contract either, as the system is not designed to exclude any particular vendor automati cally. However, there will be a rating system of the best bids for a particular oppor tunity. The weaker bids will be weeded out, and only the top bids move forward to the respective ten ders committee at any given government agency that is responsible for selecting the winning bidder.

Mr Atkins said: “We’ll need pricing in some cases, and sometimes you won’t require pricing. But you’ll need a proposal,;

“So once you’ve pro vided everything that has been requested, there’ll be an evaluation team that goes through all the mate rial and make sure that you meet the qualifications. And then, for the winning bidder, they will have the highest point value. Then they will reach out to that vendor and negotiate the contract from there.”

Safety priority over costs in Building Code reforms

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMIAN Contractors Association's (BCA) president says safety and resilience must take priority over increased costs in reforms to the Bahamas Building Code.

Leonard Sands told Tribune Business the Association has been col laborating with the Ministry of Works from the outset over revisions to the Build ing Code. He added that nothing onerous is expected once the reforms have been finalised.

Concerns over a rise in construction costs are mis placed as well. “In response to climatic conditions and the desire to further ensure the life and safety of the public, if the changes are necessary then the costs associated with those

changes will become neces sary,” Mr Sands said. “We wouldn’t want to continue building structures in instances where they are inadequate. I think this is the most important thing we have to keep in mind; that the ministry is charged with the responsibility to ensure that they're not providing codes that are outdated.”

Prices for building mate rials increased sharply

during COVID-19 and have remained stubbornly high, Mr Sands said, but whether they fall back to levels seen before the pan demic remains to be seen.

It is “possible” for building materials prices to come down in time, “but not for another 12 months", the BCA president said.

Mr Sands added: “There is still an ongoing war [in Ukraine] which is affect ing everything related to construction and the pro curement of construction materials, and until that war ends I don’t see prices going down.

“That is the number one trigger because most people don’t realise that the war in the Ukraine is affect ing oil, and oil is in the use of everything. Factories run on oil, and if they are being starved for oil and the price of oil goes up and fluctuates, so will the price of construction materials that are made from those factories.”

‘LIVE UP TO’ PUBLIC PROCUREMENT LAW

FROM PAGE A24

relatively user friendly way, and it’s good folks can reg ister on the site and find out about opportunities. There are a lot of opportunities coming up very shortly, and they only have a few days to submit.

“We need to make tangi ble steps forward. It’s been a year since the Act was enacted. We haven’t seen full enactment; the listing of all bids or the publishing or the publishing of awarded contracts.”

The law presently requires the Government and all its ministries, depart ments and agencies to publish - within 60 days of every contract award - the winning bidder’s name and address; contract amount; bid title; name of the pro curing entity; and bidding method used. This means that all government con tracts awarded up to August 3 should now have been publicly declared, but none have.

The Davis administration has argued that its prede cessor’s failure to follow the necessary public service protocols, and appoint a chief procurement officer to oversee the Act’s imple mentation, meant it is impossible for the Gov ernment to reveal these contract details. However, Tribune Business’ analysis of the Act did not reveal

anything to suggest dis closure hinges on such an appointment.

Mr Aubry said The Bahamas’ efforts at public procurement reform had been “more aspirational in the past” than reality, but progress was now being made by both the current and former administration.

Asked about the need for the Government to comply with the existing Act’s contract award disclosure requirements, the ORG chief replied: “It’s critical for a few reasons.

“It’s critical that The Bahamas lives up to the letter and intent of the law.

Following the rule of law, that needs to be demon strated by the Government. That’s critical because so many vendors have scepti cism that the process will be open and fair because they’ve not seen that or in their experience that has not been the case for many decades. We need to build trust in the system.”

Mr Aubry said a properly functioning, transparent and open public procurement system where all bidders have an equal chance will make the Bahamian econ omy more competitive.

“The Government will have a more competitive choice in selection, and it will give citizens confidence that their tax money is being used to the greatest effect,” he added. “There’s a lot of advantages, a lot of benefits to getting it right.”

The Public Procurement Act, passed by Parliament under the former Minnis administration and brought into effect on September 1 last year, was intended to end the patronage system that has dominated the awarding of government contracts for decades with

bids going to political sup porters, family, friends, lovers and others with the right connections as opposed to being issued on merit.

Implemented just two weeks before the gen eral election, it was also intended to bring greater transparency and effi ciency to the millions of dollars awarded in public sector contracts annually by having the process held out in the open. And, especially given the country’s present fiscal challenges, the law was designed to generate value for money for Baha mian taxpayers by ensuring the best bidder won the con tract, thus reducing if not eliminating any wastage and corruption.

However, the Act has been the subject of an intense political battle for much of the past year which culminated in last week’s threat by the Opposition Free National Movement (FNM) to initiate a Judi cial Review legal action in the Supreme Court over the Davis administration’s alleged violations of the Act by failing to publish details of contract awards.

