Monthly Archives: January 2020

The best hotels take you somewhere. They transport you, taking you to another plane, another dimension of comfort, serenity and experience.

The best historic hotels take you to another time by a carefully curated cocktail of history, luxury and authenticity.

The Caribbean has an impressive portfolio of historic properties some that have always been hotels, others that have taken historic buildings and meticulously transformed them into havens of hospitality.

From The Bahamas to Antigua, you can find beautiful historic hotels across the Caribbean, all with that rare ability to take places centuries old and make them, well, timeless.

Graycliff, The Bahamas Centered around a mansion built in 1740 by legendary pirate John Howard Graysmith, Graycliff is the crown jewel of historic downtown Nassau, with one of the Caribbeans most iconic restaurants and a boutique hotel with 20 rooms. Its the sort of place where luxury abounds, from one of the largest wine cellars on earth to an on-site cigar factory and an exquisite chocolate factory. (Churchill even stayed in the propertys popular pool cottage). The rooms are spacious, with grand bathrooms and Bvlgari amenities, and the service is sublime. Its a hotel that should be on the bucket list of every Caribbean aficionado and one of the regions truly special places.

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From The Bahamas to Antigua, the Caribbean's Best Historic Hotels - Caribbean Journal

Legendary golfer and course designer Jack Nicklaus has launched a new residence club, and its first phase will include several locations in The Bahamas.

Nicklaus, who designed Nassaus Royal Blue golf club at the Baha Mar, will have two locations for his residence club program: a property called 36 on Paradise Island, and a property called Ocean Terrace on West Bay Street near Caves Heights.

Ive spent the majority of my life traveling around the world, playing golf, designing golf courses, and experiencing a variety of destinations, Nicklaus said. I appreciate the importance of quality lodging and first-class service as complements to good golf. The industry continues to evolve for those who seek premier residences in ideal destinations, and we believe this is a natural fit as we expand the Nicklaus lifestyle brand.

The program will be what Nicklaus Companies call an innovative, income-generating residence club model, that lets members stay in luxury vacation condos and homes around the world.

The Jack Nicklaus Residence Club will be showcasing Nicklaus-designed golf courses around the globe, providing families and golf groups many beautiful, exciting, and exotic locations to explore, VRP Equities President, Craig Williamson explained. The clubs will feature ultra-luxury homes with stellar amenities, located in the most popular vacation areas around the globe.

For more, visit the new Jack Nicklaus club.

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Jack Nicklaus' New Residence Club Is Coming to The Bahamas - Caribbean Journal

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#NASSAU, The Bahamas January 26, 2020 The Hon. Jeffrey Lloyd, Minister of Education, appealed to participants of a Luncheon Town Hall Meeting to evolve, transform the society, and prepare Bahamians with the requisite education and skills to be productive and to compete globally.

In this country, this must be a society-wide effort to transform our land government, business, parents, civil society, churches, unions all have a responsibility and all must be accountable, said Minister Lloyd.

We must all join in the transformation that is not just desired but urgently required.

We must change and we must keep changing. We dont just learn once. We must keep learning, he said.

Minister Lloyd presented the keynote address at the meeting, which was sponsored by Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) in collaboration with Rotary Club of Nassau Sunrise, January 23, 2020 at SuperClubs Breezes.Stakeholders, including representatives of civil society, educational institutions, corporate Bahamas and various government agencies attended the meeting.The theme was Addressing the Skills Gap.

Minister Lloyd said the country suffers a widening and frightening skills-competencies-capabilities deficit that is alarming yet opportunistic.He emphasized that no society can successfully grow or operate without a dynamic, aggressive, powerfully explosive, and technically capable workforce.

Moreover, he underscored that BTVI is leading the technical/vocational revolution in The Bahamas with several initiatives earmarked including dual education.

Panelists included: Dr. Robert Robertson, President of BTVI; John Pinder, Director, Ministry of Labour; Peter Goudie, Labour and Employment Division of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation; Chandler Sands, Vice-Chairman, Maritime Sector Skills Council; Don Forbes, Grand Bahama Ship Yard; Michael Pratt, President, Bahamas Contractors Association; and Rhonda McDeigan-Eldridge, CPA, CA, Founder, Harness All Possibilities, Inc.

BIS PRESS RELEASE, KATHRYN CAMPBELL, JANUARY 24, 2020

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Society-Wide Effort Needed to Elevate Skill Levels to Global Norms, says Bahamas Education Minister - Magnetic Media

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas yesterday regained its status as the least corrupt country in the Caribbean despite governance reform activists arguing that this "does not tell the full picture" on widespread graft.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance's (ORG) executive director, joined Lemarque Campbell, a Bahamian anti-corruption activist, in warning that Transparency International's latest global Corruption Perceptions Index did not measure how effectively this nation is using/enforcing the relevant laws.

