Daily Archives: October 9, 2021

The Bahamas, known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelagos land area and is home to 88% of the archipelagos population.

The archipelagic state consists of more than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and Hispaniola Island (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the US state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys.

The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes The Bahamas territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space. The country gained governmental independence in 1973 led by Sir Lynden O. Pindling, with Elizabeth II as its queen.

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FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried on decision to move company to Bahamas - The Global Herald - The Global Herald

EDITOR, The Tribune.

There will be a lot of powerful people such as politicians and the likes taking a collective sigh of relief on the death of Ivan Johnson.

The Bahamas is riddled with corruption and hypocrisy in equal measures and an intellectual such as Ivan took great pleasure in exposing both. He was utterly unfazed about the subsequent outcome.

He received death threats for his honesty in exposing some of the skullduggery which is to a degree the norm here. The Bahamas was founded by pirates and we have plenty still here alive and well.

He found via his vast network of contacts mountains of dirt on the rich and famous and various politicians.

Traditionally the PLP is a breeding ground for corrupt politicians so they got his full attention. In fairness, however, he would be equally virulent in his condemnation of any FNM who stepped out of line.

A classic cartoon in the Punch summed up Ivan. It shows a fuming Bahamian vexed by a bikini clad girl on P3 whilst non plussed by rape, child molestation, crime, ignorance and incest and the likes. Perfectly exposing the undercurrent hypocrisy of The Bahamas.

He will be greatly missed, investigative reporting and his type of journalism may well disappear from the Bahamas and as a society we will be the worse for it. Who now will keep the rich and powerful in check?

RIP Ivan.

THE REALIST

Nassau,

October 7, 2021.

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The legacy of Ivan and The Punch - Bahamas Tribune

NASSAU, BAHAMAS The Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) hosted its twenty-third Annual General Meeting (AGM) on September 30th, 2021.

The Chairman of BFSB, Mr. Kevin Moree noted that:

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that we had to adapt our strategies to ensure we continued to achieve our mandate of creating a greater awareness of The Bahamas as a premier international financial centre.

With the support of our members and through collaboration with the government during the past year BFSB has been able to provide input on The Bahamas; respond to international initiatives; maintaining a marketing and promotion presence, and developing strategies to reposition the financial services sector. The sector remains resilient.

The newly appointed Minister of Economic Affairs, with responsibility for financial services, gave the keynote address. He updated attendees on the priority action items of his portfolio and emphasized his firm commitment to collaborating with financial services stakeholders to grow and sustain this important contributor to the Bahamian economy. Minister Halkitis stated:

Within the Financial Services sector itself, now is the time for industry partners to progressively harness profitable niches. Widespread access to emerging opportunities within these growing sectors will be essential to moving this country forward along a path of exponential growth and progress.

The government will do its part in spurring innovation through our own digitization and ease of doing business efforts, which my Ministry will lead the charge on. We will roll out the technologies that will allow government services to be as efficient and effective as possible while introducing policies that will empower entrepreneurs rather than impeding them with bureaucracy and red tape. For too long we have sat at the bottom half of global ease of doing business rankings, it is time for us to level up by setting the stage for our business owners to be successful and then stepping out of the way so they can do what they do best.

BFSBS CEO and Executive Director Tanya McCartney in her report to members highlighted the key action areas for the board which included tracking international initiatives impacting the sector and continued promotion and marketing of the jurisdiction despite the COVID 19 pandemic.

She advised attendees that BFSB has remained true to its mandate of promoting greater awareness of The Bahamas strengths as an international financial centre. This, coupled with advocacy for the industry on policy matters has dominated its agenda which focuses on three broad areas of Promotion and Marketing; Response to International Initiatives, Policy & Legislation, and Stakeholder Engagement.

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BFSB announces new executive committee and Board of Directors - EyeWitness News

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

IRINA Creaser, affectionately known as Irie the Cat Woman, has dedicated her life to taking care of felines.

She not only takes care of stray cats but is also a volunteer groomer for the Bahamas Humane Society.

Having taken in about 60 cats over a two-year period, Ms Creaser is the founder of Catatonic Cat Lovers which has attracted some 900 members thus far. The journey for her has a span of some 40 years that started when she was a mere child.

