Leaders like Myles and Ruth Munroe teach us that we are our brothers’ and our sisters’ keepers ...and challenge us to practice what we believe through our deeds ...as well as our words

 Diplomatic Farewell for Dr. Myles Munroe and his Wife Ruth

By Lindsay Thompson - BIS:

A State-Recognized Funeral was held for Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, on Thursday, December 4, 2014 at the Diplomat Centre on Carmichael Road.  (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

NASSAU, The Bahamas - People from all walks of life -- locally and internationally -- assembled at the Diplomat Centre for a Celebration of Life for the late Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, on Thursday, December 4, 2014.

Leading the list of dignitaries and guests at The State-Recognized Funeral were: Her Excellency Dame Marguerite Pindling, Governor General; The Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, Prime Minister, and Mrs. Bernadette Christie; Leader of the Opposition Dr. Hubert Minnis; Senators, Members of Parliament, Senior Government Officials, members of the Diplomatic Corps and leaders of the international religious community.

Dr. Myles Munroe was senior pastor of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship, where his wife Ruth Ann Munroe served as co-senior pastor. The couple died November 9, 2014 when their private jet crashed into the Grand Bahama Ship Yard. Also on board that ill-fated aircraft were Dr. Richard Pinder, Pastors Lavard & Radel Parks and their son Johanan Parks all of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship; pilots Frakhan Cooper and Captain Stanley Thurston and American Diego DeSantiago.

Tributes were paid in liturgical dancing, praise and worship, with special selections by Vision singing the remake “Brand New World, and the Original Visionaires singing “Living With Jesus on the Other Side’”-- the group Dr. Munroe was a part of in the early 70s.  Grammy Award-winning Gospel recording artist CeCe Winans also rendered “Don’t Cry for Me” – one of the Winans’ greatest hits.

Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie revered Dr. Munroe as “a man who never forgot his roots; a man who was passionately involved in Bahamian nation-building and who played an important part in that process over the course of more than three decades.”

He added, “So, let us make no mistake about it therefore, while Dr Myles Munroe was unquestionably a globalist, an internationalist, in scope of his Christian ministry and in the reach of his teachings and travels, he was at the same time a profoundly committed nationalist; a Bain town-bred Bahamian through and through.”

Senior Pastor Dave Burrows of BFMI said, ”We are gathered here to pay our final respects and tributes to two extraordinary human beings. Today, in some ways we are saddened but in other ways, we celebrate lives of purpose and destiny.”

He best described Dr. Myles Monroe, his mentor, as “a transformer; [in] that through his relationship with God and in his pursuits, no one he encountered was left without being transformed.”  And in Referencing the Bible, Pastor Burrows described Ruth Ann Munroe as “a good thing.”

The Munroes left two children son, Chairo (Myles Jr.) and daughter Charisa who likened their parents to a ‘king and queen.’

“We have lost one of the greatest fathers and mothers; and… king and queen, who have ever lived,” she said.

“Yet is it only by faith that I can stand here before and declare with much authority that Pastor Myles and Ruth Ann Munroe are not dead but are buried alive in me and my brother.”

She said that their parents were born into a life of purpose and they died fulfilling that purpose. “They transformed people into leaders and leaders into agents of change.”

Tributes were also paid by His Grace Bishop Neil Ellis, President Bishop of Global United Fellowship & Senior Pastor of Mt. Tabor Church; Pastor Gary Curry, Pastor Emeritus of Evangelistic Temple; Dr. William Wilson, President, Oral Roberts University, which Dr. Munroe and his wife attended; Dr. Peter Morgan, President, International Third World Leaders Association; Charles & Xoli Masala, Directors, Myles Munroe International, Republic of South Africa; and many others. Dr. Jerry Horner of Jerry Horner International Ministries in Columbia, Georgia, performed the Eulogy.

In a written tribute, United States President Barak Obama said, “leaders like Myles and Ruth teach us that we are our brothers’ and our sisters’ keepers and challenge us to practice what we believe through our deeds as well as our words.”