The duo spoke out after The Bahamas retained its 29th spot out of 180 countries despite its total "score" falling by one notch to 64. This marks the continuation of a gradual decline seen since 2016, when The Bahamas scored 66, but it finished one spot ahead of its nearest Caribbean challenger - Barbados - in the 2019 rankings after that country fell several places.

However, The Bahamas' seemingly improved standing comes just four months after the same Transparency International found The Bahamas leads the Latin American and Caribbean region for paying "bribes of convenience" to public officials so that "things are done more quickly or better".

The same organisation's Global Corruption Barometer study of the region provided a damning indictment of the civil service by disclosing that 41 percent of Bahamians surveyed admitted to making such under-the-table payments to ensure they could access public services, while another 52 percent said the government was "doing badly" in the battle against corruption and graft.

Messrs Aubry and Campbell yesterday argued that the annual Corruption Perceptions Index needed to be read alongside other material to place the rankings in their proper context, explaining that it only drew on 13 public information sources such as the World Bank and did not assess the effectiveness of a country's anti-corruption regime in practice.

"We're considered the least corrupt in the Caribbean, which is an interesting way to present it, but it [the index] doesn't give the full picture," Mr Aubry told this newspaper. "Regardless of our ranking it seems that this review indicates that little has changed from the perspective of an international standard. This is supported with the day to day experience of Bahamians."

He said two regional civil society meetings he attended in late 2019, one organised by the World Bank and the other by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), both acknowledged "the Caribbean continues to struggle with corruption".

"The topic kept coming back that corruption is embedded in the Caribbean," the ORG executive added. "It's embedded in the culture and it's embedded in the governance system.

"A global report referencing where we fall is deceiving in some ways. It uses public data to say we have a Freedom of Information Act and Public Disclosures Act, but doesn't tell the full picture of how they're being used in way to combat and reduce corruption."

Citing the Freedom of Information Act as an example, Mr Aubry said while it had been passed by Parliament it has yet to be enacted. Pointing to the regional barometer's findings on "bribes of convenience", he added: "That means corruption is not being driven by victimisation and threats to people's family and property.

"It's being driven by the belief this is what's needed to make the system work. People are paying bribes before they are asked as the solution to a dysfunctional and slow government system, and how it treats customers.

"That diminishes quality, productivity and efficiency, and adds further cost in terms of the public's contribution for paying for government services. The micro corruptions such as paying 'lunch money' is the citizen's solution as to how to navigate a slow and inefficient system."

Mr Aubry warned that such practices frequently benefited the wealthy, and those with the right family and political connections, at the expense of lower income Bahamians. "If you think about a 'pay to play' environment it disproportionately favours those that have and taxes those that have the least," he told Tribune Business.

"If there's a system where you pay someone to move to the front of the line it works well for those who are paying, but for those that don't they have to wait even longer. The Indisputable down side is that supporting such a system degrades the effectiveness of government, increases the cost and disproportionately impacts those that have the least. A 'pay to play' culture only benefits the 'haves' and ostracizes the 'have nots'."

The ORG executive director added that it also undermined civil service integrity as high-performing civil servants were not rewarded as handsomely as colleagues 'on the take', tempting more officials to engage in such practices.

He said, though, that Transparency International's global index had reinforced the need to "keep money out of politics" through campaign finance laws, "so that those that have do not have undue influence on public policy".

Mr Aubry also said experience had shown that countries which engaged in transparent public consultation were "less inclined to corruption" because there was "less opportunity for people to take advantage of public resources" because more persons were aware of what was happening.

Mr Campbell, meanwhile, said Transparency International's global index only took into account perceptions of public sector corruption based on testimony from business executives and "country experts". It does not account for the public's experience.

While praising the Minnis administration for using technology-based reforms, such as online passport renewals, to reduce the opportunity for corruption, and the Fiscal Responsibility Council's appointment in line with the legislation, he questioned whether the latter will be able to "fulfill its mandate" and have an influence on government policy.

And Mr Campbell said much work remained in other areas despite the Government's successes. Pointing to the Freedom of Information Act's wait for full implementation, he added that its "whistleblower protection" component was "not adequate enough" and failed to detail how such persons will be safeguarded.