However, the Davis administration has argued that the legislation is overly-bureaucratic and cumbersome, making it unworkable in practice. It says this has ensnared simple purchases in red tape, and added to costs and inefficiency, even though clause 34’s “limited bidding” provides for emergency contracts. It also pointed out that the accompanying regulations and guidance notes, and multiple other requirements needed to give the law effect, were never put in place.

LEONARD SANDS

BAHAMIAN MERCHANT HOSTS DE BEERS REPRESENTATIVES

NAMIBIA-BASED representa tives from the De Beers Group of Companies were welcomed with Jun kanoo and local cuisine when they visited the Diamonds International flagship store in downtown Nassau last month.

Arriving on the Disney Wish cruise ship, the visiting executives shared knowledge with Diamonds Interna tional’s Bahamian staff and learnt about this country’s tourism rebound following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is my first ever visit on the Disney Wish to the beautiful islands of The Bahamas, and it’s really impor tant and wonderful for us to be here,” said Roswitha Katjipu, senior manager for sales and beneficiation with the Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC).

“I am pleased to see that they (Dia monds International) are bouncing back because, as an industry, we all need each other. Their diamonds are being sold in an ethically responsible manner, our business practices are in sync, and we were delighted to learn about their upcoming community work in The Bahamas.”

NDTC is a joint venture between the Namibian government and the De Beers Group of Companies. Riaan Husselmann, De Beers key accounts manager, also visited four Diamonds International stores on Bay Street.

Ms Katjipu, explaining the relation ship with Diamonds International, said: “We mine diamonds through onshore and marine mining, then we sort value diamonds. The beneficiation aspect comes in with the collaboration with

Diamonds International because their parent company, Almod Diamonds, has a cutting and polishing facility in Namibia.”

Almod Diamonds is a vertically inte grated company, which is a sightholder, diamond manufacturer, jewellery man ufacturer and retailer. Its affiliation with De Beers spans three decades, and Almod Diamonds is one of its 64 worldwide sightholders.

“We are very proud to be the only sightholder in The Bahamas,” said Shivan Sareen, general manager of Diamonds International (Bahamas).

“Over the years we have made sure that our staff receive opportunities to expand their skill-sets. For example, four of our people had visited Namibia to observe and learn about the dia mond mining, sorting, cutting and polishing first-hand.”

Speaking to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added: “The goal of our company was to get every one back to work. Our people are what makes us the best in this industry. We continue to employ and train people throughout the Caribbean. We have team members who have been with us for the past 20 years, and there are many who have joined us from other countries.

“Additionally, we give back to our communities, and we are grateful to do this because of our stewardship, part nerships and customer support. Nassau is the biggest port in the Caribbean, and we have impacted millions of people with our dedicated service and commit ment to provide an extensive array of luxury jewellery and timepieces.”

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p.m. 3.3 10:26 p.m.

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p.m. 3.4 11:26 p.m.

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DIAMONDS International welcomed visitors from the De Beers Group of Companies. Shown are team mem bers and members from the Saxons Junkanoo Group (back row). From L-R are Robertha Smith; Daneka Lewis; Tyiesha McKenzie; Shivan Sareen, general manager; Riaan Hussleman, key account manager, De Beers Group of Companies; Nameka Williams; Roswitha Katjipu, senior manager, sales and beneficiation, Namibia Diamond Trading Company; Gina Knowles; and Simone Whyte.

Photos:Azaleta Ishmael-Newry

DE Beers representatives are welcomed at the Diamonds International flagship store in Nassau during a site visit

month. Shown from

are Roots Junkanoo members; Roswitha Katjipu, senior manager for

Diamond Trading Company; Shivan Sareen, general manager, Diamonds International Bahamas; and Riaan Hussleman, key accounts manager, De Beers Group of Companies.

‘Brace’ for insurance hikes:

Ian recalls Andrew effects

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN property owners were yes terday warned to brace for further insurance hikes with one underwriter revealing Hur ricane Ian’s multi-billion dollar devastation brought back memories of market conditions from 30 years ago.

upon to underwrite all insured risks in this nation.

Cost rises

preIan; now it’s ‘even hotter’

Timothy Ingraham, Summit Insurance Company’s managing director, told Tribune Business the storm was set to “make a bad situation even worse” given the losses it has inflicted on the already-struggling global rein surance market which Bahamian carriers rely

BOB imposes ‘heavy penalties’ on early building loan payouts

Aims to make it ‘very costly’ to remortgage

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BANK of The Bahamas is imposing “heavy early repayment penalties” on construction mortgages in a bid to dissuade borrowers from treating such loans as a “bridging” facility to its detriment.

Kenrick Brathwaite, the BISX-listed institution’s managing director, told Tribune Business that the policy had been imposed “a couple of months ago” to make it very costly for those borrowers to remort gage with a rival bank as soon as the subject property was completed.