It all came about me being an actual cat breeder and a cat lover for the past 40 years, the Cat Woman said. I had my first cat when I was 11 years old and Ive always been a cat lover.

I started breeding Persian cats in The Bahamas since 1995 under the mentorship of Dr Basil Sands. He has been my closest friend and mentor. He taught me a lot about medicine and how to help cats and steer them in the right direction.

Ms Creaser is a native of Germany. She moved to the United States at the age of 17. While living there she met and married her late husband who was an American. She came to The Bahamas in 1993 and is now a permanent resident.

Because of my own cats, eventually I have donated my services starting at least ten years ago to Bahamas Humane Society as a professional groomer.

So whenever they need cats or dogs to be washed or anything to do with grooming, I donate my services to help them. My name is listed so any adoption cat that comes from the Humane Society can come straight to me for a free bath, she said. I make sure that people enjoy kitties without fleas or anything. I weigh the cats, I take care of them and give people advice on pet care.

Its all about the cats for Ms Creaser who not only rescues and grooms them, but makes sure they are spayed and neutered.

I rescue cats as well, she said. I do everything from taking in fosters from BHS and BAARK (Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness) that just dont have space when they are going on flights to Canada or America. I take them in until they are ready to go. My name has kind of spread around to a lot of people who basically do not know what to do with their cats. They just show up at my doorstep.

Any cat that shows up at my doorstep finds a home. Over the last two years Ive picked up

and rehomed at least 60 cats on my own. Dr Solomon on Carmichael does spay and neuter. He gives me a special there. I am a strong supporter of spay and neuter, trying to help to decrease the stray population in general.

I often have people who are kind and leave me a small donation which I save up for people who cannot afford spay and neutering and I will actually pay for it.

It takes a special kind of person to give their hearts totally to the care of fur babies and Ms Creaser is definitely one of those special people. Even though she cares for so many cats who eventually will be re-homed to other people, she has cats of her own.

I have 15 Persian cats of my own, Irie said. Cats are my life. I live and breathe cats. The more people come and need me, the happier I am. The phone rings all day long. I have been trained enough to give some good advice. They ask me questions and I tell them what to look out for. I teach a lot of pet care. Lots of people are lacking the education on what cats really need.

Cats are not just needing food and water. This is not a country that is very kind to animals in general and even less to cats. So its really important that we understand what cats need and how to read the mannerism of cats to find out what the cat needs to live a happy and long life.

Ms Creaser gave The Tribune a first-hand account of her passion.

A cat can live comfortably for up to 17 years, but thats if they live mostly indoors, she said. If they are outdoors, it shortens their lives tremendously up to five years. I breed Persian cats, but I am not your everyday kind of breeder because I dont believe in breeding for income. My cats are truly a passion, not an income.

I believe with different breeds come different personalities and just like some people love a rambunctious short-haired kitty that is very energetic, there are also some people that like a more passive cat. There are certain cats who are just laid back which would be ideal for easy going people.

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Irie the Cat Woman tells of her passion for caring - Bahamas Tribune

PAHO Assistant Director Dr Jarbas Barbosa.

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH officials who recently sounded the alarm on the low supplies of vaccines left in the country can breathe a sigh of relief as authorities in the Pan American Health Organization are promising the arrival of 57,300 doses in the first week of November.

Recently Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis, chairwoman of the National Vaccine Consultative Committee, said The Bahamas faced rapidly diminishing COVID-19 vaccine supplies due to increased demand. She also said vaccine hesitancy remains among a portion of the population.

There are 104,380 people in The Bahamas who are now fully vaccinated.

Yesterday, PAHO Assistant Director Dr Jarbas Barbosa gave an update on how the organisation will help The Bahamas get more vaccines, with the United States assisting indirectly as well.

PAHO is doing everything thats possible to increase the access of its member states to vaccines, Dr Barbosa said during PAHOs weekly press conference. In the case of The Bahamas we are working to expedite the process with COVAX. So The Bahamas will receive another 57,300 doses in the first week of November.

We are also working with the US government to expedite the donation of four million doses that the US government is donating to the Caribbean countries and The Bahamas will receive vaccines through this initiative.

We are offering the regional countries to complement their vaccines through our direct purchasing process using PAHOs revolving fund.