Myles Egbert Munroe was born in 1954 in Bain’s Town in a family of 11 children. He is an internationally renowned bestselling author, lecturer, teacher, life coach, government consultant, and leadership mentor. He travelled around the world training leaders in business, government, education, sports, media, and religion.

 Dr. Munroe is the country’s youngest recipient of the ‘Queen's Birthday Honors’ Order of The British Empire (OBE) Award 1998 bestowed by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, for his spiritual and social contributions to the national development of The Bahamas.

He has also been honored by the government of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas with the Silver Jubilee Award (SJA) for providing twenty-five years of outstanding service to The Bahamas in the category of spiritual, social and religious development.

Hundreds gathered at the Diplomat Centre on Carmichael Road for the State-Recognized Funeral of Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, on Thursday, December 4, 2014.  (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

A Colour Guard procession led the way into Lakeview Memorial Gardens & Mausoleums where the bodies of Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship were interred, during a State-Recognized Funeral on Thursday, December 4, 2014.   (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

The bodies of Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship were interred at Lakeview Memorial Gardens & Mausoleums during a State-Recognized Funeral on Thursday, December 4, 2014.  (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

December 05, 2014

bahamas.gov.bs 

Dr. Myles Egbert Munroe, a Bahamian patriot of the first order

Persons Shaped by His Teachings Represents Dr. Munroe's True Monument Says Prime Minister

By Dena Gibbs - BIS

Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, at the Memorial Service for Dr. Myles and Pastor Ruth Munroe.  (BIS Photo/Gena Gibbs)

NASSAU, The Bahamas – At the State-Recognized Memorial Service for Dr. Myles and Pastor Ruth Munroe at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium, December 3, Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie said Dr. Myles and Pastor Ruth Munroe’s true monument is represented in the two wonderful children they produced, and in many of the leading men and women of our society who were shaped by their teachings and personal example.

The Prime Minister noted Dr. Munroe’s testimony is witnessed in the leaders of our society he greatly influenced and shaped, who will continue his work, and their children “will take the baton and carry on the cause.  And that is how great nations are built, brick by brick, one family at a time; one person at a time; one generation at a time, but all moving in the same direction, guided by the same sense of purpose, guided by the same values.  Yes, that is how great nations are built, and how great nations endure.”

Before a large stadium crowd, and as part of a comprehensive programme of speakers and cultural expression -- the Prime Minister observed that we hear too little of those are doing good things “even great things, day in day out, working by the sweat of their brow; raising good families; helping out and doing good works in the community; leading lives of high purpose that ennoble themselves and ennoble us as all as a society, as a people, and as a nation under God. That’s the kind of people Dr. Myles leaves behind as his monument.”

During his condolences, the Prime Minister discussed his last meeting with Dr. Munroe and his last conversation, noting in retrospect it seemed there was a lot on his mind, “much more than normal” and that he had a sense of urgency that “the challenges of our time summoned us all to leadership in one form or another so that the problems of contemporary Bahamian society that so troubled him could be more aggressively addressed and remediated.”

He said: “I don’t have to tell you that Dr. Munroe really loved his country, this beloved Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Yes, he would go forth into the world, crisscrossing continents, flying across the great oceans of the planet but he would always come back home to play his part, a leading part, in helping to build up his country,” said Prime Minister Christie.

 “This kind of outreach was central to his sense of purpose and central to his work as an evangelist for Christ because it was clear to me that religion for Myles Munroe was not about locking oneself up in some remote ivory tower of private contemplation. Rather, it was about rolling up your sleeves and getting down into the trenches to deal with the real problems of real people living in the real world.”

 Prime Minister Christie said while Dr. Myles Munroe was unquestionably a globalist, an internationalist, in the scope of his Christian ministry and in the reach of his teachings and travels, he was, at the same time, a profoundly committed nationalist; a Bain Town-bred Bahamian through and through; a man who never forgot his roots; a man who was passionately involved in Bahamian nation-building and who played an important part in that process over the course of more than three decades.

