This photo shows the Princess Margaret Hospital in its current state. Prime Minister Ingraham promised as he rapped up the budget debate, that his government will build a new hospital. He did not say where nor when nor how, only to say that it will happen after BTC is sold. Bahamas Press has a ‘QUESTION TO THE PRIME MINISTER’. Is the prime minister aware that today the Princess Margaret Hospital frequently runs out of basic medicine for the elderly and young who present their requests at PHM? Is this not Mr. PRIME MINISTER, like putting the cart before the horse? Why are we building a new hospital all to discover its would not have medicine in it after it is built?
Nassau, Bahamas: People of this country must know by now that Hubert Ingraham keeps fooling them every time he opens his mouth. Ask anyone! Many persons have already died in Grand Bahama and to this day never saw Hubert Ingraham’s promise to them come to pass. Check his record for yourself.
Bahamas Press finds it difficult, very difficult to digest the rhetoric expressed by the Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham these days. They have no teeth, they are like ice in thin air that quickly dissipates. For a second time in his political life, Hubert Ingraham has gone on record stating that his government would build a new hospital.
The wild statement came as the prime minister rapped up debate on the 2008/09 Budget in the House of Assembly. Bahamas Press confirms this bold ‘EMPTY PROMISE’ by the Prime Minister as RHETORIC, because these are not new. In fact one need only to check the Nassau Guardian edition of June 22nd, 1990 and there you would find similar promises made to the Bahamian people at a rally during the Marco City bye-election.
In his text during that Marco City rally, Hubert Ingraham outlined 25 point under his headline, ‘A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER’. We looked closer at some of his promises offered to the Bahamian people eighteen (18) years ago and simply smiled to ourselves. There must certainly be no more tricks in Hubert Ingraham’s ‘BLACK HAT’, and therefore he has simply resorted to his text of 1990, (Before he served as prime minister for 10 years). Bahamas Press will point out 17 of those promises and let you see for yourself, what we mean when we call Hubert Ingraham, ‘the Toothless Lion’.
Ingraham in that speech promised the people of Grand Bahama;
“We will construct a new hospital in Freeport: improve the delivery of our health system; undertake essential training and retraining of healthcare providers; ensure that healthcare is not determined by the size or depth of one’s pocketbook…”
Again this speech was 18 years ago, and guess what? The Rand Memorial is still the old heath care centre on Grand Bahama. The hospital is in such poor condition 18 years after Hubert promised a new hospital in 1990, that recently the leaky roof had to be changed. And what makes Hubert Ingraham think that since he could not build a small hospital for Grand Bahamians (FNM COUNTRY) over 18 years now, that he can now build one in Nassau after selling BaTelCo?
Bahamas Press wonders how long will the empty words, lies and empty promises persist from a leader who is certainly not operating in his season. Hubert Ingraham’s season has long passed in The Bahamas and the downturn in the state of affairs we see today is a testament to that fact!
Stay tuned for more of Ingraham ‘empty words’ to the people of The Bahamas.
This MAD MAN we have as Prime Minister is on a steady course to destroy this country. I have a child in college and I am scrapping to give her money each month……everything is sky high and I feel like a foreigner in my own country.
I mean, all I can remember is being left with my mouth open when the FNM took over public office and the first thing that came to a screeching halt was all the developments planned that would send this country’s economy blazing with goodness. This PM is totally insane and the sooner Bahamians realize that, the better for them.
I must admit, the FNM had me VERY fooled and I thought they were coming in with a plan to set The Bahamas soaring ahead. I dread to know what will happen to us when Cuba opens up.
My fellow bloggers this is what we get when we as an electorate made a bad choice on May 2nd 2007.
The FNM administration has destroyed the middle class ….destroyed any real investment that was pegged for our economy ….crippled the economy of Freeport and to put more salt in the wound have raised taxes on the average Bahamian family like never before.
