Especially during the hurricane season, when high winds cause damage to roofs, owners, builders and building supplies executives are drawn into an argument. It begins when someone picks up a shingle that has been blown from the roof, notices the cellophane strip on the underside and comments, "I see, the strip wasn't taken off. That's why the shingle flew off." Before you can say "roofing cement", the argument has begun.
Who started this argument in the first place? The reason for the discussion, as noted above, is that after storms, after shingles are blown from roofs during high winds, people notice the shiny strip on the shingle -- a strip they think should have been removed to allow the shingle to stick to the one below. But, in fact, the cellophane strip (or in some products a plastic or wax-coated paper strip) found on the bottom of individual asphalt roof shingles and located just over the glue strip that bonds shingles together while in the package, is factory-installed only to prevent the shingles from sticking together while they are still in the bundle, in storage or in transit.
On the other hand, there is a glue strip on top of the asphalt shingle which is intended to create a bond to the shingles nailed atop when the roof is later warmed by sunlight. That is the key to the performance of an asphalt shingle roof. The success with which asphalt shingles bond together as the glue strip is heated by exposure to the sun is a factor in keeping the shingles in place during high winds and preventing wind damage. That is why people are concerned about the removal of the strip. They think it is part of that process, but it is not. The glue strip on top of the shingle, in fact, bonds with the three tabs of the shingle above.
In The Bahamas, exposure to even a few weeks of normal sunlight will cause the glue tabs on the under-side of asphalt roof shingles to soften and adhere to the surface below, protecting the roof against high winds.

Why not still remove it just before nailing?
Certainly, if you want to remove the protective cellophane strip when the shingle is about to be nailed, taking it off might not hurt. But the fact is that it is not aligned with the actual glue tabs or glue strip of the shingle course below. Therefore, removing the cellophane strip will do nothing to speed the adhesion between shingles. It has no effect at all on the performance of the asphalt shingles. In fact, there have been instances when the removal of the strip damaged the underside of the shingles and some manufacturers recommend NOT removing it.

Then leave the strip alone
In answer to the common question then, not normally: according to roofing manufacturers, it is not required to remove the cellophane strip on the back of roof shingles before they are nailed.
In short, the people who make the shingles tell us to leave the plastic or cellophane sealant protection strip in place, explaining that when the shingles are nailed in place the strip on the successive shingle course will no longer be in contact with the adhesive sealant strip on the upper surface of the lower or previous shingle course. We take that as good advice and hope that ends the debate.

o Patrick Rahming & Associates is a full service design firm providing architectural, planning and design services throughout The Bahamas and the northern Caribbean. Visit its website at www.pradesigns.com and like its Facebook page. The firm's mission is to help its clients turn their design problems into completed projects through a process of guided decision-making, responsible environmental advice and expert project administration.

Cleophas Adderley was invited to be the guest speaker at a weekly youth program which began its sessions with the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem. He became visibly frustrated as the pre-teens and adolescents sang "March on Bahamaland" in a desultory and unenthusiastic manner.
He abruptly stopped the singing, fuming that he was not going to allow his national anthem to be sung in such a tepid and lethargic manner.
He made the young people stand at attention. He tested their voices. He offered a quick lesson on the meaning and importance of the national anthem. Then he directed the group in singing the anthem with gusto and purpose.
He insisted that they lift up their heads and their voices toward the rising sun in celebration of being proud Bahamians. He believed in individual and national pride born of excellence.
The story exemplifies the spirit of excellence and exuberance of Cleophas Adderley, who disdained mediocrity and slackness, and whose joie de vivre was infectious, especially in his lifeblood: his passion for music.
He would wholeheartedly agree with a line from a presentation in this year's independence celebration on Ft. Charlotte: Being Bahamian "is not bout smoking slackness".
Adderley was a genuine nationalist, who did not allow his patriotism to blind him to the beauty and treasury of other cultures nor to the challenges and shadows in his homeland.
He enthusiastically celebrated the best of humanity from traditional African songs to reggae to Beethoven to choral music to Junkanoo and other traditional songs of The Bahamas, Haiti and other countries and cultures.
Both his father and mother taught him a love of country and the pursuit of excellence. He was the last child of Cleophas E. Adderley, who served as a member of Parliament.
He was the grandchild of R.M. Bailey, a noted tailor, who helped form the Ballot Party. Bailey was a progressive thinker. His daughter Helen, was Cleophas' mother. Helen Bailey Adderley also loved music. She was a seamstress, organist and pianist.