 “And so my brothers and sisters, as Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, I therefore stand at attention today and salute Dr. Myles Egbert Munroe as a Bahamian patriot of the first order. And on behalf of all my compatriots, I offer the thanks of a grateful nation for the life and work, and for the shining example, of this great son of our soil,” said the Prime Minister.

The large crowd.  (BIS Photo/Gena Gibbs)

Liturgical dancer.  (BIS Photo/Gena Gibbs)

December 05, 2014

Bahamas.gov.bs 

Haitians and Haiti don’t really give a crap about their poor countrymen, women and children living illegally in another country

By Dennis Dames:

Where is The Haitian Love for Haitians!?

I’m still following the illegal immigration debate in our beloved Bahamas with great interest.  The hypocrisy of Haitians toward illegal Haitian migrants and their children in our country is unbelievable.  I have heard Haitians from the east, west, north and south talk about us Bahamians, and our lack of Christian love and charity toward their illegal brothers, sisters and children residing in The Bahamas.

I submit, that they don’t really give a crap about their poor countrymen, women and children living illegally in another country.  As a Justice of the Peace, I can tell you that there are thousands of children of Haitian parents who were born and raised in The Bahamas, and who do not know Haiti; and they have not even tried, for whatever reason - to apply for Bahamian citizenship in the legal required time: by 18 years old and before 19.  The young children of Haitian parents under 18 years old in The Bahamas today, of which Haitians from the east, west, north and south pretend to defend, will follow their older brothers and sisters here – and will never apply for Bahamian citizenship – for whatever reason.

So, The Bahamas has a serious and mounting illegal immigration problem to which illegal Haitian immigrants are at its heart; and thanks to successive Haitian governments and diplomats, who have been reckless and careless in dealing with the plight of their countrymen who are living illegally in another country for decades.  What message does the Haitian embassy in The Bahamas, the Haitian government in Haiti and the big mouth Haitians in the Diaspora have for their thousands of Haitian brothers and sisters in The Bahamas who have forfeited their right to apply for Bahamian citizenship, and who have never been invited by their government to register with the Haitian Embassy on Shirley Street, Nassau – The Bahamas?

Where are their Christian love and charity toward their own?  They have none, in my view.  All they want to do is to continue to pass the buck.  Enough is enough, says The Bahamas.  Haitians, wherever you might be, be your brothers’ keepers.  It’s about time that you people live up to your responsibility, and stop blaming others for your indifference toward the least of your Haitian brothers, sisters and children.

December 01, 2014

Value Added Tax (VAT) and Healthcare Cost in The Bahamas

Warning on VAT healthcare implications

GEOFFREY BROWN
Guardian Business Reporter
geoffrey@nasguard.com

Value-Added Tax (VAT) Private Sector Education Task Force Co-chair Jasmine Davis said yesterday that vatable healthcare will have “huge socioeconomic implications” for the country’s workforce if not readdressed by the government.

Davis told Guardian Business that the task force continues to push physicians and healthcare facilities to register for VAT to avoid incurring penalties, but stressed that the medical community will continue to lobby for exempt status simultaneously.

“Medical services as described in the act are essential services, and it has huge socioeconomic implications. What we don’t want to see is persons opting out of getting healthcare,” said Davis.

She pointed out that the tax on healthcare would not only affect lower-income households, and anticipated that businesses would shift the additional 7.5 percent of healthcare costs onto employees.

“What would result is that we would have a sicker populace, which means that people will not be working, which means that dollars will not be moving through the economy, which means that the amount of money that is expected to be derived through taxation will not happen,” she said.

Davis could not provide a figure for the number of healthcare professionals registered for the tax to date. However, she claimed that the sector is making good progress in registering.

Davis also reasserted that healthcare and education are benefactors of the VAT system in other jurisdictions that have implemented the tax.

“Funds from taxation are normally earmarked for healthcare and not the reverse, where healthcare is taxed to reduce the deficit,” said Davis.

The Ministry of Finance recently clarified that national exams and other education services will be exempt from VAT. Given these exemptions, Davis argued that healthcare was planned to be exempt from VAT up until the last revision of the tax’s legislation tabled in July.