He argued that such a move was unfair to the orig inal lender, which takes on the higher risk associated with financing construction new-builds only to have its facility paid-out early, while the borrower typically ben efits from a lower interest rate and greater following the remortgage. The bank that takes over the loan also gains from the lower risk

associated with a completed property that has now increased in value.

“We’ve put some things in place to try and stop the erosion of the portfolio, and to try and get some growth in the next finan cial year,” Mr Brathwaite told this newspaper, after Bank of The Bahamas’ gross residential mortgage book shrank by 7 percent or over $14m in the year to end-June 2022. “They’re the easier ones to try and address.”

The portfolio declined from $201.974m at endJune 2021 to $187.679m some 12 months later.

Predicting that reinsurance conditions will now get “even hotter”, he disclosed that the current situation brought back memories of Hurricane Andrew’s aftermath in 1992. The latter, a Category Five storm that struck the northern Bahamas before wreaking havoc on south Florida, sparked a major reduction in market capacity - leading to major premium price increases for Bahamian property - as reinsurers withdrew their willingness to under write risks in this nation.

While Bahamian consumers are unlikely to suffer a similar surge in insurance costs

Over 1,800 travellers hit by Bahamasair sickout

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMASAIR’S top executive yesterday revealed more than 1,800 passengers were impacted by Sunday’s flight atten dant sickout as he voiced optimism that the airline’s reputation will not suffer long-term damage.

Tracy Cooper, the national flag carrier’s managing director, told Tribune Business that

operations had returned to normal with extra flights scheduled to accommo date travellers who were stranded by the industrial action.

Expressing hope that such incidents will be “mitigated and prevented” in the future, he added that the airline was “very close” to concluding the industrial agreement with the Airport, Airline and Allied Workers Union (AAAWU) that was believed to have sparked

the sickout that crippled Sunday afternoon services.

“There were in total over 1,800 travellers there both ways” that were affected by Bahamasair having to cancel all sched uled and international flights during that period, Mr Cooper confirmed yesterday. Asked whether the strike had inflicted permanent damage on the national flag carrier’s reputation, he told this

PAGE A20

‘Live up to’ Public Procurement law

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS

must “live up to the letter and intent of the law” on public procurement, a governance reformer urged yesterday, as he hailed the unveiling of the Government’s new and upgraded tender portal.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Respon sible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, told Tribune Business it was vital that The Baha mas had taken “tangible steps forward” to make the awarding of govern ment contracts more open, transparent and accessible (see articles on Page 22 B) after progress had stalled following the Public Procurement Act’s implementation during

the Minnis administra tion’s final days.

Asserting that it was critical that the Govern ment now “build trust in the system” that all bid ders will be treated fairly, and have an equal oppor tunity to provide goods and services to the public sector, he also called for it to “follow the rule of law” by adhering to the existing legislation.

The Davis admin istration has branded the current Public Procurement Act as unworkable in prac tice because it imposes too many onerous and bureaucratic require ments on government to the point where it cannot function efficiently. How ever, it has not published details on the winning bidders, the nature of the contract, and the total amount awarded for all

Tourism rebounds to 90% pre-COVID level

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor

BAHAMIAN stopo ver arrivals rebounded to 90 percent of pre-COVID levels for July as the tour ism recovery maintained its momentum by attracting some 3.677m visitors during the first seven months of 2022.

The Central Bank, in its report on August’s monthly economic developments

that was released yester day, added that total foreign departures via Lynden Pin dling International Airport (LPIA) rose by 30 percent year-over-year for that month as tourism contin ued to revive following the global pandemic.

“Official data provided by the Ministry of Tourism showed that total visitor arrivals by first port of entry expanded to 678,273 in July from 183,580 visitors in the corresponding period of

2021,” the Central Bank said. “Leading this out turn, the dominant sea traffic advanced to 520,511 from just 49,651 visitors in the previous year. In addi tion, air traffic increased to 157,762 from 133,929 in the prior year, representing 89.7 percent of the volumes registered in 2019.

“Disaggregated by major port of entry, total arrivals to New Providence more than doubled to 315,244 visitors in July from 118,797

in the comparative period of 2021. Contributing to this development, the air and sea segments both advanced to 121,032 and 194,212 visi tors, respectively.

“Similarly, traffic to the Family Islands rose to 319,703 from 53,145 a year earlier, as respective air and sea passengers meas ured 32,941 and 286,762. Further, foreign arrivals to Grand Bahama amounted to 43,326 vis-à-vis 11,638 in

government contracts issued between September 1 and end-July 2022 as the law stipulates.

“I think all told I’m really glad it’s out,” Mr Aubry told this newspaper regard ing yesterday’s launch of the upgraded electronic pro curement portal. “We had a chance to see it last week; a little bit of a preview. It seems to be organised in a

TRACY COOPER

MATT AUBRY

KENRICK BRATHWAITE

RESPONDERS from the de Moya Group survey damage to the bridge leading to Pine Island, to start building temporary access to the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Matlacha, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022.

PHOTO:Gerald Herbert/AP