The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, and by extension the Government of The Bahamas, wishes to extend heartfelt condolences to the family of the late Kobe Bryant, to the Members and Executives of the National Basketball Association (NBA), The Bahamas Basketball Federation and affiliate organizations, and to the local and global sports community.

Mr. Bryant has built a stellar career over the years. His accomplishments placed him among the highest of athletes and in particular, the basketball greats. Indeed, he has left an indelible mark throughout the world of sports and his work and achievements will never be forgotten.

We pray for comfort and healing during this time of bereavement. May his soul Rest In Peace.

Leaders of two of the nation’s strongest voices in the cry for attention to climate change are urging top educators to impress upon students that the time to act is now.

Save The Bays Chairman Joseph Darville and Waterkeepers Executive Director Rashema Ingraham have been meeting with principals and other educators throughout Grand Bahama for more than two weeks, imploring them to sensitize students to the reality of climate change. They have equipped them with scientific data about rising seas, warmer temperatures and stronger storms – and they have armed them with practical mitigation tools from the value of planting trees to preserving sand dunes.

“After living through and experiencing firsthand the effects of Hurricane Dorian, Save The Bays and Waterkeepers committed to working together and with other NGOs to sound the message to rebuild the coastal buffer zones that will act as natural defenses for our islands,” said Ms. Ingraham. In addition to talking with principals, teachers and administrators, Ingraham and Darville have led groups on field assessments, allowing them to see the changes along Grand Bahama’s coast.

“When Save The Bays talked about climate change in 2013 as one of the main priorities of the then new organization, it often fell on deaf ears,” Mr. Darville said. “Climate change seemed like a far-off thing, something we could worry about later if it didn’t fix itself.”

Two years later, in 2015, when he returned to The Bahamas after training with former US Vice President Al Gore who first sounded the warning in his now famous documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Mr. Darville still found it hard to convince Bahamians that the changing global climate was not an overblown scare tactic.

“I would tell people that the rising seas may one day make us boat people living on the sea not next to it and therefore we must learn to build boats, and they would pay little attention, thinking it was the rambling of an old man given to exaggeration,” said Mr. Darville, who holds certification in climate change reality leadership.

“Now when I talk about building boats, people get it. Our islands that we inhabit today were not here in ancient history. What we call The Bahamas was undersea and with rising sea levels and effects like stronger storms and higher tides, it is not inconceivable that we may be underwater again.”

The change in attention, say Darville and Ingraham, was a storm named Dorian that hovered over Grand Bahama for days in early September. Dorian broke every record, packing howling winds and rising waters that forced people out of their homes, flooded hundreds of buildings and knocked out infrastructure, including the Grand Bahama International Airport that resembled a lake with floating debris.

“We want to plant trees, but we also want to plant ideas,” say the leaders of both Waterkeepers Bahamas and Save The Bays. “The principals and educators we have been meeting with have been very receptive. We are ecnouraged that they are listening and saying, ‘What can we do?’ and we are able to say ‘Work with any environmental group, it does not have to be us. Every tree you plant, every coral reef you save, every step you to help mitigate against the threat of climate change can make a difference.’”

Waterkeepers Bahamas Executive Director Rashema Ingraham shares climate change data with Grand Bahama educators as the NGO joins forces with Save The Bays to urge principals and teachers to include climate change and mitigation in their curriculum in the wake of Hurricane Dorian and the reality of global warming and rising seas.

The University of The Bahamas (UB) Mingoes only needed three sets to defeat Bahamian junior national team members in New Providence Volleyball Association (NPVA) action on Monday night at the D.W. Davis Gymnasium. The Mingoes won the match, 26-24, 25-22 and 25-11, taking down the junior national team members in straight sets. The Mingoes now sit in the fifth spot in the NPVA standings with a 4-10 win-loss record, and the junior national team members are right behind them in sixth at 2-11. In the first set, the two teams battled fiercely with the Mingoes surging ahead late and holding on for the first-set win. The Mingoes led by six points at 13-7 but the junior national team members were able to claw their way back in the set. The Mingoes held on for the 26-24 first-set win. The second set was another back and forth battle between the two teams, but the Mingoes persevered and were able to hold on for a 25-22 second-set win.

FEARS were raised yesterday in the Junkanoo community of large-scale defections from the Valley Boys group and the impact on the parade’s turnout after the group’s resignation from the Junkanoo Corporation New Providence (JCNP). The JCNP revealed on Monday that the Valley Boys had resigned. However, Saxons Superstars member Anthony Etienne is not taking their departure seriously until June 1 - when the group would be due to show up for registration day. He added that there is a chance members could join other groups. “Bahamians love Junkanoo and if they don’t come you’ll find plenty members they’ll come to the Saxons, plenty will go to Roots, plenty will go to One Family, they’ll be all over the place… or if the Saxons big enough we could form a Saxons-Valley,” he explained. Mr Etienne said the Valley Boys group is aware of the process and the possibility of the results changing and recalled when the Saxons were dethroned in the past after the results were made official.