November 28, 2014

thenassauguardian

Sir Arthur Foulkes Pays Tribute to Warren Levarity

Tribute to Warren J. Levarity

By SIR ARTHUR FOULKES

• The following is a tribute given by Sir Arthur Foulkes at the state funeral for Warren Levarity on November 20 at Christ Church Cathedral.

On behalf of my wife, Joan, and on behalf of all the Foulkes family, and for myself, I extend to Warren’s wife, Vera, their children and all his other relatives my deepest sympathy on his passing. We share in your loss. I share in your loss.

My dear friends, it was a day or two after the 1962 general election in which the Progressive Liberal Party got more votes than the ruling United Bahamian Party but won far less seats. I was sitting at the head of the News Desk at The Tribune office on Shirley Street when Warren Levarity came up the stairs and entered the newsroom. I stood up to greet him.

There was no conversation. We embraced and said two words to each other: “My brother!” Then he turned, walked down the stairs and left the building. There were quizzical looks on the faces of those who witnessed this scene. Warren and I were both defeated candidates in that election, which many expected the PLP to win.

The significance of that brief encounter was that we were part of a group of men who knew the minds of each other. We understood what had happened and, more importantly, we knew what we had to do next.

It was an era of unrest, confrontation, and intense political activity in The Bahamas. Party politics had come to the colony; there was agitation for electoral reform; the trade unions were restive; Bahamian women were agitating for the vote; there was growing impatience with racism, and the ruling group was as intransigent as ever.

There were five bye-elections in 1960. Four in New Providence were mandated by British Secretary of State for the Colonies Alan Lennox-Boyd. He visited The Bahamas after the 1958 General Strike and ordered the creation of four new seats in New Providence as a concession to demands for electoral reform.

As expected, the PLP won all four of those seats. But the bye-election in Grand Bahama was another matter. It was the result of the elevation of the constituency’s representative to the Legislative Council, and nobody expected the PLP to win in a Family Island stronghold of the ruling party against a candidate supported by them.

So the party’s leaders gladly accepted the offer by Warren Levarity to show the colors in Grand Bahama. He was from a highly respected family having been born in West End. He had graduated from the Government High School and he had professional training abroad.

They also knew that he was a member of the National Committee for Positive Action, a radical group that was beginning to play an increasingly important role in the progressive movement. What few people knew was that this unassuming, soft-spoken gentleman was possessed of high intelligence, a keen analytical mind and an extraordinary aptitude for politics.

With only his limited personal resources and little or no help on the ground, Warren confronted the awesome election machinery of the oligarchy and campaigned across the length of the island. He won the bye-election, even though he had to petition the courts before he could take his seat as the representative for Grand Bahama.

Warren’s surprising victory sent shock waves through the political camps on all sides and was a major turning point in the fortunes of the progressive movement. A number of educated and highly qualified Bahamians who had hitherto looked askance at the PLP, and had kept their distance, now realized that if the UBP could be defeated in Grand Bahama then perhaps they could be defeated in the country. They joined the party.

After the defeat in 1962 the NCPA decided that the party’s image had to be burnished and its message more effectively tailored. It was time now for greater effort, and for personal sacrifice. Along with his colleagues, Warren did not believe in the kind of politics that was driven by the prevailing winds.

He shared an intense commitment to conviction politics, going against the prevailing winds if that was necessary. He shared the belief that leaders should work to change negative opinions, however popular, not pander to them.

He believed that leaders should communicate grand ideas and articulate noble aspirations, not mislead people with sound bites and empty slogans.

He also believed that leaders should be prepared to pay the price of their convictions, and not to seek the side on which the bread is buttered.

So in 1963, after months of garnering support, assembling resources and securing equipment, Bahamian Times started to publish from a little house on Wulff Road that had been converted into offices and a print shop. This effort was spearheaded by Loftus Roker, Jeffrey Thompson, Warren and others. Warren was manager and I was honored to be editor. This is what we knew we had to do.

