protest

In an address to public workers, Prime Minister Philip Davis delivered a pointed message–saying he doesn’t “believe in cussing and carrying on,” but in “partnership and finding solutions,” – a slight at union leaders of the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) and the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT), Kimsley Ferguson and Belinda Wilson, who threatened another protest over the delayed salary increase.

Speaking during a national address on Tuesday night, Davis bypassed the union leaders whom he had promised a meeting, and said he was speaking directly to public workers as tension rises.

“I will not sit in rooms where respect is not mutual. Real progress happens when grown men and women sit down and reason with each other,” Davis said.

While reiterating his respect for unions, Davis said, “Fights get us nowhere. We need progress and respect. We achieve nothing by thrashing words in the press.” He continued, “Cussing and carrying on don’t work for ‘Brave.’ We are adults and  we must act like it.”

The big picture

This comes after Ferguson and Wilson met with Davis on Monday as promised, following a heated protest last Wednesday over the delayed salary increase to December instead of September.

During Monday’s meeting, the pair and Davis reviewed the salary for public servants, but were to meet on Tuesday to finalize the logistics of the increase. Wilson, addressing the media afterward, stated that a protest was imminent if the agreement was not finalized for workers’ next pay day, October 25.

Davis, moments later, issued a press statement, cancelling Tuesday’s meeting due to Wilson’s comments.

What’s at stake?

By addressing public workers instead of union leaders in a meeting as promised, Davis could be seen as undercutting unions’ influence. The move risks alienating Wilson and Ferguson, who may feel publicly sidelined.

Davis may want to be seen as the reasonable figure in a heated dispute, positioning his government as solutions-oriented and above the fray.

It remains to be seen if this tone and new position will calm tensions or deepen the divide between the government and the unions.

Director of Communications in the Office of the Prime Minister, Latrae Rahming, is praising Prime Minister Philip Davis’ decision to confront angry public workers on Parliament Square on Wednesday—calling it an act of ‘bravery.’

In a social media post, Rahming wrote, “At least the man I work for is brave enough to walk among and speak with the people. The others (the Free National Movement) are hiding in the crowd. They never used to speak to the same workers they’re walking with now. Leaders don’t run.”

Rahming’s remark followed a dramatic scene outside Parliament on Wednesday, where hundreds of public servants, led by union heads Kimsley Ferguson of the Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) and Belinda Wilson of the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT), demanded overdue salary increases that were promised in September but delayed until December.

Davis initially appeared confused about the protest, saying he would “find out” what the demonstration was about. Later, union leaders walked inside the House of Assembly and walked out hand in hand with the Prime Minister, who promised payments “before Christmas” and said the increases were “from my heart.”

But Rahming’s praise of Davis as “brave” drew a swift backlash online.

“Be brave enough to pay what was promised,” wrote Daphne Lundy.

“All of y’all work for us. His job was to come out there and speak to the people,” said Channy Burrows. “Lord, what is this we promoting? Where is Nelson Mandela?”

“Y’all spin doctors out now trying to change the narrative,” commented Elvardo Laing.

“A true leader would never let it get to this point,” said Anthony Clarke.

The protest underscored growing frustration among public workers.

Featured images: Facebook and  The Tribune

Hundreds of public service workers marched on Parliament on Wednesday, demanding the delayed wage increases promised by the government.

Protesters chanted, “If you can’t get our money, ring the bell,” as some clashed with police officers and others sat in the street behind barricades.

Union leaders from the Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) Kimsley Ferguson and the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT), Belinda Wilson, called out the government for excluding certain worker groups and failing to properly consult them.

Wilson and Ferguson marched to the door of the House of Assembly but were initially denied entrance. Eventually, they were permitted inside and soon appeared walking hand in hand with Prime Minister Philip Davis.

Davis, also the Minister of Finance, addressing the crowd, reiterated the promise that payments would be made before Christmas, with back pay retroactive to September, and said the decision came “from my heart.”

“First of all, the decision to give y’all some money came from me, from my heart. I understood that y’all need that. It was nothing negotiated. I’m trying to help all of you. Y’all will be paid and the payment will be before Christmas. You will be paid before Christmas.”

Why does it matter

Public servants have long called for pay increases and have expressed being ignored and undervalued.

The promise of a pay increase for September initially, then pushed to December, adds to their frustration.