Pointing out that MPs were also failing to meet their obligations under the Public Disclosures Act, with their worth not disclosed annually in the Gazette, Mr Campbell added that it has now been 27 months (Mr Aubry said 850 days) since the Integrity Commission and Ombudsman Bills were tabled in Parliament but not debated or enacted.

"We still have a ways to go," Mr Campbell told Tribune Business, as both himself and Mr Aubry urged Bahamians to take a hard look at themselves and do their part to stamp out corruption. "We still have many problem areas.

"A lot of it, it's not just government. We have to look at us as citizens and how we are facilitating corruption. It comes down to us being responsible citizens as well. It's a two-way street. And it's always a matter of enforcement for us in The Bahamas.

"You can't come up with a figure for how much corruption is costing the Public Treasury, but it's affecting the delivery of public services and corruption is a huge factor behind increased taxes."

Mr Aubry added: "It still depends on public sentiment. They have to look at their own actions and how committed to change they are in the long-run. Although it might be micro-corruption: Lunch money, tip money, putting something in the bottom of the bag as they go through Customs, people being hired because of their political connections, it all goes to us paying more."

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Bahamas back as 'least corrupt in the Caribbean' - Bahamas Tribune

From Left: Sanovnik Destang, Executive Director of Bay Gardens Resorts; Bahamas Minister of Tourism and Aviation DionisioDAguilar; and Carlton Russell, President of the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) at the opening of Caribbean Travel Marketplace in The Bahamas.

BAY Gardens Resorts, the St Lucian owned and managed hotel group, delivered the proceeds of its recent fundraising efforts to help the people of The Abacos and Grand Bahama recover from the devastating effects of last years Hurricane Dorian.

Responding to the joint call by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), the group not only offered vacation packages for the Caribbean Hotels Unite for The Bahamas auction on Charitybuzz, but also raised US$15,000 in hurricane recovery proceeds for the islands by earmarking a percentage of online direct booking earnings and pledges through the resort groups Guestbook loyalty programme. Many guests enrolled in the programme donated their five percent cash-back rewards to support relief and recovery efforts.

The groups Executive Director, Sanovnik Destang, made the presentation during the opening of this weeks CHTA Caribbean Travel Marketplace at the Baha Mar resort complex.

He thanked Bay Gardens visitors for their generosity, remarking, We were truly surprised and very gratified that our small group of hotels could make such a big contribution to our neighbours. He added: Its a small investment in the recovery efforts, but we know that it will go a long way, not least when pooled with the efforts of our CHTA colleagues across the region.

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Family Hotel in St Lucia Helps Family Islands in Bahamas - St. Lucia News From The Voice St. Lucia - The Voice St. Lucia

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Lawn Tennis Associations three-member teams bid to finish fifth was thwarted by Costa Rica as they lost to their South American counterparts for the second time to finish sixth at the World Junior Tennis Girls North/Central America and Caribbean QualifyingTournament.

In their final match in the main draw yesterday in the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas fell 3-0 to Costa Rica as Sapphire Ferguson lost 6-0, 6-0 to Allison Blanco in her singles as did Sierra Rodgers against Daniela Rodriquez.

In doubles, cousins Sapphire and BreAnn Ferguson suffered a 6-3, 6-3 decision to Blanco and Lucia Gallegos.

It was the same score from their initial meeting on Sunday in the Group C preliminary round when Sapphire Ferguson was beaten by Blanco and Rodgers fell to Rodriquez.

In doubles, Breann and Sapphire Ferguson lost to Blanco and Gallegos.

Following that loss, the Bahamas blanked Barbados 3-0 on Monday to advance to the Main Draw. Sapphire Ferguson won 6-2, 6-2 over Jolie Philips, Rodgers won 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 over Shonte Sargeant and BreAnn and Sapphire Ferguson won 6-1, 6-0 over Nadia Da Costa and Sergeant.

In the main draw, the Bahamas lost 3-0 to the Dominican Republic on Tuesday but pulled off a 3-0 win over Panama on Wednesday to earn the right to play for the final spot at either fifth or sixth.

Against the Dominican Republic, Sapphire Ferguson lost 6-0, 6-2 to Maria Gell, Rodgers lost 6-3, 6-1 to Rosario Elmudesi and Elmudesi and Alexa Lerebours defeated BreAnn and Sapphire 6-1, 6-3.

And against Panama, BreAnn Ferguson won 6-2, 6-2 over Lia Calderon, Rodgers won 6-2, 6-0 over Liz Arce and BreAnn and Sapphire Ferguson put the icing on the cake with their 6-0, 5-7, 10-8 triumph over Arce and Calderon.