Tutelage
As he often stated, Cleophas famously loved being a Bahamian. In 1973, the year of independence, he was in Lower Six at The Government High School, the only Advanced Level music student, under the tutelage of Marion "Mickey" St. George.
His classmates included: Heather Thompson, Sheffield Wilson, Bernice Pinder, Basil Barnett, Wendy Smith, Leslie Pinder, Louise Barry, Gregory Rahming, Olivia Mortimer, Sabrina Ingraham, Thomas Birch, John Farmer, Icelyn Russell and Mary Smith.
Some of his classmates remember him as self-confident, very diligent in his studies, and filled with opinions on the news of the day.
Passing the auditorium one would often hear Cleophas on the piano, the strains of which would blossom into a brilliant musical career. Ten years later, in 1983, as the country celebrated its tenth anniversary of independence, Adderley launched the Bahamas National Youth Choir (BNYC), with just under 80 members.
Though he became a lawyer and worked for a number of years in the Attorney General's Office, his enduring passion was music. A lover of opera, he proclaimed that Junkanoo was operatic, combining music, the visual arts and theater into a magical display of Bahamian artistry and ingenuity.
A dear friend recalls that when the BNYC performed on stage in a city overseas, that the music hall erupted in delight and dance as the choir showcased the drums, cowbells, horns and rhythms of Junkanoo. The friend recalls the exuberance, the joy, the magic of the moment, and of how proud she was to be Bahamian.
Adderley and the BNYC displayed our Bahamian pride and imagination across the continents of the world, dazzling audiences and sharing our heritage on the world stage. Like their beloved director, the hundreds of young people who populated the BNYC demonstrated their love of being a Bahamian.
Adderley was famously a disciplinarian. He did not allow lateness, sloppiness, surliness, crudeness or incivility. He demanded neatness, punctuality, good manners and civility in language and bearing.
He knew that the world watched the manner and the bearing of the members of the BNYC whether they were performing in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the West Indies, North America or Europe. He demanded the same excellence when the choir performed at home.

Better angels
In a nation where slackness and mediocrity often reign, and where the crudest voices are often allowed free reign, Cleophas Adderley and the Bahamas National Youth Choir mirrored and called us to our better selves and angels.
Cleophas once enthused: "It's important that any civilized country have national cultural institutions that will help to reinforce their identity and also help to foster national pride, and help to show that it's a country worthy of historical and cultural note."
He insisted: "If we didn't have these things, we would really be like an undeveloped town or settlement, and we in The Bahamas are so much more than that - we are a sophisticated, developed nation and have much more to offer than just sun, sand and sea."
Adderley composed "Our Boys", the first Bahamian opera, which according to a report in this journal, "was also the first opera to have been written and performed in the English-speaking Caribbean".
A devoted Anglican, he also composed "Missa Caribe", the first Bahamas concert mass. His beloved friend, Bahamian singer and musician, the talented JoAnn Callender, rightly says that she wished that Cleophas had time to compose more of his original work.
In a tribute to Adderley, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis noted: "Though we have lost a musical genius, his spirit lives on in all who were fortunate to be touched by his life, his spirit and his music."
There is hardly a living Bahamian here at home who has not listened with enthusiasm and delight to the music of the BNYC under Adderley's meticulous direction. Most of us know one or more individuals who were members of the choir.
The Bahamian Icon Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award for his trans-generational contributions to nation building through youth development was a fitting tribute to Cleophas just before he left us.
Cleophas Adderley made all of our lives a little richer, more bearable and more beautiful. We have been touched by his excellence and his exuberance. How fortunate that we were contemporaries of such an extraordinary talent and artist. His inspiration and legacy endure.