The COVID-19 Delta variant has been identified as the dominant strain in The Bahamas recently leading to skyrocketing COVID numbers, as well as increased deaths rates and hospital cases over the summer. However in recent weeks, the number of COVID-19 infections as well as the hospital rate has lowered. Local officials say it is too early to say if we are out of the third wave, as less recorded infections could be the result of lower testing.

Dr Sylvain Aldhigieri, COVID-19 incident manager, spoke to the dangerous Delta variant now identified as the cause of the recent infections in The Bahamas by labs in South America.

The most recent samples sequenced at the institute in Panama and Brazil demonstrated 50 percent Delta, 45 percent unfound and 1.3 percent of Gamma, Dr Aldhigieri said of Delta in The Bahamas.

Although Delta is becoming predominant in most of the countries of the Caribbean in this context it is important to remember that this process of display and replacement of strains of variants is an expected phenomenon which has been happening early in the pandemic.

The Delta variant better adapts to the human host as part of their evolution process. In The Bahamas it could be that less people are presenting for testing. Perhaps as vaccination is increasing, people are becoming more relaxed and are less likely to present for testing when they have been exposed.

Dr Aldhigieri said even though the vaccine roll out is going well, people should continue to use the public health and social measures that are known to work and prevent the spread of COVID-19 including all its variants.

PAHO reports that for the last month, there has been a drop in COVID infections throughout the region, even if cases remain high. Over the last week, nearly 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and 24,000 COVID-related deaths were reported in the region.

Currently, 37 percent of the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Haiti have yet to reach even 10 percent coverage.

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Another 57000 doses of vaccine by early November - Bahamas Tribune

NASSAU, BAHAMAS The Speech from the Throne fails to address the seriousness of the countrys fiscal situation and is light on details and specifics, according to the Official Opposition.

The Opposition Free National Movement (FNM) in a statement said that Wednesdays Speech from the Throne does not provide the necessary plans and policies that will maintain the significant economic recovery started by the Minnis administration.

It stated: The PLP has again promised to reduce VAT without providing any clear plans on how the reduced revenue will be replaced. It failed to provide a timeline on when this will be done. The PLP has promised to increase old-age pension benefits but has not said how the same will be funded. Do they intend to increase NIB rates? Why didnt they say so? The PLP has promised to introduce a catastrophic health insurance plan. Do they intend to have all Bahamians pay a monthly insurance premium to cover this insurance? Why didnt they say so?

The Opposition also asserted that the speech also provides for exponential increases in expenditure without a clear plan or even mention on how they are going to pay for such a dramatic increase in expenditure.

The PLP government has put together plans to add hundreds of millions of dollars in spending during its term while seeking to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue at the same time. It is an impossible calculus that speaks to their irresponsible approach to governance. The Government appears to be making promises it cannot or has no intention of keeping.

According to the Opposition, the speech suggests a dramatic shift from the fiscally responsible policies that are required for a robust recovery. It noted that the Fiscal Responsibility Act was introduced to prevent arbitrary shifts in economic policy. It further noted that the reduction in VAT will result in an estimated $160 million annual revenue or $800 million over five years at a time when the countries resources are strained.

The Opposition also noted that the speech said little on the difficult but necessary decisions about tax enforcement or tax reform which is still required to make our tax system more equitable.

There was little discussion on the critical reforms necessary to our State-Owned Enterprises which continue to be a drain on the public purse. How will they enhance revenue and what programs will be cut to sustain the additional spending proposed? There was also no commitment not to raise taxes which is telling given the plans for significant increases in spending. The country is already experiencing the dropping of the price of the Bahamian sovereign debt bonds following irresponsible public pronouncements by the PLP Government.

It continued: While we heard about tax concessions for small businesses, there was no mention on what these were and who would qualify and how they would be any different from the massive amount of concessions left in place by the FNM. It is noteworthy that we heard no mention of the Small Business Development Center and its continued commitment to funding small businesses. The public is anxious to know will grants and loans still be available.

The Opposition also expressed concern that the PLP plans to revert to past practices which it said led to great abuse and corruption in housing construction and the sale of over-priced poor-quality homes.

The statement added: Moreover, they were silent on bringing economic empowerment to young professionals through land or homeownership.