There was little bread – and no butter at all – but the little house on Wulff Road became not just a newspaper office but a magnet for others who wanted to help, to talk about the challenges, to contribute ideas for the future, or just to share in the excitement.

One of those who came regularly to help in the day and stayed for many late nights of discourse was my good friend George Smith who became a successful candidate in 1968.

The response to Bahamian Times was quite astonishing. We could not print enough. People lined up outside the Wulff Road office to get copies as they came off the press. At long last, we were saying what they needed to hear, telling them what they deserved to know, and pointing in the direction they desired to go.

Calvin Neeley picked up newspaper boys Brendan and Dion in his taxi and took them as far as the airport to sell the paper. Each copy was handed from hand to hand and some were kept as mementos up to this day. But despite Warren’s best efforts, only a few small business houses were willing to advertise in the paper and so our bread was in short supply and sans butter.

Bahamian Times contributed significantly to the historic victory in 1967. Warren was appointed minister of out island affairs and demonstrated that he was not only good at politics but was also an excellent administrator. The work he accomplished in one year, with the cooperation of his colleague Minister of Works Cecil Wallace Whitfield, contributed significantly to the PLP’s overwhelming victory in the Out Islands in April of 1968.

Now it is difficult to find in history a good revolution that went entirely according to plan, one that fulfilled all of its noblest ideals, one that was not undermined by hubris, cupidity, egomania and other negative influences. The Quiet Revolution was not immune to some of these negative influences, and one of the early casualties of power was the collegiality that had made success possible in the first place.

The storm clouds gathered and, for Warren, euphoria quickly turned into disappointment. Once again his courage and willingness to sacrifice for what he believed were to be put to the test and once again he did not fail that test.

So on the floor of the House of Assembly one night in 1970, with an angry, hostile crowd outside, Warren, with seven others, voted the truth of his conscience, and precipitated a chain of events that was to result in the formation of a new political party, the Free National Movement.

It was effectively the end of his political career. He was never re-elected to the House again. But in later years he was secure in the knowledge that he had made yet another significant contribution to his country. He had helped to provide for the Bahamian people an effective check on the power of the day and a viable political alternative for the future.

If heroism is to be measured by service to noble ideals, by the performance of great deeds, by the exercise of extraordinary courage, and by the willingness to make great sacrifices, then Warren James Levarity fully qualified as a national hero of the first order.

Permit me to borrow from the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to say that the star of the unconquered will rose in Warren’s breast, serene, and resolute, and still, and calm and self-possessed.

May his noble soul rest in peace.

 

• Sir Arthur Foulkes is a former member of Parliament, Cabinet minister and governor general.

November 26, 2014

thenassauguardian

Fred Mitchell responds to Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) - Jose Miguel Insulza ...about his remarks on "round ups" in The Bahamas of Haitians ...and the immigration policies of The Bahamas

Immigration Minister Responds to Comments of OAS Secretary General

By Robyn Adderley - BIS:






FREEPORT, Grand Bahama – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration the Hon. Fred Mitchell during a press conference at the Ministry for Grand Bahama on Friday responded to a report emanating from the press of Jamaica that during a visit to Jamaica, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Jose Miguel Insulza made comments about the immigration policies of The Bahamas Government. The report in indirect speech said that the Secretary General had referred to "round ups" in The Bahamas of Haitians.

Minister Mitchell said no reports of “round ups” of Haitians should have been made by the office of the Organization of American States as the organization had been briefed on the Immigration policies of the Bahamas Government.

Minister Mitchell continued, “last evening, I instructed the Ambassador to the OAS Dr. Elliston Rahming to make an immediate call to the Secretary General for an urgent clarification of this report.” The Minister said he will meet with the Secretary General in Washington shortly.

Also present during the press conference were Minister for Grand Bahama, the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville and Mr. Hubert Ferguson of the Department of Immigration.

Minister Mitchell said he had not intended to comment publically about the content of the proposed meeting as the concerns raised by the Secretary General had been raised earlier with Bahamian officials. Minister Mitchell further stated that he has been advised that the Assistant Secretary General has been fully briefed on the policies and by extension, the organization. “Therefore any suggestion of the round up of people should not have been expressed from that office.