Now they say that they are going to build a new hospital which is more lies…..I say we do not need a new hospital when they cannot even keep medication and bed’s in the old one….and why build a new hospital when there will not be any National Health Insurance to give the almost 50% of individuals that do not have health insurance.
When The Prime Minister stopped the Nassau redevelopment plan this was a wrench that was placed in our tourism product this was a message that said that we will not be upgradeing our product any time soon.
So we are left virtualy with no plans for our future and no upgrade.
Today is sad day for me! I have not seen a fish man in the neighbourhood since I was a kid and I am a man almost fifty. This is truly sad. What are these people doing to our country?
I had a visitor in town over the weekend and he was confused about “Bahamian Culture”….he said this place is Little Haiti and he is not coming back unless he can clearly see what is Bahamian culture.
Man they all over selling fish, lobster, conch, shrimp you name it. And it’s not only black Bahamians. These hard time affecting everyone.
Well in Nassau thing really getting BAD, for the first time in years who you all think came up to my gate today? A BAHAMIAN SELLING FISH! I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT THE FISHER MAN IS BACK! SELLING SNAPPERS, AND YELLOW TAILS.
Well this was a shock, as you know our office have the highest security possible in this country, and he could only stand outside the gate.
Bahamas Press/ Editor
I am SHOCKED at GCF for saying we should take it easy on the PM. That man has this country in a state just ONE year of being in office. He has attacked the middle classed Bahamians which includes ME and MY WIFE AND FAMILY. I WILL NOT take it easy on him. He is a heartless man who cares about NO ONE except himself and a few white, rich people. This man has JAMMED us in the back with the proverbial knife LONG time. Again, I WILL NOT TAKE IT EASY ON HIM. NO WAY!!
BTC UNION GET YOUR BEER AND PEANUTS READY!
Take it easy on the PM? He need to take it easy on the Bahamian people and stop raising taxes in these tough economic times!
Well ‘WOW’ we cannot agree with you more, our 17 points of empty promises given to the Bahamian people 18 years ago by Ingraham, gives us the reason to ask the question, How did he developed in the minds of the people that he is leadership one can trust? Or did his law partner and friend CHRISTIE, made certain, those empty words would never come up, showing HUBERT to be the real shuffler and INDECISIVE LEADER The Bahamas has ever seen?
Bahamas Press/Editor
Watch out, take it easy on the PM.
Ingraham making empty promises have y’all surprised? You got to be joking. Real news would be when he keeps a promise. Y’all thought the “Trust Agenda” was real hey? I have a bridge to Paradise Island to sell you then, I have papers and everything.
Remember during the campaign when Ingraham said if he was PM, he would meet with both sides of the Port Authority principles and nobody would leave until they resolved the issue. Well things still the same after over a year in power. I think we misheard them during the campaign, they have a “Thrust Agenda”, because that’s what they doing with the proverbial knife into the backs of the people who voted them into office.
Activist claims Albany could have impact on water supply
By ALISON LOWE
Tribune Staff Reporter
alowe@tribunemedia.net
August 5 2008
ACCESS for Bahamians to a consistent and affordable water supply could be threatened if Albany goes ahead, an American environmental activist has warned.
According to Samuel Sage, the Environmental Impact Assessment on the proposed luxury development does not include evidence of developers considering its longterm impact on New Providence’s fresh water supply.
In an interview during a visit to Nassau this weekend, Mr Sage said that as far as he is concerned water is the most important issue at stake as the exclusive project moves ahead.
Mr Sage, a chemist by training who has specialised in water and hazardous chemical issues, has a long history of campaigning on water resources. He is the president of New York-based environmental organisation, Atlantic States Legal Foundation, which has done work all over the world on environmental issues, as well as being associated for many years with country-wide environmental organisation, the Sierra Club, as an Executive Director.
Mr Sage, a former Executive Director of U.S. environmental organisation the Sierra Club, has reviewed the Albany Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and is convinced Albany should be, and could be doing much more to protect the 500 acres they will develop.