The government’s promise to meet retroactive wage increases can add pressure to the national budget, as the country prepares for a by-election and a general election.

What’s at stake

Any delay in payment or a partial payment will deepen frustrations. If some worker categories remain excluded, it could reignite protests.

If the government delivers and everyone is happy, it will boost morale before a general election.

The government’s attempt to yet again delay the Question period is an attempt to dodge questions.

Wednesday was set aside for the Opposition to ask the government pressing questions as designed for the 2^nd Wednesday of every month. But Leader of Government Business O.B Wilchcombe, decided to go through the motions of laying bills on the table instead, although he promised Opposition members on Tuesday that he would go forward with the session.

His attempt to defer questions to February 20 and Speaker Patricia Deveaux’s attempt to adjourn the House until then, is a brazen dodge to be held accountable.

“Let’s stay in the House and do the people’s work,” a fiery Pintard protested.

“Why waste time? Why are you not honoring your word?” he questioned from the other side of the House.

Opposition members have been seeking answers to questions for some time now, and were hoping to put forth questions on Wednesday during the Question period. Among the questions were:

1. Will the government provide all expenses, receipts, and donations toward the trip to Bermuda that was made by Prime Minister Davis and the delegation to attend the convention of the Progressive Labour Party?
2. Can the Minister with responsibility for Housing confirm the purpose why Bahamians were evicted from the domes in Abaco?
3. When will the government disclose the amounts paid out to the Financial Secretary and others to settle cases of matters related to administrative leave and redeployment?

The House of Assembly rang out with chants of “Answer the questions” as Pintard and opposition members banged on the desk and held up a folder containing eight pages of questions prepared for the session.

Deputy Leader Chester Cooper though, proceeded with tabling the government’s bills amidst the commotion and protest as Deveaux led the charge before the House was adjourned to Feb 20^th.

The ‘Question and Answer Period’ holds the government accountable and the government must commit to being answerable to the people.

The exercise is to glean information that the executive may not want to reveal to the public.

It should be a key part of our parliamentary democracy.

The government should be moving toward more transparency and accountability. We demand accountability from our elected officials. Knowing what our legislators are doing in our name is a cornerstone of our democracy.

The government needs to stop trying to skirt and hide its actions from the public.

Photo credit: The Tribune

Haitian police officers rioted in the streets of Port-au-Prince on Thursday, demanding its government act after armed gangs killed 14 of their colleagues.

Dressed as civilians, officers blocked the streets and entrance to the country’s main airport as Prime Minister Ariel Henry arrived from Argentina where he attended the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Summit(CELAC).

Before flooding the airport, the rioters invaded Henry’s home where gunshots rang off.

Earlier in the day, reports were that police had stopped the local charge d’affairs and taken their vehicles and weapons.

Since then, Prime Minister Philip Davis who returned From Argentina on Wednesday ordered an immediate involuntary departure for Bahamian diplomatic personnel.

All diplomats are reportedly safe.

The National Union of Haitian Police Officers says 14 officers have been killed since the beginning of the year in gang attacks on police stations.

Seven officers were killed in a shootout on Wednesday alone, according to Haiti’s National Police. And in other instances, two officers were killed inside a police station in the country’s northern state, while four were killed execution-style in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

Video circulating social media shows the naked and bloodied bodies of six men stretched out in the street as their guns lay on their chests. Another video shows two masked men smoking cigarettes from the dismembered hands and feet of the dead men.

The gang who killed them, known as Gan Grif, still has the bodies, police said.

As the political and social conditions in Haiti continue to deteriorate, its citizens leave the embattled country in droves for greener pastures like the Bahamas and Florida.

Featured photos: Reuters/Ralph Tedy Erol

Scores of workers of the Bahamas Public Service Union gathered near Parliament Square advocating for pay increases, chanting “We want our money and we want it now.”

What happened

The group along with President Kimsley Ferguson is calling for salary increases and has accused the government of ‘union busting.’ He said the government is stalling negotiations and the union is still waiting for its industrial agreement to be signed.

While Down Town, he and other leaders of various unions in the country held a conversation with Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper but Ferguson said he was not satisfied and was “very disappointed”  in the government’s response.

“There is a serious case for concern when there is no integrity in the leadership of the country… There is no one to speak for the public servants,” he said.

Ferguson said he and the group will up the ante if the demands for increased pay are not met.

