News that the tourist is not supposed to see

Week 17 –  News that the tourist is not supposed to see

Four years ago when we met Mrs Rolle at her store in Staniel Cay, she expressed to Sue the locally held concern of parents in the Out Isles caused by an educational system which, from middle school thru the higher grades, requires that the children be boarded ‘out’ in Nassau, where they would be taking classes. Mrs. Rolle told Sue then that the community would greatly appreciate a teacher who could cover those years of education without exposing the children to “the crime”. When back in Nassau Susan and I looked for signs of a crime rate – but apparently we overlooked the obvious.

Enter: The Punch

Billing itself as the Bahamas Biggest Selling Newspaper, The Punch carries a tabloid air about it with a scandalous slant.  I will share a few of the front pages from the Feb 27^th issue: Front Page

“PLP drug pilot ‘Blackjack’ cuts deal with DEA!” The boiled down version is that Blackjack Johnson is a campaign manager in the PLP, (governing political party), who made an emergency landing in the Dutch Antilles with a load of cocaine in his aircraft. Blackjack has been working his way through courts – first in Panama and subsequently in Miami and is naming names of PLP bigshots involved in the cocaine trade to the DEA in return for a reduced sentence. He is unhappy that his government buddies didn’t try harder to get him extradited from Panama.

Meanwhile, another pilot, nephew of another jailed drug-lord is the subject of an intensive manhunt  after ramming his plane into a police jeep at Sandy Point in the Abacos and escaping on foot – but leaving his cargo of Haitian and Dominican illegal immigrants  and $57,000 in cash in the plane.

Still on the front page, two murders in Nassau bringing the total for 2014 to 16 SO FAR!

Lastly (on the front page), there has been a run on the Bank of Bahamas, which has been a solid performer for 24 years. The run by depositors making big withdrawals allegedly signals a loss of confidence because of a rapid decline of the banks loans portfolio. The only government department not running in the red (public health) has transferred $7 million to help the bank stay solvent.

Page two – advertisements for food bargains on “stamp day”, when Bahamian mothers get their food stamps.

Page three – Marvelous Marcella: a full page colour picture of scantily clad “swinging single” Marcella, who works at a shop to finance her way through a nursing program. She is said to be looking for a good man to date.

Oh, and jammed along the margin beside Marcellas slim midriff, a developing scandal about government ministers, possibly including the PM himself, who have been failing to pay their property taxes, some for up to 10 years.  And a follow-up on an earlier shooting during a home invasion – one alleged perpetrator going before the courts, two remain at large.

Page four – International News

Mexico: Details on the capture of drug-lord Guzman,

London: teenager threatens mother with knife because she failed to purchase the ‘right’ brand of sneakers

Paris: Cops are failing drug tests as a result of breathing near the huge amounts of confiscated grass stored in police stations

Zimbabwe: pres. Mugabe gives himself a huge birthday party – 45,000 in attendance, costing $1million

Thailand: police nab some guy trying to have sex with a corpse

Rome: mother fails in attempt to kill newborn offspring

Charleston SC: Husband tries to enlist his sisters and wife in sex orgy – wife calls cops

Beverly Hills: Life Imitates Art Department – Blondie Bennet undergoing hypnosis to make her into an even more brainless blonde – the better to emulate her role model – the Mattel toy: ‘Barbie’

The rest of the ‘world’ in a nutshell.

The Caribean Beat Section has some real news (mostly Jamaican):

Jamaica is poised to legalize marijuana and to treat it as a big-earning agri-crop!

The Dominican Association of Evangelical Churches is banning a Jamaican Reggae singer who they say glorifies the devil.

In Grand Cayman Island – budget rent-a-car has inaugurated an all-electric fleet of rental cars complete with solar charging stations

Chinese to build $2.2million dollar ornamental pond at the public gardens in Kingston, Jamaica.

Barbados has failed to pay damages specified by the Court of the Caribbean for illegal body cavity search and deportation of a Jamaican woman. The Jamaican government is taking-up the case while the Barbados Government remains silent.

THE CRIME & COURT BEAT – Nassau:

One dead, the other in critical condition in hospital – gang rivals have a shoot-out

Man shot in stomach by unspecified assailants while at home with family

Gunman holds up and robs passengers on a city bus (jitney), shoots one passenger, who was DOA at the hospital. Still at large.

Gunman in black Nissan assassinates guy waiting at the takeout window of a Chinese Restaurant.