o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

I caution the Minnis government that "official statements" of ministers, unlike statements of candidates during the general election campaign, can have negative legal consequences, talk down the economy and undermine the national interests of The Bahamas.
Moody's announced on June 6, 2017 that "official statements" that The Bahamas' position was weaker than previously estimated and that debt ratios will continue to worsen over the coming years had prompted it to review for downgrade the Baa3 bond and issuer rating of government of The Bahamas.
Surely, Moody's proposed review for downgrade of The Bahamas was prompted, amongst other things, by the official statements in the budget communication presented by the minister of finance during the budget debate on May 31, 2017. In that budget communication, the first 10 pages of which contain an unprecedented partisan defense of the 2007-2012 Ingraham FNM government's alleged achievements, and the Christie PLP government's alleged failures between 2012-2017, the communication asserts that "the fiscal situation in the current fiscal year is far bleaker than we could ever have imagined. Our predecessors have literally left us with a cupboard that is bare".
The minister of finance stated that the $100 million GFS deficit that had been forecast 12 months ago was now expected to be around $500 million, or five times more than forecast; a shortfall of $216 million in the recurrent revenue collections; $400 million slippage in the GFS deficit; the recurrent expenditure during the year amounted to some $137 million more than had been forecast; with a $21 million increase in debt redemption and $27 million more in higher interest payments on government debt; and with total government direct debt of $6.5 billion, or 71.5 percent of GDP.
Clearly, the unintended consequences of the accusatory context of the "official statements" on the Bahamian economy during the budget debate, without any careful blueprint for an aggressive growth strategy, prompted Moody's review to downgrade the bond and issuer ratings of The Bahamas. However, Moody's made it quite clear that a further downgrade will depend on "the likelihood of stabilization of the government's debt ratios over the coming years". Further, Moody's stated that its review "will examine whether the debt trend is likely to continue to deteriorate, or whether the macroeconomic and policy conditions that would support the stabilization of the government's debt metrics are likely to crystalize."
Bottom line: a further downgrade will depend on how successful the government will be in maintaining fiscal discipline and crafting and implementing a growth strategy to reverse the current unsustainable trajectory over the next five years. This is no time to engage in a blame game. This is a time to get down to the serious business of growing the Bahamian economy and shifting the development paradigm in a more sustainable direction.
The government of The Bahamas, with an open economy in crisis and dependent on international confidence, does not have the luxury to engage in any further loose talk. The obligations of the government of The Bahamas are continuous, irrespective of change in political parties. Therefore, confidence in the capacity of the state should never be compromised for partisan political consideration.
Cautionary examples from our past should have taught us to avoid such loose talk from government officials. For example, in March 2008 Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, in the House of Assembly, while criticizing the Christie administration with respect to the concessions that it had granted to the Baha Mar project, expressed doubt that Baha Mar had the $400 million in equity financing that it and its principals, Dikran and Sarkis Izmirlian, had committed to and whether it would meet the March 2009 deadline for fulfilling its heads of agreement commitment. Two days later, Harrah Entertainment backed out of a joint venture with Baha Mar.
Bahamian government leaders do not have the luxury of talking down the Bahamian economy or engaging in emotive partisan declarations which undermine the confidence of multilateral bodies, ratings agencies and the local and international investors.
The general election campaign is over. Now is the time for the government to cease and desist from the constant allegations of misfeasance, abuse and corruption by the previous government officials and focus its attention on solving the shifting of our development paradigm to a more sustainable economic model. Moody's announcement should signal to us that we cannot squander the opportunity to correct the ship of state in a blame game.
Sir Stafford Sands demonstrated in the early 1960s when he invited then leader of the PLP, Henry Milton Taylor, to join him on several trips to Europe to promote year-round tourism and financial services in The Bahamas, that the successful shift of a development paradigm requires innovation, creativity and bipartisan cooperation. The Bahamas has not added a substantive sector to the economy since. To expand the productive sectors of the Bahamian economy requires all hands on deck!
All patriotic Bahamians want the public resources of The Bahamas to be used solely for the public good and not personal aggrandizement by public officials. Any information relating to misfeasance, corruption and wrongdoing by public officials in previous administrations should be turned over to the able attorney general to be investigated and pursued either in a commission of inquiry, civil action for misfeasance or criminal prosecution. Let the chips fall where they may.
In the meantime, stop the loose talk; get on with the serious business of governing, reversing the current unsustainable trajectory and growing the economy. We all have a stake in the success of this undertaking.

o Alfred Sears is a Queen's Counsel. He has served as a member of Parliament for Fort Charlotte and in Cabinet.