“I don’t think what they’re doing is the best practice environmentally. If they are doing the best they are certainly not sharing the data with the public, they are not proving it,” said Mr Sage.
“I’m not saying they shouldn’t build the resort, that’s the decision of the people of the Bahamas, but there are always ways to be more benign to the environment.”
Mr Sage said an appeal needs to be made to Tiger Woods and his co-developers to do what they can to make the property a “gold star” resort environmentally.
Albany’s million dollar homes, canal and marina will sit on what has been identified by experts as Nassau’s most plentiful fresh water repository. The “groundwater lens” is a layer of fresh water that collects around five feet below ground, made up of rain water that has sifted through the soil and gathered there.
Currently the Water and Sewage Corporation relies on groundwater wellfields for some, but not all of the water it supplies, with the rest being shipped in from Andros, or created through the desalination of seawater by reverse osmosis.
Groundwater can become contaminated with run off from above, or by an influx of salt water from the ocean, making it unusable unless treated.
Mr Sage and other environmentalists are concerned the development will compromise the lens in some way and it will be very costly, in terms of money and energy, or simply impossible for it to be saved.
“One shot of money that comes into Bahamian economy isn’t going to do people any good if they don’t have water to drink,” he said.
Run off from the golf course, or any other contaminant that might trickle through the ground from the development could ruin the water. The canal which Albany plans to cut through the beach so that its residents can moor their yachts inside its marina close to their homes may “puncture” the lens, allowing salt-water intrusion.
And whether or not any of these scenarios become a reality, there is the extra demand for water by hundreds of additional wealthy people to consider, at a time when New Providence is already struggling to meet demand.
Greater demand for water supplies from new residents will increase the risk of groundwater contamination.
Mr Sage added: “New Providence already suffers from a lack of water. You’re already importing water. As temperatures get hotter, people will use more water …it behooves the government to be as conservative as possible in dealing with these water resources.”
The activist suggested equipment to enable Albany residents to reuse their water should be fitted.
And he, like others, has suggested building a marina that floats outside the development to avoid dredging an inland channel which could damage the resource.
But if this does not happen, an independent monitoring team should be put in place to check for contamination of the groundwater as Albany progresses.
Mr Sage says he sees “a lot of gaps” in Albany’s EIA, even though it has now been accepted by the government and approvals given.
“What is said a lot in the EIA is, ‘We will mitigate as best we can, etc.’ As best we can is not good enough. They shouldn’t say they will ‘seek to minimise’ their impact on the environment.
“They should say ‘We won’t do it.”
The United Nations has warned that freshwater supplies are dwindling globally, with the potential to cause severe pollution, species loss and food insecurity — leading to malnutrition and disease.
A 2004 Water Resources Assessment by the US Army Corps of Engineers said that freshwater resources in the Bahamas are finite and vulnerable, and stressed that regulating and protecting them is essential.
“Water availability (in the Bahamas) is so low that it is considered ‘scarce’ according to United Nations criteria,” it said.
The report warns ignoring over exploitation will have severe repercussions, such as health issues from water-borne diseases and much greater water costs.
Messages left for Albany’s Managing Partner Christopher Anand and Water and Sewage Corporation General Manager Godfrey Sherman were not returned yesterday. Minister and Minister of State for the Environment, Earl Deveaux and Phenton Neymour were unavailable to comment on the issue as The Tribune went to press.
One woman told it to us this way,”The last time Hubert Ingraham talked about building a new hospital, we was living in Grand Bahamas. Our daughter was turning one. That was in 1990. Today, Grand Bahama still waiting on that Hospital, and guess what, our daughter is now 19 years old and off to college. For the second time in her life, now her voting age, HUBERT INGRAHAM still talking about ‘BUILDING A HOSPITAL.” Thats one toothless lion ech?
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