“The record will also show that I have repeatedly said: we do not round up people, you round up cattle.”

Minister Mitchell continued, “On 1^st November, The Bahamas government put in place a simple administrative measure to stop fraudulent practices in applying for work permits and to ensure that all people who have the right to live and work in The Bahamas are fully documented.

“Immigration checks have been ongoing since we took office in 2012. Nothing new in that direction has occurred.  We have repatriated over 3000 people since the start of the year to their home countries. Another two repatriation flights will follow next week.  The Detention Centre is now at capacity.

 “This report is yet another example of the unfortunate and ill informed commentary about these simple measures,” said Minister Mitchell.

Having spoken with Human Rights Activist and attorney Fred Smith yesterday in public, said the Minister, he said he told Mr. Smith “his comments where the policies were described as ‘ethnic cleansing’ were entirely unhelpful and extreme, particularly since there is nothing on which to base any such an assertion. The words are inflammatory and can lead to incitement. He needs to withdraw those comments and the defamatory statements made about immigration officers that are Gestapo like and involved in institutional terrorism.

“The intentionally inaccurate commentary often arises because of people in this country making wild and unfounded claims. There has not been a single report of abuse of any kind by any immigration officer reported to us since 1^st November.”

Minister Mitchell said the other major political parties, the Free National Movement and the Democratic National Alliance, have indicated they have not heard of any either.

“I will be speaking to all countries in our immediate neighborhood in a few days to ensure that these false assertions do not make their way uncritically into some human rights report and then becomes a way of describing what goes on in The Bahamas.”

He further stated, “This is a completely open and transparent exercise. There has to be oversight by NGOs and there is oversight by them and by the Department of Social Services. The Department has a formal role. The NGOs have access to information and review upon request. Nothing is hidden. No particular group is the target of this exercise and people should stop spreading that falsehood. They should also stop using the term round up because no such exercises have taken place.”

With some speaking about the authority of Immigration officers on a constitutional basis, Minister Mitchell had this to say, “The power of arrest is contained in the Immigration Act. The constitution says that in the exercise of that discretion such an officer can do so only when there is a reasonable suspicion of an offence having been committed, in the process of being committed or about to be committed. The Immigration Department is aware of the constitutional standard and does not violate that standard.”

November 21, 2014

Bahamas.gov.bs

Fred Mitchell citizenship warning in order

By Dennis Dames



I have read the Nassau Guardian’s editorial of Monday, November 17, 2014, entitled: Mitchell’s citizenship warning was unhelpful. Firstly, the words of Ms Daphne Campbell, a Florida state representative were nationally offensive and troublesome to most Bahamians when she called for tourists and businesses to boycott The Bahamas over our country’s immigration policies. Secondly, to add insult to injury, Ms Jetta Baptiste, a naturalized Bahamian of Haitian descent, who presently lives in the USA, agreed publically with Ms Campbell. This further inflamed Bahamians; and it was a devastating mistake on Ms Batiste’s part -- in my opinion.

The citizenship warning was in order, in my view, as no one really knows how far persons are prepared to go in order to be heard on the issue of illegal immigration in The Bahamas. Ms Baptiste is in her rights to express her perspective; but she needs to understand that we Bahamians have feelings and she has hurt so many with her concurrence with Ms Campbell – a foreigner. Ms Baptiste has created many lifelong enemies in The Bahamas. So, it might be in her best interest to consider citizenship in another country.

The Guardian’s editorial focused on the rights of an individual to express oneself under the law. It did not talk about a loose and ungrateful tongue, and the damage which is instigated by it. Ms Baptiste has unwittingly revoked her own Bahamian citizenship by supporting evil and disgusting foreign elements against the Bahamian people and nation -- in a very damning fashion.

Let’s face it, we are not fighting a war against government immigration policy detractors as The Nassau Guardian might feel. Our fight has more to do with the internal chronic disunity among us Bahamians, and our political gangster mentality that affects our progress as one people.