As the present government of the country prepares to ‘jump da line’ destroying the present culture of the Bahamas by attempting to force another to fit, I would like to ask how exactly how does Junkanoo-Carnival advance Bahamian culture and achieve its goal?

What its basic goal?

“Christie : Carnival is here for good” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Expressing confidence of Bahamian buy-in to Junkanoo-Carnival, Prime Minister Perry Christie said while the event is a work in progress, it will get better every year and it is poised to be a ‘big event’ that will benefit the Bahamian people ‘mightily’.

Speaking to The Nassau Guardian at the Music Masters competition on Friday night, Christie said the song competition was evidence of carnival working.

‘I’m seeing thousands of Bahamians who are also enjoying themselves,’ he said.

‘I think this is work in progress.

‘It’s going to get better and better each year, like for example the song competition.”

There are a few questions to ask oneself as the Prime Minister makes these statements; one, did Junkanoo-Carnival get ‘better’ this year, is the song competition a sign of it getting ‘better’, is this the same song competition that is a part of our Independence celebrations and what is the primary objective of Junkanoo-Carnival?

Let me re-clarify my position on Junkanoo-Carnival, I feel that it is a foreign culture that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government is attempting to force onto the Bahamian culture and by adding ‘Junkanoo’ to the front of it, has attempted to convince visitors to our shores that it is indeed a part of our culture; it is not.

Then that brings me to the question of what is the primary objective of Junkanoo-Carnival?  At its inception, many were convinced that it was to bring visitors to our shores; the ‘Heads-in-Beds’ concept; a touristic stimulus of sorts.  If you create an event interesting enough then people would come to ‘experience’ it, to date has this been the case?  The Prime Minister speaks of ‘seeing thousands of Bahamians enjoying themselves’ and I have nothing against this but was this the primary purpose of the event when it was first conceived? 

With the timing of it all, being around the very same time the Progressive Liberal Party won the government in 2012, then many believe that the event has been put together for Bahamians to enjoy themselves but what about all of the money being spent under the guise of bringing people to our shores, has the government deceived us yet again?

Last year’s Junkanoo-Carnival operated at a deficit and there was talk of compensating some of the vendors, I do not know if this was ever done but this year’s Junkanoo-Carnival, which the Prime Minister said would/should be better, created less of a buzz than it did in its first year which it ran at a deficit, so I guess we will have to ‘jump de line’ for the final figures on this JC as we did with the first one to get an idea if it idea did do better.

I doubt it.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END

Reading Alfred Sears in today’s dailies and one would get the impression that he were about to run for Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and not only attempting to re-gain the Fort Charlotte seat for the Progressive Liberal Party.  If I were Prime Minister, Perry G Christie I just may suspect some ‘funny business’ at the next Progressive Liberal Party Convention this fall, that is if the present leader of the PLP sees the necessity of a General Convention.

“Sears; Abolish monarchy, limit PM’s powers” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article, “Insisting that Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is best suited for the Bahamas to address the myriad national challenges, former Attorney General and PLP candidate of Fort Charlotte yesterday presented a package of recommendations to foster a ‘safe, cohesive’ and economically robust Bahamas.

In an opinion piece Sears said has decided to re-enter front line politics at a time of ‘great challenges’.

He said the PLP is best suited by its experience in nation building, commitment to social justice, nationalist orientation, regional sensitivity and political courage to pursue a transformational agenda to place the Bahamas on a more sustainable economic path and foster a more socially cohesive society.” If I am not mistaken, these would be along the very same lines of promises the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie made as he made his first bid the office of Prime Minister when he first became leader of the PLP, surely Mr. Sears must be aware that for him to have a chance at all of this then he must first win at Convention……my dear God could this mean that…………

Alfred Sears name numerous things that must be done in order to have a path to a safe, cohesive and economically robust Bahamas and one question that I have is has he been keeping these things to himself until now and why hasn’t the Progressive Liberal Party already put them, at least at part, into place within the past four years?

Several of the things that Mr. Sears has put forth in his opinion piece are;

1. He suggests the power to appoint the Chief Justice and Justice of Appeal should not be responsibilities of the Prime Minister and provided to the governor general, who would act on the recommendation of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission”, good idea, as soon as we remove the naming of the Governor General from the Prime Minister.
2. He suggests the creation of an independent electoral boundaries commissions, this we have heard many time before from this very same government, they are presently in the position to do something about it.

 

Indeed, Mr. Sears goes on with many examples of what he feels needs to change or introduced and I am amazed at the manner at which he is just coming of age, so to speak.  One that I have found of some interest is “Sears also recommenced the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund, the re-establishment of the national youth service, tax free excerption for residents in ‘ova da hill’ communities and free tertiary education both technical, professional and academic for all Bahamian citizens.”

