The political corruption of Philip Brave Davis - PLP Leader

The PLP politically corrupt leader, Brave Davis looks like a real clown these days. He was in full support of his disgracefully reckless and corrupt colleague, Jerome Fitzgerald – who solicited an investor for multi-million dollars in business for his family enterprise - while a member of the last PLP cabinet.

Mr. Davis apparently had no problems with the nomination of Mr. Fitzgerald for reelection in the Marathon constituency in the 2017 general election.

Yes, Mr. Brave Davis supported his absolutely corrupt and shitty colleague to the end; while seeing no need for his resignation as a result of his profoundly corrupt deeds. He could open his big mouth now and call for the resignation of FNM cabinet ministers for what he views as misdeeds on their behalf. Mr. Davis’ tongue must be bitten right up. How shameless could a political leader be?

Brave Davis should resign right away as he is clearly willing to let PLPs slide in the face of corruption while they rule us with arrogance and disrespect. There is a divine saying: He who goes to equity, must come with clean hands. Brave Davis should stop, and turn around with his dirty and filthy hands.

The death penalty in The Bahamas is dead

By Dennis Dames:


Let’s face it. When one is sentenced to death in The Bahamas, these days it really means life in prison. The condemned prisoner knows that all he has to do is appeal and wait on the commutation call, or total freedom in some cases.

The death penalty in the Americas has been corrupted for centuries and used as a brutal tool of racism; especially against the black man and other minority groups. After the advent of DNA, the death penalty was found guilty of the murder or false imprisonment of countless innocent victims – and new ones are added almost daily – after further review.

Only heaven knows the millions of convicted and innocent death penalty victims throughout the ages – whose names will never be vindicated, as there is no available DNA evidence to clear them accordingly.

The death penalty will always be corrupt because innocent people are also victims of it. The death penalty is simply a legal bully in The Bahamas because it is truly shameful and scandalous to have such a deadly thing hanging over one’s head. Maybe that’s why hanging is still on our law books.

In the meantime, the death penalty in The Bahamas is enjoying the publicity, knowing full well that it will die on the unemployment line.

Bahamians want to know more about the Aragonite resources in The Bahamas

By  Lynden R. Nairn with Romi Ferreira and 2 others

Ministers: A significant number of Bahamians believe the following:


1. A small group of persons have been awarded rights to mine Aragonite in The Bahamas.

2. It is not widely known who those persons are.

3. The Bahamas government receives minimal taxes from their operations.

4. The private company enjoys significant revenues.

5. No other individual or company may enter the business at this time.

6. The government should exploit this resource directly for the benefit of Bahamians.

7. The uses of this resource are well known.

8. The uses of this raw material to make other products could take place in The Bahamas.


Additionally, they believe:

1. As much as 5 billion tons of sand are produced every year in The Bahamas valued at one hundred billion dollars.

2. The said sand is lost to the floor of the ocean due to oceanic waves and current movement.

3. A senior Cabinet Minister is now exploiting or is seeking to exploit this resource.

4. These issues are well known, but have not been addressed because past and present government officials are benefiting from the sale of this resource.

5. Even if the conspiracies are untrue, the government should consider how these resources might be exploited for the benefit of all Bahamians.


Frankly, I don’t know whether much of this is true, but given the loud calls by Bahamians for action and the value that is being speculated, I believe the government is obliged to address this issue as a priority. I hope you will agree with me in that regard.

Lynden R. Nairn - Facebook

Chester Cooper says: Indeed Bahamians of all races and ethnic backgrounds - are welcome in the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP)

PERSONAL STATEMENT BY I. CHESTER COOPER

MP-Elect, Exuma & Ragged Island Constituency

May 16, 2017

During Monday’s ceremony for the farewell address for former Prime Minister and Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Leader Perry Christie, there were unfortunate remarks made by the moderator in the vein of black people enslaving each other while white people watched, and white Bahamians not supporting the PLP, as an allegory for our party’s recent loss at the polls.
 
While there will be much to discuss and probe in the wake of the PLP’s loss, I want to make clear that I, Chester Cooper, in no way support those sentiments or think them a fitting and proper analysis of the PLP’s loss.
 
The PLP is an organization that is supported by Bahamians of every racial makeup. The thread that binds us is that we are all Bahamians.
 
Many white Bahamians voted for me, and fought a hard battle in Exuma and Ragged Island to keep that constituency in the PLP’s column in what appears to be a wave election.
 
I thank ALL Bahamians for their support and dedication to the PLP and to The Bahamas.
 
This country, like so many others, has a deep and complex racial history, and though we still bear the scars of the deep wounds of the past, we move forward together to build this country that we all love. This is the time for healing.  Indeed Bahamians of all races and ethnic backgrounds - are welcome in the Progressive Liberal Party.
 
We are interested in building this nation for all.
 
This has been clearly demonstrated in Prime Minister Christie having supported many white Bahamian candidates in the past and the white PLPs who served in the Senate and Parliament.
 
We will need all hands on deck to steer the PLP back to its progressive roots and work to empower all Bahamians, regardless of race or ethnicity.
 