There were also the supposedly clever changes in the naming of initiatives. By example, the 52-week programme is now a revised one-year First-Job programme. The plans underway for a major restructuring of the Bahamas Investment Authority is no longer to be called Invest Bahamas but Bahamas Invest. It is a shoddy attempt at rebranding an exercise that the FNM administration had already begun in earnest.

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OPPOSITION: Speech from the Throne ignores seriousness of fiscal situation - EyeWitness News

IVAN Johnson receiving his Pioneer award from Press Club president Anthony Capron in 2018. Photo: Press Club

IF you read the final issue of The Punch yesterday, published three days after the death of its editor, publisher, creator and defender Ivan Johnson, you had this sinking feeling in your gut that an important chapter in the history of The Bahamas had closed. In tribute after tribute contributed by many who expressed it far better than I ever could, the message that flew from dozens of prominent keyboards across the world from The Bahamas to Australia was emotional, painful and delivered with a dose of disbelief.

Ivan Johnson, you packed a helluva punch and now you are gone, dead of a massive heart attack at age 68 and we do not want it to be true because we all felt like you belonged to us. It was hard to digest that you could have had time for another life beside uncovering the story and blasting it across Page 1 in 60-point sans serif font, bold.

Long before we got close to having a Freedom of Information Act, Page 1 of The Punch was our unofficial freedom of information. Ivans were the eyes behind the scenes that always seemed to know what was going on, not the official version, the real one. He was afraid of no one. The only thing he ever feared was missing a lie that needed to be revealed.

It is too bad he is not here to read the accolades.

Ivan Johnson, the man who came back home after a career working for Rupert Murdoch, one of the most powerful and influential publishers in the world, showed us the power of one. And how ironic it was that his voice fell silent on the same day that another burst through.

Only a day before, almost no one outside Silicon Valley and probably few inside the California tech hub knew the name Frances Haugen. On Sunday night, October 3, on one of the most watched shows on television, Haugen told millions tuned in to 60 Minutes that she was the whistleblower in possession of thousands of documents that showed Facebook put profits above people. Driven by its bottom line, the algorithms of Facebook and its social media platforms harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy, Haugen alleged.

Her interview on 60 Minutes hit the newswires and social media news feeds even before it ended. The following day, she repeated her accusations before a Senate hearing, urging Congress to act. Facebook creator the ever-youthful Mark Zuckerberg, one of the worlds richest men who still looks like he could live a month on a single razor blade, defended the company arguing that it listens to its viewers and users who repeatedly say they do not want to see divisive and violent content, but many analysts say this congressional hearing will be tougher than any before on the man whose fortune is pegged at $135 billion (though hearts go out to him for a single day loss of $7 billion when Facebook and its apps, including Instagram and whatsapp crashed on Monday).

Ivan Johnson, Frances Haugen. A month from now, few if any of us in The Bahamas will remember the name of the 37-year-old product manager who blew the whistle on Facebook. Years from now, we will all remember the man who founded The Punch and for nearly 31 years strived to bring us the real story of politics and life in The Bahamas.

A short note about paths that crossed

Ivan and I both worked for a while for the same publisher in a roundabout way. I, too, came to The Bahamas from a world of daily journalism followed by a fascinating career in tabloids, far more demanding than anyone who hasnt been inside the operating room of one knows.

Broadsheets, like The Tribune have news rooms. I grew up in one and earned my reporter and editing badge amidst the dead Styrofoam coffee cups, ashtrays filled with yesterdays butts, crackling police radio that never stopped.

Tabloids, like The Punch, the National Enquirer, Star, Midnight Sun and others take their style from Fleet Street where the style of writing is tight and the concept of get in, tell the story, get out was born and thrives to this day.

No long monologues repeating a history, todays news delivered hot and whenever possible saucy or edgy.

Every word counts. And Ivan, you kept up that Fleet Street pace all these years, combining it with a behind the scenes look that an investigative reporter that would take to a broadsheet. You were a one-man show in a competitive world.

I just wonder how different our history would have been had you been here in the early 80s and published The Punch then during the height of the drug-running, Normans Cay flying a foreign flag and forbidding Bahamians to land days. We will never know.

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DIANE PHILLIPS: The Punch and the power of one - Bahamas Tribune