Coach Marion Bain said the team performed very well against Costa Rica, but lacked the experience to get over the hump.

We played with a lot of high-intensity today, but Costa Rica, having beaten us before, went into the match very confident and they played without any fear, Bain said. They were very loose and relaxed.

The performances of our girls didnt match the score. The level of play and the performances were much better than the first time we played them, especially in doubles. They played an unbelievable match today.

Bain said the Fergusons had a chance to go up in the match, butonce again their inexperience made the difference becausethey were unable to capitalise on it. I am very proud of the way the girls played today, she stated.

BreAnn Ferguson, who completed the tournament with a 5-3 win-loss record (2-1 in singles and 3-2 in doubles), said she performed as best as she could against Cosa Rica.

I played like I wanted to win. I tried my hardest, she said. Although I didnt win, I still feel good about my performance. I felt good about the way we played them. I enjoyed playing in the tournament.

Ferguson, 12, said she just has to concentrate on putting more power behind her serve and moving her feet.

Sapphire Ferguson, even at 4-4 (1-3 in singles and 3-1 in doubles),concurred with Bain that their inexperience made the difference.

I felt if we had a little more experience, we would have been able to play much better in the matches, but I think we did very well, she stressed. Were a good team and we played very well.

With a little more consistency and technique, Ferguson said she is confident that she can come back next year and perform much better.

Ferguson, also 12, said she also had a great time teaming up with BreAnn - her cousin - to play doubles.

Liz Arce We had good chemistry, she said. So it was good.

For BreAnn Ferguson, the opportunity was mutual.

I feel really good that we got the opportunity to play together, she said.

We played doubles together, so Im glad that we got to serve a bond together on the court.

Rodgers, who was 2-4 (2-3 in singles and 0-1 in doubles), said the performance was good for her.

It wasnt as good as yesterday, but I was pleased, she said. Today, the girl was more consistent and I couldnt handle the pressure. Yesterday, the girl made more mistakes and I wasmore confident.

Rodgers 13, said she definitely has to work on her serve.

Once the team gets back home today, Bain said she has advised the players to concentrate a little more on their approach to the game, especially in their preparation on and off the court. They have to be more serious in their approach, in their preparation because it all comes down to preparation, she said. We do not have the high intensity play as Costa Rica, but we can create that type of environment for them.

Most of the time, what they do on the court is a result of what they do leading up to their play. So we have to change their preparation, off-court first, the way how they eat and how they prepare for matches and how they prepare for practices. That is the most important thing.

Bain said she would also like to see the BLTA assemble the team together before they leave the country so that they can spend some time bonding together.

The team spent the rest of yesterday enjoying a treat from Bain, who noted that they accomplished their goal, which was to advance to play in the main draw. We have a very young team, but we knew that once we made the main draw, we would perform very well after that, she said.

Even though we knew we didnt have a chance to win it, based on the teams that made the main draw, we knew that we were able to compete with them.

The team would have had to finish first or second in order to advance to the next round of the World Junior Tournament. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico clinched the top two spots and were followed by Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago.

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Team Bahamas 6th overall - Bahamas Tribune

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Members of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force along with members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force CDU are in the Ragged Island Chain investigating the discovery of three bodies washed ashore; two on Double Breasted Cay on Friday and another on a nearby cay.

This comes after a group of 31 migrants were discovered between Maycock Cay and Double Breast Cay after their vessel reportedly capsized and were subsequently rescued by HMBS L. L. Smith, arriving in the capital on 21 January. The group had reportedly left from Haiti on 10 January 2020, with varying reports that they had capsized around the 13th January, being able to survive on the cay for some five days. All persons rescued appeared to be in good health and required no further medical attention.

They had told investigators that there were more persons unaccounted for, including another five females, but could not provide a definite total of souls who had left Port au Paix, Haiti. Hence, both the RBDF air assets, along with OPBAT air support combed the area with negative sightings of the reported capsized vessel or debris.

Some three days later, a tourist anchored in the area, reported sighting of a dead body ashore at Double Breast Cay around noon, and another body just over an hour later.

Royal Bahamas Defence Force assets in the area were alerted and sent to investigate and report their findings. Another body was also found in the vicinity on Hog Cay, some two miles south south West of Double Breast Cay by locals who reported this toHMBS Madeira.

Officials will continue to probe into the matter, searching the surrounding areas for further survivors. Members of the Public are advised to call in any sightings to the Defence Force Operations Center at 242 826 3117.

PRESS RELEASE, RBDF JANUARY 26, 2020

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Bahamas Defence Force investigates bodies washed ashore near Ragged Island - Magnetic Media