In his statement within this opinion piece, with which some we are already very familiar, Mr. Sears begins to finish with, “The forgoing recommendations are amongst some of the new and exciting opportunities that the Progressive Liberal Party should pursue, in my opinion, in order to unleash the creative imaginations and intellect of the Bahamian people, reduce crime, expand opportunities for the next generation of the Bahamas and also to realize their full potential.”  Is Alfred Sears, admitting that the Progressive Liberal Party never attempted these things or failed at them and suggesting that if he were Prime Minister he can bring them about?

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

“Judge unlikely to face House……Gomez would be ‘surprised’ if Justice was called upon.”

Excerpt from this article; “Central and South Eleuthera MP Damian Gomez is called before the Committee on Privilege after being named last week in a resolution to determine whether she or others should be held on contempt of the House of Assembly.

While confirming that he still has plans to rescue himself as Chairman of the committee, Mr. Gomez Q.C. explained that parliamentarians were asserting their privilege when they sit in the lower Chamber, Justice Charles is also ‘immune from process’ when she sits on her bench of her court room.

The former state minister for legal affairs affirmed that the Save the Bays Director Fred Smith Q.C. and attorney Ferron Bethel – who were also named in the resolution – will be brought before the committee to determine whether they committed an offense.”

So now it would seem that since the ‘principle’ cannot beat up a ‘teacher’ it will continue to take it out on a ‘student’, because the student made the first complaint to show the ‘principle’ in clear violation of his duties as they are laid out by the law?  And when and where did Damien Gomez QC loose himself enough to rescue himself’ and exactly from what?

These ‘dealings’ that he Mr. Gomez has before him are indeed interesting; whereas elected officials seek to use ‘parliamentary privilege’ to evade a person’s private life to expose not only what is unproven but also the whereabouts of where they came from are quite questionable, and then use the law, any way that they can bend it to make that person or anyone else that stands in the way the ‘bad guy’

Also as an injunction has been put in place by the Supreme Court to stop further illegal invasion of privacy by this government as they continue on this quest, how will only bringing Director Fred Smith Q.C. and attorney Ferron Bethel before the Committee on Privilege now serve you?  Are agents of this government seeking to make the court order null and void, in which case the Justice would have been in earlier and……..let me stop before I get put before a ‘select committee’.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

Last week the Attorney General’s office sought to set aside an injunction put in place by the Supreme Court to stop certain persons within the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government, the attorney general being one of these persons, from revealing the personal and private emails of members of the environmental group Save The Bays to the general public.  Since this time some persons have come out chastising the Supreme Court Justice for what they saw as her attempts to silence the ‘voice’ of the Executive, while it is my opinion that the Justice has only made the attempt to protect the constitutional rights of private citizens against a lawless Executive that seeks to invade the privacy of individuals to prove that the Save The Bays environmental organization is really a political organization with the intent of destabilizing the Progressive Liberal Party government.

Today Justice has stood her grounds, even in light of clear attempts of intimidation by members of the Executive, “A resolution was moved in Parliament last Monday by Mr. Fitzgerald to determine whether Justice Charles…….should be held in contempt of the House.

“Injunction over emails remains despite challenge” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “The answer whether parliamentarians can use privilege to disclose confidential information of private citizens has far- reaching implications beyond the Bahamas, a Supreme Court said on Friday.

Justice Indra Charles made the statement at a hearing in which representatives from the Office of the Attorney General sought to have the judge set aside an injunction that seeks to prohibit respondents including Marathon MP, Jerome Fitzgerald, Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson, from appropriating, publishing or disclosing emails, even in Parliament, belonging to Save The Bays (STB) members.

The Justice, in this case, as set herself up as the last line of defense between the average citizen and the Executive branch of the government that has lost sense of right and wrong and is willing to do whatever it takes to ‘make their case’ even if it means breaking the law.  The steps that the Executive has taken in this matter can only be described as democracy in decay, a sign that Karl Marx saw of a move toward fascism, as they seek to use parliamentary privilege to openly invade the person lives of Bahamian citizens without just cause.

As Justice Charles has made her ruling she also states, “I do not make orders lightly,’ the judge added.  ‘If there’s going to be an application to discharge, it has to be heard in full she said.”

So now the government and its agents will have to prepare an argument as to why they feel that should be able to violate the constitutional rights of other citizens of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas but as they prepare said arguments they will have to meet the standard that Justice Charles has already set because if you were to leave it to this government they will probably just say “because we said so”.

Justice Charles said the issues at hand are obvious and will be expanded upon by both parties.

‘Is parliamentary privilege absolute if someone complains that their constitutional rights have been infringed upon, bearing in mind the walls of Parliament is sacred?  Is the Constitution the Supreme Law of the land?  The judge asked.”

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.