As we travel to the southern Bahamas, the scope and scale of change becomes clear. Once vibrant southern ports stand almost abandoned, virtually wild-west-like, with tumbleweed rolling through the streets, no people, few or no surviving business; all a dusty, ramshackle shadow of former grandeur.
A big part of this trip has been to see the participants in the national arts festival. It was yet another demonstration of the failure of the system. Schools sprawl across roads and buildings are barred up, ravages of fires years before have never been 'fixed', students do not receive word from submissions to national festivals, they are excluded from the national debates that all seem to focus almost exclusively around a few islands and schools, yet we talk about it being a national system. Why are the southern islands treated like third generation outside stepchildren, unloved and unlovable? Doors are termite eaten and swing on one hinge. The decrepit reality of the Bahamian education system cannot be whitewashed by lyrics and lies.
Many schools are excusably in deplorable condition. According to central administration, they are always working on them. Yet many schools look like they were forgotten in 1968 or perhaps 1973. Students are not offered a great deal of regular courses because their access depends on available teachers and their strengths and weaknesses. A great dilemma is the extreme weaknesses of many teachers; these teachers create deeper limitations in the students they uneducate. Meanwhile, many teachers are incredibly dedicated and work hard over time, after time and during time to ensure the success of their students - these tend to be the exceptions rather than the rule nowadays. The travesty of cronyism has deeply wounded the country. Yet each government continues to perpetuate the same tricks on their citizens. The kids suffer and the nation unravels. So, one time thriving parts of The Bahamas are almost ghost towns after massive outmigration, poor education and a serious lack of investment.
The landing strip on Mayaguana is hardly an airport, abandoned and decaying, the plane bumps along the pitted, grassy strip. A white picket fence stands at the end, the terminal rises out of the ground somewhere, not here, because there is no terminal. The terminal at Inagua is almost a joke compared to what it once was. The passage of multiple hurricanes may be in part responsible, but the real deal lies with the poor governance and the lack of national vision in the country. The festival seems to be less national and more Nassau-centric. However, even then, students seem to be held hostage by poor administrative support within the governance structure. It seems that administrators decide what should happen and when it should happen without consulting with those in positions of leadership nationally. We inhabit an archipelagic nation, unless the intent is to divest the nation of more islands.
There has been a repeated cry from every school, 'they got no real information about the festival or programs'. Many schools get no support or resources to enter such events. If students are lucky, entering these festivals comes at the expense of the teacher on whom it falls to provide supplies or to assist students in other ways. A national educational festival should not require the expense of individuals who are there to facilitate national development.
As we travel further around the southern Bahamas, it becomes clearer how impoverished schools and other infrastructure have become. In Matthew Town, Inagua, for example, the school partially burnt in 2011 and remains the same as it was after the fire. No one seems to be bothered enough about ensuring that all young Bahamians flourish to care to invest in the schools. Moreover, all the damage from the last two hurricanes seems unmitigated. Where does all the hurricane relief money go? Who is asked to account for it? The residents and infrastructure in the southern islands sure do not speak of investment in hurricane recovery.
Meanwhile, students suffer through lack of national planning and carrying out of a national curriculum on a nationally equal level. Apparently, if a student shows promise in a school that is seen as being undeserving of investment, as so many public schools seem to be, given their obvious crumbling infrastructure and lack of resources, said student is taken to one of the 'good schools' and paid for by government. Yet, as a nation, we cannot provide the resources to allow schools to thrive in arts and sciences. We opt to gut schools of their resources and to leave them to limp through an unproductive life, selling their students horribly short.
The country has been undermined by the state. The agents of the state's agenda have succeeded in dumbing down the level of education and hence the level of majority learning in the country. The cries can be heard from north but are loudest, perhaps, in the south. Not that Nassau escapes these problems. In fact, many schools on New Providence also face extreme challenges, but their challenges are smaller when compared to say Inagua All Age, San Salvador, United Estates or even North Long Island High, which suffer from lack of information shared from the focal point of government and scarce resources. In fact, it seems as if education has left these schools to function almost exclusively on their own. The places there seems to be any glimmer of hope is in communities where foreign direct investment (FDI) has infused the education system with some blood and energy.
Having spent weeks experiencing this national neglect and, in short, national sabotage, we must bear witness so that it does not go without note and, hopefully, change. Why are the state and its agents undermining national development by throwing its youth under the proverbial bus? When a group of adjudicators arrives on an island to see the local artistic talent in a national competition, they should not be met by administrators who do not know of their arrival because no word came through. There should be curricular and resources shared nationally, not among the few.
The state seems to be following the flawed American model. This is a horribly flawed model that withdraws support from local schools and certain school districts to support particular charter schools in specific areas that focus their attention on a group of choice. Charter schools tend to bleed the public system of wealth, opportunity and talent, which reestablishes that old model of segregation that Brown v The Board of Education was intended to undo. The education level in Washington DC is appalling compared to the level in schools just down the road, yet it stands unchecked. Charter schools fill this gap, (but these are usually exclusive and expensive). If we take this as a lesson, surely we need to develop national standards that maintain across the length and breadth of the nation. One difference that helps, aside from FDI's investment in local education in certain communities, is family involvement, but it is clear that the national standard is compromised by the uneven distribution of services and resources. The talk of building our human capital is obviously simply talk with no true commitment or enactment.
It has been a sad experience to see such base neglect of human beings in the southern Bahamas and an even more insulting fact that we have let the state get away with it. The discrepancies are too glaring and egregious. Why does the state and its agents choose to exacerbate disparities? How are they benefiting from under-educating and thus under-developing parts of the nation? This is not about casting blame, there is too much for that; instead it is about demanding true and real investment in national education where southern communities can benefit equally as northern and central towns and cities. Will this new government change this system and really improve education and its delivery?

o Ian Bethell-Bennett is a professor at The University of The Bahamas.