$800, 000 haul by police in drug bust.

Activist cleared by the court when charged with commiting a grossly indecent act by posting photos of the body of someone killed (probably by police) while in police custody.

That is IT to page ten of this 55 page paper. Lots to read.

No wonder Mrs.Rolle and the mothers of the Out Islands want to keep the kids at home. It looks like gangs, drugs and violence are even worse in Nassau than in Miami – for sure on a per capita basis. Almost all of the killers and their victims are young men of ages between 22 and 30. And the smuggling business continues with the only change (from time-to-time) being the product.

Susan and I have pursued other plans – she not really wanting to start teaching again and I would have to ‘invent’ a job to occupy myself. The call should go out for help. Perhaps we actually know someone who could make this their mission.  My totally from the hip guess is that the Baptist Church (over which Mrs. Rolles husband is the presiding reverend) could provide or find sponsors for the school space if a Canadian Church would pay the teachers salary and fund the supplies. Mrs. Rolle suggested that up to 30 young people could attend from Staniels Cay and the neighbouring islands from communities such as Black Point Beach.

Meanwhile, we remain storm-stayed in this lovely island of paradise. We are amidst a fairly large group of cruisers, including two boatloads of young children, all waiting for sufficiently good weather for crossings to the Exumas. Three charter boats left today for Miami – despite adverse conditions. The 50 foot sloop from Key Largo ( Zephyrus ) managed to back out of the docks area without hitting any other boats, although he did whack his anchor on the dock. He had solicited among the cruisers at Happy Hour for a couple of hairy-chested gorilla-types to make the crossing with him since his charter passengers are non-participants in the working of the vessel. For me, it would have been ‘interesting’, but only if I was 30 years younger.  A charter power-boat captain declined to make the crossing under these adverse conditions and sent his passengers back to Miami by seaplane. Tonight he is alone aboard – with his underwater lights.

 We are in a lull as I write this but are expecting 50 knot gusts tomorrow.

My friend Yvan from the adjoining boat frequently bores into my eye with his - of late. I think that he believes I understand everything he says  -  which is NOT the case.  We continue to waffle our way through all kinds of subjects. Clearly he does not understand everything that I say.  I’m not sure how I led him to believe that this is an opportunity for moi – but somehow he thinks that I could be making an absolute ‘killing’ fixing electrical systems on Recreational Vehicles in ... da da dum... Quebec City! Tabernacle!

It is all fun, however. I told him it will not be happening.

A large gaggle of the ‘cruisers’ set out on foot to explore the northern end of the island yesterday. We entered the ‘gated’ condo-estates of the World Resorts property and stopped for a drink by the infinity pool which overlooks the Florida Strait. The group split up after that and 7 of us carried on to the mega-yacht marina, the casino and the recreational pool area for the truly wealthy. There is almost no business going on, but there is still a massive amount of construction under way. The cruise ship dock construction was closed down due to heavy winds but the new multi-story cruise ship reception center and hotel was moving forward with a major cement pour on the second level.

Resorts World has closed off access to the northern tip of the Island including the famous Bimini Road,  also known as Atlantis Road, and access to the land trail to the “fountain of youth”. We were picked up by the complimentary shuttle bus and driven to the Northernmost Beach – with a running commentary about the project, the workers and so on from our driver: Anthony Antonio. He told us that he is a typical outsider worker like 70% of the workforce at the Resort. He hails from the West End of Grand Bahama Island. He commented that most of the locals don’t seem to want jobs.

Our return to the Marina occurred just in time for the East-bound Cruisers Conference at Happy Hour.  They had chartbooks out and were planning their trips to Nassau and the Exumas. Some have the Chris Parker weather subscriptions – a definite must for the serious Bahamas cruiser. Chris had predicted a good weather window for Saturday and Sunday.

Chris will answer your forecast questions online during his morning web-based briefings. His Single Side-Band briefings are not so ‘cutting-edge’ because they lack that feature. That decides the matter for us. We go with the web-based Chris Parker Service ($200 per year) via one of the new (and cheaper than ever) satphone data packages.

First to leave

They were filled with anticipation of a smooth sail on Saturday – but the gale force winds through the night brought with them a revised forecast – and we are all still in port together until next Wednesday.

Well the giant speakers are blasting away in celebration of ‘Homecoming’ this Friday night. The wind is turning out to be a mixed blessing – because it is carrying the roaring music away from our little haven.