<<< Oswald Brown Writes

Dear Editor,

I was totally surprised that The Tribune published the letter that I wrote on June 21 expressing shock that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham decided to go on a ten-day trip to South Africa to watch a sporting event at a time when, as I said, the Bahamian people were suffering from the pangs of his draconian budget cuts. Considering the tremendous influence that Mr. Ingraham has on what’s published in the two major dailies in this country, I certainly did not expect The Tribune or The Nassau Guardian to print a letter that was critical of Mr. Ingraham’s ill-advised pleasure trip.

The Guardian never did, but The Tribune printed it on Saturday, June 26, five days after I wrote it. However, when I saw a response to my letter from a coward hiding behind the pseudonym “Amazed” that The Tribune printed on, July 2, it became quite clear to me why those responsible for making editorial decisions at The Tribune decided to print my letter. Surely, it would have been poor journalism for them to print a response to a letter they did not publish.

But the plot thickens. At the end of my letter printed in The Tribune, there was a poorly punctuated and constructed editorial postscript attributed to me that I did not write. The “editorial note” stated: “It is absolutely incredible that after the FNM government headed by the Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham slashed annual contributions to institutions like the Ranfurly Home for Children, the Bahamas Red Cross Society, Private Schools and sporting organizations the Government can find money to send the Minister of Youth and Sports, the Hon. Charles Maynard an MP for Golden Isles on a pleasure trip all the way to South Africa. Clearly the FNM Government has lost its way. This is a shame as to how public funds are being squandered.—Oswald Brown”

Nowhere in my letter did it mention the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture; neither did I write the postscript in The Tribune. If The Tribune wanted to add this as its opinion, then it should have attributed it to its editor. Mysteriously, though, some of the wording in that postscript were exactly the same as a postscript at the end of my letter when it was published on the website bahamasuncensored.com on Sunday, June 27, that was attributed to its editor.  Keep in mind that The Tribune published my letter a day before bahamasuncensored.com, so how is it possible that some portions of both postscripts were almost identical? In a court of law this would be regarded as prima facie evidence that there was collusion between the two. Be that as it may, I am contemplating taking legal action against The Tribune for falsely attributing something to me that I did not write. How I proceed in this regard will be determined by how quickly its editor prints a front-page apology acknowledging its wrongdoing.

This is important because the response to my letter from “Amazed” that The Tribune printed on Friday, July 2, opened with this paragraph: “I was flabbergasted to read the letter by Oswald Brown abusing Prime Minister Ingraham and Minister of Sports Charles Maynard for going to South Africa for the World Cup soccer finals.” Since I never mentioned Sports Minister Charles Maynard in my letter, it was impossible for me to have abused him. What’s more my criticism of Mr. Ingraham could hardly be described as abuse. The point that I attempted to make was that the timing of the Prime Minister’s trip represented woefully poor judgement on his part.  As I stated in my letter, Mr. Ingraham simply does not care what the Bahamian people think about his dictatorial decisions and he shall continue to behave in this manner as long as there are apologists like “Amazed” who attempt to defend whatever he does.

“Amazed” went on to suggest that my letter “reeks of bitterness and it sheds more light on Mr. Brown’s state of mind than the subject he was addressing. Mr. Brown seems blinded by the resentment he harbours against Mr. Ingraham whom he blames for his no longer being employed as Editor of the Freeport News.”

I have never been in a better state of mind in my life. I was born, baptized and christened  into the Roman Catholic faith and I have always been a firm believer in the Holy Trinity—God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. But while I have always been a firm believer, my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has been totally in the driver’s seat of my life for the past four years ever since he cured me of prostate cancer and he has instilled in me the virtue of forgiveness. Therefore, I do not harbor bitterness or resentment against any person who does me wrong because I strongly believe that no weapon raised against me shall prosper. In due course, however, I shall address the evil conspiracy that resulted in me being forced to retire as editor of The Freeport News without a day’s notice and those involved in it.

Yours sincerely,
Oswald T. Brown
Freeport, Grand Bahama
July 5, 2010