I would like to express my thanks for the faith that the former Prime Minister, the National General Council and the good people of Exuma & Ragged Island reposed in me as a candidate, and promise to give excellent representation and to hold the current administration accountable in the House of Assembly.

Source

Omar Archer files challenge to legality of criminal libel laws

Lawyers for outspoken social media commentator Omar Archer have filed a constitutional challenge against the Bahamas’ criminal libel laws, arguing that they violate citizens’ fundamental right to freedom of expression.

This is the second challenge of its kind in recent months. Maria Daxon, a former police constable and vocal defender for the rights of police officers, filed a similar motion in March after being charged with intentional libel concerning alleged statements written about Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade and Assistant Commissioner of Police Leon Bethell.

Archer has also been charged in connection with comments made about the Commissioner.

His motion, filed on April 11, seeks a declaration from the court that the charge, prosecution, trial, liability to conviction and sentence to a fine and or imprisonment of up to two years for the offense of Intentional Libel, are “void, illegal and of no effect” as they breach Archer constitutional right to freedom of Expression guaranteed by Article 23(1) of the Constitution, the country’s supreme law.

It further asks Magistrate Derence Rolle-Davis to dismiss or quash the proceedings against Archer and declare that the Section 315 (2) of the Penal Code which provides for the offense of Criminal Intentional Libel is unconstitutional. This would effectively remove the offense from the country’s law books.

The motion also requests an order that the Commissioner pay damages to Archer for having unconstitutionally subjected him to criminal proceedings in the first place.

In recent years, criminal libel laws have come under serious challenge around the world, with a number of countries declaring them unconstitutional. Over the past two decades alone, several fellow Commonwealth countries have abolished these laws, including: Britain, Jamaica, Grenada, New Zealand, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Sri Lanka.

In 2009, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled that such laws violate international treaties on freedom of expression.

Criminal libel has been criticized by virtually every international authority on freedom of expression, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, and the OAS Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Press Institute.

Human Rights Bahamas - Facebook

Who is Oswald Brown?

RESPONSE TO A PROLIFIC FACEBOOK TROUBLEMAKER

COMMENTARY BY OSWALD T. BROWN:

This initially started out as a response to a post by C. a. Newry, a mischievous gadfly, who is a prolific troublemaker on Facebook. He apparently dredged up a comment dating back to 1992 from bahamasuncensored.com -- for whatever reason, I don’t know, other than his penchant to play the kid’s game “fire bun” on Facebook – but I felt compelled to respond because I am certain that there are many enemies of mine on Facebook who were laughing a jumping for glee when they read his post.

Firstly, for the record, as a journalist of more than 55 years I have never been afraid to speak my mind (in writing) when I considered something to be wrong, especially if it affected the well-being of the Bahamian people. That’s the kind of journalistic training I received in my early years at The Tribune from Sir Arthur Foulkes and, believe it or not, the late Sir Etienne Dupuch, the then Publisher and Editor of The Tribune. For example, Sir Etienne took such a personal interest in my development as a journalist that he made arrangements for me to take private English lessons two mornings a week for about six months from Father Frederick Fry, the then Prior of St. Augustine’s College, and he allowed me to use a Tribune van to be sure that I was on time for the early morning sessions.

Although I started at The Tribune in May of 1960 as a Sports Reporter, my development was considered advanced enough to assist Nicki Kelly in covering the House of Assembly by 1962, which actually was my introduction to politics, and in August of 1962 I was sent by The Tribune along with Pierre Dupuch to cover Jamaica’s independence. Because I was a sports reporter I stayed in Jamaica for an additional two weeks to cover the Commonwealth Games, which was held in Jamaica that year as part of its independence celebrations.

For the record, one of the mistakes that I made in my life that I shall always regret was my constant attack on Sir Etienne in my OSWALD BROWN WRITES column that I wrote when I worked for Bahamian Times, after leaving The Tribune in 1965. Those were the years when I was an avowed BLACK POWER advocate as a result of the vicious, dehumanizing and degrading racist policies of the United Bahamian Party government and I considered Sir Etienne, the man who was very instrumental in my early training as a journalist, to be a UBP. I can tell you some stories about personal racist actions against me as a young black journalist in The Bahamas that would make your blood curdle.

As far as the reference to me leaving The Bahamas for 20 years being predicated on a dispute I had with Sir Lynden, the then Prime Minister, that’s only a minor part of the reason why I made the decision to relocate to the United States in December of 1974. It is well known among those involved in the struggle for Majority Rule that Sir Lynden, although he was and still is one of my personal heroes, had to ask Arthur Foulkes, whom I still love and respect with a passion, to speak to me about my outspoken BLACK POWER pronouncements and behavior.

Nonetheless, it was Sir Lynden who arranged for me to go to London after the PLP won the historic January 10, 1967 general election for one year’s advanced training in journalism on the staff of the London Evening Standard, one of Britain’s leading newspapers. When I returned from London in November of 1969, Sir Lynden only a month or so earlier had fired Sir Arthur as Minister of Tourism and when I asked him why Sir Arthur was fired, I did not believe the reason he gave me and I flat-out called him a liar, preceded by one of my favourite profanity at the time.