“We will continue to agitate until we get the results we want.”

Why it matters

The government has proposed annual increases for permanent secretaries, directors and department heads. The union says it shows that the government has sufficient funding to give public servants adequate increases.

Many pharmacies are closed today until further notice to protest the government’s decision to implement price control on medications which they say will negatively impact their ability to operate.

The pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers said they were not consulted and were “blindsided” by the government’s decision to add fourteen of its medications to a price control list.

The Bahamas Pharmaceutical Association which represents the whole and retail pharmacies in the country said the price control measures cut into their budget and threaten their ability to remain open.

Here’s a list of Pharmacies Open today, many of which include government clinics.

1. McCartney’s Pharmacy
2. Elizabeth Estates Clinic
3. Doctor’s Hospital
4. Flamingo Gardens Clinic
5. Fleming Street Clinic
6. South Beach Health Center
7. Exuma Primary Care Center

Here’s a list of Pharmacies Closed Today

1. McCartney’s Pharmacy
2. Smitty’s Pharmacy
3. Chappies Pharmacy
4. Sav-Mor Drugs
5. RMC Pharmacy
6. Wilmac’s Pharmacy
7. Nassau Agencies
8. Abaco Island Pharmacy
9. Lowe’s Pharmacy
10. Comprehensive Pharmacy
11. Curry’s Pharmacy
12. Walk in Clinic
13. World Wide Pharmaceuticals
14. Da Medicine Place
15. QVC Pharmacy

Three days after charges were filed for unlawful assembly and obstruction leading to chaos in Parliament Square, the Leader of the Coalition of Independence took to social media on Sunday to provoke an attack on an officer he says is responsible for driving a vehicle that he said “hit” his supporter.

Lincoln Bain showed a picture of the police he called ‘Jarvis’, telling his supporters, “They need to be treated special if you see them around society.”

Bain and some members of the group showed up in Rawson Square on Wednesday to give parliamentarians a copy of their immigration proposal and wound up in a fight with officers when Bain was asked to move from the steps and work within the precincts of the square.

Bain resisted and was physically removed by a senior officer. Chaos erupted and he was eventually carried away in a police vehicle.

During the melee, his supporter Cara Ellis was seen standing in front of the police vehicle to prevent officers from driving Bain away, who was in the backseat. Officers standing on the outskirts then forcefully removed her from the passageway of the vehicle.

However, Bain, who says Ellis is like a daughter to him, says she was an innocent bystander and only stopped by to take video shots of him being carried away. “She is an innocent girl. She was just standing up taking videos.”

Showing a picture of ‘Jarvis’ he repeatedly said, “Cara this is Jarvis.”

Bain encouraged his supporters to share the picture of the officer. “I need their faces to be all over social media. Yes, this [is] the Haitian.

“When you’ll see him, love him up,” he said.

Bain, along with Ellis and seven other members of his group were detained and charged for the melee. They are now on $1,500 bail and will return to court on December 1.

Prince William and Kate’s Caribbean tour is causing more stir about colonialism and slavery.

As the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge set to travel to their next stop, Jamaica on Tuesday, after leaving Belize, some Jamaicans are planning to protest their arrival, calling for slavery reparations and apologies from the British family, and are refusing to participate in the Platinum Jubilee Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II.

The group, Advocates Network wrote an open letter to William and Kate, signed by one hundred prominent Jamaicans namely politicians, lawyers, songwriters, theologians and scholars.

The group attached 60 reasons why the royal family should apologize to Jamaica which include “the exploitation of Jamaica, the transatlantic trafficking of Africans, the enslavement of Africans, indentureship and colonialization.”

The protest is expected to take place on Tuesday at the British High Commission in Kingston.

Jamaica says it is in talks to remove Queen Elizabeth as Head of State. This comes after Barbados became a republic, distancing itself from the monarchy in November.

Prince William and Kate canceled a trip to a farm in Belize after villagers resented their arrival on land in dispute with a group in which William is a patron.

The Opposition in Jamaican Parliament led by Mark Golding, says though it will participate in the celebration, the British monarch needs to “make an authentic and profound apology for the role played by their family in the Slave Trade, chattel slavery and the plantation system, and also for a public acknowledgment that they benefited from it.”

William and Kate will be in Jamaica from March 22 to 24.