Of course, I nonetheless became Editor of Bahamian Times, but I subsequently was fired after I supported the Dissident Eight in their dispute with Sir Linden. When the Dissident Eight left the PLP and became the nucleus for the founding of the FNM along with still politically active members of the disbanded UBP, I also became a founding member of the FNM and the founding Editor of its newspaper The Torch.

In the meantime, I met a wonderful American lady, Camille Brannum, who at the time was a teacher in Brooklyn, New York, and we were married in June of 1973. Camille moved to Nassau and within a week, my good friend the late Livingstone Coakley, who was the then PLP Minister of Education, arranged for her to get a teaching position at C. C. Sweeting High School. Camille, who actually was from Washington, D.C., did not like living in The Bahamas and sometime nearing the end of 1974, she suggested that we move to D.C. I vividly remember what she said when she made the suggestion, “Our marriage is not working in your country, so let’s try it in mine.”

I loved my first wife very much, so it was not hard for me to make the decision to move to D.C. Unfortunately, the marriage fell apart and we were divorced in 1978. I would have returned home at that time but I had a very good job as Publications Editor with the Institute for Services to Education (ISE), which was established by the late President Lynden Johnson ostensibly to upgrade the standard of education in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs.) So it is wrong to say that Sir Lynden was the reason why I left The Bahamas in 1974.

In fact, after the late President Ronald Reagan stopped funding for ISE in 1981, I became News Editor of The Washington Informer in 1982, a position I held until the FNM became the Government in 1992 and the new Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and my first cousin Alphonso “Bugalloo” Elliott, who accompanied him on a trip to Washington, encouraged me to return home with the promise that I would return to Washington in some capacity at the Embassy to allow me time to straighten out my personal affairs that I had accumulated from living in D.C. at the time for 18 years.

Once back in Nassau, however, Mr. Ingraham and I had a strong disagreement over what I referred to at the time as his “witch hunt” against Sir Lynden with the Commission of Inquiry he launched. As a former BLACK POWER advocate I was bitterly opposed to the FNM, no doubt at the urging of the UBP faction of that party, tearing down and destroying the reputation of arguably the most notable black politician in this country’s history.

PERSONAL NOTE TO C. a. NEWRY: I hope that this brief account of my early life and involvement in politics assist you and my other detractors in formulating a better understanding of who is Oswald Brown and his values in life. No doubt, you will glean from it that I had a penchant for burning bridges behind me, but I have always been prepared to suffer the consequences of whatever decisions I made in my life. With regard to the “old story” you reposted from bahamasuncensored.com, the opinions expressed by the author of that website was in response to ongoing criticism of my Editorials and Columns when I was Editor of the Nassau Guardian, which leaders of the PLP felt were biased towards the FNM. I am so, so happy that I did not totally burn all the bridges to my past as a did-hard PLP; otherwise I would not as proud as a peacock to be back home once again as a die-hard PLP.

Oswald Brown - Facebook

Brazil beef ban in The Bahamas

The Bahamas bans Brazil beef

By XIAN SMITH
Guardian Business Reporter
xian@nasguard.com

Consumers in The Bahamas are being warned not to eat any meat products imported from Brazil.

A precautionary ban has been placed on meat products, which include corned beef, being imported into the country from Brazil, effective immediately, according to Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources V. Alfred Gray.

Speaking with Guardian Business yesterday Gray said, “We are asking those people who are purchasing corned beef and other beef products that have already gotten into our food system, to discard those products immediately until further notice.”

Shortly after Gray was contacted by Guardian Business, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources sent out a statement on the matter.

Parts of the statement read:

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources is aware of the meat scandal unfolding in Brazil relative to food inspectors taking bribes to allow sales of rotten and salmonella-tainted meats. Blairo Maggi, Brazil's agriculture minister, advised that the government of Brazil has suspended exports from 21 meat-processing units.

“Until further notice, no permits for the importation of processed meat products from Brazil will be issued. This includes corned beef as well as other beef products and beef by-products.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources will continue to monitor this issue over the next 60 days and, should we be satisfied that imports from Brazil be resumed, it would be with the following proviso:

“Beef must be slaughtered and processed at an approved government abattoir and processing facility; a sanitary certificate should accompany all imports from Brazil; inspection of all batch containers must be done at the port of entry; an import permit must be sought by all importers from the relevant government agency; and a registry must be compiled of all importers of beef and beef products from Brazil.”

Regional neighbor Jamaica also announced yesterday an immediate import ban on corned beef from Brazil.

According to recent news reports, police investigations into Brazil’s meat industry led to the conclusion that companies BRF SA and JBS SA, along with dozens of smaller companies, were involved in a scandal that permitted the overlooking of condemned practices.

JBS is the world’s largest meat producer and BRF is the biggest poultry exporter. The companies have denied the allegations.

China reportedly suspended imports of all meat products from Brazil as a precautionary measure and the European Union suspended imports from four Brazilian meat-processing facilities.

The Nassau Guardian

March 22, 2017